New Year's Eve

It is New Year's Eve. Want to know what I am doing tonight? I am staying home with my two kids (the hubby is at work). Want to know what I think about that? I am quite happy about it.

Any time there is a big "party" night, I can't help but to think about how much my life has changed in the past few years. The way my life is today is nothing like they way I had it planned out. My life is proof that our plans are not always God's plans.

Years ago I was a college student, living the college student life. I spent more time than I should have partying and staying up too late, but I was a college student, so what else did I have to worry about? I had my life planned out. I was getting my degree in accounting because that was a degree that I could use anywhere. As soon as I graduated I was getting away from my boring hometown. I had my mind made up that I probably wouldn't marry until I was well beyond thirty, because I had a life to live before I settled down. Once I did settle down, I knew that in our family both parents would work. I didn't want to be stuck in a house all day. Who would want to live that type of life? I also wouldn't have to learn to cook. Why learn to cook when the big city I was going to live in would have wonderful take out?

Then just a few months before I graduated from college, I met my husband. It wasn't a "he swept me off my feet" romance. No, I just felt myself wanting to be honest with him about everything, which wasn't like me. Every time we broke up (yeah, we had issues in the beginning) I just had to have him back in my life, which also wasn't like me. Then God found and changed both of us. By the next year we were married. So much for waiting for thirty.

Fast forward to today. I am still not thirty, and I am the stay at home mom that I vowed I would never become. I like to cook, although I am still learning when it comes to that department. I'm thankful that I have a husband who doesn't mind being my taste tester. I enjoy my life. I like being here for my kids everyday. I like making sure my family is fed and has clean clothes to wear. I like being able to spend quality time with them everyday. I like getting to witness all of the silly things they do and say, even if the silliness does come with whining sometimes.

So as I sit here on New Year's Eve, just my two kids and me, I am thankful that I am content to sit here on New Year's Eve, just my two kids and me. As many others are getting ready to bring in the New Year with a party, I will be at home folding clothes, playing with my new toys....I mean my kids' new toys, and making sure that my house is the home that my family deserves. My life is not anything like I planned for it to be, but my life is the way it is supposed to be, which is much better than I planned. I thank God that He made me realize that this type of life isn't so bad after all.

Happy New Year!

~Melissa

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2010

So we are coming up on year 2010. What do we call it? Are we supposed to say two thousand ten or twenty ten?? I have always heard people call the past years of this century two thousand whatever. Will we continue to say two thousand whatever or will it become twenty whatever? Someone please help me with this dillema.

What will you call 2010? Two thousand ten or twenty ten? Or am I the only one who thinks about these kinds of things?

~Melissa

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You Failed Me

See this swing?

We used to be friends, best buds. It used to be there for me late at night/early in the morning when Isaiah would wake up and not want to go back to sleep. It was always there, happy to put my sweet baby back to sleep by softly singing sweet lullabies to him as he swung gently. The soft swinging motion used to whisk Isaiah back to sleep every time. Now all the swing wants to do is sing. No swinging coming from this swing anymore. I think the swing forgot that it is called a swing. Swings are supposed to swing. The swing and I are no longer amigos.

Maybe these things have a weight limit. I know my son is big, but you would think that at eight months, the swing could still swing him.

It is time to say goodbye swing. Tomorrow you are getting put up since you are no longer needed....until next time. :)

~Melissa

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My Diet

No, I am not going on a diet. Diets don't work for me. I have figured out that if I go on a diet, then once I lose the weight I want to lose, I eat worse than I normally do for a period of time, making the previous diet not worth it. Was that last sentence long enough for you?

When I said(typed) My Diet, I was talking about what I have been eating lately.

Apple pie.

Blueberry pie.

Peanut butter pie.

Pumpkin pie.

Candy.

Cookies.

More cookies.

Even more cookies.

Needless to say, my dessert only diet and nonexistent exercise routine have to change, ummm, next week. I'll let you know how that goes for me.

