So Many Things to be Thankful For

 I thought I would share a few pictures from this last month and just a couple of thoughts. The picture above is Malcolm and I when our family went on a walk at the state park on Friday. 

The other walkers: Aaron, Mara (with Ewan on her front), Thomas and Megan)

I didn't get any good pictures from Thanksgiving day but we were blessed with family and friends joining us at our place. 5 international students from the university joined us and that was a blessing. It was fun to introduce them to Thanksgiving as it is an American holiday.

My seatmates. Some pretty fun ones that had lots of requests and questions. :-)

As usual we had plenty of pie.

Mom, Dad and I. 

We have a couple of kitties (that hopefully we can find a home for at least one of them). This one is so incredibly friendly and purrs away even when Malcolm picks him up like this.

A couple of weeks ago we had a Thanksgiving meal at church. That was fun. At it we were challenged to work together as a congregation to come of with 10,000 reasons that we are thankful (praising God). I normally write a list of things that I am thankful for everyday and have done that for 15 years or so. It has truly changed my life to do that. If you struggle with discontent or unhappiness in any way I highly recommend it. This challenge at church has caused me to put a lot more thought and effort into it -more than my normal 10 or so things per day. It has been such a blessing!

  I don't believe that it is just for God's sake that He tells us over and over again to be thankful. It is so incredibly healing for us! Even if it did nothing for us, He deserves all the thanks we can give but I think when we start obeying Him and begin praying with thanksgiving the way He tells us to we will be blessed far beyond what we can imagine.

  God gives us hundreds (thousands? millions?) of gifts every day and many of them we don't even notice. Instead we are busy thinking about our struggles, the hard things we face, the loneliness in our lives. When we start looking for those gifts instead and writing them down it fills you with such a great sense of overwhelming love - realizing just how much God cares for you. Taking the time to write them down can retrain your thinking. Romans 12:2 tells us to be transformed by the renewing of your mind" and I think obeying God in giving thanks is part of the way to do that.

   Go beyond just being thankful for family, friends, a home, a job, enough to eat and a vehicle to drive. Start thinking about all the people in your life and then think about what about them makes you thankful for them. Start noticing the beautiful things God puts in your life whether it be a mushroom you chance upon out walking, a frozen puddle that has pretty ice designs, the bark on a tree. Start noticing and get specific in your thankfulness. Give thanks for specific interactions/conversations you are able to have. Notice the sounds around you and give thanks for the ears that can hear and the beauty of music, nature, breathing, etc. Think through the things in your life that have molded you into who you are today. Give thanks - even for those hard things. Once you get started writing down what you are thankful for and truly noticing things you will find it is pretty hard to stop. 

   I would love to hear if you practice this already and if you do what affect it has had on you. If you don't do it would you please, please try? I know you will be blessed.

  Two huge blessings in my life are my Grandsons. I have started watching them once a week while their parents have a date. Ewan is normally breastfed but he gets to drink a bottle while with me. He doesn't seem to mind at all. A couple of weeks ago while Ewan was napping I asked Malcolm what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to paint. So Malcolm and I were having a great time painting away. Then Ewan woke up. We decided that he probably needed a bottle. Malcolm helped me to fix it and wanted to carry it over to the living room. Once there he also wanted to feed Ewan. So I got them set up and then Malcolm tells me " Grandma, you go paint!" He had everything under control and thought I might as well get back to painting. I love these guys so much!

Ewan isn't the only baby at church. We have been blessed with many new ones lately. Juliette was born the end of March and Juniper was born around a month ago and the rest in between. We are so blessed!

 

Living Frugally 2023 version

    Anybody that has been a reader of my blog for very long or knows me very well, knows that I am fairly passionate about living frugally. I admit I find it a pretty fun hobby - so possibly most people will find me strange but oh well. :-)

   I think one of the biggest helps for me financially (after simply trusting God that He is going to provide - I will work and do my best and God will take care of the details) is to really get my mind wrapped around the fact to pretty much all of us have money and we MAKE A CHOICE what we do with it. Many are caught in some sort of debt trap and they don't feel like they have any choices, but pretty much everybody does at some time and we make many, many financial choices every single day. So live intentionally, prepare for the hard times (trouble with health, with cars, home repairs, etc) and make a priority to spend on the things that actually matter to you (after taking care of your financial commitments).

  The things that matter to you - that is different for everybody. So the things I save money on totally may not work for you as perhaps your biggest joy in life is going to a coffee shop every single day. In my viewpoint that is a huge waste of money but I also am happier not drinking something ridiculously expensive out of a cup destined for the landfill and drinking something that isn't very good for me either. I will enjoy it on a very rare occasion - as I admit they do taste pretty good (well not the coffee actually - I am not a fan - but I love a good Chai) but not something regularly. It simply would not bring me joy. But I do love to travel. Our family went to Ireland in April, Colorado in July and other smaller trips as well. I also recently bought a ticket to go to Brazil in January, Lord Willing. That brings me joy. I am willing to make all sorts of other financial sacrifices to make that happen and I do that gladly. I also am very passionate about being debt free and so I have been attacking my mortgage and paying off just as much as I can early. That brings me joy (and I know, I'm weird).

