More Blessings

My husband is now "officially" unemployed due to a lay-off and we are experiencing the Peace that passes understanding. I think one of the reasons that we feel such a peace at this normally stressful time is that we have really been focusing on our blessings and how thankful we are for what we have.
The list that follows declare a small portion of the blessings we have received since Joe found out about the lay-offs last November. It is kind of long but we have found that the more we focus on our blessings, the less we fell sorry for ourselves!

• This is an opportunity for Joe to find a job he really loves!
• This happened AFTER we got out of debt - thanks Dave Ramsey!
• His date of lay-off went from Jan 4 to March 31 in a span of 15 minutes.
• This can be Joe’s mid-life crisis! (He got the news the week of his 40th birthday)
• We decided to continue our giving to the church instead of lowering it when we completely renovated our budget. The next day my dad suggested looking at our 401k contribution. The amount of contribution that now goes into his paycheck instead of his 401k equals the amount we had considered lowering our tithe amount – plus some.
• That same day we received a monetary gift – enough to live by our Emergency Budget for almost 3 months.
• Someone who provides a service for us dropped the rate by $10 per month, without us asking.
• We had our 2nd straight year of All Cash Christmas!
• We have had tons of encouragement and prayers from family and friends - thank you!
• We are living on an Emergency Budget and putting money in savings every month, we have realized that we can live on SO much less than we have been!
• Found out about using an antenna instead of cable and we disconnected our land line saving us over $600 per year and we still get great channels!
• Started using Cartridge World for our printer ink cartridges saving us over $10 per cartridge.
• After we prayed for provision, Joe continued to be extended in his job for an additional 4 months.
• I got a little part time that that will, hopefully, pay for our groceries each month.
• We put in a raised-bed garden and it has provided over $200 worth of free food this summer.
• We are healthy.
  
• We were given a really cool entertainment center that looks great in the living room - AND hides the TV when it is not in use!
• We thought we had a major car issue but it turned out to be only a fluid problem.
• We have found so many ways to go and have fun for FREE!
• We were blessed to be able to spend time with all four of our parents this year.

We know that God has a plan for us and we believe part of that plan was for us to learn to live on less. It is such a great feeling to have a little money in the bank rather than a ton of debt hanging over our heads. We continue to search for more ways to save - it has become almost a game for us! Thanks for taking the time to read this, hope you have a great week and I encourage you to count your blessings!

Jungle Flight

"A harrowing near-crash at a remote airstrip, a deep-jungle rescue mission, a jaguar attack, spiritual warfare, terrorist attack, a mass evacuation in the face of a militant uprising. Who says being a missionary is boring?!? "

Jungle Flight was written by the Pastor of our church in Virginia and is based on a personal trip to the jungles of Southeast Asia and private interviews with the pilots and technicians of JAARS (originally, Jungle Aviation and Radio Service).
I am so excited to let you all know about it and I hope you will enjoy it!

"Jungle Flight will ignite your imagination and inspire your heart to read about survival and rescue missions made possible by the miracle work of Jesus Christ, the Pilot of our souls.
This collection of short stories will allow you to peer into the cockpits of airplanes set apart for missionary service in the Name of the Lord and learn how aviation has contributed to carrying out the Great Commission. As a pilot myself, I have been amazed at how God has used planes and helicopters as effective tools to elevate Bible translation for the purpose of evangelism in the most remote parts of the world." Franklin Graham President and CEO,
Samaritan's Purse and The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Jungle Flight is the gritty reality and harrowing adventures of JAARS mission aviators and technicians living and working on the edge of the civilized world come to life in this new book by Dane Skelton. , this book tells it like it is, taking the reader inside the cockpit and into harms way with men and women of deep faith and profound commitment to service through professional excellence.

BEGINNING AUGUST 1st YOU MAY ORDER BY CALLING - The JAARS Gift Shop at 704-843-6104.
JAARS will get a portion of the proceeds if you order directly from them.

Also available now at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com
For bulk orders leave me a comment and I will get you the information.

What others are saying:
"JUNGLE FLIGHT is a compilation of real stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things in service to God. I couldn't put it down. Read it for heart-soaring adventure as well as soul-stirring inspiration.", Professor and Pastor, Dr. Max Anders, author of 30 Days to Understanding the Bible
"After 40 years of serving the US space program, I find myself awed by what the men and women of JAARS have done to impact the global ministry of Bible translation. What they do each day requires more than just being made of the right stuff: it takes extraordinary faith in the One who created the mountains they fly over, the people they serve, the One who's guiding their flight from start to finish." Tom Overton, Multiflow Integration Manager, PH-O Kennedy Space Center, FL

Dane Skelton is a pastor, an aviation nut, a motorcyclist, and is interested in anything that rolls, floats or flies. Dane has been married to Krista for 25 years and they have three daughters.

Happy Anniversary!

Engagement Photo for newspaper

On July 11th, Joe and I will be married for 17 years!
We have seen good times and bad, sickness and health, been richer, been poorer, seen both joy and sorrow, but have loved and cherished through it all.
I am so thankful to have Joe as my best friend, husband, and father of our children. Thanks Joe for an amazing 17 years, I love you!

