E-Mealz

A couple of you have noticed a button on my sidebar for E-Mealz, so I've been meaning to share my experience with it for you. We've been using E-Mealz for about the last 5 months. This has helped me tremendously in an area I am very weak...meal planning. I enjoy cooking, but too often I would wait until 5:00pm to decide what to make for dinner only to realize I don't have half the ingredients in the house and we end up eating the same things over and over. Sound familiar?

E-mealz does all the grunt work for me! We chose to get the Aldi's meal plan because we do the majority of our shopping there. (There are also a few more store-specific plans, and also diet specific plans as well, or plans for families of 2). So, once a week I go into my account and download 7 days worth of recipes (main dishes and sides included!) complete with the grocery list for it! We've tried probably about 90% of the recipes and pretty much every one has been delicious and easy to prepare. There is a lot of variety in each week - ususally one crock pot meal, one mexican-type meal, one fish meal, and a mix of chicken, beef, and pork main dishes.

It costs $15 for a 3 month subscription (you can get a $2.50 discount if you search the web for a promo code by the way), which amounts to a little over a dollar a week! I'm very happy to pay someone a dollar and change a week to choose my meals, write out the recipe, and provide me with the matching grocery list! (And for you Financial Peace people out there, this program is endorsed by Dave Ramsey!)

I think it does 2 major things for us:
1. Makes it super easy for me to be prepared and organized in an area that gets overlooked or pushed aside for all the other jobs I do around here because I don't enjoy that part of it.
2. Although for us it hasn't changed our grocery budget much (because we were already doing pretty well keeping it very low for a family of 5, especially by shopping at Aldis), it has prevented us from "stocking up" on all kinds of things that end up pushed to the back of our pantry and never used. We buy things for specific meals, and everything gets used, so we're not spending money on food we "may or may not" need.

If you decide to give it a try after reading this, please click on the following link or the button at the top or on my sidebar before signing up so they know I'm the one that sent ya! Feel free to ask me any questions. It really has made a big difference for our family and maybe it will for yours too!

CLICK HERE:

E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families

Hope and Provision

Some days it feels like we're on cruise control. We've got the top down and the sun is shining. Life is good. The radio is playing our favorite song and everything in the world is right.

Then there are days like today. An April morning when the birds should be chirping, and the flowers budding, but everything is covered in a silent sheet of snow. My head hurts, I'm exhausted, the car is in the shop (literally), I'm grumpy about everything, and the bad news seems to keep pouring down. People all around us are struggling and hurting. I keep hearing of sick babies, or babies who never get a chance at life, and it makes me hug mine a little tighter. There is a heaviness in the air. Nothing seems fair. Nothing seems just. Something in the world just isn't right.

But there is hope. Hope that in a few days or weeks, the snow and cold will be gone and the sun will shine on our pale faces and we'll be dripping in warmth. Just like there is hope for the world.

It's amazing how throughout our 7 1/2 years of marriage, God has continually shown us that he will provide for us. Today, Brad's car unexpectedly ended up needed a repair. I had this nagging feeling we needed to take it in right away. The shop called with the estimate which was considerable higher than we expected because there was a lot more wrong than we knew. Basically, the front brakes on the car needed to be completely rebuilt. Want to hear something amazing, that keeps happening to us so often we've come to expect it? I checked our bank account today and found our state return had been deposited for $642. When Brad walked out of the auto shop, I asked him what the total came to after tax and all. $642. God is cool like that.

I heard a blurb on the radio yesterday by an artist who was sharing the thoughts behind a song he had written. It stemmed from a mother he had met who had lost her child at a very young age. It got me thinking, especially with Easter coming up this weekend. I'll never understand why these kind of things happen or why a lot of bad things happen. But I do understand that it's part of a plan bigger than me and bigger than you. And bigger than this day that just isn't going right. And bigger than the economic problems in the world. And bigger than the injustice and corruption we experience in humanity. Maybe we have to experience bad days like today to experience God working in our lives because when we're riding with the top down belting out the words to that favorite song, we just might miss it. If our car hadn't needed work today, we would have missed out on that reminder that God provides. Why do bad things happen? They happen because this world is not our home. It's not supposed to be a comfortable place. It's not supposed to be a place we love. We're supposed to be longing for something better. We're supposed to want something more than this life. And there is something better. And there is something more. And it's Jesus.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. ~ Romans 15:3

We Did It!

