preparation update...

some of my goals for being a stay-at-home-mom, posted here so you can keep me accountable :)

preparing my heart: waking up early to have my quiet time, to fill my cup, so that it may overflow onto those that mean the most to me, my family. because i am human and selfish and so far from perfect and i know that i cannot love them well all by myself. this time alone, to fill my cup, to feed my soul, is priority numero uno.

preparing our menu: oh my goodness this boy loves to eat! and when he's ready to eat there is a very small window of time between "i'm hungry" and "i'm starving-feed-me-now-or-i-will-have-a-melt-down". it's the only time he ever has a meltdown and i know where he gets it--from his mama :) i completely understand the appeal of quick, pre-packaged, processed foods. but i have a hard time giving my little something that has a shelf life of 18 months (that's older than mclain!). with all that said, i will have fresh fruit and fresh veggies ready to go, washed and chopped and easily accessible for those melt down moments. i've been pinning recipes for goodies i can bake and cook in advance, on the weekends or in the evenings. "what's for dinner?" glad you asked :) in the past, i've been guilty of deciding what's for dinner at dinner. now, because of mclain's small window and our smaller budget, dinner will be planned in advance and nap time will be used for dinner preparation. 

preparing our schedule: i have an idea of what mclain needs because of my week at home with him during spring break...but because that was a couple months ago, this schedule is tentative. he wakes up at 8:00. we get ready, eat, play, craft and read a few books.  around 10 or 10:30 he is in need of a change of scenery. (this is where i get my workout in) we go on a long walk, he can't stand to be in the stroller for too long, so we will stretch our legs at the park. then, finish the 2nd half of our walk and head home for lunch (some days we will go to the library for story time or the indoor park at the mall or go visit anna, marmee and grandad). after lunch we will play/read, then take a nap between 12:30 and 1:00. if all goes well, he will nap for 2 to 3 hours.  when he wakes up we'll have a snack and go to the pool, play in the back yard or run errands while we wait for pops to get home.  when pops gets home they spend time together, while i finish getting dinner ready. we eat, we play, mclain takes a bath and then he goes to bed around 8:00.  a strict bed time for the little one, means much needed grown up time for the grown ups.

preparing our bank account: i'm not going to go into too much detail because it's waaay personal but i will be honest and say that not having 2 incomes will be a challenge. we won't be eating out, going to the movies, shopping because "i don't have anything to wear". we will be pinching pennies, eating meatless meals and trusting that God will provide when we're not sure how. all that said, i know we would not have been able to live off of one income in dallas. lubbock, thank you for this simpler life.

hugs and kisses~s and bg