~Melissa

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Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me Monday, the day that I share the things I have not been doing lately. This therapy session was started by MckMama.

I did not stay up until two o'clock in the morning one night/morning last week. I always go to bed at a reasonable time.

I did not leave out one ingredient of a pie that I made last week. The pie only had four ingredients so I certainly wouldn't leave one of those ingredients out.

I did not wait until today to make some Christmas cookies with Jazlyn. I know Christmas was last Friday.

I did not type this as I was cooking breakfast and burn the sausage, because I am a way better multitasker than that.

Enjoy your week!

~Melissa

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Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I am enjoying time with family today and the rest of the weekend. Don't forget the reason we celebrate this holiday, our Lord Jesus coming to redeem us!

~Melissa

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Those Parents

It's Christmas time again. Time for celebrating the birth of Christ, putting up Christmas lights, decorating the tree, spending time with family, and Santa bringing everyone gifts.....or maybe not. Well at least not the last part, not in our house.

Yep, we are those parents. When Jazlyn goes to school next year, her friends will tell her she's wrong, those friends' parents won't like us, and we will become those parents.

I don't believe our kids are missing out on anything by us not doing Santa. Jazlyn is just as excited about Christmas as any other kid. She is still getting gifts. She just knows that they are from us, not Santa.

Jazlyn has seen Santa and she knows the story of Saint Nick. She understands that the Santa she sees out during Christmas time is only pretend. She knows that he is just a man dressed up in a suit.

Let me share why we are choosing not to have our kids believe that Santa is bringing them presents every year. Our reasoning is that we don't want there to be any confusion later in life for them over whether Jesus is real. We don't want to tell our kids for years that Santa is bringing them presents, then have them find out that it isn't true, causing them to possibly question other things that they have been taught by us. I know some kids could understand without it being an issue, but this is still the decision that we have made for our family.

Let me say(type) that I have nothing against people that do Santa. Actually, I hardly know anyone who doesn't do Santa. Even though we might not do everything exactly the same, we can still be friends, right? I don't think that my family is any better than other families that do Santa. I'm only sharing my life.

We have already told Jazlyn that she shouldn't tell kids who do believe in Santa that he isn't real. So please don't come after us for being those parents.

Merry Christmas!

~Melissa

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Celebrating the King

Last weekend we had our first annual "Celebrating the King" Christmas Banquet with our church family. We all got dressed up and enjoyed good fellowship and tasty food. When I say tasty, I mean tasty. Here are a few pics from our night.




My silly boys.


Are you as unprepared for Christmas as I am?

~Melissa

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Not Me Monday

Not Me Monday is my weekly therapy session to share with you the things that I would never do. It was started by MckMama. Feel free to share what you haven't been doing.

I did not hang up our stockings on our wall with tacks, because that would just look tacky (no pun intended).

I did not let my husband feed Isaiah some jelly from a packet when we went to eat yesterday. Isaiah would never pitch a fit in a restaurant about being hungry, leaving us so desperate that we feed him jelly.

I did not just type restaurant five times trying to figure out how to spell it, because I do know how to spell.

I did not cook dinner last night after 9:00 while my husband was at work. I wasn't the only one who ate that dinner. Only crazly people cook a whole meal all for themselves.

~Melissa

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Disciplining Children

I did it. I tapped Isaiah on the leg, kinda hard. He is crawling around everywhere and getting into everything. Anytime I tell him no he just smiles and laughs at me. Usually I just take away whatever he has, but tonight I took it one step further. I hurt his feelings and now my feeling are hurt too. :(

Disciplining my children is something I often struggle with. I know they need discipline, but it hurts me to hurt them. I'm sure many people can relate to that. I know our kids need boundaries, but it is still hard for me. My husband will easily tell you that he does most of the disciplining around here. Now that I am home with our kids all the time I need to toughen up. God tells us that if we love our children we should discipline them promptly (Proverbs 13:24).

