Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

When All Else Fails (and Is Too Expensive) While Christmas Shopping

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Christmas was much easier and far less expensive when my boys were into Tonka trucks, wooden puzzles, and plastic balls. My teenagers want guitar amps, video recording equipment, microphone stands…

We see these items as useful toward their careers someday, but the price tags are frightening. Doesn’t anyone in this house want a hot wheel or a pez dispenser? Anyone??

Three out of four of our boys need tennis shoes. (Yep, the shoes are going under the tree. I buy all sorts of practical items the boys need this time of year. I have to buy them anyway. Might as well give them the pleasure of opening them as a gift.) My teens have adult feet and need quality shoes for their athletics. Target won’t cut it for my teenager shoes. But for Malachi, who is almost 11, I can still skimp on the everyday shoes. I look for quality, but try to pay less than $20.

This morning I clicked and clicked and clicked over all the sites I typically shop. I mostly shop Amazon, Target, Eastbay, and Kohl’s online – clicking back and forth to compare prices. All the shoes I found were ridiculously priced for kid shoes (or didn’t come in his size). Knowing he’ll outgrow them quickly or bust out the soles, I just couldn’t bring myself to pay $30+.

Finally, I remembered Zulily. I don’t know why I forget to look there. You never know what they might be featuring from day to day, but typically I’ve found our family’s essentials and almost always, their prices are competitive if not really, really good.

Look what I found for $12.99!!

zulily shoes

It’s not the finest shoe on the block, but it’s definitely not the worst either. Perfect for my youngest son. (Hey, Malachi. Probably not but just in case you get on Mama’s blog and see that shoe – that’s not the pair I got you. I posted a different pic just in case. Keep the magic alive, buddy.)

I snatched up the shoes and paid for shipping, which still cost less than all the other shoes I had looked at. Once I’d paid shipping, I qualified for free shipping on every other order today. Therefore, I went back and ordered a realllly nice coat for my oldest son, a pair of silly socks for another son, and this fun t-shirt for my boys to put their grandpa’s stocking when we go visit:

zulily papa

Today I checked Zulily as a “when all else fails” option. It has now bumped itself up on my list of “always check when shopping around.” I can almost always find a steal on something we need. At Christmastime, they always feature even more goodies.

Do you do most of your Christmas shopping online or in stores? Have you shopped Zulily before? 

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Something Is Wrong With This Picture

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I wash dishes like this so often, I forget how it must look to a guest hanging out in my kitchen.

crazy gloves

What? It’s the best way to do dishes.

Two left handed gloves, one on each hand, two different colors. Sometimes, on a day I feel wild and crazy, I’ll switch the gloves around, putting the blue one on my right hand and the purple one on my left. Y’all, doing dishes is never boring at my house – I’ll tell you that right now.

You know what’s great about this post, and the picture, and all that seems rather pointless?  I actually do have a point.  Two points actually:

1. Never worry about what people think about you when you’re washing dishes. Two lefthanded gloves of different colors worn at the same time? Why, we can establish a new dishwashing trend.

2. If you use rubber gloves to wash dishes and one of the gloves gets a hole in it, save the glove that doesn’t have a hole. Eventually, you can use it with another glove that has lost its mate. You’ll save a lot of money doing this. And I believe we’ve already established how cool you will look…not that we care what other people think.

In practicing this, sometimes my mismatched gloves end up being the same color. Sometimes I actually end up with a left-handed and a right-handed pair of misfits. But more often than not, I end up with two left-handed gloves of different colors. It matters not. They still work just fine.

And that, my friends, is my very helpful, money-saving homemaking tip for you today.

P.S. This money-saving method does not apply to shoes or contact lenses.

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Which Boots?

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A Nebraska girl should have boots.

I keep putting it off, but I really need some new boots. My cute little brown slip on shoes are not terribly graceful on ice. Nor are they warm when snow gets into them and you know…melts.

I do actually have a pair of boots that I got a few years ago. They’re really cute and I found them on sale and they look really nice. They really dress up an outfit. But they are incredibly uncomfortable. So much so that each time I give in and wear them, people ask me why I’m limping and please can they can help me get to a chair. Pitiful.  Cute boots aren’t so cute anymore when the wearer looks like she’s just lost a kick boxing match.

