Blogmas Series: Christmas on a Budget

It's hard to believe Jon and I have been married for almost 12 years!! On December 17th, 2006, we kicked off our married life as poor college students living on love. We hardly had any money, because we spent it all on the wedding and then for us to move from Oregon to Texas. Back in those days, we had so little money that we lived off of cheese quesadillas (which Jon cooked using an iron) and anything else that was "On Sale" or "Free". As I looked back at our old checkbooks, I am not sure how we survived our first few years of marriage.

In hindsight, I can see that it was God taking care of us and providing everything we needed. I am so thankful for God's provision!!

Honestly, this year seems no different, almost 12 years and 5 kids later we still don't have a lot of extra money to splurge on Christmas. We've just moved and Hong Kong which is expensive, so financially things are tight. I am thankful that over the years, God has taught me how to manage a tight budget. I know, we can still have an amazing Christmas even if we didn't have a lot of extra money.

Below are some helpful ideas that I have picked up over the years about how to manage a tight budget. To this day, I use these tips to help me stay on budget during the holidays.

10 Tips for Christmas on a Budget

1. Make a Budget.
You won't fully understand the state of your finances until you sit down by yourself or with your spouse and make a budget. Early on in our marriage, we learned to budget our finances through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class. If there isn't a class available in your area then go to the library and borrow one of Dave's books about finances and being to start your journey to financial freedom. This will truly be the best Christmas gift that you can give to yourself and your spouse. Once you've created your budget, you will know whether or not it will be a tight Christmas.

2. Keep Christmas Simple.
If you know that it is going to be a tight budget for Christmas, make an effort to keep your December calendar simple. The fewer activities you participate in during the holidays, the less money you will need for Christmas. Don't feel bad if you cannot participate in every holiday exchange or activity that you get invited to join. It is okay to say, "No" and decline an invitation especially if you don't have money to buy extra presents. In addition, you might need to be honest with your extended family and let them know that things are tight and you won't be able to fly to see them this Christmas.

3. Draw Names.
I am the oldest of 5 kids and so for many years, my family has been drawing names to so that instead of buying one present for every single person we just buy presents for the person whose name we drew. This has been a lifesaver for our big family, especially when we didn't have a lot of extra money. As everyone is married with kids, now we draw names and give a fun present that the whole family can enjoy. It has worked well for our big family.

4. Email Christmas Newsletter.
Jon and I come from garage families. In addition, we have lots of friends and family who want to know how we are doing. As a result, we have decided to email our Christmas Newsletter and Christmas Card. This helps us to save money during the holidays, but still allows us to stay in contact with our loved ones without spending a ridiculous amount of money on postage. There are certain family members who don't have email, so we might send them an actual card. However, those circumstances are few and far between.

5. Homemade Gifts, Treats, and Decorations.
Personally, I enjoy our homemade gifts, treats, and decorations more that anything else that I could buy at the store, because of the memories that go along with them. This year, our homemade decorations remind me of my precious girls, because they helped me create our Christmas mural. Make a list of gifts that you need and see which gifts you could make at home. Browse Pinterest for ideas or ask your create friends what they are crafting this Christmas.


6. Family Night In.
A night out can be very expensive and it's hard to justify if when my children don't want to finish eating their dinner or we have to leave halfway through the movie for a potty break. Seriously!? Right now, in this season of life with two babies, a family night in sounds like just the right fit for our family. We have had both movie and game nights as a family. If you're on a budget, try to plan something to do at home with your family that everyone will enjoy.

7. Christmas Book Basket.
I told you all about my Christmas Book Basket idea, so click the link to read more about it now. Briefly, I will remind you to pull out Christmas books from around your house or go to the local library and borrow Christmas books that you can read together as a family. If you don't have access to a library ask a friend or neighbor if you can swap books with them, so that each of your families can enjoy some new books to read for the holidays.

8. Shop Year Round.
I realize that you cannot do this for Christmas 2018. However, I want you to be able to begin to plan for Christmas 2019 now. Plan to buy a few things here and there, all year round so that as they go on sale over the next 12 months you can get them for the cheapest price and give them to your family for Christmas next year. You can buy things on sale or on clearance and then keep it for the next holiday. I had a large plastic box in my closet, under my sewing stuff, that I kept gifts in. So when someone had a birthday or Christmas, I already had gifts to choose from.

