Meet Baptdo

The lovely town I live in is celebrating a festival this week. I'm not a fan of crowded streets, sensory overload, and people, people, people everywhere. I took the kiddo for a drive downtown the other day mostly to get out of the house. It was crazy packed down there; just too much for me. I hadn't intended to get out of the car but when we drove by the beach and saw that no one was there we couldn't resist stopping.

I was dressed practically in PJs (lounging around the house clothes) and my kiddo was the messiest I've ever seen him out of the house with a few spots of food on his shirt (I've never let him leave the house in a dirty shirt before) and smudges on his face. We were a sight! It was rather cold out, especially by the water, and especially considering that it's July. But the wonderful cold spell is what was keeping all the tourists away. There were about 3 other small groups of people there; an older couple sitting in chairs watching the waves, a younger couple walking the shoreline cuddled together under a blanket, and a small family playing in the sand. Yep, that's just about no one for a beach that was recently voted by Travel and Leisure magazine as one of the "best secret beaches on earth." Secret, HA! It's always packed!!! Maybe I should just thank Travel and Leisure magazine for that.

We live quite close to this lovely "secret" beach (adjacent the 5th largest lake in the world). We walk down to the general vicinity often but don't necessarily "go to the beach" a lot. I think my little guy has gone to the beach about 5 times in his life. Our little excursion the other night despite the chill in the air was awesome. We walked the shoreline and did get our toes quite wet (despite my telling little Abe that the water was just too cold). We chased seagulls, which he's never done before. We collected seagull feathers and honestly I was in awe of how many different colored and patterned feathers you can collect from black and white birds. We spotted an odd amount of lady bugs and honey bees at the shoreline (I'm still pondering why that was). I was also stunned as to how much trash was lying around on the beach. We sang silly songs while we walked, jogged, and ran (I swear my life is turning into a musical. We sing silly songs all day long about everything imaginable). If nothing else I can proudly say "my kid thinks I'm hysterical." We took a long, exhausting, some tears involved bathroom pit stop and the little guy did not pee his pants. Honestly, between you and I, I should have just let him pee in the lake. Gah, how has this world become so civilized and so cold hearted all at the same time? Tell me, how? Oh, we also stomped sand castles and jumped in (and filled in) holes people had dug. Normally I would NEVER demolish a sand castle. In fact I've always been the person walking in a group who would strongly encourage others NOT to stomp a sand castle. But I've also never taken an evening stroll before on a cold beach with my 2 year old son. Stomping sand castles is really fun!

Towards the end of our adventure when we both smelled of the Lake, had sand blown gently between the little hairs on our heads so that our scalps were a bit like sandpaper, our feet were cold and pruney, I dare say our hands were filthy from collecting feathers and picking up itty bitty shells, we noticed something green buried in the sand. It was a small toy army man. My son doesn't have any green toy army men yet. I say "yet" because they do seem a staple in every young boy's toy collection. He was pretty impressed with the really insignificant find. We rescued him from the sand and seeing as there was no one else on the beach at the time (and I think the toy is worth less than a penny) I told him he could take the little man home with us. I'm still amazed at the things a two year can find joy in.

He's been playing with the army man since we rescued him. He even named him. In fact its the very first toy he's ever given a name to. He has toys with names but none he's specifically named himself. The little green beach army man is now affectionately called Baptdo. I don't know how long Baptdo will last (he's very small and very cheap) but I do know that he's brought joy to both me and my son. My son, because it's a cool new toy that we rescued from the enormous beach and he's enjoying playing with it. Me, because Baptdo represents the basics of beauty in simplicity and a great evening that the two of us had together. That night after we arrived home between his bath and him being tucked in for bed my son thanked me at least 6 times for a fun time at the beach. There are truly SOOOOO many wonderful things that money cannot buy!

The zipper on the "new" pants did not break!
(I feel I should note that you have to read the last post to understand the above comment)
I will be eating a salad for dinner tonight and drinking lots of water.

Average daily spending for July: $18.65

Today's Friendly Weight Loss Tip

Buy a new pair of workpants on sale a size too small (or maybe 2 sizes) because it will encourage you to shed some pounds.

