Blessings From Home

Wednesday at Home

Yes today was an at home day...I have to say and can't believe I haven't mentioned it yet, but the weather here has been magnificent. I haven't had to run my a/c in over 3 days. I don't comment too much on the weather because for one I'm pretty well used to the ups and downs of Oklahoma weather, and also my mother always taught me if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.  So I've learned to keep quiet and learn that the seasons will eventually change. Wasn't it Wiley Post that said, If you don't like the weather in Oklahoma, wait a minute and it will change. Well that's the motto I've learned to live by here.

Today was a regular ole day at home....laundry was done, dishes, the house kept up, and meals cooked. I'm preparing for a busy day tomorrow. We will be getting up, doing school and leaving at around 11am to go run errands. We'll be going to the library first to let my son sign up for his library card and to pick up an armload of books, then I'm going to have our lunch packed to have a nice picnic at the park for lunch, and then to pay bills and do our weekly shopping. Then home again for a quiet evening at home...hopefully.

I am really trying hard right now to refocus on some things. What is it about the change of seasons that make you want to re-evaluate your life? Some things on my mind right now are things such as...

~Money issues- Right now, since I am no longer babysitting, we are making enough on my husband's income to pay all our regular bills and have around 600 dollars a month for gas, groceries, and other irregular expenses. For instance, my husband's tag is due next month, that is an irregular expense. As it is we are barely scraping by every month and I know we can do better than that. I will admit I have not been a very good steward of my husband's money. I don't go out and blow it, but I can't tell you how many times I've said, oh, I don't feel like cooking, let's just eat out or go buy some expensive convenience food. My goal is to re evaluate our grocery budget and my meal planning. I know I can bake our bread a lot cheaper than I can buy it, but I only do that when I feel like it. As with all the other ways I know I can save if I just do it. I'm going to start implementing these money saving ideas I have found on a daily basis. I am also going to talk to my dh about cutting back our bills (tv, phone) back as much as possible. Right now, we are only renting, and I don't want to rent forever. I want to have a home of my own and I know the only way we can do that is by saving, saving, saving. I'm prepared to do some saving, even if that means all the extra work.

~Stocking up-Something especially heavy on my heart lately is the need I feel to stock up on food, supplies, etc. I don't know why exactly I feel so strongly about this, but I am certain it is something that the Lord is leading me to. Times are scary right now where we live. The huge plant my dh worked at shut down last summer and more than 600 people lost their job. I just found out that the plant where my dad works at, and has for nearly 30 years, is shuttting down in April '08. At least 200 people will lose their jobs then. Fortunately right now my husband has a decent job, but it is certainly not secure. He builds horse trailers and while he is busy right now, there will not always be a huge demand for horse trailers especially with times getting tough for everyone around here. When big companies shut down, it pulls the whole community down with it. So as part of my grocery re-evaluation, I will be looking for ways we can spend a small amount per week just for stocking up. Deanna has got tons of sites listed to help me get started, so I will definately be checking on those again.

~Health-As I posted earlier in the week, I am concerned about my weight and need to make eating healthier a priority in my life. An update on my week so far....I am on day 5 without so much as a sniff of soda pop of any kind, and although I haven't managed to drink a whole 64 oz of water per day, I am still drinking a lot of water, and eating a lot healthier too.

~Routines- Ya know, I can't say enough about routines. How much they help one to get through the day to day. When I go without following some sort of routine, my day just seems to go nowhere. It's so important for me to find a routine that works for me and my family and stick with it.

~Homeschooling-I have been working hard on trying to rework our homeschooling plan and have gotten a lot figured out. As I said before, we will be sticking with the same ole for the core curriculum (math, language arts). But I am venturing out for the rest of the subjects. For science I will be choosing a topic and we will stick with it for as long as we feel we need to. I think we will start with weather, climates, and possibly the water cycle. For social Studies, I am going to start focusing on family, neighborhood, community. Learning more about what is right here around us. For extracurricular, he is in cub scouts and we have lots of fun things to do so that he can earn lots of badges and other neat stuff. We will choose one good historical book to read together and I will have one book for Nick to read on his own. Other than that I will be playing it by ear. I am looking into something pointed out to me called the Prairie Primer. It's a all year long unit study based on the Little House on the Prairie books and it covers so much information. It's a big expense to start with, but nothing like having to buy all those books for each subject.

~Simplifying-And last but not least, I am truly ready to simplify. I have been reading a blog I found recently by a wonderful lady named Jewels-Eyes of Wonder . I'm sure many of you have "met" her. Her life seems so simple and yet so fulfillng and peaceful. I want that so much for my life and family, and I know it is possible. I'm ready to let go of the clutter that takes over my home and heart. This wonderful heartfelt peace will not be attained easily though. I know it will take some work to get started, but I am truly ready to work for this. I am ready to be able to relish in the small things that are so special. The memories of my children and family. I don't know if I can truly put into words what I want, but I will find it.

I know the first step I must make in this journey to peace and happiness is in prayer. I can't change anything without the Lord being there with me to guide my steps. So I will be spending a lot of time in the Word and praying over these areas in my life that need change. I am going to start limiting my free time on the computer to only once or twice a day at the most. I need to start focusing more on my family now instead of so much time reading my favorite blogs and websites. I have a long list of to-dos needing done and I am going to be working diligently on them . I am sorry I got to rambling on so long. But the mind needs an outlet to get all these things out so that they might make some sense and that's just what this was for me. A chance to make sense of all my ponderings and worries. I thank you if you have stuck around through this lengthy post.  I pray your day was blessed and that you have a blessed day tomorrow.

Love,

Sara