Small and Simple Things of Life

The Christmas Spirit

December 19, 2011 By Meagan 6 Comments

Me and my husband Kyle in front of our Christmas tree in our new home

It took me a while this year…

But I’m finally in the Christmas spirit. With all the hustle and bustle involved in our recent move, we got our tree and decorations up much later this year. I’ve been watching Christmas movies while I blog each day, coloring pages from our annual Christmas coloring book (it’s just fun to be a kid again), baking up some goodies, gathering my supplies for the handmade gifts I plan on giving, and listening to the Pandora Christmas music stations daily.

Oh, and I’ve also gotten in lots of snuggle time with our new Christmas puppy. Did you meet Ralph?! He melts my heart.

I’ve been trying to slow down and enjoy the Season. Sometimes it’s so hard to force yourself to slow down. I’m always thinking, “But what about that…Oh no, I need to do that…As soon as I finish this…”

I’ve made an effort to turn the computer completely off each evening by 6 pm, and spend some quality time with my husband. It’s been so nice.

Last night we went caroling with family and friends. It’s our annual tradition, and it’s so much fun…complete with hot cocoa and sweet treats at the end of the night! We always love seeing people’s reactions. I don’t think you could beat last year’s experience that reminded us all of the true meaning of Christmas…

In celebration of Christmas, I’ll be slowing things down just a little bit this week. I know that many of you will be doing the same and won’t be on the computer quite as much. They’ll still be posts each day, but I won’t be whipping out the deals quite as fast. I have a lot on my to-do list this week, and I also want to enjoy this last week before Christmas. I don’t want to look back on this time and wish I’d taken more time to slow down and savor it. This is also a special Christmas, since it’s the first one in our new home.

Don’t forget that the Publix deals run through Christmas Eve, so there will not be a new ad until next Monday.

Merry Christmas! I hope all of you have a wonderful week full of joyful moments and memories to look back on.

What About You: How are you slowing down and enjoying Christmas this year? Have any special plans or traditions?

Filed Under: My Life, Small and Simple Things of Life 6 Comments

FREE eBook: A Family Advent

November 29, 2011 By Meagan Leave a Comment

Women of Faith is offering a FREE download of A Family Advent: Keeping The Savior In The Season. It offers family devotionals and activities to help remember the true reason for the season each day during Advent.

Thanks, Money Saving Mom

Filed Under: Freebies, Small and Simple Things of Life Leave a Comment

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 24, 2011 By Meagan 3 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving to all my lovely readers! I hope you have a wonderful day spent with family and friends, and may we all remember what we can be thankful for.

I’ll be taking the day off blogging to enjoy the day with my loved ones and to reflect on the many blessings I take for granted.

There is one thing I know for certain…I am very thankful to all of my readers out there. Thank you for caring about this little piece of the blogosphere and loyally following me day in and day out. YOU make blogging worth it!

Photo Source: Uploaded by user via Jenny on Pinterest

Filed Under: Holidays, Pinterest Fun & Quotes, Small and Simple Things of Life 3 Comments

Home Sweet Home…

August 3, 2011 By Meagan 9 Comments

I’m sure we’ve all heard that famous phrase…

“Home is where the heart is.”

…Probably all our lives, actually.

It wasn’t until recently, however, that I actually realized the depth and truth to that cliché statement.

You see - I lived with my mom until the day I got married, right after I graduated college. We got along great, and it saved money, so why not? I can still remember the very last night I spent in my bedroom at my mom’s house. I cried. For a very long time. I looked around my room – the one that had been home to the walls covered with pictures of friends, the posters adorned with inspiring quotes, the ceiling above me that looked like a night sky from all the glow-in-the-dark stars, and even my lifelong collection of beanie babies (remember those things?).

Moving out of my mom’s house was difficult, because it meant moving on. I don’t do well with change, and I never have. I’m a pointless nostalgic, excessively. My eyes start tearing up at the thought of any memory I hold dear. I despise how fast time flies by and leaves us in the dust wondering where life has gone.

The last moments in my cherished room were tough, even though I had so much happiness to look forward to with my soon-to-be husband. For me, I was losing all the memories I held dear to me.

Fast forward to 2011. My husband and I made the decision to move out of our town home and into my mom and stepdad’s house as a transitional step in buying our first house.

