Finding Hope In Our Finances

I wrote a couple weeks ago about my husband and I trying to get our finances on track. It is not an easy thing for us to do but with the help from Heritage Church and Dave Ramsey I think we might just be able to pull it off. We are still in the beginning stages of it but for the first time in a while we actually have hope.

I have always been poor. Growing up I had no money to do anything so when I got money I never wanted to spend it. I have always been the type to ask myself if I really need something and if I don't, then I don't buy it. Bradley was always really good at saving up his money too. When he was younger he was able to buy a Sega and a Nintendo all by himself because he saved up for them. For you younger people they were actually quite expensive when they first came out.

So how did we get into the mess that we are in? When Brad was working at Menards he worked around 60 or so hours a week for a while. We were pulling in around $500 more a week than now. Yes $500 more a WEEK! Plus he had received pretty substantial bonuses. Where did all that money go? Looking back we are just flabbergasted how we just pretty much blew through it. We would go out to eat all the time and just spend money on stupid things that we didn't need. It's easy to blow through money if you don't really have to think about it.

We decided to give up Menards for a banking job that would give him more time to spend with us. We are making quite a bit less than what he was making and instead of getting a lot of overtime he gets none. Now that we are in the place we are, we really realize how much we wasted money. It is important to us that I raise our children so I currently do not work. We tried to find a part time job for me but so far nothing has worked out. We also cannot afford to put our kids in daycare, we would be actually losing money that way. I have my oils business that I have been starting up but it has been hard for me to focus on that with all the medical things I have had to go through with Eli.

This past year has been great with Brad home but it has also been very stressful. We are just making ends meet and we are living paycheck to paycheck. We really haven't had much hope or even a clue to what we were going to do. Brad was very stressed out about our finances. I really didn't deal with them much so even though I would get stressed out too it wasn't to the point he was. It is really stressful to be in the point where your bills equal out to more than what you make. We didn't know how to fix it.

That's when our church introduced their Live Free series and our growth groups started to do Financial Peace University by Dave. The things that Dave Ramsey says makes a lot of sense. We are starting to do the steps needed and I think we have one or two weeks left of videos in our growth group to watch. It has given us hope where we had none. It hasn't been easy and now we are making some extremely hard decisions but we reallly feel like it will be worth it in the end.

Our progress has been slow but steady. We now have money in a savings account that is not connected in any way to any of our other bank accounts. That helps us be able to keep it in there and not want to spend it. We have also decided to cut up two of our credit cards. This is big for us because we really like our credit cards. We have been also able to pay off completely one of our credit cards and we are working on making a plan to pay off our other ones. We have decided to try to get Income Based Repayment for our student loans so we can work on paying off some of our higher interest things. We have been approved for that so we are pretty excited.

The hardest thing that we have decided to do is get rid of our Dodge Charger. We really love that car but we realize that it is not ideal for a 3 kid family. We also don't love the high interest rate they gave us for it and the $550 a month payment. We are not sure what happened when we got it at the dealership but we think we were kind of bamboozled on it. The interest rate is pretty high and we know we would have never gotten it if we knew how high it really was. We decided that we are going to get rid of it and get a less expensive vehicle with a lot less of a payment. This will make the most difference with our month to month budget.

Now that we are doing that we can actually put together a budget! We are also going to an all cash system and we are going to try to do the snowball system that Dave Ramsey advises us to do. I have been selling a lot of stuff in our house that I know we don't use anymore and have been able to come up with some money doing that. I am also going to do a garage sale sometime this summer.

Our goal is to get rid of our credit card debt completely in a year. We would like to do it by the end of this year, but we are unsure if that is a realistic goal. For the past year I have been making 95% of our meals at home instead of going out so we are saving a lot of money there. We don't do joy rides in our car like we used to and we don't spend money like crazy people anymore. We are hoping with all the changes that we make we can accomplish our goals.

We have faith with all of the steps that we are taking that we can really do this and be debt free. My husband and my relationship has really turned around too. We were arguing a lot about our money situation so it is nice that we have a plan and it is not a huge stress on us anymore. For the first time we have a huge amount of hope and I cannot wait to keep on updating you guys with our progress!

Peace and Love,

DIY Natural Shower Cleaner!

A couple posts ago I talked about why I choose to live naturally. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet you can read it HERE. I thought I would start giving you some recipes that I have been using and love so that you can start making them at home. I am in the process of moving some recipes from my old blog to this one. I want them all in one place. Honestly, I also don't want to have to run two blogs. I am lazy and its exhausting lol.

