Paying it Forward - volunteering time and experience

My young family (Step Dad, Mom, little
brother, me and our son) right before my high
school graduation.

I was a teen parent.  While my husband is the father of all of my boys, I had our first child when I was 15 and we didn't get married until I was 22.  I attended a school for teen moms during my pregnancy and the semester after I had our son.  After returning to mu home school for a year and a half,  I graduated and went on to college with the help and support of my mom and step dad.  While being a teen parent was difficult, I thank God for that experience.  That broadening of my horizons.  The flip flop in my world view. The paradigm shift. The removal of my rose colored glasses.  Even though I didn't graduate college, I did go on to be a successful professional with a respectable salary and the ability to support my family with my husband.

Staying afloat

One of my talents has been creativity with numbers.  My mom struggled financially and, while she wasn't the most organized person, she kept us afloat.  With her help in the beginning, teaching me to pay bills and take care of your family first, I have learned to make a mean budget.  I feel like my budgeting skills have kept our family in the black when we might have drowned financially.  My husband would agree. After we got married, we lived in low income housing. I worked double shifts as a waitress and my husband was working temp jobs downtown and riding the bus because we only had one car.  My creative budgeting skills kept us with a roof over our heads and food on our table and clothes on our backs.  We struggled, but we came out on top.

Keep track of where your money goes and plan for expenses

One of the main struggles a lot of low-income families (heck, a lot of families!) face is the lack of organization skills.  They had never been given direction on how to make things work.  No one had taken the time to show them, to help them make sense of the financial pieces of life.  This is how much you have coming in and this is how much you have going out.  No wonder why your account is overdrawn.  If you don't keep track of where your money goes and plan for expenses, they can surprise you in a bad way and could force you to make decisions between equally important things like food and electricity.  Many people don't know of the resources available to help through tough financial times.  There's help out there for food, help for electricity for low income, help for childcare, help for school lunches and child insurance through school districts.  Many people don't know how to ask for help.

I enjoy helping people make the most of their lives.  At Mind Key, we can help you find the tools that you need to be successful living and working your passion.  Check out the Store for info on how we can help you!

Look around and take stock of your life.  Who has helped you on your path?  Can you give back to the community?

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The Grounding Rod - Focusing your energy in the present moment



Keeping the spark alive - Long terms relationships are hard

Jon and I cycling at Red Rocks
park in Las Vegas

My husband and I have been married for twenty years and together for twenty eight.  That's a long time.

Its hard to keep things fresh when eventually, everything has a low point like I mentioned here.

If you go out onto the internet, there are so many websites and articles that give tips and tricks on how to keep it fresh, to keep the spark alive, to rekindle the romance.

Date night for the Durys
before sushi and comedy

One of the most common threads is planning a date night. Date nights are awesome.   And I'm not talking about Date Night, the movie (although your date night could include Date Night, laughter is also awesome.)  They can consist of something as simple as cooking dinner together or going out to a movie.  No one is saying that they have to be at night, involve eating, or be expensive, extravagant or complicated.  In fact sometimes simple is better.

Jon and I like to trade off planning our date nights because we enjoy some different things.

Jon is a major cyclist and, while I enjoy cycling, I won't say that it's my thing.
I love to cook and, while Jon also likes to cook, its not his thing either.

Jon and his sip 'n' paint painting

Jon loves horror flicks and rom-coms.  I dig on adventure and dramedies.
Jon likes comfort foods and I like trying new places.
Jon enjoys bubble gum pop and I dig on classic rock.
We both like movies, concerts, comedy and going out to dinner.  We both like trying new things and doing things we know are fun.

4 wheeling fun

We each get an email from Groupon, Living Social and other deal sites every day.  Sometimes we see things that are interesting to us and we buy them.  Sometimes they're for restaurants, sometimes for things to do.

On Friday I bought us two tickets to see The Fab Four, a Beatles tribute band, for next month.  A while back I bought us cooking classes.  A few months ago, Jon bought us a Groupon for sushi and comedy and then a sip and paint Groupon even though he's best at drawing stick figures. That was fun.  And I chose to rent four-wheelers for our anniversary where we learned that I'm a much more aggressive driver than Jon.



I guess what I'm saying is that we all need to continue to date our partners.  Be open to doing new things and let go of control of your dates.  They don't always have to be dinner and a movie.  Branch out!

Campfire cooking - the stew to beat all stews (cooked on a campfire)

Over the Mountain in Estes Park, CO

My family likes to camp.  We're pretty outdoorsy and, in Colorado, we're near to great mountain retreats.


Pelican at Bear Creek Lake Park, CO at dawn

 



One of my favorite meals (and easiest to prepare at the campsite), is campfire stew.  The best part?  Everyone prepares it for themselves, the way they like it, so no one’s able to complain about the ingredients!  That's important when you're camping with kids.

I do suggest some pre-camping prep, but I’m good with that.

 

Here’s a list of ingredients I pack for the stew (all diced into bite sized pieces):

Stew beef

Chicken

Onions

Carrots

Celery

Pre-cooked potatoes.

 

To make things easier, most stores sell the mirepoix – pronounced meer- pwah - (onion, carrot and celery mixture) precut and frozen now.  You could just grab a bag and toss it in the cooler.  Also, everything can come with you pre-cut if you don’t have time to do the prep at home before heading to the camp site.  I do bring a cutting board and knife with me no matter what.

Other requirements and suggested bring alongs for campfire stew:

Butter

Chicken stock

Aluminum foil

Salt and pepper

Bowls and spoons

A large “pre-heated” hot fire

 

 Instructions

Have everyone grab a large piece of foil, fill it with the food they want in their stew, a dollop of butter and either water or chicken stock (not too much because the other ingredients, as they cook, will also produce moisture and you don’t want your “packet” to leak if you can help it.)  Seal the packet and toss it in the fire.

 

Please note:  Anything with chicken should cook extra-long to make sure it’s cooked through.

Let your individual stew packet cook away while you do other camp-y things for 30-45 minutes (so be sure to prepare this and get it in the fire before you get too hungry!)

 And viola!  Campfire stew!