Going Back in Time Time!

As a scrapper, a digital scrapbooker, one of the fun parts is going back in time and doing what I call throw back pages.  Sometimes they are photos, or memories I have used before, but a new kit has come out and it really will be perfect for the photo.  I like to pop these pages in our current year book. The kids love them!
Here are a few I did last week, that will make you go..."oh my goodness, they are so little!"

These are all done for The Lily Pad designers and if you click on the page, it will take you to the credits. 

I have about ten pages for the Eric and Rachels wedding and hope to have them up soon!

Scrapping Mojo and The Lily Pad go together!

I took a leave of absence with scrapping and my dear friends at the Lily Pad, back in May/June. I scrapped zip! NONE! My dear boss, Laura left the Pod door open, and I knocked last week! She let me back! I went a bit crazy, and made so many pages!
The first weekend of the month, The-Lily Pad has a special called Build Your Own Collab(BYOC).  I made 5 pages with all the goodies the amazing designers put together.  Here they are:

1. Grocery Shopping
In our house, this is a big deal and happens  A LOT!  The kids were all out of school, so we opted to all go...oops, no, of course, Gabe was sleeping like a good teen.

2.  Hair Dye Day

The girls in the past have had a friend do their hair.  She is a beauty school drop out, with creativity! They did it all on their own this time. Great fun.

3. Visiting the ER

I have been fighting UTIs for months now, and lost a few times and stuck at the ER, awaiting shots of happy juice.

4.  Stop Time

Before Eric got married, Rachel was out of town, and he came all by himself to the house, and had a fun evening just hanging out.  I love this photo of them all grown up!

5. My Boys with Fros!

The were so fun growing their hair out.  It takes a lot of work. You have to grease it up, pick it out and scrub hard in shower.  After these, we shaved it all off.  The wonders we found inside the fros, ugh. lol

I hope you enjoy the pages!

~never lose your joy

Recap on Halloween 2015

The joy of having older kids! My eldest son and his sweet and precious wife took all of our kids out and about the town for candy! Fifteen pounds of candy came home with them. 

The day had been pretty horrible for Whitley, he was fighting everything and had lost the right to go with them. I am a wimp for taking celebratory things away, and Dad and I discussed it and let him go, but he had to be ketchup.  LOL, that was punishment for him in his brain. Gabe let D use his gas mask, and oh was he happy!  Jordan wanted to wear his size 3T spiderman costume, but would have had a perpetual wedgie.  We explained that cuteness is the factor for high intake of candy, so he went with the pumpkin!

Whit came home with an attitude, and had been a butt to his big brother, so Eric took his candy, Whit cried buckets and stomped off to bed as we all devoured candy.  His behavior has since changed and he apologized to his brother. He didn't get that candy back (because I think Eric ate it all), but has been able to partake in the huge bowl of sweets.

Tony and I played all by ourselves and ate ice cream! Woot, without sharing. 

The page I made is done with Spooky {kit} by Little Butterfly Wings pver at the Lily Pad!

~never lose your joy

This Polly lives again!

The last six months or so, well, have been exhausting and emotional crazy.  Things are on a more even keel (fasting and praying for it to stay that way). This is usually when I go and adopt another dog, cat or kid  NOT happening....hahhah
One thing that really went on the back burner, or more like the top cabinet, waaaaaaaaaaay back behind the turkey platter, was my hobby of making scrapbook pages. I did a few posters for church, a flyer here and there. I missed it, but honestly, wasn't taking pictures.   Sometimes, the things that happen in life, you can't really pose the rebellious child, the emotional melt down, or just plain weariness and say, "Smile!"
I am smiling still, and even more excited that I have been granted back as a Creative Team Member aka POLLY at The-Lilypad.com.
I jumped back in the last week of October, and have a few pages to share:

This was for a slow scrap by a sister Polly; Dana.   She gives 6-7 instructions, and you make the page. It was just so nice to scrap again!
Then I kept opening the failed online dress I bought for Eric and Rachels wedding...laughed and laughed and finally found the perfect kit and the idea for the page was born:

I have made 4 other pages awaiting the kits to hit the stoes this week. Stay tuned for fun here!

