www.sandraevertson.com
10 years ago
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Victoria
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I am not a coupon girl. I never use coupons. I never sign up for rebates. I never browse the internet looking for deals. I just tell myself that the extra money I pay is a convenience fee for not having to go through all that trouble to clip and organize slips of paper for products I don't use. I really don't get it when I watch Extreme Couponing and see all those people with huge stockpiles of food packed around their garages and closets. Why? The only way they would convince me it was worth it is if they just quit buying groceries for a year or so and lived off their stockpile. A year free of shopping would maybe intice me to get motivated or maybe they could use it to help the less fortunate. Some of those people have enough to feed a small 3rd world country and what do they really need with 50 bottles of deodorant anyway? I could see the point if it was being used to help others.
A few weeks ago I went to a MOPS meeting and the topic of the week was saving money. There was a coupon lady that was our special guest speaker and she began to tell us all of the ways she saves. I have to admit she made it sound good. she wasn't all crazy and extreme, she was just a mom trying to save some money for her family. I listened to her ideas and I found myself thinking it could work. Things always seem better when you are in a group and everyone is building each other up and telling each other how great this sounds. Peer pressure is a powerful thing. I found myself coming home and telling Jason that I was going to give it a go. I was going to buy the Sunday paper and start clipping and saving coupons. Jason wasn't quite as enthusiastic as the MOPS moms had been. He just sort of laughed it off, but I was determined. That first week I went to the gas station on my way home from church to get the paper only to find that it cost 1.75...wow! 2 dollars in quarters? I didn't have that many quarters so we went home paperless. The rest of the week I searched for places in our town that sold the Sun. paper all week, but evidently the people in my town are not so interested because no one had it. The second week I finally got my first paper and I sat on the bed and clipped for almost an hour... My goodness that was a long time, but I took my stack and put them in my folder. I was excited. Four more weeks have now passed and that first stack of coupons are still sitting in my folder. No more have been added. I never have quarters, I never remember to stop at the store, I don't have any interest. I looked at the websites and they may as well be written in Chinese.
My children still pick out all the coupons in the grocery aisles and Jason still just laughs as though to say I told you so. I still watch Extreme Couponing and can't help but think how ridiculous it is and how having a stockpile that is worth 20 grand isn't really worth anything if you don't really need or use it and you're still getting more every week.
If you are one of those coupon people that can save, clip and organize then that is great. I just don't think I am. I did the math and found that I feed our family of four, three meals a day, clean our house and do our laundry on about 100 dollars a week without any coupons. If I shop at Aldi, use my VIP card at Food Lion, and shop smartly. I can cut about 20 dollars off of that which would be 80 dollars for the week or about 12.00 a day. That works out to about 3 per person per day. that includes cleaning supplies and toiletries. I can't feed the dog for that ( there is no coupon for her special RX food) so I consider that money well spent. I think that I will just trust God to supply the need and right now He doesn't think I need 25 jars of spaghetti sauce. I am doing my part by saving trees, saving gas, growing a garden to provide. I am letting those with more time and knowledge handle the coupons and I can use the time I am saving to blog about my lack of couponing skills :)
A few weeks ago I went to a MOPS meeting and the topic of the week was saving money. There was a coupon lady that was our special guest speaker and she began to tell us all of the ways she saves. I have to admit she made it sound good. she wasn't all crazy and extreme, she was just a mom trying to save some money for her family. I listened to her ideas and I found myself thinking it could work. Things always seem better when you are in a group and everyone is building each other up and telling each other how great this sounds. Peer pressure is a powerful thing. I found myself coming home and telling Jason that I was going to give it a go. I was going to buy the Sunday paper and start clipping and saving coupons. Jason wasn't quite as enthusiastic as the MOPS moms had been. He just sort of laughed it off, but I was determined. That first week I went to the gas station on my way home from church to get the paper only to find that it cost 1.75...wow! 2 dollars in quarters? I didn't have that many quarters so we went home paperless. The rest of the week I searched for places in our town that sold the Sun. paper all week, but evidently the people in my town are not so interested because no one had it. The second week I finally got my first paper and I sat on the bed and clipped for almost an hour... My goodness that was a long time, but I took my stack and put them in my folder. I was excited. Four more weeks have now passed and that first stack of coupons are still sitting in my folder. No more have been added. I never have quarters, I never remember to stop at the store, I don't have any interest. I looked at the websites and they may as well be written in Chinese.
