Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

Julie

Man Crates For Holiday Gifts

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Man Crates

 

Man Crates! Have you ever heard of this company? I had off and on but I was given the chance to review one of their boxes and I am glad I did. They have a lot of great boxes to choose from which makes it easier to pick something out when you are looking for holiday gift ideas. The idea behind Man Crates is that each of them comes in either a box like the one pictured above or a steal Ammo can. Each one has a theme. Some examples are coffee, bbq, golfing, fishing, video games, beer, outdoorsmen and even bacon. There is pretty much a crate for every type of person which is great.

Man Crates For Holiday Gifts

When you get the crate, you have to open it with a crowbar which makes it kinda fun. It comes in a big wooden box. I found it a bit challenging to open it up although they do supply you with a mini crow bar. I would make sure to not have a child open it as it could be a little hard for them. After opening it up, you will find all the items in the box ready for you to use, play with or cook with.

We went with the RETRO GAMER CRATE which is perfect if you grew up in the 1980s. This is what came in it:

Man Crates For Holiday Gifts

Makeshift Time Machine

  • Retro-Bit NES Console
  • 2 classic Nintendo games
  • (randomly selected from an assortment of time-honored, awesome games)

Sugar Intoxication

  • Red Vines
  • Bottle Caps
  • Mike & Ike
  • Nerds
  • Now and Later
  • Jaw Busters
  • Pop Rocks
  • Pez

We received Mario/Duck Hunt and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You just plug the console in and start to play. My kids cracked me up because they started to play the game and had to tell us how old it looked 😉 Lots of good memories with Mario and I believe my brother might have had the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game at one time too.

The candy was great. They included a Darth Vader Pez Dispenser which was nice and a favorite. My husband LOVES Red Vines so those were the first to be eaten.

The great thing about Man Crates is that they also ship to APO/FPOs. This means you can pick one out for your deployed husband or friend stationed overseas. I would have done that if I had known about this company when my husband was last deployed. They do have limits on what they are allowed to ship so that is important to keep in mind when you are looking into ordering one for someone overseas.

They also offer 10% discount to active and retired servicemembers and their families so make sure to check Man Crates out when you are doing your holiday shopping this year.

Yummy Snacks With The Hickory Farms Summer Sausage and Cheese Gift Box

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Yummy Snacks With The Hickory Farms

Food! Holiday food! Snacks! Tis the season for simple and yummy treats!

There is just something about holiday snacks that I love. Days off, hanging out at home in the winter when it is cold outside and having a lot of yummy snacks available to eat. It’s one of my favorite parts about this time of year. It just isn’t the same during the warmer months.

Yummy Snacks With The Hickory Farms

I always like to make cookies but it is also nice to have a box from Hickory Farms around the house as well. I was able to review the Hickory Farms Summer Sausage and Cheese Gift Box this year and we have loved it.

Yummy Snacks With The Hickory Farms

This is what came inside:

  • (2) 7 oz. Beef Sausage
  • 5 oz. Medium Cheddar
  • 5 oz. Creamy Gouda
  • 5 oz. Apricot Spread
  • 4 oz. Mixed Nuts
  • 4 oz. Nut Snack Mix
  • 1.5 oz. Sea Salt Flatbread Crackers
  • (11 oz.) Hot Pepper Bacon Jam
  • (8.5 oz.) Smokey Onion Mustard
  • Gift Crate

Yummy Snacks With The Hickory Farms

Me and the boys have been going through the beef sausage and the nuts were gone in a day. It is great to have a box of goodies around to munch on between meals. I love that this box also came with some crackers to eat with everything else. There is a little something for everyone to like even if you have some picky eaters. My son who is picky about almost everything LOVES the sausage. He can’t get enough. And the mustards can be used on so many things during this time of year. I also love the wooden crate in came in. I know I can use that for storing other things in my pantry the rest of the year.

Hickory Farms

 

Hickory Farms

Hickory Farm boxes make the best gifts. You can pick out a nice box filled with treats for your family and friends to enjoy.

Did you know that Hickory Farms offers FREE shipping to APO/FPO military addresses on select products at hickoryfarms.com? I love when a company is good about Military addresses and offers free or reduced shipping to those with an APO or FPO address.

Check out their website and see if there is anything you or your family would like to order. You will be glad that you did 🙂

What is your favorite Hickory Farms snack???

