Middle Thompson Lake, Montana

Montana a lot of times is called gods country, with good reason. 

Glacier National Park

And we are lucky to live so close to Glacier National Park and the mountains. 

Ashley Lake, Montana

Have lots of lakes near us for fishing. 

River outside Bozeman, Montana

I just figured with all the negative we see in life it would be nice to have some nature pictures. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Summer or what is left of it. 

Happy New Year 2016

The New Year is here! And with the New Year here in Montana is freezing cold weather, along with New Years resolutions, or in my case just goals. 

Seems like every year we have new goals, or the same goals maybe? 

2015 was a rough year for my family, but it could have been worse. We were doing ok till my boss at the time decided he couldn't afford to pay me. I was working for a small business owner doing his books. I went three months with out working till I finally found another job doing overnight shifts at a local grocery store. Nights at a grocery store is a whole different world of craziness and crazy people. 

I worked both jobs for about 4 months and then we were back to not working and not getting paid form job #1. Still with the over night store, but it takes a toll on my family. 

Homeschooling, working overnights and all other things that are going on in our lives things get really crazy. Sage is doing Girl Scouts, art classes, and now a science class through January. 

Goals for this year are about the same as last year. The normal, lose weight, spend less, pay off more bills, and be more happy. 

What are your goals for the year?

Is Summer Break Here YET?

Im sure everyone who has kids in school or that homeschool are ready for summer to be here! I know there is  a few that homeschool that do school through the summer. Not us! By the time the middle of May gets here im ready to school to be out and over. 

Do you have summer plans? We plan on doing a few trips to Glacier Park, fishing, maybe hiking, doing a little gardening and probably just enjoying the weather. 

Thoughtful Thursdays - Think Before You Speak

This week on thoughtful Thursdays thinking before you speak. Seems everyone has that person in their life who has a better story to tell, better life, better job, better kids, better everything or so you think.

I have a few I have had to deal with over the years and still do. I wish I could get rid of them out of my life but things my child is involved in, work, things I'm involved in doesn't allow this to happen. And its hard to push them out of your head! Just because THEY think they have the best in life, jobs, kids, other half's job, ect doesn't mean they are any better than you. Seems to me these are the people that either push their kids to far or shelter them to the point that when the do go out into the "real" world they aren't going to know what to do.

So if you have a bragger, know it all, what ever word works for you remember you may not having everything they do, but you are still you and doing the best you can for yourself, and your family and kids if you have them. We are all our own person. Don't ever try to be like someone else, it will just depress you. Just because they have the best of everything or have to have the best of everything doesn't mean they are happy.

So if you are happy where you are be thankful for that. We all wish for bigger and better things, it depends on how you work towards that goal. Baby steps may be the way to go for you. You may be the person who saves up for something big rather than just go out and buy it. That's fine! As long as your happy that's what matters. Those who brag are often not happy people deep inside.

Frugal Fridays- Keeping Track of Expenses

While you know how much normally about you have coming in for income, do you know how much you spend? This includes using store cards and credit cards. In our house we have started using a Google Sheets so either of us can access it at any time.

We have different categories by expenses for example

Food
Fast Food
Gas
Credit Card Payments
Animal Supplies
Fun
Household Supplies
Utilities/Rent
Medical
Gifts

You can add or remove any categories you don't need to use. January is our 2nd full month of doing this and we are finally getting the hang of it.

Do you have a way to  keep track of expenses? I'd love to hear about them.

Resolutions? Or Life Style Changes?

What do you plan for? This year I'm going for the life style changes. For the last how many years I have been saying I need to lose weight. I have started many diets only never to get anywhere after a few months. This year Im going for a life style change, healthier eatting, more exercising, and getting off my butt.

As a family we are working off paying off bills. We are hoping to evenually move out of this trailer as living in a trailer sucks for us. Some people are fine with it, us we'd rather have a yard where the dogs can run, where sage can play and have normal stuff in her yard like a pool.

