Sick and Tired

There comes a point in your life where you find you are sick and tired of being sick and tired.  I was there.  I was sick and tired of being scared to answer the phone or the door.  Sick and tired of seeing red when I checked the bank account.  Sick and tired of wondering when they were going to shut off the electric or how I would take my little ones to the doctor if they got sick. 

As if that wasn't bad enough, I was sick and tired of waking up to the disaster that is our apartment.  We moved from a huge 2000+ sq ft house to an apartment weighing in at 950 sq ft.  To put it nicely, we have "spacial" issues.  My youngest has no where truly safe to play.  DH couldn't move around on crutches.  I can NEVER find anything without a 45 minute scavenger hunt. 

I was done.  After a few days of wanting to do nothing but hide in the shower and cry, I womaned-up.  No one was going to come behind me and clean up either mess.  I realized I'm just going to have to buckle down and make my life what I want it to be.  It took me months to get to where I am now from that day and I finally feel like I am gaining momentum.  The turning point for me was getting DH on board.  Once I fessed up that I couldn't do everything on my own, things sure started going a whole lot smoother. 

There are three people in this world who have helped me grasp what I need to do to put an end to "sick and tired" for good: my DH, Josh; Dave Ramsey, and the FLYlady.  The common thread from all of them? Baby Steps! 

Josh and I sat down and had a big long talk one night about where we were financially.  We were in a hole.  A big, fat, deep hole.  Well, the first rule of holes is to STOP DIGGING!  We've sworn off debt, we have made a commitment to stop gaining new debt.  We worked out a budget and are doing our best to make it work.  We used our tax refund to complete Dave's Baby Step One which I'll talk more about later and we are already beginning to work our way out of that hole. 

Now comes the FLYlady.  If you don't know about the FLYlady please check her out at flylady.net.  She is an amazing woman who can help anyone become organized if you'll just follow her Baby Steps.  I will admit that I flutter at best right now, and at worst I fall completely off the FLYwagon.  It's a work in progress, and it will never be finished but it will always be moving.  The FLYlady focuses on routines to keep a household running smooth.  I am working on basic routines: things like getting up before the kids, running a load of laundry each day to avoid weekend marathons, and keeping the kitchen clean. 

We will be spending the rest of March in a slight pause mode as we move to a bigger, better space for our family and Josh awaits knee surgery.  I hope to use this move as a chance to declutter and start again fresh both in our routines and our financial goals.

I hope you'll join on us this journey and see if any of our experiences can help you find your PEACE.