Spending Less Money On Books & Movies

My oldest girlie came home from school yesterday with a stack of Scholastic Reading Club Order Booklets. Four to be exact! While each purchase supports your child's school, I would rather save my money on books and make a donation to the school at a later time. 

Last year I got sucked into buying Scholastic books. It's great and all, but it was money I didn't need to spend. We regularly reserve books for myself and for my girls at our local library. The girls are excited to read new-to-them books and old favorites (like Fancy Nancy) that we borrow repeatedly.

When my daughter came home with this packet of order forms, my first thought was - CRAP! NOT AGAIN! And then I came up with a great idea! 

My daughter was so excited about all the books and I wanted to support her enthusiasm for reading. I told my daughter to circle all the books that she wants to read and that we could then borrow them from our local library. She was thrilled about going through all the pictures and circling her favorite books. 

Even better, I didn't have to limit her excitement to 1 or 2 books to keep the cost down. Her excitement about books could grow as much as she desired! 

In addition to the cost saving of utilizing our local library, I am also avoiding throwing the order forms in the trash by holding on to them for the next birthday present/christmas present and reusing these colorful papers as wrapping paper!

I love supporting our local library and the benefits we receive from utilizing their service. In addition to borrowing books, we've transitioned to borrowing movies for family movie night with the girls - this Friday we are going to watch Disney's Robin Hood for free.

When I went to the library to get our next batch of books and our Friday Night Movie, I started thinking about our movie collection. I went through a phase of buying movies for the girls every time I saw a good Disney Movie for sale. Now I have a stack of movies in my home. I decided, why not donate our movies to the library so that other kids can enjoy them as well. 

I knew getting my kiddos to agree with parting with all their movies at once was not going to go over well. So I had them each pick one movie to donate to the library. Next month I will ask them again to each pick a movie to donate, getting rid of our movie pile 3 at a time!

Movies donated to our local library!

Taking LESS To The Next Level

I have been moving down the path of a minimalist lifestyle for over a year now. I am loving the changes that have been taking place in my life. With less STUFF I find myself reading more books (from the library), my house stays more clean, and I spend less time organizing (which I do love to do). I sell less stuff on craigslist and give less to goodwill because I'm buying less. I am loving my more minimalist life.

We love our organic cotton napkins with our initials!

Then I came across a podcast (thanks to The Art of Simple) about Zero Waste Living. I was intrigued and listened with excitement. I am all about being green, earth friendly, creating less waste and this podcast was just what I needed to inspire me to my next level of minimalist living!

Here are some things I am inspired to start doing:

1. Start COMPOSTING. I'm not to the point of self composting, but our town has a compost collection site. So I am hoping to get a counter top compost bin and start throwing apple cores, banana peels, etc in there instead of in the garbage.

2. Replace PLASTIC ITEMS with COMPOSTABLE ITEMS. I'm excited to switch to compostable floss and toothbrushes.

3. Replace DISPOSAL ITEMS WITH REUSABLE ITEMS. I already use rags instead of paper towels, cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. I'm excited to switch from kleenex to handkerchiefs, pads and tampons to reusable cloth moon pads and a diva cup. 

4. REFUSE handouts. In the next month we go for our 6 month dentist appointment. We always get free toothbrushes, toothpaste, and floss. But I am going to say NO THANK YOU because I am switching from all that plastic to more earth friendly options.

For more inspiration on Zero Waste, check out Bea's website: Zero Waste Home

Summer Fun List 2015

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We are embracing our minimalist lifestyle more than ever these days - less furniture, less toys, less clothes, less kitchen stuff. In return, we are enjoying more energy for fun and relaxing activities this summer.

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We had created a Summer Fun List to accomplish this summer season with our kids. As we near the end, we have almost completed our list. Here it is:

Devil's Lake

1. Milwaukee County Zoo (Memorial Day)
2. Water Balloon Fight in the Back Yard (June)
3. Family Road Trip (June - To Disney World)
4. Visit Nanee & Papa's Lake House (4th of July)
5. Cottage Grove Family Fun Movie Night (July)
6. Daddy Dates - Our girls each had a date with Chris to lunch and a water park (July)
7. Visit Devil's Lake State Park (July)
8. Henry Vilas Zoo (July)
9. Attend One Concerts on the Square Night (July)
10. 7yr Anniversary Get Away / Kids Sleepover with Nanee & Papa (August)
11. Visit Grandma and Grandpa D in MN (August)
12. Attend One Dane Dances Night (August)
13. S'mores and Camp in Backyard (August)
14. Flick & Float Event at Monona Pool (August - plan to do this up-coming week)
15. U Pick Organic Rasberries (August - plan to do next weekend)

One event we wanted to do that we missed was:

• U Pick Organic Strawberries (must do next June)

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We are having such a fun summer because of our list! This will be something we continue to do each season to make sure we are creating fun family memories with our girls throughout the year!

