How to Save Money on Birthday Parties

These days parents dish out hundreds of dollars to celebrate a birthday that their one-year-old will never remember. I get it though, it's a celebration for the parents as much as the child. With sites like Etsy, and inspiration from Pinterest, it's very easy for those cute decorations to get expensive. So how do you throw a super cute party without breaking the bank?

Pick a theme early:

I know that this is hard to do with a child any older than one, since they change their minds daily, however, if you can, pin down what you want to do so that you can start looking for cheap items to go with your theme. For Little Man, we had two or three themes we thought of, and made a final decision on dinosaurs when we saw that Target had napkins, banner, invitations, and table clothes 75% off. We got all four (and multiples of everything but the banner) for about $7! 

Don't buy everything on theme:

Once we had the napkins, table cloths, and banner on theme, we could just buy solid color plates and cups to go with the theme, without it actually having dinosaurs on it. This way I could buy large quantities for a fraction of the price it would have cost, had I bought 4 or 5 sets of 10 plates. 

Make Your Own Cake

I have a cousin who got her little girl's cake for $35. It was beautiful and professional. If you have a friend who will make a cake at cost or at a discount, then I say go for it! Even when using a box cake mix it can be difficult to assemble, and to make it look professional.  (I normally like to make things from scratch, but it was just too much on my plate to add making a cake from scratch to it). This is one of those things that although spending $10 to make a cake vs. sometimes buying it at $50-$100 is much cheaper, it can be one of those 'worth it' things for all the trouble it is to make. Thankfully, I took basic cake decorating classes as a teen, so I quite enjoy making my own.

Other Tips

Make your activity be your favor: Making sure you thank your guests for coming, has become something that can be expensive. What I decided to do for Little Man's party, was print out free coloring sheets and let the kids color and take it home. I also put dinosaur toys as cupcake toppers, and let the kids take theirs home with them. 

DIY:

Pinterest has a lot (and I mean A LOT) of diy inspiration for birthday parties. So much so, it can be a bit overwhelming at times. Since it can be so over whelming, I have one more tip:

Don't Do Everything

Breathe, it will be okay if you don't have the greatest, and most on trend birthday party. Although I did a pretty elaborate party this past year (for me at least), Little Man will have much smaller parties until his big birthdays (5, 10, 13, etc.). Even though I spent around $70 on his party, and feel great about it, it can be a lot to spend (especially if you have several kids!). Kids remember the experience and spending time with their friends more than if you had the trendiest party of the year. Do what your budget and family can do. Sometimes that means no party at all. In those cases, there are ways to make your kid's day special for free. 

How do you save money on your kid's parties?

Toddler Meal Ideas

This post will be what my son ate yesterday, with some additional ideas and tips. My son is a picky eater, which is no surprise since his dad and I were both picky eaters as children. I remember my mom used to make hamburger casserole and sneak in mixed veggies, so that I (and my other siblings) would eat veggies.

I was one of those moms. You know, the one that wouldn't let my kid eat sweets until his first birthday, licked the salt off the french fry before giving it to him so that he wouldn't be taking in too much sodium, made sure he got only breast milk before 6 months (a.k.a. first time mom), and even then watched what he ate. So you can imagine that the fact that my little one only wants to eat cookies and french fries is a bit sad. Thankfully he still nurses twice during the day and once at night, which ensures he is taking in some nutrients. I am not going to sit and lie and say that I only feed my kid healthy meals, but I hope to show you some 'real' meals that you can feed  a picky toddler.

Breakfast

Cream of Wheat sweetened with GoGo Squeeze fruit and veggies. 

Sneak attempt #1. My little man loves the little squeeze packs, so I use it to sweeten foods, and also as a side for when we are eating something that is questionably healthy. 

Other breakfast meal ideas: waffle/pancakes (I know, I know, not very healthy! My little man loves to 'dip' this in syrup, so I do feed this to him sometimes. I think it's all about balance.), oatmeal, yogurt and fruit. Remember to check yogurt to see how much sugar is in the cup. If you are trying to watch their sugar intake, get a yogurt with low sugar. Even better: buy plain yogurt, sweeten it yourself, and add fruit!

Leftover homemade Empanada with apple slices.

Lunch

Little man loves apple slices, so that's what I feed him. I have tried other fruits, and although he will eat some, this is very economical and good for him. Plus, I know he will eat it! Besides leftovers, here are some other lunch options: pb and j, cheese toast, cheese cubes and crackers, etc. with some fruit or veggie on the side.

