My Amazon Favorites

 I thought I'd share some of my favorite things from Amazon.

I recently purchased a vlog camera. I was looking for a good travel case for it. After searching around, I decided to try the one below. I can say from experience it has been an amazing case. I love that it will hold my tripod, charger, extra batteries, and wind screen. I also love the shoulder strap as it made carrying it around while on vacation super easy.  

The other purchase I have been loving are the charger and extra batteries for my camera. Sony did not include a charger with this camera, which is so frustrating. Just like the Canon G7X, this camera runs through batteries fairly fast. I was skeptical about this purchase, but it has been fantastic. The batteries work with the camera and the charger works great. I have noticed the charger is slow at charging when plugged up to the computer, but if it is plugged into the wall it seemed to charge faster.

My last favorite for now has been the tripod I bought for my phone. This is actually the second phone tripod I've bought. The first one had a ring light attached to it. The ring light broke fairly quick and it seemed to constantly struggle to keep my phone straight. It also did not withstand wind well. I decided to give this one a try, and it has been great. I've been using it since April of this year, and it has only fallen once due to wind. I do not struggle with the phone holder being straight and it has felt sturdy. 

These are the things I have bought fairly recently that I have been loving. I like to share products that I have personally bought. 

If there is anything we can help you find, please feel free to reach out by either leaving a comment or sending an email to savingsmakesense@gmail.com.

Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Links listed here may be affiliate links. When you use them to make a purchase, we may receive a small commission. However, this is at NO additional charge to you.

Savings Makes Cents

 My mom and I have started a business together called Savings Makes Cents. Basically, we look for deals for you, so you don't have to. It is a very new business that is still a work in progress. We hope you will follow us over on Instagram and if you are looking for something specific feel free to comment or send us a direct message and we will do our best to find the best deal. 

The holidays are coming up and we look forward to putting together gift guides to help make shopping a little easier. I hope to bring some of the deals we find over to the blog, but it is busy season at work, so time is very limited.

Abeka Homeschool Curriculum

I don't know about you, but I feel like we did not get a summer. It seemed like we got a lot of rain, and the temps were pretty low. 

Maddy started her first week of school on July 31. Our goal is to be done before public-school kids. This year we are actually getting done about two weeks later than usual, but neither of us wanted to start any earlier. 

We chose to try Abeka's homeschool video streaming this year. After the first day I had a lot of thoughts. Some good some not so good.

The videos are amazing. The teachers do a phenomenal job teaching and engaging the video students. The curriculum itself is very rigorous. 

The main reason we switched to video streaming is because my job has become a lot more demanding than past years, and I needed something she could take charge of. With this new curriculum she is able to take charge for the most part.

The problem is the way the curriculum is designed. It is set up like a public school, and we both dislike that a lot. Before each video there is some classwork assigned. The video does not tell the students to do the work, but only checks the answers. Before she starts each video, I have to tell her what to do before turning on the video and then she can take it from there. The videos are about 40-45 minutes long. Once the video is done homework is assigned. I don't feel homework should be assigned in a homeschool curriculum. I mean technically everything she does is homework. I would like to see Abeka redesign the homeschool curriculum to be more in line with homeschool, not public school.

One thing I do like about the curriculum is I feel it will adequately prepare her for college. Her grades come from quizzes, tests/exams, and projects. She is not used to having so many tests, but I am seeing a huge improvement in her learning. The material that is covered is extremely difficult. Hearing her answer the teacher's questions as they review each day makes this mama proud. 

I am trying to figure out what we can cut out because the workload is not necessary. So far, we have only cut out one book for literature. I've been able to cut out some of the homework. 

She is on her fourth week of school now and is starting to adjust more and more. She is struggling to remember everything in history, but I know she will pull through just fine.

We will probably stick with Abeka throughout high school. I do not want to trial and error through those years. Abeka is a lot to handle, but I think she will learn what she needs to in order to succeed in life. I hope to do an unboxing next year, so stay tuned!

