This Week's Goals: 5/20 - 5/26/13

Last week's goals:
Please forgive me... I never posted last week's goals. But here they are! :)

Classroom Goals

• Wrap up the evaluation process for this school year
• Start writing our semester exam for 8th grade

Household/Family/Mommy Goals

• Go grocery shopping
• Continue our Total Money Makeover
• Continue pricing out and planning landscaping projects (ongoing)
• Organize my filing cabinet
• Wash bedding
• Enjoy & adjust to my husband's new job that allows him to spend a great deal more time at home than we're used to!!! :) 

Personal Goals

• Visit & ride my horse
• Continue listening to The Light Between Oceans on CD in preparation for our new work book club later this month

Blogging Goals

• Promote our Facebook page
• Promote our May Giveaway
• Create our Summer Bucket List Challenge & Linkup
• Start looking into including social media buttons on every post
• Post at least 3 times this week

This Week's Goals:

Classroom Goals

• Complete final collaboration of the school year & submit report to administration
• Finish astronomy & semester exams

Household/Family/Mommy Goals

• Go grocery shopping
• Continue our Total Money Makeover
• Make final landscaping plans to be done over the holiday weekend
• Spend at least 1 hour this week organizing in the basement

Personal Goals

• Use my Wii Fit OR go for a walk at least once this week
• Take a bath
• Continue listening to The Light Between Oceans on CD in preparation for our new work book club later this month

Blogging Goals

• Promote our Facebook page
• Promote our May Giveaway
• Start writing our VERY exciting June Giveaway post (More information soon!)
• Start looking into including social media buttons on every post
• Post at least 3 times this week

Wish me luck! What's on your schedule this week? 

Financial Goals: After FPU

This year has been one of the most eye opening years of our marriage so far. We were blessed to be given the gift of Financial Peace University. Many of you have read about our favorite moments of the FPU experience this year. It has been an inspiring journey & I'm so glad to have shared it with all of you. 

Now that we're a few months out from our class experience, we've entered the "After FPU" portion of our Total Money Makeover. Although we have a long path ahead of us, I know that we're finally on the right path to achieving a debt free status! :) Will you join us? If you're new to Dave Ramsey and his financial program, I would HIGHLY recommend you take a weekend to read the Total Money Makeover. It is life changing! 

Total Money Makeover is one of the best written books I've ever read. My husband and I both equally enjoyed reading the book. We even listened to the book on CD. It was a great way to take Dave with us on long car rides & road trips. When we feel the need for an extra financial inspiration we just pop in the CD. Have I inspired you to check out the book yet? No??? You must be the one in a million lucky souls that was born with the gift of handling finances with ease and extreme wisdom! :) The rest of us need an adviser like Dave Ramsey & his book Total Money Makeover to help us out. 

Our After FPU Goal List:

1. Retake the FPU class (did I mention the lifetime, free membership!) this fall & gain a few more accountability partners in our life
2. Continue making a monthly budget, every month, before the month begins
3. Continue using the envelope system to pay for food & miscellaneous expenses
4. Update our debt snowball information with student loan companies
5. Continue using the debt snowball to pay off our student loan debt

We'd love to hear from you... tell us about your Total Money Makeover experiences in the comments below!

Our 2013 Summer Bucket List & Linkup

It's that time of year... time to dream of warm summer nights & eating s'mores around a camp fire. Here at Wife.Mother.Teacher. summer is a unique and special time of year. As a teacher, I enjoy the luxury of having June, July & August to enjoy with my family full time. That's what inspired me to start the Summer Bucket List Challenge! 

This is the place to share your summer plans big & small. Everything from family vacations to summer 'honey-do' lists. Every week, June - August, we'll be sharing our summer adventures and keeping a running list of our progress towards completing our bucket list.

Would you like to join us?

Come back every week to share your favorite memories in the comments. If you're a blogger, grab the button at the top of this post and share your link at the bottom. That way we'll be able to read about one another's adventures!

Let's get started - Our Summer Bucket List 2013:

Fun Bucket

1. Take a family camping trip
2. Go swimming at Lake Michigan
3. Get an adrenalin rush at Cedar Point
4. Get my sewing machine repaired (Finally!)
5. Try my hand at creating a crayon roll & toy car roll
6. Create a reuseable wet jet pad
7. Create a reuseable swiffer duster pad
8. ???

Not-So Fun Bucket

1. Purge our house in preparation for a mid-June garage sale
2. Organize the remaining items in our basement
3. Organize the garage
4. Continue our Debt Snowball
5. Stain our back deck
6. Repair changing table shelves
7. ???

I left my bucket list open to grow & I'd like to encourage you to do the same. Use the linkup below to share your story! I can't wait to share in each other's successes this summer. :)

Thursday Giveaway Linkup: 5/16/13

Photo By FutUndBeidl

Welcome to my Giveaway Link Up! Come back every Thursday for more giveaway opportunities.

Post your link here:

"Better Than Boxed" Homemade Brownies

"Better Than Boxed" Homemade Brownies 

A few nights ago I was craving something sweet with nothing in the house besides baking chocolate, so I decided to scour the internet for chocolate goodies I could make with the supplies on hand. Thankfully I found this post on AllRecipes.com by using Supercook! I would recommend doubling the batch and using a larger pan - as you can see from the photo below they come out really thin otherwise, but even so they're DELICIOUS! By far the best brownies I've ever had. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup White Sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Optional: crushed walnuts, fudge, chocolate chips, marshmallow or caramel (toppings & mix ins of your choice) :) 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees & spray a 9 x 9 baking pan
• Combine dry ingredients and mix thoroughly
• Mix eggs, vanilla & vegetable oil until smooth and slowly mix in dry ingredients
• If using menu additions (optional above) mix in OR pour into pan then drizzle with toppings
• Bake for 20-25 minutes

Mmm Mmmm Mmm! :) Enjoy!

Thursday Giveaway Link Up: 5/9/13

Photo By FutUndBeidl

Welcome to my Giveaway Link Up! Come back every Thursday for more giveaway opportunities.

Post your link here:

One Of My Favorite Little Secrets.... Freecycle!

I'm here to let you all in on a little secret.... freecycle.org! If you've never heard of it, you're in for a treat. Freecycle.org allows users to GIVE AWAY and RECEIVE items locally for FREE.

Why I LOVE Freecycle:

• It's FREE!
• You're making a GREEN choice - while decluttering & simplyfying your life, you're also avoiding filling the landfill with items that still have life in them. I've seen just about everything listed on freecycle: furniture, pet supplies, clothing, wood, metal, toys, garden plants, etc.
• You're making a FRUGAL choice - pick up used items that will help your family. Last year we were in desperate need of a large dog crate when our old one kicked the bucket - on a whim I decided to post on freecycle that I was searching for one just to see if I could find one for free instead of shelling out cash. It turns out a woman in my area saw my post & had recently lost her dog and was incredibly happy to pass the cage along so she no longer had to have the daily reminder of her dog's passing. 

What I Don't Love About Freecycle:

• The site is a bit weird to use at first - but it's worth your patience in the long run!
• It requires a yahoo login (I created one just for using on freecycle.) 

What are you waiting for? Go list those items you've been dying to pull out of storage & replace them with FREE stuff your family has been dying to have - all thanks to freecycle.org!