My children still pick out all the coupons in the grocery aisles and Jason still just laughs as though to say I told you so. I still watch Extreme Couponing and can't help but think how ridiculous it is and how having a stockpile that is worth 20 grand isn't really worth anything if you don't really need or use it and you're still getting more every week.
If you are one of those coupon people that can save, clip and organize then that is great. I just don't think I am. I did the math and found that I feed our family of four, three meals a day, clean our house and do our laundry on about 100 dollars a week without any coupons. If I shop at Aldi, use my VIP card at Food Lion, and shop smartly. I can cut about 20 dollars off of that which would be 80 dollars for the week or about 12.00 a day. That works out to about 3 per person per day. that includes cleaning supplies and toiletries. I can't feed the dog for that ( there is no coupon for her special RX food) so I consider that money well spent. I think that I will just trust God to supply the need and right now He doesn't think I need 25 jars of spaghetti sauce. I am doing my part by saving trees, saving gas, growing a garden to provide. I am letting those with more time and knowledge handle the coupons and I can use the time I am saving to blog about my lack of couponing skills :)
Posted by
Victoria
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I have heard the saying "opposites attract" all my life and in most cases it apears to be true. Most people would say that Jason and I are complete opposites. I prefer to think of us as balanced. We balance each other out. I am a worrier and Jason is laid back and stress free most of the time. I am always running late Jason is always on time. Jason is a spender and I am the saver. Jason is quiet and reserved while I am more outgoing and chatty. We balance each other, however there are quite a few things that we have in common, and unfortunately one of those things is the ability to procrastinate. We both tend to put things off until the last minute. Our philosophy tends to be " it will get done sometime." Why do today what you can put off til tomorrow? This was not so much of a problem for us until we had children. Emma is the stereotypical first born child. Very determined, very motivated, and very much a type A, get it done now, kind of a girl. The complete opposite of her parents much to her dismay. If she has a project for school or something she has to get finished, she expects us to work on it right NOW! She doesn't understand the " we can do it tomorrow" attitude and this has caused a stressful enviroment lately. The past few weeks I have noticed that I spend a lot of my day fussing at the girls about things that aren't getting done. Rooms that are messy from yesterday, homework that should have been done before bed time, toys that are not getting cleaned up, laundry that is still on the floor in bedrooms instead of the hamper. Emma gets frustrated because I put things off to the last minute and then fuss at her when she can't get it done quickly. I put them to bed at night and feel guilty that time we could have been enjoying each other was ruined by me having to fuss and complain to them about getting things done.
In an effort to make things run more smoothly I decided to come up with an afternoon schedule. I sat down with Jason and we came up with time slots for each thing to get done. Homework first thing, then chores, then playtime, clean-up before dinner, family time after dinner, I even scheduled in the snack times, and bedtime routine. I posted it on the fridge and explained it to the girls. Emma seemed excited, she was even giving me ideas about what we could put on the schedule. It has now been two weeks and there has not been a single argument. Emma is thriving on this new idea. It fits her personality perfectly. She has not argued about doing homework, we have not fussed with Lydia about clean-up, and we have had more time to enjoy each other and have family time. Emma told me the other morning that she thought the schedule was magic, because we have been getting everything done on time. I had to admit to her that the schedule was not magic it was just making Mommy and Daddy be more responsible with our time. She thought that was funny...maybe God has found a way to balance Jason and I out through our children. We definitely need all the help we can get :)
All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Proverbs 14:23
In an effort to make things run more smoothly I decided to come up with an afternoon schedule. I sat down with Jason and we came up with time slots for each thing to get done. Homework first thing, then chores, then playtime, clean-up before dinner, family time after dinner, I even scheduled in the snack times, and bedtime routine. I posted it on the fridge and explained it to the girls. Emma seemed excited, she was even giving me ideas about what we could put on the schedule. It has now been two weeks and there has not been a single argument. Emma is thriving on this new idea. It fits her personality perfectly. She has not argued about doing homework, we have not fussed with Lydia about clean-up, and we have had more time to enjoy each other and have family time. Emma told me the other morning that she thought the schedule was magic, because we have been getting everything done on time. I had to admit to her that the schedule was not magic it was just making Mommy and Daddy be more responsible with our time. She thought that was funny...maybe God has found a way to balance Jason and I out through our children. We definitely need all the help we can get :)
All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Proverbs 14:23
Posted by
Victoria
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Loving God,
Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and worship of the wise men.
Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.
May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake.
Amen.
-- Robert Louis Stevens
I read this the other day in a magazine that I get and it has stuck with me ever since. This is the prayer of my heart this Christmas. May God bless you and yours with a very Merry Christmas that I pray will be focused on Him!
Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and worship of the wise men.
Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.
May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake.
Amen.
-- Robert Louis Stevens
I read this the other day in a magazine that I get and it has stuck with me ever since. This is the prayer of my heart this Christmas. May God bless you and yours with a very Merry Christmas that I pray will be focused on Him!
Posted by
Victoria
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If you would have asked me two years ago what our holiday traditions were I would have had a hard time pinning anything down as a true tradition in our family. We rarely do things that I consider "tradition", some years we do one thing and some years we switch it around and do something else and we are always open to new ideas so traditions weren't something I really focused on, but my focus has begun to change. Last year was the first time that we were in a new place over the holidays and everything seemed new and exciting, but this year we have settled in and I have realized that the things I didn't think of as tradition really were and all of a sudden I miss them. I miss candle teas, love feasts, driving through the lights at Tanglewood and roasting marshmellows. I miss snacks with Santa, going to see Dickens Christmas Carol playing at the Stevens Center, Holiday Concert at the coliseum, and being a part of A Clemmons Christmas at Center Grove. It made me sad that this was the first year Emma didn't ask if daddy and her were going on a sleigh ride around Mocksville on Frank ( the resident horse). When she asked if we would watch the Macy's parade while I cooked Thanksgiving dinner I told her no, because now we have to travel to see family and they aren't coming to our house this year. She seemed disappointed and I realized that these things, although not set in stone, and not neccesarily yearly events, had come to represent the holidays to us. I realized that in a couple more years my children won't remember these things and that it is our responsibility ( Jason and I ) to not wallow in what we miss and be sad about what used to be but get out there and find new traditions to enjoy.