You guessed it. I cried some more. As we packed up our little car with the very last few items from our townhome, I lost it. I went inside and saw the bare-boned walls. I pictured where the Christmas tree was for the past 3 Decembers. As I entered the kitchen, memories rushed in of me standing at the stove cooking each evening. No matter how stressed I was, there was always comfort with a spatula in hand and Pandora playing in the background. I went to the back door, opened it, and reflected on our Spring and Fall days when the weather was nice. I saw myself and Kyle lying on a quilt blanket, reading books, and drinking our smoothies. I gazed at the spot where the couch used to be, and remembered how much fun we had staying up late, watching Star Trek and Gilmore Girls, eating popcorn, and just being carefree. And finally I went back to another time when the townhome had looked just like this – when we first moved in as a newly-wed couple.

We loved our little townhome. We lived there for 3 years, and we have so many amazing memories of starting out our life together there. Again, that feeling of losing all the memories crept up. I felt like we would move on, and the townhome would hold all our memories captive.

As we started moving a few of our things into my mom’s house a couple of months ago, I felt really strange. And my mind went back to that night 3 years ago when I had been sad about moving out of my mom’s house. I looked around me now. My mom’s house was no longer my home. Now our townhome seemed like “home sweet home.”

That’s when it hit me. I realized it was true. Home really is where the heart is. I can leave behind home after home after home, but I can take my memories with me. There will be many moments in life where I have to move on, but there’s comfort in the thought that I can take my real treasures with me. A building isn’t a home. The memories built while living there is what makes it a home.

That’s why my mom’s house felt like home…and then later on the townhome felt like home…and now home is this little tiny 10 x 15 bedroom that my husband and I are living in until we buy our house. When we buy our house, that will be home. But we build the memories and make the home special to us. No matter where we go, we have love and each other.

It makes me think back to even longer ago…to the Tennessee country home I grew up in until I was 15 years old. That home holds more memories than all of them, and leaving it to come to Florida was one of the hardest things I ever did. When I go back and visit Tennessee from time to time, I often drive down the country roads to see my old house that I grew up in. And now that I think about it…it never looks like home to me. Home is still in my heart, even from all those years ago. I hold the memories within me…

Home sweet home is: the life we live (where ever that may be), the people we love, and the memories we make.

What About You: What is home sweet home to you?

*Photo Credit

Filed Under: My Life, Small and Simple Things of Life 9 Comments

Vinegar: A Safe & Natural Household Cleaner (Guest Post)

August 1, 2011 By Meagan 7 Comments

The following is a guest post by Cilla, who is the aspiring blogger behind Cilla’s Deals. She is also a stay-at-home-mom to 14 month old son “Little Bug,” and wife to her husband of four years. Cilla is interested in couponing for organic and natural products as much as possible. In addition to couponing and finding great deals, Cilla enjoys cooking, baking, crafting and DIY projects.

I wish I could say it was my idea, but it wasn’t. My husband had a frugal mindset long before I began couponing, so one day a few years ago when he said he read something about using vinegar for cheap and effective household cleaning, I’m pretty sure I rolled my eyes at him. It had nothing to do with being “green” or being wary of whatever chemicals were in the household cleaners we were using at the time. For him, it was about cost.

Fast forward to last year when we began preparing for the birth of our first child, and suddenly I became very aware of the chemicals we were using throughout our house. The baby is going to touch that. The baby is going to put that in his mouth. The baby is going to crawl all over that floor. What’s in that bottle of blue stuff anyways?

But it wasn’t my husband’s idea either. Frugal-minded moms and grandmothers have known for decades that some of our pantry staples also make very effective – and natural – household cleaners. Please allow me to re-introduce you to your cupboard friend, vinegar.

Vinegar is a natural disinfectant. In our house, we use an all-purpose cleaning solution of one part white, distilled vinegar to two parts water. Some people use half water and half vinegar…whatever tickles your fancy. For particularly germy surfaces, like meat cutting boards (say no to Salmonella!) and toilets (say bye-bye to E. Coli!), you can use undiluted vinegar for a more powerful disinfectant. You will definitely notice the smell of vinegar while cleaning, but the odor goes away as the surface dries and after a little while the smell is completely gone.

Here are some other uses for vinegar:

Mopping: Add 1/2 cup of vinegar and a gallon of warm water to a bucket and mop away! This works well for wood, vinyl or ceramic tile floors, but NOT stone/marble tile floors.

Dishwasher: To clean your dishwasher and prevent icky smells, pour vinegar into the detergent dispensers and run it on the hottest setting with nothing else in the dishwasher.

