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Made of Awesome: Debt-Free Dinner

Not only is Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Made of Awesome™, but our dinner out at what my niece calls "Chop-Chop, Flip-Flip" is ALSO Made of Awesome™.

How can you beat a grill set on fire?

Or a flaming onion volcano?

Or hibachi veggies that look like this?

Oh, heck, fried rice itself is pretty much Made of Awesome™. And fat. Fat is also Made of Awesome™.

Unless it's on my thighs.

Can I share something else with you?

Dinners Made of Awesome™ often exceed your entire day's points if you're on Weight Watchers. I more than doubled my point intake on Sunday. I've been good since then, but still ... wow.

Seven Quick Takes: First Friday of Lent

Thanks, as always, to Jen for hosting Quick Takes.

∞one∞

It's Lent! I mentioned in previous posts that I'm reading instead of some of the more inane online activities I partake in. I'm planning a post for later today (if I can get to it) about what I've read so far in The Dolorous Passion.

One problem I am finding is that I'm doing other thing instead of the thing I gave up. And also instead of reading. Bad me. I have to really learn to rein in my tendancy towards laziness and wasting time.

∞two∞

So what am I doing? Writing Quick Takes. uh, huh...

But I like the way it focuses me a bit. So here I am.

∞three∞

We still have snow on the ground. The weatherman said that there were about eleven days in January where we didn't have snow on the ground (since mid-December, when we got our first big storm). Amazing! Parts of Virginia have more snow than Anchorage, AK - or at least that was so a couple weeks ago, anyway. Anchorage might have caught up by now.

The girls have mostly enjoyed the snow, too. (If you come by the site, you'll see a new header with a picture of them sledding together.) At one point, though, Little Girl was frustrated because it seemed that it was always snowing on Mondays, which made schools close on Tuesdays and, therefore, caused ballet class to be cancelled. This was not good. She told me one day, near tears, that she was tired of the snow and wanted it to go away.

What she really meant was, "I wish it would snow on WEDNESDAY, pleaseandthankyou."

But this week, she had ballet class, and, yesterday, all was forgiven and they took the morning to play in the snow while it was still here. A good time was had by all.

∞four∞

I chose a book to read for Lent that I cannot find right now. Has anyone seen my copy of Mother Angelica's Pithy and Private Lessons?

No?

Rats. Guess I'll have to keep looking.

∞five∞

I was very motivated to finish my tax returns this year. Very. The IRS predicted it would be direct deposited today, but did not guarantee that. (And I wouldn't believe them if they did.) But there's a really awesome reason for being excited about it coming.

When it comes in, we'll take that and a small part of what was left in my business account and pay off the last of the debt that isn't connected to our home!!!

In two years' time, we paid off a massive amount of debt. We will be, except for our home, debt free! I did not think it was possible.

I've talked in the past about the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover Plan. When we're done, I think I'll write a detailed story on our journey so far. Paying off the debt is only Baby Step Two. We have four more steps to go to really finish it.

But let me tell you what a relief it is to be able to say that we're nearly done with this step! Travel Man wanted to finish this step by the end of 2010. We're finishing early. When we started out, I thought he was insane. I didn't believe we could finish by 2015, let alone this year.

I'll leave the whole story to a post of its own. It deserves that, and it's a long story, anyway.

But in the meantime, celebrate with us! We're almost there!

∞six∞

We're also managing to get schoolwork done, though I still need to work on the discipline needed to really buckle down. That working from home thing really messed up our groove that we'd had going for a while. But we're getting better, and we're getting work done. I'm also hoping that my Lenten moritifications will assist me in making sure I do what I need to do in my vocation.

The girls, though, are getting to do more science than before, and I'm actually enjoying it. Whodathunkit? Turns out science books from Catholic curricula companies are fun to do.

(When I was a girl, I didn't like science classes because the books all made the assumption that God wasn't there. I did not like that at all. Why does the Emperor Penguin have that pouch? Because God put it there! DUH!)

∞seven∞

Let's finish with a recipe for Friday, especially since it's Lent.

Our family keeps Meatless Fridays all year long, so I've learned to look for lots of recipes that meet this need. (Oh, lookit that - a pun!)

ahem...

