How We Fund Our Disney Addiction

Disney vacations are not cheap.  And with four boys it can be a little tricky to keep those trips affordable.   Ticket prices and resort room prices go up every year.  But our Disney trips hold some of our best family memories and magical moments, so we continue to find ways to make them happen.  These things are for a trip to WDW in Orlando, but some of them also apply to the Disney Cruise we have planned for the fall.

Travel - It's pretty much a no-brainer for us.  We drive instead of fly.  We are able to stop at hotel for the night on the way using points, so that costs us nothing out of pocket.  Even if gas prices are high, it is always much cheaper than flying.  And there is no need to rent a car when we get there.

Lodging - There are limited lodging choices on property at Walt Disney World for parties of more than four.  Plus, they would be really cramped for us.  On our last two trips we stayed off property at a 3-bedroom/2-bath condo.  It was just off property.  We were able to drive to each of the theme parks in less time than if we took a bus from a Disney resort.  There was a ton of space, everyone had his own bed to sleep in, and we had a full kitchen and a washer and dryer.  Our condo was also decked out in Disney decor, including a Toy Story bedroom, a Disney Princess bedroom, and Finding Nemo bathroom, and a Ratatouille kitchen.  It worked out to about $100 a night - huge savings over staying on property.

On our next trip (hopefully fall 2016) we are looking into renting an RV and a campsite at Disney's Fort Wilderness.  That will give us the sleeping space we need and still be cheaper than other on-site options.

Food - Staying at a condo or renting an RV with a kitchen gives us the ability to cook some of our own meals.  We don't want to spend a lot of time cooking on vacation, but we will make a few simple meals.  We still splurge on some table service meals, but we book them for breakfast or lunch when they are less expensive.

Tickets - There is not a way to save a lot on tickets.  We have purchased from Undercover Tourist for a small savings.  We are also looking into Disney's YES (Youth Education Series) where we can get discounted tickets by the kids attending a class.  We normally buy Magic Your Way base tickets and don't find it worth the money to pay for the Park Hopper.

Timing - Because we homeschool we can travel during the off season when lodging prices are lower.  Traveling in September can be thousands of dollars cheaper than in the summer or over a holiday.

How We Save - We put a certain amount of money into a vacation savings account each month.  Here are some of the ways we save that money (some of these monthly figures are just my best estimate and some of these are things that most families do that we choose not to so that we can put that cost toward our vacations):
I coupon and shop sale ads.  Some months are better than others.        $200
I cut all the boys' hair (5x$15)                                                                 $75
We do not have cable or satellite TV (but do use streaming services)    $60
We rarely go out to eat or pick up fast food                                          $150
I never get a mani/pedi                                                                            $30
We rarely go see a movie in a theater                                                     $50
Swagbucks (we each earn about $25/month or more)                            $50
I shop at Kroger and use fuel point to save on gas                                  $25
These simple things add up to $590 a month.  We also have a Disney Visa card that we pay off each month and earn money towards a Disney gift card.

Easy DIY PVC Clothes Rack

I have been looking for a cheap but durable clothes rack for Michael's dance concert.  He will have 6 or 7 different costumes, so I figured it was time we brought our own rack to hang them on.  The only cheap ones I've come across have had terrible reviews for falling apart, so I decided to try to build one.  Ideally I would like one that rolls, but the boys' dressing room is down a flight of stairs, so I would end up needing to carry it and all the costumes down there anyway.

I used 3/4 inch PVC pipe.  To get the length, I measured across the back of our car so that I could use the top bar as a hanging rack while driving.  It was about 46", so I cut 2 pieces this length (the top and the bottom).  Then I wanted the height at 36", so I cut the 2 side pieces this length.  For the fittings I used elbows and tees.  I used the elbows to attach the top pole to the sides and tees to attach the bottom pole.  Finally to stabilize it, I attached another tee to each bottom corner using short 2" pipes and put a 5" pipe into each side of these tees.

elbow (left) and tee (right) fittings

top corner

bottom corner

top bar hanging in the car

hole with string to hang in the car

To make it usable as a rack that would hang in the car I drilled a hole through each end of the top pole and tied a string through it.  My plan is to carry the costumes in on that top pole and put the rack together once we get down to the dressing room.  I spent less than $10 on the PVC pipe and fittings, and it took me less than 30 minutes to complete.

Toy Story Halloween 2013

Wow, am I behind on blogging!  I'm just going to jump right in with some things I wanted to blog about and never did, so I am about 6 months behind.  Our church has started hosting a Trunk or Treat on Halloween evening.  We didn't participate the first year, but after being challenged by last year's (2012) big winner, I thought it would be fun to see what we could put together.  And I wasn't just in it for fun, I wanted to see if what kind of categories we could win in and figure out just how big our competition was.

I figured we couldn't go wrong with a Disney theme, and since I'm not really the princess type, I decided to go with Toy Story.  I couldn't quite get the whole family on board, but Luke and I were a team for this project.  Nick and Zack went with a Walking Dead theme and used the back of our truck.