This was one of my first recipes that I started using and I was amazed by how well it worked and how easy it was to clean. Plus I didn't have to use my inhaler immediately after so that is a plus. I have been using this recipe for a little over a year (give or take) and have been constantly tweaking it. I have never gotten sick while cleaning my shower with it and to me it actually cleans BETTER than any other shower cleaner I have used. 

The ingredients that I started using are simple. You use water, dish soap, and vinegar. That is really all you need to use. I started out using Dawn dish soap but now I use Seventh Generation because its an all natural dish soap. Yes, I am very serious about going as natural as possible. I don't like to think of myself as "crunchy" but I guess I am going down the crunchy/hippie path. You can use Dawn if you wish but if you want to be 100% chemical free use an all natural dish soap. Anyways, I wanted to show you what my tub looked like before. This is my old apartments tub that was really hard for me to clean, don't judge. 

I will admit it is nasty. See all those shadows? Those aren't shadows they are scum and grossness. Well, most of them aren't shadows. I would be lying if I said my tub now is always spotless, because it is not. I will show you a picture of our current tub later. It is so much easier to keep clean though. I don't feel like death has come over me after cleaning the shower. I also don't have to close the door, refuse to let my kids in, and have it "air" out. 

Lets talk about how I make my shower cleaner. I grab a dollar store cleaning bottle. I then fill it 1/4 of the way with dish soap. After the dish soap is in I add vinegar until it is about halfway full. 

After you do that you gently swirl it to mix. Also while doing the vinegar you do not want to add it quickly. It can make a bubbly mess. Trust me on this one. After they are well mixed I filled it the rest of the way with water. I also added around a half cap-full of thieves cleaner. A little bit goes a long way! For my all surface everyday cleaner I do a cap-full of thieves per whole cleaning bottle of water so if you even wanted to do less then you can. I love the way it makes it smell and it really gives it an extra kick. Plus thieves helps keep the germs away. Winning! You can also add some essential oils to it to help with cleaning. There is a thieves essential oil, lavender, peppermint, pretty much whatever you want. Citrus oils are great cleaners. I am just afraid to try them in a plastic bottle since they can eat through plastic. For me I just add the thieves cleaner. 

Once it is all mixed you just spray it in your shower and let it sit. I let it sit for around an hour, give or take. It depends on how busy I get with the kids. Another thing I do is when I know I am going to take a shower I spray it in there around an hour before I take a shower then I clean while I shower. BE CAREFUL though, it can get super slippery. I am a woman so I love to multitask so my showers are not just showers anymore. I even take the spray bottle in there with me sometimes and spray it on my shower curtain and clean it when I am in there. I have a little scrubber brush right in the shower. It only takes a couple minutes and I love how clean my shower is after it. 

I wanted to show you what my old apartments shower looked like after I cleaned it with my homemade cleaner. After I let it sit I just took the brush and wiped it off. NO SCRUBBING! I have had multiple people tell me that this is the best shower cleaner they have ever used. Okay here it is. 

TA-DA! Doesn't that look amazing compared to the first picture! So easy too! I clean my shower a bit more than that now that I have this recipe. I will show you how clean my tub looks on a mostly daily basis since it is easier to clean now.

Remember, I just spray it on. Let it sit. Then I wipe it off. When I clean (and every day) I keep the bath toys in the tub and I don't even feel bad about it. There is nothing in this that will hurt my children and their bath toys get clean too. Win-win! Can you say that about your shower cleaner? This is super easy to make, it is super cheap to make, it makes cleaning super easy to do, and it isn't going to harm you like other cleaners. What is stopping you from trying it? 

Peace and Love,

Some Motherly Advice

The high of Mother's Day is coming down and now I wanted to talk to all of you moms about how to parent your kids. I am going to get real with you and you might not like it. Some of you might get offended. Ready? Okay.

You see it all the time. Other peoples opinions on how YOU should parent your child. You probably opened this up thinking I am going to tell you some great advice how to parent your child. Well, I am not sure if its going to be great advice or even the advice you were looking for but here is my opinion; stop reading other peoples opinions. Start raising your child the way you know you should. In all honestly nobody's opinion matters when it comes to your children except yours and your partners.

