About to add to the party...

Sometime in the next month, we are adding more fun to the party around here. That's right, we are about to be a party of 5. Kids that is. I grew up in a large family (7 kids) and I thought it was a lot of fun, but after my first really difficult pregnancy I wasn't sure that I wanted so many kids anymore. My mantra became, "one at a time...one at a time". Well, after 4 kids and quite a few miscarriages I was done. I was giving away my maternity clothes and baby items. Four kids is quite a handful, especially when you have MS. But, surprise! We found ourselves with an unlikely pregnancy and it has taken clear up until now, my 9th month, to brace myself for it. 

A friend and I were talking about how family sizes have changed over the last generation. What was once a small family now seems large. Seven kids was large in my generation, but not that strange. Now it is newsworthy. We figure that if you double the amount of kids you have nowadays, it would equal what it would have looked like a generation or two ago. For example, a family with 3 kids now is quite large, being somewhat like what having 6 kids would have been not too long ago. So my 5 kids is like having 10 kids when our grandparents were doing it. Yeah. That feels about right. Slightly overwhelming. 

Luckily, we are trying to raise our kids more like our Grandparents raised theirs. So hopefully we will find success raising hard working, moral, contributing members of society. Just like Grandma. 

Money Management for Stress Relief

What are some of our biggest stresses in life? Family? Work? Schedules? Money? Those are definitely in the top 10. One of my obsessions for the past month has been Dave Ramsey. Oh, Dave! Where have you been all my life? No, seriously! Why haven't I discovered him until now? I'm 35 and I've been trying to figure out this money part of life all alone all these years. He's like the financial-guru uncle I never had!
I've heard of him before, and I've even heard of his classes, "Financial Peace University", but I didn't know much about it. A friend of ours lent us Dave's newest book that he co-wrote with his daughter, Rachel Cruze, called, "Smart Money Smart Kids". I don't think I've thought of much else or done anything else in my spare time than pour over this book. Talk about a stress reliever! No really!
Having a plan is half the battle, and that is what Dave has given me. Since I haven't learned these financial lessons yet myself, I've had to internalize the lessons taught in this book before I could make a plan for my kids. But now I have both! My husband and I have ben tight with our finances for a while. Pretty much our whole marriage. Adding another baby has put our stress about them into overdrive. Anyone relate? We have it all. Mortgage, car payments, student loans, and unfortunately up until we got our tax return, we even had a little credit card debt (I hate admitting that). We are like a good share of Americans who are just barely making it paycheck to paycheck. Something like a broken furnace puts us into a tailspin. We are big budgeters, but there's only so much you can do when your incoming just doesn't quite cover your outgoing. We've cut and cut and cut. My husband wears socks with holes in them and until I mended an old pair of slacks I found, he was wearing the same pair of pants to work every day. Our kids have never bought any new clothes, except socks and underwear and the occasional pair of shoes. Hand-me-downs have always been welcome in our house! We make our own laundry soap. I could go on and on. But making ends meet has just been difficult.
Then came Dave! We have a plan now. I love his baby steps. I like baby steps. I can do baby steps. And what a stress reliever it has been. Do you have money stresses? As part of your plan for simplifying your life, I would recommend checking out Dave Ramsey. He could help you get that one area of your life in order. One of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Content people may not have the best of everything, but they make the best of everything."

What do you think? Have you read any Dave Ramsey books? Have you attended any of his classes?