Finding Balance

Here lately, our life has been about finding balance. We have been taking more steps to become a more intentional and natural-living family and learning new things as we go. At the beginning of April, we took the plunge into clean eating! We cleared our cabinets almost completely and started basically from scratch! I am happy to say that while we are not 100% clean eaters, we are at about 90%, and we have never felt better! Aaron has lost about 10 pounds so far! Since I am pregnant, there is no real way to gauge my weight since I am gaining weekly from the pregnancy. (I can say though, at 36 weeks, I have only gained 18lbs!) My favorite thing about eating clean thus far has been the experimentation with new recipes, especially desserts! We have definitely found some favorites and some not so favorites so far, which I plan to start sharing! :) I am a little anxious about our eating with Elliot's arrival approaching quickly since we will be in the hospital for two days and then things will be incredibly hectic around here for a while, I'm sure! But, I am confident that we can FIND BALANCE!

Another balance issue we've been working with is discipline for Emma. I am anti spanking and want to practice gentle discipline for her. She is such a spit fire that it really is difficult at times to keep my cool with her. I have been doing really well with giving her words for her feelings when she is mad or upset and trying to redirect her when she is doing something that is not allowed. She has started to get "swats" for dangerous actions, like her new favorite of running into the street. But, that is the only thing I will swat for. Swatting/Spanking/etc. for hitting, biting, scratching is one of my biggest pet peeves. If a child hits, and you do not want him/her to hit, then what good is it for you to hit him/her back? No good. Basically you're saying, I can do this, but you can't. That may work when you're child is 16, but definitely not when they are toddlers. One thing we are struggling with is her hitting and scratching. She only does this to Aaron, and I haven't figured out why she always directs her frustrations towards him. Okay, well, he is REALLY aggravating at times, so I can see that. ;) But, what we have been doing is if we are holding her and she hits/scratches is putting her down and walking away. This really seems to work at home, but what do we do in public? At a restaurant or the park, etc? This is the struggle we are having lately. I have been reading a lot of gentle discipline articles on blogs and trying to get some guidance, so I will let you know what I come with!

Why, Hello Again!

Oh my! I just realized I haven't blogged since SEPTEMBER! Yikes! Needless to say, it has been a crazy, hectic 7 months since then! I am pretty sure September was the month we found out we were expecting again! Or maybe it was the beginning of October? Either way, geez that's been a long time! I am now 32 weeks 5 days along, and yes, that means I have 7ish weeks left! Thankfully because I have been over this pregnancy for a long time now! We have an exciting few months coming up, and that is why I decided to start blogging again. :) So, while I may not post daily like I used to, I hope to at least post once or twice a week!

Stay At Home Moms don't do anything?!?!?!?

Okay, folks, you know me. I think having a stay at home parent is important for children. I don't look down on parents who don't get to stay at home, but for those of us who do, we know it's an important job, and oh, did I mention, HARD WORK!

This post comes because I was reading another mom's blog today (who also stays at home), and she said her husband thought Stay at Home Moms don't do much! WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am pretty sure we do it all! We don't get days off. We are responsible for appointments, chores, errands, bill paying, house cleaning, sicknessses, laundry, and the list never ends. If I am thinking correctly, that means we do a WHOLE lot. Not to mention, your child or children get to grow up with a parent with them not with a daycare provider who probably doesn't give two, well, I can't think of a nice word to put here, :) about your child. The daycare is just a way for them to make money.

This is obviously not all daycare providers since once my children are in school, I plan to teach, but I have worked in daycare and preschool, and while I really care about children and made them a priority, I have worked with plenty of people who just needed a job. This is sad, yes, but it's a reality, and because of that, staying at home is vital for me especially while my children are very young and fragile.

So, for those of you who stay at home, thumbs up to you. I know sometimes I have felt like I missed my calling when having a bad day. I think: "I really should've finished college before having a baby." "Maybe I would be better off working," etc. etc. Sometimes I feel like I have failed myself and my peers. For those of you who don't know, I graduated number 4 in my class of 200+, and I was a super scholar, ACT scholar, the president of many organizations, etc. I get comments all the time like, "I never would've guessed you'd be married and with child." Most people would take offense because the "right" thing to do is have an education and career before having children in the eyes of many. But in the end, this is my calling, and everything will all work out. School will be finished (Because that is super important to me, and I want my children to be able to do the same), and life will happen. For right now, being at home, taking care of the house and Emma IS my calling. I want to have more children, and they will be my calling when they come along too! Children are such blessings, and I wouldn't trade one second for being at home with my baby. Here is one of my favorite quotes:

“Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation.” 
- C. Everett Koop

And here is my calling :)

The Cash Only, Envelope Budget!

Okay folks, it's definitely supposed to be cloth diaper Tuesday, but I decided I like randomness better, so I want to talk about MONEY and FINANCES! Yahoo. Everyone loves money, right?