I see it all the time on Facebook, people post opinions that relate to their parenting. Sadly, a lot of people think that their opinion is the only one that matters. That if you are not parenting in the way that they think is right then you are not a good parent. Okay, okay, they might not go that far but they think their way is the best way to go. They think if you try any other method you are just wasting your time and could potentially be hurting your kids. The thing about kids is, no two kids are a like. One way of parenting a child might work for one but not work for another.

There is no right or wrong way to parent your children. In the end all that matters is we have children that care about others, that obey laws and are obedient but know when some things need to be pushed, and that are passionate. There are other things we want for our children too but at least for me these ones are very important. I want well rounded kids that are grow up to be kind and caring people. To lead my kids down this path I know that it is going to take more than one parenting style. I need to cater to each child as an individual and not treat them like they are all the same.

Let me give you an example. Bridgette my oldest likes to push hard. She is the type that knows what she wants and will figure out how to get it. She is very bright. Putting her in time out doesn't work. Actually, not a lot of parenting styles work on her. What has the best impact on her is to sit down and talk things out and be patient. Also if she pushes too hard she needs to be pushed back so when she does sometimes she just needs a quick spank on the butt to understand she is not in charge. Yes I spank my kids! I know *GASP* all these online perfect parents say that's a no-no but I am doing what I feel is right for my kids. I truly believe that there is a time for spanking and while there is a chance to over push it, sometimes it is needed. My families rules for spanking is we never do it out of anger, we only do it when we have tried multiple attempts to correct the behavior with no avail, and we only do a quick spank right on the butt. We never spank anywhere else or do it multiple times. This is what we feel comfortable with but like I said, there is no one right way.

Now with Emelia, we just have to give her a look and she usually stops immediately. Sometimes she pushes back (now that we are in the terrible twos and going into the even more terrible threes) we have been been trying out different things for when she does. What we do for Bridgette does not work for Emelia, and what we do for Emelia does not work for Bridgette. We all live under the same household and we are all family but that does not mean we are the same person. Even as adults different things annoy my husband but don't bother me at all. We are all individuals so that needs to be catered too.

The whole point of this blog is to tell you to not get frustrated when you read all these blogs about perfect parenting and how it does not work for your kids. Don't think that your kids are the only ones that none of these helpful parenting tips (from people who don't know you our your kids) works on. It gets frustrating reading things on how we need to parent from online, reading magazines, and even seeing it on tv. The thing is nobody is going to parent your kid how you parent them and that is NOT a bad thing. I believe God gave us each the ability to cater to our own kid needs. God blessed us as the parent of our kids for a reason. I truly believe that nobody can parent and know whats right for our kids besides us.

We have the innate ability to know what our kids need. Yes, sometimes it is frustrating and we really have to try different things out to see what works best. Parenting is not a straight line, there are many bumps a long the way. There is no straight way and no one path leads to the same result. The truth is that even all these bloggers and writers on the internet don't even know what they are doing. They just tell you what has worked for them, but it isn't guaranteed to work for you. They are just as lost and have their bad moments just like you do. I know without a doubt I do. Sometimes I feel like I have no clue what I am doing and sometimes I am so full of love and pride for my kids I know I am just where I need to be.

If you are one of these bloggers one people that post on Facebook saying their way is the only way, you need to stop. It is great to post about what has worked for you and try to help out others. The problem is what that turns into a shame on you for not parenting how I parent. You have no right to judge anyone. You don't know other peoples kids or how to parent them. Like I said before, there is no right path. When you judge other parents you are not helping them, you are hurting them and possibly hurting their kids. We need to stop butting into each others lives and start living our own. We need to be compassionate and caring towards one another. We need to stop the shaming process and start the support for one another.

We all make mistakes. What I choose for my kids might not be what another person chooses. I might make a quick decision that another person would never do. That is okay. We all need to do what we feel comfortable with. So, now that you made it through this post give yourself a big hug, a big pat on the shoulders, and say "I am a great mom" because you are. You truly are. P.S. this goes for dads too, but you don't have to hug yourself or anything to keep your manliness in tact. ;-)

Peace and Love,

Buying A Home From A Gardener: Positives and Negatives

The lady that lived in our home before we did loved gardening. From the info I got from our neighbors she spent hours upon hours gardening and was a part of many gardening clubs. She ended up loosing this house and then a company that flips houses took over. They kept a lot of her flowers and just remodeled the inside. They didn't do anything really to the outside and put the house for sale in the winter. That's where we come in. We saw the house after looking at a lot of houses and having FOUR houses we put bids on fall through. We loved the cute little neighborhood and the house was perfect. We instantly put a bid in it and they accepted our offer. We finally had our first house!

