Peace.

A few months before we moved into our house, we laid out a lovely budget for moving expenses, things we would need for our new house, estimates of what our monthly bills would be.

Good news is our monthly utility bills are actually lower than we had originally thought they would be.  But I'm looking back on us circa March 2011 and the figures for what it actually costs to move are laughable.

But that's all just part of life experience, right?  You have to actually have to experience it to learn.

We figured we would be recovered financially from the move within a few weeks!  (Are you laughing at us?  Because I am.  hahahaha)

But it turns out that expenses come up--you need a spread fertilizer for your lawn--you need to spray for bugs so your husband can quit finding black widows in the backyard--stainless steel trash cans are $90 (I'm still not over that.)---and you get the picture.

Good news is my husband's hard work in graduate school paid off.  Literally.  He has a really good job.  We're not filthy rich by any means, but we have all of our needs met, and many of our wants--which is awesome to me.

But moving was expensive--and so we're spending a few months paying it off.  Which is fine.

But the thought crossed my mind a few weeks ago--You know, Amy, if you just didn't pay tithing for a couple months, you could have this paid off even quicker...


Quickly I resolved to do the absolute opposite.  We would continue to write that tithing check out first thing after receiving our paycheck.

I actually pray a lot about our finances.  BK and I made the decision to have me stay at home during his schooling instead of working.  As I have mentioned before, I will forever be grateful for those precious years with my oldest two babies, gifted to me by a wonderful, loving, and supportive husband.  But that of course comes at a cost--student loans.

BK and I have many many goals regarding paying those off as quickly as humanly possible.  And again, as I thought about how those would all come to pass, the thought came to me: Do you know how much faster you could pay it off if you didn't pay tithing?


Mathematically speaking, that's completely true.  But I know from my short life of experience so far, that's not the way to go about getting needed blessings from the Lord. So we've continued to write out that check first thing.

And recently BK got a very well-paying physical therapy job practically handed to him.  It's only 3-5 hours extra a week, but it's enough to almost cover our entire student loan payment. (BK's full-time job pays a third of our student loan payment every month.  Score, right?!) BK didn't even bat an eye.  He took the job, and resolved to work a few extra hours a week so that we can pay our loans off even earlier.

I'm grateful to be married to somebody who takes working hard seriously.  I have a wonderful life, and I owe most of that to the choice I made to marry BK.  It hits me at least once a day--here I am, staying at home with my two boys in a beautiful house, with family close by, and close friends already.  It's what I've always wanted my whole life.

I don't usually make it a habit of talking about our financial decisions or our tithe-paying habits here on this blog, but I felt impressed to share it here, instead of just my regular journal.

I know that when we put the Lord first--tithing, obedience, serving others, having a charitable attitude--that everything else falls into place.  The Lord wants to bless us as soon as we show the tiniest bit of effort in the right direction--just as any parent would.

I love the Gospel.  It has brought me so much peace in my life.

To put Spencer in perspective.

Today while sweeping the kitchen I noticed (again) just how messy an almost-16 month old really is.

Here is my swept-up pile from my entire kitchen (which hasn't been swept for two days):

Here is the pile from under Spencer's high chair after just 24 hours:

Yyyyyyyeah.

Good thing you're cute, Spence.

More pool adventures

It's good to have a good swim buddy.

You can play chase. (Except for that whole "no running at the pool" business...)

You can watch ants devour a cracker your younger siblings dropped.

You can help keep the youngest crowd away from the ants.

(Still not cutting Spencer's hair. Sorry, BK.  It's not happenin.)

Hooray for swim buddies.

And hooray for swim buddy's mother who took all these darling pictures! :)

Lions, Tigers, Bears. Oh my.

Lucky for us season passes to the zoo are SUPER cheap!  So we've gone three times in the past week or so.  And lucky for us, our friends have season passes, too!  Even better!!

Just wanted Spencer to know, that while he was not pictured in any shots above, he was indeed at the zoo, too:

Hooray for the zoo!

Swim, swim, swim

I decided a few weeks ago that Landon needed something fun to do.  So I signed him up for swim lessons.  He just finished last week, and he did really well!  

We've also been going swimming a lot with friends.  And we have also gone swimming at friends' pools while they've been out of town... *wink, wink*

Now that Landon can swim with arm floaties, Spencer has inherited the tube-suit!

It is impossible to get a good picture of both of them at the same time.  Sorry, Landon:

And sorry, BK:

I love summer.

Even when it is hotter than... a really hot place.

Swimming is fun to do!

Dear Spencer

Please always use this sleep position forever and ever.  

Also, I want to eat your cheeks.  And toes.

Sweet dreams,

Mom

I'd recognize those gapped-front teeth anywhere.

Even on my dining room blinds.

Thank you, Landon.  Thank you for apparently taking a few test bites of our blinds while you watched the garbage truck.

In keeping with the theme of boys/children being gross...

I think Spencer might've eaten a dead spider.

I noticed it on the kitchen floor this morning (Dead of course.  Thank you, pest control.) and thought, okay, when I sweep the kitchen, I'll just sweep that up, too.

But when I went to sweep the kitchen it was gone.  Landon says he didn't touch it.  (He's a horrible liar.) So the only other alternative is that Spencer did, and I KNOW he puts everything he touches in his mouth.

Nothing like a little protein, right?

UGH.
BOYS.

I give up.

;)