Blessed and so thankful for it...

I don't understand how the average person goes along their daily walk through life and either does not recognize that we have a Heavenly Father, or at worst, denies that one even exists! There are so many things that only HE could have created! All we have to do is open our eyes and look around, stop and listen, heck, you can use all of your senses! For those of you who may be struggling with this mere thought, let me give you some fine examples:

Sight:

Sun

Moon

Stars

Flowers

Human beings

Beautiful sunsets

Hearing:

Children's laughter

Birds chirping

Thunder

Smell:

Ocean

Rain

Puppy breath

Touch:

Baby's skin

Silk

Hugs

Taste:

Chocolate!

Sweet Tea

Homemade biscuits

Okay, more "natural" stuff for taste:

Honey Suckle

Ripe Apples

Fresh Strawberries

Yes, some of these things are obviously man-made, but if that was your first thought, then you are probably one of those average people. If He hadn't given the inventor/creator of these things the intelligence, or provided the natural ingredients, then we would be without it all! Don't you see, God provides EVERTHING for us! No ifs, ands, or buts about it!

I love to take the time each day to reflect on something the Lord has shown me throughout the day. I am always amazed! He has done so much for me in my lifetime, and I want to acknowledge Him for that always!

So much to do and a splitting headache...

Wow! I know it is Friday, but exhaustion just truly set in and I feel like I have been ran over by a semi! Because I slacked so much yesterday at work, I am, uh, reaping the, uh, "benefits" today.

It seems like time is literally flying by! I know people say that all of the time, but good grief, I can't remember the last time I stopped to smell the proverbial roses. Let's see, this past weekend we had our whirlwind trip to Nashville, and it seems like it was only yesterday. The following is a snapshot of what my week has been:

Monday Work: Meeting
Monday Evening: Strangely quiet night at the house because my boy was threatened to be sent to the Principal's office at school, so we had to "punish" him by taking away his television and all electronic privileges - instead we cooked and cleaned.

Tuesday Work: No meetings, just insanely busy
Tuesday Evening: Stephen's kindergarten transition meeting (which deserves a whole blog itself...very odd); finished a scarf for a friend; bathed the boy; load of laundry

Wednesday Work: Meeting
Wednesday Evening: Church (which was wonderful)

Thursday Work: As you know by my post yesterday, just wasn't feeling it
Thursday Evening: Decorated a cake for a friend's birthday; started another scarf; bathed the boy; cleaned the kitchen twice

Friday Work: Conference call in the morning; Geocaching presentation to elementary school kids in the afternoon; need to mail out hundreds of registration brochures
Friday Evening: Not there yet, but here is what I have to do: Deliver cake; deliver scarf, Stephen desperately needs a haircut; cook dinner and clean up.

And plans for the weekend:

Saturday: Sign Stephen up for t-ball (yay); go to Tolley's Christian Bookstore to find an Easter Cantata that is not the classical stuff (because we are southern gospel/ hymn singers); clean my house (because I could be in the next episode of Hoarders); work on remaining scarf orders.

Sunday: Church, cook, and Church (yay)!!!

All of this and Stephen decides last night that he does not want to sleep. I think we finally managed to catch some zzzzs after 2:00 am. Maybe that is why I just can't seem to hold my head up!

My life is hectic, but I would not change one fraction of it. Next week is actually going to be worse as far as appointments and cakes and scarves, but that is OK. God never complained when He carried His cross, why should I?

Really should be working...

Right. Work. What I get paid to do. However, I am just not feeling it today. I am so excited about getting this blog started that all I want to do is play on here! :) I am not only posting, but finding extremely good blogs to follow!

Someone, please stop this insanity that has overtaken me! After our visit to Nashville this weekend, something strange happened to me. Now I am not only facebooking, O-M-Gosh, I have registered for an account on twitter, and now I am blogging again! I must be losing my mind.

It has to be from this experience in Nashville. I just got so pumped up, I cannot help myself! If you are not my friend on facebook, you have no idea what I am talking about. If you are my friend on facebook, you probably have some idea, so you are going to hear the whole story...trust me, it is worth sharing!

About a year and a half ago, my husband mentioned the name "Dave Ramsey" to me. At the time, it didn't really mean anything. Little did I know, Dave Ramsey is the epitomy of the term "financial genius." So, Todd started doing his homework, and I downloaded Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover (TMMO)to my Kindle. Our journey began the last week of October, 2009.

Todd and I both knew we made good money, but as many of us can say, we could not show you where our money was going. We were making it, but had nothing left over to show for it. And it is not that we couldn't manage our money, we just didn't.

With every page of the TMMO, I found myself saying to myself, "oh gosh Robin, you know that," "you can do that," "duh." So, Todd and I sat back down together and decided as a family that we were going forward to become debt free! Yeah right, you may be thinking, but Dave's motto is "Live like no one else, so you can Live like no one else."

The TMMO includes 7 baby steps.

(In my words):
1. Emergency fund of $1,000
2. Debt snowball
3. 3-6 month living expenses emergency fund
4. Invest 15% of your income for retirement
5. College savings for your children
6. Pay off your home
7. Building wealth

Seems a little overwhelming, right? Well, we are currently at baby step 2, and yes, at times, it has been overwhelming...but so worth it!

It took us a month to reach baby step one. Then came the budget. Ugh! The very thought of that gave me nightmares! But then we wrote everything down on paper, wow! We really do make good money (not bragging, it was a wake up call). Our next step was to write down our debt from smallest owed to largest -- NOT BY INTEREST RATE! That was extremely depressing. Even though we didn't have a lot of debt, we had A LOT of DEBT!