So step one is eatting better and exercising. Step two of my life style chaning plan is to spend money more wisely, cut costs, ect.

I know a lot of people arn't going to be happy with us when we say we can't go places. Even with gas prices going down we still will NOT be going anywhere we dont have to. Multi tasking while out running around, not eatting out, thinking ways to use left overs differently, these are all ways we will be working on saving to pay off bills.

What are your New Years resolutions or life style changes?

A lot of Yesterdays...........

There will always be yesterday. Or yesterdays. How ever you want to put it. Today is step one of my life style change to lose weight. I have my menu written out for the family for the next 5 weeks. Some days I will not be eating the same as them due to its something so high in calories it wouldn't be good me.

Not saying I'm not going to slip up along the way. I'm climbing back on the ride and ready to go. I am using My Fitness Pal to track my calories and exercise.

I am also looking into different things to eat, we eat a lot of the same things over and over because they are cheap and easy. But we all get tired of eating the same things all the time.

This year is my year! One way or another I will succeed this year. I'm so tired of one step forward three steps back.

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Tis the season..............for WANTING?????

I am on a few local groups and some that are "free" groups. It seems like its all about people who want, want, want! This is the holiday for giving, but also for being thankful for what you have. I personally HATE the holidays. My only joy is watching Sage open her gifts. She is getting one big one we barley managed to get this year, the rest is small, under $5-$10 gifts along with presents from family under our tree. The dollar tree at this time of year is my friend! Expecially for craft items!

She knows at 9 what Christmas is truly about! Her girl scout troop made bags for the homeless this month and the whole troop went and dropped them off at a local shelter and learned a bit about what they do. 

Instead of buying gifts for all the adults in the family Sage and I are making breads and cookies. Things that won't break the bank but come from the heart. 

I am so sick of watching these people on these groups asking for items, and people saying if its not a need then we won't consider you. It's really like watching a Jerry Springer show on facebook. You want to leave but you can't look away. There is some RUDE people, and I mean rude, people who give and people who receive. I've seen name calling, posts saying for people who really need it, and one lady went as far as to post that she looks at peoples pages. If they have piercings or tattoos they don't need things. They can afford to buy things. As a person with tattoos I can tell you I definitely got mine in better times! This year we are scraping by just like everyone else. 

So maybe everyone needs to step back from thinking Christmas is all about $$$$$$ and do something for someone who can't do that for themselves. Have a elderly neighbor? Maybe bake them something, tell them you'll shovel their snow for them this winter, or even ask them to let you know if they need a ride to the store. 

Know someone who is struggling that has kids? Maybe get them a gift certificate for the dollar store and they can get a few stocking stuffers for their kids. 

My reason for trying to enjoy the holidays as much as I can is in the picture below. With out her we wouldn't even have a tree set up. (Trust me I waited as long as I could this year.)

Instead of teaching your kids its about how many presents you have under the tree or how expensive those presents were teach them the true meaning of Christmas. To myself the true meaning is being able to help others who are less fortunate than us, being thankful for a roof over our head (even if it leaks on occasion), and food to put on the table. 

I'd love to hear what Christmas, or what ever holiday you celebrate, or even this time of year means to you. 

Tween? What is it??????

Tween 

Sage just turned 9 a few days ago and I feel like we already have a tween! A tween is a girl or boy who is not quite yet a teenager but acts like one! Some things I have read say girls are too old for toys/too young for boys!

Even before she turned 9 Sage has had some attitude problems in the past few months but seems closer to 9 we got the worst it got. Now she's 9 she has had a rough couple of days of melt downs, fits, how ever you want to put it. I personally call it pre PMS, cause someone better come save me when it really does get here!

I found a few good articles one is 7 Ways to Fix Rude Tween  Behavior. Another is on Super Nanny, Discipline and Rewards- Tips for the Tween Years.

