adventuring with the fam

campfire bannock for breakfast 

If I had to choose a word that went along with our summer of 2012, I think it would be adventure. For me there is no better way than to make the ordinary feel more extraordinary. So recently, while on my " we must make the most of our summer" kick, I told Winslow that we need to go camping.
Camping with little ones may not be at the top of everyone's "must do" list. It can be daunting, all the packing and planning, but having done it a few times now, I can attest to how much fun it is and how little ones really do enjoy it.
We had plans to stay at Lake Kusawa for 2 nights, but unfortunately due to pretty cold temperatures and gusty winds, we cut our trip short to one night. Still, despite our trip being shortened, we had a wonderful time together, being outside in the great outdoors.
We built up a big fire and brought along a mini stove to cook on. We ate our dinner at the picnic table that I placed a jar of fireweed flowers at and enjoyed a meal of  sausages, peppers, potatoes and onions. Before we left for the trip I cut everything up and wrapped it up in tinfoil, so it was easy to cook and eat. For dessert we had smores of course!
A few things that I think are a must have for camping with little ones...
 :: plenty of warms clothes and blankets, especially warm pyjamas and socks
 :: something to do if it is too cold to be outdoors the whole time. Books to read, playdoh or something to colour.
 :: warm drinks to have. This may have been Noah's favourite part.... HOT CHOCOLATE!!!! I enjoyed my Starbucks instant coffee.
 :: lots of yummy snacks and favourite foods
 :: bring lots of drinkable water for drinking, teeth brushing ect. Better to have too much than not enough.
 :: a tarp or play pen to put baby into or on so that they don't spend the whole time eating rocks and pine needles. Katia is at the perfect stage where she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. Handfuls of sand at the beach, rocks, pine needles, you name it! Having somewhere safe to put her is essential, because as much as I love to hold her and carry her, sometimes I need a break too.
 :: a carrier for baby. A sling, an ergo.... it helps.
 :: a good walking stroller. Our 2 seater Chariot stroller was a great thing to have. With a good fitting bug net over it, it was a safe place for Katia to sleep while we all hung out.
And so that was how our first camping trip as a family of 4 went. At the beginning of August we are borrowing our neighbour's old Bowler camper (small, only 15 ft) and we are hitching it to our car and go off to Juneau Alaska.  We plan on camping at the Mendenhal State campground for about 3 nights. It is only accessible by ferry and I am so so so excited to go there. Apparently you can see whales on the ferry ride there! 
Camping is definitely one of the best ways to "get away"with a family. It is affordable and can be easy if you keep things simple. My suggestion for people with young kids is to find a place that is family friendly. Where we went there were outhouses and even a playground for kids. There was a beach nearby where Noah could dig and play, so he had many things to do to keep him busy and entertained. 
Get out there and enjoy it!

xox

adventuring

Yesterday I bumped into a woman that I see around town from time to time. She is a mom to two little ones and we often stop and chat when we see each other. I asked her if I could add her on Facebook and when she accepted me I started to look through the photo albums that she posted. Oh my goodness was I ever blown away by the adventures that she and her family have been on. They've been places that I don't imagine I'll ever get to go to (Fiji, New Zealand, Costa Rica to name a few), but they've also done quite a bit of exploring around the Yukon and Alaska, and their travels have really inspired me.
It got me thinking about getting out there and seeing this beautiful place that we call home. It made me realize how much there is to explore here in the Yukon (and Alaska) and then after a talk, Winslow and I started to plan a summer adventure to Juneau Alaska that we want to do this coming summer.
We are so excited about this coming summer. Our plan is to get out there and explore! Midnight sun camping, hikes, taking ferry rides and seeing beautiful picturesque views. I'm itching to go for an adventure can't you tell?
And to get the ball rolling I decided that we should go on an ice fishing family adventure yesterday. Winslow had been asking me to try out ice fishing with him sometime and the weather was just the perfect day for it. We packed ourselves up. Fishing gear, chairs, blankets, a thermos of hot chocolate, snacks, and then we hit up a lake not far from our home. We spent hours out there in the bright sun, sitting out on the frozen lake, waiting for arctic char to  bite our lines. We hung out to the soundtrack of ravens  calling and playing with each other, we chatted with the other folk out on the lake who were fishing too.It was our own little adventure, something that we (Winslow and ) want to make sure we do more of now that the hardest part of winter is over.
Hope you are having a wonderful start to your week!
xox

simplifying and having fun on a dime

pics from our weekend skating excursion at the free rink downtown

Back in the Fall, Winslow and I decided to start using a weekly budget so that we could get a hold of our finances. What we forgot to take into account was that the holidays were right around the corner and we realistically couldn't stick to what we had set out for ourselves. So we agreed that come New Year we would get back on track and get ourselves set up with a plan of action.

The first step for us was to go to the bank and see how we could pay down our debts quickly and efficiently. So we got that sorted out and are on an easy to handle payment plan that makes it simple for us to keep on top of our debts. We are on our way to paying it all off and it feels good!