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Concerts on the Square

Experiment Nine: A Less Stressful Way to Visit Disney World with Toddlers

We just got back from our road trip to Disney World. After LOVING our road trip to Arizona last summer, we decided we wanted to road trip every summer with our girls. Our girls are in love with the disney princesses, so we decided to road trip it from Wisconsin to Florida with Disney as our destination.

When we made this decision, I started looking at the Disney website. Man is it overwhelming! All the different parks and all the different attractions within each park could take you forever to explore. With a 4 year old and two 3 year olds, I knew conquering all the parks was out of the question for us. On top of the energy level needed to explore all the parks in a short period of time, getting into the Disney parks is expensive - almost $100 per person.

In order to make Disney fit our budget, we decided we would spend one day visiting Disney. And in order to make our trip easy (bus transportation to the parks) and Disney themed, we stayed at the new value plus resort, Art of Animation. It was awesome for our girls. There is a great splash pad and a zero depth entry pool - PERFECT!!! We stayed in a NEMO themed room. We had 3 beds, a kitchenette, 2 bathrooms - we would stay there again.

With our resort picked out and booked, how do you visit Disney for just one day? For me, I had to think simple. Simple is less stressful and makes our time together more enjoyable. With our girls' ages and interests, we knew they would love to meet their favorite princesses. We decided this would be our sole goal of our trip - MEET PRINCESSES. 

With that in mind we decided to go with Magic Kingdom, focusing our time at the Fantasyland area. We got fast passes for Cinderella & Rapunzel, Belle, and Ariel. We were also able to wait in line to meet Elsa & Anna, Tinkerbelle, and Mickey Mouse. Our girls LOVED the Ariel Undersea Adventure ride as well. We also caught the fantasy parade at 3pm - AMAZING! And a ton of additional princesses and their princes were in the parade!

Their was one glitch to our plan to only visit Magic Kingdom. One of our daughter's favorite princess was Aurora and she was no where in Magic Kingdom. We searched and searched and found out that she was located at Epcot. Now what? 

In order to stick with our one-day-at-disney rule and within budget we decided to pay an extra $35/person and get a hopper pass to Epcot for the same day. In Norway in Epcot they have a character dinning with 5 princesses (Aurora, Ariel, Snow White, Belle, Cinderella). It was a more expensive way to eat dinner, but it completed our MEET THE PRINCESSES THEME of the day and we loved it. The food was great too!


We had an amazing day at Disney. I wouldn't have done it any other way.  Of course there were cranky moments - naps were missed - but we still look back and loved it all. The next day our legs were wobbly with fatigue and we enjoyed a relaxing day at the pool at our resort. 


There is a lot of Disney we didn't see, and that's ok. We hope to go back to Disney when the girls are a bit older - maybe in 5 years. Our focus can be on other areas of the parks then. We can enjoy discovering all that Disney has to offer at our girls' pace and enjoy the smiles on their faces as we experience the wonders of their imaginations come to life.

Side Note: Souvenirs get expensive. We decided the girls could each pick one thing (they each picked out a disney princess dress). We got an ornament to remember our trip. And I bought each girl a necklace that I am holding onto until Christmas as a Christmas present. We kept it simple and the girls cherish their dresses.

ROAD TRIP TO DISNEY:

Our road trip for our Disney destination was just as awesome. We planned our days on the road similar to our last trip to Arizona. But with the girls a bit older we were able to push bedtimes and be a little more flexible. Here's an overview of our trip on the road:

Day 1: 9am on the road, picnic in El Paso, IL, dinner in St. Louis, MO, hotel in Blytheville, AR

Strawberry Patch Park

Day 2: 9:30am on the road, lunch at McDonalds in Grenada, MS, play at the park in Madison, MS (awesome park - Strawberry Patch Park), dinner in Hattiesburg, MS (found out not a place you want to stop in), hotel in St. Rose, La

Day 3: 9:30am drove through French Quarter in New Orleans, drove along beaches in MS (awesome!!! want to return there some day!!!), picnic and park in Spanish Fort, AL (awesome dream park on Ember Lane), pizza and ice cream at Seagrove Beach, FL (cool vacation area on scenic 30A), quick stop to visit the beach in Panama City, FL, hotel in Tallahassee, FL.

