We are a family of winter birthdays so we get the holidays and all of our birthdays in a short amount of time. This year I was really thinking about aging and how it does not bother me much anymore. There was a time when I really figured that like a lot of the women in my family I would just cease to tell anyone how old I was, and constantly fight the battle to look like I did and feel like I did when I was 20. The funny thing is I don't want to be that girl at all. She did not know who she was, or what she wanted and although she would have told you she was not following the crowd, the crowd's opinion did matter way too much.
When I was pregnant with my daughter I stopped dying my hair as the chemical smell made me sick, and by the time she was born I decided it was long enough to just let grow. My hair is now sporting lots of grey, and although there are days when I look at it and grimace, I try to remember that people were meant to age. I can't ask my daughter to be happy with her body image if I can't find peace with mine. I have wrinkles, but they are not too bad, partly because I was never a sun bather, and when you really burn you have a tendency to avoid extended trips in the sunlight.
I guess what I am trying in a round about way to say is find peace with the here and now. You can try for improvement in different areas in your life, but if you are always thinking that you are not enough you spend your whole life waiting for something else. I have never been really good at waiting for anything. I am enough now. That is my birthday present to myself. Enough.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Catch up
Our whole house has been sick for most of the last month and it has really thrown our schedules, and my time available to write this blog out of whack. I am really grateful for the flexibility of homeschool right now, as I was able to do some light school work with my daughter when we were both feeling up to it, but when we truly both just needed a break I could put off school till until we are better.
I did purchase a new Bible with a gift card that I got for Christmas, and I am keeping up with my daily reading. I really like the version I got. Here is a link http://www.christianbook.com/niv-application-study-bible-personal-size/9781414324579/pd/324579/1167894759?event=CF
It is the Life Application study Bible in NIV translation. It includes lots of study notes, bios of characters, and lots of other study tools. As the name implies it has Life Application notes to help one understand how you can apply what you just read to your everyday life.
On other topics, my daughter seems to be going through a word explosion, and watching her ability to communicate growing in leaps and bounds is really heartening. We still sometimes have the temper tantrums when she just can't find the words, but hopefully those will subside soon enough.
My husband has a new job and we are really excited about the opportunities this may bring to our family. He was looking for a long time but the job market is just horrid, so we are lucky he that he was able to find this job, and that he had steady work at the other job till this came available.
I guess overall things are going pretty well here, and I feel like we are moving in the right direction.
I did purchase a new Bible with a gift card that I got for Christmas, and I am keeping up with my daily reading. I really like the version I got. Here is a link http://www.christianbook.com/niv-application-study-bible-personal-size/9781414324579/pd/324579/1167894759?event=CF
It is the Life Application study Bible in NIV translation. It includes lots of study notes, bios of characters, and lots of other study tools. As the name implies it has Life Application notes to help one understand how you can apply what you just read to your everyday life.
On other topics, my daughter seems to be going through a word explosion, and watching her ability to communicate growing in leaps and bounds is really heartening. We still sometimes have the temper tantrums when she just can't find the words, but hopefully those will subside soon enough.
My husband has a new job and we are really excited about the opportunities this may bring to our family. He was looking for a long time but the job market is just horrid, so we are lucky he that he was able to find this job, and that he had steady work at the other job till this came available.
I guess overall things are going pretty well here, and I feel like we are moving in the right direction.
Monday, January 3, 2011
New Year Goals
I have read time and again that it takes at least 21 days to establish a new routine and that if you can attempt to stay with something for 21 days that you are more likely to succeed at making it a habit. Breaking bad habits is also never easy, and is reported to take at least the same amount of time. I do not like New Year's Resolutions as I have never been able to keep them, or keep them to my expectations, and I have never met anyone who actually has. The times in my life where I have made the vast changes that people usually aspire to with the New Year have coincided only with a true desire to change. I once lost quite a bit of weight and it was not easy, but I followed a plan and it worked. I now have weight to lose again, as I let myself gain too much with the pregnancy with my child and well that weight does not just melt off with the joy of a new baby. However, I also think that it is important to sit down and take stock of your life and what you want to change or start new, or you can get in a rut. The New Year is as good a time a any to do that, I just hesitate to call anything a resolution, as I worry that sets me up to fail.
So what are the goals I would like to set this year? I would like to eat healthier, be less in debt, lose weight, and have read the Bible all the way through by this time next year.
I have a plan for the Bible reading, I just have to stick to it, the other things will be harder.
