Rise & Shine Challenge: Days 1-4

Pinterest lead me to this wonderful post about a 10 day challenge that I was way too curious not to check out, put on by The Abundant Mama

Even though I found this challenge Monday, and it started Sunday. it came just in time for me, the sale of our house made it feel like my life was about to fall out underneath me, I just couldn’t seem to get “on-top” of my day, they were just running away from me. Not only that, I was not paying enough attention to myself, and my health was running away from me as well. 

I had originally decided to do this on my own, maybe with a few mommy friends, but that didn’t work out for me, so the only way I felt I could keep my self accountable was to share it with all of you! Instead of doing 10 posts for 10 days I am going to break them up into 3 posts, and hopefully some of you will join in with me as well! 

Like I said, I found this late, so I played catch up on Day 3, are you ready?   Me either 🙂

Day 1 &2:: “What is morning to you?”

Morning to me right now is typically sleeping in, and checking Facebook (when I had my smartphone) My perfect morning would be completely different. It would be waking up long before the baby does, reading the bible while I ate breakfast, getting a load of laundry done, doing dishes, and reading a set of devotions, all before she awakes!  The tips that were given were these: 

-start where you are

-take your sleep seriously

-rise early

-seat a daily intention

-practice mindful mornings

After answering the question and reading over some of the things she had to say I set up my plan for day 3. I had decided on waking up at 7:30, making breakfast, read the bible and do my devotions, then take my time in the shower. Laundry next, then dishes, and pulling out anything that’s frozen and needed for dinner at night. 

Before I had started this I didn’t have any devotions that I went to on a daily basis, so I did some research and found Proverbs31 I read some of her previous posts and really fell in love with them so I subscribed for her daily emails.

Day 3 Report:: It went okay really, I woke up at the time I wanted, but we had plans to leave for a horse show at 8:30 so I did not give myself enough time to get the chores done before we left, but I did get to read my bible and devotions and eat breakfast in peace 🙂 The day kind of got away from me when I fell asleep for a nap and forgot to set my alarm and woke up with only minutes to spare before meeting my husband at the fairgrounds for dinner and tractor pulls. Whoops! 

Day 4 Report::  Lets be honest, today was a serious fail. We were out way too late last night at the tractor pulls, only to forget that we had inspections today (b/c the house is sold) at 8:30 am. I set my alarm for 6 leaving myself plenty of time to clean up what I needed and be out of the house for them to come do their thing. I woke up at 7:30 to my alarm still going off, but on vibrate instead of ringer (doh!) and my house a complete mess. I managed to tidy up the house a bit and leave by 8:28 with no shower and still in my pajamas. Oi, it was awful. We got home in time for nap, woooo, so I sat down to do what I should have done this morning (bible, devotions, emails, etc.) The Rise & Shine email today fit perfect, and the challenge like a glove. 

If this would’ve happened yesterday, today wouldn’t have been such a disaster. Tomorrow I have no plans of leaving the house, yay!! So here is my list for tonight: 

-hubby’s lunch

-bring laundry downstairs

-start one load wash before bed

-wash dishes

-quickly tidy

-set out clothes

This list will hopefully help me stay relaxed tomorrow morning. I initially had planned to do my dishes and wash laundry in the morning,  but I cannot do more than one thing at a time with our water pressure so this will help me be able to take my time in the shower and relax, and only have to put wash onto the line, and put dishes away, cutting my chores in half in the morning. 

I may not have a crew of kids to get off to school, or a herd of animals to feed, yet, but those days will soon be upon us and starting now will make my life so much easier in the long run. Please leave me your comments, I would love to hear if anyone else is doing this as well! Also, check out my new Facebook Page, and give me a like to see even more updates. 

Now, go hug your kids, kiss your husband, and remember God has a plan

The Downgrade

Getting rid of a smart phone has been on my mind a lot lately, I had been tossing around the pros and cons, and wondering how I would really ‘deal’ with out it. And then, I did it. One day woke up at 2 am to a Facebook notification, thinking today’s the day, this “thing” needs to go.  I started with taking all of my pictures off my phone and putting them on my laptop, this is the one thing I will miss the most, the phone had a wonderful camera and it was always on my side so I never had to go run and look for one when McKenna did something funny.  Then I found someone to buy my phone..I knew that if I kept it around it would tempt me and I would end up switching back for the convenience. 

But the dirty truth, I caught myself on it constantly, for no reason. I would be sitting in the living room, laptop on the couch next to me, cartoons blaring on the TV and my daughter tugging at my pants, with me telling her “No, go play” and then one day she replied “mum!” I looked down at her with those bright blue eyes and smiling ear to ear with a pipe cleaner hanging out of her nose and I thought to myself, Instagram is truly not this important, the Facebook updates I’ve read 4 times now, not important, the little girl at my feet wanting me to play patty cake and tickle her with pipe cleaners, THAT is important! The hot dog dance, and the shake-a-booty parties, those are important, not following the latest mommy on IG and making sure I don’t miss a beat on Facebook. 

