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Joy's Fun Stuff

Food

How I Only Do a Couple Loads of Laundry a Week (with a family of 7)

I used to feel completely overwhelmed and behind with laundry. My poor couch would be buried in a laundry avalanche. But now, I'm free a

How to Decorate an Awesome Party on the Cheap: DIY Ideas, Tips, and Examples

What are some ideas for decorating on a budget that don't take a miter saw or a zillion hours to pull off? I'm so glad you asked!

10 Fun & Easy New Year's Party Activities to make all your wildest dreams come true

These 10 ideas are not spectacular, just simple, funny activities that get everyone laughing and creating some great memories, including the

Top 6 Easy Ideas to Rock Your New Year's Party with Kids (why is it only a WEEK after xmas?!!)

New Year's is rudely too close to Christmas. But these easy party ideas will help you rock the night. We're talking decoration and a

Super Easy & Fun Way to Celebrate Veteran's Day (and it doesn't cost a thing!)

Looking for an awesome way to celebrate Veteran's Day with kids? This cheap, easy, and fun activity will have all your kids excited and

Top 4 Tips for Packing School Lunch

Want to know the biggest trick I have up my sleeve for packing school lunches? 1. Make the kids do it. Ha! I come from a family of 8 kids and I never remember packing a single lunch growing up. Seriously, my mom is Super Woman and packed a lunch for all of us and my sweet dad every single day. I have no idea how she did it. Just thinking about it makes me want to order a pizza. That worked for her and I certainly wasn't complaining about that set up as a kid. But after a few

Rocking It: Easy Activity for a Laid Back Day

At Costco a few weeks back we found a cool little painted rock, and by "we" I of course mean a few of my kids. I saw said rock but didn't care enough about it to even register that it was a thing. My boys, however, excitedly picked it and found a magically handwritten note glued to the underside telling us we could keep it or rehide it. Being the fun mom I am, I suggested hiding it right back where we found it, but the boys so adamantly insisted that it was pocketed and admir

Top 5 Easy Kid Activities that Don't Make Me Crazy

I kind of hate forts. The kids love them but it's just a matter of WHEN the fighting will start. Then there's the chairs and the blankets... Sigh. That is not one of my activities of choice, but I'm probably in the minority there. I just hate 1. fighting and 2. messes. Summer is quickly coming up and we will soon find ourselves with a new schedule and random chunks of time needing filling. While much of that time will be kids running and being free outside, sometimes we find

Dried Black Beans are Bomb

Full disclosure: I haven't menu planned in a while. Since I did a post on how easy and wonderful it is and how essential and blah blah blah, I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that here. But it's true. We've been flying by our seats and while I hate it, I'm obviously not hating it enough to quickly do something about it, as I am writing this instead of pounding that out. Last night at about 4:45 it suddenly occurred to me that food was shockingly needing to be prepared yet agai

Anger-Be-Gone with 1 Magic Phrase

We all have times when we are barely getting by, where microwaving dinner sounds just too hard. As pathetic as I am, I have just been through a week of that. Matt's had a business trip for 6 days and I'll tell you what, it is no joke. I have NO IDEA how you single/military/husbands-work-crazy-hours moms out there function because I'm. So. Dang. Tired. Matt occasionally takes work trips but its been a while since he's been gone this long. And I certainly didn't have all of my

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