F.H.E at it’s finest!

Every week (on Monday evenings)  our church encourages us to gather as a family to spend time together, to help strengthen the family and also allow us as parents to teach our children more about the gospel. We do it because we believe it is important, especially as we try to raise our children in a world that places very little value on families. I wish I could say these evenings are always spiritually uplifting, unfortunately, Monday evenings are usually full of chaos and screaming children who give us very little of their attention.

 

This week’s F.H.E…..….

(Sadie always has to start the evening by conducting)

Sadie: “Welcome to family home evening everyone. Dad will be giving the lesson today. Mason will be leading the song. Mom will be saying the prayer. And um…well Kendyl…um she’ll just be the crazy baby crawling around with a battery in her mouth!”

(Yes in our effort to spiritually feed our children…we overlooked the fact that what we were really feeding our baby was a AAA battery…scary!)

Then…the lesson was on Emergency Preparedness. Rich led us all around the house pointing out safety areas (What can cause danger…and ways to get out of danger).  While in the kitchen and talking about the stove, Rich mentioned if they were to ever see a fire in the kitchen and if there were other people in the house they needed to FIRST YELL FIRE to get mommy and daddy’s attention. Sadie loved this…she kept practicing her fire yell over and over. Mason was a little nervous from all the fire screams but was going along with the tour just fine UNTIL Rich tried to lead them down into the basement…which is the DUNGEON in Mason’s eyes. Hesitantly Mason followed Rich. Once downstairs, Rich starts telling the kids all about he furnace. He mentioned how it can start house fires… so if while playing downstairs, if ever they HEARD a funny noise or SMELLED smoke coming from the furnace that they should yell FIRE and RUN upstairs and get out of the house. Just as he finishes telling them this, the furnace kicked on and started making rumbling noises. Sadie screams FIRE at the top of her lungs…and poor Mason was out of the door in 2 seconds flat running up the stairs. As sad as it was to see our boy so scared…it was REALLY FUNNY! At least we know that he knows what he’s supposed to do when he hears the word “FIRE”!!!!

Do you know what struggling means???

Here’s a picture of Sadie and her closest friend. I love watching these two girls play…they both have the BIGGEST IMAGINATIONS! Their favorite thing to do is go through Sadie’s closet and try on every piece of clothing they can find.  They do their best to clean up…but of course I can’t handle having every shirt hung sideways or upside down, so I always get to take on the fun job of hanging everything back in it’s right order….

So today Abby came by to play. She's a little timid of dogs…so when Sadie answered the door and there was no barking dog coming at her, she instantly asked…

A: “Where’s Paige???”

S: “Um my mom sold her” (p.s. we did not sell her…we placed her in a loving home. Sounds so worldly to hear “sell”)

A: “Oh…Why???”

S: “Um…because she wanted her money back”

A: “Oh…”

S: “ But she’s really struggling with it. Abby do you know what struggling means"?”

A: “Not really”

S: “Well struggling means she’s not taking it easy…she cries a lot. But even though she’s struggling she’s going to be ok”

I was laughing so hard as I was standing in the kitchen over hearing this conversation. P.S I did cry….but not a whole lot…but I’m now aware that Sadie has overheard some of my conversations with other people regarding Paige. Which always consists of me saying… “I’m struggling a little bit but I’ll be ok”. At least I’m expanding my child’s vocabulary and she’s being a little advocate in spreading her new found knowledge.

THEN….

Sadie asked me today “Mom do you know what HOT means???” I replied yes. She said “No not HOT like an oven ….like “Man she’s hot”…..WHAT?!?!? She said “See there’s this kid in my class that says that he thinks this girl in my class is hot. It’s just a fun way to call someone cute”….How did my little girl go from being 5 to 16 just by entering into Kindergarten????

Everyone is invited!!!

Get the word out….I’m hosting a Free Grocery Smarts class at my house on Wed. March 3rd at 7:00 p.m. (If you need directions to my house let me know and I will email you).  Why am I doing this…..because I want to reduce my grocery bill and build up the food storage we are currently living off of. It’s a free class…the website is free….and if you decide to get rolling with this way of shopping you can even subscribe for newspapers through the demonstrator for a better price than going through the actual newspaper company. (You can subscribe to the newspaper at the class if wanted, or before by contacting Tori herself). Again…NO OBLIGATION TO SUBSCRIBE EITHER! 

Let me know if you want to come. And get the word out. I want everyone to feel like they are invited.

Tears are for me…not for her!

