So, after the weekend off and getting a little perspective from my husband, I have decided to take the rest of the week off of blogging. I am really going to be focusing on my book this week. I am also starting homeschooling my little Ava Joy. Noah is having his first full week at school, and there is a lot of transition. I just feel like I need to choose what I am focusing on because I have felt very scattered. Hopefully, I will make brilliant progress this week and will be back soon to tell you about it. …
Your Grocery Budget
A friend of mine commented to me yesterday about the rising prices of food and how difficult it has been to stay within her food budget. She is an incredible budgeter and has been doing it for a number of years, so I knew that if she is feeling it, everyone is feeling it. I have definitely noticed it as well in the price of food. Every price in the supermarket has gone up significantly just in the last three months and I think everyone is feeling the effects of it. There are two ways to deal with the rising …
Starting Kindergarten
My darling Noah starts Kindergarten today. He is so incredibly excited and happy. His Mommy is a little more emotional, although also very excited for him. I feel as if it is one of those monumental moments for our family. From now on we will have children in school. Matt has reminded me that he has been in pre-school already, but it just isn’t the same. We enrolled Noah in our local public pre-school last year, and it just was not a positive experience. I will spare you the details, but Noah eventually begged that he not have to go …
Is anyone else completely addicted to the Olympics? I sit breathless every night… way past my bed time. Unfortunately for my blog and my book, the Olympics has very little to do with budgeting. Although, if I stretched I could talk about China overspending their budget by 33 Billion Dollars for the Olympics! Can you imagine going 33 Billion Dollars over budget. Maybe I should translate my blog into Chinese 🙂 Although, there is no way it would get past all the sensors. OK, seriously I don’t have a blog today and I blame it on the Olympics. I joked …
Falling Off The Wagon
I am going to take a little break from the topic of giving today to talk about falling off the wagon. All of us have great intentions when we are starting a new diet, or exercise program, a goal for the new year, and especially in budgeting. We start out strong, but at some point we all face frustration, fatigue, we have a bad day, want to quit, and just fall off the wagon. In budgeting, falling off the wagon often means that you start the next month in the hole financially and trying to dig out from your impulse …
Give What You Have
One of the most inspiring verses on the topic of giving is found in 2 Corinthians 8:1-2. In it Paul is talking about the churches of Macedonia and he says, “Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality.” In other words, Paul is commending the church at Macedonia because even in affliction and poverty they gave with liberality. They did not wait to become rich to give. They …
Giving and Taxes
In America, we have been given an amazing incentive to be givers by the government. For every charitable donation that you give to a recognized charity or non-profit organization you receive a tax deduction. It is such a fantastic plan because for many it actually is in their best interest (tax-wise) to be givers. In fact, as I recently discovered at my garage sale, I can actually make more money on my old clothes by donating them to charity than I can selling them because of the tax break. Many charities will give you a $5 credit for a donated …
Out Again
As you can probably tell from the lack of blogging, painting has taken over my life! It took all weekend to paint the house and yesterday to put the house back together. I still am going to finish my series on giving, but it is actually going to have to wait a little longer. My husband and I are celebrating our anniversary this week and are going on a little mini trip together. So, I will be back blogging on Friday (hopefully). I hope you have a wonderful week, and I just want to encourage you again to ask God …
Painting
I am painting my living room! It is actually a magical process of erasing little dirty handprints, and footmarks, and the “beautiful” colors of toys being hit against the walls. It feels like we are getting new house! However, it leaves no time to blog with coordinating the effort of painting and taking care of the kids. But I would love to hear any testimonies that you may have had from giving this week. I have been so stirred a fresh as I have written to give generously. I have been asking the Lord all week for seed to sow …
The Curse of the Chain Letter
Do you remember chain letters? Did you ever participate in one? When I was a little girl there was a popular trend that went around where everyone was mailing chain letters. The letter usually began something like, “Dear Tracy, please send (stickers, candy, whatever) to the top person on the list, add your name to the bottom and send this letter to seven friends. In 4 weeks you will receive candy from 49 people. If you do not send this letter, you will have broken the chain and (insert list of curses like, you will have no friends, you will …