Believe it or not, I have learned a lot from Supernanny. See, reality television is productive sometimes. One thing Supernanny helped me with in regards to Jazlyn is to make sure she is listening. Most of the time she is in her own little world and doesn't hear what we say to her. Time outs usually work very well for her. She is not too much of a problem, as long as she is not sleepy. Then she turns into some other child whom I would rather not speak of.

So I know how to discipline Jazlyn (sometimes), but I'm not too sure what to do with Isaiah right now. He needs some form of discipline. He has tried to scratch and bite me already. I'm not really sure if he realizes what he is doing or not, but either way he needs to know that it is unacceptable. As big as he is, he will be able to overpower me at two years old. That tapping on the leg tore me to pieces, and I don't know if I want to go that route again. He cried and cried and cried and cried some more. I'm not sure, however, if he would understand time out. I don't think he would. So what do I do?

Maybe I will call Supernanny and see what she suggests. I will let you know what she says.

~Melissa

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Dance Away

Jazlyn is in her second year of dance. Every year they have a visitors' week where we can come in during class time and observe. Jazlyn was one of the best ones out there, and I am not saying that only because she is my daughter. I'm sure every other parent didn't say that too right?

Jazlyn truly does love dancing. She dances around the house all the time. I am glad she has found something at her young age that she loves to do. There is a joy that I see in her when she dances, and I pray that she doesn't let anything take that joy away from her. Dance away, Jazlyn!

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Saving money on groceries

I have had a few people ask me about saving money. I have only been trying to save money for a few months, but I have learned a bit in those few months. We were spending way too much money on groceries. Once I quit working I knew that had to change. Here are some rules that I believe are essential for saving money on groceries.

Rule #1: Know your prices. If you don't know what a good price for something is, then you won't know if a sales price is really good or not. For example, Publix will have their chicken breasts "on sale" for $3.50/lb. This actually is not a good price on chicken breasts. Kroger often has theirs on sale for $1.99/lb. I believe Publix and Kroger have the best priced sale items. You just have to know that the best is. If there is something you need but can't find on sale, then Wal-Mart or Target is your best bet.

Rule #2: Stockpiling. Our old way of grocery shopping is that we would go each week and buy one of everything that we needed, at Wal-Mart (my least favorite store). Our way of grocery shopping has changed dramatically. Now we stockpile. To build up your stockpile it will take probably a couple months. Once you have your stockpile, however, you will see your grocery bill decrease dramatically.

How do you build a stockpile you ask? This does take a little bit of time and effort. First thing you have to do is scan the sale ads each week. You don't neccesarily have to buy the newspaper, because every store will have their sale ads online. You do want to buy the newspaper if you want to get the coupons though (more on coupons later). The store with the overall best sales, in my opinion, is Publix. They have buy one get one free sales every week. Their sales run from Wed. to Tues., unlike most stores, which run Sun. to Sat. The way to get your stockpile is when you see something on sale that your family would eat, buy it. Don't just buy one or two. I would suggest buying at least three or four. If the item is buy one get one free then you are getting it for half price anyway.

Rule #3: Don't shop at one store for everything. This is time consuming, but I believe it is worth it if you can make it work. For example, each week I will usually go to Publix to get their buy one get one free items and milk and bread. Then if there is still more that we need, I will go to Target for those things. I probably go to Kroger once or twice month, when they are having good sales.

Rule #4: Make a weekly menu. Go through your cabinets and see what you already have. Then base your menu off of that. Be creative with what you already have at home. It is ok sometimes to have grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. If you have bread and cheese (maybe some lunch meat) and a side, then you have one dinner already taken care of. Search the internet for meals. I have been surprised at how many meals I have been able to make with stuff that we normally keep on hand at our house.

