What I Use To Plan My Week

As a mother we usually find ourselves wearing various hats. We are chefs, tutors, taxi cab drivers, nurses, a cleaning service, and more.  Our list of tasks seems never ending. How do you keep track of it all without dropping all of the balls?

For me I start every Sunday by planning and prepping.  I searched for years for a  planner I both love and is affordable. I have seen rave reviews on the Erin Condren planner and while it looks amazing it just was not in the budget. After more researching I finally found the Happy Planner. It had a great set up and with Amazon lightning deals it was affordable.

Now that I had this awesome planner I needed to fill it in. My planners have always been very basic. They served their purpose, but they certainly weren't pretty. I came across the create365 stickers and fell in love. Something about having an aesthetically  pleasing planner made me want to do my weekly planning. It was no longer just another task on my mom to do list. Stickers added, I set out to fill in my personal goals and my families activities for the week.

In the past I had always written those to-do lists in pencil. Why? Because life changes, kids require you to be fluid.  I secretly loved all those moms who shared those awesome color coded calendars, but for me they weren't practical. That was until I found the Pilot  Erasable Pens. I was leery of how well they would work. I remember using erasable pens as a teen and only partially erased and smeared, but these pens are amazing! They allow me to color code and change our schedule with our ever flowing schedule.


These are the tools I use, stay tuned to find out how I set up my planner and how I meal plan. Until next time, have a blessed day!

Ebay Photographing For The Average Mom- Part 1

We have all seen those photos on Ebay that have dirty dishes in the background, clothing on the floor, or worse the unsuspecting/inappropriate mirror pictures.  They don't leave the strongest desire to purchase said item. I want my items to be bought so making them presentable is important. After all there a 100s of used kids shoes and clothes out there. What is going to make someone want mine?


I am a firm believer in clean backgrounds, but the question I had was how do I do that simply and more importantly on a budget?!?! As a mom I began selling my children's pre-owned items to make a little extra money. While I understand that photos sell, I needed to do it cheaply. I began searching for what other sellers used. I scoured Pinterest and YouTube for ideas. I found a plethora of setups, but they all seemed more "professional". That is fantastic and if you have room and the budget for it by all means please use one of those setups, but if you are like me and need something that doesn't require a lot of time or a lot of money they aren't feasible. So, I set out to find some ways to photograph in my home.

Here is my YouTube video explaining how I photograph small items on a budget.

Who Am I?

Who am I? What a question. What things define you. When people come to you for advice, what do you actually know that they think you can shed some light on? Me ? I have taken an inventory recently on what types of things do people come to me for repeatedly and decided to start a YouTube channel about some of those things. Yes I am a Christian and yes I am a mom, but everyone I know can list dozens of Christians and probably 100s of moms they know. So what things define my personality?

First and foremost is deals. Everyone I know in real life who is looking for a deal will give me call or text to ask me if I know of one.  I am a bargain hunter at heart. That was the original start to this blog. To stretch those pennies God blessed my family with as far as I can make them.

Second, has become homeschooling. When  we bought our home we do so based on the school district. It was not our intention to teach our kids from home. In fact, I have a degree in Early Childhood Education and had planned to use it to teach other families children. That was not God's plan for our family though and in 2013 we started an incredible journey of teaching at home.

Third, building your own home. Our house has become our home. After, over a year of searching and 100+ houses visited we still couldn't agree on a house that fit our top must haves : Price, Location, Bedroom #/ Outside playroom.  Our relator was ready to strangle us I am sure. One day my parents announced they were going to sell and move to my recently deceased great-grandmothers home. A light sparked. This was my childhood home and while I loved it, it was far from what my husband and I envisioned... but we are dreamers. We saw the potential to make this home what we were looking for. The location wasn't perfect, but far better than many we had looked at and most importantly the price was right!  Shortly after we purchased my childhood home and began drastically changing the footprint.


and finally.... My passion for reselling. This kind of goes hand in hand with #1. I can remember as a child my grandmother getting the Saturday paper and finding the local garage sales. Then we would head out to see what treasures we could find. In the cold months we would head to them mall and look for clearance racks. That part always came naturally to me. As I became a mom I loved to do this still... however I soon had more than I needed(no we did not hit hoarder status, but we can all admit we have more stuff than we really need.) Well, I tried to sell something on ebay... and FAILED! I gave up, didn't even want to try again. To much stress, headache, and way not enough money. I began reselling my kids things locally online garage sale sites, local consignments, even a large local festival where we could purchase a spot. This was awesome I begun even finding somethings for cheap and reselling it and I loved it, but with  #4 on the way and taking 3 littles everywhere I went it began to get daunting. The little bit of extra $ we made went a long way in stretching those pennies. A  fellow board member on a Dave Ramsey Board(yes we will be talking about him too:)  mentioned that she sells on Ebay while she stays home as her husband is in the military. I reached out to her  and told her my story and how it seemed impossible. She assured me it wasn't and offered to hold my hand while I started. Soon I went from a total newbie to a mid-level store offering others advice on similar boards. I didn't just find a way to make a few extra bucks, I found a passion and a future career.


So who am I? I am a juggler of children, of ideas,  and of motivation to get it done. I thrive on drive and I love to help other moms as we are all on this wild journey together.