Amazing Savings

Ever since I was little, I've wanted to be a stay at home mom.  When we got married, *B* and I agreed that one of us being home with the children would be the best way to raise our kids.  After I became pregnant, the realities of cost of living in the DC area hit us pretty hard.  I got really upset and anxious and swore it wasn't possible to live on only one income - especially one of our incomes.  I started frantically crunching numbers and came up with a goal.  We would need to save $10,000 by September just so that we could survive the year.

So I read Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.  I started using a spreadsheet to plan out future spending, and budgeting software to track past spending.  And from December to April, without a huge inconvenience to our lifestyle, *B* and I managed to save all $10,000.  We hit our goal four months early. 

So we decided to make our lifestyle more sustainable and pay off as much of our debt as possible.  We paid off my car and all of our credit cards, which had funded house repairs (that mold issue), course work, and miscellaneous things that really weren't worth paying on like eating out or groceries that I wasn't sure I had enough to cover in our checking account.  We paid off $6,000 worth of debt in one evening, which brought our savings down to $4,000.  It was a scary but triumphant moment.  So our goal now is to save up $12,500 by September, when my income cuts out. 

But here's the amazing part - I looked harder at our expenses and what we do with our money.  Since we no longer had minimum payments and interest, we needed far less per month.  If we live fairly close to our paychecks, not even sacrificing that much, we don't have to touch that savings while I'm home.  We will be living solely on *B*'s income. 

I had already planned to go back to a part time job I had for a couple of hours at night a few days a week.  I want to pay my student loans off early, so I'm going to put all of that second job into student loans.  While living on one income in a very expensive location, we'll still have more savings than anyone I know in my age range AND pay off our debt faster than anyone else I know.  All the while, our child (or children depending on how long I stay home) will have the benefit of a parent home with them at all times.

It's mind-boggling to me that we could have ever wasted that much of our income.  We'll have saved almost $20,000 in less than a year.  Think of all of the things we could have done!  But this lesson is one learned better late than never.   Even though we still have student loans and our mortgage, this taste of financial freedom is intoxicating.  I'm so thankful that we are lucky enough to be able to live our lives as we want.

Harvest

Despite the fact (or maybe because of the fact) that I had little to do with getting the garden going this year, we're having a great little harvest this summer.

 

After growing for two years, our garlic is big enough to braid.  I've always wanted braided garlic - it reminds me of the little house on the prairie.  I know that there's no reason for our garlic to take two years to get that big, but that's something I'm going to tackle in the future.

 

Every two days or so, we get a nice bowl full of snap peas.  We eat them raw, straight off the vine with the ends snipped off.

Our big producers at the moment are mint and strawberries.  I'm a collector of mint.  I wanted enough for tea, so we put one plant in the ground out in our front yard.  We ripped the plant out soon after and put it into a pot, but we're still finding massive amount of mint where it used to be.  It works out - we rip it out by the roots, plant the roots in a pot, and more comes back in its spot.

That harvest of strawberries was about 20 minutes worth of work last night.  We already had one bowlful in the fridge left over from the shortcakes we had the other night.  They're June-bearing, so I know our harvest will be short-lived, but we've gotten at least 6 large bowls of these very tasty beauties so far, and there are still green ones out there on the plants.

First Day on a New Job

Yesterday was my last day as a teacher.  As far as last days go, it was fairly stressful.  A class that I had a very difficult year with in terms of parent interaction was still hanging on.  It was great to teach them because it helped me and them grow. 

But since they're high achievers, their parents would call my boss (or more often my boss's boss) if they had concerns rather than coming to me.  I thought it would be over since it was the end of the school year.  It turns out they were upset about grades they hadn't even seen yet.  So I spent my last few hours, not with coworkers enjoying our time and the end of year brunch, but putting out fires so that I might be able to come back in good standing to teach in the future.

But today is a new day, and it's my first day on a new job. 

I am a home maker, a (soon to be) stay at home mom, a domestic engineer.  It actually feels rather empowering to have the time and resources to dedicate to ensuring my family's health and happiness.  I'm excited that *B* and I won't "need" to eat out as often because we're both exhausted from work/school/second jobs.  I'm excited to be able to plan healthy meals, teach my child and watch the child grow, and to keep my home (somewhat) presentable.

