A Cause Worth Giving To | February Linked

This month has been a whirlwind, to put it lightly!  Between school, clinical, tests, playtime with the kids, Liam starting Tae Kwon Do & Brian's schedule- we've barely had a moment to breath.  So I'm afraid this month's "giving back" blog will be short and sweet- much like the little girl it's about.

On February 13th, Brian's grandmother was called to God's side to rejoin her husband for Valentine's day after being apart 24 years. We, actually I, dreaded telling Liam the news since he is definitely old enough to understand what we were saying. To my relief, he asked if she was with God now and said that he was going to "miss her a lot" but was glad she was with God. Death and illness are not generally topics we think our kids will face head on until later in life, unless it's a family member. We have a fairly close-knit community here, especially within our in-subdivision school.  When I heard about a girl named Madi at Liam's school, I just about cried. Terminal illness isn't something a child should have to face head on.

Meet Madi.

She's fighting back!!

From her page: "Madi Beetham was living a normal very active life of a 10 year old until January 26th, 2014. Madi was active in dance, basketball, softball, cheerleading and crossfit. That night a symptom of what would later be diagnosed as B Lymphoblastic Lymphoma would present itself. The following 2 weeks would be a whirlwind of tests and biopsies to bring about a final diagnosis. It has been diagnosed as a stage 4 Lymphoblastic lymphoma. This severe staging is due to central nervous system involvement (brain). We still have a very good chance of beating this and getting her back to a vibrant, energetic beautiful girl. Madi has been exceptionally upbeat and positive through the initial stages so far. We look to you for help and support to assist her through remainder of her 2+ year battle."

Please support or donate at Madi Beetham's Victory Fund

This month's linked blog: Mom's blog - The D's and the Dogs

I'm Currently... | February Linked

First off, I would like to welcome Lindy, the newest link addition to our "chain". Welcome!

This month we decided to do an "I'm currently..." blog, so here goes-

Resolving :: to focus on my family and our accomplishments and to care less what other people think or how they choose to act & treat others.

Wondering :: when healthy began to equate to only being thin? It certainly is NOT always the case!

Anticipating :: the next couple of weeks of my clinical rotation (I'm really looking forward to my O.R. rotation day- I can't wait!!), Mom and Ma W. coming for a visit, birthday parties   and cake baking; all in the next 3 weeks!

Worrying :: about my husband's grandmother and about our next exam coming up on Monday.

(This image is a perfect representation of nursing school exams!)

Eating :: nothing at the moment, but drinking a caramel cappuccino. Yum!

Making :: valentines with Liam for school.

Remembering :: I need to compile a grocery list for when we get paid this week- time to stock up!

Celebrating :: finally being completely caught up with bills and take care of needed maintenance on our vehicles- it's my first "payday" of the year this week! lol ;-)

For more fun "I'm currently..." blogs, you can view my Mom's blog at: The D's and the Dogs,

Melissa's blog at: Growing Like Weeds, and Lindy's blog at: Candid Negative

January RAK & Giving Back | Linked

I told my Mom I wasn't sure what I was going to write about this time. We haven't been in a financial state to necessarily "do" RAKs. Shoot, I've barely have enough in the house until today to round out our own meals let alone baking something for neighbors, etc... so this might be pretty short.

Some nice things we've been able to do:

1. Exchange daycare while I'm at school for providing daycare so my friend can hit the gym.

(She got an AMAZING deal on her membership, we can't let that go to waste, can we?)

2. Helped friends of ours control the chaos at their son's "at home" birthday party.

(Let's face it, having eleven 6- & 7-year olds running around your house with Nerf guns is enough to make anyone question their sanity; so we were happy they asked us to hang around & help out.)

3. My husband accompanied his brother to the emergency room earlier last week.

(Long story short- 19yo not driving for the conditions swerves & rear-ends him. Whiplash.)

4. After one of the snow storms earlier this month, my husband helped one of the neighbors that was stuck in their own driveway shovel one car out & then loaned them one of our shovels so they could finish their driveway.

(Yeah, let's just say that won't be happening again. You live in the Midwest yet you don't even own a shovel, or a pair of gloves for that matter? And then when a neighbor helps you & loans you the equipment, you don't even bother to finish your driveway or sidewalks? Yeah, no. You can stay stuck next time. [Yes, I know that's not very nice, but I don't tolerate feeling "used" too well... but that's a topic for a whole other blog.])

Some nice things we've been blessed with:
1. Unfailing friendship from Heather & RJ.
2. Continued opportunities to bond & grow closer to our new friends Shannon & Chris.
3. Reconnecting with & finding new connections with our old re-enacting friend Jenny.
4. Reacquiring our friend Shanna back into the gaming fold. (Hopefully before she moves in May, we'll have her so addicted that she'll Skype in every weekend she's available & bring Beth with her!)

For more ideas on random acts of kindness, you can view my Mom's blog at: The D's and the Dogs 

and Melissa's blog at: Growing Like Weeds.

Goals | Linked

That's right- GOALS, NOT "resolutions"!

Personally, I can not stand the phrase "making a resolution". Why?

There are such negative connotations with the word. For example:

In a few months when momentum has subsided, will power gone by the wayside, life has gotten in the way and you have nothing to show for your "resolution", what does that say? That you lost resolve? That you failed? That you're a wimp who couldn't hack it?

No thank you- I am NOT a loser!

I love goals! Goals are specific, attainable and most importantly- goals can be modified and adjusted! If you don't happen to fulfill your goal, you did not lose, "wimp out", or fail. You simply take stock of where you are currently at, congratulate yourself on the progress you've made thus-far, reevaluate your goal, and then revamp and restate it accordingly.

