Save the MOST bucks from YOUR Commissary shopping trip

This doesn't apply to a ton of my typical readers, but it is something that I have been working on learning and wanted to share with the rest of you.  If you do stumble upon this from a shared link of pinterest pin, please share with me the tips that you have found to work the best!

Rules for Shopping at the Commissary:

10 Things To Do AFTER Moving to a New City

This is a blog in progress, but I am quickly working on a checklist of things to do after you have moved to a new city. 

I am moving from Lincoln to Beatrice to Omaha all in a 2 month time span. I finished my college semester and I am planning on moving to Omaha shortly after returning to South Africa. Beginning of June, I will be packing up my belongings and moving to an apartment. I have been working on downsizing and packing my things, but there is a lot more to moving than your moving your stuff.

You are moving your life as well. 

I am slowly creating a to-do list of things that need to be done after your move. 

Take a walk in your neighborhood. Take your camera to capture the new views to share with your friends back home.

Find a library and get a card.  Read about the area if you are in a completely different state. You may be surprised as to what you would learn about a new area.

Find a GYM close to your house! The closer, the more likely you are going to be willing to go

Go eat at a local restaurant near your new place. Find places that you have never eaten before and ask about the favorite dish. Also, find out if your favorite restaurant is close by. 

Drive to work to find a good route. (Drive at a time that you would be normally driving so you can figure out traffic)

Find a good grocery store that you like shopping at. Look at the places with the lowest prices.

Find the nearest hospital (especially if you are accident prone)

If you are involved in a club in your old city, find a similar club in your new city. Find the places that you want to get involved with and figure out the point of contacts for those people.

Check out the neighborhood churches. Start looking for a new church to call your home

Check out the downtown shopping near you. Find out what is near you. 

Enjoy the time with your other half and kids if you have them. It is a new chapter for all of you. Embrace it together.

This is just a really short list. This is simple way to get involved in place where the new chapter of your life is beginning. My thinking is the more that you walk around the area, the better you will feel at home.

I have been working on the list for a little over a week. I have taken a walk. Found a gym (in my apartment complex), checked out the downtown shopping, and found a grocery store that I enjoy. (the Commisary at Offutt)

Tell me about your moving experiences! What are the things that you have done after moving to a new town. Are there other things that you have done with kids to help get them situated?

Why You Should Let Your Kids Pick Their Paint

      Wow, has it been a crazy month or what. My laptop screen broke, I got back into the states
(currently working on the blog posts to share my great experiences) and now I am in the process of completely cleaning out my room and getting rid of anything that I possibly can.
      Now, maybe I am writing this blog to prove a point to my parents, but maybe I am just curious as to see what other people out there think.
      I am trying to redo my room for my little brother who turns 7 in 2 weeks. I wanted to do it as a birthday present, but also as a bribe to get him to get rid of some of his toys and start keeping his room clean. (Yeah, right. A 7 year old boy keep his room clean, I know. I am crazy.)

     If you have never met him then you wouldn't know that he has lived and breathed John Deere and tractors since he was learning to talk. He actually learned his colors by the brands of tractors (John Deere Green, Allis Chalmers Orange, Case IH Red... So on..) It was adorable.
       I want to paint his room Green, With a yellow and a Black stripe. Like the picture to the side, without the yellow ceiling. I am hoping to get creative enough to put a little red barn and a dirt path on the wall, but first I have to get past my parents.

Reasons for Letting Kids Pick their wall colors

1. Paint isn't all that expensive.
      Kids grow up and they change their minds. They go through phases where they like one thing, then they like another. It happens. A little bit of paint can go along way when it comes to making a kid's room their own. I am not saying redo the carpet every time they want a different theme in their room, but bookshelves, dressers and bed posts can be painted. Walls can be painted.

2. Creativity
          Everyone complains about how the United States education system is suppressing kids' creativity, but what about when it comes to being at home. Is that helping them any? Kids are naturally creative, until they learn that it isn't acceptable. Encourage kids to be a little crazy. Have some fun.
    One comment I read on another blog said that she grew up in a home with all white walls. Now that she is older and has her own home, her walls are still white because she is scared to make a mistake. She continued to say that her sister grew up later than her, but had a colorful walls. Now, her sister is grown up and has yellow walls with blue ceilings because she isn't afraid of making those mistakes.

3. Bonding time
    My dad and I painted my room my sophomore year in high school. He had 2 days off of work during the summer and we spent the days picking out paint, taping off windows, listening to music, and getting the job done. I was so excited when we finally finished my room, but it was fun to spend that time with my dad.

4. Coolest Parent Award
    When your kids have friends over, they will most likely play in his/her room. Their friends will comment and say how cool their parents are for letting them do it. (especially as they get older.) I know parenting isn't about being the cool parent, but sometimes for kids it takes a friend saying how awesome your parents are for you to realize how lucky you have it in the home that you do.

5. Pride and Courage
    Have you ever watched a kid's face as you open a present that they picked out all by themselves. For Christmas, Luke had taken a piece of wrapping paper and drew a picture on the white side. Then he wrapped it up and put it under the tree for me. On Christmas morning, he insisted that I opened that one first. I gave it the "Oh my gosh, that is sooo cool Luke! thank you!" response, but it was the pride and excitement that he got because he didn't need any help in doing any of it. It was all him. This is the same when they get to make choices about what they want their room to be.

