Tips for Successful College Campus Tours
Brainstorm Colleges of Choice
I’ve been cautioned for years that this season of life approaches and passes quickly. Oh how true that is! The season of planning for college is upon us. From my experience, I want to share some tips for successful college campus tours.
Tip #1 is to sit down with your high school junior and discuss: career interests, college location interests, and financial obligations for college. Having these discussions early during junior year is ideal. Have your junior create a list of possible colleges he/she would like to visit.
As you can tell here, I love to travel! And visiting colleges offers multiple opportunities to see new places.
Auburn University’s Football Stadium
Set Up College Campus Tours
Returning to work outside of the home this year, I really felt behind on setting up college visits for my son. However, we picked an evening with no distractions and sat down with our computer and calendar to schedule college campus visits.
I learned during this process that some colleges only have Monday visits available. In my mind, I thought all college visits would take place on the weekend. That is not always the case. For example, the University of South Alabama held their college Pre-Med tour day on a Monday and since my son is interested in the medical field, we needed to schedule our visit for this particular day.
Out of the four schools we visited (University of South Alabama, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Auburn University and Mississippi State University), two tours were held on Mondays and the other two were held on weekends.
Include All Relevant Tours
Typically at each school, there will be a variety of tours offered. The standard tour is the campus tour; however, some colleges request their housing tours be booked separately as well as their recreational center tours. Take the time to look at all the tours available and schedule any tour that might be of interest to your student.
We booked campus, housing, and recreational center tours. In some cases, we scheduled meetings with the department chairs of the College of Math and Science. Scheduling meetings with specific department chairs allows you to ask detailed questions about the major your student is interested in pursuing.
A part of our campus tour at Mississippi State University.
Take in the Extras
If the college your student chooses is their home for the next four, six, or longer years, then take in the extras. What do I mean by that? If the college/university is a distance away from your home, book a hotel and stay a night or two. Allowing your student to experience the surrounding town of the college/university will afford him/her the opportunity to get a feel for what life will be like while they are in school.
We love asking the locals where to eat. I enjoy seeing what famous spots the towns are known for. For example, if visiting Auburn University, then Toomer’s Drugstore is a must stop for their world famous lemonade. The picture below is of the cute area of downtown Starkville, Mississippi where Mississippi State University resides.
The beautiful downtown area of Starkville, Missississippi – home of Mississippi State University.
Hopefully these tips will help guide you as you tackle this developmental milestone. May you have many successful college campus tours!
How to Raise Kids to be a Part of a Whole
While kids are a wonderful addition to the family, effort must be given to raise kids to become successful adults. Successful adults that are capable of functioning well as a member of society. Reaching way back to when mine were little, I’m sharing how to raise kids to be a part of a whole.
An Instagram follower asked me to share how I am able to get my children involved in helping around the house. This request prompted contemplation as to what strategies I incorporated in having my kids participate in household chores and household life in general.
Help Clean Up
Cleaning up after one’s self is a lifelong skill. There is no harm in talking with your little ones from day one about picking up after you are finished with whatever item/items you are using. The added bonus is talking through your activity. Talking while moving through your actions builds language for your children. As children age, sing “Clean Up, Clean Up” (from the Barney show) or any other similar song to encourage your children to clean. As you clean up, have your children put away items with you as well. You are the model for appropriate action.
Create Responsibility Charts
Pinterest offers a variety of ideas on when and how to start utilizing chore charts. I like to call them responsibilities. An age-appropriate chore chart gives kids visual cues on how to help out around the house. I have a variety of pins on my Kids Crafts board, you can check out some chore ideas here.
My husband and I even give some money for each chore completed. The amount is not a lot but enough to put a little spending money in our kids’ pockets. From this money, we have taught the 10/10/80 approach. 10% to God, 10% to savings, and 80% to spend as you choose.
