So, yeah, I'm doing the happy dance. We filed our taxes this last week, and we found out that with what we will be getting back from Uncle Sam, we will be able to pay off the last of our debt, aside from our mortgage. Even better, as it stands right now, we only owe 8 more years on our mortgage. Less if we are able to make extra payments to the principal, which we should be able to make a double extra payment every year on tax time, at least as far as I can see, that should cut our payment time in half at least, so we could be debt free in as little as 3 or 4 years. That is so cool!
A few reasons that we're able to do all this...1) My husband claims no dependants, and I think, he files as single, or something like that, it makes it so that he gets the most deducted possible from his check. It makes it difficult during the year if we're not careful to stick to our budget, but the payoff at tax time is well worth it.
2) When we bought our house, we closed out his 401K (not really advice here, just what we did) so that we could put a larger down payment on our home, which I should mention we paid less than $50,000 for, and that way we could get a 10 year mortgage, instead of a 30 year mortgage which is what we have done in the past.
3) We don't really have that much debt, and that's not because we were extremely responsible, extremely wealthy people, it's because we were extremely stupid young adults who went much too far into debt, and at our breaking point chose to file bankruptcy. As a much more mature adult ;o) I would have done things much differently. Bankruptcy is not a good thing, and we have struggled greatly with our choice to do this. The only debt we have had since is a student loan that we couldn't file on, and our mortgage, which my dad has had to help us to get.
So now, with this debt paid off, I am more gung-ho than ever about getting my mortgage paid off. I will be working extremely hard to get our budget under control, so I will be sharing more about our budget and things we can do/try to save. The grocery budget will be scrutinized as I am entering a phase in my life where I feel the Lord leading us as a family to eat a healthier, more whole food diet, while not relying on government assistance at all, something we have done in the past (through programs like WIC, which is a wonderful program, but I no longer feel that we, as Christians should depend on, if there isn't a real need, in other words, as long as we have money for food and bills, which we do, then we don't need it, this is just a personal choice.) So anyways, more on that later. Right now, I am just thrilled, we are one step closer to being debt free.
Blessings,
sara
Monday, February 8, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Flying Again-Day 1
Image from Allposters.comOk, so the title says it all, right? I'm attempting to fly again...that is flylady. I've fluttered and fallen more times than I care to count in the many years since I first learned about flylady. It's a wonderful system, truly it is, and many times I've been able to fly for several weeks and even months at a time, before somehow being thrown ofcourse by a cataclysmic event of some sort, or even just a sick child, or even just because I just didn't feel like it, and then back to complete chaos it goes. Well, let me tell ya, my house is in a state worse than chaos, it's in a whole 'nother country from the state of chaos. I really don't even remember the last time it wasn't in chaos, I believe it was right before my Jacob (who's now 14 months old) was born, those precious few weeks before delivery, when you have the energy of a, well of the energizer bunny, that's who!
But now, oh my, for the last year, I've been scraping by, if I was lucky enough, I had a few minutes to shove my dishes in the dishwasher, stuff in closets and behind closed doors, all of us running around like mad people trying to make the house, at least not look like it's totally disgusting (which it is) before somebody came over, otherwise, any guests that did not take the time to give me at least a 15 minute notice, got met out on the front porch. Shameful, I know....
Well, I've put it off, and put it off, but I just can't put it off anymore. I'm going to babystep my way back to a chaos-free home. I'm tired of living like this, I'm tired of putting my family through the mess, and my poor husband, he doesn't complain, God bless him, but I know it can't be a pleasant place to be after going and working all day for his family. My kids have no hope of their mama ever getting to do anything fun, or even educational with them, besides just getting the basic school stuff done. I have so many sewing and craft projects that I want to do, but I refuse to allow myself to do them, unless it's specifically for a gift to someone. I'm just tired of it.
So I'm on day 1....(I should tell you, I don't really follow the website in my babysteps, I follow the book, I go to the website often for encouragement and sometimes zone missions, but the emails are too much, and I like the old way of babystepping that she lays out in her book, Sink Reflections.) Today, what I did and what I'm going to do is...
~I ofcourse, shined my sink.
~I wore my shoes all day (I didn't wear lace up shoes, I usually just wear my loafers or boots)
~I layed the children's clothes out for tomorrow, and will lay mine out when I go to bed.
~The kids were in bed at their bedtime, 9pm, and I will be in bed, lights out by 11pm.
