And We're WALKIN'

Yes, its oficial, Lily Grace took her first "help" free steps the other night.



As a woman I always thought about that moment when my little baby would take his/her first steps. Where would I be? What would I be doing? Well Bob and I were in the kitchen and she took her first steps (about 2) to her Daddy without holding on! What a moment! Those first steps will be the first of many, after all, we are just sure that she might be a marathoner!

It has been quite a week. On top of an already bum knee, I managed to get horribly sick. Oh the sneezing, oh the snottiness, oh the headaches and nausea and stuffiness. Is the whole world against me? Thankfully it has been a fairly low key week and I have had many hours at home.

Days with Lily are just so special. When we aren't practicing our animal noises, we are doing everything else.


Lily is in a time of testing boundaries and as she starts walking and grows bigger her world opens up and new boundaries have to be set. The newest one is her rocking chair. She desperately wants to stand on this chair, and is having a hard time with the "on your bottom only." boundary. The other day we had to have two spankings for crossing that line. I love, though, that she gets it because 2 hours later I walked back in her room to find her sitting on her little bum rocking away.


Good Girl Lily! She really is a precious little lady. I see so much strength and determination in her and I love that the Lord gave her those qualities. I can simply not wait to see how the Lord uses her! As long as Bob and I can curb that determination and keep her grounded.

She is also becoming such an independent young lady and is so creative with her playtime. I was cooking in the kitchen the other night and left Lily in the living room. I heard a little rustling and came around the corner to discover this little set up. There she was just reading her book (our Longmire News Blog) in her little bucket office. So Cute!




Both of the babies have discovered the outside and just love standing at the windows. We had the windows open the other day and they were both pointing and talking at everything going on outside.



We have had to limit their exhuberance because they desperately try to literally crawl out the windows. They are small enough now, but in a few months it will not be a safe practice. So hard for the babies to be limited to just standing and pointing.

Livin' on a Budget.....No REALLY!

So inevitably, every American except the super rich or completely ignorant have, at one point in time, had to live on a budget. Oddly, though, most of us live "sort of" on a budget. Where we know "sort of" how much we make and "sort of" how much we spend. If we see that something in the window that would look just perfect on our silhouettes we buy it. Its not really in the budget but honestly, how much could that $40 really impact our monthly "sort of" income. Three days later finding yourself in another spending dilema. I know I don't really need that and its not REALLY in my budget, but honestly how much could that $20 really impact? This is the story of my life........until a month ago.


There is one thing that has been clearly defined in Bob and my marriage. I am the detail oriented person, I am the organized person, therefore it makes good sense for me to handle all of the finances. It was never an argument, or a control issue, it just naturally flowed from the best parts of our personalities. I have always thought that I was an excellent money manager, and in many ways I am. I have always lived on a "budget," however my budgeting technique is far removed from what a true budget really is. Here is my version of a budget: Know what you make in a month (or close-always round up), Know your bills and what they generally are (always round down), add in tithing (always good intentioned, but writing the check and putting it in the plate is hit or miss), create money limits for all of the other categories, but if you exceed those limits its okay, they are only guidelines. So in essence I never budgeted my money, I had a flexible phantom budget that could be changed depending on what I wanted to buy.

Needless to say, this form of budgeting kind of got us behind in several areas especially considering that we are a one income family. So in stepped the Director of Sales, numbers wizard, to the penny manager of Connexion Technologies and I got put on a BUDGET. Hard core, no budging budget. Every dollar is accounted for and every penny spent documented. Completely transparent, no longer a guideline budget. At first every fiber of my being wanted to loose all sense of maturity, lay on the ground and throw a temper tantrum that I could no longer spend whenever I wanted to. I knew that I needed to be submissive in this area, but my "inner sinner" definitely did NOT. Thankfully, through the power of the Lord, I have been obedient with our finances and have stuck on the constricted budget that we have put in place. It has been challenging and sometimes frustrating, but you know what feeling I most feel?

FREEDOM. Strange huh? I never would have thought that by creating strict financial boundaries and working to stay in those boundaries I would find freedom. There is money left over, Nothing is hidden, We are more creative with activities, We plan ahead better and we have seen how much we truly have. The blessings are abundant and the chance to really be a good steward of all that the Lord has given us has made budgeting a joyful boundary instead of a messy guideline.