Happy 4th of July

Photo by Casey Gage

"So What Do You Eat?"

We are vegetarian, have been for about a year and a half. We went vegetarian for health reasons, my husband dropped his cholesterol by 170 points and my children rarely get sick anymore. I will be posting another blog with details on my children's health as soon as I get copies of their medical records, but I will say it has been miraculous.

One of the questions I get asked the most, well probably tied with, "Where do you get your protein?" (the answer is "From vegetables, nuts, beans, and dairy. Plus, Americans get WAY more protein than our bodies need - that's another post!) is "What do you eat?" The answer to that is so extensive that I could not answer it completely! Think of your favorite side dishes, for instance at Thanksgiving and Christmas we eat everything except turkey and ham.

Or think of your favorite types of food. Mexican and Italian are our faves so we eat rice, beans, guacamole, veggie quesadillas, chips & dips, breakfast burritos, pasta with meatless sauces (tomato, alfredo), mac and cheese, vegetable lasagna, garlic bread. We eats LOTS of fruit and vegetables but not a lot of salads.

"Well, what about when you travel and have to get fast food?" Good question, Taco Bell will substitute beans for beef, Burger King has a veggie burger, Wendy's has salads, baked potatoes and fruit, and we love most of the sides from KFC.

One of the best things about becoming vegetarian is that we are trying really great vegetables that we have never eaten before! I will be posting soon about our adventure with spaghetti squash soon!

So, we basically eat anything and everything - except meat. Easy enough...

Summer Fun!

Summer is here and we have our "list" of summer activities ready to go! Due to Joe's current job situation we will not be traveling and are on a limited budget so most of activities are cheap or FREE! Here is what we have lined up:

1. Movies in the Park. FREE event each month at the park with jumpy things, face painting, music, and a movie at dusk.

2. Bowling. Our local bowling alley has a program for kids to sign-up and bowl for FREE through August 30 - shoes not included.

3. Zoo. Considering a membership.
If we go 3 times it will be worth it.

4. Swimming. Since we have already joined the Rec. Center, admission to the outdoor pool is FREE.

5. Morning movies. A local church is showing a different kid movie each week for FREE. They also have FREE popcorn and 50 cent juice boxes.

6. Hiking & Letterboxing.

7. Library Summer Reading Programs

8. Jump Rope Club. We have started a club for the kids to learn jump rope skills, we have 16 kids participating!

9. Church Camps and VBS.

We are always looking for new ideas, what are your summer plans?

Better Late Than Never?

My dear husband just wrote a post on his blog about his (and my) #1 Pet Peeve - Being Late.
As I thought about the comment I was going to leave on his blog I decided that, since it was going to be more of a dissertation than a comment, I would write my own post about it. So here we go...

My number one pet peeve is being late. I can't stand to be late, my husband can't stand to be late, and my children can't stand to be late.
It started in my childhood, back in the days before cell phones. Yes, there used to be a time without cell phones. Then there came a time of HUGE car phones. Anyway, back in the day my family used to go a lot of places and meet up with a lot of people. Mom and Dad always used the 15 minute rule, it goes like this. Let's say we were going to meet another family downtown and go window shopping, wait, that is something my dad would never do. Let's say we are in the mountains skiing with several other families and we decide that after skiing we will all meet at a certain place at 6:00 and go to dinner. Dad would say we would use the 15 minute rule which states that at 6:15 whoever is there leaves and goes to dinner, no hard feelings. Everyone knew that they had a 15 minute window and then everyone was leaving. No one got mad and if someone was late they would always apologize profusely.
After I got married, my dh and I took a parenting class and one of the lessons solidified my inner most need to be on time. The lesson was about stealing. Yes, stealing. The writer of the program stated that people who you can count on to be late are STEALING. They are stealing your precious time. Time that you can never get back. Now, they were not talking about a person being occasionally late, we get it, things happen. They were talking about taking responsibility for ones actions and respecting others enough to regularly show up on time. THAT stuck with me.
If I am late I am not showing respect to the other person and I am stealing from them. I do not want to represent myself that way.
This is how it works at our house. We generally plan to leave in enough time to get where we need to be 15 minutes EARLY. 10 minutes if it is right here in town. That way, even if things come up - they normally do- a lost shoe, a pit stop, I can't find my keys, we still have a window of time. Having that window of time decreases our stress levels IMMENSELY! We arrive leisurely and are often able to help with any last minutes preparations or it gives us a chance to sit in the car and talk, uninterrupted by technology for a few minutes.
So, I am still striving for us to be known as the family that is always 10 minutes early!
If I get to your house 10 minutes early I have probably been driving around wasting time for 10 minutes so as not to some over TOO early! And if I am right on time, I am stressed. If, for some reason I am late, please know that it was something VERY out of the ordinary and I will apologize profusely!
The last thing I want to do is to steal from my friends.
So, there is my dissertation. I hope you have learned something about me you did not know before!