As much as we’d love to be a Disney family, high tailing it off to Orlando a few times a year, that’s not really practical for most of us, is it? No, and even if you do, there will be plenty of time between to fill up with memories at home.

Here are 3 things I’ve found lately to have a BLAST with my children without spending much money at all and without leaving our house.

4 Almost Free Ways to Spend Time Together as a Family

Board Games

This one can be even cheaper than you think. I buy almost all of our games at Goodwill or other local thrift stores. Part of Daniel’s birthday gift this year was an Angry Birds game I found for $3.95 at Goodwill. Maybe $3.95 doesn’t sound cheap, but when you figure the whole family could play it, it was in perfect condition, and retail it would have been more like $34, it starts to sound like a steal.

This morning we paid Spongebob Monopoly, and while 3 of 4 boys quit early on from boredom, Daniel hung in there and beat me SOUNDLY.

So did everyone have fun? Sort of. Everyone did for a little while. And one of them had the special honor of beating mom. Also, he learned so much about counting money and making change.

Playing Sports Outside…..and yeah, sometimes inside

What we play depends on what they are into at the time. Last year it was always baseball. Now it’s mostly basketball, but lately we’ve been all about badminton.

Here’s my best tips for introducing your kids to badminton or tennis:

1. Buy any racquets at thrift stores. Thrift stores almost always have tennis rackets, and when you are playing at home, you can totally play badminton with big giant tennis rackets. In fact, it makes it easier for the kids to hit the birdie.
2. If you don’t have a net, designate a line on the driveway as your “net”. By the way, the one above is a nice one. You can also buy super cheap ones, but I can’t vouch for how good they will be, but they might be better than just the line on the driveway. Ha!
3. Our family just used the crack in the driveway as our “net” until we had time to go buy a net.

Most sports can be simulated at home without actually owning the equipment. In most cases, you just need a ball.

ABSOLUTELY FREE: CHARADES!!!

Alan took some papers, cut them into squares and wrote names of people we know, movies we’ve watched, and places we’ve been to on them. Then he made a paper bag for each category, and put the papers in the bags for us to draw out.

The boys LOVED it. It was more personal this way. We used family members, and then they’d act out what they’ve noticed about those family members. The cutest was when they were being their cousin Wesley, and they got on their knees, to show they were short, and then went around hugging everyone! Ha!!!

For places, we used random ones like the driveway, the pumpkin patch, and places we used to live. Just talking about it makes me want to do this again. We all laughed so much.

Include the little ones too. Just whisper in their ear how to act it out. As long as there’s one person to guess, you’re good. When toddlers get involved, I promise it will be hilarious. They may even announce to everyone who they are being, like JD does, and that’s okay.

Turn something they LOVE into a family activity!

Light sabers? Family jousting tournament

Legos? Building contest! And name a different prize for each kid. Maybe even make little construction paper ribbons.

Dancing? Dance Party.

For example, the ever so obnoxious BOTTLE FLIPPING!!

Does any mom or teacher out there not hate this activity? Why? It’s loud. It’s annoying, and it always spills water.

Did you know they make games for Bottle Flipping? As in board-game like games? They do!

 
I decided to give this a shot. This is the very first time I had ever attempted to flip a bottle, and I’m here to tell you it is way HARDER than it looked! I have new respect.

Best of all, my older boys got a real kick out of me participating in bottle flipping with them. My oldest wasn’t even going to play with us at first, but once he saw us having fun, he joined in and then insisted that we play again.

In fact, I want you all to join in on this fun, so this week we are giving the Bottle Flippin’ Game away for FREE to one of you!

***This giveaway is sponsored by the Bottle Flip Game.***

I love giveaways!!!

To enter just Log in with Facebook or your email below, and click one of the options. If you have trouble, just send me your email address, and I’ll enter ya.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!!!

The post 4 Almost Free Ways to Spend Time Together as a Family + Giveaway appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Our family is living on a budget for the first time…..since 8 years ago when we read that Dave Ramsey book.

This year was a huge change. We went from paying about $3,000/year in school tuitions to Classical Conversations and preschool to paying about $15,000/year total in private school tuitions. That’s two full school tuitions plus a partial one for my kindergartener, who has a partial scholarship. It was a big jump. We realized we were going to have to make major changes in how we live to pay for all of this.

These tips will help you for sure. I do realize $15,000 would only pay for one child’s tuition in a large city. At the time that I wrote this we lived in Georgia, where the cost of living is lower.