Three months later when you still haven't lost the weight but your current pair of pants for work are shot (completely and totally... yes, I own one pair of work pants... I'm very frugal) squeeze and I really mean SQUEEZE into the "new" pair of pants that are way too small.

My guess is you won't have as much of an appetite for awhile and you might not use your pockets for a bit. Gah! This is going to be an interesting day. Who wants to take bets on whether or not I bust the zipper today?

Such a Blah Day

NO SPEND day 49 is in the books.
I got a lot of yard work done today.
I played a fun game of kick ball (2 year old version) with my son this evening.
But overall today has been so... there isn't even a word. AHHHH!
My son has been in the strangest mood. Normally I'd blame it on myself because his moods are such a direct reflection of mine but, ugh. Not today. He's been doing something rambunctious or naughty almost every minute of the day today. Okay, that's a gross exaggeration but it feels that way. I guess what these last few sentences have led me to realize is that I'm INCREDIBLY thankful to have an amazingly well behaved, kind, considerate (he even sporadically stopped during our kick ball game to ask the ball if it was doing okay... I'm not joking) child who is having an off day. An off day is a nice way to put things into perspective I guess. He is really such a good kid. Man today was horrid!

Signing off! I NEED to get him in bed asap!!!

Average daily spending for July: $18.66

OH NO, what if lemon meringue pie makes him crazy?!?!
Hm, I guess I will be eating the rest of it by myself...

Pie and Purchases

NO SPEND day 48. Check.

Lemon meringue pie. Check.

To do list for today. Check.

I'm now adding "eat pie" to the to do list.

Average daily spending for July: $18.66

I've always had it in my mind that I couldn't make a meringue pie from scratch.
I'm so proud of this little baby!

recipe by request
ingredients
grated rind and juice of one large lemon
1 cup plus 1 Tbls. cold water
1/2 cup plus 6 Tbls. sugar
2 Tbls. butter
3 Tbls. cornstarch
3 eggs, separated
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
for the crust
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup cold shortening
(I used 7 Tbls. butter instead)
2 Tbls. ice water

For the crust: sift flour and salt into a bowl. Add the shortening and cut in with a pastry blender (which I don't have so I used a biscuit cutter) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. With a fork, stir in just enough water to bind the dough. Gather dough into a ball. On a lightly floured surface roll dough out about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer to a 9-inch pie pan. Fold overhang under and crimp edge. (I'm not a pro pie crust maker so I didn't have an overhang but hey, still tasted great). Refrigerate the pie shell for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Prick the crust all over with fork and bake for 20 minutes. (You're supposed to line with wax paper and use pie weights for 12 of the 20 minutes but, seriously, pie weights... yeah, no, not in my cupboard).

For the filling: In a saucepan, combine lemon rind and juice, 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 2 Tbls. butter. Bring mixture to boil. In a mixing bowl, dissolve cornstarch in 1 Tbls. water (or more like turn the cornstarch into a solid) and add the egg yolks. Add the egg yolk mixture to the lemon mixture and return to boil (I whisked the egg yolk mixture in knowing that the eggs would cook instantly and I didn't want clumps) while whisking continuously until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. (it took 2 for me)

For the meringue: Using an electric mixer (I have a cheap handheld one) beat the egg whites with the salt and cream of tartar until they hold stiff peaks. Add 6 Tbls. sugar and beat until glossy.

Spoon the lemon mixture into the pie shell and spread level. Spoon the meringue on top, smoothing it to the edges to seal. Bake until golden, 12-15 minutes.

This pie did take a little time to prepare but was surprisingly way more easy than I'd imagined it'd be. I also thought there'd be several steps with huge potential for failure but I don't feel that was the case at all. Okay, so my pie crust ended up being quite ugly but the pie overall turned out awesome. And I actually had cream of tartar in my cupboard. That was the only odd ingredient that I feel someone might need to go out and get specific for this recipe. I bought it years ago for something else and never used it. It was still sealed so hopefully sealed cream of tartar doesn't spoil :-)

I have extremely high expectations for today

Produce

I haven't been near the computer much recently. For lack of recent blog posts I decided that before vacuuming this evening I would quick post a backyard produce update. Even though it's such a common normal event, my backyard produce is tremendously exciting to me!