Anyway, during Lent I'll include a recipe for you in Quick Takes, in case you're looking for something aside from the Parish Fish Fry. (We're going three times to our parish's - Travel Man is Deputy Grand Knight, and we do everything we can to support the Knights, anyway.)

I know that everyone has Tuna Casserole for dinner during Lent, but I love this recipe for it! It's simple, and it's more sophisticated than Mom's recipe. (Sorry, Mom! I loved yours, but this one is better!)

Oh, man, that'll get me in trouble with Dad.

Okay, so here goes: Weight Watcher's (!) Tuna Noodle Casserole

Ingredients:

• 12 oz. uncooked egg noodles (For fun, you can also use shells or other pasta.)
• 12 oz. water-packed tuna fish, drained
• 2 cups button mushrooms, sliced (I usually buy the packages at the store in the produce section, and baby bellas ROCK in this capacity!!)
• 1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
• 16 oz. fat-free sour cream
• 1/2 cup fat-free mayonnaise
• 2 tsp. Dijon mustard (Honey Mustard also makes for a nice flavor if you prefer the sweet.)
• 1 tsp. dried thyme (I skipped this for years because my kids weren't used to many herbs and spices in their food. They've developed a taste for it, though, and make sure I don't forget this part now.)
• 1/2 tsp. salt, or more to taste
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper, or more to taste
• 1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat Swiss cheese or reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese (The Swiss is oh-so-creamy!!!)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º F.
2. Cook noodles according to package directions without added fat or salt. Drain and transfer to a large bowl. (Or, if you're like me and lack a dishwasher, directly into the pan you'll be baking in. It's okay. You can do that. I won't tell.) Fold in tuna, mushrooms, and peas.
3. Whisk sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, thyme, salt and pepper together in a separate bowl; fold into the noodle mixture. Transfer to a 4 quart casserole dish (or 9"x13" pan or a half-sized warmer pan from Sam's - I am ALL ABOUT the easy clean-up, people!); top with cheese. Bake until top is golden and bubbly, about 30 minutes. Yields about 1 cup per serving.

Points (if you're counting): 6

Serves 8. Or, in my family, five, if the kids don't take thirds.

Enjoy! Next week, I'll find something new for you.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Have a blesssed Lent!

On Notice! (Or: A Duck on Crutches)

Many times, I've written about our family being on the Total Money Makeover plan. It's been a way of life for us, and though it was a big change, it was one that was quite necessary. Back in December of 2007, I was not particularly good about sharing our financial crunch with Travel Man, but I had to tell him we were in trouble. If we didn't sell our van and change something, we were going to go under. Believe it or not, I actually hid this from him for MONTHS. I was very depressed, and it was only my Catholic faith that kept me from being suicidal. Revealing that was pretty scary. It shouldn't have been, but it was.

Well, just after I revealed this and Travel Man and I knew we had to do something, God stepped in and prompted a friend of his to give him a book. "It's changed our life!" he gushed, and handed over Dave Ramsey's book. I was reluctant to read it, and more reluctant to sit down and write out our budget. We did it. I nearly threw up, I probably cried a bunch, but we developed a plan based on the Total Money Makeover (TMM). And we decided that I could contribute by working from home. Hence my job with Apple. I certified and started getting paid work at the end of April of 2008. God took care of us, because I first had to certify with an umbrella company in order to contact their clients. When I finished with that class, I was allowed to apply for a client, and Apple happened to come up just then. It was the best possible client I could have hoped for: one with good pay, a 20 hour/week minimum, and no

required weekends. Plus, though the class was more expensive, if I did well, I could keep the computer and get a refund for that part of my fees. I passed, I got my refund, and I plowed on.

Let me tell you what: without that, we would have been in some trouble. But with it, we managed to pay off a serious amount of money. I'm not getting into specifics here, but I didn't think that it would be possible to do that, along with car repairs, hospital bills, oral surgery bills, and water heater bills added in. Combine that with that emergency trip to Texas last May, and we're talking about some very serious stuff.

