Signs of Life : The Brownie Chronicles

I'm super excited to share our meals and how we saved well over $400 during our vacation! **Check with your hotel to learn what appliances are/are not allowed. These meals can all be made in the microwave if a skillet cannot be used.** Originally, we had booked two standard rooms at Cabana Bay Beach Resort. When they offered us a great upgrade deal, we changed to a tower family suite with a kitchenette.  This ended up offering us a huge savings by allowing me to prepare 5 breakfasts, 4 dinners, and some snacks in our room.  The grands ate a few breakfasts and 3 dinners with us, so we were feeding 7-9 people at an average of $15.55 per meal!  (That's $1.73-$2.22 per person!) Big thanks to Trader Joe's for providing such high-quality, quick-prep foods!  (No, this isn't an ad or sponsored blog!) First of all, if there is any debate about the size of these "mini" fridges at Cabana Bay Beach, see this photo and notice the gallon of milk in the background. T...

SafetyTat.com Other than the obvious: travel documents, sunscreen, tickets and reservation numbers, there are some things we've learned we can't live without while traveling. Safety Tats This year, we are using these Safety Tats on our trip.  Mostly when we are inside the parks or at various ports of call, we want the boys to have an easy way to share our phone number in the event they are separated from us. When our older kids were young, my sister made ID cards with our contact information for the kids to wear on a clip, like a name tag.  These tattoos are a brilliant, less intrustive alternative! We don't have to worry that other adults won't understand the boys.  If they are upset or crying, all they have to do is hold out their arm. These are customizable, so we can add, "I sign!" or "I use ASL" in addition to a phone number. We hope these won't ever be needed, but why not be prepared when these are so easy use?  I'll give yo...

There is a huge debate out there in the Interwebs that starts with the question, "Is a Disney Cruise worth it?"  Seriously, just Google that and you'll see for yourselves.   Like I mentioned before, the answer to that question is completely subjective, depending on what's important to you.  For us, the only other cruise Ken and I have taken was on Disney Cruise Line .  The Disney "magic" cannot be denied!  It also happened to be the name of the ship we sailed back in 2008. When we began considering a cruise, we did look at other cruise lines.  They cost significantly less. (Click here to read about ways we found to save for a vacation.) My parents cruise extensively, enjoying a few cruise lines, and had taken our older kids on a Royal Caribbean cruise, each on their 13th birthdays, so we knew Disney wasn't the only option. Mackenzie said the Royal Caribbean trip was her favorite cruise, but she wants to see how cruising Disney as a teen will compar...

I went in to this a bit before, but here are some small ways we save money daily. These can add up to big savings over a full year: No cable. We've been without cable for over 10 years. It's become easier and easier with free online content. We do pay for a Netflix subscription, but otherwise watch free Hulu, YouTube, and sometimes take advantage of free 30-day trials of YouTube Red, Hulu Plus, and Amazon.  We have bunny ears we drag out if there is something we really want to watch with the rest of the world, such as Nyle DiMarco on DWTS or the Super Bowl.  Savings: $120/month or $1440/year Ken has even started getting in on the haircut action. Haircuts.  While living in Vegas, a friend taught me some haircutting basics, then I used YouTube to help me do a halfway decent job.  I don't trust myself on the girls' haircuts, but I can use a razor.  I DO color my girls' hair.  That has saved us hundreds of dollars I won't even factor in here.  I...

As mentioned previously, the Brownies have a  major 2-week vacation  planned for September. It's the first true vacation we've taken since our  RV trek to NAD  4 years ago this very month. I remember when we had our cruise planned back in 2010, a friend asked, "Why would you spend so much money on a Disney Cruise?! Why not buy a car or something? That money is gone in a week!" Evidently,  our  friends aren't the only ones who feel that way.  I've recently seen several bloggers discuss and defend their spending on vacations. Here's a  snarky one  that is Disney-specific, and another post from a general  travel blogger .  By the way, I enjoy a little well-placed snark now and then. We've waited 6 years for this and it's truly a dream vacation for us. After the kids willingly gave up their trip in 2010, we promised we would go in the future. Since that time, we've taken several major hits on our income.  That's a long story,...

My older three kids plus their cousin, D! Have I mentioned how much we love Austin?  Well, we do!  We adore this house.  Of all 3 homes we've owned, this is by far my favorite!  While I did really enjoy our location and pool in Highland Village, this house is arranged better and is easier to maintain.  In our 15 years of marriage and ownership of 3 homes, we've learned that extensive landscaping is beautiful, but also costly and a ton of work!  We have a few pretty shrubs and plants in the front yard.  There are two trees in the back, but otherwise, it's just a grassy backyard, which means easy maintenance.  Of course, we have the fabulous team at The Austin Lawn Service taking care of our mowing and trimming, so the amount of work we have to do in the yard is minimal. We had hoped for a one-story home, but with the layout of this house, we don't mind two stories at all.  The stairs lead to an open "balcony" hallway that looks down to ...

Ken and I have started that exciting and horrible search for a home in Austin.  It can be so much fun, but also tedious and disheartening at times. Over our 15 years of marriage, Ken and I have learned a few things about the difference in wants and needs in a home.  We've also learned (the hard way) that some of the wants that we felt were needs end up being a big, expensive pain in the rear!! (Beautiful, extensive landscaping for example.) We adored our home in Highland Village.  It served us well for the 4 years we lived there.  The neighborhood, the pool, the schoolroom, the location were all dreamy!  Then we hit the jackpot finding this place to rent.  It was scary to move from a pretty big house on a half acre into an apartment, but the Regency has been an excellent home.  I'd recommend this place to anyone moving to the Coppell area. We had our share of trouble with neighborhood kids, but that has all died down.  The kids have foun...

When Ken and I shared our plans to downsize from our 3000 square foot home, several friends and family were concerned. "Are you guys doing okay?" "Do you need help with anything?" "I'm sorry to hear you're having to move." We totally understood others' concerns because what we are doing is so odd in this culture, the only assumption was that we had fallen on hard times. The truth is times ARE hard, for many people all over the country.  But Ken has a great job with an excellent, growing company .  While our ultimate security rests in God's plan for us, we don't have any fears on the job front that would lead us to cut back. A few months ago, if you had asked us if we'd ever move, we could have answered with an emphatic "no way!"  My answer tended to be, "We'll live here until the kids are grown unless God has something crazy-different in store for us that we can't foresee." Ken came to me in No...