Finding Family Link Up

I'm cohosting today's Finding Family Link Up, and happy to share what's going on in our family's life right now!

I have previously shared how I've been finding ways to save money so I can hire a cleaning service. Bryan and I wanted to spend less time doing chores on the weekend, and more time together as a family. Well, now it's time to share how the cleaning service has helped our family time!

The cleaning service came...and...well...it didn't go exactly like I thought it would. 

I hired the janitorial company that cleans our medical office. I know the owner, Mr. T,  well, and trust his company to do an excellent job.

On the day of the first cleaning I was so excited to get home after work. I love the fresh smell of cleaning products, and was excited that I wasn't the one cleaning. When I arrived home, I was pleasantly amazed. I don't think I've seen our house that clean since we moved in! It was wonderful!

Everything was clean. I was in pure bliss...until I walked into my bedroom. When I first entered my room I noticed some of my clothes hanging above my closet door. How weird? Why were my clothes hanging...why were they slightly damp...wait...those were in my hamper that morning. OH MY HOT TAMALES! I suddenly felt like I was having a hot flash and heart palpitations. I looked across my bedroom and gasped when I realized the truth of what I had feared. Mr. T did my laundry. 

When I hired Mr. T we specifically negotiated the cleaning price down to a reasonable amount by eliminating laundry and dish services. My laundry was not to be cleaned that day. 

But there, across my bedroom on my side coffee table were my freshly clean clothes nicely folded. He even folded my most intimate apparel. I wanted to die of embarrassment. Why? Because the night before that first cleaning I started my monthly cycle. Oh yes, and there was evidence in that laundry basket. {insert another hot flash here}

Mortified.

I called Bryan nearly having a panic attack, and my sweet hubby said ever so kindly, "well at least you don't have to do laundry this week". 

Yes, I didn't have to clean or do laundry. After the embarrassment wore off {it took a couple of days} we spent the weekend not doing chores and having fun as a family. 

{In case you were wondering, Mr. T is permanently hired. He did a fantastic job cleaning our house, and an amazing job removing the "evidence" from my laundry. I should ask him what his cleaning secret is but I'm too embarrassed.}

A Typical Day

Hey y'all! I'm guest posting my "Typical Day" over at The Houtz House Party. Go check out Kelly's site for what a typical day at the Big K house looks like.

Shake It Out

God's heart is always on trial. 

I was abiding in God through 1Kings when I stumbled across a troubling passage. It was the story of "The Old Prophet and the Man of God", where the man of God was told by the LORD to "not eat bread or drink water, or go back by the way he came". He was obedient until "the old prophet deceived him, and the man of God went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water." {1Kings 13:19} The old prophet deceived the man of God by lying and telling the man of God that an angel spoke to him and told him that he should go back with him and eat bread and drink water. {1Kings 13:18} When the man of God left the old prophet's home, he was killed by a lion. {1King 13:24} WHAT?? "He is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the LORD. The LORD has given him to the lion, and it has mauled him and killed him, according to the word of the LORD that He spoke to him." {1Kings 13: 26} 

This week is my one year anniversary of being a working momma. A somber anniversary. I have been reflecting on the past 365 days trying to understand what God has been up to in my working circumstances, my suffering. I realized during my reading of 1Kings 13 that my heart is bent on mistrusting God's heart. When God killed the man of God my heart screamed, "WHAT??". He was tricked, and the old prophet should have been killed instead. God's heart is immediately placed on trial. Is He good? Was killing the man of God good? A fog of doubt slowly rolled in.

I have been living in this fog for the past 365 days. What a gloomy way to live as a half hearted soul trying to see the larger story from a storm. Every day this week I've been asking myself, "why don't I trust God, why do I doubt, what do I believe about His heart, what is He up to in my suffering?". The truth is I question God's heart. Is God's heart really good? Does He really care about me?

Even writing my doubt brings me to an overflow of tears. Will God's heart always be on trial?