So it happened tonight….we placed our dog with another family. I really did not expect this to be so hard on me. From the time we started re-working our budget weeks ago, we just knew that we needed to make small but significant changes. It’s hard to see a dog as a luxury…especially when you’ve had them long enough to where they feel like family. But there are several expenses that come with caring for a dog…and right now that money is needed to provide for our children. Ever since we made this decision a week ago, I found myself crying throughout the week at random times. I didn’t think I would be strong enough to go through with it. Even as her new family was here, there were moments I just wanted to call the whole thing off…BUT I KNEW I WAS DOING THE RIGHT THING….not only right for us….BUT RIGHT FOR HER!!! Ever since I got pregnant with Kendyl…and Rich took on more responsibility with his job…our priorities were slowly shifting (and sadly they were shifting away from Paige). I was struggling with making sure she got adequate exercise everyday (Especially now that it’s winter. I’m now doing most of my running indoors). And even though we loved her and did our best to take care of her…deep down I knew we could do better. I knew the only way I could emotionally get through this was if I placed her in a better home than we could provide. And I think I managed to do that!!! I found the biggest dog lovers out there!  They have two dogs already but are getting ready to put one down because he’s 17 years old and barely surviving. They stayed at my house for 1 1/2 hours just socializing and getting to know each other. I feel so good about this family being Paige’s new family. But even though I felt so sure about it, I really struggled to let her go. Throughout the 1 1/2 hours they were here I broke down crying uncontrollably several times (And Rich was not here to pick up the pieces…EMBARRASSING). But they said I could come visit her whenever I wanted and they knew what it was like to lose a dog you love so much. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices! But once we accept those sacrifices, sometimes we are blessed by realizing quickly that those sacrifices was just what needed to take place. We love you Paige…NOW YOU HAVE TWO FAMILIES WHO WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU!

Raising a pioneer not a princess!

These words were told to me days ago by a good long time friend and it has been going through my head ever since!!!

The other day while feeling a little down and out over the stresses , I get a call from a good long time friend of mine. Through the course of the conversation we both discover that we are both going through some tough times (Not that you ever want any of your friend’s to be struggling…NOT AT ALL…but at the same time it’s always nice to learn you’re not the only one going through hard times. I gain strength is knowing those around me know how I feel).

So we got to talking about raising a family on nothing. This is all Richard and I have ever known…WE’VE ONLY RAISED A FAMILY WHILE GOING TO SCHOOL….no big deal right?  But of course the pressure of the world wants to convince us that because we can’t provide some of the fine things in life, that somehow we are depriving our children.

It’s so amazing to me how we can be answers to each others prayers…I learned so much by talking to this friend. She paid me the best compliment that day by saying “I was raising a pioneer not a princess” (referring to Sadie….ALTHOUGH I DON’T KNOW….she may not be a wealthy princess..but she’s sure got the attitude sometimes \’’/)….But I can’t help but want to believe she’s right. Raising a family while Rich has been completing school has been ROUGH. And our kids have had to be content with very little. But I WOULDN’T WANT ANYTHING ELSE for my kids. I want my kids to enjoy the simple things in life. I never want things handed to them. I want to know that if my girls marry someone who may struggle to provide for them, that they can roll up their pants and trudge through hard times by their man. I WANT MY GIRLS TO BE PIONEERS!

Although, I don’t think I’m up to par to say I’m raising pioneer children…but this has become my NEW ASPERATION  in life.  I love my kids so much I want to set them up for success, and the best way to do that is to be a better example of how to deal with trials. So I will try….I will try to keep my spirits up even when I feel like the world is beating down on us.

By the way…I’m not suffering…it’s easy to see that especially when you flip on the news to see the images of what others are facing in the world.

So am I posting this so you can feel sorry for me…..no, No, NO! My purpose is the complete opposite. I never want my life to appear to be perfect (although I don’t think it does anyway…haha!) But I know what it feels like to think you are the only one going through challenges. So if I’ve uplifted one person just by letting them know our life is hard from time to time…then this post served it’s purpose!

My Pioneer Child..or glimpes of one!

So after having my AH-HA moment…I decided it would be best for our budget to take Sadie out of  her dance class. My heart ached at the thought of asking her to make such a sacrifice. But when I asked her, her response was “That’s fine Mommy, I don’t care. Is it so you can get your money back?” Sadly, she’s probably heard one to many discussions about money in our house (which I’m working on).  I think I took it harder than she did \’’/ Which proved to me…um dance class is not so necessary for her right now.  I expected her to be heartbroken…instead, right after breaking the news she asked if she could paint. I asked her what it was she wanted to paint. She said “I want to paint this box so I can put presents in it and take them to my friends. You know Mom, my friends may not have many toys so I think I should share mine with them”…..AHHHH MELT MY HEART! Here I was worried she was going to feel like a victim of our financial circumstances…instead she’s more concerned about giving what little she has. It’s no wonder our Heavenly Father has asked us to “BECOME LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN”….One great lesson…taught by one little girl!

