Meeting Minnie Mouse

Minnie Mouse

Rapuzel

Merida

Chewbacca

Darth Vader

So.  Our 31 days of spending zero wasn't exactly an epic fail, but we didn't save any extra money.  One thing I learned is to be more intentional with my money.  Like a lot of American's we live paycheck to paycheck.  I pay bills and necessities first and then save a little bit of money for gas and food for the next two weeks.

I had to ask myself several times while shopping if I really "needed" an item.  More often than not it was no.  I did need new tires and an alignment during October so we bought those.  The yarn I bought at Goodwill last week, not so much.  The money for my Rhinebeck trip was set aside in April and I actually came home with money!

I am thinking of driving for both Uber and Lyft in my off time.  Yes I probably make more money at my real job, but it also takes time away from my family.  And I do have to drive 30 minutes each way to work.   So if I work at extra 4 hours, it will take 6-7 hours out of my day.  So my thought is to drive during the day when C is in school to make a little extra cash to pay bills.  That way I don't have to decide which bill is more important to pay.

I didn't finish all of the daily assignments.  Some of them were organization and cleaning days and I can do that on my own.  I did clean out my closet and C's closet and dropped off a ton of stuff to Goodwill and the consignment store.

I also have done a much better job of meal planning and making meals with what we have on hand.  I organized and cleaned out the pantry.  It's much easier to meal plan with an idea of what there is to work with.  Who knew?! I'm still looking for great crockpot meals or casserole/hot dish type of dinners that I can pull out of the freezer and bake.

I would totally do a spending freeze again.  Would I do 31 days or just two weeks?  Not sure, but it was a good jumpstart to doing a budget.  (I know, I'm starting to sound like a broken record on doing a budget, but I swear we will start one day).

Last week was the first day of C's last year of preschool.  In 2013 she was a Tadpole, 2014 she was a Polliwog and this year she is a Frog!  She will go to school three days a week.  It's a small class this year with just eleven kiddos.

This will be an interesting and historical year for Steele.  Steele Cooperative Preschool has been at it's current location for 33 years.  In July we lost our lease.  The company that owns the house we use as our preschool has decided to sell.  If you have heard anything about the Denver Front Range real estate market you know how crazy it is right now.  It's not unheard of for houses to sell in a day with multiple offers (and that's if it even makes it to the market).  The availability of houses on the rental market for the month of August was 0.04%!

The parent board made a separate Development Committee in order to explore options on how to continue with this amazing preschool.  We got lucky in that one parent on the committee is a realtor and was able to find another house just seven blocks away.  And it was zoned for both residential and commercial!  And thanks to some financial responsibility of previous parent board members we had a down payment!

So we bought a house!  In September, renovations will begin to make it a one room school house.  The wall between the living room and one of the bedrooms will be removed to make a large room.  The back yard will also be transformed into a playground that is suitable for the 3-5 age group.  It's a lot of work and a lot of money!  We are hoping to have these renovations completed by the end of October and be moved into our new school by November 1.

Steele parents are hosting A TON of fundraisers this year to raise money for the stage one renovations.  (Stage two involves some kitchen and bathroom work).  Stage one renovations are what we need to do in order to have school in this location.  One of the fundraisers we have going is a CrowdRise page.  CrowdRise is like gofundme, except we have it set up as a charity.  Steele Cooperative Preschool is a 501(c)3 charity which makes all donations tax deductible.  If you are looking for a great non-profit to donate to, please think of Steele.

Happy Monday Friends!

My cousin and her family rented a house on San Juan Island and invited us to stay with them on their vacation.  Who were we to say no?  Last Sunday we flew to Seattle and drove to Anacortes to catch the ferry to Friday Harbor.   The house was in Roche Harbor on the channel where the Anacortes-Sydney BC ferry passed by.

Mt. Baker

View from the deck

knitting on the deck

BC Ferry from the kitchen window

Fireworks are legal in Nebraska.  So much so that people pay hundreds of dollars to have their own fireworks display.  Fireworks are not legal in Colorado and one must attend a stadium or city sponsored fireworks display in order to see the shows that we watched in Nebraska from the porch.  It was all very much a shock to my system to witness the amounts of fireworks being blown up across the street.  Don't get me wrong, it was a spectacular display, just not something I'm used to watching from my front porch!  And fireworks were being blown up at all times of the day!
 We also went to the Omaha Zoo.  They had two new sea lion pups that were not even a month old yet!

It was a fast and fun filled weekend.  We ate a lot of great food.  We laughed.  We cried.  We remembered other reunions and toasted those who are no longer with us.  It's always great to see family since we are all spread out (mostly in the  midwest though) and everyone is so busy with work and family life.

 I would like to introduce you to my sister in law Bren.  My sister in law is one of those super organized, crafty, DIY people.  She has organized the  most amazing birthday parties for her kids (Harry Potter and Lego themes for starters)  She makes the best teacher gifts. (I bow to her superiority in this department).  She does all kinds of research on projects before she gets started.  She is a communications teacher.  She is the boss of her house, mom to two cute kids, plus she puts up with my brother.  Don't get me wrong, I love my brother and they are good for each other.
Every time I ask her advice on a project I'm thinking about she comes through for me.  At Christmas I needed a teacher gift for C's pre school teacher.  All I did was email Bren and I had a list of four things to do/make for a gift.  I wished she lived closer to us so I could use her in this way weekly.  They live in Japan where my brother is stationed with the United States Navy.  We once decided that we would be the perfect combined mother.  She is the crafty one and I and the homesteader one.

lego cheese & crackers

teacher gift tags

After discussing one of her projects while we were in Japan, I said to her that she should start a blog to share what she's done.  She said that many of her friends have said the same thing.  So at the end of December she did just that.  Her new space is called BrenDid.  Bren shares her recipes, her craftiness and her research (like for her laundry soap).   Today she shared her recipe for homemade Naan which I can't wait to try.   Check it out!

 I'm hoping to start and finish this baby sweater on the plane.  I've got 3 books and one on my ipad.  I'd like to finish Shadow Divers while I'm there so I can leave it with my brother to read.  It's about a couple of deep sea divers who find a WWII German uboat sunk off the coast of the United States.  My brother was  WWII History major in college and then got his masters in Military History.  This should be right up his alley.
 These two little crochet projects are for the return flight.  The brown project is the second to last square I need to finish my square blanket from my square swap group.  The pink yarn is going to make the same square only a bit bigger than what I need for the October square swap member.  These two squares shouldn't take too long, but I'm hoping they get finished before I get home!
Have a fabulous Wednesday!