There you have it....Are you using the flylady system? If so, maybe we can encourage one another in our babysteps, or even if you're not using flylady, but need to get your home in order, what kind of system do you use, and how is it helping/hindering you? If you don't have a system, and are in complete chaos, please join right in with me, and let me know so that I can be an encouragement to you.
Blessings,
sara
Friday, February 5, 2010
Catching Up Again-with pictures
So I've once again, not been sharing. Life just seems to take over, doesn't it. Well, not much has really happened over the last few weeks, nothing blogworthy anyways, well, except for one the worst ice/snow storms Oklahoma has seen in who knows how long. It may not be much by some standards, but it definately took us all by surprise. It's been just over a week since it hit, and thousands are still without power. We, ourselves were without power for just short of 3 days. A realization of just how thankful I was for this old gas floor furnace, and other old gas heaters we have, in this old, drafty house, was more than evident. Many people had central heat and air, and even if their heat was gas, the system was unable to run and keep them warm.
For us, we knew that it was coming and like many others we ran to the store Wednesday night for whatever we thought we might need, big mistake, and lesson learned. There was nothing left...no kerosene, no candles, no bread, no camp stoves, no batteries, the store was bare. We got what we could, and headed home. Thursday, my husband went to work, the kids gathered up all of our candles, kerosene lamps, and extra kerosene, and I got busy cooking, I made up a large pot of stew, some muffins, and some tea. I had just added the potatoes, when the power went out. I put the lid on the pot, and set it on the back of the stove, and the potatoes were cooked through enough to eat for dinner. So we ate well, played some card games by candle light, and went to bed early. I had frozen some bottles of water and they were put in the ice box to keep things cold for a bit longer. All the things in the freezer were put in our deep freeze. I decided to put the soup, outside, in the snow and ice, and it kept quite well.
Friday, we got up early, got what we could done, charged a portable dvd player, and our cell phones out in the car. All of the food in the fridge were slowly moved outdoors to keep cold. We ate cold cereal for breakfast, and I sat the pot of stew on my old gas heater in my bedroom to warm, it took twice as long, but it was warm enough, and we got our bellies full. We snacked around trying to eat up what might go bad if we didn't get power on soon. At one point in the day, our electricity came back on, and I started cleaning and getting ready to move all of our food that was outside, when...it went back off, and didn't return. And then we headed to bed early once again.
Saturday was much of the same. The roads were clearing, and I had my husband go to the store to get us something to drink, some caffiene was much needed during the time, some ice, some batteries, and to see if there were any candles or kerosene, as our lighting was getting considerably low. There was one candle, and it was $18. No, we didn't buy it. We again snacked all day, trying to eat up what might go bad, and were ready to go to bed early once again when, Praise the Lord, our electricity came back on...and stayed on! It really wasn't that bad. It could have been so much worse if didn't have heat, but the Lord did bless, and as always he did provide. Here are a few pictures of things around our backyard after the storm.
The view from our backdoor, it's a mess, isn't it?
A holly berry bush, covered in ice
Branches with what seemed like 2 inch thick ice all over it. At night, it was completely silent outside, and all you could hear were the trees crackling.
The back part of our yard, or what the kids call the forest.
My clothesline
_______________________________________________
Here's a tied quilt I made for my niece.
Here's a bib, I made for a dear friend's little one. Jacob is modeling it for me :o)
This was not a baby gift, but a corner bookmark I crocheted for my aunt on her birthday.
And I ofcourse had to add just a couple of pictures just for cuteness value. I promise I don't dislike my older kids, they are just hardly ever still enough to take a photo of.
So that's about all for pictures. I don't know that I'm ready to get back to regular posting really, but I do have a few ideas of things I've been wanting to share. So be looking for that. I pray that all who come here are safe and warm wherever you are.
For us, we knew that it was coming and like many others we ran to the store Wednesday night for whatever we thought we might need, big mistake, and lesson learned. There was nothing left...no kerosene, no candles, no bread, no camp stoves, no batteries, the store was bare. We got what we could, and headed home. Thursday, my husband went to work, the kids gathered up all of our candles, kerosene lamps, and extra kerosene, and I got busy cooking, I made up a large pot of stew, some muffins, and some tea. I had just added the potatoes, when the power went out. I put the lid on the pot, and set it on the back of the stove, and the potatoes were cooked through enough to eat for dinner. So we ate well, played some card games by candle light, and went to bed early. I had frozen some bottles of water and they were put in the ice box to keep things cold for a bit longer. All the things in the freezer were put in our deep freeze. I decided to put the soup, outside, in the snow and ice, and it kept quite well.
