Keep Your Home Stocked All School Year

If you have a large family, keeping your home stocked with enough supplies throughout the school year can prove to be a difficult challenge. There are many ways you can ensure that all of your children have plenty of tools on hand to tackle any project no matter what subject it might involve.



Consider the following tips to help keep your home stocked from fall to summer.

• Invest in Craft Supplies - Go out of your way to stock up on common craft supplies and keep them available in your home for surprise school projects. Popular supplies may include construction paper, paper confetti, yarn, felt and beads. Buy more than you think you're going to need when the Back-to-School sales are in full swing - or better yet, when all those extra supplies go on clearance after school has started (like now!) If you missed those sales or still feel there are things you will be needing, see if you can buy art supplies online to fulfill your needs. Buying in bulk often gives you the best prices.
• Get Plenty of Paper - Make sure you always have plenty of paper on hand for restocking binders. In addition to looseleaf notebook paper, you can keep extra wire-bound notebooks, notepads, composition notebooks, and memo pads.
• Keep Extra Binders and Folders - Get more binders and folders than what your children need when school first starts. Throughout the year, you may find yourself replacing them as their supplies become damaged, are submitted and kept by the teacher for projects or as they run out of space. You can buy basic binders and folders in bulk packs to help protect your wallet.
• Get Printer Refills - Make sure you always have printer refill cartridges on hand. If one of your children has an important assignment due the next morning, the last thing you want to happen is having your printer run out of ink before they are able to print it out. Make sure to invest in both black and color ink cartridges.

By taking the time to prepare before the school year starts, you can help your children succeed in school.

How to Genuinely Enjoy a Road Trip

Lots of people have planned a road trip absolutely thinking that they will enjoy every second of the trip, only to actually get out on the road and find out things aren't exactly as they envisioned. Now the only thing they want is to get to their destination as quickly as possible and just get this trip over with.

Here are a few things that can help you genuinely enjoy a road trip:

It is important to strike a balance between planning too much and not planning enough. If you over-plan, you will get frustrated if everything doesn't work out according to the plan you have set up. However, if you do not plan enough, you may end up having to stay in nasty hotels, eat unhealthy and gross food, or even get lost on the way to your destination. It is good to have an overall idea of which route you will take, which hotel and restaurant options are available, and also what kind of entertainment you could enjoy along the way while still being flexible and able to take advantage of any opportunities that present themselves.

The amount of time that you have designated for the road trip (and other factors) will determine how much you can see along the way. No matter how much or how little time you have, it is always a good idea to take a little bit of time to relax, see something new, and enjoy yourself. This will make the road trip genuinely enjoyable. It may be something like taking a detour and staying in a relaxing hotel for a couple of days. Or it may be as simple as stopping at a unique bakery Chicago IL in order to enjoy a fresh doughnut - as opposed to just stopping at any old convenience store to grab a snack. Do at least a couple of things along the way that you will truly enjoy and that will make the road trip memorable.


Consider the individuals who will be traveling with you. If this is a family road trip, make sure that there is plenty of entertainment (and plenty of snacks) for the children. Otherwise, you are practically guaranteed to hear, "Are we there yet?" coming repeatedly from the back seat. Many vehicles nowadays come equipped with DVD players, so don't forget to pack the movies! Or, for some family fun, check out this handy list of games to play in the car.  If you need to get to a destination quickly, consider driving at night so that the kids can sleep most of the way. Take into consideration the preferences of each individual in the car so that everyone stays happy and enjoys the trip.

And last but definitely not least, make sure your vehicle is in good condition.  This cannot be overstated. Dealing with car trouble along the way can turn a trip that could have been quite enjoyable into a nightmare. A few weeks before your trip, have your mechanic check the vehicle over. If you do all you can to prepare your car beforehand, you will likely avoid car issues along the way.

So, who's ready for a road trip?

