Falling Behind...And I'm Still Not Caught Up!!!

This month has been probably one of the most hectic months of my life! From finishing up a class, two vacations (when does that ever happen?!?), Christmas, to sadly a death in the family. In my last post I said I was falling behind, but I think God really wanted to show me falling behind. My house is literally turned upside down, my mind has been constantly going a million miles an hour for I don't know how long, and my poor child doesn't even know what a daily routine is anymore. Let's just say it has been crazy around here for a while, but with the new year approaching and things starting to calm down I am making every intention to finally get caught up!

So, starting as of tomorrow my "new year's resolutions" (which I hate to even call it that, it just happens to be new year's eve) are:

1.Get Maddox and myself back on our daily routines

2.Get Maddox sleeping in his own room (yes, I realize we should have done this from the start, but that's first time parents for ya!)

3.RE-Decorate my house (We've lived here over a year and it still looks like we moved in yesterday!)

4. Eat healthier & drink more water (I got to have one that I'll only stick to for a week ;)

5. Most importantly get even closer to the Lord. 

I am super excited about number 3 because I finally get to go room to room and totally redecorate. I'll definitely be doing some before and after posts! I am not a natural at decorating by any means, but luckily there are some great blogs out there I can learn from!

What are your New Year's Resolutions for 2014??

Falling Behind & I Can't Catch Up!

I am just having one of those weeks maybe more like few weeks where I am falling behind on everything and time just seems to be flying by. I get to the end of the day and I feel like I have accomplished nothing! I created a daily schedule and a weekly cleaning schedule for myself a while back and I have definitely not been sticking to it! My house looks like a train wreck & for someone who likes a spotless house that is just not good.

We have also fallen behind on our budget plan. We semi do the Dave Ramsey cash envelope budgeting system. Some bills we have set up as autodraft from our bank account, so that is why I say "semi", but we have all of our monthly income written out how we are going to spend it before we even get it. That has not worked out that way lately and we have fallen behind on keeping up with our finances too.

I'm also taking an online class which has really been put on the back burner too for a while. So, my plan of action before we get crazy busy with Christmas is to be more intentional with my day & get everything caught up & get back on schedule. Also, most importantly to rely on the Lord for the strength to do so! I feel so scatter-brained when I get behind like this that is why I created those schedules!

"From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I." Psalm 61:2



Do you ever feel like you just can't catch up?

Our Approach On Christmas Presents

This has been another topic I've been having "internal battles" with myself now that Maddox is starting to understand "getting presents". In the past (as in before having a child), I just knew I wanted to buy my kid a mountain of toys every year. I didn't want to set any kind of limit. I just wanted to buy for my child until there was nothing left to buy. Last year, we bought Maddox a reasonable amount of "stuff" for his age. He was only 3 months old, so there wasn't a whole lot we could buy. This year on the other hand, I could probably buy for him until the cows came home if I didn't set a limit. I thought maybe a $100-200 limit or just to tell myself not to go overboard with buying, but then I thought I know myself better than to set a limit like that because I will con myself into spending way too much.

Then one day, I came across this blog post at Stacy Makes Cents and it was like a light bulb went off in my head. In her post she talked about how they do presents for their children. Like me they chose not to do Santa and really wanted the focus of Christmas to be on Jesus. So, what they do is give their children 3 gifts representing the 3 gifts that the wise men brought for baby Jesus (Gold, Frankincense, & Myrrh ). Click Here to read what each gift means. How brilliant is that idea?!? Not only does it set a limit to my buying problem, but it also gives a special meaning as to why we give 3 presents. 

So, this year for Maddox's "gold" gift we bought him a train table used for less than 40% of the original price! My child is 1 & he's not going to know it didn't come from Toys R Us.

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For his Frankincense gift, we bought him a Fisher-Price Noah's Ark Playset also used on eBay, so I was able to get a lot more figurines with it than if I had bought it new.

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And finally for his Myrrh gift, I bought him a Sesame Street potty seat for when we start attempting to potty train in a few months. It makes fun noises and is super padded, so hopefully that will spark his interest!

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We are still doing a stocking with stocking stuffers too. Some things I bought to go in that are sippy cups, little underwears, baby leg warmers, 2 nativity books, a Melissa & Doug toy, & there will be a little bit of candy too :)

This is our family's approach on giving gifts & what we feel comfortable with. I can't wait until we are able to really explain the meaning behind the gifts & he is able to understand.

 What are your approaches to buying gifts?