Rule #5: Make a list. Know what you are going to buy before you go to the store. If you go in and just buy what you see then you will spend too much money. Only buy what is on your list. You can make exceptions if you see a good sale on something that you didn't previously see in the sales ad. Other than that, stick to your list.

Rule #6: If you are just starting out in trying to budget, don't try to do too much at once. Take baby steps, or else you will burn yourself out and give up.

Coupons will have to wait until tomorrow. A certain baby is demanding my attention. Here are some websites I frequently visit:

www.iheartpublix.com
www.couponsavinggame.com
www.southernsavers.com
www.moneysavingmom.com
www.twothriftysisters.blogpot.com (This website will have local deals bc they are in Athens)

~Melissa

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Giveaway

Want to enter a giveaway? Then go to Money Saving Mom. I won't be mad if you choose not to do so, because I really want to win.

~Melissa

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Not Me Monday

Not Me Monday was started by MckMama, as a therapy session for moms all over.

I did not play Super Mario Bros. yesterday for two, three, or maybe four hours. If I did play, I probably would have lost track of time. At least if I did play for a long time, I probably would have beat a world. I didn't though, because my family would not be okay with me MIA for a long period of time like that.

I did not give Isaiah his cute Glo-Worm, which was supposed to be a Christmas present. Since I didn't give it to him, I didn't have to use our new schedule as an excuse.

I did not grab the camera to take a picture of Isaiah when he fell off his rocking horse. If Isaiah fell off his rocking horse the first thing I would do is make sure he was ok, because I am the best mom. :)

~Melissa

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Perfect

Christmas music playing.

Jazlyn dancing.

Isaiah laughing.

Everyone happy.

Everyone healthy.

The.

Perfect.

Evening.

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Homeschooling

I am seriously thinking about homeschooling. Jazlyn is supposed to start school next fall, but the closer it gets to that time, the more I think about homeschooling. I have looked into it a little today (googled it) and there are so many things to consider. There are a lot of different curriculums and teaching methods out there. If anyone reading this knows a thing or two about homeschooling I would greatly appreciate some input. I'm not sure where to start.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

~Melissa

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Leap Frog Tag coupon

There is a Leap Frog coupon here for $10 off the Leap Frog Tag reading system or $5 off Tag Junior. Toys R Us has the Tag on sale right now for $34.99. That means you would get it in the end for half off (regular price is $49.99). I think we just might get this for Jazlyn now.

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Friday's Fact

Happy Friday! Today's fact about myself is that I love to read. This is something that I just rediscovered recently. I used to read a lot when I was younger, but I stopped during middle school and high school because I didn't want people to think I was a geek. I was already being made fun of for making good grades. I didn't want to give them more fire.

Right now I am reading This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury. This is the first book I have read by her. I think I am going to like her stuff.

So there you have it, another exciting thing about me! Have a fantastic weekend. I have a mommy-daughter date today. We are going to see the Princess and the Frog. :)

~Melissa

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Trusting God

Last night it stormed bad here. All night Jazlyn was worried about her Daddy, since he was at work. She didn't just say something about it once. She went on and on and on all night about if her Daddy would be ok out in the storm. Can you tell she loves her Daddy?

Jazlyn went through something last year where she was constantly saying she was scared. We taught her when she was scared to say "God, protect me." So last night I let her know that God would protect her Daddy during the storm.

My conversation with her got me thinking. God doesn't always do what we want him to do. Small children die. Parents with small children die. We don't always understand why some things happen. What we do know is that God's ways are not our ways nor are His thoughts our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). What He does might not always make sense to us, but He tells us to trust Him and lean not on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). While we are worried about our own little world, God's plans concern far more.

The prime example of this is Jesus. Jesus tried to tell his disciples about what was going to happen to him, but they were not trying to hear it. They did not believe that this man, who they saw perform countless miracles, would be killed. They did not understand God's plan.