I had found a fancy Buzz Lightyear costume at a resale store in his size for $5!  With some sewing help from my mom and some other resale store items, I dressed as Jessie.  We decorated the back of the car like Andy's room.  I painted white clouds on a plastic blue tablecloth to hang for the background.  I cut and painted a large piece of cardboard for the headboard and covered a folding table with a blue comforter for Andy's bed.  I decorated some cardboard boxes with sharpies to make the town, and I made a bean bag toss game out of soup cans with pictures of Potato Head and some homemade bean bags.

I made Buzz's spaceship for the kids to stand in and take pictures.  For the spaceship I used large pieces of cardboard leftover from Sam's Club (you can take these for free) and cut out the shapes for the front, sides, and wings (the front was about 4 feet tall).  I drew the design in pencil and painted it with craft paint.  I made a frame out of PVC pipe and fittings and duct taped the pieces on.  For a final touch I attached a string of lights across the top and sides.

It was such a fun evening!  After a rough start of not wanting to wear his costume, Luke came through for me as the cute factor.  He danced to the Toy Story songs I had playing through the car speakers and helped me hand out candy.  We even posed for pictures with several kids.

All of the kids and families voted on the cars, and we found out a couple of days later that we had won 4 out of 5 categories, including Best Overall!  We did not win for Scariest.  Our prize was a 6-pack of tickets to Holiday in the Park at 6 Flags, which we used over the Christmas holidays.

Summer Slipped Away

 My summer to do list was pretty much a failure.  One of the things on the list was to update this blog, and clearly that task did not get finished.  I was also going to catch up on my scrap booking, update Luke's baby book, and organize the school room.  These items are still on the pink sticky note posted next to my desk, without being crossed off.

The only big things that I accomplished were cleaning out the boys' rooms and organizing two bookshelves.  And I mean big time cleaning of the boy's rooms.  We threw away several big bags of trash and went through all of their clothes and toys.  We gave away several more bags of stuff to friends and one of our favorite resale stores.  We also dusted, vacuumed, and cleaned under beds and in every corner.  So I felt really good about that, but then I was too burned out to finish doing the same in the school room.  The only reason that two bookshelves got done was out of necessity.  I had to make room for our new set of school books for this year.

So my nice, relaxing summer didn't exactly go as I had dreamed, but there were many shining moments and we made some great memories.

We finished last school year in early May.  I spent the month doing some cooking that I don't normally have time to do, including lots of breakfasts and desserts.  My Pioneer Woman cookbook got quite a workout.  Some of our favorites were vanilla scones, French breakfast puffs, Italian cream cake, and blueberry cobbler and cinnamon rolls.  I used a lot of butter this month!

June was full of activities for the boys.  Zack and Michael performed in their annual dance concert.  It was a big deal.  We were thrilled to have family and friends there to cheer for them.  Nick and Zack spent a week at the Pines Catholic Camp.  Nick spent a week at Youth Leader training.  We also squeezed in a few trips to the water park.

In July we had an epic family vacation.  My side of the family stayed in a huge rental house outside of Bastrop, TX for 4 days, 22 of us!  We had a double baptism for my niece and nephew.  My brother rented an inflatable water slide.  There was lots of eating, dancing, relaxing, and laughing.  

July was also consumed with lots of youth group and church activities.  We did service projects every Monday, VBS every evening for a week, and our 3-night summer lock in.  And our monthly bake sale and car wash.  And Michael had 2 weeks of theater camp.  Did I mention July was a busy month for us?  But it was lots of fun.  I love spending time with our church youth group, both the kids and adults!

Before we started school the first week of August, Nick and I went with our youth group high school students to the Dallas Catholic Youth Conference.  It was an amazing weekend retreat and great way to end our summer.  We are now on our 5th week of school, and we seem to be back in a good routine.  Last week I spent 3 afternoons and evening freezer cooking.  I've never done this before, but I think we will like it.  I was able to put over 40 meals in the freezer!  Some are fully cooked and just need to be heated, need to be thawed and cooked, and some are all ready to go in the crock pot for the day.  I think this will help as we dive in to our full schedule of school, soccer, dance, faith formation classes, theater classes, and preschool for Luke.

Cabinet Transformation

We decided to give our kitchen a facelift with our tax refund money.  A few years ago we had textured and painted over the wallpaper and put in a new backsplash of ceiling tin tiles.  So now we were ready for phase 2 of the kitchen update.  We have ordered a new counter top along with a new sink and cooktop.  We didn’t necessarily want to replace the cabinets because it is not in the budget, but I thought it would be nice to freshen them up a bit.  I had decided to use the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation Kit.  For our size kitchen we needed the large kit, which retails for around $150.  There is one kit for dark colors and another for light, and once you choose your color you have the base coat tinted at the store.  I was having trouble choosing a color because I couldn’t decide what would look best with our wall color, white backsplash, and new counter top .

