Breaking Bad Habits - Spending Money - Part 1

I'm so thankful for Clayton's job.  We have moaned and groaned about it because it takes sacrifice and lots of it to be able to handle him being away for 6 months out of the year, every other month.  Moaned and groaned instead of being thankful for it.  He makes a great living for us.  By far we are not rich, but we have been able to go and blow without a second thought.  A lot.  It has formed a very terrible habit.  Blowing.  Exactly that.

It hasn't been until we fear for his job when we decide to get tight with finances.  It lasts for only a short time when we realize we are in the clear of him losing his job.  Then it's back to our old ways. 

We've often wondered how we made it back when our household income was less than $1000 a month with 6 littles running around and no help from the government.  It's then when I realized our wants weren't so grand, our greed not so intense.  Greed.  OUCH! 

Frugal living.  I want to get back to that.  We want to get back to that.  After all, that's when we were a closer knit family.  We had to entertain one another because that's all we had.  That's all we knew.  All the gadgets and gizmos we have acquired throughout the years only take up space and eat up family time like a blood thirsty vampire.   And I don't mean the sparkling kind.

It's pretty sad when you try to make out a Christmas list and even your 12 year old child has everything she could possible want.  It's like a relationship moving too fast.  Once you've done it all, what's there to look forward to?  My 15 year old is wanting a car.  She's 15.  She doesn't need a car right now.  She's not getting a car right now.  The fact that she even put that on her Christmas list and was serious about it shows she's spoiled beyond belief.  Sad.

I never pay attention to prices of groceries.  Never.  Today, I decided to.  I picked up a 5.5lb. package of ground chuck and looked at the price.  I seriously couldn't believe what I saw!  $18.98.  For ground beef?  That's $3.45 per pound!  I really honestly thought it was around $1.49 at the highest.  Do you realize how many times a whole package of that meat has been put in my freezer without dividing it, so when I go to cook it, I have to thaw the entire package?  How many times I have forgotten about the extra I didn't cook and it sat in my fridge until it ruined?  Do you realize?  Ugh, it sickens me!

So, on a positive note, I'm going to strive to live like we did back in the day.  The best I can. 

So far so good.  Except the groceries.  We went to Houston today  to take Morgan to the bus stop.  I avoided Hobby Lobby.  That took a bit of self discipline, though I know there's not one thing in that store I HAVE to have.  I bought a $4 journal for the book I'm reading from Office Max.  That was my splurge.  I spent close to $500 on groceries that won't even last the entire month.  I absolutely did not buy any junk food.  I refrained from the chocolate chip cookies.  I refrained from giving into the kids' "needs" for anything processed.  Yet, it didn't seem like I bought anything out of the ordinary.  Apparently we are huge eaters here.  That's what my jeans say anyway.

I'd like my wallet to be thicker than my gut, guys.

I'll be looking over our ignored budget tomorrow and getting back on track with it. 

So, that's it.  The two bad habits I'll be working on this month ~ NOT COOKING BREAKFAST and SPENDING MONEY. 

Wish me luck, pray for me, whatever you think will help.

Now, I must go turn off some lights in rooms not used at the moment.

Car.  Yeah, right.

Breaking Bad Habits - Breakfast pt 1

Confession:

I hardly EVER cook breakfast.  My kids are lucky to have a bowl of cereal for breakfast and they prepare that themselves. A hot meal would be a batch of cinnamon rolls fresh out of the can.

I know.  Horrible.

Clayton has always been an "in the kitchen kinda guy".  He has spoiled me.  I should have looked at it the way it really was.  He was in the kitchen because he had to be in order to eat.  He has said he had to do that with his previous marriage and was just used to it.  I just thought he liked it. Maybe he does, but I'm pretty certain he'd like it even better to have someone else cook it.

Before I'm judged, let me explain my side of the story a bit...

After the birth of my first daughter, I began having symptoms of hypoglycemia.  Throughout the years,  it became harder and harder for me to function in the mornings.  I didn't know there was anything wrong with me and just figured I wasn't a morning person.  It wasn't until a decade later when said daughter had an episode of her own sugar bottoming out, that I realized what my problem was when I all but passed out on the kitchen floor before sending the kids off to school.   Clayton wound up being the breakfast cooker every morning while I wound up taking out the trash and mowing the lawn.  Roles reversed.

I haven't had any morning hypoglycemic fits in a long while.  Though, because not cooking it has become a habit, I still rarely cook it.