There are some nice looking rose hips ripening on the wild rose bush right now.

The tomato plants are doing splendidly!

I absolutely love going out and checking on them everyday. It's one of my very favorite things.
And they smell so wonderful.

We've gotten 64 really great strawberries from the strawberry garden. I've stopped tallying them as of late because there have mostly been really small ones recently. But right now there are some new fairly large berries ripening so I think we'll safely make it to 70 berries this year. I haven't counted the berries my dogs ate either.

Now onto vacuuming!

What's the daily spending average you might ask... I do not know right now. I'm hoping to tally tonight after my son goes to bed.

Beauty All Around Us

I love, absolutely love dirt on my hands and green green grass between my toes. In a strange sort of way I'm falling in love with the tomato plants in the backyard. They're so beautiful. The fruit growing on them seems almost a miracle to me. Additionally the little strawberry garden causes me to smile every single time I look upon it.

I love that yesterday while the backdoor was open an aroma was wafting inside that smelled exactly of my Grandparent's home in Indiana that my parents would ship us kids off to for a week (or a few weeks) in the summer. Smells are probably the closest our race will ever come to time travel. I was back in Indiana as a child at my Grandparent's 32 acre wilderness while that aroma was making its way into my home. I couldn't for the life of me tell you what it smelled like, only that it smelled exactly like my Grandparent's place.

I love that I saw a bird sitting in the middle of my backyard yesterday with a bright red head and brown body, small like a sparrow, beautiful like a flower that I've never seen before in my lifetime. I think it was a house finch (I googled it). How fabulous to see a "new" bird after 34 years living very close to this very same spot on planet earth.

Beauty all around us? Yes indeed. Yes indeed!

Average daily spending for July: $19.60
$796 goal for chiropractor payment: $0

Twenty Dollars Can do Amazing Things

Last week was my son's last gymnastics class. He really loved gymnastics. I paid $50 for the course at the Y and he enjoyed every single minute of it. His favorite part was jumping on the trampolines but hanging from the bars came in as a very close second. A day or two before his last gymnastics class I told him that "in a week" he would be getting to ride a big horsey, for real, at a farm. I booked a horse riding lesson for him about a month ago. A friend of mine has a stable with several horses and she does lessons with small kids (usually a bit older than him but she said she was willing to give it a try). I should have waited at least two more days before I gave him the big news because he was CERTAIN there was going to be a "big horsey" at his last gymnastics class. First thing when he got there he asked coach Sarah where the big horsey was. Needless to say she was really confused. I know he's only two but I'm wondering where he thought they'd put a big horsey in the gymnasium.

I had to tell him every single day for a week, "you have 7 more night nights before riding the horse." Then 6, then 5, and so on. He would not stop talking about it. I paid $20 for him to ride the horse yesterday. He got to hold the rope and instruct the horse to back up. He learned how to tell the horse to walk, "kiss, kiss, walk." He learned how to tell the horse to stop, "woah". He LOVED every single second of his hour long class. There was a goat, a dog, other horses, and chickens running all around too. He's only two. He's most likely not going to remember his first horse riding lesson but it was one of the best days of his life so far.

We hardly ever buy my son new toys. I've been collecting kids books since 1999 when I taught in a learning centered daycare center so he almost never gets new books (and anyway there's always the library). 99% of his clothes are hand me downs from other people's children and I'm very okay with that. This kid is NOT missing out on anything though. I like to think I chose my spending opportunities for him very wisely. I'd say that was a very well spent $20.

Average daily spending for July: $17.38

$796 goal for chiropractor payment: $0

NO SPEND Beach Day

Yesterday morning a friend and I rode bikes to the beach with our littles. We spent a bit over an hour at the lake building a sand castle and digging a large hole for my little guy to jump in and out of and then we buried him. Hehe, getting buried was his favorite part of the beach actually. Neither of us spent a dime during our outing and it was fabulous the entire time. (except when riding the bikes uphill... out of shape)

I struggled more at work wanting to buy random stuff but I did not buy anything. I only worked for a few hours but I was grouchy. I'll tell you what, it is much more easy to waste money when you're tired, grouchy, angry, ect; Emotions are such drainers. I got my three in a row NO SPEND days in. Hooray! Now back to buying groceries. Ugh!

