Sharing the News.....

It is good to be back in blogger land.....I have been away too long because of life events, and to be honest blogging from my smart phone was not as easy for me as I had hoped.  We get terrible cell phone reception where we live now...so we caved and once again have internet at the house.  I realize there is alot to share with you guys, I have some pictures of the new place as well as some other things to share.

However today, I am not sharing any of that.  A little over a month ago I shared how my brother in law was murdered.  A little over a month later I am happy to share this.....(well as happy as you can be given the circumstances.....)


We did travel to say goodbye to my husband's brother.  It has been a difficult time, and I just want to say thank you to everyone for you kind words, thoughts, and prayers.  I am sorry that I did not respond to each of you individually as I wanted.

William A. Toomey
December 30,1968- August 20, 2014

We love you, and going on without someone you love is never, ever easy, although we put one foot in front of another....you will never be forgotten as long as each of us that loved you are alive.

Yes, please take all the time you need, if you find yourself grieving someone you loved today, it is ok to remember, love, and let go of a balloon or burn a candle in their honor.  Thanks for reading.  Have a great Sunday!

There will once again be silence

It is with a heavy hear that I share the news of the passing of my brother in law....William A Toomey in Delaware.

Life has been a whirlwind of changes for me lately, we moved, and I have not had internet access in our new location.  I was going to begin posting again with my new job I would have had access to post more.  Just as soon as I started my new job, three days in we received a phone call stating that my husband's brother was found murdered in the taxi cab that he drove for a living.  Also as soon as my new job started, it has ended, the company is unwilling to work with me so that I can be with my family during this time of loss.  Since I will miss some training they are forcing my resignation.

I am unable to post any links to local news for his home town...but if you want to know more you can google his name and location.  We will be traveling to Delaware to be with family for a while, and once normalcy is restored, I will share more.

Thank you for your understanding during this time.  Please pray for healing, comfort, and the Lord's guidance for us. 

eating from our pantry

So have you ever done a pantry challenge where you eat from only what you have at home already from your freezer or cupboard? We have been doing that since we got back from north Carolina. This is the first week i am feeling the pressure to be creative since we started. We spent our last seven dollars of grocery money on a loaf of bread and 4 dozen eggs.

We have tried some new recipes like ham fried rice, cinnamon roll muffins, and tonight i will attempt to make homemade alfredo sauce. I am out of milk and cheese but thanks to suggestions on the blissful and domestic blog as well as the prudent homemaker blog i have a stock of powdered milk to use for cooking.  My husband has even been decent about it all. He is taking peanut butter and syrup sandwiches to work and tea that we make at home.  He usually eats lunchmeat and cheese and drinks Pepsi.   We elected to challenge  ourselves to help us reach the rest of our summer goals. Our final preset goal is an upcoming trip back to Delaware for a family reunion and to visit some others.  We have modified the cost of the trip by choosing now to stay with family instead of camping on our own saving us 222.00. We will be eating with family or out during our travel. I will be taking snacks and a meal for the 14 hour car ride. We plan to leave this Friday.  We will be gone a little over a week and when we return it wll be time to move again.  Do you know anyone whi moves as much as we do without being military?

I am sorry for all mispellings and lack of pictures as I learn to blog from my smartphone instead of a desktop since we shut off the cable and internet last month.  So do you prepare your kitchen and have a stock of basic supplies? Do you like to cook....here is my little secret. ...i dont like to cook and i do not know why.....but i pray one day at a time and at the end of the day i give God thanks that another day of meals has been provided and survived.

Thank you for hanging in there

I just wanted to apologize for the unplanned silence on the blog lately, and to say thank you to those who sent messages checking in on me.

