Back in the Saddle Again

After a long, but well needed hiatus from the blogosphere, Journey to Simplicity is gearing up for a new life. It’s back in the saddle again for me with a new perspective and direction. Over the first few months of my hiatus, I had so much supportive email from you that I knew then and there I needed to put a lot of thought into how to best serve you. I appreciate all of you who acted as my sounding board, beta panel, and who took surveys ad nauseaum (how do you spell that word anyway?) just to help me with my ministry. You gave your time, effort, suggestions, and honest opinions. I will never be able to express my gratitude amply.

You will see some changes over the next several months. Getting in the saddle involved a lot of work behind the scenes. Much of this work was following the inspiration of this blog; living a life of simplicity. What I have learned is that simplicity has different looks through the seasons, just like everything else in life. Some themes are constant regardless

of season. Of those themes are recipes. The requests for more simple and delicious recipes was abundant to say the least; and so I have been working on some new recipe themes to make life just as delicious as ever, but also offeringmom the ability to keep things simple. You are going to notice a few sub themes along the way. One of those themes are muffin portions. These are recipes that are portioned by the use of muffin tins. Some of these will actually be muffins, while others are going to really surprise you! One thing I can guarantee, these muffin style recipes while inspire you and provide much needed simplicity to your life.

Today I am offering you one of my most treasured recipes. It’s a pizza on the go, pizza in a flash, an easy peasy lunch, or simple pizza on a chaotic night recipe. Feel free to double or triple this recipe and freeze lots to keep on hand.

Pepperoni Pizza Muffin Recipe

• 2 c whole wheat pastry flour (all purpose works fine as well)
• 1 TBSP baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 TBSP dried oregano or Italian seasoning
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ c fat free buttermilk
• 1-2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 c chopped pepperoni
• ½ c cubed mozzarella or provolone cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 12-18 muffin cups.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together.  Make a well. In another smaller bowl combine wet ingredients and mix well. Pour them into the dry well and mix it together. Add pepperoni and cheese.
3. Using large ice cream scoop (or spoon) fill muffin tins. Bake 15-20 min, until a toothpick inserted int eh center of one of the muffins comes out clean.

Yield 12-18 muffins

Cook’s Tip: If the batter seems a bit dry add a little extra milk. This recipe lends itself very well to freezing.

Options: You can add sun-dried tomatoes in oil, olives, sausage, peppers, mushrooms, ham, or any pizza toppings you like for added variety. These are delicious, room temp, or cold. Try dipping them in marinara sauce for extra pizza goodness.

These are great for quick lunches, lunch box entrees, and for sustenance on the go. Being light weight try these when you are heading out for a field trip or family outing. Due to this pizza muffin recipe being filling, you can easily save money by not eating out with tummies filled with pizza goodness.

Buono Appetito!

How to Keep Yourself Motivated When Weight Loss is Slow

Since the first of January I have lost 7 pounds. I have incorporated all of the Fast Track and so to some it may seem the Fast Track isn’t worth the effort. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Firstly, my personal goal is to achieve and maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle. To accomplish this it is imperative to identify your self-sabotage techniques (we all have them) and make a plan to conquer them slowly. In my case there are a few factors that “fight against” my efforts. This means that I do not lose weight in a manner consistent with most people. For me to keep myself motivated in this area I remind myself that I am unique, with a unique lifestyle, unique health challenges, and that as long as I am not gaining weight, I am moving forward with living to be healthy.

Secondly, motivation comes from many sources and those sources will change depending on many variables. Have you incorporated some healthy lifestyle changes within your family? Are you planning out 2 snacks per day? Have you made a food habit change? Are you drinking more water each day? Success is a great motivator. When the scale doesn’t show the numbers that you want, it can be all too easy to slip back into old habits as despair and defeat set in. This is a journey to living to be healthy for a lifetime, not just a means to an end for weight loss. So often weight loss can be slow for many reasons, and is a signal that it is time to kick it up a notch.

Here are some tips to help motivate you to continue on your fast track to a healthy weight when weight loss is slow.

Change it Up: Believe it or not, your body learns routine and adapts. If you walk on the treadmill 3 times per week, your body will become regulated to that in about 6-8 weeks. This is when you should change up your routine. Pick another source of exercise for the next 6-8 weeks, change up your treadmill routine, or apply interval training. Cross training will keep your body responding in the right way, and the results will keep you motivated!

