5 Things We Did To Save On A Wedding Dress

The wedding dress is probably the single most important purchase for a bride in preparation for her wedding. I have been talking to people however, and was starting to get scared. My friend's daughter spent $3,000.00 on her dress, and I have a client that just spent $2,200.00 (on sale!). Holly crap!!! There is NO WAY I can afford that. But, then I remembered that I have the most thrifty, practical, amazing daughter there is. Our cost? When all is said and done it will be about $200.00. Yes, you are reading all of the zeros correctly in this post. Let me tell ya how we did it!

10 Awesome Family Service Project Ideas

Monday, January 19th, is National Day of Service. What better excuse to get out with your family to do something for someone else. We have done this with our kids a few times over the years and it's always been such a positive experience. It really puts things into perspective and helps your kids realize just how blessed their lives are and to be thankful for the things they have. Here are ten amazing service projects you can do with the entire family.

Helping Your Daughter Into Puberty

 Guest Writer: Amy Hamblin

Amy Hamblin, one of our MIA guest writers is back! She is moving quickly into the next stage of parenting with her oldest - a teenage girl. Let us all have a moment of silence for Amy.......

In her first post back on Family Strong she is sharing a book that has helped her greatly in easing that bundle of hormones into puberty. If you have a daughter about to make the great journey, this just might be the ticket for you. 

Mini Taco Bowls

Complete Pinterest Success! I have seen this idea floating around for a while and decided to give it a try this weekend. Our football team - The Seattle Seahawks - are back in the playoffs this year and we were having a playoffs party at our house. What better occasion to whip these up? They were a huge success and both plates were gobbled up....... BTW - one win down, one to go till Superbowl! Go Hawks!!

5 Tips to Help Resolutions Stick

It's that time of year again - the first of the year when everyone is setting high expectations for themselves: get out of debt and save money, lose weight, stop smoking. These are all worth while goals, but many times we set unrealistic standards for ourselves that are too hard to reach so we give up in the end. Only a very small percentage of people actually set their goals and achieve them........ BUT, since I always stay on the positive side I don't want to talk about the large percentage of people who quit. I want to help you be in that small percentage who succeed. Here are the top 5 tips I have found that will help you on your way to successfully achieving those resolutions that you set for yourself.

Wedding Announcement

It's official, my youngest kiddo and oldest daughter is getting married! Bobby (my soon to be newest son) popped the question over the Christmas holiday. I will be sharing any tips that I learn along the way to have a beautiful wedding at a reasonable cost, as weddings can be extremely expensive and we just aren't going to go that route. Fortunately I have a very thrifty daughter who is very in touch with reality: she is after all the founder of the newly launched website Second Hand Shopper. Our first thrifty move? We took the announcement pictures ourselves. We had a ton of fun playing at the park and got some amazing shots - and saved hundreds! Take a look at some of our favorites.