I was 8 months pregnant when we moved in and I had Eli just as it was starting to get warm outside. I had him via c-section so I wasn't able to do much in terms of gardening. I still did some stuff (shhh don't tell my doctor) but mostly I took it easy. Come to find out the previous owner was an avid gardener. The neighbors told us that there wasn't many places left in her yard that was grass. It was all flowers. We found that out when random flowers started popping up here and there. It was like FLOWERAGEDDEN! We had so many flowers we didn't know what to do with them all and I guess she even took most of her garden with her and we were left with a lot of the scraps. So. Many. Flowers. So we ended up taking out a lot of them but we also kept a lot of them. After gardening the whole day I wanted to share some good and bad about buying a home that was a gardeners.

Lets start of with the positives. I love being positive and I am a super positive person so I figured this is the best place to start. Even my negatives are not super negative. Okay, here we go:

Positive Number 1- You don't have to buy flowers: This is our second year living here and I have yet to buy a single flower. We have just kept her old flowers and either kept them in the same spot or moved them to a better one. My neighbor also gave me two plants that she divided. Yay for free flowers!

Positive Number 2- You don't have many weeds: I have lived at a house where there were so many weeds and it was so hard to garden. It made it so much harder and more work to do anything. When you buy a home from a person that likes to garden, you find out they took great care of their garden. There are some weeds but not really much. It makes it a lot easier to do what you want to the garden to not have to worry about weeds.

Positive Number 3- Flowers are a surprise: I have never been a master gardener. I actually have no clue on what most flowers names are. Thanks to my wonderful neighbor I have been slowly finding out what flowers I have and how pretty they really are. Every flower that comes up is a surprise to see what it blossoms into. It is like a game and a present all in one!

Now lets go to some negatives. We will start at positive number 3 because that is both a gift and a curse...

Negative Number 1- You have no clue what the heck is going to pop up and where. I don't even know what half my plants are. My poor neighbor has me constantly asking her if something is an actual plant or a weed. There are so many flowers that we have had to pull up and just when we think we got them all, five more pop up! It is annoying to have to keep on digging up flowers that are just randomly popping up in your yard.

Negative Number 2- It is a lot of hard work. I have been gardening for the past 6 hours and just got the sides of my house done. I know that I missed a lot of flowers that I didn't want in there too so I know over the summer or over the next couple years that I will have to keep digging stuff up. I feel like its a never ending process.

Negative Number 3- You waste a lot of flowers. I feel so bad having to throw flowers away. I was going to try to give them away but there was just too many of them. We have thrown away around 10 bags of flowers with weeds and dirt mixed in. To even list them on a give away site or to tell people to come and take them I would have to know what exactly they are. I definitely don't know what any of the flowers names were that I pulled up. Plus, we would have to find a place to keep them until they could be given away. Which we don't have a lot of room.

There are the three positives and negatives that I can come up with right now about buying a home from someone who likes to garden. Especially if you are such an amateur gardener like I am. I do not know what I am doing at all. I am horrible with before and afters but I wanted to show you guys some of our progress with our gardening and our home. I have some before and afters but mostly a lot of afters. I am such a bad picture taker so if anyone wants to follow me around all day and take pictures of my life you are more than welcome to. I am taking resumes, but its an unpaid position. Help me I'm poor!

Thanks to google maps this is what my house looked like before they remodeled it. Flowers flowers everywhere!

This is my house (and child) now. There is quite a difference between the two and we are planning on adding more to our garden. We are also planning on taking out the shrubs because they look bad. 

I don't have a before on this but here is the side of my house. I worked really hard on it today. I cannot wait for it to fill in more. When it does and my flowers start to bloom I will take another picture!

This side I actually did a before on. This is my before on the other side of my house. I have no clue what is weeds or plants or what type of flowers were there. 

This was the beginning stage of my starting to pull up everything. I have my little man as a helper!

This looks much better. Thanks to my amazing neighbor I found out I had two hydrangeas, a yucca plant, and a couple geranium plants. She said she doesn't know if the geranium and the yucca will do well since there isn't a lot of sun over here but If they don't do well this year I will *try* to transplant them to a sunny spot. Hopefully they do well so I don't kill them by trying to transplant them!