Alter Your Calorie Count: Just as with exercise, your body learns to accommodate calories when it is always fed the same amount. If you have been counting calories or eating from food groups, change this up every third day or so. With calorie counting, either spike your calories for a day by approximately 250-300 or reduce your calories by as much. When eating from food groups, change your focus. If your focus is on vegetables, reduce your vegetables and increase fruits or grains every few days. Your body will begin to work more efficiently. This is a simple way to Fast Track yourself to a healthy weight.

Cut it Out: You have already made one major food change for the year. It is time to tackle another. Be honest with yourself and choose one of your self-sabotage habits and make a plan to eliminate it. What food or unhealthy eating habit are you willing to give up? Make steps to do that this week and watch the numbers on the scale begin to dip again. Staying motivated to achieve a healthy weight is work. But when you choose to overcome your poor eating habits one at a time in a slow and progressive manner, you are creating the basis for a long life of living to be healthy.

Have a Treat Night: Date night is important to keep a relationship healthy. Achieving financial goals when digging out of debt involves rewards. Treat Night is essential to keeping your journey to a healthy weight on track and allowing yourself to feel like a normal person. Each week plan a small treat for yourself. This may be a food treat, such as a piece of candy, creamy salad dressing, a glass of wine, or one serving of something you have eliminated on a daily basis. You can also use treat night as a way to reward yourself in other ways that you would not normally do. Try a new activity that you have been dreaming of, purchase a new accessory for everyday wear, take a class, go out with a friend and do something a little crazy like climbing on a playground. Truth is that all of these things will make you feel so good inside you will begin to “work hard” all week to get your sweet reward! That is motivation that just feels good!

At the end of the second month of 2011 it can be hard to keep yourself motivated to living a healthy life when your weight loss efforts are slow or stagnant. To help overcome this, your mindset needs to shift from the specifics of weight loss, i.e. numbers or sizes, and focus on the accomplishments you have made to being healthy for life. The weight loss will come as you continue to build each week!

Here’s to Keeping Each Other Motivated! What will you change this week?

How to Determine if Coupons are Worth Your Time

Recently I posted about how to organize coupons to maximize coupon savings (click here to read that article).  I began researching couponing on a more detailed level in order to best help a client.  If you have not already read the previous article, let me catch you up to speed with the fact that I previously did not use coupons as a rule of thumb. I would clip them from magazines or print them directly from manufacturer’s websites, but I did not buy newspapers, gather special coupon ads, or scour the internet for coupons. In order to best help my client, I needed to do some research, create an action plan, and apply a process common to most experienced coupon experts.

I began experiencing a savings and was taught some very helpful “tricks” to organizing and using coupons. Stacking coupons can offer a significant savings! I also learned how to locate high value coupons. I took a trip into town and gathered up sales ads from every store and the local paper. The Red Plum insert that I had previously sending to the recycle bin, was now being scoured and clipped. I went online and a scoured coupon site for manufacturer’s and competitor’s coupons. I clipped and organized. I compared my coupons with what was on sale, especially on BOGO (Buy One Get One free) items. I made my shopping list from what was on sale that could be stacked with my coupons, in addition to the methods I normally use. I was exhausted!

My shopping trip was fairly easy and quick. I brought my bulging cart to the front of the store and was pleased to see that I had saved $98.16! I returned home to find my children’s eyes bulging with anticipation at the number of bags I brought in. Thus, they eagerly began helping me put the groceries away. What came next was something I hadn’t anticipated; “Mom, what are these?”

Due to the fact that I was purchasing sale items that coordinated with coupons, I had purchased an abundance of food that had not previously crossed the threshold of our home. Many of the items were convenience foods, which my family was unfamiliar with. In addition, I noticed how little of the foods I normally purchase were among those being stocked in our kitchen. My answer to the children was that our family would be trying some new foods. Now, it was time to crunch the numbers and determine if it was worth my efforts. Next, I repeated this process for a few more weeks.