Current Faves

 I thought I would share all the things I've been loving recently.

The first thing that comes to mind is peach mango Bang energy drink. I know energy drinks are not healthy at all, but this is how I wake up in the mornings. I've tried several different flavors, but peach mango is the best in my opinion. 

Callie Danielle has definitely made my list. She is a small business owner who brings such joy through her art. You can order straight from her site by clicking here.

I have been testing a liquid collagen from Amazon since June. It's called Wild Fuel Liquid Collagen. I haven't noticed major differences, but I have noticed my hair is not falling out as much as it was, which was the reason I wanted to try it.

An iPhone game I have started loving again is Lily's Garden. It is free in the app store, and I am hooked. I enjoy choosing the decorations throughout the game, and the levels can be challenging, but not overly challenging.

As I think of more favorites I will make another post. 

Chattanooga Choo Choo

 We decided to check out the Chattanooga Choo Choo. It has sure changed a lot from the last time I went, but it was something different to do.

Besides the hotel, there was an arcade that looked pretty empty. Maddy had never been there, so she enjoyed looking around. We didn't get to look around long because the rain came earlier than expected.

I think I've only been during Christmas time. It is beautiful at Christmas. We plan to go back when it's all decorated. I did film a little of our adventure over on our YouTube channel. 

After exploring downtown Chattanooga, we were starved and headed to Sonic. In case you don't know, Sonic is one of Maddy's favorite restaurants. If it were up to her, we would eat there every day. We typically order the same thing, a number one combo with a lot of customizations.

We love exploring new things and hope to find more things to explore in the future.

Severe Weather

I know I've been missing here lately, but I am back. My posts are probably going to be once a week for now. I post on other social media platforms every Monday at 10:00 EST, so I think I will do the same for my blog. 

I'm not sure when my love for weather, storms in particular, happened, but I do love learning about them. I have several radar apps I've purchased and found a few weather YouTubers I enjoy following. Ryan Hall Y'all became one of my favorites because he would teach about the storm setup and show pointers of things to look for when looking for tornadoes. I've learned quite a bit from him. 

I thought I would share some of my process as we were originally in the slight risk with this system.

As it gets closer to Springtime, I typically start checking the severe weather outlook on the Storm Prediction Center's website.

This just shows the severe storm risk. If we are in the slight risk or higher, then I start looking at other things. 

After checking the SPC severe weather risk, I go to Pivotal Weather and click on Models. I start with HRRR. On the left-hand side, I scroll down to the severe weather and click on significant tornado parameters. Since I am not a meteorologist, I am unable to determine tornado parameters on my own. I would love to be able to forecast on my own, but I haven't taken time to truly learn how to do so.

You can click on any county and it will pull up hodographs, which I am still unable to read, but in the bottom right corner it will list the risk.

In this example, there is a possibility of a tornado. I also like to check the NAM as it shows different results. Another good thing to check is the supercell composite.

The date and time of the event is listed in the upper left-hand corner. You can google z weather times, but I will say I have not been able to get my times to match an actual meteorologist. I really like Ryan Hall's supercell setup because the cells show up as dots and it gives a better representation of where the supercells will be.

Dew points are another factor as to whether a tornado could spin up. If you have dewpoints in the 60's or higher that is one ingredient that is needed.

Once storm day has arrived, I utilize Radarscope and Radar Omega apps. These are both paid apps, but so worth it if you love weather. This is where Ryan Hall Y'all has helped me the most. I will try to capture screenshots to share to make it easier to follow.

Before I continue, I want to add that I started writing this post Friday before the storms rolled through. I used the storms to gather my screenshots. The storms were horrific in Mississippi and my heart breaks for all the people that were impacted. I've been learning how to read the radar for a few years now and I have never seen storms like these. 

Once storms get started, I periodically look at the mesoscale discussion on the SPC website. This will let you know if they are planning to add a watch to your area. 

In this example the circled area was expected to have severe storms develop with tornadoes becoming more likely late in the day.