It has been 3 days since switching, it doesn’t sound long, but it sure feels long. When I am at home I am 50 times more productive, when I am out I am 100 times more lost. I find myself forgetting to take along things like the address and directions of where I was going because I am so used to GPS on my phone, or wanting to show someone the latest house I found on the Realtor website, only to pull out my flip phone and laugh at myself. 

All these things really mean nothing, when I get back to the basics, I am happy to have my daughter hugging my leg while I canned pickles yesterday, and helping me make the crust for our apple pie..those moments last forever…all those other things only last a moment. 

Go Hug Your Kids, Kiss Your Husband, and Remember; God has a Plan

Groceries for 3 under $150/month

I have been working on getting this in the books for about a year now. We have a strict one-income budget and I hate spending so much money on groceries. As it has been a long drawn out process I can’t wait to share this month’s plan.

I apologize for the poor photo quality from my cell phone 😀

I start with a blank calender I print off of excel, it’s not pretty but it works to start out the planning with.  I go through all the recipes I have pinned to my Pinterest account and pick the ones that look most appealing at the moment (aka quick and easy) 

Then I make my grocery list (this one has been revised because you couldn’t read the first one) but, you get the point. Write down all the things you’ll need for each meal in its specified category, if you’ll need more than one-start tallying. This is the most important step: SHOP YOUR CUPBOARDS. More than likely you have that little can of tomato paste you need but normally would say “eh its only 75 cents” – that starts to add up! 

Now, it’s time to shop! We shop mostly at Aldi’s and a little at Meijer. I make my husbands lunches every day, obviously because it is cheaper, but he is a Mountain Dew-a-holic, and since Meijer almost always has sales on it, that’s where we go, as well as for laundry detergent. This week 3 – 12-packs of pop was $10, and I had a rain check for Arm & Hammer power paks for $2.99/27ct pack. They ended up only having the bonus backs so I got 10% more (32 paks) in each bag for the same price.  We ended up spending $86.60 for everything except our ground burger.

Aldi’s Haul

Meijer Items

For all our ground beef we typically try to stock up by buying half a steer and having it butchered, but we were fresh out of that; and we are selling our house so we aren’t planning on doing another steer until we move. So, for now, we buy from our local meat market; they sell ground beef for $3.49/lb about the same as Meijer sells it, and it’s so much fresher, and freezes much nicer! Occasionally, I can even get them to give me a deal on buying so much at one time. 

With the total of beef ($34.90) and groceries/detergent we spent $121.50 to feed three of us for an entire month. That in mind, the only things I found in my cupboard to use were enchilada sauce, diced tomatoes, and one can of tomato sauce.

In the end my meal plan all ends up, written out nicely, in my handy dandy notebook. I carry this thing with me everywhere so I never have to worry about the toddler ripping it up into little pieces like last months calender. When I’ve finished a day I will put one line through it, that way I can still read it for ideas with next months plan. As far as breakfasts we basically have the same thing everyday. It is always 2 eggs each with some sort of fruit (typically bananas) and toast or cheerios. As well as each meal we have some sort of fresh produce, usually some type of berries or grape tomatoes. I don’t write these things down on our list as we get them from a local farm but I do add them into my total spent! I just really don’t like supermarket produce other than for bananas and potatoes. Snacks are where I feel we save the most money, I only buy snacks for my husbands lunch, we do not eat them at home, and I buy one box of graham crackers to have in the diaper bag for on the go if I forget to pack something else. But typically snacks are fruits or fresh baked breads/cakes/brownies/cookies etc. So much cheaper!

Hopefully I’ve inspired some of you to try it for yourselves 😀 

Now, go hug your kids, kiss your husband, and remember; God has a plan!

Meet the Fam! <3

Eeeek! I hope you are as excited for this adventure as I am! I can’t wait to start publishing the posts I have planned for you guys, but first lets do some intros!!

 I’m Amanda, a 20-something stay at home mom (SAHM) to our beautiful, 15 month old daughter McKenna. My husband, Mike, works full-time as a semi-driver by day,  a tow truck driver by night ,and we are expecting baby #2 in December. I decided to start this blog months ago, with hopes of being able to reach other SAHM’s and help them live intentionally and feel complete with the simplicity of their life.  I can’t wait to hear everyone’s responses to my future posts and suggestions on what you want to read from us 😀

 

Now, go hug your kids, kiss your husband and remember;

God has a plan.