Saving Families Money Since 2007
Target Shopping Trip
3 Bayer Aspirin – $2.19 each, used $10/3 coupon from the 1/4 SmartSource insert – Free plus overage after coupon
2 pkg Christmas Cards – Marked down to $0.70 each
2 pkg Bic Soleil Glow Razors – $6.99 each, used Buy One Get One Free coupon from the 1/4 SmartSource (took off $7.99) AND 30% off Cartwheel coupon – $0.89 each after coupons
Total before coupons and sales: $35.93
Total with tax ($1.38) after coupons and sales: $1.38 (I only paid tax!)
I found this Trim Healthy Mama Cupcake recipe when I was browsing on Pinterest the other day. I realized that we happened to have all of the ingredients on hand for it, so Silas and I spent a little time in the kitchen making it today.
This boy. He melts my heart! I love how much he loves to help and serve. He has the sweetest heart and is always looking for ways to bless his mama.
Silas did all of the stirring and mixing and then filled up the muffin tins — with very little help from me.
Here’s the link to the recipe we used: Trim Healthy Mama Cupcake recipe.
Overall, we were happy with the end result. For the healthful ingredients they have in them, they were fairly delicious.
I probably would have loved them more if they didn’t have almond flour as their base, though. I keep telling myself I’m going to learn to like almond flour, but so far, I just can’t quite get over the texture and taste of it in baked goods. It just always tastes a little too nutty and off to me.
Is anyone else like that? Maybe I’m just weird!
I do, however, think this batter would be really yummy made in the waffle iron and slathered with butter. Or, topped with some kind of frosting. Otherwise, these were a little on the dry and bland side to me.
Have you cooked or baked anything this week? Have any new must-try recipe links to share?
Want to get more done in 2015? Here’s a simple tip: Stop making so many decisions.
For real.
I was reading an advanced copy of Jon Acuff’s new book, Do Over, and he talks about this. Here’s what he says:
This is a technique leaders throughout history have taken up. Like a guy named Albert Einstein. According to Forbes, “It has been reported that the famous physicist bought several versions of the same gray suit because he didn’t want to waste brainpower on choosing an outfit each morning.”
President Barack Obama explained the idea even further, in an article in Vanity Fair written by Michael Lewis, “You also need to remove from your life the day-to-day problems that absorb most people for meaningful parts of their day. ‘You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,’ [Obama] said. ‘I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.’ ”
If you think that won’t work, I’d like to introduce you to the “speaking jeans” I own. For the last eighteen months, I’ve worn one pair of pants at every event I’ve spoken at. (The ones where jeans were acceptable onstage.) That’s one less thing for me to think about when I pack.
-Jon Acuff, Do Over (go pre-order a copy — it’s fantastic!)
I know this might sound overly simplistic, but it really does work. This is one of the reasons I only have a few outfits and re-wear them over and over and over again — down to the same shoes and jewelry.
This is one of the reasons it’s rare for me to eat something different than oatmeal or eggs and bacon for breakfast and why it was Instagram-worthy that I had a Purple Power Smoothie for breakfast yesterday! 🙂
This is why I like to stay at the same hotel chain, eat at the same restaurant chains (and usually always order the same things when I eat there), wear the same makeup palette every day, re-buy the exact same brand/make of something I like when the first one wears out, fix my hair in the same styles, and make the same meals on a regular basis.
Those of you who thrive on variety would probably find this incredibly boring. But for me, there is not only comfort in the sameness of things, it also simplifies life a lot.
If you only have one choice or a few choices, versus dozens of choices, it’s usually much quicker and easier to make a decision. You don’t have to weigh your options, consider the pros and cons, try on different outfits, worry about which choice is best… you just make your simple decision and go with it.
What About You?
Have you simplified and eliminated decision-making in certain areas of your life? If so, I’d love to hear! Also, does a life of few choices sound wonderful or extremely boring? Why or why not?
So how did your Monday go? Mine went remarkably well — which was not what I was expecting after us all being sick and completely off any routine last week and few weeks of us being mostly off school.