Eating healthier in a family where your husband and child turn up their noses at lots of vegetables and you have a restricted food budget is not the easiest thing in the world. I have created some sneaky food recipes that help, and if I can get 10 or so more of them in the menu rotation I feel as though we will be moving toward a healthier family.
Decreasing debt takes money we don't have to spare right now... so this part of the goal will have to come from new income sources of some sort. I have been thinking of working toward selling some hand made goods at fairs and local venues. It would be a venture I could work on and still do my primary jobs of wife, mother and homeschool teacher. Also we just in general have to much stuff so maybe some of that can turn a profit on Ebay or the like.
Losing weight will take time and determination, but I am lucky that my husband wants this to be one of his goals too. When I lost 60 pounds in the past I started on my own and did well for a while and then had to join Weight Watchers to get the last 15 pounds off. I liked the WW program but again that is just not in the budget. Luckily the ideas behind it are not hard to implement. Restrict portions sizes to a reasonable amount, be moderate in eating, exercise regularly, drink lots of water.
Hopefully these goals are attainable, and reachable. Here goes the hard work of creating new habits!
So what are the goals I would like to set this year? I would like to eat healthier, be less in debt, lose weight, and have read the Bible all the way through by this time next year.
I have a plan for the Bible reading, I just have to stick to it, the other things will be harder.
Eating healthier in a family where your husband and child turn up their noses at lots of vegetables and you have a restricted food budget is not the easiest thing in the world. I have created some sneaky food recipes that help, and if I can get 10 or so more of them in the menu rotation I feel as though we will be moving toward a healthier family.
Decreasing debt takes money we don't have to spare right now... so this part of the goal will have to come from new income sources of some sort. I have been thinking of working toward selling some hand made goods at fairs and local venues. It would be a venture I could work on and still do my primary jobs of wife, mother and homeschool teacher. Also we just in general have to much stuff so maybe some of that can turn a profit on Ebay or the like.
Losing weight will take time and determination, but I am lucky that my husband wants this to be one of his goals too. When I lost 60 pounds in the past I started on my own and did well for a while and then had to join Weight Watchers to get the last 15 pounds off. I liked the WW program but again that is just not in the budget. Luckily the ideas behind it are not hard to implement. Restrict portions sizes to a reasonable amount, be moderate in eating, exercise regularly, drink lots of water.
Hopefully these goals are attainable, and reachable. Here goes the hard work of creating new habits!
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Creating a household manual
A household manual is a collection of information to run your home. It can include any number of things, from cleaning schedules to bill records to medical records. Originally I got this idea from the Flylady, but I am tweeking it to fit our needs.
I had one of these long ago and let it fall by the wayside and when I went to send out my Christmas cards this year I realized I had lost my address book, and if only I had kept up with my manual I would have had the information there to use. I was kicking myself for having to call my in laws to get their address, so here goes a new attempt to get one of these going.
For me the sections will be
1 Cleaning schedules and checklists
2 Family calendar, including all family activities, appointments and birthdays
3 Addresses and contact info for family, doctors, contractors etc
4 Bill payment schedule,budget and a place to hold current bills
5 Menu plan, or rotating list of dishes
6 Price book for local grocery stores
7 Useful extraneous info like what goes on sale at what time of the year
Do you use a household manual? What sections do you have? What did you originally include that you now realize was not useful, or what do you wish you had included from the start?
I had one of these long ago and let it fall by the wayside and when I went to send out my Christmas cards this year I realized I had lost my address book, and if only I had kept up with my manual I would have had the information there to use. I was kicking myself for having to call my in laws to get their address, so here goes a new attempt to get one of these going.
For me the sections will be
1 Cleaning schedules and checklists
2 Family calendar, including all family activities, appointments and birthdays
3 Addresses and contact info for family, doctors, contractors etc
4 Bill payment schedule,budget and a place to hold current bills
5 Menu plan, or rotating list of dishes
6 Price book for local grocery stores
7 Useful extraneous info like what goes on sale at what time of the year
Do you use a household manual? What sections do you have? What did you originally include that you now realize was not useful, or what do you wish you had included from the start?
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Homeschooling on a budget
I will admit I am new to homeschool, and my child is very young, so what works for us may not work for your family. I have searched for and found lots of resources on homeschooling for free or at low cost (without jeopardizing your child's education of course.