9. Sell Your Stuff.
If all else fails and your are desperate for cash this Christmas, sell your stuff. You heard me right, sell your things in order to get more cash to add to your Christmas budget. This might seem like a hard concept, because we all like our stuff. However, if you are really in a bind consider selling things online that will help you to have some extra money this Christmas.

10. Volunteer Together.
Minus transportation, serving others won't cost you anything. This is an activity that you can do with your family completely free!! It's one of the best family traditions that you can start today. It will also teach your children what Christmas is really all about...Jesus. Check out my previous post for more ideas about how to serve others this Christmas.

Blogmas Series: Our Christmas Book Basket

"A book is a present you can open again and again." - Unknown

Everyone in our family loves books, even our kids which is such a wonderful blessing. From the time they were babies, we’ve put books in the girls hands and tried to teach them to love and cherish books as much as me and Jon. 

So far, our plan is working.

Last year, as apart of our homeschool, I decided to try something new. I got the idea from Ashley at ‘Grace and Grit’ on YouTube. Ashley is a homeschool Mom and she uses ‘The Morning Basket‘ technique, by Brave Writer aka Julie Bogart, with her homeschool curriculum. I really liked this idea and couldn’t wait to try it out during our 2017-18 school year.

This technique has been a hit in our home and we've been doing it ever since. The girls know that all of the books that we will read from each day are found in our special morning basket. We take time each morning to complete our required reading for our Sonlight curriculum. There isn't any question about where I put the books, because they belong in the morning basket. On Fridays, I change the books so I am all ready for our upcoming school week.

This Christmas I thought it would be fun to have our very own Christmas Book Basket that is designated specifically for Christmas and winter books!! 

I started out by going on a treasure hunt around the house, searching high and low, for all of our books about winter or Christmas. I brought them all downstairs to the living room, so that they can be together in one central location. I also found a basket (actually, my basket is currently a box until I can get a cute Christmas basket) that I could these holiday books inside. Then I placed my basket under our Christmas tree. That's right, our small Christmas tree is set up in the living room on a table. The basket fits perfectly underneath the table.

I hope that this will help all of my girls to remember to return these holiday books to the Christmas Book Basket.

I also plan to go to the library each week to get new Christmas books for us to read as well. If I find anything that is a good read, I will be sure to share it with you on my Instagram Stories. 

Incase you are wondering, scroll down to see a list of the books that I found around my house and put in our basket. Just for fun, I also included some of my other favorite Christmas books that I don't have at our house.

Christmas Books:

“A Creature Was Stirring: One Boy’s Night Before Christmas” by, Carter Goodrich

“Animals in Winter” by, Henrietta Bancroft & Richard G. Van Gelder

“Big Bird Brings Spring to Sesame Street” by Lauren Collier Swindler

“Frozen” by, Disney

“God Bless Christmas” by, Hannah C. Hall

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” by, Dr. Seuss

“Noodles: I Love Christmas” by, Hand Wilhelm

“Snow” by, Roy McKie and P.D. Eastman

“The 12 Days of Christmas” by, Jane Cabrera

“The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving” by, Jan and Mike Berenstain

“The Chilly Little Penguin” by, Russell Punter

“The Gingerbread Kid: Goes to School” by, Joan Holub

Chinese book called...