So, my first bad habit to mention and work on is not cooking breakfast.  I don't believe I'll start out with anything lavish, but even a bowl of oatmeal with toast far exceeds what my family is used to me doing in the mornings.

I'm thinking of making a breakfast menu for the week and gathering all my breakfast ideas into little kits in the fridge.  Other than that, I'm clueless.  What advice would you give me to help me on my monthly journey of breaking the habit of not cooking breakfast?

What's a bad habit you'd like to exchange for a good one?

When nature calls

Fall.  Autumn.  The holiday season.  Whatever you choose to call it, it's here.  Smack dab in the middle of it and it's ready to be absorbed.

My favorite season was once spring.  All the colors and life that are brought forth would literally captivate me.  The warm breeze seemed to call out to even the most subjacent of life.

I'm beginning to enjoy Autumn lately.  It's the time of year when backyard campfires are to be enjoyed, along with the changing color of leaves, and family holidays are upon us.  Instead of feeling rushed to get all the year's goals accomplished, I'm finding it more enjoyable to just relax and just BE.

For the few years we've been in our home, (as some of you from my previous blog know) I've wanted to get the perimeter of our yard cleaned up and cleared away.  Other things were taking priority over it and what was finished only grew back shortly after.  I've learned not to do things like that in the spring.  

So, the family and I got busy the other day and it just happened.  Spur of the moment, no planning involved.  We were just outside and we began.  The girls were a huge help to me gathering all the brush Clayton cut and used the loppers on the smaller items the chainsaw had no time for.

I have to say I've missed this.  Good old fashioned family time that didn't involve being indoors behind some technoligical screen.  Nothing with buttons or beeps.  Nothing but rakes, tools, nature, and gloves touching our hands.  It was truly enjoyable.  So much has been finished because we all helped each other.   That is family.

Here is what it began as all the way around the property:

And this is only part of what we finished:



I wish the picture could show how beautiful it really is.  Just where the edge of the yard drops, are various levels of land and the creek.   It's so gorgeous during this time of year and I'm looking forward to the other 3 seasons I'll get to bask in this little piece of heaven I call my yard. 

I'm embracing the fact we still have 75% of the yard still to do. I'm looking at it as more time outside before it gets too cold, more time to do a little bit here and there and feel the joy as we walk away from it for the day and turn around to take one last glance at what we accomplished that day. 

Such a glorious feeling!

In a nutshell

The beginning of a new era.  New beginnings.  New hopes, old dreams.  That's the place where we are.

My husband.  My kids.  My family.  Me.

Every little girl dreams of the perfect life.  The perfect wedding.  The perfect marriage.  The perfect kids.  The perfect home.

Does it ever turn out that way?  Sure.  Ok, maybe not perfect in the eyes of others, but perfect for the dreamer.

Sometimes it doesn't.  Probably more often than not.

I was that dreamer as a little girl.  I remember my sister and I having to not only share a bedroom, but a full size bed as well.  Even covers.  If we weren't fighting (I still have battle scars), we were dreaming into the future.  Oh the dreams we had!  Our husbands were the perfect business men all dressed in William Fioravanti suits.  We, as the perfect stay-at-home moms, drove a van and would shop on a daily basis for toys for our children, filling the vans to the brim.

I never gave it any thought why the husband in my dreams would wear a top of the line suit while I was driving a van.  That's just not right at all now is it?  Anyway, moving along...

Needless to say, those particular dreams didn't quite pan out the way we had planned.  From divorce to blended families, crabby new husbands and ungrateful kids, we both, my sister and I, have had to make due with what life dealt us.  Until now.

I will only speak from my own experiences.

I'm not going to elaborate on where I stood in the happiness department for the past 2 decades, but I will share this...

I was happy.  I was miserable.  Sometimes ecstatic.  Sometimes I had hit rock bottom emotionally.  I couldn't ever get on the same page my husband was on no matter how hard I tried.   I would want a change when he saw nothing wrong and vice versa.  Almost 20 years of this, give or take, and we had both hit rock bottom.  That's when the light finally started shining for us both to see.

We had finally gotten on the same page!!!  It was wonderful!  Like falling in love all over again and everything being as perfect as they should be.  The way we both wanted thing to be.

Our family has been through the ringer over the years but from what I know to be true, the only way to make it work is through prayer, perseverance, hope, faith, and of course, love.  If you have those things, anything is possible.  Perhaps even the William Fioravanti suit.  Though probably less likely the daily loading of brand new toys in your van.  ;).

Come along with us as we live our lives renewed.