The 2020/2021 school year was not very exciting for my children. Most of our homeschool activities were cancelled due to the pandemic. It made for an underwhelming experience. We tried to make the most of it, but it wasn’t our best year. Fortunately, most of the activities in our area are resuming this fall. We…
Category: Family
Spending ALL our HSA Money
When it rains, it pours. Remember when I told you the story about our son meeting his health insurance deductible a month before it resets? Well, my youngest daughter decided to get in on the action too. Our poor little HSA has been put through the wringer. Last week, John and I were in our…
Accuplacer – Acing the Placement Test!
I am bursting with pride, so I want to share our oldest daughter’s latest success. As I mentioned a few months ago, I was hoping she could start taking classes at a community college this fall. I have been doing a lot of leg work, making sure we dot all our i’s and cross all…
HSA Woes
Our family has a high deductible health insurance plan. We don’t have any chronic health problems, and we rarely go to the doctor. During a typical year, we save money with the high deductible policy. However, when things don’t go as planned, money starts flying out of our HSA. Last February, our oldest son started…
Am I a bad parent? – KITTEN EDITION
A friend contacted me last week to ask if I would watch her tiny 6 week old kitten for a few days. I thought our kids would get a kick out of it, so I volunteered to help her. She brought her kitten over on Monday afternoon, and we instantly fell in love with the little…
Hershey Park: Our First Trip During the Pandemic
We just got back from our first trip in nearly 2 years. I was feeling a little nervous about visiting Hershey Park with five children in tow during a pandemic, but it turned out to be a pretty awesome mini-vacation. For the first time in a long time, I felt like a normal person, living…
You Get What You Pay For
When I was pregnant with our third child, John and I decided to buy new beds for our 2 older children. At the time, we didn’t have much money. After extensive shopping, we selected beds that looked decent, but were very budget friendly. This would have been a good plan, except that we should have…
Sleep’n Machine
I recently discovered our store, Designs On A Dime, was not active. I believe it was caused by the rebranding of Tee Spring to just Spring. Anyway, it is back up with a new addition (no pun intended). From now until August 31st, use the code SLEEP at check out to get 10% off the…
5 Chores to Prepare Children for Adulthood
Growing up in the 80’s, I received a weekly allowance. Like all of my friends, my allowance was based on cleaning my room. I can tell you now, I never cleaned my room. Despite my laziness, most weeks I still received my $5. I definitely wasn’t learning about the value of work or even how…
Vacation: A low-key summer get away
After a full year of isolation, John and I decided to book a vacation for the summer. I wanted to go somewhere that wouldn’t be overcrowded, but near water – preferably a lake. Also, I didn’t want to travel too far from home (2 year olds aren’t great with long car trips). Since we live…