Our budget has to be what I call a zero balance budget. That means that after you right down everything you pay out a month in bills, you leave in the bank, then what you need for living expenses (i.e. gas, groceries, babysitter, etc.), comes out in cash. Your checking account is solely used for bills, not to carry over money, because during this process, you do not carry over money. Scary, huh?

Any extra money that you have during the month is paid on that smallest bill. After that is paid off, you take all of that money and apply it to your second smallest bill. It begins a snowball effect which gets larger and larger every time you pay something off. See, pretty much common sense. AND IT WORKS! To date, we have paid $42,000 of debt. Yes, you read that correctly. In 14 1/2 months, we have paid that much money toward our debt snowball. Like I said, even though I may have thought we were not in debt, yeah, I was wrong! We still have about 14 months to go, but we are getting there. And trust me, it gets easier after the adjustment period of about 3 - 4 months.

So that is the background. Now about how Nashville gave me such an epiphany to become more socially connected. Todd asked me several months ago if I would be interested in seeing Dave Ramsey in person. Oh, you don't have to ask me twice, where do I sign up?

This past weekend, we had the privilege of sitting second row at a five hour live Dave Ramsey show! Yes, I said f-i-v-e hour...and I would have stayed another five hours! This man is so energetic and charismatic! Whew! I wanted to jump up and shout. Wait a second, I did jump up and shout, several times!

Even though we have been living this program for over a year, the show brought it to a whole new level for me. Dave does not take credit for any of his ideas! He said - several times - that he got all of his ideas from God and grandma, and that he is just a good teacher. Wow! That was simply amazing to me. He quoted scripture, talked about the importance and power of prayer, told everyone if they hadn't talked to God in a while, they needed to because God missed them. Isn't that the truth? There were 10,000 people at this conference, so 10,000 people heard his message!

Dave Ramsey tweets, as I have now discovered that many people or groups tweet. About the only thing I will ever "tweet" is this blog, but it is nice to open it up and be inspired several times a day. It also was one of the pressing factors for me to start blogging again. If I can touch someone's life in any positive way, even if it is just one person, I want to do that!

I could write forever about him and this program, but I won't. I just wanted to share a little portion of the wonderful program that everyone could do, if they need or want to. You can learn more about all of his programs by visiting http://www.daveramsey.com/.

And now you have more information than you ever wanted to know, but when I mention TMMO or Dave Ramsey in my posts, you will know what I am talking about! :)

Inadequacy...

**WARNING: One thing I did not mention in my disclaimer from yesterday was the fact that I am self-diagnosed bi-polar. I am not really bi-polar, but every now and then (more so now) I have "me" moments or "me" days when I am just feeling sorry for myself, and so the emotional roller coaster of my life begins. Well, this is definitely one of those times, and one of those posts. Please do not feel like you have to comment to give me support, because first: 1) This post is going to be about a character flaw that I struggle with on a daily basis; and 2) I will hate myself for posting because I will feel like I was just asking people to tell me how great I am. I am not doing that. I am just using this blog as my outlet...remember?

Where do I even start. I could honestly go all the way back to my tween/ teen years, but I will not do that. There is just so much running through my mind that I want to say, but I just don't want to go "there."

For some reason, I am the type of person who has to have my hands in a little bit of everything, but this goes far beyond my crafting capabilities. I have always tried to please everyone in my inner circle, outer circle, work environment, visual sight...you know, trying to change the world with my niceness. Well, heads up people, that doesn't get you hardly anywhere at all. Most people just see that as a lack of backbone, and unfortunately, I have to agree with them.

And then, partner that with the inability to complete goals (whether they be major or minor) in life, and you have a train wreck!

I say that because I have to be the world's best at starting things and never following through with them, or following through, but never mastering anything, i.e. direct marking sales (Mary Kay, Jewelry, Avon, etc.), cake decorating, crocheting, knitting, getting my college degree...I think you get the point.

The one that really sticks out to me, and should have been a MAJOR goal, is not getting that coveted college degree. Throughout my 20 years of post-high school graduation, I have attempted several times to obtain that slip of paper, but each time, I allowed some life circumstance to creep in and I bail. I have had two really good jobs during these times, so I never dwelt on the fact that I didn't have a degree. I have thoroughly convinced myself that through my intelligence and life experience, that I have proven myself and can accomplish anything I set my mind to.

I am here to tell you today that I am WRONG! I am not bragging on myself, but I am pretty smart. And when you give me something to do, I get it done. I make connections, build important collaborations, and expand on things that people would never think possible. However, just because I do not have that "paper," I will always be sitting at the children's table.

I know that God has always, and always will have a plan for me. Sometimes it is just so extremely hard to fight off the thoughts of the flesh - the discouragement, the anger, the hurt.

What I need to remember, and is probably the most important goal in my life, I do not lay up treasures here on earth, but in Heaven! Thank you God!

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Romans 8:18

OK, I'm gonna try this again...

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about life. I have tried many times to find an outlet for myself, sometimes inappropriate outlets, but writing seems to be one of the best and safest.

I started this blog a few years ago, because God has always played a very active part in my life, even when I turned my back on him in my younger days. What I owe Him, I will never be able to repay, but what I can do is give Him praise always! So, here is my disclaimer:

**This blog will vary from day to day, depending on, of course, what is on my mind (and for those of you who know me, it could really be scattered :) It may not always mention God, but believe me, God is my driving force. He is what keeps me sane in this crazy life we live in!

I hope to drive people here to enjoy my antics, and keep them wanting to come back. Please feel free to leave comments! I will definitely enjoy the input!