Average daily spending for July: $18.05
$796 goal for chiropractor payment: $0

Excited About Rose Hips

Call me ignorant but I didn't know I could eat the fabulous little seed pods from the incredible rose bush my grandmother transplanted for me from her yard at least 8 years ago. I love my rose bush. First off, each time I look at the beauty it reminds me of my adorable English grandmother (who's passed as of several years back).  I marvel at it's frail pink flowers each year. I thought it was enormous at over 5 feet tall until I just read they can grow to 10 feet. I think my neighbors despise it because it spreads like wildfire. I pull up the little plants in my yard every time I see one sprout but they've totally ignored the ones that have sprung up in their yard (it's directly next to my fence). So they have a scraggly jumble of incredibly pokey wild rose plants all huddled together on their side of the fence; neighboring my lovely rose bush. I would actually LOVE to grow another bush next to the current one but that would increase the amount of annoyance plants on my neighbors side of the fence and in all honesty the woman who lives there is very mean. I don't know if she would yell at me (even more/ she's yelled at me a few times over other things) if I caused additional pokey plants to spring up in their yard. Okay, I'm running off on a bunny trail here.

I saw on one of those wild Alaska shows people harvesting rose hips and I was like, "hey, I have a load of those in my back yard!" It says on Wikipedia that rose hips are incredibly high in vitamin C, that they also contain "some vitamin A and B, essential fatty acids, and antioxidant flavonoids." Also that they contain a good amount of lycopene which is a strong antioxidant. People use them to prevent colds and the flu. They're good for your skin. You name it, rose hips are like magical fruit. Who knew? Not me.

I'm totally harvesting my rose hips this year! I can promise you the bush is totally organic too. My Grandmother never used chemicals. I've never touched it with a chemical or plant food or anything; it's as organic as they come. Do any of you know about them, have any advice, or harvest rose hips yourselves? I'm hungry for some good info on them. I'm thinking at the very least I'll put them in smoothies. It appears the best way to use them is raw because drying them out or saving them for much time diminishes the vitamin C. But Rose hip tea is supposed to be excellent for skin. Any input would be great!

It was in full bloom a few weeks ago. But it's about ready for a second round.

I intend to pin a plethora of rose hip ideas in the near future but for anything I find without a photo I will be linking it here for easy reference.
rose hip tea
I really like this write up about them too

Financial Goals, Confessions, and Update

My debt/ financial journey thus far has been one of ups and downs and ups and downs and so on. I've used the metaphor of being stuck in a hole that I'm trying to climb out of. Then there's the "climbing" a mountain metaphor. Sadly I think both are accurate; I seem to be stuck in a hole at the bottom of a mountain. I need to climb out of the hole and then scale the mountain. On the other side is total debt payoff and financial peace. Not that finances are ever easy but there is a place of financial responsibility that many climb into with hard work and perseverance. That place is on the other side of the mountain I'm trying to climb.

I started out this year really ashamed because we'd fallen quite a ways down the mountain/ hole (I'm really not out of that darn pit yet). 2012, welcoming our son into the world was the best thing ever but a real financial set back. With hospital bills, new baby expenses, un-paid time off of work, and less hours going back to work, my budget was hit hard. 2013 wasn't tons better but at least my brain had started working again. I would do it all again and again even if it meant not getting to the top of the mountain for 10 years longer than it should have taken. I started this year out thinking that if I could just really focus on my spending again, like I'd done a really great job of in 2011 (my how the years go by) then I'd be happy with that... financial payoff goals on hold. Thus, you have heard VERY LITTLE about my debt and financial matters, other than spending updates this year.

I really admire those faithful Dave Ramsey folks that sell all they have, live off of rice and beans, and hardly leave their houses until their debts are paid off. Every time I'm listening to any of them telling their stories on his radio show I totally tear up. It's amazing how they do it. In the beginning of this journey I'd imagined I could be one of them too. And to be totally honest I think I could be one of them but my other half will never be. It's pretty much set in stone that I have to work with what I've got and what I've got is an amazing man who I adore (and can't stand sometimes) who is NOT keen on thinking about money, talking about money, or being wise with money. I implore you to not be to harsh on him with your judgments. Truth is, I'm noticing more and more in life, that more people than not are crap with money. My husband is just one of those people. He'd make an excellent politician.

