Time and $ Management

I have been able to catch up on a couple of things lately, so it's fun to post to this blog.  I don't have any new pics though, sorry.

Franklin's new favorite sayings are:  "Oh MAAAAAAAN!" when he drops something or things don't go according to his plans.  Imagine him in the back of the Relief Society room playing with trucks saying "oh maaaan!" over and over.
"I got chu!" (you)  Running up to grab you

This summer our lives were pretty easy.  The only schedule we were beholden to was some weeks of swim lessons.  Yawn.  Nice and relaxed.  Franklin took 2 naps a day, the girls did some workbook pages each day.  Yawn.
So I signed up to volunteer at the temple one Saturday a month.  Then they talked me into sometimes doing 2 Saturdays.  Because of cleaning schedules, I wasn't able to start until September.  Then I decided to apply for an on-call catering job as a server.  It's a perfect schedule for a stay at home mom (nights and weekends mostly) and I have worked with food service my whole life and it's related to my career as a Dietitian.  Stephen moved to a 9/80 schedule specifically so one of us could get more work, so I try and work on those Fridays he has off.  If I work Saturday, we do the Saturday stuff on Friday instead.  The rise in cost of living was putting us in a tight spot.  So I started that job in September as well.  And school started in September.  Because Ada is half day, I have a different drop off and pick up time for her than the rest of school (i.e. Odessa).  So I was having to be at the school 4 times a day. . . . Franklin's naps got squeezed in between and he started waking up at night again.  And then I got called at Relief Society president- also in September.  Ha ha!!  Yawn, yawn turned into AHHHH, AHHHHH! in short order.  We seriously got dumped on our head here.  Relief Society is all about 50 emails and phone calls a day.  Sometimes you put out fires and sometimes you cry with people and sometimes you make schedules and ask 10 people to do what you cannot do for other women in the society.  Stephen is still in the Bishopbric and we somehow manage to trade off care of the kids and attendance of meetings.  Sometimes they hang out in the nursery together or sometimes a good friend in the ward hosts them at her home so we can attend the same meetings.  It's taught us a lot in a short time.  I've learned that I have to just ask others, there are many willing to help.  Because I have 3 children around me who all need a great deal of attention, I just can't go and do like I would like to, so I have to ask others to step in for me.

As far as money goes, we have been blessed.  We used to be convinced that using credit cards was the way to pay for everything so we could amass points and get a return for our spending.  But we always had enough flex in the budget that if I overspent on groceries or other things one month, we could absorb it and always pay the balance.  No so anymore and it's much better for me to have cash in hand to pay for the things I need.  Then when the cash runs out, I make due until the end of the week!  I love having cash too, when I need to pitch in for parking or Stephen needs $ for something at work.  It's so much easier in so many ways.  We still pay bills online since those don't change, but all variable spending we use cash for.  It's been awesome, I highly recommend it.

So things have changed a lot for us, but we are learning how to prioritize and growing in so many ways.