A Valentine's Day Suprise

Two years ago the hubby and I were engaged when we celebrated our first Valentine's Day together. Not only was it a special day because we were engaged, it was also the very first Valentine's Day that I had ever celebrated in a relationship with a guy. So Jake knew it had to be good.

He told me he was going to plan everything, and talked it up for weeks. He would drop lines like, "I know the chef at the exclusive restaurant we are going to, and he's really great." All along I kept telling friends that I wished we could just make dinner and stay in because we were getting ready to have a wedding and were considering buying a house, but I was prepared to accept whatever special thing he did for me.

When the night arrived, I got all dressed up and drove over to his grandparents house where he was living at the time. I walked in, talked to his Grandma who was making Chicken Parmesan, and then Jake came downstairs and we set off. We hopped in the car and then prepared to drive to this "exclusive restaurant," so exclusive, he said, that you needed to know the owners to get in. I was a little bummed that we would be spending all this money on a dinner for one night, but I wasn't about to say anything because I didn't want to spoil it for us.

About halfway down the driveway, Jake stopped the car right next to his grandparent's front porch. He pretended like he had forgotten something and jumped out to go back inside. Instead he walked around to my side of the car and opened the door. "I didn't know they had valet service here," he said in a surprised tone.

He took me inside and upstairs to the apartment area where he was living, a space he had transformed into a dining area for two. "See," he said, "I told you: a restaurant so exclusive you need to know the owners to get in."

The room was filled with candles, a table for two, a dozen roses, and romantic music. His grandmother wasn't the one making Chicken Parmesan. It was him. He had cooked for all four of us, and though his grandparents enjoyed their Valentine's Day meal downstairs, Jake and I enjoyed our "exclusive restaurant" treatment upstairs.

After dinner we enjoyed attempting to learn how to dance for our wedding to an instructional DVD that Jake had bought, and then we spent lots of time cuddling. It was the perfect first Valentine's Day. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Happy Valentine's Day from the Penny Pinchers!

Keep pinchin' :-)

New Year's Resolutions - One Month In

I can't believe the first month of the year has already gone by. Is it just me, or does time go by faster and faster the older you get? I've continued to plug away at my goal of working on "Faithfulness" throughout this year, and while I don't always do as well as I would like, I guess even being aware of my goal can be helpful.


Faithfulness in our finances. I have been able to pick up a few babysitting jobs and Jake has some extra work lined up. We are continuing to attack our mortgage like crazy people, and I think for the most part we are staying on budget.

Faithfulness in living a healthy lifestyle. The exercise goal has been hard recently. I seem to go a couple days doing really well, and then "forget" about it for the rest of the week. I got in a few good workouts, including a day of boarding at Bretton Woods—courtesy of an awesome friend—and I ran/walked three miles last week. My goal this next week is to walk to work and back as often as I can, since my job situation has finally moved closer to my home—just a few minutes away by car! As far as healthy eating goes: I worked on making healthy freezer meals last week so that way when I don't have time or energy to cook anything we aren't having to eat some processed junk.

Faithfulness in my spiritual life. I've missed a few days of doing my personal quiet time because the devotional I was using was only a 30 day trial. I think I might get the full subscription though because it's been good for me. I've continued to read Beth Moore's "Believing Day by Day," and I am hopeful that Jake and I can get back to doing our couples' devotional on a regular basis now that my work schedule is a little less crazy.

Faithfulness in being good stewards of the homestead God has blessed us with. We have been discussing whether or not we want to begin renovating the upstairs of our house, which we currently don't live in. The timing is good, but it costs money, so we're still in the praying and considering phase.

Faithfulness in being the wife my husband needs me to be. For February I decided to do a couple of special things for the hubby. The first is to write a reason I love him on a heart leading up to Valentine's Day. It's been fun to think about different things I love about him. The other thing I've been doing is writing a cute little love note that goes with an item—e.g. like "I have CRUSH on you" with orange Crush soda, or "You're the APPLE of my eye" in his lunch bag alongside an apple. He seems to be enjoying these little notes and it's fun to write them.

Any progress on your resolutions or word for the year? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Keep Pinchin' :-)

Valentine's Day Heart Garland

Last week I watched my friend's little 4 1/2 year old daughter. She is adorable, and she loves projects and keeping busy. So I figured it would be the perfect day to make a "heart garland" for the living room mantle. I'll do my best to explain the process below, but for some really good, clear directions check out this post at strumpetscrumpets.blogspot.com.

First we gathered some red and white paper. My mistake here was that I did not have white cardstock, only red, and flimsy copy paper does not hold a shape when hanging, so definitely use card stock. Then we cut out all the strips of paper. Having a paper trimmer would have saved a ton of time—mine was missing the blade—but using scissors was great cutting practice for the little one. She cut two sheets of paper into a bunch of 1-inch strips.

Then I started stapling the strips together to create hearts. I decided to vary the size of the hearts on my garland, which just meant cutting some of the strips in half.

Our finished project. She was so excited about our garlands, and couldn't wait to take hers home to hang up!

Do you have any fun, cheap Valentine's Day crafts that you've done recently or want to do? Add a link in the comments below!

Keep Pinchin' :-)

My Thankful Jar

All over Pinerest this past year I've been seeing "Thankful Jars." The idea is that you place notes in the jar throughout the year about things you are thankful for, and then on New Year's Eve you read them to be reminded of all the blessings you received. I really love this idea because so many times I forget the things that I have been thankful for, or the miraculous ways God is at work in our lives.

I vowed to make one for 2014. I was about a week late to actually getting around to creating it, but that's ok. Below you will find directions to the easy Thankful Jar that I made.

First gather all your materials. For my jar I used a large glass vase, twine, colored paper, cookie cutters, scissors, clothes pins, and a pen.

I decided to go with a theme for each month. I'm starting with hearts for Valentine's Day, and plan to use clovers, eggs, flags, apples, pumpkins etc. throughout the months to add some visual interest to the various entries. Using the cookie cutters I traced the heart shapes and cut them out.

I also made a large heart with "Our Thankful Jar 2014" written on it, and then pasted it to white paper. I tied the twine around the jar twice and attached the hearts and sign with one of the clothes pins. This will make it easier when I want to change the theme next month.

Did you do a "Thankful Jar" this year? It's not too late to start!

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." —1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Keep Pinchin' :-)