Week 49 of 52: Just a Hunk, a Hunk of Burning Love

That's right folks, meet our elf: Elvis.  He's a handsome little chap, and like the real Elvis, occasionally gets the munchies.  Poor elf, since he ended up at a dietitian's home, he has to improvise from his preferred peanut butter, bacon, and sandwich.

So last night Elvis settled for Cheerios and dried cranberries.  George was thrilled to find him in the cereal bowl, but did ask, "How did he do that? Did you do that?"  I decided next time I won't lie to him, but just remind him the story says if we touch him he loses his magic.

 

My favorite lines from George's letter to Santa (as dictated to me):

Samuel has been grouchy, and George has been good.

Please bring me a backhoe and a new elf.  Please bring Samuel um, um, a piece of paper. (First thing he saw.)

Then I asked, don't you want Santa to bring Samuel something?

Please bring Samuel AND ME a four wheeler.

Please get mama and daddy two bikes and a couch. Wait a minute, if the couch falls off the bike, it will make a hard sound and a big hole."   

Trust me, if I made this up, it would make more sense.

Week 44 of 52 - Super Heroes to the Rescue!

We bought the costumes weeks ago. At the time, I thought, wow, he will wear it one time, I could have bought an outfit for that price.  Then I recalled last year, when he wouldn't wear his mask, and wondered, did I make a mistake splurging for the "deluxe" version with cape and mask? Little did I know, he would wear it almost daily - costume, mask, and cape.

He wore it while watching a 1968 Batman episode on Youtube, literally dozens of times.

He wore it while eating a popsicle - he even let me put a towel over him to catch the drips.

And he wore it while playing with his little brother.  "Mom, dress Samuel up, make him be Wobin."  They ran and chased each other, finding something they could play together.

The costume is picked and grass-stained for tomorrow, but I will never forget this season of Batman.  It was worth every penny.

This last photo is one of my favorites of the year.  George was posing on the ramp, and without any warning, Samuel slides down the ramp, right into George's legs as the shutter clicks.

It symbolizes much of their relationship - George careful and deliberate in his actions, even at play, and Samuel crashing right through his days.  I believe their differences will help shape them each into better people.  It's our job to make sure they don't wipe each other out in the process.

Week 42 of 52 - Pumpkins!

We visited a pumpkin patch at a local church over the weekend.  I attempted to capture the season while we picked out pumpkins.

Most of our moments went something like this:  Here comes mom with the camera – RUN!

Other mothers see their child stumble and pick them up.  Moms with cameras see a non-moving toddler on the ground, do a quick visual sweep for absence of blood or tears, and hit that shutter button FAST!

So yeah, maybe I did say, "Mommy won't buy you a pumpkin unless you look at me for 2 seconds."

After we bought the pumpkins, we compared notes on our previous pumpkin carving skills and finding none between us, we did the only thing left to do  – head to Wal-Mart.   

We bought stuff we thought we needed but didn't, so learn from our mistakes: 

• Electric pumpkin carving knife - $5.87  USELESS.
  Would barely move through the pumpkin. George also had a sixth sense for finding it on every counter so we tossed it before the $5.87 knife could yield a $150 emergency room visit.

• Pumpkin Carving Kit ~ $3.87  A BIT USEFUL. 
  We used the little serrated knives and scoops.  All of the picks to trace the stencils broke off. So he used a tiny flathead screwdriver to tap out the pattern which worked well. 

• Stencil Book $1.47 USELESS. 
  We bought an extra book to have enough non-ghoulish stencils.  I ended up googling "funny pumpkin carving patterns" and finding these patterns!   This link gives printing instructions too.

What this sweet moment doesn't capture:  Walt trying to hear the Georgia game on the radio while saying 982 times, “No George, you can’t use the knife to carve the pumpkin. George, don’t cry, just let Daddy carve the pumpkin.  Yes George, when you are older, you can carve the pumpkin.  Get out of the floor and let your mother take a picture . ”

If we had it to do over, we would've bought him a little pumpkin to decorate with markers so he could participate more in that aspect.