6. Ultimately, they are the ones living there.
   Yes, it is your house. But doors can be closed. This could turn into one of those teaching moments of "You made the decision, now you have to live with the consequences." Before you paint, sit down and explain to your child that they don't get to repaint it all of the time. Your child will have to live with this decision for a while afterwards, even if they don't like it. But if they love it, you can close the door, or show it off. It may turn out better than you think.

7. Moving..?
   If you aren't planning on moving for quite some time and you have stable jobs near the home that you are in, then there will always be plenty of time to repaint before you move in a few years.

     If you have other questions, be sure to check out chapter 5 of The Last Lecture! He got to paint on his walls when he was young, and to this day, his rocketship and quadratic formula is still there and his mom shows it off.

  When we painted my room, I wanted to be a photographer more than anything. I finally had talked my parents into letting me put black on my walls. My walls are white in the middle and black at the top and bottom. They resemble a picture frame. In the white space, I used push pins to hang up all of my photography that I had entered in 4-H. I had drawings from school stuff and other art work that I had done. I really thought that I had the coolest room ever. I painted my desk black and got a new black bookshelf. I painted an old red dresser black and got a pair of black sheets.

   I seriously thought that I had the best room in the world. It represented who I was and who I wanted to be very well. It is true that I no longer want to be a photographer, but I do still think that the walls are pretty cool and it looks very nice with the black furniture, but this room is ready for something else. John Deere Green and Yellow for an adorable, spoiled little 7 year old, because that is what currently represents him and who he is.
   I plan to put up a green shelf with a "fence around it" for parking for his toy tractors. I have a couple of graphics that I am going to put on canvas for his walls.

I am really excited about this project and I can't wait to see the look on his face when it is done.

Now, I must admit that I am neither a home owner nor a parent... so there maybe some things that I looked over. But the real question.. What color did you always want to paint your room when you were a kid? Did your parents let you or not?

Here comes the bad news...

So today was pretty fun! We had class, went to the archives and went to a cool holocaust museum..
We had a good supper and then came back to the hostel to play some 10 point pitch.

 I would love to tell you all more about my great day.. but unfortunately.. there are some other things that haven't made my day so great.

I can't say that I will be blogging for the rest of my trip, but I will definitely be keeping a journal to tell you everything that happens.
Tonight, while we were playing pitch, my laptop was sitting on the floor on the deck and it apparently got stepped on.. My LED screen has cracked.

I am going to attempt to use someone elses laptop to keep up my blog, but there is no promises that someone will let me use their laptop every night for it... I am hoping, but there is no promises. I will still be posting on Facebook when I have internet, but that's probably it.

Tomorrow is the safari. Pictures will be posted to facebook. I promised to get a picture with a lion (;

See you in a 2 weeks if I don't see you before then!

The Amy Biehl Foundation and Nyanga

The Amy Biehl foundation is set up for a girl who was living in South Africa in the early 1990's. She was a college student at Stanford University majoring in African studies. She came to South Africa to help fight the injustice and segregation. She was here up until the first free elections, but then she was driving home from a township and was killed by a mob that thought she was there to fight against freedom, instead of fighting for freedom.
   Her mom and dad originally came to South Africa in hopes of making peace with the death of their daughter, but they also ended up making peace with the man who killed her. Now, they have started the Amy Biehl foundation to help townships and the surrounding areas to help people with after school programs. They help educate the kids about HIV, drugs and violence, but they also provide fun activities for the kids after school to keep them out of the streets.
    Their goal is to provide opportunities to become well rounded and prepare youth to be leaders, entrepreneurs, and stable in their future. They help them support their family in their future. They also help the surrounding areas by picking up trash, planting trees and planting gardens. They want to channel the kids energy into positive things such as sports, swimming, soccer, and arts.
    This is such a great foundation, but just like any other organization, they are limited by funding. It costs about 6M rand, which is about $600,000 to run the foundation for the year, including paying the 20 full time staff, providing one nutritious meal for the kids before they go home at night, and going on outings during their holiday breaks. They hold events to showcase what the kids have been doing during the after school sessions.
   Their motto is "You can be, If you want to be." But they also say that it takes dedication.
If you would like to donate, which would be great, or read more about Amy and their work you can check it out right here.

    Then we went to a little township called Nyanga and helped at the school there. Their school is all make shift buildings. They have 40 kids in a class and over 308 kids grades 1-7 in the school. Their are broken windows and obviously not enough funding. The desks are old and they don't have enough supplies, but the kids are so happy and they make it work. Their biggest problem is when it gets cold in the winter, they don't have heaters or electricity.
    We spent the afternoon working with some of the classes and talking to some of the students. A couple of us even taught a classroom how to do the electric slide. It was a fun day!

 Then we ate super together at a cafe and had some fun. We are now finishing up and calling it a night!

Over supper our words for the day were: 

Amy: Understanding

Mirvet: Knowledge

Kelsie: Resourceful

Deb: Rhythm

Dr. Curry: Spirituality

Mine: Happy'

Another great day finished up. Tomorrow we actually have lecture and then a trip to the achirves for some research! Exciting stuff!

I am so glad I came on this trip because I have already learned a lot, just in the few short days about how people live and the differences in culture. I also learned that Peanut Butter is really just an American thing. So is turkey sandwich meat! Who knew! 

There is your fun fact for the day and I can't wait to get home and share all of my memories and pictures with everyone.