Budgeting

I have to admit. I am not very good at budgeting at all. I kept track of my money pretty well and saved a lot of it and then I got married and it started to feel that everything was gone. I didn't realize how expensive married life really is but it is also really nice to share resources. My husband and I both work on Campus.

I do notice that the more we worry about finances the more often we do go out to eat or we go to the store and buy something. I didn't notice this was happening until we talked about that problem in class. It scared me. I wasn't going into any major debt or anything but I noticed that we weren't so well off as we might have believed.

I talked about this with my husband and he agreed we need to sit down and write out a budget. It is SO relieving knowing how much you need to spend and where you are putting your money towards. My husband has taken the Money Management Class last year and remembered a lot from it, which helps a ton.

I'm grateful for the book "One for the money" by Elder Ashton. It was very eye-opening and said to admit that I probably wouldn't have read it unless it was required but I'm grateful that I did and it was definitely worth the read.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

May your crusts be flaky and your turkey juicy. :)

Communication

Every time I study about communication (especially within the family) I realize that much more how incredibly vital it is. I heard once that the highest rate of divorce in the LDS culture were 3 things (which I can only recall 2 at the moment) but all of those were interconnected with communication.

I'm in a Psychology of Effective Living class right now and we were pretty open in this class and I heard from a guy in my class that he has been married now for over 10 years and how much of a struggle it was with him and his wife and how he realized that they did not know how to problem-solve together. They were completely opposite. After he was finished, I talked about how important it is to make sure while you are dating someone to realize the different problem-solving strategies the both of you have... the guy who just finished talking rose his hand again and said "yes, that was the problem. My wife and I didn't ever really date...". This really hit home because Brother Williams has been saying that since Day one in this class that if you do not date then your marriage will become a lot harder in the long run. Soo, please date! And date correctly.

I'm really grateful that my husband and I have dated and have gotten to know each other really well. Even though yes we do struggle at times but I think we have figured out how we communicate and how we need to solve our problems together so it makes things a lot easier.

Now I just need to apply how Brother Ballard teaches how to counsel. That way when we have children it will be very easy to know how to properly counsel within our own family.

Family stressors

I didn't enjoy this weeks lesson too much because it really felt like it got me down. I dont' exactly like focusing on the negative and problems in my family (I mean who does) but I didn't think that I had so many and that sometimes I was bringing out problems in my family that I shouldn't have. Also, I think this week helped me realize that the proper attitude will help you get through family crises without letting it destroy the family.

Make sure you take a moment when you are taking in a problem. Do not let your emotions get ahead of you. I believe that is what the natural man is and what Satan wants you to do. Let the spirit guide your choices and be considerate on how everyone would feel in the situation that you are in. I believe children realize just as much as adults, if not more, of what is happening within the family. So be kind, loving, and tak

e a breathe when making a decision.

Infidelity

This last week in class we talked a lot about infidelity. It kind of took me by surprise about how easy it is to fall into an affair. When the class read the article it talked about two guys who were assigned to work with this girl. They were both happily married and neither of them had the thought of falling in love or having an affair with this girl. One of the men had rules that he had made with his wife about not driving alone with a girl so he always made an excuse to find a ride there. The other guy didn't have a problem with it. It turns out that he did end up falling in love with this girl without even wanting to.
As soon as I read all the prep work for this class, I went and sat down with my husband and we talked about what we would do to prevent fidelity. Neither of us are really worried about fidelity because we are newlyweds but we still talked about it and put down some boundaries. I'm really grateful for that. I'm even more grateful for my spouse and his willingness to understand this problem better with me.