Category Archives: Life

Sick Day

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photoThis is one of the rare occasions that I can remember that we have missed church due to illness. I went to Urgent Care on Friday afternoon to confirm that I have a strep and sinus infection. I was given an antibiotic and definitely are on the up side. Kendall developed a runny nose on Thursday and add a fever on Saturday but after a trip the doctor, it is a virus.  Lily has been tried, complaining of a “sick stomach” and this morning is sneezing and coughing.  Zach, who doesn’t like to be left out, threw up last night several times.   I think that it was a case of eating too much popcorn at the movies yesterday but I really would not want to be wrong on this account so we are all home from church today. Matt was asked to play drums several months ago and need left around 7:30am to go practice.  So just how are we spending our sick today. The kids are enjoying play dough. I really dislike play dough however we have a huge bin of play dough and toys to go with it. This morning I pulled out a huge sheet and let them play, with the rule that all the play dough has to stay on the sheet so I can take it outside and dump afterwards. So far the kids have enjoyed playing for the past two hours!  I have been using this extra time to catch up online, and have cleaned out the kitchen pantry.  We are planning on no shopping for groceries until after our beach vacation, so I spent about 45 minutes re-organizing and sorting out the pantry. We have plenty of food but honestly I was not sure what was in there so at least now I have a clue, but seriously who needs or can use 3 boxes of Bisquick and 5 boxes of corn bread stove top stuffing?

In other shopping news, yesterday I was able to grab several good deals on-line. First, Old Navy had a $5 swim suit sale, I was able to combine that with free shipping for over $50. I spent $53 and ended up with 1 suit for Kendall, 4 suits for Lily, 2 suits for Zach next year and 1 complete suit and an extra set of bottoms for myself.  Next, I located a great deal for bras at NOMORERACK.  I hope the quality is as good as the sheet set we ordered several weeks ago.

Cooking/Budget Thursday

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July has turned into a very rough budget month for us. My car has required two larger repairs, one we were able to fund with money we had saved; however the second forced us to dip in our emergency fund. The bright spot is that we had the Emergency Fund to us. We have done fairly well in the areas of both gas and groceries. In our gas fund we have $144 remaining. In groceries, we have only spent $300 but because of the huge amount we were over in June, I would like to keep this capped at this amount. Looking to the week ahead, we should have no extra expense and plan to eat our of our freezer and garden until our beach trip in 3 weeks.

We are planning to spend a week at the beach in August and I will post a detailed budget for that probably in the next week or so. One of the ways that we are able to afford this trip is we will be eating in the majority of the time but in order to make it a vacation we need to plan ahead so no one has to spend hours in the kitchen cooking. I spent most of my day today, cooking for our trip. I have frozen all the meals I prepared in throw away containers so that we will not have to bring anything back.

So now to the cooking part. I started with a bag of chicken quarters in the crockpot this morning. I was able to make 2 chicken casseroles to freeze (one for the beach) in addition to 2 bags of shredded chicken to be used for other meals. I also will be freezing between 10-15 bags of chicken booth for future use as well.  Next I prepared a baked Ziti, for the beach. I have also made and frozen a dozen muffins in addition to the remaining dozen for breakfast in the morning.  Finally, a pot of chili with some frozen for our hot dog meal at the beach. In addition I was able to cook lunch for everyone and dinner for our family in addition to supplying a meal for a family in our church. I am feeling quite accomplished right now and very happy to make one major item off my to do list!

Random Thoughts- Catch Up Time

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The last several weeks seems to have flown by in a blur. I am enjoying a “vacation” day today so I can catch up on several things.

