Family – Page 9 – Grocery Shrink

How to Properly Use a Red Card

By Angela on April 15, 2014

How to Properly Use a Red Card

Ah Target. For all your personal flaws, I like your aisle style.

I love that your red card includes a debit card option, gives me a 5% discount, donates a percentage of my purchases to my school, and gives me free shipping online.

You have an ulterior motive though. I can see through your niceness. You know that if I swipe a card, be it credit or debit I will spend 50% more. Give me a card; you make more….smooth.

I thought money fights in my marriage were a thing of the past, but you temped me to misbehave and I took the bait. I swipe my card knowing I have the cash in my purse to cover it, in all the proper budgets. No stress, no fear, easy swipe. I intend to put the cash in the “return to the bank” envelope so we know it is spent. Still, sometime in the ride from the store to home, someone has to unload the car, potty, break up a fight, and get a snack, make dinner…and I forget all about the cash.

I forget, until it is time for my husband, (who is a CPA and VERY detailed) starts asking me about all the Target draws on our bank account and what they are for. And why the “back to the bank” envelope doesn’t have the same amount of cash in it. And where that cash is now. My chest feels tight, and my head hurts, because I know the money is gone. I spent it twice. Since all of our money has a name, I spent the money we set aside for other things on something I don’t care about as much, and now I’m mad.

back to the bank

I’ll keep the card and I’ll come back, but we won’t fight anymore. I have a secret plan. It’s a little envelope in my purse called, “back to the bank.” So now, while I’m standing in line, I will swipe my card and put in my pin and save my 5% and send some love to my school….and I’ll put the cash into the “back to the bank” envelope right then. No delay between swiping the card and driving home to give me time to forget about moving the cash.

Yep, we’re both clever. See you in the dollar aisle. 😉

What you need to know about your threshold

By Angela on April 14, 2014

When I was 12 years old, I was 30 lbs overweight and miserable.

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That’s 12 year old me all the way over on the right. My dad’s entire family was obese and even though my dad was normal and my mom was tiny, I was convinced that I looked the way I did because of genetics. Then one day, someone introduced the concept to me that I could be anything I wanted to be. God put the potential inside of me and my hopes and dreams came from Him. Genetics didn’t matter as much as my behavior did.

I started to study nutrition, calories, exercise, weight and height charts–anything I could find in the area of weight loss. Then I attacked the problem with the knowledge I found. The weight “fell off” over the summer (because of my serious hard work), and I went to 8th grade looking like a different person.

My struggle with weight didn’t end there. I still loved food, and my body was pre-set to hold onto more fat than most of my peers. I didn’t gain weight though, because I had developed a personal threshold. I didn’t count calories, but I weighed every day. I never punished myself with the scale, I used it simply to get information. If the scale was up I ate a little less that day. If it was down I ate a little more. Day by day I monitored things always watching for that number on the scale that was completely intolerable for me. If I hit that number, I got serious again until I was under my threshold. I was determined to never feel the way I did in that picture again.

When I got pregnant with my first baby, it was all of a sudden OK to gain weight. My threshold didn’t apply anymore and I packed on 60 lbs before Heidi was born!

My threshold, or lack thereof, also determined my success with savings, income, and spending. When I was in college, my checking account charged a fee if I allowed the balance to go below a certain amount. If I got close to that amount, I stopped all spending until I had a cushion built back up. If I had a cushion in there I spent it. Even now, I have an income threshold with my business. If my income drops below my acceptable amount, I kick it into gear and get the numbers up again.

Here’s the downside of Thresholds. They can keep us from reaching our real potential. If my bank account threshold is $100, then I’ll always have about that much in there. I’ll spend and save in routine to keep me there. If my weight threshold is 140, that’s where I’ll stay even though my ideal weight is 125. It’s hard to set a new threshold that is far away from where you are sitting now. With my personality, I have to put in a big push, all or nothing to reach the new goal and then set my emotions to the new ideal.

What about you? Do you have thresholds? How do you use them to reach your goals?

The Best Free Baby Gift Tutorials from Around the Web

By Angela on April 11, 2014

Best Baby Tutorials

To make the list, the tutorials needed to be useful, adorable, free, super easy, use small amounts of materials, and be fast to make. Like I woke up late Saturday morning, and the shower’s at 2pm and I don’t have a gift yet, fast to make.

Click photos to go to the source and get the info:

You’ll need a bib to use as a pattern for this one, but it’s a great concept for using up scraps.

