Wednesday, April 10, 2013

give. save. spend.

charlie {6} came home from school and asked if he could buy a penny skateboard with his own money, which he has had carefully stashed away in a super mario wallet from six years of birthdays and tooth fairies. knowing that he had enough saved, and had never asked to buy anything before i said sure right away. and then added an 'i'll speak to your dad about it' to cover my bases... {and told myself that there must be some skater boys who pop their collars on their polo shirts, right?}

when i mentioned it to the hubby, he said he'd talk to him, and i promptly forgot all about it. until i came down from putting the girls to bed and found them hunched over some pieces of paper and markers at the counter, learning about money. i shouldn't have been surprised, since the hubby isn't just an intentional and hands on dad, he's also a financial advisor. they explained that the three things you can do with money are give, save and spend and that charlie had written down what he thinks the reasons are that we do each. he then was asked to rank them in order of importance.





next charlie took out his life savings, $71, in ones and fives, and was asked to decide how much money to put in each category - how much he wanted to give, how much he wanted to save and how much money he wanted to spend!


we left it totally up to him and after much deliberation he had $28 on give, $25 on save and $18 on spend.


 charlie was happy with his choices, surprisingly even after he realized with some disappointment that he no longer had enough money to buy his coveted penny skateboard.  we carefully put the money away in envelopes  and talked about how we would continue to follow this procedure whenever charlie earned more money {or lost more teeth!}.


my favorite part of the night was when the end when hubby told charlie to add up the amounts in give and save, and said he would give him that amount, and would continue to double any money he decided to give or save in the future. which means two things - first that i lucked out with a husband who is an exceptional dad who takes the time to really teach important lessons and....

skateboard! 



Monday, February 11, 2013

organization love!


my most favorite part of my house is my mama's HQ!

 over the almost 7 years we have lived here, it has evolved into the perfect place to calm the chaos of work, school, sports and the general craziness of life. my rules are that everything has to have its place, and every item has to be beautiful to me in some way...

this weekend i added an early birthday present to myself - a set of four Emily Ley prints. i love not only their messages, but the bright colors and gold foil. they are the perfect daily reminders i need to {try!} to live an intentional life! 






Tuesday, January 29, 2013

magic & the mouse

we surprised the {big} munchies with a last minute trip to disneyworld this week, thanks to a sweet friend who had a timeshare to spare. while thunder mountain and meeting peter pan were pretty high up there, i'd have to say collecting signatures in their personalized mickey and minnie autograph books was the biggest hit of all!


another terribly sweet friend {thank you jen!} made these for both of the bigs - with laminated covers and coordinating ribbons!


the signatures are all adorable... they each added a special flair!


tinkerbell got the prize for best character interaction..worth the wait!


getting 'Rella's signature for the little cinderella lover we left at home!


stitch pretended to eat the dagger's book. she was not impressed.



Wednesday, January 23, 2013

how to feed a husband


happy husband's vice in life is food...and like everyone else in january we are trying to eat better and move more. 

i have been spending my afternoons trying to put together dinners that happy husband won't turn his nose up at - which is no easy feat. and let me tell you, after a 900 step Cooks Illustrated recipe that involves obscure ingredients and tons of fresh herbs, ambivalence is not what i am going for! 

but this, this he liked!
'crispy' buttermilk chicken over a wedge of lettuce with plum tomatoes, bacon, avocado, bleu cheese and homemade dressing. tastes like the real thing!

{just don't tell anyone i fed the munchies plates of bacon for dinner!}