I had already found a new faucet on the clearance shelf at Home Depot to go with the new sink.  It was originally $75, and it was marked down to $20!  I was really excited about this!  The next day I was in Lowes, and stumbled upon the Rustoleum cabinet kit on the oops paint shelf.  It was the large kit, already tinted to Quilters White, and it was marked down from $149 to $75! So Quilters White it would be!

The kit comes with a deglosser, scrub pads, the base coat (tinted to your color choice), a decorative glaze, rags for wiping the glaze, a protective top coat, stir sticks, and an instruction book and DVD.  I had to buy drop cloths, painters tape, paint brushes, and gloves.  We rolled our ping pong table inside and covered it with a drop cloth to use as our work surface for the cabinet drawers and doors.  We soon realized with 23 doors and 8 drawers that we couldn’t do them all together and would have to do them in two groups.  After removing the hinges from the doors it was time to start the transformation process.

The first step was to scrub everything clean with soapy water, wipe with a damp cloth, and wipe with a dry cloth.  Next we applied the deglosser with the scrub pads in the kit.  The deglosser helps the base coat to adhere well without having to strip the original paint or stain.  After applying the deglosser, again we wiped everything with a damp cloth then a dry cloth.  After letting that dry for an hour it was time to apply the base coat, wait 2-3 hours, and apply a second base coat, again allowing it to dry 2-3 hours.  At this point I thought they looked great – it was all clean and white!  But with 4 boys I didn’t really want everything white.

 The decorative glaze is optional, but that was part of the reason I liked the kit in the first place.  To apply the glaze you just paint in on with a brush and then wipe it off.  The kit has 2 big rolls of rags to use for this, and the DVD was good at explaining how to wipe the glaze to get the desired effect.  I decided not to glaze the backs of the cabinet doors, so they are just white.  After you apply the glaze you need to wait 8 hours before the next step – the protective coat.  You just brush this clear coat on with a paint brush.  After 12 hours you can finally reinstall the transformed cabinets. 

I am really happy with how the whole thing turned out.  The instructions were easy to follow, and there were plenty of supplies.  In fact we have enough deglosser, paint, and glaze to update our bathroom cabinets in the future if we want to.  It did take me longer than I expected.  I thought it would be about a 3 day job, and it ended up taking about 6.  We had around 150 square feet of cabinets to cover.  I think if we had a smaller kitchen or if we had enough work space to paint all of the cabinet doors and drawers at the same time it would have taken 3-4 days.  I’m glad we did this project and almost feel like we have a new kitchen!

Surprise - We're Going to Disney World!

Since I'm always planning our next Disney vacation, I always have our options plotted out.  We decided that the cheapest way to do our next trip would be to go before Luke turns 3 (when he will have to pay admission) and before Michael turns 10 (when he will have to pay adult admission), both of which will be in April.  We decided to go in December so we could take advantage of all the Christmas activities, and the best part was that we didn't tell the boys about it until 3 days before we left!  We stayed off property in a 3-bedroom condo.  We loved having all the space and we were very close to all the parks.  It was a fabulous trip.  We had been so busy at home with the boys performing in Seussical it was really nice just to have family time.

Something I had been wanting to do was to get some photos of the kids to compare to our previous trips.  I totally borrowed this idea from a friend.  I put this photo book together, and I can't believe how they have all grown!
Disney World Trips 2005-2012

Buzz Lightyear 2010 and 2012

Mickey Mouse 2008 and 2012

Luke's Kitchen

I wanted to get Luke a kitchen for Christmas, but I didn't really see any that I liked in my price range.  I found lots of play kitchen online that people had made, either from scratch or out of used furniture, like an entertainment center or a nightstand.  I thought that sounded like fun, so I set out to make my own play kitchen.

 
I found an entertainment center at the Rooms To Go Outlet store.  The drawers were broken, and it had some other damage, so it was marked down a lot.  I knew the damage was fixable and I was going to remove the drawers anyway.  I found a matching piece that I think was half of a captains bed base that was also heavily marked down.  I planned on using the doors and drawers from it for the kitchen and maybe make a refrigerator out of it.

After removing the broken drawers, hardware, and hinges I used brackets to repair the loose shelf and the broken beam on the bottom.  I used one of the doors from the captains bed base for the oven door.  I cut a rectangle shaped hole out of the center with a jigsaw, painted it white, and used a piece of plastic from a light cover for the window.  I put a black handle on the front and used the hinges to attach it.  I decided to leave the small vertical drawer in place and just paint it.  It can be the dish washer.

I found a shiny silver dog bowl with a lip around it for the sink.  I cut a hole with the jigsaw just smaller than the lip of the bowl.  After I sanded around the hole I painted the counter top white.  For the faucet I used a p-trap plumbing pipe and spray painted it silver.  To make sure it stayed attached we drilled a hole into a small piece of scrap wood that it fit tightly into, and glued it in.  That made it easy to attach it to the counter with screws.  I wanted the faucet knobs to really turn, so I found some knobs at the hardware store (I think they were for a sprinkler system), disassembled them, and spray painted the parts I needed silver.  We drilled a hole for each of them halfway through the counter so they sat inside, then used caulk to glue them in.

