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I will be starting a monthly feature called Money Talks where I will write about a topic surrounding finances. I still receive a lot of questions about how we paid off $20,500 in debt. I’d like to continue to write about debt and ways to save money. There are so many things I want to cover. But time is of the essense for my first Money Talks post!

I cannot stress enough how important I think having health insurance is to your family’s health. And I’m not just talking about your physical health. I’m talking about your financial health too!

It is hard to believe that my husband and I have been together for thirteen years and married for eight of those years. It honestly doesn’t seem like that long ago we were in our twenties, newly engaged and just beginning to dream about what our life would look like together.

At the time of our wedding we didn’t have any big responsibilities besides our jobs. There was no mortgage payment to make because we rented. There were no kids running into our bedroom after having nightmares.

Planning meals has always been my downfall. Seriously, have you ever panicked when 3:00 p.m. rolls around and you still don’t know what you’re having for dinner? Well, you know you’re more likely to order pizza and spend $30 that wasn’t in the budget.

We were spending way too much and eating really unhealthy foods. Enough with that, I say!

I have tried many different ways to meal plan but none of them have stuck. Until recently! I finally found a way that works for me and low and behold, I’m even having fun with it!

I’ll admit, I haven’t always had the best quality of life at work. While I enjoy being a working mom in my current role it most certainly hasn’t always been that way in the past. The challenges I have faced were not fun and I know there are plenty of working moms who are in that situation now.

I have finally realized that a company’s understanding of Quality of Life is what is MOST important to me when I consider working for them. For me, it’s no longer the salary or the title that matters. It’s whether they are valuing my time as an employee AND a mom.

In the nearly seven years I’ve been a mom, I’ve come to believe that parenting is just a long series of hellos and goodbyes.

In the delivery room – hello.

The first day of school – goodbye.

When they wake up each morning – hello.

When they go to sleep each night – goodbye.

But it goes even deeper than that, doesn’t it? Especially if you’re a sentimental mama like me.

I’ve said hello to tiny newborn clothes and goodbye to cribs and hello to bikes and goodbye to training wheels. And it will go on like this my whole life because I will always always be their mom. The only constant is change.

Last year one of my blogging goals was to grow my facebook page to 1,000 fans by the end of 2014. And to my surprise – I met that goal! I told my fans I was going to offer an awesome giveaway when I hit that number and here it is! You can enter to win one of two $500 paypal cash prizes or $450 paypal cash prize! Who couldn’t use a bit of extra cash after the holidays, right? Thank you for following on Facebook and good luck!

The other day I was perusing my facebook feed as one does and I came upon an interesting conversation about Christmas trees. A blogger asked this question on her page:

DO YOU PUT UP A REAL TREE OR A FAKE TREE FOR CHRISTMAS?

Consequently, World War III began. I had no idea how strongly people felt about Christmas trees. I also had no idea how quickly that little conversation would grinch the crap out of my Christmas spirit.

This #ExtraGumMoments shop has been compensated by #CollectiveBias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

Landon’s winter break from school is upon us. I cannot believe the first half of the school year is already over! Didn’t he just begin?! As parents this has been our first school experience and one thing is for sure – it was a BIG adjustment for us all. But we’ve made it through and I can definitely see that he is growing in so many ways.

A few nights ago I spent some time working on Sawyer’s first birthday invitations. I couldn’t find any that were just right for the theme so I decided to design them myself. By the time I looked at the clock it was 11:00 p.m. I couldn’t believe how much time I had spent moving tiny graphics and text boxes around on a little 5×7 card. I was trying so hard to make it look just like I wanted. Trying to fit each part into its perfect spot. How could a few hours have passed by so quickly?

Do you or someone you love hate winter? Do you find yourself wanting to hide under your electric blanket even though your friend told you it causes cancer? Do you feel like you just can’t ever.get.warmed.up after being outside?

Then you’re in the right place. There is a whole slew of people out there who hate winter just like you and me. Oh, they may not openly admit to hating winter. Because there is a whole slew of people out there that are like – LOOK, IT’S SNOWING! HOW PRETTY! DO YOU WANNA BUILD A SNOWMAN?!

There are quite a few options out there if you’re looking to do a menu plan based specifically off of what Aldi sells. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

I have had these pinned on Pinterest for forever and plan on trying one of these meal plans this month so I can report back to you all at the end of the month. Or . . . I may just try to create my own meal plan for you to copy. We’ll see if I can manage to be organized enough to do this.

I realized I totally forgot to mention Aldi’s awesome Double Guarantee!

Now, first things first. I want you to know there has only been ONE time in almost four years that I have had to take something back to Aldi. Unfortunately, I bought some lunch meat that ended up being . . . questionable. The expiration date had not been met. But I wasn’t taking a chance on it. I was simply unsatisfied with the product. But I knew there was an easy fix at Aldi.