Week 1 Recap of Our No-Spend Challenge

This was a pretty tough week to be thrown into for our first week on the no-spend challenge. 

Although the weekdays went pretty smoothly.

Monday

We started school back up and that prompted Nick and I to have the discussion about how/if the challenge would affect the way we do our schooling.  We had said it wouldn't really before in our talks but it came up again when I introduced a new "motto" for our classroom to the kids.  Nick said I should enlarge it, laminate it, and hang it up in the classroom.  That prompted the discussion on if that was in fact a need or simply a want. 

The jury is still out on that one so we'll have to see what I decide.  It may in part be decided by the price of making the poster.  $20 for a poster?  No thanks...

But I think we kind of narrowed down that in terms of what the kids are learning and the core of what they need we absolutely will not waiver.  The fluff stuff we may reevaluate and see what we could use that we already have.

Tuesday

Calvin threw a wrench in our plans by declaring that instead of taking the train to Chicago for his birthday as planned, he wanted to go to LEGOLAND.  So after calling Nick and having him approve the change, I frantically hopped on line to try to track down as many deals as possible. 

In the end it proved to be way too much money to change our plans so we decided to stick with the original plan to go downtown for his birthday.

Wednesday

My best friend and I took all of our kids to Sky Zone (a trampoline park) to get the kids to shake out all their wiggles!  What a fun time we had!  It is so fun to have a friend with kiddos that my kiddos love! 

I know, I know SkyZone is in no way a "need" but thankfully the kids got giftcards to there for Christmas so we used those to go.  Hooray for fun things to do!

Thursday

Why do companies feel the need to try to get you to spend money after you just had Christmas?  Besides the fact that everyone went out and spent tons on gifts I know that we do not have any more room for more STUFF! 

These catalogs always get me!  Lakeshore Learning, an educational store gets me every time.  I always ooh and ah over all of the stuff that is in there.  Surely if I get all of this stuff the kids will learn more, right?  I rationalize to myself.  But the truth is that even though we've decided the no-spend year will not affect our schooling, we do not need any more supplies.  I've over bought as it is. 

American Girl was a difficult one (for about half a minute) to toss.  I don't want Emma to miss out on childhood because of the no-spend challenge.  But then I remembered that the dolls themselves are what make childhood so great, not the shopping, so I tossed them.  She needs to be grateful for the 4 dolls she has and not be shopping for more. 

Ulta always kills me. Do you see that?  Do you?  The one day sale thing makes me want to almost get up and run out of the house.  Almost.

I must buy the things!  But it is an almost feeling and so I restrained myself.  But it was hard! 

The Weekend

This past weekend was a blur!  We went to Chicago on the train to celebrate Calvin's birthday.  He turned 9!  How did this happen?  Can anyone tell me, please? 

I still feel like I am about 25 and have no clue what I am doing with motherhood.  Or Autism.  Or mothering a child with Autism.  There is still so much to learn, but anyway.

We realize that a trip to Chicago is not a NEED but we have a son who has talked about this trip for basically a year so then telling him last minute that he doesn't get his birthday trip due to his parents' weird challenge was not an option. 

We did however go through this weekend with a clear idea in mind of what we were going to buy and what we were not.  While these trips usually end up with us finding "deals" and stocking up on every little thing we see, this time, we did not. 

Dylan's Candy Shop?  We let them get a tube of candy and a small little something else.  Calvin got to pick one thing out at Lego as his gift.  We got Emma something at American Girl. 

For Birthday cake?  We decided on a couple of cupcakes from the Cupcake ATM rather than a whole cake. 

I saw SO MANY awesome things I wanted to buy mainly because there were gobs and gobs of things marked down on Christmas clearance. And it was really, really hard but we didn't get anything we hadn't planned. 

We had a lot of fun throughout the weekend, everything we got was a deal or at least a planned expense, and we were able to come home and not feel completely janky because we had spent way too much. 

It was a nice feeling. 

One of the not nice things about this weekend was how my view could get so a skewed by all of the nonsense of the stores in Chicago.  We stayed downtown so there was plenty of walking past stores like Cartier, Tiffany's, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and more.  We came back to our hotel after a night of shopping and I couldn't believe how burdened I felt about those things.  Was it Jealousy?  Envy?  I don't know but after talking about it with Nick I boiled it down to the fact that when we are at home I feel content with what we have but when I am in Chicago I start to realize everything that I could have.  Do you know what I mean?  It was not a nice feeling.  In the end I reasoned with myself that that could forever be a never ending cycle.  If I had a new Tiffany ring I would want a Cartier or a newer one or a bigger one.  This could go on forever. 