I want to share what we are doing to pay for private school:

#1. We down-sized our house.

We went from a 5-bedroom home in luxurious Monterey, California to a 3-bedroom home in Georgia. The difference is so vast, but I’ve actually enjoyed this change! No more stairs to go up and down. Hmmm Maybe that’s why I’ve gained weight….Plus, our new house still comfortably fits us. It has everything we need, and it came with a way better backyard, so this was not a hardship. This was a win. We only lost about 500 square feet, so we ditched a room or two worth of furniture, and all is well.

We do have four kids in a 3-bedroom house, but only one of them complained, and I think it’s good for them.

#2. I took on a part-time writing gig with MontereyPremier.com in September, and I resumed product reviews and sponsored posts here on Stories of Our Boys.

Every little bit helps, and I’m still spoiled because I’m working from home. I still get to be with my three-year-old all day long. I can still cook dinner by 12 pm, and I’m able to pick up the boys from school every day. The only hitch is that I literally get paid by how much I work, so if I spend my day jumping on the trampoline with JD, baking, and sweeping, I don’t actually make any money at all. Ha….yeah, that happens a lot..

#3. We cut the bi-weekly cleaning lady, the gym, the pest control service, and the lawn care service.

Yes, we would like to have ALL of those services, but they are a luxury, not a necessity.

#4. We are “making do” with things that we would like to replace, and saving up money to replace them later, rather than spending all we have or taking on a car payment.

My minivan?

It’s a 2007. One of the doors has taken on a mind of its own, so you now have to do these special maneuvers to get it to close, and if you do it wrong it will go “Ding. Ding. Ding!” Only it won’t start all that dinging until AFTER the car is driving, so then you have to find a place to pull over and shut that door to save your sanity. Also, the defroster is having issues. I guess that’s what paper towels are for.

The minivan is paid for, and the engine runs perfectly. Just don’t stand in the trunk putting away groceries too long because it will randomly start to close the trunk door on your head. Nice little adrenaline rush as you quickly remove all body parts and small children out of the way!!!

However, we are thankful that we have two cars that run. That van has never broken down, and it has 4 good tires. We’ll make do another year.

My mattress? 

It’s 14 years old, and my hips were starting to hate, hate, hate my flattened out old mattress. It wasn’t giving much anymore. Soooo…we bought a $25 quilted mattress cover. That didn’t help much. Then we bought a $15 egg crate and put that on top of the quilted mattress cover, and we’re good again! That’ll buy us another year, I’m hoping.

Our sofa?

Well….we’ve only had it for 3 years, but it got ripped in a few places with the move. I don’t even know how because it was all wrapped and padded. I have no idea why we didn’t put in a claim on it while we had the chance, but we didn’t, so now we are stuck with a sofa that’s all hurt looking and sad.

It’s on my list to get replaced first, but not until Christmas is taken care of. Here’s hoping for a new sofa in January or February!

#5. My favorite part: Yard Sale-ing!!!

You might recall that my parents had a house fire this year, so when we moved down here I started going to yard sales with my folks. It is so addictive!!!

Here’s a list of some of my amazing finds:

-2 benches for $10 each

-Large Coach bag in PERFECT condition–for only $25!!!

-5 pairs of boys size 14 blue jeans for $2 a pair! Wow!

ladies shirts $1/shirt

-yoga pants $1

-Mom got a computer chair for $5!

-Sunglasses $1

-Baseball themed ceiling fan for half of what you’d pay in the store–I can’t remember how much! But it’s in one of the bedrooms at my parents’ new house now!

-Countless costumes, toys, books, and games

Yard Sales are my new hobby. I’m all about it.

Now I do realize that many people are into the Facebook yard sales now, the perpetual bargain fares. But have you noticed how over-priced they are? I can rarely save much over what I’d pay retail on those sites. Yard sales are still my favorite.

Thrift stores can be good too. I recently bought a nice set of shelves for only $15, plus a bag of AR books, all at Goodwill.

#6. Buying groceries at Aldi

I’m not a coupon-er, so I have to find the absolute most affordable place to go grocery shopping. Aldi is the cheapest store near me. The commissary is usually a great deal too, if you are military. But the best way to find out what place has the most affordable food is to shop a different store each week and make a comparison chart. When we lived in Texas, I was surprised to realize that Walmart actually was the cheapest, even better than the commissary!

I hope I’ve given you some ideas here for ways to stretch your budget.

