I just typed in the title, and for some reason hit enter. This resulted in publishing a post that only says "Monday Highlights." Nice.
1. Audrey has taken to singing Twinkle Twinkle. It is so cute.
2. We skipped pretty much everything this weekend. We were wiped out, and we had a pretty decent snowstorm yesterday. Nick and I got some great time together.
3. We're leaving to go to Nebraska to see Nick's family Friday through Sunday.
4. We spent Thursday and Friday night this week working on the recording with the choir. This week it amounted to singing through the melody of all of the songs, while Pastor Ross danced around on stage like a nut, trying to keep us all smiling. There's a big difference between what you hear live and what you hear when something is recorded, so many corrections have to be made to translate a great live worship night into a great worship cd. After being moved, I ended up in the front row, right under the mic. Part fun, part nerve-wracking.
5. I have a confession to make: I'm hiring a housekeeper. We will do every other week at the most, and maybe just once a month because of money, but I'm doing it. I have mixed feelings about this, because on the one hand I feel stupid for not being able to keep the bathroom clean. On the other hand, we can afford it (we're talking $30-40 per cleaning, because of how small our house is), and I would much rather pay somebody to do it than live in a pig pen, or quit something else I'm doing. Dobson, in his book "What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women" says that mothers of young children should always have their houses cleaned, and money should be budgeted for it every month. I like that. :)
6. I'm making a whole chicken in the crockpot for dinner tonight, to be served with baked sweet potatoes. Yummy.
7. Mom's group at Joanna's on Thursday was really fun. We had 6 moms and 11 children! This is the vision I've always had for it, and I'm so excited to see it growing.
8. Audrey is almost weaned...we're down to one nursing a day, at bedtime. Seeing as how she would have totally gone to bed without it last night and the night before, we're working mostly with Mommy's attachment at this point. Why is it so hard to let kids grow up? My baby is a toddler now...she's currently pushing the doll stroller around the house with about 6 dolls in it. She gets really frustrated when she runs into something and they all fall out because there's so many. Pretty funny.
What are your highlights?
On our way home...Harvest Host
2 months ago
wow a housekeeper...it sounds so decadent. hhhmmm, I might need to consider that for my own house. though I'm not sure Chris would go for it.
ReplyDeleteIn South Africa we had live-in maids (there they are called "servants" but that sounds snobish here even though it wasn't there) because the houses are huge over there and each house has like a mini geust house that the maid lives in (sometimes they chose not to though if they have families or what not) and as a child I NEVER cleaned my room, never did a chore, and most of my days were spent playing pranks on our maid. She was like family. We went to visit her a few years after our move to America. My mom really struggled to keep up the house when we moved here not because she couldn't handle cleaning but she used to spend basically all day with us or cooking big meals every night because she had the time. The culture is so different. I honestly think cleaning services should be an affordable thing for everyone and a normality here. It's really hard to keep up with everything. I'm honestly very jealous. :)
ReplyDeleteIt does sound decadent, I suppose. And, it might be. Nick and I are brainstorming tonight about how to put even more money toward debt...so that's one thing that might get cut in the process.
ReplyDeleteIt's so cool to hear about how different cultures handle this. I remember reading the Anne of Green Gables books when Hannah was tiny, and thinking how incredible it would be to have live-in help. Talk about taking stress off!
Mostly, I get frustrated about how that is perceived. Like, if someone prioritizes the money to do that, it's easy to see them as either too lazy to clean house, or as incredibly wealthy - even I struggle with this! Like Irene was saying, I wish everyone could do it!
The fact is, very few of us live on next to nothing. If you were to show me your budget, I could probably show you where your priorities are. Do you have a big car payment because you "need" a very reliable car? Do you have a rent/house payment more than 25% of your monthly pay? For us, we spend money on food, mostly. Our rent is a low percentage, we have one paid off car and another low payment, so we have some flexibility. But, we live in a house that is...not my favorite, and our primary car is nearly too small for us. There are always trade-offs...
I agree with what your saying and I am by no means judging you. If you can afford it--I say go for it. I actually have been thinking about it since you posted and honestly would love it if someone could come in and clean my bathrooms and kitchen floor every other week.
ReplyDeleteI also understand and agree about priorities. We have a mortgage because it was important to me that the kids have their own rooms and a yard to play in. Sure we could save money and rent an apartment. We could have bought a condo. But the yard was super important to me. I want my kids to have a childhood like my own (but maybe a little better). Is our mortgage huge? In the grand scheme of life, probably not--but it is a big commitment to us.
Sara...you have started another debate :)
I just had a revelation.
ReplyDeleteI kept trying to write this response, explaining that we have decided to rent, etc, so that we have extra discretionary income with which we can do things like this. I don't necessarily feel judged, just like I maybe need to explain myself.
The problem with that reponse is it's not the truth! We have made the choices we've made because we are getting out of debt.
Free tip: don't go to private college on loans.
Over long periods of time, it's easy to forget that was the purpose of making the decisions we've made, and start spending the money rather than pay off debt with it. But, that's the reason for our decisions. Believe me, no other reason is good enough.
Huh. Now I'm motivated again. (I'll be cleaning my own bathroom) :)