How is it possible....

I am truly amazed at God's timing. Losing half of our income right before a new baby may seem stressful but actually it hasn't been stressful or hard at all. It's been nice having Todd home with the boys...and we all are enjoying our summer more! We're saving money on daycare and it has pushed Todd to get ready for school...in doing so he's also preparing the boys to go back to school. We looked at our finances and decided that this wasn't financially a bad thing...we looked at our upcoming expenses and found that we have a few big upcoming expenses...the first is of course school supplise...we bought them before Todd stopped working...we weren't really planning ahead, we were just excited....they have new book bags, lunch boxes, glue sticks, crayons, markers, tissues, baby wipes, ziplock bags...you name it, they have it. Another big expense was going to be new school clothes....Ethan needs 4 pairs of jeans, socks, 6 long-sleeved white/gray/black t-shirts to go under his short sleeved shirts that we bought at the start of school but still fit perfectly and a new hoodie, he'll also need a new winter coat, Lane will need 3 pairs of jean, socks, 6 long-sleeved t-shirts, new shoes and a new hoodie....but nothing is pressing and Todd got 2 large checks from his retirement fund for way more than they will need for school clothes. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays...Lane wants to be a vampire this year, Ethan just can't decide and we already have Baby ACs costume...Lane's vampire can easily be made from the batman cape we have...a little white face make up, blood streaming from his mouth, and fake teeth....we're set....as soon as Ethan decides what he wants to be, I can get to work on his costume! And the BIG expense coming up? Christmas! We're lucky to have a medical expense account...I have paid lots of medical bills recently out of pocket that I haven't redeemed the money for, so I'll redeem that money and have nearly $500 for Christmas...which is more than we usually spend...we cut back on Christmas this year and that's helped tremendously! I've started a list to give me an idea of how much we'll need/want to spend this year. And in January we will hopefully be paying off one of our 2 credit cards, which will free up money for the boys birthday...each year we take the boys out to eat and give them $50 to spend on whatever they want...or they can save it for a time when there is something they REALLY want...we encourage saving but don't push it on them at this age...we talk about saving and living with what we have but I don't want to push it down their throats...you know? Anyways, I think sitting down and discussing upcoming expenses and where they'll come from has really helped to reduce the stress of losing Todd's income. Not to mention having a stock pile of diapers is a huge relief!