Next was the stove.  I used blank CDs, spray painted them black, and hot glued them on.  I used the knobs I had taken off the drawers and doors for the stove knobs and painted them black.  I used the same screws that they came with to attach them from the bottom.  There was a gap between the oven door and the dishwasher, so I used a side from one do the drawers that we had taken apart.  I cut it to fit, sanded and painted it, attached a couple of the black knobs, and screwed it into place.

Finally for the backsplash we used some leftover ceiling tin that we had used for our real kitchen backsplash a few years ago.  I attached it with liquid nails than caulked around the edges.  I also put a tap light hanging from the top.  I was really happy with how it turned out.  It took about a week to complete since I only had time to work on it a little each day.  Now I have some serious house work to catch up on!

Luke will be asking for kitchen supplies for Christmas.  He is loving it already, and taking food out of our pantry to put in it.  I also find matchbox cars in the sink.  It will be really cute with some play utensils and food.

My cost breakdown is:
Entertainment center and bed base - $16 total (after $35 from a gift card)
Black spray paint - $4
Silver spray paint - $8
Bowl for sink - $7
P-trap - $2
Sink knobs - $6
Black handles - $4
Light - $6
Items we had on hand - white paint, CDs, ceiling tin
Total cost - $53

We just returned a few days ago from our first Disney cruise!  It was the best vacation ever.  We spent 7 nights on the Disney Magic in the Western Caribbean.  The boys even said that they liked it better than Disney World and Disneyland.  Everything was fabulous - the food, the entertainment, the service.  And there was something for everyone.  I'll write more about other parts of our trip, but for now I'll start at the beginning.

Probably my least favorite part of the whole trip was packing. I found it very stressful to oversee packing for six, including a toddler. Instead of just telling everyone how many days of clothes they needed to throw in their bags, we had to make sure everyone had casual clothes for daytime, clothes for dinner at night, casual and dress shoes, swim suits, candy for the cast members, and all of our FE stuff. (I'll blog more about what FE's, or fish extenders, are in a later post.) Then we weren't sure it would all fit in the car. It would have been close to impossible to fly with all that we had packed. But once we were on our way I was really excited!

We drove down to Houston the day before the cruise and stayed at my parents' house. My mom drove us to Galveston Saturday morning and dropped us off at Terminal 2. It worked out great since it was raining, and we didn't have to worry about parking. We arrived about 11:00 and check in was very easy. Our boarding group was 6, and our boarding time was 11:30. I took Luke to see Minnie Mouse in the terminal, and I was happy to see that he liked her and wasn't going to be scared of the characters on board.  Before we knew it they had called group 6 and we walked on board. It was so exciting as we walked in with our matching t-shirts on and they announced our name and clapped for us.

Next we went to the Topsiders buffet for lunch. After we ate I took Luke to see the nursery, which he loved, and Michael to the Oceaneer Lab (for ages 3-10) to get his wristband for the week.  My husband took Zack to the Edge (for tweens) and Nick to the Vibe (teens).  Our rooms were ready by 1:30, so we started to unpack, decorate our doors and settle in. We were in rooms 2012 and 2013, across the hall from each other.

We had just enough time for Luke to get a nap in before the mandatory boat drill, and then we went straight up to deck 10 to get a spot for the sail away party. The rain had stopped, and the party was really fun - lots of dancing and singing. We even saw some dolphins as we were leaving.  By about 4:30 we were on our way out of Galveston Bay and toward the Western Caribbean!

School is Back in Session

We have just begun our third week of school.  I like to start at the beginning of August so we can finish at the end of April or beginning of May.  It is a little more relaxing to have a month or so of school before all of our other activities pick up.  That way we are not feeling rushed to get our school work done before heading out the door to dance lessons or soccer practice.  Besides, it is normally too hot to do much outside in August in Texas.  This also gives us a chance to take a fall vacation (like a Disney Cruise!) when everyone else is back in school, crowds are lighter, prices are cheaper, and the weather is nicer.
One of my goals for this year is to be a little more flexible.  I normally have every subject planned out for the entire year, including readers, read alouds, science projects, writing lessons and projects, and history lessons.  I like to be able to check off these things as they get done, and I feel like if I planned it we must do it.  So instead of having every day of every week planned out, I have a general plan of things we want to cover, and I will just plan it out week by week.  That way if a subject or project comes up that we want to spend more time on we can do it.  I know that my kids will never remember every date and event that we cover in history, but I want them to have fond memories of learning.  I want to focus more on instilling a love of learning and not on stressing out about not covering every page in every book.  Besides, having a 2-year old in the house while school is going on demands a little more flexibility on my part.
Another big goal for this year is to go to weekday Mass regularly.  When I went to Catholic school growing up we went to Mass every Friday.  I know many homeschoolers who make it to daily Mass with several more kids than I have.  And I discovered this summer that I can take Luke to morning Mass, and he does pretty well.  Our plan is to go every Wednesday at 8:00AM.  So far, so good.
The boys have had great attitudes, have been at their desks to start on time, and have done a good job getting their work done.  I know we will have our rough days, but it is nice to start out on the right foot.

