Hotel Menu Planning

We will be FL bound in about two weeks!  My husband has a conference in Orlando, which just so happened to fall on my son's Fall Break from school.  It was meant to be, I tell ya!  God knows we need a small vacation.

We will have a couple days to vaca as a family, and then my husband will be at the conference from Wednesday through Friday.  That means me and the kids hitting the hotel pool and venturing across the street to Downtown Disney by ourselves during the days he's busy.  As we are on a budget, I have the challenge of cooking meals for us in the hotel room, which has a small fridge and coffee maker but no microwave.

Long time no see!

It's been a while since I have been on here.  I have missed blogging!  I went back the other night and re-read most of my posts and looked through my pictures and am so thankful that I was able to capture details in my life to remember.  I could still recall every emotion I was feeling as I wrote each post.

I felt compelled to share a testimony of how God has provided in a big way for KB and I recently.  KB just shared the praise with our church family yesterday, but it's amazing how God can do one thing, but have it affect two people differently - even though those two people share the same life together.

Bikes, Forts, and Daddy

Being a mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field since the payment is pure love.~ Mildred B. Vermont
Life has seemed busy at home since both the kids get to spend every waking moment with me.  But I do love it.  As much as I'm dying for some alone time by the end of the day, sometimes I want to go in and wake them up just so they can be with us.  I know - pitiful!  

My First 5K and the Journey to Get There

I am feeling very much accomplished today.  Not solely through my own doing, but through a spirit of strength and determination given by God, the encouragement of my husband, family, and friends, and the fact that I set a goal, worked hard, and achieved it.

I finished my first 5K today.  I had no time goal.  My only goal was to be able to run the whole thing without walking.  Going from a person who hated running to a person who could run an entire 5k was, to me, a big feat.

I'm back!

I have been MIA for a while now - a result of a packed schedule and little time to sit down and gather and organize my thoughts into blog worthy entries. 

What's been happening on our end of the world?  Lots!

The most exciting news of the latest happenings is that we have new neighbors!  We are so excited to have some of our family from KB's side moving close by to us in the near future.

First Day of Summer Vaca - Baking Korean Hot Dog Bread

Happy Summer!!!  Nathaniel is officially out of school.  Goodbye, 2nd grade!  Although he expressed that he was sad school was over because he is going to miss all of his friends, he is so happy about "waking up whenever he wants to."  

Last day of school picnic

This girl loves her string cheese.

Photo Dump

Pictures from this past weekend:

We celebrated 11 years for this handsome little man.  He is one of the sweetest and most thoughtful boys I know.  He received lots of money as gifts and told everyone that he's going to save half of it all to give to Nathaniel for his birthday.  So sweet, I know.  I told him to spend it on himself because they were gifts for him.  But no wonder Jesus tells us to be more like children.  I don't know any adults, including myself, who would be willing to give half of all they owned to a friend.  God sure did use the birthday boy to teach me about being a true friend.

Answered Prayers

My son.  I love him.

I learn so much from his gentle, patient, compassionate, and selfless, little soul.

He has been asking lots of intriguing questions post baptism.  Praise God!  It means that he's thinking, talking things through in his mind, and wanting to learn and grow in Jesus.

The Best Mother's Day Gift Ever!

Warning:  Lots of pictures!

Mother's Day festivities started on Friday when my son got home from school.  He ran off the bus with a personally decorated cake from Publix for me.  I love my son.

Our Wednesday's

Wednesday nights are guitar lesson nights for Nathaniel.  We just recently started up guitar again because he received an awesome, red, rock n roll, electric guitar from his Auntie Fujii this past Christmas.  Ever since watching "School of Rock," he has been inspired to become a rock star.  He even dressed up as one for Career Day to school last year.

I think Mr. George's (his new teacher) "super fast" guitar skills have been motivating him, because he has been all about practicing.  He actually wanted to practice before lessons, and when we got back home, he wanted to practice and play as soon as we got out of the car.  Um, where is my son and what have you done with him?!  His eagerness to practice makes me and daddy so very happy.

Parenting Is NOT Easy

Whoever said parenting is supposed to be easy has either never been a parent or is a neglectful parent.  I stand behind that 110%.

I've always thought that it should be easier.  Not necessarily easy, but should it really be this hard?  Yes.  It is very hard.  This past week, I've come to realize many of my own flaws as a person and as a mother, and how my flaws affect my children.

Photo Dump

Just some pictures from this past week:

Walking the kitchen runway in my wedges.  She loved the noise it made on the tiles.

Frugal Summer Activities for All

Nathaniel has exactly 10 more days of school left!  Let the countdown to summer vacation begin!

I received a request from a friend to list some budget-friendly activities that she could enjoy with her love when he visits for two weeks at the end of July.  I decided to make a list of all types of activities that you can use as either a frugal, but fun, date with your significant other OR as a family event.

With my kids home with me all day, every day during the summer, we will be trying lots of these activities.

Grillin'

Happy first day of May!  I can't believe it's May already.  Summer is fast approaching, and I couldn't be any more excited. 

Summer means longer days, later mornings, more adventures, lots of ice cream, and even more grilling.

Weekend Recap

My weekend:

 Got my hair did.

More Frugal Stuff

I attended a coupon clinic held by a friend and fellow couponer last night.  It was a very informative session.  People are always asking me to teach them how to coupon, but in order to teach them, it would have to be in the format that it was done last night - a couple hours with a power point slide and visual aids.

Couponing is learned best by going out to the stores and trying it out, though.  You make mistakes and you learn from them.  You do something right, and you learn from it.  I hope all the ladies were inspired to start clipping and start saving!  Being frugal, as I talked about in yesterday's post, is one of the ways we can be good stewards of our finances. 