We paid off our car early and I am holding the title 9 months ahead of schedule thanks to our Financial Peace class! On to our school loans!

Financial Peace Update

It's been a good 6 months since we completed the Financial Peace University class we took in the spring at church. David began a 3 week series this past Sunday about the economy, and it was such a great reminder of many of the principles we learned in FPU. The main point of the sermon was that there is God and there is money- one you will trust and the other you will use. Having been married in college, and then going through 4 years of medical school on a low, hourly wage income (teaching jobs were lacking to say the least the year I graduated) for only 3 out of the 4 years with a baby in the mix, we really can say there is no explanation for how we survived that time financially except by the grace of God. We learned very quickly to trust that God would provide, and every time he did. We learned to expect and plan for a car breakdown right around the time our tax refund check would come. :) We were also very blessed with friends and family who understood our needs and took watch over us during that time and we are forever grateful for that.

When we began residency a little over 2 years ago, it was our first time in 5 years of marriage that we had a regular, salaried income and could begin really budgeting. I wish we had that class available to us a few years ago because I know we would have made different choices along the way in regards to home buying, insurance, and such with the knowledge we have now. But, I am confident that God brought that class into our life at the perfect time. We still live on a tight, strict budget, but with that brings freedom. We can decide how each dollar is spent with what we have now. We are in control of our money rather than it being in control of us. As a result of the FPU class we have made changes, including elminiating credit cards and cell phones, starting a debt snowball which gives us a plan for our massive school loans, making wiser choices about what to spend our money on (or what not to spend it on), increasing our giving to others, and we are less than one full payment away from our last car payment, 9 months ahead of schedule! In a couple of years our financial situation is going to drastically change again, and we will have to redesign our plan...but one thing I never want to lose sight of (no matter how much or how little we have) is those years we were learning to fully rely on God to meet our needs.

I have also been continually reminded of how much we need to be aware of the seriousness of poverty in the world around us, because even at our poorest we were still in the top 1% of the world's wealthiest. My trip to the Gambia in 2002 was perhaps the most impacting reminder I had. We saw the slums in Banjul from the balcony of our hotel. We traveled into the villages around Ndugu Kebbe where people lived in dirt and straw huts and ate peanuts and rice. We saw hungry children, sick people, and dying babies at the clinic. In the Daniel study I am doing at church, Beth Moore made a statement that reminded me we should never lose touch with the poor because once that happens we are fully immersed in the "Babylonian" culture that bombards us here in America. Since I was in college, I have wanted to sponsor children in need overseas. So Brad and I decided to begin the sponsership program through Compassion International. We chose a little boy in Guatemala who was born the same year as Riley and looks very undernourished. I get so excited when I think about what our $32 a month is going to do for that child and his family. It is going to rock his world. :) I also get excited to think about the impact it will have on our kids as we reach out over an ocean to bring a child their age (and hopefully more children in the future) food and clothing and education.

We do still have stressful moments when it comes to money, whether it's all the medical expenses we've had lately or uncertain gas prices. Learning to trust is a continual process and there are always going to be surprises in life. But I am confident that the money will be there every month, not because I trust in money, but because my trust is in God.

