Birthday Gift Buying on a Budget for Debt-free Living

Humor me for a minute and see if you can tackle this simple, homeschool math story problem.

If I have five kids and they each get invited to many birthday parties every year, how much money will I have to spend annually in order to purchase fun birthday gifts for all of their friends while still maintaining my debt-free, livin'-on-one-income-in-a-two-income-world lifestyle?

Not a fan of story problems?  Nah...me neither.  Especially ones that seem to have impossible solutions.

5 Tips for Finding FREE {or almost free} Books for Homeschool

The posting of my monthly What We're Reading lists coupled with the fact that we use TruthQuest History, a living literature-style history program which requires us to read dozens and dozens of fantastic, albeit somewhat hard to find, books has compelled many to ask...

How can you afford all of those books?

The truth is, while we do own some books, our one-income-debt-free lifestyle and our itty-bitty house make it impossible to hoard more than a couple of bookshelves' worth. While I would love to pack our home with all manner of literary perfection (I'd live in a house MADE of books, if I could!), I have to be rather snobbish in my selections.

A Christmas Budget for Debt-free Living

With Christmas looming, cashier lines around my little Mayberry are congested with desperate shoppers hoping to snag the latest IT item. Plastic cards are passed from shopper to cashier for quick transactions. Price tags are quickly forgotten as folks scramble to find the next item on their TO BUY list.

Dave Ramsey's Foundations in Personal Finance (for Homeschoolers) Pros & Cons

The borrower is slave to the lender. That's wisdom straight out of Proverbs.

Sadly, it's a truth that often gets learned the hard way.

One glance down Main Street America shows a nation in bondage because of a lack of contentment, overspending, and a wanton lust for more. The bonds of poor money management and piles of debt are not easily broken and have ruined countless lives and marriages. 

I want each of my kids to leave my home with the tools of freedom, not slavery. 

From the time they were young, they have all received allowance. We dole it out in a rather unorthodox way. But, having money and learning to spend that money wisely are two totally different things.

2 Holiday Hacks for a Stress-free Christmas Season

Photo Credit

Christmas is supposed to be a time of peace and pondering, a time of togetherness, a time of kneeling in quiet before the cradle of a King. It is supposed to be a time of joy and wonder; a time of memories and merry-making.

And while it usually is all that for the kids (and, dare I say, husband) of a home, for Mom, the FESTIVE of the season is often coupled with FRENZY. 

The inevitable list of extra TO DOs and additional scheduling demands have a way of draining every ounce of our time, energy, and attention...leaving very little to devote to God With Us.

But, it doesn't have to be this way.

Raising Financially Smart Kids and How Homeschooling Can Help

Written by Chelsea Gonzales.

Nobody wants to see their child struggle financially. Unfortunately, our society doesn’t really set anyone up for success in the financial department.

From the very beginning, American kids are trained to want more -- to never be satisfied. Before they can even talk, they are surrounded by advertisements telling them what would make their lives better. A child need only to look around at all the excess to begin to grow feelings of envy.

Lego Party

Like most tween boys, my oldest son is a Lego fanatic.  So not surprising, when asked how he wanted to celebrate his birthday, he only needed a nano-second to request a Lego-themed bash surrounded by family and friends.

Right about this time, my daughter had been learning to make stop-motion videos with a stop-motion app on our iPad.  I was quick to enlist her services to make an invite to the party which we sent to all the party guests.



Confession time, all!

I love throwing kids parties!  I love the games. I love the crafts. I love the smiling faces of the party guests as they leave with a belly full of cake.

While I'm usually pretty good about planning games and crafts within the party theme,  the "ambience" part of my little shin-digs...when left totally up to me...usually falls a bit flat.  Admittedly, I'm not a decorator.  I tend to delegate that to The Hubs whose artistic eye can find the treasure in every heap of trash.  (He's a picker.  Did I mention that?!)

What We're Reading in February 2017

Really well-written books become friends. They slowly change me and shape me and I'm never the same after having read them. Turning the last page of each one feels like the end of a relationship. It's a sad but necessary reader-problem. However, with every ending comes a new beginning...a chance to crack open another book.

Construction Worker Birthday Party

Since he was a tiny tot, Greased Lightning has loved all-things-construction.  You may remember that when given the chance to do whatever he wanted to do around town on the last day of school a few years ago, he wanted to go down the street to watch the road construction workers on the job.  

So, it was only natural, that he should ONCE AGAIN want a construction worker-themed birthday party.  Since he was turning five, he also got to invite a few friends over to celebrate with him, per our house rule.  

Here's a peek at his five-year-old fun!

The BEST of The Unlikely Homeschool 2017

I've got my 2018 calendar spread out on the bed. I'm slowly starting to plug in writing commitments and TO DOs onto the pages. But, I'm determined to be kind to myself by holding the next twelve months loosely, writing only in pencil, or at least in erasable ink.

Bread Baking 101: Tips for a Homemade Lifestyle

So, the secret's out.  I like me some bread!  REAL BREAD.  With gluten in it!  There...I've said it.

Yes, I know gluten is currently out of vogue.  But, before you embark on a gluten-is-bad-for-you tirade, please understand that gluten and I are like peas and carrots.  We just belong together!  