 

Pioneer child in action: Now is it contradicting if my little pioneer girl wears princess shoes during her pioneer act of service???

 

 

For those of you who were not home…and you were wondering where all the junk left on your porch came from…NOW YOU KNOW! It was just the Reeves’ handing out charitable donations (AKA…De-Junking!)…and yes that’s Mason wearing his Christmas PJ top at 4:00p.m. a month after Christmas. Letting my kids choose their outfits is a whole other issue (and post) which I'm still learning to accept. At least he’s wearing clothes…we’re making some progression!

Sweet dog looking for a home!

Hi everyone...so this is going to be something really hard for us to do...but we know it's necessary! We want nothing more than to get out of our school loan debt that we took out for Rich's vet school. We have taken on "The money makeover" challenge. We are going bare bones with our life style..which includes moving, selling things and getting rid of expenses that does not keep my husband, children and I alive. Sadly we cannot afford to feed our dog anymore and with our new move we can't bring her along. We are deeply sad about this decision and hope that we can find her a loving home.

She is a very well behaved dog. She's EXTREMELY well behaved with children. She has never once nipped at my children, even when they are pulling at her and she's in pain. SHE IS AN INDOOR DOG! The greatest thing about her is sometimes the most frustrating thing about her. We rescued her from a shelter and we are almost positive she was abused as a puppy (because all she longs for is acceptance...she is very obedient..for the most part). Because of the lack of love she received as a puppy....she loves being in your presence. She's very well behaved in the house...but once you let her outside, it's not long before she wants to be in back with the family. She would not do well at all as an outdoor dog!!! She's the perfect indoor dog though....very well potty trained...never chews on what she's not supposed to.

She's current on all her shots and is very healthy.

She does bark whenever someone comes to the door (which makes for a great security system...thankfully we had her when someone broke into our house once). And it doesn't stop once you answer it. We have tried to break her of this habit but she just get's too excited to have company. We have trained her however to run into a bedroom when the door knocks so we can close the door before opening it. Really out of all the bad behaviors a dog could have...it's not a bad one!

But having her does take some commitment. She loves to exercise...but like I said does not do well playing outside on her own. She does really well playing with other dogs and getting exercise that way...but if she's the only dog, she loves getting her exercise by running around with the kids, playing chase, or going out on a run with me.

If you are interested, or know someone interested please let me know. I need to know that she's going to a good family so that I can get over the sadness I'm feeling. I have been 100% honest because I want her to have another family that she can love and bond with.

Deep Breathes!

Ok….so I know I’m not the only one who’s going through hard times. If you can…please help me simplify life by providing me with money saving tips and ways to simplify my life as a wife and mother. So I’m presenting a challenge to all of you….PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN….

I want ideas of how you simplify your own lives (it can be something as simple as how you keep organized….little tricks up your sleeve…whatever it is that you feel like you’ve got the upper hand on). AND…AND…AND…I really want to feed my family THE CHEAPEST yet HEALTHY way possible! So I need your help…

Everyone post a comment with one recipe that’s cheap and healthy (sorry no frozen pizzas). Along with the recipe try to give a rough estimate how many servings and what the cost may be. If you don’t know…still post your recipe if you think it’s a good price. (See I LOVE TO COOK, but in the past I’ve been making meals that include too many rare ingredients and they take over an hour to cook…NO TIME OR MONEY FOR THAT ANYMORE)!

I’ll start by killing two birds with one stone! Something SIMPLE and CHEAP to eat.

Tinfoil dinners (they’re not just for camping you know)….they are QUICK to prepare….AND HARDLY NO CLEAN UP.

I haven’t done my homework yet on cost…so I’ll guestimate…

Cut up chunks of potatoes (on sale 10lbs for $2.00 at Reams), Chunks of carrots (not pre-cut, on sale at Reams 2lbs $.99), onion, turkey bacon or turkey hotdog ($2.00) , add seasoning of your choice (we usually use something simple like steak seasoning). THEN THE BEST PART….cook it in portion sizes in the tinfoil (don’t forget to spray the tinfoil). That way you can leave the onions out or whatever else your kids won’t eat. My kids love this meal (we call it the Birthday present meal because they get to unwrap it). We let them eat right out of the tinfoil (with a plate underneath) but the plate rarely get’s dirty…so there’s no plates or pans to clean! CAN’T GET MORE SIMPLE THAN THIS MEAL! (Steak sauce or ketchup on top..yum!)

What are your ideas???