This week is turning out to be very busy. Today was full of errands and doctor appointments. Tomorrow, dd will start school. We had a nice, long break and now it is time to hit the books.

Dh has been on call this week and it has been rough. The temps are past 100 degrees and it feels worse. I am thankful that we enjoyed our time when it was cooler outside.

After we hit another goal for the house, our family will be getting new bikes. This is something that we will enjoy doing as a family. We’ve already found a nice bike trail, in SC, which we are going to try. This will probably happen in the fall, when the weather is cooler. After the cost of the bikes, it will be a cheap way to have fun with the family. I can pack a picnic and off we will go.

This weekend was spent going over the new curriculum, watching all of the parent orientations, and making copies of school work. Our “classroom” is set up again for a new school year. Dd and ds are so excited. This weekend, we will go and “school” shop for a few things that I don’t have on hand. Not much is needed but just the thought of school shopping brings excitement to the family. Hope you have a blessed day. I

This is what I received in the mail along with the new curriculum. I am going to keep them. lol.

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     RollerBlades?! What was I thinking? Dd is learning to use them as I type. She is skating around the kitchen. It has been years, not telling how many, since I have been on a pair of rollerblades. I have tried to teach her and now she is practicing. She has on a helmet, wrist guards (which I love), new pads and elbow pads. My dh says that she needs cushion on her backside. Ds has all the same gear with his Fisher Price roller blades. I must have lost my mind for a few minutes.lol.

     Today is a day to relax. Do what I want to do. I am working on organizing my pictures. I finally started last night and this will be my “have to-do” project for the week. We are still enjoying our summer break. I will order the new curriculum soon. I am trying not to think about it and just enjoy. We quick cleaned the house yesterday so I will have a few days without major cleaning. Hope everyone has a wonderful day. God Bless. I

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     Hello everyone. Hope you have had a wonderful week. This has been a very busy week for our family. Dd’s recital went well. It is over for another year. I am always surprised how much work, piano is for the parent.

     Dh drove to Florida and back in one day. He didn’t want to miss his dd’s performance. How sweet. I wish he would have spent the night somewhere so he didn’t drive all the distance in one day. When he got home, he told me this was his plan all along. Gotta love that dh.

     Dd took her standardized test this week. Woo-hoo it is over. Praise The Lord.  For two days, dd was wiped out after taking the test. One of dd’s friends is in PS. They had testing this week, also. She is going to spend the night, on Friday, and we are having an EOG party. They will have a blast. The friend has test anxieties, so this week has been horrible for her. They can eat snack foods and play games. What a fun time at our home.

     I need to get out of the house this morning to run some errands. I have to go get my allergy shot, go to the Post Office, and to the grocery store. Ds had a rough night and I am being very lazy this morning. Yes, I did say lazy. I do plan on deep cleaning the house today and steam cleaning the carpets. Hope everyone has a blessed day. I

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     In my last post, I talked about stopping and praying over the money situation. I normally do this but failed to this time. Panic over to many large bills in a row.  When I finished that post it was my time for prayer. God gave me clarity with the situation. No more stressing out. Dh said that we should call HR about the situation with the hospital. I am glad to post that all is well. Praise The Lord.

     We also were able to make another goal on the house. I am not sure how this happened but only can say that God is Good. I feel that we are using our money as God intended.

     Last Thursday Night, I looked at dh and told him that we did have money to go on vacation. Did he think he think that he could get a few more days off? The answer was yes and 12 hours later we went to the mountains. My dh was extremely happy that he was able to get away. Hope you have a blessed day. I

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     Today was my first allergy shot. The receptionist told me that the office is not on my insurance network. Isn’t that wonderful?! Not. They were suppose to collect all of this money on my first visit. Yikes. I posted about another bill so this is a hard week. I went to the mailbox and got another bill yesterday. 1700 dollars. Yes. I was expecting that bill to be 600 dollars. The hospital is no longer on our network. They were but are no longer. The ones that take the insurance don’t seem to be listed anywhere. It has been a tough week. I will pray about the money situation and all will be okay. We do have an emergency fund but I try NOT to touch it. My dear husband does not spend change. He keeps the money and calls it my “shoe” money. Whenever we go on a vacation, he always wants me to spend this money on extras. I want to spend it on a hospital bill. Lol.

