Quiet Breakfast

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Or in our case, not even a cat or a dog or a cat.

5 Reasons You Need To Join The 5 O'Clock Club

On my last post, I vaguely mentioned that I am a proud member of the 5 o'clock club. For those of you who don't know what the 5 o'clock club is, well let me enlighten you! It's pretty simple. There's a secret group of crazy people that get up hours before most even hit the snooze button. These insane people get up at 5am... on purpose. And I am a proud member of this club. Honestly, it has completely changed my life. I text two other members at 5am to keep us all accountable too!

Here are 5 reasons why you should be part of this crazy cool club:

My tic-toc clock

1. Time ALONE
I'm a mom, wife, employee... You get where I'm going with this. I rarely get a minute alone! But when I get up at 5am and quietly tiptoe to the main floor of our house, it is so quiet. I can actually hear the clock on my piano tick. It's a wonderfully, delicious sound.


2. Eating without interruptions
Again, if you're a parent, you know that it's unusual to sit down for an entire meal without being interrupted by spills, fights or other miscellaneous mishaps. When I sit down with my breakfast, and there is no one around to bother me, it feels like an indulgence. I can eat without little fingers in my food, and I can take my time.




3. Getting your workout out of the way
When I first get my feet on the floor and my behind out of bed, I'll admit, I'm not super thrilled with the idea of heading to our basement to do my workout. But once I get down there and start, I know that euphoric feeling that comes after a workout is just minutes away, and my whole day will be better because of it. I usually aim to workout every day (some days are lighter than others) but even if I miss a day or two, I've still managed to get in 5 or 6 days a week. Exercising has such a tremendous effect on most aspects of your life. So just do it, will ya! I find it makes me happier and more productive.



4. Quiet time to set goals

Another part of my personal development that I absolutely love is the time I spend setting goals for my life, both longterm and daily. I revisit my crazy cool goals for the year on a weekly basis, and set daily goals related to my longterm life goals and my health goals. I carry my notepad with me all day long so I can check the tasks off my goal list for the day. I love knowing that I'm working toward my family's goals EVERY SINGLE DAY with momentum and passion.



5. A relaxed pace
I wake up two and a half hours before I have to leave for work so this gives me lots of time to get ready at my own pace, and properly organize my family in the morning. My kids have also started waking up a bit earlier - probably because I'm awake earlier too. They usually wake up around 6-6:30 which gives us all time to unwind before we set out for school, daycare and work. Even my daycare provider mentioned how much happier my little guy has been since he's had some time to relax before being whisked out the door.

Are you part of the 5 o'clock club? What do you love about it? Or, if the idea of waking up at 5am is disturbing to you, tell us why! I'd love to hear your feedback.

A new direction for our family - headed toward financial freedom!

A few weeks ago, a friend asked if anyone was interested in joining a financial challenge group on Facebook. We've always been okay with our finances (not great) but I knew we had the opportunity to improve our financial outlook and I thought a challenge group would be a great way to kick start this endeavour.

Our group follows financial expert, Dave Ramsey's book The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness which breaks down the process of getting out of debt into small, easy to achieve baby steps that are meant to help you get momentum quickly to help encourage you to keep moving toward financial, debt-free, freedom

Here are the 7 steps:

Our first step, and maybe the hardest step of all, was analyzing how much money we were earning and how much money we were spending. This can sometimes create a little heat between couples (if you are married or living with another person), so be prepared to hash a few things out. It wasn't too bad for us as a couple because we both had the same vision for our family so we were happy to move forward. Together.

Once you have figured out where your money is going, you are going to implement a cash envelop and zero based budget system. Here is a video I created to help you understand the budgeting. Also this sheet from Dave Ramsey's website will help figure out your cash flow.

We use cash for things like gasoline, Christmas savings, water bill, groceries, etc. All our other bills are automatic so that money stays in our account until that money is taken out by the utility company or bank for our mortgage. I'll talk more about that in an upcoming post.

We have used this method in the past but fell off the wagon for some reason. We seem to have a better plan in place now and are really embracing this cash system. It's so good to feel like you have control over your spending!

We are at baby step 2 now which is very exciting! We've saved our $1,000 emergency fund which will give us a buffer in case we have a financial emergency while we are trying to pay down our debt.

My goal is to have our debt paid off within a year and our house paid off within 6 - 8 years. Without debt, could you imagine ALL the things you could do?

I want to use this blog to keep our family accountable while helping to encourage and create a dialogue for other families to follow in our footsteps. I encourage people to post their questions, tips and secrets, and I'll make sure to share ours too.

Who else wants to join the revolution? Comment and let us know if you want to join us!