One new thing we started last year was the celebration of Advent which was a big hit in our house. The children still talk about it and had we not come here and become a part of Mt. Vernon we may never have found this wonderful new tradition that truly represents the meaning of Christmas. We will continue the tradition of cutting our own tree and we are going to A Clemmons Christmas in a couple of weeks because I don't want Emma & Lydia to forget this wonderful depiction of Christ's birth, life, death and ressurection, but I also know that we have to find things here in this new place and chapter of our life so that one day when Emma and Lydia are asked the question "what are your traditions?" they will have an answer! and so begins the search of all things Christmas that will become the tradtions that we can pass down to the next generation.... I am open to suggestions! :o)
It comes every year and will go on forever. And along with Christmas belong the keepsakes and the customs. Those humble, everyday things a mother clings to, and ponders, like Mary in the secret spaces of her heart. -- Marjorie Holmes
One new thing we started last year was the celebration of Advent which was a big hit in our house. The children still talk about it and had we not come here and become a part of Mt. Vernon we may never have found this wonderful new tradition that truly represents the meaning of Christmas. We will continue the tradition of cutting our own tree and we are going to A Clemmons Christmas in a couple of weeks because I don't want Emma & Lydia to forget this wonderful depiction of Christ's birth, life, death and ressurection, but I also know that we have to find things here in this new place and chapter of our life so that one day when Emma and Lydia are asked the question "what are your traditions?" they will have an answer! and so begins the search of all things Christmas that will become the tradtions that we can pass down to the next generation.... I am open to suggestions! :o)
It comes every year and will go on forever. And along with Christmas belong the keepsakes and the customs. Those humble, everyday things a mother clings to, and ponders, like Mary in the secret spaces of her heart. -- Marjorie Holmes
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Victoria
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WOW! I just looked at my blog for no real reason except boredom, and realized that I have not posted anything since the spring. That is somewhat sad so I decided that a goal of mine is to get back on the blogging bandwagon. I really do enjoy blogging because I have always enjoyed journaling and writing, not writing in the deep, creative, artsy way, but more in the keeping a daily journal or diary kind of way. When I was a teenager I tried to keep a diary but most of the time ended up venting about parent issues, friend drama and teenage useless information that later would end up in the trash because face it, when you're a teenager, moods and ideas change rapidly and what seemed like a good idea one minute usually ended up sounding ridiculous when looked back on later. While I was pregnant I tried journaling in a pregnancy calendar about all the many mood changes, body changes, cute baby ideas, names and nursery decor. I did keep those calendars although when I look back at them I think about all of the crazy things you can come up with when you are on bedrest! ( " I was thinking about naming her that?") I also like to record things in scrapbooks except sometimes I tend to record how I wanted the event to be instead of how it really was. I write things like "Here we are picking out our pumpkin! Emma and Lydia had a great time looking through all of them to find just the right one!" instead of " Here are the girls finally getting a pumpkin after fighting for an hour over who was going to get the one they wanted". I keep notes on calendars, notebooks and scrap paper so that I can remember all the cute things the girl's say or do and one day they can look back on these years and see what all we did and how much fun they had even though they won't remember most of it. When I thought about starting a blog it seemed like a great way to record thoughts, feelings and cute stories of the girls. It would be a way for family to keep up with things and for me to have some peaceful time reflecting on my own thoughts and feelings; however, as with most things I take on, I started out with vigor, blogging every couple of days and keeping up with what I wanted to write about next but somewhere along the way, as with most things I start, the newness wore off and life took over. I have been so busy with school, church activities, Daisys, preschool, Lydia, MOPS, etc., ect. that my quiet time has become a few quick minutes of catching up on Bible study homework, updating my status on Facebook and catching up on all that housework I don't do when Lydia is awake. I have decided that it is time for me get back to finding myself again in the midst of this chaos I call "Life down the rabbit hole" and get back to focusing on the things that make me happy and keep me sane ( if it isn't already to late!) So here I go again...
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Victoria
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I can't believe the time has come for the clocks to turn ahead, the flowers to bloom, the birds to sing and the Easter Bunny to hop on over to our house and leave eggs and candy ( whose idea was that anyway?). Spring is not usually my favorite season. I am a fall and winter girl. I love fall colors and cool days. I look forward to pumpkins and long sleeves and the Dixie Classic Fair. I love snow! and pray every year for enough of it for my children to play in. I love to be snowed in and drinking hot chocolate in front of the fire. This year I learned to be careful what you pray for because winter hit like a cinder block to the head and didn't let up until about 3 weeks ago. We had more snow than I can remember in a long time and I knew it was bad when Emma, who took great joy in the first, second, and third snowfall, began to complain about the snow and started to pray for God to let it go away. This year Spring is the season of joy for us. I have taken a new appreciation in the songs of birds, the blooming of daffodils, the planting of my garden. I am so happy that I live in a state that has four distinct seasons. The older I get the more I appreciate each one for what it is and enjoy all the changes with my family.