Do you have any tips for dealing with the TWEEN years? For boys or girls? I'd love to hear them! Leave me a comment with your tip for dealing with your tween.

And Then There Was 9

Yesterday we lost one of our leopard geckos to the cat. We have had the lizard in the same set up for over 6 years with no issue. For what ever reason Fluffy decided she was going to get him yesterday :( and managed to get his lid open which wasn't easy. He didn't make it. Time to recheck and double check all our lids on our 9 other lizards.

If you have any kind of animal in a tank, cage, house set up and have cats or dogs that are hunters or even not hunters please check your lids. I'm in a lot of lizard groups and seems when this happens everyone always blames the owner. Sometime yes we are to blame, but this time it was all the cat. Makes my heart hurt as even though Alfred was a evil fat boy he was my baby and our second lizard. We got him two days after we had got Copper who was Sage's 3rd birthday present.

Sage is heart broken as you can imagine Sage is as heart broken as I am. I hope its nothing we ever have to go through again and hopefully this post will save someone else's small animal.

Lone Pine State Park

Sage doing a sacavenger hunt

Last Friday we went for a hike for girl scouts to Lone Pine State park that is about 7 miles from our house. It was a great day for an outing. All the girls did a scavenger hunt, picked which trail we went on and more or less tried to kill me by making me hike I think! Anyways here are some pictures from our hike. We saw a squirrel, a few fawns, a spider and a caterpillar plus a few trees where woodpeckers had been really busy!

Backpacks of Love Update

A while ago I did a post on Backpacks of Love that a friend and her husband Charles are handing out to the homeless in Missouri. $10 can make a big difference! They are getting backpacks from second hand stores and filling them with much needed items such as socks and food. They are also passing out ice cold water and hot pizza. Little Caesars gave them a deal today on the pizza! Visit their GO FUND ME page to donate, if you can't donate PLEASE share this post! Below are some pictures they took today while handing out backpacks, ice cold water, and pizza! As you can see it's young and old that are homeless and are very appreciative of the help they are getting from Beth and Charles. Ce

Click HERE to visit Backpacks of Love Go Fund Me page and last don't forget to share!

Backpacks of Love

A facebook friend of mine Beth and her husband Charles are making backpacks to hand out to the homeless in Missouri where they live. Just because you don't live in Missouri doesn't mean you can't help! $10 can help them get a backpack filled for a homeless person! They are working with someone at a second hand store to get backpacks and filling them. This last week they took some backpacks out filled with shirts, socks, water, loaves of bread, peanut butter, peanuts, applesauce, pudding, raisins, pretzels, a Bible and more. Plus a cooler filled with ice water and they also took fresh hot pizza's out with them and handed out slices.

I know everyone can't afford to donate $10 maybe you can donate $5? Maybe you can do more. Even if you can't afford to donate money you can share this post and maybe someone else can! This is  a great thing they are doing!

If you would like to donate you can visit their Go Fund Me page, they are in Pacific, MO so if you live close and could help out with food or clothes items please let me know and I can pass on your information.

Fishing on Ashley

Wow it has been over a month since I have blogged. Just tells you how busy life its! Kokanee salmon have been biting so we have been fishing when we can. So this post is all about fishing! To catch these we use what is called a swedish pimple and a glow hook.

Sage loves fishing but gets board on the boat very easily. 

Her first fish of the day on a day we went out fishing. 

It is actually a good sized one. 

And Jerry's 15" salmon biggest one of the year!

The limit is 35 of these salmon a day! Sage's limit counts towards ours though :( lol which normally means towards mine because Jerry seems to catch more. 

Rasied Garden

We are thinking of doing a raised garden this year. Got the ok from the trailer park (love how everything has to be appoved). Does anyone have any suggestions? I have been looking at ones on Amazon, not sure if it would be cheaper to buy one or to make one.

These are a few I have found on Amazon.

 

I would love to hear your feedback. Do you have a raised garden? Or ideas for small spaces that must look good?

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