I started this earlier this morning, here it is!
Hello Blogging World! Here is an introductory post on who will be posting here and what we may be posting about! Jessica, Lyndsay, and I (Jeanne) have known each other since childhood. All three of us are homeshooling alumni (that's how we met actually) and now though we're separated physically by distance, we're hoping that this blog can help keep us in touch and updated on each others' lives.
A little background on me. I'm married with two kids, I'm the primary breadwinner in my family, working 40+ hours a week at a desk in an office (WOHM - Work Out of Home Mom). Sometimes I even get to walk around and see daylight ;) I would like to be a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM) but right now we'll definitely settle for my husband staying home with the kids--saving us tons of money on daycare. He works in the evenings, so we sort of trade shifts with the kids, he'll go to work after I get home. Both of us are martial artists, though he's a much higher rank than me (3rd Dan, I'm only 1st Dan) and he does still practice/train, it's been several years for me due to work/school/money/life. We are pretty crunchy granola in our parenting style (more me than him though he goes along with my shenanigans), we breastfeed, cloth diaper (most of the time), co-sleep, though a lot of that is because I'm lazy or cheap ;) My hobbies include knitting, photography, watching movies/TV, and I've even got a video podcast going (that I need to record again, I'm behind schedule!).
Things that have been going on in my life to keep Jessica and Lyndsay updated...
I finally feel like we have a plan worked out with our house and potentially getting a new house in the future. I've been saying that Baby #3 will not come until we have a new house and new vehicle, because getting pregnant now would mean that we HAD to get those sooner than expected. Currently our tiny house is busting at the seams with the four of us, and the boys are only 2.5 and almost-1 (gah, only a couple weeks away from a 1st birthday!). Staying organized and mostly-tidy is difficult in a small space with so much stuff, often times laundry is pulled straight out of the clean basket and put on instead of being put away. Anyway, back to the plan. Zillow.com currently estimates the value at our house much higher than we have left on the loan, much of this is due in part to houses in our neighborhood getting "flipped" when they go on the market (bought then upgraded, then resold). So we're slowly making improvements on our house to make it worthy of that estimate. This way, when we do sell, we'll ask more than we hope to get, and hopefully sell at way higher than we paid for it, and the difference will be the down payment on a bigger house. As an instant-gratification-type, I have a difficult time with this long term plan (it's like a 5ish year plan), and need to keep reminding myself that we're taking baby steps to a huge goal. The other part of that plan, new vehicle, is that we take part of the difference from selling the house and trade in one of our cars for a mini van. Normally, I would lean more towards a crossover vehicle or small SUV type thing, but Honda just made an Odessy with a built in vacuum! By the time we're going to be in the market for a vehicle, there will be plenty of those on the used car lots and we should be able to pick one up on the cheap.
Hello Blogging World! Here is an introductory post on who will be posting here and what we may be posting about! Jessica, Lyndsay, and I (Jeanne) have known each other since childhood. All three of us are homeshooling alumni (that's how we met actually) and now though we're separated physically by distance, we're hoping that this blog can help keep us in touch and updated on each others' lives.
A little background on me. I'm married with two kids, I'm the primary breadwinner in my family, working 40+ hours a week at a desk in an office (WOHM - Work Out of Home Mom). Sometimes I even get to walk around and see daylight ;) I would like to be a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM) but right now we'll definitely settle for my husband staying home with the kids--saving us tons of money on daycare. He works in the evenings, so we sort of trade shifts with the kids, he'll go to work after I get home. Both of us are martial artists, though he's a much higher rank than me (3rd Dan, I'm only 1st Dan) and he does still practice/train, it's been several years for me due to work/school/money/life. We are pretty crunchy granola in our parenting style (more me than him though he goes along with my shenanigans), we breastfeed, cloth diaper (most of the time), co-sleep, though a lot of that is because I'm lazy or cheap ;) My hobbies include knitting, photography, watching movies/TV, and I've even got a video podcast going (that I need to record again, I'm behind schedule!).
Things that have been going on in my life to keep Jessica and Lyndsay updated...
I finally feel like we have a plan worked out with our house and potentially getting a new house in the future. I've been saying that Baby #3 will not come until we have a new house and new vehicle, because getting pregnant now would mean that we HAD to get those sooner than expected. Currently our tiny house is busting at the seams with the four of us, and the boys are only 2.5 and almost-1 (gah, only a couple weeks away from a 1st birthday!). Staying organized and mostly-tidy is difficult in a small space with so much stuff, often times laundry is pulled straight out of the clean basket and put on instead of being put away. Anyway, back to the plan. Zillow.com currently estimates the value at our house much higher than we have left on the loan, much of this is due in part to houses in our neighborhood getting "flipped" when they go on the market (bought then upgraded, then resold). So we're slowly making improvements on our house to make it worthy of that estimate. This way, when we do sell, we'll ask more than we hope to get, and hopefully sell at way higher than we paid for it, and the difference will be the down payment on a bigger house. As an instant-gratification-type, I have a difficult time with this long term plan (it's like a 5ish year plan), and need to keep reminding myself that we're taking baby steps to a huge goal. The other part of that plan, new vehicle, is that we take part of the difference from selling the house and trade in one of our cars for a mini van. Normally, I would lean more towards a crossover vehicle or small SUV type thing, but Honda just made an Odessy with a built in vacuum! By the time we're going to be in the market for a vehicle, there will be plenty of those on the used car lots and we should be able to pick one up on the cheap.
I'm
going back and forth between being good at sticking
to my budget and just completely disregarding it and buying things
anyway. I've at least been much better about buying food at work (my
biggest downfall) because I would sleep too late to make myself lunch
and barely get out the door on time. I was much better about it at my
last job where I HAD to take a lunch because I wasn't always at a place
with a cafeteria or access to food I could purchase. If it was sleep and
go hungry, or wake up and have food, I got up. I'm trying my best to
stick to that idea now even though I have access to a cafeteria
everyday. It's far cheaper to buy snacks at the grocery store than it is
to buy them here, so the key for me is remembering to buy the snacks
while I'm grocery shopping. I also need to make extra dinner on a
consistent basis so leftovers are easy to grab-and-go in the morning for
lunch. Lyndsay, I know you and Aaron are on opposite shifts right now,
do you find it difficult to make meals? Dan's usually working
when I'm ready for dinner, so either it's a "fend for yourself" dinner
night or I'll make dinner and put his half straight in the fridge for
later (separated from my work lunch portion of course). Usually by the
time I get to dinner, I don't feel like actually making anything and
throw a frozen meal in the microwave or toaster oven.
Speaking of dinner, I have two wired and crazy boys (not to mention cranky) who are just going nuts from lack of naps today (don't even get me started), so talk about not feeling like making anything...
Speaking of dinner, I have two wired and crazy boys (not to mention cranky) who are just going nuts from lack of naps today (don't even get me started), so talk about not feeling like making anything...
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