Right now the free resources we use regularly are
1-The Library
Our local library has an art and story time for children my daughter's age that she really likes and a lot of the books I use with her come from there are well. Also, luckily our local branch has a large selection of homeschooling books, from many different methods.
2- The Internet-
This one is vast, and there are many sites I like, here are a few.
Starfall http://www.starfall.com/ is a phonics early reading site that both my daughter and I like, and in part is the reason she knows her ABCs in capital and lowercase and phonetically before age 2. It is an amazing site and will follow through with her to early reading.
DLTK has lots and lots of printables and coloring pages.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/
Ambelside Online is an entire K-12 free Charlotte Mason curriculum.
http://www.amblesideonline.org/
Prekinders is a great site for both resources and ideas.
http://prekinders.com/
3. Other Homeschoolers
I have a few links on my blog for other bloggers that homeschool and often they have lessons available at reasonable prices or for free.
Overall, like just about everything else, you can spend lots of money homeschooling on boxed curriculum and the like, but right now we are really enjoying the free resources we have access to and she is learning quickly and well.
Right now the free resources we use regularly are
1-The Library
Our local library has an art and story time for children my daughter's age that she really likes and a lot of the books I use with her come from there are well. Also, luckily our local branch has a large selection of homeschooling books, from many different methods.
2- The Internet-
This one is vast, and there are many sites I like, here are a few.
Starfall http://www.starfall.com/ is a phonics early reading site that both my daughter and I like, and in part is the reason she knows her ABCs in capital and lowercase and phonetically before age 2. It is an amazing site and will follow through with her to early reading.
DLTK has lots and lots of printables and coloring pages.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/
Ambelside Online is an entire K-12 free Charlotte Mason curriculum.
http://www.amblesideonline.org/
Prekinders is a great site for both resources and ideas.
http://prekinders.com/
3. Other Homeschoolers
I have a few links on my blog for other bloggers that homeschool and often they have lessons available at reasonable prices or for free.
Overall, like just about everything else, you can spend lots of money homeschooling on boxed curriculum and the like, but right now we are really enjoying the free resources we have access to and she is learning quickly and well.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Being frugal when no one around you is
I find it hard when I am with friends and extended family sometimes as their spending habits are different than mine in so many ways. A lot of the people I know choose to spend first on a whim and then regret it later. Or alternately, they just have a much higher fun money budget than I do and blowing money on something seems like no big deal to them. It is hard for them to understand that we just don't want to drop $35 on a movie and snacks for the two of us when that money could be used so much more wisely in other places.
Here are some things I have tried to remember and tips I have tried to use when being around people who do not have frugal attitudes.
1- Remember being frugal is not for everyone. Saving money I see as an integral part to my job in the home. I spend time each week looking for the best deals and how to get the most out of what we have, but not everyone wants to do that, or feels they don't have the time.
2- Telling the truth sometimes works wonders, but can be boring. For instance, just telling your family member or friend that the dinner out or whatever is not something that is in your budget that week.
3- If for whatever reason you don't feel comfortable telling them your budget ins and outs, you can almost always find a kind and honest way to get out of whatever it is without hurting their feelings.
4- Reconsider your spending if necessary. If you realize you would really like to spend that $35 on the movie, go through in your head where that money can come from in your budget and go have fun. Just make it so you don't regret having spent the money.
5- Suggest something else that is free or lower cost. Have them over for dinner, have a park play day, etc.
In the hard times right now a lot of people are learning lower cost ways to have fun. The most important thing is how you connect with others, not if it is done over $5 lattes.
Here are some things I have tried to remember and tips I have tried to use when being around people who do not have frugal attitudes.
1- Remember being frugal is not for everyone. Saving money I see as an integral part to my job in the home. I spend time each week looking for the best deals and how to get the most out of what we have, but not everyone wants to do that, or feels they don't have the time.
2- Telling the truth sometimes works wonders, but can be boring. For instance, just telling your family member or friend that the dinner out or whatever is not something that is in your budget that week.
3- If for whatever reason you don't feel comfortable telling them your budget ins and outs, you can almost always find a kind and honest way to get out of whatever it is without hurting their feelings.
4- Reconsider your spending if necessary. If you realize you would really like to spend that $35 on the movie, go through in your head where that money can come from in your budget and go have fun. Just make it so you don't regret having spent the money.
5- Suggest something else that is free or lower cost. Have them over for dinner, have a park play day, etc.
In the hard times right now a lot of people are learning lower cost ways to have fun. The most important thing is how you connect with others, not if it is done over $5 lattes.
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