“Green Festival” by, Unknown

Other Favorite Christmas Books: 

"A Christmas Carol" by, Charles Dickens
"Bear Stays Up for Christmas" by, Karma Wilson
"Christmas in the Big Woods (Little House Picture Book)" by, Laura Ingalls Wilder
"Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas" by, Jane O'Connor
"Little Miss Christmas" by, Roger Hargreaves
"Llama Llama Holiday Drama" by, Anna Dewdney
"Merry Christmas, Geronimo!" by, Geronimo Stilton
"Mr. Popper's Penguins" by, Richard Atwater
"Red Sled" by, Lita Judge
"The Bears' Christmas" by, Stan Berenstain
"The Berenstain Bears' Old-Fashioned Christmas" by, Jan Berenstain

"The Family Under the Bridge" by, Natalie Savage Carlson
"The Legend of the Candy Cane" by, Lori Walburg
"The Polar Express" by, Christ Allsburg

Blogmas Series: Trimming the Tree

Three months ago, our entire family moved to Hong Kong. We brought only what we could take in our suitcases, which wasn’t very much. As a result, I had to get rid of or leave behind most of our Christmas decorations. We brought along a small shoe box with some of our favorite Christmas ornaments, two nativity sets, and our stockings. 

Seriously, that was all we could bring with us. 

As a result of our big move, we are here we are on a very tight budget. This means, we do not have a lot of extra money to spend on new Christmas decorations this year. 

In an effort to stay on budget, I decided that we could make a lot of our own Christmas decorations. So, I began browsing Pinterest for inspiration and ideas of what I could do with the materials I already have at the house. I’ve been praying that the girls would be excited and blessed enough though we don’t have a lot of extra stuff right now. To my delight, the girls have had so much fun creating our own paper Christmas tree, snowmen, and more. They didn’t want to stop adding to our Christmas mural, because they were having so much fun making their own decorations. 

The Lord also blessed us with some hand-me-down decorations. We inherited a few strands of Christmas lights, greenery, ornaments, and two little stockings that we are going to use for the twins. We have used these items to decorate our home as well. We even put up some Christmas lights in the girls room, which is very exciting for them!!

In addition, our sweet friends even let us borrow one of their Christmas trees, this has been such a blessing for our family!! We would have been fine with just our paper tree. However, I am so thankful to be loved by a God who cares about me and my kids. He knows our family traditions and the culture we come from and is kind enough to help us celebrate Christmas is a way that will help Hong Kong to continue to feel more like home than ever.

I've been homesick and these extra special things have brought lots of extra Christmas cheer to my weary heart. I’m thankful that God continues to provide everything we need, day in and day out.

What about you? How are you decorating for Christmas this year?

Blogmas Series: Homemade Hot Chocolate

Would you like to know a random fact about me?

I do not like coffee.

I went to college in Portland, Oregon where everyone was crazy about coffee. I would get invited to go to Starbucks all the time. Honestly, I never knew what to order when I went out to Starbucks, because I didn't like coffee or hot drinks in general.

So, what was I supposed to order!?

As a result of this dilemma I decided that it would be worth it to acquire a taste for a few hot drinks. That way if someone invited me to Starbucks, I would have something to order other than water. Early on, my beverage of choice became hot apple cider. It was delicious and didn't have a hint of coffee in it/ Additionally, I have taught myself to enjoy hot chocolate and even some tea (which came in handy during my twin pregnancy).

I enjoy lots of different hot beverages now and I am so thankful I took the time to try new things. If I hadn't been willing to try something new, I never would have discovered some of my very favorites.

Today, I want to share a homemade hot chocolate recipe with you that my family enjoys every year. My friend makes homemade hot chocolate and it inspired me to try making this myself. I searched Pinterest for just the right recipe. Several years ago, I discovered this Homemade Hot Chocolate recipe from Anna Davis on the Kelly Moore blog. This recipe is delicious and I have been making it ever since.

Each year, I make a big batch and then keep some for us to enjoy! Then, I give the rest away to friends and family. I have even put the homemade hot chocolate in little bags and used this as stocking stuffers. It was a huge hit!!

I have included the recipe below.

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Homemade Hot Chocolate

By, Anna Davis

Ingredients

1 (28 oz) container of Nesquick

1 (11 oz) container of creamer

1 (25.6 oz) container powdered milk

2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

1 to 1 1/2 packs small marshmallows

Instructions

Stir it up and you're ready for hot chocolate.

Put in fun containers and give as Christmas gifts.

Add 4-5 Tbsp to 8 oz of hot water then adjust to taste.

Enjoy!

Blogmas Series: 20 Ways to Serve Others

"Maybe Christmas, he thought doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps means a little bit more!" 

