Without A Word

I got an Instant Pot like many others when they were on sale for Black Friday. I am in love with this thing. There are a couple recipes I swear by and this is definitely a family favorite. My teenager named it Burger In A Bowl and that just stuck.  I'm not the greatest about measuring when I know a recipe so you'll have to bear with me in that aspect. Feel free to make this your own. Its basically mac and cheese with ground beef and all the fixings you would put on your favorite burger.  First, put the following items into your Instant Pot: 16 oz elbow macaroni 4 cups water 2 T butter salt Close up your Instant Pot and set to manual 4 minutes. Making sure the release valve is in the sealed position.  While that does it's thing, brown 1 lb ground beef and season how you like it. I usually just use a little garlic salt or seasoned salt. Once the mac and cheese is done be sure to let it NATURAL RELEASE for about 12-15 min. If you don't you will have a g...

I meant to post this before the end of 2016 but it wasn't ready yet and goodness knows the chaos that follows Christmas. Every year I struggle to find a planner that works for me so this year I decided to make my own. Everything is made up of free printables from several different blogs. I really like the way it turned out and I hope it can be a good resource for you as well.  Let's start off with the binder itself. I simply ADORE office supplies so clearance after back to school is always my friend. I shop then anyway because we always start homeschooling after the local schools go back, which works out great. I got this binder for $1 and it came with 5 divider tabs and a snap pocket. I actually got 2 because they were such a great deal. One is my son's homeschool binder.  This front cover page is a cute printable I found called The Homemaker's Prayer . It's the only thing that's was paid so if you want to use something else for the cover you can.  Ne...

All I wanted was an income log. My husband and I have an extremely varied income so I like to keep up each month. Could I find one online? Of course not. So I had to create my own and share with you all. This is going in my Home Management binder that I'm creating for next year. I'll post that in the next couple weeks once I'm done. In the meantime, enjoy this super basic free printable. DOWNLOAD

My family and I live in a single wide with 3 boys and one little one on the way. Space is a hot commodity in here. My 2 youngest boys are 5 and 2 and share that teeny tiny 2nd bedroom that every single wide has. If I had put a twin bed in there it would have taken up the entire room. The toddler beds fit relatively well in there. What I really wanted were bunk beds that would fit a toddler mattress. Of course that doesn't exist because of "safety regulations." So I had to venture out on my own. About a year ago I came across this blog www.thedesignconfidential.com. They have TONS of simple plans for building all sorts of things. That's where I found these loft beds.  http://www.thedesignconfidential.com/2012/03/free-woodworking-plans-build-toddler-sized-low-loft-bunk The plans are crazy simple. I didn't like the idea of the ladder sticking out so I altered the plans for what I needed. Originally I was going to make bunk beds but then I realized the kid...

Ok so my 5 year old has been working his butt off to earn enough for this Zuru Micro Boats play set he saw on YouTube. When I looked it up on Toys R Us and Amazon it was $24.99 so that would be 100 missions. Each mission is 25 cents. Well he's up to 25 missions and I happened to be on Walmart.com and found the same play set for $7.99!!! I don't know if this is a typo or if Walmart is just awesome but I ordered it. So now he's excited he only needs to do 32 missions.  Check it out here:  https://www.walmart.com/ip/ZURU-Micro-Boats-Playset-STD-Color-Assortment/52730783 Might as well get ready for Christmas.

Did you know mystery shopping was an actual, legitimate thing? Well, as long as you go through actual legitimate companies. I have several I use, depending on the type of shops. You are a little more limited if you have small children because most don't allow you to bring them. But if you can sneak away for an hour or so, you can usually get something done. Get a free pizza, get paid to get groceries, make phone calls to certain companies, even get paid to get an oil change. The car services are my favorite. Not only do you get reimbursed for the service, you get paid for your time. Its just a matter of meeting all their criteria.  I'm not going to go into too much detail here but I will give you a few avenues to locate the legit companies.  As far as automotive goes, Bestmark is the best. They seem to mostly have shops for GM vehicles but they allow you to borrow a vehicle if you want. So you can offer a friend a free oil change and get paid to do it. They also have shop...

(Disclaimer: Post contains affiliate links.) We are far from formal when it comes to homeschooling. In the state of GA, the regulations are extremely loose. All that is legally required is a Letter Of Intent when the child is 6 years old. My oldest homeschooler is 5 so we are still under the radar. Check out your local homeschooling rules for your state HERE . That being said, I think some structure and discipline is necessary for little ones. Certainly not to stay in a desk for 5-6 hours a day but knowing that certain things need to be completed by a deadline is a good skill to acquire.  Our year will consist of: Reading - Teach You Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons Math - Life Of Fred Apples Life Skills - We Choose Virtues  (Check out my review with COUPON CODE!!) Writing - Explode The Code: Get Ready, Set, Go For The Code (I haven't bought the other 2 books in the series yet but I plan to.) I also get a TON of free printable online from Measured Mom and...