Is God able to protect us? Of course. That, however, might not always be His plan. God protected Daniel from the lions, but Job lost almost everything he had. God did end up giving Job back twice as much as he had before, but Job couldn't have made it while everything around him was fading away, unless he trusted God.

I believe that all of this was brought to my attention for a reason. My new goal for Jazlyn is to teach her to trust and to love God no matter what. The earlier she learns that in life, the easier her life will be. Life might not always make sense, but God tells us that all things work together for good for those who love Him (Romans 8:28). That verse says all things. Not just the good things or the bad things in life, but all things.

~Melissa

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Sweet smell

Before
After


Our Christmas tree is up and decorated, as you can see. Our living room is also now crowded, as you can see.

Every year we go to the Christmas tree farm (Is it called a farm?) and cut down our tree. This is something that we always did growing up and we will probably continue to do until we are just too old. We also always get snacks while we decorate the tree (my favorite part).

My favorite thing (besides the snacks) about having a real Christmas tree is the smell. Aahhhh, the sweet Christmas tree smell. Can you smell it? I guess not unless you have your own real tree. Well, if you don't have a real Christmas tree, you should get one.

Now does anyone want to come help me wrap presents?

~Melissa

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Slow Down

Yes, this is Isaiah standing up. Yes, he pulled up all by himself. Yes, he also got his first two teeth last week. Yes, this makes me happy. Yes, this makes me sad. Yes, my baby will soon no longer be a baby.

Son, I won't be mad at you if you slow down your growing process just a little. Though I am proud of your milestones, I do enjoy my baby still being a baby. Thanks, Mommy.

~Melissa

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Not Me Monday

I am so sorry to disappoint you, but I don't have anything for Not Me Monday. If you really want to read some things people "haven't" been doing you can go here. You should be able to find some there, but I'm not making any promises.

Later I will let you in on what has been keeping us busy here in our household.

~Melissa

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Hallmark coupon

Do you plan on buying any Christmas cards or ornaments from a Hallmark store this year? If so you need to go here to print a $5 coupon off a purchase of $5 or more. That's sure to get you at least one free card! I like free stuff.

For more hot coupons and deals go to Money Saving Mom.

~Melissa

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Friday's Fact

Why didn't y'all tell me that it was Friday? For some reason I have had my days all messed up this week. It is probably from Thanksgiving last week.

I am starting something here on Fridays. It is called Friday's Fact. Bet you didn't see that one coming did you?

Friday's Fact is where I will share with you on every Friday a fact about myself, because I know that you are just dying to know more about me. I'm just exciting like that. These facts will more than likely be completely random things about me.

The first Friday Fact is that I throw away everything. My hubby calls me the Throw Away Queen. He calls me that all the time actually. I guess I am the opposite of a hoarder. Not sure if there is a name for it. I can't stand clutter, like a lot of papers piled up in one place. If something sits there for too long you can bet it will get thrown away. This can be a bad thing so I am getting better, but even as I am typing this I am seeing things that I think could have a better home in the trash.

Have a great weekend!

~Melissa

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My Heart's Desires

Psalm 37:3-5 Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.

About two years ago, while I was still working, I was feeling very overwhelmed. At the time I only had Jazlyn, but my husband was working and going to school. On top of that, our work schedules were never the same, so we hardly ever got to see each other. I also felt like I was missing Jazlyn grow up.

I laid in bed one night and was just a mess. I told God that if I couldn't stay home then I didn't want anymore kids. I'm sure He was like "Oh, really?" You know, since I have complete control over when we have kids. Seriously though, I was letting God know what my heart's desire was. Not that He needed me to tell Him, but I think God wants us to be honest with him and speak what is on our hearts. My honest truth was that I didn't want to have another child and have to miss that child's first step or first word because he or she was in daycare all day every day.

After that night I went on with my life. But you can be sure that I kept letting God know that I wanted to be able to stay home, especially when I found out about Isaiah. Don't get me wrong. I didn't have a miserable job that I absolutely hated. I actually liked my job most of the time, but I missed my family.

