My family has been committed to attend a Financial Peace University seminar at our church for the past 13 weeks. All of the lessons have been beneficial with excellent information and Dave Ramsey's no-nonsense motivational style of teaching. I think I benefited the most from gaining a better understanding about financial topics that were intimidating to me before. Granted, some of the information was not new to me at all, but Dave has a knack for making you think "Wow, that really makes financial sense. I would be stupid not to do that." It was the kick-in-the-pants we needed to do it, not just learn about it.
Since the course began, we've been able to pay off a student loan and a credit card, and have begun to apply those payments to a personal loan. We've set aside $1000 in a baby emergency fund, and I've created an allocated spending plan for all of our income to within $1. We are paying cash for several expense categories, namely groceries, entertainment, personal and miscellaneous spending, and blow money. Other categories have been created in our checking and savings accounts to build up funds for things like Christmas, vacation, car repair and homeschool supplies, to name a few.
Tonight's lesson was definitely my favorite... the lesson on giving. If I was not motivated before tonight (and believe me, I was), this lesson has inspired me even more to build wealth so that we can give, give, give. And out of that giving comes blessing. But as Dave pointed out, the Hebrew term for blessing does not refer to monetary wealth... instead the word literally means "peace". And I cannot imagine a richer way to live than to have a life filled with God's abundant peace.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
A Good Weekend
Some people may define a good weekend as taking it easy and having fun while others think working on projects and getting things done around the house makes for a good way to end the week. This past weekend was some of both for our family.
It really started on Thursday evening as we (my husband and I, my mom and step-dad, and my sister-in-law) worked until nearly 10pm getting our stuff set up for a yard sale. Yes, we had our yard sale on Independence Day. We wanted to take advantage of the annual 4th of July festival and BBQ our small town has hosted for the past 40+ years. The real benefit of it is that our home is located on what used to be the town square, so we are rightly situated in the middle of the action... except there wasn't as much action this year as in previous years. The BBQ did not even sell out before 11a.m. like it usually does, not to mention the scant number of vendors under the pecan trees of the Methodist Church.
Well, back to our weekend... I was hoping to get up early and price all the items before anybody showed up to shop. I had advertised that we would start at 9a.m. Of course, the 'serious' bargain hunters were knocking on the door at 7a.m. I was up, mind you, I just couldn't answer the door in my gown so I hid in the kitchen until they went away. Then I dashed to get dressed before the next early bird made an appearance... some 10 minutes later.
And so the day started in a bit of a frenzy, and it pretty much stayed that way all day. We had a steady flow of shoppers, sometimes a yard full at a time, and for the first time in our yard sale history (and we've had quite a few), we sold almost everything we had. At the end of the day, there were only a few boxes to haul to Goodwill. And the profits were worth the effort... enough to help our family pay cash for an upcoming vacation. Yep, a great way to start the weekend.
That evening, we went out to eat at a great new Chinese restaurant to celebrate our success. When it got dark enough, we headed to my brother's house for a fireworks show. He takes pleasure in spending a few hundred dollars to entertain us for a few minutes with his pyrotechnic display. We sat on his front lawn and clapped and cheered as he and my dad and a few other brave(?) men worked in the backyard to keep 'em comin'. Only once did we hear shouts of things-gone-wrong followed by some smoke and dimly glowing lights sparking from behind the house. (I think next year, the plan is to bolt the cannons and boxes to the table so they don't 'accidently' tip over.)
On Saturday, Jeff and I worked hard around the house. He spent the day laying down thresholds that his dad custom made for our 120-year-old home and putting locks on the bathroom doors (we've never had any). I stayed busy tidying up (preparing for a yard sale makes your house messy), and typing up Clara's progress report for third grade. On Saturday night, we went to Mom's for dinner to celebrate my brother's birthday with camp stew and homemade ice cream... yum-my!
Sunday was not the usual day of rest that we like to observe. We doubled up on worship by attending the 9:15 service at our church, then hopped over to a second service at a nearby church to support a friend who hasn't preached in 6 or 7 years. It was good to see him back 'in the pulpit' after a few years of dealing with some big life issues. When we made it home, I worked most of the afternoon preparing for our first day of school which starts this week. After dinner, we sat down with Clara and had a simple ceremony to recognize graduation from third grade/promotion to fourth grade. We read her progress report together and presented her with a certificate of completion, followed by a homemade ice cream sundae.
Yes, to me, this was a good weekend. A balance of work and play, labor and celebration. A time spent with family. A good weekend... and I am exhausted :o)
It really started on Thursday evening as we (my husband and I, my mom and step-dad, and my sister-in-law) worked until nearly 10pm getting our stuff set up for a yard sale. Yes, we had our yard sale on Independence Day. We wanted to take advantage of the annual 4th of July festival and BBQ our small town has hosted for the past 40+ years. The real benefit of it is that our home is located on what used to be the town square, so we are rightly situated in the middle of the action... except there wasn't as much action this year as in previous years. The BBQ did not even sell out before 11a.m. like it usually does, not to mention the scant number of vendors under the pecan trees of the Methodist Church.
Well, back to our weekend... I was hoping to get up early and price all the items before anybody showed up to shop. I had advertised that we would start at 9a.m. Of course, the 'serious' bargain hunters were knocking on the door at 7a.m. I was up, mind you, I just couldn't answer the door in my gown so I hid in the kitchen until they went away. Then I dashed to get dressed before the next early bird made an appearance... some 10 minutes later.
And so the day started in a bit of a frenzy, and it pretty much stayed that way all day. We had a steady flow of shoppers, sometimes a yard full at a time, and for the first time in our yard sale history (and we've had quite a few), we sold almost everything we had. At the end of the day, there were only a few boxes to haul to Goodwill. And the profits were worth the effort... enough to help our family pay cash for an upcoming vacation. Yep, a great way to start the weekend.
That evening, we went out to eat at a great new Chinese restaurant to celebrate our success. When it got dark enough, we headed to my brother's house for a fireworks show. He takes pleasure in spending a few hundred dollars to entertain us for a few minutes with his pyrotechnic display. We sat on his front lawn and clapped and cheered as he and my dad and a few other brave(?) men worked in the backyard to keep 'em comin'. Only once did we hear shouts of things-gone-wrong followed by some smoke and dimly glowing lights sparking from behind the house. (I think next year, the plan is to bolt the cannons and boxes to the table so they don't 'accidently' tip over.)
On Saturday, Jeff and I worked hard around the house. He spent the day laying down thresholds that his dad custom made for our 120-year-old home and putting locks on the bathroom doors (we've never had any). I stayed busy tidying up (preparing for a yard sale makes your house messy), and typing up Clara's progress report for third grade. On Saturday night, we went to Mom's for dinner to celebrate my brother's birthday with camp stew and homemade ice cream... yum-my!
Sunday was not the usual day of rest that we like to observe. We doubled up on worship by attending the 9:15 service at our church, then hopped over to a second service at a nearby church to support a friend who hasn't preached in 6 or 7 years. It was good to see him back 'in the pulpit' after a few years of dealing with some big life issues. When we made it home, I worked most of the afternoon preparing for our first day of school which starts this week. After dinner, we sat down with Clara and had a simple ceremony to recognize graduation from third grade/promotion to fourth grade. We read her progress report together and presented her with a certificate of completion, followed by a homemade ice cream sundae.
Yes, to me, this was a good weekend. A balance of work and play, labor and celebration. A time spent with family. A good weekend... and I am exhausted :o)
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