Summers end

It seems like this summer just flew right by.  I suppose having to travel to Tennessee plus having hobbies to keep me busy helped spur it right along.  The garden did 100 times better than I ever imagined it would.  It has totally served every purpose I wanted it to and then some.  My original intent for the garden, was to provide enough green beans to last us all summer and winter in the form of frozen and dilly beans, provide fresh home grown tomatoes, zucchini and squash to eat, and to try to grow a few new things. The amazing thing is that everything I planted, actually produced.  I am pretty proud of myself considering I have never grown anything in my life.

As the summer is winding down, I will be getting back into the groove of things.  I finally made it back to the gym.  I managed to pack on about 8 lbs that I had previously lost since I hadn't seen the gym all summer and only tracked my food sporadically.  It felt really good to get back in to the gym and back to a routine.  Also this coming week, I return to school.. again.  I took last semester off and am back at it with only two classes left.  Unfortunately I cannot take the classes simultaneously so my projected graduation date is Spring of 2013.  I cannot wait to be done with this.

This year all four older kids are in the same school.  I realized after sending them off that first day that this is the first time in about 10 years that I have only had one kid at home.  It is a strange feeling and I can't get over how quiet the house is during the day when they are gone.  That silence disappears quickly though as soon as they walk through the door.

Ever since my mom passed away, I have been trying to reflect on a lot of things.  It's been a difficult few months and some days it is still surreal and I can't believe she is gone.  I honestly think the more time goes by the harder it gets.  I have had plenty of bad dreams and still can visualize her with the panic in her eyes as she was telling me she was not doing ok that day I was there.  It has helped me reflect on my role as a mother and I have been trying to change the way I parent my children.  I appreciate my role more now than ever before, but it also makes that role very hard.  This was definitely an eye opening experience, and I know it will take a while to heal.

We are still budgeting but we changed from Pear Budget, to using Dave Ramsey's budgeting tool and his Total Money Makeover book.  I have had the book for years and tried abiding by it before but quit shortly after starting it.  Today, we don't have much debt and have a pretty decent income.  It allows us to do things we have not been able to do previously, such as go on a family vacation, purchase things for hobbies and fund expenses ahead of time.  However we feel we must stay on a strict budget or else we will find ourselves in the pitfalls of major debt.

I am still working on the rest of my 40/40 list.  I have about 9 more items to add to it before I can publish it.  I never thought it would be so hard to think of things, but I want to make sure the things I list are realistic.  Hopefully I will have lots of new exciting content over the next few months.  I have lots of content ready and pictures archived, I just need the discipline to get them posted.  Thanks to all my readers who have stuck by my side, not deleting me from their blog roll, and checked in from time to time.  I'm glad to know the little following I have is loyal.