Financial Friday the 13th. . .

Good Friday morning.    On this rainy and overcast Friday the 13th I think we should do a check up of our rainy day fund/emergency fund.   Are you saving for that rainy day or emergency?  If you are not prepared for the rain a simple appliance problem could send you in to financial ruin or at least zap your budget.  Dave Ramsey talks about saving $1,000 in cash and fast as your on hand emergency fund.  He also talks about saving three to six months of expenses for your long term emergency fund. If you have an emergency fund in place, your emergencies do not seem so big.  
If you have not checked out Dave Ramsey I highly recommend it.  Read his information and test out his theories for yourself.  I am not a financial guru nor do I claim to be, I have followed most of what Dave Ramsey says to do and we are debt free except our house and saving like crazy for the boys to go to college.   I was thrilled that my friend Beth invited me to my first Dave Ramsey class and I was excited when my friend Craig said he would be teaching a class.   You do not have to attend a class to learn his system, check out the Dave Ramsey website.  I also encourage you to read books from other financial people like Suzy Orman.  There are many financial businesses that will counsel you in your financial matters but, do you really want to take advice from someone who has less money in the bank than you?  I am not saying that they are all like that but, I find it hard to take financial advice from someone who is in more debt than I am.  As Dave says, if you want to be a millionaire you do what millionaires do and millionaires do not take financial advice from broke people.   You can find Dave Ramsey's books at the library and at some used book stores.
Here is my disclosure:  I am not receiving any perks or kickbacks for this post.  I write this because I truly believe in this system and I think we would all be better off out of debt.   Imagine the contributions that could be made to charity if we were all out of debt. . .  

Mother is Always Right. . .

Not only is Mother always right but so is Daddy.  It took me twenty-two years to come to this monumental conclusion.    I wonder how long it will take my kids to come to this conclusion?    I look back on all of the advice, solicited or not, that my parents gave me and boy my life would have been so much easier if I had followed half of what they advised.   I did follow some but I do wish I had listened to it all!   This goes back to that post where I talked about the kids "earning" knowledge.  I earned a great deal of knowledge through those twenty-two years.   I talk a lot about Mom but Dad is also a force that cannot be left out.  He showed me how men are supposed to treat women and when I dated those that were not up to his standards he pointed it out.   He let me know that these boys were not fit for my company or my attention in very subtle ways.   They never told me who I could or could not date but they helped me see the true colors of some of the less desirable boys that I had contact with.
My Mom and Dad met my dear hubby at a basketball game.  They did not get a lot of time to talk to him but they immediately liked him.  He met the WHOLE family at a reunion a month or so later and of course everyone immediately loved him.  He blended well with the rest of our clan.   The hubbs was thrilled when he found out we were having road kill stew because my aunt Laura had hit a deer the day before on her way to town.   You may think that is gross but we all love some good deer meat and it did not matter how it got to the table.  Everyone had only the nicest things to say about my hubby when they met him that day and I guess I knew deep down he was going to be the one.  We had not been dating that long but there was just something about him that lead me to believe that he would be my forever love.
I do still lean on my Mom and Dad for advice for different things and I have no regrets.  I hope that my kids will come along at some point and make the same realization.  They are young, impetuous, stubborn, and very reluctant to listen to the hubbs and I right now.   I pray for them daily, I pray for whomever God has picked out for them as their mate.  No, it is not too soon to pray for that.    You want them to have a godly mate and someone that will love them the way they deserve to be loved.   I want them to have the kind of love that my Mom and Dad have, that my hubby and I have, and the love that my in-laws had.

Plant Celebration. . .

Today I am celebrating our beautiful garden and our beautiful plants and herbs.  I love gardening and working with the soil.  It is very rewarding to watch a plant grow from a seed or seedling into a beautiful flower, herb, or vegetable.  I am very lucky that my hubby shares my love of plants and gardening.    I hope that my kids will learn to love gardening too.   I am sharing some of my pictures that I took this morning of our garden and my flowers.

Sweet Basil, not to be confused with my four legged one. 

A gift from my Mom.

Cherry tomato

Parsley 

Dahlia, a gift from my Mom on Mother's Day

Broccoli and Cabbage

Mixed bag of Lettuce

Fresh Oregano 

Gorgeous Geranium from my dear Hubby for Mother's Day.

End of Season. . .

