Squirrel

With the start of a new year I know a lot of people are laying out resolutions and goals and so I thought I might take a few minutes to go through my perspective on the reflection & projection process. I've never been very enthusiastic about health or fitness goals; Brett is doing a great job of steering our family in a healthy direction with home cooked meals and a thoughtful attitude toward nutrition, and I usually get the bug to start up an exercise routine in the spring or fall so, I figure, why force it? No, my goals are more financial-based which makes perfect sense given that my undergraduate degree was in family financial management. This is also a particularly apt time to reevaluate our fiscal house as I recently started a new position at the University and the government has implemented some new tax regulations so our resources have shifted.

One thing I do during the transitional period every year is to take a look at our expenses from the last 12 months to see how things are trending (are we spending more money on groceries? are we going out to eat more often? did the insurance go up for our car? when are the premiums due for our life insurance? etc.) and plot out a budget.  I have a spreadsheet where I track our expenses in different categories and reconcile to our online statements on a weekly or monthly basis.  This helps to give us a pretty clear picture of where we are prioritizing our money and then Brett & I can decide if we want to redistribute the amount of money we have budgeted in each of our categories (Bills, Insurance, Maintenance, Grocery, Gifts, Activities, etc).  We will also evaluate where we are at with our debt and create goals for where we want to be with the debt by the end of the year - neither one of us like to have debt and so we strive to pay off credit card debt every month leaving us with the 'good' debt of our mortgage and another small loan. 

Another major area of consideration are our savings goals.  I am currently contributing 10% of my income to an employer-sponsored retirement plan where my employer matches my contribution.  This is not optional, it is an automatic function of being employed by a state funded institution - it's not something I have to think about or make a conscious decision to do, it just happens and I have learned to live on the check that I get.  This is not the case for Brett and so he does not have a retirement account, one of my major goals for this year will be to get a retirement account set up for him, probably a Roth IRA. 

We have small savings accounts for the girls, to which a monthly contribution is automatically transferred (again with the not thinking about it!).  For now we have not set up 'College' savings accounts for the girls but I am looking into the Ohio 529 plan and may open an account soon. 

Then we have accounts labeled Emergency, Home and Vacation.

• The Emergency fund is exactly what it sounds like: in case of emergency, use this money.  Ideally I would like this to hold an amount equivalent to our monthly expenses for about 4-6 months.  Unfortunately right now the balance in this account is nowhere near that goal - so, goal #2 for this year will be to build up the Emergency Fund!
• The Home fund was originally set up as a place for Brett & I to build our next egg so that we would have a down payment for a house.  Check!  Now this fund serves as a place for us to set aside funds for projects and (eventually) renovations or remodels to our house.  Hello, we have 2 daughters who will some day be teenagers and our house has 1 bathroom.  That does not sound like a peaceful future.
• The Vacation fund is kind of a mad-money account that we have used to take day-trips or pay for the expenses unique to going on vacation!  Airfare! Activities! Car Rental! etc, etc, etc.  We have neglected this account to the point where it is barely hanging on, but we are planning a vacation for this summer to fly out to California for my cousin's wedding, so goal #3 will be to hoard money into this account.

Other miscellaneous categories for family financial planning would be Life Insurance and Estate Planning...I have a life insurance policy through my employer and then Brett & I each have a private policy.  Brett is the beneficiary for my policy and I updated the secondary beneficiary when Marielle was born so that the secondary beneficiary is 50% Corinne, 50% Marielle.  Reciprocal deal with Brett's plan.  We are each adequately covered so that the surviving spouse could pay off the mortgage on our house and to provide replacement income for 3-5 years.  Now, when it comes to Estate Planning - I have no plan other than the life insurance thing.  I don't think either of us has any kind of Will and that will be goal #4 for this year: draft and finalize some kind of Will!  I don't really like to think about or face my mortality, but that is completely irresponsible now that we have children and a house and grown-up responsibilities.