The Cruise Is Close

According the ticker on my signature at Disboards.com, our very first Disney Cruise on the Magic out of Galveston to the Western Caribbean is in 2 months, 2 weeks, and 1 day!  I am getting more excited every day.  In just 2 days we can book port excursions, make reservations for the nursery, and register the boys for the kids' clubs.  I have been reading lots of reviews for port excursions and trying to decide what to do.  Having never cruised or traveled to the Caribbean, we are not sure what activities we will like or if we will prefer to stay on the ship.  The plan is to try snuba (like SCUBA but the air tanks float on top of the water instead of being attached to your back) in Grand Cayman and either a day at the beach or a chocolate factory tour in Cozumel.  My mouth is watering as I have been reading over the menus.  Mostly I just can't wait to spend a week on a Disney vacation relaxing with my family.
Right now there are 2 projects I'm working on in preparation for 7 days of luxury.  The first is potty training Luke.  He is not old enough to go to the Oceaneer Club, so there will be limited activities for him.  Children who are not potty trained can not swim in the pools on board, so we are working on it.  We've been working on it for a few days now, and for him just being 2 years old I think it is going really well.

My other project is making magnets to decorate our stateroom doors.  This is something I only recently learned about, but apparently this is something that lots of people do.  There are some kind and generous people who will personalize Disney themed designs (called Disigners) for free.  You can print them out to make magnets to hang on the metal doors on the ship or to make t-shirt iron on transfers.  I'm waiting for the Disigners to finish some of my designs, but in the meantime I made a Disney Cruise alphapet.  I printed one out that I found on 4shared.com, cut them out, and laminated them.  I'm going to glue magnets on the back.   I figured that Luke can use them to play with before and after the cruise.

Down and Dirty

Last Sunday morning we ran in the Merrill Down and Dirty Mud Run at Cedar Hill State Park.  It was so much fun!  Nick and I ran the 5K and Zack and Michael ran the kids' 1 mile.  The course was in the grass, woods, and water and included 12 obstacles (2 of them were mud pits). 
The 5K started at 7:45AM.  It was cool and cloudy, which really helped since the first part of the race was uphill.  I knew Nick would do well, but I was hoping to keep up with him enough to watch him do at least the first couple of obstacles.  He broke away so fast that I didn't see him after the first 1/4 mile!  There were walls to climb over, a tunnel to crawl through, a 20-foot high inflatable with a cargo net to climb and then slide down, and a push-up station.  The only one I had trouble with was the slippery wall just before the last giant mud pit at the end.  The wall was at an angle, and you had to pull yourself up using a rope.  I really didn't think I was going to make it, but somehow I managed.  I'm sure this was strategically placed near the finish line where all of the spectators could get a few laughs watching everyone try to get over the wall.  It was really exciting to cross the finish line!  Nick finished in 41:21 and my time was 51:12.
The 1 mile race was at 10:00AM.  It was definitely warming up by this point, but they only had to go a mile.  Luke loved watching the kids take off at the start and cheering them on as they had their turn to crawl through the mud at the end.
We camped for the weekend at the state park, so when the race was finished we went back to the camper.  We grilled hot dogs and visited with friends who had raced with us.  We had gone to Mass the night before, so we had the rest of the day to clean off, rest, and relax.  We also celebrated with homemade ice cream and s'mores around the camp fire in the evening.  It was such a great weekend, that we plan on camping out and running again next year.

Paleo Power

For Lent this year I decided to give up creamer and sweetener in my coffee.  I thought about giving up coffee, but then everyone around me would suffer as well, and it turns out that drinking black coffee for 40 days was definitely a sacrifice.  I had also been reading about the Paleo diet everywhere I turned.  It wasn't something I thought was for me, but it kept calling my name, so I figured that maybe I should bite the bullet and try it during Lent. 
The Paleo diet, also known as the Caveman or Hunter/Gatherer diet, consists of meat and vegetables, eggs, healthy fats, nuts, and some fruit.  There are some different versions you can find online, but basically if you can hunt it, catch it, or gather it, you can eat it.  There are no processed foods or grains or dairy on this eating program.
I really didn't think I would be able to give up pasta and bread and potatoes.  Not to mention my favorite food group - ice cream.  That's why I figured if I was going to do it Lent would be a good time.  It took a couple of weeks to get used to it, but I was surprised to find that I no longer craved those things.  I did still miss my coffee mate and cheese once in a while.  I was hardly ever hungry, and I was able to lose those last few stubborn pounds of baby weight plus some with less exercise.  And it is pretty easy to adjust to family meals.  For the most part I just leave out the starch and eat everything else that the family eats.