I know that I really have no idea how the next few months will go, but I'm confident that I can pick it up quickly.  But for now, I'm off to start my new job, with a thorough organizing of my workspace as first up on my list.

I'm Ready, But the Baby's Not

As of today I'm 38 weeks and 3 days.  Our nursery is ready, and diapers are prepped.  Our hospital bags are packed and in the car, and car seats are installed.  I've finished my teaching duties, and I'll be out of work as of Wednesday. 

I know that I've still got a week and a half to go, but I'm ready now!  I'm a little nervous about the whole labor process, but I'm itching to get it going.  At every twitch, twinge, and cramp, I wonder is this it?  But it obviously hasn't been.  This is like waiting for Christmas times a million - and I can't even count down for it!

Garden

*B* has been diligently working in the garden this season.  I must admit that I've done little more than ask for certain foods to be planted.by and large, the rest of the garden is his this year.

*B* has been putting vine scraps that we don't want growing into a trashcan.  I noticed that there were some ants around the top of the can.  I don't know if you can see it, but the left side of this pile is swarming with ants.  No wonder they're getting into our house!



On a good bug note, it looks like a ladybug laid eggs on this plant.  There were tons of pupating ladybugs there today.


*B* has had this cactus for many years.  It's thriving and putting out new pads all the time.


The honeysuckle I got a couple of years ago is really taking over.  We need to find a way to trellis it further than we already have.  It's a native honeysuckle, so we don't want to cut it back too far.


My Mister Lincoln has some buds on it.  I'm hoping to get a good crop of red roses this year.



My JFK rose is doing fantastically.  One is almost ready to open, and four more are on their way.


*B* planted red clover in with our asparagus to help out the soil.  I thought it would never flower, but it's proving me wrong.


I tend to get bit up by bugs in the summer.  Knowing our luck, the baby will inherit my "sweet meat".  This year we're trying a potted citronella plant on our table to help keep the bugs away without having to spray. 


I'm a hoarder of mint.  I've got four main types (spearmint, variegated peppermint, pineapple mint, and chocolate mint), and the little pot down in front is called Mexican mint, but it's tarragon.



The downside of being a mint hoarder is that it sometimes appears where you don't plant it.  This is a tote of arugula that was taken over my mint.


This is one of *B*'s babies.  It's called crosne or Chinese artichokes.  It's related to mint, but you eat the tubers.


This hard to see group of plants is scorzonera.  The leaves and roots are both edible.


Another *B* plant is stinging nettle.  I won't touch it because it can hurt, but it's apparently very nutritious if prepared properly.


The last of the weird plants is this grove of sunchokes in our former compost pile.  It will put up pretty flowers, it's hard to kill, and the tubers are apparently delicious!

 
Speaking of tubers, this is something I picked up off of pinterest.  It's a bin made of potatoes.  *B* made a chicken wire bin and filled it with layers of straw, soil, and seed potatoes.  Apparently, two pounds of seed potatoes can produce up to 25 lbs of eating potatoes.  When the greens die back, you pull the wire away, and all of your tasty potatoes come falling out!


For a while, I thought these were junk seeds that volunteered.  It turns out that *B* did a three sisters experiment this year.  We'll see how it goes.


The tomatoes took over our raised bed last year, so this year we did the lazy man's raised bed:  *B* opened two bags of potting soil and stuck our tomatoes straight in.  They look pretty happy.


We have royalty purple pod bush beans in the open cold frame.  The seeds were two years old, so I'm just happy they germinated.


We didn't pay attention to the rhubarb this year, and it took off on its own.  I'm not sure if it's even edible at this point.  But it sure looks happy.


We have one whole pepper this year.  It has flowers, but I'm not sure if it'll end up making it.


Our garlic should be ready to pull soon.  This is garlic that overwintered, so I have no idea what to expect.


Our snap peas are doing well.  We got a full snack for our first harvest.  We've got three varieties (sugar ann, sugar snap, and sugar daddy) and they're coming in perfectly staggered.


I read a post over at Choosing Voluntary Simplicity about perpetual celery plants.  At the end of the season, we're going to dig them out and bring them inside.


One of the easiest ways to get good carrots and parsnips is to replant the tops after you've eaten them.  The short carrots came from seeds.  The tall ones came from organic market carrots.


