Month THREE in Summary

In like a lion and out like a lamb, March has been my favorite month of 2014. The long awaited mental shut-down occurred and I am thankful to not be filling my precious brain space with thoughts about new clothes, furniture, Spring accessories, and make-up. Part of how this happened is avoiding Pinterest! It will be terribly sad when I walk around wearing colored pants, wedges, and striped shirts, things that markedly became fashionable LAST year but I hope my friends don't drop me. Lord knows my husband doesn't stay on trend so no judgement there.

Avoiding the mall, magazines, and catalogs makes not spending much easier. It is common sense to the rest of the world. I am just now realizing if I don't want to shop, my visual intake of "stuff" needs to decrease.

Some other great things about March...

We threw a crazy first birthday party for our beloved Mack. We only spent $50 on decorations and food, and it was a blast! My friend Abby gave me the leftover decorations from her son's 1st birthday last month and since the themes were "Lots of Color" "Chalkboard Stuff" and "Deer" I added to what she gave me using what I had on hand.

My wonderful friend Beth made Mack the banner and I can't wait to hang it up in his "room" (actually a closet, pictures coming soon).

My mama sewed the deer pillows for Mack's nursery, aren't they great?!

The ages of the party guests ranged from three-days-old to four-years-old, the triplets came which brought our count of two-year-olds up to ten, but it was a fun play date and I enjoy when our home is busting at its seams with people we love.

Lou spent the entire party stealing juice boxes and eating frosting off of all the cupcakes

The kids ate mini PB & J sandwiches (crustless of course), fresh fruit, and apple juice.












 The mamas ate chicken salad and in retrospect, I should definitely have had wine on hand as well.

Wishing I had gotten a better pic of all the bambino's!

Mack loved his cupcake and ate it like a boss, he held it in his hand while methodically opening and closing his mouth with Lou screaming in his ear, "Do you like it Mackie? Do you love your birthday cake?"

Photo by Abby Jane Galleries

After everyone left, I found some banana in Lou's dollhouse, half a cupcake under the coffee table, and a can of soda stuffed into a pillow case.

Among other March Madnesses, I set a personal record in gift-card-wait-time, I received a gift card to Sephora from my mom for Christmas. I typically treat a gift-card like a coupon, just using it to take the 'edge off' the bill total! This trip I chose the cheapest items: Sephora's house brand of liquid eye-liner and a nude lipstick to make sure I stayed under the set amount. I'd rather have bought this and this because they are "better" products (they last longer) but I will survive, I think, if my eyeliner doesn't stay on during all my big outings to the park.

Hubby went over the credit card bill last night and we were both I was shocked to see we didn't save money this month-- Dang it! He rolled his eyes and sighed, but was not surprised. If there is a lesson we have learned in our marriage, it is to "always have low expectations." I compensated for not spending on myself by actually remembering to send gifts to five different wedding and baby showers. When he questioned these decisions, I gave a detailed, unwanted explanation of how each well-chosen gift was a symbol of my love.

This means we are 0-3 for monthly savings during the spending fast. In January, I over-spent on groceries and in February, we spent our extra moola on a vacation for the two of us.

People keep asking me if it's hard and to be honest, I do miss buying things. It is fun to get something new. Sometimes I miss the shopping bags, rearranging my shoes to make room for a new pair, fresh book pages, the strapping young Fed-Ex man. But I miss it like Christmas. I love Christmas, I adore the music, the cookies, decorating, all the nostalgia that comes that time of year. But do I spend every day in March saying, "Why isn't it Christmas yet? When will it come, how many more days?" No, and I'm guessing you don't either. I enjoy it when it's here, but without it, life goes on. Waiting for the spending fast to end is like waiting for Christmas to come, it will be here eventually but in the mean time there is a lot of other important stuff to do.

I have friends who fasted for 6 months and another for 90 days (refraining from shopping, so hot right now!) I'd find that harder because time is just short enough where you can see the light at the end of the no-shopping-tunnel so you can make your list and revise it and be ready to go when the fast expires. A year seems like forrreevvverrrr so there is not much point in daydreaming because December 31st is eons from now.

So I will wait until then... but am also hoping my husband gets it together and starts buying me STUFF instead of thoughtful trinkets that die or get eaten for upcoming holidays (so far I got flowers for Valentine's Day and chocolate covered strawberries for our anniversary when was really wanting floral print clothing and cheveron covered Toms!) I almost miss the days when he forgot to get me gifts so I would go shopping and buy them on his behalf. Almost.

Also, I am continuing my Lent challenge of making space and waking up earlier. I loooove mornings now. I wake up between 5:30 and 6 (yes, AM!) and spend time listening to music, reading, journaling, and chugging coffee before the babies wake up. Some days I'm wearing my jeans and sneeks and have brushed my teeth as well. The standard time for having those things done pre-March was noon! Hallelujah!