 

On Buying Christmas Gifts For Your Children

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On Buying Christmas Gifts For Your ChildrenOn Buying Christmas Gifts For Your Children

Tis the season for buying Christmas gifts for your children. The stores are having sales, your kids are making Christmas lists and it is easy to feel overwhelmed by it all. You remember Christmas as a kid and you want to make Christmas for your kid just as special as you remember your childhood Christmases being. In some cases you might want to be doing more since you might not have the best memories when you were growing up.

How do you decide what to give your kids? How do you make Christmas special without going overboard? Should you stick to the 4 presents rule that is going around social media? Should you have a firm limit? What do you do if your kid asks Santa for something you simply can’t afford?

There is a lot to think about when it comes to buying Christmas gifts for your children.

There are a few things you can do to get more organized and to come up with a good plan so that they can have a good Christmas and you can feel good about what you buy them.

Stick to a plan

This is a must. If you just walk into toy stores buying random gifts, you are going to go overboard. Start with your budget. Talk it over with your spouse and think about how much you want or you can spend on each child. Start writing down ideas. Have your kids make their Christmas lists too. That helps a lot with figuring out what would be best and what you can afford to get them. I usually start sometime in November and start putting things into Amazon. I put them in my cart and then hit “Save for later.” When I do that, every time I go to my cart Amazon will give me an updated list of prices and then I pretty much stock the site to try to grab the gifts when they go down in price. It also allows me to have a place where I can organize what I will be getting them. I have done this for years and it is a great way to stay organized.

Play Santa

I love Santa, I always have and we have never had anything but good memories from him coming to our house. This year we only have one little boy who still believes but I know the magic will still be there. His brothers know not to let him in on the secret so I hope they stick to that. As for the Santa gifts, what I have always done is just wrap up everything and put “to” on the gift and no “from” if it is something that is either from us or from Santa. I know this won’t work for every child. Some kids will want to know why it doesn’t say who it is from. But my kids? They don’t seem to mind so it works for us. To them, Santa comes on Christmas and leaves a few gifts. The rest are from mom, dad or other family members. I do use different types of wrapping paper as well.

Talk with them about Christmas giving

I think it can be great to talk with your children about why we give presents in the first place, why we celebrate Christmas, the story of the birth of Jesus or anything else that can go beyond just making a Christmas list for their favorite toys. It is good for them to see why there is a Santa in the first place, why families give each other gifts and what we can do to help others during this time. I think it you can do this it won’t matter as much what you actually give them. I also tell them that just because it is on their Christmas list does not mean they are going to get it. The Christmas list is not a genie in a bottle, it is there to help others know what they are into that year and what they might like to see under the tree.

Try not to stress

At the end of the day your Christmas has to look like your Christmas. You know your own kids, you know what works and you know what you can give to them. See what you can buy your kids from their lists, shop sales and look for deals. One year, all my son wanted was a Darth Fader Lego Figure. At the time I thought the only way to get it was by buying a $100+ Lego set and that wasn’t going to happen. I looked and I looked and finally I found the Lego watch that came with a figure too. It took some time to figure that out and it wasn’t the first thing I thought of but it was great to see his face on Christmas morning. Other years we have not been able to get them their #1 toy. It happens. I remember always wanting a Cricket doll and I never got one. Kids get over it. So when you are busy looking for those gifts, try not to stress if you can’t make one happen. There are other things they might enjoy and you can work towards buying those instead. If you do have a disappointed kid on Christmas, use it as a time to talk about others, gift giving and how some children don’t get anything at all. There are ways to use that to help them understand more about other people.

Do you do anything specific when you are buying Christmas gifts for your children? Any great ideas you have come up with over the years?

 

 

How To Find New Mom Friends

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How To Find New Mom Friends

How To Find New Mom Friends

In the last 11 years, I have lived in five different cities. Each time I have moved I have had to make new friends. This can be a hard task and one that seems a bit overwhelming. There is usually a long period of time where I don’t have any new friends in my new city and that can get lonely.

Staying home with young children can be hard when you don’t have a local support system. It so great to have a group of friends to get together with, make playdates with and just depend on during the week. Especially when you have small children that need so much from you. You can have people who get what it is like, that understand why you might have hard days and people you can relate to about potty training, preschool choices and how many kids you really want to have.

The difficult part is finding a good group of other moms to become friends with. It’s hard because of the different ways we parent, different personalities and just being unsure if someone really likes us or not. I have found that the best thing to do is focus on fun things to do with my children and hope to meet other moms while we are going to these events.

