The Boys Learn to Budget

One of the Webelos badge requirements is for the boys to make a 30 day budget and then actually track expenses for 7 days.  I haven't been good about allowances lately (mostly because they haven't been good about chores lately.)   I decided our vacation to Yellowstone was a perfect opportunity to give them some money and let them budget it.

I gave them 3 envelopes.  One with $50 cash for food, one with $10 for wetsuit, and one with $20 for spending money.  I told them that there would be 9 meals that we would eat out and they would have to decide how much to spend at each meal.  They asked if they could keep whatever money was leftover in their envelopes.  I agreed.

First lunch out was at BYU Idaho dining hall.  Nathan decided to pack celery and grapes that were leftover from the car ride.  Zach shared some Chinese food with Erin so he only spent about $3.  That night we ate dinner back on campus and we got an entire pizza for $5. The boys each contributed $1. That night for FHE, we went to see a movie.  The boys didn't want to go because they knew they would have to pay.  But we didn't give them a choice.  They were really excited to find out it was dollar night for kids.  So they splurged and got a kids treat pack for $3.25 each.

The next day we went White Water Rafting.  The wetsuits were required because of the water and air temperature that day and so the company didn't charge us for the wetsuits.  The boys were mad when I took the $10 back from their budget.  That evening we went to dinner at a "sit down restaurant."  The kid meals were $5 each.  They weren't happy about it but they had no other choice since we didn't have food in the car for them to eat.  They each ordered one.  The bad news came when I told them they each owed the server a $1 tip.  They tried every which way to get out of it.  We had agreed before dinner to go out for ice cream after dinner.  The boys usually try to get us to buy Dairy Queen for them.  But since they were paying, they asked if we could get $1 cones at McDonalds instead.  They changed their minds and didn't want any ice cream after paying the mandatory tip.  We were all laughing.  But Mario and I didn't budge.  We didn't pay for anything except the white water rafting and an ice cream sandwich at Yellowstone that they didn't ask for but I decided to give them one as a treat.

The week continued with the boys being very frugal.  Nathan ate more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches than I can count.  Zachary ate as cheaply as possible wherever we went.  We went back to the same "sit down restaurant" on the way home and the boys decided to split a meal this time so they could split the tip too.  They got a lot of questions from different people when they were getting money out of their envelopes.  We would tell people they were on a budget.  The boys hated it, but everyone thought it was a great idea.   By the end of the week, Nate had only spent $21 of his $70.  Zach had only spent $26 of $70.  They wouldn't even spend $2.25 on hot chocolate on a cold rainy morning.

Mario and I learned a valuable lesson from this experience.  Our children have no issues spending our money and they ask for everything!  But when we give them money and tell them we aren't giving them anymore when it runs out, they are very frugal.  It was an enjoyable week of not having them ask me for anything and everything in sight.  They are still bitter that I took the wetsuit money back.

Zach came home and immediately used his money to buy a new DS game.  Nate is saving his for now. I told Mario that maybe we should give Eric a budget for his senior year including college application fees, Senior pics, prom, homecoming,  class trip etc and let him decide how much he wants to spend on each. Maybe he would be more frugal too.  He's already pretty good at budgeting but I bet he could improve too.

The twins are glad to be back home and they are happy that when we go out to lunch or dinner, they aren't expected to pull out their cash envelopes anymore.  But it worked so well, I'm tempted to do it all the time.

Time Has Slowed

Mario will be home next Saturday. The first 8 1/2 weeks flew by. I mean really flew by. They flew by so fast that sometimes I lost total track of time. I couldn't tell you if an event happened last week or last month. But then last week, time seemed to stop. Now everyday feels like a week. My kids barely have time to hang out with me anymore. Eric is always at work or with friends/girlfriend. Erin's always with friends or doing church activities and the boys always want to play with our new neighbor, Alex.

So I find myself at home by myself a lot. I remember the days that I couldn't wait to have an hour by myself. Now I'm starting to miss the kids. I think I'm going to have terrible empty nest syndrome in a few years.

