Christmas lights show off bad economy

I have the fortunate blessing of being born five days before Jesus' birthday celebration. (December 20th for the more math challanged readers.) Since my husband works very odd retail management hours and days, we decided to celebrate Sunday evening so he could actually be awake and not have to go to bed at 8pm. (Sunday's and Monday's are his current days off.)We went out for dinner (Outback Steakhouse- not the frugal part of the evening) and then, as tradition for my birthday, we went driving around looking at Christmas lights.

I don't know how bad the economy is in everyone else's area/state but Michigan is terrible. Constant job losses and no job growth. Houses for sale everywhere. Terrible forclosure rates. It is just not good here. We see it on the news, we see the homes for sale for a year or more. I've even taken to wondering when I see a house for sale if the people are in danger of losing it or have lost it already. Any whoo... all this to say, I have never seen more of a indicator of our tight economy then with what showed with Christmas lights.

There were so many houses this year that just didn't have them up. Also those that did have them up were very simple displays. There were only two flamboyant displays that we saw, one of which was raising money for charity. I think this is more of an indicator of our economy than anything else. Even if you still have a job, house etc., money just isn't abundant this season for most. The evening news keeps saying we aren't in a recession yet but it sure looks like we are in the Grand Rapids area.

We are having a smaller Christmas this year, no outside lights and we have our Christmas tree on a timer for just a little bit each day. Since we know and celebrate the real reason for the season, it isn't a terrible thing for us. We would still enjoy the day sans gifts and decor. (Though I do love both those things.) But I feel sadness for those that don't know Christ as their Savior and thus spend the season in dismay for one reason or another.

Jesus is the reason for HOPE... in any season!

Finally!

I have been waiting and watching and so ready to post this. Finally! This weekend we got a decent amount of snow. I, still, would love a lot more but this is great! You can't really tell in the picture but it is 5 inches. Here in Michigan they take great care of the roads for winter driving so once we got out of our neighborhood it was easy driving to church. Our pastor is from Michigan's upper peninsula so he very rarily will cancel a service do to weather. All the kids in the neighborhood (and plenty adults too) were out playing in it yesterday afternoon. It was beautiful... the sun was shining on all the fluffy, pristine snow.

Garage Sale Treasure Hunts

I posted yesterday about treasure hunting and the head mistress over at http://exoticeatingexperiment.blogspot.com/ commented on garage sales being her treasure hunt. I, myself, find it hard to concentrate while shopping garage sales because I've always got my kids with me and I always seem to end up in front of the beanie baby box with them begging and after one or two stops they want to go home.

How do you all successfully garage sale? I always hear of wonderful finds but I have yet to discover any. I'm thinking that, for the up coming season, that I will make lists of things for my kids to search for at garage sales- not for them to buy but just to keep them busy- like a scavenger hunt. Any one have any great tips on finding the right stuff, the right sales, the great price and doing it with a handful of kids? Please chime in!

For more frugal talk pop over to www.biblicalwomanhood.com and check out Crystal's blog.

Treasure Hunting

Okay, I confess... I have a new favorite TV show. It is the Travel Channel's "Cash and Treasures".

I have always loved rocks and gems. I remember playing "rock quarry" in grade school. My friends and I would find different stones and pound them into pretty colored chalks. I also remember having a rock collection when I was young and I'm still a sucker for bins of polished and colored stones in tourist shops. This season's shows are feeding the treasure and rock hunter in me.

So far they've done Herkimer Diamonds in New York, Emeralds in North Carolina, Agates in the MidWest, Morel Mushrooms in Wisconsin and Michigan, and Turquoise in the South West.

I am so ready to go hunting! Only the thin layer of snow and ice is currently stopping me.

My middle daughter and my son think it sounds like fun. My oldest daughter likes the idea of finding the treasure but doesn't want to get dirty doing it. My youngest loves rocks of any type so I think she'd have fun. So this spring watch out: we will be agate hunting, petosky stone hunting and will try Morel mushroom hunting as well.

Supposedly you can make money doing this. Well, we'll see about that. I just think it would be fun hunting and could be a fun family hobby. (Except for the mushroom hunting... there is no way my oldest is going traisping through the weedy woods in search of fungi.)

I'm sensing a rock tumbler and metal detector in my future. My husband politely told me that only old people own metal detectors. Need I remind him that gray hair is creeping onto our heads.

You can get inspired by this show on Tuesday nights on the Travel Channel or check out the website at http://travel.discovery.com/tv/cash-treasures/cash-treasures.html .

Frugal Family Time: Finishing Christmas Gifts

Here are some simple gifts the kids and I put together for their boy cousins. It is hard to think of things to "make" for boys. We have a number of bottles etc. left over from our body care business we used to run, so we used some of those. We also had a large Costco bag of M-n-M's on hand (we just finished potty training). I had the kids sort the colors and put them in the bottles decoratively. Then we made name tags on the computer and glue-sticked them on. A bit of ribbon, we had on hand, tied and curled around the tops and they are ready. Easy and frugal and the kids had a blast. Tip: Garage sales and thrift stores are great places to pick up inexpensive bottles and containers for gift packaging.

For more frugal ideas for gifts and for family time check out Frugal Fridays over a www.biblicalwomanhood.com on Crystal's blog.

Clearing the clutter

Declutter one

Declutter two

Decluttering three

picked up one
picked up two

picked up three

Mess One

Mess Two

Mess Three

Crystal, over at http://www.biblicalwomanhood.com/, has been running a challenge all week on making your house a haven. I've wanted to participate all week but it has been a crazy week. I haven't been overly busy, any more than normal, but things are just not running smooth. I was able to pick up my 3 year olds room on Monday, after a Sunday of not picking up, but "picked up" still was too cluttered. (I've let all my rooms go.)

Tuesday was the day of decluttering Reagan's room. She has a bad habit of going down to the playroom in the basement and bringing up toys to her room. The problem with this is, the toys just pile up in her room instead of going back down to the play room. So I sorted, I returned toys to the basement, I removed toys she's outgrown and doesn't play with anymore: I even managed to get rid of some of the broken toys and "Happy Meal" type things to the garbage. Then I organized. Now at least for the time the room is good.

I love to go in and look at the declutter. I still have more I can do but I am happy with the progress. I really can't be too prideful though. I shouldn't have let it get that bad. I hope to slowly work through the rest of the home and declutter.

Ice Storm Weekend

Hey all,
I think I've made it clear that I'm a snow addict. Too much is never enough. I was hoping for a good dumping this pass weekend and spent most of Saturday watching the local radar as a "big storm" crept closer. We were supposed to get a few inches before the snow changing to ice and then rain. Finally the storm gets to us and it snows for 1 1/2 hour and then ice storms for 8 hours and then rains for 7. We only ended up with 1/4" of snow covered in 1/2" of ice before it slushed over and then froze again at night. Good times. It was such a let down but I heard that people died in accidents because of the weather so I don't feel it is right to complain. I thank God that he kept my family warm, dry and together. It snowed a bit more on Monday so we had a good start to the winter. I'm still waiting for a lot more though.