If you’re in a position to have your first home built from the ground up, you’re no doubt captivated by the nearly limitless possibilities of designing your own castle. However, bringing your vision of a dream home to life starts with a heavy dose of reality in the form of obtaining a building permit.

I’ve been enjoying two weeks of vacation and haven’t been very productive during the holidays. However, now that my vacation time is coming to a close (I still have one more week, though), I’m ready to get back to work.

This holiday season, I (or should I say Mr. LH, mostly) made 18 Santa and reindeer cocoa cones to give to colleagues at a fraction of the cost compared to last year’s mason jar gifts. The outcome was adorable and inexpensive gifts. I received lots of compliments on them, especially the Santas, which were more difficult to create.

The best time to start investing is 20 years ago. The second best time to start investing is today. Lots of us realize that we’ve lost some time that could have been spent investing, yielding a lot of future income and security.

I’ve been a bit absent from my blog lately. Much of this is due to my job; teaching takes up the majority of my time as Mr. LH can attest! But on top of the day-to-day hours I put in teaching our future generation, I’m also creating a side income stream through TeachersPayTeachers.com.