Turns out Walt is quite the pumpkin carver.  He was disappointed he lost a tooth on Big Tooth Magee, but he did much better than I could have done.  (Sadly, I suffer from “I can't cut straight lines without left-handed scissors” craft-time baggage from childhood.)  We had fun and hopefully started a new tradition for our little guys.

Weeks 40 and 41: Toes in the Sand

We just returned from vacation.  As you may recall, we had bypassed an earlier beach vacation for our debt-free goal.  So now past Baby Step 2, we were very grateful for the time and opportunity to celebrate and take a break from our daily lives.

We visited Panama City.  Walt would have preferred to visit a remote barrier island with no signs of life, but alas, we chose a kid-focused vacation spot.  Needless to say, we were among the thousands of families who hit PCB for Fall break, but we really enjoyed ourselves.

I spent more time playing with my kids than taking photos, but here’s what I want to remember…in random order.

1.  The fabulous motorcycles and their riders.  Much to our excitement, PC was hosting a Thunder Beach motorcycle rally while we were there.

We watched them until dusk.

2.  My mom, our conversations, her laughter, and her delight in the Harleys.  No need to guess where I got my love for shiny chrome and loud engines.  Nor did I need to guess where George gets his ability to avert his eyes at the last second from my camera!

3. George’s delight in "the jumpy thing".  He asked to go to the jumpy thing at least 500 times.  We went twice.  He reminded me of myself when I get obsessed with something.

4. Samuel racing into the surf, too young to yet feel any fear.

5. The crystal-clear waters and the dozens of hermit crabs we found and tossed back.

6.  The duct-tape sign to claim our rented beach chairs in the most redneck fashion.

I made the sign after a confrontation with a guy who took our chairs.  When I asked him to move, he refused, and between drags on his cigarette, he used a certain 4-letter word as a noun, verb, and adjective.  I smiled,  prayed I wouldn't be the first victim of beach chair rage, and continued to stand over the chairs.

At one point, I told his girlfriend my mom had a bad hip (a half-truth) and we couldn't just go steal someone else's chairs as he suggested, we needed the ones on the end.  We got the chairs back, I marked them, and my mom limped every time we saw him.  We laughed the rest of the week about these folks and the conflict.

 7. Good budgeting pays off – we came back with $35 in our pockets.  And that's after several over-priced meals and giving into George's incessant pleas to "go back to Targets (sic) and get the Big Buzz and Big Woody" after discovering little Woody only said 3 different things and caused much frustration.  "Mom, do you remember the Big Woody?  Do you think we could get it?  Mom, do you like the Big Woody?  Samuel can have the Little Woody." 

8.  Our Creator greets and ends each day with His signature.  

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1: 20

9.  And at the end of the day, His love, care, and direction for our family is what matters - I'm thankful to have this time with them.

Week 37 of 52 - Budging the Grocery Budget...or not.

I’ve heard of a person’s body weight reaching a ‘set point’ where it’s hard to get the pounds to budge. But for us, our grocery and household envelope has also hit a set point.

We have one envelope for all of our household items – groceries, paper products, cleaning products, bath/grooming items, and baby supplies.

When we first began our budget, Walt wanted to separate these into 5 different envelopes, while I preferred the one-envelope approach as I knew who would get the dreadful task of breaking down a Kroger bill into 5 parts. When we met with the financial coach, I had my one-envelope defense prepared, and thankfully he recommended one envelope before I could clear my throat. Since we were chatting via conference call with the coach, only Walt could see my one-envelope victory dance.

So we’ve managed to meet the financial coach’s budget recommendation for that envelope. To do this, we use coupons, shop sales, plan meals, and use Amazon mom for diaper discounts. But try as we might, we weren't able to spend less than his recommendation. Then last month, we had almost $200 left in our grocery budget, so I thought I’d finally broken a record! I excitedly moved some over to savings, and covered a few other expenses.

