Monthly Archives: December 2015

New Year Eve- Reflections

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I like list type post but really never have enough to make a complete list so therefore I like to make list of random things… not changing now!

  1. Matt and I both will be working this holiday. Tonight, Matt is currently at the Greensboro coliseum working. I am on call tomorrow for inpatient and already have a couple to go in and see. I am actually thankful for this. Sounds strange, I know but I used most of my vacation time up with the shingles and this has turned out to be a very slow week at work. Actually I have only worked 20 hours so far. I don’t have enough time to cover the difference so by working even 3 hours tomorrow it will start us in a much better financial position.
  2. I received my final paycheck of the year today. This ended up being the third of the month so I was able to catch up on some things. I spent several hours working on a budget for next year and thinking about realistic expectations for 2016.
  3. After much thought, I will not be posting an year end update for the goals I set. The main reason is that we could never have expected the huge financial changes that have occurred this year including re-financing our mortgage to a lower interest rate and reducing the expected pay off year. We also purchased a van which added an additional month payment that we have not had in several years . Overall this has been an excellent year for us financially as I finally feel we have achieved a steady income level and are no longer struggling to just stay afloat. I will be sharing my 2016 goals hopefully tomorrow which include lots of financial stuff.
  4. Our Disney vacation was AWESOME! Honestly one of the best trips ever! It was so much fun that we stared talking about our next trip on our “date night” Being the “adults” we decided that in order to really plan date for our next trip we need to complete pay off our credit card debit. This amount is currently sitting at 15,656. The majority of this is interest free and will remain so until November 2016. Once this amount is paid off, we will officially set dates for the next Disney trip.
  5. I do want to share about the progress or lack of progress that I have made on my personal goals this year.
    Blogging- Post 15 per month- I achieved this goal 11 of 12 months. I will now be expanding to post 20 a month.
    Weight Loss- This continues to be a HUGE challenge. I met this goal 2 of 12 months. I will maintain the same goal and expect progress this year.
    Spiritual- Spend at least 5 days a week, reading and studying The Bible. I was able to achieve this 3 of 12 months so again I am going to focus on this as the new year begins.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Not so Wordless Wednesday-Family Craft Time

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This past weekend, my sister in law, who lives in Atlanta, made a trip up to visit with us. Eric, her son, was able to come as well. My kids absolutely loved having them both for the 24 hours they were here. Saturday night was spent opening gifts eating and playing a board game that she had purchased for Lily.
Sunday after church we decided to work on some new decorations for our front sign as Christmas has passed. This turned out to be a load of fun and the results are even better!
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The buckets we found in the Target $1 bin several weeks ago, I was so excited to find that the colors just about perfectly match the color of the letter. The snowflakes are hand painted and just perfect, enjoy a closer look.

Food For Thought-

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Today is my Mom’s birthday, which means we are fast approaching the end of the year. I am already in the process of looking and working on a budget for 2016. I will do a final update and set new goals hopefully this week but today I want to focus on Food.

  • Menu planning is still happening although I have not been posting the last couple of weeks have been about a couple of special meals and using up leftovers. This week we have already had a meal using meatballs my sister in law brought, tonight we made a roast and used some the sides we had left-over and tomorrow the plan is to use and make pork fried rice from leftover Christmas Eve shoulder. I am also adding some “convenient” meals to the freeze with the extra time we have this week.
  • Our grocery spending for the month is close to $900 which is way over budget. I have been taking advantage of some sells and stocking up, in addition to some extra meals and appetizers.
  • Our average monthly grocery spending for the year is at $691.59. I am totally amazed and excited for this number as it is under my $700 a month that I started in July.
  • I have been looking into some “average” numbers for grocery spending for our size family a “thrifty” plan is $770 and a “Low” plan is $1028 per month.
  • After finding these numbers I am very comfortable with maintaining our grocery spending to $700 a month. I am going to continue to focus on each month but not beat myself up for spending over now that I know it averages out within the year!
  • I was also able to find that the “average” family spends about $200 a month on eating out. In the past, I have not budgeted anything for eating out but this will become a regular expense in the year 2016.
  • We are starting the year with lots of meat in the freezer. I have already paid for 80# of pork that Matt will pick up the first week of January. We also just recently purchased chicken and a large order of ground beef. I am hopefully to not purchase any additional meat until March.
  • Our garden this year did well and we have been enjoying a variety of things. We have enlarged the garden to it’s capacity and hopefully will be able to multiply our freezing stock for the year.
  • I did not even attempt to lose weight with our trip to Disney and the holidays so I will back on track with eating healthier again in January.
  • Total random thought but at least it is food related. I just received in the mail a total of 6 free 12 packs expiring March 31. I will hold on till CVS offers ECBs or I just need them.

Christmas Wrap Up 2015

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Amanda was working on Christmas Day so she came over around lunch on Christmas Eve for a gift exchange before we all headed over to Paw Paw’s and Granny’s for the real fun. Amanda purchased all three of the kids’ really cool name wall hangings, a “chip cup” for me and Matt received a Starbuck’s ornament.

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We all then headed over to my parents to spend the afternoon and open more gifts. It was an awesome time and the kids played for several hours.

image imageKendall unfortunately did not want to go to sleep and with the windows open she used ever sound outside to stay awake. She finally fell asleep around 1am and of course was awake prior to 6am. Haley after getting off work came and spent the night with us so she would not miss any of the fun of Christmas morning.

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Christmas morning and most of the day was quiet as the kids played with their new toys, Matt sat up the TV in the playroom that Santa brought and we just relaxed. Unfortunately, that all changed because of a fall my mom took. I ended up spending from 4pm to after midnight at the hospital with my parents till my mother shoulder could be relocated. Thankfully after prayer and waiting, her shoulder is back in place and the doctor is fairly confident that she has no other damage.

Christmas Eve Piano

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We are very fortunate to have an awesome piano teacher who understands my love of everything Christmas. At the end of October, Lily was ready to progress to the next book in her lessons. I found Christmas music in this teaching series for each of the girls abilities. So for the past 2 months, piano practice has been Christmas songs. The girls both wanted to share with you there favorite pieces. Both girls have been taking lessons for about 18 months. Enjoy each of the 3 videos below, sorry the sound is low, so turn up the volume, but we are learning. First is Kendall with “We Three Kings of Orient”


Next Kendall is playing “Away in a Manager” and “Silent Night”