My wonderful family!

Introduction

I am a stressed out mom. That is to say I'm not stressed out more than other moms but times have been extra hard lately.

August 21st 2013 is the day I watched the man I love breakdown and really cry. He is normally very sensitive and some commercials and sappy movies will pull tears but this was different. He had come home from work to tell me he had just been laid off from his job of 16 years. We both turn 45 this year and were planning watching the senior year of football for our second oldest son and watch him graduate. He had signed his paperwork for the Army and will be leaving June 30th. We had plans to continue to tighten our belt to save and pay off bills. We had plans and that all changed that day.

All he could say was "I failed you. I failed the family". My heart broke watching his abject devastation. Many men weigh their value based on their job. He was no different. We had a more old fashioned home. He was the bread winner and I was the stay home mom. This was our choice and it works for us. My sister is the bread winner and my amazing brother-in-law stays home with the two cutest boys on the planet. It works for them and that's all that matters. I had tried to work part time to bring in extra money two years ago but my health issues got worse and my family missed me so I decided to go back to working only at home.

I started looking at ways to save money any way possible. I now make my own laundry soap. I cook as much from scratch as possible. I make my own bread and we rarely order pizza or eat out. I clip coupons and created elaborate spread sheets to track sales. Eating healthy is also a high priority much to the dismay of my kids. Meatless Monday is the bane of my kids existence.

These were things we had been doing while he had a job. We were constantly scrimping and doing without to try to deal with our debt but this was a whole new situation. We had no savings and no clue what to do. The depression and devastation were immense. We had lived our whole lives pay check to pay check and now that had stopped. I now knew a fear I had never felt before.

Our oldest is active duty in the U.S. Air Force but we still had 4 teenagers at home. I had never asked for government help and my husband had been on welfare as a child but his mom had been able to get herself out and went on to work for the social services department in Indiana with a college degree. She was a prime example of someone who used government help to make a better life for herself and her family.

Well now we are part of the welfare system. My husband is on unemployment, we are receiving SNAP to feed our family and our kids are on Medicaid. We didn't qualify for Medicaid but luckily our governor accepted the Medicaid expansion and now we might qualify. With asthma, severe allergies, heart problems and plantar fasciitis I desperately need insurance. I was able to fill all my prescriptions before our last paycheck but with insurance that was still $485 for 3 month supplies.

I started this blog to dispel the myths of who needs and uses government help or as some like to say "entitlements". My husband and I have worked since we were 15 years old. I stopped working outside the home 14 years ago but we have always paid our taxes, donated food, clothing and money to charity and always felt that we may not be rich in money but we are rich in our love for each other and our kids. I want this to be a diary of a middle class family dealing with the new economic landscape of our country and the journey through the welfare system. I want to put a face to who needs govt help and how it can be a positive thing. I want to show that real people need these programs and when those in my Senate and Congress call me a "taker" and try to make it even harder for me and my family to survive, I want to put a face to those programs.