Blessings

I figured that I had to share this experience. It's not a secret to most of our friends that we aren't exactly swimming in money. We usually have enough to pay our bills and sometimes a little extra for gas and diapers. Well, this month, we fell short, by quite a bit. Even with the money I am actually starting to make with Scentsy, we were about $25 short just for bills. So, I faithfully paid tithing and begrudgingly asked my parents for help. (I feel guilty because they help so much already). Then, it started. The first thing was a letter that came in the mail. We qualified for Energy Assistance and will not have to pay our gas bill for pretty much the rest of the year. Wow. The next thing, I have no explanation for. I was on-line last week to update the amounts of our bills and enter them in our budget spreadsheet. A few days later I went back on-line to pay one of the bills, but to my surprise, my account said $0.00 due. I triple checked it and still, $0.00 due. Awesome. THEN, we received a phone call from our apartment manager this morning. A new tenant reported to her that we referred them to the apartment complex. They moved in this morning, so we received a $50 credit for our rent next month. I have never met this family, but I will be bringing them a plate of cookies tomorrow!

Time Management, or lack thereof

I've noticed something about myself over the last month or so - I am terrible at time management. It's something I used to be really great at - especially when I was in college and working. It was the only way I could get everything done. That's the thing about motherhood - nobody's giving you deadlines for various tasks. My goal is to give myself deadlines and a schedule so I don't end up wasting a bunch of time. Nothing too crazy, but a little bit of structure can go a LONG way. Right now my strategy involves my dry erase calendar with the most important task written down for each day. To others, a to-do list with only 1 item per day may sound like small potatoes, but I think it will keep me in line. Any other suggestions?