Time flies

I cannot believe that so much time has already passed for 2011.  My life has been anything but simple these last few months and I do not see things slowing down for a while.  The reason?  I have gone back to work fulltime.  My main boss is a wonderful Christian man which makes the transition from homemaker to fulltime employee easier, but not without several bumps in the road.  I am having to relearn how to schedule home time around work time.  It has been twenty years since that has been the case.  Of course, it is just a season and I know seasons change all the time. 

I have been reading, but not as much as I would like.  I have completed 12 books so far and I am working on books 13 and 14 right now.  I usually have a couple going at a time.  My list so far is:

1. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (1/5/2010)
2. The Door to December by Dean Koontz (1/11/11)
3. Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard (1/13/11)
4. Getting Things Done by David Allen (2/1/11)
5. Waking Lazarus by T. L. Hines (2/4/11)
6. America's Cheapest Family by Steve Economides (2/9/11)
7. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon (3/2/11)
8. 29 Gifts-How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life by Cami Walker   (3/7/11)
9. This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti (3/17/11)
10. The Book of Lies by Brad Metzler (4/3/11)
11. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (4/17/11)
12. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (4/26/11)

I should have read 18 books so far, but life does seem to be going so fast right now.  I really need to slow myself back down and remember the simple things.  I need to find the simplicity while working.

I will say with me going back to work has helped my son in learning some domestic skills.  He is learning the duties of laundry, vacuuming, washing dishes (no we do not have a dishwasher), dusting, and yard work beyond the mowing and edging of the lawns.  He has been working odd jobs to earn money.  He has been doing temp work for both a manufacturing plant and a fertilizer plant.  Thank goodness the fertilizer plant is not in the manure business, just liquid fertilizer and soil products.

There are times when I would love to be at home again.  I miss the day to day life of taking care of my family, but the money that I am now able to put towards our emergency fund and soon our debt will help I hope in the long run.  I am also able to help out a friend because before I started working for him, he and his wife were good friends.  And still are I should add.

Life does seem to be rushing by and not so simple, but I am learning how to simplify.  I am going through each part of the house and trying to clean out the excess.  The big thing we have been working on is the garage.  Before it gets too hot here, we have been trying to get the garage in order and are almost able to actually put to cars into our garage for the first time since we moved into this house 16 years ago.  Wow that will be a red letter day.  I might actually have to put a picture up of two cars in the two car garage. 

Reading Goal going strong

I have finished reading my second book, The Door to December by Dean Koontz.  It was interesting, but I did have it figured out about two-thirds of the way through the book.  I couldn't be sure that I was right, but I was to some extent correct in my assumptions. 

If you like Dean Koontz, then this would be a good read for you.  If you are not into odd story lines and ideas that may or may not be true when it comes to science and the human mind and body, then I could not really suggest any Dean Koontz book for you.  That is just the way he writes.  He tries to expand your thinking into what is possible, not what is fact.

So for my reading goal I have 2 books done and 50 to go.

Reading Goal #1

So I finished reading my first book for my goal of 52 books this year.  It is called Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. It is the first book in a series about a woman who travels back 200 years in time.  I did enjoy it for the most part.  There were some parts that were a little bit graphic, but the storyline did keep me interested enough to look past the graphic parts.  I will put the second book on hold at the library. 

I have already started my next book which is a non-fiction book called Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard.  When I finish this book, I will add it to my blog and let you know how I liked it. 

Grocery spending

So I went grocery shopping yesterday.  I am going to keep track of everything I spend on household supplies (i.e. paper goods, cleaning supplies), pet supplies, and food. I am going to try and stay under $500 per month, but I hope that as the year goes, I can lower that amount.  I am going to try and list what I buy and how much I spent.  It will be an arduous task, but I am going to try.

So I spent $171.44 at Winco Foods and Target yesterday.  Of that, $27.84 were on pill boxes to keep our vitamins under control and a container so hubby can take his lunch to work with him.  They are one time purchases that will not occur again. 

Now for grocery items:

Cleaning Supplies: $3.24
Meat (fish, chicken and beef): $27.54
Honey (our sweetner of choice): $7.28
Dairy (cheese, yogurt, eggs): $15.97
Canned Goods (broth, beans): $1.78
Nuts (sliced almonds): $.72
Fruits and Vegetables (huge variety): $31.81
Sparkling Cider for New Year's Eve: $1.98
Protein Bars (our huge expense): $53.28

Since one of my/our goals is to eat healthier, I know that adjustments are going to be needed.  The protein bars are for inbetween meal snacks.  I hope to be able to do some research and make our protein bars, but for now I bought them.  The price on them range from $2.50 each down to the ones I bought for $1.48 each.  I did price them at several different stores, so for protein bars (not energy bars or the sugary meal bars) I thought I did pretty well.