Now that Easter has come, I have gone back to my beloved creamer in my coffee, but I have decided to stick with a mostly Paleo diet.  I mean this is a world in which I can have avacado every day, I don't get grouchy from hunger, and I can fit into a lot of clothes I haven't been able to wear since I was pregnant with Luke.  There is no calorie counting and no portion control.  I have read that even eating Paleo 80% of the time is great.  So I figure that if I can do this 80% then I will have the health benefits and still get to splurge once in a while.  I have given up Fiber 1 bars and yogurt but I've found that I love cashews and dates, beef jerky and roasted sweet potatoes.  I don't know if I will follow this eating plan forever, but I will definitely be doing this for a while.  I am amazed at the results!

AW 365 Is Complete!

Since March 8, 2011 I've been working on a photography project.  I named it "AW 365" because my goal was to take a photo every day for a year. (It actually turned into 367 photos due to leap year and I wanted my last picture to show some closure, so it ran from 3/8/11 to 3/8/12, a total of 367 days.)  I loved it.  It gave me a chance to take pictures of everyday things that I would never photograph - my favorite coffee cup, our house during each of the seasons, piles of laundry, soccer practice.  Also to keep it from getting boring I tried some techniques that I don't normally use, like different angles and trying different modes on my camera.  Now that it's over I'm both relieved and sad.  It's nice not to have to come up with a photo for every day, but I'm so glad I did it.  I find myself thinking "That would be a great photo of the day." even though it is done.  I will probably do another similar project in the future, maybe a 365 project in black and white, or maybe a week in my life.  For now I'm taking a little break from the scheduled and structured and just photographing when I want to.

My first photo from 3-8-11

Time to Get Back in Shape

I've been looking for some motivation for several months now to get back in shape. Before I got pregnant with Luke I was working out 5 days a week doing cardio and some weight training. He is coming up on his second birthday, and I haven't been able to get back in the routine. I've been hanging on to the last few pounds of pregnancy weight and gained a few more between my trip to Argentina (totally worth it!) and the Christmas holidays. Now that the boys' play and the holidays are over, and my 40th birthday is this year, I am finally ready. Even though our schedule is still busy, we have a little more free time while we wait for soccer season to start again in March. When am I able to fit in time for a workout? I know the answer, but I just don't want to face it - wake up early and get on the treadmill before school!

I hate waking up early. It's one of the things I like best about homeschooling. I don't know how I would manage if I had to get all of the kids up, dressed, and out of the house early in the morning 5 days a week. But my need to get back in shape has won out, and I am on my fourth week of dragging myself out of bed to get on the treadmill.

My program includes getting in shape spiritually too. While I am walking the first mile I say the rosary. I got the Rosary Army rosary podcast on my ipod. It is the scriptural rosary, so in addition to meditating on the mysteries of the gospels, there is a scripture verse before each Hail Mary. This helps me to focus a little better. A friend shared another good web site for praying the rosary that I have been using - http://www.comepraytherosary.org/ . I also bought a prayer journal. I'm hoping it will help me focus on all the things I need to pray for and help me add more prayer throughout the day.

So here is the plan. I get up early before school (Mon-Fri) and get on the treadmill for at least 30 minutes of cardio. My goal is 45 minutes to 1 hour of cardio a day, so if I can get it all in early then I'm done. If not I finish up later in the afternoon. I'm also doing weight training Mon-Wed-Fri. I use a combination of hand weights, my new kettle bell (a new treat to keep me motivated), and the Wii Fit. As far as eating I'm watching portion size, cutting out junk food, and adding in more fruits and vegetables. I've gotten some great deals on Lean Cuisine and Smart Ones frozen meals lately with sales and coupons, so the freezer is stocked. They are great for a quick lunch. I'm also juicing (carrot-apple juice) every morning and drinking lots of water.

So far it is going well. I have even lost a few pounds. I will probably never enjoy waking up early, but I have to admit it is the key right now, and I'm always happy when it is over.