Since moving on base, I've been lucky enough to meet some awesome people that I would've never met had we continued to live off base! Just last week, I was able to meet a sweet sweet mom to an 18 month old that live just a few houses down! I won't mention her name because I am just weird about mentioning other people when I don't have their permission. Okay, back to the story: In the short time since I met her, I have learned so much! She was talking of a cash only budget, and I just had to know more! Her and her husband attended the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class at their church last year, and she was gracious enough to share her knowledge and materials so that I didn't have to pay for the class!

If you know nothing about Dave Ramsey, GO NOW and research his baby steps and all of his financial advice! I am no expert, so I am not going to sit here and give you financial advice, but I will explain to you how the cash only approach with envelope system works! There is a little book, part of Dave Ramsey's materials that you can order on his website or on amazon.com. Here it is:

This is the inside! It has a place for your checkbook on the left, a notepad and pen in the center, and the right side has the envelopes, a coin pouch, and a place for your debit card, ID, etc.

Here are the envelopes!

Okay, I am definitely no expert on this, but I will tell you what I do know. Basically, you come up with categories of items that are purchased each month, most importantly, clothing, food, shelter, and transportation. Some of my categories include food, clothing, house misc., car repairs, blow money, etc. You can create as many as you need and use a separate envelope for each category. Sit down, figure out your necessary expenses, and dedicate a set amount of cash for each category. Once you run out of cash, that's it. No more blow money or whatever the category may be.

I am super excited about this because once I actually sat down and figured out the amount of money that we bring in vs. our bills, we had a lot of money left over that was just being blown on random, pointless things. Now that every dime is spent before it even reaches us, it's nice the money has a purpose, and now I am paying twice what I actually have to pay a month on our car to pay it off in about a 1/3 of the time as we have it finance for! YAHOOOOOOOOOO! All of that, and I'm still able to put a good chunk into savings each month!

Just a couple things I read in Dave Ramsey's book that really stood out to me:

"If you will live like no one else, one day you will be able LIVE like no one else!"

"A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children." Proverbs 13:22

Ohhhhh, and if you read his book and listen to his advice, you'll never take out a loan again! :)

Oh Wednesdays!!! :)

So there is something about Wednesday that I really love. Maybe it's that the week is getting closer to be over and we're going to have Aaron home for a few days, or maybe it's that I've started going to coffee mornings every Wednesday, and it's just nice to have the adult company even though there are only a few of us that actually show up every week. I love coffee and good conversation, and it's nice to see other mom's having to keep up with kids too.

On another note, we're really trying out this budget thing this month. August was pretty hectic because we had to pay rent for our other house still and we had some final bills to pay, but now that we are done with our other house, we can actually set funds for each thing. This is going to be hard for me especially because I like to randomly buy things for Emma. Not for myself, but I get a special joy buying things for Emma. So, here's to having only a set amount for everything and sticking to it! Once I get it all worked out and working correctly, maybe I'll lay it all out for anyone who wants an example. Just so you know in advance, we don't make that much money. :) I told my Granny yesterday how much we make, and she just goes. "How do you pay all your bills?" hehe. The military is "so overpaid," right? NOT!


       Daily picture: Isn't this the sweetest face you've ever seen?!?!?

Holy Crapton of Technology Skills Needed Batman!

I CAN BLOG AGAIN! Some of you know I was sort of locked out of my account. I had been using my Southern Miss. email address for my blogger account, and evidently administrators at Southern Miss made it to where you cannot use your Southern Miss account for things like blogger. Anyway, I had to manually move my blog from that email account to another. YIKES! It took me forever to figure it out, but I AM BACK!!!

Black Bean Burgers!!

Since I didn't share anything last week, I can tell you of my grocery trip to the Commissary last Thursday. My monthly grocery bill came out to $120! Before coupons it was $167, so I feel like I did pretty good for a last minute thrown together list.

One thing I bought was a bag of dry black beans. If you didn't know, that bag makes A LOT of black beans! I had beans and rice for dinner and lunch the next day and still had plenty of beans left over, so I decided to branch out a little and try something I've been wanting to try for a while, black bean burgers! Let me tell you, they were delicious! Here is the recipe I sort of used. I say sort of because I'm not really good at following recipes. I usually just guess at it. :) That probably drives a lot of people crazy, but for some reason, I just really don't like to measure food! Anyway: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/homemade-black-bean-veggie-burgers/detail.aspx Follow as much of it as you want or change it up a little or a lot like I did! There's plenty of other recipes out there also! They were super easy, super tasty, and super good for you!

I made only two patties because I though Aaron wouldn't dare try them. Well, guess what! I made him try it, and he actually liked it! WHOAH. What happened to my husband people??? Anyway, I had one for dinner last night on a wheat bun topped with Spinach and a little chili sauce, and I had the other for lunch today wrapped in a Spinach tortilla and topped with Spinach and Chili Sauce. I personally preferred the Spinach tortilla better. (Maybe because I am a little obsessed with Spinach! Okay, enough already. Here are the pictures:

Last Night: (don't mind my fine china :) I try to have as little dishes as possible when Aaron is working nights and I'm alone with Emma)

And for lunch today: I wrapped it up after the picture, of course!