Our plan has been that I would continue to work until we paid off all our debt and put aside about 1/3 of our full emergency fund (3-6 months of expenses). But things have changed a little bit.

Work was stressing me out, school was slipping, and I was starting to shut down and do less and less in my vocation. Things came to a head recently, and I burst into tears and sobbed on and on about how awful I felt, how I wasn't doing well with work, how I wasn't doing enough for the girls as their mother, how their schoolwork was being put off more and more. And Travel Man hugged me and said exactly what I needed to hear, but didn't want to ask for.

"If it's that bad, quit. It's not worth the extra money to have you like this, to have you feel like you aren't taking care of the girls."

I actually argued against it a bit, especially since we hadn't paid off that last debt (though it's down to just slightly more than 1/3 of the original amount from last October), but he insisted.

We talked some more about it, looking over the budget. Quitting means slowing down that debt snowball. Quitting means slowing down for the fully-funded emergency fund. Quitting means no trip to Disney for our kids next year. Quitting means the rest of the debt will be Travel Man's responsibility to pay off.

But quitting also means no squeezing school between my shifts. Quitting means no ignoring the girls while I do extra studying for the latest specs on whatever Steve Jobs dreamed up last month. Quitting means no meetings online while the family watches a movie without me. Quitting means that Big Girl isn't lying compulsively so she gets more attention from me for something. And when I mentioned the burden of paying being solely his, my amazing husband replied with a reassuring smile, "Heavy is the head that wears the crown."

I looked over my contract, and realized that I needed to give 30 days of notice, or work to the end of my contract with my client, whichever comes last. And my contract was going to expire in about 36 days.

Providence.

So I gave my notice towards the end of last week, and notified my performance facilitator this week.

And it's only 29 days until September 30, which is last day in my contract.

And so, I've put my job on notice. I'm officially a lame duck employee.

Pretty soon, I'll just be Mommy again.

And that's just what I've always wanted to be.

Curriculum, Curricula...

For a the last couple of years, I've been schooling the girls without a set curriculum.  I've written lesson plans, gathered books, used the library, even purchased Maureen Wittmann's phenomenal book that helps peg excellent books for your unit studies.  I started this journey because I was using Seton (a fine institution!), and Big Girl would just bristle under all the workbook pages.

First, I branched out to Math-U-See so she could use manipulatives.  As a kinesthetic learner, this was a great move for her.  I use it with Little Girl, too, and she loves it as well, though she's not as kinesthetic and doesn't mind workbooks.  (She's like me in that respect.  I loved my workbooks!)

Then I started using some other books and ideas, but since I've been working, it's been harder and harder to get what I'd consider "enough" school done.  

Now, one reason I haven't completely lost it here is because the girls are voracious readers.  And when I say voracious, I mean it in the most sincere form.  We read bits and pieces of The Lord of the Rings to them while watching the movie, highlighting Catholic symbolism along the way.  When the movies were through, Big Girl took a hold of the book herself and plowed through it in a week.  (This wasn't that surprising except for the speed at which she read it because she read The Hobbit - alone - when she was seven.)  Little Girl easily reads CS Lewis' Narnia books alone.  I can't keep them out of books.  This alone has helped me, since so much learning can happen there.  I keep plenty of classic literature for them to read.

Oh, and I've mentioned before that Shakespeare is our fun family reading as of late, right?  We've read "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Taming of the Shrew" and are now working on "Romeo and Juliet" before we read "Hamlet."

Anyway, I feel really badly about how doing school in smaller chunks of time, around work, sports, ballet, library time, co-op, family trips, etc., etc., etc. is becoming more and more difficult.  I've had less and less time lately to write good lesson plans.  Big Girl starts sixth grade (!!) in the Fall, and I wanted to go with a full curriculum for her so I know she's getting all she needs should she decide to go to college.  So I searched, and looked at Kolbe and Catholic Heritage Curricula.  CHC is very hands-on, with plenty of projects and ideas - and choices! - for Big Girl to select from.  It seems like a perfect fit for my kinesthetic learner, and so Travel Man and I discussed the possibility of using it.  It's much pricier to go with a curriculum, but when I do, lesson plans are mostly done for me, too.  This has been a big stumbling block for me, and will continue to be so until that stupid debt is paid off and I have to work.  So, minus math and religion (I'm sticking with Seton for continuity reasons), I'm ripping off the band aid and buying a year's worth of books for her.

