So much for the NO SPEND MARCH

I guess this was a bad time of the year to try to not spend. After all, in just a few weeks we have a lot of celebrating to do:

• April 1st is my 9th anniversary with my wonderful husband Craig
• April 3rd is Jacob's 3rd birthday
• April 7th is Ryan's 6th birthday (and he shares a birthday with my Grandpa - who will be 79!)
• April 12th is Easter
• May 10th is Mother's Day
• May 20th is Madeline's 8th birthday

Scattered in there we also have several other family birthdays! It's a busy time of the year for us, but I love it. I know it's truly spring when we start planning the boys' birthdays!

This weekend we made a trip to Sam's Club for some needed grocery items. We also stopped at the party supply store to see if they had any Indiana Jones party supplies. They did not, so I had to order them this morning. The boys have a joint party with our family and friends in April and Maddie has one in May. This year, both Maddie and Ryan were interested in celebrating their birthdays at Bounce U with some friends, so we booked a joint party for them there later in April. Because I spend my days with a houseful of kids (doing childcare) the idea of hosting a home birthday party for my kids friends is enough to send me to the looney bin! So Bounce U it is (and, since Maddie and Ryan are sharing the party, it's actually quite affordable!).

But I just spent $100 on party goods! Yikes! This was a total for 3 different parties, so it isn't as bad as it seems. With my possible surgery looming in the near future, I feel better knowing that I have the party stuff under control and we'll be ready to go (especially if I am recovering from a surgery). The boys are having Indiana Jones and Maddie chose a horse pattern that we actually have not had in previous years!

Now I just need to work on the menus for the parties!

Friday Night Fun?

Well, I am not sure this is everyone's idea of Friday Night Fun, but I started my weekend with a night of cleaning. :) Craig kept an eye on Jacob while Maddie and Ryan had a playdate with our neighbor, so I was free to clean.

This week I focused on the Family Room. Great name - "Family Room." We do spend a considerable amount of time in there as a family. That means we also leave a considerable mess in there as a family.

But I put everything in its home, dusted and vacuumed until the room looked nice and clean.

It's a nice-sized room (about 12' x 19') and we use it for everything! I love that it's right next to the kitchen, so the kids can play, read or watch tv while I prep our meals or clean up after we have eaten. We also have my piano in this room (oh how I miss playing! One of these days I need to find the time!).

You can see two doors in one photo - those lead to the laundry room and a small powder room. Everything is so close to the Family Room!

We decorated this room about 3.5 years ago, and I do like it, but I think I am almost ready for a change. I love that this room gets tons of light during the day, and that we were able to use a dark color on the walls. However, I am thinking of changing this room a bit (again, when I find the time).

As you get to see more of my home, you'll quickly discover that I don't have a very defined style. Our house is a mish-mash of hand-me-downs, sale items and more. One thing that I would love to do is finally put some thought into my decorating.

My poor kitchen table

We recently (in the past 6 months) bought a new kitchen table. Two reasons. First - Jacob outgrew his highchair and we needed seating for 5 at our kitchen table. Second - the 4-year-old table was losing its finish and looked all cracked and yucky.

We have a tiny space in the kitchen for a table, so we didn't have many choices (tiny space + seating for 5 = almost no selection). We found a set that works for us at Ashley Furniture and have been happy with it thus far.

But today, I made a quick decision to use paper plates (which I almost never do) to feed the kids chicken nuggets for lunch. They really weren't super hot, but must have been hot enough because when I cleared the table I found white spots all over the table where ever a chicken nugget had been!

It looked like bleached spots all over the table! I cried. And then I called my husband and cried to him. And he did a quick internet search and told me to rub Vasoline on the spots.

It's working! At this point, the vasoline has been on for 2 hours and the bleach-white spots now look like dull water stains. My table is still slightly marred, but it's not a glaring problem now.

Hope this tip can help someone else too!

Update on me

On the suggestion of a doctor-friend of mine, I called a different surgical practice this afternoon. This new practice was able to get me a consult appointment in two weeks (rather than the 2 months the other practice wanted me to wait). So it looks like surgery is a good possibility in my near future.

I am still quite scared about it, but would like to just get it done and over with at this point.

Someone call the Spending Police!

I said this was a "No Spend March" - that I would really REALLY try to not to buy anything we didn't need.

I am not sure my purchase tonight qualifies as a "need" but I think it was okay.

My daughter is going to be attending a Father-Daughter dance through Girl Scouts. The dance is in mid-April, but with a slew of early April birthdays and anniversaries AND Easter, I want to be prepared now while I have the time.

Madeline does not wear dresses. She pretty much only wears jeans, which is normally fine. We discussed that she would need to wear something appropriate for the dance, and she agreed to go shopping with me to try to find something.

Kohl's was offering an extra 20% off, and she actually agreed to buy a dress! I am not thrilled with the choice - the pea green color is just not the prettiest for her, but I wasn't about to argue! I am pleased that she came home with something!

Honestly, she has no dresses (or even a skirt) in her closet, so I guess this does sort of fall into a "need" for us. :)

Livin' with a Hernia

Okay - so my kids love Weird Al songs - and they have come to know about hernias through his video Livin' with a Hernia.

My son thinks it's so funny that I have a hernia now. I am not nearly as amused!

My family doctor confirmed that I do indeed have a hernia (not the world's ugliest belly button, as I previously thought!). I have an appointment with a surgeon at the end of April. I thought I would get an appointment sooner - nearly everyone I talked to said they had appointments within days of diagnosis. So I am looking for another practice to call (in addition to the one I was referred to by my doc).

I am just glad that I have no pain and it's a small hernia. I am hoping that I can now schedule a surgery AFTER our DisneyWorld trip in June.

"No Spend" March

I am trying something new this month - I am going "No Spend" for March. My plan is to try to not buying anything we don't need. I will continue to do my regular grocery shopping and allow us to eat out once a week (hey, old habits are hard to break!). Basically, I am focusing on not buying THINGS at this point.

Fair warning - if you have stock in Kohl's department store, you may want to sell now - because I am NOT shopping this month! :)

I am doing this mostly to just see how hard it is to stay on track. I also want to see what our budget looks like if I curb my spending habits. It's also an effort to stockpile some savings before I am no longer employed this summer.

Oh - and I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon to have the assumed-hernia checked out. I am hoping for an opinion that will let me push off correcting this until after our vacation in June!