Molly wrote-31 Days to Fit into Your Jeans!

Dropping one size a month until December is the goal. I want to have all the baby weight lost by the time Christmas rolls around so that I will dare to be in the pictures. As opposed to the last many, many years where I appear to not have existed. That's because after the baking and candy and general madness that encompass the months of October, November, and December I am a bloated little piggy. Especially my face (and my stomach). My legs are still long and gorgeous...just kidding...I just always fool myself into thinking my legs are skinny because I am comparing them to my bloated tummy.

Anyway, while vanity is involved in this goal it is not the only motivating factor. Saving money is another reason. I have so many clothes that would fit if I lost weight. I would love to go shopping and buy a new wardrobe but I only have zero dollars in my budget for that (which doesn't seem like enough). So money is a motivating factor. Factor number two, which is actually factor number one, is energy. When I eat right I am practically buzzing with energy. When I don't I am as lethargic as a sloth swimming through honey (while wearing ankle weights). And who has time to not have energy. I have a lot of people that need a lot of things from me (things that I want to give) fun that I want to have, stuff that I want to do. But when I am packing around an extra thirty-forty pounds the fun is harder to have and the stuff is harder to do. Also, I want to be the strong, confident, warm person God created me to be. As opposed to the puffy, self-conscious person I feel like. Puffy is kind of a gross word to me. Sorry.

Molly wrote-How to Survive Unemployment

When it comes to surviving unemployment I have been around the block, man.

Or...in case you're a female reading this...girlfriend, you better believe I know how to survive unemployment.

In fact, I think this is one area where I dare to call myself an expert. Lucky me…I’ve always wanted to be an expert!

So, without further ado, here are the top ten (very random) ways I have learned to survive unemployment:

1. Don't stop living. Your life is not over just because you don’t have a job that pays you. Make a list of things you can do for free that make you feel happy, pampered, alive, not scared, strong, progressing, unstuck, etc. What's on my list? Playing games with my kids, doing yoga (DVD’s from the library or classes on TV), hanging laundry outside (it makes me feel smart and thrifty at the same time)(plus, I get to look up at the sky and say, "Don’t forget me, please!"), taking long baths, getting piles of books from the library and reading in bed, riding my bike, organizing something...and the list goes on.

2. Be beautiful. No one, no matter how sympathetic and lovely they are, likes to be around a moper for very long. I say this as someone who many times over the past couple years has been tempted to pull the covers over my head and stay in the fetal position all day long, not as someone who judges mopers). But I didn’t want to feel like a victim. I didn’t want to just survive, I wanted to thrive. I wanted to prove to God and the world and the people who laid my husband off and the people who felt sorry for me that I had faith. That I was not afraid. That I was down but I was not out! And the best way to deal with anything is to take a shower, put your make-up on, and get dressed. So ditch the gym (too expensive)(besides they always seem like hotbeds of bacteria) and go outside into God's beautiful green world. Smell the fresh air (as much as you want, it's totally free!), wiggle your toes in the grass, stretch, run, sweat, get tan (see Dr. Mercola if you're afraid of the sun), let your hair get sun bleached, smile. We all like being around attractive people and now that you don't have the stress of a job holding you back you can get as hot as you want. Employers won't be able to resist hiring you. You might not even need a regular job because you'll get discovered and get a six figure modeling contract (anything is possible!)

3. Become a money making machine. Okay, with the way the economy seems to be trundling a long right now it is possible that this employment might last a wee bit longer than you'd want it to. So don't waste a single minute waiting around for that perfect job, or a job similar to what you were doing before. You can keep applying for those jobs but in the meantime start making money. Get a paper route, get a temporary job for the holidays, get a shift at UPS (bonus...you'll get in shape), put an ad in the paper to clean houses (done that), start freelance writing (doing that). Just don't worry about your "career" or your "qualifications" and think of yourself as a money-making machine...a smart, hard-working, creative person who constantly has money flowing into their life.

