TONS of info...INCLUDING the navigation bar!

{LONGEST POST EVER!! sorry!}

wow.
i've spent WAY too many hours on my blog the last couple days.
but now it's done and i LOVE LOVE LOVE it!
if you were "watching" my blog today you were probably laughing hysterically at all the changes being made. :-)

ok...i have lots to share!
practical stuff as we start a new year on a GOOD foot!!

first of all, the afternoons.
it's no secret that they are hard for me.
a BIG part of that is the 3 older kids all asking me for answers all at the same time.
so...this week i've been preparing for their arrival!

i set out a snack and water on the table.
sharpened pencils...their clipboards that have their homework sheet on it...a "doodle book"

the rule is:
i will rotate around the table helping one person at a time.
if i'm not helping you and you have a question, you can:
eat your snack
color in your doodle book
sit and wait quietly

it's working BRILLIANTLY!!!
the last 3 afternoons have been SO great!
yay!!
{the ONLY downside is i lost about 10 minutes of my precious quiet time clearing the table - it's where all the "junk" from the day collects - and getting the table set up...but, so far, it's WORTH that 10 minutes!}

remember these jars?
there {were} enough pasta noodles in them to count for each day i have left with each of my kids until they turn 18 years old...to help me remember how SPECIAL each day is...AND...once it's gone, it's gone!
well. it was stressing me out.
i kept forgetting.
then tried doing it every sunday for the week.
well...it just became another "chore" and stressed me out.
so, they are gone.
each day is STILL so important.

now...any great pasta recipes you want to share?? :-)
{i didn't throw it all AWAY! just put them away!}

speaking of jars... we've been doing the "dime chore jars" for over 2 years!

and, as we were re-evaluating things over the christmas break, decided to do away with those, too!

they were PERFECT and worked well while we did them (it was GREAT while our kids were a bit younger to give them the "reward" each and every day.

we've changed it to giving them $1.50 every monday.

on sunday they will decide what they want to bring to church.

we talked about how we don't feel like they deserve money for doing their chores.

they are a part of our family and need to do their part.

and they should do it willingly and with a good atttitude...NOT expecting anything in return.
BUT...we also want to be able to teach them how to handle money...how to give...and save...and this is a way to do that.

speaking of money...pat and i just sat down the other night and went over our budget for the month of december AND the whole year.
we do that at the end of every month...discuss the past month and look at the coming month.
we have for about 12 years now.
i hated it at first.
it was a HUGE cause of arguments and disagreements.

but...over the years...i have actually come to appreciate it and am so thankful for the very wise husband that i'm married to.
he just has such a GREAT balance of being careful with our money and knowing when to enjoy God's blessings.
it's not that i would just spend it like crazy.
i think, more likely, i would give it all away!
but then...how would we eat next month?? :-)

random fact: we were $.93 over in our grocery budget for the WHOLE YEAR!
less than a dollar off on what we projected we would spend 12 months ago!
isn't that crazy?? we couldn't believe it!
{not every line item was that close...}

it's hard to know what to share. but, it's a GOOD time of year to start a budget...so i want to encourage any of you that don't, to start.
now, pat is the expert.
i'm just the student...so i'm sharing from that perspective...
but, the first thing to do is just start tracking your money.
every dollar.
pat tells people that it takes a full year of this to really know what your budget should look like.
you can set a budget as you go that first year, but you might forget that both of your car inspections are in june and be over budget that month. BUT...the next june you'll budget for it and be right on!

we use excel.
pat's an accountant and, apparently, they have a thing for excel.
{pat also hates spending money and excel is free :-)}
YES, we know quicken and numerous other sites would be "quicker"...but this works for us, so we're sticking with it.
find something that you can make work for you.

 this is a blank budget from quite a few years ago (we just had rebekah...because her's is the only college fund :-))

every dollar we spend goes into one of those line items.