Last week, I had no kids at home to take to the pool. So I went to my friend Melody's pool all by my myself so I could have adult conversation. The other moms were shocked I'd choose to come hang out. They only go to pool to get their small kids out of the house. I remember those days.

Good thing I've started a hobby and I need to get back to reading more. I've barely picked up my Kindle since I started quilting.

Hooray for Mario coming home soon. Hopefully I can find things to do to distract myself so the days will go a little faster. I think I'll do a lot of classes at the Y, take the boys for hikes, and spend lots of time at the pool this week.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Erin's 9th Grade Artwork

I remember when Erin was in kindergarten, we had a neighbor that was an artist. She also had a son in Erin's class. Carrie studied each students' artwork during open house and then told me that Erin was the only one in the class that had talent. I thought that was funny since Erin was only 5. But if it's true, then I guess she must get it from Mario because I only draw stick figures and connecting hearts when I doodle. I really want to know how she got that bridge to look so three dimensional in the second picture. I know nothing about art, can you tell?!

Erin won't admit she's a good artist and she'd be upset to know I put these on my blog. So Shhhh!

40+ Freezer to Crockpot Meals

I needed to work on food storage this week. I try to keep a months worth of meals on hand in case for some crazy reason we can't leave our home to go to the grocery store. I've been totally slacking lately. So I made the kids take inventory and figure out what we need. In the process, I decided to look up some recipes for some freezer meals. I'm not a fan of casseroles except for lasagna so I don't usually like the recipes online. But I found one website for 40 meals in 4 hours. You put all the ingredients into a Ziploc bags and then freeze them and when ready plop them into the crockpot. I looked through the ingredient list since I'm a picky eater and there was only one ingredient out of all the meals that I don't like-black beans. Crazy, I know since I'm married to a Cuban.

The twins suffered through a Sam's Club visit and a very long commissary run to buy all the ingredients. Then the boys went off to the movie with friends. That left Eric and Erin and a very unlucky friend, that was at my house at the wrong time, to help me with putting together these 40 meals. I thought maybe we'd take about an hour and a half since there were 4 of us but no, 2.5-3 hours to assemble them all. I had some grumpy teens by the end. But Erin had major incentive to keep going. She wanted to get to the pool and she needed me to drive her.

Now my freezer is full and I can enjoy the pool all summer long at my friend's house while dinner is home cooking in the crockpot. I even had Eric help me put together 4 lasagnas today to add to our meals. He asked me if I planned to leave for a very long trip. He couldn't figure out why I would do something like this when I never have in the past.

I'm exhausted now because we went on a ward campout last night too. I made Eric and Erin go too which they weren't happy about either. But they survived.

It feels good to get a lot of work done. Maybe I could get a lot of work done everyday if I didn't quilt. Now I just need to prepare nursery and temple prep lessons for tomorrow and get my house clean before temple prep tomorrow night. But first, it's time for a much needed NAP.

Memorial Day Weekend

What a great weekend!  Mario was able to come home for three and a half days.  We crammed as much as we could in those days.  We caught up on movies including "God's Not Dead' movie still at the theaters.  Mario and I really enjoyed it.  We attended baptisms, taught two Temple prep classes with 4 teenagers preparing to leave on missions in the fall and one new convert, we played lots of Settlers with the boys, took a spinning class with Erin, and took Sophie for walks at the lake. Eric got to stand in his first Priesthood circle while his friend Gage was ordained to be a Priest.  I had no idea that he could do that but his leaders assured me that he could participate in the ordaining of the young men.  Very cool!  

I miss having Mario home everyday.  But I guess the time apart helps us not take each other for granted. Less than 3 weeks and Mario will be home for good (or until the AF sends him somewhere else.) Hopefully not for a long time.  Now we will spend the next year preparing for a move next summer.  I love the excitement of moving.  But it is going to be an extremely difficult year for me as I prepare to say goodbye to my firstborn child as he leaves for college or a mission.  I don't even want to think about it or I will cry.

Moving on to happy thoughts...I have a whole year left to hang with one of my favorite people.  Eric is an amazing young man and I love him dearly.  All I have to say is thank goodness he and Erin aren't twins, and I don't have to say goodbye to them both at the same time. 