4. Cook in bulk. Cooking in bulk is good advice for anyone...not just the unemployed. But if you are unemployed you may be more tempted to eat out. For that matter, you don't want to eat crappy restaurant food (it will only make you more depressed). But if you're busy applying for jobs, being a money making machine, and becoming a model you might not have time to cook. The solution? Cooking in bulk. Even if I don't have time to do a giant bulk cooking day I still manage to have quite a few meals in my freezer by doubling or tripling everything I make. If you think I don't feel like a homemaking genius you would be wrong.

5. Eat clean and healthy. While we're discussing cooking in bulk let's talk about clean, healthy eating. Any number of plans will work for this. I like Dr. Joel Fuhriman's simple eating plan: breakfast: fruit, lunch: beans and greens, dinner: beans and greens. I lost 13 pounds in one week! Actually, that’s not true, I lost the 13 pounds in the first week when I did a juice fast (carrot and celery juice made in my juicer). Then I kept losing weight the second week when I transitioned to Dr. Fuhriman’s plan.

6. Spend a lot of time outdoors. Sometimes stepping outside and looking at the blue sky, or the star studded heavens, is all I need to change my perspective and realize that God is big, I am small, and all is well.

7. Get a bike. You can get them at thrift stores for a song, at yard sales for pennies, or on Craigslist for free. But the wind in your face, the thrill of feeling ten years old again, and the total bliss that riding a bike represents…priceless.

8. Bake. And share. Baking is a fairly cheap, and extremely cathartic, way to feed the ones you love. Plus it always seems magical to me. You mix all these basic and rather bland ingredients together (flour, eggs, baking powder, etc.) and pop them in the oven. Eight to ten minutes later you have something that melts in your mouth and makes your house smell divine. Magic. Then, to prove you believe in abundance and not scarcity, share it…no reason to hoard…all you have is all you need!

9. Write. Writing is the best therapy. Maybe even better than talking. Although I’m not about to give up talking. But writing quiets the little voices in your head. The ones that yap at you all day long, trying to get you to be afraid of everything, to worry, to give up. Writing clears your mind and orders your thoughts. Writing strengthens your brain and builds your creativity muscle. Whenever I am having a really hard time I get a spiral notebook and do stream of consciousness writing. One to ten pages later I am a new woman. I have a plan and am once again ready to save the world.

10. Get rid of all your junk. I have always loved dejunking. I love clean, empty spaces. Clutter makes me feel tired, and itchy, and grouchy. Clean makes me feel open, and hopeful, and strong. But I’ve found that when I have very little to no money coming into my life I am tempted to hang on to my stuff. It seems safer…what if I need it? What if I never make money again? But when I take a deep breath and give stuff away (how in the world do I have so much stuff when I haven’t shopped in forever!)(I’ll tell you how…nice people give you bags and bags of hand-me-downs…and kind aunts and uncles and grandparents send your children loads of toys…and they come home from school with approximately 10,001 pieces of extraneous paper each day) I can breathe easier and life seems doable again.

I have more advice but I’ll stop here. I’ve blabbed on enough and I’d hate for you to think I was bossy!

A quick story and then I promise I’m done…one especially rotten day I got sucked into the news. Everyone on TV was going on and on and on about how the economy was failing and the sky was falling. During a commercial break I stepped outside to take the kitchen trash to the garbage can. The sky was blue, the air was crisp and thin, the sun was high, the world was big. Much bigger than my panic, my fears, and my worries.

I glanced into the heavens and a stanza from a Robert Browning poem popped into my head, “The lark’s on the wing, The snail’s on the thorn, God’s in His Heaven, All’s right with the world.” It comforted me. All would be well.

Molly wrote-Inspiring Books

I love lists. I especially love lists of books. Have you ever heard the poem by Emily Dickinson about reading? "He ate and drank the precious words, His spirit grew robust. He knew no more that he was poor, or that his frame was dust. He danced along the dingy days, And this bequest of wings...was but a book, What liberty, A loosened spirit brings." Not only have the books listed below helped me to survive but I hope the ones in the children's section have given my children a "bequest of wings'.