We are constantly looking for more ideas! Please share in the comments or email if you have more ideas for how you save money! How do you “make do” and find discounts?

Editorial Update:

The next year we added our youngest son, which brought this to 4 kids in private school. Thankfully, half day preschool was much cheaper than regular private school. We stuck to these same principles to make it work. 

For more Money Saving Strategies, check out my other articles on this:

How to Save Money Using Dealspotr.com

Where to Find Cheap Food: A Comparison of Grocery Stores

How to Save Money on Makeup & Skincare

The post How To Pay For Private School: Changes We Made To Make It Work” appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I love it when I get to try out products! You’ll love this cutting board, and you might even score a FREE one!!

It was an exciting weekend here, so I have FUNNY stuff to share today.

The sad thing is the messy ones were arranged by yours truly.

I thought this photo well captured the key difference between Daniel and me. Look at how neat his memory tiles are. Look at mine. He clearly got a few things from his father.

Found this on my walk. I think it’s the true home of the Berenstain Bears!!!!

I had my picture made with my snake-killing weapon.

John David insisted on bringing all the pumpkins inside.

Looks sweet, right? You’d never know that 30 minutes before he cried all the way through Target until I cried uncle and went home. *Groannnnnn.*

That one relative at gatherings that says shocking things. I hope you all have that one relative.

Hehehe! No, I’m just kidding. I have no idea what was said here, but I thought this photo was funny.

**************

Now for even more FUN AND EXCITEMENT!! I have a brand new giveaway!!!

And this is one we can ALL use!! A bamboo cutting board with silicone edges. Lime green!

Putting mine to good use

I like the fact that a bamboo cutting board is easier on your knives, and I am a real sucker for the cute lime green handles.  I’ve enjoyed using this.

I also love that this is a family business. These boards were created by a mom who wanted a bamboo cutting board that would not mold, so she added the silicone edges to prevent that and created her own business.

You can order your own here: TheKitchenLove.com

So what are you waiting for? Log in and click one of the option tabs below to enter the giveaway.

*****No one gets your email address other than me, and I will only use it for notifications regarding the giveaway.*****

I’ll announce the winner in a week!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Did you miss my latest post on my new obsession with Lula Roe?? No worries. Click here to read about it over at Monterey Premier.

The post 3 Fall Funnies and a NEW Giveaway for Your Kitchen! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This post is sponsored by seedsfamilyworship.com. They are here to teach the Bible through songs.

John David is 3 years old, but he already knows that Christmas equals presents.

He is also fully in love with Santa Clause, aka the King of Christmas. And in all fairness, who wouldn’t love a man who shows up once a year just to give you all the things you wanted???? Sign me up for that!

My sweetie-pie professional product tester. He accepts payments of hugs and toy airplanes.

So you might be wondering why I’m talking about Christmas in October, but the thing is that if you are planning a children’s ministry or want to teach your kids an awesome song to perform at Christmas for their grandparents, then now is the time to order your material.

We got this lovely Christmas DVD and accompanying CD in the mail called Seeds of Christmas. By the way, it’s also available digitally if you don’t want to have to fool with a hard copy DVD and CD.

I tried it out the first time with just John David because he’s the only guinea pig hanging out with all day while I’m working. He is also a lover of all things music.

Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Oooo, John David, I have a new Christmas movie for us to watch. It has songs! (JD loves songs.)

JD: Yay!!!  It has Santa Clause?

Me: Well, um, I don’t know. Let’s watch it. We’ll see what it has. I’ve never seen it before, but I do know it’s Christmas.

JD: Yay!!!

Some of the songs are fast, but most of them are slower, very worshipful. I’m going to include a preview below for you to see what I mean.

Every single song line is a Bible verse.

We watched it without hand motions, but if you are teaching a class or your kids happen to like doing the motions, that’s all on there for you. I have four BOYS. They dislike singing in public, and they especially dislike hand motions.

The last video on this disc is BEAUTIFUL.

They were all good, but this one was my favorite. It has that wow factor you would want for a program, if you are performing these.

We are only using it at home, but I just adored that last video, called “Joy.” You can’t tell from the preview online just how powerful that video actually is. Watch it without the hand motions, and focus in on the whole Bible story of Jesus’s birth played out in front of you.

So this is what sold me on this video:

We were watching the Joy video at the end, and JD could not stop asking questions!

“Who’s that?”

JD had to know who each little figure at the bottom was and what they did.

