Trail Mix

Hello all of you moms out there. I have decided to start this blog as a venue for support, advice, conversations, ideas, recipes, and whatever else we designate as part of being a mom. My name is Erin. I am first an foremost a christian. Along with that I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a counselor, you name it. I am married to a wonderful man, and his name is Benji. You will probably hear (read) his name many times. We have a little boy named Grayson, and he is 9 months old. We also have a great big huge dog named Chief. I guess we are living the picket fence life, if that is still applicable today. I stay home and raise our son, cook, clean, keep Benji organized -he is a fireman with a landscaping business that he does on his days off. I handle the financial/billing/customer service side of that from home.
The decision for me to stay home was not an easy one. We prayed and prayed about it. We had really been feeling led to go this route, but there is always the human side that says "How in the world will we be able to go from two incomes to one?" I was a teacher, and that definitely helped our income level. We finally decided that if God was leading us to do this, then He would provide, and let me tell you ladies, God is so good. I have never been happier in my life. We make a lot of sacrifices to be able to do this, but it is oh so worth it. We have so many people say, "I wish I could stay home." Seriously...anyone can do it. It is all about he sacrifice. We have made a lot of those. One thing we do not sacrifice is our once a month date night - NO MATTER WHAT. We feel like this is super important for us to keep the spark in our marriage. We love being parents, but we don't want to forget that we are also husband and wife...if you know what I mean (wink, wink).
I do a lot of things differently. Staying home, I made the decision to cut costs wherever possible. We use cloth diapers, I make Grayson's baby food. The thing is, I have come to LOVE doing these things. I want to know about anyone else that is doing any of this or other things to help out. I would love to hear ideas, opinions, advice.
We are also using Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover to try and get rid of our debt, so that we are able to save more, give more, and lose some of the financial stress. God has been so good and has provided the money to live every month, but we don't want to just live. We want to give more to our church, we want to save for Grayson and future children's college. We do not want to always be paycheck to paycheck. If you have never heard of Dave Ramsey, you need to check out his website. So far we have paid off 2 of items, and we are on the road to "recovery" with the third.
I absolutely love my life. God has blessed me and my family to the highest degree. I cannot wait to share with you all of these blessings, as well as ideas, stories, funnies, advice, and of course...recipes. Please feel free to leave me comments and opinions, and ask me questions. I cannot wait to share this journey with you as we go down the trail of motherhood. Don't forget the trail mix.