Sacrifice

We've learned in the last couple of years that in order to get what we want, we have to work hard and learn to do without. Since starting Law School, we've been racking our brains of things we could do without and ways we could make some moolah in order to be

able to have what we need since we're living off of a very small budget.

Our 2011 is going to be dedicated to: getting out of debt

& getting into better shape physically & spiritually.

So....we decided to do a few things in order to make our goals possible. This may come as a shock, BUT the biggest sacrifice for me personally so far, has been getting rid of cable tv. We came up with a list of things that we could do without to be able to buy a second car

and do a few things to the house & cutting nearly $100!!! (for tv? crazy I know....) out of our budget every month was step number 1. We also decided that even though we don't spend a whole lot eating out, we spend enough that if we didn't spend that money on food and put it towards something else, we could afford other things that we need a whole lot more. Since we've done that, I've noticed a few things. 1: The first few days I was BORED out of my mind, and a little lonely. When both kids are taking naps during the day I HAD NO IDEA WHAT TO DO. But, don't worry I found something. 2: Now that we're able to have a second car, I have some more freedom throughout the day to entertain my kiddos & if we run out of something, I can quickly run to the grocery store, I LOVE IT.

To reach our other goal of shaping up, Scott and I have decided that we need to get our family on track with Family Home Evening, family prayer & family scripture reading. We've been slacking HORRIBLY and so we're changing that! We're also working

out every night together after putting Avery to bed...Jax laughs at us as we huff and puff doing jumping

jax and other exercises, but it beats sitting on our bums and watching tv all night!

Another sacrifice that we've thought long and hard about was me getting a part time job. I wasn't too excited about it, but we've made it work so that I only work at night while Scott is home with the kids, and it's pretty minimal hours, so I don't feel like I'm doing too

much or missing out on hanging out with Scott and the babies, PLUS it gives us some extra money to reach our goals and even put some into our savings!

Here's what I've been doing to keep myself busy!

We put bead board up in our dining room, but it still needs caulked and painted, so here's a pic

that shows part of it, I'll post all about our little adventure

with that once it's done!

I saw this really cute tutorial on a blog & decided that it was

easy enough for my non-crafty self to try, I think they

turned out really sweet!!

I got 2 wooden plaques, painted the edges black,

modge-podged a piece of scrapbook paper with the

hand print/foot print & distressed the edges with sandpaper.

Jaxy's little toes at 3 months.

Avery did SO GOOD with black paint on her hand,

I knew she had to try really hard not to

go crazy with it....

I've wanted a chalk board, but didn't want to

spend a lot of time/money on one...so I found

this one at Hobby Lobby for 7.99 (but used a 40% coupon)

and I wanted a different frame, so I bought a piece of scrap book paper and

put it around the original edge.

I LOVE HIM! He is so good at being

excited & happy for me when I'm excited & happy!

Scott loves it, you should too!

I've used it as a grocery list so far,

but I want to start writing our weekly menus

up on it!

I want to try and do something crafty that's

cheap and cute every month, so

if you have any ideas, LET ME KNOW!!

THANKS FOR READING!