Balancing Act

Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. (proverbs. 19:21)

With the spring semester starting back and soccer still in full swing it has been a job in itself trying to keep everything balanced. So instead of winging it like I did last semester, I have went back to the methods that helped me when I was first starting at as a wife and mother and that is a PLAN. A plan that include a weekly chore chart and a menu plan. I have been follwing this schedule now for a few weeks now, I actually started it about week before I went back to school and things have been running pretty smoothly. I am posting my plans below, these have been scheduled around my class times, soccer practices and church.

Mondays: Declutter Desk /Water flowers/Sweep porches/clean upstairs hallway and stairs (trash day)

Tuesdays: Dust, Wipe down all light switches door knobs etc with disinfectant sprays..

Wednesday: Laundry / Mop/vaccum floors Grocery Shopping and other Errands (church)

Thursday: Bathrooms (trash day)

Fridays: Deep Clean Kitchen ( oven, pantry, refrigerator, cabinets) water flowers

Saturdays: Laundry/vaccum out cars (soccer games)/ clean out trash cans

Sundays: School clothes ironed for the week/backpacks ready/prepare menus (church)

This list isnt the bible...if I need to mop or dust etc before the proposed date then I do it. Cleaning the kitchen and picking up things daily is a must as well. Its up to you how you do it.

I know it sounds like a lot, but I have family of five and a dog and its a job...but I dont do all these chores alone..my whole family is involved :) takes a village to mess up and takes one to clean up..LOL.

My Menu this week:

Monday- Turkey Burger/Sweet Potatoe Fries/Salad

Tuesday- Herb Roasted Chicken/Brocoli and cheese/Rice

Wednesday- Spaghetti w/Turkey meatballs/salad/garlic bread

Thursday-Leftover Buffet

Friday- Homemade Pizza

Saturday- Polish sausages (grill) w/ onion and green peppers

Sunday- Superbowl finger foods (sliders, dips, treats)

A Frugal Female

Coming up in a house raised by a single mother of four children, we often got a lot of "hand me downs". We rarely got NWT stuff (new with tags :)). Someone would give my mom large black trash bags filled with stuff, mostly stuff that was out of season or too little, or things that had little wear and tear on them. My brothers, sister and I would then proceed to put on a full fledged fashion show for mom, so she could figure what we could and couldnt keep. I admit, it was little exciting to get stuff that was "new" to me but I still longed for things that were NWT! I often times thought to myself, when I get "grown", I will never make my kids wear hand me downs or used stuff...HA!!! Boy have things changed!! I know realize how frugal my mom was, she was clearance and second shopper, and as I child I couldnt appreciate how she had to do what she had to do to make sure that we at least had something to wear, may not have been new but hey, it got the job done...
Now with that being said, I am a FRUGAL FEMALE...I dont know if its because my mother was or because I just cant see how buying a lot of Designer, Name brand items for children who can only wear them for one season as being rational or sane!! Not saying that I dont buy new items for myself or for my family because believe me, I do!!!!!!!! Maybe more than I should, but any who...I am writing this blog to share with you guys how my Thrifty Furniture and Fashion Finds....insert applause here......yayyyyyyyyy.. I shop at my local Goodwills and Base Thriftstore as well as Curbside finds..I also find awesome things at the Dollar Tree too!!! I know I know, it sounds foreign to a lot of you but, I promise you will be surprised with what I find!!

So, I want to know if there are anymore Frugal Females or Males out there and do any of you shop in thrift stores or Goodwill etc? Please share, I would love to hear or even see what thrifty treasures you have or find.

Getting To Happy (Review/Spoiler)

When reading Getting to Happy, honestly the only thing that I could think about was Getting to the End! I literally had to MAKE myself pick it up and finish it.

I sooooo wanted to love this book because I really loved the movie Waiting to Exhale, so I was looking forward to seeing how these women were doing after 15 years. Waiting to Exhale left us all feeling hopeful that these four friends were on their way to finding true happiness but just like the title of the sequel suggest they are STILL trying to find it.

I was dissappointed in how these four strong, smart, successful black women were portrayed in this novel. Savannah is working in a job she loves but is in a "boring" marriage that ends in divorce once she finds out the her husband is addicted to pornography and is having an affair. Gloria ,who seemed to be the only one who is actually happy and happily married ends up a widower when her husband is shot and killed during a drive by while shopping for anniversary flowers at a local plant shop..(whaat...who has shoot outs at Lowes..LOL). Her friends who should have been there to console her, do so at first, but then begin to become more concerned about her weight gain than how she is doing emotionally. I mean the woman just lost the love of her life for crying out loud, just be there!

Robin, who at the end of Waiting to Exhale is left pregnant by Russell has decided to keep her now 16 year old Sparrow (I didnt make the bird references until another character mentioned it). Robin is now a single yet desperate mother who is run over by her daughter. She tries to find love via online dating but it ends badly when she finds out the man she has been corresponding with is married. She does however find love in the end, with Micheal, the same one she dissed in the last book. Bernadine (Bernie) by far was the one that had me the most dissappointed. She is now a pill popping drug addict a habit she develped after James (wesley snipes), turned out to be a complete liar, living a double life, married to two women. YES..the just lay in the hotel bed and hold me routine was a set up..ugh..he played her and took her money.

So there you have it, a divorcee, a widower, a druggie, and single/desperate mother is what you have to look forward to when reading this book. Like it or Love it I guess!!

I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to Terry Mcmillian I like the movie versions better. I have read a couple of her other books, A Day Late and a Dollar Short, and The Interrruption of Everything and I had sort of press my way through those as well, but not like this one. I think that there just have been too many good books put out over the past few years that made this novel so dissappointing.

Back to the Basics

10The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10






While reminiscing about years past, my husband and I realized how over the years, we have complicated our lives with so many extra things. We wondered what happened to the good old days when we just felt so carefree and didn’t worry about a thing. We really were like kids, we depended on God for everything and we knew that no matter how our finances or circumstances looked we knew that God would always provide for us. We really never wanted for anything and we honestly never worried about it because we knew how faithful God was to us. Those were our “brokest” times and also our most happiest.
We have learned the having money in the bank doesn’t always equal happiness, the saying “mo money mo problems”, has played itself out in our lives numerous times. So this year we have decided to stop allowing our financial status and our circumstances control our lives, especially our emotions. We have decided that in 2011 we are going back to the basics. Back to putting our complete trust in its rightful place which is in God. He alone brings joy, happiness, and peace. He alone is the one who allowed us in times of hardship to live in peace and contentment and we want that back.
We also plan to go back to doing simple things as a family. As parents we sometimes feel that love equals how much we spend on them, but that’s sooooo wrong. I have learned that just from watching my own children. They are very simple children and it doesn’t take much for them to be happy. Often times the things that they enjoy the most don’t cost anything extra at all, like playing board games at home and eating popcorn, or watching a Netflix movie or redbox, fishing, walking on the beach, picnics, libraries. They even like going to the Goodwill and Thrift stores…lol…yes frugal children…lol. They don’t have to the latest and greatest ..I so love that about my children, they are content with whatever I get we give them. I said all that to say the family time can be simple, it doesn’t have to involve spending a lot of money, its all about bonding and the lasting relationship you are building with eachother.
So this year the Ingrams are going back to the basics, back to when things were simple, back to trust , back complete surrender, back to LIFE and LIFE MORE ABUNDANTLY.