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  We lived in the little moments, unfortunately separated.  The hubbs and Sprat spend All day at Carolina Rebellion and Big T and I spent our Saturday at Lax Fest.  They played four games and won three out of the four.  That is a lot of Lacrosse for one little boy.  We had fun though and he finished his season with three big wins.  We also got to see a few girls college lacrosse championship games too.  Duke, Carolina, Virginia Tech and South Florida were there playing and those that think girls lacrosse is not as physical as the boys have not watched them play.
Sprat and the hubbs were at the concert all day and got to see several bands that they both like.  Spent Sunday at Mom and Dad's celebrating my Mom and my sister and what great mothers they both are.  Enjoyed some wonderful food and spending time with the family.  Big T did not feel real well so we did not get to go see he and Sprats name sake.  My sister named her newest baby goats after my boys.  Big T the goat is quite rambunctious and usually finds trouble.  Sprat the goat is not as much of a trouble seeker.  They are both very cute goats.  
Big T is in black in the middle.  Last set of games for this season, they finished with only two losses.

Happy Mother's Day...

To all the Mom's, I hope you have a wonderful weekend with your families.  To all the Dad's being Mom too, I hope you have a wonderful weekend also.
Being a Mom is a very difficult job; there are no vacation days, no sick days, no pay raises, and most days no pats on the back for a job well done.  There are days when your kiddos will give you a kiss on the cheek and a whisper, "I love you."    I consider those as my pay raise. 
I think being a Mom to boys is the hardest.  They go from loving you and wanting you around all the time to being embarrassed to be seen with you.   When my kids get on that trip, I give them fair warning, that they have not even begun to be embarrassed.   Yes, I am that Mom. 
I love my boys to the moon and back, and I would do anything for them within reason.   They do push me to my end sometimes.  
You want your kids to do better than you, you do not want them to make the same mistakes you made.  I am here to tell you, you can only tell them so much.  Some things they have to learn from experience.  My hubby calls this "earning" knowledge.   I want to protect them from some of those "earning" experiences.  
Again to all the Mom's out there making memories, living in the little moments, and trying to make a difference for their children.  Prayers for us all.

This is a picture of my Mom and the boys on one of our outings a year ago.  

My niece, Mom, and Me at Biltmore last Summer. Photo by Big T.

Happy Mother's Day 

First Greens. . .and a Little Tuna

Enjoying my first salad of the season this week.  You just cannot beat fresh greens.  Last night the boys had cheese steaks, and the hubbs and I had tuna over our fresh greens and sprouts.  Yes, I am still sprouting, working on my third crop of alfalfa sprouts. 
I wanted to share my tuna recipe with you.  I never liked tuna when I was younger,  it was not until I started fixing it this way that I really liked it. 
Here we go: 
1 can solid white tuna in water
1 tbsp mayo
1 1/2 tbsp mustard
Dash of garlic powder
Dash of dill
Dash of vinegar

Drain your tuna and mix with your other ingredients.
Chill and serve over a bed of greens and you will not need extra dressing.  Spread on toast or a tortilla with some greens and sprouts.   You can also enjoy with some crackers and cheese.  

If that does not fit your tastes this is another recipe for tuna I have used.  My kids even eat this but, shhhh they do not know it is tuna.

1 or 2 cans of solid white tuna in water (depending on how many you have to feed)

Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce (or whatever BBQ sauce you prefer)

Drain your tuna and put in a skillet on medium heat.  Add your BBQ sauce and stir to combine.  Let this heat up and you can eat by itself or on a bun like a BBQ sandwich.   You do not even realize it is tuna.

School is Almost Out. . .

One final down and one to go, I am really excited and relieved to see this semester come to an end.   I will have about a month to decompress and prepare for a wild Summer full of College tours, football workouts, and Lacrosse camps.  I hope we can work in a visit to the beach too.  
Big T is almost done with his season of Lacrosse, he got to play attacker this weekend.  The attackers are the ones that get to shoot and score.  Big T was very nervous and they threw him the ball and caught it clean and turned to shoot but unfortunately the goalie caught it.  The goalie and Big T were both pretty surprised.   They won both games and they were so far ahead in the last game and that is why Big T got to be an attacker.  They were letting the boys play what ever position they wanted.   Their record right now is 13-1-1.
Baseball game was cancelled due to the weather.  My niece has moved into her new apartment up here to start her clinical rotations for her final year of Pharmacy school.  I am so proud of my nieces they are smart, talented, beautiful and are not afraid to step out of their comfort zone to achieve their goals.   I wonder if my sister would mind if I claim her as mine while she is here?  
Back on the books for that final, final exam and then I can cheer my boys through their finals and EOC exams.