Sometimes the best use of your resources is not to use them at all. I laughed the other day when a friend of mine said, “The best way to save money at the grocery store is not to go.” It sounds so simple, but it is so true. The more you go, the more you spend. I try to limit my grocery shopping trips to only once a week because it is the best use of my time and I also spend a lot less money then visiting the grocery store every other day. There is always “something extra” that …
Lessons From my Dad
All three of my children adore my Dad. He doesn’t even have to pursue them, because they pursue him. It doesn’t matter where he is, if they know Papa is around, they are looking for him, “helping” him, and climbing on him. My Mom is the outgoing lively one, and they love their Nana so much. But for some reason, especially for Luke, Papa is it. If Papa is around he just has eyes for him and wants to sit on him and to have his full attention. We are so blessed to get to live close to my parents …
A Cure for Deprivation
When my husband and I returned from our European adventure after having the most amazing month, we never really left the “vacation” mentality. We had pushed ourselves for so long to save what we needed for Europe, and when it was all over and we were back, we found ourselves without a purpose for our money and needing a financial rest from the pressure. But we didn’t just “rest” from extreme saving, we spent. We had been in deprivation mode for so long that, even though it had been our choice so that we could go to Europe, we felt …
Amazing
This just totally blessed me today, and I thought I would share. Nothing to do with budgeting, but just incredible.
The Way of Life
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 says this, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days, and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” So much of the reality that we currently live in has been determined by our choices. In fact, every …
The Whole Elephant
I had the opportunity to go to a Bible Study last Tuesday night led by my lovely friend, Scarlet Pepin. She has such a vibrant relationship with Jesus, and it is just refreshing to be around her. What she shared has so blessed me all week and I want to share it with you today. A few years ago, Scarlet was working in her garage and just thanking God for her family. She just felt grateful that everyone was doing OK. Her kids weren’t on drugs and she still loved her husband, everyone was OK. In that moment, she saw …
Worth vs. Waste
There is a really beautiful story in the Bible that I want to share with you today. It is the story of Mary and her amazing gift. John 12:3-7 says,“Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, ‘Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?’ This he said, not that he cared …
A European Adventure
When my husband and I were newly married, we got a sort of crazy dream into our hearts. We dreamed of going to Europe. We knew that it would not be long before we would want to start a family and we knew that having a baby would push the dream back by a lot of years, so we decided that we would start saving and go. At the time, we were not making very much money. We were going to Bible school together and both only working part time… so not exactly wealthy… actually, far from it. But we …
Beautiful Sunday
What a georgeous day to be alive! The weather is perfect, their is no wind (rare for OK), and my garden is calling me. My sweet Luke has been sick all week from whatever he caught in the church nursery last Sunday, so we have decided that for this week we are going to skip the next wave of baby yuck and stay home 🙂 Hallelujah for an actual day of rest. So, today I am taking the day off from blogging. I will be back tomorrow and we are going to start looking at more of the specifics of …
The Gift of Gratitude
It is not a fun thing to take a child shopping when all they do is whine and cry and want everything. I have friends who never shop with their children because of this phenomenon. My son Noah used to do the same thing. He loves toys and getting surprises (as most kids do). Well, we had reached the point where shopping with him had become a complete nightmare, until my husband and I came up with a plan. We call it “A day to buy something.” We started a star chart and let Noah (and now Ava) earn stars …