But then there's Little Girl, who is starting third grade this fall.  She needs attention, too, and we discussed the idea of just going back to a full curriculum for her, as well, to make my life easier in regards to those pesky lesson plans.  Again, pricier, but sanity-saving.  Knowing how much she likes workbooks, we have decided to stay with Seton for her until I am able to quit working again.

For me, I would still dearly love to be literature-based, building units around what we read, but the horrible guilt I have been feeling over not doing enough for them is overwhelming.  I know I am not supposed to be like school - public school, that is - but I have not been consistent enough.  It is most definitely my vocation to homeschool the girls.  Public school is just not an option here.  But I need help for now.  Having lessons laid out for me at this time will be a help.

With a little summer reading and finishing up the English books this summer, I know we'll be set for using both CHC and Seton for the following school year.  And, God willing, when that year is finished, I'll be officially retired again and be able to do more unit studies.

Now, in the meantime, Travel Man has some interesting units of study he'd like to create for the girls, too.  I'll give assistance and ideas, but the unit will be his.  If I can get him to do so, maybe he can post about it here.  (Bug him about it if you want.)  ;)  But I can think of several books that will fit in, and he's been eyeing some grown-up-research books, too.  Gosh, I'm thinking of some very cool projects the girls could do, too.  What fun!

But anyway, this afternoon, we'll leave for the IHM Conference in Chantilly, which actually starts Friday morning.  And while I'm there, I'll give myself a break and just get that Seton curriculum.  Might pick up some extras (I'm thinking Theology of the Body for Teens so I'm ready to help Big Girl with that), but mostly, I'm sticking with the curriculum.  

And while we're there, we'll be getting some serious spiritual food for the soul.  Some of the talks given are difficult to chose from.  For example, at the same time as Raymond Arroyo is speaking about living your faith in a Culture of Death (with ideas from the Holy Father and Mother Angelica!), Father Levis is speaking about papal encouragement for homeschoolers.  It's like trying to choose between the delicious grilled steak and the delectable seafood platter!  Thank God for the recordings, which we can load into iTunes for later reference.  

This gazelle business has been tough - it's why I'm working at all - but it's the reason that, in spite of having to purchase a new water heater and a car purchase looming on the horizon, we still had the money to have a spectacular weekend of celebration around Little Girl's dance recital and First Holy Communion.  And still have the money to purchase a full-out curriculum for each of the girls for the Fall.  I'm forever grateful to the office buddy who first handed Travel Man that Dave Ramsey book.  

Have a great weekend!

Spend less by paying cash

Soccer Mom has been telling you about our "Gazelle Intensity" (check out the "Starve Your Cheetah" link over on the right side of this blog).

Here is a video that ordinary people can get by without credit cards and have more money left at the end of the month. (Sorry, I don't think I can embed from ABC news).

We just went through a spell of buying a new mattress, Soccer Mom having oral surgery, putting money aside for vacation and still having money saved up for new tires and headlights for the Soccer Mobile. All this was paid for with cash, without affecting our normal expenditures for house, food, etc.

The less the Cheetah gets, the more is left for us!

Bye Bye Pope Up Tramper!

It's been fun having a pop-up, but we haven't really used it, and since we are busy being Gazelles, we're selling our "pope-up tramper."

Here's hoping it goes quickly. We priced it for a quick sale, and though it needs a couple of minor repairs, it's listed for about half it's retail value.

Being a Gazelle isn't much fun sometimes, but it's more fun than being in debt. If we can sell this, we'll put a BIG dent in what's left to pay on our Jeep. Like, more than 1/3 of it. In the meantime, we've managed to pay off (through selling and debt snowballs) more than $20,000 in debt since February. That includes the $3000 of medical bills I've had to pay for my December visit. And when I started my home business (my call center work), I did so without borrowing a dime for it, which means that aside from taxes I have to pay, I've got no other money to put aside. (Mind you, I pay for some bills out of that money, specifically the ones directly related to the business like phone and internet service.) But still, it's been very good. We've even managed to put aside money for things we'll need to purchase: tires for my Jeep, a new mattress for our anniversary (15 years is enough for one mattress if you ask me!), sports and dance for the girls. We haven't touched a credit card since Soccer Dad had a root canal and crown done in early January! And the final payment on that went out in today's mail, too!

