Tuesday, December 09, 2008
So Sweet
4 year old to mom (with Bible in hand and sister at his side): MOM! I'm trying to read about Jesus and Madison is making it hard to learn about Church. She keeps saying read, read, read.
Friday, December 05, 2008
I'm Raising Chickens!!!
Well, not literally but definately figuratively. Tonight I watched in amazement as two children (ages 4 and 2) literally ran from room to room singing Christmas songs - just like Chickens with their heads cut off. Well, actually my son, the four year old, sang the songs. My two year old daughter just ran around and scream sang key words in the song - such as "jingle bell" over and over. I am not joking when I say that they did this for at least 30 straight minutes. I'm not sure at what point, but I began watching the clock wondering how long they could possibly go. I am convinced that they would still be running around on their 48th round of the Christmas reindeer song my son learned at preschool had my husband not walked through the door to break the monotony.
Afterward, my son goes and gets on my bed with a different pair of pajamas. When I walked in he said, "Mom, can I wear these pajamas (pointing to the ones he was holding). These (pointing to the ones he was wearing) are making me tired."
Afterward, my son goes and gets on my bed with a different pair of pajamas. When I walked in he said, "Mom, can I wear these pajamas (pointing to the ones he was holding). These (pointing to the ones he was wearing) are making me tired."
Thursday, December 04, 2008
It's All For Sale
I have told you how I am selling all my clothes on ebay in an effort to start over and clean up my horrific closet mess. (which I am finding out is really about cleaning up my own life) So, in an effort to get out of debt and pay bills, I am selling it ALL! Well, okay not exactly all. We are going through the house and purging our cabinets, drawers, bins, spaces, and storage of things we don't necessarily need. Some of which we probably shouldn't have purchased anyway. So, eBay purchasers should be pleased that our loss will be their treasure. We need to finish Dave's baby step #1. We are selling stuff to reach our first goal.
Here is a short list of things going up for bid: DH's textbooks, my ipod video, my palm pilot, toys, movies, a digital picture frame, makeup, and much much more.
Woah! That somewhat sounded like a television add. I feel like I should be adding the proverbial "thats not all". Call in the next 5 minutes and you can have the kitchen sink too.
It feels good to clean up the mess and help out the family. Isn't it an odd phenomenon that purging yourself from things feels so good. These "things" I am getting rid of are the very "things" that I purchased in an effort to make me feel better or make life easier. Interesting thought!
Here is a short list of things going up for bid: DH's textbooks, my ipod video, my palm pilot, toys, movies, a digital picture frame, makeup, and much much more.
Woah! That somewhat sounded like a television add. I feel like I should be adding the proverbial "thats not all". Call in the next 5 minutes and you can have the kitchen sink too.
It feels good to clean up the mess and help out the family. Isn't it an odd phenomenon that purging yourself from things feels so good. These "things" I am getting rid of are the very "things" that I purchased in an effort to make me feel better or make life easier. Interesting thought!
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Living Like No One Else
In line with my life clean up, I have begun looking at the "biggies" in life. For me, the "biggies" are those things that are so big that you MUST at all cost do it the best you can and with all the vigor you can. I have already mentioned my spiritual life and how I working on that. The other "biggies" in my life are my marriage, my children, and my finances. These are things that cannot be left alone and without attention or parts of my life WILL die.
Long story short, my husband and I decided to sit down and write out and tweak a new budget. In the spirit of money, I felt the urge to break out a book by Dave Ramsey that I had not previously read, The Total Money Makeover. About 5 or 6 years ago I read his book called Financial Peace but have not to date revisited his material (we have been doing the Dave Ramsey plan to the best of our ability since that time). I found this book very motivating and real. I really do want to live like no one else so that some day I can live like no one else. (You really need to read one of his books to fully understand that sentence.)
Wow! Isn't it amazing that when you start to really clean something up you start finding all these messes you never saw before. It is like cleaning out our linen cabinet a few months back. I am meticulous about how towels stack - that they all are folded exactly the same, stacked the same way, and placed in the cabinet a certain way. I wanted to re-stack towels and sheets (mostly the sheets). As I pulled my clean linens from the cabinet, I was shocked to find some sort of white dust lurking in the back. I think it must have been breeding on the spot because it felt like the more I cleaned the more I found.
Let me tell you, when I looked straight faced into our finances I was shocked, saddened, happy, excited, overwhelmed, depressed, and blessed all in a matter of minutes. I was shocked to finally put a number to my husband's school debt - much more than most people's homes. I was sad to see that our money wasn't going as far as I had hoped. Happy to know that although we have made some mistakes financially, we really weren't so bad if you took away the house and school debt. Excited to see that we can and will get out of it. Overwhelmed with what to cut, how to arrange the money so that it works, and putting numbers to everything. I was depressed to find out that until we get debt paid for we cannot have many extras that we had been planning for. And last, I am blessed to be married to a man who is willing to stand by "us" without blame and move forward.
