My First Award!

Tonya at Shared Treasure selected me to receive the Sisterhood Award! Here are the kind words she shared on her blog:

I am passing it along to Mary Ellen at Living on Love. I love her simplicity of life. She is grateful for her family. I like the way she has accepted changes in her family. She also has interesting recipes and such. She also has another blog and it is just a peaceful blog to read at the end of a busy day.

Thank you so much Tonya! I'm truly honored and tickled pink!


I'm passing the Sisterhood Award along to Jenn at Blogging God and Me. Jenn gives an open and honest look at her life and her relationship with God. She's real and that's what I love the most about her and her blog. It has been amazing to see how God has worked in Jenn's life and that of her family over the past year.

I'm also sharing the Sisterhood Award with Wendy at Zip-Perdue-Dee-Dah. She's a fellow Dave Ramsey follower and deals shopper. And she blogs about her life as mother to Jackson and cutie-pie Kira.


The Sisterhood Award.

The rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate up to 10 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude!

3. Be sure to link your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Remember to link the person from whom you received your award.

Summer Is Flying By!

Wow! Where has the summer gone? We're only a month away from the start of school! We're busy trying to squeeze every bit of fun out of our remaining lazy days of summer.

The boys watching planes take off and land at the airport's observation deck

Kombucha Home Brew

My homemade kombucha in old Synergy bottles

Long time, no blog! Seems like it anyway. Among the things I've been up to lately was finishing my homemade kombucha brew. Per the double fermentation directions, I let my kombucha mother ferment in sweet tea for 5 days. I tasted a small bit of the tea at Day 5, but decided it was still too sweet. So, I let it sit for a few more days. Maybe too long. When I went to bottle the kombucha with my juice, it tasted VERY vinegary. Since I'm used to drinking kombucha with fruit juice added, I thought the taste might improve after a few more days. It didn't. Still very vinegary and with no fizz at all :(

I kept the bottles in the fridge for a few days with the intention of trying the kombucha again chilled. But I never did. Dave poured them out yesterday to make more room in the refrigerator. I'm trying to decide whether I should give it another shot. In retrospect, I should have bottled the kombucha on Day 5 with the juice instead of waiting. But I'm not sure about the lack of fizz. I would think that would point to it maybe not fermenting long enough???

Dave is very anxious for me to decide the fate of the kombucha mother in the refrigerator (he likes to organize ie. throw away my stuff LOL!). As I sit here sipping my G.T.'s Synergy (Divine Grape), I'm undecided about giving it another shot.

Thriving With Job Loss

As I mentioned in my last monthly financial check-up, my husband was in danger of losing his job. As expected, he was let go shortly afterwards. Thank God for our Total Money Makeover plan! We had not yet reached our Baby Step 3 emergency fund savings goal. However, we have enough in place to fall back on if needed. With our budget still running somewhat lean from those Baby Step 2 days of paying off debt, we should be able to pay our monthly expenses on my salary alone. Our plan is to continue to grow the emergency fund with anything Dave receives in unemployment benefits (whenever those start - there's a 4-8 week delay).

Despite my initial fears at the prospect of Dave losing his job, I now rejoice in the blessings this change has brought our way. The biggest blessing of course has been having Dave home more and less stressed! And Dave is very excited about having the opportunity now to explore new career paths. We don't know what the future holds. But we have hope and faith in God that all things will work according to His plan.

Money Saving Mom - Monthly Financial Check-Up

Keepin' Cool

My Guilty Pleasure

An evening run to Sheetz for a frozen mocha. White chocolate with a double shot of caramel.

So bad, but oh soooo good!

A Touch of Summer

On one of his recent morning runs, Dave came across three boxes of canning jars which someone had put out by the road as free to a good home. Among the regular canning jars were these three beautiful blue jars - two Ball Perfect Mason jars and one Atlas Strong Shoulder jar.

I adore the aqua blue color of the jars. And they are just right for adding a touch of summer to the dining room table.

I filled the jars with decor sand (note to self: use light brown sugar next time, it's cheaper!) and placed a small, white candle inside each jar. I didn't intend on putting anything around the jars, but the kids eagerly jumped in and started placing shells we had collected from previous trips to Wrightsville Beach on the mat. With the help of little hands, I think it turned out just beautiful!

Southern Hospitality - Thrifty Treasures

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!

Out to the Farm

We started our holiday weekend this morning by heading out the farm to pick blueberries!

Vollmer Farm (Bunn, NC) organically grown and certified blueberries

As I learn more about nourishing, real foods, I have this growing desire to really connect with where my food is coming from, who is growing it and how it's being grown. We're blessed to have a number of U-Pick farms and farmer's markets in our area which helps to lessen the distance between farm and plate.

It's also a fun experience for the kids! Reedy had a great time picking blueberries. I told him to make sure he only picked the ones that matched his shirt. When he would find a ripe berry, he'd yell out "Blue!" :)