Brandt's birthday party is tomorrow. I'm really excited, a little disappointed though too. I love to go crazy with themes, favors, decorations, etc but I promised myself and my hubby that this years' parties would be simple and low key. Which translates into low cost. Which translates into kinda disappointing but a lot less stressful for me. We're doing trucks and although I'm not doing a lot of neat things, I'll still post a blog about it, just for kicks. I plan to coerce my friend Jessica to take lovely pictures for me by dangling watermelon licorice before her eyes. Think it will work? It would work for me! Henry's has AH-MAY-ZING licorice...watermelon flavored! No, I do NOT eat an entire bag every week after I shop!! That would be ridiculous. This week I saved three vines for my dangling purposes to get those lovely birthday pictures I mentioned. :)
Anyway, Brandt is really excited for his birthday and hubby is quite pleased that it has hardly cost us anything at all. Speaking of costs and all that good stuff, hubby and I are putting ourselves on a budget. I'm actually getting tired of that word: budget. It's an annoying word, really. "It's not in my budget." "We're on a budget." "Oh I don't know, it may be out of the budget." I'm going to think of something different. How about diet.
"Let's go for dinner and pedis tonight..." says friend.
"Oh that's not in my diet." "We're on a diet." "Oh I don't know, it may be out of the diet." says I. haha...maybe that won't work either. Although that really is what it is! The hubs and I read Dave Ramsey's book Total Money Makeover and really enjoyed it. He actually compares budgeting to dieting a few times. Basically his whole principle is nothing new or revolutionary and we've all heard it before and I think most know it (whether we follow it or not is another story), but it's just to sacrifice now to gain later. Hubby and I have always been fairly frugal people, he's a tightwad and I love anything on sale and get a ridiculous high from couponing and saving more than I spend. But my mantra has always been spend more, save more, right?? ;) Well not anymore...we're trying to spend virtually NOTHING unnecessary and pay off our cars so that we have that extra money to work with and pay towards savings, house, retirement, etc. It's a really neat book and the way he explains things makes a lot of sense. It really helped open our eyes and realign out priorities financially. And most of his money principles are Biblically based which is awesome because we desire to be faithful to God in all things, including using our income and assets wisely. It isn't very easy; it's hard to say no all the time or to tell people you can't afford to go out to lunch all the time. It seems kinda silly to refuse to get a coffee at Starbucks, but all those $5 extras really add up. Once we meet some of our financial goals we will have the financial freedom to not worry about those little things adding up, and for now, we are budgeting them. Haha...ahh, there it is again, the B-word! ;)
I can't believe I haven't blogged in so long...eek. A month. I was doing so well there for a little while. All the kiddos are doing well, getting huge and smart and sassy. I need to post some pictures. I told hubs the other day that I was quite sure we were done having children and he told me that he's not too sure. He thinks we may have a couple surprises down the road. And he even asked if I'd ever want to adopt! Woah! I actually have always wanted to adopt, but I'd be interested in adopting an underprivileged or disabled child, so I'd want to wait a while until my kids were a little older. Ugghhh...Kaelyn is refusing to take a nap!
She's been up since 6 this morning-I KNOW!!! And it's now almost four in the afternoon. And I have to take all three munchkins to a graduation party tonight by myself and if they don't sleep I think I will lose my marbles. Publicly. Can you get in trouble for that? Losing your marbles in front of everyone? I'm sure you can, so if you read about a young mom in the morning paper who completely fell out of the nest in public, send me your condolences. I need it. I'm trying the supernanny tactic, repeatedly putting her back in bed without saying a word. It is keeping me from being short and snappy with her. But the neck on my tank top no longer has any shape to it due to her clinging to it as I lay her down each time. Perhaps I could pass it off as a cowl neck? Doubt it.
I have so much to do for Brandt's party...what am I doing here??? Oh yeah, rambling. Mmmm...the food is going to be tasty tomorrow. Thank you hubs. He came home last night from work around 10:30 and said "What a great night we're going to have honey, we can stay up and cook together!" I smiled energetically and agreed as I was thinking about the Grey's Anatomy saved on my dvr that was begging to be viewed. :(
It hasn't been on in a couple weeks so I've been a bit deprived.
I. Miss. McDreamy.
I gave hubby a coffee mug that said McSteamy on it for Valentine's once. Isn't that a cute thing for a hubby's coffee mug? My mom tried to throw it away once for a little crack in it (that doesn't leak yet) and he quickly rescued it. It must pump him up a bit that I passively called him McSteamy. Heehee...
Yeah I'm a sucker for Grey's.
I hope we can watch it soon.
I always wait for hubby to watch it with me. He's a sucker too. He would definitely deny that though. ;)
Brandt fell down the other day and skinned his hand, and the week before his ear, and the day after his forehead, and two days earlier his nose, and...well you get the point. Anyway, one of the many times he beat himself up he was really upset about it. Kaelyn came over and kissed it and gave him a hug and then told him "It's alright, it's going to be okay. You just have to pray to Jesus and He will make it all better. Like my knees, look my owies are all gone because Jesus made them better!"
I completely melted. And I brimmed with love and pride and thanked my Father that He had blessed me with such wonderful children and even more that He had blessed me with wonderful parents that taught me His word very early. Those moments are kinda like an "atta-boy" from my Creator. When my children speak the words of Jesus or tell someone, anyone about Him in their perfectly innocent and wonderfully sweet child-like ways, I can sit back and breathe easy for a moment, knowing that I am teaching them the truly important things. Brandt may not know his ABC's and Kaelyn continues to skip 16 and 17 when she counts to 20, but she is teaching her little brother to pray and he knows that John 3:16 says that Jesus loves us "sooo much!" What an honor to have these little humans being a picture of Christ to each other, to other people, to our family and to myself. Thank you Lord! And I pray that He continues to encourage me with these little stars on my chart when I get down and discouraged. Being a mom is difficult, but I do think that we tend to make it more difficult that it needs to be. If my children grow up to be and do nothing more than love Jesus and be a light for Him, I have done my job and done it well.
That's what I've learned this week. And that's all the rambling Brandt's party can afford me today!! I must get back to work! Because even though he knows John 3:16 (paraphrased), I still want him to have a clean house and some balloons for his party tomorrow! ;)
peace, love and STILL NO NAP FOR KAELYN! AGGGHHHH!!!!
Lovely post..
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