I love Wednesdays

When I was younger you would never have caught me enjoying a lazy day at home. I there was always something to do or I was rushing off to someplace. At one point in my youth (I was 18) I was working three jobs just to stay busy. Now that I'm older and have my little munchkins to look after I want nothing more than to spend the day just relaxing with them at the house. Don't get me wrong I still like to go and do things with my little ones but I work so dang much at the moment just to get the pleasure of watching them play at home is a luxury for me. That's why I love Wednesdays. It is my one day off during the week that I try not to schedule anything to do and usually let the chores slide for the day. I let the kids sleep in and let my son watch all his favorite cartoons. They get to make a mess and I don't make a fuss. It's just a wonderful opportunity for them to be kids and for me to get to observe them without the stresses of work or household responsibilities to be in the back of my mind.

It's days like this that my longing to be able to stay home with them permanently is felt most intensely because as much as the days bring me joy they are tempered with sadness in the knowledge that it ends.

It is such an unusual feeling for me because after my son was born I went back to work without much issue and worked long hours, holidays and weekends just as I do now. I think that the urge to stay home started to enter into my unconscious when my son turned three. Now that he is old enough to really communicate with me and his personality is really starting to develop I want to be the one that molds him into the wonderful young man that I know he will be one day. I can't do that working 50+ hours a week. So this thought coupled with the fact that I have grown weary of the retail world (I've worked retail on and off since I was 15) has driven my desire to be a sahm.

However, money is always a factor in these decisions and until I can financial leave my job I will continue to look forward to my mid-week escape into the eyes of my children.

Planning for the Unexpected

When you are living paycheck to paycheck it is often easy to overlook a necessary part of your budget process that will prove to be a major stress reducer. This often overlook step is to pay yourself first. Having a savings account or secondary checking account has really set my mind at ease over the last few months as unexpected bills have occurred. I used to look at an unexpected expense as the end of the world complete with cursing, screaming, and head pounding. This was all in effort to try to figure out what to do as well as where we were going to get the money. We had even on occasion done the unspeakable and turned to cash advance places. These places charge nearly 300% interest and inevitably lead to larger financial problems. Now with proper planning I no longer have to patch the wall when something unexpected happens.

The first part of the process though is figuring out how much you can reasonably save each week/month and still be able to pay all of your bills and expenses. This amount may only be $10 a week or it maybe $100 it will vary depending on your situation. Once the amount is set you need to make sure the money gets there every time without fail. Theory is wonderful but without action it's just a lazy idea that really doesn't mean much.

This is also a wonderful way to save up for large expenses. For instance right now we are saving for Christmas. I actually have a separate "gift" account just for this that has been a blessing. I put a set amount in the account each week and as my gift needs dictate or as I find sale items I can simply purchase them without effecting my budget in any way. I don't have to worry about how I'm going to afford Christmas this year or next year I just know the money will be there when I need it.

All in all creating a savings account to pay yourself first has been one of our biggest financial wins. This is also helping us to move towards our goal of me being a sahm because we will have the savings in place. As the budget becomes smaller having a back-up for unexpected events will put my mind at ease.

Chicken Corn Casserole

This is one of my all time favorite cheap filling recipes. I took a recipe for scalloped corn and tweaked it a bit to make it more of a meal rather than a simple side dish. This is one my family always loves and helps to stretch my budget dollars just a little further. This is also great for potlucks because it holds up well without really needing to be kept warm. I hope you enjoy it.

• 2 eggs
• 1 (14 ounce) can creamed corn
• 1 (14 ounce) can whole kernel corn (undrained)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 (8 ounce) package Jiffy cornbread mix
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
  

Directions

1. Beat eggs slightly.
2. Add sour cream, butter and corn.
3. Fold in dry Jiffy corn mix.
4. Add in Chicken and Cheese
5. Put in baking disk (square shallow dishes work better).
6. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes.
7. Check center with knife. If it come out clean it's done.

If you have any questions let me know. I'd love to know what you think.

She Colors My Day

I love companies that give back to the world in some significant way. I am a person that will often either stop shopping somewhere or begin shopping somewhere because of what how they give back to the community and world in which they live and work. That said I had to share this link with you for some wonderful work that Philosophy is doing.