I know many of you are thinking how did it go wrong with the Dave Ramsey, iron clad, tried and true method. Well, just as Dave would tell you LIFE. Thank God (literally and not in a derogatory way) that we had the knowledge from Dave before life's circumstances. We have debt; we aren't perfect. We have put life on hold for my DH to finish his training. We made hard and at times not perfect choices that we felt would put us right where we would want to be at the end of his school and training. We knew the risks; we understood the consequences. But, re-armed with a fresh take on old methods, we are ready to move forward. It is time to stop living in our self-made time warp and step into our bright future.
Although it may look weird, we are making the choice to live like no one else today so that someday we can live like no one else. It is funny how big of a role society plays on you. When people find out that we don't have cable TV we get many gasps. That is just one example of how we don't live like most people. I hope to make a change that will literally change my family tree permanently. I didn't come from money. In fact, my mom was a struggling single mom for years. She built my life on her back. Just as my mom gave me a leg up in life, I hope to leave a legacy for my kids that is routed in the word of God and one that is founded upon the idea of how to use money and not become trapped by it.
Long story short, my husband and I decided to sit down and write out and tweak a new budget. In the spirit of money, I felt the urge to break out a book by Dave Ramsey that I had not previously read, The Total Money Makeover. About 5 or 6 years ago I read his book called Financial Peace but have not to date revisited his material (we have been doing the Dave Ramsey plan to the best of our ability since that time). I found this book very motivating and real. I really do want to live like no one else so that some day I can live like no one else. (You really need to read one of his books to fully understand that sentence.)
Wow! Isn't it amazing that when you start to really clean something up you start finding all these messes you never saw before. It is like cleaning out our linen cabinet a few months back. I am meticulous about how towels stack - that they all are folded exactly the same, stacked the same way, and placed in the cabinet a certain way. I wanted to re-stack towels and sheets (mostly the sheets). As I pulled my clean linens from the cabinet, I was shocked to find some sort of white dust lurking in the back. I think it must have been breeding on the spot because it felt like the more I cleaned the more I found.
Let me tell you, when I looked straight faced into our finances I was shocked, saddened, happy, excited, overwhelmed, depressed, and blessed all in a matter of minutes. I was shocked to finally put a number to my husband's school debt - much more than most people's homes. I was sad to see that our money wasn't going as far as I had hoped. Happy to know that although we have made some mistakes financially, we really weren't so bad if you took away the house and school debt. Excited to see that we can and will get out of it. Overwhelmed with what to cut, how to arrange the money so that it works, and putting numbers to everything. I was depressed to find out that until we get debt paid for we cannot have many extras that we had been planning for. And last, I am blessed to be married to a man who is willing to stand by "us" without blame and move forward.
I know many of you are thinking how did it go wrong with the Dave Ramsey, iron clad, tried and true method. Well, just as Dave would tell you LIFE. Thank God (literally and not in a derogatory way) that we had the knowledge from Dave before life's circumstances. We have debt; we aren't perfect. We have put life on hold for my DH to finish his training. We made hard and at times not perfect choices that we felt would put us right where we would want to be at the end of his school and training. We knew the risks; we understood the consequences. But, re-armed with a fresh take on old methods, we are ready to move forward. It is time to stop living in our self-made time warp and step into our bright future.
Although it may look weird, we are making the choice to live like no one else today so that someday we can live like no one else. It is funny how big of a role society plays on you. When people find out that we don't have cable TV we get many gasps. That is just one example of how we don't live like most people. I hope to make a change that will literally change my family tree permanently. I didn't come from money. In fact, my mom was a struggling single mom for years. She built my life on her back. Just as my mom gave me a leg up in life, I hope to leave a legacy for my kids that is routed in the word of God and one that is founded upon the idea of how to use money and not become trapped by it.
Monday, December 01, 2008
How I configured my Over-Simplified Wardrobe
If you have been following my Over-Simplified Wardrobe, I am going to explain how I came up with the numbers. Hopefully, you can do something similar and customize your very own OS Wardrobe. :) Enjoy! If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask. I will do my best to explain further.
In a typical week I do these things:
Sunday - Church
Monday - SAHM
Tuesday - SAHM (errands) and Seasonally Bible Study
Wednesday - SAHM and Church
Thursday - SAHM
Friday - SAHM and Date
Saturday - SAHM
(SAHM - includes all my stay-at-home-mom duties such as chauffeur, cleaning, trips to store, bank, etc.)
