Closet Purge

 I'm in the middle of a huge closet purge! I always have those spring cleaning feelings at the beginning of the year. Which always leads me to redoing, rearranging everything. I get sick of the same thing all the time. I've been like this as long as I can remember. I loved rearranging my room. It always felt like a brand new space. Same goes for clothes. I love new clothes it makes me feel like a whole new person. A fresh start. Sometimes I look at my closet and just want to dump everything and start brand new. If there are any particular items you loved that I have posted in the past send me a DM on Instagram @ashley.reed and it might just be up for sale soon on my POSHMARK.

New Beginnings

 

 

 

Have you ever been at a crossroad of something new and exciting? Overwhelmed with all the swirling ideas in your head. There has been something possibly in the works for a long time for me. I've been playing around with some ideas. I'm thinking now might be the best time to do it. 

We are living in strange times right now. We are realizing now more than ever that life is too short to not go after your dreams. I like many of you got stuck in 2020. 

We had just moved to a new city, new state and within a month everything was shut down and we were stuck in a house being bored. We had nothing to do but dive into our hobbies maybe? I had all these plans and ideas. Finish all the books on my book list. I ended up reading a finishing two books and not getting through the third before returning it to the library. I wanted to get my DIY projects done. I got ONE done. I wanted to learn all the dances from the 90s and early 2000's music videos. SURPRISE again didn't get any of that done. I did write and record a few songs which was great!

In fact a lot of the time ended up being soul searching. Which I have already blogged about so I won't bore you with it again. I think 2020 was necessary for growth. Being self aware even if it's painful can be so beneficial. It's obviously just the beginning a lot of healing needs to happen. By the mental health journey is so great and so important. I feel the more you talk about things and bring them out into the open you can learn from it, change from it, embrace it, and move forward with your life. 

 

All of these great and sometimes hard things have now lead me this crossroads. The next chapter in my life, in our lives. What does the next five to ten years look like? We've been diving in deep to the planning. Soaking up all the financial advice from Dave Ramsey's network. Planning not only for us but our kids futures. Even more than we have before. Now that we have crossed those things off our list it's time to move onto the next. 

 

I don't want to give too much away because we are doing our research and going over the details and praying about it. We want to make sure this is a good next step for us. 

With that said to be continued...

 

 

I will leave you with this though. Don't let fear rule over you. There will always be some apprehension on any life decision. But if God is in it then you know you are on the right path. 

I have confidence that it will be great. 

 

 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” ~ Philippians 4:6-7 

 

“Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.” ~ John 14:27 

 

 

 

Dave Ramsey Update {The Importance of an Emergency Fund}

 

Hey guys! You didn't think my last post about buying a car would be the end of our Dave Ramsey journey? I wouldn't leave you guys hanging like that. So I decided to do a follow up post so you wouldn't feel alone out there with your financial struggles or even financial successes. Having people in it with you, and supporting you is so important. As I have posted before 2020 was insane to say the least. I know everyone has had their different financial situations. Which is why I wanted to dedicate a specific post to the importance in having an Emergency fund. I think everyone can either say "I wish I had had an emergency savings." Or "I'm so glad we had an emergency fund." After this last year kicking us right in the butt. Parents being forced to work from home and basically home school their kids. People losing their jobs and their businesses. It amazes me on what is still standing and it saddens me the local businesses we lost. Thankfully we fell under the category of "I'm so glad that we had an emergency fund." Not because of loss of a job. But for two important reasons. 

Reason 1: 

The world did not stop moving we still had financial emergencies come up in 2020. We have now lived with no credit cards for about a year and a half. Any major or minor emergency is going to be coming out of that emergency fund. That way we are not still owing someone after our financial emergency like we would if we would've on a credit card. 

It felt like a lot of emergencies too. Annoying as they were we still made it work and we just go back to rebuilding it afterward. We PAY OURSELVES BACK not a bank, or credit card.

2020 financial emergencies

April: Car Maintenance $636.74

May: Locksmith $184

{freak incident where the lock mechanism broke on a bedroom door and wouldn't open}

June: Plane tickets for a funeral. $473.92

Washer broke got a new set. $1423.96

Dec: Transmission $4909.67

{Ended the year with a new transmission}

TOTAL= $7628.29

In just emergencies alone. I couldn't imagine having to deal with loss of job, unemployment, etc.

Even now that I totaled it all out seems so insane that we managed to do all that without using a credit card.

Reason 2:

With our financial freedom we were able to help and give to others. Tithing to our home church not only  helped pay the staff but was used to help others in the community who were having financial hardships. We supported local businesses in the area. Supported friends small businesses financially by buying their product etc. I also had a new years goal last year to give everyone a birthday and Christmas present for 2020 and I did that successfully. {I'm big on birthdays}

 

Emergency fund should be $1000 at the minimum and 3-6 months expenses (i.e electric, water, groceries bills etc.

Ways to earn extra money to fund your Emergency fund

We didn't just rely on my husbands income from his main job. We also did a lot of side hustles. 

These are the ones we have used and we always finding more.

