Day 460 and a lazy day

Well, I had a pretty lazy day. I slept in this morning, went to Enid to watch our great-niece's soccer game. Then Tasha and I got groceries, I came home and took a nap after we put them away. Then I sat around and watched TV most of the evening. I should have been doing homework, but I have to admit it was nice to be lazy!

Day 459 and failing miserably

Well, I feel like I am failing miserably at my 2009 goals. My desk is a mess, my bookkeeping is behind, and my house is a mess. Time to pull myself up by my bootstraps and get back to work.

Just an aside: revival at our church starts this Sunday. If you live in this area, I invited you to come. Sunday school starts at 9:30, services at 10:00. Then evening services will be held at 6:00 on Sunday and 7:00 Monday-Wednesday. The speaker is Ernie Perkins from OKC and he is awesome!

Day 458 and the 4 day work weeks

Well, still no sign of Tom's 4 day work weeks ending. We're well into the 4th month of it now. I am incredibly grateful that he has a job and still has his benefits. But with school ending in just a few weeks, I'm a little nervous. My income generally goes down in the summer. So I'm going to pray for some peace and God to work things out.

The EF has taken quite a beating lately. I used it for my Urgent Care visit and medicine. Then we've been hearing squirrels in our attic, so we had Tom's friend come and fix where we thought they were getting in and that knocked another chunk out of it. But once again, I am incredibly grateful for it! It has been a huge blessing for us.

Day 457 and using it up

Several weeks ago, I bought several cans of Campbell's "natural" tomato soup with basil. I LOVE tomato soup and thought it would make a good quick lunch for me. Well apparently, it's the preservatives that I like because I did not care that much for the soup. LOL. It was just toooooo strong on the basil or something. LOL. Anyway, I debated about what to do with it. Take it back? Freecycle it? Well, I decided to try a can of it in my next batch of Surprise soup. It was very good! The other flavors with it made it taste really yummy and it was a way to use it up. I love being able to do stuff like that. It makes me feel good.

If you haven't heard of my Surprise Soup, this is what I do. I keep a container in the freezer and anytime I have a few leftover veggies, I drain them and toss them in the container. When we have roast, I add extra carrots and potatoes just for the leftovers. I cut up leftover roast and put it in the freezer (along with any leftover gravy). Then I toss it all in the crockpot, season it up, and I have "Surprise Soup". Sometimes I use tomato juice with the roast, or a can of tomato soup. Sometimes I just use brown gravy mix and water. You can also do this with leftover chicken, you just want to use base flavors that are complimentary with chicken such as chicken broth or something. Add some kind of bread or cornbread or something and it makes a yummy cheap meal.

Day 456 and self-control

So today I was thinking about self-control, and how Tom & I have more of it than we did a couple of years ago. Still not perfect by any means, but doing better. Remember I mentioned that we had the money put back to fix Tom's car but the mechanic could not get to it yet? He still has not been able to get to it and we still have the money. A couple of years ago we would not have been able to put back the money, much less leave it alone for several weeks while we waited. Kind of sad for people in their 40's, but anyway, that's not the point. Or maybe it is. LOL. Sometimes it is really hard to be a grown-up.

Days 452, 453, 454, 455, and sorry for the long break!

Phew, sorry for the long break! I was so overwhelmed and feeling quite lousy and something had to give. Unfortunately, the blog happened to be it. The good news is that I am feeling better, I finished my homework and got it submitted last night (before it was due), and it's a new week. It's even a fairly quiet week for me for once.

Last night's FPU lesson was on Credit Sharks in Suits-bill collectors. I felt like Dave was talking right to me when he spoke of those who cover their ears and say "la, la, la" and hope it all will go away. Since I had those openings in my child care for months and then Tom's hours got cut, our credit card payments have slid again. I am ignoring phone calls and stressing out about it. So it's time to pull my head out of the sand (or perhaps my butt) and get busy. Say some prayers for us. If there is one thing I am learning more day by day, prayer really works.

Another note from last night's lesson has to do with credit reports. It is very important to keep an eye on your credit report to make sure there are no mistakes on it and to make sure your identity is secure.

Because of revival services starting next week, we will not have FPU again until April 26th. We are supposed to pull our credit reports before then and review them for mistakes. I did mine yesterday, we still need to do Tom's.

Have a great week everyone!