So I figured on any given week for the most part I would need:
Sunday - Dress or a Skirt and Top & Every day Top and Bottom
Monday - ED (stands for Every Day) top and bottom
Tuesday - ED top and bottom
Wednesday - Dressier top and bottom & ED top and bottom
Thursday - Day Dress
Friday - Skirt or Dress Pant and Top & ED top and bottom
Saturday - ED top and bottom
In a typical week I would need:
6 Every day tops
6 everyday bottoms
1 dress
3 dressier tops
3 dressier bottoms
1 day dress
Here is what I thought. I would combine the tops to get more uses (Bible study days and errand could use a dressier than normal top). Hence the 9 tops with 3 being a little dressier. I could use one of the skirts for everyday and dressier occasions. So, I only needed 5 pants (shorts, capri's, jeans, etc.). I would do 2 dress pants which would leave 1 more dress bottom which I chose to make a skirt. Hence, the 2 skirts. A wanted to make sure that I had at least 1 great pair of jeans. In the summers where I live it gets well into the 90's and even 100's for many days straight. I would not normally wear jeans as part of any outfit. But, it would be nice to have at least 1 pair available for various purposes. Also, I wear a lot of yoga and athletic style pants. That would ensure at least 1 pair of jeans. The 1 day dress is self-explanatory - just a good dress for everyday purposes. The 1 dressier type dress is for church. I reserve my specialty capsule for occasional evening wear type garments. I added a jacket to each capsule as a layering and functional piece. I will need at least 1 shoe for every day and 1 shoe for dressier outfits. I wanted a minimum of 1 handbag (or purse - I guess that is what some people call them) that could go with all outfits if possible. The jewelry was just a reminder to accessorize. I am terrible at adding the small touches. If all things coordinate in my capsule then I am hoping that 2 necklaces, 2 earrings, and 1 bracelet will be okay. I could add an ankle bracelet for the warmer months.
The rationale behind the rotation is that I didn't want to have 4 separate wardrobes (one for winter, spring, summer, and fall). We get all 4 seasons each year. It is too difficult to try to change out every 3 months. Also, both spring and summer can be seasonally warm or seasonally cool or there other extremes. So, to simplify I decided to switch out only 1 capsule every 3 months leaving another to finish the transition from one extreme to the other.
In a typical week I do these things:
Sunday - Church
Monday - SAHM
Tuesday - SAHM (errands) and Seasonally Bible Study
Wednesday - SAHM and Church
Thursday - SAHM
Friday - SAHM and Date
Saturday - SAHM
(SAHM - includes all my stay-at-home-mom duties such as chauffeur, cleaning, trips to store, bank, etc.)
So I figured on any given week for the most part I would need:
Sunday - Dress or a Skirt and Top & Every day Top and Bottom
Monday - ED (stands for Every Day) top and bottom
Tuesday - ED top and bottom
Wednesday - Dressier top and bottom & ED top and bottom
Thursday - Day Dress
Friday - Skirt or Dress Pant and Top & ED top and bottom
Saturday - ED top and bottom
In a typical week I would need:
6 Every day tops
6 everyday bottoms
1 dress
3 dressier tops
3 dressier bottoms
1 day dress
Here is what I thought. I would combine the tops to get more uses (Bible study days and errand could use a dressier than normal top). Hence the 9 tops with 3 being a little dressier. I could use one of the skirts for everyday and dressier occasions. So, I only needed 5 pants (shorts, capri's, jeans, etc.). I would do 2 dress pants which would leave 1 more dress bottom which I chose to make a skirt. Hence, the 2 skirts. A wanted to make sure that I had at least 1 great pair of jeans. In the summers where I live it gets well into the 90's and even 100's for many days straight. I would not normally wear jeans as part of any outfit. But, it would be nice to have at least 1 pair available for various purposes. Also, I wear a lot of yoga and athletic style pants. That would ensure at least 1 pair of jeans. The 1 day dress is self-explanatory - just a good dress for everyday purposes. The 1 dressier type dress is for church. I reserve my specialty capsule for occasional evening wear type garments. I added a jacket to each capsule as a layering and functional piece. I will need at least 1 shoe for every day and 1 shoe for dressier outfits. I wanted a minimum of 1 handbag (or purse - I guess that is what some people call them) that could go with all outfits if possible. The jewelry was just a reminder to accessorize. I am terrible at adding the small touches. If all things coordinate in my capsule then I am hoping that 2 necklaces, 2 earrings, and 1 bracelet will be okay. I could add an ankle bracelet for the warmer months.
The rationale behind the rotation is that I didn't want to have 4 separate wardrobes (one for winter, spring, summer, and fall). We get all 4 seasons each year. It is too difficult to try to change out every 3 months. Also, both spring and summer can be seasonally warm or seasonally cool or there other extremes. So, to simplify I decided to switch out only 1 capsule every 3 months leaving another to finish the transition from one extreme to the other.
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