Photos from the hometown Christmas parade. The kids had a blast and thankfully, my Dad went with me. It was so fun and really got me in the Christmas spirit! :)

A smushed Christmas tree

Last night, Hubs made the trek to the basement to pull out our fake Christmas tree. I normally despise fake trees, but because of our woodstove, live trees shrivel up and turn orange in a matter of days in here, so we are FORCED to put up with fakeness. Anywho, he hauled the giant behemoth out and set it up last night. We recently re-arranged our couch and over-stuffed chair to give us more room in the living room for the kids to romp, so getting the tree in just the right spot was a bit tricky. It now sits smushed up against the wall, behind the chair, right near the entry way, and sort of bottle-necks the whole area. But...it's the best area for our current arrangement of furniture, so we'll have to live with it. I'm going to attempt the lights this evening after the kids go to bed, then we'll decorate in the morning.

Tonight is the Christmas parade and I'm considering taking the 3 kiddos by myself, since Hubs will be working. Yikes! Wish me luck!! Thankfully, I put dinner in the crockpot so that's taken care of.

I need to figure out how to make my blog more attractive. It's rather boring, but I don't want to pay to have someone re-do it. At least not yet. I'm going to look around and see if I can figure something out.

This morning was my monthly MOPS steering team meeting. Honestly, I wasn't looking forward to it. Lounging around in my sweats appealed to me more than meeting planning, but I went and I am so glad I did. We had a great time of sharing needs and prayer requests. Sooooo many people are hurting financially and it was hard to hear my friends speak of their struggles. It was so great to be able to encourage everyone about thinking outside the box when it comes to finances by sharing my story of our struggles and how God has provided ALWAYS!! I hope I helped.

Treasure hunting

Hubs and I went treasure hunting today. We hit our favorite spots but found NADA! I couldn't believe it. Hubs thought it was fantastic. I didn't. His reason for being happy was that we didn't need to store any more junk. My reason for being disappointed was that we wouldn't have any treasures to sell. My Mom (who has a garage FULL of "treaures" from her antique dealer days) called and said she has a vintage 40's chandelier that she wants me to sell. Whooppeee! TREASURE!!

I never, ever thought I'd be a thrift-store, garage-sale kind of gal, but I swear, it's addicting. This fall, I made about $1200 on eBay just getting rid of stuff from around the house and "junk" I've found at TS and GS. I was pretty much able to buy all of the kids fall & winter things without dipping into our bank account. Two weeks ago, I found some treasures at a TS, spent $30 and ended up selling these trinkets for almost $900!!! Whoowhooo! I really thought this Christmas was going to be tight, but man, God really provides when we need it! I am always so suprised at his provision. I shouldn't be, but I am. (Did I mention the $.25 cookie cutter I found at a garage sale that I sold for $71??) Ah....God is good!

Hi, I'm Aly & I'm new here...

Hi everyone, or no one (I'm not sure which it will be yet!) I'm Aly and I live in a small community in California, in a small house with my not-so-small family. I am Mom to 3 great little kids and wife to my lovely hubby. I started this blog because I always seem to have something significant or insignificant to say and no one (besides my dog) to listen. No, I'm not saying that my kids and hubs don't listen to me, they do, mostly, but sometimes I have things to say that I think others might find amusing, or helpful or totally useless but otherwise entertaining. I'm not the most organized, domestically-gifted, wealthy or outstandingly intelligent Mom in the world, but I'm fun, creative and full of ideas. My fascinations are endless, creative money-saving, research of all kinds, cooking & gardening, backyard chicken farming (more on this another time!) So....join me, would'ya? ;)