Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The One About Productive Days & School Stuff

I love days like this. School was done by 9:05, dishes done, laundry in process, dinner planned, 2 of the children's chores are done and one is working on his. 2 children bathed... and it's only 10 am!! Gotta love it!

Alyssa is napping peacefully right now. She has been doing better at night... I just had to move her out of my bed... she now sleeps for 2-3 hr stretches rather than 45-90 MINUTE stretches. I am hopeful that it will just get better and better. :)

MAJOR breakthrough in school today. James said, " Mom, reading doesn't really seem like school work to me. It's just something you do." YAY!!!!!!! That's HUGE coming from the child who fought and fought w/ me about learning to read earlier in the year.

Monday, February 23, 2009

The One About Money

Today we finished school before 9:30! What a shock. Then the mail came and in it was our Dave Ramsey Kids Kit. THe kids were so excited about it. We listened to the CD and then talked about it a bit... especially about the importance of giving (which, surprisingly, wasn't highlighted in the CD or the book.) Then they each made their own envelopes. One for giving, one for saving and one for spending. They also decided that they wanted to make a "saving for spending" jar... a jar that they put a little extra in each week to save up for that "big" item they want. I'm so excited about this and about sharing the things that Matt & I have been learning with the children. I hope that this will help them to learn to manage their money wisely from a young age & not to get upside down in debt ever.

Speaking of that.... we are clawing our way out of debt. We paid off one credit card and my last student loan this week!! YAY!! We also decided to for-go buying the land. This was a very, very difficult decision, but after much prayer and discussion we felt strongly that we needed to honor the Lord and do what we really felt He was saying to do even if we really wanted to buy that land. So instead of the land we're paying off 1/2 of the last credit card as well as putting some $$ aside "for a rainy day". It's exciting to think that by the end of this year we very well could be debt free except our mortgage. What a huge blessing that would be!!!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Frustrated One

Today is a rough day. The children are all at each other and everything is a competition. "I finished lunch first." "How many school books do you have left? I only have 3" "I got done my chores first" and so on and so forth. It's frustrating and exhausting to have to listen to.

And you wanna know what I want to do on days like this? Eat. And not just eat anything.. it has to be chocolate or something sweet. I hate that I'm a total stress eater.

Not to mention being tired. Alyssa is the worst sleeper I've ever had. It's exhausting to deal with the children bickering when you are up every 1.5 - 2 hrs at night. No fun. I wish she'd go back to her every 4 hr schedule or even better....

I'm attempting to get back into card making and scrapbooking... but it seems my brain has left the building. *sigh*

I hope tomorrow is a better day....

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Mushy One About Alyssa <3

Sometimes I just lay in bed at night and watch Alyssa sleep. It blows my mind at how short a time she's been with us and yet we cannot imagine life without her. She's amazing and beautiful and has added so much joy to our family. I love to watch the children interact with her and the way her eyes light up and her face breaks out into a big smile whenever they talk with her. I love to hear her laugh while they make silly noises. I love the way she gets so excited to see me when I go in to get her in the mornings. She's just such a beautiful blessing to us.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

The One About Growth

Growth... there has been so much of it going on in our family lately.

The obvious one is Alyssa. She's now in all 3-6 and 6-9 clothing. I'm amazed at how well the 6-9's fit already!! I also had to unsnap the first snap on the Bumgenius 3.0. *sigh* She's reaching for toys (that just started in the past 2 days!!), she's rolling from back or belly to side, but not quite all the way yet. She's laughing and giggling and taking naps on her own. She's growing so much!!

Sammy outgrew his 2T's and is now in 3's and 4's. He's learning to go on the potty and learning that he is an independent being. (which drives me nuts somedays!!)

The older three are all growing and learning daily. Beth's reading has gotten so much better and James' is exploding out of no where. James' ability to process numbers in his head amazes me. Levi is turning into a goofy/joking 8 y/o.

Then there's Matt & I. I have to say that we're doing a ton of growing lately. We're learning to better manage our finances, we're planning and dreaming for the future. We're making huge decisions (like buying land) w/out consulting our parents for their advice first... we're just really growing a lot. We are very excited to have started Financial Peace University! We're getting a hold of our finances big time. By the end of Feb we will have only 1 credit card, our mortgage and our land payments for debt! We'll have our emergency fund put in place as well. I can't tell you how exciting that is. But one of the biggest things is that all our cash flow is ON PAPER. I won't have to spend every day worrying and wondering if we should spend that "x" amount on "x".... I'll know that yes it's possible or no, let's wait for next month. It's really freeing to have all our expenses on paper.

Well, my growing, exploring 2 y/o is trying to take apart the carbon dioxide detector so I'm off...