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So I am learning from this that it has to simply be the fact that you have to make the decision to be happy with yourself and what you have whatever that may be.  Sometimes it is a lot easier said than done.

I can't believe in the short time of one week how dramatically altered my viewpoint has been. I now go through our home looking at things with hushed tones and gentle fingers...it's all a reminder of how amazingly blessed we are. 

And while I could probably say, "let's go back to how things were, we're changed already" I don't think I can say that yet at all. I want to go through a hot, sticky day and teach kids the value of cold hose water; the joy of hard work and how good it feels to lay in bed after a long day and feel content and pleased with the work you've accomplished. 

It was a great week.  A difficult week at moments but a week that made us feel perhaps even more grateful for gifts and possessions than we would have.  For that, the difficulty has been worth it. 

Welcome to our Cottage

I can't wait to share our cottage with you. 

Ready? 

Come on in, friends! 

In case you missed it in this post you can read all about how my amazing husband took me down and presented me with keys as a birthday gift...keys to our very own lake cottage!  It was so sweet and romantic of him to set the trip up and to give me a lake cottage for my birthday!  He's really upped the ante when it comes to birthday gifts.  Next year I'm going to have to give him a Porsha or something ;)

But anyway...

Welcome to our new home away from home. 

Literally!

We are so, so blessed by this place.   I have wanted a cottage ever since I was a girl but I had never thought of it as a real possibility.  I never really even thought of it as being possible. If it did ever happen, I figured maybe one day when the kids were grown.  Or I was almost dead. 

But a few months ago this all started coming together in one of those events that you just know God is at the head of. We had taken Cal down (Emma had ballet and then was with my sister...boo!  We always miss her) and visited with some friends of ours who have a cottage a few doors down from what is now ours (we're neighbors now!).  They were talking with us about a few cottages that were available for sale.  We looked at them longingly but figured it was just a nice dream and set out on our way. 

On the way home though we were talking about how Cal just seemed to love being down around the lake.  He rode his bike all over and had the best time.  He was so much better behaved after being down there.  Then we started talking more seriously about owning a cottage and God opened doors and paved ways we never thought would be open to us. It's been an incredible experience to be a part of. We have always known that nothing was impossible with our God but this has really proven that for us!

I do want to say that our cottage needs a lot of work.  I don't want to sugar coat it and make it look like it's perfect.  It's not. It's like us: It needs work.  But we have a clear vision together of what we want and we are so excited to work on it together.  Thankfully it is in live in condition...no mold or vermin or missing walls, whew! 

It's totally us. 

Except the furniture.  The purchase came with the furniture so that will be moved out as well.  Didn't want to confuse y'all and have you thinking we already moved furniture in. :)

If you know Nick and I you know that we are kind of weirdos.  And we LOVE old houses.  When a girl who's a history nerd marries an architect you get a really great love of OLD Architecture!  Our home is over 120 years old.  We have changed things and discovered things and polished things.  It's the work we've put into our home that makes us love it even more.  And one another.  Our home (like this one will be) truly is a labor of love.

I don't think that we are "new" home kinds of people.  We love the journey that old homes provide.  Our cottage is one of the original ones on the lake left in the original shape.  It is going to be so fun to tear away the layers and try to find what is still there...to go through the journey together and sift through the past.

So let's show you around...what we love, what we are going to change and everything in between! 

Come on in!

This is the view from the front door.  Currently there is a bedroom that you can see in the photo.  It is actually decent sized.  However we really want a big open space.  I'm envisioning kids sprawled on the floor doing a puzzle, family cookouts with people bustling in and out.  Those type of things.  And with the space so small (less than 500 sq ft!) we really want to open everything as much as possible.  We are planning on tearing down these walls! in the center of the room so it's just a big open area.  We are planning on having a bed down there (ain't no fan of a futon) but it will be in the open space.  Pa and Ma Ingalls style. 

So I can definitely see what others were trying to do in the past with our house.  I don't want to be one to say "what were they doing here?"  because everyone has their own vision for space, their own personalities, tastes, ideas, and budgets.

