2,024 in 2024

 Goal: 2,024 Items leaving our home in 2024

If you've been around a while, you know we did a massive overhaul of our home in 2020. Two big things started this change: 1. We were planning to build a new house and wanted to only move things we truly loved/used. 2. I read The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning which completely revolutionized the way I held onto objects. Even though we abandoned our plans to build, you know...frugal living goals and all...we kept parting ways with stuff. 

Since then, we've done a decently good job of cleaning out several times a year thanks to the fun of having garage sales with family/friends and also the spring and fall HWGA Kids' Sales. As always though, we can do better.

My friend Justina at the The Well Planned Mama shared with me that she challenged herself to get rid of 2,023 in 2023 and even created a great printable tracker to see her progress. I fell in LOVE with this idea and so even though it's not yet 2024 we have started at our house! So far, since November 16, we have parted ways with 150+ items from our home. Want to join the movement? Check out Justina's 2024 Decluttering post with FREE printable to track your own goals. 

I was so excited about the idea that I presented it to the kids right away. It was the week they did their Pre-Christmas deep clean of their rooms so we counted many items that left the house then. We told Mark about it and he jumped right in with some sorting in the kitchen. Having the printable to color has made it even more fun!

If you've been around a while, you also know that I LOVE rules. I had to add some of my own to the challenge:

1. What constitutes an item? Some items like a book, pair of pants, etc felt obvious. But what about every little broken crayon from the school room? We're calling a pile of those just one item. Same with paper scraps or trash from projects. One big pile is one item on the coloring sheet. Maybe you're just beginning your own decluttering journey or want to count every little item - sounds good for you!

2. Although I desperately wanted to, I did not make any parameters for how many items needed to leave each week or month to stay on track. I wanted the others to be intuitive as to when they felt like it was time to part with something vs forced into it. 

3. Be wise in donating. I wanted to be careful and intentional about making sure items were leaving in a timely fashion, not just sitting in a box in the back of the car, and trying to get them to free pantries or the right non-profits to be most beneficial to others. 

But...WHY? Our why is based on previous success by decluttering so much in 2020. 

For one, We do a quick 20 Minute Tidy each day and often don't even need the full 20 minutes because everything in our house has a place and typically gets put in place. We do struggle with kitchen counter clutter, the kids' rooms, and our school room. Once a quarter we do big overhauls of those three rooms and it really helps keep down paper/junk clutter and every time we get faster at getting the big one done. 

And two, by having less stuff we actually want less stuff! It's true. As we have parted ways with so many unnecessary items, it's been very evident to Mark and myself that we've wasted a lot of money buying those things in the first place. Instead of buying things, we want to put aside money for experiences, travel, and opportunities. I plan to track everything we're able to sell as we declutter so we can see how much money we put back into our budget by getting rid of items. 

Christmas Day 2023

We did small, simple Christmas filled with useable, practical items for all

and it was such a joy to LOVE every item entering our home. 

Several times I've done a monthly challenge, for example the By the Numbers Challenge - 1 item on the 1st, 15 on the 15th, etc but the idea of a whole year was thrilling to me! I'll keep you posted on how it goes! 

Do you have any goals in 2024? Wishing you a happy and healthy new year! 

12 Favorite Pictures of 2023

 I always like to look back on the past year and pictures are my favorite ways to store memories.

Here is my favorite picture from each month in 2023...

January

We went to Disney on Ice as the kids' BIG Christmas gift.

I loved that they still loved all of the magic of it! 

They each got to choose a souvenir as part of the trip and wisely chose a snack

that came in a take-home cup so it was a "double" souvenir. 

February

Owen and I had Mesker Park Zoo to ourselves on a cold, winter day.

The highlight?

A half-hour private session with the penguins. 

March

Annabeth and I got our ears doubled pierced on a Sunday afternoon.

I always hoped for a daughter and I am so thankful for mine!

April

Annabeth performing her solo at Just Dance.

When she was little, she set the goal of having leaps "like the big girls"

and what a joy it has been to watch her work tirelessly to achieve that goal. 

May

We celebrated our 14th Wedding Anniversary with a

weekend at the lake. The dock broke as we took this picture so we ended up 

with quite the project. Mark's ideal way to spend a weekend.

