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...

  With 2012 now nearly 24 hours in the past and 2013  upon us, it would seem the thing to do is take a look back on 2012. However, I feel like I have done quite a bit of that this past year. With so much having happened this year I feel like I have already one a good bit of reflection. If you would like to read those posts you can here and here. At this point in time I am ready to look forward. I am ready for a new adventure. I am ready to dream, plan, set goals, and draft a map. I'm ready for change. I'm not entirely sure what exactly I want these goals and plans to look like. I know I will be taking some time off for my shop and drastically reducing my custom spots when I do. I want to focus more on creating as the mood strikes, sewing for my girls, sewing for friends, making what makes me happy, finish the huge pile of WIPs. I want to focus more on my writing. For The Clutch Guide for The Motherhood Collective for my own blog, and journaling. I want to make a point of bei...

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 ...

I was sharing with a friend last night one of the things that helps me stay productive during the day. I talked about a bit on here but not a lot so I thought I would share. Over a year ago I shared a quick picture of my Task Basket . The basket I use changes constantly, the basic idea is that is has my to-do list along with at least part of the pieces for any project I am working on that day. Some of this is so I have what I need handy and some is so that I have physical reminders of that days chores. Today's basket included my to-do list along with: cleaner for the bathrooms, carpet powder, return address labels to remind me to go to the post office, my calendar since I kept getting messages about making plans, note cards to write down the verses I'm supposed to be memorizing (and later the verses themselves).  I like this as it really does help keep me on task and means I don't have to stop and go searching for things quite so often. My day in a few snap shots. My Task B...