I take it back, we HAVE touched the cards. To SHRED them! I love the sound of plastic going through my shredder! Ha HA!

If I met Dave Ramsey, I swear I'd kiss him!

Update (8-6, 8:39 a.m.): I've had more than half a dozen people contact me already. The camper will be gone before the end of the weekend. Because if I don't sell it today, someone is willing to drive up from Virginia Beach for it! WHOO HOO!

Please browse my eBay items. Thank you.

Four Days Off, Four Days On

I took a four-day weekend to celebrate Little Girl's birthday (party on Friday the Fourth, actual birthday yesterday).  However, I'm still supposed to work, you know.  Here's what the rest of my week looks like:

Tuesday:

• 9:30 to 11:30: work
• 1:30 to 2:30: work
• 4:00 to 4:40: Little Girl gets her hair cut
• 5:15 to 6:30: T-Ball practice for Big Girl
• 7:00 to 8:00: Dance for Little Girl  [note: T-ball and dance are on opposite sides of town with a half-hour drive between them]
• 9:30 to 11:30: work

Wednesday:

• 9:30 to 11:30: work
• 1:30 to 2:30: work
• 3:30 to 4:30: Story time at the library down the street
• 5:00 to 6:00: seven-year portraits (and dance portraits) of Little Girl, again, across town
• 9:30 to 11:30: work
  

Thursday:

• 9:30 to 11:30: work
• 2:00 to 4:00: movie at the library
• 9:30 to 11:30: work (whew! light day!)
  

Friday: 

• 9:30 to 11:30: work
• 1:30 to 2:30: work
• 5:45 to 7:15: T-Ball game for Big Girl
  
• 9:30 to 11:30: work
  

Somewhere in there, I am supposed to be taking care of the kids by feeding them, etc., as well as the laundry.  I like the time off, but making up for it on the other days of the week while trying to keep weekends free for family time with Travel Man/Soccer Dad is really hard!  

Oh, did I mention that we're having a BBQ on Saturday?  Yeah.  That's exciting!

So if you wonder where I've gone, it's probably on the fast train to Crazy Town!  And in Crazy Town, I don't think there's much blogging allowed!  

(I am a gazelle...I am a gazelle...I am a gazelle...)

[image source]

Domestic Bliss

Life is happy here at the Soccer Family house.  Little Girl is not so little any more.  She'll be SEVEN on July 7.  SEVEN!  How did that happen?  WHEN did it happen?

Anyway, we've cooked up a birthday surprise for her that will have her celebrating for the rest of the summer.

Big Girl is playing T-ball - sort of.  She had two practices, then two games cancelled, then a practice cancelled since we are making up two games PLUS playing her regularly scheduled game next week.  That's right, three games in one week.  Plus her banquet for Spring soccer, plus Little Girl's summer ballet.  Tuesday's schedule is a nightmare, and Soccer Dad will be changing into his Travel Man supersuit Monday morning.  (Please let me know if you've learned how to bilocate so I can get it down by Tuesday, when I have overlapping events and a tight schedule.  Thanks.)

Soccer Dad has been home for the last week or so, and we went to the IHM Conference in Chantilly, Virginia.  I got to meet Dr. Ray (who wrote "I love you, too," to Little Girl on his business card after I gave him her message of love), Father Fessio (who gave us some insight into the Holy Father's love for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass), and Dr. Catherine Moran (who gave me great hope and comfort by sharing her homeschooling strategies for overwhelmed moms).  I got to hear Father Eutenauer speak on angels and keeping your family holy.  I was able to listen to Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, who, just prior to making a criticism of Aristotle, said, "I hate to criticize giants, because I am not one myself..."  (This caused me to seriously bruise my jaw when it hit the floor!)  I now own a copy of The Privilege of Being a Woman, which I am looking forward to reading.  