     Today is the last day of dd’s school. She is almost complete in all of her subjects. All that is left is English. Tomorrow we will complete everything and get all of the paperwork in order. I am so happy. Dd is so happy.

     I went to the store last night and finished up all the “stocking” up. We had sick house a few weeks ago and I never restocked. It is always easier to have everything on hand in case someone gets sick. Dh is going to have to make some chicken stock. I bought a chicken and dh normally makes all the stock. I pack it in small bags and make chicken noodle soup whenever needed. Easy, simple and oh so good. Hope everyone has a blessed day. I

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     Just a simple Saturday, my family just had a wonderful day together. Not much was accomplished but we enjoyed the day anyway. Dh wanted to go look at the flea market. I don’t think we purchased anything but a few books. I did purchase 2 shorts for ds (yardsale). The whole trip cost 2 dollars. Not much money but good family time.

     Lunch was a joint effort by dh and myself. Dh cooked the chicken in the pressure cooker (I’m scared of the PC) and I made homemade egg noodles. We also took some field peas out of the freezer. The meal was yummy and cheap. I figure the whole meal cost around 3 dollars. Yes, three dollars. Our food budget is cut because I am still trying to clean out the freezer. During hurricane season, I hate to have a well stocked freezer. When the power goes out in our “neck of the woods”, it can stay out.

     Another reason for using the stuff in the freezer is that we are working on another “goal” (principal payments) on the house. When this happens, we will get a new heating and air unit. I have been putting money aside for this purpose and once we meet our house payment goal there should also be enough money in the “air” fund. I am strange about our goals. I like to be rewarded for our hard work. We will have wonderful cool air during the hot days of the South. I have asthma and allergies so I don’t open windows. I am suffering now from another ear/sinus infection from enjoying all the Spring days outside. It was still worth it to spend quality time with my family. Hope you have a blessed day. I

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     Dd had a friend spend the night, Friday. She was able to play board games and just enjoy being a kid. It seems so nice for my daughter to just enjoy. I think the World gets in the way of children just enjoying themselves. I went out to dinner with a friend and her daughter text messaged her 40 times while we were out. No emergency. The daughter was spending the night with another child and just kept texting. When did she have time to enjoy her friend.???? Some things I just don’t understand.

      On Saturday, ds got a very, very, very small scratch on his hand. Dh bandaged the hand. This is the outcome. My dramaking son enjoyed this. Hope you have a blessed day. I

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     Our family had a wonderful weekend. Saturday was packed with piano stuff. Dh managed to re-till the garden and put lime down. Dd received honorable mention in her piano contest. We were so proud of her. She did work very hard. I am glad that I don’t have to listen to those songs again. Next, will be her year-end recital. I am not a musician and had no idea how much work went in to piano. She is learning so much from piano.

     Sunday our family played hooky. We went on our annual Spring Picnic. I threw everything together and had a wonderful time. This year we were able to walk a trail. The energy of a 3year old turned out to be a good thing. Dd and I took a lot of pictures. Dh had to get in on the fun. He took some good shots of the kids. I am going to go through all of the pictures today and delete some. I just took a lot of different things so that I will delete the worst ones.

