blessed

In the grand scheme of things, even with SO MANY THING that i see as BAD, i am very blessed. And the more i talk with other friends, and even family, i realize this:

Although Ruben and I fight on occassion, for the most part we get along. We've come to an agreement about the way things are done. Ruben works nights, sleeps days, and makes time on the weekends for his family. He helps me clean up, doing the things that i find "gross" if you will, like the trash or the cat litter. He is usually good at keeping up with the dishes, although sometimes that takes a day or two, lol. I get to stay home with my girls, and that definently makes me feel blessed.

My house has clutter, i won't lie. BUT, i've started to get that clutter under control. I've started taking little things i find, and putting other things into it to organize it. Even the girls bedroom, which is ALWAYS a mess, is considerably easier to clean up. And here in about 15 minutes, when i put desiree down for a nap, i'm gonna go in there and clean it even more. Gonna throw out some of the crappy toys, and organize some of the other toys back into buckets and stuff like that. they have a TON of same toys. And then in the next few days, i'm gonna start organizing and sorting clothes that we need to get rid of. Just need to get a tote, or bucket, or hell, even a trash bag, and go donate it to someone who might actually need it more than me and my family.

One of my friends, and his wife (who is also a friend, so this is hard) are on the verge of divorce if the wife can't get her shit together. She is being selfish, and lazy. His birthday is today, and instead of wishing him happy birthday, or planning something great for his birthday, she hasn't said a word. Their house is always a mess, but she refuses to clean it. She's always asking for money, even though they struggle to make the bills. All she's concerned with is herself - exercising, feeding herself, watching her shows, etc. I feel so bad, because i'm not as nice as he is. I would have flipped a lid ages ago. I wish i could help the situation, but i don't want to butt in. I've offered my advice on how I would handle her, but it's up to him rather or not he uses any of it. I just know that they will end up divorced if she can't straighten up. It's heartbreaking.

Not long ago, we sat down and started discussing some stuff for our food stamps. Somehow this month we went a little overboard at the start of the month, and didn't have much left in the middle of the month. SOO, we had to make a super cheap meal plan to make it stretch. We ended up having to spend about 50 extra dollars out of our paychecks, but it's ok. SO, next month we are going to sit down and really work things out, so we can still have some expensive meals, but the money will last too. I know we can do it. If we work on making our budget 75 bucks a week, that will still leave us with around 20 for unexpected expenses. I'm gonna start keeping track of how much things cost, so we can really budget down to the penny, since food stamps don't charge tax. So if i can keep up with that, we can seriously get it down to the dimes we need to get it to. I know we can make it work. I just have to be more serious and rigid about what we budget and all that.

Right now, i'm gonna go see about doing some research. I've considered trying to do some of the coupon stuff. I know i don't have the time to really go to the extreame that the "EXTREME COUPONERS" go to. Or the space to store everything. BUT, if we can start by stocking up on the non parashable stuff (noodles, canned food, boxed food, etc) and focusing on our weekly expenses only being the meats and cheeses and stuff like that. That would be great.

:p So, i'm outta here.