- Dr. Suess from How the Grinch Stole Chrismas

Somewhere along the way, in the hustle and bustle of life, we have forgotten about the real reason for this Christmas season. Who can blame us, with the constant bombardment from advertisements that tell us we need more stuff to fit in our already overly crowded homes. Which by the way, are filled to the brim with things we rarely use, but yet we have been convinced that we must have it.

Christmas is suppose to be a day that we celebrate and remember the birth of Jesus Christ. However, the world distracts us from the true meaning of Christmas which is JESUS.

Several years back, I noticed that I was guilty of this too. I had been swept away by consumerism and turned the focus of Christmas on myself and my family, instead of thinking about what I could do for others. Together, Jon and I prayed and asked God to help us to learn to serve others during the holidays, not just ourselves. With God's help, we have been able to begin to make service a regular tradition in our family during Christmas time. This transformed mindset has also spilled over into our lives, so that it is something that we try to do all year long. We're not perfect, but I am thankful that God has worked on us in this area to help us be more generous to others.

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." 

- Mark 10:45 ESV

Mark 10:45, is a good reminder that Jesus Himself didn't come to serve, but to serve others. In this day and age, this idea feels backwards in our world that tells us to look out for #1. It might feel counter cultural to serve others during Christmas, but don't let that stop you from embracing the truth and the example that Jesus set for us to follow.

Just remember that it's never too late to start serving others!! Regardless of how old you are, you can begin to implement this tradition of serving others, right now.

Below is a list of ways that you can serve others during the holidays. Especially if this is new for you, just pick one way to serve others each week from now until Christmas. I hope and pray that this will be a regular tradition that continues in your family for many years to come.

20 Ways To Serve Others

1. Pack a Christmas shoebox for Operation Christmas Child.
This is one of our favorite traditions! Even before Jon and I had kids, we were packing shoeboxes full of presents and sending them to children around the world.

2. Provide Christmas dinner for a family in need.
When you go to the store to buy your turkey or ham for Christmas, buy two of everything and then put it together in a box to give to your neighbors or another family in need.

3. Sing Christmas carols in a nursing home.
People living in nursing homes can get so lonely as they are away from family during the holidays. Anytime you can spend at a nursing home reading books or singing Christmas carols will truly be a blessing.

4. Deliver baked goods to local police, fire, or EMT station.
The police, fire, and EMT workers have such an important job and they don't get to take time off for the holidays. Let them know that you appreciate their hard work and sacrifice by blessing them with delicious baked goods.

5. Leave treats or notes for mailman.
Your mailman works hard to make are you have your mail everyday of the year. Give them some treats or a thank you note to let them know that you appreciate all the work they do.

6. Donate canned goods and other food to your local homeless shelter.
Go through your pantry and donate canned goods or other foods that your local homeless shelter needs. Make sure that these items aren't expired. It you don't have anything extra at home, buy extra canned goods the next time they go on sale and donate as much as you can.

7. Donate socks to your local homeless shelter.
One of the greatest needs of homeless people are socks and shoes. This is another very practical thing that you can donate to those in need this winter.

8. Go through your closets and donate clothes and toys.
Like I said before, our houses our full of stuff. Go through your closets and storage space and donate old clothes or toys to a families in need.

9. Donate children's book to your local library.
If you have extra books or book that don't fit on your book shelf, donate them to your local library. It will bless families that can't afford to buy books for their kids on their own.

10. Organize a garage sale or bake sale and donate the proceeds to charity.
You can do this as a family, small group, or Sunday school class. Put together garage sale and/or bake sale and then donate the proceeds to a charity.

11. Give money or gifts anonymously.
If you know of a family who is struggling, give them money or gift cards to help them out during this time. You don't even have to let them know it was you, but you can leave it on their door or in their mailbox.

12. Ring the Salvation Army bell at Christmas time.
Christmas is the time what Salvation Army sets up their donation buckets for people to give to during the holidays. Contact your local salvation army and see if they need people to ring the bell at Christmas time.

13. Do yard work for your neighbors.
Rake the leaves or shovel the snow for your neighbors, even if they can do it for themselves.

