#10 Take an Annual Vacation (or staycation) {52 Bites}
Try, try, try not to hate me when I tell you this: I am in Hawaii right now.
I know. What on earth am I doing on Hawaii? This little ol’ frugal-living girl who won’t even buy beans in a can? Well, the truth is it’s a bit of a miracle. On Christmas Day we opened a Christmas card from some friends only to discover they had given us a free trip to Hawaii. Yes, I did almost have a heart attack. After I jumped around the house a hundred times I got online and found tickets, and here we are.
Aloha.
See, it’s a sweet gift for me because I’ve struggled with the concept of vacation. Jesus didn’t take vacations! So even last year when Jeff suggested we spring for our first ever real family vacation (besides just family road trips and such), it was a battle for me. People are starving and I’m going on vacation? How on earth could I justify this?
Well, I didn’t need to justify it I just needed to receive it. It’s true, in America we could probably do with less extravagant vacationing and more giving to the poor, but my attitude was failing to reflect the fact that God is sovereign over all. My refusing to take a vacation (that He clearly provides) doesn’t feed any mouths. And, I needed to accept that He is so gracious and kind to provide a little sunshine in the middle of our dark winter months.
Where I’ve landed is this: it’s not about a principle but a Person. In principle, we will probably never make extravagant vacations part of our normal budget. But, when we are walking each day with God and led by His gentle Spirit, He will be faithful to lead us into His will regarding vacations.
But no matter where we land on vacations, one thing is for sure: Rest is spiritual.
And, planning times every year for intentional times of recreation and rest is important for maintaining health in our families.
In the past we’ve often chosen to do Staycations. And there definitely are advantages. Much less cost, easier with little ones, get to sleep in your own bed. The tricky thing is that it’s really hard to unplug from the daily grind when you’re still staring it in the face.
Tsh shares some ideas for successful staycations here.
Nowadays I’m honoring my husband’s request to ditch staycations and actually get a way, even if it’s just across town. Last year we went to Black Butte with Jeff’s family and that was fabulous. The big thing for me is 1) a kitchen so we don’t have to eat out and 2) enough space that everyone gets to sleep. Sunshine and a pool are nice as well. Flying/driving long distances isn’t fun for me, but for this trip to Hawaii I definitely checked out her Tips for Traveling Long-Distances with Little Ones.
So how will you vacation this year? Stay-at-home and plan fun day-trips? Head to the coast? Use a family cabin? Enjoy the sunshine in Bend?
I’d love to hear from you: How does your family vacation? What have you discovered “works” and what doesn’t? How do you vacation with small children? How do you find restful recreation without spending a ton? I truly would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this; I want to learn!! Thanks so much …er, I mean … mahalo.}
PS Someone also gave us snorkel gear so yesterday while my brother and sister-in-law hung with our kids (pic above) were got to go snorkeling together! Oh my, SO FUN!! Amazing reefs and tropical fish, swimming in the crystal clear Pacific with my man. Wow… so amazing.
Queen Candi's 35 Ways to Save
Candi Seifer is the most frugal person I know.
When we met, 9 years ago, she was a Manager for Nordstrom. I think her purse cost more than my rent. But she had (and has!) a heart of gold and was (and is!) eager to bless her husband, Aaron, and grow in her walk with the Lord. She became, over time, one of my most treasured friends and has taught me much about life and the Lord.
Since we’d been talking frugality, I asked Candi if she’d email me with a few of her favorite frugal tips. I expected, oh I don’t know, five. Bless this girl, thirty five ideas came my way and I just had to share them with you. These are all things that Candi herself does, along with her husband and two children, earning her the title in my book: Queen of all things frugal. I love her adventurous spirit and willingness to try new things. Perhaps her ideas will bless you too:
Candi’s Crazy List of Frugal-living Ideas
1. Cook from scratch. (Whole chx, homemade bread, applesauce, any desserts.)
2. Buy as little processed food as possible. Skip juice, crackers, breakfast cereal, granola bars, fruit snacks.
3. Meal plan. If you do the same meal plan over and over this reduces cost, (ie. 10 meal plan), no/little special ingredients to purchase.