I didn’t use drool bibs until I found these. They didn’t cover up a cute outfit, they MADE a cute outfit.

Drool bibs for the little ladies :).

This scrappy bib tutorial comes with a printable pattern.

When Grant was born I made 2 of these out of Minky. Oh man, everyone was jealous. He still loves them 3 years later. We moved him to a toddler bed instead of a twin bed, so he could still have his sheets.

Both free and paid options at this site. Such cuties!

Baby leg warmers from sweater arms

Baby leg warmers from socks

Baby tights from recycled t-shirts.

Tie onesies! These are fast and easy to make and so cute! Now little man can get all dressed up for church.

Crocheted baby turban. So cute! So fast! And just takes a bit of yarn.

Sherpa lined winter bonnet

Felt and Ribbon Lion Tag Toy

This is a doll quilt, but the same principle works for a baby quilt, start with a 45 inch square backing and batting. You can also, just do strips across instead of a log cabin look. I made one of these for a shower in 2 hours one Saturday morning. It’s an impressive gift that uses scraps and a short amount of time.

Use 1 yard to make a receiving blanket and 2 burp cloths.

Gown made from a t-shirt, printable pattern.

Knotted Baby Hat printable pattern

Crocheted slippers

Crocheted Peacoat (I made one like this and it turned out darling!)

Baby Gown and Hat Set for Free

By Angela on April 10, 2014

Baby gift Idea #2. Are you brave? How brave?

Brave enough to sew with knit? What if it were free? (Well… free according to the craft hoarders rule book.)

Photo Credit ThisMamaMakesStuff.com

If you have a spare t-shirt, you could make a darling infant gown with it and if it doesn’t work out….you only lost the shirt. Even better, The pattern is free from This Mama Makes Stuff. Her tutorial includes how to make the fold over cuffs to protect the babies from their own sharp fingernails.

Here are my sewing with knit tips: Use a ball point needle to keep from tearing permanent holes in the knit. Use a longer stitch length. If you can reduce the pressure on the foot a little to keep the fabric from stretching out of shape. If you have a walking foot, you could do that instead. If things do get stretched out of shape, try to steam them back with the iron. Then just relax and enjoy it. Sewing with knit is my FAVORITE! No basting to ease in seams, it just goes together like a dream. You are going to love it!

If you have some fabric leftover from the shirt make a matching hat:

Free pattern here:

Preemie hat pattern

and a less ink printable pattern PreemieKnottyHat

If the knit is fairly stretchy it will fit a newborn well too. It’s on my 9lb 2 ounce bouncing baby boy above.

So Let’s say the shirt was “free” and you got the gown and hat out of it. And then spent $3.75 on flannel to make a blanket and 2 burp cloths….You could wrap the gown, hat, and burp cloths inside the blanket (using the blanket as “wrapping paper”) and man, what a cute gift you have for less than $5 and about 2 hours worth of sewing. Aren’t you clever?!

How to Make a Noah’s Ark Diaper Cake

By Angela on April 9, 2014

You will need:

2 receiving blankets

4 burp cloths

2 wipes containers

1 small package of size 1 diapers

A children’s book or this

Giraffe teether toy

Washcloth animals (opt.)

Rubberbands

Plastic tray (with metallic finish from Dollar Tree)

Ribbon

Place one wipes container in the middle of the tray. Ignore the two rubberbands you see, you won’t need them. Put one rubber band around the middle to hold the diapers in place. Use half of the diapers to wrap around the wipes container and secure with a rubberband.

Fold a blanket lengthwise until it is just slightly taller than the diapers and wrap it around. There will be a 3-4 inch gap in the center. Use a toy to cover the gap (Or you can use a burp cloth here.) Secure with rubber band.

Make the second tier from the remaining half of the diapers. I just put a rubber band around them to secure them in the same shape they came out of the package. The third tier is just another package of wipes.

At this point you can secure everything together with rubberbands and help Mr. Giraffe hold his head up.

Wrap the top two layers with the remaining blanket and burp cloths. Tie on ribbons to hide the rubber bands. Gently lay the book on top for a roof. (Take the book off for travel since it isn’t secured in place.

I added this little elephant made from 2 baby washcloths. I’m not very good at making these things, so stopped at the 1 elephant. I used these instructions:

And cut the eyes out of a blank white address label.

A One Yard Baby Gift

By Angela on April 8, 2014

I love giving, but sometimes I get gift anxiety. What if they don’t like it? What if they think I’m cheap? What if I spent all that time and it doesn’t come out right?