I am trying to get back to really early, early rising again. To the tune of 3:30 a.m. Yes, I have up and lost my mind. 🙂
But this morning, I was so grateful that I got up early because I had a lot of computer work to catch up on and my laptop crashed yesterday, so I was working on my husband’s laptop… which was clearly invented in the time of the dinosaurs. Or at least that’s what it felt like when the thing was working at a snail’s pace. (Have I mentioned I don’t have a lot of patience when it comes to slow computers??)
Instead of being frustrated, though, I decided to focus on the positive: that I usually have a fast computer, that I an internet connection at all, that my computer is under warranty, and that I have a backup computer to work on.
After crawling through all my morning computer work, I finished up, spent some time reading my Bible and studying John 4. Then I exercised with Silas (who was the only up at the time) and then let him play an educational game on the computer while I took a shower.
When I was ready for the day, I got the girls up, we had breakfast (Purple Power smoothies — see the ingredients here), and read our devotional and some from Aesop’s Fables.
While the kids were finishing up their breakfast, I wrote out chore lists for them (their chores change a little each day depending upon what needs to be done — I’m also divvying up the Confident Mom Planner chores between us all) and they go busy on their lists.
I cleaned up the kitchen, started some laundry, cleaned up my room, made my bed, washed Kathrynne’s hair and fixed it, and helped Silas with his chores.
We then sat down for Morning Time. Oh how I think this idea is going to be such a gift to our homeschooling. It went SO well today and was so fun to have time set aside to do those things I always hope we would get to but always seem to be crowded out by math, grammar, and so on.
After we were done with Morning Time, Jesse got home and made lunch for the kids, got them started on the core subjects for the day while I worked on cleaning out the bathroom closet.
I pulled most of the items out, reorganized and consolidated, threw a few things out, and moved some of the extra bottles to the second bathroom where were have some empty storage shelves. And within around 25 minutes, the closet looked SO much better!
Believe it or not, by 12:30 p.m., I had finished my entire Morning List. I guess the getting up early thing really does work well. 🙂
I spent the afternoon working on blog projects, writing this post on my South Africa secret, and getting caught up on emails.
And then tonight we had our usual weekly Monday night gathering with friends. We all brought stuff for a Taco Bar and an Ice Cream Bar. It’s always an evening filled with a lot of laughing, ribbing, and just so much fun. We’re grateful for this group of friends that God has given us and how much they bless us each week.
How was YOUR day? Leave a comment and tell us about it and you’ll be entered to win this stack of goodies I put together — including a few brand-new books by dear friends of mine! This giveaway has ended.
You know that feeling you get when you know a secret that almost no one else knows? You go through your day and you keep feeling the corner of your mouth turn up into a smile. Because you know a really, really exciting secret and you can barely hold it in.
That’s how I’ve felt the last few months. I’ve had a secret I’ve been keeping and my heart’s been about ready to burst — because I’m excited and humbled and just plain in awe of how God orchestrates things.
First, let give you a little background…
In 2013, my friend, Lisa-Jo Baker, had asked me to read a pre-release copy of her new book, Surprised By Motherhood. I loved it so very much that I wrote her and asked her how I could help promote it for her.
Well, the email she sent back just blew me away. She shared with me about this huge vision she has to impact the culture in South Africa — where she grew up, where three of her siblings are adopted from, and where her parents still live and minister.
As she shared about this massive dream she had to encourage women around the globe to come together to change a community of kids in South Africa, I knew I had to tell my readers about it.
Lisa-Jo didn’t know I was going to blog about it. We hadn’t talked ahead of time about the best strategy or post time or anything like that.
She just put her post up, I followed up with a post encouraging you all to Fall in Love With the World Next Door, and then dozens upon dozens of our readers and blog friends shared those posts with their friends.
And then we were absolutely humbled and stunned and overwhelmed by the donations and emails that came in — from all over the world. Hundreds of you gave.
It was one of the most beautiful Valentine’s Days I’ve ever celebrated. Because of your giving hearts, a community center, veggie garden, and playground was funded for the Maubane community in South Africa.
It still gives me goosebumps to think about.
But I had this nagging feeling that this wasn’t the end of the road for my involvement in South Africa. My heart kept feeling a pull that we were supposed to do something more.
I didn’t know what that more looked like, but I just felt like we weren’t done there yet. Lisa-Jo felt the same way.
