Faith: Good Choices

This past Christmas, I received a devotional collection from my mother-in-law. A few years ago, I would have thought the gift was a waste. My testimony of faith is colorful (I think), but it wasn't until a year ago next month that I started regularly attending church. I started opening my Bible again. I was reintroduced to Him. 

And let me tell you, it has been wild. 

I pick up this devotional collection every morning. If I skip a morning or two, I feel as if my whole day is off. I try to hang on to sometime from each reading for the day because my mind gets cluttered and crazy very quickly. About a week ago, I read one devotional that just stuck. 

As focused and motivated as I can be, I do stray from the task at hand. When I'm tired or worn out, I will not do what I should be doing. I feel like I shut down and throw an inner temper tantrum at what needs to be done. I'll start working on one thing, get distracted, think about the million other things on my to-do list, freak out, and then I'm left with nothing accomplished. Once I've hit this stage, I beat myself up over the choices I've made and the time I've wasted.

Then I read that morning's devotional and this line hit me.

I love Hello Kitty. And pink pens. 

That Hello Kitty post-it is on the center of our refrigerator. It reminds me to stop, breathe, and think it all through. Because at the end of the day, I don't want to regret the way I used the time God has gifted me. I want to spend that time doing whatever it is I am meant to do... and I'm pretty sure throwing myself a pity party over what I haven't accomplished isn't in His plan for me.

Three Awesome Things

Recent awesome in life lately:

- I'm done with one class this semester. I'm one small paper away from finishing the other class. This girl is not taking summer classes because of my work schedule, and I'm pretty excited for the break.

- Oh, and we bought another car last week. We have been a one-car family for 5 years and it feels pretty awesome to have flexibility in life. I want to do a large post about this, so I'm going to leave you in suspense right now. 

- A little girl I hadn't seen in over 6 months reappeared in my library this week. She saw me sitting at my desk and exclaimed, "Miss Olivia!" A little later, I was working at the circulation desk when she came up and said, "I really missed you." Sometimes I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have the job that I do.

Tell me something awesome going on with you!

YouTube Study Break

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for this semester. I'm physically and mentally exhausted, but I'm almost there. When I take a break, I get on YouTube and gravitate towards music videos to get pumped up for the next round of work.

Tonight during a break, I found this.



And now I will return to working with tear-stained cheeks and a smile on my face.

Summer Personal Finance

I would guess that there are about three of you who are currently reading this blog who are familiar with a previous blog I kept about personal finances and weight loss. While I no longer maintain that blog, I am still struggling with these two areas of my life. Keeping that blog was an educational experience. The things I learned during that time have made for a good foundation to make progress. I wish I could report about huge strides in both those areas, but alas, I'm still making baby steps.

Richie is working his way up the employment totem pole of high school education. When a teacher retires, there's little chance a new one is hired. When a budget is slashed, you just make do. He has an excellent position at the high school he's employed at, but one tiny drawback: he's a contract employee. What does that mean? If there's no school, there's no income.

Does this make us nervous? Yes. A little scared? Heck yes.

Source: PT Money

We recently learned that his contract will be renewed next school year, and his boss told him that he would renew the contract for as long as Richie wants the position. His boss knows that Richie is looking for another position that is more long-term, has benefits, and utilizes the training he has, yet with this knowledge, his boss is still comfortable with renewing his contract. This is a huge blessing and weight off our shoulders. But once the school year ends, that's it. There's no second income until school begins in August.

So what do we do? We've sketched out a game plan to get us through the lean times coming up.

1. We are praying. This job was an answered prayer. We'll continue to pray for financial peace over the summer.

2. I have been paying a little extra on our bills each month so in case we come up short this summer, some of the regular bills won't be as high. I have also added a little extra cushioning to savings in case something comes up.

3. We received many gift cards this past Christmas. Generally, we spend them faster than teenagers. However, Richie mentioned putting them aside and using them over the summer. So that's what we're doing with those. Brilliant!

4. To bring in extra income, Richie will be housesitting and petsitting for families we have done this for in the past. He has also spread the word through his school that he's available to do this, and he has a few more interested families. I also have a few items I'm going to list on Craigslist to hopefully unload.

5. We will only be eating out after church on Sundays. This will be our most difficult step, but we are both committed to sticking this out. We chose Sundays because it's our tradition now and we really enjoy it.

Of course, we'll be doing some of the other basics. I'll still be bringing my lunch to work. We use coupons and shop sales for groceries. We try to wait as long as possible to turn on the air conditioner to save on electricity. We made mistakes last summer, and I'm confident we have learned from those mistakes and will be smarter this year.

What are your absolutely tried-and-true, crazy or not crazy, ways you save money in lean times?

Make A Child Smile

This is the final post about our vacation. About time, right?

There was one night where we were back at our hotel room by 7:30. We weren't tired, but we also didn't want to drive to get anywhere. There was an arcade within walking distance of the hotel, so we hoofed it. We wasted a good hour blowing through $20 worth of game tokens and playing games we remembered from our childhoods. Once our token bucket was empty, we got a count of all the tickets we earned from playing games and peeked at the selection of prizes.

Source: Lisa Padilla

For future reference if we procreate: Avoid arcades like the plague. The prizes aren't worth it.

However, here's what made the entire experience worth our time.

We had roughly 750 tickets that could be redeemed. We knew we weren't going to use them, so we gifted them to this adorable little boy and his father who had waited so patiently earlier in the night while Richie finished some game. We approached them, handed the young man our tickets, and explained to dad that we weren't going to use them and that we thought his son could benefit. The appreciative expression on dad's face was awesome, and then the little man spoke up.

"Thank you! I'm going to get something then go play laser tag! Thank you!"

We left pondering what the boy would choose. I hope he had a blast playing laser tag, too.