My latest project is couponing. With two teenagers, my grocery bill has passed outrageous and hit astronomical, so I started looking for ways to save. My friend Katie had just started reading a blog called Frugal Coupon Living so
I read it off and on and got jealous of all the money Katie was saving. But out of all these years I’ve been a wife and mother, these are not the first lean years. I’ve tried clipping coupons before. Out of those experiences, I always thought that the coupons were never for what I needed and they were only for a few cents anyway, so what did it matter?

Two things changed. One: I realized that in this economy, every few pennies count in my bank account. And two: I was going about it the wrong way. Couponing really isn’t about buying what you need. It’s about stockpiling when things are on sale for the best price so that you have what you need when you need it. Subtle difference but definitely a difference.

So…my new adventure. My husband is thrilled that I’m saving money(even though he’s well within his rights to be dubious at how long it will last). He doesn’t even know how much I saved at the mall just this weekend.

Now that I’m home, I’m sitting here listening to my youngest, a teenager as of a few weeks ago, playing the guitar in her room.  It seems like yesterday that she was chasing my dad down the beach in her diaper.  You blink and they’re in school.  Blink again and they’re wearing make-up and talking about boys.  Blink once more and you’re teaching your fifteen year old how to drive and sticking a soda straw in your mouth so you don’t say all the things you swore you wouldn’t say when you taught your kid how to drive.

The next years will go just as quickly, I know.  A blink and I’ll be at a graduation, or sitting in the special place reserved for the mother of the bride (or groom).  If I’m lucky, one day I’ll be toting around a grandbaby of my own.

I have lots of prayers for my children.  But recently I was reminded of how valuable every moment is, that the things I put off, I may not have a chance to do.  I want to grab hold of these precious times and enjoy them.  Savor them.  So I’ve added to my prayers that I would live in the moment, that I wouldn’t push aside the offer for a card game or an impromptu trip to the nail place.  That I would make the time to hear about the latest video game release or the newest song on the radio.

Sometimes work can wait.  But life can’t.

Thank you, Blue Cross Blue Shield.