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Our California RV Adventure: Route and Itinerary

We took all five kids on a month-long RV adventure in California back in February of 2020.  The process of coming up with the route and itinerary for the trip was quite the process.  Our trip ended up including a variety of destinations that provided us with so many wonderful …

Top Ten Best Birthday Party Presents For Kids – To Have On Stand-By

Now that all five of our children are attending public school, we’re receiving a lot of birthday party invitations.  Sometimes, there isn’t much notice for the parties, or the invitations find strange hiding places for a few weeks.  Here is my list of presents to keep on hand, as emergency …

Spring Update From Our Kaleidoscope Homestead

Greetings from Our Kaleidoscope Homestead.  While it has been a eventful winter that kept us busy, we’ve been anxiously awaiting the next season at our new home.  Here is your update on what’s been happening and what’s to come, as we build our financially semi-independent, family homestead. Our Home Older …

Monday Medley: Updates, Holidays, and Kaleidoscope Homestead Progress

Time for an update on our progress in Creating Our Kaleidoscope of a life: even though our family is mostly settled into the new home, there is still more work to be done towards our next goal of financial semi-independence.     The Holidays We just hosted Thanksgiving for our …

Maintaining Momentum After Achieving Big Goals

It can be tempting at times, to focus on your accomplishments, and decide that you’ve done enough.  We have been working so hard for the past decade.  After paying off our debt and moving to the forever homestead, it’s been difficult to resist the lure of celebration, relaxing, and letting …

The Journey To Our Forever Homestead

Finally closing on our forever homestead felt like so much more than just buying a house, because it represented an arrival at the destination we had been dreaming of through a long journey.  From paying off debt and being surprised by twins, to surviving a pandemic, this milestone has been …

Finally, We Found Our Forever Homestead

Just one month ago, we were making adjustments and accepting that it may take a bit longer than expected to move to our forever homestead.  My most recent blog post was even about this acquiescence.  But, it wasn’t time to give up yet.  Exciting news: We found a wonderful property …

Things To Do While Waiting For Your Dream Home

After years of hard work, and surviving pandemic quarantine with five kids in a 1,300 square foot home . . . We are finally ready to move into our forever homestead!  There is a down payment in the bank and we have our mortgage preapproval letters.  The next step is …

Our Somewhat Frugal Christmas

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year from our family to yours!  This “season of giving” always seems to highlight the struggle between being true to your finances versus indulging and spreading joy to others.  A generous Christmas could easily negate significant financial progress made through the year.  Our …