Before I begin the break down for you, let me say that the new foods I purchased were not well received by my family. This is not an uncommon response. Do not be disappointed if you find this to be the case as it takes time for taste buds to become accustomed to new foods. I spent 10 hours the first week and 8 hours each of the following three weeks gathering coupon fliers, newspapers, gathering coupons from the internet, printing those coupons, organizing them. I spent another 3 hours matching the coupons with the upcoming sales fliers and making my shopping list and menu. Over the three week period I saved a total of $302.12! However, when I crunched the numbers I determined that not only had I not saved any money, I actually spent MORE money!  I subtracted the salary for my time, gas, printing paper, and ink which put me $3.88 in the hole! On top of that, I also found that we had food that was thrown out or given away because my family did not like it.

I presented my findings to a woman who organizes a coupon co-op to help me determine what I had done wrong. In the end she determined that I had used my coupons correctly, but my time to collect all those coupons was far too high. She also noted that most people do not take into consideration my deductions when determining savings. I was also put through an exercise that drew a comparison to the “new” foods and those that I typically would have purchased but did not. Upon further evaluation she reminded me that just because an item is on sale and I have a coupon, doesn’t mean that I should buy it. Immediately, the dim light bulb above my brain turned on.

For many coupons save them bundles of money that would make it well worth their time and for others it is an effort that may not be as effective or save money. What I learned was that certain coupons offer a significant savings. For example, in the coupon insert I receive in the mail, I regularly find coupons for hair products and makeup. My local pharmacy regularly places these items on sale. By tracking the sales of those items I was able to use the coupons and purchase my hair coloring for $2 and makeup for as low as $.75. I would have purchased these products anyway, but with a little glance through my Price Book, I knew exactly when they would go on sale and marked the coupons for that time resulting in Big Savings! Here are my tips on how to determine if coupons are worth your time and effort.

1. Shop Your Pharmacies. Walgreens and CVS can offer BIG savings. Track their sales, use coupons on those sale items, and use whatever “cash back” system they offer. When you shop regularly, these “cash back” systems spend like regular dollars and are well worth your time and efforts.
2. Compare. Make a shopping list for the week in your normal manner. Then gather all the coupons you can for one week and grab the sale ads from your grocery store. Within a half hour or less you will be able to determine whether coupons will be worth your time on any average shopping trip.
3. Do not purchase food that your family will not eat. Just because you can purchase the item for pennies on the dollar. If your family doesn’t like fish sticks, but you purchase them for $1.25 because they are on sale and you have a coupon, what you will end up with is an uneaten box of fish sticks that will ultimately be the same as throwing that $1.25 you spent on them in the garbage.
4. Seek Advice from Experts. There are people everywhere who save an abundance of money with coupons. They can help you determine the best methods and sources to make your coupons worth your time.
5. Crunch the numbers. Your time is worth money. If you are spending a large amount of time gathering and organizing coupons it has a monetary value that is directly related to the savings on your receipt. Take the amount you save and deduct the time you spend gathering coupons, extra gas, paper, ink, etc. and deduct it from your savings. I use a simple $8/hour rule of thumb for translating my time into money. Once you see your true savings go back and check with a couponing friend or online expert and ask for help to improve your savings.

After a few weeks of using coupons you will be able to determine how to choose which coupons are the best for your family, how to find them quickly and easily, and eliminate unnecessary purchases. Coupons can save your family budget when you learn how to use them well.

Purposeful Planning for a Year of Staying Motivated and Inspired

Right about now, you likely are still feeling energized and motivated while you are on your way to planning for becoming healthy in all areas of your life, including your family. Statistics, which in this case are accurate, show that by March 1 of any given year most people have abandoned their goals completely, or have fallen into a stagnant state. Think back to other year long goals you have had in the past. How long have you stayed inspired and motivated? The problem with this is that many goals are left unaccomplished and often times you feel overwhelmed and defeated in the process. This year can be different!

Several years ago I met a marvelous woman who taught me a method of planning for a year that was simple, effective, and easily got me re-invigorated when I became overwhelmed or felt lost along the journey. Phyllis Sather is an excellent mentor for purposefully planning for your family for an entire year and sticking to it. The method is so simple, but the rewards are far reaching and long lasting. The first thing Phyllis recommends is planning a time that you and your husband can get together for a couple of days and focus on planning out your year. In preparation for this you and your husband both come up with an outline of topics to be discussed. Our topics have varied as have the size of sub goals in each category each year. However, Phyllis’s method is so concise and easy to use that when you begin to feel derailed, it is simple to grab those reigns and pull yourself back on track. Staying motivated and inspired is an essential key to accomplishing goals for your family for an entire year.

