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Raising Kids. Pinching Pennies. Cleaning House. Living Simply.

Funny Wedding Gifts: Choose Your Next Adventure Idea

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My oldest niece, who is a mere 7 years younger than me, announced she was getting married this summer and personally called and invited my husband and me to attend her ceremony. Fortunately, the timing worked out and we planned for months on attending her early June wedding. As the big day came closer we had to figure out what exactly to gift the bride and groom. We haven't been invited to many weddings over the years and were a bit clueless about a great wedding gift idea. We thought back to what we liked receiving from our wedding, but also thought about having a little fun with what we gave, because, why not? My husband ...

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Ancestry DNA Reviews – How to Use Them and What You Can Expect

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Interested in Ancestry DNA reviews?  Here's what we thought about our Ancestry DNA tests.  For Christmas 2016 I decided to buy my husband and myself Ancestry DNA tests from Ancestry.com. They were running a 30% off sale and I had been wanting to try it out for some time. Mostly because I'm curious what it would show, though I know most of my ancestral roots via pretty detailed family trees that go back several generations on both my father and my mother's side. I also convinced my sister to buy a kit for herself, her daughter, her son, and her husband too. Here's a little of our experience with Ancestry DNA testing and ...

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How to Completely Digitize Photos, Journals, and More So They’re Safe in Disasters

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I'm a sucker for old photos, old letters, and old journals. I love the tie they are to our past, our personal family history, of eras gone by. It was a very rare occasion that my mother actually opened up our trunk of old family photos and let us rummage around in them, as well as look through our old family film slides. Once or twice my dad got caught up in the nostalgia himself and put together a reel of old film slides, mostly from his early Army and college days. It was hilarious to see pictures of my goofy looking dad (who still had a smidge of hair on top) and amazing to see pictures of my parents once so young (I'm the ...

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10 Tips for Homeschooling Older Kids with Toddlers and Preschoolers at Home

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This post is sponsored by ReadingEggs Junior. All opinions are my own.  On our first day of homeschool this year, things were going really well. We were sticking to our new homeschool schedule like clockwork. School itself went fantastic and the new curriculum I purchased for English proved perfect for my girls. But, as I read to my 7-year-old twins for school, worked with them on math and English, my 4-year-old son was clearly feeling neglected. Or bored. Either way, he was refusing to pick up after himself, and instead of cleaning up his first mess (puzzles he kicked around the house), he got out a set of Memory cards ...

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The Secret Way to Avoid Dragging All the Kids to the Doctor’s Office

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This post is sponsored by Amwell. All opinions are my own. There's only so much you can do when you are trapped in a cramped 100 square foot room with four little kids for 20 minutes or more. Only so much to contain the youthful energy and exuberance that is a toddler, preschooler, and two grade schoolers before they go bonkers. And there's only so much patience you have as a mom to enforce strict no touching and no playing rules when there is literally nothing else to do but stare at the doctor's office walls. Taking four little people to various doctor's appointment with me is not my idea of a good time, especially when ...

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14 Things To Do with Baby Teeth after They Fall Out!

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Wondering what to do with baby teeth after they fall out? So are many other parents! Discover saving baby teeth ideas like baby teeth jewelry and saving baby teeth for stem cells!  When my daughter lost her first tooth, on Thanksgiving Day, at our friend's house, pulling it out herself, at just six years old, we were all so excited! Losing baby teeth (also called milk teeth) becomes an obsession for kids around the ages of 5-8. Kids compare how many they lose, show off wiggly ones, and share what the tooth fairy brought them. And it's all in good fun. It's a fun and exciting milestone for kids! As a parent, as the "tooth ...

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How to Get Rid of Vomit Smell in Car with Only 1 Product

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This post on how to get rid of vomit smell in a car was sponsored by EnviroKlenz. All opinions are my own. I still remember the first time my husband and I went to visit my parents after we got married. We had moved to Indiana a year before and wanted to trek up to Wisconsin to visit them for Christmas with our 20-month-old twin daughters. Of course, we were running late leaving and had to drop something off at a UPS store on the way out of Indianapolis. And of course, one of our twins puked a few times during our relatively short 6-7 hour car ride up to my parent's house. And of course, she passed her sickness on to ...

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The Easiest and BEST Way to Clean a Porcelain Sink

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What to know how to clean a porcelain sink? Especially with a product that is septic safe? Then read on! This post was sponsored by Bar Keepers Friend but all opinions and love of it are my own. In November last year, my husband and I completed construction on our house in the country.  We only have 1.5 acres so it’s not really much.  But it’s more than we had in the city (about 8,000 sqft) and way more land than we had in our condo in California (is negative land space possible?). As part of our move to the country, we have had to make some changes to our home maintenance.  Specifically, we are on a septic system now ...

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How to Organize Digital Photos Easily and Simply

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Looking for the best way to organize your phone pics, get them off your phone, save them, and keep them, then this is the best way to archive digital photos. The beautiful thing about digital photos and cell phone pictures is that they are super easy to take, upload, share online, and enjoy over and over again! My family loves looking back at photos, and especially digital videos, we have of my kids as babies, doing new things, taking those first steps, and saying adorable words. One of my daughters asks to view them all the time! We've tried to keep our digital photos organized on our computer by months and years, event, ...

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6 of the Best Personal Clothing Styling Services for Men

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If you are looking for the best men's clothing subscription box, the following six offer personalized styling services for men, delivered right to their door.  Honestly, who doesn't love new clothes? Especially clothes are high-quality, affordable, and stylish? Last year I spent time trying my hand at personal styling services for myself via Stitch Fix for Women and .  I had mixed results with both services, which prompted me to write about 16 Stitch Fix alternatives. It's funny that my husband often likes to shop and pick out new clothes for me, but he often hates picking out clothes for himself. I think he's handsome no ...

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