We started school again!

No, Brandon nor I are attending another school-school, we started Financial Peace University last night at Willow! I wanted to make sure and blog about it because I know that these nine weeks will fly by, and I want to remember how pumped I am about saving money! One thing that really stood out to me in the first session last night was that money isn't evil, the Bible says that the "LOVE of money is the root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10).  So often people tend to look at Christians with money and think that they must have done something "unholy" to get that money, but in fact God wants us to be good stewards of all the gifts He has given to us! Proverbs 21:20 says "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has". When we make money, and spend it wisely, we will naturally begin to build wealth. Now, we spend money on frivolous things thinking we "need" it when in fact we could be saving for something much more exciting! Brandon and I don't have any credit card debt, something I am so thankful for. but we do have a large car loan for my car and student loans that we are currently paying, and will need to start paying within the year.

Another solid thought is that saving money has to be a priority. We need to first give to God what is His and tithe, and secondly we need to save. All other purchases and payments then fall in after. If you don't tithe and save, that money will be spent on something/anything else. I may think we need $500 a month for groceries because that's what we've always spent, but if I only had $400 a month we wouldn't starve, and in fact we'd still be better off than some if not most people in this country. And if we could put $100 extra towards Brandon's student loan we will save ourselves over 4 years of payments and, get this...$5,413 in interest! This is very exciting to me and I cannot wait to document this journey.

Almost 2

Emma,
Tomorrow, you will be two years old. I'm not sure how these two years have flown by like they have, and as much as I want to throw the brakes on I know that I can't stop time. On this day two years ago, I was going to the Downers Grove library to return a book, your dad was working as a teacher in the city. I was planning on heading into the city to pick him up around 10:00 at night. You weren't supposed to arrive for another couple weeks, but your dad and I both had a feeling you were going to be early. I was big, you were measuring big, and I just had that female instinct telling me that we were right and the doctors were wrong.

I never could have realized how quickly my heart leaped out of my body when you arrived in this world. Suddenly, I was extremely vulnerable and painfully in love with a tiny human who could not express any love back to me yet. I felt that this must be how God loves us. The ability to love so deeply a person who lacks the capacity to love in the same way.

I have been so lucky to spend these last 10 months as a stay-at-home-mom. Your personality has sprouted this year into a funny, animated, serious, caring little girl. I love the way you say "hug" and then hug whatever it is you're holding, whether it is a stuffed animal, doll, or me :) You have a joyousness about you that manifests whenever you yell "yay!" spontaneously. You just did that in the car on the way home from errands today. I'm not sure what you were so excited about but I loved it. You are smart, whenever we pass over train tracks you say "choo-chooo!" even if there are no trains around.

So Emma, happy, happy, happy birthday and many, many, many more. I love you more than I can even describe. You will not even begin to understand until you have a child of your own.

Love you,
Mom

Dear Emma

This week your dad was in Palo Alto for work, and boy did we miss him. Over the weekend before he left you got a really high fever and we didn't know what to do. We just kept you comfortable and gave you Tylonol and watched a lot of movies. You started to feel better before he left on Sunday which was great because he could fly without worrying about you. However, that night your fever went up again and we went back to the same old "make you comfortable" routine.

We spent all week watching "Cars Toons", Curious George, Horton Hears a Who, Thomas (or as you say "train"), and The Lorax. Tuesday I finally brought you to the doctor but there wasn't anything of concern so the doctor gave us some antibiotics to help fight the cough you have had for over two weeks it seems.

This was you all week, so sleepy. You're fighting something, just wish we knew what!

Tuesday night Grandpa came over to watch you while I went to work and you had a great time. Despite the heat, Grandpa took you for a walk around the neighborhood because you had gone into your room and pointed to your shoes. Clearly, you know what you want. Now we just have to work on getting you to say actual words instead of pointing and grunting.

Finally feeling a bit better, I said "smile for Mommy!" and this is what you did.

On Thursday we went to a huge garage sale with Grandma Perkins. I ended up scoring the most awesome deal on a kitchen helper stool. Normally they are $200, but I got it for $10! I can't wait to have you help me in the kitchen making cookies together or just being at counter height so you can see what's going on.

Best garage sale find ever!