Molly wrote-Really Cheap Meals

Sometimes people talk about really cheap meals as $1/serving. When I talk about really cheap meals I am talking about .20cents/serving. Following is a list of my favorite "beans and rice" recipes:

Molly wrote-A Homemade Christmas

Every year about this time I start panicking. I'm not ready for Christmas! Aaaaggghhh.

Every year I decide that this is the year it is going to be a homemade Christmas.

Molly wrote-Day 2: Nothing to Say

Hello!

Well apparently I've run out of things to say.

When I first contemplated doing a blog I imagined a million (or more) topics about which I could lecture and exhort.

But here I am on day three with nothing much to say.

I better go to bed and see if I come up with anything brilliant while I'm sleeping :-).

Good night!

Oohhh...I forgot to explain the title again.

Molly wrote-Day 1: The Conclusion (finally)

I guess the details don't matter. The gist of my story is that THREE times (once due to bank error, once due to our error, and once due to our cell phone carrier's error) our money virtually dissappeared. I am trying to go with the philosophy that money never vanishes...in all three cases somebody was enriched. It wasn't me, unfortunately, but it will work itself out eventually.

I really do believe that it will work itself out, as long as I don't work myself into a panic, because as I've learned time and time and time (and time) again over the past two years, "all you have, is all you need".

So many times it appeared that we were Old Mother Hubbard with a bare cupboard but I would say a little prayer, look again, and be amazed to find that I could find a week's worth or more of healthy meals (or the makings of a much craved treat). Or I'll see that we only need a few more ingredients to make several meals and we'll suddenly have just enough money to buy said ingredients. Or we'll need the money to pay a school fee or the rent or the utility bill or gas to go where we need to go (right when our power is about to be shut off) and the money appears. Or someone will need a specific outfit for a school activity or a pair of cleats or something for a school project and I'll look in the basement/attic and discover that we already own exactly what we need.

It's become a mantra. Whenever I get worried or stressed about a seeming lack I'll mentally repeat "all you have, is all you need".

That's where the blog title comes from.

xoxo,

Molly

P.S. A recipe: One day I had a can of tomato sauce, a can of tuna fish, and several boxes of pasta. So I drained the tuna fish, and dropped it in a sauce pan to warm it. Then I added the tomato sauce, a clove of garlic, about 1/4 of an onion (diced very fine), a TBSP each of oregano, basil, and parsley and seasoned to taste with garlic and onion powder. I served it over spaghetti noodles and no one, not even my husband noticed that it was tuna fish and not ground beef. Delicious. Kind of creamy. Healthy aaaannnd cheap!

Molly wrote-Day 1: The Day the Money Vanished

Two years ago my husband lost his job. He's been fitfully employed ever since (a temporary job here, a temporary job there). And trust me (why wouldn't you since I'm writing anonymously on the internet?) it's not for lack of trying that he hasn't secured a full-time job yet. I also, for a variety of reasons none of which have anything to do with laziness, lack of desire, or ability (and everything to do with the health and happiness of my children) have been extremely fitfully employed during this time. So now, we find ourselves in quite a pickle...or, actually, more of a pit. Before this we never carried debt, we saved judiciously for retirement, and we lived just about as frugally as it is possible to live. Well that cautious, prudent living has all been shot to smithereens...destroyed...kaput. We now have a mountain of debt (acquired bit by necessary bit), and our faith in what we thought was the way things were meant to be done (e.g. graduate education, buy a house with a good mortgage rate, save for retirement) has also been shot to smithereens...destroyed...kaput. If we had known the unemployment situation was going to be so long term we probably would have done some things differently. But we didn't. The past two weeks have felt kind of "rock bottom". So that is where my tale will begin. And the reason I'm telling you all this? I dunno...it seemed like something the internet would like to hear about. Also, if I were to tell anyone I know in real life I'm afraid they would think I was asking for money. Also, I have a lot of good "survival" tips. I know there are a multitude of frugal living, money saving advice blogs/websites...but maybe I can join the chorus. More later, duty calls (time to make breakfast). P.S. I still haven't explained the title of this post, or for that matter the title of the blog, so I'll be back soon.

xoxo,
Molly