Before I could revel in my accomplishment, the September grocery budget exploded – day diapers, night diapers, 932 tubes of diaper cream (or at least it seemed), good coupon stock-ups, and a few unexpected grocery trips. Suddenly, we are only 10 days into the month with $75 left for the rest of the month. So most likely, exactly what I “saved” last month will go back into this month’s grocery budget.

Lesson learned for us – our grocery dollars can’t be liquidated for other goals. If we spend less one month, we will undoubtedly make up the difference the next. I may never embrace my body’s natural set point, but I’m at making peace with the grocery set point… at least until the little guy is out of diapers.


We've been embracing the wonderful weather lately. On the cool days, we've played outside...

On the rainy days, we watched it rain and raced our trucks around...and eventually went to the Chickfila playground to burn the energy of cooped-up little boys.

Week 34 of 52 - Proceed to Checkout

What do savings accounts and scales have in common?  I can't fool either of them.

I’ve decided saving money is like maintaining a weight loss.  When you are losing weight, people see the pounds shedding, ask how you are doing it, and congratulate you on your progress.  When you are “shedding” debt, you see the numbers falling, payments ending, and you get to celebrate the victory when you are done.

Then comes the maintenance part of weight loss – figuring out how you can still enjoy food without regaining the lost pounds.  Similar to saving money – figuring out how much fun you can have while saving cash so you don’t regain the debts.

I’m motivated not to go in debt again, but I’ve felt daunted by our task of Baby Step 3 (saving a 3-6 month emergency fund).  We also need to save for two used vehicles over the next couple of years.  I imagine the scene: all that work and I’ll be able to say yep, this here is my new Toyota, she’s 10 years old and only has 100,000 miles on her.

Hopefully, my humor is evident.  The success will be in having money saved, not the car itself.

All that said, I do envy people who get a natural charge out of watching their bank account grow.  As for me, I have to work against my 3-click preferred endorphin release: “Add to Cart,” “Proceed to Checkout,” and “Place Order.”   Probably much like I will always have to manage my sweet tooth.

I remind myself that 15 years ago, I began a weight loss journey which gradually led to a healthier lifestyle. (A lifestyle which includes small daily doses of dark chocolate, mind you.)  With time, persistence, and prayer, I will learn to embrace these new money habits too.  Who knows, maybe someday I will be more giddy about my bank statement in the mail than an Amazon box on my porch.  Um, I'd better keep praying.

For this week's photos, Samuel and I stayed at home Wednesday night and played outside as the sun was setting.  He had been cranky with his molars coming in, but a little time outside took his mind off his troubles.

Week 33 of 52 - Growing and Changing

Ever look at your kids and swear they are growing before your eyes?  I've definitely had one of those weeks.  I'm away from them 48 hours and see changes in their looks, George's conversation, all the little details.  I think it's why I took so many "everyday" photos this week.

We had a tree branch fall and George took his toy hedge trimmers out to "cut it up".

And I admit, Samuel's hair probably isn't "scalped" as I described, but it IS really short and he looks so much older now.

Today, we went to Big Lots for George to cash in his spending money.  We've not been as consistent in using the coins for a good behavior award, but when we do, it works.  He's now earning money vacuuming the crumbs under Samuel's chair - practically a full-time job.

In the store, I marveled at the differences in the two boys.  When George was Samuel's age, he wouldn't leave my side.  As soon as Samuel's feet hit the ground, he was off to explore the rest of the store... as I chased behind.

We talked about how he only had enough money for either the three little sets of tools or the big tool set.  He is deciding which set to buy.

He may be a bit like his mother, analyzing all the data before making a decision...

He had discarded a similar tool set over a year ago.   Then he saw a photo of himself from last year playing with the tools and he began talking incessantly about "the tools of mine in the picture."  George:  Beg for tools.  Parent:  Give in and schlep up to the 100+ degree attic to look for the tools.  George:  Cry when parent can't find tools.  Other parent:  Think of another possible box in the attic.  Repeat the next day.  George decided to stop the madness and buy more tools.