So, I know this isn't your usual list of New Year's Resolutions, but this is how my brain works...this is what I know.  Is there anyting I missed, anything you want further explanation on?  Let me know, I would be happy to expand but I don't want to sit here and drone on and on and bore you to tears. 

Sibling love

C is in timeout for not listening, she is to sit quietly for 3 minutes. M is sitting beside her in solidarity.


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The Rooster's Roost

After we finished up M's room, we turned our attention to C's room. C's room was a little bit trickier for a couple of reasons: I knew I wanted to incorporate roosters (each of the girls has a animal nickname, C's is rooster) and I already had a couple of pieces that I wanted to incorporate into the redesigned room, but I didn't have a clear picture in mind for the color scheme or any of the patterns. For awhile I kept going back to a comforter that GG had made for C's toddler bed, but the big picture just wasn't coming together...luckily C decided that week that her favorite color was purple so we used that as a jumping off point and started exploring.

We settled on a shade of 'grape' and a shade of 'lavender' paired with chocolate brown & oatmeal and added in a few red accents. The room was originally a pale yellow, so we knew the walls would change. Brett's parents very sweetly painted the base colors on all of the walls: a creamy tan (oatmeal) for 3 and lavender for the 4th.

Since her room is on the small side, I knew I wanted to do a horizontal stripe on one of the long walls to provide a visual extension. I used the lavender accent wall and added a grape stripe. I am thrilled with the result!



Brett's mom mixed and matched the bedding from Pottery Barn Kids and The Company Store. All stuffies on the bed were preexisting favorites (Brutus from my mom, Sam sock monkey from a friend of mine and Foofa from Memaw)



C shares the initial of her first name with both of her grandmothers and I definitely wanted to incorporate a 'C' somewhere in the design. This awesome painted wooden letter is from etsy. One of the final finishing touches will be to add framed photographs of my mom & Brett's mom to flank the 'C'



Brett's parents very generously passed along this family rocker when C was born. The existing fabrics didn't work with the new concept so Cheryl & I took a trip to a local fabric store where we found a purple ticking and had the rocker reupholstered!



We added this lamp from Brett's parents' house where it was not being used...I I like it a lot, but we may replace it. The framed photos on the wall are ones that Brett's sister took while we were on a family vacation. The rooster figurine is from etsy. The framed pic of my mom will be reframed and relocated to the 'C' wall. The snow globe was a birthday gift to C from my mom and has pictures of our family inside along with a personally recorded message.



Above the chest of drawers we hung a French memo board (etsy) and a shelf from a local consignment shop. Cheryl found the rooster bookends (etsy) and a purple rooster decal (etsy) that I perched above C's door.



C has already found a couple of things to pin to her board!



The rooster & chicken bookends.



Cheryl found this rooster print and had it matted & framed locally. The red flower hooks were something I picked up from Pier 1 last year.



I absolutely love how it all came together and am so grateful for all of Cheryl's help researching and hunting for the perfect pieces. C is very happy with the room and all of her roosters...although her favorite color has changed approximately 12 times since the redecoration! Typical kid.

A Parade of Elephants

For my birthday I asked Brett's mom, Cheryl, if she would help me redecorate the girls' rooms. She accepted the challenge and I shared with her the ideas floating around in my head. M's room is pretty big so we have a twin bed in there in addition to her crib and wanted to coordinate the bedding. M's animal is an elephant so I knew I wanted to incorporate elephants into the design. Playing off of a grey elephant, I thought back to some pictures I had seen of a beautiful wedding done in yellow, white & grey. We brought in some teal accents to add a pop of color.

Brett's parents were kind enough to paint while the girls were at school and Brett & I were at work during the week. We came home one afternoon and the painting was all done! 3 walls in grey and the fourth in a bright and friendly yellow.



Cheryl found a lot of our pieces on etsy - the bedding was a custom request, the throw pillows coordinated perfectly from another etsy vendor and the puppet adds a cute touch of whimsy to the bed post.