We had snow peas in our seed stash.  We don't love snow peas, but they're pretty good in stir fry.  We hate our hibiscus plants, so *B* let the snow peas climb the hibiscus.  If something comes of it, great.  If not, oh well.




This is my only raspberry bush to really take off.  The other ones are only about 8 inches tall.  I have no idea why one is happy and the others aren't.


The blueberry (which is just to the right of the above raspberry) is small, but slowly getting bigger.



*B* adores nasturtiums both for their taste and look, and this is the first to flower this year.


My mom made this strawberry planter for us two years ago.  The strawberries we have in our front yard are junebearing, whereas these are everbearing.  We've already had 8 or so berries off of it this year.

*B* has worked so hard on this garden.  I was convinced that with me expecting a baby, nothing would get done.  The way things are going, we have a very nice supplement to our purchased food!

Nursery

I haven't been posting because my camera is practically dead.  I take pictures with my phone, but for some reason the app won't publish my posts correctly.  I'm really hoping this issue resolves itself soon!  But I've gotten this post to go through somehow, so I can show you all pictures of our (soon to be occupied!) nursery :o)

 

 I love this crib.  It converts into a toddler bed, then into a twin bed when they're older.  After we bought it, I read about how it's better for the baby to be on a mattress on the floor, but we're going to use it anyway.

 

 Where we live, crib bumpers are banned.  But we got mesh bumpers so that there's no risk of limbs getting caught.

 

My best friend ever helped me decorate the nursery with pictures of frogs.  I wanted classic, gentleman frogs.  What we came up with was perfect:

The first one on the left here is perfect because it goes so well with the lamp in the room.

I have a thing for frogs in top hats, what can I say?  It works for a boy or a girl.

The band of frogs on the right are my favorite in this grouping.

We repurposed a bookshelf (where you can see that frog lamp).  My BFF and I painted a dresser that *B* had as a kid.

On the other side, we've got a night light, the monitor, and some houseplants.  As we get books for the baby, they'll go on this shelf.

A friend of mine gave us her old glider.  I have a feeling I'll be sleeping in it very soon.  The lights on the wall are fluorescent.  At first it bothered me that they took awhile to get bright, but now I think that'll be a good way to get my eyes to adjust to the light.

These are our cloth diaper inserts.  We registered for FuzziBunz.  My mom, for our baby shower, made diaper cakes.  She ordered WAY too many inserts - 105 to be exact!  She thought they were like gDiapers where you could just pull the inserts out and leave the diaper on the baby.  I haven't figured out what we're going to do with them.  For now, I'm just going to keep them in the closet until we decide what to do.

Scary Day

Okay, so it's been a while since I posted.  Life has been insanely busy. 

On Saturday, *B* and I went to a flower mart that a neighboring town hosts every year.  There's always good food, so we had lunch while we were there.  *B* and I split a virgin pina colada. 

I'm usually pretty picky about what kind of frozen drinks I have.  Slurpees (and pretty much all drinks that come out of the rotating vats like Slurpees) have really messed with my heart in the past.  In college, I went to the ER because I had palpitations for 6 hours after drinking a small diet Pepsi Slurpee.  But I heard the guy using a blender, so I figured he had a bottle of mixer (which has never hurt me in the past).  It occurred to me later when I thought back to the drink stand that the fluid in the drink did come out of one of those vats.

At the end of the drink, my heart went haywire.  It was so erratic that I couldn't get a pulse to read on my heart rate app.  The beats were fast, slow, big, small, and generally crazy.  Of course, then I started freaking out because I was afraid of hurting the baby.  So my pulse and blood pressure increased. 

My heart rate was up for almost an hour and a half.  Thankfully, it came down.  If it had been up for 20 more minutes, I would have had to go to the hospital.  I don't even want to think of what they'd do to me there.  I would imagine they'd recommend induction (which I emphatically don't want).  I've tried doing research over the years about this issue (palpitations and Slurpees) but I haven't found any medical data, only anecdotal evidence.  When I was in college, the cardiologist just shrugged and said "so don't drink them anymore." 

It really worries me that we feed our children these drinks when they can have such drastic health implications.  Any thoughts on what the specific trigger mechanism is for this reaction?