I am ok.  Life has been a whirlwind lately.  A couple of weeks ago I finally got a doctors appointment with a doctor here in Florida.  They did an EEG based on some symptoms I had been having and the test showed some abnormalities.  That led me to an immediate appointment that day with a cardiologist.  I went on my trip to Raleigh which was alot of fun and I shared pictures.  I completed the series of tests ordered by the cardiologist when I returned, and the good news is that my heart is functioning the way it should.  The bad news is that the right chambers are mildly enlarged.  So the goal is to make better lifestyle and eating choices and for me to do some more cardio to get this weight off so that maybe this will not progress anymore.  If weight loss does not help then I will eventually have to have some additonal testing.

My diabetes is out of control with my A1c at 7.3  so I definitely have got work to do. I am only still taking an oral medication for diabetes but I have gone from 1000 mg a day to 2000 mg a day.  I am praying about what works for me to get a handle on this.  I find that what works for the majority of others often does not work for me.

There are two other big changes coming.  I will begin working part time one month and one day from now.  I will work evenings for a local insurance company taking claims calls.  I applied for this job back 7 and a half months ago when we first moved to Florida.  They contacted me, I completed the interview process this time and got hired.  I am excited  and I took the job for two reasons.  One if my husband decides that he doesn't want to be with me, I don't want to have to scramble to provide for myself and our children.  The second reason is that we temporarily could use two incomes, our apartment flooded again, and we are done.  The landlord did not seem to care...she was like well you will just have to turn the main water valve on and off as needed.  That doesn't sit well with us....the leak is fixed again for now...but we have decided to cut our losses and we have found another home...with a bigger yard.  I will share pictures as we make progress.

I had doctors appointments, my trip to NC, needed new tires for the car, overspent on the fourth of July weekend, payed a new deposit  for a new place where the rent is more than what we currently pay, our son turned 9, and we have a planned trip to Delaware for a family reunion, leaving my savings account empty.  I feel accomplished but drained.  I am reminding myself that the little things I have kept up with doing actually do make a difference and are one of the reasons all of the above mentioned things have been taken care of.  Of course I hold also to Philippians 4 : 6  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

God more than provides the needs of my family.  He loves me despite my mistakes and shortcomings.  There is no greater gift that I could imagine.  My husband and I are doing ok.  I am finally starting to see some real caring about me coming from him again.  It's progress.  We ran into some old friends last week and he admitted his spiritual struggles and lack of desire for church.  We were invited to spend some time with them, and maybe that will be fruitful for my husband.  We shall see.

I don't have any great pictures to share today...maybe tomorrow :)  Love you all...thanks for staying with me.

Our trip to Raleigh

We had a great trip to Raleigh, NC

We visited a Lego store and the kids got to make their own mini's which was soo much cooler than just grabbing a pack from walmart...they even made a custom one for their dad.

When selecting a hotel, we chose one that included breakfast

We visited a place called Frankie's and the kids rode motor boats and got soaked...then we went inside and played games...Galaga was one of my favorite games of all time next to the original Super Mario Bro game from Nintendo 

Our final big event in North Carolina was an invitation from Aunti P To attend the FHR

Black and White Banquet

It was a perfect excuse to dress up and......

Dance the night away!!!!!

We had a great and safe trip!

Now that we are back beginning Monday I am doing a pantry challenge for the next month because we need to save up for a trip to an upcoming family reunion exactly one month from now. Trips to the grocery store will be just for Wic items and i do have 35 bucks left for groceries. It should be interesting to see how this works out. Stay tuned to see how we do!!

Sharing ways we save

I am unsure how productive this last week would be considered.

My doctors visit with a new primary care landed me a standing appointment with a cardiologist at the same time.  I had to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours.  My heart rate is too low.  Thankfully the cardiologist doesn't think it is a major issue because of my age, but I have two more tests scheduled to be sure things are working as they should.  Then i had to go back to the primary care doctor because we had to finish the appointment I had with her....so 3 visits to the doctor in one week just for me....equals copays for each visit.

The second very large flop was my husband getting a speeding ticket totaling a whopping $129.00.

The final flop i can recall was our electric bill was 32.00 over my set budget.