I found an awesome vendor on etsy who does painted wooden letters and we ordered a teal 'M' to go on the wall above M's crib. One of the last details I need to take care of will be to find pictures of my maternal grandmother and her mother to place on either side of the 'M' since M is named after them.



The tall dresser is flanked on one side by a floor lamp (Pier 1) with a shade (Shades of Light) that matches the duvet cover on the twin bed, and on the other side by a wall decal of two little elephants (etsy) - I like to think of the elephants as a big sister and a little sister.



This little guy sits on top of the dresser, I'm not sure where Cheryl found him but he's an adorable, personalized Ellie bank!



The adorable little elephant bookends were another etsy find.



Cheryl found this trumpeting elephant print (etsy) and had it matted and framed locally.



There is an odd little corner in M's room that we found all sorts of creative uses for! Cheryl found this cute chair from Urban Outfitters in a yellow chevron that compliments the lamp on top of the Dresser and matches the skirt to the crib. We found a growth chart decal (etsy) and I repurposed a pair of flower wall hangers (Pier 1) as a convenient place to drop sweaters or jackets. The finishing touch in this corner is a trio of pictures taken by Brett's sister while we were all together on a family vacation.



M's room is now one of my favorite places in the house and I am so grateful for all of the help from Cheryl in pulling it all together!

17 Months, A Mash-up

Marielle is 17 months old!  She has transitioned from an Infant room to a Toddler room at school.  It was very difficult so say goodbye to her teachers T, A & J, but we are getting to know her new teachers S & K.  I guess this means that my baby isn't a baby anymore.  Bah!  My babies will always be my babies.
Hair: still a blondie and I refuse to cut her hair so it's getting pretty long - down to about her chin.  It is starting to thicken up with new growth that is all wispy on her forehead when I pull her hair up into a topknot or pigtails. 
Teeth: she's up to 9! She has all four of her central incisors one lonely little lateral incisor on the lower left, then she has all four of (what I think are) her second molars!  I was shocked when those started coming in, and even more surprised when all four of them started peeking out within about a week.  She is a hard-core, tough little teether though - no fever, no complaints!  Just a fist constantly in her mouth and buckets of sloppy drooly wetness.  
Spoken Words: Mama, Daddy, bye-bye, uh-oh, diaper, bubble, please, thank you, all done, ball, bath
Signed Words: more, please, thank you, all done, dog, squirrel (except she uses the sign for bird), she waves bye-bye and when she is ready for a diaper change she will come over to me, get my attention & pat her bottom
Favorite Song: Row, Row, Row Your Boat - M will prompt you with "whoa, whoa..." and she will wait for you to start signing, if you don't start within about 10 seconds she will repeat "whoa, whoa..." ad nauseum until you sign or she gets distracted by something else
Favorite Foods: milk, cottage cheese, chicken, steak, salmon, yogurt, mandarin oranges, cheese, rice
Pacifier: She still takes a pacifier, but only at naptime and at bedtime for overnight
Marielle is getting much more reliable with correctly matching the names of body parts (eyes, nose, chin, hands, feet, belly, etc). 
A couple of weeks ago I must have been getting ready to drop her off or leave her for a few minutes...I don't really remember, but I was holding her and I asked her "Kisses for Mama?" to which she got a michevious gleam in her eye and shook her head "no" so I started tickling her and she squealled with delight.  Now I fear that I am never going to receive kisses from either of my girls ever again because they both love to play the Kisses for Mama game and I never end up getting any kisses!

Snug as a Bug

For the last several days I have discovered that Corinne is scooting all the way to the end of her bed, dragging her pillow about halfway down and curling up in a cozy little ball to sleep - cuteness!!!

Play with your Food

Today I asked Brett to help me get lunch ready for Corinne while I got a bag together so that we could go to the pool this afternoon. He made her lunch, but he also made her art.
I give you a very hungry caterpillar:



I love my family.