New Year’s Check Up

Goal:  Be anywhere near as happy as Dan…That’d be great!

As I wrote in a previous post, my goal for 2014 is to chill.  I want to calm down, enjoy my children, and not get all worked up about a bunch of stuff that doesn’t even matter all that much!

  I was doing pretty great on day one, but then January 2nd hit, and Alan went back to work.

  I don’t think ‘calm’ or ‘happy’ would be the first adjectives my children would use to describe me Thursday and Friday.  

  Sigh.  Maybe it would have been easier to just say 2014 Goal:  Lose 5 pounds.  ha!

  Oh well, I’ll be chill tomorrow…..for today I have started reading a book I just HAVE to share with you!

The author is also a blogger at http://moneysavingmom.com/.

  I’m only on chapter two, but already I feel inspired!

My favorite things so far about this book:

–She talks about the importance of budgeting your time the same way you would budget your money.  You can bet 2 hours (at least) will be taken by things you do not expect, plan 8 hours for sleep, and the rest for the things that matter most to you.  She points out that  you can end up feeling like you’ve failed after a very productive day, just because you planned way too many activities for that one day.

–She provides charts in the back of the book to help you plan.

–She talks about the importance of de-cluttering your house.  

–She reminds us of the importance of setting a big goal and then breaking it into smaller pieces.

I so look forward to reading the rest of this book!!  Highly recommend!  We’ve been living “debt-free” for four years now, but tightening our belts really needs to happen this year.  Raising children is expensive!!

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Update on the kids:

  Joshua is playing basketball this year.  Alan said that he and Xavier had a great game today.  Joshua had made such a huge improvement from the last game that he got the “game ball” today!  Yay, Joshua!!

  We have learned so much about handling team sports, now that we’ve been doing this a few years!  

Our new rule:  No kid plays team sports before 1st grade.

  With the first kid, it wasn’t really so bad because it was just ONE kid’s sports schedule to manage, but with as many as we have now…..If they are going to take up that much of the family’s time each week, the child needs to be able to actually understand what they are playing out there!!

   Also, we burned our kids out on baseball before they had a chance to really get good, and we don’t want to make that mistake again!  But then sports just weren’t really something our first two boys were into at a very young age.  If they’d actually liked it, it might have been different!!

  Caleb insists that he DOES still like soccer, and he’s already on me to register him for spring.  I wonder if I can convince him to wait until next year, when the goalie position begins…..

   John David is finally all better! 

Dan has had great potty training success this week! 

No one is sick here!   Hurray! 

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I have to share a great find!  I’ve been on the hunt for a good work-out shirt, without having to order online.  I hate Target’s because I don’t look so great in spandex these days….sooo  I found a very simple 100% cotton Hanes, purple t-shirt at Wal-mart.  For $3.88!!!  Love it.  Now it’s not the best for major sweating, as it is 100% cotton, but for a winter work-out, I really like it.

“Don’t let the urgent take the place of the important in your life.”  –Charles Hummel  

(quote found in The Money Saving Mom’s Budget  by Crystal Paine)