14. Mail a card to a solider.
We don't want to forget about the men and women serving protecting our country, who do not get to be home for Christmas. Send a Christmas card or mail a package to a solider who might be separated from their loved ones this Christmas.

15. Adopt a family.
Ask your church or local school, if there are families in need this Christmas. Purchase Christmas presents for everyone in the family and bless them with gifts that they can't buy themselves.

16. Serve meal at soup kitchen.
Contact your local soup kitchen or homeless shelter and offer to serve a meal to those in need.

17. Random acts of kindness.
The options are endless here. Just to name a few... You can hold the door open for someone. Buy someone's coffee. Buy someone's groceries. So many more!!

18. Adopt grandparents.
Contact your church to see if there are people that you can adopt as grandparents this Christmas. Have dinner with them or invite them over for the holidays. If you don't live close, you can simply just send them a Christmas gift to let them know you are thinking about them.

19. Sponsor an international child, like with Compassion.
This is something that goes beyond Christmas, but you can sponsor an international child and truly change their life.

20. Teach your children to give.
Lastly, don't forget to let your kids be apart of this season of giving. Let them come with you and be involved as you love and serve others together. It's going to make a lasting impact on their lives and change your family for the better.

Blogmas Series: Christmas Bucket List

Merry Christmas, and Happy Blogmas!!

This year, my blog is going to be very festive as we celebrate the holiday season together with 'Blogmas 2018 - 25 Days of Christmas'!! Like I explained in a previous post, "What is BLOGMAS?", I am going to post 25 Christmas-themed blog posts from December 1st to Christmas Day.

I have never participated in Blogmas before this year. However, I am very excited, because today is my very first Blogmas post of 2018!! I've been brainstorming for weeks and I am thrilled to finally be able to share these holiday posts with all of you. I hope that you will truly enjoy Blogmas as much as I have enjoyed putting it together for you. If Christmas drives you crazy, then I will see you again when my blog gets back to normal after the holiday season has ended.

I thought it would be fun to kick off Blogmas 2018 with my Christmas Bucket List.

Above, you can see, my favorite things to do during the holidays. Many of these activities, like listening to Christmas music, are already taking place in my house. If I were completely honest, I would tell you that I have Christmas music on my twin home birth playlist, that I was listening to in June! I have also already watched a Christmas movie, a few weeks before Thanksgiving.

I know what you're thinking...

I am horrible.

Some of you might want to kill me for these Christmas confessions, because the thought of Christmas music a minute before Thanksgiving is over sends chills up your spine. I'm a rule follower and I used to think that I needed to wait until Thanksgiving was over before I started to listen to Christmas music. However, the joy that Christmas music brings me, all year long, far out weighs my own rigidity to try and live up to the worlds standards in regards to Christmas music.

I love Christmas and that's never going to change.

I have learned to enjoy Christmas all year long, because the good news of Jesus coming down to us should be celebrated all year!!

I'm curious, what activities are on your Christmas Bucket List?

Quarter 1 Update: Homeschool Year 2018-19

We use Sonlight curriculum for many of our subjects so typically, our homeschool year is roughly 36 weeks long. This means, every 9 weeks we finish one quarter of school. I’m excited to say that we have officially finished our first quarter of school!! Honestly, I am very excited about the progress we have already made in our school year. Our original plan for our move to Hong Kong had us not even starting school until November or December.

I am thankful that God changed our plans, so our entire family was able to come straight to Hong Kong in August with my husband. Just one week after our move, we started school. We decided to start school right away, so that our family could begin to get back into some kind of regular routine. We’ve had hard days or days when we took a break from school. However, overall school has provided the structure needed for our family to begin to call Hong Kong home.

In case you are curious, I've included my original 2018-19 Homeschool Curriculum Choices for my girls. Overall, we haven't made any major curriculum changes yet and all of the curriculum choices we made are working for each individual child. I will be sure to let you know if we make any major changes as our school year continues.

