Joy Leanne

I am part of an awesome, local mom's group on Facebook. Those ladies are really some of the sweetest more helpful ladies I know. Even when we don't see eye to eye on parenting issues it is, for the most part, a low drama group of women who genuinely seek to lift one another up. The past few weeks there have been a LOT of posts about things to do with kiddos that are free or low cost.  I thought, to make life easier for them, I would compile the ideas here so there are all in one place. If you aren't local a lot of these may not work for you, but this may at least give you an idea of things to look for near you! Low Cost: Morning Movies at Movies Ten. Their movie list can be found here. Morning Movies at Regal Movie Theater. Their movie list can be found here. Free Kids Bowling at AMF bowling ally . (I have this on the cheap list since you still have to rent shoes). Sheetz for slushies. (You can get the small ones for $0.99 with a sheets card)     Free (or close to free dep...

    So tomorrow is my birthday and I finally finished making my 30 before 30 list. It was harder than I thought. Trying to come up with 30 things I wanted to do in the next year that were PRACTICAL and DOABLE. I mean sure there are a TON of things I would love to do but for various reasons (money, baby coming this summer) it's just not possible. But eventually I did it! The interesting thing is, without meaning to I ended up picking a LOT Of things that fit well with my new years goal. 2013 Goals: To be more intentional... *In relationships *In finances *At home *In memory keeping. Not everything fell into one of these four categories but a lot did. So without further ado.... 30 Before 30 Personal: 1. Memorize 30 verses. 2. Read, finish, or get rid of all MY unread books. 3. Fill up my half-used journals/smashbooks. 4. Sew the Super Tote pattern by Noodlehead. 5. Do one Show. 6. Make 500 things. 7.  Cook a recipe a month off of my pinterest boards. 8. Visit Bush Garden's aga...

                It is so easy to look around at our life and think "This isn't what I signed up for" or "How did I get here?" We look at our big plans. We look at our facebook feed. We look at our favorite blogs. We wondered what happened. We wonder why we don't have the life we so desperately want when every one else makes it look so easy. The funny thing is, I think if most of us slowed down and looked around we would realize that we are in fact living the life we wanted. Our lives, for the most part, aren't that different from the blogs we drool over. We bake, we take walks, we go for ice cream, we do special activities with our kids. The difference between our lives and the lives of the people on the other side of the glowing screen and polished blogs is documenting. The ONLY way that "other" woman is different from us is that she taking the time to notice, document, and dwell on the little moments. She takes time to make much the life'...

In the first part of Creative Gift Giving I shared how I go about getting ideas for meaningful gifts. Today I want to share with you how I organize all these ideas! This is my Holiday Notebook (I say holiday not Christmas because I use it for Thanksgiving as well). It's just a simple note book with dividers that I glued a pretty gift picture onto. You can be as fancy or as simple as you want. (If you buy a notebook with out dividers I suggest adding simple tabs yourself). As you can see mine is pretty beat up. That's because this is the four year I have used it so it's been through quite a lot. I have mine divided into four Sections. Menu: Each year I keep a list of the dishes I am assigned to bring to any Holiday meals and parties. A lot of times I also keep my holiday meal/party grocery shopping list in there. Each divider in my book has a pocket which I LOVE. In the Menu section I keep index cards with go to recipes I use at the Holidays. (Corn casserole, Green Bean Cass...

Last week I pulled Bear out of school and loaded her and Maddie up in the van with my in-laws and we headed to Gatlinburg, Tn. I grew up going to Branson Missouri so it feels so much like "home" to me I love it. Downside is the drive. It's not THAT far but 5-6 hours with preschool age kids can feel like forever. So, I packed them goodie bags. I thought I would share what I packed for them in case any one is look for ideas. Sorry for the bag photos they are camera pics at 4:00 am! For starters I took them to Barnes and Noble with me so they could pick out their own book ect. Once we bought the books we took them home and I let them look at them but not actually play with them (They are activity books). By the time the trip came around they were super excited to use the books. Of course I couldn't leave without a couple goodies for myself. Even big girls like sticker books and this doll house sticker book is such a fun way to be creative without any real work. The book ...

It's been such a full and busy summer it feels like. And yet when I look at the girls bucket list hardly anything is checked off!! Some things just aren't going to happen. The zoo and Abi visiting my sister probably won't take place as schedules have changed and shrinky dinks are hard to find!. However, many of the things can still happen. Today I am printing out paper dolls and letting the girls work with my markers (GASP!) I got an ice cream maker from my parents and ordered a fun doll pattern to make dolls with the girls. This weekend the girls are staying three nights with Grandma and Grandpa. Then it's time to get to work staying home and having fun! Girls Summer Bucket List o    Zoo o    Finger paints o    Water fight o    Make Popsicles o    Dollar Movies o    Splash Park o    Make ice cream o    Sidewalk chalk o    Photo booth o    Bean Bag Toss o    Fireworks o ...

So I finally sat down and put together two bucket lists for this summer. I am a huge list person. I would venture a guess that you could tell more about who I am from my lists then my journals. Or at least as much. So for the first time I have made a summer bucket list. I made one for the kids as well. But I am to lazy to type it up at the moment. So today all you get is my personal list. So far we are doing pretty well. I've already read a new book. I love it and will most likely end up reading the entire series this summer. Last week I finished a skirt for a friend FINALLY! I love getting WIPS marked off of my to do list. We also made our own bubbles from my Summer Fun Pin Board last week. Still haven't used them yet and have no idea if they work, maybe we will have to try that out today!  What's on your summer bucket list??