Little Little Lots

If you haven't seen already, I'm job hunting. And it's crazy and fun and scary all at the same time. So I plan to do a few posts about it so that if any of my friends are job hunting after a long time of not working (7 years here), they might have this to look back on. I could go on and on about how to type up your resume, where to look for jobs, or interview tips, but those are all over the Internet. Seriously, do a quick search and you will find blog posts, magazine articles, etc. about how to prepare for the fun that is returning to work. But I found something that helped me that no one was talking about. And it can be as simple or as difficult as you make it. Because the job search can be really tedious and stressful, I highly recommend giving yourself a project to take your mind off it for a little bit each day. It can be redecorating a room in your house, knocking out some craft projects, training for a  running race (you choose the distance), or any number...

It's been way too long since I've written on here. Life has been a little crazy and this blog has been pushed to the back burner. Life is changing in big ways around here. My husband is retiring from the military and I am going back to work for the first time in seven years. And all that changing has my mind racing and thinking about things more than I have in the past few years.  And one of those things I've been thinking and re-thinking is my dream job.  If you've known me for a little while, you probably know that I am super passionate about helping people be in a better place financially. The great news is that there is a profession for this exact thing. The bad thing is I'm not sure it is worth pursuing anymore.  Hear me out on this before you just tell me to chase after the dream.  When I think back to a decade ago, there wasn't a huge group of people openly talking about their finances on social media. Now, you see friends openly talk...

Let me start by saying that this post is late by my standards. I had hoped to get this written before Thanksgiving in case some of these great companies had Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. And some of them did. So I'm sorry to have not gotten this out in time for you to check out sales, but these products are worth it, even at full price. I promise. Let me also say that I am not getting paid to write this and I did not receive any of these products free to write about. I paid for these with my own money and just want to share about them because I love them. Let's start with an overview picture of what we'll be talking about, shall we? Yep, this is it. This is my personal care stash. I love every single one of these products because of how well they work, but I love them even more because they don't contain any yucky stuff. And most of them support small businesses, which is huge! If you are looking at cleaning up your skin care/personal care, I hope you wil...

I've decided to start something new around here and I am pretty excited about it.  Every single Monday (that I remember or we aren't traveling or something like that...because this is real life after all), I am going to publish a new post that has to deal with money. Now I could bore you and talk about budgets every single week, but I think there are enough posts out there about that so I want to try to give more practical (and maybe even some fun) advice.  So let's get started with our first post, shall we? USE IT UP OR GO WITHOUT! A great way to save money is to use what you already have. I'm not just talking about the soap and shampoo in your shower (although we do all thank you for using that); I'm talking about many things you have laying around your house.  I'll give you a few examples of the things I am currently "using up."  I have a purse that I have owned for almost 9 years. It is still functional, even though it has a...

Fair warning; this isn't going to be a super happy post. If you know this story and don't want to relive it with me, I won't judge you for skipping this blog post. ;) And it's gonna be long so just bare with me if you do decide to read it.... This week is Maternal Mental Health Week and it means a ton to me. And I bet there is a momma out there who needs to know that how she is feeling is okay and also needs to know that it is okay to ask for help. Let's take it way back to 2012. This is when I had my first child. I know now that I suffered from at least a minor case of postpartum depression. I didn't realize it at the time and thought everything was just my hormones going back to normal and me just adjusting to this new time in life. I cried and got upset easily and had a hard time leaving the house without my son. I actually remember being invited to a dinner one time and cancelling because my husband wasn't home from work and I didn't want th...

Like most posts, I've been meaning to write this one for a while and am just now getting around to it. I could blame it on my kids, a crazy schedule lately, or just laziness. But really, this post has been delayed because of fear. Not fear that I won't be able to write the post, but fear that I will upset someone or make them not want to read my blog posts anymore. And today I realized, I can't care about that if I want to share something. I have send my message out to the universe (thanks technology) and let people decide how they take it. So here's the first post (of hopefully many) about finances. And let me just say now, I don't judge any of you when it comes to handle your money or how you live your life; I just want to share important information in case it can help you or someone along the way. So let's start this off by making one grand statement: YOU NEED A BUDGET!!!! Yep, I said it. Everyone should have a budget and there are a few rea...