These feelings could all be avoided if I just went to the store and purchased something and gave them the gift receipt. Sometimes I do that. But this year….oh my! I think everyone and their dog is planning to get married and have a baby this year, then throw a birthday party and invite one of our kids to it. I’m glad they are, and super glad they invited us. Sometimes the gift budget doesn’t stretch.

It just gives a reason to be a little more creative, right?

(I once talked to a friend, who admitted to turning down birthday party invitations for her kids because they couldn’t afford a gift. Hey, y’all. Don’t do that here, mk? I’d rather have you sans gift then let you worry one moment about finances. Our kids have enough stuff and they won’t even notice, I promise.)

So I thought I’d talk about gifting this month a bit and give some ideas for what to do for baby showers, weddings, kid birthdays and such.

First up is this one yard baby gift. You will need 1 yard of flannel; and 1 clean towel or scrap of terry cloth at least 16 x 18 inches. At Hobby Lobby 1 yard of flannel is $5.99 use a coupon and this gift will cost around $3.75 (with tax.) I used knit terry leftover from diaper making. If you use woven terry, use as thin a terry as you can get–cheap towels are perfect.

First find the selvage edge of your fabric that is printed all the way to the edge. Cut an 8 inch strip off this edge, then cut it in half to get two 18 by 8 inch pieces. (These will become 2 burp cloths.)

Cut the remaining fabric into a perfect square. I fold it into a triangle and cut off what’s hanging off–super technical method ;). This will be a perfect receiving blanket between 36 and 34 inches square. Ever notice that the store bought ones are too tiny to be any good? I used to make mine 45″ square, but really those were too big. These are perfect.

Fold the flannel square into fourths, perfectly lining up the corners. Take some time to do this well. Then, find something round and trace a rounded edge on the outer corner. (Double check–no folds here, at all–right?) Then cut it out. (I used a Scentsy top–see the logo? #notanashtray)

Next run the edge of the blanket through a serger adjusted for a rolled hem. No serger? Try this.

At the place where you start and stop, dab a little bit of fray check to keep it from unravelling.

To finish the burp clothes use the 2 flannel 8 x 18 pieces you cut out as a pattern to cut 2 pieces of terry cloth. Place the rectangles right sides together and stitch around the outside with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, leave a 3″ space for turning.

Turn right side out and press. Then top stitch a scant 1/4 inch away from the edge all the way around. This will close up the hole and make these wash and dry nice and flat.

1 yard = 1 receiving blanket and 2 burp clothes for $3.75. (Update 3 years later and flannel is on sale for $2.50–score!)

High Five!

If your budget is a little bigger than that, buy 2 coordinating yards and make double. Or add a toy or an outfit.

I’ll show you what else you can do with these tomorrow.

A little Phonics and Laundry

By Angela on April 7, 2014

Laundry Phonics

Here’s a fun, turn off the TV game for early learners. To set it up, write the names of basic clothing items on sticky address labels, leaving a space between each phonogram. Here’s the list we used:

sh ir t

b e l t

P a n t s

h a t

s o ck

c oa t

Here are some other ideas:

s c ar f

sh or t s

t a n k t o p

Cut between the phonograms and stick to clothespins. Then let your early learner hang the items up putting the pins in order.

Buffet Before and After

By Angela on March 17, 2014

I’m guesting over at DecorChick today, where we’re talking about cutting grocery budgets.

A few years ago I ordered this buffet from Home Decorators Collection from their clearance center. The description read “antique white with a honey oak top.” When it arrived it was puce green with an orange top. Whenever I looked at it, or someone said something about it, I would repeat, “But it was cheap.” As if that fixed everything.

I used it for a few years after crafting a super simple cover for it.

I loved the look of the cover, but it made the doors harder to use. Fast forward to our total kitchen remodel. The buffet has been sitting in my bedroom for 9 months. It is used as a collector of papers and homeless items. Our board games are in the attic where they never get played with, except when the baby sneaks up there and dumps them all out in a pile and scrambles them up–game soup. The children gravitate towards Netflix instead of other more stimulating activities and I’m looking for alternatives. I decided to sacrifice our stuff collector to create a game center in our new dining room.

Saturday, was a sunny 70 degrees. Heidi helped me carry the buffet out to the deck. Darren worked on setting our last few cabinets and cutting the sink hole in our new countertops. (Ooh, I’m excited to show you those later this week.) I really couldn’t do much to help Darren so instead I started a brand new project that had us working side by side. It makes him crazy when I start new projects before the old ones are finished, but he was very patient with me.