Panama City

Day 4: 9:30am on the road, Picnic at largest live oak tree in FL, at Disney Hotel (dinner and pool time)

Little Talbot Island, FL

Day 5: Magic Kingdom & Epcot

Day 6: Pool Day at Resort

Day 7: 9am on the road, Picnic at Little Talbot Island State Park (awesome! great for sea shells!), dinner in Valdosta, GA, hotel in Mcdonough, GA

Day 8: 10am on the road, quick picnic in Chattanooga, TN, ice cream stop in Jasper, TN, stop in Nashville, TN to visit Family

Day 9: 2pm on the road, drove through Kentucky, stop in Champaign-Urbana for late dinner and hotel

Drive Through Kentucky

Day 10: 11am on the road to HOME

We had a great road trip. And now we are looking forward to planning our next summer road trip (thinking out to the west coast)!

Experiment Eight: A Less Stressful Way To Road Trip With Little Ones

Last summer we were faced with a big question: How the heck do we get from Wisconsin to Arizona with a 3 year old and two 2 year olds? My sister was getting married at a beautiful resort in Scottsdale, AZ in late June. We could fly or we could drive.

We had never flown with our girls before and the thought of checking carseats and the rest of our luggage was daunting. Driving would take longer, but we would already have our carseats in tow and space for the rest of our luggage. So decision made: We're Driving!

Oh Crap! Now with that decision made: How do we drive a mini van full of toddlers 26 hours (one way) without going crazy? Everyone we talked to had different responses....

• That sounds horrible!

• Do most of your driving through the night so the kids sleep.

• Just fly.

• Are you crazy?

I spent countless hours searching for answers on different blogs. I was looking for answers on how to keep our kids entertained in the car. Most answers I found included projects for me to set up ahead of time. While these ideas were super creative pinterest inspiring ideas, my only response was - HELL NO! I don't have the time or energy to do all this. And in the end I think the mini van is going to be covered in crayons, small magnetic/sticky pieces that ultimately don't end up sticking to the windows, and a scattering of other small toys they lose interest in after 5 minutes.

I talked to other people getting their personal stories of how they made road trips work - finding out their secrets to making it to their destinations. One mom told me that they would leave home in the evening and drive as late into the night as possible before crashing in a hotel. Objective - get as many miles in as possible when the kids are sleeping.

This sounded like a great idea. The winter before our road trip we ended up making a short notice road trip from Wisconsin to North Dakota for my grandpa's funeral. We decided that we would try this method of - drive as late into the night as you can! Our experience: DIDN'T WORK! Our kids fell asleep in the mini van - awesome! By the time we got to our hotel my husband and I were exhausted (about 11pm) and ready to crash. Only problem - our girls don't transfer from carseat to bed well. So they woke up and were wired until two in the morning. It was horrible. This method did not work for our family!

Now what?

We decided getting to our hotels at a reasonable hour to do our normal bedtime routine - bath, stories, prayer, bed would be best for us. With that game plan we would want to get to our nightly hotels between 7pm and 8pm. Decision made - check!

Next question to tackle: How do we keep the girls entertained in the car? We decided to go simple. We got the girls tablets from Barnes and Noble for their birthdays. They had time to master their tablets without our help before the road trip. Two weeks before we hit the road I took the tablets to the "Tablet Doctor" to get fixed before the road trip (aka: stored them in a cabinet). This made all their games and books on their tablets new and exciting again for the car. Other than that they had their blanket, a stuffed animal and a physical book. Done and done - check!

With those two questions answered, the next two questions on our list....

Meals and Naps?

We wanted to stick to a fairly tight budget and stick to things that were easy when it came to our meals. For breakfast, we decided to stay at hotels that offered a free continental breakfast. For lunch, we decided to have picnic lunches. We bought groceries for the car - bread and peanut butter, bananas and apples, gogurts and string cheese, fruit snacks and cheddar bunnies. We had bottles of water and were set. For dinner, we always planned on stopping at a restaurant - generally a panera bread or equivalent - easy, fast, healthier than fast food, and cheaper than a regular sit down restaurant. Done, done, and done - check!

