Mom Confession: February 2017

So it's time to update our life in homeschooling. 

We are currently not full time homeschooling. 

Surprise!

So after a year of great learning, fun and adventure. We decided that with the new life change ahead we would go back to traditional schooling for awhile. We have been struggling with reading and honestly I need a fresh approach so it was time for us to step back. 

WE ARE NOT QUITTING!

We are just not full time. We still do a lot of different at home learning avenues. But to be honest, it has been great to rely on a team of teachers and school staff to do things from a different perspective then I was able to accomplish. 

There is no shame in delegating task.

And honestly, since we moved back to Traverse City, MI the response from the teachers and school staff has been completely different then what it was in Maryland. 

Communication with the school and staff on what is going on with our child has been priority one since we started and they have kept up with that standard in the most outstanding ways. 

So far we are loving the things that Gryphon is learning, the staff at the school and the balance that this new paradigm of life is providing us. 

Thanks for listening guys,

Talk again later :)

My Mom Confession: March 5, 2015

I like traditional schooling, Mom Breaks. I do not like traditional schooling for a lot of reasons.

On my mom break today, I am contemplating 12 Inspiring Lessons in Confidence from Sheldon Cooper and listening to Titanium by David Guetta on repeat.  Mom's have there bad days and sometimes we have our days; where we just lay on the living room floor and stare at the ceiling and pray for strength, with a hint of sanity. (just saying sanity would be nice)

The 12 Inspiring Lessons in Confidence from Sheldon Cooper List Breakdown:
1. Push yourself to do things you never thought you could

Me - I don't want to give up my mom breaks. I like them. I don't know if I can full time homeschool. I will find a way! I will make something work! 

2. Embrace your personal style

Me - I am more of a turtle than a hare in life. I like to do my yoga before I deal with people. I like to meditate before I leave my house. And sometimes you just need to cry when no body is looking. 

3. Don’t rely on alcohol to boost your confidence

Me - "Really?!?  Because Irish Yoga is what my 25 year old self wants to do with my St. Patrick's Day." It's been a unique year so far. 

And seriously that kinda looks fun. 

But agreed! Moving On.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Me - Fine. HELP ME!!! Seriously, someone let me know if you know about homeschooling a kindergartener in Maryland. Or if you have a kindergartener homeschooler in Maryland and want to start a homeschool group. Feel free to email me. 

5. Trust your gut

Me - Can Do. Now let's make sure we teach our children this lesson. 

6. Believe you’ve got superpowers, even if you don’t

Me - Okay, I'll work on that. "I am a superhero!" Maybe, I'll make that a reminder on my phone. 

7. Cover all your bases

Me - Well, I do love my research. And my latest mean girl quote, "There's nothing like math to tell people how stupid they are at life." 

8. Be willing to put yourself out there to get ahead

Me - Really?!? Do I have to??? What if...??? And then...??? 

People make me feel socially awkward and change is not really my thing. I like being the background person. So this one is a challenge.

9. Never apologize for what you love

Me - This one I can say, "Can do!"  But if I'm really honest, I get a little scatterbrained sometimes and lose focus on setting aside that time to recenter.

10. Embrace your inner child

Me - Oh, this one I got down. The bad thing is, I'm kinda a weirdo with lot's of energy so not everyone get's me or my inner child. But point taken you need your inner child to get through adult life.

11. Celebrate your achievements

Me - Well, I fear failure. (Which, mind you I feel is stupid.) So yea... this one makes it on my To Do List, because I need it. And what better way to keep motivated then to celebrate your achievements. 

12. If you’ve got it, flaunt it

Me - Umm... okay? :/  I get the point though. :) 

#BazingaForLife 

Thank you CBS.com for releasing this list. 

My Mom Confession: March 4, 2015

My Mom Confession Of The Day:

This year, with traditional school, has had it's up's and down's, but today it really sucks! I have spent the good chunk of today in tears.

The Situation: Gryphon has tonsils that are too big and pretty much chronically infected. Which, also leads to a chronic ear infection. Now, you can explain this to a traditional school ad nauseam. But they just don't get it, in today's society where people don't really can't see past the ends of their noses.

My 5year old has 20 missed days of school, because he goes to school healthy after taking time off to get healthy and comes home from 'the kindergarten germ factory' sick. It's a vicious cycle.

The worst part of the cycle is the school says, "If your kids sick don't send him to school." Well, not all parents invest in keeping this ideal and the school doesn't either.

Reason's Why You Should Not Send Sick Kids To School:
A: sick kids don't learn well.
B: sick kids have less of an attention span. They need rest, to let their immune systems get them healthy.
C: sending sick kids to school get's other people sick.
D: People are morons and I can't believe I have to deal with them.
E: not letting your immune system recover and not getting healthy reeks long-term havoc on your immune system. Parent's and School Officials this creates a long-term problem and an awful mind set your these young "one day" adults. (This is a problem!)