Lima beans and whole wheat toast

Supper

In an attempt to 'keep it real', I will admit that about two or three beans were eaten, while the toast was gobbled up. Most nights, Little Man just eats whatever we are eating that evening. Not only does this put pressure on me to cook something healthy, but it also puts a variety of foods in front of my son. I do this in hopes that one day green beans will seem more appetizing!

What are some meals you feed your toddler? How do you sneak fruits/veggies in their meals? Would you like to see more posts like this, or do you have suggestions for other parenting topics? Let me know!

Delight Yourself in the Lord...

It was April 2010, and I was starting a new journal. The front had the words 'Delight yourself in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart.' I sighed as I thought about what the MY desires were: To find a husband, get married, live happily ever after.  The problem was I was already 21 (old in my book!), with no prospects, and to top it all off I was living in a foreign country. I decided then and there I would focus on the first part of that verse 'Delight yourself in the Lord'.

You see, this verse isn't a wish granting verse, it's a 'dive in so deep into a relationship with the Lord, that your desires will bend and shape until they are what the Lord desires for you'. When you look back, after your desire has been met, or perhaps been changed, you'll see how much better God's way worked out, than anything you could ever have imagined. I do want to point out though, sometimes we will never understand how things work out on this side of Heaven, and in those things we must trust in Him still. 

When I started the journal I was on furlough, but soon it was time to head back for another year of missionary work. A week or two before, I decided to surrender my marital status to God, and if he wanted me to stay single, then it would be the best thing for me ( I will add, that during this furlough, I had been told by some missionary mentors that I would be single for the rest of my life, and should just get used to that fact. As wrong as they were, it did help me let go of this marriage obsession and focus on just living for Christ). 

Two weeks after I came back, I woke up to a gentle thumping of rain, and heavy humidity. It was rainy season, so no surprise there. Walked downstairs, and prepared my usual one cup of coffee, and headed back upstairs to get on facebook. Two messages appeared on my screen, and I clicked on the icon, to see a message from someone I didn't know. Below that message was one from a guy who was a family friend. He explained how he told his best friend about me, and encouraged him to get to know me, which is why this strange someone had messaged me. 

The stranger introduced himself, and asked to get to know me. I had no idea what was going on. He and I messaged back and forth for a week, and I then asked if he wanted to download Skype. We started Skyping (is that a word?) and would talk for 2 hours at at time for a solid straight week. I started to think that maybe he wanted to pursue the relationship past friendship. My mom was very freaked out (and rightly so, I mean, she had no idea who he was!), the person I was staying with thought I should ask out right what his intentions were, and as for myself, I decided to pray. If it was God's will, he would have to get this man to tell me himself, for I had promised myself to not be forward in a relationship. I was scared, and doubtful. Certain I had read things wrong, that weekend was the slowest weekend of my life. Who could have guessed how things would play out!

This will be continued next week, so keep reading!

New Year, New Blog

I am the first to admit, I have promised more posts and haven't delivered, but I am really determined to write more this year! I would like to branch out (like I have in the past) and cover more topics. This month I would like to do 4 posts a week with these topics:

 Spiritual 

Homemaking

Parenting a toddler

Money/budgets/miscellaneous. 

I would also like to open this month to at least a couple of guests bloggers (maybe more!). Have you made a commitment to write more this year, but don't know where to start? How about guest blogging on here! If you have something to say about one of the topics above, just let me know and I will review the post.

Thank you for reading!

How to Speak to a Non-Native English Speaker

You pull up to the drive through, and you giggle as the person repeating your order back replaces 'r's with 'l's. The foreign exchange student is so 'cute' when he/she speaks English, that it's hard to take what they are saying seriously. You don't mean to, but sometimes you feel like the foreign person you are talking to, isn't quite as intelligent, since they have horrid sentence structure. I'm not going to say that I've never thought any of these things, but going to a foreign country and having to learn a language, really makes your perspective change.

Here are some of my pet peeves that I had while learning Thai. Hopefully the next time you talk to someone, whose first language isn't English, you'll remember these things. 

1. Talking down to a person:
I don't mind slow, so please don't confuse the two. Talking down to someone, means you speak to them like you have a higher intelligence than they do. I know a foreigner in Thailand who speaks like a five year old in English when he speaks to foreigners, and to me, this is another way of 'talking down'. Slow and clear is good. Speaking to them like you believe their intelligence is somehow lower than yours, is bad.
I remember checking out groceries multiple times, and asking how the cashier was (because I'm a good southerner). I received giggles, and 'aww, it's so cute!'. They then proceeded to talk cutsie back to me. It always made me feel like a different person than who I actually was.
Church members didn't mean to, but often I felt talked down to. They simplified the conversation so much, that it felt 'dumbed down'.