An Adventure in Argentina

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated here, and we have been super busy. Thanksgiving has come and gone, and we have been consumed with Babes in Toyland. Zack and Michael have roles in the play and Nick is working with the stage crew. Corey has helped with the set building.
So this has taken up a great deal of our time with lots of late night rehearsals and very few days off. But the boys absolutely love it, and it is exciting to see them shine on stage.
In the middle of all the craziness of the play I went to Argentina for 6 days for my brother’s wedding. He married a friend of ours who we knew from high school in Singapore
and whose family is from Argentina. It was an absolute blast!!! What a neat chance to spend some time with my brothers and sisters while my wonderful husband stayed home with the boys. While I was so excited about the wedding I was not sure that we would be able to
afford for me to travel to South America. Many family members were planning to go, and I so badly wanted to be there. So after a yard sale, some creative saving, and carefully watching air fares, I managed to scrape together the funds!
So the week after Thanksgiving I set off on my adventure. Even the 10 hour flight was
fun since I got to fly with a brother, sister-in-law, and sister. We started laughing and taking pictures right away. We landed and were met by the bride (K) and groom (T) at the airport. We
were whisked away for a city tour of Buenos Aires followed by a delicious dinner with K’s and T’s siblings. It was just like old times as the food reminded us of our days in Singapore where we
went to high school and were friends with K’s family.
The next day was the registry wedding (the legal ceremony in Argentina). Then was a fabulous
reception at K’s parents’ beautiful home with delicious food and Tango dancing. It lasted all day, and there was more laughing and photo taking. Friday we finally relaxed a bit.
There was relaxing by the pool, a visit to the grocery store, a trip to a market, and an interesting stop at Freddo’s ice cream where it would have been helpful to know Spanish.
The wedding on Saturday was just perfect. Great weather, a beautiful ceremony, lots of
laughing and crying, and hours of dancing. I loved seeing the bride and groom so happy, and I was so excited for K’s two little girls to join our family. They are 7 and 5 years old, and I just love them! And like I said when I spoke at the wedding, we will miss T dearly, but we loved seeing how happy he is starting this new chapter in his life.
It was truly a vacation for me. I really missed Corey and the boys and I wish they could have been there. But while I was there I decided to live it up. I had such a great time just hanging out with my parents and family and visiting with K’s family after more than 20 years. I loved spending time with my new nieces and seeing a new country. Argentine hospitality is the best! I even picked up some Spanish while I was there. It was wonderful, but it was just as wonderful to see my family when I got off the airplane in Dallas.

My Adventures in Couponing

In my post about extreme couponing a few months ago, I said that I would be content to just be a regular couponer, not an extreme one. While my kids now call me an extreme couponer, I like to think of myself as having reinvented my couponing strategies. Why the need to reinvent? Well, a couple of reasons. For the last 12 year or so I have clipped coupons occasionally and mostly used them for my grocery shopping trips to Kroger. Kroger would double coupons up to 50 cents and triple coupons up to 39 cents. So if I had a coupon for 35 cents off of a jar of relish, and it was on sale for $1, the coupon tripled to $1.05, and I got the relish for free. Since TLC started showing Extreme Couponing, many people have begun to abuse the system, clearing shelves of items, holding up check out lines with stacks of coupons, and probably costing the store too much in labor and revenue. So as of last month the Krogers in my area discontinued their policy of doubling and tripling coupons. I was not at all happy about this.

The other reason I felt the need to revamp my coupon system is our need for Disney vacations. For our family a trip to Disney World is the most perfect way to take a break from our busy lives and enjoy having fun together. There is a level of service, friendliness, cleanliness, and magic that I just haven't seen anywhere else. Last week we booked our first Disney Cruise for the fall of 2012. While Disney vacations can be more affordable than many people think, taking our family of six on a big vacation requires some saving and careful planning. And since I do not have a job that brings in a paycheck, I am contributing to our vacation savings account by saving the family more money through couponing.

I used to buy one double Sunday newspaper and clip the coupons that I thought I might use. Now I will buy two double papers and clip all of the coupons. You never know when a deal will be available to get something for free, and if it is not something I need I can give it to someone who does. I don't normally eat Raisin Bran, but I had coupons and combined them with a sale yesterday that made them $1 a box. I bought 4 boxes and will donate them to the St. Vincent de Paul food bank at church. I don't normally purchase Bayer aspirin, but combining my coupons and a store sale I got 4 bottles for free. I also used to keep my coupons in a small coupon holder that would fit in my purse. Now I have put together a 3-ring zipper binder with clear sleeve coupon organizers divided into more than 20 categories. It is so much easier to find the coupons I'm looking for when a deal becomes available. One of the boys now refuses to go shopping with me if I bring that big green binder along!
I stumbled upon the perfect web site for the couponing Disney fan - Couponing to Disney www.couponingtodisney.com . It is based on using your coupon savings to pay for your Disney trips, so I was immediately hooked. While I don't use all of the suggestions on the site, I have picked up some helpful tips. I have started shopping at CVS and Walgreens since I discovered that I can get many things for free or less than $1 using Extra Care Bucks and Register Rewards (like shampoo, razors, and toothpaste). The website also posts great deals at other stores and on Disney themed deals as well as information on rebates.
So while I still do not consider myself extreme, I have been surprised to find that with a little extra work (3-5 hours a week) I have been able to save a lot more money.

Our Latest Disney Adventure

We just couldn't pass up Disney's free dining offer in September, so it was time for a trip. Nick, Zack and I met up with my mom for a quick 4 day visit to WDW. The weather was gorgeous, the crowds were light, and the "world" was magical as usual. Even though we always visit some of our favorite places and attractions (Soarin, Finding Nemo the Musical, Toy Story Manis, fireworks at the Magic Kingdom to name a few), I also like to try new things each trip. Here are some of the new things we did this year:

1 - stayed at the Caribbean Beach resort

2 - arrived at EPCOT at opening and saw 7 characters within 20 minutes

3 - watched O Canada and Reflections of China in circle vision

4 - ate at the revolving Garden Grill in the Land

5 - visited with Buzz and Woody in the air conditioning at Pixar Place

6 - enjoyed an entertaining meal at the 50's Prime Time Cafe

7 - rode the new Star Tours II

8 - rode the WDW Railroad around the Magic Kingdom

9 - got Gepetto's autograph

10 - ate delicious Italian food at Tony's Town Square

Something I got to do without this trip was pushing a stroller or carrying a backpack. It felt so light and free! Speaking of no stroller, I was a little worried about leaving Luke at home for the first time, but he did great. Of course I'm already planning our next vacation - maybe a Disney Cruise in 2012! We are already saving and putting money away in our vacation account for that one.