Curbing Entitlement During a Season of Excess

The "entitlement epidemic" isn't just another trite expression flung around on morning talk shows. It's not just sarcastic Baby Boomer banter. It is the sad reality of our current culture. From lack of responsibility, to lack of empathy, to overabundance of stuff, 21st-century kids are proving to be s.p.o.i.l.e.d. like no other generation of American kids before them. 

How and Why I Give My Kids Allowance {Part 2}

A few days ago in Part 1 of this 2 part series, I shared HOW the Hubs and I provide allowance to our children.  Much to the dismay of many, I confessed that we do not dole out allowance based on the completion of weekly chores.  And while to some that might appear to mirror the financial style of welfare, I can assure you that my children have daily and weekly chores that they complete without payment.  Because as I mentioned previously, in order for a home to function at its best, each and every member of the home has to do his/her part to keep it running.  (Quick Aside:  As this is not a politically charged blog, I will not render my opinion on whether welfare should or should not be mirrored...ahem!)

50 Stocking Stuffers for Sneaky Learning {all under $10}

There is a 107% chance that my kids will have already figured out what's inside each of their stockings before Christmas morning...or at least they'll know 4 out of the 6 items stuffed in there.

To be honest, guessing their stocking gifts ahead of time doesn't really require my kids to do much sleuthing. I'm a creature of accidental habit. I do something once, find success at it, and then continue to do the exact same thing until the end-of-time because as the old adage goes, "If it ain't broke..."

My stocking stuffing procedure has been on permanent repeat for as long as any of my clan can remember.

Top Gift Ideas for Sneaky Learning

As a self-proclaimed, passion-directed homeschooler, I have definitely embraced the idea of strewing...sowing and scattering seeds of imagination, interest, ideas, and information...throughout our school day in hopes that these will grow into passions...hobbies...and life-long loves.

With purpose, I strew.

At Christmas time, my gift-giving takes on intentionality. I often purchase family gifts of Frankincense that will not only delight but also strew. ON PURPOSE.

Core Values: Giving Your Family Meaning and Motive

21st-century living is messy.
It's busy.
And with the never-ending barrage of media, it's also very noisy.

The world shouts more. More. MORE! and attempts to pull a family in a million different directions.

The constant stream of pressure poured out on social media has us, all, convinced that we're not doing enough, we're not buying enough, we're not fill-in-the-blank enough.

(This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for full details.)

And so, we put our kids into multiple extracurricular activities to keep up with the Harvard-bound kids up the street.

And we bake homemade bread with wheat that we've grown and ground ourselves in hopes of getting the approval of all the have-it-all-together mommas.

And we invest in a pricey new boat that we can't afford because we've convinced ourselves that we deserve it.

And we clamor for more. More. MORE.

The 21st century, with its fish-bowl Facebook living, has put an entirely new spin on "keeping up with the Joneses."

The world seeks our attention. But, while we continue to add more to our plates, we divide our time, energy, resources, and talent. We end up with lives defined by average because we haven't carved out room for the things that really matter.

What Comes After Homeschooling: A Graduate's Perspective

Written by Abbey Lovett

I never once sat in a classroom, I never once studied for midterms, I never rode on a school bus, there was no headmaster, no school nurse, and no bell that rang to let me know I was done learning.

I was homeschooled. For 12 years of my life my mom was my teacher, my dad was my principal. My idea of a class was getting together with some friends and a teacher to study a topic. 

It was a blast. I loved every bit of it. There’s no doubt here that homeschooling is a great opportunity for grade school… but what comes after? That’s what I want to discuss.

A Christian Woman's Guide to Finding Clean & Captivating Fiction Books

To say that I'm an avid reader is a bit of an understatement. On any given day, I can have ten or so books stacked up on my nightstand awaiting my attention. My TBR list feels more substantial and overwhelming than the national debt. (That may or may not be a bit of an exaggeration. I'll let you decide.)

For years, I gravitated towards non-fiction. As a Christian woman who's compelled to honor the directives found in Philippians 4:8, I found fiction books to be tricky to navigate. They were either clean but not very captivating or captivating but not at all clean.

What We're Reading in April 2019

For the first time in over five years, I didn’t post our reading list. March came and went with no list. I’m sorry. The sabbatical made me sad too. With my book launch looming, I just didn’t have the personal bandwidth to do any extra writing.

But never fear, plenty of reading was happening. Reading always happens. No amount of busy will ever keep me from books for too long. I’d probably chew off my own arm before I gave up books. Although admittedly, it would be rather difficult to turn pages at that point.

What We're Reading in July 2019

Last week, I opened the email of a popular Christian blogger. She's an online personality that thousands of well-read women flock to for their next book suggestions. She's just one of five or six Christian women who have online women's book clubs or book lists for summer. Her email included a handful of her favorite books that she's read in 2019 so far.

I was saddened to see that so many of her book suggestions were fraught with traumatic and graphic violence, sexual perversion, and language that should make us all blush. I think this "anything goes" attitude is becoming a cancer in the church and definitely is not in line with Phil. 4:8--that we are to think on things that are true, noble, pure, lovely, and admirable.