DoorDash driver

{A great way to earn money by delivering groceries, food etc}

Shopkick {Scanning, shopping}: 

{I've been using this one for a few years now and it has helped fund a lot of things}

USE CODE: EARN642480

MyPoints  {Surveys and shopping}

https://www.mypoints.com?rb=71146176 

 Fetch {Shopping/scan receipts}: 

USE CODE: DJ69T

New Year, Same thing

 I had every intention of writing a Christmas post and that didn't happen. Then I had every intention of writing a 2020 recap post. That didn't happen either. So before it's my birthday I figured I needed to get on this. Today the kids go back to school and I feel like the break never even happened. It was the only day that my youngest decided to sleep in. The first day back of setting alarms again. I will never understand that about kids. They sleep in on days they have to get up early, and they get up early when they can sleep in. They also stay up late and get up early, and go to bed early and still get up early. Never ending cycle. 

Anyway, I digress. I noticed now that it's 2021 a new year. We all kind of buy into this "New year, New me" mentality. Now there's a new trend of not putting that kind of pressure on yourselves. Anyone else tired of what everyone tells you what to do. "Everyone" meaning society, social media, trends, etc. 

What drastic measures are you going to take to change yourself from one night to the next? Covid is still happening. Our kids are still remote learning or for some lucky folks in different parts of the country have some kind of normalcy in that area. The country is still going insane. We overwhelm our minds with "I'm going to go on this diet." "I'm going to work harder with this addiction." But what does that do? It makes us cram all the bad behavior in before midnight. Eat all the junk you can because the very next day you have to change your thoughts, your feelings, your behaviors in that particular area of your life. True change can't be done overnight. We have to take one day at a time. Allow mistakes, allow the change to occur gradually. Here's the thing. New Years resolutions are a little pointless. It should be called "Goals for this year to possible attain. But if not its okay life still goes on. You have not failed". 

The idea of being a failure has been on my mind lately. We get so wrapped in the idea that if we don't do productive things. And do them perfectly we are a failure. Which 2020 was a huge test of that. Especially for stay at home moms. Our whole identity is wrapped up in the things we get done in a day. Keeping the house clean, doing the dishes and the laundry. Getting the groceries, and cooking meals. Maybe, if we had some leftover minutes in the day we can do something for ourselves. Oh if only. 

You don't have to be perfect at everything all the time. My desktop screensaver currently says "Progress not perfection". I think those are good words to live by for the new year. Let's just try one day at a time to be the better version of ourselves.

Christmas break {Christmas Movie list}

 Well we made it to Christmas Break. We survived our first (technically second semester of remote learning). While we are so thankful for the break. We are definitely apprehensive about the next school year. I can't wait to go back to normal. Not this new weird normal. 

So to bring some joy into the equation here we've been binge watching Christmas movies non-stop.

I've put together a list of our favorites must see every year with some newer ones or even ones you have forgotten about. 

Feel free to comment with your favorite Christmas Movie.

Classic Christmas Movies:

1} Home Alone

2} Home Alone 2

3}  Santa Clause

4} Santa Clause 2

5} Elf

6} A Christmas Story

7} A Christmas Carol (George C. Scott version is the best)

8}It's a Wonderful Life (we watch it every Christmas Eve)

9} Miracle on 34th Street

10} White Christmas

Honorable Mentions:

11} Four Christmases

                                                                    12} Bad Moms Christmas 

 

Christmas Movies you may have forgotten about:

1} Jingle all the way

 2} Jack Frost

 3}  I'll be home for Christmas

4} Christmas with the Kranks 

5} National Lampoon's Christmas vacation 

 

 

HULU/NETFLIX/Amazon/ Disney + worth watching:

1} Borrowed Hearts

2}  Holidate

3} The Holiday Calender

4} Noelle

5} Holiday In the Wild

6}Jingle Jangle

7} The Knight before Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leopard in the Fall

Look at me back again. I honestly am on a roll. I'm just getting organized! Do you ever get like that? Where you just can't take the mess anymore. You put on your loud music, have some kind of caffeine and just check those things off your list. Remote learning and remote working has made it more of a challenge. That's for sure. But I'm definitely feeling it today and this week. We've almost been in Colorado for a whole year now and I just want to finish the things that I've started. This is mainly due in part to all my Christmas decorations still sitting all over the floor. I think I am definitely over thinking things. It's hard when you are in a new house and you have to find new places for things. Things get lost or broken in the move, your style changes. There are certain things I look forward to when you retire and are in one place. 

With that said I'm going to get back to it.
I will leave you with this outfit of the day. 

Be on the look out for more ...Because I have a lot up my sleeve. 

 

Just another fashion post

 There are 24 days left of 2020. It really feels like the longest year. I feel like I went through the stages of grief or something. It's insane how much life has happened just in the last 9 months. 9 MONTHS!!! It's like we went into a chaotic cocoon of transformation. Wow that was really cheesy but you get the point. 

What have you done? Do you feel you have accomplished anything? I really was hopeful for 2020. I'm sure we all were. I can't tell you how many times I heard people say "2020 is going to be my year". I hope you still made the best of it. I hope you figured things out about yourself. 

I'm hoping to finish off this year well. I hope you are too! By the way this isn't a New Years post.. Even though it sounds like it. I'm just rambling at this point. 

Cheers!