So, I'm trying. I really am. Sometimes when I'm trying to figure out how to balance things out, when the car breaks down, when the basement floods and I notice the walls are wet at the bottoms in my upstairs bedroom I use credit cards again. And unfortunately those times are big uses and they do set us back a lot and it makes me slightly crazy and it pisses me off but I'm working with what I have. In many ways I am one of those crazy Dave Ramsey folks but in a marriage, I am really only half a person and the other half of me is very much not apart of the Dave Ramsey crowd.

This is in no way meant to be a "woah is me" complaint post. It's more of a confession. I continue to share my story with you, even though I've slid seemingly so far down the  mountain because I do believe the other side is attainable. I'm trying to get there. Your support truly keeps me going.

I want so desperately to accomplish baby step one (in the Dave Ramsey plan) and fully fund a $1000 emergency fund but truly I'm terrified of doing so. Every single time I have we've ended up using it for a legit emergency only a few days later. I hate that darn emergency fund. I am setting one little goal today, apart from the average daily spending goals that I shoot for and little no spend day goals. I want to save up the money I need for the next two month's payments to the chiropractor. I need $796 for the next two months and I have been toying with the idea of charging it. That's ALOT of money for me to try and come up with but every penny I don't charge I think will make the insides of me smile all the more. There it is. It's a goal. And although it's not technically a debt payoff goal it's a debt reduction goal of sorts as it would cause my debt to not rise.

After all that jazz the good bit of news is that our overall debt has continually, however slowly been going down. For the first 6 years of of marriage it was only ever going up; and skyrocketing at that.

Average daily spending for July: $18.05
$796 goal for chiropractor payment: $0

Simply Splendid NO SPEND Saturday

Little Abe and I went for a nice long walk this morning with his Aunt Nikki (she's really just a friend but he's been calling her "aunt") and Nikki's little son. I said nothing about a no spend day or not spending money and she bought me a coffee and little Abe a cookie anyhow. It was so nice. It's been cloudy all day and it started sprinkling a bit while we were walking but there was something refreshing and comforting about the gentle summer rain.

I cooked up a Jack's frozen pizza for dinner. It's one of the cheapest frozen pizzas you can find but I picked some fresh basil from out back, gave it a little chop, and topped the pizza with it. I also added some sharp cheddar to the pizza.

To finish off the day I baked some apples with a toffee caramel center and a crumble topping. Very simple but really thrown together (nothing measured/ no recipe followed). Just apples, a bit of apple juice in the baking dish, flour, butter, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and chili powder in the topping, and butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and chili powder in the toffee center. SO YUMMY!!! It was the perfect finish to this dreary, cloudy, summer day. You could say that I experience a tremendous amount of joy through food and you would be absolutely correct. hehe

NO SPEND day 44 of the year was a total success!
Average daily spending for July: $18.05

Groceries, YAY!

WOW I just spent money!

I shelled out $398 to the chiropractor this morning. That's a month's payment (of very regular, like 3 times a week visits) at a slightly discounted rate. After three months of care I should go about once a month and I think that only costs $40. I am SO happy with this chiropractor. I just started seeing him when I injured my back on June 30 (have not been happy with two previous ones). He actually took x-rays and told me exactly what's wrong with my neck and back and he told me exactly how he's going to go about correcting issues. I feel a billion times better than I have in years, already, after only 4 visits. Back issues are very genetic in my family. But our insurance does not cover chiropractic work. I cringe and double cringe at a $398 payment but it's the happiest I've been about spending money in a very long time. I feel like this is just for me; that I'm actually doing something to take care of myself. I've had headaches and back pain for years. I'm not great at focusing on me. I tend to pay attention to everyone and everything else before myself and I usually don't get around to taking care of me. Anyway, there's $398 gone. Yikes!

