I thought I’d try something new today. It may go well, it may not. Instead of sharing with you a few things that I found in my reader this week from the same blogs that I read all the time, I thought I’d broaden my horizons and give you a chance to share. So, I am asking you to share a link from your blog below in the McLinky that I hopefully will insert properly and will function fabulously.

One time many years ago, I had a party at my new condo and one person showed up. It was not one of my finer moments. So I am laying this out there that I hope that I don’t have a link party today that no one shows up to. I am making it easy. Simply share a post that you love. I want to visit everyone and see who you are, what matters to you and what inspires you to sit down at your computer and share.

A few pesky rules: make sure the post you link up is a permalink – that it goes directly to a blog post, not just your blog’s main page. It makes it easier for everyone. If you’d like to link back here in your post, that would be wonderful. And I hope after you leave your link that you will visit others, comment and spread some love and joy around.

Happy Simple Saturday.

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Simple Saturday: A New Kind of Link Love

Emily at chatting at the sky is hosting a linky party. The idea is to capture a glimpse of your home that makes your space home to you. Easy peasy.

I love being home. I really really do. And nothing says relaxing at home more than the reading and writing chair.

Go ahead, link up at glimpses of home. Share. Visit. Be inspired.

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Feels Like Home

With The Kids

1. go for a walk
2. have a picnic
3. give them each a little money at the thrift store to pick books (ours are usually 10, 25 or 50 cents depending on type). Then host a storytime in the living room at home.
4. Take $5 to a craft store like Hobby Lobby or Michael’s and let them pick supplies. Get creative. The end result matters less than the fun of the process.
5. make cupcakes
6. teach generosity – give/tip/donate it

As a Family

1. make your own pizza on pizza night instead of ordering in
2. $1 for a movie at redbox and some popcorn makes for a fun and inexpensive family night
3. head to a local ice cream shop and split a big sundae. Everyone grab a spoon.
4. start a family journal – everyone can add to it and share thoughts and moments
5. start a garden from seed packets
6. Go for coffee. Skip the latte, get a muffin for the kids (if you have them, of course).

Around The House

1. makeover a table - $3 for new knobs (beware if you let a 5 year old choose the knobs, they might not match) and $1 for a can of oops paint and a ratty old table is new (and smiling!) again.
2. print some photos – send photos to shutterfly and pick them up at a local walgreens in an hour
3. buy candles - an inexpensive way to add a little ambience to the home
4. paint some terracotta pots with chalkboard paint for easy labeling. plant herbs in them.
5. use mason jars for instant inexpensive decor and function
6. using sticky notes or notecards, leave notes around for the people you live with to surprise them and put a smile on their face
7. mistreat a window with a yard sale curtain
8. make photo tiles

Have fun, create, enjoy the outdoors, make the most of what you have. Enjoy your time and think of all the things you can do for little money. Other ideas? Please share so we can all gain some inspiration.

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20 Things To Do With $5 (Or Less)

The past couple of weeks seemed long. Sick kids, sick me, too many doctor’s visits and not enough play time. It’s funny how suddenly when things are going not according to the plan, my eyes open to so much I take for granted each day. When a little boy has no appetite, I’m reminded to be grateful for when he does. When I can’t sleep at night, I’m reminded to be appreciative of all the moments of slumber I do get. When we make 7 trips to the doctor and 7 copays and a lot of prescriptions, I am reminded to be grateful for having the means to go to the doctor too many times in two weeks.

Yesterday, for the first time in weeks, my son seemed totally better. He went to school, he spent the afternoon playing outside in the yard with me. Tiny fingers dragged dump trucks of sand around, dug deep into the ground and got filthy. Even when he came for a hug and smeared those dirty digits on my white pants, I was just grateful for a sunny day playing outside with a happy and healthy boy.

I have my moments of not being so appreciative. Not embracing all the chaos and stuff that makes these imperfect days so wonderful. My focus goes elsewhere. Sometimes I spend too much time driving around and doing errands and feeling the pressure of too much to do. I do that to myself. I choose what has to be done and sometimes my priorities get shifted into the wrong order. When those times happen, I spend more money than I should, I have less energy than I need, and I have fewer moments doing the important things with the people I love.

A simple moment of a smiling little boy smearing dirt brings me back. Reminds me of what is important. Being grateful for what I have rather than what I think I need that is still out there somewhere, eluding me, is the key to living simply. Appreciating what is today, not wanting what isn’t. Being content in this time, this place, with what I have and who I am. Far easier to write than to do. A worthy goal nonetheless.

What are you grateful for today?

Adding this to beautiful life friday at Melissa’s. Check out what’s inspiring others this week.

