Money Well Spent

Lunch for 2 at a "fancy" restaurant - $20
2 Movie Tickets to Beauty & The Beast in 3D - $20
Popcorn, Pop, & Candy - $10
Awesome day with my son.....  Priceless!

So, ever since my son saw the previews for Beauty and The Beast in 3D, he really wanted to go.  Since I also loved that movie when I was younger, I promised him we would go together.  With wrestling taking up pretty much all of our weekends, today was the first chance we've had to go.  After church, my husband and daughter headed home to take a nap while my son and I headed out for our "date".  First we went and ate Chinese for lunch, since we both love it but my husband doesn't like it at all.  He said the restaurant was "probably the fanciest one he'd ever been too" because "they have real napkins on the tables".  Then, we went to the movie.  We both enjoyed it (even though our regular glasses make it hard to use the 3D ones the theater provide) and had fun quoting some of our favorite lines on the way home.  After that, we went to Walmart to let him use a gift card he had gotten for his birthday.  Seeing the excitement on his face when he realized it was his money to spend on whatever he wanted made my day.  It is rare lately that he and I are able to spend time hanging out, since wrestling takes up a lot of his time and most of my time is spent taking care of the baby or keeping up on household tasks.  I had forgot how much I enjoyed it being just the two of us and how much fun we can have together.  My new goal for the year is to spend some one-on-one time with him at least once a month.  I am afraid I only have a few years left before it will become uncool to hang out with his mom and I want to enjoy this time as much as I can.  On Friday, I was saddened to hear about an old friend who's new baby son is in NICU and hanging on but not doing very well at all and have been frequently in prayer for them.  That was just the reminder I needed to commit to this time with Seth today.  We never know what tomorrow brings so we need to enjoy the time we do have with our loved ones right now.

Fatigued Friday

So, I had the best intentions for getting things done today, but I succeed at very few of my plans.  I just drank a cup of coffee after finally getting out of my pajamas just before 3 pm, so maybe the motivation will kick in shortly (as soon as the caffeine starts to work)... 

On a good note, after teaching yesterday, I went grocery shopping.  I scored some really good deals by combining coupons and sales: free Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds (my husband's favorite cereal), Oscar Meyer Carving Board meats for $1, and 3 large containers for Enfamil formula for $35 to name a few.  I may not have gotten home until after 10 pm but it was well worth it to at least not have to leave the house today.  I was even more glad I didn't have anywhere to go today when my son's school got cancelled due to bad road conditions.  Shopping with the baby is difficult at times, but shopping with a hyper 6 year old can be down right frustrating. 

When I'm done with this, I need to get started making banana bread I've been putting off (the butter is softened and we actually have the eggs in the house after grocery shopping, so there is no excuse not to)  I also need to get working on some dinners for our meal exchange.  A friend of mine, who has a baby around the same age as mine and also works and goes to school, suggested that we do this and it's worked out great.  Every other week, we exchange 2 to 4 different meals (depending on our schedules for the week).  Then we just pop them in the freezer and use them as we need.  I don't know why we didn't start doing this sooner!  They have been a real sanity-saver on a few different occasions and we get to try different foods that I normally wouldn't make.  If you can find a willing friend, I would suggest doing something similar.  It's amazing how easy it is to double a recipe you are already making and in exchange, once or twice a week you don't have to deal with the "What's for dinner?" dilemma.

Yes, I'm becoming "that mom"...

Sunday night, we had the Young Adult's class from church over for our monthly dinner and a movie night.  As I was getting our son ready for bed he asked how he was getting to school in the morning, which is a regular question in our house considering our schedule is always changing.  (That is until next week anyways, when my husband and I are finally both on a regular daytime schedule.  Hooray!)  While I was trying to remember what the plan was for Monday morning, one of the ladies in the group commented that she thought her younger siblings, who are still in school, had the day off.  I decide to look at the lunch menu hanging on the fridge, and low and behold, she was right!  Students were off school for teacher records day.  Luckily for us we have a very understanding daycare provider.  Since we already let her know our daughter would be coming early in the morning, it would be no problem for my husband to take our son as well.  Crisis (barely) averted!

Lesson of the day:  There is no point in putting things on the calendar if you don't actually check it daily.

Introduction

Welcome to my blog!  Here you will be able to read about my often times hectic life trying to juggle the multiple demands of family, home, work, and school.  There is always something going on around here and I'm a lot more disorganized than I would like to admit.  I'll tell you about the bumps and glitches we run into along the way, as well as some of my tips for trying to keep it all together.  Look for updates on Wednesday and Friday afternoons and Sunday evenings.  Feel free to leave a comment if you'd like to share the stories of your own crazy life!  :)