Biology doesn't apply in my kitchen!

When I was at UMBC finishing my biology degree, we would always use Drosophila (aka fruit flies) in our lab studies, for various reasons I really don't want to get into. It was great and i loved it, but Joe and I were recently overrun with these pesky fruit flies and it's not so great. In fact it's really annoying. So I looked up home remedies for getting rid if them and I tried this one that worked! Put apple cider vinegar in a cup or jar, heat up for 10 sec and put a funnel on top, to trap the flies inside. Take the jar outside to release them. Bye bye drosophila!!

I can do it!

I did it - I joined Weight Watchers yesterday. I had joined it last fall when I was trying to lose weight before my wedding. I lost 8 pounds, before I lost my determination amongst all the other things that occupied my mind associated with wedding planning. But my sister-in-law asked me to be a bridesmaid in her April 2014 wedding and I think I'm at a place where I really want to do this for me, instead of for other people or not-so-healthy reasons. I'm ready for change and I am determined to do it this time. I have a super-supportive husband who is taking the challenge of weight loss with me, and even my doggie Molly is helping me out by motivating me to take her for walks and build some movement into my day.

A healthy breakfast parfait! Greek vanilla yogurt, frozen raspberries, and granola...yum!

Dinner: baked tilapia filet with lime juice, brown rice, and shelled edamame.

Like Mother, Like Daughter?

I learned something about myself this week: I am not my mother. My mother is a wonderful person, but I'm not her. I am me. This may seem like a no-brainer, but let me explain.

My vision of what a good wife and mother looks like comes from my own experiences with my mom. Growing up, she was a stay-at-home mom, a teacher as she home-schooled three children, a chef extraordinaire, and an amazing homemaker. She always had dinner ready and on the table when Dad got home from work and we would sit down as a family and have dinner together. She always kept the house clean and tidy, and it became ingrained in me that a happy home is a clean and organized home. Whether my mom meant to pass that on to me, that's what I got from watching my mom take care of the home. 

Now that I'm married and I have a husband and home of my own to take care of, I'm finding that these little self-expectations are arising and causing me some trouble. Especially since my married life looks different from my parents'. Joe's schedule varies every week, so dinner on the table and eating together when we get home from work every day isn't always an option. And working full-time doesn't always allow me the time to be a great cook and have a spotless house. But it's ok. I need to be a little less of a Martha personality and more of a Mary personality. I need to take the time to appreciate my husband and the time we have together, and do what I can to keep our home clean and organized. But I also need to give myself a break and if the sink piles up with dishes...there's always tomorrow. 

"Budget" is not a scary word

     As newlyweds, the topic of money has come up often in our conversation. We've heard it said that money and finances can cause many arguments and a lot of problems in a marriage, if not handled correctly. When we were engaged, we talked about how we handle money - I'm more of a saver, while Joe was more of a spender - and how we would handle it in our marriage. It was covered in our pre-marital counseling and it seemed easy enough. We made sure we could handle a mortgage payment before we bought the house. We made sure we could afford a second dog before bringing her home. And we made sure we could afford a car payment before we bought a new car. (We bought a 2011 Honda CR-V on Memorial Day, by the way, to take advantage of sale prices and end-of-month quotas).  We've had our arguments, but we've both been able to adjust to a saving-spending balance.
     We hadn't been using a budget and had enough to tithe, pay our bills, and save, while living comfortably. So we didn't think we needed to track our spending in a budget. But, boy, was I wrong! When I sat down to look at how much money we had spent in May alone, I was shocked with where it had disappeared to. It wasn't so much that it was frivolous big purchases as it was the random spending on fast food and restaurants when I didn't feel like cooking dinner, or late-night snacks; the actual amount we spent on getting a second dog; and other random things that weren't necessities, but "nice-to-have" things.
     I found free budget software online (Mint.com is amazing and offers an iPhone app for easier tracking!) and started entering our desired spending amounts to create a budget. June will be our trial month - can we do this and stick to our guns about cutting our spending?? We shall see!  I'm reading books on frugal living with interesting and easy ways to save and make the most of every penny.  I told Joe, "We can either learn to manage our money now in the early stage of our marriage, or fight about it for the rest of our lives and end up where we don't want to be financially." Our goal is to one day be debt-free and with God's help, and some discipline, it will happen.

**Please don't misread this and think that we need money, or are bad off financially in any way! God has blessed us and we are learning to manage our money to be able to pay off our debts and serve Him with our finances.**