This is typically my set up during severe weather. Anytime Ryan Hall Y'all is live I try to watch and follow along so I can learn. This screenshot is a PDS (particularly dangerous situation) tornado warning. This would be the storm that went on to produce the horrific tornadoes in Rolling Fork, MS. This is the velocity of the storm. When the red and green are touching and is tight that shows there is rotation.

This is the correlation coefficient. The ball that is northeast from the tornado symbol would be what meteorologists call the CC drop. This shows there is debris in the air. There was another tornado that hit the northwest section of Amory, MS. The correlation coefficient was huge! I thought I took screenshots of it, but apparently, I was so shocked in what I was seeing I failed to do so.

This is another Velocity scan that shows rotation. The red and green heart shape is where the rotation was, and I'm pretty sure there was a tornado on the ground here.

This is another velocity scan that shows two separate areas of rotation. One is above Tchula and the other above the 17. I cannot remember if there were truly two tornadoes on the ground, but if there were this is what it would look like. 

These are the things I have learned so far. I still have some learning to do. 

I think it is super important to listen to your local weather people. If they say prepare, make sure you have an action plan in place. I know meteorologists get a bad rap because it seems they are wrong more than they are right. The issue is they are sharing what they see in the model runs. I have seen models change within minutes, so I can't imagine trying to forecast days in advance. 

We have a lot of access to resources we didn't used to have. Ryan Hall Y'all is a great YouTube channel to watch if storms are expected to be bad. Dr. Reed Timmer is also another great resource to utilize. He streams on social media a lot. A few other storm chasers I have started following are Brandon Copic, Brad Arnold, Vince Waelti, Chris Hall Y'all. Andy Hill is a great meteorologist that just started his YouTube channel recently. He is active on Twitter as well. 

A Day in Our Life

 Do you ever wonder what people do throughout the day? Sometimes I do, so I thought I'd share a day in our life. 

Monday through Friday we wake up anywhere between 7:30 and 7:45 am. We've been on this schedule since July, and we are still NOT morning people. While I take Marley out, Maddy gets ice in my cup and brings me my bang energy drink. Peach Mango is my favorite flavor, but when there is no other option Cotton Candy, Candy Apple Crisp, and Rainbow Unicorn are all right. Once she delivers my drink, she starts getting what she needs for school. 

On a non-overtime workday, I get off around 4:30 pm. During overtime I get off around 6:30 pm. Once I am done with work, we either eat dinner or start working on my part of Maddy's school. During school review I go over the work Maddy did that day and make sure she understood the concept. The most time consuming is Grammar and Math. Maddy has always struggled with math, but I am so happy in the progress she has made. 

Once we eat dinner we sometimes will walk around the neighborhood. Here lately we haven't been able to do that as much because I am working overtime. We have walked several nights with flashlights turned on. I can only sit for so long and work takes most of that time. 

Maddy will take a shower and brush her teeth and then its bedtime and we start all over again.

The weekends are a little different. We are typically gone all day Saturday. We have started filming for social media, so we have to make content. I am super careful about what I show on camera to not reveal details about where we live. If you ever want to see what we are up to follow us on TikTok: @maddysmom0923, YouTube: @HeatherVlogsLife, or Instagram: @HeatherVlogsLife.

Sunday, we go to church. After church we usually have a Wal-Mart pickup order, but we head home afterwards. We chill all day Sunday. I reserve Sunday for laundry, writing blog posts, or editing YouTube videos. I also use Sunday to plan for the upcoming week. I use the Happy Planner planner while Maddy uses the Callie Danielle planner. After we decorate our planners, I will fill in Maddy's with her schoolwork for the week. I don't have a lot to fill in mine anymore. Living with my parents I don't have as many chores as I did when we had a home. I also no longer have to meal plan. I use my planner as a reminder of overtime requirements and to write in what we had for dinner each day and any plans we may have. 

That is our week in a nutshell. Obviously, it changes some here and there, but this is our base daily life.