Once Isaiah was getting ready to make his entrance into the world, my hubby did have a different job making more money. I still didn't feel though that I could quit my job. I kept crunching the numbers trying to make it work, but I just didn't see how it was possible. I did feel, however, that God was telling me that I should quit my job. It did make some sense, since daycare would have been so expensive with two kids, but I still didn't see how it would work on one income.

Well, you probably already know that it did work. I kept praying about quitting my job to make sure that it was really what I was supposed to do. Even after Isaiah was born (I did work a couple months after he was born), I kept going over the numbers over and over again. I still didn't see how we would make it. I feel this was my first big faith test. I still felt like God was telling me to quit my job even though I didn't think it would work out. I finally listened and quit.

We have been absolutely fine. It actually hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. I thought there would be times where we would have to live on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which I was willing to do. That has not been the case at all. God has given me wisdom on handling our finances. He has truly taken care of us. We have more food in our house than we did while I was working. We were even able to do some Christmas shopping!

My life is proof that the above verses are indeed true. Why don't you go read them again? You know you want to.

~Melissa


*Disclaimer-Let me clarify that I am not saying that God will give you whatever you want. He will give you your heart's desires in His timing, if they are in His will, and if you trust and have faith in Him.

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The blog world

Wow. That is all that I can say about the blog world. I had no idea that it was so extensive. There are all kinds of blog communities out there. I have only barely scanned the surface and am already in shock.

One place I want to share with you is the Blog Frog. Some of you are probably already down with the blog world and know about the Blog Frog. I just joined, because I'm cool like that. For those of you like me, who had no idea there was this other world out there, you can go here to join. Then, if you will notice on my right sidebar, when you visit my blog I will know through this Blog Frog widget.

So go join the Blog Frog. You know you want to. All the cool kids are doing it.

~Melissa

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Oops

Wanna know what I did tonight? You do? Good. I thought so.

We were getting ready to go to Bible study and there was a conversation that went like this:

Me: Jazlyn, put your boots on so we can go.
Jazlyn: But you are not ready to go yet!
Me: Yes, I am getting Isaiah and his bag and we are leaving so go put your boots on!
Jazlyn: But you can't wear that!
(Let me fill you in, she always has something to say about what I wear because I am not as stylish as she is.)
Me: Jazlyn, just put on your boots so we won't be late!
Jazlyn: You can't wear your pajamas to church silly!

I looked down and realized she was right. I was literally getting ready to walk out the door in some plaid pajama pants. If it would have been only Isaiah and me, I wonder how long it would have taken me to notice.

Motherhood does affect the brain. I don't care what anyone says.

~Melissa

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Putting baby on a schedule

I know it is a little late for this, but I am going to try to put Isaiah on a schedule. I'm only seven months behind. Better late than never right?

We have always been a go with the flow type of family. Whenever you are hungry, you eat. Whenever you are sleepy, you sleep, no matter what time of day (or night) it is. This type of lifestyle is no longer working for me. Some nights Isaiah is only sleeping a few hours, then trying to sleep all day. Needless to say, I NEED CHANGE! I'm sure some consistency would benefit everyone in our family.

My main reason for wanting to do this is so Isaiah can get on a steady sleeping schedule, but I also want Jazlyn to get on a schedule because she starts school next year (sniff, sniff). I don't want her to go to school and go into shock when she can't do what she wants when she wants.

This week I am just keeping track of what Isaiah is currently doing to see if there is any consistency at all. We are going out of town next week so I am going to try to implement the schedule when we get back. My plan is to first get Isaiah on a schedule, then Jazlyn, because I know she will be a lot easier.

If any of you know anything about this, or know of any websites or other resources that might help me, please leave me a comment. This is new territory for me. Thank you in advance because I know someone is going to help me. :)

I will keep you posted on our progress.

~Melissa

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