4. Empty the pantry. If there is food in the cupboard I shouldn’t need to spend money.
5. Use those leftovers, when I meal plan most of my leftovers will morph into the next meal. (ie. spaghetti night to chili night)
6. Keep an extra freezer if you can (we fill ours with stuff from the garden, meat I get on sale or free, and on sale cheese)
7. Get your husband (family) on board with you. If you’re trying to be frugal and serve chicken, but your honey wants a fillet Mignon, you may need to compromise. Aaron always says “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
8. Don’t eat out at restaurants, make your own latte/coffee too.
9. Couponing doesn’t always save you money, sometimes generic is cheaper.
10. Make all baby food
11. Breastfeed
12. Drink tap water
13. Skip expensive hygiene products (shampoo,conditioner, body wash). Buy the cheapest stuff.
14. Cut out all the expensive cleaning products, just use vinegar and dish soap.
15. Make your own laundry soap with washing soda, bar soap, and borax.
16. Hang dry your clothes
17. Shower less. Wash your hair fewer times.
18. Put two water bottles half filled with rocks and the rest filled with water in your toilet tank, it will save h2o with each flush. This also lessens the strength of the flush so be careful and aware of your household’s “needs.”
19. Compost.
20. Reuse ziplocs when storing homemade bread.
21. Use clothe napkins, dish rags, and clothe towels (not paper)
22. Turn down the thermostat and wear layers instead. (We keep it at 60 during the day and off at night. At night we keep it at 63ish in the kids room.)
23. Leave the oven open after cooking (free heat), watch out for little ones.
24. Minimize your media “needs” (ie. cable, internet, land line, newspaper, magazines, long distance, smart phones, etc). Each family has specific needs so this will vary from family to family. We not only do this for the savings, but also as we feel it necessary for our walks with the Lord as well as raising our children.
25. Use your public library (this can help with the above one).
26. Consignment or thrift! We buy clothes, toys, appliances, and anything else used. Mostly friends and family provide our clothing, toy, and furniture needs, but we have had great success buying and selling second hand.
27. Only spend money in the yard if it will benefit you (buy plants that you can eat and use in the home, or help the other food producing plants in your yard). Buy perennials. Use lavender (decor, air freshener, drawer fresheners, put in laundry soap). All herbs (eat them, medicinal uses). -Calendula flowers (put them on a salad, yum), Marigolds (slug deturants)
28. Things we grow and freeze: jalepenos (we use them in place of canned green chiles), they de-seed and chop super easily when they’re frozen,bell peppers, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, corn, peas, strawberries, blueberries.
29. Things we buy in season or grow and can: tomatoes, peaches, apples, strawberries, blackberries, pears.
30. Things we grow and eat or store in a “root cellar” environment (the garage) in addition to what is mentioned above: squash, beets, cucumbers, zucchini, lettuce, onions, cherries, chives
31. Don’t buy fertilizer and plant food (use your compost)
32. Don’t drink alcohol.
33. Don’t have house pets.
34. Don’t use deodorant or other fragrances
35. Don’t buy a gym membership, run, get some weights, or use workout videos.
{What are your favorite frugal tips and tricks? Candi wants to know! 🙂 Thanks for reading…}
Rx: FUN
{I’m on an airplane today, savoring these sweet words from my lifelong friend and mommy of three, Janae. Enjoy …}
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Yesterday was day 3 with a feverish & fussy baby. Her molars are on the move & it has been brutal.
I googled “1 year molars” and clicked on the first link that looked promising. It suggested all of the typical solutions—chew toys, pain medicine, extra cuddles, etc. But there was one tip that stood out: do something fun to take their mind off the pain they feel.
And so today fun was my #1 goal.
It just so happened that my husband went out of town early this morning & my two oldest kids didn’t want him to leave without saying goodbye. They were up almost 2 hours earlier than normal. So I was too. Not my idea of fun—especially after the sleepless night the baby & I had. But, I greeted my kids with enthusiasm and was grateful for the chance to see my husband before he left.
While the baby slept, my two oldest and I made Chocolate Chip Waffles. It was a first for all of us. OH MY. Delicious.
To burn off the sugar high, I determined we needed to get out in the fresh air. We went to all of our favorite places—the donut store (what the kids call the grocery store—the donuts are superb), choo-choo store (a pharmacy with a train table so the kids can play while I shop), the bank, park & post office.
My oldest two each pushed a little toy stroller & my baby rode happily in the wagon from place to place.
While we journeyed we played red-light green-light; we examined the ground to determine if we were seeing teeny tiny sticks or worms; we jumped, skipped, galloped and ran. It was a blast.
We were pulled from our own little world of discovery and fascination by a couple of sweet ladies. They were smitten with my little trio of blondes. After asking all of their ages (4, 2 & 1) and discovering my daughters are not twins (they suspected they were), one of them looked at me and said, “You bring back such special memories. Cherish these days.” Then she looked at me, deep in my eyes, and she saw what I try so hard to hide, “Even if you are tired—cherish it.”
