2010 Recap and 2011 Possibilities
2010 was a year of changes for my family and myself! It was a year of great highs and some lows but it is definitely one that I will never forget…. The decade ended with my life changing from one controlled by Samantha to one given over to the Lord and His control.
January 2010- Started the year off with my first children’s party as we celebrated Cole’s first birthday on New Year’s Day. What a joy it was to start the year off celebrating with family and friends especially after waiting so long to become a Mom. I still can’t believe that he is now 2 years old and I have to plan his next birthday party… with Cole being born on December 23rd… celebrating with a party on the actual day results in toy overload and overshadowing by Christmas so we will celebrate in March in 2011… I can’t wait till we host the 2nd party… what fun it will be.
March 2010 – Cole’s adoption was finalized after a year of waiting for the adoption process to finalize…We are officially and legally a family of 3….A forever family. The adoption party was celebrating with family and friends was such fun… it was a celebration of our family’s creation and a thank you to family and friends for the years of support and prayer….We could not have made it through the roller coaster of infertility treatment and adoption process without their prayer and support.
April 2010 – Reality hits… living on one income and staying at home with a one-year old toddler is a radical life change from the corporate life I lead in 2009… oh, how I loved that life…. But The Lord had a better life in mind for me. I just had to sit back and trust in Him. April was a hard reality as I began to understand what the impact of not having my income meant to our family’s financial stability. Frugality begins to poke it’s head into my world when I realized that just because I liked an item didn’t mean it had to be mine. How spoilt I used to be. It was strangely depressing to no longer be the one who was trying to be a Mom…after sixteen years of focusing all of my personal energy on becoming one suddenly I had nothing to focus on. I will always remember April 2010 as a humbling low point in my life which the Lord used to teach me so much. I strongly believe that you have to go through the lows sometimes to really learn… at least I seem to be one of those people that has to be broken before I can be rebuilt by the Lord.
May 2010—Giggling blue eyed joy comes into our life, when we weren’t looking or expecting it… God brings Will into our family. On May 16th, I receive an e-mail from our adoption facilitator, Patrice about a baby boy to be born in July who was potentially severely ill but needed a family….we weren’t ready we had a 17 month old… no way could we afford to adopt again… we needed our savings for other things like living on. After a night of prayer, Bill and I put our trust in the Lord and turned our finances and our “two” boys over to the Lord. On Sunday May 23rd, our oldest nephew graduated from college and we told our family the good news that we would be adopting a little boy in July…little did we know that at that same time that we were rejoicing with the family in Louisiana… Will was being born seven weeks premature in Kansas. My wonderful little boy wanted to be here in time to join the family celebration.
August 2010—Will’s adoption is finalized…adjusting to life with a newborn and an 18 month old is a radical change…combine it with worries about his skull and potential neurological issues… I have no time to think much less plan parties so we decide to celebrate next year…2011 will be the year of parties-- Cole’s 2nd birthday in March, Will’s 1st birthday in May, and Will’s adoption celebration in August.
September 2010—Reality is I am a Mom of two little boys living on one income and taking care of my house. I am exhausted and happy. What a joy my life has become. It is time for the new Samantha to begin her journey of transformation… where will God lead me, I don’t know but I put my trust in him. This month I also began a life changing doctor monitored diet and exercise program… I have to do something as Cole and pretty soon Will run me ragged at my current physical level.
December 2010 – Great rejoicing in our household… Will’s skull issues are not that severe… and the cysts on his brain are common for premature babies and will most likely disappear. God has been so faithful in taking care of our little boy. It has now been sixteen weeks and I have lost 73 pounds… only 67 more to go till I hit my goal. What a change…I no longer get exhausted chasing Cole around the house, I might be able to keep up with both him and Will when Will begins crawling. On another note… I am becoming more and more aware that others are going through the same financial changes in their lives yet they don’t know what to do… my blog is in “egg stage” it hasn’t hatched yet…but the ideas are running rampant in my brain…so much to tell and so little “talent” at telling… I hope the Lord uses me and the blog to His aim.
2011…the best is yet to come. Plans and goals for 2011 are easy to make but hard to follow through…that is the purpose of this post, to hold me accountable to meeting these plans and goals.
Professionally…in 2011, my bookkeeping business “Bradley Bookkeeping” will need to get a client. It really isn’t a business until you have at least one client. Promotion and marketing will be the focus this year… I need to end 2011 with at least four clients…one per quarter. I hope and pray, I am following the Lord’s path with this business. I will also, with the Lord’s help, be sitting for the CPA exam…this is a long term dream that I hope and pray will become a reality.
The Lord has been so faithful in taking care of our family’s finance…in 2009 we paid all of our debt (except our mortgage) off …Thank God for Bill’s desire to be debt free ((except for the house)) in early 2009—before I lost my job…this desire and the realization of it has enabled my stay at home lifestyle to become a reality. In 2010 we revamped our spending habits and focused less on material things and more on the Lord and family. It is time in 2011 to further our frugal life style changes and to begin savings both for emergency and retirement.
Physically… my journey towards physical fitness began in 2010 and in 2011, I will meet the goal…it is just 67 lbs away. Getting physically active is essential… the Lord has given me the responsibility of being a good steward of my health. In 2011, I am taking ownership and accountability…I have a goal that my fearful self wants to keep secret but I know in order to make it a reality I need to tell someone. I want to participate in a 5K in 2011…the first step is to begin every morning to taking my daily walk…now I am sporadic and not faithful. In 2011 beginning today…I am committing to giving myself this time away from the children, the home, the phone…just me, the dogs, and the Lord…it will become my time to focus my day on the Lord. Please keep me in your prayers on this…I know that dedicating time for me will be one of my biggest challenges in 2011.
Our home…I have been attempting to get the house in order (we have been remodeling it for years and everything is in the attic or in boxes) and hold a huge garage sale for the entire 2010 year. In 2011 it will become a reality…I am pledging to my long patient husband and children that by May 2011, the garage sale will be over with and the house will be set up. For those of you who personally know me you know what a Herculean task this will be…but so was the idea of losing the weight until I took the first step. Today, I will take the first step towards being an organized homemaker…frugal I am, organized I am not…currently our house always looks like I stuffed 50 lbs of potatoes in a 10 lb sack.
My blessings…2011 will be a year of major milestones for Cole and Will. Cole and I will begin the potty training dance and I hope will be done by the end of 2011. While Will begins his crawling at the end of 2010, I hope to see the walking and to hear my favorite word in 2011 ((MOMMY)). Major milestones but what a fun journey it will be.
In 2011, Bill and I have to make a hard parenting decision…whether to home school or not. Family and friends have spoken up on both sides of the issue…we live in a school district that has an excellent elementary school (in fact most people buy into this neighborhood because of the schools) but the decision to home school is not only about the potential elementary school…please pray for us as we wrestle with this major decision that has such a long term impact on our boys.
A Spoonful O Sugar blog will be born… the egg will be hatched. I am committing to having all of the page segments posted by January 2nd and my first real time post of latest deals by January 3rd. My goal is to post weekly with frugal lifestyle items and only post daily great deals as they occur. The facebook page will be open from construction mode by January 7th…so in the first week of 2011… “A Spoonful O Sugar” will become a reality. So many ideas for this blog that it would take an hour to read them all… just stay on board and watch this journey evolve. I hope and pray that in 2011, this blog can be a joy and a benefit in your life.
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