Our main goal at Simple Journey Ministries for 2011 is Living to be Healthy. This encompasses achieving health in all areas of your life, such as spirit, body, food, relationships, mind, family finance, home, and schedules. Accomplishing such a large project as this is done step by step, one day at a time, in a comprehensive manner that will result in a more healthy family by the end of this year. There will be times when it may seem an insurmountable task. You may lose your way, become weary, or forget some of your goals. With the help of Phyllis’s Purposeful Planning, you can achieve your goals this year! She will help you to formulate a plan with your husband that will keep you motivated and inspired all year long. I look forward to this time each year both to review the past year and to look forward to the upcoming 12 months.

Get the details on the Purposeful Planning system by CLICKING HERE.

So let’s get our year long plan together and live to be healthy this year!

Simple Lapbook and Notebook Organization for Effective Homeschooling

Getting your homeschool organized is a huge feat. Keeping it organized is yet another never ending task. Yet there are some simple ways you can keep it all under control when you use lapbooks or notebooks.

Most homeschooling families have topics that they cover yearly, such as the history of holidays, birthdays, events such as Earth Day with Environmental Science, and famous people. Perhaps in your homeschool you revisit some of these topics every other year. With each year your children make a lapbook or notebook on these repeating topics. Sometimes your children do activities, projects, and workbook pages which never make into the final lapbook or notebook, leaving you to take the next most simple step and stash them in a file. That is one way to keep them organized, but it does not create the most effective comprehensive learning for your children.

One solution to this problem is to keep an ongoing lapbook or notebook for these recurring topics. Each year your children study the topic(s) you can do more activities, projects, and workbook pages and add them to one ever growing lapbook or notebook for the ultimate in simple homeschooling organization. Before you begin studying repeating topics (for example, take Pilgrims and Thanksgiving) have your children review what they did previous years. You can then add to their learning a new and more in-depth study. By reviewing previous material, that is easily located in one simple organized location, you offer your children a more effective and lasting learning experience. Your organizational effort is minimal and you reduce space needed for storing these items over time. One three ring notebook can hold many years learning on a recurring topic. Lapbooks are unique in that pages can be added in a variety of different ways. This offers your child the opportunity to use the creative side of their brain adding more value to the learning experience. Lapbooks and notebooks can be a combined venture to offer more organization and effective comprehnsive learning.

One more nice benefit to using this type of system over many years is that your children will create wonderful keepsakes too! Enjoy the time learning with your children. Make your homeschooling lessons effective and long lasting by placing your focus on them, rather than the organization. With a method as simple as this, you will feel less stressed and more organized.

For more informaton and ideas I recommend these sites:

• Hands of a Child
• Notebooking Pages
• Homeschool Share

Serve Healthy Food and Save Money In the Comfort of Your Own Home in 15 minutes or Less

There are some days when you are so tired, your schedule has been so hectic, and you just don’t want to cook dinner. Many times you hit a drive through which ends up costing your family at least $20. The other option is to eat at a sit down restaurant which will cost you about $40 plus a tip. You may choose the drive-thru to save money, but the food is far from healthy and not nearly worth the cost. There is yet another option for you to serve your family dinner for much less money when you are too tired to cook.

If you venture to your local grocery store or Wal-Mart you can find some very easy options to serve your family a fairly healthy dinner without having to do much, if any, cooking. You can eat in the comfort of your own home, which is much more comforting at the end of a long day, too. Consider picking up a roasted chicken, a bag of frozen veggies, and instant mashed potatoes. Chicken is cooked, so there is no preparation or cooking involved. When you boil the water for the instant mashed potatoes, place your frozen veggies in a steamer and place over the water. By the time the water is ready to add the potatoes, the veggies are cooked. Add the milk, butter, and spuds, and in less than 15 minutes you have a healthy dinner to serve your family. That same chicken paired with a simple Caesar type salad and whole or multigrain bread is another excellent option that costs far less than eating out.  If you enjoy microwaving food from time to time consider picking up some precooked frozen chicken strips or breasts, instant rice, and a bag of apples. Heat the water for the rice in the microwave, and place the rice in the bowl and cover. While the rice is “cooking” heat the desired amount of chicken; while this is cooking slice up some apples. Another option is to heat the chicken in the microwave and while it is cooking, prepare a salad. When chicken is ready, toss on top of your salad. Doing this type of “eating out” is much less. On days when I am too tired to cook, using one of the options above I typically spend about $2.50-$3 per serving compared to spending $5-$10 per person at a drive through or sit down restaurant. I keep the meal idea simple; three items or less. Focus on a vegetable/fruit, a grain, and a protein. If you want to save even more money, consider a few options to have on hand at home.