~never lose your joy

Easy Houseplants for Paula (part 2)

I hope you enjoyed yesterday's blog about easy house plants.  I should point out, that Paula is a dear friend.  She just had her whole house remodeled and it is nothing short of gorgeous.  She has more windows now, and wants to bring in some plants. She also has a semi good green thumb, it has taken time, but she is getting it, but wants some quick green in her beautiful home.  This blog series is just for her, you may follow along as guest, and learn. tee hee

Dragon Tree, Dracaena, Cornplant, Chinese Moneytree 'Lemon Lime'

Dracaena fragrans

I have always called this tree, a Corn Silk Plant.  No silk, no corn, but that is what I called it. I bought two of these off our local resell site. We had to bring them across town, in the back of our truck. It was a rough ride. I transpanted them into bigger pots that very afternoon.  One of the sets went into a heavy shock.  Patience is not my forte. That plant eventually became infested with nasty bugs.  I dragged it into the yard and tossed it out of the pot.  The hot desert summer sun killed the bugs and the plant as it withered out there. But, this one lived! Yeah! The roots, they are so little the tree will fall over easily.  I will eventually pour large rocks on top of the soil to steady the tree.  It is very happy in the pot it is in right now. 

In my research of this plant, I found that it one of the best house plants for removing indoor air toxins such as formaldehyde, ammonia, xylene and toluene.  

FICUS BENJAMINA 'TWILIGHT'

Finicky, it what this Ficus tree is known for and as.  I so agree. I have repotted, watered, ignored, shook, and babied this tree to live. It too came from another home and I bought it for the cool pot it was in too. Ha ha...the pot would up crumbling, and the tree sits in a nice pot and that is in a cool red pot, I hope one day it will live in. 

As to shaking, I guess, because the ficus are fromn Asia, and has two seasons, wet and dry, and with rain, comes wind. So, when I water...not every week, but when it gets wicked dry.  I water and do a good shake to the whole tree.  It loves to have it's branches moved. I have it by a lamp, that you put your arm thru it to turn on. The tree thrives on touch and movement. Weird? yeah, but it helps it stay alive!  I want another ficus..but goodness they are indeed finicky!

Buy this from HOME DEPOT! Because, they will replace it when it dies, and LOL, it will die!

The Home Depot unconditionally guarantees all tropical, house, and landscape plants (only perennials, trees, and shrubs) for one year. A perennial is a plant that is expected to live for more than two years. However, an annual is not expected to live more than one year. If your plant dies just bring it and your original receipt to a Home Depot store and we will replace it or issue a refund in accordance with the terms of the refund policy.You MUST have the original receipt to get a refund or store credit. If the plant is no longer available at store location or through a product search, a store credit will be issued. 

They look so good at the grocery store, Walmart and other places! Don't be weak. Buy from HOME Depot.  I have had so many of these, and they die easily! 

It needs lots of light. It seems to do much better in the summer when it is in our back patio.  The winter is a pleading to keep it alive. The like to be sprayed with water bottle. They also get bugs. UGH! So I put a little soap in the spray and keep that under control.  I have started using a fertilizer, and this Majesty Palm is doing okay, but I think, come spring, I will get a new one from Home Depot. lol

 This monster: The Umbrella or Schefflera as it is scientifically known is my happy, happy plant. It is huge! HUGE! I have had it two years, bought from a man who had it in a dark room.  My girls and I moved it laughing and heaving it up into and then out of our truck. It takes a dolly and my hubby to move it in and out for the season change. When this tree is happy, there is absolutely no leaves on the ground. But oh, over water, underwater, or not enough light, and it will rain leaves! I pour water in this weekly, almost a gallon! it drips into the bottom pot, so there is no sitting in water. I have little ones of these also, from clippings off this tree in with other plants throughout the house too. It plays well with others.
That is all for today, tomorrow the end of this series, and I hope you enjoy!

