This was a rather hot week as our air conditioner had issues and most days it was 85 to 86 degrees in our house during the heat of the day. It’s amazing how grateful this makes you for working air conditioner. 
We’re still in the process of trying to get it fixed, but we’ve at least figured out where to put fans so that we’re keeping the house at around 81-82 degrees in the heat of the day — which is a big improvement.
Your comments on what temperature you keep your house at were fascinating to me… and sort of made me feel like a wimp that 81 and 82 degrees seems hot!
Here’s a little run-down of how our week went:
Monday
We started something new this week that seemed to work well. After our morning routine, instead of doing my computer work at our house, Jesse suggested I go to a coffee shop and work for a few hours while he teaches/does things with the kids and then I’d come home and swap with him (i.e. he’d leave and go work at a coffee shop and I’d stay home and teach/do things with the kids).
This seemed to work well and allow both of us to get much more focused work done and also to be much more intentional and focused on the kids during our time with them. We’re going to continue this for this coming week with some tweaks and we’ll see if it becomes a permanent thing for this season or not.
Navigating the waters of having us both working from is new to us and it’s definitely a learning process. But we’re truly loving how it has simplified our lives and affords us much more together time.
Monday afternoon, I had a radio interview. One of the interviewers also owns Cookie Temptations. Guess what she sent to us later this week? This amazing box of goodies — including personalized cookies for our kids. Not only were the cookies adorable, they are delicious, too!
Monday evening, we had our typical Meaty Monday gathering at friends’ house. There are about 8-10 families who are part of it and whoever can come shows up each week bringing some meat for the grill and a side dish. This week, the guys had fun cheering on the USA Soccer team to victory (Silas has really gotten into the World Cup and it’s been fun to see him tracking all the scores and games. :))
Tuesday
Kaitlynn had another dentist appointment… gratefully she didn’t have to get any teeth pulled this time, but she had to get three fillings. We’ve been blessed to not have to really deal with cavities in our family up to this point, so this is new territory for us.
The dentist said he just thinks Kaitlynn is incredibly prone to cavities so we’re having all three children follow the Zellies Complete Mouth Care System (thanks to a reader for recommending it!) and are hoping that this might help out. We’ve heard great things about it, so we’ll see.
Wednesday
Wednesday morning as I was getting ready, a friend in our neighborhood texted me to tell me she was headed to get coffee and could she bring me some? I told her I was actually headed to the coffee shop to work for a few hours and asked her if she wanted to bring her laptop and hang out with me for a bit. We had such a fun morning getting some work done and getting in some great conversation, too!
I did a little non-oven freezer cooking cooking on Wednesday evening. You can see the results of my freezer cooking here and the recipes I made. My kids have been gobbling up the energy bites and they’ve made a great afternoon snack here — especially straight from the freezer!
Thursday
I walked into our bedroom on Thursday morning and my heart was so warmed to see Silas and Jesse counting out all the money for our cash envelopes together. Jesse was teaching Silas how to count money and explaining how much money we put into each cash envelopes.
Thursday evening, we got together with our neighbors — the guys hung out on our neighbor’s back porch and the gals hung out at our house. We feel so blessed to be developing such deep and authentic relationships with our neighbors here!
Friday
Friday morning, I filmed a Master Class with Michael Hyatt for Platform University on “Finding Time to Build Your Platform”. It was an honor to get this experience and I’m so grateful for how Michael has inspired me as a blogger, speaker, and leader.
Friday evening, we had what is dubbed Porch Time with our neighbors. This is where a few couples from the neighborhood all gather on the back screened-in porch of one of our neighbors to just hang out and chat. Well, that and eat the yummy food we all bring to share! It is such a blessing to have neighbors to “do life” with here and we’re so honored that they have welcomed us with open arms.
By the way, many of you have asked how we’ve developed such close relationships here already and how we have such great friends. This is an area we’ve learned a lot about and grown in a great deal the past few years. I shared some of my thoughts and the lessons I’ve learned in my posts this week on How to Find Great Friends and How to Find Time to Be a Friend.
