I love following along with Rebecca’s Finances on Friday series and she has gone and turned it into a link party, so now I have to go ahead and link up too.

Ways we saved money this week:

-We lost our electricity for the day on Wednesday. Not super fun, but it was a whole day when we weren’t using electricity.

-Eddie worked from home 2 days this week, mostly because the roads were in terrible shape.

-We received the checks from my old 403 (b) plan and Eddie’s old 401 (k) from when we were both working in Florida-jobs we left years ago. We are working with a financial advisor to roll them over to a plan that makes more sense than just ignoring our money.

-Eddie realized that there was a problem with our electric bill. They were applying our payments to the old account, the one we had before we moved. It has been resolved and now we have an $82 credit towards next month.

-I was waiting until the next paycheck, which was last Friday, then this week I ordered a few more seeds for the spring garden. I’m planning to start most of our new garden from seed (I can start them inside in a few weeks) and I am only buying heirloom seeds so that I can save the seeds that this year’s plants produce and plant those next year, without investing more money.

-We went to the Pottery Barn outlet to look for a big girl bed for Penny, but didn’t find one that we liked. We decided to convert her crib to a toddler bed and make it last a little bit longer.

-It’s been so stinking cold and snowy that I have hardly been out of the house at all. It’s amazing how much money we are saving by just hanging out at home because I’m not ducking into Target for little things or having to get gas in the van as often.

-Instead of ordering a new book for my Kindle and paying for it, we unpacked some boxes of books in our office and I started reading The Chronicles of Narnia. I tried reading out loud to the kids at first, but they completely lost interest in less than 5 minutes. Maybe when they are a little older we can try again.

-Eddie wanted to buy a snow-blower. He looked in 4 different stores, but they were all sold out. So a shovel it remains. 

-I ate left-overs for lunches, used all the meat we had in the refrigerator for dinners,  and made another loaf of honey wheat bread. 

-I had to call a tow truck because I got our van stuck in a snow drift. It was free because we have a AAA membership.

-Nicholas walked to and from school, even though the weather was terrible, and I usually drive him when the weather is bad. (This was mostly due to the fact that the van was stuck in a snow drift.)

-I had over $75 worth of fruit and nut trees and hydrangea bushes in my online shopping cart from The Arbor Day Foundation, but I deleted them. (for now)

-I have a tv appearance scheduled for next week to promote The Cookie Jar Parable, but I did not buy a new outfit. (Even though I really wanted to)

-I booked a few sponsored posts for the blog, which will be spread out over the next month or so.

-I continued to work out using free YouTube videos.

Ways we splurged

-We have gotten SO BAD about ordering food. You would think we lived in New York City instead of rural Pennsylvania. I am trying to stick to my diet and order things like salads or chicken with brown rice, but we seriously ate out like 5 times this week. And Eddie buys his lunch every single day that he goes into the office. I need to start meal planning again. This is getting ridiculous.

-I keep letting Abby go to the extended preschool days on Friday, which adds about $50/month to her tuition, but she really likes it and it helps me get a lot of work done to only have one kid at home (the one who naps!) for that one day every week.

-We spent $50 on pizza and wings for just our little family of five for the Super Bowl. That was dumb. And NOT part of my diet. But delicious.

-I ordered a Valentine’s day gift for Eddie from Amazon. He’s already guessed that it is a set of books because the box was so heavy when it got delivered, but he doesn’t know which books.

-Penny lost a shoe while we were walking Nicholas to school this morning, but I didn’t notice until we were already back at home. I went back out and looked for it, but to no avail. If it doesn’t turn up, I’m going to have to buy her a new pair of tennis shoes. It’s a good thing she is so stinking cute.

We’ve gotten so much snow this year! Lucky for us, we have a two-man crew to clear off our 300+ feet driveway.

Nicholas was out helping Eddie for a long time yesterday. I have such an adorable view from my window.

I’m so proud of Nicholas for sticking with it, even if the shovel is bigger than he is!

Today I am releasing my first children’s book! I can’t even believe the whirlwind of the past year that has landed me in a place where I can call myself a professional author.

This year I’ve been Featured on The Huffinton Post, the Today Show’s blog, and been part of two anthologies, both of which became number 1 best-sellers on Amazon, and one of which topped the  iTunes humor chart as well. I even saw a story I wrote about a dear friend grace the cover of a magazine.

And I signed a contract with a publisher or a book of my very own. But there is only so far you can go own your own.

It was December of 2012 when I first went into talks with Tate Publishing about my book. I chose them because I really appreciated that they let their authors retain the rights to their works and I wanted to work with a Christian publisher. Over the past thirteen months, there has been a lot of hurry up and wait and a lot of hurry up and work, all in preparation for today.

It’s here.