So the past six months or so, Lisa-Jo and I have been emailing about what this looks like. We’ve been praying. And we’ve been talking with the folks from Help One Now about how we can partner with Take Action (the ministry on the ground in South Africa) to impact this beautiful community and country.
And that leads me to the secret I’ve been keep for oh-so-many weeks now. Y’all: In 10 days from now, I’m GOING TO SOUTH AFRICA with Lisa-Jo!!!!
Yes, me. The girl who lived in Kansas all her life until this past year. The girl who is afraid of meeting new people. The girl who doesn’t like to go outside her comfort zone. The girl who doesn’t like unknowns. The girl who has never been on an airplane for longer than 5 hours.
I’ll readily admit that there are many things about this trip that are scary to me. I have no idea what it will be like to be on a plane for 18 hours. I have no idea how my body will react to jet lag. And I’ve been told that our agenda once we get there will be packed from sun up to sun down every day so that we can learn and soak up as much as possible.
There are a lot of unknowns and a lot of things I could (and do!) feel anxious about. But I have this deep down peace in my heart that this is the next step in my journey. That I’m not just supposed to send money or encouragement from far away. That I’m supposed to step outside my comfort zone and GO.
To meet the local leaders and hear from them personally. To see the needs with my own eyes. To experience what life is like in South Africa. To better understand the struggles of this community. To bring encouragement and hope to those who are working tirelessly to make an impact.
And so I’m going. And I’m going to be bringing you all along with me through my blog.
As Lisa-Jo wrote so beautifully in her post:
So we’re going. And we’re paying our own way. And we just want to take you in our virtual suitcases and let you see for yourselves what happens when between the loads of laundry and dishes and commuting and deadlines a community takes the time to love on their sisters who are also juggling laundry and homework and kids and dishes.
It won’t be a fundraising trip, it will be a FALL IN LOVE TRIP so you can see in person all that your love and prayers and donations and enthusiasm and encouragement have built.
It won’t be a fundraising trip, it will be a COME AND CELEBRATE WHAT WE DID TOGETHER trip as we enter this New Year reminding each other again that there is absolutely no such thing as “just” a mom – because “just” a mom couldn’t possibly have raised over $50,000 together for vulnerable kids in South Africa. And YOU GUYS DID THAT!
It won’t be a fundraising trip, it will be a MEET THE MOMS AND KIDS THAT ARE JUST LIKE YOU trip as we share photos and video of the community you are now connected to – virtual next door neighbors.
We want you to come along with us as we share pictures, stories, and details on life in South Africa. We hope that you’ll not only be encouraged to see what your generosity has done for this community, but it’s our heart’s desire that you’ll prayerfully consider standing with us long-term to make a difference in this community (after we get back home and have time to unpack and process, we’ll be sharing more about what that looks like).
I can’t WAIT to share this adventure with you all! {And if you have any advice for a newbie international traveller, I’m all ears. Please, no horror stories, though! But I welcome any and all tips for how to survive long plane rides and jet lag. And if you’re a reader in South Africa, I’d especially love to hear any tips or suggestions you have for me!}
photos used with permission from Ty Clark and Scott Wade
Just a reminder — this webcast is tomorrow evening. Be sure to sign up, if you haven’t already!
I’m honored and excited to be joining Sally Clarkson, Angela Perritt, and Sarah Mae for a free online webcast to celebrate the launch of Sally’s new book, Own Your Life.
This online Girl’s Night will be Tuesday, January 6, 2015 at 9:00 pm ET/8 CT/7 MT/6 PT
If you need some encouragement from other women to live your life on purpose and not just barely survive each day, be sure to tune in. It’s going to be so much fun!
We’re going to be discussing some great topics, including:
Plus, you can be sure that there will be a lot of honesty from each of us imperfect women as we talk about our own struggles in this area, things that have helped us, and what we’re still learning. 🙂
It’s Monday and guess what that means? That means it’s time for our weekly deep-cleaning project! Every Monday morning, I’ll be assigning us all a deep-cleaning project to tackle (well, that is, if want to join us!)
Today’s project is to tackle the bathroom cupboards and/or closet. If you are short on time, just pick the messiest drawer, cupboard, or closet to tackle.
This evening, I’ll share a post about how my morning well and give you an update (with pictures) on the progress I made on the bathroom closet.
