Is Pinterest the new Barbie?

Do you remember when everyone jumped on the "hate Barbie" bandwagon? There was so much criticism that Barbie was emulating and unachievable body image for young girls and everywhere you looked another mom was taking a stand against Barbie. To this day Barbie is (and her crazy measurements) are discussed. Mattel even increased Barbie's waist size a few years back.  With two little girls I didn't know what my "Barbie Policy" would be in this house but my 2 year old is knee deep in loving Princesses and "Bah-bee" (you'd think she lives in Boston I swear). I don't really take issue with Barbie and her perfect little plastic body. I think the responsibility rests on my shoulders to show my little pumpkins what healthy body image looks like; it's part of my task as a parent that I take very seriously. With that said... I am convinced Pinterest is my generation's new Barbie.  Don't get me wrong, I have boards and boards on Pinterest of things I want to do/make/see/eat, etc. but if I'm honest with myself, a lot of those are wishful thinking. A lot of them are a representation of who I want to be, who I feel I need to be, and who I FAIL to be. Here's a great example: I have a crochet flower tutorial on my crafty board. I would love to make them. The mind is willing but the body is weak. I started making a blanket for my first daughter and had to restart it so many times I lost count. My mom would examine it (she's my craft sensi) and start laughing because with all her years of crocheting she had no clue as to how I did what I did. My lack of talent is talent enough. For those wondering if I finished the blanket, I did not. One of the dogs we had at the time got ahold of it and pulled the yarn all over our house as well as out the doggie door. I didn't have the heart to start it all over AGAIN! My point is, are we letting Pinterest be our new unattainable measuring block? Am I a bad mom because my cleaning products aren't homemade with essential oils? Will my daughters look at pictures of their birthday parties and wonder why I didn't have life sized characters set out to greet guests at their party? Or why their Easter baskets didn't include dye-free all natural candy and homemade granola? I don't think so because as I tell myself, along with others, I am doing my best. I fail at something every day. Our house constantly has fur floating around because we have four animals...and those animals make them happy. We color from books I buy at the dollar store and I don't laminate them to create books for them to reference back on but we sure have a blast coloring them. My kids are happy and healthy and that's what matters. Now excuse me while I go empty a blue box of macaroni into a sauce pot because I promised an adorable 2 year old.

What do you mean "budget"?

For a few years now we have been living just a smudge beyond our means; every month going just a little over, just so it didn't hurt. Husband-so-dear had been applying for new jobs with greater earning potential, even second jobs but he wasn't even getting so much as a phone call. We kept thinking it would happen "any day now" (He seriously is such a great catch for a company. They don't know what they're missing. His employees love him, his numbers for his office are awesome, and the guy can do calculations faster than you can find a calculator. I used to be the "math person"...now I suck because I just tell him my calculations). Well, any day now was not coming and our "smidge over" was really starting to add up. I bought "Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey and read some of it, we got excited and never did anything (womp womp). Fast forward....finally came the day where I said we have to change or it's going to start to really hit us. We sat down and joined the ranks of the other smart people out there paying down our debt with our debt snowball. We've done a lot of stupid things with our money but we are finally on the right track! Woo hoo! We made the decision to sell my car (since it still had payments and was worth more than we owed) and take that money to buy a used minivan. We had been talking about getting a van but they were so expensive. We found a 12 year old van with only 70k miles on it and it's in GREAT condition! The morning after we bought Gloria (our new-to-us van) we both looked at each other and sighed with relief. We knew we were making the right decision. We are so happy to finally be taking these steps and God had SO been blessing our faithfulness. It has been amazing to see his reassurance come through in so many ways. I'm going to try to trickle in our progress and keep us accountable through here. Even if no one is reading it now, I know it's out there and I have to answer for myself. :) Looking forward to living like no one else so later on we can LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE!