Category Archives: Life

Random Thoughts Tuesday 8/14

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•We got back a $10 rebate from paint today so currently, we are over budget by only $4 now for the Renovation. Matt is going to take some scrap metal to the recycle center on Thursday so that will put us under again until I purchase the matching bed set for Kendall.

•Zach is currently sleeping in his new room, he “tried” giving up pacifiers last night but that did not go well. He currently only has the one in his mouth which is a decrease of 3. I really don’t see how he is going to give these up! But I also do not want to give up any more sleep in this battle.

•Matt is starting to work in his new office. I “think” all the work in the other rooms is finished! We even switched out door knobs on the little girls room after Kendall managed to lock herself in. So now that door does not lock.

•I am not planning a huge grocery trip this week. Instead we hit up Walmart tonight for the couple of items we are out of. I was only able to find one of the 5 deals I was looking for with my coupons. But on the bright side, we found a $1 clearance table with shorts for Zach. I purchased 6 pairs of shorts and 1 T-shirt as well as a skirt each for the girls. Total spent even with groceries $24!!

•As I moved clothes this weekend and yesterday, I discovered/confirmed that only Zach will be in need of clothes for this winter. He does not need a new coat or shoes or pajamas. My goal is to spend less than $75 on clothes for him this winter. Hopefully, I will be able to find a really good sale on jeans and pants as this is the biggest need for him.

•We started a new schedule around the house this week. We have moved every one’s bedtime to 7:30 except for Wednesday nights. Kendall and Lily both will be up later till at least 8:30 because of church. Lily also will have a second late night due to cheerleading. The even bigger change is a schedule during the day, which greatly reduces television watching and includes “school” time daily except for Thursdays. So far both evenings have gone much smoother and things seem not so “hurried”. Matt has work time and hopefully we can find a balance and maintain it!!

How I spent My Birthday

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Warning; This post contains no shopping deals but some reflects that you may or may not agree with so read at your own risk.

This morning I was treated to Breakfast in Bed which was Sausage Gravy and biscuits. Then I spent most of the morning “hanging out” with Kendall and Zach with spurts of mindless TV throw in! Kendall has started using the term “hanging out” whenever she wants to sit and cuddle or just sit with me so I really am enjoying this “hanging out.

Next we headed to the China Buffet for sushi and more for lunch, nap followed very nicely. Finally we headed to the pool with leftover pizza for dinner. It has been a quiet relaxing uneventful birthday, I wish for many more just like it!

I don’t feel any older by turning 40 today but I have begun to realize a couple of things over the past month that this is the perfect place and time to share. First, we are officially finished with the baby stage in the house. I can honestly say that I have no desire to have any more babies in my house. I love newborns and even infants but I am thankful that even now all the kids are walking, talking and can feed themselves. It has been 7 years since I have been able to sit down and enjoy a meal or time at the pool for even 10 minutes without another body attached to mine. I always wondered how people knew their family was complete, now I know you just do.  We are now entering a new stage in life but it is fun and exciting. Next, our lives finally feel like we have exited the roller coaster. The past two to three years have been constant turmoil, change, worry and unending list of things that need to be accomplished. I know that we still have things that need to be finished and we certainly are not financially stable but we have a plan,and know that God is providing and directing our steps. With my full time status at work, I will have “regular” hours to a degree, with a no longer need to “fill” time with a second and third job. I plan on continuing to work the second job as time and need allows but it will no longer be a part of our regular income. Matt and I have talked this week, several times about establishing a routine for the days. This should accomplish several things including getting the kids on a more regular routine and providing time for Matt to focus on building his business. Finally we have almost finished with renovation and everyone should be happy in their space for at least a year. So even knowing storms will and are coming we can drift and enjoy the down time.

 

Happy 40th Birthday to me!

 

 

Vacation vs Staying

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One of the traditions for our family since the first summer that Matt and I met is a week long trip to Myrtle Beach SC.  This year with the changes in our financial situation and our desire to renovate to make the house more useable, the annual trip was given up. I am probably the most upset about this than anyone, but I am trying to make my week of vacation as fun and productive as possible.

One of the great part of our vacation is I build a stockpile of junk food and sodas for the kids to consume. I decided to allow a moderation of junk food at home this week. So far the kids have enjoyed donuts for breakfast for 2 of the 3 mornings as well as candy 3x daily for the last couple of days. A bag of Cool Ranch Doritos has also been consumed in less than 3 hours. I would say that so far this area is pretty equal for vacation vs staying at home.

Besides spending time at the ocean every day, the kids usually like to spend several hours at day at the pool. Sunday, we celebrate Kendall and Zach’s joint Birthday Party at the pool. Monday, Zach, Kendall and I spent a couple of hours for swim lessons, currently the plan is for all of us to go to the pool today (Wednesday). My plan is to spend all afternoons at the pool on Friday, Saturday and maybe even Sunday. The will definitely get us more pool time then we would normally have at the Beach. Now if I could just get my feet in the ocean even for 1 day, life would be perfect!

Shopping is a major event during our normal vacation. We are definitely keeping this up while staying at home. On Tuesday, we spent the afternoon at IKEA. It was lots of fun and we were able to get most of the furniture to make our moves complete! Matt and I shopped at Harris Teeter this morning for the Super Doubles event and I plan to hit CVS today as well. I will be taking Haley and Lily school shopping on Thursday so I think the shopping is definitely the same.

The final reason, I look forward to vacation especially in the last several years, is spending additional time with the kids. I can honestly say that by staying at home this year, has given me more stress free time with the kids. No set schedule definitely reduces the stress on a person!

So in conclusion, I wish we could even go to the beach for a couple of days but since that is not possible, we are making the best of staying home together as as family this year!

Hopefully new pictures and more post will appear the second half of my vacation week than the first!

Grocery Store Challenge Update 8/2/2012

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What is my challenge? Spend as close to $20 a week at Food Lion over the next 4 weeks while purchasing items we need or to add to the stockpile based on sales. I am also going to give myself $10 a week to spend at CVS to keep rolling ECB. So that is a total of $30 a week for the next 4 weeks to feed our family of 6.

Week One Shopping: I stopped at Food Lion after work on Wednesday. I purchased Coffee Filters (a need), 2 12 pack rolls of toilet paper, 1 6 pack of paper towels and 3# of ground beef. I used the 5/25 and 2 $0.75 coupons on the toilet paper. Total spent $20.15, saved 12.50. I also got a Catalina coupon for $2 off $10 of the house brand products. My plan is to save this for next week to use to increase my saving.
CVS- After looking at the ad on Thursday and Friday, I decided that their were really only one deal that started on Sunday that I would be interested in. So Friday night, Matt and I headed to CVS to use his card for another Twizzlers deal , free candy and an I-Tunes card. I was surprised to learn that I could not use ECB for the purchase of an I-Tunes card.  I ended up spending $12.01 with a total of 7 ECB for the next couple of weeks!
Total Spent- $32.01

Week Two- Matt and I went to Food Lion on Wednesday night. I had a list of four items that we were completely out of. So I purchased Olive Oil, Sour Cream, Freezer Bags, Sandwich Bags, 4 2L Sodas and a pack of gum.  Total Spent $19.00. I did receive another Catalina coupon for $1.50 off 10 of the house brands. Fast forward to last Saturday, stops at both CVS and Food Lion. CVS, I scan my card and received a free Children’s Gummy Vitamin. So I purchased a total of  4 AMP energy drinks and the vitamins total spent  $1 with 6 ECB earned. You can read the highlights of the Food Lion trip, we spent $64.24. Definitely, failure.  Total Spent– $84.24

Week 3- This week started off much better. I stopped at CVS on Wednesday to complete the Suave deal. Purchased 2 bottles of Kid’s Shampoo and 4 bottles of Body Wash. Total Spent $5.84 with 4 ECB earned.   After looking over the Food Lion ad and realizing that we were completely out of milk and cheese, I decide that this week would also be a fail. We had to have the car serviced in Winston so I planned at stop at Target and Costco. Target was awesome, I purchased a swim top for me, dress for Lily, school supplies and cups and napkins for the party for $43. In the spirit  of the challenge, I only purchased items at Costco that we were out of. I spent $150.00 Part of the rationale for my decision was that if I stuck to the challenge and purchased milk and cheese at Food Lion, I would have spent the $20 this week in addition to another $150 or more in 2 weeks when the challenge is over. In addition, I am on vacation next week so I want to have options to eat at home without the urge to spend money out on meals.

Thoughts?

 

July in Review

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Blogging: Actually on track for the month as this will be my 16th post of the month. I am currently running 2 series so maybe that is what is helping stay on task for the month.  I am currently posting on both blogger and my very own webpage. Hopefully in August I will move over to the site that Matt is designing!   Goal: 15 per month

Devotions: Starting to hit my stride in this area. I have once again hit my goal! I know that is one of the reason that things seem to be going smoother. Goal is 3 a week.
Groceries: For the first time in several month grocery spending is down.  We spent 508.72 on groceries this month which included school and party supplies! I am very excited to see this number. I did do an average for the year, currently my average is $809 a month. I am sure that by December with no diapers that I will be able to bring this down to the set budget.. Grocery Budget is set at $800 per month, this includes diapers, cleaning supplies, food and toiletries.

Financially:This month we maintained again.Some exciting things did happen, I will be going full time so that means an increase in pay as well as a decrease in medical expenses. Matt has not had time to focus on growing his business so with a combination of these two things in the next month. I am going to try to stay on track.  Goal: To be Debt free except for mortgage by the end of the year. This was established prior to our learning of the significant financial changes that are occurring so I am trusting God to provide direction in this area. Currently we are focused on meeting budget each month!
Weight- I have been able to start exercising at the pool at least once weekly. So that is a huge plus. I have not been on a scale recently. I will at least get an idea of my weight for next month. Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.

This month I have met 3 of 5 goals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best month to date~!!!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

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  • My house is really really quiet at 8:17am!!! Why? Because this week our church is having Vacation Bible School. The kids spend from 9-12 for 5 days at church learning, doing crafts and playing games. This year the theme is “Jesus is My Rock”  Haley is the official nursery person and a general helper. Matt is in charge of games. On Monday, they had 116 kids!  From everything I have seen and heard is was awesome. All the kids were singing new songs first thing this morning.
  • This week has also turned out to be one of the busiest of the summer. In addition to VBS, Monday Lily had cheerleading, I went to pick tomatoes. Tuesday Matt has a meeting tonight at church. Wednesday we have to mow our jungle aka yard and pick tomatoes again.
  • My brother is gone with his church on a youth trips so he suggested I come over and claim as many tomatoes as I wanted. Yesterday, I picked 8 gallons. I am so excited about this because we  now have 15 cans of diced tomatoes in our freezer. By the looks of the vines, I probably will pick another 5 gallons on Wednesday, with the plan of a another batch of Salsa. I need to check again on Friday,if I can pick another 3 gallons then those will be used for more diced/stewed tomatoes.
  • We have several answers to prayer this week, first we received out of the blue a check to cover the purchase of VBS t-shirts, and the above tomatoes are another. I have been praying for some extra tomatoes, I have even debated on purchasing some  to freeze. We typically use at least one recipe a week that calls for 1-2 cans of diced tomatoes. My goal this summer was to get a stock pile in the freezer to save this cost.
  • The food co-op ended this week, but I was able to add a batch of salsa and another 4 ears of corn frozen. We will be using some of the corn this week as side dishes as well.
  • I will be updating on my Grocery Store Challenge tomorrow, but to be honest it has been a little bit difficult for me. I currently have a list, of items we are completely out of and my goal is to stay under the budget and purchase all the items. If I were not doing the challenge, I definitely would have already gone and purchased these items because I consider most of them staples. So the challenge is working, but not as easy as it sounds.
  • Nothing new is happening with the renovation simply because we don’t have the time. I am being to wonder if it will be finished before my week of vacation or if it will become the way I spent my vacation?