     I am hoping to change my blog around this week. Gloria (Blessedmomoften) inspirited me change my blog. I need something lighter for Spring. Hope everyone has wonderful day. Take time today to see what God has made. I

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     Dd and I watched an episode of Oprah that I had taped. Yes, Oprah. I had seen the commercial about the homeless. Lisa Leng (sp) did one of her documentaries about homeless people living in California. They had tent cities and one family moving from a day shelter to a night shelter. I just felt their pain. Several of them had ARM loans. Yikes. This is what set them(some of the people) off to financial ruin. Everyone should stop and look at their finances. Please stop spending and get an emergency fund in place. This is so important. I know that without a job, an emergency fund can go fast. At least, you can have a little bit of breathing room. Yes, there are things that can be taken out of your budget. Been there, done that. At one time, Dh said that he couldn’t wait to be able to have a few “extra” dollars in his wallet. We went by a strict budget. I told people, I am sorry but that isn’t in my budget. It didn’t bother me. I had bigger plans.  The Lord had opened my eyes several years ago.

     I am working on cleaning and organizing the freezer. This week is grocery day (every two weeks) and I am only going to buy the accentuals.  I use up a lot of what is on hand, so that I can start again. It always seems to help use up all the bits and pieces. Spring is in the air, so I am Spring Cleaning my supplies. Our inside freezer is a mess. I forgot about a few things in our deep freezer. When I got sick, I forgot a lot of little things. Apparently I forgot all the produce that I froze and canned last summer. Tonight’s supper will be grilled pork steaks, field peas and maybe a rice dish. Yummy. This will be simple meal which is my favorite. I am hoping to get back to menu planning. This was a wonderful tool but I have stopped doing them. Bad Homesteader. Lol. 

     Dd is teaching herself to play the guitar. She has a book and cd but if anyone has had success with a program please let me know. If she continues with this, we might send her for lessons next school year. I will have to see if this is a faze or something to learn. Hope you have a wonderful day. I

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     Dh left the house at 6:15. They will be leaving out at 7 to go to Kentucky. He knows about where they will be located. I guess when they get there he will know for sure. Lol. I guess that is leaving on Faith. Dd and I packed a snack bag for the road and when he needs his nightly granola bar. This might help him stay on track. My dh loves a small snack at night. We don’t know how long he will be gone but their is a lot of damage. I will be missing him along with the children. It was a tearful goodbye. I started telling ds (yesterday) that daddy had to go sleep at work in Kentucky. Dh is a big part of our daily routine (of course). Can you tell that he doesn’t go away from home often?

     Our snow day was interrupted yesterday with snack buying and washing clothes. Dd and I were on pins and needles waiting from a call from dh. I believe that we will take today off, also. Dd has not had a lot of time off (we are ahead of PS) and we need some crafty/snuggle time. I also need to finish some paperwork. Hope all is well. Thank you for the prayers for dh and the people he works with. God Bless. I

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     Debt. Yuck! What a ugly word. I posted about Dave Ramsey, again. I checked his books out at the library, listened to him on the internet, read his weekly column (internet) and read his website. All for free. His has a lot of tools that would have helped, one being Financial Peace College, but there were no local churches with the meetings. Dh and I sat down and talked about what I was learning. Dh read things that I printed out and listened to the DR show. All that DR says is common sense because sometimes people need a reminder. Most people know what to do but get sidetracked by stuffitious. It happens to the best of us. Lol.

     Our dryer broke two weeks ago and we bought a new one. Just like that. No credit card and no worrying about where the money is coming from. I praise the Lord for all our blessings. Our heater seems to be on its last leg. I am not panicked about this situation. We have an emergency fund (in case it dies) and I am saving money for the new unit.

     God is good. If you have an outrageous grocery bill, I would stop by YPAmy5’s blog. She is the best person with a food budget. Her blog will give you inspiration for your food budget.  I also love Crystal Miller’s Blog and news letter.

These things were on my mind this morning. I guess it was all the talk on the news this morning. So many people are loosing there jobs. People have to try and get there finances in order. It will “help” reduce some of the stress and give people a cushion for finding a job (tougher now). I have been without the cushion and without a job. It stinks. Hope you have a wonderful day. God Bless. I

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