What we are envisioning is one large area (for now).  Down the road we envision a second floor being added on with the bedrooms moved to upstairs.  Can you picture all of it?  Can you?  Eek, I'm excited just talking about it!

For now though we will have one large room which will serve as the bedroom/entry/living room.  The children have a small room where they will sleep in bunkbeds.  It's an adorable little nook for them.  We also have a kitchen and a bathroom.  and that's it! Let me show you those...

Here is the bathroom.  It looks teeny tiny and it is!  The first time we looked at the cottage I didn't go in the bathroom and then when I went home and thought of the cottage (and dreamed about it even!) I was eeked out by the size of the bathroom.  But this time when I was in the cottage I actually WENT in the bathroom and I was surprised by the amount of space in the bathroom.  Don't get me wrong, there isn't a lot of space. But I could at least change my clothes without knocking something off of the sink.  Whew!

This is the kids nook/area/thing.  Emma keeps telling people that they have to sleep in a closet which isn't true (but it is the size of a good closet I suppose!) The people before us have been keeping this as a little storage area so after a good tidy, some new matresses, and some paint it will be as good as new.  One of the things I think the kids are having a hard time understanding is the lack of personal space.  Living in a large home we all have our own areas of the house to go to when we need to be alone but here we won't have that.  We've been trying to explain it to them but I think it will still be a big adjustment for all of us. 

From the kitchen you can see that this place has not been occupied for some time.  It's definitely going to need some love!  These two photos are me standing in one side of the kitchen and taking a photo and then swapping sides and taking a photo of the side where I had been standing.  Our big view of the lake is out of the kitchen window which placement wise makes it a bit awkward.  But we are going to make it work! 

Here's a very side view (not sure why I didn't take it from straight on) but I just love the view.  We are about 3 houses down from the beach area that has a little playground.  It will just be perfect!

Anyway, the view is one of the reasons that we want to make this as open and airy as we can...we want to see the view as much as we can! 

Well, I hope you enjoyed the tour of our little lake cottage.  We are so excited to bring it back to life and love on it.  God is so amazing friends! 

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I will be posting soon all about the little details of the place that can be hard to see in photos.  With that maybe you can help me with some design questions we are having :).  We plan on posting all about our progress so stick around!

How My Birthday Rocked Its Socks Off!

Last week was my birthday.  I am officially in my late 30's. 

That was a whole gulp of reality right there.

It was such an amazing time! 

My very first gift was my sweet Nick taking me down and gifting me with the keys to our very own lake cottage! 

I cannot believe I am 35 and we own our first vacation property.  I say first because I 've learned over the years to never underestimate God's plans. It's amazing what He does. 

So anyway, we went down to our cottage and took some measurements, wrote a big list of what we know we are going to need, and just in general started dreaming of what we can do with the space.  We are so, so excited!

I will be writing another blog about the cottage so stay tuned!

The next day (my actual birthday!)  we went to a celebration with my fantastic in-laws.  It was a Thanksgiving/chili cook-off/birthday celebration and between the brownie bar and all of the gifts I sure felt loved.  I am so blessed to call them all family!

The morning of my birthday the kiddos gave me some wonderful gifts!  Calvin gave me a piece of pottery he made in his class and Emma gave me a cross stitch plaque that she made for me all on her own.  It was so sweet! She even took me on a special scavenger hunt around the house to find my gift.  I just love them so much!

The day after my birthday we went to my mom and dad's for one of my mom's "farmhouse dinners" that she always has for our birthdays.  She lets us pick out whatever we want for dinner and she makes it. This year I picked a haystack dinner which is like a torn apart taco with rice on the bottom of the pile of toppings.   It's just the sweetest thing and we always have so much fun! She even had a birthday cake for me and then we all enjoyed looking at pictures from when we were younger. 

I got some really amazing gifts!  My baby sister, Kelsey bought me a really fun Starbucks mug and my middle sister, Lacey bought me some Pioneer Woman jar glasses.  I've wanted some of those for a while so I was tickled.  My sister in law, Natalie bought me the cutest bags and an adorable Christmas decoration.  She knows I love Christmas and bags...perfection!

Anyway, I will be putting together a blog about our cottage so stay tuned for that! 

Thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes and messages!  It was such a great day (and Birthday week!) I really appreciate you all!

Muah! xo