I have still been following and participating with the facebook group for the 40 bags in 40 days challenge...and as we were decluttering, i sold a few pieces on a local facebook yard sale site for a total of 60.00.  It  is crazy that the uhaul truck we had when we moved here was packed so full that we still needed another trailer behind it...and now we have gotten rid of soo much. 

I don't think this will be frugal in the long run, but my son's birthday is next month.  He had expressed interest in lizards that my nephew has, so he gave him one with the cage set up and all. I was grateful because he got something he really wanted, and I didn't have to pay for it.....the lizard, cage and everything all at once would have been pricey, and I am trying to keep it simple this year.

My husband has worked 30 hours of overtime for the last two weeks.  That will help pay for upcoming events. (and that speeding ticket)

The water bill was $7.00 under budget

the kids picked wild blackberries while I was at a doctor's appointment they were with Aunti L and apparently these grow somewhere on her property.  Would you believe that in 33 years of life i cannot recall ever eating one.  Of course they washed them, i ate some, and to my surprise they were soooo delicious.  the kids ate some on ice cream

I can't wait till more are ripe and we can pick some more...i am going to put some in pancakes too.

In the kitchen this week we made spaghetti sauce.

That is all that I recall.  I am preparing to take the kids out of town this coming Monday the 23rd.  We are headed to North Carolina to spend time with Aunti P and her daughter Kayla.  Aunti P is traveling for business and we will meet and spend time with them.  I researched and found the most affordable hotel.  I also mapped the trip and know how much gas money I should need.  We will be taking snacks and lunch from home to minimize spending on food while we are in the car.  I have looked up the area, and found a free museum I can take the kids to, and we have planned one outing that will cost money, but I set a budget for it. 

How was your week?

As far as my prodigal issue, I am having trouble allowing forgiveness to be unconditional, as I discover new details.  I still need alot of prayer, and have been praying alot about the forgiveness part.  I am harboring bitterness which I know is not healthy.  Thanks for listening.

Sharing ways we save

well this week was a tough week emotionally, and my spouse and I spent a few minutes one night contemplating whether either of us thought our marriage was worth saving and persevering in.  Wednesday morning perspectives were new and arguments were over, and we decided it was indeed worth investing in and saving. 

In the weeks to come we are going to work on being more intentional with each other...including our kids and not just living in this house existing under the same roof.  We are going to work on having date nights.  I have talked with a friend who has agreed we would trade babysitting efforts so we could each have time with our husbands.  We are also reading articles on minimalism, and seeing what realistically applies to our family.  There will also be alot of praying.

Our financial efforts for the week were few.

*I saved all jars that I emptied either plastic or glass for reuse for gift giving or storage for things like pasta etc.

*Received a bag of clothes for my son and daughter in the sizes they can wear now!  Time to get rid of things we know are too small!

*We also participated in a building workshop that Home Depot hosted on Saturday

The home depot in our area hosts these workshops on the first Saturday of each month and the local Lowe's hosts one on the second Saturday of each month.  It may be worth looking into if you would like something to do with the little ones this summer.  Or maybe their dad can take them and have some special bonding time while you have me time :)

We talked about other financial things this week too...we are attending a family reunion in Delaware at the end of July, and we researched our cheapest travel options and determined that it is cheaper to camp then it is to stay in a hotel.  We also determined it is time to cut our cable cord and will be disconnecting it on Tuesday saving about 100.00 a month.  We have quite an extensive VHS and DvD collection and there is also redbox and the local library as well as trading movies with friends.  Here is to being more intentional and making more memories, i hope as an intact, interactive family. 

My final investment this week is in my health, I have an appointment with a doctor here in Florida finally, and I will be able to find out where I stand with my current diabetes treatment etc.  I want to know where I stand with my health, and move forward in some sort of healthy way.  I hope everyone had a great week.  In what ways did you save or invest in yourself or your family? I love hearing from you.  Don't be shy.