I thanked her for her reminder, told her I agreed whole-heartedly, and wished both of them a good day. As we walked toward home I started to pray because I felt an unsettling in my heart. The urgency behind her words & the obviousness of my exhaustion threw me.
Days like today are easy to cherish. The house was clean, the fridge was full, the laundry was mostly caught up, the housework was minimal and my only task for the day was to have fun.
The kids were ecstatic every step of the way.
But, today wasn’t a representation of my reality. The truth is there are days when everyone is sick or when I fight for their naps or when the house is a complete and utter disaster. There are seasons that I feel lonely in parenting because my husband works endless hours. There are moments that I have absolutely no idea what I am doing & feel trapped in my own insecurity. There are times that I am consumed by worry, guilt and regret.
And that is when I need to let go, give it all to God & pour myself into those I love.
Yes, just like my baby, I needed a day of fun to forget what I feel.
Tomorrow when I wake up, I’ll do the dishes I neglected tonight, tidy up the toys that are scattered throughout the house & do a load or two of laundry. I’ll do it with joy, because my heart has been recharged and renewed.
And tonight as I drift into sweet slumber, I will give thanks—for this life He has given me and for these children I get to raise and my husband I get to love. And what better way to cherish this wonderful, challenging & exhausting stage of life than to give thanks?
{Amen and well said. Thanks for reading…}
Change planes.
We were halfway to our destination when the pilot’s voice crackled over the loudspeaker: “We’re experiencing a mechanical issue in the cockpit, so we’ve been ordered to return to Portland and change planes. We’ve turned around and are now heading back North. We’ll find another aircraft and get you re-boarded as soon as possible. We apologize for the delay.”
You can imagine how well this went over with all the passengers. Groans, murmurings and impatient sighs drifted through the plane. Unbeknownst to us the plane had turned around and headed back the way it came. We waited in the terminal, eventually re-boarded, and arrived 1 ½ hours later than planned. While everyone griped I couldn’t help but smile. I almost felt like apologizing to the other passengers, because I had a sneaking suspicion that God had turned us around just for me.
In order to make it to our destination we had to change. Specifically, we had to change planes. I was on my way to a women’s retreat. The topic?
Change.
We all want to change. We make New Year’s Resolutions, goals, challenges. We modify our behavior, turn over a new leaf, get a fresh start. All these things are great, but do they last? We know statistically that 80% of New Year’s Resolutions are ditched by Valentine’s Day. Why? Because change is hard.
There’s a reason the passengers complained about having to change. It was an inconvenience. It messed up their plans. It delayed them. In short, it was a hassle.
Changing, really changing, is always an inconvenience. It messes up our plans. It delays us. It’s a hassle. But why did the passengers change planes?
Because they had to. The old plane, the old way of going wasn’t working any more.
Because the old M.O. wasn’t working anymore.
I’m grateful the pilot chose to turn around. Not only did it provide a perfect illustration for the very thing I wanted God to do (!), but it meant getting a better aircraft that would successfully take us where we wanted to go.
But some of us refuse to change planes, huh? Sometimes, when we face a mechanical error in our lives, we simply ignore and keep flying. We duct-tape together the broken piece. We put a blanket over the control panel so we can’t see the flashing red warning light. We put in ear-plugs to ignore the beeping alarms. We’re so bent on our direction that we don’t stop and turn around so we can change. We ignore the alarm, then the engine quitting, then a wing falling off, and the next thing you know, we’re plummeting into the ground in an epic crash.
Then we ask God why He allowed the disaster.
Sweet friends, God’s will is that we would change. Be changed, transformed, renewed, by the power of His Spirit. Those little problems in our lives are the red flashing lights, the alarms that sound and say, “Go back to Portland. Change planes.” We can stop, turn around, and ask God to change us before proceeding, or we can stubbornly press ahead ignoring all the signs, setting ourselves up for an emotional and spiritual crash-and-burn. (Anybody ever had one of those? Me too.)
Are there any warning signs in your life right now? Some small thing that’s malfunctioning? No matter how small (our plane turned around because the windshield-heater wasn’t working), it’s still cause for pause, return, change. Chances are that little malfunction is God’s little nudge that something’s not right. We need to be like my pilot, accept the delay, hassle, inconvenience, turn around …
and change.
{Thank you, God, for the sacred mundane,how the details of life are Your whispers.
Thank you all for reading!}