New possibilities

Yesterday I left P and B home with G while I took M and L to running club.  For that outing I was away from home for 2 hours.  I was within 1 mile of home for 90 minutes of that time, and called home twice and checked in with G.  It was nice to just let them stay home.

Today I needed to go to the bank and we had just finished a nice activity at the park.  So I asked the kids if they'd like to stay home.  "Yes!" and they were all happy to spend some time on the computers.  I was gone for an hour but it was all 5 of them home. 

This is so strange.  G is old enough to babysit now and I'm very grateful that he's been a very kind brother lately.  Like any new privilege I need to be careful and not abuse this one.  When P is home I'm reluctant to leave kids home since it may seem like I'm asking him to watch them, when he is needing to be at work, in the closet.  But with him away for a bit, it's actually liberating to try this out without feeling like I'm imposing on him.

family movies

I've been making movies about our family for 10 years now.  I put music I like against pictures and short videos of the kids living life.  In addition to these being a nice way to keep a record of the fun we've had, it's a great thing to let the kids watch on Sunday.  I've been doing this so long that I caught myself taking pictures the other day specifically thinking how this series of 5 pictures would play nicely in a video.  : )

up early

Today I walked for the first time in 2 weeks.  I've been walking and driving for 2 weeks, but today was my first morning walk in a looong time.  It's so nice to just roll out and go walk.  I have had an entire hour to just think and cook and stretch my body before everyone wakes up and the business takes over.

I'm grateful to my friend who motivated me to walk.  I'm grateful for the blogger that motivated me to seek morning solitude.  May I be more patient today than yesterday.  Not like yesterday was terrible, but walking early helps.

Evacucation

We had a harrowing trip to Louisiana but then had a lovely visit with Phillip's uncle C and aunt A.

new forecast

Sot the storm may hit more westerly.  How do they even know it will turn at all?  So maybe Gtown won't  be better, but it will be higher.

more preparations

We're heading to Gtown and taking the generator with us.  P was able to get the tank filled up but he wasn't able to buy a second tank.  Today on my way home from our homeschool group kick-off event I stopped at Walgreens and asked if I could buy an empty tank.  They sold it to me for full price but it only cost $8 to fill it up at Tractor Supply.  All in all it's a huge blessing to have a back up tank ready to go.  I've seen many stores with tanks in their storage cage.  I don't think all stores are willing to sell them.  Or maybe nobody wants to buy an empty for full price, not knowing how easy it is to get it filled up. 

Grandparents C and S said we could come to their home and eat all their food.  Yay!  They are so good to us.  So I'm packing up non-perishable things and clothes.

It's amazing how having a food storage mindset has really blessed us in this chaos.  I'm not worried about what we'll eat for the next week.  We've got food in the pantry.  I did have to get diapers on Tuesday.  And I did pick up some water.  But we're incredibly blessed that we already had most of our preparations in place.  I know that it is a luxury to have enough money to buy things in bulk to have this advance supply.  I'm just grateful for the church teachings that help us out in these temporal crises.

rush on the Walmart

Today I went to buy some diapers and thought I'd get some water too since there may be a hurricane next week(!)  G also needed some water balloons for class and told me at 10am(!)  So we went to walmart and found that the entire city was there too.  Yay.  It was just like Christmas but not.  The store was already out of water and the store brand diapers in baby's size.  But we did get the water balloons and the nicer diapers. 

Then we went to Save a lot where we found water back by the bathrooms and were allowed to buy 4 gallons.  Yay for rationing. 

Irma is a week off but so far G has no school on Thursday and Friday.  I'll ask P to fire up the generator and consider getting another tank of propane.  Yay!

forecast

self reliance

I've joined a self reliance group at church.  We'll meet weekly to help each other with personal finance.  Everyone in the group knows about Dave Ramsey and most of us were raised with the idea of avoiding consumer debt.  I am really enjoying the opportunity to pursue one of my favorite hobbies with church friends.  I've done a spreadsheet for years but am going to try daily writing down my transactions and reconciling that with the spreadsheet.  I know I need to get back to using the envelope system more.  Things have been out of control for the last 3 months as I tried to help my dad.  I've been paying so much attention to his problems and loaning money to him so my own family's finances are messy.  Time to get it cleaned up!

I'm really looking forward to the end of this month when things will hopefully be fixed for my dad and I get my families finances back in order.

I set up a composition notebook to write things down in.  I am a person that processes through writing.  I am hopeful that daily writing down my transactions will help my brain get things sorted out.

to see the temple

Today we went to Orlando.  I'm so grateful we took the time to go.  We left at 8:45 and got home around 7.  It takes all day with the drive and trading off the kids.  P went first and I took the kids to 2 different parks.  Thank goodness for big canopies over the play structures.  P took the kids to a McDonalds with a 3 story play structure.

On the way home we took a detour to Sam's club and got raisin bran.  It was a good day.

looking good

Today P and I did some clothes shopping.  Labor day weekend sales saved us a lot of money, but it's not like we would have just gone out and paid full price for this quality otherwise.  I'm glad the sales allowed us to feel better about getting some really nice items.  P got some new shoes from Bass and a sports coat from Brooks Brothers.  He looks great.   I got some new items at Lane Bryant.  It is so nice to be able to go into a store and get help with your measurements.  My new clothes feel great!