Taking Control

I got to thinking today of what I could do to make my life more calm and to help myself and Mr. Cranky get along a little better. I picked through all the stuff that stresses me out.. My health, Baby K's health, school, work, blah, blah, blah. I can't do much about any of those, well, except for my health. It would help if I would stop breaking things, but that's a whole 'nother story. Then I got to the house and our finances. YAY! I CAN do something about those!

I've decided that with our tax refund we are going to get ALL of our bills paid off and set a budget. See, i've tried to set a budget many times before and it looks great on paper, but when it comes to actually doing it, it never seems to work out right. In theory, we have enough to pay for everything and should even have some left over, but it never seems to work out that way. So tonight, I talked to my Dad, the master financial planner, and asked him if he would help me get our finances in order. He agreed, so now I just have to get all of our stuff together.

This may not sound like a big deal, but it is a major point of stress for Mr. Cranky and I. I don't want to have to worry about running over to Target and spending fifty bucks, or eating a meal out. I'm tired of living on a shoe string budget when we really shouldn't have to. I'm also really worried about having enough funds to care for Baby K's medical issues.

For those of you who aren't in the know, Baby K was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate. He's had three surgeries so far in his short 15 months. He's doing really great but we've got a long, expensive road ahead of us. In just a few short years he is going to need dental implants for his front teeth that are misplaced by his cleft. Not to mention the years of braces, speech therapy and the upcoming eight to twelve surgeries and massive amount of doctors appointments in the next fifteen or so years.

I'm just so scared that we aren't going to be able to provide him the medical care he needs because we can't handle our finances. So, i'm going to do this. I'm determined!

The other thing that is a major sore point between the hubs and me is the house and cleaning it. Lately he's been chipping in alot more because i've been out of commission, but we still argue about it. It seems that no matter how often we clean that the kids can destroy it all in an hour. It drives both of us nuts. See, neither of us like cleaning, but we hate living in a dirty house. Not a good combo.

So, to remedy this problem, i've decided to make a chore list for each day. I've picked one room a day to tackle and then the normal stuff that has to be done each day, like cleaning the kitchen and sweeping. I haven't really figured out exactly how i'm going to arrange this, but damnit, i'm gonna do it. I just have to get in the habit of doing this stuff, even when I don't feel good. I'm also going to make one for the boys to get them involved. The oldest one is four and a half, I figure that is old enough to be doing chores and helping clean. I think the structure will be good for him too.

So by doing all of this, I think it will help me and the hubs get along a lot better. Those seem to be the major stress points between us. It seems like every time we fight, which is becoming more and more often, it's always about the house work and money. Hopefully, if I can get these two things squared away, then we can start working on our relationship instead of driving it further into the ground.

All in all, its been a good day. I'm excited about getting this stuff done and feeling better about myself. I know it all sounds kind of rediculous, but just having a plan in place to take care of these stressors makes me feel so much better.

So if anybody has any secrets they would like to share about how to handle the house work stuff or what works for your family, please, do tell. As for now, the pain meds are hitting pretty hard (which is prolly why i'm writing this post in the first place) so imma go to bed. :)