January Review

First off~ I wanted to thank everyone for the great encouragement offered at the posting of my last entry. I can sometimes be ungrateful, moaning about the lack of support I get in person while overlooking the great and wonderful support system that has somehow developed between the start of this blog and now. I cannot say I am alone, I cannot say no one understands, I cannot claim I am without a support system...not now, not with so many other women sharing the same struggles and triumphs as I do and not with the great outpouring of love bestowed upon me when I needed it. Thanks so very much. I will not be devaluing this blog or the presence of you ladies in my life again. It really meant (and means) a tremendous amount to have you all visit me here, be interested in my life and encourage me along the way. Thank you. Thank you. and Thank you again.

Secondly~ I don't know what my obsession with eyes is of late, both opened AND closed, but I apologize for the redundancies. I came across this one I had taken a very long time ago. I think I passed over it thinking it was uninteresting and blase, not looking closely. When I decided to post a January review, I realized a perfect photo would be of an eye (get it, introspection?) and found this again. I am so glad I did! Because, unlike before, upon THIS glance, I realized that I could see my reflection in my eye-and the black lens of the camera was almost PERFECTLY lined with my iris! How cool is that? If you look really closely, you can see the door behind me and even the brick wall. I guess it wasn't a boring shot after all. Just please, overlook the tangle of bloodvessels. If only I had photoshop! ;-) I promise, no more eye pictures for a while...and that is a pinky promise.

A friend recently wrote an update on her New Year's Resolutions and I thought that was a smashing idea. What better way to keep on top of things, and evaluate your successes and failures than to do so each month!? So, here is my January Review.

The two main areas I was going to be working on was finances and schooling. Also, I mentioned about the need for life insurance being a January goal.

Here is what happened in January.

Finances:

I am proud of:

~I began shopping at Save Alot and avoided Walmart except for once a month. I cut our grocery bill from $100.00 to $40.00 and have been fairly consistent with that number-often spending even less.

~I have saved over $700.00 (and spent less than 10% of this) shopping at CVS and have only gone probably 10 times. I have nearly $50.00 store credit (ECB's) for future purchases. I now purchase almost all non-food items at CVS and rarely spend out of pocket. Because of this, I have been able to sock the differences away AND I have been able to bless several people with my ABUNDANT BOUNTY which is also reason to rejoice. Oh-and I get namebrand body wash-what a treat! ;-)

~ I started a Home fund and have taken money out of each paycheck (all three) to add to it. Also, dear Matt cashed in all his vacation time from last year-putting us at over a thousand dollars in just four weeks!

~ I have the beginnings of an emergency fund in place.

~I set up a workable-for-me bill payment system that has made it much easier for me to balance everything and record everything well.

~We haven't gone out to eat in....um, ages. That deserves a cheer and a good cry.

~Matt got his life insurance, a HUGE burden is lifted from my shoulders! I am less fearful now of how we would survive as a family, though no less fearful of how I would survive if I ever lost him.

Things still to do:

~Sell several fisherprice toys, books and other items on Craigs list (or ebay) in order to relieve some clutter and create a bit more money. Nice.

~ We have a few additional expenses coming up in the next few months, so we are saving for those things as well (so we don't get hammered because we are unprepared.)

~Deposit 100% of our tax rebate (to come) into our home fund.

~Decide how best to utilize our tax refund and the assess the areas of need.

~Cut out a few more areas of spending in order to sock more into our home fund.

Schooling:

Things I am proud of:

~I have become consistent with sitting down with Corynn four days a week. HURRAY! YIPPEE! WAHOO!! (The weekends are no-go's and rightly so, and I still haven't figured out how to do school on shopping days.)

~ She is excited to be learning her birds in our nature studies. She is excelling in her phonics, though not showing any signs of reading thus far.

~She is doing EXCELLENT in her handwriting. Each day I have her write a letter. I write out what she says and she does her copywork underneath. She doesn't always finish the letter and I don't force her to because I want it to be fun. I leave half the page for her to draw with (as an incentive to finish.)

~We are learning scripture verses and reciting them on a daily basis.

Things I need to work on:

**Oh dear. I am afraid this is a mightly long list.**

~ Patience on my part. Allowing her to work at her pace and not forcing her. Remembering she is only four.

~I am much more language-geared than mathmatically minded so that is what I have focused on up until this point. I am afraid she is very behind in her math skills. She still fumbles around in the upperteens. I really have to set aside 'math time' for her.

~ I would also like to cover some history or science, but at this point, only in the form of unit studies and lapbooks. Body parts, geography, holidays, weather, planets, things like that.

~Most importantly: I need to get in the groove of planning. I still haven't found the best way to plan our days or our work. I sort of just fly by the seat of my pants every day. I would like to have a plan ready for the week with all supplies necessary at my disposal. SO, I have to try and implement some sort of schedule/curriculum plan. It is hard when you aren't following a curriculum-they don't tell you what to do! :-)

That is January- IN REVIEW! All in all, a pretty good start and a good motivation for the future!