Anyway, in that weekend, we were also able to visit Big Girl's best friend's family, who are also our friends.  (It's so nice when your children's friends' parents are also your friends!)  We saw their growing children - their youngest is our god-daughter - and were able to talk and visit with them, though not for nearly long enough.  And Soccer Dad celebrated Father's Day by driving his family home.

Have I mentioned what a fantastic man he is?  Because we are being gazelles, we didn't buy any presents for Father's Day.  (Or Mother's Day, FYI.)  Instead, we counted our continuing education purchases (Theology of the Body, Peter Kreeft's book on Tolkien, etc.) as his presents.  No complaints from him.  We are both gazelles!

I'm keeping very busy with my work with Apple.  20 hours each week, plus homeschooling (year-round, taking breaks when we need it), plus home-making (not that impressive on that front), plus the girls' activities.  You can see why I'm not posting a lot!  

But you know what?  Life is very good.  God has blessed us abundantly, more than we deserve!  We're healthy, we're able to do things as a family, we're happy together.  

I'll be trying to put together some posts on the IHM conference and the talks I was able to attend, and hopefully, I'll even get something submitted to the Catholic Carnival, which I haven't even had time to link to, never mind read, lately!

Please browse my eBay items. Thank you.

On Being a Gazelle

I am trying to catch up from our trips to Texas and South Carolina (to drop off and pick up the girls from a Grandma and Pa Pa vacation). Laundry is nearly caught up, house is a disaster, school is limping back to the track, and I'm working 20 hours/week in between.

So, dear readers, as much as I enjoy our time together, I have to cut back a bit somewhere. Posting will be generally light.

I did, however, want to pass on some really happy news.

Back last year, we bought that beautiful minivan, which we oughtn't have done, and I realized before year's end that if we were to stay afloat around here, we had to sell it. Just after that decision was made, we were still floundering a bit as to how to organize our finances better. One of Travel Man's friends at work gave him a set of CDs and a book by Dave Ramsey. He read The Total Money Makeover cover-to-cover in a few days and pushed me to read it, too. Though I reisisted a bit (who wants to read about how stupid they have been?), I found the book to be warm and friendly towards people who have made mistakes and are ready to change. Plus, Dave is funny!

We got on board. We became gazelles. We sold that van ASAP, took our tax refund and set up an emergency fund, and started writing down everything we spent and made up a written budget. When we looked at May's budget in late April, we set aside money for a trip to Texas and money for food on our trip back and forth to South Carolina. (We came in under budget for the trips, too.) We set aside money to replenish the emergency fund after I paid off my medical bills. And we've paid stuff off and cancelled cards. (Though Dave likes cutting up the cards right away, I take great pleasure in shredding them as we pay them off.)

When we got back from the last trip to SC, Travel Man discovered that my cooling fan wasn't coming on in the Jeep any longer. The mechanic discovered that this was the reason my A/C wasn't working very well (a bill that was paid for out of the emergency fund), and they went ahead and fixed it for me.

When they told me it would run about $650.00 installed, I said, "Okay. Do what you have to do." Mind you, they only take my debit card, cash, or a check. And I wasn't stressed out at all!! I actually HAVE that money set aside in the emergency fund. And we'll only be off-track on our debt snowball for about a month while I get the money back in the account. And if it weren't for God prompting that man at Travel Man's office to give him the book and CDs, I'd have been crying about not having the money for the car to be fixed this month.

I love Dave Ramsey. I'd kiss him if I saw him.






Please browse my eBay items. Thank you.

If I Was Going to Ask for a Materialistic Present...

...I'd ask for this. I do wish we could spend $100 on something so frivolous. But we are on the Dave Ramsey plan, and we are gazelles.

I will just keep saying that to myself as I take call after call this week from people buying the refurbished iPods at their new, lower price. I will not get a new iPod because I am a gazelle.

I am a gazelle.

I am a gazelle.

I am a gazelle.

I am a gazelle.

I am a gazelle.

Please browse my eBay items. Thank you.