I picked up cat food and dog treats for $24.50. Flea drops for the dogs for $37. I'm not including the flea drops in the average daily spending budget because I am considering them medical. I spent $26.42 on household items and $64.57 on groceries. I haven't spent $152.49 on any shopping trip probably in years. Whoa it feels weird. I should be able to squeak out no spends for the next three days. And even though I just spent more money than I've let go all at once in forever my average daily spend (with 3 scheduled no spends) really didn't go too incredibly high. I was anticipating it'd be somewhere around $25 a day. My, oh my I do NOT like shopping!

Average daily spending for July: $18.05
Above average considers the next 3 days as no spends

Happy Un-Birthday

Little Abe brings my husband and I at least 20 different birthday presents a day. The gifts are generally one of his little toys wrapped in a towel or an old envelope or in his blankie. He always hands the gift over and shouts, "Happy Birthday Mommy (or Daddy)!!!" with a huge smile on his face and so much enthusiasm. Yesterday morning he was playing by himself in the kitchen while I was getting breakfast ready and I overheard him talking to himself. Quietly he was saying, "on you birthday, have cake, have candles, and presents, hooray!"

I decided yesterday would make the perfect un-birthday for him so when I got home from work he and I mixed up a little cake from scratch (he LOVES baking), and some chocolate frosting (that I could never recreate because I totally did not measure anything). After dinner I set him at a side table and asked if he wanted our special cake to be a birthday cake with candles... I should have video taped his reaction. He was SOOOO excited! My husband thought it was silly but he went along with it anyhow. We sang him "Jesus Loves Me," which is his favorite song instead of "Happy Birthday" since it's not actually his birthday. Then he got to blow out the candles. It was awesome!

The coloring page idea worked out quite well too. I still haven't bought him his first coloring book but he really liked coloring in mommy's hand drawn Mickey Mouse. If you really use your imagination you can see how he actually tried to color in the lines.

Free Stuffs The Best!

My kiddo is sitting on the couch eating a dumb dumb sucker this very moment. I went into the bank this morning before work to pay the car payment and I made sure to swipe two suckers for the little guy. He's making loud lip smacking sounds and sporadically exclaiming, "yummy!" And his little giggle (which is always accompanied by this silly vibrating entire body shake if he's really excited) when I gave him the sucker was just priceless. "They" say the best things in life are free. I think "they" totally had bank candy in mind when "they" first said this.

This day is a little more than half over but I think I can safely declare this no spend day a success. It was even more difficult than I'd anticipated. I didn't sleep very well last night so my resolve was extra low. I wanted to buy a Coke so badly. I also passed by the oreos while working and it took everything within me to not pick a package of them up. I saw a coloring book I really wanted to buy for little Abe. I haven't gotten him a coloring book yet (we just scribble on plain paper) but he's old enough now that I think he'd just love one. On that note I think I might freehand some outlines of his favorite cartoon characters with a black sharpie and let him color them in: homemade coloring pages. For a two year old that would be just as fantastic I think. I also saw some clearance PJ's that I really wanted to pick up. The candy bars were calling my name all day long; sure makes it sound like I have serious mental issues. But, victory! I bought nothing and still came home with suckers.

Average daily spending for July: $13.72
My average daily spending should spike tomorrow because there are several things we need but for now I will smile vehemently about $13.72!

Boring Pep Talk, Check

I'm planning a no spend for today. The main reason I do these (no spends) is so I don't buy pointless things while working; a soda pop, snacks, some random item we "need" for home. This no spend is going to be a bit difficult as there are a few items I'd really like to pick up today. They can easily wait for tomorrow though. Tomorrow is going to be a big spend day. I need to pick up cat food, flea drops for the dogs, toilet paper (my least favorite purchase of any), plus food, food, food. Today WILL be calm, spending free, no spend day 43 of the year... fingers crossed.

Strawberries and Matos

We got a Siamese twin berry today

We've picked 36 strawberries from our container garden so far. They all were yummy. They mostly all were beautiful. The count would be higher but my little Maggie girl discovered the neat little pot in the backyard had edible stuff in it a week or so ago and started scarfing up the ripe berries. I watch the dogs when I let them out so I've stopped her since but we lost a few berries in the interim. It's practically bursting with berries right now.

This is insanely exciting to me as well. Look at that darling little guy!!!

I spent $4.03 today after deposit bottles; mission accomplished.

