Creating My Kaleidoscope

My Big Mistake With The Grow Room

After months of excited planning, I recently started growing vegetables and flowers in a grow room in our basement.  Overall, it has gone well and we will have lots ready...
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Crafting Success: Profitable Ideas For Kids To Sell At Craft Fairs

My daughter started tagging along with me to craft fairs this past year, and I think she's hooked.  Ms. Tornado is excited about earning and saving up money.  In anticipation...
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Closing Out 2023 & Exciting Plans For The New Year

Happy New Year from Our Kaleidoscope Homestead!  We hope your holiday season was filled with joy and happy memories, and that you're feeling refreshed and motivated for the wonderful year...
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Announcing: Two New Resources For Better Work-Life Balance

Greetings from our homestead! In the near decade since this blog was born, I've worked diligently to achieve better balance between work and so many other passions. Now, I have...
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Squirt The Mini Plush Octopus: Free No-Sew Crochet Pattern

Welcome to my very first crochet pattern.  I started doing a few craft fairs as a side hustle, and an excuse to crochet more!  One of my biggest lessons learned,...
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Reflections On “The Road-Less-Traveled” Challenge, Seven Years Later

Back in 2016, we had just started on our journey to destroy our debt, while mapping out a plan to achieve financial semi-independence.  A lot has changed since then, including...
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Four Foraged Foods From Our Homestead

When we purchased our new home, with 16 acres, I was very hopeful that we would be able to forage some free food for our family of seven.  There is...
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Our California RV Adventure: Los Angeles and Route 1

In February of 2020, we took our five kids on an epic RV road trip all over California.  Our trip started off with a visit to my sister, near Los...
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Monday Medley: Summer Update From The Homestead

Happy Summer!  It's time for a little update on our family's journey to build a homestead that will support our dream of financial semi-independence, and all the things we enjoy...
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My New, Super-Easy Side Hustle, That Really Pays!

It's been a while since I've posted about side hustles on this site, but we're still always looking for ways to earn extra money.  Frugal living only goes so far...
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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...
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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 …
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Crochet Directory

My Crochet Projects - With Links to Free Patterns Hope You're Inspired - More To Be Added :) If you're looking to purchase, please visit My Etsy Shop:  My Kaleidoscope...
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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...
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Plan Adjustments & Preparing For A Recession

We have been ready to move to our forever homestead for some time now, but the right property has yet to hit the market.  At the same time, it's impossible...
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The New Spectrum of FIRE Categories

Learning about the FIRE movement was one of the driving factors behind our family's decision to pursue new goals and take drastic measures to improve our finances.   It's also one...
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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...
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Death, Money, and God: Reflections and Lessons From A Difficult Time

My father passed away last month. He had been in the hospital since the beginning of December, after suffering a head injury, due to a fall. The rollercoaster ride of...
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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...
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Black Friday and The Tragic Death of Heirlooms

Now that we've survived the shopping frenzy associated with Black Friday and Cyber Monday (the younger sibling), I have a question for anyone that attempted to find some good deals...
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Fun Facets of My Kaleidoscope: Time for New Hobbies

We have been laser-focused on repairing our finances throughout the life of this blog, so it makes sense that there would be many, many posts about frugality and side hustles. ...
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2021 Update & A Reintroduction

How it started?  Frustration.  It was over six years ago when I started this blog as an outlet, a way to brainstorm, and for some accountability.  My days were mostly...
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What I Learned From Four Years Of NO Shopping For New Clothes

In February of 2016, I posted about my journey of not buying any new clothes for three years. The post really appears to intrigue readers, who still comment about being...
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Our California RV Adventure: Ideas and Planning

In February of 2020, we explored California in an RV with our five kids.  We had been discussing a cross-country road trip with the family for years, so deciding to...
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Not Everyone Really NEEDS A Stimulus Check

This pandemic has clearly affected the finances of people very differently. While some are struggling to pay their bills, others are finding themselves with extra time at home and stimulus...
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Quarantine Reflections

This blog has been fairly quiet over the past few years and I do hope to change that and share many updates on our family's journey in the near future. ...
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2020 Update: Continuing On Our Path, Changes, and New Plans

And just like that . . . 2019 is over.  Everyone seems to be discussing resolutions and reflecting, not only on the past year, but the last decade.  As we...
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Simple Ways to Save as a Stay-At-Home Parent

Living on a single income isn’t easy. Even if you consider yourself to be a frugal person, the increasing costs of various bills today mean that it’s incredibly difficult to...
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Our Frugal Family Road Trip To Virginia

What a fun and frugal family adventure!  We used the President's Day school break to take a road trip down to Virginia and visited Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown Settlement, Virginia Beach,...
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Save Cash By Staying On Top Of These Outdoor Home Maintenance Jobs

The typical American household will spend $2,100 every year on home maintenance costs, according to the American Housing Survey.  However, failing to check your home for repair issues or putting off repair...
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2019 Update: Finances, Life & Plans For The Future

Greetings from The Smith Family!  We hope that 2019 is going well for you so far.  This blog is quite overdue for an update on our progress with finances and...
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Family Road Trips: Exploring The World Together

Few things in life offer families a unique bonding opportunity the way road trips do, and seeing as this year one in three Americans will be on the road (the highest ever...
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Tips & Tricks To Save On A Family Vacation

If your idea for a family holiday of a lifetime involves traveling abroad, you’re not alone: 33 percent of American families took trips to international destinations last year, according to the AAA....
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Monday Medley: Lots of Updates & Some Thoughts On Blogging When Things Are Going Well

As the end of 2018 approaches, I wanted to give everyone an update on the Smith Family.  There are a number of reasons why it's been pretty quiet on this...
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The Smart Way To Fund Home Renovation

Greetings from the Smith Family!  I have a long update post coming soon, but here's a small spoiler: our financial situation has drastically improved.  You will be able to read...
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