The Saturday Seven

I have a million things on my mind this week, not one of which seems to make a decent blog post! So instead of just giving up, I thought I'd take a minute and give you a few miscellaneous notes about what's going on in our home.

(You may wonder why I picked the number 7. It's obviously because I had this picture of the number 7 that I've been trying to work into a post for several months now. Success!)

1. We are on a new budget in our family. It's not exactly new, but this month I am making more of an effort to stick to it. We're trying to save for a bigger vehicle, which means cutting back on excess spending and upping our savings. We were doing great until last month when the car needed new tires, Evan needed books for school, we made an unexpected trip to see my family, and I got hospital bills in the mail. Of course, as my husband reminded me at least we don't have to pay for any of those things this month so we should be in the clear...maybe.

2. One of the ways we're trying to save money is by not eating out as much and making a meal plan. I spent an hour yesterday planning our meals for the whole month. I usually hate meal planning, but I actually enjoyed putting things on the calendar this time. It felt more like a puzzle than trying to make a grocery list. Now if we can just stick to the plan we'll be doing great! I'm really hoping that monthly meal planning works out well for us. It took a lot less time than trying to do it each week, and hopefully I can plan ahead and buy things in bulk instead of constantly stocking up on the same things. Maybe if I make less trips to Wal-Mart, I'll spend less money. Maybe? 

3. I have officially weaned Rooster. A week ago Thursday was our last time to nurse. Weaning has been a very good thing for me, but Rooster is having a hard time. About the time we started weaning he got a terrible diaper rash that hasn't seemed to go away. We're treating the rash and switched him to soy milk for a while, so hopefully things will get better. I do not like having a sick and fussy little boy.

4. Pregnancy-wise things are going great. We have an appointment this coming week with our new doctor, and I'm pretty excited about it. Another month down and 4 (or is it 5?) more to go!  I have been extra tired recently though. With Rooster not sleeping well and me being extra busy with the start of the school year, I just seem to be tired all the time!. In fact, it's been so bad that I got "Bob" out of the closet to sleep with me. He's my massive pregnancy pillow that I get out when I just need a little extra snuggle at night. My husband isn't too found of him, but a girl's got to get some sleep! 

5. I got Rooster's birthday party invitations in the mail this weeks which means it's time to actually start planning his party! He turns one in a couple weeks and of course we're throwing him a sizable birthday extravaganza. Since this is the first birthday party I've actually thrown I'm not really sure what goes into them, but I'm pretty sure we'll have cake and balloons. After that it's all up in the air. Really I just need a few good pictures for his photo album, and the rest doesn't matter. He won't remember it anyway!


6. This Sunday we start a Bible in 90 days program at church. I'm really excited about the challenge but also a little bit nervous. I've tried to read the Bible in 90 days before and fell off the wagon right about Ezekiel. I'm hoping that having the added accountability of a group will help me finish this time, but with so much going on this semester I'm having my doubts. I will commit to finishing the Bible this time though. It might take me longer than 90 days, but really in the end it's all about reading the Word of God, so who cares!

7. Finally, I really want to change up my blogging routine around here. Recently I feel very much in a slump. I sit down to write and feel like the things I want to say are just repeats of things I've said before. I guess after blogging for a year, I finally run out of things to say! I'd love to start a series about something or find a way to make posts more regular and less random. I'm just having trouble coming up with something that fits into my blogging niche. If you have any ideas or maybe even topics you would like to see me write about please share! If not, you'll probably just keep getting pictures of Rooster and random lists like this one.  It's your call really :)