Average daily spending for July: $14.99

Tuesday

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
-John F. Kennedy

If I can spend $4.09 or less today then I'll be at $15 a day spending for July so far. I think I can manage that. I'll take back a few deposit bottles too and that will give me a little cushion in the spending. This is the direction I head in today. It's little but it's something.

June Numbers Are In

The below list is a simple summary of all our cash outflow for June minus my husband's spending (which includes his lunches and any spending strictly for himself; ie going to lunch with a friend, picking up beer for band practice, ect).

Home expenses $1133.28
Vehicle expenses $376.35
Utilities $270.42
Credit card payments $667.19
All spending $511.70

Each of these categories has several things inside of them. For example home expenses includes the mortgage payment (and escrow), and equity line. Vehicle expenses includes the car payment, gasoline, and car insurance.

Average daily spending for June: $17.05

I wanted to spend a ton less this month but I'm pretty happy with $17.05 a day. It's my 3rd lowest spending month this year and I think it's the first time this year I've put more towards credit cards than what I spent for the month. For July I'm hoping to at least come in between January's $15.66 and March's $17.01. Looking at the pattern that's developing my spending this month should be over $20 a day BUT it doesn't have to be. Try, try, and try again. Ahhh, life!

January $15.66 a day
February $20.27 a day
March $17.01 a day
April $19.99 a day
May $20.55 a day
June $17.05 a day

Average daily spending for 2014: $18.31

This was at Shedd. It was the munchkins favorite part of Chicago.
He's his father's son for sure;
loved the 4D movie more than anything else in the big city.

Brand New Children's Book Coming Soon (there's an intense amount of sarcasm in many of my titles)

It's like one of those "if you give a mouse a cookie" books. What do you all think, would anyone read it?
After I typed this all out I realized I have to put in a disclaimer: the following is graphic and disgusting. Proceed at your own risk.

If you injure your back badly enough you'll end up crawling through the house in pain.
While crawling through the house you might vomit that one banana you ate for the day all over the floor.
After throwing up on the floor you'll beg your 2 year old to fetch you the dirty towel over there to at least cover up the mess.
Because you were crawling to the bathroom, left the door open while trying to get to a towel, the dog ate the bathroom trash.
After the dog ate the bathroom trash he got sick and started pooing all over the house. (combination of horrible weak nerves because it's the week of the fourth and fireworks are the end of the world for him and he gets sick when he gets into the bathroom)
I need to start a new chapter: After injuring your back your husband gets really upset/ let down because you had plans to attend a concert in Chicago with him (tickets bought and hotel room pre-paid (no cancellations)).
You go to Chicago anyway because of the pre-paid hotel room and spend way too much money on the trip because you don't want to further frustrate the husband. (couldn't go to the concert because there's NO WAY I could stand that long... Mother in law came along to help...
And instead of walking down to the real fireworks (the pain in the butt ones that are slowly killing my dog that my neighbors have been setting off for a week I just don't even consider fireworks anymore) last night me and the little one watched them from the back yard and I got stung by a bee. Yep.

Okay, it's a crap children's book and kind of thrown together. I could have included so much more but it got depressing after a bit. Needless to say I've had a LONG, LONG, longest week of my life it feels like, week. And now we're on our way to Detroit for a party with my Dad's family and my dad is upset with me for something stupid... For real I feel like I'm being punched in the face from every direction, metaphorically. I want to find a cave and hibernate for at least a month! Anyone know of available caves right now?

I found an amazing chiropractor though. I've done a lot of praying. My back feels a billion times better than last year when I injured it not nearly as bad. So in the grand scheme of things I'm doing great but I feel like I was in a car accident, like everything is just weak and stiff and shaky and my head is a little foggy. Also my brain isn't working too well.

I was trying to not dump this all on you guys but I caved. Sorry.

Sweet Peas in July

The constant boom of fireworks is telling me that it's really July already but I'm having a difficult time believing it. My oh my how time flies! Might I add however the sweet peas in July are as lovely as can be. Chain link fences aren't the most gorgeous sight to behold but they do look pretty snazzy with climbing pink flowers growing all over them. My husband's grandma planted these decades ago (we bought his grandparent's house when they passed). These beauties are hardy little buggers!

Happy July 4th to all my fellow Americans!