The other day, I was listening to a song {Shake It Out by Florence + the Machine} and God spoke to my heart through the chorus:

"Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah! Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah! And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back So shake him off, oh woah!"

It's the fog of doubt that lingers on my back. It's the ancient lie that keeps rolling back. Yes, God I hear You! Shake it out indeed! The lies, the doubts, the lawyer that lives in my flesh that eagerly wants to prosecute God's heart on trial...shake it out. God help me shake it out, shake it out for me! Help my heart believe You are good and that You infinitely love me!

I want to dance with God, but I can't if I'm living in a fog of doubt. So I will search for His heart, shake off the lingering fog, hold on to the Truth, and abide in Him. If this anniversary of suffering continues, I pray that I can say I danced well. I suffered well, trusting my LORD and believing that His heart is good, and that He deeply loves me. Ooh woaaah! 

{Budget Groceries}: meal planning

I have shared before about our student loan debt, and the chaos of balancing my job and motherhood. I cannot say thank you enough to my friends and family that have walked along with me through this struggle, and encouraged me to abide in God. I now understand why God warns us to not borrow money. Debt sucks. 

Bryan has noticed my stress with balancing my role as a working-momma and motherhood, and offered to hire a cleaning service to help me with my bi-weekly cleaning. This was a helpful offer, but it has also been humbling because I have to admit that I'm not perfect. I can't be a perfect employee, a perfect mother, and a perfect homemaker. I need help, or I need to live with the chaos.

I want our financial budget to stay the same when we hire the cleaning service in February, so I had to "find" money. This left me with two options: cancel our cable or lower our grocery budget. Bryan voted for lowering our grocery budget {thanks to ESPN}.

I normally shop at Krogers because it's 1 mile down the street in the neighborhood, but I probably make 2-3 stops a week because of the convince. We spend $120-$150 per week on groceries not counting what Bryan spends eating out at lunch {weekdays only}. I also never meal plan. I just walk into Krogers and randomly buy ingredients and hope I can make a meal out of it. I hate cooking, so I'm not an organized shopper.

To save money I needed to meal plan. 

 Krogers isn't extremely expensive, but I needed to grocery shop at a more cost-effective store. A couple of my friends, Whit and MT, suggested that I do my grocery shopping at ALDI to save some cash.

I made my grocery list based on my meal plan for 5 days {I make meals to feed 6 people, so that we will have leftovers on the weekend and for work lunches}, and then headed to ALDI. ALDI doesn't carry everything, so I had to make an extra stop at Walmart to pick up toiletries and cleaning products, but adding up my ALDI + Walmart receipts I saved $50 the first week and $65 the second week. Crazy!

I am sold on ALDI now! If I can save $120 per month on groceries, then I can afford to pay our cleaning service, yay!

Meal planning is the hardest part, so I'm going to document 4 weeks of meal planning and share my meal calendar with you. If you have an ALDI or Trader Joe's near you, I encourage you to check it out! {No, no one is paying me or giving me anything to say this...it's just my opinion}

Let me know if you have any money saving tips? Saving money makes me do a happy dance! 

{ALDI Shopping Tips}:
*Go without bringing the kiddos the first time {it'll be easier}
*bring 1 quarter for the grocery cart {they're locked, and you'll get your quarter back if you take the cart back}
*bring grocery bags {you'll have to bag everything}
*they only sell in-season produce
*check out ALDI's FAQ page

{a majority of the recipes on my meal plans can be found on my Pinterest. check back in February for a complete booklet of my monthly meal plans to download for FREE}

Learning to Trust

God's heart is good and He does good. I hope one day I will live from a heart that fully believes this truth.

The past couple of months have been hard. Really hard. I feel as though God has stopped listening to my prayers. My strength is fading after praying the same prayer for over 2 years now. There are no changes, but the same waiting. In this Christian life, we are promised suffering so I should not be surprised. What does surprise me, is how painful it hurts. My family is healthy, my child is alive, and I live in the suburbs, so I feel like a silly child voicing the pain. But this is my pain. My suffering. 