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Grateful

I started a tumblr a while back, then my computer died and when I got my new computer, I forgot all about it and never added the bookmark back. I finally did add it recently and have been tumbling a few things. It is much easier to share things I like around the web than doing these link roundups, but I still enjoy these. You can let me know if you don’t find them valuable. I try to keep them simple, not giving too many links each time I do one.

I also created a facebook fan page. If you’d like to be a fan of Remodeling This Life over there, I promise I’ll keep it simple over there, too. (Maybe that should be my new blog tagline. I’ve been thinking of changing it.)

Don’t forget that the Lisa Leonard Designs $50 Giveaway ends tomorrow. Leave a comment to be entered and I’ll be randomly choosing the winner and announcing it tomorrow.

And now, here are some links from my reader that I enjoyed this week:

• Big Rocks First
• Simple Easter Paper Crafts
• Spring Time Wall Art
• I Can’t Do It All
• Trying To Buy His Love

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Link Love

I woke up at 5:45 this morning to a bright flash of lightning followed by a loud clap of thunder. The loud crash of thunder was followed by the tiny sound of 4 feet shuffling across the tile floors into my room. Soon, my kids were wrestling for the best spot curled up next to mama. I had to quiet them by reminding them I have two sides. And the best kind of sandwich is a mommy sandwich. Soon, I had two kids surrounding me, and I was the filling. There was no more thunder, just some lightning illuminating the sky and the sound of raindrops against the bedroom windows to enjoy while the kids drifted back to sleep. Trapped there on the bed, instead of dozing back to sleep myself, I laid still enjoying the quiet sounds of mother nature mixed in with the sweet sounds of tiny heartbeats next to me.

Later in the morning, hubby arrived home from work. Since he works outside, he was sent home due to the rain. He helped me pack lunches, helped put socks and shoes on the kids and we took them to school together. After my Tuesday morning duties of school drop offs and school volunteering were over, we planned to meet back at home for some quiet time just the two of us. A true rarity round these parts. I walked in the door to the phone ringing to pick a sick kid up from school. So much for plans. After picking up my sick son, we arrived back home where I found myself curled back up in that same bed I’d been in a few hours ago but this time to settle a sweet boy to sleep. He napped, I napped. A true gift in the middle of the day on a Tuesday.

I woke up and left him there snoring, tucking the covers over his tiny body a little tighter. I found hubby and asked if he wanted to sit with me and have a chai tea. I asked if he’d like to play cards, too. We sat, sipping our spicy tea, playing gin rummy. It took a few turns before we both remembered the rules. We’re a little rusty at slowly passing time with card games. After we’d been playing a few minutes, I realized that the last time we’d played cards together like this was when I was pregnant with our first child. Two days before my scheduled induction for being 10 days overdue, we sat in a kitchen 1500 miles from here at this same kitchen table, laying out sets of 3s and 10s, timing contractions in between discards. That day, more than 5 1/2 years ago feels like a lifetime ago. I can still remember the heat from that July day in New York. I remember checking my watch over and over. Could this really be it? Could I really go into labor before my induction? Am I really about to be a mother? Will I know what to do?  What if I don’t know what to do?

Today, I sat at that same table and so many memories rushed back. A table full of dents, covered in glued on glitter, telling the stories of the most mundane moments that a family has spent together. The same table I sat at as a child for every bowl of Kix cereal before school and every family dinner. I thought of how when I was younger, my parents, brother and I all had our own spot at that table. I remember glasses of milk left there long after the evening dishes were done until we drank them. I remember cinnamon rolls and tangerines spread on that table on Christmas morning.

Small moments happen everyday. The moments we’ll remember most aren’t the ones that are planned weeks in advance and cost the price of admission and concession stand food. The biggest moments are the small moments. The ones that happen right in the midst of the chaos and the mundane. Savor them.

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Savor The Small Moments

She’s so sweet and wonderful, even moreso in person than I would’ve imagined.

Can you tell I heart her? As fabulous as her jewelry may be, she is a million times more.

Recently, she sent me this necklace. One of her new designs, it’s the vintage frames necklace. Swoon.

As pretty as it looks laying on my bedspread just waiting for one of my kids to come swoop it up and break it or lose it, it looks really pretty on, too.

In keeping with the frames theme…tell me…what other necklace would look so beautiful hanging from a frame?

All of her work is so amazing, and I feel so fortunate to call a few of her gorgeous pieces mine.

Today, the lovely Lisa is offering a $50 gift certificate to her shop. Just hop on over to Lisa Leonard Designs and browse around and come back and comment telling me what you’d like to buy if you win.

Thank you to Lisa for the gorgeous necklace and the generous giveaway!

Giveaway is open until Sunday. I’ll announce the winner then.