~never lose your joy

Easy Houseplants for Paula (Part 1)

Last Friday, I went to a marvelous baby shower for one adorable girl Maddie (she is wearing the hat I made her here)

The shower was top notch for so many reasons, great food, fun and people. The evening went late, and my favorite part is when there are just a handful of people, long time friends, and you settle in a cozy chair and babble and listen to friends. The conversation went around to so many subjects, grandchildren, the pain of watching elderly parents in dementia, raising teens and growing houseplants. So this blog goes with the houseplants. 

I went thru my house and took photos of my plants, and am busy looking up the real name of these plants to add to the blog. These are all plants that I have had for years, and think they are pretty easy to keep going in the house. I have linked the ones I could to Dave's Garden, where you can find more info (bit deeper than my babbling)

 I start with the easiest of all:

Heart Leaf Philodendron Philodendron hederaceum var. oxycardium

or is it a

Devil's Ivy, Golden Pothos, Centipede Vine 'Marble Queen'Epipremnum aureum

After much research, I believe I have the Pothos, it is easier to grow then the Philodendron. 

I have currently seven of these plants. I have always called them pothos.  They love light, even if it is from a bulb! I bought three at Walmart a few years ago, in 10 inch pots, they were $8.99 and in one year they doubled in size!  I like the bottom water pots for these plants. The key, once a month do a complete soaking in the tub or sink. But the rest of the month, watering from the bottom is perfect.  This causes the roots to go down, and helps the plant be stronger. In the summer, I take these to my covered patio, and they don't get a ton of direct sunlight, but it gets HOT, and they thrive.  In the winter the main thing is to keep them out of the stream of heat from any vent. It dries it out to fast. 

I have tried again and again to propagate these plants, and have a hard time getting roots to appear.  They are so cheap to buy, I have seen them at $2.99 for 6 inch pots, and they grow so fast, this is the number ONE plant to have.  I like to take outside twice a year and do a soft spray to get the dust and such off also. I also am fastidious about pulling yellow leaves off the plant.

 Spider Plant, Airplane Plant 'Bonnie'

Chlorophytum comosum 

I LOVE this plant! It is the most giving of all plants.  I call it a Spider, but it is also known as an airplane.  This precious plant has babies, and they are fantastic to make new plants! You can see the babies hanging from the momma here------> 

A big help for the spider is to lift the leaves to pull any dead or dying leaves out. Keep the plant happy! The plant below I just popped in water for about 3 weeks, until thick healthy roots pop out.  Then drop into some rich soil and pretty pot, and a new plant is added. These also do fine, mixed in with the POTHOS

 These plants also do well as hanging or in a table top. 

I water the same as I explained in the philodendron. They love water, if you see the leaves wilting or yellow, probably too much water.  I love how forgiving the spider plant is also. I am pretty vigilant on my water scheduling, Tuesday and Thursdays, usually, but sometimes, life happens.  I miss a whole week or two, I will look over and see them just almost yelling, "Anne! I'm so darn thirsty!"

I have been known in the middle of a conversation with someone, to jump up and fill up my pitcher of water for a plant that for some reason I just noticed is dry as can be.

This next plant, I bought on impulse standing in line at Lowes Hardware. It was in a pretty red pot, and the leaves had red on them. I love red. I had no idea if it would live or not.  But for $3.99, I was willing to gamble.  Apparently, it was a good bet. I started researching to find the name, and it is a red aglaonema. The people that know, say, that these plants are able to survive in poorly lighted or badly ventilated areas!  That means, it is hard to kill! Woo hoo. This baby has almost tripled in size and I have even accidentally broke a stem off, and popped in water and got roots and been able to repot.  Now that I found this out, I think I may get a few more!