The founder of the Philosophy company teamed up with Amy Grant and has created the site She Colors My Day . The site is a beautiful dedication to woman and their daughters. A song sung by Amy Grant and created by Cristina Carlino and her friend Stuart Mathis is featured on the site. The site is dedicated to raising money to fund woman's cancer research. The cool thing is that by creating a wonderful slide show to the song (that you can email to your friends) a $1.00 will be donated to the research fund. Philosophy has also created a line of bath products and a sketch book where a 100% of the proceeds go to the research fund. I will warn you though...grab your tissues it's a moving song and beautiful tribute to the bond between a mother and daughter.

If more companies were as socially minded as Philosophy imagine what we could accomplish.

It's in the Genes

So I know of the mother's curse "I hope you have a child just like you" and I also know that my mom had it pretty easy with me. So I thought what the heck if I have kids like me it will be a breeze. What I didn't know is some of my more unflattering traits that didn't really show themselves until adulthood could become so pronounced in my young children that I would both laugh and cry when I began to notice.

I think this may be put into overdrive with the fact that my husband shares similar traits. The particular trait in question is being so stubborn on wanting to accomplish something that she will continue to struggle even when defeat is eminent. I know that infants and toddlers have a stubborn side and it is completely normal. However, I know some of you moms out there know what I'm talking about. When it feels like what's happening goes above what you thought was normal. To make things more interesting my son was a very easy baby. He was easy going and so far has made it into toddler hood without making me want to pull my hair out. My daughter is giving me grey hair at seven months!

Every day it is a complete power struggle between the two of us. Now before you go off your rockers and say she's a baby there shouldn't be a struggle let me explain. It's a struggle in the sense that she has a lot of endurance and could cry for more than an hour without giving up the fight. (let me just say two hour car ride...very tired baby that refused to go to sleep....non-stop crying regardless of the many stops, bottle, change, and binky insertions that happened) For the most part she is a happy playful baby that loves attention however in the moments that she needs to do something that isn't part of her plan well let me just say I think I've spotted horns. It has led to many sleepless nights and days where I feel like I'm the worst mom ever because she won't stop crying. It also has me left with an awful sense of dread of the not to distant teenage years where raging hormones sends even the most docile little girl into fits of she-devilness.

Then there are those quite moments where she lies sleeping like an angel and I stop and think of how much of my temperament she has and I laugh quietly to myself. I may not have a child that is like I was as a child but she certainly is like me now. The fierce determination to accomplish something no matter what is every bit of me in her.

One day we will look back at these days and laugh just as my mother and I do now but until then I laugh and some days cry as she tests both her limits and mine.

Website Thursday

Fall is one of the busiest times of year for families with children with after school activities, holiday gatherings, and special projects it would be easy to forget something. Well I happened to find a wonderful FREE site that helps you keep track of all your many to do lists in one place. The Cozi family calender and planner is a great tool to help keep you on top of things. It allows you to create color coded calenders for each member of your family, grocery lists, event reminders, and even a family journal with pictures. One of the most amazing features of this online planner is that it will allow you to send text message reminders to your cell phone for FREE! If you are in the market for a family calender and are technology inclined I highly recommend the Cozi Family Calender.

Let me know what you think or if you are already using this great resource leave me your thoughts.

Habit Forming

I have a tendency to be a creature of habit and like routines in order to make my days as smooth as possible. I can hear you laughing. When it comes to my children I'm more of a go with the flow simply because I don't have a choice every day is unpredictable depending on how they wake up in the morning. However, with the things that I can have more control over I enjoy having a plan and keeping to it the best I can.

So my thoughts are to have a couple of days each week where the post would serve a particular purpose and not simply be my aimless musings of whatever happened to be on my mind that day. I am also thinking that as the reader you can come to expect certain things from my blog and will let you know that I'm committed to updating on a regular basis. My proposed schedule is as follows:

Sunday: New Recipe
Tuesday: Frugal Living
Thursdays: New and Interesting Website (anything from shopping to family resources)
Saturday: Products (either those that I think are interesting and I want to try or those that I have tried)

Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays I will leave to my random writings about my crazy life as a mom and my journey to becoming a stay at home mom.

What do you think? Anything else you think I should wax poetic about? Drop me a comment to voice your opinion. I'd love to hear it.