Homemaker in the making on a working woman’s schedule

To start off I want to let you get to know me. I am 26 years old, I married at the young age of 18 and I now have two wonderful children, ages 7 and 4. I never really understood the importance of being a homemaker was until I watched other women do it so lovingly. I am a full time employee and not able to be a stay home mom, but I don’t want my family to feel neglected or put on the back burner to my career. So my first step in homemaking I decided the healthiest physically and financially was for me to start making homemade meals and from scratch as much as possible. I was able to save lots of money by not eating out and also able to improve the health of my family by eating better. I became inspired by blogs http://thehumbledhomemaker.com/ and http://www.blissfulanddomestic.com/. These blogs opened my eyes to the need to be more frugal with our finances. My next step was to cut a big portion of our debt out of our lives. We recently sold and extra car that we didn’t need so that we could pay off our unsecured debts (medical bills). We stopped going back into town or making unnecessary trips. We plan a very strict financial budget and we cut out any extra unnecessary expenses. We also started doing a menu plan and a grocery list. We get paid every two weeks so I make a menu plan and only buy items that we need for the meals on the plan. We also cut out impolsive buying for clothes and luxuries. We learned to shop at discount food stores and to also buy in bulk for things that we need. We don’t throw away anything! I use as much of the stuff as we can. Once a month I do a pantry and freezer inventory and make meals around products we already have so that nothing goes to waste. I’ve learned so much in the last few years! I believe we are on our way to an amazing life and debt free with dedication.

Both sides of the fence.. (Skinny Vs. Heavy)

This is going to be painful but seriously needs to be addressed… I realize being too skinny or too heavy isn’t good for your health but society has taken a little too far.

I am going to do a skinny vs. heavy blog because I hear a lot of women/Men that get flack over both. Skinny and heavy people are both struggling with something. They are human beings who need lifted up not torn down. Since when is it okay to make fun of someone because they don’t fit into your “ideal” image.

When either look in the mirror they no longer see themselves.. They see what is constantly being pointed out.. The rolls, the bones, the excess skin, the sunken stomach. Neither see anything beautiful. They don’t notice the beautiful skin tone, the nice hair or gorgeous eyes.

Both sides hear what you say about them and are secretly crying and fighting hard to fix it. In middle school I was very skinny but guess what I had an eating disorder and struggled everyday with what people would say about me! Guess why I started making myself throw up after eating because when I was a child I heard someone call me solid and that I was big for my age. What they didn’t know is I was being injected with steroids to help with psoriasis and it made me bulk up. Being a young girl and hearing that had a major effect on my life.  Then as I began to get the eating disorder under control I began to gain weight. I wouldn’t say I was fat but I wasn’t skinny anymore. I was struggling so hard and I continued to hear what people would say and it hurt just as bad. Later in life I became pregnant with my first child and I was considered high risk and placed on bed rest due to pre-eclampsia. During this time I began to put on a lot of weight and after child birth I kept the weight on now weighing close to 300lbs. I would diet, exercise but nothing seemed to work. When I heard people talking it just made me comfort eat. Now that I have seen both sides of the fence I respect all human beings! People are beautiful in their own ways. We need to be careful how we speak to or about other. Trust me, they hear you and even though you don’t think so you have the power to affect their lives. Make sure you do it in a positive manor. If your concerned about someone’s weight then make sure to encourage them and not discourage them. Your words are very powerful. Your silent glances can pierce the soul!  I build my children up daily with positive praise because I know this world will tear them down. I know one day someone will say something that will impact my children in a negative manor and I want them to feel good enough about themselves that it just dents them not breaks them completely. I hear a song a while back that really spoke to me and I wanted to share it with you.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldiEOAtlTKU

I hope that if nothing else this short blog will make you stop and think before you act.