June

Dance Recital Night.

We so love watching the kids do what they love to do!

July

Our last morning in Pigeon Forge. We cleaned out the freezer and 

the kids had breakfast sandwiches and Bomb Pops for breakfast so we would

have zero food waste. I love their matching shirts and big smiles. 

August

Owen played a long, HOT, Fall Ball season in a new league.

He grew so much as a player and we were thankful for great coaching and positive fans.

September

Annabeth's first Girls' Trip with Mama, Grandmama, and Aunt Lu for Lu's Birthday.

We spent a few days in Chicago and finding a safe Gelto place was the highlight

for me. I was so happy to allow her to have that simple experience of dessert out!

October

The wonder of connection. 

November

Birds at Sunset.

Long Beach, MS

December

This one is a tie for me. On vacation, Annabeth asked for us to have matching sweatshirts 

which was such an exciting moment for me! Some days she is very 12 so I take the sweet when

I can get it! 

December #2

Our day at Gracelend.

We went as Owen's 8th birthday gift but all fell in love.

It was the perfect day together. 

Thank you Dear Readers for another year of following our journey in Life, Love, and living our goal to "owe no many anything but love." 

Frugal Friday 520

 Happy Frugal Friday!

Here's how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:

- Friday night I enjoyed a Hallmark movie night at a friend's house. Four of us were there, we each brought snacks to keep it simple for the hostess. Her husband kindly treated us all to peppermint cocoa from Starbucks at the end of the movie. I took hot cooca cookies that the kids and I made and a cheeseball and crackers from my Mama's ladies group.

- Saturday morning I helped with our church Cookie Walk. I'm currently serving on the Children's Ministry Team and we took care of crafts and stories. The kids had made gingerbread houses the Sunday before and entered those in a fundraising contest. 

- The kids spent Friday night into Saturday at Mark's mom's house. She spoiled them with their favorite foods, games, and movies. 

- Our original Saturday evening plans were cancelled, so after dinner we check off "Drive around and look at Christmas lights" from Owen's holiday wishlist. I don't think it was quite as fun as he had hoped but we explored our neighborhood, the old downtown houses, and then drove through the Masonic Home light display. It was lovely and free!

- Sunday after church and Sunday School, Mark and Owen took Uncle Luke out to lunch to celebrate his completion of his Masters Degree. Annabeth had her final youth group of the year and enjoyed Mexican lunch and wrapping Christmas gifts from some families that the youth sponsored this holiday season.

- Monday morning we had our first snow of the season! I do think it snowed a few weeks ago while we were on vacation so this was our first snow sighting. We had to take a break from bookwork to run around in a bit. Just like I remember from my own school days, no one could sit still while snow was falling! 

- We took several books to a Little Free Library. I like to donate books to those, or share with our homeschool co-op, so people in our community can enjoy them for free vs having to buy secondhand.

- We had some small games and toys in my gift tote that didn't find a home with anyone else this year, we took them to a Little Free Pantry with a note for people to enjoy taking them if they still needed stocking stuffers or gifts for their children. 

- Yesterday morning a friend had on Facebook that she was looking for fresh cranberries. I had accidentally bought some last week so we were happy to drop them off at her doorstep. I love when God gives us just what we need to share!

- We spent the day yesterday in Charlestown with our best friends. We always try to kick off the Christmas season with Christmas together. I am so thankful for a lifetime best friend and pray our children will be best friends too!

As we look forward to Christmas, I pray that each of you know that this season isn't about fancy meals, presents, songs, silly sweaters, or anything except for the One who came for us all. He came, as a baby, lived a perfect life, and died that we might life. Forever. With Him. 

Frugal Friday 519

 Happy Frugal Friday!

We're back with our usual content! Here's how we've been saving money/spending money wisely/making extra money the past few weeks:

- We've been checking off our low-cost/free activities from our Christmas Check List. Last week, Annabeth and I used giftcards to get Snowmen cookies and peppermint mochas at Starbucks. We took a long walk around downtown Franklin to look at lights and to enjoy time together. Friday night, we went to the Trafalgar Library for Merry Prairie. Annabeth was too old for many of the acitvities but still enjoyed looking at the gingerbread houses and petting the reindeer. Owen loved all of it still and was most excited for face painting and Santa. He insisted that we wait for Santa, in a 45+ minute line, "just in case" I'm wrong and Santa's real. He has an item he just decided he wanted and he had to cover all of his bases. 