Going Against the Flow

Yup that's right we are going against the flow...the cell phone flow. While most of our families and friends are making the transition to solely cell phones and no land line, we are taking the plunge and getting a land line put in so we can get rid of our cell phones. Are we crazy? You are asking that I'm sure...well maybe, but we have a couple good reasons for doing so and feel that it is a sacrifice we are being called to make. The biggest reason is financial benefit. After taking the Financial Peace course in the Spring, we made some changes and adjustments to our budget and established a plan for paying off our school debt and the one car payment we have (which will be payed off in a few months - almost a year early!). There isn't a whole lot that we can cut out of our budget at this point...but when we figured out that by getting digtal home phone service and nixing the cell phone plan we would save close to $700 a year (yikes and we have a really basic plan too!), we decided that that was something we needed to seriously consider. Even if we stick with just the home phone for 1-2 years, the money we save can help pay off some of our loans and help us meet the amount we committed to giving towards our church's new building campaign. Our plan with Verizon is up Sept 15th so we will be cancelling our service at that time and the phone guys were over today getting us all set up with our home line. We most likely will pocket a much cheaper "pay-as-you-go" phone solely for emergencies, out-of-town travel, and Brad's "on-call" days since doctors really need to be accessible at all times, unfortunately. While it seems a little backwards, I don't think I am going to miss being able to be reached anytime, anywhere...the idea of cell phones is pretty cool, however I think I am going to enjoy the freedom of leaving my house without one...I lived 22 years before ever having a cell phone, I think I'll be okay for a couple more.

Some updates

Since I haven't been keeping up with our other website lately, some people have been asking for some updates on things, so here's the latest scoop:

Brad is on Internal Medicine right now, one of my least favorite rotation schedules. He leaves in the morning by 5:30/6 am (way before we are up) and every fourth day works till 10pm. The rest of the days he is home around dinner time, which is nice unless we have meetings or things in the evening, which happens a couple times a week these days. He finishes Internal up on Sunday at 10pm and then begins OB, another schedule not so high on my list of favorites, but we always manage :). He is also preparing for his annual trip to Honduras with a medical team for two weeks at the beginning of May.

Riley is doing well with potty training. We are keeping it pretty low key, not pushing anything, but we do have him sit a couple times a day and he has been able to put quite a few stickers in his book! He still hasn't reached the point where he asks to go sit on it, but I'm still happy with how he is doing at this point. His imagination is just gone wild. He is always making up stories and games with his toys and various items around the house which is a lot of fun to watch.

Some funny "Riley-isms" from this past week:
He absolutely loves to wear his sunglasses everywhere. As we were getting ready to leave the house one day...Riley walks into the kitchen wearing them...Mommy:"Riley you look cool!" Riley (in all seriousness): "I AM cool, Mommy."
I was a working on a baby shower invitation design last night and he was looking at the pictures on the computer from when I was pregnant with him. Mommy: " Riley, that is a picture when you were a baby in my tummy!" Riley (eyes widened): "I'm too big to go in there now. Mommy you eated me?"

Naomi is doing new things every day. She is so full of giggles and smiles, especially when playing with Riley. She knows about 10 words now. She is walking more and more every day. She has taken 8-10 steps across the room at a time and is getting a lot braver, but still prefers to crawl or "gimp" around as we call her signature move of sitting on one knee and scooting everywhere - she can go pretty fast! She is definitely a climber above all else - she LOVES the stairs and anything else she can climb on. In fact if the stairs are blocked and someone is upstairs she will cry to go up. She had her one year check up on March 10th. She had a couple shots and blood drawn, so it was pretty rough, but she survived and of course she and Riley entertained all the nurses while there and left with a boat load of stickers as usual :). She finally broke 20 lbs so we were able to turn her front facing, yay! She was 20 lbs 8 oz and 27 inches, still a peanut on the charts, but growing nonetheless!

Brad and I are enjoying the Financial Peace class we are taking at our church. Our whole community group decided to participate which was pretty cool. We have already made some major changes to our budgeting and have a plan of attack for the school debt we have accumulated. I highly recommend the class if you get the chance to take it!

I am having a lot of fun with our MOPS@ group too. Lynda, Jayne, and I decided to continue in leadership together again next year. We have had several playdates and mom's night outs which have been great. We are anxious to see how all the details will come together for next year as a lot of other groups are transitioning leadership or lacking it, and that will be affecting our group in a lot of ways.

I think that's all for now! That should get you all pretty up to date :).