This an example of age-appropriate chores. Teach the Belief of Family
In addition to using chores and allowance as a motivator for our kids to participate in helping with the household, my husband and I have been very intentional about the belief of family. What do I mean by this? From an early age, we share and discuss with our children the importance of taking care of our family. Thus, each member of our family has an important role to help the whole unit. Some tasks and responsibilities are not compensated. They are performed simply for the good of the family. As parents, we determine what tasks and responsibilities need to be completed for the well being of the entire household. It is important for kids to learn that not every responsibility is going to receive a paycheck and it is important to follow the guidelines that mom and dad have established.
There are some great resources available for assisting with raising your children. I encourage you to find an older woman in your church that you admire or feel like she has a good handle on her family life. Follow her example, become a part of her Life Group, or ask for her guidance. Here is another great resource I like – Raising Girls and Boys.
Disclaimer
By sharing what my family has done to have our children become involved in the household responsibilities, this does not mean we have it all together. My biggest area of weakness is consistency. Being consistent with requiring my children to follow through with their responsibilities is always going to be a struggle for me.
While not perfect, I am willing to share all that is going on in The Helms House here. I hope you will follow along and interact with me by letting me know what you like or have questions about. Raising kids to be successful adults is challenging, rewarding work.
What I Learned from 365 Meals
Have you ever felt like you were stuck in the same cooked meals rut? I did. Last year I challenged myself to have (notice I didn’t say cook) a year of different meals and here is what I learned from 365 meals.
1. It’s okay to ask for help.
At the beginning of last year, I started posting questions to my Instagram followers asking what their favorite meals are. I also asked my family what meals they love. After I received some responses, I made a running list. I even included restaurants that I loved. My overall goal was to get out of the rut of making the same meals over and over. Whether we ate out or cooked at home did not matter as long as I was experiencing a different meal.
Asking for help or input regarding meal plans opened up my knowledge to different family traditions and different cultural foods. It was enjoyable trying new recipes.
2. Use a meal service.
After asking friends and family for meal ideas, a friend recommended the meal service company Hello Fresh. At first, I thought a meal service would be too expensive; however, with the increase of food cost, I cannot even take my family of five to McDonald’s for under $40. I would much rather have a home cooked meal than fast food. There are a variety of meal service companies (Blue Apron, HomeChef, EveryPlate, etc.) My friend gave me a coupon code for Hello Fresh and I went with this meal service company. My experience with them has been a mostly positive one. The biggest positive from using a meal service is it hits my goals of providing different meals. Hello Fresh gives you a variety of meal options to choose from then sends three meals per box your way. I selected the meals for a family of 4. While we are a family of five, I selected meals that would go farther (rice or pasta based meals). Through this meal service, I discovered I love roasted vegetables.
3. Save recipes and ideas.
We live in an amazing time of technology. I used my access to social media to help meet my meal goal. Instagram reels, Pinterest pins , and YouTube videos all provide a wealth of opportunities to find new recipes to try. Instagram reels were remarkably easy to save then reference at a later time when I wanted to recreate the meal I saw. I also shared in a post from 2021 some tips in helping to plan your dinner menu. You can check it out here.
Grateful is what I feel for my year of trying to have 365 different meals. This experience allowed me to push myself to try new recipes and meals. Let me know in the comments if you would like me to share the list of meals we had in 2022.
Updating My Daughter’s Room
Remodeling our home feels like what I imagine a marathon would be like – slow and steady but honestly, it’s more like slow and erratic. The latest project is updating my daughter’s room. When we moved in, her room had one small light hanging in the middle of a dark gray room with some pretty cool industrial shelves. We knew we would need to update the space to suit her needs.
This is a shot of Lilly’s room with the paint color on her walls at the time we moved in.
Design Elements
For a year, Lilly and I have discussed what she would like for her bedroom. Our upstairs ceilings are slanted with the slope of the roof. The existing ceiling and wall colors were contrasting and draw the eye to the sharp angles of the slant. Adding one color to these spaces, softens the sharp angles and gives each space an open feel. The elements Lilly requested were: an accent wall and double doors to her closet.
Our paint color of choice for this home is Benjamin Moore’s White Dove. With the warm tones of the hardwood floors, White Dove gives a nice contrast. However, I wanted some type of pop of color for her space.