Random Tuesday Thoughts

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  • Wordless Wednesday- will have a new pictures of Haley’s room with the new bed set that we purchased on Sunday. Lily has a matching set and we bought a coordinating blanket to use on Haley’s bed!
  • Matt is currently working on painting the ceiling in the new room for the little girls. We have changed our color design yet. The holes are patched so now the real fun can begin.
  • Matt was so nice to point out a math error on my renovation budget this evening so now I am hoping to save the rest to use at IKEA.
  • I have been focused all Spring/ Summer on not wasting any of the veggies that we get from the Produce co-op. Saturday night that became a failure due to a migraine and steamed snap peas that turn bad!
  • This Saturday, will be our last day to pick up produce, so far this summer, we have frozen around 3 dozen ears of corn, several packages of spinach, a couple packs of broccoli, 5 or more packs of green beans, 2 packs of diced tomatoes and 6 cans of Rotel. This is all with the surplus that we could not consume in the week.
  • Currently in my crock-pot, I am attempting to make a vegetable soup starter, using items that would be throw away or go bad before I could use them. I added a bunch of celery (leaves and all), carrots, green onions, couple cloves of garlic and some fresh dill. Hopefully after cooking for 12 hours I will use the blender to make the base to freeze for use this winter. The color was really pretty to start so who know how it will turn out.
  • I really enjoyed being a Mom today. Matt needed to work on some things for VBS, so I took the 3 little kids to the pool. Lily had swim team practice so I was able to spend some quality time with just Kendall and Zach. After practice and ice cream we all swam laps and played for a bit. Driving home, I looked in the mirror and all the kids were singing with K-LOVE. The thought actually occurred to me “This is why I always wanted to be a mom.”
  • We are currently looking at our cell phone plan. It is time for me to get a new phone and because I have a basic phone the choices are really limited. I am even considering an Iphone.
  • In an effort to conserve energy and ultimately save money, we have adjusted our thermostat to 74 degrees. That is 4 degrees higher than where we started the summer. We are running the ceiling fans a little bit more but the house is actually staying pleasant. From reading 78 is the ideal temperature for the summer. I know we won’t get there but I may sneak it up to 75 in another week or so.

Kendall is 4!

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Birthdays are a big deal around here! In fact, that usually means not only do you have a birthday but usually at least one other day to celebrate it. Kendall turned 4, Sunday July 1st, she is actually getting to celebrate for 3 days.

First on Thursday, we went to Winston for Birthday pictures, lunch at Olive Garden and a trip to the Toy Store. We call this our Celebration Day!

Next Sunday evening we invited Paw Paw and Granny, the Pierces and Sandy with Lucy over for Birthday cake.

“Back Pack from Dora the Explorer” Matt let eveyone help add the letters

Finally on August 5th will be Kendall and Zach’s combined Party! Lots more pictures to come!

June in Review

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Somehow the month of June is coming to an end and my youngest daughter turns 4 in 2 short hours WHAT?  I must have missed something!

Blogging: This actually marks the 10th post for the month.  I really don’t know where the time has gone but moving on. I already have 2 blogs in my head so maybe July will be the month I hit my goal.  Matt is working on moving the blog to its own website, so more changes are definitely in store.
  The Goal: 15 per month
Devotions:  Goal met for the month of June! Yay Yay Yay!
Goal is 3 a week.

Groceries: We spent $950 on groceries this month.  This was a month that included stocking up on drinks, cereals as well as other staples such as sugar and flour.  I did also purchase 3 bags of diapers which hopefully will be the end of buying diapers. Matt and I have discussed several times this month that couponing is not as money saving as it was just a year ago. I have needed to purchase several items that a year ago, I was able to stock pile for free.  My stockpile is slowing growing again. We are going to challenge ourselves in the month of July to spend only on items that we need to significantly reduce this expense.
Grocery Budget is set at $800 per month, this includes diapers, cleaning supplies, food and toiletries.

Financially: I am going to continue to use real numbers not for sympathy but to keep myself accountable. June was the first month that Matt had no income in. We did manage to stay somewhat on budget and everything is paid for!  I am going to consider that goal met for the month. I have been unable to add to our emergency savings account or set aside additional monies for future expenses so we do have a ways to travel but so far God is GOOD!
Goal: To be Debt free except for mortgage by the end of the year. This was established prior to our learning of the significant financial changes that are occuring so I am trusting God to provide direction in this area. Currently we are focused on meeting budget each month!

Weight– No comment
Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.

Where does the Time go?

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6:25pm-Rush to clock out of work and head to the pool to pick up kids.
6:26pm- Attempt to call Matt, can’t talk, Kendall hurt her lip at pool.
6:30pm-Call back from Matt, Kendall okay, decide to pick up a sandwich and fries for dinner.
6:50pm- Arrive at pool, share fries with everyone and eat sandwich.
7:00pm- Help Lily with shower so she can go to tumbling practice.
7:20pm- Attempt to leave pool with Kendall and Zach to come home for bedtime.  Zach is unhappy, screaming at the top of his lungs, long drive home.
7:30- Call my mom to drown out Zach’s screaming in the car.
7:40-Arrive home, time to shower, dress and put Kendall and Zach to bed.

What does an hour look like at your house? Join in over at Stacey’s Mothering Moments