Life-Sucks Cake

Question 1:  What is wrong with this picture?

And no, it wasn't stolen.

Question 2: Why is the freezer not located inside the garage?

I know you are interested, so read on.  And please be sure to finish the story.  It ends with smiles. And cake!

A week and a half ago Tim and I sat down and recrunched our budget.  We've done this about once a year since we actually started a budget two years ago.  If you're curious, we use what we know about Dave Ramsey's baby steps and the envelope system.  You can find more info here.  We haven't taken a class, but we've used the website and listened to a lot of podcasts.

Now, why did we recrunch the budget?  Well, we've had a little change to our family.  Mr. E's arrival meant that we needed to see where we were sitting before daycare starts next month.

And yes, I am going back to work.  And yes, I would love to stay home but...

A)  I really do love my job.  The paycheck isn't the greatest, but whose is?

...and...

B) I have student loans to pay for.  My standard response to why I'm working is, "Student loans keep you employed."  Or they at least keep you looking for employment.

Any who.  Back to the budget.

So, Tim and I updated our budget.  We weren't easy on ourselves.  For example we - brace yourself - cut cable television.

I know.  Scary, right?

A few days ago we actually had the service cancelled.  I was nervous about it.  I've only known having cable TV.  We have always watched a lot of shows, but I knew I had a problem when I started wanting to record The Real Housewives of New Jersey.  Tim stopped trying to convince me of the merits of cable at that point and agreed to cancel the service in order to save a few dollars each month.

So, Thursday we cut cable.  My life was in a totally new place (all because of TV, I know...) and I wasn't sure what to do with myself.  I normally watch TV while nursing, so it threw me through a loop.  Then E got cranky.  Really cranky.  From 3 pm until 10pm he was not a happy camper.  Then he spit up into and down the front of my dress.  (Yes, into and down.) So I changed and cuddled my cranky boy again until he pooped on me.  Because nothing makes a cranky day better than poo.

If you're keeping track, here's what I've got so far:
cable TV detox + cranky baby + spit-up + poop  = convince myself to stay happy

I was doing my best to stay positive.  My solution at this point was to start working on dinner so I could distract myself.  I hauled my choosing-to-be-joyful self out to the garage freezer to pull out the homemade shredded chicken that I keep stocked.  That was when I realized that the freezer wasn't cold.  Everything I had stocked outside was defrosted and warmer than I am willing to consider as acceptable for food safety.  The freezer was toast (is that irony or a pun?) and so was everything in it.  Which meant nothing on this menu board here...

...could be made for dinner since they each had at least one ingredient in the freezer.  And we were trying not to eat out because we tightened our budget.  Plus, one of us had stuck the last $30 of grocery money in our pocket and forgotten where it was.  So we technically didn't have allocated funds to shop.

So if you're keeping track with this story, we now have:
cable TV detox + cranky baby + spit-up + poop + broken freezer + missing cash = forget trying to be happy this not okay with me!

Well, I made it through the night.  We had money for food that we scrounged from other envelopes.  Tim got the antenna installed on the TV so I could watch basic channels, so that helped my morale.

Until Saturday...

Ah, Saturday.  This was the morning that started bright and sunny.  I was up at 7 with a smiling baby boy.  Daddy was out on a bike ride.  Life was cheery, albeit frustrating if I dwelt too long on the broken freezer and lost food.

Then the TV went out.

Seriously?!

Yes.  We just updated our budget, tightened it in preparation for daycare, and now we have had two major appliances go haywire on us. 

So now the equation looks like this:
life sucks = Stephanie, future reality TV diva

I threw a fit.  An adult fit about why life is hard, why it's not fair, how I can't believe all these set backs happen as we are trying so hard to pay off all our debt.  I sent my mom a text asking if we had angered somebody in the appliance department at Sears.  I asked for prayers for my attitude since Satan seemed to be swinging a bat with my name on it.

Then I held E again.

Tim couldn't get through to me because I was not yet to the point that I wanted to stop and listen.  And I was still very upset even after holding E.  However, E was the tangible reminder that I still have what is very important to me - my husband and son.  (I confess I then freaked out hoping they weren't next on the list of crappy things to go wrong.  Faith is hard sometimes.  That's what it means to have real faith.)

So, reminded that life sucks but we can continue on, I did what any sensible person would do.

Or, at least Marie Antoinette.

When horrible things are happening and you can't afford bread, make cake.  So I did.  Coke Cake to be exact. Although, we called it Life-Sucks Cake.

And it was delicious.

And, as is only appropriate in these situations, we shared it with friends.

The End.