The Cookie Jar Parable

You can order it on Amazon or from any major retailer of books.

Each paperback copy also comes with a code for a free audio download. We are still putting the finishing touches on the audio book, so please be patient and it should be available soon.

I know this is the beginning of a very exciting journey. It marks a change in the direction of my life. I made a promise to myself earlier this year to only focus my energy on projects that I believed would expand my faith and further the kingdom. This is the first of those projects. 

It’s only been out for one day, but the response so far has been overwhelming. I have heard from families that have been blessed by my story, the one I wrote with the words that were given to me.

I know with certainty that right now behind my laptop is where I belong.

This is my story.

This is my gift.

Ours, really.

From Him to me, from me to you, from you to your children.

I’m so glad I can finally share it with you.

Thank you for taking this journey with me!

I’m sorry I haven’t posted much this week. I have been sick, and we also have my grandmother’s funeral today. I wish the reasons were more fun, unfortunately that’s just not the case for us this week. 

On to everyone’s favorite part of the week. (Except maybe mine)

It’s time for Get Skinny Saturday! This is the part where I put my weight on the internet for the whole world to see, and we watch it go down (hopefully) together.

What I did this week:

-I bumped up my exorcize a tiny bit. I still did 15-20 minute YouTube videos 6 days this week, but on Monday I found 3 separate times to do this video. (You walk the equivalent of a mile in 15 minutes, but you do it in your living room.) I did it once in the morning and twice in a row after I put Penny to bed, while Edie was out with the older kids at their activities. So, technically, I completed a 5K on Monday because I walked 3 miles, right? Just say yes.

-I really limited all drinks except water. I did have some tea with lemon and honey when I was sick and I think I had 1/2 a glass of soda once. (possibly twice) 

-I didn’t eat anything after dinner on most nights

-I ate approximately one million caramel candies while visiting my grandfather. (Actually, I think it was eight. Or ten. Or twelve. Who’s counting?)

-I snacked on walnuts and cashews during the day. (Until my kids were home for the fifth day, thanks to all the snow, in a row and ate ALL the food.)

-I had a physical done because we are updating our life insurance policies. I think it’s important to note that the scale the nurse weighed me on was SIX POUNDS lower than our scale here at home. Of course, I’d like to think that hers is the more accurate one, but I’m going to keep using the numbers from ours because otherwise that would be cheating.

-We still ate out for dinner twice. I had an apple walnut salad and turkey chili from Panera Bread and a burrito bowl from Chipotle with chicken and brown rice. But I did make more of an effort to cook at home.

-My biggest change this week was probably lunches. Before I started this challenge, I would sometimes not eat lunch at all, sometimes I’d eat things my kids discarded- like half-eaten PB&J and goldfish crackers, and sometimes I’d just grab fast food on the way home from pre-school drop-off. This week I ate baked potatoes for lunch a few days and I had a package of Green Giant mixed vegetables for lunch on other days. Some days I made mini “pizzas” for lunch with Triscuits, organic pasta sauce, and cheese.

-I made homemade rolls with my sourdough starter. 

-I ordered heirloom seeds for a new vegetable garden so that in a few weeks-probably the end of February or beginning of March- we can start sprouting them inside.

-I’ve been very into only using organic whole wheat flour, which I grind myself here at home, and substituting honey for white sugar.

-It’s been 3 weeks. I finally reached the point where I’m not craving sugar anymore. I will still indulge in a whole fruit popsicle or a handful of chocolate chips for dessert a couple times a week, but I no longer feel like I need  something sweet at the end of every meal.

-I realize doing it by myself helps. I’ve always started diets with my husband in the past, and then I would get frustrated because it was so much easier for him. (Why does he get to lose 5 pounds in a week when I only lose .5 and I eat better? So unfair.) You would think it would work the other way and it would help to have a buddy, but for me, it’s the opposite. I like going at my own pace and not having any competition.

-I wish I would have taken measurements of myself before I started. I feel like I am losing inches faster than weight, which is probably true, but I guess we’ll never know.

And now for the weigh-in:

176.6 pounds

That is a 1.2 pound loss from last week and a 3.6 pound loss over the past three weeks. Remember we started at 180.2 earlier this month. My goal is a 1-2 pound loss per week, so I am satisfied. My end goal is to lose 40 pounds. If I lose 1 pound a week, I should get there be the end of October. (Maybe even by my 30th birthday, which is in mid-September?) We’ll see. I’m not going to beat myself up over a time frame, but I really would like to hit that goal before my birthday. I feel like the weight will probably come off faster in the warmer months when we aren’t trapped in the house, we are eating more food from our garden, we are outside doing physical activities taking care of the property, and we can take advantage of our new pool.

 Now, what about you? Did you make any small changes this week?