On to work on some of my other goals. (Like climb back into a warm bed and read.)

New Year's Resolutions

So it is now December 30, 2010 and just two days away from 2011.  I know that it is said NOT to make resolutions because all you will do is disappoint yourself because you do not keep them.  Well I am going to make goals, knowing that even if I only complete 1/2 of them, that is a 50% success rate.  I am not necessarily happy with only 50%; I mean in school that would be an F, right?  I want an A for sure, but I am also realistic that life happens and we have to adjust our earthly life to fit.  I mean, your life gets sidetracked in many ways and we have to deal with changes that must occur because of those new things.  Sometimes they are just short jaunts to the side and then you are back on your original journey.  Other times, it changes the journey in a whole different direction and you start on a new path for your life.

So I am going to list my goals for the year here and try and keep up my progress.  Some of my goals are items that I just want to see if I can really do it and others are for my spiritual growth and life health.  I know goals must be specific, so I will try my best in that endeavor.

2011 Goals

• Lose 32.2 pounds
• Read 52 books
• Put away 3 months of expenses
• Keep track of all grocery spending
• See how much I can save by keeping all $1 bills and coins in a jar.
• Deposit money bi-weekly
• Keep my house clean using a weekly chore list

Let's see what happens in the new year.

Halloween (NOT!)

So we are doing our normal hiding in the back of the house.  The thing is, no one is even trick or treating.  It is kind of nice that this "holiday" doesn't seem to be that big any more.  Oh, sure there are the parties at different places, but people just don't go door to door much any more. 

So we are sitting here watching game 4 of the World Series.  O.k. I should say that hubby is watching it and I am in the same room.  It is not that I dislike baseball, but I am just not much of a sports fan.  I have spent time watching tennis and gymnastics, but that was because I was involved in those sports because family played.  I will go to an occasional game, but really I could probably live the rest of my life not watching sports.

So tomorrow starts a new month.  I have only gotten to post one other time this month.  I have such good intentions, but life just seems to happen.  This thing is, I notice that when I get busy I tend to forget about doing the important things in my life like my Bible reading, time to pray, and spending time with family. 

This last week our son and I went to Disneyland for the day.  Hubby had a class nearby, so we met him for dinner, stayed over night and drove home the next day while my husband went to class.  It was a nice relaxing day.  I made sandwiches, took chips, and water.  We spent $4 on a frozen lemonade, but that was our expense for the day.  (We have season passes, so the entrance and parking we paid for in September.)  We hope to go again in November with dad along this next time.

November is already starting to fill up with meetings and a planned weekend to visit my sister and mom.  It will be nice to get away from the hectic life going on around here.  I love to be busy, but it does get a little crazy.  Even though I don't work outside the home for pay, there is a lot to running a home on a tight budget, volunteer commitments, and family things that continually come up.

Living simply comes in many flavors I have come to realize.  I have yet to figure out what my simple living is, but I am going to figure it out someday.  I just have to keep trying.

Starting Over AGAIN

I can't believe I totally missed all of September on blogging.  Life just seems to fly by these days.  We have added so much into our weekly schedule.  We are hosting a small group in our home on Mondays and coordinating a Financial Peace class on Tuesdays.  That means every Monday I have to make sure my house is at least in order and the kitchen is clean for our meal together.  Then on Tuesday I have to make sure dinner is ready early so we can take it with us and eat during the video at the class.

Also in my weekly schedule is a women's Bible study on Friday mornings.  We are going through the book of Philippians right now, having just finished up Galatians and Ephesians.

I have also taken on the task of volunteering at church to help with some of the financial computer work.  I do love to work with numbers, so it is a true joy for me to do that kind of work and to be doing it in service to my church and God makes it that much better.  Of course, everything we do should be "as if for the Lord", but I do tend to forget that much of the time.

We are in the process of painting the outside of our home.  It has needed it for some time now.  We have been saving for a while and finally were able to come up with the amount we needed.  I'm not sure what color.  I would probably go with white again, but we may go with a light shade of gray.  We really need to figure it out soon, since a lot of the prep work will be finished next week and the painting to start the following week.

Off to do more work around the house.