It is hard to believe that at this time last year we were preparing our house to go on the market. We were painting, remodeling, boxing- up and throwing out. I wasn't really looking forward to moving. I had a lot of mixed feelings about packing up the only home my girl's had known and, as an only child, I had a lot of reservations about leaving my family. The girl's were stressed and full of questions. Jason wasn't sure he wanted to take his family away from all of our family and friends. I prayed and prayed and prayed some more. God really began to lay on my heart that there are lost, hurting people everywhere and that maybe getting out of my comfort zone would open up some new opportunities to not just talk about serving him but actually do it! It was a very stressful time for our whole family and yet it is so hard to believe that it has been almost a year since Jason and I made the decision that we would never know what God may have planned for us if we never put our trust in him and let him work it out. I truly believe God has led us to this place. I believe he has a plan for us here although I don't know exactly what that plan is right now. I pray everyday that he will open up opportunities for serving him here in this place. I still miss a lot of things from home. Family, friends, shopping, church, picnics at Tanglewood, The Hero House, Hanes Mall, Ketchie Creek, did I mention shopping..... oh enough already! I also have a lot of new things that I love about here... the beauty of the mountains, gorgeous sunsets, a nice new house that doesn't need a ton of work, a wonderful neighborhood with a lot of nice people, a great church here that has welcomed us and made us feel at home, a great school for Emma, etc.
I know that there is a purpose God has for us. Pray that God will show us where we can be of service to him here in Lenoir. In this season of new beginnings I am looking forward to what God has planned for us as we seek to serve him.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, " plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
It is hard to believe that at this time last year we were preparing our house to go on the market. We were painting, remodeling, boxing- up and throwing out. I wasn't really looking forward to moving. I had a lot of mixed feelings about packing up the only home my girl's had known and, as an only child, I had a lot of reservations about leaving my family. The girl's were stressed and full of questions. Jason wasn't sure he wanted to take his family away from all of our family and friends. I prayed and prayed and prayed some more. God really began to lay on my heart that there are lost, hurting people everywhere and that maybe getting out of my comfort zone would open up some new opportunities to not just talk about serving him but actually do it! It was a very stressful time for our whole family and yet it is so hard to believe that it has been almost a year since Jason and I made the decision that we would never know what God may have planned for us if we never put our trust in him and let him work it out. I truly believe God has led us to this place. I believe he has a plan for us here although I don't know exactly what that plan is right now. I pray everyday that he will open up opportunities for serving him here in this place. I still miss a lot of things from home. Family, friends, shopping, church, picnics at Tanglewood, The Hero House, Hanes Mall, Ketchie Creek, did I mention shopping..... oh enough already! I also have a lot of new things that I love about here... the beauty of the mountains, gorgeous sunsets, a nice new house that doesn't need a ton of work, a wonderful neighborhood with a lot of nice people, a great church here that has welcomed us and made us feel at home, a great school for Emma, etc.
I know that there is a purpose God has for us. Pray that God will show us where we can be of service to him here in Lenoir. In this season of new beginnings I am looking forward to what God has planned for us as we seek to serve him.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, " plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
Posted by
Victoria
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Is it time already? I can't believe that my littlest child, the baby, is now 3 years old. The time when all good parents send their children off to preschool. The place where they will learn the lessons they need to survive in the world of Elementary school. Sharing toys, taking turns, how to line up, and with the way schools are these days, they also have to get a head start on numbers, letters, reading, writing, and the list goes on and on. At least this is what I believed two and a half years ago when Emma was turning 3. I didn't know a single person whose children weren't in some sort of preschool or daycare setting. Clemmons, Advance, Lewisville and Mocksville were full of preschools. Just about every church had one. There were at least 10 within a 15 minute drive of my house. I never remember even thinking about options with Emma. It was just assumed that when she turned three she would head off to preschool. I prepared her for it, we talked about it, and I even took her to spend the day at one when she was two so she would know what to expect. She loved it and anxiously looked forward to the day she would get a little backpack with her name stitched on it ( a promise from Nana) and head out the door and into the world of education and play. She is my school- loving, bookworm, artistic, old soul so we plunged in and never looked back. We were blessed to find Bethlehem Angels Preschool at Bethlehem Methodist Church in Advance. She had wonderful, loving teachers, made some adorable friendships, and loved every minute spent singing, writing, visiting farm animals, playing hand bells, and making every sort of craft you can imagine, which are all neatly stored in a bin, even though I always said I wouldn't be one of those sentimental mothers that kept every scribbled drawing. Oh well! we learn to eat a lot of words after we join the ranks of motherhood. That was three years ago and that was a different child and a different enviroment which brings me to the predicament.
