Joy's Fun Stuff

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

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!

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

There are so many great gifts out there and kids are all so very different. This guide to buying a present for your grandkids will help you

My oldest 2 boys may not have a single patch sewed on their scout uniforms, but I do Halloween Gingerbread Houses with my kids. As a mom, I cannot do it all and I'm happy to fail at the scout patch thing as to make more room in my life for sugar glued to sugar using sugar. Because, well, priorities. This is one of those fun traditions that the kids get REALLY excited for. But can you blame them? They get to create/gorge themselves with treats and make a spooky project that th

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

I really think it's a testament to how miserable moving truly is that it's taken me like 2 months after we moved to even be able to think about writing about it. It's just the worst. But I have a few tricks/ideas/whatever that I've learned from our 7 moves that I thought I'd pass on. Or at least dictate so that I can remember them myself if Matt ever decides to tear my cold, lifeless fingers from this current home, because it will be over my dead body that we ever move again.

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

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

Having a clean house with little kids is like running up a down escalator. Wearing roller skates. But it's a problem, because when my house is a mess I feel crazy. I know of plenty of amazing women who don't feel that way. They are able to happily function in the kicked pathway through the living room. I long to be like that, but stuff everywhere kills my soul. Waking up to a destroyed kitchen tops my list of Things to Put Mom in a Bad Mood. If any of my college roommates are