Okay, single tips number two, three, and four....

Firstly, know your tools! I'm lucky to know a little bit but I'm learning, too! The other day, I did two things around the house, I bracketed the book case to the wall and reattached the flush chain in the toilet.  The bracketing was pretty easy but I did learn that in drywall, you want to make sure that you don't try and pin it right against the wall, work with the space it's comfortable with.  Anyways, the thing is, you should take charge and when something breaks around the house, pick up your tools and try fixing it yourself, or at least watch and learn! You may need it.

Secondly, I know that this is said all the time, but don't sweat the small stuff.  Especially with kids.  Days don't always turn out how you plan with little ones and sometimes, you have to not care.

And thirdly, don't be afraid to ask around for prices, deals, etc and don't be afraid to haggle or look for ways to make payments.  I've been dealing a lot with getting my car fixed and house renos and financial stuff and I've been making calls and asking and admitting to being a single mom and needing help and believe me, it's worth it! My life has been made much more simple, by this rule!

Alright, so I'm not one for breaking news over the Internet, but I'm learning a lot from my experiences the last three weeks and I figure I might be of use to someone in the knowledge I am gaining.
So, here it is....Dave and I split up; of course I'm not going into details, it is what it is, but I am living with two boys mostly on my own and I'm doing a lot of things I haven't done too much of, at least for a long time and the number one thing I've learned about being on my own is know your vehicle.  I wasn't involved much because Dave always drove it so he was responsible for oil changes, recognizing weird noises, etc.
Well, when it became mine, I wanted to make sureit was as fixed as it could be and with what I could afford and the number of things that I had to look at with it was ridiculous...so here's my tips, ladies....help be responsible for your car....book oil changes every 5000 kilometers and when they change your oil, get your wheels retorqued and air pressure checked.  Get new noises, shakes, etc checked out right away so it puts the costs at a minimal, and never be afraid to ask questions and wheedle out the best deals.
Anyways, those are my words of wisdom for the day. 
Blessings on your weeks.

 It's officially 6 days into the New Year, and while I didn't post on New Year's Day, I promised some shinanigan photos! And here they are! However, before we get started, I must note that New Years kind of kicked Christmas' butt.  Mostly because the flu hit and the family gatherings, while awesome fell away from the actual holiday so it was pretty quiet.  Fortunately, I was in my prime for New Year's Eve.  As you can see from above (it's rotated on my desktop, but my silly blog does this sometimes!), we made the dining room into Party Central! We have banners, noise makers, New Year's plates and cups (which I actually made by putting glittered numbers on plastic ones), balloon and a photo booth! So the deal with the balloons is that there are twelve and in each balloon, is an activity for the day.  On the outside of said balloon, is the time when you bust it and find out what that activity is.  Our first balloon kick started the day at 7:30 a.m. with Breakfast!

 Basically, I just turkey basted the batter and everyone got 2015 pancakes!

 9:00 am was cupcakes! I actually don't have a pic of them because they didn't look how I expected, but that's because we experimented...we of course made chocolate, but Landon wanted to substitute Egg Nog for the milk so we did; this equals, tasty, but non-conforming, which means they were more like mini molten lava cakes.  So, when I put splashes of colored icing on, the puddled in the middle and looked less like fireworks and more like tie dye. 

 Carver is testing the batter and has the guiltiest face I've ever seen!

 9:30, while the cupcakes are in the oven, it's time to make New Year's play doh, which is basically play doh with a crapload of glitter in it.  And then, let the games begin!

 At 10:45, we did a noisemaker craft using two cups, dry split peas, glitter and some crazy duct tape!
I apologize for lack of photos on the next couple...11:30 was lunch; devilled eggs and raw veggies.  Then, after a nap, our 3:45 p.m. balloon told us to go to the hair dressers for our New Year's haircut! (This is a treat for everyone, I promise).  Mom met us at our place at five o'clock where we popped our 5:15 balloon which was Pizza Party!  While we waited, we played with my homemade photo booth!

 The pizza was amazing! I made a cauliflower crust and then I had a selection of toppings; bacon, ham, turkey, pineapple, mushrooms, so everyone could pick what they wanted.  It turned out to be pretty easy! Every topping made the pizza, except for half with no turkey and then we topped it off with Havarti cheese!

 7:00 was time for sparklers to wear off that pizza.

 8:00 was snack time with crackers, apple cranberry cheeseball, our cupcakes and of course, shrimp!
8:45 was time to prep for the new year (we rang it in with the kids at 9:00) and for a new book! The Night Before New Years by Natasha Wing, which runs to the same cadence as Night Before Christmas.

Then it was time to make some noise and ring in the 'New Year'.  The kids went to bed not long after that, but thanks to being riled up, they didn't actually fall asleep for awhile.  It didn't help that Dave, Mom and I were killing ourselves laughing while playing Worst Case Scenario game until the real midnight when we toasted it in with Arbor mist and singing Auld Langs Syne.  Awesome, awesome day!