~ This month's topics: God's Influence in my Life, Debts, Dieting, Garage Sales, and Potty Training ~  ~ April 14, 1999 .....Hi again! ~ I know it’s only mid-month, but I just had to share some incredible news with you as I try to keep simplifying my life. This does involve telling you some stories related to my new-found life in Christ, so if you are not a Christian …I just want to "warn" you now! A lot of my new installments are going to have stories about how God is influencing my daily living because it is a part of who I am now, but I think anyone of any religious persuasion can gain something from my sharing my story. First, it feels wonderful to have our credit card paid off! We are not going to discontinue using our card, but now we are no longer tempted to put much on it because we want to maintain control of the situation and not let our spending get out of hand again. We’ve also managed to whittle our equity line down and will keep plugging away at that by adding on the monthly budget amount that was alloted to paying off the credit card. That should really help take care of that debt. I keep telling my husband that we are going to be "rich" when we get all of this debt paid off (smile!). Well, we really won’t be … we’ll just finally have money to start college funds and to also continue to use to improve the house (we need siding, windows and carpet … there goes being rich! Hehehe!) It is such a joy having God to turn to whenever I need Him! I had set aside the month of April to get all my pages up on my website and I’m right on schedule. I have more info to add to some of the pages, but it’s no longer taking the major portion of my daily free time. I’m a person who likes to tackle one thing at a time and it absolutely drives me crazy to be in the middle of a project and not be able to find the time to get it done! This is what happened to me last week. I was trying to find the time to look up all the prices for the Sonlight books for the Sonlight "bookstore" I’ve set up through Books.com. I was using all of my free time (getting up early and going to bed late) as well as time during the day when I should have been paying attention to my children sitting in front of the computer gathering prices. Do you know what happened because I put my desires first? YEP, you guessed it! My week went horribly! The kids and I fussed at each other because they wanted my time and I felt like they were intruding on my time and not doing what I wanted them to be doing. The final resolution was a horrible Sunday afternoon (4/11/99) and I turned to my husband that afternoon and said that I knew why we were having such a bad day. When he asked me why, I told him, "I’ve not put God first one time in the past week. I’ve been following my own agenda and not listening to what He is telling me." I woke up on Monday morning and prayed to Him to "please let me just finish these Sonlight price lists and I promise that I’ll put the family first for the rest of the week." You know what? YEP, you guessed it again!! Monday must have been at least 48 hours long because I had all the time in the world to get my price lists done, upload the information onto my pages and still had tons of time to devote to the children ~ we had a fanstastic day! I felt good because I had finished my project and the kids were glad to finally have some quality attention from mom! Who says God doesn’t listen to prayers? As a good friend of mine always says, "May God order your day tomorrow!" and I am trying to remember to ask Him to do that every morning now. Another thing that has happened to me is that I finally got disgusted enough with the tightness of my clothing to resolve to lose this weight once and for all! I had joined the Crossings Book Club and was waiting patiently for my Weigh Down Diet book to arrive so I could begin this new way of eating. I’ve read the book twice before, but it didn’t mean to me what it does now. The book arrived on Monday and I’m almost done reading through it again. It is saying soooooo much more to me now and I’m learning how to feed my "heart hunger" with God’s word and prayer instead of food. I’ll keep you posted on my results. I know He does not want me to let the food be my Master anymore and I also know that if I pray to Him and ask His help and guidance, then I CAN DO THIS! I’m 5’4" and I weighed 158 fully clothed on 4-14-99. I’m only telling you this because I know it will hold me accountable if I have to report my weight each time I continue with my simple living story. Now, some of you are thinking that this is not sounding like it’s a part of living simply. But having God in our lives has added so much and He is really helping us in our quest for simpler living! My husband is a different person. He works very hard and very long hours (just yesterday he worked from 7am to 11:30pm …. This is not ordinary, but he has a day like this at least once a week.) Jim used to let the little things eat away at him. However, now they just roll off of his back! He used to work through lunch and now he takes his hour and eats at his desk while reading the Bible or his Daily Devotion book. I believe this nice break in his day has helped him soooooo much! I think I need to do the same thing and take advantage of the kids being outdoors this spring/summer in the afternoons and begin reading my Bible or doing my devotions mid-day to break up my routine and force me to relax and remember that He is with me all day long, not just in the mornings and evenings when I go to Him in prayer. We are no longer worried about our finances or other worldly concerns because we know that He is watching us and will show us the path He wants us to take. As we become better acquainted with our new friends in our church, we know that they will help show us how God is helping them in their daily lives. I know that my Bible study is a real sourch of comfort to me now. I am not only learning about who God really is to me, but we women gather together and are also able to share with each other our struggles and we know the other members will be praying for us! One bit of news I want to share in case any one of you is facing this same dilemma is that my son (will be 4 in June) is FINALLY potty training himself!! I’m a true believer that children know the best time to begin potty training themselves and I believe it will go faster and with less turmoil if the child leads. I was lucky in that Jenna was day-trained around 33 months and night-trained several months later. I just assumed Ian would follow her schedule (well, we all know about the word "assumed," right?). At the beginning of this year, I was getting really frustrated because I was still buying diapers and I couldn’t find a pre-school to take him unless he was trained. (I did finally find one and they’ll be pleasantly surprised when he shows up fully trained this fall, I’m sure!) Well, on Monday, Jenna just bluntly asked Ian which underwear he wanted to wear that day and he chose some and has been doing well during the day ever since….yahoo! He is soooo proud of himself and we are really playing it up at our home! It definitely was worth letting him lead because he basically trained himself in a day. So, if there are those of you struggling with this, take heart! There is light at the end of the tunnel! I’m sure I’ll have some more to add at the end of this month. In May, one way I’m going to raise some more money to continue to help pay off our bills is to hold a garage sale. I do this every year and it’s been lucrative in the past. I usually make several hundred dollars and that’s pretty good for six hours of "work." So, if you are tired of your basement and closets being full of stuff you never use, continue having a garage sale. If you have toys or clothes that have not been off of shelves, out of closets or toyboxes then consider selling them! Let your children earn some money to buy things they want by letting them keep the profits from the selling of their toys and clothing! Does your husband have tools he never uses? (I know my dad and husband sure do!) These are great sellers because men are always looking for something to buy at the yard sales! My rule-of-thumb is this: If it has not been worn, played with or hasn’t seen any use in a year, then I consider selling it. If I just can’t sell it at that moment, I put it in a box and mark it "Yard sale 1999" and then I put the box away. If that box is still around and has never been opened when I get ready for the next year’s sale, then everything in that box is either put out for sale or donated. I figure if I didn’t need it during the past year, then I’m not going to need it this year! Remember, your junk may be someone else’s treasure! WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?
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