fog
I've been sick for a full week now.
I have some sort of virus that is making my throat hurt and basically making me feel generally yucky. The doctor told me to "Take it easy, drink lots of fluids and get plenty of rest." (Sorry. All of you mothers probably just snorted into your third cup of coffee.) To help me "get plenty of rest," we've had two snow days, a two-hour delay, a big school project and it looks like we'll have another snow day tomorrow.
I think Mother Nature is trying to kill me. Or she has stock in DayQuil or something.
Not to mention we're starting to talk about potty training with Colin.
And by "talk about potty training," I mean asking him "Do you want to sit on the potty?" and him running away screaming "NOOOOO!!! I NO WIKE THE POTTIEEEE!!!!"
This may take awhile. Possibly until he is in middle school.
tips to managing family finances
Thank you to TurboTax for sponsoring my writing about household finances. Learn more about how TurboTax can help you find every tax deduction you deserve. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
We discovered early in our marriage that one person needed to take charge of family finances and, as my husband was super busy working full time and going to grad school, it ended up being me… despite him being the business major and me having not taken a math class since high school. Much to my own amazement, I've managed to pull it off without making (too many) mistakes.
I even started doing our taxes. ME! I can barely do math, and I did our taxes! After ten years, I've really gotten our finances down to a science – despite the craziness of our schedules and the insane about of paperwork that comes across our desk. But I've discovered a few tricks to managing a busy household's finances.
1. Automate everything you can. Most of the time, I cannot tell you what day it is, so I would totally miss due dates if I didn't have things scheduled for me. My mortage, utilities, everything is automatically deducted every month.
2. Have a financial folder. Every bill, every statement, every reciept goes in one place. Otherwise you'll find a bill sitting on your washing machine that was due weeks ago. Keep everything in one place. Its sounds obvious, but I can't tell you how often I forget to do this!
3. Mark finance days on your calendar. Mark one or two days on your calendar each month to go over bills, pay credit cards, and balance your checkbook. Otherwise things can slip through the cracks. Nothing worse than going to the ATM and realizing that you waaaay off of what you thought was in your account!
4. Pay yourself. When you automate paying bills, automate your savings account as well. Its easy to skip that payment when things are tight, but even if its small, have a bit automatically put into your savings account every month. You'll be amazed how fast it will add up!
So there are my little tips! Nothing ground breaking, but they help my increasingly scattered brain keep track of things for our family's finances.
Fashion Friday: snow day edition
I kid you not. If we have one more snow day….. There is a limit to the amount of time I can stay snowed into the house with three kids and I reached it at around 11 o’clock yesterday morning.
But speaking of piles of snow, I have come to the realization that I own no snow boots. I’ve been shoveling in my super old pair of fuggs from Target and I’ve realized I need something a little heartier, since apparently Philly is the new snow capital of the US.
I don’t ski or anything, so I don’t need anything too hardcore. My winter outdoor activities include cleaning off my car, shoveling the driveway and occasionally sledding in my backyard.
So let’s look for some winter boots!
These Keens are amazing, but pricey:
Maybe these are more practical and half the price (but not nearly as cute)
OHMYWORD THESE ARE AMAZING!!
I really like these by Timberland! A great twist on the classic duck boot!
Did you know Crocs made winter boots? These are totally gorgeous!!
Or what about just some rain boots that I can wear with really fuzzy, warm socks?
What’s your vote?
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here’s what i’ve been up to….
You may have noticed I've been all but ignoring the ol' blog lately. Well, I’ve had a huge project in the works and I’m finally ready to share it!!!
Last summer, I started a fashion and beauty site called bStylish. It was an instant hit and within a month or so, I was adding on the fabulous Nicole and Laura to save me help me out. It has been so fun and exciting – we've been having such a blast with this – but I've been not sure what to do next.
Well, a few weeks ago, my friend Jo-Lynne (of Chic Critique) and I decided to partner up and merge our style blogs into an amazing new site that goes beyond just beauty and fashion to include All Things Chic.
We’ve been talking and meeting and working and talking and building the site over the past few weeks and it’s FINALLY READY!! We are SUPER EXCITED!!! It is in the process right now and should be up and running any minute now!
We have combined our amazing contributors and added a few fresh faces, and we will be posting fresh content multiple times a day. Topics are not just limited to women’s fashion and beauty, but we’ll also be sharing our chic and stylish finds for the home and family. There will be a lot of new features and great giveaways and tons of fun, and – our favoirte part is that everything we post is accessible to real women like you and me. We may talk about high design occasionally, but rest assured that we're probably going to include "get the look for less" options with it.
Next week we are planning a HUMONGO-FANTABULOUS Launch Party with some really sweet giveaways and lots of great style tips so be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter so you don’t miss anything.
I hope you will subscribe and then tweet and facebook and shout it from the rooftops — help us spread the word!!!
If you aren’t seeing AllThingsChic.net yet, it’s just a matter of time… Believe me, we are DYING to see it up too!!
i won’t be around this morning…
As I will be chaperoning Ellie’s field trip for five hours. (I got a reminder in the mail yesterday – that was this week? Whoops!)
According to the letter, I will be riding the school bus. And I will be in charge of a group of 7-year-old girls. Who I am supposed to “keep quiet” on the bus and during the play.And we all have to go to the bathroom together so they are chaperoned at all times. For FIVE HOURS.
Something tells me that this afternoon, I will most likely be found taking a nice, long nap.
may experience bumps upon re-entry
We had such a fabulous vacation! Today I'm crazy running around, refilling our very empty fridge, cleaning, trying to keep my jet-lagged children awake, getting ready for a BIG EVENT ON WEDNESDAY (follow AllThingsChic for details 😉 and tackling this mess:
I'll be back. Eventually…..
and the highlight of gracie’s day…
…meeting Rapunzel.
wordless wednesday: this is a sign that this ride might be a rough one
and some more…
And quite possibly the best picture of Disney EVER….
AHHHHHH!!! I DIDN'T KNOW THE RIDE WAS GOING TO DO THIS!!!