Quiet book ideas

Because I totally have more time on my hands than I know what to do with (eye roll), I've recently been thinking of making a quiet book for Bubba. So I've been casually pinning ideas on Pinterest, and it's made me realize that should I make everything I've pinned, Bubba will have numerous quiet books to choose from. Yeah, chances are I won't make all of them, and I'll actually congratulate myself if I even get one done. But if I work on it a little at a time, maybe it'll get done by the time he's ready to use it. Here are the ones that I LOVE:

Needs Dr. Crusher and Troi to be complete, but aren't these adorable?

That's right... a Star Trek quiet book! This is a complete book, and the picture above is just one of the pages. Those are finger puppets, by the way. How awesome of a mom would I be if I made this? But never fear... I will make them with the correct rank pips. Imagine Captain Picard being demoted. As if!

The cloud is the pocket to hold everything

This cute rainbow has snap-in pieces to help kids work on their snapping as well as their color recognition and matching abilities.

It's like Mr. Potato Head, but not.

 Build your own robot. Enough said.

Sand castles!

This double pager lets you make your own sand castle. All the bottom pieces are interchangeable, so he can really have fun with it.

My head just exploded from the awesomeness!

And finally, yes, a Harry Potter quiet book. Made by the same chick who did the Star Trek quiet book, this one is also a complete book instead of just a page or two. Now you can see why I say I will be making quiet books for the rest of my life. :) Oh, and this chick also has a Star Wars one, which is also cool. But of the 3 she has, it comes in last in my list of awesomeness.

But now that I've listed them all out, I realize I better get on it. Bubba is almost 5 months old, and it can take me a long time to get a project done. So I'm not kidding when I say I hope I get one done by the time he's ready to use it. I shall start with the Star Trek book. Wish me luck!

On the "ability" of being a SAHM

Last night, DH had his company Christmas party, where employees from all the branches come to town to have a nice meal, free alcohol, door prizes and free hotel rooms. It's a huge deal, and they go all-out. Anyway, before the party, DH told me that some of his co-workers are jealous that I am able to be a SAHM. And indeed, a handful of them mentioned to me and DH that they wished they could stay home.

The thing is, they CAN.

Now, I've thought this way long before Dave Ramsey entered my life. So I won't turn this into a "take a Dave Ramsey course" plug, although I'll admit that his program has made it a little easier to be a SAHM. But soooo many people don't realize that if they really really wanted to, and both the husband and wife agreed, one of them can stay home and raise children for a living. They just have to realize that they'd have to sacrifice on some of the more creature comforts Americans have grown to "need". And yes, it is hard. But again, if they really wanted to, they'd find a way.

Here's a list of things we've sacrificed a bit on which makes it possible for me to stay home.

1. Our mortgage is modest enough that I don't need to bring in any money to help keep the roof over our heads. And a modest mortgage means that we have a modest house. No McMansions here.

2. Both our vehicles were bought used, were paid for in cash, and are creeping up on 10 years old. We have no plans on getting a new "used" vehicle anytime soon, as we haven't saved up enough to pay in full, and a car payment would take a big chunk of our budget.

3. DH's cell phone is mostly paid for by his employer, and mine is just a simple TracFone. I can make a call and text. That's it. No camera, no WiFi, no games. It's maybe $100 a year. (No, I don't talk on the phone a lot). If DH's employer decided to stop paying for his cell phone, he'd get a TracFone, too. And like the vehicles, we don't get the newest phones that hit the market.

4. We eat out once a week. Sometimes twice, depending on what's going on. But eating out is expensive, and it's sad when you spend more on eating out than what you spend on groceries. We used to eat out a ton, but when we added up everything we spent, it gave us a wake up call that we were wasting money.

5. We no longer have cable. If DH had his way, we wouldn't have internet, either, but a girl's gotta put her foot down sometime. :) Out of everything I've listed so far, this one is by far the hardest. I liked the background noise it offered, and the trashy MTV shows I got addicted to. But when it comes down to it, we really don't need to spend $60 a month on trashy MTV shows that I could watch for free online.

6. We don't do a lot of shopping. And this might be a product of where we live, where Walmart is the best place to get stuff, but really, we take one or two big shopping trips to Fargo a year. But otherwise, there is very minimal amounts spent on clothing, shoes and whatever else other people like to buy.

7. We don't take many vacations. And by vacations, I mean "go somewhere that's more than 1 state away". We'll take an occasional weekend trip to see friends in Minnesota or go see my family in Montana. But besides gas, those are pretty cheap as we don't pay hotel costs. Maybe some day we'll take a big vacation... and of course we'd save up for it.

Anyway, those are the big things that most people don't want to give up. Not saying that everyone does all those things, but just one or two of them alone can make it impossible for someone to stay home with the kids. But if they really worked at it, I bet they'd find that they COULD stay home.