Budget Challenge

I am motivated by life challenges. So we are doing several  "do without" challenges.

 Last summer we started a with not eating out. at all. for a month. It turned into not eating out hardly ever. The same thing with buying coffee. It takes thinking ahead but truly saves so much money. For ex. I will prep a meal before we leave the house or I will make a coffee to go as I am leaving. Both these steps help us to save money.

So I decided to get serious about these challenges, trying to a do a different challenge each month.

The month of Feb. we hung all our laundry out to dry and switched to cloth diapers. I finally caved at the end of the month and allowed a friend to bless us with a wonderful dryer. (I am still using cloth diapers, much to the shock of those around me) ;)
I was so thankful for the dryer that I totally quit hanging out laundry! lol So not sure that one was really helpful long term!


I skipped the challenge in March...

For April, my challenge was to use up all the meat in the freezer and  go a month without using burger.

I have 3 freezers. Currently 1 is empty, a second is only half full and the third is almost full. (mostly fruits and veggies)  It is time to turn our steer into beef. But I wanted to fatten him up a bit more. So we decided to do a, clean out the freezer challenge. It has proven to be quite the challenge to cook gluten free with  the meat from the bottom of the freezer and no burger.

My friend ended up blessing us with a large of amount of meat, chicken, grillers, canned meat etc.. my children were thankful that this challenge did not last more then a week. They love their meat!


When I first started the challenge in Feb. I was sharing with a friend that while we were doing well and God was abundantly blessing us, I felt like this  challenge was important for my finances. So when my explorer needed replaced (some insurance money), my large van needed a good bit of work, my dryer died, my printer crashed, my hard drive died, and my kids burned up 2 tanks of oil in March,  we were ahead of the game because we had saved up.

There are days when I look around me in awe. Several people have told me recently that I am not getting "what I deserve" from several financial resources. That I really should be fighting for more. But I rest in that God directs every aspect of my life. My obedience in tithing and in never fighting over money, has brought back ten fold blessings.

My children and I pray over our finances. I explain how and why we can afford things. I make sure they pray AND acknowledge the answered prayers. You can't teach this in Sunday school. This is the real deal. Real life where God hears and answers.

Have you ever done a "do without challenge"?

Life

We so enjoyed recharging on our staycation.

We are getting deep into schoolbooks, trying to hurry through our books. This year was one of the best homeschooling years ever. I love the curriculum we are using. It is thorough and easy to for the kids to do on their own. It teaches lots of basic fundamental skills etc.. However, it does not flow easily with our "go with the flow" schedule and I am struggling with how to wrap up the year.

Someone washed my camera in the bathroom sink.. I think that possibly with the help of a bowl full of rice, it may work again.

We are so wishing for warm weather. We are itching to get outside. I did rake up sticks and weeds in the yard tonight. I spring cleaned my basement and am thinking of starting upstairs. But I need sunshine for motivation!

We purchased a baby goat named Daisy. She is the cutest little thing and loves to run and play with the kids.

Life is slowing down. We had no appointments this week, altho I did have to take the mini van to get a tire fix. I also had to get a new drivers license. But other then that we have been home, doing school, babysitting, hanging out.

My son wants to go hiking on the Appalachian trail. So he is currently "training".  I am proud of his willingness to work hard.


Sometimes homeschooling is extremely frustrating and I feel like certain children of mine will never ever catch up. I think I shall ship them all off to private school. But then I talk to my friends who have kids in private school and I decide that I would rather have my own problems.

April is coming up.. It is always a bittersweet month. We are currently praying for another April miracle.

I am sooo dreaming of summer already. We will not do fulltime babysitting but will keep enough hours to cover what we need. We will be doing summer school for Nesiah and summer camp for the others.. Now if I can just coordinate all their schedules I may have some free time.


But first before summer, all 6 of my kids have medical or dental appointments. I like to get all the major appointments for everyone, out of the way before summer. July and August should be completely free of scheduled medical appointments.

These are the ramblings of my mind. No major drama this week, no major appointments, no major anything. My life feels downright normal!

"Staycation 2015"

I did not carry my camera everywhere on this vacation. The pictures I did get were few and far between. The extra space in my bag was traded in for breathing meds etc.  I was determined to make the most of this vacation and focus on the kids...

Day #1 we were home in the morning, watching movies, hanging out, and finished up packing (for our then canceled vacation)
We took Nesiah to our friend's, intending for her to stay for the week. 

We had Chinese for dinner and watched a Mandie movie.

Day #2 of vacation we made the decision to NOT go to Williamsburg. Read my previous posts for our reasons..
We ended up at a friend's for lunch and snowmobile rides. 

Day #3 We decided to make the most of this "staycation". We visited The Turkey Hill Experience. The kids absolutely love that place and are already begging to go back! We also stopped to pick up Lady and all of Nesiah's stuff, as she was coming home on the bus. (Nesiah goes to school so she is often on a different schedule from our homeschool schedule)

Day #4,  Day 3 had been rather exhausting for the sick one and for momma, who was running on fumes. So day 4 was an easy day. We went to the library, where everyone got a stack of books and  some movies. We had a fun day watching movies. (Normally I only allow movies on rainy days or when I need a break, never, ever all day movies. So this was a huge treat!)

Each evening one kid would chose what they wanted to make for dinner from the special food we had purchased the week before! We had some fun treats that are normally not on our gluten free, sugar free menu! 

Day #5 We watched movies in the am. After lunch we packed up and headed out to Sight and Sound to see Moses! We have been trying to get over there for almost a year, so this was fun and highly anticipated day! 

Day #6 We headed out to our favorite little creative reuse shop. Lancaster Creative Reuse! We had fun making crafts and using our imaginations! We stopped by Chik Fil A for ice cream treats on the way home! 

Day #7 we had planned to clean our house, do some laundry then go to Herr's Pototae Factory, but I sorta messed that one up. So we were unable to go. Instead I let the kids choose what they wanted to do after our cleaning was done... The boys chose to set up their tent in the yard and "pretend" camp, while the girls painted nails and watched movies.

Day #8 our last day of vacation! We did our normal Saturday morning, pancakes and Adventures in Odyssey. I had made arrangements for my friend to watch the 2 little ones in the evening, so we could go out for dinner and Saturday night church! This is one of our favorite Saturday night traditions.

We had sandwiches and ice cream at Udder Choice, then off to church! It was such a good message following the week I had. The perfect way to end a #makinglemonade staycation.

In the end the kids all agreed that this was a great vacation and that they all had a great time!