She's Sun and Rain

This week I know I've been stressed dealing with finances. I think it's just because of the gigantic bill I got from the hospital that followed with the gigantic check I had to write. Today one of the articles on the Dave Ramsey website was about living life and being content while you're trying to be good stewards and pay off debt. You can't let it drive you crazy. I have to be content in our circumstances, even if I don't love everything about them. I know that sounds so easy right? Here's a link to the article. Anxiety Fever It says it way better than I could. :) Happy Friday to all! Stay safe in this hot weather. I will not be sitting outside at all today, it's smoking hot out there!

Oh my goodness we are almost to 28 weeks! I am sooo excited about this fact :) I may or may not have been hormonal in my last blog post. Adam asked me if I was going to delete it and I thought about it, but... decided that everyone is human and everyone has their days when they just need to vent. I'm not perfect so why try to pretend I am in my blog? The truth is we have so much to be thankful for. Last night I watched Charles Stanley that we recorded from Sunday (since I haven't really been able to go to church) and he kicked my butt! He was talking about how obedience always leads to blessing. Adam and I have been struggling with this because we really feel like we have been obedient and it doesn't "seem" to us that we have received blessings out of it. But, our blessings aren't always what we think they are. Of course, our baby girl is a blessing! Adam's job at The Hartford is a blessing. My being on bed rest and not having income did not seem like a b...

Today I was having lunch with my sweet friend Katie and we were discussing finances. Money is on my mind a lot lately (lately, um, the last 5 years?) and a big part of our life is our 'get out of debt' plan. I'm sure you've read somewhere in here that we are doing the Dave Ramsey, My Total Money Makeover and debt snowball. We are working hard (and for me, that means working...after a long time of job hunting) at putting as much money toward debt as we can. We don't splurge a lot, we have a tight budget, and we are trying our best to stick to it. God has always provided for us. We are tithing 10%...something we refuse to stop doing. Here are a few things we're sacrificing to make this happen: - I went to my natural hair color, no more 100 dollar highlighting - We cancelled the gym membership, a savings of 64.99 a month - We cancelled Time Warner and went with Dish for a much less expensive deal - We coupon There's something to be said for living belo...

Over $500 dollars. That is our record high on grocery spending in one month. Never again will we do that! I thought that shopping at Wal-Mart was a good, inexpensive idea when we first got married. Having been single, I had no idea what it meant to really grocery shop or feed a man. I typically ate meals like cereal for dinner, or a combination of rice and peas with some salt and pepper. Perhaps that's how I stayed so skinny. I was only in Augusta, Ga from November after our wedding to June when we moved. I tried to keep our grocery budget to $100 a week, so $400 dollars a month for 2 people. That is too much. When we left Georgia in June and moved to Wilmington, NC (trying to figure out what we were doing) we spent some time with the Smith's. Thankfully Meg taught me a little about budgeting and couponing. We now shop at Harris Teeter and do not spend more than $60 a week on groceries. This includes toiletries, paper products, etc. Get an envelope, put your grocery money in ...

Oh lovely lamp. We received 2 of these for a wedding shower gift. We did not register for lamp shades. Long story short - until we either A. Get a gift card or B. Get out of debt, these will continue to be shade-less. I am not ashamed. If you come into my home and I show you our bedroom, I will say..."Dave says we can't have lampshades yet". And someday when we are completely debt free, I will remember these lamps and their nakedness. :-)

In the midst of trying to purchase the house in Calabash from my grandparents, they generously gave me money to pay off my existing debt. I got confirmation this morning that the check went through and now I am free from that debt! Such a huge burden lifted from me! Thank you Lord for loving, kind and generous grandparents!!