Frugal Girl Confessions

On Sunday, I was chatting with some friends at church, and my friend Karyn told me that I needed to trot out a few more of my failures here to make her feel better (and she’s sure that the rest of you would enjoy reading about my flaws too).

So, here you go:

I haven’t done a single, solitary thing to get ready for the upcoming school year.

I wanted to get my ebook finished and published by the end of June. Then I thought, “Well, maybe by the end of July!”. But it’s the 26th, and I don’t think I’m going to make it (though I am getting closer to being done and I am excited about how the book is turning out.).

I haven’t updated Quicken thoroughly in quite a while.

I regularly feel like not cooking dinner and getting takeout instead (most of the time I resist).

I am a sloppy dish-washer (Zoe even sends dishes back to me when she’s drying).

I haven’t been to the gym very regularly this summer.

My office is frequently a disaster.

My shower usually gets that pink stuff around the edges before I clean it because no matter how much I try to clean it every week, two weeks usually go by between cleanings.

I hardly ever make homemade desserts.

I also rarely make sweet breads for breakfast (danishes and sweet rolls and such usually only happen on special occasions).

I sometimes plan to serve salad with pizza on Saturdays but then discard the idea because I don’t feel like making a salad.

My microwave has tomato sauce splatters all over the inside of it.

I sometimes get discouraged.

I am sometimes envious of people whose children go to school all day (even though I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am supposed to be homeschooling my kids).

Every August, I have a mini freak-out because I haven’t done school all summer long but have still been very busy and how-in-the-world am I going to keep up when I have to do school again???

Sometimes I am discontent (I’m super tired of getting up before 5:00 am and going to bed at 8:30).

Sometimes I wish we had more money. Or a nicer house.

I wish my house was cleaner (no sometimes needed there!).

Sometimes I let critical words from other people bother me more than I should.

Sometimes I get upset with Mr. FG.

Sometimes I don’t feel all warm and fuzzy about my children.

In other words, I am a normal person, with failings and flaws and an imperfect life.

But!

(because I’m going to be too depressed if I end the post there)

I know that God loves me with an unfailing love because Jesus died for me and I know that there’s grace to cover all my sins. My standing with God depends on Jesus’ performance, not on my own.

I know that my husband loves me more than he has ever loved anyone in his whole life.

I know that my children are somehow convinced that I am the best mom in the world.

I know that what I do doesn’t have to be perfect to bless other people.

I know that my house, my husband’s work schedule, and my financial situation are all perfectly planned for me by Someone who knows better than me what I need.

I know that people are more important than a perfectly clean house, and if making time for my husband means having a messy microwave, so be it. If having a picnic at the park with my kids means my kitchen floor isn’t going to get cleaned, so be it.

I know that my list of blessings is much longer than my list of complaints.

I know that I have had more privileges in my life than most of the world’s population has (simply having clean, running water puts me ahead of a lot of people in the world!).

Because of all the stuff that I know, I manage to keep going through life with a mostly perky outlook, even though I’m not perfect and my life isn’t either. 🙂