This is the sixth installment in our series, Homemaking Your Way. Catch up on the first five here. Forget smart phones. I firmly believe that the humble washing machine is one of the world’s greatest inventions. I love washing clothes. While I am checking email or eating lunch or doing 24-piece puzzles, clothes are being cleaned while demanding nothing more from me than a scoop of soap and the push of a button. It is like magic. I could wash clothes all day long. Folding and putting away clothes, however, is a different story. This is a tedious, time-consuming task. So, instead of having a devoted laundry day, I just spread it throughout the Keep Reading
Homemaking Your Way: Emily on laundry
Homemaking Your Way: Angela on clothing
This is the fifth installment in our series, Homemaking Your Way. Catch up on the first four here. Clothing. Ugh. Emily did such a great job explaining her "system" for clothes, I really don't think I can add anything super helpful to the discussion (hence the five day late post...). But I'll give it a try. KIDS CLOTHES Here's the deal. The Davises have long been our friends and family's personal Goodwill. We get hand-me-downs like crazy, or at least we used to. When my daughter (my first) was about 2.5 years old, I saw a children's clothing consignment event advertised on Craigslist and I thought I would quickly go through Audrey's clothes Keep Reading
Homemaking Your Way: Emily on clothes
This is the fourth installment in our series, Homemaking Your Way. Catch up on the first three here. If you are on a tight budget, you know that buying new clothes is one of the first things that gets cut. As newlyweds, my husband and I were just barely scraping by each month. Our concern was paying rent and buying groceries. New clothing did not factor into the equation. Now that we have a bit of breathing room in our budget, we can afford to splurge occasionally on clothing. We go all out. Costco underwear. Old Navy clearance. Target sales. However, shopping for clothing with small children in tow is not for the faint of heart. If you are Keep Reading
Homemaking Your Way: Emily’s homemaking philosophy
This is the third installment in our series, Homemaking Your Way, where we are discussing different ways to. Catch up on the first two here. I admit it. I am that person who actually enjoys keeping my home organized and orderly. Even when I get tired of the process, I love the end product. My mom has always claimed that I was born this way. I guess that's as good of an explanation as any because I don't seem to be able to turn off this part of my brain. I vacuum my house two times a week and drop off bags at Goodwill like it's going out of style. I scrub the toilet while my children are taking a bath and mentally organize shelves while shopping at Keep Reading
Homemaking Your Way: Angela’s homemaking philosophy
Be sure to read the introduction to our current series, Homemaking Your Way here. Let's start with one painfully honest statement: I don't like homemaking. I am not really good at it. It does not make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I don't get goosebumps when I smell a pumpkin-scented candle or see a pot of stew warming on the store. I don't have the "urge" to nest. I don't feel connected to nature when I touch dirt. These truths seem to make me a less-than-ideal candidate for writing a homemaking series. But here's the thing -- I know that I'm not alone. I know that many of you would rather be doing something else, anything else, than cooking Keep Reading
Homemaking Your Way: A new series
I love blogs -- the community, the near-constant stream of inspiration and challenge. I love connecting with other people on topics that are of interest to me. But one of the dangers of reading blogs is that I can often walk away feeling discouraged. It's so easy for bloggers to leave the impression that they have everything together, even if that's not their intention. You read a "how to organize" post and feel like a schmuck because your closet is in disarray. You read a "how to manage your laundry" post and feel like a complete failure because you've been pulling clothes out of the dryer for the past week. You read a "feed your family whole foods Keep Reading
Extreme Couponing: Don’t call me a hoarder
On Monday, I shared my initial thoughts on TLC's new reality show, Extreme Couponing. The show spends quite a bit of time showing each participant's stockpile and viewers tend to be intrigued and sometimes downright horrified about the stockpile situation. Oh, the judgement just pours out of people's fingers (because they are typing, right?). "No one needs that much mustard." "It's just wasteful to store that much toothpaste." "It looks like an episode of Hoarders." Errk. (That's the sound of me putting on the brakes.) Stop. Let me make one thing perfectly clear. Stockpiling and hoarding are two very different things. Stockpiling vs. Keep Reading