Need some motivation? Check out my post on 10 Ways to Make Cleaning More Fun.
Want to join me? Leave a comment to let us know you’re participating! If you have time, tell us what your morning plan is, too.
Happy Monday! Are you ready to get back into the swing of things — including weekly goals? I know I am! If you missed it, you can see my 12 Goals for 2015 here.
Here are my goals for this week:
Marriage/Mothering/Homemaking Goals
1. Start our Morning Time routine. Read aloud for at least 20 minutes every day.
2. Write a love note to Jesse.
3. Help the kids write thank you notes for Christmas gifts.
4. Write notes to the children we sponsor through Compassion.
Personal Goals
5. Exercise at least 4 times (I’m trying out these BeFit in 30 workouts this week.)
6. Finish at least two books.
7. Knit a Cosy Posy Ear Warmer.
8. Clean out our bathroom closet.
9. Try a new DIY project & recipe: Fixing Our Hardwood Floor Scratches & Trim Healthy Mama Chocolate Cupcakes.
Business Goals
10. Finish writing 3 articles for Mandi’s Live course.
How did you do on last week’s goals? What are your goals for this week? I’d love to have you share your progress on last week’s goals and your goals for this coming week in the comments. Of, if you’ve blogged about it, leave your direct link below. Let’s cheer each other on to live purposeful and productive lives! You can download a free customizable weekly goal-planning sheet here.
Heather from Queen Bee Coupons has a great post up on saving money by doing without. Here’s a snippet:
When I decided to stay home with my kids (seven years ago!) it meant cutting our income by 60%. That’s right, 60 percent. Take $100 and throw $60 of it out the window. What was once $100, became $40 at the grocery store. I wouldn’t change staying home for a second. I wouldn’t trade anything for those extra 60 dollars, but I would be picky in how I spent the money I had left.
For us, this meant – if it wasn’t on sale and/or we didn’t have a coupon – we generally didn’t buy it. It was that simple. If it wasn’t a loss leader in the grocery ad (one of the best of the best deals), we would wait, and do without, until it went on sale.
And now, seven years later, our budget isn’t as tight – but we still live by this principle.
Well, on Monday, we officially start back to homeschooling and life. On the one hand, I’m really ready to get back to our consistent routine again. On the other hand, we had such a calm and peaceful Christmas break that I almost wish it would last forever!
We took the kids to a Frozen on Ice Skating Program and then they got to go ice-skating afterward. Jesse also totally surprised us with a night at the Gaylord Opryland hotel as a Christmas present. I love that man so much! It was beautiful there, we had so much fun, and it was the perfect way to end our week.
Starbucks had Peppermint Mochas on sale for 50% off one day, but I did even better: I made my own sugar-free homemade mocha that was probably 1/5th the calories of Starbucks and really delicious. You can find the recipe here.
There is a first for everything. On the flight back to Kansas, one of our kids ended up getting really sick and had to use one of these on the plane. Gratefully, this child gave us fair warning, had good aim, and didn’t end up actually getting the full-blown flu. I’ve never been so grateful for this little white bag… I can’t imagine the mess and stink there would have been in the plane otherwise.
One of my favorite parts of December: Goal-setting for the new year!! My list-making self just loves, loves, loves it.
I’m so grateful for Grandmas. We hadn’t decorated cookies or made gingerbread houses yet this December and I was feeling like I’d dropped the ball since we usually always do both things.
Never fear, we got to Kansas and one Grandma had planned to decorate gingerbread houses with the kids and the other Grandma planned a cookie decorating party. My kids were so excited about doing both activities — and I was so thankful that not only did it not feel like I’d dropped the ball as much, but also that they got to make these sweet memories with their Grandmas.
We learned a new-to-us game with Jesse’s family called Tenzi. You should have heard the screaming, whooping, and hollering that happened. Such a fun game for a big group and a wide range of ages. Have you played it before?
We closed out our Christmas day celebration by going to a late-night showing of Unbroken.
Wow! I cannot recommend this movie highly enough! One of the best I’ve watched in a long time. It’s intense, but such a powerful, powerful true story of courage and forgiveness. And now I MUST read the book (can you believe I haven’t read it yet??)
