Balance

Oops...I wrote this post about 2 weeks ago and forgot to publish it!


Last night I sorted through all of Kaitlyn’s winter clothes and tonight I’m packing away her summer clothes…sigh. This time of year gives me such mixed emotions…I love summer, but I also love fall…I just DREAD what comes after fall…winter…blech. For now, let’s enjoy fall while we have it though! For us, summers are always busy with trips to Cedar Point, camping, little side trips, etc…but somehow fall manages to be even busier for us. We love going to Halloweekends at Cedar Point and there is at least one fall festival a weekend for the next 6 weeks, it seems. All fun things, but it makes for a very busy life, especially when added to work, preschool, YMCA classes, running, house work, etc. And let’s not forget the all-important Ohio State football games we MUST be home to watch EVERY Saturday.

How does one balance all this fun and still manage to get all the not-so-fun stuff (like work and cleaning) done too?! I’ve recently been reading a few blogs on balancing life…they actually focus a lot on running, and how to fit it in to our busy lives. It’s been pretty motivating and inspiring seeing these people be successful with such a complicated goal. Anyways, we’ve had the ‘fun’ part down for years…we always make time for that! It’s the not-so-fun stuff that we’re working on now…organizing, getting rid of stuff (garage sale, anyone?), learning more about budgeting, etc. Every year in January I say the same thing…I’m going to SIMPLIFY life this year…and it never seems to happen. But finally, I feel like we’re making a little bit of progress with it. Hooray!


We’ve been taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class through our church the last few weeks…yup, we paid $100 to learn how to manage our money…ironic, yes? I’m calling it worth it though, because so far we’ve learned a lot and have a lot of resources available to us. A lot of the ideas are so simple, yet things we’ve never thought of before…like PLANNING for the unexpected because it’s NOT actually UNexpected.

Car trouble?! Oh no! Did you think your car would work perfectly for 10 years, without needing a single dime dropped into it? How about we save a little emergency car money then? DUH!

The kids’ pants are too short?! What do you mean they grew?! What a surprise, the kids grew and need new clothes/shoes! LOL.

See? Stuff like that…just makes us feel so stupid! LOL. Really though, the class is great so far and I hope we can implement most, if not all, of the things we’re learning. It’s definitely a process though…not something we get the hang of overnight. Stay tuned for the Adventures of Budgeting with Wayne & Lori!

Something is wrong with this blog post…I’m several paragraphs in and haven’t even mentioned Kaitlyn’s name. Gasp! Better fix that! :o) Kaitlyn is…awesome…sweet…funny…adorable…smart…loving…a hardcore roller coaster enthusiast…sometimes stubborn…and the best little girl a momma could ask for. We are exactly two months away from her 5th (FIFTH…F.I.F.T.H.) birthday!!! I’m not really sure how this happened because I swear we just celebrated her 4th birthday a month or two ago. This has been the fastest year, by far. Age 4 has been so much more enjoyable than age 2 or 3…she’s certainly matured quite a bit in the last year or two and her tantrums are pretty far and few between. There is something to be said for four year old attitude though. Wow! She certainly has some sassy-pants moments. But that’s made up for her being extra loving lately too…I don’t know how many times a day she comes up to me and hugs me and says “Mommy, I love you.” Sigh…melt my heart. It never gets old hearing that. This weekend we experienced a first for her…her first roller coaster ride in the RAIN! We got on the Woodstock Express at Cedar Point and just as we sat down it started sprinkling…then raining. The worker announced that the ride was shut down due to the rain, but that our train would be permitted to ride since we were already buckled in. So, off we go in the rain! We headed up the hill and it started raining even harder. I was a little worried that Kaitlyn would freak out…you know, since she hates cold water and all. But nope, she loved it! We screamed and giggled the whole time…AND she had her arms up and a smile on her face ‘til we pulled back into the station. We were soaked. But my girl is HARDCORE, just like her momma! :o)