Boutique Rugs
I have utilized Boutique Rugs in a variety of areas of our home. In fact, sometimes I have changed up the location of a certain rug to multiple rooms based on the home we were living in at the time. What impresses me about Boutique Rugs is the quality for the price. There are over 40,000+ varieties of style, color, and sizing. We wanted a new rug for Lilly’s room and they had just what we needed.
Lilly helped me select a gorgeous 6’7″ x 9′ rug titled Bood Area Rug. While I have purchased multiple rugs from Boutique Rugs, the ability to select this new rug of my choice was gifted to me for product review. The Bood Area Rug has beautiful grays and subtle blues throughout as well as varying pilling sizes which offers a cozy texture to the space.
Here is an after shot of her updated paint color and new rug.
I have yet to be disappointed in a rug that we have from Boutique Rugs. Our living room is host to a beautiful area rug as well as my oldest son’s bedroom showcases another rug from Boutique Rugs. In our last house, I decorated the sun room using the rug that I now use in my son’s bedroom. You can view a picture of it here. I had one more but I am embarrassed to share that I decided it would be a good idea to pressure wash it. I have pressure washed other rugs. Unfortunately this particular rug was a shag rug and pressure washing is a no-no. My lesson has been learned and maybe you too can learn from this cautionary tale!
I love the beautiful grays and subtle blues in the horizontal lines of this rug.
Stay Tuned
If you are in the market for a new area rug, check out Boutique Rugs. The code: HELMSHOUSE will get you 5% off your order. There are still details to finish up in Lilly’s room. She has expressed she wants to try moving her bed to a different wall. Stay tuned for future updates of the completion of updating my daughter’s room and I will share all the design elements we used in this bedroom.
What I Learned from 365 Outfits
Let me share my takeaways with you about what I learned from 365 outfits. 2022 proved to be the year to get out of a rut – clothing wise that is. Ever find yourself wearing the same articles of clothing over and over? I am not sure who to credit but I remember hearing or reading that you utilize only 20% of the items in your closet. I believe that.
1. I learned to evaluate my closet.
When wanting to get out of the rut of wearing the same clothes over and over, I needed to take stock of what I owned. Evaluating each piece of clothing in your closet allows you to determine if you still like the item or if the item still fits. Eliminating unloved or outgrown items gives you an accurate view of what you are working with.
Once you have only items you love and fit in your closet, you are able to shop for any items that might fill in any gaps in your wardrobe.
2. I learned to take a picture of myself in each outfit.
Part of me feels like taking a selfie is prideful or ostentatious; however, the pictures themselves allowed me to see what my body actually looked like in the outfits I picked. I highly recommend getting a full length mirror. You can even purchase a cheap mirror from Target or Walmart – the point is to allow yourself to view your outfit in its entirety.
Some pictures I snapped allowed me to see what outfits were not a good fit for me and I could then get rid of the ill-fitting piece or match it with a better article of clothing.
3. I learned to follow accounts that had similar body styles and/or outfit inspiration.
To create 365 different outfits, I needed to tap into any creativity or inspiration I could find. Thankfully Instagram provides inspiration at your fingertips. Over the course of the year, I found a variety of women I enjoyed following because either their body types matched mine or they gave wonderful outfit ideas. I absolutely fell in love with the fact that I could follow a plethora of body sizes. Not any one body type/size provided all of my outfit inspo! The fun was in the variety 🙂
Here are a few of my favorite accounts to follow (you may find all accounts on Instagram):
@maddy_gutierrez_
@loverlygrey
@stylenright
@the_other_mk
@retailcheapskate
@wandalovessharing
@taryntruly
While I do not see a career in the modeling industry, I am grateful for the 2022 year and the goal of wearing 365 different outfits. I did not achieve absolute perfection on my goal but I learned a lot along the way! If outfit choice is not your ideal topic, you can always check out some of our home projects like this one.
Tips and Tricks when Painting
Experience creates the opportunity for expertise. My experiences with renovating or building homes have made me an expert when it comes to tips and tricks when painting. I want to share what I have learned with you.