We came home from Kansas all really sick with fevers, sore throats, aches, etc. and have spent the rest of our Christmas break recovering from that. Unfortunately, none of us were exempt from getting it and it took each of us around 5-6 days to recover. So that wasn’t too fun. But gratefully, we had a free week and at least one or two of us were well enough at all times to take care of the rest of the family who was down at the time.
So that was our Christmas break in a nutshell. How was YOUR Christmas break?
It’s been a week of gearing up for the new year on the blog. Thank you all for joining me, sharing encouraging comments, and being such inspirations! Here’s a recap of the 7 most popular posts I shared this past week, in case you missed any of them:
2 Books I Read This Week + What I’m Planning to Read Next Week
Our Year In Review: Part 1 & Part 2
The 10 Best Books I Read in 2014
Cut Out Processed Food in 14 Weeks: Free Online Course
I was listening to the Read Aloud Revival podcast about Starting a Reading Streak a few days ago. Sarah encouraged her listeners to print this nifty free calendar and hang it somewhere conspicuous to remind yourself to read aloud to your children every day — even if just for a few minutes.
I promptly printed the calendar and stuck it on our fridge. Not only because I really am committed to doing a better job of reading aloud to my kids this year, but also because I love checking things off.
That love of checking things off stems back to my childhood. My mom made chore lists and achievement lists for us in various areas — when we were toddlers and getting potty-trained, a chart to check off how many times we brushed our teeth every day when we were a little older, and so on.
Little white boxes on a piece of paper hung in a can’t-miss place beckon me to actually do stuff and follow through with stuff, not just set goals and then forget about them.
Maybe you’re the same way? If so, I encourage you to choose one goal for this year that’s highly important to you. It could be anything that you feel will make a lasting difference to improve your life and/or the lives of those you love.
Here are some examples:
There are so many great ideas I could list, but you must just choose one thing. Decide on that one thing, keep it simple, and then commit to follow through with it every day by printing out the mini calendar and checking off each day that you hit your goal.
We’re only three days into the new year, but the constant reminder of that calendar on my fridge has served to motivate me to make reading aloud with my kids — even just for a few minutes — a priority each of those three days. I’m excited to see how many days long our reading streak will continue for!
Want to join me? Choose a goal, print the calendar, and then leave a comment here letting us know what goal you chose!
I read a few more books to end out my 2014 total at 86 books read. If you missed it, be sure to read my post on the 10 Best Books I Read in 2014.
I didn’t set a total reading goal for this year (believe it or not!), but rather set a goal to read one fiction book per month, one read aloud book to my kids each month, and one book on marriage each month.
This feels entirely doable and also leaves a lot of extra wiggle room for me to read a number of other books, too, as I have time and am inspired. I’ve tried book lists and book plans for the year in the past, but I find I glean so much more from books when I choose them based upon whatever mood I’m in or whatever subject I’m currently researching or area I want to work on in my life.
Since we’re starting fresh this week, I’m also going to start fresh with my book list. My plan going forward in 2015 is to post a recap every Wednesday of what I’ve read the following week and what I’m planning to read the coming week.
That way, you can get a peek into what I’m reading (and hopefully get some book ideas to add to your library list!) and I can keep a running total of the books I’ve read this year and my thoughts on them.
Books Read This Week
We’re two days into January and I’ve finished two books so far. That’s a pretty good pace, eh? 🙂 I don’t think I’ll be able to keep reading at the pace of one book per day, but who knows?
Here’s what I read:
The Miracle Morning — So this book came highly recommended, but personally, I felt it was full of a bit of hype. It did inspire me to make the most of my mornings and do a better job of getting back to my discipline of early morning rising, but I felt like the author did a whole lot of self-promotion in the book (constantly plugging his site, his other book, his coaching, his speaking, etc.) that it felt too sales-pitchy and hyped to me. But I’m also quite the cynic. 😉
52 Ways to Wow Your Husband — One of the things that I committed to do this year was to read at least one book on marriage every month, so I figured I’d go ahead and get started on that goal. 🙂 This book had a lot of great ideas in it, a lot of stuff that just felt like fluff and filler material, and a number of ideas that wouldn’t work at all for our marriage. However, I read part of it when we were on a road trip and it was fun to ask Jesse some of the questions and it sparked some good conversation between us.
