Priorities

This kid right here is what really matters so I've issued a challenge to myself. For one week I'm not going to turn the tv on while Kaleb is awake. Instead we're going to play, read, go outside, and clean up. I feel like I spend so much time telling him "no" and I realized it's because I'm so busy "relaxing," aka. watching tv, that I don't pay attention. I know, that's horrible. So the tv goes off while Kaleb is up. Today I had my class so I spent the good part of the day in Hattiesburg. When I got home it was past time for Kaleb's nap so I put him down and, instead of watching tv, worked on some homework to get ahead in my July class. I know that when I have to start working in my classroom I'm going to lose time to work on my homework, so I'm trying to get ahead so I don't fall behind. When he got up about an hour later we played outside and he played with trucks while I cleaned out our junk drawer and double checked our massive beginning of the month shopping list. I think it's going to be tempting to turn on the tv, but I can resist for at least a week. I'm not that lazy. I do find that I'm exhausted at 9:30 so maybe I'll be able to fall asleep before 2:00 am.

July's Menu

We decided to do things a little bit differently in July. Usually we make a menu for each week as it comes so we only buy things we need. This month I decided to make a menu for all of July. We made a list of all the things we cook and put a star by our "two-fers." These are the meals that provide leftovers or when we buy the ingredients we can get several meals out of it without having to buy more (ex. spaghetti).


Then I made a rough calendar for July and filled in my meals. I made sure that we had 2 "two-fer" meals a week and then the other three days picked the meals that we could only use once (ex. shake n bake chicken nuggets). The circled days are days when Eric will be home late from band camp so the meals need to be easily reheated or remade (ex. Shepherd's pie or pizza-dillas).



Then, on the back, I made a shopping list for each week. I know that if I buy spaghetti ingredients I can use them for at least 3 meals so I didn't have to put them on the list again once I bought them. Once I had my list of ingredients for the month I put stars by the ones I could buy that wouldn't go bad like my dry ingredients, canned food, and breads. Then I made a master list of ingredients and circled the meats, vegetables, and fruits that would spoil. Now my weekly WalMart trips will be small and only include the necessaries like cereal, milk, snacks, and meats. Hopefully this will cut down our WalMart bill. We'll see how it works.

June 24

June 24th. One week away from PAYDAY, five days away from my first class's final, 16 days away from the worst time of year -band camp-, and the day things turned around. We've recently discovered some things:

1. We are horrible stewards of God's money. The only thing we faithfully do is tithe and it's the only reason we've been able to survive some months. God's grace is unending and we receive the benefits of it every time we need it. Other than tithing, we don't keep up with the money He's blessed us with very well. Our weakness(es) - food. Eating out, buying too many snacks, wasting food we already have...you name, we do it. However, now we realize it and we have an accountability system with each other so we're going to see how much we can save this year.

2. We're about to make a big change. I can't say much about it now, but I can say that this is truly the first time in our married lives that we're really going to have to trust God to open some doors and provide for us.

3. Our house is never going to stay truly clean. It's just not going to happen. With a baby and a dog we'd have to be constantly cleaning. That's not to say that we're going to live in a pigpen, just that you shouldn't expect to come over and see no mess. Floors will be swept, clothes will be clean (just not put up all the time), we'll have clean dishes to eat on, it just won't be spotless. We're trying.

4. It's okay to neglect other things (especially our selfish natures) in order to play with Kaleb. Homework can wait until he's asleep, housework can wait til naptime, he can help us pick up toys and we can make it a game. He's only at this stage for a little while then he's slamming doors and screaming "I hate you!" This is the time we need to make those memories we think back on during those more trying times. If we do have another baby this time next year, his little life will be changed, too.

They may be "DUH" realizations for y'all, but it takes time for me.

Anniversary Week

Eric and I had our 4th anniversary on June 16. We went to Natchez for a few days during the week to celebrate while our parents took turns taking care of Kaleb. It was really nice to be able to eat out without worrying about a fussy or loud baby who wants to get down and walk around. We went to the cemetaries in Natchez and there were some pretty old tombstones there. Most of them were from the Civil War time period, obviously. There weren't rows and rows of tombs in the city cemetary (there were in the national one that is reserved for military), instead it was more like square plots where families were. One gravesite was for a man who fought in the Revolutionary War and died in 1823. That's pretty unfathomable for me. Eric pointed out that if we went to Europe (YES PLEASE!) the tombs would be so much older than the ones we were looking at.
We also toured one of the old homes, Stanton Hall. It was only a thirty minute tour and covered the first two floors (out of five) and we weren't allowed to take pictures, so nothing to show there. It was pretty interesting though. They still had a lot of the original pieces of the house and made some replications of carpets and stuff so we could see what it was really like. It must've been HOT back in those days with no air. Can you imagine?
One cool thing about Natchez is that you can walk just about anywhere. We stayed at the Grand Hotel near the river and were able to walk to everywhere except the cemetaries. There were some cute little shops and restaurants and just a short drive to WalMart and a more commercialized area.
We ended up watching movies in the hotel for a good part of the day because it was so hot. Judge if you must, but when we go on vacation we want to relax, watch movies, and take it easy so that suited us just fine. Plus it was so hot outside that we didn't really feel like walking all day. Overall it was a fantastic trip and probably the last one we'll be able to take solo for awhile.

What's Been Going On

This is our second week of summer (8 more to go) and it's been kind of a chill week. We got Kaleb back from my parents on Sunday and it was like he'd grown into a big boy within those 3 days away. The smile on his face when we walked into the McDonald's play place was priceless. We learned very quickly that he has a new favorite word - airplane, or rather, "airpane." All week we've been cleaning up and playing outside a lot. Kaleb could play outside all day everyday, but it's so hot outside that it makes me nervous to keep him out for long. Starting at about 5:30 we spend the rest of the time outside, sometimes in our yard, sometimes at a park, but always a good time. Last night we watched The Social Network with Jessica and it was really pretty good. It made Mark Zuckerberg seem like a complete jerk, but it was an interesting movie about the rise of the Facebook phenomenon. We got to talking afterwards about how profoundly Facebook has affected all of us.
Next week I have my class on Monday and Heather's wedding and festivities starting Friday. The week after that Eric and I are going to Natchez for our anniversary.