Family Life

My Completely Honest Review of the 2019 Ultimate Homemaking Bundle

Spring has sprung and with it our desire to whip our homes into shape after keeping them closed up all winter. Ultimate Bundles knows this and wants to help you make homemaking easier. Each spring they introduce a new Ultimate Homemaking Bundle and today is the day it is open for purchase!

This review is going to go over the nitty gritty of what the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle is and how it can help (or not help) you. I want this to be an honest review so I’ll be covering who this bundle is for, who shouldn’t buy it, my favorite products, and my final impressions.

10+ ways to build a strong family foundation

We sat down at the parent-teacher conference and expected to hear about our child’s progress since the last meeting. We are used to hearing that our child is helpful and kind, a good student, and a joy in class. What we didn’t expect to hear was how much the teacher loves hearing about all the family things we do. The teacher raved about our child explaining birthday traditions, visits from extended family, and chore systems.

What? That’s what it’s impressive about our family?

The teacher explained that many students these days don’t have such strong connections with their families. Everyone is so busy with their own schedules that time as a family unit gets ignored. And if they do get time together? It’s not really all that together. They exist in the same physical space but the connection aspect is missing.

Even a simple idea like choosing a birthday meal was foreign to some kids. These traditions that our family took for granted as normal life were creating bonds between us that will keep our relationships strong.

Now don’t think we have it all together. Heck, there are days I wonder if anyone likes anyone in this house! But then I step back and see one kid pat another on the back for doing a good job, or offer to help someone with a difficult task, and I realize that maybe we aren’t screwing everything up. My prayer is that the foundations we are laying down now with these intentional acts will continue to build on one another so our family can stick together in any storm that may come our way.

50+ Bible Verses to Pray Over Your Husband

How do you pray for the people and relationships in your life? We pray over our marriage every night and we each pray for each other, but these are regular prayers with our own words. Nothing wrong with that at all, but do you ever pray using scripture?

I searched and searched and while there are hundreds, if not thousands of verses you can use as prayers, I wanted to pull out a manageable number. I started with about twenty verses but as I searched I came across more and more that really spoke to me and I knew I needed to expand my list. As I wrote each verse as a prayer I inserted Micah’s name and could feel the power these prayers can have. God’s Word is living and active – it’s no wonder I could sense the Spirit moving in me!

Spending and saving your tax return wisely (so you don’t end up with buyer’s remorse)

It’s tax return time and some people are getting back less than past years or needing to pay in, others are seeing returns that are larger than expected. It’s easy to get dollar bill signs floating in our eyes and want to go buy ALL THE THINGS!

But hold on!

Before you go on a spending spree at Target or Amazon, or book that dream vacation, take a look at this list of ideas of how to spend your tax return wisely, so you aren’t regretting your purchases when the rose colored glasses come off.

15+ awesome (& frugal) birthday traditions

We’ve tried out multiple ways to make the birthday kiddo feel extra special over the years, and it’s always fun finding new ways to celebrate as the years go by. If you are looking for some fun new ways to celebrate with your kids then check out this list of more than fifteen fun birthday traditions you can start in your family. And even better? You won’t need to pull change out from the couch cushions to afford them 😉 

Free Printable Birthday Interview

It’s our daughter’s 6th birthday today and to celebrate I’m sharing this FREE Printable Birthday Interview you can print and use with your own kids. I’ve been doing birthday interviews with our kids since they were pretty little and it’s so fun to look back over each year’s interview and see how their interests have changed – or stayed the same!