On a weekend grill or bake several chicken breasts, steaks, and brown ground meat. Cook a lot of rice, mashed potatoes, and baked potatoes. When meat is done let the meat sit for about 10 minutes. Then slice and package in desired amounts into freezer safe zip style bags. Do the same for the rice and mashed potatoes. For the baked potatoes, scoop out the insides and prepare your favorite way for twice baked potatoes. Flash freeze and then package in zip style freezer bags. Instead of having to spend extra money at the grocery store, you will have a few healthy food items on hand that you can pull from your own freezer and microwave in less than 15 minutes.

How much are you really going to save? If we take the above figures of $20-$40 for a restaurant, that equates to roughly $5-$10 per person for a family of four per meal. When using the grocery store precooked and easily cooked foods to serve up a nutritious dinner the cost drops to $2.50-$3.50 per person saving a family of four at the very least $6. However, most typically the savings fall more in the $10-$20 dollar range. If you precook your convenience food at home, you can save even more money! Much More! You see the precooked convenience foods that you cook and freeze at home for convenience the extra cost to your family is ZERO. The food was purchased with your regular food budget money, so no additional money is spent. That means you can serve your family a healthy dinner even when you are tired and don’t want to cook, for FREE in 15 minutes or less!

For more inspiration, tips, an ideas, check out Eat at Home Cooks. This website is an excellent resource for making eating at home simple and justas rewarding as eating out. You can save lots of money maing this one simple change in your family. I have found some fantastic and simple recipes on this site. This month they had a nice series; Resolutionize Your Kitchen and in February they will be talking about freezer cooking. So check out Eat at Home Cooks and take the next step to healthy family finances, bodies, food, and mind.

 Why not try some of these tips the next time you are too tired to cook and serve your family a healthy dinner and save money while you are at it?

Go Green for Less

Most families have an opinion about the green house effect, Al Gore, and carbon footprints. What I find interesting is that regardless of what side of the issue one is on, going green makes sense. The earth is a planet. You can only deplete its resources to a certain extent before the results begin to change how the planet functions, on some level, which affects our lives. With the cool factor, it factor, and Madison Avenue marketing gurus, going green has been made into a massively lucrative business. How many times have you seen a product or service that is good for the environment, but the cost is exorbitant? The good news is that every family can have a go green creating a healthy home for less. When you make efforts to have a healthy home you are contributing to a healthy planet as well. God created the earth with great beauty and diversity. He instructed you to care of it. There are simple ways you can begin to transform your home into a healthy one and spend less money to do it.

Today I have an excellent resource that has been educational for me, my children, and is helping us achieve a healthy home environment and it isn’t costing us a dime! You can go green for less! The Family Groove is a website that has a lot of great information about going green. I like that the focus is on what a family can do together and in a wide variety of areas.

Your family likely knows how to recycle according to your local laws and regulations; paper, plastic, glass, and non-recyclables. It is the simple basics of reducing your household waste and typically doesn’t cost any money. You may not know what the numbers mean on containers in regards to recycling or that how to recycle items that do not fit into the typical categories. For example, did you know that you can recycle empty glue bottles and glue stick containers simply by rinsing and collecting in a box. Beginning on Earth Day this year you can bring the boxes of containers right to Wal-Mart and hand to a Greeter. It is simple, effective, and gets your family creating a healthier home, and keeps waste out of your local landfills. If your children go to school, belong to a co-op, participate in a sport or club, this would be an excellent and simple activity to help children in your community see how easy it can be to make a difference when everyone works together. Have your child decorate a box as a receptacle and bring it to each meeting, event, or to the classroom.  Have her type up a half page flyer that explains the project and request friends to bring in their empty bottles and sticks. The Family Groove has links to Elmer’s Glue for pages that have contests, projects, collection box ideas, lesson plans, and a video showing how glue containers are recycled. WoW! You can find so much more about recycling in general and ways to recycle different items by visitng Family Groove’s How to Recycle page.