I started by using gel stripper to remove the orange top. I wanted to stain it a dark walnut to match our floors and cabinets (which turned out to be not as red, but it blends ok.) Using what I had on hand (no new money spent), was the most important thing to this project. Turns out the top was oak and stripped beautifully, but the molding was mdf, was a booger to strip, and took stain in a strange way. I decided to love it, since I was too tired to fix it.

Ooh, She’s already looking better.

I found some Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint in Paris Gray. I worried that it was a little too thick from previous use and too blue for my space….. It won out with it’s no sanding or prep work appeal, especially after stripping the top. I added enough water to the paint to fill the can back up and stir, stir, stirred it in. I think stirring in the water was the longest part of this project. It really didn’t want to mix and I was sure I had ruined it. Eventually, I ended up with a nice smooth paint.

Even with thinning the paint back down, it covered that puce in one coat. I painted right over the hinges, but took off the knobs to save the antique bronze patina. The inside of the cabinet is still puce, partly because I’m thinking about using a contrasting color on the inside. Mostly, because a freak snow storm was blowing in. It went from 70 degrees to 30 degrees in just a few hours! We had to move the party inside.

We quickly felted the bottom to protect our floors and carried it into place. I put dark wax on the top and clear wax on the bottom to protect the chalk paint, since it’s not durable at all without a top coat of something. While the wax was still sticky, the kids started moving their games in.

Now I can keep an eye on those games. No more game soup, Grant!

Here’s to more family times around the table with some board game fun.

Yesterday I reposted this on Facebook, and was a little shocked to read one comment extolling the virtues of spending a Saturday watching the same movie 5 times, and another woman saying she’d rather her kids watch TV than spend a day outdoors with their dad….Seriously? I enjoy a good movie as much as the rest, but we were created to build relationships.

Is there anyone out there who values family time over TV? What are some ways you find a balance and encourage face to face time?

The Character of Money

By Angela on February 26, 2014

Trying to stay on a budget without a foundation of good character is like trying to stick to a weight loss plan without addressing the inner reasons why I’m fat to begin with. I’ll end up sitting on the sofa in 3 days with an open bag of Doritos.

When I’ve been out of control with money, it’s because something was off in my character.

This list of character qualities was one of those things that came to me while I was sitting in church thinking about my kids.

These are the things I want them to catch along the way while they are under my roof, so it will just be part of them wen they are grown and supporting themselves.

1. Stewardship: When I think of my money and things I own as God’s instead of my own, it changes everything.

2. Patience: When I’ve committed to never borrowing money, the right time is when I have the money to pay for it.

3. Generosity: We reap what we sow. If we sow generosity, we will reap abundance. Since my money is God’s I’m careful that who or what I give to is something He would want me to give to.

4. Honesty: Means telling the truth even if I’m telling someone the item I’m selling isn’t perfect, or if I wouldn’t personally buy it.

5. Servant Heart: Serving for the sake of serving, not for what I will get out of it. Choosing a job where my income is tied to how many people I can help.

6. Depth: Not judging a person by their income or quality of clothing, but knowing their true value comes from being created in the image of God. Similarly not thinking an item is higher quality just because it’s higher priced, or that a gift was not given with as much love, just because it cost less.

7. Gratefulness: When I appreciate what I already have, I’m not looking for the next thing to buy to bring me happiness.

8. Contentment: This is the opposite of entitlement. It’s knowing that I deserve nothing, and whatever I receive is more than I deserved.

What do you think? What would you add to the list?

25 Ways to Raise Happy Kids

By Angela on February 19, 2014

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in church with a full heart. We had been trading illness around our house for a few months and hadn’t been able to attend as a family for that long. It felt so good to be there! I had a lot of things on my mind…a special concert, a conference that I was preparing to speak at, and all the things in my business that were laying in a to do pile. At the heart of it though, was my children. I’m good at spreading myself thin, so thin that I wondered if they were getting enough of me.

I closed my eyes in prayer and then words started coming. I grabbed a stub of a pencil and started writing in the margins of all the bulletins I could find. The kids were passing me scraps of paper so I could keep writing. I wrote down the notes I needed for the conference and then something new….the things I wanted for my children.

This wasn’t a prophecy, but more a spirit led clarity of thought. I started listing things and then realized it was “How to Make a Difference in the Life of a Child.” These are the things my parents and other loved adults did for me. These are the things that make up the positive parts of who I am today.