Frugal and Thrifty

"Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship." Benjamin Franklin

How much do I love this quote?!!  As I was searching for quotes on being frugal, I came upon this one and it fits my post today perfectly.

In today's economy, everyone is striving to find ways to be more frugal.  That's one of the main reasons why couponing has become such a huge trend.  I would say it is more of a necessity than it is a hobby.

Steadiness

I know I'm not perfect, but I want to be steady.

Project: Spring Break on a Budget Total

Spring Break is over!  Although I'm sad I won't get to spend the days with both my kiddos and sleep in a little, I'm happy to get back to our regular schedule.

We ended Spring Break with a visit to an indoor water playground.  It was so much fun! It was Sym's first time there, and she loved it.  My fearless girl was fighting me to let her go so she could do her own thing.  The only issue was, she would have sank if I didn't hold on to her.  Yet again, she felt like I was holding her back when, in reality, I'm saving her life.  She'll thank me in the future, I'm sure.

Intent at Being Intentional

KB and I have talked numerous times about being more intentional with the important things in our lives - like spending more time in the Word, more quality time with each other, quality and one-on-one time with our kids, being in community with others, exercising and eating right, etc.

Project: Spring Break on a Budget, Days 3 & 4

I can't believe the week is almost over already!  It really has flown by.  Days 3 and 4 of Project: Spring Break on a Budget were a lot more low key, thanks to the rain and gloomy weather, but we still had fun doing things that we couldn't normally do if school were in session.

Stay at Home Mom LOVE

First of all, thank you to everyone who shared their input and advice regarding my last post on different ways to approach disciplining my wild high-spirited daughter. You guys don't know how much it encouraged me! I've found a new level of patience and calmness when I'm faced with disciplining her because I think about all of your tips.

Today's post is a piggy-back on a post I wrote last week. I received so much feedback from it that I wanted to share more of my personal experiences with deciding to be a full time SAHM.

Project: Spring Break on a Budget Day 2

The little one is down for a nap - thank goodness.

Yesterday, I posted about our Spring Break on a Budget goal this week. Today's adventure, so far, has been a morning at the playground, followed by a packed lunch and Menchie's frozen yogurt. I am pooped. If you could, picture the most outgoing person you know - someone who isn't afraid of anything, always wants to try something new, and has no fear of getting hurt. Now, multiply that by 10 and you have an idea of how my daughter is at the playground.

Project: Spring Break on a Budget

Today marks the first day of Spring Break at our house! Boy, am I excited about not waking up at 6:30 am every morning for the next few days. I'm already counting down the days til summer vacation. Anyway, this year, we have no big plans for Spring Break. KB just started his new job last month and didn't want to ask for any days off just yet, so we will be staying in town all week. I have, however, come up with a few ideas of what to do at home and around town that I know my son will enjoy. I am calling it Project: Spring Break on a Budget. My goal is to spend no more than $100 this week for all of his Spring Break fun!

My Mommy Must Haves!

At a friend's baby shower a few weeks ago, the hosts decided to ask fellow moms to get things together and do a "Mommy's Favorite" for the new mom-to-be. I loved the idea! I figured I would do something similar on here, but have it be more personalized for me. I have an eight year old son who is one of the sweetest, most compassionate, thoughtful, and humble little boys I have ever met in my life, and an 18 month old daughter who is feisty, stubborn, opinionated, quick tempered, but the funnest, cuddliest, and most entertaining little girl I have yet to meet. Oh, did I mention that my kids are stinkin' adorable, too? They are.

Home Alone Scare in Springtime

The weather yesterday was absolutely gorgeous! A little chillier, but refreshing after a few warm days. Little did I know that the temps would drop down to below freezing come night time! Brr!

After dinner, we decided to spend some time outside in our newly cleaned garage - thanks to my hard working hubby.

Less is better

So some of my friends have asked me, "As a sahm, what do you do all day?" And, frankly, I don't really know how to answer it, because we do whatever it is that we wanna do. Just like some of you have "lazy days" where you go into work and don't do much but surf the internet and Facebook all day long (I won't name any names to protect the guilty), we have lazy days where we just lay on the couch in our pj's and watch TV for a majority of the day. Those are my "I'm not gonna do anything and don't care if nothin' gets done" days. Those are pretty awesome. Speaking of lazy days, check out my OOTD.

Easter at Lake Varner

Easter is my favorite celebration of the year! Not for the cute little bunnies, yummy Easter candy, or adorable Easter outfits, but for the truth that I was dead in sin, but made alive again through the atoning sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Amen!! Now that is something to celebrate! (Pardon all my exclamation points! My husband has kindly pointed out to me that I overuse this punctuation way too much! But I'm just so excited! Haha)

Because I'm home with kids all day...

This is my first attempt at being faithful with keeping a blog. I am on Facebook a LOT (My name is Savannah and I'm a FB addict. Whew, that feels so good to get off my chest!) and I try to keep our friends and family across the nation up to date with our life and our kids as best we can because they are growing like weeds! But I feel like Facebook lacks that sense of intimacy. It's not really MY own. I'm home with kids all day and serving my kids and husband as any good mom and wife does. This will be a place for me to have some "adult" conversations. So here is where I will write - very honestly - about my daily struggles and joys of being a sahm and wife.

Warning: Be prepared to read about poop, puke, my love for Jesus Christ and how he gets me through my days, date nights, school events, couponing, recipes, fashion, values, my favorites, and anything else I wish to write about! :)


Psalm 31:24 - Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!