Life as Mrs. Emerson

Hello friends!  As I mentioned in this week’s goals , we spent the majority of our week in Arkansas visiting with extended family.  Here’s a few of the things I did to save money even while spending most of the week out of town.   We drove the ten hour trip to Arkansas in lieu of flying.  I still prefer flying any day over a long road trip but as the years go by we are definitely perfecting our road tripping skills.  The cheapest flights available would cost us about $1000 vs. the $100 it (currently) costs to drive.  Even if you include another $100 for meals there and back we have stilled saved a ton of money.    We packed a cooler for our road trip.  This took care of two meals and numerous snacks.  We did opt to stop at a restaurant with a play place during both legs of our trip.  (If you are really looking to save money you could stop at a park or a local elementary school playground instead.) My sister-in-law ...

Happy Summer!  I hope you are soaking up lots of sun and managing to save some money in the process.  Here is what we did to save money this week.   We harvested mint, Romaine lettuce (Freckles variety), and a pepper from our garden.  Next week I anticipate picking some squash! Our entire family enjoyed Vacation Bible School at our church.  VBS is one of the highlights of our summer and we honestly plan our entire summer around the week of VBS.  They learned so much about the Gospel and had an absolute blast.  We even enjoyed an inflatable water slide on Thursday evening! The children and I had a fantastic time meeting friends at the park for a play date.  Since the weather has started to really heat up here, we met a little earlier which worked out great.  When Eli was a baby the park near our house only had metal slides which would get really hot.  My solution was to wake up, grab breakfast, and head to the park before the sli...

Ahh summer!  It's the most wonderful time of the year!  It's also the most expensive time of the year (well aside from December).  In an attempt to save more money this summer I'm going to resume the Frugal Things posts.  Here's what we did this past week to have fun and save money: On Monday we stayed home all day and simply had the best time.  We played outside for hours, read stories together, and just really enjoyed being at home together.  I think it can be easy to think that in order to have a great summer we must be going somewhere each and every day.  Some of the best memories from my childhood involve days spent entirely at home. We enjoyed a fantastic time at the zoo with friends.  I am so thankful for our zoo pass which we make good use out of.  We packed our own food and drinks. The happy hubby and I finally flipped the mattress on our king bed.  When we purchased our mattress we made sure to buy one that could be "f...

The snow was a welcomed interruption to our week last week.  We didn't receive much but it was enough to enjoy an afternoon of sledding and snow angels down the front hill.  I'm amazed (and a little terrified) at how fearless both children are when it comes to sledding!  We spent a lot of time this week just focused on simple enjoyments like hot chocolate, sledding, and spending hours reading books snuggled up under a cozy blanket watching it snow. I was able to speak with one of Evangeline's physicians over the phone instead of actually having to drive in for an appointment.  The physician actually suggested this to me and I was thrilled to take her up on it!  Of course this saves tons of money and it also saved me at least four hours since she tends to run hours behind!  I was so thankful. My mom & I enjoyed a wonderful trip to JoAnn fabrics during their 20% off sale.  I purchased fabric and supplies to make two gifts for friends.  I...

Our beautiful church covered in snow.   Frugal Things I Did Last Week is back by request!  A few of you have asked where my "frugal things" post have been and now they are back. Here are a few of the things we did to save money and enjoy life last week: I enjoyed having a friend and her daughter over for dinner on Friday.  We had so much fun relaxing at home AND she taught me how to make a granny square!  I made a simple Chicken Almondine casserole and my friend brought dessert. We enjoyed the beautiful snow from inside.  I pulled back the curtains and we watched it snow for hours curled up under warm blankets.  Eli ended up with an ear infection so we had to stay inside rather than play in the snow. We enjoyed reading through a large stack of books from the library and listening to audio books.  I also watched Call The Midwife Season 3.   We combined a number of errands in order to save gas and time.  I returned a number of it...

This year I scaled back a lot on the number of Christmas presents that I made.  This year I made about thirty Christmas presents.  I had hoped to make a few more for family members but I just ran out of time.  We really tried to focus on simplifying our Christmas this year.  There will be plenty of time in January and February to finish up a few projects on my wish list for the children! The above picture includes the gifts that I made for my Arkansas nieces.  I wasn't sure if the gifts would need to be mailed so I tried to keep them light weight.  I sewed two matching toddler infinity scarves using the frozen fabric.  The butterfly case is a diaper change case.  It can hold a few diapers and a pack of travel wipes for easy changes.   Do you remember a few years ago when the ribbon dancers were so popular?  This was another easy gift that I whipped up one afternoon.  I simply painted a dowel rod with two coats of paint....