The last one for today:

Philodendron Split Leaf-WINDOWLEAF PLANT MONSTERA DELICIOSA 

This is another one that the plant people argue pothos versus philodendron. I just know it is pretty easy.  The leaves start out kinda heart shape, and as they grow the leaves split. It too grows wicked fast. This one is about ready to be repotted, and I know as soon as I do, it will be like the HULK and explode in hugenous! 

I hope you have enjoyed part of I am not sure yet how many, but I took a whole lot of photos, and hope you soon will be in the midst of your own indoor jungle!

~never lose your joy

Day 23-Spending Less and Enjoying Life!

The month has been nothing short of insane! We had a couple emotional crazed days. My 8 year old "ran away".  After school, he hid, cause he didn't want to take an earned nap.  He was found, but the drama was beyond my emotional level. Hubby had to take off work, police, nutz oh time. Hubby said, we are eating out. We did!
The food bill has been kept low. The menu system is a HUGE help for us.  
Then we learned that old phones, even unactive ones, can access our wifi.  Yep, our precious Bigs had old phones, and quick fingers late into the evening on not great sites. We knee jerked and pulled internet out of the house.  Laughing that we would save $70 a month on that bill.
Living without internet is almost impossible. We do all our bills on line, I was having to call hubby at work to check account, or lug the laptop to the slow and sometimes not able to connect library.  We had it turned back on.

We did decide to get rid of our smart phones. Bye Bye Verizon! Big Bill. We had to pay off our two smart phones, but due to the tight food budget, and no frill month, we could and did! 

Hello to Straight Talk and total bill of $70 for a month to month dumb phone that fits in our pocket. 

That is almost $100 savings each month also. We are going to try and sell the Note 4, smart phones and recoup some of the smart phone, but are also chalking it up to a learning experience.  I like to say, I don't think I am important enough to have a smart phone. 

A really fun thing that has happened, is our use of left overs in new and fun ways.  I took left over steaks, and old rolls, a couple green peppers and swiss cheese, and the most delightful Philly CheeseSteaks! They are a hit, quick easy, and wrapped up in foil, to stay warm are a great let's go kinda meal.

It is working! 

~never lose your joy

Day 7-Living Well and Spending Way Less-Profit!

I got so excited about making money during our Spend Way Less month, that I began to think of other ways to get money.  Sell things! Craiglist, Booko.com and local for sale pages are bountiful and quick ways to sell unwanted things.
We had bought these bar stools, thinking they would work, but were way too tall. Lesson learned, measure! Ha ha...but I got almost what we paid for them over a year ago.  That goes into the food budget. Which is good, because I had to get dog food for little BooBoo also. She is a finicky little thing, and her food is not cheap! But she is worth it.
The thing with selling, is to be fair on your price. Don't feel intimidated by the buyer. If you are willing to go lower, no worries, but if you really don't want the item, getting the cash is a bigger goal!
My girls and I went to Walmart today, and on the way out, I jokingly looked at the McDonalds and said, "Remember when we could eat there?" "just 8 days ago?" We were laughing and all the way home, would say, oooh, remember when we would shop there and drop $50 on things we didn't need, but it was fun? It was pure laughter.   We are on track to put over $1500 in savings if we stick to this plan.
Yesterday, I pulled up Quicken. We use it for our checking/debit account.   There is a great feature you can do to generate reports where your money goes.  I am pretty good about the categories. I pulled up the year to day report, and went thru the averages.  EEEK! We have been spending over $250 average a month on eating out. The worst is the miscellaneous! I was embarrassed at not knowing where it is going.  I spent almost $900 for groceries on average, and Tony and I talked about it, and think that is a very reasonable amount for a family of 8.  This month, I am only doing $600, and it is working, but tight. He thinks tight will cause us to throw in the towel, and eat out more.  He is soooooooooooooo right!
Our utilities are pretty good, except for electricity. It went higher than normal. I called a representative from the power company, and started the process to have an energy audit done on our house.  To see what we can do to bring that lower.
Today, I am gonna try and clear out our extra fridge and consolidate.  I think that old fridge is a major kilowatt sucker!
It is becoming more fun, to try and cut off the extra spending, especially when it builds our savings!

