• RT @BridgetAyers: RT @andysowards: Twitter Tip: U can now google twitter handles for latest tweets http://bit.ly/6EpByJ #
• Packing tips for the holidays http://ow.ly/MK4V #
• FABULOUS BLOG: Flying with children http://ow.ly/N8Se #
• RT @milehighmamas: Moms Blog: Daily Daily-Safeway Holiday Menu http://bit.ly/6EwIgO #
• I have started using this threat! gr8! RT @kidecals: Does anyone else feel bad using the "Santa will put you on the naughty list!" threat?? #
• Packing tips for the holidays http://ow.ly/MK8N #
• Packing tips for the holidays http://ow.ly/MK7L #

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• A good gift for all those crafty women out there, this looks amazing Bauhaus Women: Art, Handicraft, Design http://ow.ly/JUzm #

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Jon and I are avid travelers.  Roughly 2 weeks after the birth of each of our children we either took a long road trip, or to top them all, after Ezra was born we traveled to Grand Cayman Island with my family.  His passport picture is of him about 4 days old.  Very fun.  We also traveled to the Dominican Republic with the two girls when I was pregnant with Ezra and had a blast.  That trip entailed stitches on Lucia’s chin and traveling through a Jurassic-like DR interior with 8 of us loaded into a little Rav-4 type SUV.  Such good times!!!   Read the rest of this entry »

With my birthday and all three of my kids birthdays in the last part of November/Early December, around September I start getting hives thinking about birthdays & holidays looming on the horizon.  So I take a deep breath, remind myself of 2 things.  One, this time with the kids is going to be gone in a flash, so enjoy the chaos while they still live with us (granted they are 7, 5, 1), and two keep breathing.

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I alerted everyone I was hand-making most of my Christmas gifts this year. Then I went off in search of fun, reasonable projects that wouldn’t break the bank or my time.  I found a plethora of ideas, and the following are some of my favorites.

1.  Pipe Cleaner Garland, inspired by tord boontje’s until dawn curtain.  Absolutely beautiful, and I would actually hang this in my home.  And done very reasonably!!  Thank you Design Sponge for this gorgeous idea.  NOTE:  I found a bag of 350 white pipe cleaners at hobby lobby.

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I am excited to announce the incarnation of a daily or weekly segment to this blog. Mercy’s outfit of the day. This might not mean much until you see the unbelievable creativity with which she dresses unintentionally.

And for all those little mismatched girls out there who love to stick out, but just a little bit. Here is the store for you Little Mismatched. And a fun little off shoot of the site is “Did you find my sock?” You can get a coupon for a set of 3 mismatched but coordinated socks. How fun!!!

The simplicity/sustainability/budgeting part of this is that now my girls have the freedom to wear mismatched socks and Viola! we don’t need to buy new socks when one loses it’s partner.

In the interest of sustainability and simplicity this post is on the dreaded task of raking leaves.  Sometimes it seems silly to me that we rake at all, but then I remember all of the hard work we put into our lawn and encouraging grass to grow from the morass that was our yard when we moved in to our lovely house.  So then I think perhaps this idea has merit.

Since I have been on this sustainability, & simplicity kick I love finding/hearing about ideas that make my life easier, serve multiple purposes, and save me money, so I can get those boots I have been after.

“Improve your soil by raking less”  is the article that Jay sent over of Jay and Regina.  Am so excited to try this idea out this weekend.  Do you have any other fall lawn-care maintenance tips to share?

November is a month of beginnings for us this year. Which is weird, usually November is the beginning of the end.

My resolutions this month.

1. Start budgeting
2. Cook once this month for the rest of the month
3. Shop once this month for the rest of the month

So I started this journey, and am bound and determined to make this work. But a bit of planning error happened with this as I attempted it after traveling for 10 days. And Halloween.

So this is how I recommend not doing this, although the individual parts of the plan were sound, the overall execution was in fact, not.

Initially I intended on shopping on Saturday, prepping in the evening and cooking on Sunday. B/c of halloween, just getting back from traveling and Jon’s unusually fully client load on Saturday, shopping and prep didn’t happen on Saturday. So I took full advantage of daylight savings time, got up early and went shopping on Sunday morning, then went to church, then took my girls over to get their pictures in their costumes and pick up our freezer, sent Jon out to finish up some of the shopping, got the 11 month old down for a nap, and then proceeded to start prep and cooking. SO NOT A GOOD PLAN!!!!

And all would have worked out wonderfully if my stupid back wouldn’t have started killing me around 7pm.

Anyway, Jon completely picked up the slack and knocked out quite a few meals for us.

All in all, the meals look delish, the girls were drooling over the pumpkin pie, I was drooling over the pumpkin coffee cake, and I would like to say thank you to Once a Month Mom for the fab, no thinking cooking for once a month.

The nice thing about this menu, is that she thought ahead for the holidays.  My pies are done, I have a couple of cheese balls, side dishes to bring to dinners, brunch type stuff for Thanksgiving morning, and all for about $150 per family.  It was a little more this month as I got started up.  The other COMPLETELY fabulous note about this system is that she puts everything together for me.  Shopping list, podcast, instructions for day of, recipes.  I literally didn’t think about it.

And the other note is that on the recipes she mentions medium size apples or onions or potatoes.  I didn’t realize that everything in the grocery store is super sized, so I ended up with quite a bit extra of certain things.  But I would say success overall.  Having the first meal tonight.  Meat pie…  yum.

coming out of nursing-muddled-mind I finally have enough were-with-all to realize I have no idea what I am doing.  and I also have no idea how we have been making it, meals, clothes, being married, all of it.  2 adults, 3 kids, 1 dog, 1 borrowed cat.  phd-process-husband, mostly working a lot of the time mom.  very limited money.  yet day after day somehow…

anyway, (btw, i hate to capitalize, and for this post, am enjoying the hyphen, and generally i don’t care about grammar or correct punctuation) i have been inspired lately in the realm of simplicity, sustainability, & overall make more space and leave money for doing things we love: relaxing, traveling, skiing, dancing, gardening, pontificating.  to that end, i am going to overhaul our life.  budgeting, cooking once a month, attempting to shop once a month, finding deals, etc.  now that i think about it, this all sounds a little bridget jones to me.  and yes, i know there are a million and one blogs like this out there,  so am just throwing my hat into the arena, assuming mine will be the best.  joking.  generally.  but i have been told, expect the highest and best outcome.  so there it is.

for real, i think this is my version of confession.  and you all, my friends, are my priests.  welcome to my blog “julZ iNk on…” cooking, budgeting, shopping, living, simplicity, kids, wife-ing, music, tv, movies, sci-fi, and absolutely no politics.