Lydia, my little ball of energy and curiosity and fiery red-headed temperment, is now three and she is everything her sister is not. Lydia isn't really interested in school. She hates to sit still and she is about as artistic as her father (which would be zero artistry skills). We now live in a different town, which from what I can tell, isn't really as big on the preschool concept. I can only find about three different ones when I google preschool. Only one shows up in the phone book and although there is a church on every corner only a couple of them advertise any kind of preschool or mother's morning out. The people I have met at the library or the local park all look at me strangely when I mention preschool and most of them think it isn't really neccessary. They tend to use the school run preschools, if any at all, such as Head Start or More at Four. I don't need full day preschool so those aren't really options for us. I also feel differently with Lydia being the youngest. I am a stay at home mother and if both my children are in school then what exactly am I home doing? I am never going to have another little baby to take care of so part of me is in no hurry to push Lydia out into the world. Lydia is also very smart, and like her sister she picks up on learning very quickly. She has not only had a mommy and daddy teaching her, singing to her and reading to her, but she also has the benefit of an older sister doing those things too. I worry about how bored she will be in "real" school if she spends two years in preschool. Emma has struggled with boredom all year. She had already learned most of things that she is now being taught in Kindergarten and while she can sit and read a book or color while the others are finishing work, Lydia will more than likely be spending her free time in the principal's office if boredom sets in. I keep going back and forth and back and forth but I know whatever descision is made, I am still going to dread the day when my littlest one puts on her backpack and heads out into the world. A bridge in time will be crossed and there will be no turning back. I thank God for each moment He has blessed me with to love on them and watch them grow and I pray that He continues to guide us through the next phase of life with or without a preschool diploma.
" Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward." Psalm 127:3
Lydia, my little ball of energy and curiosity and fiery red-headed temperment, is now three and she is everything her sister is not. Lydia isn't really interested in school. She hates to sit still and she is about as artistic as her father (which would be zero artistry skills). We now live in a different town, which from what I can tell, isn't really as big on the preschool concept. I can only find about three different ones when I google preschool. Only one shows up in the phone book and although there is a church on every corner only a couple of them advertise any kind of preschool or mother's morning out. The people I have met at the library or the local park all look at me strangely when I mention preschool and most of them think it isn't really neccessary. They tend to use the school run preschools, if any at all, such as Head Start or More at Four. I don't need full day preschool so those aren't really options for us. I also feel differently with Lydia being the youngest. I am a stay at home mother and if both my children are in school then what exactly am I home doing? I am never going to have another little baby to take care of so part of me is in no hurry to push Lydia out into the world. Lydia is also very smart, and like her sister she picks up on learning very quickly. She has not only had a mommy and daddy teaching her, singing to her and reading to her, but she also has the benefit of an older sister doing those things too. I worry about how bored she will be in "real" school if she spends two years in preschool. Emma has struggled with boredom all year. She had already learned most of things that she is now being taught in Kindergarten and while she can sit and read a book or color while the others are finishing work, Lydia will more than likely be spending her free time in the principal's office if boredom sets in. I keep going back and forth and back and forth but I know whatever descision is made, I am still going to dread the day when my littlest one puts on her backpack and heads out into the world. A bridge in time will be crossed and there will be no turning back. I thank God for each moment He has blessed me with to love on them and watch them grow and I pray that He continues to guide us through the next phase of life with or without a preschool diploma.
" Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward." Psalm 127:3
