This past Monday marked two months at my new full-time job. I’ve still been freelancing on the side and have been able to bring in around $1200 – $1500 each month on top of my full-time job (you can read my income reports here). I thought it’d be fun to provide a sort of “life update” if you will to let you all know how it’s been going managing both.
I currently have two little toddler daughters – ages 3 and 21 months – and am constantly trying to keep us all busy so the girls stay active and get tired out and so I don’t lose my mind, haha. I thought it’d be fun to take a peek into our lives and see what we’re up to this summer!
I have a few friends with toddler-aged kids as well, but they sometimes prefer to visit children’s museums or the discovery place and other expensive places like that. While I’m not completely against those places and will visit on occasion, I do prefer to stick to the free forms of toddler entertainment (my little ones seem to love the library just as much as the children’s museum, anyways).
I grew up going to the lake and have such fond memories of spending weekend days wakeboarding, getting a tan and eating subs. As my own girls start to get older (my oldest just turned three yesterday), I can’t help but want to re-create some of my memories and pass them down to them. My family has always owned a boat since I can remember. My parents still have the bigger boat they bought when I was in high school and use it frequently over the summer.
I just came inside from sipping an iced coconut coffee on our back deck. Afternoons are one of my favorite parts of the day – the girls are napping, I’m able to get a little work and cleaning done and then I try to relax for a bit before the girls wake up. For me, weekdays are very similar to weekends except my husband isn’t home most days during the week. I prefer weekends to weekdays simply because he is here and I try not to do any work 🙂
While browsing books in Barnes and Noble the other day, I came across an inspirational book on various topics, including finances. The book stated that some people view money as a lake, meaning there’s a finite amount and once it’s out, it’s out, and other people view money as a river, or a constant stream of money coming in and going out. Of course, realistically, we ALL view money as a river – but is that how you’re living your life? That’s not to say you should live paycheck to paycheck, but instead use your money as a tool to give you the life you want. It’s constantly flowing in and out, just like a river, and there’s no need to stress about every dollar that goes out or comes in.
Hello! Sorry for the absence – I’ve been vacationing in beautiful Boca Raton, Florida 😉 My mom was there visiting her parents and sisters, so we decided to drive down too and hang out with everyone for a few days! It was w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l! I got to see my grandparents, my four aunts and some of my cousins. It was a great trip and I’m sad it had to come to an end.
John and I have been discussing a lot about our plans for the future, especially when it comes to when we will purchase our own house here in North Carolina. While interest rates are low, the housing market seems to have creeped up a bit over the past year. Since John just started working for himself in September 2014, the soonest we could purchase a home would be in September 2016. But, we think we are going to wait even longer to purchase a home unless the market suddenly takes a huge dip. Buying versus renting has been a frequent subject of conversation here in our household!
Currently, we are living in a 3000 square foot rental home. To some that may be average, but to us this house is quite large. In fact, it’s the biggest house my husband and I have ever lived in. I was nervous moving in thinking about what it would be like to clean the house. Since we’ve lived here almost two months now, I thought it would be interesting to share my cleaning schedule. It actually hasn’t been as daunting as I thought, thank goodness.
I will preface this post by saying that I’m naturally a pretty clean person. My kitchen is always clean, laundry is never piled up and we don’t have random toys strewn throughout the house. The girls know that their toys stay in the play room or in their rooms. They bring toys downstairs, naturally, but know that they belong upstairs and they put them away when they are done. I do dishes throughout the day as needed, I wipe down the counters multiple times per day and I rotate laundry as I go. It’s really not that hard to bring the dirty clothes with me on my way downstairs and throw them in the washer. This method has prevented me from doing multiple loads at once on any given day.
I’m sitting on the very far corner of the couch as I type this as the rest of our couch is drying from our fourth round of cleaning it. Both my little ones got sick and last night my older one threw up ALL over our couch. Poor girl. They are both napping now and surprisingly have been sleeping pretty good despite not feeling well.
This is the first time my 16-month old has ever had a fever or been sick. She threw up on Tuesday night and now has a lingering cold and fever. She seems to be on the upswing but it still very run down and all she wants to do is cuddle mama. I am more than OK with that 🙂
My 2 1/2 year old threw up yesterday evening and is still under the weather, but has managed to hold all her drinks down since yesterday. She doesn’t have a cold or a fever, so I’m hoping this passes soon. Since this week was their first week at daycare, I expected them to get sick since they’re being exposed to more kids and therefore, more germs.
I will be the first to admit that coming up with healthy, creative dinner ideas is not my strong suit. I want to meal plan, I really do. But following through with it is a whole nother story. Lately, though, I’ve been better (Ok, I’ve been better since we moved into our new house a few weeks ago…I can’t let a kitchen like this go to waste!!). Meal planning saves time, it saves money and it’s a huge relief knowing that you have food for the week.
I went shopping late last week and got enough meals to last us through tomorrow. The girls and I have enjoyed our days at home without having to run errands every morning, we’ve gone on long walks, made cookies and I’ve had dinner going by the time my husband comes home each night. I’ve realized I actually do enjoy cooking, it’s just all the work that has to happen before the actual cooking takes place (meal planning, shopping, spending money, etc.).
So, what have I been making lately?!