It doesn’t have to cost you a fortune to go green. Have fun with your family and we can all have a healthy home and go green for less than you think!

How to Organize and Manage Online Coupons and Free Sample Offers

I am not the authority on coupon usage. I have stayed away from using coupons due to the fact that 98% of the time the available coupons are for products I do not purchase. However, after a lot of research I have found that everyone can save a significant amount of money using coupons when they are carefully organized. In addition you can save a bundle using free samples of products in lieu of purchasing similar items if you only know how. What got me looking at using coupons? Well, it was one of you! I received an email asking about online coupons. “I started asking for coupons through companies and coupon clearing houses. Then I started registering online for free samples. I did get coupons and products but my email is clogged regularly with advertisements now. We also have a lot of junk mail coming from companies. Is there anyway to stop this? I want to save money, but all the garbage I get isn’t worth it anymore.” In order to see how these companies worked, I began following the process that Shyla went through. What I discovered was that organization, careful review, and simplicity are key to utilizing coupons and free sample offers and saving your family time and money.

Firstly, set up a free email account exclusively for the purpose of communicating with companies, coupon clearing houses. By doing this all of the advertisements that a company may send after capturing your email address will go to this email exclusively, preventing unwanted “spam” in your personal email inbox. This offers you a simple way to organize all information and manage communication with companies that exclusively deal with special offers, free samples, and coupons. You will be able to locate information quickly and easily by having all like information in one email account.

When filling out online forms to receive coupons, special offers, free samples, communicating with companies, or registering for coupon websites, use a family name as opposed to your real name. For example if your name is Kathy Jones, your registration name could simply be Jones Clan. When you are asked to enter your first name type Jones, and your last name type Clan. As Shyla (and I) experienced these companies will begin mailing you many offers. By using a slightly fictitious name you can identify this mail immediately. Anything that comes to your mailbox addressed Jones Clan will be easily identifiable as potential junk mail. Within a short amount of time you will be able to locate those mailings that may contain a usable coupon from a mere advertisement. This is an organizational key that will save you time and money.

Organize your paper coupons. I have read a lot about coupon organization. Some recommend organizing coupons by product type, while others recommend organizing by expiration date. One article I read suggested that the best way to manage your coupons was according to the layout of your store. I have not determined what the most efficient method is yet, but it looks as though it is somewhere in-between. Most of the coupon experts encourage you to use coupons in conjunction with ongoing sales. Right now I am using a simple index card box with dividers to separate coupons by product type. Each week I check the current sales ad as I make my shopping list. Then I go to my box and sort through the coupons that I can use in conjunction with the sales and my list. When you add this to knowing exactly when a store will place certain proucts on sale, you are going to save BIG! I have been using coupons for items that are not on sale if I need the item.  Saving money in both circumstances has been making a difference in what I actual pay at the register.

Use the same semi-fictitious family name when filling out forms to apply for free samples from companies. Again, you will be able to save a lot of time when they add you to their mailing list and you need to sort through your mail quickly. Use a notebook, word document, or excel spreadsheet to keep track of free samples that you apply for. While I enjoy the surprise of an item that I forgot I sent away for, I have found that knowing approximately when I will be receiving a product is a blessing. In addition, there have been several companies that have not sent the promised sample. I figure after 6 months, I will likely not receive it. Oddly, I have received many promotional emails and mailings from some of those companies over the last six months. Noting which companies have a repeated pattern of this practice has saved me time from applying for anything from their company moving foward. In one case I sent an email to the company asking to be removed from their mailing list with an explanation. They replied with coupons for free regular size products and a request to “give them another shot.” Good customer relations results in money saved as well as a more efficiently run company. A win win for all.

Like a product? Try something new because you had a coupon and found it to be a great product you will use again? Email the company and let them know. Most emails received from companies are customer complaints. Companies cherish those customers who take the time to let them know when they are doing a good job or have a great quality product, too! They will often thank you for your time with coupons for that product. Saving money for giving a company a deserved pat on the back is an excellent way to get more high value coupons.