When we moved to Kentucky I found a group of moms who met at a center that helped moms with their births. It wasn’t a birth center but it did a lot of the extra things that birth centers do like offering breastfeeding and birthing classes. I noticed that they had a playgroup once a week so I started taking my son who was a baby at the time. We all sat around on the floor and let the kids play. I started making friends there and I still connect with some of them on Facebook even though I have not seen them in person in about ten years.

When we moved to Germany I was lucky enough to meet some of the other wives in the FRG right away. That helped me feel more at home. I then started taking my son to what they called “play mornings.” They were held in a gym and the kids got to play while the moms chatted. At first, no one would really talk to me and it was hard to connect. I told myself that we would go for my son and if I made a friend there, that would be an added benefit. That took a little bit of the pressure off and within a few months, I did start making some friends there too.

There are a lot of different places to make mom friends these days and the internet makes it even easier. A lot of communities have Facebook pages and sometimes friends set them up for playdate groups. If you are new to an area or would like to make some new local friends, that is a good place to start. You can also visit Hello Mamas and look for other moms in your area. Finding other mom friends to connect with can be difficult but a good friendship makes it worth it.

How do you find your mom friends???

 

 

Holiday Sugar Cookie Baking With Betty Crocker

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It’s December! It’s the holiday cookie season! Usually around this time of year I start to get into a big baking mood. I want to bake all the things! This year I started with Betty Crocker cookie mixes.

Holiday Sugar Cookie Baking With Betty Crocker

I love them. I have been buying them for years. I remember in college I would get them and make cookies to take to a potluck or just to hang out with friends. They are so easy. Since they require such basic ingredients they are great to keep in your home in case you need to make a dessert on a last-minute basis or just want to make something quick and easy with your kids. They are so ideal for the holiday cookie season.
Holiday Sugar Cookie Baking With Betty Crocker

We used the Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix to make these yummy cookies. I decided to add some red, green and chocolate chips to them to give them some holiday cheer. We also made some without the chips since that is my middle son’s favorite type of cookie.

The holidays are a nice time to bless people and bring yummy treats to them. It can be a great way for kids to get involved in the gift giving process too. You can give cookies and other desserts as treats to teachers and other adults that your children have a relationship with.

Holiday Sugar Cookie Baking With Betty Crocker

When you are giving the cookies to them, you need something to put them in. I love these Ziploc containers that are easy to close and add a ribbon to. Betty Crocker Cookie Mixes plus the Ziploc Containers are everything you need to make a nice gift for someone special this holiday season.

Holiday Sugar Cookie Baking With Betty Crocker

 

Holiday Sugar Cookie Baking With Betty Crocker

 

Holiday Sugar Cookie Baking With Betty Crocker

 

Do you have everything you need for holiday baking? Discover New Recipes from Betty Crocker and get some coupons to use to shop at Publix for all your holiday baking needs. Don’t forget to check out the cookie mixes. You can find them in other mixes such as chocolate chip and peanut butter. We plan to make some Christmas Peanut Butter Blossoms next!

Also, make sure to enter my $10 Paypal giveaway to help with your shopping! Enter below!

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The Hard Truth About Being A Military Spouse

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The Hard Truth About Being A Military Spouse

The Hard Truth About Being A Military Spouse

My husband and I had talked about him re-joining the Military for months before he actually did. It was a hard decision to make and I can remember thinking about how if he did join he would be gone for long periods of time. This would mean that I would be the solo parent in the home to our son and any future children we might have.

That was a hard thing to come to terms with. To think that I would have to be alone with my kids for periods of time. That wasn’t what I had in mind when I married my husband. We were going to have kids, several of them. He was a good father. He would be there for everything.

Being a solo parent is just one of the many ways that Military life is hard. It can really get to you and each day can be a struggle. And as much as there are good things about Military life like homecomings, good friends, taking pride in what your spouse is doing, there are some hard truths about it as well.

Your spouse is going to miss holidays

This one can be hard for some people, especially if you can’t make it home to be with other family members. Deployments and trainings doesn’t usually take off for the holidays, especially the smaller ones. You can’t ever assume that they will be home for Christmas, if they are, you are one of the lucky ones. You will have to make the best of it, celebrate later or figure out creative ways to still celebrate the holidays when they are gone.