Since the moment we started trying to have a baby I prayed. "Lord, let me give birth to a healthy baby! Please allow me the privileged to be a mother, and help us financially so that I can be a stay-at-home-mom!" God chose to not answer the second part of the prayer, because He is good and He does good. {Lord, let my heart believe this TRUTH!}

God has been so gracious in providing a part-time job for me, so that I have the ability to contribute financially to our family and see my sweet boy during the day. The suffering is, I don't want to work. Bryan paid for 100% of his college, and I paid for 50% of my college...meaning we have student loans. We're in debt. Until we pay off our student loans, we cannot afford to lose my part-time income. 

My heart's desire is to have one job, not two. To be a mother {teacher, caregiver, wife, home organizer}. With two jobs {Mother + Director of Operations}, I feel like I can't do either well. The days that I feel like a successful mother {Caleb is learning, we've played together, dinner is made, the house is cleaned} are the days I'm late to work in the morning or missing a report. The days I'm a successful employee are the days that the house looks like a farm and Caleb is crying because dinner is an hour late {and it's pizza for the third time that week}. 

I live in constant chaos trying to balance work plus motherhood. I'm emotionally exhausted, and my heart grows tired of praying the same prayer. God rescue me from my self-inflicted financial mistakes! 

My heart cries a little more each time Caleb motions for his babysitter to pick him up instead of me. I'm thankful for MT loving my baby and caring for him while I work, but I long to be the only woman in my son's life.

I've held tight to God during the pain and the chaos, but I'm tired. I'm exhausted from the pain of unanswered prayers, and from the hot fire of refinement. I want my heart to believe the truth, and to treasure Christ, but the pain from sanctification born through suffering is a wearisome journey. 

I continue to seek His face through His Word, and when the flames feel as if the heat will overcome me, His Word gives me just enough water to survive.

"O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
    and you will not hear?" Habakkuk 1:2

"Look among the nations, and see;
    wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
    that you would not believe if told." Habakkuk 1:5

Yes, the righteous person {like Habakkuk} trusts completely in the Lord, pleading for mercy and waiting patiently on the Lord. May God change my heart!

just laugh

I can't bake a cake. Nope. I can't.

I tried to bake a double layer cake for my hubby's birthday this weekend, and it was a disaster. The cake began to fall apart, the icing was going everywhere, and I just wanted to cry. My sister was laughing so hard, and I was getting angrier by the minute. I wanted to throw the cake in the trash. I was so *mad!

My sister took over and finished up the frosting, and then my hubby came home. They talked me out of throwing away the cake {I wanted to trash the disaster and run to Cheesecake Factory for plan b}. They were laughing, but I was mad. Really mad. We ate the ugly, mess-of-a-cake and it was good. It tasted nothing like it looked thankfully!

Later this past weekend, my hubby asked me why I had gotten so angry about the cake. It wasn't until he asked me, when I realized how ridiculous I acted the night I tried to bake the cake. I always want things to be perfect. I want to be perfect. But, that's a ridiculous goal to have.

 I work part-time, and I feel like my house is never as clean as Susy Q's house. She's a stay-at-home mom who always has a clean house, the best food {she can bake a cake!}, the prettiest hair, and the most well behaved kids. Do you know Susy Q?

Well, I'm not Susy Q, and that's ok. I'm a working momma, who goes to work Monday-Friday from 8am-1pm, who sometimes has the messiest house on the block, doesn't wash her hair every day {thank goodness for dry-shampoo}, and orders a pizza for those days when work is stressing her out. 

I'm not perfect, and I'm trying to let go of that. It's ok. I made a really ugly, terribly messy, ridiculous looking cake. And we ate almost the whole thing. I just need to laugh about those days.

Meltdowns & Slow Cookers.