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Lisa Leonard Designs Giveaway

When we moved the armoire out of there, it left a whole corner of his room empty. I didn’t want to go out shopping to fill the space, so we used what we had to make him a shelf where we can display favorite books, line up trains, and display photos and artwork.

His room is not this green, who knows what I did to mess up the lighting in that photo, but it’s not hard for me to mess up! Hubby painted the wood and installed the shelf. I bossed him around about what height it should be and he got cranky. Then when it was all over he admitted it was nice where I wanted it. I win!

In case anyone is curious about some of the things on the shelf, on the right hand side, there is the easy DIY wall art for kids that I made and posted at Living Locurto earlier this year. Over on the left is a leaning photo tile.

I used some of my favorite frugal stuff – jute twine and clothespins – to make another level for displaying photos and his artwork that he brings home from school. I like how non-commital a shelf and some twine and clothespins are. I can change out the artwork (we get so much new art from school every week, I sometimes feel like I am drowning in it) and photos and move them around all I want without harming any walls or frames in the process, like I did during the family photo wall project.

Remember the advent calendar I made in December? When I was packing up everything after the holidays, I decided to leave it up and use it as a message board. I had just decluttered it the day before I decided to take a pic and share it here. Some friends have come over and thought it was neat, so I figured it was worth sharing. It is often full of stuff like appointment cards and the occasional note, coupon, or whatever else seems appropriate at the time.

Apparently, I am a fan of the clothesline look!

How do you like to store and display favorite artwork and photos?

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Displaying Children’s Artwork and Photos

This was a long bad week for my family in terms of sickness. 2 ear infections and one sinus infection between my two kids, and a cold for me made for a cooped up, lazy week at home. I do like the extra naps and snuggle time I get but I would love a week of no doctor’s office copays and would like my kitchen to look more like a kitchen and less like a pharmacy.

While I’m snuggling congested kids, here are some links for your reading pleasure that I enjoyed from my reader this week:

Forgive My Rambling Heart
Don’t Wait For Something Special
Real People Don’t Live in Magazine Spreads
8 Effective Ways To Raise Frugal Kids

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Link Love

After buying the shoes, I went home and put $73 aside to make sure when the bill came, I could pay for them in full. When the bill arrived and I wrote the check for $73 to pay it off, it was exhilarating. I felt so responsible and grown up.

Each month for a while, I continued to do the same thing. I’d buy one or two things, wait for the bill, and pay it in full. I bought a table and chairs from Crate and Barrel for $400 and really felt grown up then. I’d bought furniture and paid for it when the bill came. I was really getting the hang of being mature and responsible, I thought.

During this time, I was in college living in a condo hubby and I had bought together and working two jobs – one as a nanny every weekday afternoon and one at IBM on Saturday and Sunday mornings at the front desk. For a college kid, I made good money in addition to the money hubby was making at his job.

Somewhere along the way, probably after I got a bill for more than a few hundred dollars and I noticed the “minimum payment now due” box, I realized I could just pay a little of the bill and keep the money in my checking account for more shopping. I got out of control fast. My credit limit kept getting raised, my minimum payments were so enticing, and oh how I loved shopping.

A combination of impulsivity, a desire to fit in, and an eating disorder at the time played into the ugly change in course from being responsible to being in complete financial trouble. It went from just the Visa card to a Mastercard too, then a card to all of my favorite stores – Jcrew, Gap, Victoria’s Secret, Express. While I starved my body of the food it needed, I was leaving a hole that needed filling and I filled it with clothes. Clothes in really small sizes that gave me a false sense of esteem. I had huge credit card balances and a closet full of size 0 clothes.

In just a couple short years, I had run myself over $10,000 in credit card debt, transferring balances to new cards, signing up for additional promotions, waiting impatiently for my limits to be raised so I had more to spend. I had $1,500 on a card, would pay $100 to it and call every day until that $100 posted then go out and spend the new available balance. I missed payments, I made late payments, I overdrew my checking account too many times to count.

It’s not easy to tell this story. It’s not easy to look back on a time that I would’ve done anything to fit in and be accepted by people that were impossible to please. I had reduced my self worth to what other very misguided people valued – things that clearly mean nothing but meant the world to me then.

The details of my debt story make it look like this story is only mine. My path into debt and the underlying factors that caused it may not look like anyone else’s. At the heart of debt are a few things: living beyond one’s means, a lack of control, and a false sense of what is really valuable in life.

At 22 years old, with a boat load of bills to my name, an eating disorder to kick to the curb, and a loving husband, I decided it was time to turn things around. I emptied my wallet of plastic and I hung up my running shoes.

Was it as easy as I thought it would be? No, it was not.

To Be Continued

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Running Up Debt