I apologize for not being around in a while. I've been here, but only to check up on other blogs, so yep, I've been lurking on my own blog! The holidays have kept me extremely busy, and I have just not had time to consider writing (other than for examiner.com, and even that's been limited).
We started back to school today after a nice three-week break, and the kids actually did pretty well. My son wanted to buck the system a little bit, but once he realized Momma wasn't going to budge he decided to do what I was asking. This evening he gets to play his dad's xbox360 while big sister and Dad go on a date. It's nice because it gives me a bit of breathing room, too, and I can catch up on a couple of things I've let go by the wayside.
Things are going alright here otherwise. I will try to update my health blog with the latest on me as there have been some developments on my longterm health issues, but the doctors are still trying to come up with a diagnosis. I've also been very busy updating our spending plan and preparing to upgrade our old Quicken to the 2010 version. I still am smart shopping and our storage room and freezers are looking good as well.
A fun thing my daughter and I just did before the new year is do the Pantene Beautiful Lengths for Cancer hair donation. I had 11 inches cut off, and she had 8. You can see the pic below. It's been taking a bit to get used to the shorter hair, but it was for a good cause, so more than worth it.
A couple of major things have happened in our household over the last few weeks. I've already talked about one of them...my new job, and that's been a lot of fun already. I have 3 articles published, and hoping to get in a pattern that I can be writing 4-6 articles a week. That is the hard part because between homeschooling, smart shopping preparation, smart shopping, chores, doctor appointments, and life in general I don't have a whole lot of time left. I'm hoping that once the holidays are over and there's a lot less going on in January I'll get myself into a pattern.
Anyway, other things that have been going at our house: first my son got sick with a cold, then my daughter, then they so lovingly shared it with me. During that same time I became VERY ill and had to have Jeff bring me to the ER at 4:30 in the morning a couple of weeks ago. I had nasty stomach cramping caused by something going on in my gut which caused other problems as well (I won't mention how really bad it was because to me it just sounds gross!). They did a lot of testing, but all the tests came back inconclusive. I still seem to be having some issues in my gut, but for the most part we're all back to healthy here.
Along with the new job and writing about debt reduction, these last few weeks (when I wasn't in bed sleeping due to my health issues) I have been putting together a plan for eliminating our debt. I am so excited as I work on it, and can't wait for us to start implementing it. I started some of it already, but we won't have everything in place and all the kinks worked out until after the holidays. How good it will feel to watch our debt amounts go down!
I cannot believe that we are already coming up on the holiday season. Christmas will be here before we know it. Next week I need to plan our homeschooling for the three weeks in December...we always do a lot of more fun-oriented things and a lot less bookwork during that time and the kids always look forward to it.
I got the job! I get to do some freelance writing for www.examiner.com! The pay might not be much, but it will be worth every penny. I can't wait...it will be so exciting! I had to send in my pic and bio today, and then I go through some background checks and setting up 'my page'. I have the title "Debt Examiner", and my expertise will be in debt reduction. I thought it was perfect for all that I've been learning lately and trying to do to reduce our debt. It should be up and running with my first article by early next week! I'll be sure to post. :-)
I just applied for my first online writing job! As excited as I am, I feel huge relief that my first article is written (that needed to be included with my application), and that the nervous jitters are now over with as well. It took me several hours and constant rewrites, but it is done, and I feel very good about it. Now the waiting part has come, however, and that could take up to a week! I am excited about the possibility of doing this kind of work. I think it will be rewarding, and the extra income will be really nice. I just hope they like my article and my resume is acceptable! I will be sitting on pins and needles until I hear from them...
If you've been following my blog at all, you'll have noticed that I have been working on becoming a smart shopper. Since June I have been keeping track of any grocery/household purchases and set them up on a spreadsheet. I have great news! These are the percentages saved since June:
June: 28.43%
July: 40.46%
August: 45.84%
September: 49.57%
I am very excited about that! It went from very minimally saved to almost 50% savings in 4 months! I never would have dreamed I could cut our spending in half, let alone do it in such a short time.
Our next goal is to cut electrical usage. We've been doing a lot of things differently over the last couple of weeks already and hope to see a drop in our utility bill by the end of December. We've switched the majority of our lightbulbs over to LED and florescent, turned off all computers at night (we used to have 3 up and running 24 hours a day), and have been keeping lights off that we would typically leave on in the evening. I would love to hear other ways to save on electricity if you'd be willing to share!
I am still looking for ways to bring in income, and have been researching companies for at home work. Hopefully I will find something soon that will be a good fit.
I am extremely tired of seeing our debt. I want to know what it feels like to be debt free, and to know that we are not tethered to a bank or company because we owe them money! I also want to be a good steward of what God has so generously given us, so it's important for me to do all I can, but I am realizing that I have no idea how I can make income from home to help supplement so we can start paying down our debt faster. Smart shopping has been helping immensely - I am SOOOO thankful that I can help us save money this way, but I am convicted that we need to become debt free as soon as we possibly can, which means more income sooner. Herein lies my biggest problem, however! I am limited as to what I can do because health problems make it difficult for me to work outside the home at this time. So what am I to do? I don't like sewing, and I'm not a craft-type person. The most I can do is crochet granny squares, and that only gets you so far!
I would absolutely love if anyone who has work-from-home experience would share with me what they have done, so I could try to come up with some ideas of what I could possibly do. I would appreciate your input!
Posts
