Flashback

Random thoughts from my childhood:

• Camping with my parents - the primitive type, not the camper type
• Getting carsick - a LOT
• My bologna has a first name...
• Riding my bike with the banana seat
• Playing hide and seek with my brother
• Going to Pensacola Beach with my family and friends
• Skiing - snow
• Racing crawfish with my cousins then throwing them in the pot (the crawfish, not my cousins)
• Playing in my treehouse
• Hanging out at our neighborhood pool
• Getting chased and stung by a swarm of bees

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Program

Casey (the angel) & Cody saying her verse

Casey (in the middle)

The girls were in the choir Christmas program again this year, and again, it was spectacular. All of the kids were adorable and there is so much talent in those young people! They sang, danced and acted wonderfully, it was a joy to watch them all!
Cody stepped up to the microphone and said her verse, right on cue. Casey knew her lines, her song and dance number and her solo - she was the "Hipp. She was also beautiful as an angel in the last scene.
We are very proud of our girls and SO blessed to be in such an amazing church that helps them fine tune their talents while teaching them that those talents are God-given and should be used to glorify Him!

New Tradition

This year we have started a new Christmas tradition at our house. We bought a small pre-lit tree and put some very special ornaments on it. All of these ornaments belonged to either my maternal grandmother, my paternal grandmother, or Joe's maternal grandmother. As we hang the ornaments on the tree we tell the girls about our grandparents and other Christmas memories we have from our childhood. It was a lot of fun and it was cool to see that our grandmothers had some very similar ornaments. The girls enjoyed it this year and we hope this is a tradition that they can continue when they have children of their own!

I know, I know

I know it has been a REALLY long since since I update the blog - I do apologize!
When Joe was not working I spent many mornings homeschooling the girls and then heading off to work a part-time job in the afternoons. Plus with soccer, choir, church etc... my computer time was put on the back burner!
It is with great thanksgiving that I announce - Joe got a new job! He is thoroughly enjoying it and although the hours are a bit crazy he gets a lot of days off. I am still working a little bit here and there to make up for the loss of income that we have with the new job. Fortunately, we have great benefits and the income is much better than unemployment!
So, thank you for your prayers during the past year and thanks to God for His amazing provision!
I will update again soon - I promise!!!

New Chapter

Well, we have entered a new phase in our lives. Our oldest daughter now has a cell phone.
We wanted her to have one for emergencies and found that it was cheaper to add a phone to our account than it would be to get a pre-paid phone, which we had originally considered. Now that she is a middle-schooler and is doing more things on her own we felt it was finally time.
We are approaching it as a test for her. As long as she is responsible and follows our rules, (actually we are going to write up a contract) she will continue to earn more responsibilities. She is only allowed to call the people WE have programmed into the phone and is not allowed to send or receive any text messages. We are thinking of it as a rite of passage for her good behavior, good grades, and general helpfulness lately.
We think she is ready and feel comfortable with the boundaries we have set. Still a little nervous about it though!
I will keep you posted!

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!