Friday, we got up early, got what we could done, charged a portable dvd player, and our cell phones out in the car. All of the food in the fridge were slowly moved outdoors to keep cold. We ate cold cereal for breakfast, and I sat the pot of stew on my old gas heater in my bedroom to warm, it took twice as long, but it was warm enough, and we got our bellies full. We snacked around trying to eat up what might go bad if we didn't get power on soon. At one point in the day, our electricity came back on, and I started cleaning and getting ready to move all of our food that was outside, when...it went back off, and didn't return. And then we headed to bed early once again.
Saturday was much of the same. The roads were clearing, and I had my husband go to the store to get us something to drink, some caffiene was much needed during the time, some ice, some batteries, and to see if there were any candles or kerosene, as our lighting was getting considerably low. There was one candle, and it was $18. No, we didn't buy it. We again snacked all day, trying to eat up what might go bad, and were ready to go to bed early once again when, Praise the Lord, our electricity came back on...and stayed on! It really wasn't that bad. It could have been so much worse if didn't have heat, but the Lord did bless, and as always he did provide. Here are a few pictures of things around our backyard after the storm.
The view from our backdoor, it's a mess, isn't it?
A holly berry bush, covered in ice
Branches with what seemed like 2 inch thick ice all over it. At night, it was completely silent outside, and all you could hear were the trees crackling.
The back part of our yard, or what the kids call the forest.
My clothesline
In hindsight, I would have had more kerosene, more candles, a camp stove of some kind, and a generator to keep our food cold, otherwise, we did okay.
_______________________________________________
Ok, so now onto other things, we've not been doing a whole lot lately except the usual. There were an exhuberant number of babies born this past month, and all got homemade gifts except for one which I had to go and buy a package of diapers for, for lack of time.
Here's a tied quilt I made for my niece. 
Here's a bib, I made for a dear friend's little one. Jacob is modeling it for me :o)
This was not a baby gift, but a corner bookmark I crocheted for my aunt on her birthday.
And I ofcourse had to add just a couple of pictures just for cuteness value. I promise I don't dislike my older kids, they are just hardly ever still enough to take a photo of.
So that's about all for pictures. I don't know that I'm ready to get back to regular posting really, but I do have a few ideas of things I've been wanting to share. So be looking for that. I pray that all who come here are safe and warm wherever you are.
Blessings,
sara
Saturday, January 30, 2010
5 MInutes a Day for Fresh Homemade Bread
Well, we are recovering from a huge ice storm that just hit the midwest. We've not had power for the last 55 hours, but the Lord sustained us as he always does, we had heat and warm water, and I learned quite well how to cook food over our gas heater in our bedroom. I'll share more details later on as I have more time. Meanwhile for now, I recently discovered a wonderful article on 5 minutes a day for fresh homemade bread. Here's the link to the full article, I can't wait to try it!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
My 2010 Reading List
I decided to compile my reading list into one convenient spot. I should've done this weeks ago, but didn't think to do it. This will be added to as I find new titles to read.
~King James Bible (in 1 year)-
Currently in Genesis
~Created to Be His Helpmeet by Debi Pearl -this is part of my morning devotional time
~A Manual of Homemaking (free online)
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
A Homeschool Blog
I've decided to follow the footsteps of my dear friend Deanna at A Plain and Simple Homeschool and start a blog with the sole purpose of organizing our homeschooling stuff. I had been trying to get it all on paper here at home and thought it might be a bit easier to just type it up as it comes along as well as put all of our homeschooling resources in one spot. It just makes more sense. So here is the link to the homeschool blog, it's pretty bare right now, but I will be adding stuff regularly and moving over stuff from here. I will still be sharing here as well, so don't think I've abandoned this blog.
Blessings,
sara
Blessings,
sara
Monday, January 11, 2010
Homeschool Plans-revised
I've revised our original plans just a bit. Here's what we were doing here. We still enjoy most of what we've been doing, but I found some new resources that I would like to begin using.
