Times are changing...

A couple of months back, Jude and I decided to change one little minor circumstance in our life, and that one small thing started a huge ball rolling (in the right direction). It is weird watching all that has taken place and the happiness we are finding in these new places. I can tell you one big thing was to get on a budget. I wrote a big long blog about our scary debt but have yet to post it. I loved the words in it, but am insecure in making myself so vulnerable to the world at this point and time. I am sure at a later date I will hit the "post" button. Anywho, one of the noticeable differences at our house is we downsized the cable bill from eighty dollars a month to sixteen dollars. We got rid of all the nonsense that we paid for and did not watch. We have "limited basic cable". I will admit I miss my HGTV, but I didn't really watch it all that much when I did have it. We were never big t.v. people! Our television itself is from 1996, at least. It is one of the (only) things I took from my previous marriage and we have never upgraded. Aside from the size of it (it's rather bulky), the "quality" doesn't bother me. It's a t.v. It's in color. It's not plasma, it's not LCD; but isn't it usually men that care about these things anyway? Point is, we have a perfectly fine working television! It seems like at our house, the television was always on but no one was ever really watching it. I can't watch adult shows when the three boys are awake, so cartoons were on ALL the time. Late at night, when Jude and I should be reconnecting, we would scan the DVR to see what has been recorded. So, when we did this "downsizing", I also made the decision to turn the t.v. off during the week and only let the boys watch it on the weekends. (Thanks, Isabel's mom!) *Roman gets away with a little daytime cartoons when no ones looking. The boys have been eager to play outside in the beautiful weather. They have both been interested in playing educational games on the computer, and taking turns. They have been reading!! This morning, Jude got up with the boys to take them to school and ALL THREE were sitting in the living room reading (or looking at) books. OMG! It is exciting as a parent to see the children transform, accept (and not rebel) the change. We baked Halloween cookies together two nights ago after dinner. We played in the rain yesterday evening. We drove around and searched for Halloween decorations a few nights ago. We are "playing" with our children more. It is awesome! As for the t.v., we have a TiVo and can still record some family shows to watch on occasion. Together, we watched "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" and would stop it after the questions to see if Cullen, Jude or myself could guess the right answer. A little bit of a trivia game for us to interact over. Life has been fun. I try not to get on the computer as much when they are home in the evenings. My blogging has been cut down, only because I am trying to find ways to manage my time at the moment. I hope to be back and typing soon:) I searched online and found a great idea about making a monthly dinner menu. You go to google and access their calendar. You set up recurring dinners on there; it can be the same meal every two weeks, three or four. They rotate and I make my shopping list out for the next week every Sunday. I go to the grocery every Monday (when Jude gets off of work the earliest) and I shop ALONE. I make a simple dinner Monday night, as I am tired from the long day. By the next Monday, I am ready to go again. I look forward to it! I found a system and it works. It only took ten years of marriage (total) to learn how to be a sufficient and organized woman in the kitchen. There are a few other areas we are working on, but only time will tell how it all will turn out. Until then....