A calmer Christmas

Have you noticed how many advertisements have words in them like, "enjoy a calmer Christmas", "take the stress out of the holidays", "simplify gift giving", etc? I think I get an add at least once a day in my inbox advertising a product or store that has the solution for a Christmas that is less hectic. It's got me thinking, if it's such a big deal in the marketing realm, there must be a lot of stressed out people trying to make it through this month with some sense of sanity by the end of it all!

Whatever happened to those things actually being part of the Christmas season? Calm, simple, about loving and gathering friends and family, simpler expectations, less pressure to find, buy or make the perfect gifts, all of what the season used to mean. I think our culture is crying out for that simplicity to come back. I know I am. As I've shared with you, we are making that a priority this year, to keep things calmer, less hectic and more meaningful, focused on what's really important and what we're really celebrating. For our family, it's a time of celebrating our Savior's birth and that day was SIMPLE! He was born in a stable with animals, laid in a food trough and his parents slept on hay. There was nothing glamorous about it, but from that simplicity came the most powerful and magnificent life in all of human history. Which again, makes me wonder (I know, I shouldn't think so much! ;)), why are we working so hard to impress people, make a big scene, be franticly working on our Christmas plans, when from a seemingly meaningless moment, history was altered forever.

A calm Christmas...that's what we want this year. One like the day Jesus was born, celebrating HIS coming and HIS gift to us among our family and friends.

Baking much this time of year?

Most of us are doing a little extra baking this season and that is a fantastic way to fill our plates, tummies and save on heat! :) What a great deal! As I've become more of a baker and also more of a "green" thinker, I've found that heating your home with your oven is a great way to get two things done at once. You'll get to enjoy something tasty coming out of your oven when you're done too. :)

If you're planning on having the oven on for a while, be sure to turn your heat down and let your oven the heating for you. Also, after you're done with your baking, leave the oven door propped open just a bit and let the heat from your oven fill your room. It's going to need to cool anyway, why not let that air save your heating bill while it's cooling? ;)

Stay warm and cozy! If anyone is baking something extra delicious, I'm willing to take some of them off your hands too! ;)

Ham

We aren't big ham eaters for the holidays, but I know there are plenty that are, and thanks to those of you who are, there are great sales right now! This week I saw ham as low as $1.39/lb and even though that isn't a usual item on our dinner table, I'll be picking one up, BECAUSE we do eat a lot of sandwiches. My plan is to buy a ham, bake it and take it back to my local grocery store and ask them to slice it for me. There may be a charge, but I'm certain it'll still be far cheaper that way then the $3.98 or more per pound our lunch meat costs. Not to  mention it'll be a much fresher flavor! :) Once it's been thinly sliced for me, I'll package it up for freezing and we'll be set with a great supply of lunch meat for a while. I'll probably chop some up as well and freeze for adding to casseroles, eggs or other dishes that ham goes well in.

I'm also seeing a lot of baking supplies on sale this week. A pound of butter for $0.99, compared to the usual, nearly $3 price tag. Butter can be frozen too, so I'll be getting several at that price.

Don't miss out on these deals! :)

**If I can't get it sliced at the grocery store, I'll use an electric knife to cut the ham in thin slices.

Busy!

Does anyone else feel like they are running from one thing to the next?! It's so strange how the month of December just makes things instantly busy. I was hoping this year wouldn't be as much like that since most of our shopping is done, we don't have a ton of things on the calendar and we're doing our best to be more relaxed during the season...BUT, it's still happening.

With our car in the shop STILL, it's added a little extra stress to daily life. Along with extra details for church programs, holiday parties, two kids getting the stomach bug and all the usual life things, it's been a busy week.

I think the word "busy" is becoming one of my least favorite words. It feels stressful just saying it. This week, I'm hoping to work on using the word "busy" less often and focus on making this week described by words like: relaxing, enjoyable, productive, memorable.