Being a parent is not easy. You are raising another human being. This is a serious deal people!

In a perfect world: I would be able to work with his school to get school work that he has missed done.
But in this world: I ask 3 times for missed work and get one letter that say, "Here are my concerns about what Gryphon has missed."
In this world: I send notes, I send emails, I physically show up at the school and volunteer twice a month and talk to his teacher and I get back, "He's doing great!" "He's right where he needs to be." "You should be proud of the progress he has made."

I'm sorry! Non of that communication, besides the note, says anywhere that the school sees a problem or a solution.

I'm raising a little human being here people, you need to get your act together and answer me honestly. Cause I don't have time for this and neither does my little human!

My Mom Solution:
As a responsible and reasonable adult (aka. A 25year old, who should still be figuring out if they want to spring break or save their vacation time for later, not having to raise other adults, thank you very much.)
A: I made a conference with his school to talk.
B: I made a conference with his teacher to talk about her note face to face.
C: I've made doctors appointments (all winter mind you) to have professionals tell me "my child is sick and we have to have his tonsils removed."
D: I've saved every Doctors note.
E: I've made my own curriculum and homeschooled my sick kid and saved every piece of work.
F: I've research homeschooling endlessly.

To come to this conclusion:
I am scared of homeschooling my kid alone, because I'm afraid of failing and becoming a homeschooling hermit.
I am scared of sending my kid back to the traditional school and having to continue this vicious cycle and breaking my kid's love of learning.


#MomConfessions

Fiscal Fast Week!!! - 2014 Beginning of the Week.

Fiscal Fast Week!

What is Fiscal Fast Week? Well for those of you who have never heard of a fiscal fast, I seriously suggest reading The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches by Jeff Yeager.  It's a great read and Jeff Yeager has a lot of great tips for helping you view your money differently and bonus he's funny!

Basic of a Fiscal Fast: One Week Without Spending Money.

So, I decided two days before my kiddos 5th birthday to start a Fiscal Fast. This ironically also happened to be the day that our grocery credit card came in the mail. When I looked at my calendar and saw "5th Birthday Pizza Party" all I could think was, "Well maybe next year," and "It's a good think I had everything for his birthday dessert." I just re-planned to something simpler. He's only 5 and simple is probably better anyway.

I have wanted to do a fiscal fast for a while but my motivating factors really seemed to make sense for this week.

1. We fly across country the day after the end of the fast.
2. We are moving the beginning of next month. So, we need to get rid of the extra little things and food that has been collecting anyway.
3. I think starting off our new journey with a good mind for our spending is a great start.

Honestly, this looks like a great opportunity and half of me says, "this is going to be easy and probably fun." and the other half of me says, "omg... this is going to be way harder then you think. What the hell are you thinking this is crazy." Either way, I'm planning on doing this and hopefully doing it again in another 6months when Luke is actually home. I think I will be up for the challenge of having both of us involved even though that will be tough. I mean come on 2days into a juice diet we both fell off the wagon and went to Jack In The Box. It was bad! But you live and you learn :) 

Break Down Of What You Do:

1. No Spending Money - Basic Rule
2. No Stockpiling Food - The point is to get rid of the extra things that been building up in your house. You might have to get creative but you should not go hungry if you shop like normal Americans.
3. Bills - You should make your Fiscal Fast Week a time that
a) you are not paying your bills.
b) a time to re-evaluate your bill spending. Have you tried getting a better deal on your current bills by calling the provider? or Maybe your lazy and don't want to call. Have you tried BillCutterz. BillCutterz professionally negotiate your bills for you! Read More.
c) Maybe just maybe, there are services you don't need. I know we cut out our Ipad service and some internet subscriptions we just didn't use. Now I tried cutting out Netflix, but let's be realistic I have 5year old who has a Nabi. He was just not happy, didn't understand and well he was making me crazy. I know we can cut out Netflix but that will wait to a later date with things are less crazy and it probably won't be permanent.
4. Transportation - Okay, fill up your gas tank before you start a fast because no buying gas this week. So, maybe bust out your walking shoes and bike too. If you take public transit well figure out how to figure that out for a week and maybe preload your transit card or just keep the money set aside. Either way, this week is a good week to re-evaluate your transportation and find alternatives that don't cost anything. And heck, you might find that those walking shoes look good on you and maybe you lose a few pounds. :D
5. Kick Those Habits!!! - Cigarettes, alcohol, lottery tickets, the movies, fast food, ect. NOPE You don't get to stockpile them and you don't get to buy them. You'll thank yourself later.
6. No Buying Clothing - Fiscal Fast Week is actually a great time to go through your closet and recycle old clothes to make new outfits or just get rid of the extra stuff you don't use. Rule: If you haven't used it in a year it's probably time to get rid of it. 