I did a lot of work today and my house is coming a long. We are going to figure out some sort of border to separate my lawn from the flower beds and we are going to re-mulch and put down a weed barrier. I will probably end up buying some more plants to so I can fill in some spaces but I definitely won't over crowd things. I will have it look like a cute neat little garden! If you have any suggestions on what I should do with my garden please leave a comment and let me know! I will take in any suggestions and I love to hear your feedback! 

Peace and Love, 

Why I Choose To Live Naturally

Okay, so I hear it all the time. You're a hippie or I don't think I could live the "crunchy" lifestyle like you do. I might not be 100% all natural in my daily life but I do choose to get rid of a lot of chemicals and make a lot of things myself. Is it easy? No! I have to find recipes, experiment with them, and make everything that you would just go to a store and by. It is worth it and I think you should start to live naturally too!

Let me get medical with you for a second and tell you one of the major reasons why I choose to live more naturally. Our household cleaners, body products, and even stuff to make the air smell good are KILLING us. No, I am not being overly dramatic either. Your skin? It is the largest organ that we have and it is permeable. That means things can get absorbed through your skin and can effect other parts of your body. How much stuff? There was a recent study done on drinking water that shown the skin absorbed 64% of what was put on it. Click here to read the study for yourself.

 Lets just look at some of the ingredients of the products we use. There was an article in the Huffington Post about 10 toxic beauty products. You can read the whole thing for yourself but here are some of them. Parabens are one that actually mimics estrogen and are linked to increased risk of breast cancer. Yeah, I totally want 64% of that to be absorbed through my skin and a lot of products have it. Phthalates are a type of chemical that can be put in nail polish, perfumes, lotions, and hair spray. They have also been linked to increased risks of breast cancer. They can cause early breast development in girls and can even contribute to reproductive birth defects in both males and females! Tricolsan which is found in a lot of our hand sanitizes and "antibacterial" washes can not only irritate the skin but it can disrupt your endocrine system causing issues with your thyroid and reproductive system. There is also sodium lauryl sulfate which can lead to a lot of issues including kidney and respiratory damage. I am going to stop with those four but you get the picture right? Bad, bad stuff.

Now lets talk about one of our most important organs. Our lungs. Those bad boys help us oxygenate our blood and organs and without them, we would be toast. Everyone knows they cannot live without their lungs. Chemicals can also be absorbed through the lungs. You know those glade plug-in's that make your house smell good. Chock full of chemicals that are getting absorbed right into you. Also any chemical cleaners get absorbed right into your lungs and a lot of them are known to cause respiratory distress. I have asthma and I am super sensitive to these chemicals. I also cannot be around cigarette smoke. When I was pregnant for Emelia it was really hard for me to keep the bathroom clean because I could not breathe. My poor husband had to clean the bathrooms after working 50 hours a week because I could not do it. That is when I decided to try and find natural alternatives to cleaners and start making stuff myself.

If you are having any sort of medical issue going natural wont magically take it away but when you get rid of those chemicals from your life you really do start to feel better. I haven't had breathing issues for years now since I started. Every once in a while I will get tight chested (especially during allergy season) but I don't need to take my emergency inhaler every day. Becoming more natural and being in control of what you put on your skin and in your household is empowering. I know EXACTLY what is in my cleaners because I make them for myself.

Now I am not perfect because I still use a lot of commercial make-ups and I haven't found a shampoo or conditioner recipe that I like yet. Plus I still take my kids to McDonald's every now and again and we are definitely not organic. I can say that my cleaning products are chemical free and so is the way I scent my house. I did find some shampoos and conditioners that are sulfate and phthalate free. Let me tell you how much easier my hair is to handle now. I have super thick, curly, dry, and frizzy hair. It has been a pain in my butt since day 1! With one use of a shampoo that is free of those two chemicals my hair was transformed. Don't believe me? Here is a picture (PS no I am not wearing makeup *gasp* and my hair is naturally that wavy):

Have I scared you enough for today? Good! I am sorry for frightening you but the good news is a quick google search can give you many (easy to make) alternatives for these chemicals. I use my essential oils in a lot of my recipes to make all natural products. You don't get more natural that plants. Essential oils are huge now a days and almost any store now carries them. A word of advice from your favorite oil lady, trust the company you buy them from. Really, even some companies put chemicals in their essential oils. GASP! I know it should be a crime, but it is not! If you want to learn about what oils I use and how to get some of your own click here.

When I can I will post some recipes I use and you can always message me any time or even leave a comment asking any questions. I am here to help. I really want to help people become healthier and get rid of some of these awful chemicals. I can almost guarantee that by living a little less chemical free you will not only feel better but your body (and your families bodies) will thank you. Well that's what was on my mind today folks, until next time.