We always LOVE the reindeer! 

- Saturday morning we volunteered at church for the Potato Drop. It's not quiet as exciting as it sounds as we don't actually drop the potatoes from anywhere. We met many, many kind people and enjoyed handing out over 39,000 pounds of potatoes! We could see by the end that we still had many pallets left so we did our best to help with the extra by delivering to little free pantries we knew of and to neighbors and friends.

- Saturday afternoon we had the laziest of lazy December days. We watched an entire season of a holiday baking show, Annabeth made gingerbread kiss cookies, and Owen and I got in a mile and a half Christmas light walk after dinner.

- Sunday after church, we took nachos to lunch with the Rileys. Annabeth's cookies were a hit there as well as at youth group that night. We love baking and it's always nice, especially for our waistlines, if we bake when have a plan for where to take it.

- My sister-in-law and her family brought Annabeth a HUGE box of hand-me-downs. Annabeth was thrilled to have a whole new wardrobe of fleece sweatshirts, tops, and dresses. Thank you Cass and Cindy!

- Monday we drove down to Charlestown to keep our friends' children for the afternoon. Our friend lost his father last Thursday quite suddenly. We drove down to help with childcare and while the five kids played I ran the dishwasher, did some laundry, vacuumed, and wiped down the kitchen. I am not always great with words but love to love people with acts of service. It was a blessing to pray for them as I cleaned.

- Monday evening was the kids' dance holiday party. Both of the kids have been very into making bracelets this year and they asked if that could be their teachers' gifts. I agreed and they have spent weeks picking the perfect colors and designs for every teacher. Mark and I had a date night thanks to a giftcard we found in a drawer! We rarely if ever pick up food so it was truly special treat. 

- Tuesday morning we drove back down to Charlestown for the funeral. We were very blessed with a beautiful memorial service not so much about the man but about what Christ did in his life. I was so encouraged that the family chose such a strong gospel message. I am still so proud and in awe of our friend A, age 8, who gave a beautiful memorial message for his grandpa and led us all in the Lord's Prayer. 

- Wednesday evening Mark's boss took the department out to dinner. Mark had a great time with co-workers and enjoyed winning $20 on his lottery scratcher gift. 

- We passed along a bag of clothes from my mom to my mother in law. We also did some pre-holiday cleaning out and took a bag of items to donate. We took books we are finished with to free little libraries. More on our decluttering mission in the weeks to come!

We are looking forward the the holiday celebrations to come next week!

Happy Savings to All! 

Review of Guesthouse at Graceland and Graceland Mansion

 In April, I booked a simple beach week for our family trip this year. We've done several big trips since 2020 and we needed a smaller, more affordable trip. I found a great place to stay right on the beach in Gulfport, MS and we planned several free excursions. Then, for Owen's 8th birthday we decided to surprise our Elvis Lover with a stop at the Guesthouse at Graceland and Graceland Mansion on the way home. 

Up first, the Guesthouse at Graceland. Our overall review 3/5

The Guesthouse Lobby

If you click the above link, you'll see that the Guesthouse is advertised as a "Luxury Elvis Hotel." We beg to differ. In our travels, we have stayed at several other Four Diamond hotels which have been INCREDIBLE so we had very high expectations for this hotel as well. 

Pros: It is an easy walk, or extremely short drive, to Graceland. If you're just in Memphis for Elvis then the location is perfect. It is in a bit of a rundown area so we really appreciated the guarded parking lot ($10 for the night). There are four restaurants and we ate dinner at EP's Grill which was fantastic and also grabbed a morning coffee which was fine. The highlights were the included nightly movie (ours was "Viva Las Vegas") and 9 PM PBJ bar. The service was exceptional. 

Movie night!