“That’s Mary and Joseph, the parents of Jesus.”

“Who’s that?”

“That’s Jesus.”

“Jesus died.”

“Yes, but this is when Jesus was born. Jesus is God’s son.”

“He died?”

“Well, yes, later on, but this is about when he was born. See, he was a baby, born in a manger in a barn. Christmas is really about the birth of Jesus, not about Santa Clause and what we can get from him.”

I can’t remember the entire conversation, but you get the idea. This opened the door to talk about these important things. That’s right. Christmas isn’t just about presents. What a great reminder.

When the video was over, JD actually asked to watch it again!

Now here’s the other unusual thing about this company, Seeds Family Worship. All of their songs are 100% Bible verses. There are no fillers or added words. They are literally just singing the Bible!!

They call it family worship because their stuff isn’t just for kids or just for adults. Anyone can enjoy it and learn. You could get the music to help you learn scriptures! You could use it to help teach your children memory verses. You could even use it for your Bible class or children’s choir. I am impressed with the versatility.

Click here to go to their website and see a preview!

I was excited to learn that Seeds Family Worship is also a touring group. They are traveling performers, and because I have readers in Bowling Green, Kentucky let me tell you: they will be in your city in January. I found this on their website:

Bowling Green, Kentucky: God’s Awesome Word Event, Living Hope Baptist Church, January 8. You can click here for more info on that.

Two more pieces of good news:

1. The Christmas Set is on sale now for $19.99. You get BOTH the DVD and the CD for that, so it’s an awesome deal.
2. We’re giving one set away!!!!  Wahoo!!! Click to enter below:                                  a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Fun Way to Teach the True Meaning of Christmas, with Giveaway! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

My crazy week is over. There’s a fresh new week to take on, with no mistakes in it yet.

Rest assured. We will add plenty. 🙂

But this week my spirit is at rest. It won’t be much easier. Joshua broke his arm Saturday, and it will be re-cast this week.

That means we will have to manage……dumdumdum……the health insurance circus. How many hoops can we make this lady go through? They are the best at that.

JD threw up Saturday night, which means we are now paranoid city.

I’m so thankful Mom is here!!

And you know who else is here? The Holy Spirit. I have peace in my soul. Everything will be okay. Last week I had no peace, and we all have times like that.

So today I have the Mary Tyler Moore song in my brain. I might just make it after all.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”       Galatians 6:9-10

A lot of funny things have been happening. These people just keep me in stitches. We laugh so much.

The other day, JD decided he wanted to use the potty.

He used it all right. He sat on it, he stood on it, he turned it upside down and wore it as a hat, and then he finally dragged it to the big potty and stood on it and tried to go.

Then I put his diaper back on him and took him back to the living room. I am not ready to potty train JD just yet. It’s not that his time isn’t here, it’s that MY time isn’t here.

********

Daniel has started saying “I”! It’s so exciting! I thought this day would never come. I am that unrealistic.

**********

Joshua and I enjoyed hours of bonding time in the Emergency Room Saturday, from 7:30-10pm. That was the place to be this weekend. We talked and talked. I have four little boys, and yet I only have one that has been to the ER this year, and that one has been THREE times!!!

In a year!

The nurses are beginning to recognize him. “Oh yeah! You had all that poison oak on your face! How did you break your arm this time?”

Joshua’s triage nurse was a nice young man, and he shared with Joshua that he had broken both of his arms before, because he was a gymnast. Well, this was right as I walked up from registration, and I said, “Oh, you were a gymnast?”

He said yes, but then he was finished, so he walked away.

As I sat there, I realized that I might have hurt his feelings with that comment, if he took it the wrong way.

A few minutes later, he called us over to the next part of triage, and he said to me, “I was a MALE gymnast.”

Oh, poor guy.

“Oh! No, I was just thinking that you sound a lot like Joshua. He’s always doing flips and stuff on his trampoline.”

Bless his heart. I never cease to find new ways to embarrass myself, especially if I talk to people…

It was such an interesting night at the E.R. Joshua and I talked about how things can be both sad and funny.

Emergency rooms are the embodiment of that! There was the man sleeping in the floor, the lady who came in because a cat scratched her, a sick baby who we truly felt bad for, someone had a stroke, and a pitiful little girl with her foot covered in blisters.

I MIGHT have jokingly compared Joshua to our dear Aunt Janet, who stuff just happens to. Joshua got a good laugh out of that, and you should have heard him re-telling Janet’s stories!