The next step for us was to look at our monthly income and make a budget based on our fixed and variable expenses. Fixed expenses are things that can't be changed like your mortgage payments and electricity. Variable expenses are things that are budgeted for such as clothing, groceries, transportation and gifts. I must warn you, I am the last person in the world who can explain finances and things of the sort, but if you are looking for a really good resource, I strongly suggest checking out Gail Vaz-Oxlade's website. We used her Build a Budget Worksheet as a jump off place and found it to be very handy.

And that brings us to where we are now...working with a budget and finding ways to stay on track. Since we have taken a close and serious look at our spending, Winslow and I have been trying to become more creative and more responsible about how we spend our money.

With our budget we came up with an amount of money that we can spend each week on entertainment/eating out/gifts/extra things and it has actually been fun seeing how we can stretch that money and to see what we can do for free or for less. I thought I'd share a few of our ideas that we are doing in our household to make a difference.

The things we do to help us stretch our money further:

• Make a weekly meal plan and stick to it. This is so useful for so many reasons. It helps me know what we are having a head of time, which means no last minute shopping and no panicking when 5pm rolls around because I have no idea what we are going to have for dinner.
• We go grocery shopping once a week only. Because I make a meal plan every week, I try to think of meals that will work with our allocated money. I buy all the groceries we will need for that week with our money and then stay away from the grocery store for the rest of the week. This works really well and the only exception we have for this rule is when we run out of milk. Noah drinks a ton of it, so sometimes we have to pick up a 2nd jug of milk through the week.
• Make as much of our own food as possible. Eating at home and eating homemade food (not processed or packaged) makes a huge difference on our bill. I make a lot of our food homemade because it's cheaper and healthier. Last year Winslow bought me a breadmaker, so I often try to make a loaf or two of bread a week. I make our mac n' cheese homemade, bake our treats, and make our soups homemade (as with the rrst of our meals).
• Going out for coffee is a treat. It is not a daily event. Going out for coffee is expensive but I also think that it is a well deserved treat and a nice outing to do now and then. I love to have a coffee with a friend or as an after tobogganing treat with Noah, but to me, going out for coffee is a treat and not a need. Did you know that in 2006 Americans spent 12billion dollars on going out for coffee? That's insane! Think of all the money that can be saved just by reducing this simple habit.
• Think of ways to have fun for free or for less. Tobogganing, skating, making art, play dates, going to the library, finding free activities in the community, having friends over for coffee, going for walks, watching a movie at home, having date nights at home. These are all ways to have fun for free or for less money. Entertainment doesn't have to involve spending a ton of money.
• Colour my hair at home. Okay okay...this may seem silly but when I take into account that every time I go to the hairdresser's to get my hair done it costs me upwards of 200$, it really starts to make sense that I spend 8$ on hair colour and do it myself at home. ps. I know colouring my hair isn't good for the environment or me for that matter...but I'm just not ready to move over to grey just yet.
• Cloth diapers. We are moving over to "the other side" and are going to start cloth diapering. We actually already have them from when Noah was a baby and it makes sense when you think about how much diapers cost. It costs us 20$ every few weeks to get diapers for Katia and don't even ask how much Noah's are. The other day we spent 70$ on diapers for both of the kids. Right there and then Winslow announced that he was starting to toilet train Noah and we decided that we would start using cloth diapers for Katia. Plus it's obviously better for the environment and we love the environment.
• We only have one car. One car payment. One car insurance. It makes a big difference.
• We have no cell phones. Simple as that. We don't need them.
• We have the most basic cable service and that is only so that we can keep our unlimited long distance phone service (which we need because we live so far from family).

And that is that. These are just a few of the things that we are doing to make our dollars stretch a bit further. I should add, that by tightening our spending and keeping track of where our money is going we are actually saving up to do some traveling in the next year or so. So by being a bit more conscious of our spending we can be excited about a future trip that we hope to take.

Hope this post might be of help or interest to you!

xox

having fun on a shoe string budget

Here are a few pictures from our free day at the Ottawa Experimental Farm. They opened their barn doors to the public for free recently (you normally have to pay admission to the grounds) and so we (Nana, Noah and I) took advantage of it and made it into a fun afternoon outing.
Noah really enjoyed looking at all the animals and he did his best to make as many animal sounds as he could. We saw cows, horses, sheep, goats, pigs and bunnies. Noah even got to pet a bunny! A fun day for sure.
Lately I've been making it an effort to find inexpensive and/or free things to do with Noah (or myself for that matter). With a new house that we will be moving into in May and plans to travel over the ext year, things are going to have to be a bit tighter around our place. Coffee will now mostly be enjoyed at home. Going out for coffee will be reserved for special occasions only. Shopping (aside from groceries) will be put on hold for a good long while and activities will all be kept to a minimum cost. It's not that we are in any kind of financial trouble, but a bit of penny pinching and budgeting is and will be in order.
So over the next few moths I'll be trying to be extra creative in how we spend our time and money. Play dates, library times, Mother Goose...I'm excited to see what we can do with a bit of creative thinking.

Do you have any fun activities that you enjoy doing that don't cost very much? Does your town have many good resources for families? I'd love to hear about the kinds of low cost activities that you do with your family.

Off to bed now to prepare for the long flight back to Whitehorse!

xox