  • Last week included 4 swim team practices, 2 board meetings, tumble practice and cheerleading practice all occurring prior to Thursday.
  • Our county swim meet was on Saturday, ribbons were given for the top 7 places. Lily received one for a relay team. We are most excited because Kendall reduced her swimming time to 1:12 from 3:54. Zach is planning on swimming next year! Both girls enjoy swimming and it is an excellent way to keep them active in the summer.
  • This week our church has Vacation Bible School each morning from 9 am-12 noon. Haley is teaching the 3-year-old class and Matt is in charge of games. Today, I was able to go, hang out and help for most of the morning.
  • Our square foot garden is growing awesome this year. For the last several weeks, we have enjoyed fresh cucumbers, green peppers, squash  and starting last week tomatoes. I am not sure how much longer the cucumbers and green peppers will continue. The tomatoes are eaten regulars so I may need to expand that next year to be able freeze some for the winter.  We have several watermelon and cantaloupe growing, we can’t wait to eat these.
  • Using fresh veggies along with some purchased fruit have made for several quick and easy meals this summer. The kids love eating the cherry tomatoes and they never last longer than a day after they are picked.
  • We had to dig into our Emergency fund last week to repair a fan in my car. Because this fan was not working the A/C did not work. Black leather seats, 90 plus degree heat with only 2 functioning windows means without A/C I was not driving it anywhere.
  • I attended a planning meeting yesterday afternoon, so hopefully our meeting schedule is empty for at least a month.

How I Spent My Saturday

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This morning we had the county swim meet. Lily continues to swim hard and improve each time. Kendall did her best ever by jumping right in and swimming. Zach says that next year he is swimming! Let’s hope so..

Kendall did stop but kept on going!
Don’t take my picture
Matt as the official stroke jude
When is my race?
Lily getting ready to start
Looking for Lily

Random Thought Tuesday 6/4/2013

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  1. I knew that the last 2 weeks of school would be busy but I didn’t realize we have swim team practice every night and cheerleading on Tuesdays!
  2. Coupon trip to Walmart last week saved 42%- I consider this excellent for Walmart! In addition we had a super nice cashier who didn’t question one of my coupons!
  3. Haley received her acceptance letter to Davidson County Community College today!
  4. Lily last day of school will be Friday as her teacher told the class last week that Monday was an optional day. So they really did not have to come then.
  5. Haley has to take 3 of 4 exams and is going to be driving my car the rest of the week.
  6. Haley’s car is getting a new windshield on Thursday and she should be driving it by the weekend
  7. Our 2005 red minivan is up for sale.. I hope it sells quickly!
  8. Kendall is so stubborn but after focusing her in the pool tonight-she really enjoyed swim team let’s hope tonight was the end of the stubborn streak
  9. One of our closet organizers fell off the wall today but Matt was able to repair for free!
  10. I am so tired that I am headed to bed soon….

May in Review- A Day Late

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Financial goals: May has been a month to re-evaluate, change and move forward on this goal. My plan is to start at least bi-weekly updates on our budget to keep us focused forward and to share real world numbers.

  • Pay off Lawn mower by March 2014, so no interest is charged. Only made the minimal payment this month but  this is a new focus so hopefully, I can catch up and pay this off my December.
  • Pay off all outstanding debt except the mortgage by June– Changing this to December.
  • Emergency fund to $2000–  I was able to get the fund up to $500. I am content to let it sit at this mark and slow increase as the debt goes away.
  • Maintain a budget using a form of the envelope system – Still working well!
  • Groceries: Spend $600 or less a month Goal met. I am not counting our trip to Costco on Friday night or the Zaycon food order in May but both will be counted in June. We are actually $20 under for the month!
  • Gas- I am adding this category. The goal each month is to spend $450 or less for gas.  We spent $400 this month. Starting in June, any left over amount will be moved to the Auto fund. This is basically a repair/maintenance fund in place because the vehicles we own are older and repairs are expected.

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month I have 13 post for May. My plan was to post this last night but it just did not happen so something to work on.  Still have not met this goal for the year but will continue to keep working toward it.

Devotions: Goal is 5 a week   Goal Met! I am really enjoying my morning time.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.. This continues to be a daily struggle for me.

