Beckys Blog

Yes it is possible. We are not there yet, but we are on our way. We first started attempting to pay off debt almost 3 years ago. We learned about Dave Ramsey and his program about 2 years ago and are now following his plan. With this years tax return, we feel like we are debt free now! Although we aren't actually. In the Dave Ramsey plan, first you set up emergency funds (he recommends $1000 for that) so you don't have to use a credit card for the unexpected things in life. 2nd, you cut back and put everything you can into paying off debt, from the smallest to the largest, rolling the payments from each thing you pay off into the next debt. He recommends paying off everything except your mortgage here. 3rd step is to get 3 to 6 months worth of income into the bank for a fully funded emergency fund. So far, we have our emergency fund, and have gotten rid of $42,000 of debt!! It's horrible to admit that we ever had this much debt, but $15,000 of it is what insurance di...

Well, long time no see! I have been out of the blogging world for a while, but I was considering starting it back up...mostly of a way of journaling both what my kids do and say, and also my own thoughts and growth. A lot has happened since my last post on here over the summer! My brother got married, we went to Sea World and the Zoo while we were in San Diego for the wedding, Thad lost his job, we changed churches, and of course, Keziah has changed a ton. Updates on the kids... Raquelle will be 4 next month! It is amazing how time goes by so quickly. I believe she may be ready to start kindergarten, but of course, she isn't old enough yet. She can count, knows her numbers, shapes, letters, sounds, and tons more. She can write her name and is starting to sound out and read and write simple words. Titus is perpetually potty training. He has been in underware for almost a year now, but still has accidents several days a week. This mostly occurs when he is interested in some...

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I'm on facebook much more then I am over here. If you don't have a facebook account, you should get one. It's much easier to keep up with people on there then to go read 10 different blogs! Anyway...I figured I should take some time and post all the stuff that is already over there to my blog, for the poor few who have not yet discovered the joy of facebooking (is that a word?). We have done a wonderful job so far of transforming the dead backyard that was here into a functional garden and play space for the kids. Here is Keziah enjoying her outside swing. Raquelle and her cousin Mikayla playing in our new sand box. Titus, Raquelle, and their cousins Lily, and Mikayla playing on our new climber. I love that our backyard is now a space to play and enjoy instead of one giant hazard for the kids! We have peas, cuccumber, brocoli, beans, lettuce, pumpkin, tomato, and zuccini planted in our vegetable garden. We have a row of baby raspberry...

I'm not sure where this came from, or I would give credit. Someone e-mailed it to me though and I thought "how true!" This totally describes my day almost every day! Anyway...I think this is actually from a childrens book. "If you give a mom a muffin, she'll want a cup of coffee to go with it. She'll make herself some. Her three year old will spill the coffee; She'll wipe it up. While wiping the floor, she'll find dirty socks. She'll remember she has to do laundry. When she puts the laundry in the washer, she'll trip over boots and bump into the box of Goodwill items. Bumping into the Goodwill items will remind her that she has to get these boxes out of her basement and into the car. When she puts the boxes in the car, she'll find a bag of groceries; This will remind her she has to cook dinner. She will get out the chicken defrosting in the fridge. She'll look for her cookbook, "101 Things to do with Chicken." The cookbook...

It is the beginning of strawberry season! For all of you that don't know, not all packages of strawberries are created equal! For example... I went to Winco for groceries last night and I see 4 lbs of strawberries for $5.50. What a great price. I always weigh my package before I buy it. I put the "4 lb" pk of strawberries on the scale and it weighs 4 lbs. Big surprise. I put it back and get the next one. It is 4.25 lbs. I try another and it is 3.8 lbs. At this point there is another customer checking out the strawberries and looking at me like I am crazy. I grab another package, put it on the scale....5.5 lbs! That's the one I was looking for! I smiled at her and put my 5.5 lb package in my cart and walked off. I looked back and saw here weighing the packages of strawberries too. It's not so silly when it makes you get a lb and a half of strawberries for free! So, the moral of the story, the great strawberry sales are even better if you take the ti...

Raquelle watched Cinderella yesterday (and today). It is so cute. She talks through the whole movie telling me what is happening (as if I can't see what is happening for myself). She says that the fairy godmother is Cinderella's "Granny" and she is convinced that the prince is Cinderella's daddy. "Her dancing with her daddy!" "Uh oh, her daddy can't find her!" etc. In other quotes...we are working on teaching her her first middle and last name. So far, she gets them out of order and mispronounces all 3 names. When I ask "What's your name?" She says "Lizbit Charlotte Tell!" Today, I asked her "What's Ty's name?" She answered "Lizbit Charlotte Ty!" LOL.

We are getting the backyard ready for endless hours of outside play this summer. First, here is a picture of Kezzy hanging out while Thad and I worked. I found a little Tikes 8 in 1 climber on Craigs list for less then half price! I have been calling Craigs list adds for these for 2 months and every time someone else beat me to it. This weekend, I happened to hop online and check just an hour after this one was posted...so we finally got it! The kids are pretty excited. They stayed up past their bed time watching us put it together so they could play on it for a few min. There are 3 different places you can put the slides and 3 different places for the tunnel to connect, so if it ever appears to get old, we will just change how it is set up, and it will be like new again. We are getting a sand box this next weekend from a friend and when the whether turns hot we will add a little wading pool and be all set for the summer!