Cons: It really is not as special or luxurious as other hotels at this price point (our room was $230 before fees thanks to a First Responder Discount). Our room was larger and the bathroom was larger than your average hotel but they were not nearly as "Elvis" as we had hoped for. Our other Four Diamond hotels have been historic which maybe gave them the more special luxurious feel. The lobby is not very large, very basically decorated, and yet they want everyone to gather there for nightly music so it was quite crammed night and day. The kids were also very disappointed that the beautiful pool is outdoors and not useable year round. 

While Mark and I weren't completely thrilled

Owen was in heaven! He LOVED it.

After our night there, we spent 5 hours the next day at Graceland Mansion and Museum. 

Owen has always been a huge Elvis fan and just couldn't believe we were taking him there. Mark was the only of us who had been and assured me it was worth the detour.

Mr. O with his Elvis hat, shades, and lip curl ready for Graceland!

What did I expect? I expected a very overpriced (roughly $45/kid and $80/adult for tickets) trip to a possibly run down house surrounded by a certain kind of music fan.

I could not have been MORE wrong! Our visit to Graceland was an experience I never knew I needed!

First of all, the home is lovingly maintained by a staff who cares tremendously for Elvis's family and work very hard to keep the home beautiful. It has quite obviously been well cared for despite the half million visitors who walk through it each year. Our tour included the first floor, basement, carport, backyard, several outbuildings that served as offices and gymnasium, as well as a sentimental stop at the Presleys' Meditation Garden. We were surrounded by true Elvis fans who felt such a quite reverence for the man, the music, and the house. It was one of the quietest and most respectful tours we have ever been on.

An afternoon in Elvis's backyard. 

The audio tour is narrated by John Stamos. 

Paying their respect to the King of Rock and Roll

After our house tour, we spend the afternoon at the museum across the street. Here we saw some of Elvis's cars, planes, music, jumpsuits, and so much more. After Elvis died, his family remained in the house and within five years it was opened to the public for tours. Since the family still owns everything, there has been such incredible care about maintaining everything for the next generation. 

The museum intertwines home videos, tv recordings, memorabilia from 

Elvis, Lisa Marie, and so many others

Owen had a must-see list and included Evlis's Pink Cadillac 

He was also thrilled to see dozens of his jumpsuits

I was so thankful that Owen has such a love for Elvis and that Mark pushed for us all to go. We all enjoyed our day there tremendously. Graceland was a 5/5 for all of us!

**Traveler's Tip: Parking is $10 at both the Guesthouse and Graceland. If you stay at the hotel, it's a quick under five minute walk so leave your car there and save the Graceland parking fee. We felt quite silly that we had prepaid both as we definitely wasted $10. 

Frugal Friday 518

 Happy Frugal Friday and Happy December!

This week's Frugal Friday looks a little different because this time of year just feels different. It's colorful, magical, merry, and oh-so-busy.

When the kids were little I felt a lot of pressure to do all of the magical things. We saw live reindeer, living Nativities, storytimes with Mrs. Claus, made ornaments, baked cookies, sang songs, crafted, and went to soooo many Christmas events. It was fun, it was wonderful (well, kind of) but mostly I ran myself ragged only to find as they got older they didn't remember any of it.

Then 2020.

Even by December 2020, much of our usual events were modified or not brought back at all that year. We had a very simple, very quiet Christmas season with a 5 year old and a 9 year old and it was glorious! I was calm, I actually enjoyed everything we did, and it was still so magical. 

In 2021, I started a new tradition. I asked the kids each November what THEY wanted to do for the holiday season. We did the things on their list, of course went to church for Advent as well, and that was that. The season was so lovely. The kids were happy doing what they wanted, we spent very little gas/money on activities, and they loved loved loved that Christmas season.

It worked so well that I did it again last year. We had about a dozen activities on the list - some at the library, some around town, and some baking/crafting at home. We worked through the list and it was perfect.

This year, I did the same. After dinner one night the kids, now ages 8 and 12, came up with just seven "Must Do" activities for Christmas. 

Look how simple! Look how "small" they want Christmas to be. We'll use a library pass for the Eiteljorg and so our estimated budget for all of this is under $25 for the WHOLE Christmas Season. I feel comforted knowing that while others may have giant lists, big trips, or dozens of outings - this little list is all that my kids actually want to do.

