Story Time

I love that Sam has an older brother and sister. He learns and discovers most things from them. I especially love when they discover the joy of reading. It's these little moments that remind me of what is most important. I love reading to them, they sit quietly in my lap and point their little fingers to things on the page. What a great time.

Anticipation

I found an old CD of mine and put it into the stereo to listen to the other day. Why is it that songs can bring us back to what we were doing when that song was playing? I remembered driving to my sister's home to pick up my son after work and feeling the sun shining down through the window on my black Pathfinder and having a very pregnant belly. Little Eme. I even remember the maternity clothes I wore and the winding street that I was on. The songs being played at the time made me daydream about how our lives would be in the near future. I felt a lot of changes coming. Mr. Jewels was finishing school, looking for a job and feeling that we were ready to buy a home and I was nervous to become a stay-at-home mother. I happily anticipated the life I wanted for myself and my family. I wanted our lives to feel like how the songs made me feel. After listening to the songs the other day, I actually feel like our lives reflect the feeling in those songs. I think I will be listening to those songs a little more often now, just to show me how far we've come.

Off With Their Heads

We cut up ALL of our credit cards last Thursday night for our financial class. We had a lot. Not all of them had been put to use or had been activated, but all in all it felt good to cut them all up. We also got our minivan loan paid off too thanks to the third check we got in January. Love the third check months, I wish they happened more often. Now we just have to get two school loans paid off. We will be going after that "like a gazelle". Quoted from Nacho Libre and Dave Ramsey. We like the way Nacho says it better. So that is our new catch phrase until we get them paid off. I love having goals that are achievable. I am having anxiety over this whole food storage goal of mine. I know I have to just take it one step at a time. Baby Steps. Just like Sam is doing now, he only takes a few steps at a time. I will follow his example and take it a little at a time.

Met My Goal

Now I know this picture has nothing to do with what I am about to say, but it is the prettiest thing I saw in January. I made a goal for the month of January to not do any shopping other than groceries and I actually did it. I didn't set foot in Savers or Ross, my two favorite places to shop. Think I can do this again for February? My other goal for that month was to take time to figure out the money. Because of the financial class Mr. Jewels and I are taking, I made a budget from the money I make, telling my money what to do is great, I have been able to focus on what I want to do with that money and set realistic goals. Mr. Jewels and I sat down and looked at what our money is doing which really helps me understand where we stand moneywise. He usually does the budget and just tells me what is going on, but now I am more involved than I have been. My goal for the rest of this year is to work on Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness. I wish me "Good Luck". My goal for February is to find a good paint color for the fire place and paint it one last time. (I have already painted it twice now with some paint I already have and I still don't like it.) Aargh!