Tip #1: Buy quality paint
Quality paint not only means quality of the actual product but also the customer service. For our current home, we have used Benjamin Moore paint. This choice means we must go to the specific Benjamin Moore store in our area. I’m not upset about this considering the customer service we have received during our home renovation. Buying paint from a box store means you are at the mercy of whichever employee may or may not be working in the paint section at that particular time. In my experience, the employees at our local Benjamin Moore store have gone above and beyond to be helpful.
For the majority of our home we selected White Dove for our interior walls and Simply White for our trim. For accent rooms such as the laundry room, we selected Blue Heather. All of our paint colors for our current home are from Benjamin Moore. You can read more about our master bathroom here.
Our master bathroom has White Dove for the wall color and Simply White for the trim color. Tip #2: Buy the right type of paint
When painting ceilings, use a flat paint. For walls use eggshell and for windows, interior doors, and trim use semi-gloss. The types of paint determine the shine and level of difficulty when it comes to clean up. Flat paint is the most difficult to get dirt off of; however, you typically do not need to worry about getting your ceilings dirty. Also, you really do not want your ceiling to shine. For walls, eggshell gives a nice durability and a little shine but very minimal. The window trim, baseboards, crown molding, and interior doors should be in a semi-gloss finish. This finish is a high shine and helps with easy clean up of spills or fingerprints.
For our laundry room, we used Benjamin Moore’s Blue Heather. Tip #3: Buy quality brushes
I will go even farther and say, “buy Purdy paint brushes”. A good quality paint brush such as Purdy will last longer and give a better paint finish. When you factor in longer usage of your brushes then you really are not spending a fortune. They will outlast the cheaper competition. I like to use a slanted, small width Purdy brush for all my cutting in and trim work.
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Trick #1: Use Shur-Line edgers
For our stairwell, where the borders of our walls met the ceiling, it was a challenge to paint clean lines in those high places. A trick I use is utilizing the Shur-Line edger to get a clean cut by placing the edger on the end of an extendable paint pole.
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Trick #2: Use aluminum foil and a refrigerator
You may think, what does aluminum foil and a refrigerator have to do with painting? If you will be painting for multiple days and do not want to wash your brush out each time, you may wrap your brush in aluminum foil or a ziplock bag and place it in your refrigerator. This trick will keep your brush from drying out. The important information to remember is to wash your brush out as soon as you are finished painting!
My hope is that you have learned something that you may put to use the next time you are painting in your home!
Kitchen Update
Making a house a home is an ongoing evolution of beauty and function. The kitchen is our latest space to update. To be honest, we are not entirely finished with the space but I just couldn’t wait to share the progress!
Factors to consider when updating your kitchen
In our current home, each space has to be well thought out. We do not have a large footprint for a kitchen. In fact, I would call our kitchen a galley style kitchen. Therefore, when looking to update, I needed to make sure we utilized every square inch. Working with the existing footprint of the home was our biggest factor when creating our kitchen vision.
Initial layout of cabinets. Upper cabinets that extend all the way to the ceiling were a must for this area as well as an entire wall of cabinets on the opposite side of my appliances. The wall of cabinets not only holds dishes and cups but houses our pantry as well. Because the square footage of my kitchen is small, we used upper cabinets stacked on top of one another. Upper cabinets do not have the same depth as standard floor cabinets and this change allowed us to increase our floor space.
Progress shot of our wall of cabinets. Components of our kitchen update
From top to bottom, the components we have utilized in our kitchen update are: Blue Heather and Simply White paint by Benjamin Moore; shaker style cabinets, cabinet handles, and drawer pulls from Cabinets to Go; butcher block (stained by us with Minwax Early American stain) from Southeastern Salvage; porcelain tile titled San Michelle from Floor and Decor; and grout in Alabaster purchased from Floor and Decor.
Many backsplashes that I have seen recently have marble as the material of choice; however, marble is beyond our price point. We went with a 36″ x 36″ porcelain tile.
Our backsplash is 36″x36″ porcelain tile. Progress on our kitchen update
At this time, we have all our cabinets installed, backsplash put up, countertop laid, first coat of wall paint and handles and pulls installed. What we have yet to complete is the second coat of wall paint and the crown molding painted as well as the toe mold installed and painted.
