Simplifying My Life

We kept our Christmas decorations simple this year. Some may not think it is minimalist enough, but that's OK! To me this is a big step in minimizing our stuff. Since living together, my husband and I usually put our tree up on Christmas Eve because we are slackers...and because trees are cheaper the day before Christmas. Then we put the decorations away, but we do it weeks later. Then after nagging over and over again about how we need to take the tree down, my husband finally gets rid of it by February. Yeah we're those people. This year with trying to get out of debt, we agreed that we would not buy a tree this year. We plan on investing in a fake one next Christmas. This year we put on decorations on the faux fireplace my husband made and put up a miniature fake tree that my parents had given my oldest years ago. Here's what our decorations looked like this year: My baby put my Breaking Bad and Batman figures in the tree we put up for her and her sister....

For three years in a row, my aunt has had her neighbors over to join us for Thanksgiving. They were a very cool older couple. Upon meeting them they wanted to talk tattoos and I complimented their steampunk hats. They described their home and all the art they had inside. It sounded beautiful! Last year we got to visit their home for the first time. Art was displayed on all of the walls. There was a piano that was painted by high school students; I can’t recall how it looked, only that I was very impressed. Their living room was one that seemed like it was for display only. Their bathroom had custom bowl sinks with carp fish designs. I’m not giving it justice by leaving out other details, but I remember thinking that I wanted to redesign our bathroom ASAP. Ours was no longer good enough! We went to their pool table room that had a waterfall type sink in it next to their bathroom. Every room left our jaws dropped! My then 12 year old was so impressed she wanted to go home and clea...

Sometimes it seems like all the good things in life happen to everyone else but you. I know sometimes I think, why can’t this great stuff be happening to me? It’s good to remind yourself of all the good things that have happened to you. Who knows, at one point others were probably envious of you! You also have to believe that good things are coming your way. Focus on the small victories of each day. Today’s small victory for me was that I went to the store to get coffee creamer and I was the only customer in the whole store and I got front row parking! It may not be the same as a huge life altering event, but it’s a start in focusing on the good stuff!

Firstly, I suggest not doing it haha! I’ve heard Dave Ramsey talk on the matter and he says that broke people should NOT take vacations . Well we are messing up on this one 😭 (sorry Dave😩) Months ago before we started our journey to become debt free, my husband was partaking in trying to keep up with the Joneses. Two of his best friends had planned to take their families to Disney World so he wanted to do the same. His heart was in the right place, but there was no way we could afford that vacation. We would HAVE to use credit cards. After we signed up for Financial Peace Universiry, we decided to immediately cancel our trip. We were unable to get a refund on our flight but received credit that we had to use by March or that money would be lost. We were hoping to use a our plane credit for spring break, but when we double checked two months ago, we found they would expire before then. We decided we would take a small trip during winter break so that money wouldn’t go to waste (a...

Trying to be proactive of what comes into our home, I have been a little worried by all the gifts the kids will get this year. My mother in law just decided that kids should be the only ones who get gifts this year. My grandma's side decided this last year as well. I'm a bit relieved! I would've liked to have suggested that, but I was afraid that no one would have agreed. 😬 I'm still hoping the kids don't get too much this year, but at least we won't have our gifts to worry about. I'd rather hang out with everyone that day. I'm looking forward to spending time with my kids the most since I'll be off for break. I savor every second when I'm off. That's what's most important to  me 💕

My uncle told me this at Thanksgiving this year. He was talking about my one year old's jacket. He mentioned it more than once that I should be keeping her old clothes. It certainly causes an internal struggle as I'm on a journey to NOT keep everything. To keep or not to keep? That is the question...