Peace and Love, 

Mom's Need Time Away

This past weekend the girls and I decided to go to Wisconsin and then the Mall of America in Minnesota. I have never been able to travel much so any time I can travel I am really excited. I went without my kids and it was really nice to get away from everything and just be myself for once.

We drove a lot on this trip. I mean a lot. On Sunday we drove all the way from 7am to 11:30pm. Yup, it was crazy. If I never have to sit in another car I would be happy. My butt still hurts and I feel jet lagged. For those of you that want to go on a road trip, just don't drive all day and every day. It becomes torture.

We decided to do this in a weekend so on Friday we drove to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to get our friend Jenna and we stayed the night out there. We decided to walk around the town and go out to a couple bars. I never go out to bars or drink so this was a lot of fun. We did it responsibly too so that was nice and we didn't get crazy. Just some girlfriends enjoying drinks and talking. It was nice to not talk to toddlers all day.

This is at the hotel when we first got there. This was the only pic we could all get together lol.

In front of the water way! It was super pretty!

Last but not least a rooftop bar. It was really cool up there. 

Two of us are moms so it was rough for both of us to be away from our little's but it was super fun to be able to go out. Ashley and I woke up super early the next morning, to the dismay of Jenna and Stephanie. Poor girls lol but it got us up and out the door to spend more time at the Mall of America. Its about 6ish hours from Milwaukee to Minnesota so we got there around lunch time. 

Mall of America is awesome! The first thing I thought was was that we need to take the kids here! We went to the Sea Life aquarium first because we all love sea life, especially Ashley. I think if we didn't go there Ashley would be super sad. My favorite part was the sea turtles and the big tunnels they had us walk through. 

I also loved the seahorses

We didn't decide to ride the roller coasters this time since we only had a couple hours to really spend at the mall but they looked like fun and next time we go there we are totally doing this all different so that we can have more time to ride the roller coasters. 

We ended up shopping a lot. It was cool to do and I ended up getting a really good deal on some shirts at H&M. Ashley bought me a shirt I was looking at. I was so taken back and thankful for it. She really is my best friend, and no not because she buys me stuff lol. We ended up eating at a restaurant called Dicks Last Resort where the waiters treat you really badly. It was very funny but I probably wouldn't go back there. It was a little too much for me but it was all in good fun and luckily I do not get offended easily. This trip was over way to quickly. I wish it would have slowed down a little. 

Sunday was the worst day though. It was us stuck in the car for hours with nothing to do and we all didn't want to stop much because we all wanted to get home quickly. My legs and butt still hurt. Seriously, I am not getting into a car unless I have to.

So that was a little bit about my trip, now let me tell you why every mom needs to take a trip like this. 

Yes, I was selfish for one weekend. I know what a lot of people would never leave anywhere without their kids for a weekend. I never thought I would be able to leave my kids for days at a time being so little. It was hard and I talked about them constantly. I am sure my friends got annoyed at how much I talked about them. It was needed and I think every mom needs to take at least one weekend (if not more) away from their kids to keep their sanity.

It was really rough for me to make the decision to go on this trip. For one I never do anything for just myself and this would be 100% selfish. I never want to be selfish or take anything away from my kiddos. With that is point two, it costs a lot of money to travel and get away. We are trying to get financially free and I felt so bad taking hundreds of dollars away from my family. We really need that money and I felt completely selfish doing it. We completed Step 1 to financial peace university by Dave Ramsey and we had to reduce the amount of savings so that I could go do this.

So, even though I felt bad and felt selfish I needed this. Moms spend all day taking care of others and we hardly ever take care of ourselves. I cant remember the last time I went shopping for myself and bought a new wardrobe. I always buy things for my kids but never myself unless I really need it. I can't even go to the bathroom by myself, let alone shower. I needed some time to myself some time to be Jessica not mom.

Moms, you DESERVE this. Plus the best part of the trip was coming home and seeing my kids. I had to wait until the morning to see them but they were so happy and excited to see me. I got to give them some souvenirs I got for them and when I came home they bought me a rose. My husband is more appreciate to what I do every day with the kids because he had to live with it. Yeah, it was only a couple days and probably didn't get the full experience of having kids but it was enough. It was nice coming to a clean house and an appreciative husband. It helped renew me and now I feel like I can be a better mom.


Peace and Love,