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Cuts and Scrapes

June 30, 2011 by Payton and Grace Downing

I’ve got rainbow-colored bruises. I’ve gradually acquired multiple lumps and bumps. I just this morning jammed my cuticle on the blender rim, resulting in blood! Not an hour after that, on the same hand I slammed the top of it on the bottom of the railing…so, my most recent wound is only 10 minutes old–and typing is not coming easy (it feels like I have a charlie horse in my hand). And that same arm burst a blood vessel in my wrist and scraped my knuckle during a game of flag-grab with the youth on Sunday. I don’t think I hurt myself at school once these past nine months, but Colorado seems to bring out the best in my haphazard clumsiness. Needless to say, we’ve kept quite busy, besides nursing wounds. This is what our calendar looked like for June!

Payton taught me (and some other friends) how to play “real” tennis (as opposed to Wii tennis). I’d finally figured out the scoring and when to say “love,” so he thought it was time. It was about 92 F at 9:00am, so I only made it about 1.5 hours before embracing the shade!

(Garran was practicing his gatorade skills while Payton was still playing–I only stood in the sun to take this picture and then found some shade)

Not only did I become an expert at tennis, but I actually stuck to my budget this month. Normally when I pull out my Financial Peace University envelope system, there are always dollars hanging out, especially in the food one. This month was different—I started on May 25 because we had just arrived in CO and had no food…that left me with 5.5 weeks to cover in our 4 week budget with a practically empty pantry. With 4 dollars left in FOOD, almost all of the other envelopes emptied, the pantry dwindling, and no cheese in the house (I’m pretty sure this has never happened in my adult life), I joyously went shopping yesterday! Dave Ramsey would have been proud. J I decided to blame the money shortage on all of the bandages and tape I’ve had to buy because of our wounds (Payton’s softball wound in particular—it has healed well though). Oh well, it felt nice to make it to the end and not succumb to the debit card.

A pile of freshly acquired theology-ish books (a great gift from a friend who was moving) will probably keep me engaged for most of the summer before the school books consume my time. I’ve also read two organizational books, a few cookbooks (with good pictures), an Urban homesteader book (hilarious!), and a micro-knead bread book. Mostly, though, I’ve been loving Romans. It provides so much excitement and heated conversation that I just can’t help but keep diving into it.

 

Filed Under: Summertime Tagged With: budget, reading, sports

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