Day 8

I am not rich, but I am not poor. My husband and I live paycheck to paycheck. Sometimes we aren't sure how we manage the bills, but they usually get paid. My children want for nothing, but they do not have everything. They have what they need and for this I am grateful. My family has been incredibly generous and without them, I'm not sure how we could have survived. I am very careful with the money I receive for the children's birthdays.  I cannot afford to "put it away" for the future, but I am always frugal with it.

When the twins were born, my mother told me about an article she had read on birthdays. One woman wrote that each of her children received a new toy, a new book and an option for their birthday. The option was always something they wanted, but not necessarily something for which the parents had to pay (ex. one child loved farms, so the parents arranged for the child to spend a day with neighbor who had a farm). I have tried to follow this example, except that again family has blessed me. They usually buy my children toys and I have an aunt who reviews children's books, and graciously passes them on after she has reviewed them. So I focus on the options. Today I exercised one of those options and splurged on the twins. I bought them something totally impractical, but something I knew they would love -rain boots. To me this was a huge unnecessary expense. One that I may never repeat, but today as I watched my children splashing in the rain puddles during our afternoon walk, I knew that this gift was priceless.