the yellow highlighted lines are things we save a small amount for monthly...and put in a money market account so that when we have to: pay our water bill, buy christmas gifts, fix a car...there is money already saved for it.

it is a GREAT first step to just start tracking your money.

but you can't stop there.

to REALLY make it work for you, you have to set a budget and stick to it.

if we've set a budget of $40 for entertainment and we are at $35 and pat wants to meet someone for lunch, we have to have a conversation about it before we can go over. when we first got married, there wasn't an option to go over. every dollar we were making was budgeted to be spent to live. our entertainment budget was $25/month. we would go out to dinner once and rent a movie. those are some of the sweetest date night memories...

when we sit down at the end of every month, we look at how we did the past month and we look ahead to the next month and see if we need to adjust anything...it's helpful to both be on the same page.

now we have a little more cushion in our budget...but we also have a LOT more people we are responsible for! yikes!

i don't share all this to stress you out...or to be prideful...but i'm SO thankful for pat's wisdom in this area of our lives. because we follow every dollar so closely...we can see God's provisions SO clearly...we can see when HE makes ends meet when they shouldn't have...money can be a touchy subject...but it's an area where you can REALLY see God work!

AND...last but NOT least...my new header and navigation bar!!!

i hope i can help some of you! i kinda went into the whole thing and just dove in and figured it out as i went...so i hope i don't confuse you more than help you. PLEASE feel free to ask any questions if what i say doesn't make sense!

the header:

i used picnik.

it's free.

you CAN get a subscription to be able to do more and you might need it to do what i did {i have the subscription...} but you can still do a lot without it!

my header is a collage.

it's one of the options once you've uploaded pictures.

just leave one of the squares WITHOUT a picture.

and you can change the color for the background of the collage.

and then you can add text after you add the pictures!

then upload the picture into your header on your blog.

the template i chose is "simple".

if you go in the "template designer" and then "adjust widths" - you can make the blog "wider".

i also changed the layout so there was no sidebar.

ok. 

the navigation bar:

there's an easy way to do this.

and a harder way.

i did the easy way first (what you saw last night and most of the day today...if you saw that)

and the harder way is what i spent HOURS on today.

EITHER way, you have to create NEW PAGES for each link on your navigation bar to go to.

if you click "new post" once you're signed into your blog and then look in the upper left corner of your screen, it will say: "new post" "edit posts" "edit pages"

click on edit pages.

then "new page."

create your page.

{i think you can only do this if you have the "updated editor" in your settings.

go to "settings"

then, under global settings, click on "updated editor" - most of you probably still have the "old editor".

the updated one takes a little bit to get used to...but i've been using it for a few months and uploading pictures is SO much faster!

ok...back to the pages.

and the easy way:

have you created all your pages?? 

as you are creating them, i think they just appear under your header!

so you're good to go!! yay!

the harder way....

i used picnik. again. we were best friends.

you definitely need the subscription for this.

basically, each of the labels {words} is a collage with NO picture and just text added.

when i saved it IN picnik, i changed the size to 75 pixels x 75 pixels.

THEN i uploaded it to photobucket {free site} and then got the HTML code from there to link to my blog.

INSTEAD of the pages gadget under my header, i added a "gadget" that was "html/java blah blah" something like that.

then i copied and pasted the code for EACH collage in order in that gadget.

once you have all those in, go to the top of the box where you put the codes and hit "rich text".

if you then click on each of your labels, it will put a box around it.

then click on the world looking green thingy on the top right and it will let you put the website address for it to link to.

crazy, i know! 

again...feel free to ask questions! not sure how quickly i'll be able to get back to you. you can also google your questions...i did that quite a few times and i'm sure it helped me more than i realized...just in understanding the framework for what i was working with.

would you believe me if i said i know NOTHING about computers??

i really don't.

i'm just really stubborn! :-)

wow.

sick of "hearing me"??

i think i have all my words out for tonight! :-)