Random Thoughts Thursday- 5/16/2013

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  • Both little girls had eye appointments last week and we received some good news, Kendall’s eye are stable, corrected to 20/20 with glass so she will not need to be seen again for six months!  Lily’s weak eye has improved as well and she will no longer be patching!  She continues to need to be seen every 3 months but she is so excited to stop patching after 3 year!
  • All of Zach’s dental bill have been processed by the insurance company and after requesting refunds, which I will turn around and pay on the remain bill, we only owe an additional $93. This is a huge relief and praise as the original bill I received last week was $696
  • Budgeting this month has gone really astray. I am struggling to get a grip on the coming in but more importantly on the amounts we are spending. I know that a significant amount is school/end of the year related but man I wish it would slow down.
  • Haley is fast approaching Graduation from high school. She presented her final English project today and has a presentation next week that is very stressful for her. But she is counting the days till she walks across the stage. She also is searching for a job for the summer.
  • Matt has been working on the car, Haley purchased from Amanda, hopefully it will be completed and ready to drive by the end of May.
  • I have a student who is shadowing  me this week and starting next week will be “taking over my caseload” to complete her education. I did not realize until this week how difficult and stressful my job can be! But I still love it!
  • The only success I had with starting  my garden from seeds this year was the cucumbers. I hope to replant the other items this week.

Sunday Night Chit Chat 4/14/2013

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Been waiting all day to participate! So I joined over at My 1/2 Dozen Daily

Zach and his friend really like the dirt! Not from today but I wanted to share~

Zach and his friend really like the dirt! Not from today but I wanted to share~

  • Reading? Plan to catch up with reading chapter 7 and 8 of The Story, before next Sunday.
  • Watching? Matt and I watched the first two episodes of The Bible  I have to say I was really disappointed at the level of violence and the number of differences we found.
  • Listening to? NOTHING!!! actually my tub is heating up for me!
  • Cooking/baking? I spent all day cooking yesterday so nothing today!
  • Happy you accomplished this week? 15 meals prepared yesterday, and the Winter coats put away along with Easter things!
  • Looking forward to next week? A regular week with some extra time for me!
  • Thankful for today? Weather and friends
  • *Bonus Question* What is your *ideal* wake up time and what time do you *usually* wake up?  I would love to go to bed around 11pm and wake up at 8ish everyday!  But reality is kids are awake by 6:30 and I have to get to bed by 10 or I don’t function well.

 

Random Thoughts Tuesday- April Catch-up

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So this is the perfect chance for me to get all the information that I had intended on post on the blog out in one great list!  The order is how it pops in my head.

  • We were able to sell our old lawn mower for $100 after posting it for less than 3 hours on Craigslist. This makes our first payment on the new lawn mower
  • I was able to confirm that if we can pay off the new lawn mower in 12 months without a late payment it will be interest free so that has been added to my financial goals!
  • Haley complete her driving requirements of 52 hours on our trip to the beach. She is now an official licensed driver without restrictions in NC!
  • We all really enjoyed our short trip to Myrtle Beach to watch Lily’s competition. The girl performed really well on Saturday and did a great job on Sunday. They ended up placing 4 of 7 teams!
  • One of the fun things we did on this trip was shop. Haley has lots of new summer clothes. I was able to find Nike shoes for both Kendall and Zach for under $20 each. Matt also has a new pair of Nikes for  less than $50. Finally I was able to grab some flip flops and camis for myself at the Old Navy outlet
  • Myrtle Beach was COLD!!! With the wind and the temperatures only in the 60s I did not even step foot in the sand. I did enjoy our awesome view from our balcony! Pictures will hopefully be posted this week as well.
  • We enjoyed several great meals on our trip. On Friday night, we ate at PF Changs. It was awesome and even Haley said she enjoyed it! Saturday night we ate at Cheeseburger in Paradise, another great meal for I do wish I had tried the Key Lime Pie.  So that means that it is on my return list!!!!
  • This was probably one of the most STRESS FREE trips we have taken in several years and I hope that we can do it again!
  • This week we have returned to our crazy schedule and I have decided that it is time to get serious about my diet. I now want to catch up to my goal of 4# a month by May which would be a total of 25 # down!!! I have gone back to a food journal in hopes that it will keep me accountable and on track!
  • The weather has been awesome the last several days, Matt has done some improvements to my Square foot garden and I ordered dirt this year! I hope this will double the amount of food we are able to harvest!
  • Haley has been excepted into the Early Childhood program at our local community college. She will begin in the fall with 16 credit hours.
  • It is 12 weeks till Kendall’s birthday, random fact I discovered at work today!