As you know, I went back to work {the office} part-time. The first week was going really well. I was cooking dinner every night {slow cooker style}, cleaning the house, working at the office in the morning, spending time with Caleb, making time for Mr. Big, and by Friday I thought that the transition going back to work was going really well. That didn't last long. By the end of Friday an employee quit {without notice}, and threw a big fat curve-ball in my plans. So, for the past 2 weeks I've been trying to keep up with all the extra work that I've had to cram into a half-day without quitting losing my sanity. It has been stressful, and the idea of quitting has come to mind every now and then {or every 30mins at work}.

The good news is that cooking dinner every night has been a breeze, and I'm so glad this chore hasn't been stressful during this time of chaos! I had received a slow cooker as a wedding gift, but in the past 3 years I've only used it 4-5 times. I didn't know what to cook in it, and I thought that you could only cook soup-type stuff in it...boy was I wrong! 

 {ignore my reflection}

As a new slow-cooker-user, I made some rules as I searched for recipes: 1. preparation needed to be less than 15min {who wants to spend a lot of time dumping the ingredients into the cooker when the point is to save time?}, 2. it had to use ingredients that I used frequently so food wouldn't spoil in the fridge {don't you hate buying food for one recipe and then they spoil in your fridge? so annoying}, 3. they had to sound yummy. Well, thankfully I found some good ideas from Pinterest and I'll share them with you, along with some notes:

1. Baked Potato from Stephanie {who knew you could cook a baked potato in a slow cooker!}

2. Sausage and Veggie Medley from Stephanie

3. Chicken Parmesan from Stephanie {I used half the amount of cheese to try to make it less fattening}

4. Mediterranean Chicken from Stephanie{do NOT add olives! the first time I cooked this Mr. Big said it smells like when he guts a hog--his hunting buddy came over the next day and I let him smell it and he agreed...it was good, but I had to take the olives out the next time!}

5. Salsa Chicken from Stephanie{to make a healthy version, substitute the chunky salsa with salsa verde}

6. BBQ Shrimp from Stephanie{southern goodness!}

7. Apricot Chicken from Stephanie{Mr. Big's favorite! So good!}

Stephanie's blog is great...she used her crockpot every day for a year and shared her recipes {365 crockpot recipes!}, you should check her out!

Now, that I've mastered a few slow cooker recipes I want to look for healthy recipes to cook in the slow cooker! Do you know any? 

Oh! I almost forgot! Did you know you can use SlowCooker liners?? Ha! I have seriously been missing out! You can put these awesome little liners in the SlowCooker and then throw them away after cooking! I don't think I'll be using my oven Monday-Friday any more!!!

Working Momma!

Every Momma is a working Momma. Having a child, raising a child, and being a wife is a job in itself! Can I get an Amen?! So as I was preparing to go back to work {as in "the office", not my other 24/7 j.o.b.} I was a little nervous with how I was going to handle being a wife, a mother, and employee. My first thought was "are there enough hours in a day to have 3 jobs?!?". I'm going back to "the office" part-time, so my goal is to structure each day so I have enough time to get work done at "the office", clean my house, spend time with Caleb, cook dinner, spend time with my hubby, and have some quiet time with God {reading my Bible}. Not. enough. hours. 

I turned to some other bloggers for help and inspiration to organize my day better, and I needed to start by organizing how/when I cleaned and what to cook for dinners {quick/easy/healthy meals}. Let me share what I found and how it's working for us.

Here's my colorful command center, DIY dry erase, "to-do" board:

I found this great free printable from my favorite organizing blogger, Jen at I Heart Organizing. I used some contact paper to laminate this printable and turn it into a DIY dry erase board. The main purpose of this message board is to have a weekly chore schedule. The hubby and I came up with a schedule to clean one room of the house a day so that we don't spend an entire day cleaning, and so our weekends are spent as a family having fun.

We also use the board to plan our meals for the week...

...to write "to-do's"...

...and leave a quick message for one another.

 Last week was my first week back at the office {8am-12pm}, and so far this little board is working for us and keeping us organized! I'll be back soon to share some fun and easy slow-cooker recipes I found {less time cooking=more time having fun with my little C-man}. And if you have any organizing tips please share them with me!!! I could use the help!!