James and the Giant Peach — This is our current read aloud. We just started it and, so far, the kids are loving it.
Steal Like An Artist — A friend highly recommended this one and it’s been on my list to get a copy for forever as a result. I finally got one and am hoping to read it this week!
I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t) — I’m SO close to being done with this one. Good stuff!
The Anxiety Cure — As someone who struggles with anxiety during different seasons of life, I’m on a mission to learn more about it and what I can do to help prevent or minimize it. I read Sleep: It Does a Family Good by Archibald Hart two years ago and learned so much from it that I picked up this title to check it out, too.
What Alice Forgot — This one keeps getting recommended to me, so I finally decided I’d see if it lived up to the recommendations. 🙂
Glimpses of Grace — So many people have told me I must read this book. I’m about a 1/3 of the way through it and am finding it thought-provoking it.
The One Thing — I keep seeing this one mentioned over and over again, so I thought it’d be a great read to start the year out with.
Dashing Dish: 100 Simple & Delicious Recipes for Clean Eating — This book showed up in my mailbox from the author last week and it looked like a cookbook I’d definitely be interested in checking out.
Long Walk to Freedom & Kaffir Boy — I’m reading these because, well, I can’t tell you just yet. But I will say that I have a secret I’ve been keeping for quite some time and I get to tell you all about it on Monday. Feel free to leave your guesses in the comments. 😉
Our New Morning Time Basket
I read Teaching From Rest this week and was so inspired to start doing Morning Time with my kids each morning (basically, a time to gather and read together and study some of those things you always want to study in homeschooling but don’t always get around to).
My plan is for us to pray, sing a hymn, work on Scripture memory, read a devotional, have the kids practice handwriting skills while I read a short piece from The Children’s Homer or a history book, and then have the kids practice sketching pictures from nature while I read our current read aloud book.
That’s my plan — we’ll see how it goes! I allotted an hour and 15 minutes for this and I think that should be more than ample time. I’m excited and the kids are, too!
What did you read this week? Did you set reading goals for 2015? Why or why not?
After bombing most of my 2014 goals, I went back to the drawing board and decided to drastically simplify my goals for this year and focus on those that would really be soul-filling for myself and encourage me to really invest in my marriage and children.
I spent a few weeks considering what worked and what didn’t work and what I wanted my priorities to be in 2015. After contemplating this, I wrote out a rough draft of my goals and then went over them with Jesse last week and he helped me refine and tweak them.
I’ve been sitting on my finalized goal list for a week and I have to tell you that I’m so excited about these goals for 2015!
They feel challenging but still realistic and this is making me all inspired and motivated — instead of feeling like I’d set goals that were so lofty inspiring and motivating.
Without further ado, here’s my finalized list (and yes, some of you are going to be very excited to see that I’ve included financial goals again!):
My 12 Goals for 2015
Marriage
- Read 1 book per month on marriage.
- Write at least 1 love note to Jesse each week.
Motherhood
- Read at least 1 book aloud to the kids per month.
- Write 1 love note to each child every month.
Myself
- Complete all She Reads Truth 2015 Bible Studies + memory work.
- Read 1 fiction book per month.
MoneySavingMom.com
- Hire a local personal assistant.
- Launch 2 courses (we’re planning one for spring and one for fall — stay tuned!)
- Launch our new product line (slated to soft launch in the summer).
- Release my third book (slated to come out November 2015).
Money
- Increase last year’s overall giving totals by 10% in 2015.
- Finish funding our Rental House #3 Savings Account (we’re beginning the year at 35% funded).
So there you have it! I’ll post updates at the beginning of each month to let you know the progress I made in the previous month.
If you set goals for this year, I’d love to hear what they are! Leave a comment listing them or linking over to your blog post about them. Here’s to a year of living with purpose, intentional, impact, and meaning!
Need some goal-setting help?
Check out this post on 10 Questions for Moms to Ask in the New Year and 35 Spiritual Goal Ideas for the New Year.
You can also sign up for a FREE Goal-Planning Workbook.
If you missed Part 1, be sure to read it here first. We left off in June — here’s a run-down of how the rest of the year went:
We began the month by heading back to Kansas to celebrate the fourth of July. It was good to go back, though Silas had a lot of asthma struggles when we were there, so we didn’t get much sleep at night as a result.