To see what other areas of our home we have updated, you can read here. Let me know what your favorite part is. Do you have a question regarding our selections or the process? I want to hear from you:)
Our current view of our kitchen! Wow with Wallpaper!
When I use to think of how to decorate my home, getting a wow with wallpaper was not in my top ideas. In fact, I am not sure if it would have even made my top 10 decorating ideas. However, it is good to admit when you are wrong and I was wrong.
Rifle Paper Co. Pomegranate wallpaper added to our half bathroom. Inspiration
After viewing beautiful examples of wallpaper displays, I was convinced I needed to incorporate this texture into our home remodel. Being new to this scene, a little bit will go a long way. We incorporated a beautiful Rifle Paper Co. print titled Pomegranate. I selected two areas of the home to showcase this gorgeous print: our half bathroom and our laundry room.
There are a few accounts on Instragram that provide ample inspiration of the traditional usage of wallpaper within the home.
Garden & Grace is such an inspirational account. A local construction company first peeked my interest in this feature with the following beautiful space:
Twin Construction, Inc. delivers taste and style consistently in their projects. Tools
Now to the application! My husband and I knew we would be hanging the wallpaper ourselves so I had to take some YouTube crash courses on how to hang it. DIY projects are not new to us, we have been DIYing our homes our entire married life. You can read about one of our recent projects here.
I viewed the following YouTube video before beginning.
Wallpapering is definitely a two person job. My husband and I tackled our half bathroom first but by the time we transitioned to our laundry room, it became a lot easier to install. The wallpaper seems to be a focal point to draw the eye and make smaller spaces seem larger.
Our Laundry Room For our these projects we used a large framing square to guide cuts, a flat surface to spread wallpaper on and make cuts, a razor edge, paint roller to roll on adhesive, Roman adhesive (shown below *as an Amazon Associate, I may earn commission on viable links), and a plastic straight edge paddle to smooth out any bubbles or creases.
If the idea of hanging wallpaper seems overwhelming, start with peel and stick wallpaper. There is a lot of room for error with peel and stick. I will caution against using pre-pasted wallpaper. I have read of nightmarish experiences using a pre-pasted finish. The glue can become too much to handle. Truly, it does not take much to wow with wallpaper. Let me know if you give it a try!
Five Day Trips in Alabama for Labor Day
Labor Day is quickly approaching and I have crafted five day trips in Alabama for Labor Day! As a child, I heard a speaker once share that she was clueless to the notion of Labor Day being a holiday because her father had convinced her family it was a day to labor on cleaning their property. Ha! That was a pretty smart father until his children became teenagers and aware that others were not cleaning their properties on Labor Day.
In preparation for the upcoming HOLIDAY, I have put together five day trips in Alabama that would make for quite a fun Labor Day.
1. Visit WildWater Cullman.
Here in Alabama, there is a new water park located in central Alabama, Wildwater Cullman. About an hour north of Birmingham, this water park would provide a wonderful day of water fun for the holiday. If you live outside of Alabama, do a quick Google search and see what water parks are near you. For most water activities, Labor Day marks the end of the season and a perfect way to celebrate the summer’s end.
2. Plan a hike.
Spend the day outdoors on a beautiful nature trail. Red Mountain Park is a nearby locale that provides miles of trails to hike and explore. Hiking is not the only activity available here. This is a place you can walk, hike, and mountain bike. There is also a dog park on the property.
Red Mountain Park provides ample trails similar to this one to hike and explore. 3. Host a cookout.
Don’t want to go far? Have no desire to get in your car and go for Labor Day? Don’t! Host a cookout in your backyard or in my case, an alleyway. Invite friends, neighbors, or family over to eat and fellowship together. A cookout is another great way to celebrate the summer’s end. Pinterest lends a hand when finding guides like this one for how to host a cookout.
4. Visit a waterfall.
What is it about a waterfall that makes life seem peaceful? Located north of my home is Bankhead National Forest. It has been nicknamed “Land of a 1,000 Waterfalls”. What an apt name for a locale that hosts such amazing beauty. Labor Day provides a wonderful pause in life to go exploring a waterfall.