I've got more ideas of posts to come, but you'll have to be patient with me this month, I'm working on being less BUSY! ;)

Two Week Grocery Bill=$45

This week I had a fairly long grocery list to re buy a lot of the staples and basics we had used up before going on our trip. I was a little nervous about how much it would all add up to, but it was surprisingly low! The things I needed the most were our dairy and fresh produce for the next two weeks. There were some really great sales at some of our local stores that helped with the produce. Thankfully since we have a decent stock of pantry goods and meats in our freezer, so that really helps cut down on our regular grocery bill. It's an added blessing to keep our grocery cost low since we'll be needing extra funds to go to the things we will be fixing!

After loading my grocery cart with all the things we'd need for our home and also a few extras for a veggie tray I'll be bringing to a shower on Sunday, I was surprised my total rang up as $44.50!

My husband and I have both been surprised by how few changes we've had to make in our lifestyle, but how big of a difference it has made in our budget.

God Provides

We've always had all our needs taken care of and never missed a payment on any bills. We know it's because of God's provision for us. Again, today as I was doing our two week budget, there is evidence that God is taking care of us. We found out last night our car repair has the potential of being quite expensive, possibly even more then our emergency fund. *sigh*. Not, excited about it at all! :( Yet, there is still reason to be thankful and hopeful because after all our bills are paid, food is put on the table and gas in the cars, there is even more extra this paycheck then usual. Of course, I'd love to put that all toward our debt or some toward saving for our computer, but under the current circumstances, it is evidence to me of HIS provision. He is taking care of that bill for us. He is making a way for us to pay for something we didn't expect, but He did and He prepared a way for us. I'll still be praying that the repair is less then we're expecting though! ;) Wouldn't that just be a lovely extra blessing?!?! :)

Putting our Emergency Fund to use

Yep, not so excited about it, but our emergency fund is really protecting us from a potentially financial mess this week.

Last week in the midst of all our Thanksgiving preparations and trip planning, our computer decided it has had enough. (A reason for the lack of posting this last week!) Anyway, we did see this coming to some extent, but had hoped we'd have a little more time to finish saving up for its replacement. We've actually been surprisingly calm about this situation that normally would have come as a huge disaster and create a lot of financial stress. We've got a plan in place to continue saving and hopefully be able to have our new computer within the next month or so. Thankfully, we have a back up computer that will get us by until then. It's nice to feel calm about this and not frantic about where the money will come from. Thanks to our budget we know exactly how much money we have and are able to set aside and are able to be realistic about when we'll be able to pay cash for it. We had considered using some of our emergency fund for it and I'm thankful we decided not to.

BECAUSE...yesterday, while driving home from our 13 hour trip to see my husband's family we broke down 15 minutes from home. (A HUGE blessing that we were close to family and friends that could help us and get our full van worth of stuff and us home while the van was towed to the shop!) Regardless, here we are again with a car in the shop! :( Ugh. We still don't know what the end result will be to this 'hiccup', but it's certainly an expense we hadn't planned for this month. Once again, I'm thankful that we are doing this budget and have the option of an emergency fund to draw from for these occasions.

It's been a week of breaking down for us and problem solving. I can't even express the gratitude and peace we're experiencing because we have a plan to handle these things financially. What had the potential to cause huge stress, chaos, arguments between me and my husband, and an overwhelming mess, has actually been the opposite. We've felt in control of the situation, knowing that it's not our plan or even how we'd like things to go, but at least we have some options of ways to handle these situations.

Once again, we are experiencing the benefits of this financial "overhaul" in our lives! :)

Family, Traveling, Recovering!

That's what this week has been for us! We went out of town to visit my husband's family after Thanksgiving and returned last night. We celebrate an early Christmas while we were there too. It's always extra work to get ready to go on a trip and then come home and recover! So, I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things. I'll have to keep up with the laundry and unpacking this time because we're about to hit a month worth of parties, celebrations and busyness! So today, I sit and wonder how does one keep from being a frazzled mess during this season of the year? Thankfully the frazzle-ness hasn't hit us yet and I'd love to avoid it all together, so I'm pondering and thinking of ideas to create a calmness and maintain some peace in our home despite the extra activities and busy schedules we will be facing.

Any and all ideas are always welcome! What do you do to minimize the stress and chaos of the holidays?