2. Laughing at an accent:
This probably didn't bother me as much as #1, however, when you are trying to learn another language, and you spend so much time working on it, just to have your accent laughed at, it can be frustrating. It can discourage someone from continuing to learn.

Some things I wish people understood about speaking a second language:

1. Sometimes you can seem blunt.
When you are learning a second language, you often learn the most direct way of saying something. You learn the sentence structure, then the words. I remember my driver calling me, but I didn't recognize who was calling. I picked up the phone and said 'Excuse me, but who is this?' Apparently this was both direct and rude. There was a much more polite and round-about way of saying it, but that was the sentence I knew how to say, and so I used it. I appeared much more blunt than I am in real life.

2. You are trying hard to communicate
There were many foreigners in Thailand at the time, who took no time in learning Thai. Their English remained perfect, and thus, made no 'cutsie' or 'rude' mistakes. They also made no effort in communicating, and thus, didn't seem to care quite as much about the people they were living with.

Here are some ways you can help

1. Get to know the person and their vocabulary
I have a friend in Thailand, who knows pretty much my entire vocabulary. That way when she speaks to me, I understand 99.9% of what she's saying. It went visa versa for me. I spoke clearly and learned what vocabulary she knew. We now have a conversation that is equally in Thai and English. We both learned from each other, and after I get done talking to her, I can't remember which language we were speaking. Try to be this kind of a friend, if you can. I understand with waiters and service employees you can't really do that, but you can speak to them like they are normal people.

2. Be interested in their country and language. 
It was fun when people asked me about Texas, and different phrases from there. Be interested in what their interested in, and who knows, you may gain a new friend!

Our Faithful God

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!

His faithful love endures forever. 
Give thanks to the God of gods.

His faithful love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords.

His faithful love endures forever.
(Psalm 136:1-3)

With the attacks in Paris, ISIS growing at an alarming rate, things at home like a large pay cut, finding out my good friend might have cancer, and a dear family friend passing away long before her time, it all feels like the world is getting so dark. Is God's Faithful love there? Is He really good? The simple answer is, of course, yes even if our hearts don't feel it.

Here are some things to remember when I wonder where God's love is.
1. God saved me: He didn't have to, but he did. This one thing should be enough to make me thankful for the rest of my life. No matter how bad it is here, I know I have a place waiting for me up in Heaven!

2. He has been faithful to provide my needs: As we are given this pay cut, I have seen God provide in so many ways. It seemed difficult when my husband was going through teacher certification, and we could only use a certain portion of our salary during that time. Now I'm so thankful we learned to live on that amount of money, so that now we are better prepared.

3. Finally, He is God. He is the Creator of all the universe. He has a plan and purpose for all things, and although I don't understand why all the time, I can understand that He is God. That should be enough for me.

What are some things you are thankful for? How have you seen God provide your needs?

Budget Bathroom Makeover

This was my front bathroom...Dark, a bit old fashioned, and frankly messy (okay, I could have done something about the messy).  I decided to devote this summer to updating a few things, and I thought I would share with you! I've spent about $30, but plan to buy a shower curtain rod, and shower curtain, which will bring me to the $50's-$60's range. The key to not spending a lot of money on re-do's are looking for sales, finding things around the house you already have, and thinking ahead for the future (what decor will last longer/not a fad).

Here is the after:

I chose 'under the sea' as the theme, since it's not only kid friendly, but I also previously had some (well, a lot) of dolphin decor, so my rugs and towels were already bright blue. This saved some $$, on top of the fact that I had most of a gallon of white paint from my son's nursery. I just had to purchase some decor.

The canvases cost me about $8 (I drew and painted them), the glass turtle: $2, along with a $2 stencil (that I've yet to use) from Hobby Lobby. I found the whale hook at Kirklands on clearance for $8, and I also found the anchor plaque full price for $10. A $2 glass shell from Target completes what I paid for, with the rest being shells from the beach, and decor I already had.

From Messy Dolphin Decor

To less cluttered more 'beachy' decor

I DIYed the ivory light switch cover, by mod podging some shells that my husband had collected years ago.

I just love my $8 whale hooks! Green tag clearance for the win!

 It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint, and a few decorations can do! I am hoping to add a few things in the future, as I find things on sale. Our floors also need to be replaced, which will be at least an $80-$100 job, but for now, I am very happy with my under the sea bathroom! What are some budget makeovers that you've done?