Budgets and Baths

Our Financial Peace University kit came in the mail the other day. I was stoked. Hubby was neither here nor there, to be honest! In the kit there was a pencil and an eraser to do your budget. I got a kick out of them because the pencil said, "the nerd's budget maker" on it and the eraser said, "the free spirit's budget adjuster" on it. In Dave's class he talks about how in a relationship there is always a nerd and a free spirit. I am definitely the nerd in our relationship, I love to write lists, plans, menus, charts, etc. I have done that since I was Elisabeth's age. While hubby is not a "free spirit" in a careless sense (and that's not the way Dave means "free spirit" either), he definitely would rather not be writing out budgets or plans. They seem to bother him. Although he does write out lists and to-do's, so I don't get that. So now that we have our kit, I've gone nuts making sure I use every tool, plan and chart that is made available in it! I love this thing!

While I listen to the Dave Ramsey Show when I am in the car, I can't get reception in my house to listen to it, so while I am home, I pull up the Dave Ramsey app and listen to past questions and answers. I have loved this becasue I can pause it when I need to go something or I can just skip the questions that aren't relevant to me. The other thing I like about Dave Ramsey's app is that I can read the answers. They aren't verbatim what Dave says, but they are pretty darn close. The other day a lady had asked about her and her husband having separate checking accounts. This was Dave's response and I love it! It completely makes sense to me! I love when he says: When you do your spending together and 'we' have an income and 'we' have expenses and 'we' have goals, it keeps it being 'we'. It creates unity. This has been so true for us! I truly feel that every since my hubby and I have been doing this class and working with our money as if it's ours and not his or mine, we have felt so much closer in everything. We seem to be working better as a team than ever before. I would recommend this class to any married couple! It's not just a class about the numbers, Dave gives such great marriage advice and thoughts, it's been great.

I don't know if I have mentioned this before but baths are quite the luxury in our house. I make the kids all take showers, in fact I have given Amelia a shower until she was six months old. Yup, she had not had a single bath in her life until she was six months old. I find showering babies so much easier and less work. It took a little while to get a system so I wouldn't drop my slippery little buggers, but when I figured out how to shower them effectively, that's all I do. So Elisabeth got baths when she was a baby, but then I showered Noah and now showered Amelia too. I just don't see the point in wasting money, space or time trying to buy a baby bath and bathe a slippery little baby would feels insecure laying on their back in a tub of water. They love being cradled by mom or dad and letting the water shower down onto their backs. It quiets my babies right down! But, as I said, Amelia gets to take baths now because she can sit and crawl around. I just put in two or three inches and she has a field day! Then for Elisabeth and Noah, baths were causing so many problems a few months ago because they would splash water all over the floors, never clean up the water or their toys and would through a temper tantrum when I said it was time to get out. Now baths are a special activity they get to pay for. It costs four tickets to be able to have a 'spa bath', which means a thirty minute bath in mom and dad's bathtub, with lots of bubbles, colored water, and any music of their choice playing while they bathe plus mom and dad will do the clean-up. This has been their number one activity of choice. Over playing the computer, the iPad, or watching t.v. or a movie (which all also cost four tickets) and I love this. They feel special doing it and it's been a huge motivator for them doing their chores. I'm a genius!

Amelia cracks me up when she bathes. When the water starts to get a little cool, which happens fast when you have such a little amount, I turn on the water to give her some fresh warm water. When that water turns on she squeals in delight and crawls straight to the water stream and shoves her head directly under the flow. Of course she can't breathe when she does this so then she takes her head out and sits to watch the water, but every single time that water turns on she books it over there to drown herself. It's rather funny and a little scary.