Would the girls nap in the car? We hoped so, but with all that sitting would they ever get tired? Or would they get tired later, making our bedtime routine more difficult? Our hope was that they would crash after lunch (like a normal nap). We decided it would be a good idea to get some run around time outside the car at lunch time. We preplanned all our stops, using google maps to follow our route. For lunchtime we found a playground to stop at - have our picnic lunch in the shade and then let the girls play! It was great. Our girls loved having a playground to play at in every new state! Check!

Here's what our days looked like in general:

• In the car by 9am
• Drive approximately 2.5 hours 
• Potty break, Picnic at a playground, and Play (our stop was about 1.5 hours total)
• Drive approximately 3 hours
• Potty break, Early Dinner at a Panera Bread or Equivalent (our stop was about 1 hour total)
• Drive approximately 2.5 hours
• Hello Hotel (7:30pm)

Of course there were some days that were different. Sometimes their are no good stops after 2.5/3 hours and you need to drive a bit farther to get to a Panera. Sometimes our girls were finally asleep about 30 minutes before our planned dinner stop, so we kept driving and reevaluating at each exit if it was time to stop. Sometimes you really want to spend time at what would be a quick lunch destination so we preplanned to stop the day early and spend the night so we could have more time to explore. Sometimes we preplanned to stop our day early so we could have a relaxing dinner in the hotel with pizza and disney channel. Sometimes we would last minute change our route to sight see something cool. 

We preplanned as much as we could. We had a timeline with our planned stops for each day we were on the road. Google maps, trip advisor, and visiting city parks webpages (always good if you can get a picture of the playground) to make our stopping decisions. Before we hit the road we knew each day exactly what park we were going to visit, what restaurant we would eat dinner at, and what hotel we were staying at.

While our destination was our goal, we decided to make the most of our journey. We made our trip the whole package, loving every minute of our special time together - even though there were temper tantrums and sick kids part of the time.

Here is what our road trip looked like:

• Day One: 9am Leave Home, Lunch at a park in IA, Dinner in IA, Hotel in MO
• Day Two: 9am Leave Hotel, Lunch at a free zoo in Emporia KS, Dinner in KS, Hotel in Liberal KS
• Day Three: 9 am Leave Hotel, Drive through corner of OK, Lunch at a park in TX, Dinner & Hotel in Albuquerque NM
• Day Four: Off to the Albuquerque BioPark (awesome, awesome, awesome)!!!! 3pm Drive, Dinner in NM, Hotel in Heber AZ
• Day Five: 9am Leave Hotel, Picnic lunch at laundromat in Scottsdale AZ and to Resort
• Day Six and Day Seven at Resort
• Day Eight: 9am Leave Hotel, last minute detour through Sedona on our way to Flagstaff (coolest drive ever!!!), Lunch at park in AZ, Dinner and Hotel in Moab UT
• Day Nine: Visited Arches National Park (super cool) in Moab UT, Hotel in Moab UT again
• Day Ten: 9am Leave Hotel,  Lunch at park in CO, Dinner and Hotel in Denver
• Day Eleven: 9am Leave Hotel, Lunch at park in CO,  Dinner in IA, Hotel near Omaha IA
• Day Twelve: Off to the Omaha Zoo (It was so big and we were tired at this point in the trip - skip big/fun stops late on the way home), We were going to stay in Cedar Rapids that night, but the girls were all feeling sick and we all wanted our own beds so we drove late and got home around 11pm.

Awesome Tips For Easier Cheaper Road Tripping:

