Better Than Money??? Time!

Lately my blog has been finance heavy--absolutely due to the Money Makeover we are competing in, but even before that, the stress and pressure of making our budget balance (without pulling out a credit card) seemed to take a lot of our time and attention.  However, today is a good day to refocus and remember the most important things in life are not things. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed. As the shirt I wore to work today states, "Your life is your message to the world. Make it count." which is a homage to one soul gone too soon.  This past Sunday, our pastor's wife shared her decision to leave Facebook and I felt many of the same things she shared.  Staring at others' highlight reels on Facebook as you compare it to your behind the scene tour leads to nothing positive.  Although I am not ready to go Facebook free, I can see the enormous drain on my too little time.  I don't want to miss my children's youth staring at screens.  For now, I plan to limit my daily time on the computer to a minimal amount.  I also plan to go through the settings and limit the feeds of many individuals who do not promote what I hold dear to me  hiding their posts, lessening my time to read my newsfeed.  Typically, I try not to spend much time on the computer/smartphone when my children are awake---especially when they want to play with me!  I can't make my children grow slower, and I can't get these moments back.  There is an idea I love, and I will be  making this for my own children this weekend hoping to be a reminder of this very post.

How To Make a Visual Reminder
1. Get a clear, glass Mason jar.
2. Write your child's name on the jar.  If you have multiple children like me, you will need a jar for each of them.
3. Do some math...52 x the number of years until they graduate high school. (for example, Danica, my oldest, would be 52, Kayleigh is 6 so 52x12= 624, Levi is almost 4, so 52x14=728.
4. The product (benefit of being a teacher, I remember what a product is! The answer when you multiply, if you forgot!) represents the number of pieces of candy you will put in the jar now. It represents how many weeks you have left to make every moment count.
5. Take out a piece every week to maintain the relationship and to remind yourself this time is not forever. You might want to eat the candy, or simply throw away, especially 10 years down the line.

If you are opposed to candy (14 year old candy...yuck?) think of other representations you could use from the craft store, like beads or stones, ect.

I will post my children's jars later this weekend after visiting the craft store so you can see more visually what this could look like.

Now, I am going to shut my computer, and stay off it for the rest of my evening.  I hope this post spoke to you and is used for positive changes with our too little time. Good Night!