Valentine's Day 2023

 Valentine's Day was low key. The older Maddy gets the harder it is to figure out what to do for Valentine's Day. Her gift was going to see the new Ant Man movie, and of course some candy. 

The people in the theater were extremely talkative, so Maddy got very frustrated. She wasn't able to fully immerse herself into the movie. Every time she did the talking pulled her right back out. Other than the noise, she really enjoyed it. I haven't seen the other two Ant Man movies yet, but I still enjoyed the new one.

My parents did their usual tradition, which we really enjoy. My stepdad gives us a rose and my mom makes chocolate covered strawberries. I'm not a huge Valentine's person, but I so look forward to those each year. 

My stepdad also made a delicious dinner. He smoked steaks and baked us a potato. I used to need steak sauce whenever I ate steak. My stepdad has mastered the smoker and I no longer need steak sauce. In fact, his are so delicious I will not order a steak out. He also smokes shrimp and fish that is out of this world. I hate fish, but I can eat his smoked fish. 

I was not able to get pictures on Valentine's Day. We have been on overtime at work, and it is definitely taking its toll on me. Tenured people have been working overtime since October or November. I do not see how they keep their sanity. I feel like I get no free time and I am not okay with it. 

I hope you all had a very special Valentine's Day and enjoyed time with your loved ones.

What I'm Watching February

 I tried to do a better job of keeping up with what I watched. I like seeing what other people watch in hopes I'll find a new show or movie to enjoy. In order to stay focused at work I like to put on a movie or a show to listen to while I work. The months where I have a lot listed, it's mostly from watching during work hours.

• Alert: Missing Person's Unit - I actually started watching this late January, but I had already posted my January list, so I added it to February.

• How to Murder Your Husband: The Nancy Brophy Story 

• Law & Order SVU

• I Shouldn't Be Alive

• My Sister's Serial Killer Boyfriend

• This Is Us - I started watching this series late. I'm only on season three. 

• Safer At Home - this was a weird movie. I wouldn't recommend it exactly, but once I started watching I had to finish lol. Crazy ending for sure!

• Alcatraz - I thought this movie was boring until closer to the end

• Dakota

• The Good Doctor

• Tiger Rising

• Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionist

• The Glades

• Offline

• Blue Bloods

• Alex Murdaugh Trial via Emily D. Baker

• Family 5 Vlogs - YouTube

My Pet Peed

 If you're thinking of getting a puppy, you need to get My Pet Peed. It is a small business based in Texas that actually works! 

When I got Marley, he was trained to use puppy pads. I didn't make a big deal about training him to go outside because he didn't mess on the floor. As he grew, I regretted my decision. I started smelling pee and found out he sometimes missed the puppy pads, or if they are not completely clean, he will not use them. I tried so many cleaners to get the smell out and none worked. I found My Pet Peed through a Google search I think and decided why not give it a try. I'm so glad I did because it surely does work. You spray wherever the mess is and leave it for 12-24 hours and repeat the process if necessary. Just a warning that it will smell worse before it smells better. 

Whenever I get a puppy or new dog, I will make sure to have plenty in stock while we go through the housetraining phase. It truly is a lifesaver in keeping your carpets clean. It's supposed to work on throw up and other messes, but I haven't been able to try it on anything other than pee.

Happy New Year!

 Every year for New Years Eve we go to my mom's for game night. Living with my mom for now just made this tradition a little easier. My mom always has good snacks to snack on from pigs in a blanket, my personal favorite, to a veggie tray. 

As usual Marley just chilled out on his blankets.

We played several games: Uno, Qwerkle, and Clue. We may have played another game, but these are all I remember.

Once it's closer to the new year we prepare our drinks. My mom found a sparkling apple juice that tastes so good.

Once we welcome in the new year, we typically get ready for bed. That is our New Year's Eve traditions. I've not done a great job of getting pictures. I take more video than anything. We had a fun night and look forward to seeing what this year has in store for us.