One the  biggest changes to our school year, has been that I have 5 kids and two of them are just 4 months old. As a result, our daily homeschool structure has to be very flexible right now. We don't have a rigid daily schedule to follow, because I would get overwhelmed if I wasn't able to stick to it like I planned. We have an overall rhythm to our day, but I have to remain flexible and be willing to change things up incase the babies get fussy.

I am so thankful for my big girls and their willingness to go with the flow. They're diligent to work on school when we have some quiet moments throughout the day and most of the time finish school before I expected them to get done. I am so proud of them!!

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2018-19 Homeschool Curriculum Choices

This year, I have a child in 1st Grade, a child in Kindergarten, and a child in Preschool. I will start by sharing the subjects that everyone is going to work on together.

EVERYONE TOGETHER
Bible, Memory Verse, History, Read-Alouds: Sonlight. This year, we are using Sonlight’s Core B – World History I. We have used Sonlight for the past few years and it really works for our family. We specifically picked this curriculum, because we knew it would be best for us if/when we moved overseas. You see Sonlight mails you a box with all the books you need for the whole year. This is great, especially now that we live in Hong Kong and don’t have the same resources that we did in the States. I have everything I need for the whole year and don’t have to worry about not being able to find a particular book. If you would like to read more about our journey with Sonlight click the link to read my blog post, “Finding Flexibility with Sonlight“.

Science: Exploring Creation with Astronomy (2nd Edition). We used Apologia’s Exploring Creation curriculum last year and really enjoyed it! There was no question about what we would use this year for science. My husband also purchased the complete science kit, so I would have all the resources necessary to complete our activities/experiments in Hong Kong. Initially, I was against this, because I didn’t want to spend money on something like this. However, I’m thankful for my husband’s wisdom. This kit has been a lifesaver! I’ve been able to do school even though we just moved. I don’t have to spend time tracking down our scissors, because there is already a pair in the kit.

1ST GRADE
I’m sure I say this every year, but how do we have a 1st grader!? When we were making our curriculum choices for our 2018-19 school year, Olivia could read some things. However, reading hadn’t come together for her yet and we didn’t want to force her to read if she wasn’t ready. We decided to let Olivia do things at her own pace. As a result, we purchased Sonlight’s Language Arts Grade 1 program, but by the time that curriculum arrived something clicked and our daughter, who started reading everything she could get her hands on. As a result, we struggled to know which curriculum would be best for her upcoming school year. Thankfully, Sonlight has a test kids can take online, which helped us know what level language arts program to buy for Olivia. We exchanged our grade 1 language arts for grade 2 and it’s been the perfect fit!!
Language Arts: Sonlight Language Arts 2
Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears: My Printing Book
Phonics: Explode the Code 4, 5, 6
Math: Math-U-See Beta
Vocabulary: Wordly Wise A

KINDERGARTEN
How can Sophie already be in Kindergarten!! Sophie is a hands-on learner and she remembers things much better when she gets to use a manipulative to help cement different concepts into her brain. For this reason, we are switching from A Reason for Handwriting back to Handwriting without Tears. I think the manipulatives that go along with this program will help both of my girls to have a better understanding of how each letter and humber written.
Language Arts: Sing, Spell, Read, & Write “Off We Go” & “Raceway Book”
Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears: Letters & Number for Me
Phonics: Explode the Code 1, 2, 3
Math: Math-U-See Alpha

PRESCHOOL
Matilda is 2 1/2 years old, but already she wants to be involved in our school day. She has a strong desire to have her own things to “work” on, so that she can do school right along with the big girls. Though her learning will be more informal, I am planning to use ABC Jesus Loves Me, Playing Skillfully, and Sonlight Preschool Readers for Matilda this next year. Our focus will be to learn more through playing, fun activities, and great books. I’ve used these curriculums with my other girls and we loved them, so I hope Matilda enjoys these as well.
Letters, numbers, shapes, and more: ABC Jesus Loves Me
Learning through play and fun activities: Playing Skillfully
Reading great books: Sonlight Preschool Readers

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This year, we ordered most of our homeschool curriculum online from Sonlight and Rainbow Resource Center. Rainbow Resource is great, because any orders over $50.00 qualify for free shipping.