Three Important Things to Consider Before Throwing a DIY Wedding

If this is the first time you visited my blog, you may not know that I married my lovely husband Jeffrey almost 30 years ago. In those days, many couples planned their wedding days on their own with the help and support of their family and friends. In today's modern world, it sometimes seems impossible to host a wedding and a reception without a professional wedding planner. After announcing your engagement, you should consider a few things when deciding whether to go it alone or work with a planner.

How Much Help Do You Have?

The DIY option is great for those who have a lot of help and support. You might have your mother, future mother-in-law, cousins, sisters and best friends ready to assist you every step of the way. If you want a smaller ceremony and don't have a lot of family or friends, you might look at whether the venue you selected can help. For example, the Chevy Chase Golf Club has wedding planners who can help you pick a location at the country club, find caterers and decide on decorations. Similar venues may offer help as well.

What Does Your Guest List Look Like?

Hosting a DIY wedding and reception is generally best when you want a more casual affair with just a handful of guests. Make sure you decide up front on how many people you want to invite. If you find that the list keeps growing and spiraling out of control, it's time to get some professional help. A wedding planner can assist you with finding invitations, addressing and mailing those invitations, working out a menu with your caterers and ensuring that you have enough seating on hand for all your guests.

How Much Money Can You Spend?

Whether you plan your big day on your own or with the help of a professional often depends on the budget you have in mind. Wedding planners can charge an hourly rate or charge one set fee based on the amount of work and help you need. If you find yourself pinching every penny to save money and bring your wedding in under your budget, you may not have enough left over to afford professional help. Working with a planner, however, may be exactly what you need to stick to your budget.

Consider all these options when deciding whether to work with a planner or have a DIY wedding.

Oh, Pinterest!

Heart shaped candle favors (Photo credit: Regal Ribbons)

I'm having a really hard time getting anything done today - and it's not just because I keep going through doors and forgetting what I'm about! (See last post)

No, I settled down to get busy this morning, checked my email, and promptly got distracted by Pinterest!  Somebody started following one of my boards or repinned one of my pins, or some such thing.  So, of course, I had to go check it out.  If you're on Pinterest, you'll understand.  If you're not, let me explain.

Pinterest is this beautiful site full of images and links from all over the internet.  There are so many people pinning and sharing and so many wonderful things just begging to be explored.  It's really easy to get completely and totally immersed - liking and clicking and pinning while scrolling down the never-ending page.  Seriously, have you ever actually come to the end of the page on Pinterest?  It just keeps fetching more and more pins!

I mostly use Pinterest to collect recipes I want to try, and I've found some really good ones there.  It's certainly a good way to save recipes for later browsing and inspiration when I'm wondering what to fix for dinner.  I also collect instructions for craft projects I'll probably never actually get around to trying, but you never know. I've noticed that a lot of people use Pinterest to plan their weddings.  It's a great tool for pulling together all those little details, everything from possible dresses to where to get personalized ribbon for favors. See an idea or something wedding-related, pin it!  It really is so handy.

The problem, I think, is narrowing it down in the end, when it really comes time to plan that wedding.  I remember having no clue where to start when it came time to plan our wedding. What exactly was supposed to go into a wedding?  Thankfully, we came up with something very simple that worked for us.  It did not involve favors, tied up with personalized ribbon or otherwise.

A few years later we helped some friends with their wedding - not the planning itself, but a lot of the set-up and helping with the details the day of.  That's when I realized that planning a wedding could be a whole lot more complicated than what we did - and I was very thankful that I hadn't even known some of those details could (should?) be a part of a wedding.  Sometimes ignorance is bliss.  Imagine if I'd had Pinterest back then - I could have been so swamped by possibilities that I couldn't have planned anything.  Really, I find it so much easier to make a decision when I don't have so many things to choose from.  (Does anybody remember how hard it was to make all those choices when we were having the house redone?)  I can just see being sucked into the Pinterest vortex, pinning, pinning, pinning, never coming to the end.  Yeah, it's a good thing...

In the end, we're just as married after our simple wedding as those who put together a big, fancy wedding.  It's not really about the wedding after all - it's about the marriage!