Washing machine: To clean your washing machine, run it through a cycle with nothing but water and a few cups of vinegar. And next time you forget about a load of laundry in the washing machine and it gets that awful mildew smell, simply let the machine fill with water again, add one cup of vinegar, let it soak for an hour or two, then add detergent, wash…and try not to forget about it again.

Microwave: Put some vinegar and water in a microwave-safe bowl, microwave it for a bit, and the grime will loosen to wipe clean much easier.

Lime build-up: To remove hard water and lime build-up from faucets, soak a paper towel in vinegar and cover the build-up with the paper towel. Come back in an hour or two and the build-up wipes right off. If there is still some build-up, repeat.

These are just a few of dozens – if not hundreds – of ways to use vinegar for your everyday cleaning needs. Next time you want to clean something, just Google what you want to clean and “vinegar.”

A few important notes:

Vinegar is an acid, so it may not be appropriate for all surfaces. If you have marble or stone counters or floors, or other specialty surfaces, do a quick Google search to find out for yourself. Typically it’s fine in the diluted form, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Do NOT mix vinegar and bleach! This creates chlorine gas, which is toxic. I no longer use bleach except for the most stubborn stains on white clothing. The bleach stays in the laundry area of my garage, so there is never bleach inside my house. If you plan to still use bleach (or other cleaners that may contain bleach) for other cleaning, be very cautious to NOT clean with vinegar and bleach at the same time.

Savings tips:

The best time of year to buy vinegar is around Easter when it’s on sale for dying Easter eggs, or after Easter when there are markdowns.
To make your own spray cleaner with the all-purpose solution, look for cheap, empty spray bottles at dollar stores, hardware stores and in the travel and hardware sections of stores like Target and Wal-Mart.
If you’re ready to join me in natural and thrifty cleaning but you’re running low on vinegar, you will probably get a better price per oz. on vinegar without a coupon (gasp!) by buying a large store-brand container.

So what does a natural-cleaning-frugal-DIY-kind-of-mama want to learn next? How to make my own cheap and all-natural laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent. My husband will love it but I’m pretty sure that if I start wearing tie-dye my parents are going to think I’m becoming a hippie.

Filed Under: Frugal Living, Health and Wellness, Small and Simple Things of Life 7 Comments

“I (don’t) wanna be a billionaire…”

July 28, 2011 By Meagan 11 Comments

Have you ever heard that song “I wanna be a billionaire” come on the radio? A couple of months ago, my husband got that song stuck in his head for some reason. I was cooking dinner in the kitchen, and he kept singing it.

I turned to him and asked him to please stop singing that crazy song. And he said in return, “What – you don’t want to be a billionaire?”

That struck up a conversation between us. We started talking about whether we’d want to truly be billionaires if we had the chance.

And we both agreed…Absolutely Not.

Just imagine with me…

1. You’d have every single thing you ever wanted at your fingertips. Let’s face it – money can buy just about anything. Money gives us the power and ability to do what we want, go where we want to go, reach high places, meet important people, etc. Would we ever have wants or desires? What about dreams? I wonder what life would be like without my bucket list, my life-long dreams, or my hopes and wonders? Not nearly as beautiful, in my opinion.

2. You wouldn’t have to work hard for anything, set goals, or make plans. There would be no achievements, and no reason to celebrate.

3. You’d take everything for granted. Let’s admit it. The more money we have and the easier things come for us, the more we take it for granted.

4. Life would be much, much easier. But isn’t half the fun of life appreciating the ups and downs? The bitter is horrible sometimes, but it makes the sweet things in life so much sweeter.

5. There would be less value on what’s TRULY important. You’d lose focus of what really matters in life. Let’s face it – material things distract us from love, faith, hope, joy, friendship, family, hugs, and smiles. Suddenly playing a board game in the candlelight with loved ones is boring, compared to playing an over-stimulating video game on the newest electronic device. And what ever happened to enjoying the sunshine each day? Simple is better, in my opinion. The things I love most in life are those that cost absolutely nothing.

6. You’d never be satisfied. The more you have, the more you want. The cycle never stops.

My husband said this…

“Living life as a billionaire is like buying a jigsaw puzzle that is already pre-assembled. It’s just no fun.”

What About You: Thoughts?

*Photo Credit

Filed Under: My Life, Small and Simple Things of Life 11 Comments