Sunday Thoughts/April in Review

I am SUPER excited....why you ask..I now have 2 followers!!! I know that several people read my blog on occasion but to have followers is AWESOME!! It also means that I am going to make a better effort to blog more! I just checked and I had 16 post in April which is less than March but still more than Jan and Feb. So I am going to count this as a success for my goal of blogging in March. I am getting into the swing of Monday Menu planning and Wordless (occasional) Wednesday but I need to focus on sharing more of life and couponing!

In April we had formal "preschool" on 5 days which is not a lot but I know that for several days Lily and I have worked on the computer on beginning reading skills and she is CONSTANTLY asking about what something starts with or how to write a letter. One of the major accomplishments for the month is that I order the book "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons." I was able to get it free using ebay bucks (1.67) and a gift card I purchased from swag bucks. I am going to count April a success in preschool even though it was 5 official days. In other news, a "School readiness specialist" will visit us once a month beginning in May to work with all the little kids. I am excited to get some new ideas and outside opinions on the kids. We have also officially decided not to send Lily to preschool next year. I am going to focus on finishing up with writing and reading during the summer! Starting in August, my goal is to take the kids to the Library for story hour at least 3 times a month and also plan a "field trip" to some local museums, farms or something to help Lily stay ready for School. We are also considering letting her do an extra activity outside of church but that is still on the table for discussion. She may do a small cheer squad ???

Budget wise April was a tough month because of an income problem but with expenses, I was able to cut our grocery bill by 50% totally from the previous 3 months. This is so exciting and I have a small stash of items such as diapers and toilet paper that should continue to bring the cost of things down! I had an awesome trip to CVS today but I want to save that for a separate post so that I can break down some of the cost per item! I have begun to see some more "free" items come in. For example I was able to use "Huggies diaper points" to purchase a bag of swim diapers for the summer! I also received cash back from bing and swag bucks! Hopefully the month of May will bring in our State Income tax return which will allow us to finish the addition and refinance the house. One of the major area that has helped our budget this month is reducing the number of times we eat out. This month with the exception of Matt's birthday meal we have been able to limit our eating out to once per week! I am hoping to continue this all summer long and maybe even reduce to 2x a month. But that will be hard with us going to the pool this summer, hopefully frozen meals and community meals will help us stay on track!

Unfortunately, the one area that has been a complete bomb this month is my nightly devotions. I have to admit that I have only been reading maybe 2 nights the entire month. With that I know that I NEED to make this a focus this month so I hope to report a improvement in this area especially.

I am starting to appreciate blogging as a way to keep myself accountable to both my goals and budget. Honestly this is the first year that I am still working on my "goals" in May!