Have you tried this before? What does your list look like? Maybe it's huge - maybe your kids have 100 things they want to do. That's great! That will work well for you then! 

I would never dare to say that our way is right or better than anyone else's but it is what works for us. I will note that since we have never done Santa, our children have rarely been to Santa themed events or "meet Santa" outings saving us a ton of activities right off the bat. Also, Mark's schedule at work is always very hectic for the holidays and he has worked more than half of the kids' Christmas Eve/Days. They are very used to it just being the three of us and enjoy opening gifts or doing special traditions on December 21 or 28 or whenever. His job has helped our children be thankful for any time they have with people that they love. 

As we have begun the Advent Season and as we look ahead towards the holidays, we pray that each of you Dear Readers have the holiday season that you want. That it is filled with the Light, the Hope, the Love, and the Peace of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Frugal Friday 517

 Happy Frugal Friday!

Here's how we saved money/spent money wisely/made extra money this week:

- My entire PaperPie website is 25% off this week and orders over $30 ship free! Enjoy some holiday shopping at a discount while supporting my small book business. 

- Over the past week, both of the kids have completely overhauled their rooms. We moved all of the furniture, dusted, vacuumed, mopped, and sorted. Each of the kids found a small tote of items that needed to leave their room. We try to do this once a quarter and this was our big pre-Christmas sort.

- Saturday morning we slept in a bit and then did a long town hike - 6 miles - since Mark was on call and we couldn't leave town for the woods. I am thankful for that sweet time together just the four of us.

- Saturday afternoon the kids enjoyed a Crafternoon at church. Pastor Susan arranged for some painting and jewelry making time and the kids both loved it.

- Saturday evening we had our first Christmas event of the season. We watched "Christmas with the Kranks" and ate a themed dinner - complete with ham just like in the movie. It was a great way to kick off the holiday season with a day of free fun. 

- Sunday morning we slept in and went to Sunday School and late church. Since we had a few extra minutes, we did a quick sort of our cup cabinet. We parted with 18 items and donated those in good shape to a Little Free Pantry on the way to church. 

- Monday morning our washer stopped working. It washed but stayed full of water. I pailed water out twice to try to get the drain to work but with no luck. Mark stopped by between day and night shift to fix it in less than 30 minutes. Bless him for serving us so well in the midst of a very busy work season where he is serving coworkers and community as well. 

- We continued cleaning out little spaces in our home and donating what we could. 

- We held off on our Christmas decorating until last night. The kids were ready before but Mark really wanted to wait until Thanksgiving and so we did. I love having the lights up and everything oh-so-merry! We will not buy any new decor this year. We have sometimes been gifted items but save for one homemade sign from a craft fair I have not purchased any holiday decor in more than five years. We like to keep it small, it all fits in one tote, and simple. 

- While I did some in person and online window shopping for Black Friday, I didn't find any deals that were too good to resist. We have done most of our Christmas shopping and so I didn't have anything I needed to get. While at the pharmacy this week, the kids found the perfect gift for Momaw so we did buy that. It wasn't on sale or a deal but the sheer joy they had at the thought of her opening it meant full price was just fine :)

- We ate our meals at home and took along freezer pizzas to Thanksgiving lunch at Mark's mom's house. I hope that you all had the best Thanksgiving possible and I'll leave you with this message that I also shared on Facebook alongside a picture of my freezer pizzas: 

Thanksgiving Lunch Prep ✓

I've always had an unpopular approach to Thanksgiving with kids. When mine were little, they hated most traditional fancy Thanksgiving food soo... we took Lunchables.

Now, they are only mildly interested in the fancy food, so we're making pizza instead.

We left early from lunches so they could nap, we arrived late for dinner to let them nap all the way, and we never over committed to too many events. It didn't always make me popular with grown-ups BUT the kids had lovely, slow holidays that they weren't miserable through and I have sweet, stress free memories.

Let this be your sign to do holidays your own way, set boundaries, say "yes" or "no" depending on how you want to spend your holidays, and do these things knowing it will help you savor precious time with people you love.

SAVOR PRECIOUS TIME. Love to you all Dear Readers, Thankful for you!