Babies, Brownies and Blessings

God has taken us on a pretty amazing financial journey in the last 5 years. From debt reduction to saving for an emergency to building a house...we have learned much and are grateful God wouldn't let us be lazy in that area. I touched on budgeting and frugality in my previous post  but what I didn't mention is what God has put on our hearts in a big way this year: giving. Does that make you cringe? Lots of thoughts go through our minds when "giving" is on the table: I barely have enough as it is, everybody else has more than me and could give more, certainly others have enough, the church shouldn't need my money, I want to buy that cute purse instead, the last time I gave the person didn't use the money the way they should have, etc. Over the past many months we have read or heard more and more about giving and it's stuck in my man's and my craw. It just keeps coming up! It's like God is telling us "I have something bigger for you t...

The dawning of a new year always brings financial change to the front of my mind. There's not better to start something new than at the beginning of something: new week, month, year. It's like hitting the restart button and the past truly feels like the past! Several years ago we went through Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover program and paid off all our debt in less than two years. We weren't "overspenders" necessarily, but we spent everything we made and somehow over the years had added a camper payment, car payment, continued student loan payments...you get the picture. The plan has you spending CASH, paying down your debts, smallest to largest, getting an emergency fund set in place and most importantly, BUDGETING! Fast forward and our spending has morphed into a modified version of the Ramsey plan. Still not adding debt (unless you count our new house, yikes!), still budgeting but somehow our cash use has dwindled. And I got a Target cred...

  Come, they told me...a newborn King to see...our finest gifts we bring... I have NO gift to bring...that's fit to give a king... Do you ever relate to the little drummer girl (I know he was a boy, but indulge me?)? The little poor girl who was invited to see the king but felt she had nothing worthy to bring? "I don't have a fine gift, what I have to offer isn't good enough." Has that line of thinking been part of your inner dialogue? Have you ever tasted someone's cooking and thought "I could never make that, she's so much better than I." Ever heard someone sing and thought "Compared to that I sound like a mournful cat, I wish I was as good as her." When was the last time you walked into someone's house and thought "I'd give anything to be able to decorate like that, she's so creative...unlike me." If I could cook better, sing better, create more, enjoy my kids more, give more, dance like her, wr...

Air in...air out...deep breath in...deep breath out... Anyone else had a year that has been so unpredictable that the only thing that has stayed the same is the rise and fall of your chest? I sat down tonight and took a deep breath. Felt like the first one I've taken in a long time. The kids were in rare form tonight (actually not sure why I say that it's rare for them to be at each other constantly but...). Pretty sure the whole neighborhood heard someone crying or yelling or both tonight. Wait, did you know we have a NEIGHBORHOOD???? That's right, it's been so long since I've blogged that our house is now finished and inhabited. By US! And we LOVE it! There were a crazy amount of detours along the way. The project took a few weeks shy of a year. Yep, you read right, A YEAR. It turns out God shows up in big ways when you're truly living day by day. When you're not sure if the plans you laid are ever going to come to fruition. In thos...

BigBoy #1 came home from school the other day a little quieter than usual. After talking about his day a bit he said, "I spent my last two reading hours telling Suzy* about God and she wants to know Him, too!" He has been talking about Suzy since the beginning of the year because her folks don't believe in God or church and he thinks she needs to know (isn't it sweet how God works?). We talked a bit about what he told her, "we just talked about God and Jesus and the New Testament." My heart swelled as I told him the Holy Spirit was with him during that and I was so proud that he followed Jesus' leading of his heart. I was SO proud and was inwardly patting myself on the back for raising such a kind, sensitive child. Less than one minute later he was out the door, picked up a rock, chucked it and it hit his friend. AND I'm humbled again... His heart is good but his brain and hands are apparently not connected. *not her real name

A friend recently told me of an experience she and her husband had with an insurance salesman. They are Dave Ramsey -ans so they were well aware that term life insurance is the only way to go but were getting the full picture so they could make an informed decision. When the man came back with his recommendations the monthly financial commitment was $800. $800??? A MONTH??? Somewhat aghast they explained to him that while they want to be smart they also do trust that God will take care of them and feel that life insurance to the tune of $800 a month was overkill. His response went something like this: Well, I like to take care of as much as I can myself and let God fill in the gaps . I laughed at the absurdity of that interaction and chuckled a bit at Mr. Insurance-Man's disillusionment but in the days since, I can't get that line out of my head. Because he put to words the way I live my life sometimes. I like to take care of as much as I can myself ...

For months (maybe years?) I've been searching for the perfect pair of red shoes. A cute little pair to wear with jeans and a t-shirt or a cute dress- versatile and adorable and comfortable. High expectations, I know! A couple weekends ago I came across the.perfect.pair at Sears for $17 and I had to have them!  How cute are these? Like a school girl I was so excited to wear them! The weather was iffy but I didn't care. We were going to walk around the mall for a few hours but I didn't care. They were a little bit sloppy but I didn't care.   After a few hours of shopping, this is what I had to show for my cute red shoes- a big old blister on my ugly little toe (FYI, that polish on the little toe is from September. Truly I should take better care of those babies).Bummer. Lesson learned but here's the deal: they are darn cute. And I'm going to keep wearing them. It's a price I'm willing to pay. ;)