~never lose your joy

Menu planning - 31 days spend Waaaaaaaaaaaay less

Above is our first attempt back to severe meal planning. I got the monthly menu planner free at Organized Home.   Long ago, before we became a family of NINE, I used to do menu planning, but something exploded in my brain, and for some reason, meal planning went to the wayside.  

First thing, I do is put the date and any extra curricular things on the calendar. Football games, parades, half days of school, revivals at church, paydays (see the $) and any appointments.  Looking at the September planner, the highlighted menus are ones, I didn't make, but pushed to another day. This helps me so much! I get up early in the morning, make coffee, grab my phone (for my bible app) and glasses, look at menu and get meat out of freezer along with any fixin's I might need for the meal. 

September worked pretty good.  Like I mentioned yesterday, we had a few kinks, really really bad days, that brought us to eat out. Van problems and ice machine broke down, so although we still didn't spend as much as we had in the past months.  We patted our backs and knuckled down for October.  I wrote out the month menu, and then broke it down, for a 2 week (payday grocery shop) menu and on the back...

The actual shopping list.  I am trying to use both my freezer/pantry stock while taking advantage of sales.  You can see how I break down the groceries.  I also had each section with a budgeted amount.  I was bummed to see that the burger box we get was almost $25 now.  I also swapped the carnitas with parmesean chicken, after I noticed I was on all Mexican food, then all Italian kick.  I wanted to mix it up a bit more. 

But I realized, I didn't need the laundry detergent quite yet, I also got minestrone soup mix instead of canned. Next time, I am gonna go completely from scratch soup.  I wanted something quick and easy, so the nifty Bear Creek mix (which we love) works for this day.
I have a buy later area, and $10 cash for that.  I got some artisan bread, three bags for 45 cents each!! So instead of fajitas we are having steak sandwiches.  I didn't get corn torts, but did get little flour ones and they were a hit with tacos.

 $116.55! WooHoo, I know I need to go to the Lowes and pick up the 99cent a pound huge pork roast for a few meals, and you can see I got one for $18.83! I am going to go back and buy one more for next week, due to the sale being HUGE. That is a $26.63 savings off regular price!  This will come off the next payday (15th) grocery shopping budget. Right now, I am sitting at $110 for the next menu.  I will post that later... the original and what transpires over the next 12 days.

To be fair, I did make a trip on the 1st of October to Sam's.  I spent $191.64, which included $25 for a baby shower (wipes) present. Big bag of cheese, 3 big packs of hot dogs, sausages, peanuts for hubby, Atkin bars (in bulk), apples, cliff bars (kids) and 2 bulk bags of meatballs, 2 boxes of danishes for fun. My budget for the month is $600, and I am including that Sam's run. So right now I am sitting at: $427.02.  plus the $5 hubby has for seeds; $432.02. I am going to get another $20 roast, and shop again on the 16th, with $110 budgeted. 

$562.02 my thoughts for right now. Whew...cutting it close. 

31 Days of LIving Well and Spending WAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaay less!

I read Ruth Soukup's blog Living Well Spending Less blog, and she did a 31 day challenge of spending ZERO! eek! I signed up and I read and reread her experience and then looked at our finances over the past year and knew we needed something radical and soon.
Next conversation, was with my beloved husband.  He totally agreed and we spent September on a trial run of less spending. It was pretty cool.  But still not the best.
One fun tip we really pursued, is a list to the grocery store. We have a white board that hangs on our laundry room door, by the kitchen.  I used to carry a 3x5 card, but found myself forgetting the card.  I now take a photo of the list to bring to the store.  This is a good beginning, but it is very fallible to run to the store for 6-10 items, because you come home with twenty!