• HOTELS: Stay away from big cities - they are more expense. Its easier in and out and cheaper to stay in the suburbs.
• PARKS: If stopping at parks for little ones to play - stay away from big cities. They are so much more hectic to get to and park at. Stopping in small towns is faster and easier.
• SNACKS: No snacking in the car. Keeps the car clean and the kids eat well during the meals.
• STATES: We want to visit all 50 states with our girls. So we took one route on our way to Arizona and an different route on our way home to hit different states. If doing this, take the long way to your destination and the short way home when your are tired and looking forward to seeing your bed again!
• FUN STOPS: There are so many cool things to see when traveling, most of them are not toddler friendly. Stick to easy toddler friendly stops (parks and zoos). They will love it. And if they love it, you will enjoy it. Then take note of the things you thought were cool when researching your trip or while on the road for things to revisit some day.
• ICE CREAM: If the route you are taking one day is longer with no good stop 2.5 to 3 hours after lunch, stop for ice cream, and keep driving to get to your dinner destination. Ice cream always makes traveling more fun!
• DESTINATION: With road tripping in this style, make your destination a shorter stop (3 days max) This is mostly because your travel time is going to be limited. Depending on how far and how long you plan to be gone, you will spend a lot of time getting to your destination and back home.
• BUDGET: If traveling on a budget, road tripping is a great way to go. Driving is way cheaper than flying. Plan picnic lunches and inexpensive dinners. Stay at chain hotels (think Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Best Western) with continental breakfast. Plan for free or inexpensive activities: Playgrounds are free, Some small zoos are free, Albuquerque's Botanical Garden is free and awesome!
• CLOTHES AND SHOES: Pack lightly and only what you need to get through half the trip. My husband and I would re-wear our shorts, but have a clean t-shirt, and underwear for each day. Our girls had a clean summer dress for each day (luckily their clothes are tiny) and our 3 year old had lots of undies packed. We wore tennis shoes or sandals while we traveled. We re-wore the same pajamas each night. Half way through the trip we did laundry and were set to get home.
• POTTY ACCIDENTS: Pack beach towels to cover carseats incase of a potty accident. Then when you get to your hotel you can pull out the carseat, throw the cover in a washing machine at the hotel and be all set to hit the road in the morning. (side note: pick hotels with a washing machine and dryer onsite).
• ENTERTAINMENT IN THE CAR: If bringing tablets, still limit the time. When kids get bored they fall asleep, so if nap time is important, take a break from the tablet after lunch so they sleep and get a break from the screen time. We also just got some fun kids music for our next road trip that our girls are super excited for. So we are planning on having tablet time, music time, and quiet time (hopefully nap time). 
• TV IN THE HOTEL: We don't have cable at home so Disney is a big treat for the girls at the hotel. Another reason to cut the cable at home if you haven't already done so!
• RELAX: Don't try to fit too much into your trip. Do some fun things, but take your time so you come home rejuvenated instead of feeling like you need a vacation.

Experiment Seven: A Less Convenient Way To Clean Dishes

I'm not much of a cook. I really don't enjoy cooking. I am happy with my regular steel cut oats and frozen blueberries in the morning, a simple lunch, and a simple dinner. If a recipe has more than 4 steps I usually don't bother because it's just not worth it to me. The plus side to eating simple - you end up with a lot less dirty dishes!

Goodbye Dishwasher

This past January, my husband broke our dishwasher after trying to fix our dishwasher (haha).  I decided to hold an experiment: How long can we go without our dishwasher? I am happy to report that it has been about 4 months and I haven't missed the dishwasher. I am use to hand washing and don't ever think about the inconvenience of it.

Having simple meals and left overs keeps our dirty dishes to a minimum.

Another thing that helps is that we have simplified out dinnerware/glassware. We are a family of 5 with seven bowls, 10 plates, 4 little bowls (great for fruit, crackers, ice cream) 5 glass cups, and 6 coffee cups. This means we have to keep up with our dirty dishes throughout the day to eat our next meal. Sometimes we can get away with 2 meals in a row, but over all we have to stay caught up. The great thing about this is the dirty stack never gets too big. It's easy to stay caught up.

Experiment Six: Less Bedroom Space

I love small spaces. They seem cozy to me. In small spaces you have what you need (and what you love) and you really can't fit more. Seems perfect. Because the space seems complete, I'm not tempted to over decorate or add more furniture. The simplicity of small spaces speaks to me.

A Smaller Master Bedroom

My husband and I decided to start painting the wood trim in our master bedroom. To make things easy, we decided to move our bed and clothes to the spare bedroom while we spend the next few weeks painting.

Our master bedroom is about 168 square feet in size (12x14). There is a small walk-in closet and an attached small bathroom.

The spare bedroom is about 110 square feet in size (10x11). There is a small regular closet and that's it. Our clothes fit the closet space perfectly and our queen size bed fills the room. We have our night stand and my husband's guitar and some hooks over the door to hang clothes that we plan on wearing again. It's cozy and complete. It's simple and fits everything we need and love. 

This little experiment of moving our bedroom to a room with 58 less square feet is refreshing. We are continuing to find that we are comfortable with less space - this is great since we are hoping to move into a smaller home some day. A smaller home that is simple and beautiful, that has everything we need and love and not more.