As I learn more about using coupons, without going coupon crazy, I will continue to inform you of my findings, especially in regards to organizing and managing them along with free sample offers. If you are a coupon Mama, please email me and let me know your best tips at Leslie@leslievaleska.com. This may actually be an art form that can save your family lots of money; saving money is multiplied when you get your coupons and free sample offers organized. I do believe I am finally being converted a coupon loving woman!

Helping Your Family Get Healthy

One of the reasons that many women struggle with getting healthy and losing or maintaining a healthy weight is that their families are on a completely different plan. When mom or dad is dieting, and no one else, it creates an environment that is not only detrimental to the efforts of the dieter, but it also sends a message that only those who are losing weight need to eat healthy. On the other hand, why should everyone have to eat exactly the same as the dieter if they are not trying to lose weight? A valid point to be certain, but it misses the mark. Our focus is on living to be healthy, not specifically weight loss. Living to be healthy includes helping your family get healthy too! This week I offer some tips for keeping your efforts to achieve and maintain a healthy weight on the fast track and getting your family on the healthy track as well.

• Teach Serving Size. One of the biggest issues facing people today is that our eating habits are conditioned to enormous portion sizes. Recently, when my daughter measured out a serving of dry cereal (3/4 cup) she actually laughed out loud at what appeared to be a portion size for a Lilliputian. We compared this with the portion she would have normally served herself and found that it was four times the recommended serving size! Imagine that. She learned a good lesson, but so did I. I hadn’t realized the portion sizes I was serving my family. This week, look at portion sizes with your children. Have them place what they would serve themselves on a plate or bowl and then compare with a true serving size. Another eye opener is a serving size for different types of vegetables. My non-vegetable loving son was pleasantly surprised with the portion size of vegetables compared to what he thought he had to eat. Helping your family get healthy can be a learning experience for everyone and it CAN BE FUN! You will be learning to eyeball correct portion sizes and incorporating those in your meal times will keep you on the fast track to a healthy weight.
• Get Moving. If you aren’t used to exercising, don’t have time to exercise, or you simply can’t motivate yourself, try starting off with something really simple. Take five minutes and do some type of movement for that time only. You can dance silly with your children, march in place with your arms over your head, or jog around the perimeter of your home. Your goal is to simply get moving for five minutes. When you get your children involved, it is not only easier to be motivated, but it also places an element of FUN in the task. Get Dad involved by doing five minutes of movement as a family about a half hour after dinner. If you do one five minute segment per day on your own and add the one family five minute segment that will offer you ten minutes of movement per day. Fast track yourself even more with each five minute segment you add each day. Need an extra motivator for this one? Do not think of this as you exercising;  think of this as helping your family members get healthy. This is for your children and your husband as much as it is for you!
• Get a Hobby. Doesn’t sound like a weight loss or healthy lifestyle tip, does it? However, when you are trying to change a habit, it is very helpful if you replace the time previously spent on the other habit with something you enjoy. You can use your hobby to keep your mind off eating as well. If you find yourself eating during the slow periods of the day or when you get bored, having a hobby can often be the difference between achieving your goals and standing still. By making a small change in this area you will be cutting calories each day keeping you on the fast track to a healthy weight. To get your family involved consider teaching them a new skill or having some very short games and activities at the ready. I have a habit of sneaking extra “tastes” of dinner while I am cooking because I am impatient for the meal to be finished. Now, I have one of the children reading with me while I cook to keep my mind focused elsewhere. My children also receive the added benefit of extra quality time with Mom. You may build a tradition that your children not only cherish, but that they bring into their own adulthood and pass on to their children. Part of helping your family get healthy is making changes that last a lifetime.

You are living to be healthy in 2011, but you are also making efforts to help your family live healthy too! This week you can bump yourself along the fast track to a healthy weight while teaching your family a healthy lifestyle in a meaningful and lifelong way.

Looking for even more ways to help your family get healthy? Spend a little time visiting the Raising a Healthy Family Website.

Organize Your Homeschool and Save Money

Go to any homeschool convention anywhere and walk into the vendors hall. As you casually promenade through the aisles, observe the faces of the parents as they shop. You will many sets of eyes glistening as they peer from one booth to the next. You may even notice a bit of drool oozing from the corner of a few mouths (I am talking parents not kids here). Many of those parents will have carts on wheels that are being stocked with the best school supplies, helps, and curriculum known to the free world. If you were to interview these parents and ask them about their purchases you would likely hear heartfelt inspired stories of why each item was purchased, for what purpose, and how it is intended to be used in the upcoming school year. Oh the bliss of it all!