The following week, I flew to Chicago to give the keynote presentation at the Firefighter Wives’ Ball — which was my first time to ever attend, let alone speak at, a ball. It was quite the experience, as I wrote about here.
Jesse also started playing on our church’s softball team this month. I was so excited to see him taking initiative to do something fun and I felt like it helped him to start turning the corner in a small way. He also met with our campus pastor about possibly being apart of the men’s small group they were starting. Again, after weeks of him really struggling, for him to be taking strides to work on personal development and plant roots was huge to witness.
At the end of the month, we took a family trip to South Carolina to visit my sister and her family and for me to attend the She Speaks conference. We had a great trip and we realized how wonderful it was for us to be able to just pack up and go somewhere without having to plan months in advance due to Jesse’s full schedule.
August found us on the road as a family again, this time for an 11-day trip to Arkansas and Branson, MO. We spent the first part of the trip with my family at our annual extended family trip to Bull Shoals Lake. We then headed to Branson, MO, to meet up with Jesse’s family and got to Silver Dollar City.
While there, I also learned to knee board, which I was pretty stoked about!
I also started working on writing my next book in August. The first two weeks of the month, my ghost editor and I spent hashing out some of the bones of the book’s outline and then on August 15th, we jumped in full force.
On August 19, we re-launched Grocery University and you all blew us away by buying thousands and thousands more copies of the course than we ever dreamed. We’re learning never to underestimate you all. 🙂
Near the end of August, I flew to Las Vegas for Michele’s dad’s funeral. It was a bittersweet time — it was such a gift to get to be there to support Michele and to witness how much her dad meant to she and her family. But on the other hand, our hearts hurt so much for our friend and her loss.
The first week of September, Jesse began meeting with the men’s small group from our church — a group that has turned out to be such a gift and encouragement to him. Silas also started soccer this week and some local friends generously offered to come over and help me finally get some things hung on my wall. I was amazed at what a difference it made in our home to have wall-hangings up!
This month, my friend, Ginger, came to visit for a weekend. Her husband was deployed at the time and the days were getting long for her. So it was fun to plan an impromptu girl’s weekend at our house. We stayed up way too late talking, but it was oh so worth it! 🙂
We celebrated Jesse’s birthday this month really simply and just as he wanted — spending an evening hanging out in downtown Franklin and trying out a new-to-us restaurant that he’d been itching to go to. The kids all saved up their own money and I took them to dollar store (at their request!) to buy him gifts. I had so much fun watching them giggle and plan and wrap their gifts for him — and then he had so much fun opening up each one!
September was also the month where I realized that trying to homeschool, write a book, and run a blog all at the same time just wasn’t working. I was run down, exhausted, and felt like I wasn’t really doing a good job in any of the three areas.
So Jesse and I sat down and had a real heart-t0-heart talk about what our options were. I was feeling really at my wit’s end and unsure of what to do. Well, Jesse came up with an idea that I never saw coming and would have never even thought or considered to suggest myself… he said he’d like to take over homeschooling while I finished up my book.
He’d already been doing part of the homeschooling and I knew he’s such a great teacher, but it’s a big task and I didn’t want him to feel like he had to do it. As we talked more (and I sort of tried to talk him out of it!), I realized he really wanted to do this.
And so I handed homeschooling over to him for the next two months and I buckled down and got in full-on book writing mode.
This turned out to be a completely blessing in disguise as Jesse was still struggling and grappling through what his calling in life is and what he was supposed to be doing in this new season. He had made some good strides in the right direction, but taking over homeschooling gave him a new purpose and drive that I hadn’t seen before. He OWNED the homeschooling, and in doing so, I saw his spark really come back again.
It also helped him to solidify more long-term what he wanted to do and that he really wanted to make being involved in homeschooling an important priority.
My Mom & Dad came to TN for my birthday — which was so kind of them. My dad helped do a number of projects around the house, my mom and I got to spend quite a lot of time talking and hanging out together, and they also took the kids one evening so Jesse and I could have a date night!
Kathrynne had her first swim meet — something she’d been wanting to do for awhile but had been really fearful of. Watching her go out and face her fears with courage and bravery blessed my Mama heart more than words can say!