If you want more info on better ways to set goals, check out this blog post by Jordan at "Fun, Cheap or Free"- I absolutely LOVE her blog. (If you're not a subscriber to her blog, you should be!)

So, to get this party started, I made some goals for myself and my family for this year- and let me tell you, these are SO much better than any "plan" or "resolution" we've made in past years!

1. Obtain a more finite handle on finances. 

While my husband gets paid every other week, I get paid 3 times a year... when spring financial aid hits, when the tax returns come in, and when fall financial aid posts. (Ok, so it's not really getting paid, but you get the idea of where we're at right now.)

Instead of being ruled by, and playing the "we just have to get by until financial aid comes in" game, we're taking charge and using tools like Mint.com and dividing up finances into several accounts instead of the single account we currently use. Again, I can thank Jordan for these tidbits. You can read more about Jordan's "multiple account method" here.

2. Complete the "Christmas Savings" Challenge.

We originally started the year off doing the "52 Week Challenge", but let's face it, there will come a time when the weekly amount gets to be too much for us to take out of our budget & set aside. The regular weekly savings is a much more consistent and attainable method for us.

(If you'd like to take the challenge, you can find great info here at the Creative Savings blog.)

3. Treat myself better.

No, this is not committing to a fad or insanity diet or spending hours upon hours at the gym.

Being a full-time nursing student with two kids, a husband, a dog and a house to take care of means...

(In case you missed it, this lady gained immediate fame for her statement in 2012 after evacuating her apartment during a fire. Story here.)

Back to the goal... this simply means taking time to be better about food and portions (a subject in which my talents grew drastically the last few months of 2013), finding time to move around other than being on my feet non-stop during clinical days, spending more time playing/rough-housing with the kids (because we all love the chaos and insanity that ensues from physical play) and last, but not least, and certainly the most important by far... stop being so darn mean to myself! For Pete's sake!- Marilyn Monroe was a size 14 and she was sexy! Why the heck do I need to be stick-thin, no curves, make-up caked and starving to be attractive? What a load of bologna!

My husband thinks I'm sexy and I know who he comes home to each night. As long as I'm trying to be better for my health, that's good enough... for now.

4. Find humor in the little things.

This was something I was working on the last few months of 2013 as well.  Evidence? Didn't you see what I did in goal #3? I can see the look on your face right now...

Or you're doing this...

Anywho... enough of that.

5. Continue busting my hump in school. (Do I really have to define this one?)

6. Ignore the crap people do that I have no control over.  They want to treat me second-class, judge me or exclude me while they do for everyone BUT me when they don't know who I am or what's going on in my life... they can go ahead and waste their energy. I have better things to spend myself on.

And finally... #7

IF I HEAR A FAMILIAR METAL GRINDING SOUND ACCOMPANIED BY THE APPEARANCE OF POLICE BOX AND A MAN WITH A SONIC SCREWDRIVER STEPS OUT, I'M OUTTA HERE! (...with the contingency that when we're done traveling through out all space and time, he returns me to exactly 1 minute after I left so as to not disrupt my current timeline.)

That's right... if you don't know what a fan I am, then you don't know me well at all and you REALLY need to educate yourself on wibbly, wobbly, timey, wimey stuff here.

For more ideas on goals, you can view my Mom's blog at: The D's and the Dogs 

and Melissa's blog at: Growing Like Weeds.

Happy New Year!

Giving Back | Linked

First and foremost, for those of you who are new to my blog: my husband  I have been married 8 years and have 2 wonderful children, a first grader and an almost 3 year old. After working for 15 years, I quit my job in 2012 to put my energy fully into going back to school for my RN- we lost half of our income with this decision, and while it's been challenging and (quite frankly) terrifying, I know we made the best decision for our family and we try to make the best of it as well as we can and count our blessings often.

Another year has come and gone, another set of resolutions unmet. As my regular readers may remember, I was resolved to blogging more in 2013. That resolution gave way to finishing my novel and preparing to enter nursing school.  A few weeks ago I received an email from my Mom and step-sister-in-law, Melissa, about doing linked blogs once a month- I took that as a sign that will help keep me motivated and accountable for actually completing the blogs I want to write.

This month's blog is about giving back.


We are a family of many Christmases, 6 to be exact.  This past weekend my Dad was in town for his Christmas with us. In one of the most thoughtful Christmas gifts we've ever received, he surprised me by taking me to the store where he bought a little over a week's worth of groceries for us. You can only imagine how thrilled I was!

Earlier in the month we were able to spend time visiting my husband's grandmother as she recovered from a hospital stay at a long-term care facility. Not only did Grandma enjoy talking and spending time with my husband and watching our youngest being on the go non-stop, but quite a few of the other residents enjoyed watching the baby travel up and down the halls past the recreation areas and their rooms. More than once I caught sight of faces brightening as we passed and heard comments of "Oh, such a sweet little girl!" and "The baby's all dressed up for Christmas" (we dressed her in her Christmas outfit for Grandma).

And finally... Just after Christmas, a friend brought her kids over for a play-date and as we discussed the two of us being done having kids, she asked if I had any of my maternity stuff I'd be willing to part with for a friend of hers who was paying outlandish amounts of money for maternity clothing where she's currently living over seas. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be able to get the maternity clothes out of my closet! In addition, she took the pack-n-play which opened up some extra space in our house.  There were a few additional maternity items I knew I had and in the massive "sort and organize" that took place that afternoon we were able to put together 5 boxes and a bag of children and infant clothing that we took to Goodwill. I was thrilled that we were getting it out of our house and to a place where thrifty shoppers would be able to get use out of it!


For more inspiration on ways to give back, you can view my Mom's blog and Melissa's blog.