Homemaker Monday...

Today, I am on fire!!!

Early to rise and cooking a hot breakfast was on my list for today, since it is SUPER cold this morning. In the winter, we don't usually run our heater at night because it rarely gets mega-cold on the Texas Gulf Coast, so our house typically stays somewhere in the 60's. We just put on our flannel pj's, some socks, and about 4 big blankets on the bed. In the morning when we drag, I mean POP ourselves out of bed and it is super cold...time to whip out the scrambled eggs, oatmeal, and toast.

On top of that, I was fully dressed, from head to toe, as I cooked. Go ME!!!

Jansen and I had a Parent/Teacher conference with his teacher this morning at 7:30 that went very well. She is very happy with his progress this year and gave us some really helpful ideas to improve his reading. He is reading at a good pace, but needs to develop some inflection in his voice. She recommended taping him as he reads so he can watch it and hear how he reads. Can do!

Now it is 9:45am, laundry is almost done, blueberry cheesecake muffins are in the oven, Taco Soup is on the stove, and we are ready for piano lessons tonight!

Menu for the week:
Monday- Taco Soup
Tuesday- Spicy Southwest Macaroni and Cheese
Wednesday- Fried chicken and baked potatoes
Thursday- Hamburger Helper (because that's how I roll by the end of the week)
Friday-Leftovers and croissants

Let's hope this flame continues for the rest of the week!!!

Party Preparations...

I fully realize that C's birthday is in March, but I love to plan way in advance, so the party wheels are already in motion.

He requested a bowling party at our local bowling alley, which I think is totally awesome! The kids can have an hour of bowling, a choice of hot dogs, grilled cheese, corn dogs, or chicken nuggets, and I don't have to set up or clean up. This is a win/win situation!!!

We booked the alley and I ordered some AH-Dorable invitations off of ebay (shout out to ebay!!!). Here is an example of the invite....
The lady that makes this is super talented...thank you to Gingham Hearts for the invites.

Of course, I will be making the cake and am still narrowing down the ideas for it. The only other thing I have to supply is the goodie bags....hello Walmart!

March is so, so, so busy that I want to have everything taken care of WAY in advance. Let's get this show on the road!!!

The New Year, 5 days in...

We are 5 days into 2011, and I have been smacked in the face.


I am trying to kick some major booty in the financial department of my life: savings, debt, budgeting, just overall better money management.

Two days ago, I updated our financial spreadsheet that I keep, and realized how valuable that piece of paper is to me. It helps keep me on track, and I can see everything at a glance. My spreadsheet includes our monthly bills, the monthly payment, the total amount owed (in the instance of our mortgage, cars, and such), the interest rate, the balances in all our accounts, our monthly grocery expenses, and the yearly grocery average.

Josh and I agreed to start chipping away at our remaining debt this year. Of course we started this last year, following the Dave Ramsey plan, and made some good progress, and then got off course.

Things have been going well so far...coupon clipping and shopping for sales, squirreling away small bits of money in each of our accounts, and starting back with the DR plan...until today.

I got smacked in the face today at Jansen's allergist. Now of course, I know, it is the new year....thus our medical bills will be a little higher until our deductibles are met....but our health insurance has changed. And that just ticks me off.

Thank you God that we have health insurance. Thank you God that our family is relatively healthy.

But Jansen has horrible allergies and asthma, and gets weekly allergy shots. He takes Allegra, Nasonex, Flovent, and a rescue inhaler as well. So now his allergist visits went up from $30 to $50, and his allergy shots went from $4 a week to $25. Ugh.

Caleb sees a psychiatrist for his monthly medication and so his visits have gone from $30 to $50 as well.

Again, thank God that we have health insurance. But I just HATE it when I have my family budget all worked out perfectly and have a debt repayment plan in place, and that famous curveball is thrown in.

Guess what I will be working on tomorrow?

I might sell a kidney.....

Lego Land

Santa brought the boys Legos this year, and they were a big hit. I was hesitant to consider buying any Legos because they are super tiny, there are a billion of them, and I knew the boys would lose them and I would find them when I stepped on them in the middle of the night.

Surely, that is my own "only child" inner girl-child talking. Boys need things like that.

Caleb took to these like he did with puzzles. His gift was a Creator set where you can make three different cars from this one set. Last night he finished the first race car after working on it, on and off, all day.



Please excuse the crappy photos, taken with my phone. Our camera is being tempermental and works when it wants to, and I just don't want to buy a new camera until it completely dies.

This morning he and his dad sat at the table and transformed it into a Mario Kart type race car.


Tomorrow he is going to change it into a Jeep.

I think this year is the year of the Lego. I forsee tons tiny pieces in our future.

Any ideas on organizing all of these into their respective sets for storage?

Family vacay planning...

While we save up money for our Disney Cruise, hopefully in the summer of 2012, we have decided to take the boys camping for our 2011 vacation.

This seems ideal for our wallets as well as for the activities they have for the kids. If you know me at all, you know that "roughing it" means a hotel without room service, so we had to pick a place that had cabins with air conditioning and a bathroom. I refuse to hike it in the middle of the night to go to the potty.

So over Spring Break we will be heading to Waller to Jellystone Park! The boys are very excited about all the things they can do there, all with Yogi Bear. I mean, what more could you ask for? A pool, splash pad, serpent slide, mini-golf, petting zoo, fishing, campfires...the boys will have a blast.

I am super excited that our cabin has a full kitchen, a bathroom, a loft for the kids, air conditioning and heating, a screened in patio, and a fire pit. We can bring our cereals and milk, have sandwiches, roast hot dogs and marshmallows, and still go to the snack bar for goodies if we want.

Roughing it in style, that's how I do it.

As 2010 comes to an end....

I reflect on our lives this past year. We have had a fantastic year. Even though Josh worked a lot, I think we still were able to spend a good deal of time together as a family. That is actually Josh's resolution for 2011...to spend more time with me and with the kids.

Jansen started Kung Fu in January. In February, Caleb took a cooking class and an archery class. In March we took a family trip to Monster Jam World Finals in Las Vegas for Caleb's birthday. In April, Jansen took field trips in his final year of preschool. In May we found out Jansen had horrible allergies and asthma and ripped out all our carpet to be replaced with laminate. June saw us either at the library, the pool, or the Rec Center. July, Caleb broke his arm and we had to get really creative, but we still got to see the Circus. In August, Josh and I saw Kathy Griffin, we took the kids to the Astros, and my babies started Kinder and 2nd grade! Soccer season and piano began in September and my kids became Mario and Luigi for Halloween in October. November began with a "congratulations on your weight loss" trip to Cozumel for myself and Josh, and then was followed by my being in bed for the rest of the month after my Mommy Makeover surgery. December was very odd...trying to recover and feel "right" again, while getting ready for Christmas. This was the first year that I honestly did not feel the Christmas spirit at all. It was actually very sad. But I am sure that next year it will return again.

AND TODAY JANSEN LOST HIS FIRST TOOTH!!!


My goals for next year, having reached most of them this year, are more financial.

I want to build our emergency savings back up, since we reduced it by half when Caleb broke his arm.

We never paid off our last credit card this year, and actually gained one more balance....so I would LOVE to have both of those paid off.

And on a personal level, I want to start running. More specifically, I just want to be able to run anywhere from 1-5 miles non stop. That can't be that hard, right???

We have had a blast this year, but I feel like we over extended ourselves. Half of me thinks, we can't take money with us. And the other half thinks we are in a recession and we need to have savings galore. I want to meet somewhere in the middle, do my best, and have fun with the family.

Merry Christmas!

We are so blessed. We hope your family had a wonderful, blessed holiday as well!!!