Friday, July 10, 2015

Life Goals and Partnership


I'm going to title this one:
"My husband works his butt off"


See those pictures up there  ?? That's my husband :) Isn't he just the cutest? I'm going to gush a little bit in this post. Scott is one of the hardest workers I know. He works a full-time (7:30-4:30) job working for a government contractor. He also owns his own landscaping business. He started this business in high school and it has grown pretty big! From April-November his typical day consists of waking up at 6:30, going to his "real" job from 7:30-4:30, then coming home and cutting grass until dark. This happens every.single.day. We typically eat dinner at around 8:30-9. so hungry. Our weekends consist of waking up super early so he can get a start on cutting grass and hoping to be finished to do something Saturday evening. He tries his best to have Sunday's off so we can go to Mass and enjoy some together time. 

To say that our lives revolve around grass cutting is an understatement. Having a husband that is this much of a hard worker makes us sacrifice a lot. We are newlyweds, so spending this little time together is tough.  Luckily we still want to spend every waking moment together ;) so only seeing each other for a couple hours a night and some Sunday's doesn't allow for us to do much together. This year has been especially tough because it's our first grass cutting season of us living together. It's taken a lot of adjusting. I have noticed more this year than any other year that he's not wanted to work as much. It's super hard for him to be away as much as it is for me to wait until he comes home. We have TON of weddings this year, 7 to be exact. All but one are out of state, which means that he has to really bust his butt during the week to get his weekend yards completed because we have to travel for each wedding. This isn't easy on him and I hope that I acknowledge that as much as possible. (you rock babe!)

So why does he do all this? Aside from just being amazing, he's extremely goal oriented. He's a go-getter. We both are extreme money savers. Luckily we see eye-to-eye on money and spending, etc. We talked on the first day we met (even before our first date) about the future. We both knew from day 1 that we wanted me to be a stay at home mom. This requires a TON of planning and saving. (any tips would be wonderful!) Scott also would like to be a stay at home dad. Obviously this would VERY difficult. He wants nothing to do with missing anything about raising our future children. So, goal #1 work hard & make/save as much money as absolutely possible now. Goal #2, make babies (bomchickawowwow). Goal #3, be a stay at home mom. Goal #4, have Scott retire as soon as possible/be a stay at home dad. 

Scott is planning to significantly scale back his landscaping once we have kids. Like I said before, he doesn't want to miss out on anything. Will he be able to retire by next year if we, God willing, get pregnant in the near future? Absolutely not. But we are shooting for him retiring and being able to stay home by the age of 40. How do we do this? We save a ton. We invest. We don't go out to eat very often. We never go to the movies more than once a year. We budget for everything. We communicate, happily I might add, about finances almost daily.

Is this type of life easy? Nope! Do we enjoy not seeing each other more than 15 hours a week? Heck no! Do we have to miss out on stuff because Scott is so busy? Yep. Do our family & friends sometimes not understand why or how we do this? Mmmhmm. Do we have to work a little harder than some newlyweds on our relationship? You bet. But there is absolutely no other person I could see tackling our life dreams with. He makes sure that I am taken care of, that our future family will be secure, and that we try to reach every single goal we have set out for each other. We want to be able to travel with our children more than just once a year. We want to be together at every baseball game and dance recital that our little ones have. 

I would love to hear how other stay at home parents are able to make this happen for their families!

from our trip to Hawaii where we would love to bring kids back to!

and again



If I haven't told you enough, I love you & I am so thankful for how hardworking you are.



xo, Mrs. Slem








13 comments:

  1. I LOVE this post! I totally feel like I'm reading about my life! My husband is an extremely hard worker too and works two jobs so that I can be a stay at home mom! We have saved from day 1 of being together and were able to pay off my student loans and his truck within the first 6 months of marriage. Then we started saving for our house and bought a foreclosed house at 1/3 of the price we qualified for, so that someday I would be able to stay home :) Now we have a two year old girl and I'm so very blessed to be able to stay home with her. It's so refreshing to find someone like us and I promise it will be worth it! I have loved staying home with our daughter!!
    XO, Kelly
    www.dettecakes.com

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  2. Oh this is such a beautiful post! I hope your husband knows how much you appreciate him and all the things he does to help you reach your mutual goals! My husband is extremely hardworking as well, and we saved our butts off before having kids so that I could be a stay at home mom :) I now have two little ones and am loving being home with them. Hubby is still working hard, but we try and have quality family time as often as possible! Good luck with your goals, I am sure you will go great!

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  3. He sounds like an amazing man! It's so nice to be married to someone so driven <3

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  4. This is so awwdorable!! <3 I hope he reads this, because he will have a smile on his face the entire time… just like I did! I hope to find a relationship as sweet as yours is, one day :) !

    xoxo, Brooke of The Pink Lyme ( www.thepinklyme.com)

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  5. I love this <3 I love seeing a wife support their husbands so. My husbands a hard worker too and I always try to let him know how much I appreciate him. Sounds like you have yourself a keeper!

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  6. Sounds like very realistic plans you have! With all the hard work I can totally see you meeting your goals.
    I'm also stay at home mom, but we don't have much savings. Until recently my husband was a grad school student and as you can imagine they don't get paid:) Now, when he landed his first job we'll see how it goes with saving for future. In terms of planning kids, my advice for you would be to put things in God's hands and allow it to happen whenever it happens:)

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  7. What a sweet post! I love when a wife talks up their husband instead of joining in on the bitter/complaining conversations. You guys can do it! Babies aren't so expensive the fist year, especially if you breastfeed. But they get more so every year after that haha.

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  8. We always need to be aware and grateful for all the things that our partners do for us. Never take it for granted! Thanks for sharing :D

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  9. Beautiful post. It is so important to always let your partner know just how much you care for them. My husband works from 6:00 to 6:00 and also has a side business. He works so hard so that I able to stay home with our girls. I thank him over and over again for everything he does for our little family. It is such a blessing to have a hardworking spouse!

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  10. This is a beautiful post. I can see the love you have for your husband. And yes! He sounds like such a hard worker! Isn't it an absolute blessing having a husband who works that hard!?!? I thank my husband every day for how much he does to support our family!

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  11. Such a sweet post, being on the same page is absolutely key. It sounds like he will make a wonderful father when the time comes too!

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  12. What a great post! I'm getting married next month, and my fiance and I have talked about very similar goals. We've been working on budgeting and saving a lot! I actually wrote a 2 part post about how we organize our finances: http://www.harperandoakley.com/blog/25/6/2015/how-to-organize-your-finances-part-2. I find that staying organized helps us get to our goals quicker!

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