We had a birthday and a few melt down days that we ate out, but it was a whole lot better than the summer months prior. The ice maker on the fridge has been a pain in our finances! Last month, my hubby replaced this arm thingee, then a potentiometer. Fancy word for knob. that tells the icemaker to produce cubed ice not crushed went bad. I know first world problem. But my hubby is awesome and ordered the part and fixed it.  Our Creeper Van, also had to have a full tune up! Luckily, we have a freind who is a come to your house mechanic and charges very great prices.  

It is October 3rd, and we are three days into our challenge, which we tweaked a bit.  We decided that grocery shopping would have to happen.  That meant major meal planning, and sticking to it. Pop in tomorrow to see the Menu planning and shopping that worked! 

~never lose your joy

The Golden Years?

As I wait for the pills that numb my urinary tract to take place, wincing in pain. My hubby reminds me that my dad says, "And these are supposed to be the Golden Years?" I laugh as tears roll down my cheeks. Tony does a quick run to Walmart for the cranberry pomegranate juice that helps.
Self inflicted UTI.  I got lazy, Stopped drinking water, drank lots more coffee, iced tea, and Rock Stars.  Also over indulged with high carbs and sugar. Now I pay! ugh
Pushed thru and went to church! Was so incredible!  I sat in the back due to having to go to the restroom so many times! But what a powerful morning! I plan on sleeping today, and going back tonight!
The Littles are doing so good in church...well, until we got honme and J "found" a car from another little boy. Always keeping us on our toes!

The pills have kicked in and I'm tired!

The Red Pots that bring such JOY!

I love red, really red! I have too be careful not to go to crazy, and make sure I have some accents walls or colors to neutralize the red! But when I can get little extra bits of red, I jump at it! Wednesday, I spent some time with some friends that have moved here to Alamogordo. They are from Boston and their son and DIL (one of my besties) live here. They escaped the weather! lol
They are both pure fun to converse with all the time. They bought a trailer that was filled, I mean filled to the brim with stuff. Carpets on top of carpets.  The people before were very neat and organized hoarders!
Before I left, I had to take a package of toilet paper! It is tradition! They have so so so much! They have really whittled the piles down, selling and giving so much away. They had these pots...oh beautiful pots. RED! They gave me 5! all big, 2 very big...I didn't want to put holes in them, but just popped the plants old pots and all right in them today after a good scrubbing. Here they are:

 I adore this tree. Having it inside, makes me ready for fires and thick stews simmering! We got this tree a few years ago. My girls and I had to move it from the man's house, and into the truck then into the house. It was big then, but it is HUGE now!

 I think this is a corn silk plant? I had another one, but it got infested with tiny bugs. I tossed it out! YUCK!  See my water pot? Another great find on our local on line bookoo.com.

Happy plants, happy me!

 Yeah, red walls, but I love them! Decluttering and painting makes the house so clean and fresh!

Thursday Goings ON

I have a few forums I am enjoying, both are Christian based with focus on being a homemaker. I seriously love being a wife, mom and homemaker! Pure dream job for me.  I have been totally decluttered my home. Three truck loads to thrift store and so much more to the garbage. I am almost embarrassed how much stuff we had.

Fall is coming, and that means I bring the plants out of the patio.  Tony put five hooks in the ceiling in front of our row of windows. It is amazing! I watered them easily this morning, able to take the dead leaves off so quickly. 

Part of my big Tidy UP is to keep things that bring JOY.  I love my baskets, they were strewn all over the house. I used them as catch alls. That had to stop, but I could NOT put them in the go pile.  I took some nails and popped them on the wall in our foyer.  They make me happy there and I don't have to worry about filling them with clutter!

The office has finally evolved into a usable room.  Chinese checkers is played on a daily basis. A friend gave me some carpets and I have popped them all over the house. I am loving the feel it brings. So homey.

The same friend also gave me some beautiful red pots for plants. They are big ones. I was able to put my plants inside them this morning and love them. I will post on them later!

~never lose your joy