Money Saving Mom®

I started out this week feeling quite overwhelmed. There were so many things that needed to be accomplished before we went on our week-long family trip on Wednesday.

As I scanned my calendar and to-do’s, I saw meetings scheduled, homeschool lessons to do, blog and business projects to finish, many loose ends to tie up… not to mention the laundry that needed to be done, and figuring out and packing up outfits for the kids and me for the trip.

All I could see were hours and hours and hours of work and just a few days to accomplish it all. I reminded myself of the verse I’ve been camping out on the past many months: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

This verse has calmed my heart many a time as I meditate on the fact that God has promised to give me exactly what I need for each day. He won’t give me what I need for 3 months from now or even 3 days from now, but He will be faithful to give me exactly what I need when I need it.

So I took a deep breath and asked God for the grace for each day — and for Him to multiply my time and give me a lot of productivity and energy. And would you believe it? When Wednesday morning rolled around, the laundry was done, the house was picked up, and the suitcases were packed. I’m not even sure how that happened, but it did!

And what was really impressive is that we were planning to leave around 4 p.m., but instead we got around early, and left at 10 a.m.

For. real.

Yes, HOLD THE PHONE. The Paine family left on vacation SIX HOURS EARLY!!! Those of you who know us well know what an amazing feat this fact is. I’m still not sure I believe it.

{And all of those always-so-very-early people are reading the previous paragraph and wondering what the big deal is. Because you consider yourself “so behind” if you’re not all packed up at least 24 hours before you leave on vacation instead of starting to think about packing an hour before you’re supposed to leave… not saying I have personal experience with that or anything. Ahem.

You probably also have all your Christmas presents all handmade for the next two years, have them wrapped in homemade wrapping paper, and probably have them sorted in categorized bins, and alphabetized on a spreadsheet. Yeah. If that describes you, I think you’re amazing, but I’m not sure we can be friends. ;)}

So, basically the whole drive to North Carolina, I was feeling so pumped because we are so. on. the. ball. We kept commenting how good it felt to be so organized and early and ahead of schedule.

I had visions of how we’d get to the hotel early, we’d go to bed early, and we’d get up the next day and get ourselves looking presentable before we drove over to the hotel where the SheSpeaks conference was being held.

All was going along perfectly. Well, okay, except for mom getting a wee bit frustrated at the noise level in the car and a few issues with whining children.

{Truth: I had to ask for forgiveness from one of my children for snapping at them… before we even left the driveway. Yep, totally Best Mom Ever moment.}

We finally made it to our hotel around 8:15 p.m. and were looking forward to getting to our hotel room and getting to bed after a long day of traveling. But when Jesse went to check-in, he discovered that there was some mix-up with the hotel and they had booked our rooms in August — not July.

All of their rooms were already booked for that night, so they checked multiple other hotels in the area and finally found one that had one more room available. Jesse snatched that one right up.

When Jesse got back out to the car and broke the news to me about the hotel, I suggested that maybe he should call the hotel to double check that they had our reservation and a room available. Just to be sure, you know.

Jesse called this other hotel and told them our name and that a sister hotel should have just put a reservation on file for us. Well would you believe it? They told him, “I’m so sorry. We just booked our last room.”

Sigh.

At this point, we were just hoping to get a hotel room room somewhere. We talked about our options and decided to call the hotel that the SheSpeaks conference was going to be at. We’d been told they had been sold out earlier, but they had a few cancellations and were able to get us in.

By now, it’s past 9 p.m. and I’m just grateful that we have a hotel room somewhere.

But then it hits me: I was so focused on getting out the door early that I never took a shower, still had on the yoga pants and t-shirt I’d worn to bed, never had fixed my hair or put on makeup, and hadn’t brushed my teeth in hours. My kids were all disheveled from hours of being in the car, too.

I take this all in and realize that all of us are going to troop into the hotel — where hundreds of women are already gathered for the SheSpeaks conference — completely disheveled, unshowered, and me still in my PJ’s.

But then I thought: I bet we can sneak in really quickly and no one will see us or notice us.