We will continue on with our core subjects~
Nicholas-4th grade
McGuffey reading & writing-level 2-3
Ray's Arithmetic-level 2-3
Christian Life Readers-level 2
Suceeding at Reading
Madelynn-2nd Grade
McGuffey reading & writing-level 1
Ray's Arithmetic-level 1
Christian Life Readers-level 1
Succeeding at Reading
Practice Makes Penmanship
Emily-Pre-K
Preschool ABC workbook series
Reading Readiness
Practice makes Penmanship
Word Mastery
Succeeding at Reading
Flashcards
Activities in a bag
Now, as to the rest of our curriculum and why we are changing, this is why. I loved what we were doing, we were reading wonderful books, but that was it, just reading, I wanted something that would not only give us the oppurtunity for wonderful books but a bit more hands on. I have fallen in love with classical education and the works of Charlotte Mason, and want very much to continue down that path, so I chose to use the books that they have through Simply Charlotte Mason, which I've found actually use a lot of the books I had originally chosen to use. So here is our new list...
Bible/History/Geography-Genesis through Exodus & Ancient Egypt (we just recieved our order of the wonderful books we will be using with this)
Hymn Study-Module 1
Scripture Memory-Verse Pack 1
Science-106 Days of Creation(just recieved these great books as well)
Literature-Module 1
Poetry-Module 1
Nature Study-will be following along with this lovely blog and online version of the book
Picture Study-Module 1
Music Study-Module 1
Personal Development-Module 1
Beginning Reading-My girls are reading through these sweet books
Typing-My 4th grader will take up typing this year as well
In addition to all this, they are all still active in Keepers of the Faith. My oldest is currently taking piano and guitar lessons. My second oldest will probably start that as well in the fall. We are also active in lots of handiwork type activities, needlework, sewing, crocheting, etc. Here are a few other links I have found most useful that you might want to check out.
~An endless list of free resources
~Charlotte Mason Help
~Beechick Basics
And that about covers it. My biggest dilema at the moment is what would be the easiest way to plan all of it out, as in for a weekly basis. I need to write things out like that or else something is likely to get forgotton. I'm thinking of just writing it out in a notebook, because I have yet to find a homeschool planner page that fully fits our needs. Any other ideas?
We will continue on with our core subjects~
Nicholas-4th grade
McGuffey reading & writing-level 2-3
Ray's Arithmetic-level 2-3
Christian Life Readers-level 2
Suceeding at Reading
Madelynn-2nd Grade
McGuffey reading & writing-level 1
Ray's Arithmetic-level 1
Christian Life Readers-level 1
Succeeding at Reading
Practice Makes Penmanship
Emily-Pre-K
Preschool ABC workbook series
Reading Readiness
Practice makes Penmanship
Word Mastery
Succeeding at Reading
Flashcards
Activities in a bag
Now, as to the rest of our curriculum and why we are changing, this is why. I loved what we were doing, we were reading wonderful books, but that was it, just reading, I wanted something that would not only give us the oppurtunity for wonderful books but a bit more hands on. I have fallen in love with classical education and the works of Charlotte Mason, and want very much to continue down that path, so I chose to use the books that they have through Simply Charlotte Mason, which I've found actually use a lot of the books I had originally chosen to use. So here is our new list...
Bible/History/Geography-Genesis through Exodus & Ancient Egypt (we just recieved our order of the wonderful books we will be using with this)
Hymn Study-Module 1
Scripture Memory-Verse Pack 1
Science-106 Days of Creation(just recieved these great books as well)
Literature-Module 1
Poetry-Module 1
Nature Study-will be following along with this lovely blog and online version of the book
Picture Study-Module 1
Music Study-Module 1
Personal Development-Module 1
Beginning Reading-My girls are reading through these sweet books
Typing-My 4th grader will take up typing this year as well
In addition to all this, they are all still active in Keepers of the Faith. My oldest is currently taking piano and guitar lessons. My second oldest will probably start that as well in the fall. We are also active in lots of handiwork type activities, needlework, sewing, crocheting, etc. Here are a few other links I have found most useful that you might want to check out.
~An endless list of free resources
~Charlotte Mason Help
~Beechick Basics
And that about covers it. My biggest dilema at the moment is what would be the easiest way to plan all of it out, as in for a weekly basis. I need to write things out like that or else something is likely to get forgotton. I'm thinking of just writing it out in a notebook, because I have yet to find a homeschool planner page that fully fits our needs. Any other ideas?
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