You might have to give birth without them

Raise your hand if you had to give birth without your husband. So many of us Military spouses have had to do this. For me it was because they send him home on R&R but he didn’t get home in time. He met his son at our front door when he was three days old. Thank goodness my mom was there. I have had friends that do decide to go home if they know their husband will be gone for the birth. Others are able to Skype with them during the birth. Thank goodness for technology. Although a lot of commands do try to make it so that your spouse will be with you for the birth, it isn’t always possible.

Your friends will always be moving away

Military life includes a lot of moves. That means that people will be coming and going all the time. As a Military spouse you will have to say goodbye to a lot of people, your kids will too. Some of these people will be your best friends and saying goodbye will hurt in the worst way. Other friends might not be as close but you will miss seeing them on a regular basis and will feel their absence. And if your friends aren’t moving any time soon, you might be the one to have to do it. It is hard to always have to say goodbye and then try to make new friends again but we Military spouses do it. We do it all the time.

The Hard Truth About Being A Military Spouse

You will become independent and that will change the dynamic of your marriage

Because of the way Military life works, you will become more independent as a Military spouse. Things will break when they are gone and you will have to figure that out by yourself. You will have to run the household, pay all the bills, make a lot of decisions alone that a lot of couples make together. All of that will make you very independent. This can be a challenge when they are home. You will still want to do it all and sometimes you have to let them do things again. This is something you and your spouse will have to work through in order to get to a good place.

It’s important to understand these hard truths if you are a Military spouse. You want to be prepared for them and it is also nice to know that a lot of other Military spouses experience these challenges too. It can help you not feel so alone if your spouse is in the Military and you are living the Military life.

Leave me a comment and tell me what has been hard for you during your time as a Military spouse? How do you get through those challenges?

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5 Ways To Have A Simple Christmas

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Oh to have a simple Christmas. You made it through Thanksgiving, Christmas is coming and you are already feeling overwhelmed. How will you get through it? It isn’t even December 1st yet. There is just so much to do in the next 25 days.

simple Christmas

You want to keep Christmas simple yet you find that difficult with so much on your to-do list.

The truth is, there is the pressure to have a perfect Christmas but there are ways that you can have a simple yet special holiday season.

5 Ways To Have A Simple Christmas-

1. Have you kids help. Now obviously if you have younger children this isn’t going to work as well, but as they get older, have them help. I haven’t had to decorate the Christmas tree in years. My boys are old enough to do it now. This takes a lot of stress off of me having to do everything to get our home to look like Christmas. Older kids can also help you wrap presents, bake cookies and help you set up Christmas dinner.

2. Travel plans. Traveling during the holidays can be stressful. Not just traveling on an airplane but also on Christmas day. If you feel like you have to go to three different houses with four young children, try to make other plans. Don’t feel like you have to take on so much on that day that it doesn’t make it fun anymore. Try to plan things on other days around the holiday and put your foot down if you feel like you are being guilted into going somewhere on Christmas day. I know some families have realized that taking their kids all over on December 25th just isn’t going to work so they plan to spend the whole day at home and invite people to come and see them.

3. Plan ahead with gifts. Make lists, make plans, make budgets. Do this early. If you have a plan the gift giving won’t feel so overwhelming in December. Think about who you will buy for and what that person might like for a gift. Make plans to go out shopping far enough ahead of time that you won’t run into a ton of people while you are doing it. It will make the shopping time less stressful and you can get everything done before the mad rush begins.

4. Plan for a baking day. There are so many Christmas goodies out there. I want to make them all. But even that can get a little overwhelming. It would be a good idea to plan a baking day with either your own family or friends. You can bake for hours making all of your holiday treats at once. You can freeze some if you need to but then you don’t have to feel like you need to bake everyday of the season. It can also be fun for the kids to get together with their friends and bake some cookies.

5. Don’t do anything you don’t want to do. If you don’t like Elf on the Shelf, don’t do it. If you started, find a way to make it simple. There are ways. If you spend the whole month of December doing things you don’t want to do, it will steal your joy. Make your Christmas special and unique for your family. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing. You know your kids, what makes them happy and what you can skip. If you know your kids will complain about the cold the whole time you are out caroling, it might be best to skip it until they are older. Think about other ways you can bless people like bringing someone some Christmas cookies instead. There are a lot of options out there for celebrating Christmas so never feel like you have to do X, Y and Z in order to have a nice holiday. That will allow you to have a simple Christmas.

What would you add to this list? What do you do to have a simple Christmas? Any great tips?