Weekend Reflections

 I have been reading some of the "bigger blogs" catching us up on their day by day. Wondering if that is something I should try. I can show you the piles of laundry and messy rooms but on this here blog there will be no "after" shots. I could tally all that I accomplish but do you REALLY want to know how many loads of laundry I do? Do I? Honestly? Who wants to hear about the mundane. It's nothing to write home about :) Yet, who decides what is mundane or that the everyday isn't worth celebrating?

I have been thinking about money. Sob story in a nutshell:  My husband injured his back the same time that we found stage 3 malignant melanoma on my back and I had surgery. 3 little little kids. No outside help. My husband was out of work and in school for three years. I wasn't capable of much. Somehow it all worked out but we have yet to fully recover. He now has a decent job, 1/2 hour away. We are living paycheck to paycheck to say the least and there is something about the timing of being paid every 2 weeks where the dates fall wonky and certain times of the year bills get backed up. We are there.

Thursday night I drove our boys to Boy Scouts and went to do our grocery shopping. Trying to figure out how much money we have and what meals we can pull off. Boys laughing joking and distracting. They are sooo loud. When did that happen? Seriously they are man size and LOUD.

I compost with worms. I put an add on Craigslist to sell some. If that works I'll have some food money.

There was a huge accident making some of the Boy Scout leaders late for our meeting Thursday night. I tried to link in the video but...There was a big tanker driving down an area that we call "three bridges" the tanker swerved and went over another car and crashed into the river below in a HUGE fire. The other car was smashed and dangling over one of the bridges. In the car was a young mom her 10 year old and newborn daughters. The car was a new BMW. I dont know how it wasnt flattened. Also going down the road were Military SeaBees bringing a forklift for them to train. They were hours away from home and happened upon this accident seconds after it happened and the car was dangling. They brought them to safety.. Wow. Wow on sooo many accounts. Wow.

I actually cried at this story. That poor mom driving down the road--it could happen to any of us. The SeaBees just HAPPENING by with a forklift? wow.

For 22 months I worked a few nights a week doing tow truck dispatch within the county. I kind of miss it: being there to help. Making a difference. But I was up all night and not able to fully live the life I have been given: this exhausting overflowing life that takes every second of me.

We truly believe that God will provide through my husband. We trust God for that but also don't want to take advantage of that. I have not "worked" since we have been married. I taught at a Christian School a few days a week while  was pregnant. I was the Director of a Crisis Pregnancy Center then too. I have done food demoing in grocery stores. I got really good ones. (Tassimo coffee maker for $12.00 hour. Adell sausage for $14.00 and at Costco) I have also sold Tupperware on and off. Tupperware has been very good to me. I went to the Farmers Market and stood and made at least $100 a week. (When I say "made" I sincerely mean after product and gas and everything)

I keep coming back to blogging. What am I doing here? What is my niche? I know my blog shouldn't be like anyone else (and it isn't ;) I know it cant interfere with my "real life" or it isn't working for me. I also like the idea of making money from what you are already doing and enjoy. I won a new blog header from KlassicBlogDesigns as well as this HUGE giveaway from SugarandDots that included advertising on some bigger blogs. All in the works happening around me.

Speaking of laundry. My husband has two makeshift sets of scrubs. He works 3 ten hour days in a row. He runs out of laundry. He also uses this:

to ease his back pain. Last night, I washed ALL his work clothes, put them in the dryer and went to bed. At 4 am he woke me up franctic. He had lost his bottle of cream. It showed up in the pocket of his scrubs and went through the washer and dryer. EVERYTHING he wears to work is stained. We can't buy new scrubs right now and he has to work :(

We had a tragic death happen in our church family. I want to talk to you more about that later too.

Well, that is all out there. I welcome any thoughts. I also need help figuring out what my blog is from people who "get it".

I still havnet posted this. I cleaned out a corner of our garage! If only you knew how amazing that was. We moved in here two years ago in the rain and threw everything in the garage. It never got moved around. My husband wants a week to empty everything out and start from scratch. There is no week to do that. He also wants EVERYTHING out but his tools.

In there now are a metal cabinet of kitchen storage, a deep freeze, a built in house Vacuum system, clothes for our kids to grow into, Christmas trees, an overflow of toilet paper, diapers etc, homeschooling books. 9 sleeping bags, tents, camping stove, bicycles, helmets, skates and pads, two bicycle carriers and a bicycle carriage, yard tools, tools, cabinets. some extra furniture and borken chairs, folding tables and chairs, two beds we havent put together yet....those are the things that I KNOW are in there can you even imagine what I have forgotten:) Our leaf blower, and weed wacker keep being thrown on the ground and I wanted them hung...long story short: I had a crying screaming teen and a husband blaming me and i went out side alone and tackled a mess that I actually could conquer: I moved everything off that wall to the front of the garage, for now. I then swtiched out bookshelves so my husabnd had more room for his nuts and bolts and found an apparatus to hang on the wall. I did all this in under 25 minutes. Later that night I went out to see if I could make any further progress and managed to knock over the bookcase of nuts and bolts that my husband had sorted into GLASS jars. HUGE HUGE mess. The next day I kind of cleaned it up and asked my husband to hang the shelf. He and the older boys were on their way to turn in recycling (for food money) He told me it was too big of a deal. I was OK with that. Little did I know he took it on. He didnt want to hang anything until we had the perfect shelf. He used a level and ladder and found studs and all sorts of thigns that woudlnt have occured to me. It took so long that the recycling center closed.

You know that terrible time of the day when every one is tired and cranky and hungry and needs you? I fell asleep during that. For a few hours. Then my daughter went to bed at 7. I think we are getting sick:)

****I am going to start back up with Tupperware. I will have a party on January 25th and earn my kit and book some parties. (Hey! if you want to pass around some catalogs and earn some hostess gifts just let me know!) I'd like to let you know periodically about specials (because I enjoy doing that) but I don't want to become pushy and selly HERE. Maybe I can devise a way to have a hidden link or an email sign up. I don't actually know HOW to do either of those though:)

This day by day has become a week's highlights/lowlights post:)


I often feel like I shouldnt post about things because I am not the best at them. Yeah I like my mantle but some people are amazing decorators. Yeah I juggle two teens and two preschoolers and one sweet preteen, but what do I know about large families? So many families are larger. Soooo is there anything you'd like to hear me talk about? Any areas where you want to pick my brain? Let me know:) I'm here.