Service Jar - A Gift to the Savior

Christmas time is the time of year that I think we feel the spirit of giving the most. We are thinking about what Jesus did for us and we want to give to others around us. Have you heard about the Worldwide Day of Service on December 1st? There's a short video that explains a little about the Worldwide Day of Service. The idea is to serve whomever you would like in whatever way you would like!

Free Printable Kit

In light of Christmas time and the Worldwide Day of Service, today I'm sharing this free printable activity, created by Collette at My Computer Is My Canvas, that you can use with your family while you are serving others.  I like the idea of teaching our children that when we serve others, we are giving a gift to the Savior.

Ways to Serve Others

The kit comes with a whole list of 100 ways to serve others, including ways to serve others in the community, ways to serve your family, and ideas for helping others at school.

The idea is to use those for inspiration (and come up with your own ideas) and perform as many acts of service as you would like.  Write them down on the little strips of paper and fill a jar as a gift for Jesus.  I think putting this under the tree is one thing that will help our families to remember why we are celebrating Christmas.

Fitness For Moms (My First Impressions of Orangetheory Fitness)

After my first pregnancy, I felt weak and out of shape so I decided to join a gym with the goal of getting stronger. I loved the strength and endurance that I managed to acquire during my 6 months of attending that gym but I lost motivation.  An open gym leaves you to choose what to do, for how long, and at what intensity and I became frustrated with trying to put together my own workout plan. Hiring a personal trainer at the gym was out of my budget and so I stopped going. Over the last 10 years I have made several attempts at getting fit on my own with little success.

Motherhood & Fitness

I want strength and endurance for myself, as an individual, but also as a mother. I have found myself sitting on a bench at the park, observing my children, instead of running and playing with them for fear that I’ll strain myself or because I just don’t feel like I have the energy to run for long. 

New Fitness Goals

Just under two months ago, I started an Instagram account to document my new goal to go for a 20-minute walk, 5 times per week in October. Perhaps that doesn’t sound like much, but it was a big improvement for me and I was very happy to have completed it, but I was ready for something more. I was very excited when I got the opportunity to try out Orangetheory Fitness. The more I learned about it, the more it seemed to be exactly what I needed.

What is Orangetheory Fitness?

If you’re not familiar with Orangetheory Fitness, it’s like a cross between a gym, a fitness class, and a personal trainer, and you use a heart rate monitor to track your progress. I was a little intimidated about it at first because it sounded like a pretty intense full body workout but it's supposed to be great for all fitness levels, so I went for it!

Education Savings Week Twitter Party!

Did you know that this is Education Savings Week? It's a great time to become empowered with more knowledge about saving for your children's education! Heritage Education Funds is celebrating with a twitter party this Thursday and I'll be co-hosting!

If you've enjoyed my recent posts about RESPs, you'll be excited about this twitter party because we'll be sharing tips and information about saving for your child's education and giving away over $700 in prizes! Be sure to RSVP below to be eligible to win!

$400 Holiday Cash Giveaway

It's that time of year again... time to make your list and check it twice and we want you to have some extra money to make your Holidays a little easier!

 Jen from Ninjamommers and Jennifer from 1Heart1Family have brought together an amazing group of Canadian Bloggers to offer you a spectacular giveaway. What would you say to $400 USD PayPal cash?! 

This giveaway runs from November 14th- November 28th at 11:59pm EST so hurry and enter for your chance to win and use the Hashtag #HoHoHolidayCash when sharing with your friends!

Just fill out the form below to enter for your chance to win!

Entry-Form

Happy Holiday prep. time everybody!!!

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How We Got Started with RESPs

How We Got Started with RESPs

The right provider can make all the difference

Thinking about our kids' future education before they even started school is one of the best financial decisions we have made (but it's never too late to start)! I wrote a bit about that in a previous post with the promise of sharing more details with you, so I'm back today to share the story of how we decided what to do when we were starting out.

Talia & Katrina, each on her first day of Kindergarten

Where to Start

You can set up an RESP through a bank, trust company, or mutual fund dealer, but there are also other RESP providers who focus exclusively on RESPs.  When we started looking into creating an RESP, we did some research and decided to go with a group plan provider because they manage your investment for you and they seemed to be able to provide the best return for our investment (as with all investments, there are no guarantees). We settled on two companies that we wanted to get more information about. Both companies sent representatives to our home but we had two very different experiences with them.

November 2016 Sharing Time

Welcome to the November Link Party!

See below for the Link Party and add your best posts, and check out the ones that are shared!