Live Rich Planner

 I've been a planner since elementary school. I primarily use the Happy Planner planners but decided to give The Budget Mom's Liver Rich Planner a try. It was a difficult transition going from a vertical Happy Planner to an hourly Live Rich Planner. After a week or two I began to figure out how I wanted to utilize the planner.

Each month starts with a monthly calendar like most planners.

I think this page is what I was most excited about. The Happy Planner has half sheets you can purchase to insert your meal plan in each week. I was tired of having to buy separate sheets just to meal plan. 

The other side has a cleaning section. I'm not sure how everyone else used this page, but I needed to know what I had to do each day. I'm sure there are other ways to utilize this page, but I can't think of any at the moment.

This is the weekly spread. This was the first week I used the planner, and I quickly learned not to fill the whole work box with words. I needed to put in meeting information, so going forward I would just highlight my work times so I could still add any meeting information needed.

There is one page I didn't share in this planner and that is the personal finance page. If you have the Budget by Paycheck workbook, the personal finance page is a more simplified version. I didn't utilize that page as much mainly because all that information is only needed in my Budget by Paycheck workbook.

I think there are pros and cons to the planner. One con for me is I am a very seasonal planner, which is what drew me to the Happy Planner in the first place. I like that I can make this planner as seasonal as I'd like, but that would take a lot of creativity and time I do not have. The other con is to this planner is not being able to take the pages out like the Happy Planner.

Once we lost our house, I did not have a need for the Live Rich Planner anymore. I have switched back to the Happy Planner for now. Maybe once we get a house again, I will give it another try.

Inlet Beach 2022

 We typically make our way to Panama City Beach, FL every year. This year we changed things up just a bit. We stayed in either the Rosemary Beach or Inlet Beach area. It was a little confusing because sometimes it came up as Rosemary while other times it showed Inlet Beach. My sister and nieces got to come, and it was such a fun trip.

Maddy, Marley, and I were in the back, while my sister rode up front with my mom. My stepdad also drove, and he had their dogs and my nieces.

We had several rest stops along the way. Just in case I haven't mentioned it, the dog with Marley is actually his brother. My parents adopted him when we adopted Marley.

For our first night we ate at Schooners, one of our favorite restaurants.

It is on the beach, so while you wait for your table you can take in the beach views.

I highly recommend the crab cakes appetizer. I also highly recommend the Mahi bites. I hate fish, but those were so good! For the entree I always get popcorn shrimp with fries. 

For the first full day there we hit the beach. The water was stunning! It truly looked like the Caribbean to me.

 The sun was so bright I didn't even notice my finger was in the picture, oops! 

The cottage had a very nice pool that hardly ever got crowded. 

We usually try to play mini golf. This trip was no exception, except we got caught in a downpour. 

We were able to get a rain check or something similar and finish our game another day.

Vacation always ends too soon, but we all had a blast!

Some of our favorite restaurants are Schooners, Pineapple Willy's, Triple J's and Salty Sues. If you want a steak, then Angelos is the place to go. We used to love Scampys, but management or something changed, and the food quality went down. I typically order popcorn shrimp or scallops. 

I'd love to read about your vacation experiences. I love to travel and hope to travel more in the future.

Cades Cove 2021

 Every year we make at least one or two trips to Cades Cove in Townsend, TN. We try to go in the Spring and Fall. 

We went through North Carolina to get there to try and see the Elk. Me and Maddy have yet to see the Elk!

This was just beautiful in my opinion. I love our adventures and traditions. It helps to keep me going when life feels too hard. 

My mom shared her pictures with us. I think these are her pictures. We all agreed we wanted to ride this train in the fall. 

After we go through Cades Cove we go eat at The Apple Barn. They have the best apple butter, apple fritters, and chicken. My usual order is chicken tenders. After we eat, we go to the Christmas Place. 

We usually see bear every time we visit Cades Cove. This trip was no exception. We saw a mama bear and her three cubs in a tree. Maddy and I are still waiting to see the elk. What are some of your traditions outside of Christmas?