Interview these same parents 6 months into the next school year and ask them to evaluate their purchases and you may find a completely different set of answers. Some products were perfect, some not what was expected, others were not a good fit for a particular family, and yet others have yet to be opened. This is the story of any typical homeschool family. What can result after years of this cycle is an accumulation of a lot of homeschool products and curriculum that is stored away for another time, another (younger) child, or perhaps even stored in a box that is intended for resale. Are you one of these families? Mine too!

One year my husband asked me if we truly needed everything I was storing. I immediately defended my vast surplus of materials. Then my brain took a left turn at Albuquerque and what I found was a very different mindset. When I got honest with myself I realized that much of what I had I would never use, another good portion of what I had I did want to use, but got buried under the never ending incoming surplus of goods only to be forgotten about, and a large portion of what I was saving for younger children would never be used again. I added this to the fact that every time someone else recommended a product or curriculum or I walked through a homeschool convention vending hall I came home with more than I could ever possibly use or need. I needed to get organized.

The first year I got serious about organizing my homeschool products, but I still purchased more. By the second year I had realized that all of this was completely insane and there was a much better way to homeschool my children for a whole lot less. The key to truly organizing my homeschool stuff, was a simple plan that would allow me to be prepared long before the homeschool convention came around. Now, my purchases are necessary and wise and I save so much money because I don’t purchase anything that I do not absolutely one hundred percent know that I will use in my homeschool. Here are some of the basic points in my plan to help you organize your homeschool and save money in the process.

1. Take Inventory. What do you really have? Take time everyday for a week or two and organize your homeschool curriculum. Search high and low. Look through your shelves, closets, file cabinets, boxes, and your computer. Yes, I have seen your computer. I know you have a bunch of e-books that you have purchased or gotten for free taking up space on your computer with the best of intentions, but have never been used. Start organizing and prioritizing your homeschool items in a meaningful way. Are you really going to use that Algebra curriculum in nine years when your younger children are ready for it? Do you have a bunch of items that you have printed in your filing cabinet waiting to be used? Get them organized and make a few lists. You can save a lot of money if you simply know what you have on hand that you will actually use and what you will truly never use.
2. Put Your Emotions Away. Ever purchased something that you thought was absolutely dear for your children only to discover they really have no interest? Perhaps you are like me and have even tried to force them to love what you love. One of the most effect methods I use to organize my homeschool is to put my emotions away and let my mind control the situation. I think of each of my children. I consider their personalities, learning styles, challenges, our lifestyle, as well as their ages and gaps between uses of any given item. You will find that you have a LOT more than you will ever need to homeschool your child when you get your own preferences out of the way.
3. Evaluate Every Item. This is the most time consuming. Even though I have whittled down my homeschool store, I still find it takes more time for me to evaluate material than to do anything else. There are some curriculum and homeschool products that have been excellent resources when educating a certain child that will not work with any other child in my house, but I kept it because one of my children may change as he grows. Thus I kept the homeschool product on a “what if” basis. This was a waste of time and space. Yes, there have been times when I have repurchased an item that I disposed years prior thinking no other child would use it, but that has happened very rarely. You must keep your mindset on what is best for your family now and in the immediate future, not long term, unless you are absolutely certain that it will be used again. When you begin to evaluate your need level of each homeschool item you will get a much more clear picture of where you are going and what you need to get there. You can even sell unwanted or unused items and use the proceeds to purchase new items, when needed, without having to spend any extra money out of your budget. I have known moms that never spend a dime on new homeschool material above what they earn in proceeds from selling unwanted items. This is a practice that reaches beyond saving money, because they do not need to have a budget from their current income!

When you organize your homeschool before convention season rolls around you will have a more happy and healthy mind, homeschool, and home, all while saving money making your wallet healthy too! As you approach convention time, you will find it much easier to organize a list of what you need and spend far less than in years past. You CAN homeschool and save money while educating your children to the fullest!

Look for the second part on how to save money by having a homeschool that is organized before convention season right here on Journey to Simplicity and continue to achieve a life that is healthy in every aspect.