So there you go that's the basics to a Fiscal Fast Week. Do you think you can do it? I'll check back in with you all on how I did and let you know how tough it was.

Breaking the Paycheck to Paycheck Money Cycle Challenge - Month Two

 


Month Two: saving $15 or making an extra $15 to save :)

Here we go with Month 2 already here. So as an experiment I am going to try his suggested survey site and see if I can indeed make the $15 for the month from them.

Step One: I poked around the archives on the site to see if there where any post about how to best make money from the survey sites.  So, my suggestion is to read 9 Best Survey Sites To Make Extra Money.The article states that you can make up to $50 a month with all 9 Survey Sites.

I also, set up this month two apps that will make money from installing them as a way to have passive income. Media Insider Panel and Google Screenwise Panel pay you per month for installing them and will make you $295 per year.

Step Two:
 
Now Month Two has been a challenge us for as a family lot's to do and lot's happening, but I will not let all the chaos get me off track even though it will be a long 2-1/2mns. So, chin up if you think you can't do this believe me... You Can!!!  Not to mention I choose this month to start my weight loss program. So you put that and packing up your house, traveling across country, moving and single parenting for 6weeks all together... I may be crazy, but I will not let anything stop me at this point :)


Total Savings for Month Two: $25
So, $10 above monthly challenge goal and all of the craziness from the month I have to say I'm pretty darn proud of myself. On a side note I didn't make any of that money from surveys. I actually didn't even use the survey sites more then once. :( Maybe next month.  

Now on to Month Three: Save $30 (and in my case I'm working on monetizing my blog. No Judging... we all gotta make money/ save money some how.)

Side Note:
Oh, and I'm planning on cutting down our debt and planning a travel budget. Which yes, I know is kinda a contradiction. So unfortunately I am trying to also build our credit and just got credit card with grocery rewards. 

Best Credit Cards for people with fair credit. 

Summer Reading Program For Kids!!! - 2014

So this year I have a kindergartener, who just so happens to love books! He has a collection of books that we keep in "his library" aka what used to be a linen closet. What better to do then to get my kindergartener who loves books into a summer reading program. Start them out early and they'll be hooked forever (that's my diabolical mom plan at least :) 

I choose TD Bank Young Savers Program which gives you $10 in a Young Savers account for reading 10 books from June 1, 2014 - August 31, 2013. Now TD Bank is an East Coast Bank, in case anyone is wondering, and since we will be moving to the east coast here in July and there will be 22 locations close to us I figured this will be a wonderful option.

And for those of you who are not on the East Coast there is this great list of free programs compiled by Stacie Nelson of Motherhood On A Dime. I love her blog and encourage you if you have young children to give it a look around, plus she's on pinterest!

Gryphon's Summer 2014 Reading List Top Ten:

1. Deadliest Animals (National Geographic Kids)  
2. Animal World (Questions & Answers)
3.Harold and the Purple Crayon
4. The Velveteen Rabbit
5. Go, Dog. Go!
6. I Can Read With My Eyes Shut
7. Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
8. Big Plans
9. The Emperors New Clothes
10. The Three Little Pigs

Good List Ideas for Little Boy Books To Read:
Greatest Little Boy Books 2-6yr
Books for 5-year-olds
Best fantasy for children 10 and under. (goodreads list)
Amazon Summer Reading

Breaking the Paycheck to Paycheck Money Cycle Challenge - Month One

So there is the great blogger called The Penny Hoarder and I am a big fan of his blog. He shares a lot of unique and easy ways to save and earn a little bit of extra cash. And as a stay-at-home parent and a military family we love and need these ideas. Now I also do spend a lot of time researching my own solutions but let's face it it's always easier to do one stop shopping :)

In his blog about learning how to save money when living from paycheck to paycheck he gives you a break down of things to do and a schedule which I love!!! I love it when other people help with with organizing things makes my life so much easier don't you agree?!

Anyway, I decided to take the challenge. So I'm starting to breaking the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck, because I'm tired of feeling broke :'(

The Break Down:  
12 months to save $950

$950 is the goal that he gives you and shows you steps to doing, but as always you can save as much as you can and set a higher goal if you want. 

Month One: Save $5 and put money in savings account.

So my course of action allowed my to save $57.44 for Month One. I was super excited!
I also decided to open a Capital One 360 Checking Account  which will pay me $50 after having the account for 50days and for making 3 purchase from the account in the first 45 days. So 7weeks and 1day from now I will have an extra $50 to add to my savings account... Woot Woot!!!

Now on to Month Two: Saving $15 (and in my case I'm going to open a savings account with a high APY Rate)