Saturday
Today was a quiet and lazy sort of day. Jesse went out to breakfast with a friend in the morning and then he took Kaitlynn out to lunch at Cracker Barrel for her birthday. The rest of us stayed home and worked on some projects, did some cleaning, I took a long nap, and then we had a family movie night tonight.
My Morning & Evening Routines Update
I promised you all I’d give you an update on how I did on getting to bed on time last week. My goal was 11 p.m., and unfortunately, I didn’t do all that great in hitting it. But I did do better than the week before, so that’s progress, right??
Sunday night — 11:20 p.m.
Monday morning — up at 6:15 a.m.
Monday night — 11:30 p.m.
Tuesday morning — 7:15 a.m.
Tuesday night — 12:30 a.m.
Wednesday morning — 7 a.m.
Wednesday evening — 10 p.m.
Thursday — 5:30 a.m.
Thursday evening — 12:30 a.m.
Friday morning — 6:30 a.m.
Friday evening — 12 a.m.
Saturday morning — 6:15 a.m. (I woke up without an alarm… but I knew I needed more sleep, so I took a long nap later on in the day. Yay!)
I’m going to track my bedtime and wake up times this coming week, as well, and am going to shoot for getting to bed by 10:30 p.m. every evening to see if I can do even better. Because I really want to break this bad habit of staying up so late!
How was YOUR week last week? How are you doing on your morning routine? I'd love to hear! Tell us about it in the comments!
Guest post from Emily of The Unextreme
Do you know the BEST way to score free items?
In case you haven’t heard, free product coupons are the new way to shop! I’m talking a 100% savings on full-priced items. The only problem is that they can be hard to come by.
It’s not impossible though and I will let you in on my little secret!
The way that I have earned the majority of my free product coupons has been through playing games. That’s right: I enter and play sweepstakes and giveaways all the time. Many companies offer these free product coupons as prizes.
You may say that you don’t have a lot of time to give to enter sweepstakes everyday. After all, you’re not guaranteed to win. However, it might not take as much time as you think — and you might just be amazed how many freebie product coupons you’ll end up with!
I make time for sweepstakes every day — just like I did when I began couponing. I allot myself 30 minutes in the morning to enter as many as I possibly can before my son wakes up.
There are a few different types of sweepstakes that you can enter online:
- Single entry
- Daily entry
- Instant-win
- Facebook
Consistency is key.
If a giveaway is open for 30 days and allows you to enter every day, make sure to try and enter each and every day to increase your chances of winning!
Some sweepstakes require you to enter once and others allow you to enter daily until the giveaway has ended. Always make sure that you read the contest rules before you enter! Entering multiple times in a “single-entry only” game can eliminate your chances of winning completely!
My favorite sweepstake games are instant-win games. You know the feeling that you get when you save a ton of money at the register, better known as the “coupon high”? That’s the way it feels to win an instant-win game!
If you are interested in some of these games, always remember to “Like” you favorite companies on Facebook! Not only do they often offer coupons on their Facebook pages but some will host giveaways and sweepstakes! A good bit of Facebook sweepstakes are instant-win games. You can find single and daily entry sweepstake promotions on Facebook as well.
Another great way to find free product coupons is by emailing your favorite companies. I have been sent numerous free product coupons as a “thank you” for telling them how much I enjoy their product. Companies love to hear how much you love them.
Finally, always check your coupon inserts from the Sunday paper! They are not common but some companies will offer a 100% rebate on the purchase price of one of their items. Although it’s not a coupon to receive it for free at the register, it will be free once you are reimbursed for the product. Free is free, right?
What are your favorite ways to find freebie coupons?
Emily is a freelance writer and also the blogger behind The Unextreme. As a new mom desperate to be able to afford to stay at home, she found a way to save and make money with coupons. Her blog focuses on work-at-home options, sweepstakes, freebies, and more!
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