Oh Blog, Where Art Thou?

In the words of Ferris Beuller, "Life moves pretty fast." (And so does this blog post because I have like 5 minutes. No editing, no overthinking!)

My life has, in fact, moved so fast that it's been very difficult to keep up with. Much less keep up with and reflect on.

First, big news. We decided to buy a house. I know my Dave Ramsey friends might hate me for moving our student loans into Baby Step 6, but at least listen to how it happened first, okay? Okay. ;)

For nearly three years we've been telling ourselves no, no no on buying a house. No matter what the market, we have debt and we've been following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which say no house until you're debt free with an emergency fund. Throughout those 3 years we've made great progress on our debt, paying off all of our credit cards, loans from family members and our car. We've also made the transition from two incomes to one pretty easily. But our student loans are huge and will take us several years to pay off.

Three things happened at once to finally change our minds about buying a house: First, our apartment complex raised our rent again. Second, we discovered that a mortgage on a house in the area we want to live, with a yard and three bedrooms, would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $150-200 cheaper per month than our new rent (which is very competitive for the area), including tax, title and insurance. Finally, we learned of an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homeowners (hello emergency fund!) and a generous family member offered to pay most of our down payment. With all of these in mind I called two wonderful wise friends who are on Dave's plan and told them two things: We don't want to do something stupid and we also don't want to follow the plan like it's a religion. Talking to them confirmed our decision for us and we went looking for houses. We have an offer in on one and are waiting impatiently to hear whether it will be accepted. So bring on the wet noodles, but we really feel we've made the right decision for us.

So, that was craziness #1. Craziness #2 is that we took little Miss Lilia Joy on her first road trip. We went to California to Jeff's parents' house to see them and Jeff's brother and his family, and also saw about a million friends and family members while we were there. It was fantastic to see everyone, but very difficult to travel for poor Lilia. She was so out-of-sorts the whole time! Poor Papa and Meme seemed to get the brunt of it, but they were absolutely sweet about the whole thing. They didn't give a word of advice, but sympathized and reassured us that babies cry and it doesn't mean a thing about us as parents. We were reminded how much we want to be like them when we grow up....

Lilia's cousins were so much fun, and loved her so much. It was wonderful to watch! And of course there were the doting grandparents and aunt and uncle, and great-aunt and great-uncle, and Meme and Papa, and our old Gang from the 'ville, and a million others. I'll post pictures as soon as I get a minute!

My head is in so many places that my blog needs to catch up. So hopefully another post tomorrow.

In the meantime, head over to my husband's new blog!

Who are you and what do you do?

Jeff and I at my school's Winter Concert -- my last hurrah as a music teacher, for now.

Ordinarily at this point I would be grieving my break and gearing up for school to start back up on Monday. It's weird that I'm not and it's giving me a strange identity crisis. I didn't expect to feel this way, since I've wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember. But here I am, wondering who I am and what I do now that I'm not a teacher.

I spent a long time yesterday thinking about this, first realizing that I feel an internal need to defend my choice. Then I realized that the fear behind it is that I'm resigning from the world -- no longer contributing at all.

But (and earlier than usual, I might add!) I prayed and read my Bible and listened to God. I realized something important: What I will do now is the same thing I did last month, and last year and the same thing I will do next year. I will follow God's calling on my life and serve Him in whatever way He asks. I have no idea what that means as the road turns and changes, but I do know that I am called to raise this baby as my next step. So I will do the next right thing.

Plans, Routines and Flexibility

Jeff and I had a wonderful little date last night. We drove like an hour away to go to IHOP and eat. It was really fun! It was also very sweet of him, because I love driving to nowhere in particular and he doesn't share that eccentricity. But we both had a great time!

We spent some time talking about what our priorities should be during this strange little limbo time. The baby could come at any minute, but we could also have 5-6 more weeks of pregnancy without me working. So it's a strange time.

If you know me, you know that transitions are not my strong suit. I grew up believing that drastic, painful changes were waiting around every corner, ready to pounce as soon as I became happy in my life. As an adult, it's still pretty difficult for me to deal with changes even if they're very good. But I think I'm improving and this is a good example!

I decided to make a little "workday" routine for myself that integrates my priorities for this time: Taking care of myself and the baby, taking care of the house, and trying to earn a little extra money (in that order!). Jeff helped with it and I feel much more calm about this particular transition now.

So today is my first day working it out and I think it's a good plan! It's not intended to be rigid, just a little routine to provide some security. It could only be for a few days, or it could be for weeks. But I'm excited about learning and growing and making a new strategy to compensate for an old pattern.