   This week part of Evangeline's occupational therapy involved stamping with apples!  Eva has been working with apples in feeding therapy for the past month so this was the perfect sensory activity.  It was such a fun activity for both kids that I really enjoyed participating in.  Our occupational therapist Mrs. T showed me how to cut the apple so that it was easy to hold.  What a great idea!  It definitely made it a lot easier for both children to stamp with the apples.  You could also try stabbing the apple with a fork if you didn't want to cut the handle.  We simply used washable paint on a paper plate and then stamped on plain white paper.  You could also use acrylic paint but it is a little harder to remove from little hands.  I would also recommend an old sheet or tablecloth to protect your table.  We have an old fitted sheet that fits nicely on the table to protect it whenever we decide to enjoy ...

Eli & Eva at the birthplace of President Woodrow Wilson.  If you follow me on instagram you might have noticed that we were blessed to take a trip to Washington D.C. last week.  After a lot of debate we opted to drive so that we could stop and visit Thomas Jefferson's Monticello along the way.  Here are a few of the frugal things we did last week!   While I firmly believe that vacation is a marvelous time to splurge there were a few things that we did to save money last week. While on vacation we tried to choose wisely which items to splurge on and which to pass on.  We chose to splurge on tickets to see Monticello even though we could only stay a few hours.  (It was well worth it.)  On the way home we stopped by the birthplace of President Woodrow Wilson and were unimpressed by the appearance of the museum so we opted not to spend the $50 it would have cost to actually go inside.  We strolled the grounds, admired the old automobile, a...

A few of our library finds from last week.   It feels as though the final days of summer are upon us as everyone prepares to start school in the next week or so.  We have been busy, busy and I will confess that it has impacted our frugality to some extent.  I am hoping to buckle down and really get back to the business of saving money and enjoying life with my family this week.  Here are a few of the frugal things that we did last week to save money:  My son cut zinnias from our yard which were absolutely beautiful.  They are called Hot-Crayon Zinnias from Renee's Garden Seed and I am in love with them!  The fact that my five year old son cut them and brought them to me made it even better. Eli had a blast attending his second and final week of swim lessons last week.  I am so thankful that we were able to find affordable swim lessons this summer.  Eli had an absolute blast and I am thankful that he is learning such important, life s...

On Monday Elijah started taking swim lessons at a local high school.  They are actually much cheaper than taking lessons through our gym where we have a membership.  I like the fact that they are everyday for two weeks instead of once a week for two months.  They are also an hour long instead of a half-hour.  I am interested to see if Eli will progress more quickly by swimming every day.  So far Eli is doing great and having a blast!  My youngest sister is also taking advanced swim lessons so my mom and I are taking turns taking the kids to their lessons.  On Tuesday we enjoyed a fun Emerson Family tradition where we dressed like a cow for Chick-Fil-A Day.  If you’ve never participated in the past then you need to mark your calendars now for next year because it seriously is an absolute blast.  Each person who is dressed in full cow attire is rewarded with a value meal or kid’s meal of their choice.  Not only did we enjoy the fr...

Eli had a blast playing Twister at the Art Museum.   Our summer of fun is in full swing.  Can you believe it is already July?  Here are a few of the ways my family saved money last week.  Most of the things we did were also incredibly fun!   I cut green onions that I had growing in a pot on our front porch. I used a bunch of leftovers to make a delicious Ham, Spinach, and Mushroom Quiche. The kids and I had a blast at our local Splash Park.  At only $3 per person (ages 2-12) this makes for quite a fun, frugal outing.  I also appreciate the fact that there isn't a pool there so I don't have trouble wrangling two wet kids by myself.  We packed a fun picnic to enjoy while we were there.  I hope we can squeeze in a few more trips before school begins! Before heading to the Splash park we stopped by Aldi to load up on groceries.  Since I took my large cooler along we were able to visit the grocery before the Splash park which work...

If you have been reading this blog for a while or are a personal friend of ours you know that as a family we travel a few times a year to visit family.  What you might not know is the fact that I hate road trips.  I don't hate all road trips just the long ones.  Once you pass the five hour mark the trip takes on a more serious tone.  Don't get me wrong I really do enjoy the trip once I get there but it is just hard for me to have a great, cheery attitude the entire drive there. That isn't to say that I haven't tried.  Seven years ago my sweet hubby proposed marriage (after I had already taken two long road trips to Arkansas with him).  The first couple of trips we took to Arkansas were a lot of fun but they were also about four hours shorter.  We lived closer to Arkansas at the time and we didn't yet have children.  Since that time I have watched youtube videos and have read numerous blog articles about ways to have a fantastic road trip...