“Joe, Joe, come over here,” Joshua said, “look at my toe. That’s not water, Joe.”

He told several other Janet story snippets.

“Wow, Joshua,” I said, “You remember Janet’s hospital stories better than I do.”

They are always listening, well you know, except for when you want them to.

I texted Alan with Joshua’s progress. He texted me back, “JD is throwing up.”

Fantastic. The funny thing is that I knew this was coming. Isn’t it cool when God occasionally will give you a little heads up?

We were out the other night, and a little girl who was playing with my children casually mentioned to me, “I threw up. At home.”

Yes. I was flipping out internally. She was playing with Daniel. Does she mean today???? Always listen for omens…

Not much sleep was had here last night, but I feel full of joy and hope for the week ahead. My spirit has been quieted by God. Spiritual turmoil is the very worst kind, to me. The things that scare me the most are out there, and God is here with me. Come what may, everything will be okay. 

Thank you again for all of your prayers and letters of encouragement this week! It made all the difference!!!

Here are a few photos from our first two days of school:

Is it bad that I already misplaced Thursday?

And don’t forget to enter the ESPRO Sports Cleaner Giveaway, for your laundry and carpet stains! The winner will receive 2 towels, cleaning wipes, and 2 bottles of stain remover. This is something anyone could use!

Disregard the prices. All of this will be free to the giveaway winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click here to read the full product review.

The post “You’re Gonna Make it After All!” A Night at the ER appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Daniel, happily using the Mighty Mug

Last month we were on vacation, staying at my parent’s house, aka Nana and Granddaddy. Nana’s table requires a tablecloth. Not a big deal, right?

Not unless the Dan Man is eating at that table. In his defense, he probably wasn’t the only one; it just seemed like it was usually him.

Poor Nana. I am not even kidding when I tell you that Dan was spilling drinks about three times a day.  I went to the store and bought Nana more tablecloths.

Then lo and behold, I got this email. Blogging is the coolest job ever. People are always asking to send me free stuff to review. I only accept the ones that I truly believe will help my family and my readers.

This company said they have a mug that won’t tip over. It’s not a sippy cup. It’s a coffee mug, a grown up coffee mug that will not tip over, unless you punch it hard, to purposefully tip it over.

I couldn’t believe my luck. “Yes! Send me this thing right away!”

We use this every day now. JD, Dan, and I take turns with it.

When I returned home from vacation, the mug was waiting for me. I get the best mail!

I picked this color because I feel like I deserve to own extra girly things, living in a house full of males. It is primarily my cup, after all.

Daniel asked me if he could drink out of it.  Oh, wow. This is going even better than planned! “Absolutely, Dan!!!”

I watched eagerly to see if he could find a way to spill it. If anyone can, it’s him.

Dan, with his Mighty Mug and his breakfast

The older boys were fascinated with it too.

“Wow. How does it do this? Is there a magnet in there? It’s like it has super gravity. I’m gonna show this to my friends,” and they did!

It is really neat. You see that bottom part? It is rooted to the ground, but no, it’s not a suction cup on bottom. I have no idea how this thing works, but it does work.

We all figured out very quickly that you have to lift straight up to pick it up, but it’s not heavy at all. Actually, it’s become quite the party trick at our house.

But here’s the real test. Guess who wanted a turn to use it…..the littlest man….

I held my breath, as I sat on the other end of the table…..

Nope. He didn’t tip it over.

I don’t remember what was in it, but it must have been good.

He even learned how to open and close it.

I know this probably isn’t the intended use of the Mighty Mug, but when you have several kids you use things in unique ways.

Nana, you wanted a good birthday gift idea for Alan. Well, he wants a manly colored one to take to work.

My one big tip: I was going to include an Amazon affiliate link to this product, but I won’t do it because Amazon charges $27.99. If you buy this straight from themightymug.com, it’s only $19.99. Other styles vary in price. The teal version also comes in many different colors. It’s the “Mighty Mug Go”.  Shipping is free from themightymug.com, if you purchase at least $30 worth of products. (If you use Amazon Prime, but only if you are only buying one mug, it may even out since you don’t pay shipping.)

Spill proof matters at our house. Two thumbs up here!

Now for the BEST PART!

We are giving one away!!!

Just click on this image to enter the giveaway! (And hurry! It closes in a week!)

The post Dan and JD Present this Mighty Mighty Giveaway! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.