I also have some really cute slippers that look like boots that I got from Target last year. I’m finding that I wear them now all the time. By all the time, I mean that I tuck my jeans into them and wear them like real boots. Everywhere. Out and about. To church fellowship nights. To the store. To basketball games. Yes, my boot slippers.

They don’t hurt my feet in the least and when I wear two pairs of socks with them, my feet stay relatively warm. They actually have tread on the bottom, so they don’t do too bad when I’m walking down icy porch steps. I’ve received compliments on my “cute boots” and I’m never quite sure if I should say, “Oh thanks…they’re actually my slippers” or maybe, “They also look great with my Mickey Mouse pajamas” or if I should just keep my mouth shut, nod and smile. 

So, because the cute slippers look and act like boots…I’m having a hard time breaking down and buying any real boots. But for real – I live in Nebraska. I think I need to buy myself some boots.

I’ve been looking over at Coupon Trunk, a great site full of (obviously) coupons, specifically at their shoe section to see what kind of boot coupons I can find.

My question for you all though – because I’m assuming you have more boot knowledge than I have – and no pressure but I’m counting on you all here…what’s the best boot for my buck?

What kind of boots do you have and like? Which ones are the warmest? Which ones last the longest? Which ones are the most comfortable? And shucks…do you think the ones you have would look cute with my Mickey Mouse jammies?

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It’s About Time I Went Random On You

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It has been ages since I wrote a random post so tonight since I have a wide variety of thoughts running through my head, I thought I’d break out some randomness. 

~Malachi (5 1/2) has been having SUCH a hard time going to his Bible classes for the past several weeks. I know this is a normal phase – all my kids have gone through it at one time or another and all of them have gotten over it and have happily gone back to class without fear (and without kicking the teacher) eventually. But Malachi seems to be having a tougher time and nothing I’ve tried is helping. He said he wants to be with me forever and he’s too sad when he’s not with me and he’s never going to get married or go to Bible class ever again. You’d think after four kids I’d have this parenting thing all figured out.  If only.

~Just when we thought we got Asa’s shoes figured out (you remember that awesome deal we got right?)…we need to turn around and buy another pair of shoes. He’s decided to join our local Home school Basketball team this year and we’re excited to branch out of our soccer thing for a season…but shock upon shock, you are not allowed to wear soccer cleats on the basketball court. And so, on our way to the pumpkin patch field trip this week, we will be basketball shoe shopping. We’re making him pay half. I’m not sure if he’s buying the left shoe or the right shoe…I guess I’ll ask him which one he prefers. (That may have been one of the dorkiest jokes I’ve ever tried to write.)

~Never, ever, ever try to sort and reorganize your summer clothes and winter clothes in the middle of having company and putting insulation in your living room. I started the big clothing switch out (you know, that one you do every fall when you realize your kids need a sweatshirt instead of a swimsuit?), but then got busy getting ready for company and tearing apart our living room and all my organized piles got trampled. Then Legos got dumped into the piles. Yesterday, I decided to just close the door and walk away. I’ll figure it out eventually but for now I’m going to choose to be in denial about the insanity of that room.

I can’t even look at it.

~After I posted the initial pictures of our big living room insulation project, several of you commented about our beautiful window. You’re right…it’s old and antique and beautiful! But, Matt and I decided that maybe you’d better have a closer-up picture:

Nice huh?

One day several years ago, one of our boys was whacking a wooden sword on the couch directly in front of the window. The handle suddenly detached from the “blade”. The handle stayed in his hand. The blade flew up and banged against the window. I’m not sure if he was upset that he broke the window, but he sure was sad about the sword.

Yesterday, Matt finally took out the spider web window and took it in to be replaced.  I know…we should have done it long ago, but it was a part of that whole antique beveled glass window and we had a hard time doing it (we were able to leave the top part – the pretty part). Plus, it’s been a great conversation starter. You can never have enough broken window conversation starters, right?

The weird/sentimental part of me had a bit of a hard time parting with the broken window. I never got around to putting together baby books for my kids, so that window was a part of some baby boy memories for me. Really Laura, just get out the photo albums already.

It’s okay, I’m over it.

More pictures of the living room project to come, but let’s just say that I would not be surprised if some of the dust from our plastered walls (that are now all over our floor) may have reached as far as your home and settled there. If so, please accept my humble apologies. One hundred year old plaster really does stir up the dust.

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