Of course, that’s not what ended up happening. 🙂

When we pulled up to the hotel, my good friend, Ruth, was pulling up at the very same time. We’d been counting the days until we got to see each other, so I was so thrilled to see her that I forgot completely about my messy, yoga-panted, no-makeup appearance and just jumped out of the car, squealed, and ran to her.

We hugged and laughed and acted like giddy little girls. And I couldn’t care less.

After checking into our hotel room, taking a quick shower, and getting a little makeup on, I spent the next hour and a half hanging out with Ruth and Michele — which was an unexpected gift that wouldn’t have happened had we not left as early as we did or had the hotel mix-up.

Most of all, I felt so grateful to have friends like Ruth. Not only is she a brilliant blogger and online entrepreneur, but she’s an amazing friend. She loves me for exactly who I am while also encouraging me to be the best version of myself I can be.

That, folks, is a very rare gift. And I don’t take it for granted.

I’m so very grateful to have friends who look past the messy imperfections in my life and who love me for exactly who I am — even when I show up in my PJ’s. 🙂

P.S. Want to hear the story of how Ruth and I met? Check out her blog post from this week here.

I’ll do you a favor and show you a picture of me when I was showered and out of my yoga pants! 😉 I was so blessed to get to hang out with Ruth and meet the amazing Edie for the first time this weekend. Spending time with these two was so refreshing and encouraging. Not to mention they are both hilarious… I think I’m sore from all the laughing we did, but it was so very worth it! 🙂

One of our girls was hanging out in our room before bed the other night. We were chatting about a number of different things and the conversation led to this daughter telling me some fairly critical things about someone they didn’t really know.

Immediately, I called this daughter out on it. “How do you know that person is that way? Have you met them?” I asked.

She said that she was very sure these things were true because another acquaintance of hers had told her it was so. I began probing deeper, asking if she had contributed to the conversation and had talked badly about this person. I asked what had been said and what she had said.

Seeing my opportunity for a great teaching lesson, I got all queued up to step onto my soapbox and launch into a long “sermon” on gossip, slander, and why we should always speak respectfully about other people — both to their face and behind their back.

{If you know me well, I’m sure you can picture this because you know I love nothing more than to be a “fixer”. I love to analyze, probe, ask questions, and provide clear-cut solutions and plans of action.

This might seem like a good character trait — and it can be. But my friends will also tell you that I’m great at trying to fix any and every situation, regardless of whether it needs to be fixed right away or at all.

And best of all (or not), I’m really good at trying to fix situations I haven’t been asked to fix. Yeah. Not so good or helpful or appreciated. But I digress.}

I was getting pretty animated and patting myself on the back for the great points I was conveying to my daughter. Not only was I giving her some really concise and clear-cut definitions, I was backing these definitions up with illustrations.

All the while, inwardly I’m thinking: “Man, I’ve GOT this. I mean, I’m really good at these Parenting Lessons. My daughter is so blessed to have such a wise mom.”

Ahem.

About halfway through my “AMAZING” Parenting Lesson, my daughter stops me with a funny look on her face.

“Mom, but I don’t get it. Because I hear you saying critical stuff about other people to Daddy all the time.”

Um, can you say BUSTED? My puffed up, I’ve-got-this, incredible sermon just got completely sucker-punched.

I was left speechless {which my husband would say is a very rare occurrence.}

There was nothing more I could say. Because, you see, my daughter was right.

I have been guilty of saying critical words about other people to my husband.* I didn’t realize my daughter was listening when I’ve said these things, but she was.

Minutes before, I was arrogantly thinking what a wise mom I was. Now, I had to humble myself and ask my daughter to forgive me for setting such a poor example before her. And I resolved, with God’s help, to be much more careful about the words I say, the attitude I have toward others, and the example I’m setting before my kids.

My children are watching, listening, and learning every day in how I live my life. What I try to teach my children with verbal parenting lessons does have weight, but the life I live before them is what matters most.

All the fancy, clear-cut, compelling parenting sermons in the world don’t matter if my life doesn’t match up to them.

*While there is a time and place for me to bring an issue with another person to my husband for his counsel, that time and place is never when my children are around to hear it (unless it clearly involves them and is something that discussing about as a group will be helpful to them, instead of just slander and gossip). Even then, situations when I need to discuss some problem about another person with my husband should be rare, not a regular occurrence.

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