I feel like I spent almost every waking moment of October working on my book manuscript… I ate, drank, and slept (or more accurately didn’t sleep!) book-writing. The hard work paid off as I made a LOT of headway on it in October and had almost finished the rough draft by the end of the month!
The last week and a half of October were spent at the Allume conference and back in Kansas again. It was wonderful to get to spend some quality time with dear people — and so refreshing after it felt like I’d been completely holed up all month long!
The first bit of November was spent polishing up my manuscript in order to send it out to a few friends to critique.
Once that was done, I left for MN to go speak at the Hearts at Home conference and then meet up with Jesse in Colorado for the Platform Conference. I had really been looking forward to both conferences, but as it turned out, finding out that Michele’s cancer had come back made the week really, really hard for me.
A few days after we got back home, our dear friend and previous mother’s helper, Susanna, came to stay with us for a few days. I was completely physically and emotionally drained and God knew how much I needed her to be staying with us for a few days. She was like an angel in our home — loving on our kids, doing our laundry, doing some organizing and cleaning projects, and just all around blessing our family at a very deep level.
While she was here, Jesse and I drove up to Atlanta with some of my team for a meeting with the company who is designing and manufacturing our product line in 2015. We’re really excited about the possibilities and what the future holds there!
I made another quick trip to Colorado for a one-day filming project and then got home just in time to unload my suitcase, wash my clothes, and repack it to leave a few hours later to go back to Kansas for Thanksgiving.
The day after we got back home from Kansas, my sister, Olivia, flew in to stay with us for a few days while we had our end-of-year executive team meetings. I had been really nervous about these as we had some big decisions to make and had spent quite a bit of time worrying over them, planning for them, and praying about them.
Turns out, I should have skipped the worrying part, as the meetings went FAR better than what I could have ever imagined and we all came into the meetings with the same hopes and on the same page — without even knowing it!
We made some big decisions for 2015 that I’m really excited about — namely, to streamline some areas and pare down in some areas so we can prioritize better and have more breathing room in our lives. I’m stoked about this coming year and our mission to be even more focused and prioritized. I don’t regret 2014 in any way, but the pace of it was not a pace of life I aspire to continue at long-term!
The rest of December was incredibly laid back and peaceful — a much-needed respite after many, many full months. We hung out together as a family, we made special memories, we read together, we slept in, we watched movies, we went to a few fun outings, and Jesse surprised us with an overnight stay at the Gaylord Opryland. We’d heard it is beautiful this time of year and it truly was. It was a great way to close out the year!
Looking back on this past year, it kind of takes my breath away that we did as much as we did, traveled as much as we traveled, and accomplished as much as we accomplished! I truly feel like God’s hand was so faithful to carry us through over and over again when we were tired or fearful or overwhelmed. We got to see Him show up on our behalf and give us what we needed to do what He had called us to.
Our faith grew so much this year, our marriage grew so much, our relationships with our kids grew, and, probably the biggest blessing for me, Jesse had a major personal transformation this year. Honestly, while he was busy with law school and then different legal jobs and then running his own law firm, he never stopped long enough for me to realize how much he was struggling deep down — with fear, insecurity, and feeling like he wasn’t good enough.
As we processed these things together and I challenged him to replace his long-believed lies with truths (just as I had learned to do myself a few years ago), he slowly ever so slowly started changing from the inside out. It’s been a beautiful thing to witness!
He’s now so full of life and drive and ambition, but also just so happy. He loves overseeing/managing all the legal and financial aspects of our business, he loves managing our two rental houses, and he’s getting a lot of opportunities to do pro bono legal work — which he finds so much fulfillment in. Plus, he’s loving being in charge of our kids’ sports and extracurricular activities and helping with the homeschooling.
Sopping wet after riding a water/boat ride at Silver Dollar City together. 🙂
These struggles and the growth over the past year has only served to strengthen our marriage at a deep level. So looking back, I am incredibly grateful that we made the decision to move — even though it didn’t make sense to a lot of people and even though we weren’t even quite sure how it was all going to play out.
For the sake of our marriage, our spiritual growth, and our personal growth, it was every bit worth it — and we’re only six months into this adventure! We’re excited to see what 2015 holds!
Happy New Year!