It's Time for a Little Pixie Dust!

School is back in full swing. So is soccer practice, dance lessons, and Boy Scouts. That means it's time for our next trip to the happiest place on earth! Next week at this time I will be staking out a spot to watch Fantasmic!

This time the trip will be a little different. Normally we enjoy doing everything together, but only some of us will be going. Earlier this year my husband and 8-year-old went to Disneyland by themselves for a special birthday trip. I will now be going with the 10 and 12-year-olds. Also we are excited that my mom is joining us. Back in May when Disney announced a special package with the free dining plan, we decided that it was our turn. The meals at WDW are some of our favorite things there, so it was the perfect deal.

The one thing I am worried about is leaving the 16-month-old at home. He is still nursing, and I have never left him before. I have no doubt that my husband will take wonderful care of him, but he is very attached to both of us, so I'm anxious to see how he does. On the other hand this means not only a trip to my absolute favorite vacation destination, but a few days to have a break from high demands of having a toddler around. We also know that he would not enjoy waiting in line for rides, and he is not quite old enough to really get the magic of seeing all of the characters. Sure he likes to see Mickey Mouse in books or pictures or on TV, but I think he would be scared of them in person. The next time we go he will be just the right age to appreciate all of the magic and be a little more up for the excitement of it all.

We have a couple more days of school before it's time to pack. It is hard for all of us to concentrate when the boys ask randomly throughout the day things like "What is your favorite thing in all of Disney World?" or "What are we going to ride first at Hollywood Studios?" or "What is your favorite show?". Needless to say, this trip has been or main topic of conversation, and we can't wait to get there!

School Is Back in Session (Sort of...)

I decided to try starting school a little differently than I have in the past. I like to start in late July or early August because it is too hot to do anything outside, and then we finish in early May. Since Zack and Michael have 2 weeks of theater camp, I decided to start with Nick by himself. That gives me a chance to get him started on his own and give him some extra attention. Many times he feels like he has to wait around on my to work with his younger brothers before he can get some time with me to go over his school work, so this is nice for both of us. It also gives me a chance to finish getting my school room organized before I get going with all of them. It is hard for me to believe Nicholas is starting 7th grade (and taller than me)! It feels like just last year we were working on Kindergarten.

Other upcoming events for our house - Zack and Michael will be in a play about pirates at the end of their camp. It will be fun to see what they have learned. Soccer season is coming up, so we will start practicing soon. In September I'm heading to Disney World with Nick, Zack, and my mom. We can't wait!

Our Ozark Adventure

We just returned from a 5 day trip to Branson, MO in the Ozark Mountains. We drove our new travel trailer there and stayed at America's Best Campground. It was a great campground in a convenient location - close to everything but not right in the middle of the noise and busyness of town. This was our first time there, and we the vacation was fabulous. We had some thrilling rides, saw some music shows, and visited a couple of museums.

We spent a day at Table Rock Lake with Corey's family. Corey got to ski, and we all tubed behind the boat. Luke even cooperated, kept his lifejacket on, and didn't jump off the boat. The boys saw some advertisements for the Track Family Fun Parks, so we rode go-carts on a wooden track that had many levels, twists, and turns. They also played mini-golf and laser tag. For most of us our favorite activity was ziplining. Two guides helped us ride 7 different zip lines and 3 rope bridges. Nick and Michael were a little scared at first, but quickly decided it was fun.

Even though the temperatures were in the 90's (while back at home they were well over 100) it was still hot, so we also needed some indoor, air conditioned activities. The Titanic museum was full of stories and artifacts from the ship. It came with an audio tour that helped explained everything. The Dinosaur museum had some really neat exhibits. Michael and Luke especially liked it there. We went to Mass on Sunday at Our Lady of the Lake, and Zack spotted a family there from our own parish!

Branson is known as the music capital of the world, so we had to see some shows. Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede kept the whole family entertained. We had a delicious 4 course meal that was choreographed into the show. There were lots of horses, buffalo, and pigs, and the waiters and waitresses were dressed as Civil War soldiers. We also went to the Eagles Tribute and the John Denver Tribute. Michael and Luke both fell asleep during the Eagles, even with the loud music! We had front row seats for John Denver, and the kids got to get up on stage and get bags of candy. Finally we saw Noah the Musical at the Sight and Sounds theater. We enjoyed the many animals on the ark that were live.

Branson is a wonderful place for families. It is easy to get around, and there is something for everyone. There were more activities we would like to have done, but we ran out of time and reached our budget. I would love to take another vacation there someday!