Backwards Rolls, Cartwheels and Skipping!
Nope, I'm not doing these things right now, but Brexley is! On Monday she hit these three milestones and I didn't want to forget when she did them. I remember doing my first back handspring, standing tuck, full up cupies, etc. but I don't remember learning the small things that we work so hard on as kids. They seem so natural that we forget that it took us time to learn them. This year they have been working on skipping in dance but she couldn't fully get the step hop, step hop. On Monday though it all came together and she and Michael skipped around the house. As far as backwards rolls go, if she was on an incline going backwards she could do the roll but never on a flat service. Well she surprised me Monday afternoon when I asked her to do one and she did it. The cartwheel is still a work in progress for these tumbling minded parents, but it's really starting to look like a cartwheel now instead of the set your hands down and hop over method that they are taught with. She's been working on it really hard for about a week and the improvement is great. YAY! Now I just need to be happy with the progress and not expect complete perfection which is hard for me when i'm looking at tumbling skills. She's doing great and I want to continue to encourage her and help her improve without being too critical that I discourage her.

Moving on....

Here's how I do it right now:

Before I start this next section let me say that I am not an expert when it comes to finances. I love to read finance books and work the calculations but actually applying the principals I learn is a WHOLE other issue. I know exactly what we should and shouldn't be doing but that doesn't mean that I do it. We have read the Dave Ramsey book which is great. I really like a lot of his principles and our financial manager also had some great things to say. Mostly I put bits and pieces together. Probably if I could teach myself and kids one thing it would be to save. This is not a principle that I learned well and if I had we would be in a totally different situation right now. Also, no matter how cute that piece of plastic is, they are not your best friends! Amazing what credit cards can do and most of it is not positive! More on that later... This post is just here if anybody needs some ideas or for our kids someday when they go back and read this.

First, let me say that Michael and I are EXTREMELY blessed and I really am thankful that Michael has the career he has esp. when so many are having a tough time in this economy. I really want us to be good stewards with what God has blessed us with!

So, since we are heading into July (can you believe it? where is the year going?) This is how I start out the month. Michael gets paid weekly and because he works contract his pay is based on the number of patients he sees. This can change from week to week so no we do not have a set budget nor can we. We know a minimum that we need but we simply cannot set a budget because it's never the same from week to week. This would probably drive a lot of people crazy, but believe me the good far outweighs the bad! I start with a blank calendar for the month and then write in every bill and when it's due. That way I know what's coming for each week and can plan accordingly. I used to pay bills when they were due but I realized I would tend to spend too much money on the front end so now I pay all the bills for that week and then use what's left over to pay for other things or pay other bills ahead of time. This won't work for everybody, but it has really been great for us and I don't have any surprises or forget things this way. If we have extra things we need to pay for I write those in at the top. Everybody needs to figure out what works best for them so maybe this can just get you started to help you figure out what works best for you!