Sougahoagdee Falls in Bankhead National Forest 5. Visit a Labor Day Celebration
Tannehill State Park will host a Tannehill Labor Day Celebration on Labor Day. This includes Alabama’s largest Moon Pie eating contest. In addition to this celebration, Bham Now includes other Labor Day Weekend activities to explore. Tannehill State Park is a wonderful campground that we have visited in the past. We love to go camping and we recently purchased a popup camper and put our own decor touch on it. You can read all about our camper and what to do when camping, here.
Bonus activities.
Choose Labor Day to get out and go biking. Another bonus idea is to check out a new spot you have not visited. With the hosting of the World Games, Birmingham did a wonderful job of creating a City Walk. My family and I have yet to visit it. Labor Day would be a good time to check it out! Leave a comment below and let me know what you are doing this Labor Day.
School Supply Shopping
Are you a spender or a saver? A tightwad or a spendthrift? For me, I find myself wanting to find the best deal on anything I can. To pay full price for anything just about kills me. School supplies is an area that agitates me. I want to get the best deal on items that are needed for the classroom. Waste and excess are two words I do not want to hear when getting ready for going back to school and have me looking for deals when school supply shopping. Planning for the routine and needs of school gets me thinking of other areas of our home that need preparation such as meal planning. A good refresher course for how to meal plan can be found here.
Purchasing Options
To acquire your school items, you have a few options. You may shop for each school supply on your own or order the school supply list from your school. Many schools are now crafting school supply lists then shipping them directly to the homes that have pre-ordered.
The benefit of ordering your school supplies from your local school is you do not have to go out and buy your items on your own time. One potential drawback is the overall cost of supplies tend to be higher on the pre-order list.
The down side of taking the time to shop for your own supplies is you are spending your precious time hunting down the best deals. Another option when searching for your own deals is completing a pick up order from Walmart or Target. You can order what you need then drive by and pick it up without having to go in the store.
Price Comparisons
I have wanted to know for a long time exactly how expensive school supplies are. Typically, I run into whatever store of my choice and throw in school supplies last minute with no knowledge of the cost until checkout.
This year, I did a price comparison between Walmart and Target on school supply prices. I will list the supplies I was shopping for and the price comparisons.
Item Walmart Target 1.5″ Avery Binder $7.64 $7.69 5 tab/poly dividers $3.33 $4.49 Wide Ruled Marble Composition Notebook $.50 $.55 #2 Dixon Ticonderoga Pencils 12 count $6.42 $2.99 Plastic Pocket folders with brads $.50 $.50 Crayola 12 count Erasable Colored Pencils $14.99 $3.99 Fisker 5″ scissors $1.47 $1.49 Elmer’s gluesticks .77 ounce $.52 $1.06 Comparison of prices between Walmart and Target For this week, Target has some great prices and selection so I purchased most of my school supplies from there. I was able to find binders cheaper than the Avery binder pricing. The Target brand binders were $4.69 each. Also, the price for the erasable pencils from Walmart seems just too high but that was the only price I could find online for that particular item. It was just too high compared to the Target price and I am hopeful that I simply made an error in looking up that item.
Ways to Save
Money tight in your household? Frustrated with buying the same supplies each year then getting them back at the end of the school year? Create a space to house all school supplies then at the beginning of each year, shop your stock pile first before you head out to the store. Below is a post from my friend JeriKay about a beautiful piece of furniture she has designated to house all her school supplies.
At times we have reused the plastic, pocketed folders with brads year after year. And with the use of pencil boxes and/or pouches, we have held on to crayons and colored pencils that are barely used. Shopping weekly sales in the days and weeks leading up to a new school year is another way to save money on school supplies.
If holding onto leftover supplies and hunting down the best deals is not worth your time, I totally understand! Do what works best for you and your family. School supply pre-orders may be just the option for you! Whichever you chose, may your school year be filled with peace, learning, and fun!
Let me know in the comments how you shop for school supplies. I would love to hear from you!