Family Picture

Tornado

Last night, Eric left to go attend graduation for the Senior class.  I warned him that I thought the weather may get bad.  He thought about not going but Caitlin really wanted to go so he went anyway despite the weather warnings. Unfortunately graduation was downtown Omaha so about 25 minutes from home.  I made a nice dinner for me and the other kids and then I sat down to play Settlers with the boys.  A few minutes after starting the game, my neighbor, Steve, who has never once knocked on my door came over.  I answered the door and he asked, "You are watching the tv, right?"  and I quickly told him no that I was playing a game with my kids.  He told me to turn on the tv.  I must have looked puzzled and he said, there are tornados in Lincoln and they are headed our way.  He quickly left to go warn the other neighbors.

I didn't know what to do about Eric.  Here he was, almost a half hour away from home.  Do I text him and tell him to hurry home or do I leave him in Omaha to wait out the storm which was predicted to take hours?  I asked Mario and he thought Eric might be safer at the Civic Center where graduation was taking place. But I didn't want my child away from me during this time.  I texted Eric and told him about the storm. He didn't know what to do.  I didn't know what to tell him.  I started clearing my yard so there wouldn't be flying objects to hit my windows.  I asked my neighbor, who is always on her front porch, for advice on what to do about Eric.  She said, if it were her son, she would want him home.  So I ran back inside and saw that the news said the storm was about 45 minutes out from hitting us.  I quickly texted Eric and told him to leave NOW.  So he and Caitlin got up and left and headed home.  I asked Caitlin to text me every few minutes to let me know they were ok.  After a few minutes, I texted them and told them that there were no tornado warnings at this point, so they were ok.  As soon as I said that, the tornado sirens went off.  The twins screamed for me and Erin to get to the basement.  My heart sank, I had put Eric and Caitlin in danger telling them to get home now.   Fortunately Eric and Caitlin got back to her house within a couple minutes of the siren going off.  Caitlin called and asked if Eric should stay at her house or come home.  I looked at the news and they weren't reporting anything yet in our area so I made the decision to have Eric come home.  It was tough, but at a time like this, I wanted my children all gathered together with me.  I guess I knew that he would be ok driving home because now as I think about it, it was probably crazy having him leave her house to come home.

Fortunately the sirens went off pretty quickly and I waited in the garage for Eric to pull up.  As soon as I saw him turn on our street, I cried.  I knew he was safe.  What a relief!

We all huddled in the basement that had been stocked by the twins with all the essentials for a tornado. They brought blankets, pillows, video games, toilet paper, flashlights, bandaids, lotion, water bottles, cell phones, Sophie, and every stuffed animal  they own.  What touched me most, was they remembered to bring their scriptures.  As soon as we all gathered, the twins suggested we say a prayer.  I think it was Nathan that suggested we read our scriptures (I think that may have been first time EVER that Nathan was the one asking to read scriptures.)  We did immediately.

Eric and Erin each brought down their kindles and phones.  You can see what earthly possessions they value most.  I looked around to see what to bring down.  I decided on the gifts that Mario had given me for Mother's Day (a framed picture of the Washington DC Temple with a tulip garden in front and a book by Elder Holland) and my broken wedding ring.   I had passed by my Bernina and thought about bringing it.  But figured it could be replaced.  I was so happy to have all four of my children with me and that was what was most important.  I wish Mario was there with us too, but I knew he was safe in Virginia.  The thought did occur to me what would happen to him, if he lost all 5 of us to a tornado.  To be honest, I don't even want to think about it.

While Eric and Erin read, the boys and I played games and worked on scouting stuff.  Then Erin declared that she was going up to take a shower.  I looked at the news and it looked like we were out of the danger zone.  The worst of the storm went north of us.  So Eric and Erin said goodnight, they were going to bed up in their rooms.  There was no way I was going to convince the boys to go sleep upstairs, so I slept in the basement with them.

It is interesting to see how we all react in an emergency situation and what we value most.  I love my family and I am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ that allows us to be an eternal family and for the peace that brings.