Hello friends.   I am now back from an almost two month break from blogging.  It was completely unintentional but our life has been so full these past few months.  The happy hubby has been working like crazy and I also had the privilege of traveling out of state for a sweet friend's wedding.  All of that to say I am looking forward to hopefully blogging a little bit more regularly in the coming weeks.  (I am still not using face book at this time so if you would like to comment please do so here on the blog.)   One of my favorite posts to write each week (or at least a couple of times a week) is the frugal things post so I thought that would be a great place to start.  I hope that you are encouraged to create a beautiful, happy life without spending a lot of money.   Frugal Things I Did Last Week  We cut stir-fry greens from our tiny garden plot and enjoyed them in a delicious Trim Healthy Mama recipe called Egg roll ...

The highlight of our week was probably the day trip we took to Louisville to attend the Farm Machinery Show.  It costs $8 for parking but unlimited climbing access to the nicest tractors, combines, and farm equipment this side of the Mississippi.  I have such fond memories of attending as a child.  We were able to meet up with friends of ours and also saw my parents for a little while. We stopped by a bookstore on the way home so Brandon could browse for new releases which he didn't purchase.  I requested one of the books on his wish list from our library.  We also stopped by Costco on the way home and loaded up on organic produce and a few items for the happy hubby. I have been cleaning and trying to rid our home of clutter this past month.  It's a never ending battle in our home.  One thing that I find helpful to the process is to have give away bags started and kept in a room where they cannot be easily accessed by the children.  I hav...

So blessed to have a sweet little girl to sew jumpers for!   I picked up this adorable Nativity Doll Fabric (see below) last year thinking I would probably use it to cover a canvas or sew a pillow cover.  It is rare to find such beautiful fabric that includes the characters from the Christmas Story.  I also just adored the boutique look of the fabric and how the figures almost resemble Matryoshka dolls.  When I pulled this fabric out of my "Christmas Fabric" box I knew that I needed to make a dress or jumper for my girl.   I added the white rick rack.  When my younger sisters were growing up I remember sewing them lots of jumpers but jumper patterns are hard to find.  I think jumpers are simply adorable especially on little girls!  I was so thankful when I found an older pattern that my sweet mom had picked up for me at a yard sale.  Simplicity 5936 was actually printed while I was still in high school.  Does that mean...

Best friends and filled with giggles. Evangeline was SO enamored with the idea of snow.  Elijah feeling pretty chilly at this point despite the double layers he is wearing.  Hopefully I find his snow pants soon!  I had so much fun making memories with the kiddos. This was Evangeline's first time on a sled!   The view from our kitchen window was simply breathtaking.   I still cannot believe how much it snowed last night and this morning.  We received around 4" of snow.  Honestly a big part of me doubted that it really would snow as much as was predicted.  I have zero memories of it ever snowing in November (though I am sure that it has once or twice in my lifetime)!  It truly was magical to wake up this morning and see the beauty of fresh fallen snow. It really did feel like Christmas morning and I had to resist the urge to break out our Christmas tree.  We did break out the Christmas music while I whipped...

The cheery pumpkins I made at my mother-in-law's house.   The last two weeks have been challenging as Evangeline has been ill.  First she had croup, then she caught a horrible stomach virus which lasted 9 days, and the poor girl also had her first ear infection!  She was sick for over two weeks and took two trips to Children's and 3 visits to the pediatrician (and I'm not a mom that takes her kids to the pediatrician unless they are really sick).  We are so thankful that she is feeling better!  Here are a few things we did the last two weeks to save money and enjoy the simple life: I was so thankful that we were able to eat a few freezer meals that I had made last month.  We did end up eating out a lot more than we usually do but I am thankful that our budget didn't take a bigger hit than it easily could have.  I usually have a few freezer meals or at least some soup in the freezer at all times.  I would love to try to have more muffins, ...

I made Evangeline a sling for her birthday!  I have been wanting a baby sling for Evangeline for the last 6 months.  We have a number of baby carriers but I really wanted to have a baby sling that I could put on in just a few seconds for short episodes of baby wearing.  Originally I hoped to purchase a Maya Wrap Ring Sling but the money I had saved for that was needed to buy gas for a trip we just took.  Then I decided to try to make a Maya.  The company is so nice that they even put the instructions for how to sew one on their website!  When it came time to sew the Maya Wrap I could not find my special ring slings that a friend had given me years ago. Then I remembered the McCalls pattern I had purchased last year that included a Mei Tai and a sling pouch.  Ta da!  The sling looks very similar to a New Native Sling Pouch.  The happy hubby was watching the kiddos so this was the perfect time to get started on a new project just in time...