  Anyway, I have been talking with a bunch of people that have a little less money to work with just now and so I thought I would share some of the ways that I spend less money. I am going to divide them into categories and I will try to link to more information just as much as possible.

Cleaning

• I use a vinegar water solution to clean instead of glass cleaner.
• I mop using just water and sometimes a drop of essential oil.
• I don't use paper towels or any one use items for cleaning, instead I have a large collection of rags made from old t-shirts and towels.
  
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Clothing

• I don't shop very often (less than once a month- at times far less).
• When I do shop I almost only shop at a consignment store that I bring things to whenever we have things we don't need and then I earn store credit. So usually I shop for free.
• I say "yes" to hand-me-downs. If we aren't able to use them I can generally take them into the consignment store or pass them on to someone else.
• I challenge myself to be creative in my clothing combinations every so often and sometimes old clothes can feel very new when you combine them in a fun way.
• When I do play clothing my goal is to buy quality items that will last well. This is especially important to me in shoes. I generally just buy leather shoes and they can last for years and years. 
• For tennis/hiking shoes (what I wear most days) I like Keens. They last time I needed a pair I bought some used ones in good condition off of Ebay for a pretty good price.
• I am really working to have clothes that are truly my style (I like ones in natural fabrics, often feminine, rustic or woodsy) - so no matter what fads come and go I can just stick with ones that I like how they look and feel. 

Decorating

• I enjoy having artwork on my walls that was created by family or friends.
• Much decoration in our home often is foraged from the woods or garden.
• Houseplants make pretty and healthy decorations. I have rarely bought one but I have a huge collection. That is largely because I work at a flower shop and can bring home ones that aren't looking healthy enough to sell and then work to bring them back to health. That plant doctoring actually consists of watering them occasionally and putting them by a window, nothing to fancy. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. If you have friends that love plants you can often get plant starts from them. That is another great way to have a houseful of plants cheaply.
• I like to make quilts from fabric scraps.
• Throw pillows are another thing that has been easy for me to make from things that I had on hand (old bed pillows can supply stuffing).
• I have found curtains very easy to make and if you look for fabric on sale you can do it pretty cheaply too.
• I like to have basket for gathering produce from the garden. They also make nice decor. I have found them cheaply at thrift stores or garage sales.

Education

• This year and last year Megan has been going to college for free with something called PSEO (post secondary education opportunity) that is offered to Juniors and Seniors in Minnesota. She has been able to do it online through a Christian college in St. Paul. Lord willing, she will graduate with her associates degree this coming Spring at the same time she graduates from high school. We will have to pay about $1000 for her to take a couple of Bible classes this next semester as the college requires it for graduation and the state won't pay for that. I have heard of similar programs in some other states. If your child is interested in college this is a great way to do it.
• When homeschooling we stayed pretty frugal by using a lot of reusable books and using the library extensively. 
• I try to do "Continuing Education" for my floral business by watching videos on Youtube. There are a lot on there that are well done and helpful. I am guessing this is true of many industries. 
  
  
  
  
  

Entertainment

• We pretty much never go to the movie theater.
• I have watched some local plays by volunteering to be an usher and then you get to watch for free. We also sometimes pay for tickets at our community theater - that is worth it to me. And community theater is far less than ticket prices I have seen elsewhere and they do a fantastic job.
• We don't have cable or Netflix (or anything else that I pay for except internet). A lot of what we watch is off YouTube. 
• For fun we enjoy making music together, playing games, ping-pong, reading, biking, camping and canoeing. 

Food

• Use what you have in abundance. Are you getting a lot of something from the garden? Where you gifted from somebody else's abundance? Did you find a great deal on something? Especially if it is something that will go bad - build your menu around it. 
• Don't let food go to waste. Eat up those leftovers the next day for lunch. If it is more than you can eat before it goes bad - freeze some or share it with others if you can.
• I don't shop very often. I love to see how long we can eat from the pantry. This has been very helpful in keeping our grocery budget low.
• When you find good deals of something that will last for a while (in the freezer or on the shelf) stock up on it. Try to get enough that it will last until the next good sale. How much to get varies according to how much you eat it, how long it lasts and how good the deal is. A month or so ago a local store had Mac and Cheese boxes four for a dollar. I hadn't seen that sort of deal on that for a long time. I ended up getting 2 boxes of boxes (48 in all). It is a cheap quick meal that the kids like to make once and a while. Today we went to an Amish store in our area and they had jars of natural peanut butter marked at a dollar and then I looked and saw that you could get a flat of 12 for $9. That is a steal of a deal and so I now have 24 jars of peanut butter. It doesn't outdate for over a year and we should use that much in that time. I also found butter cheaper today than I had for a while ($2.99 a lb) so I got 24 pounds.
  
• I grow a garden (which I do not spend much money at all on (around $35 a year for seeds and that is pretty much it) and then we eat from the garden just as much as we can in the summer and fall. I also put up as much food as I can.
• I rarely got out to eat or buy premade food or drink.

Gifts

• I make quite a few handmade gifts. Not as many at this season of life as I have done in the past but still quite a few. I pretty much always make them from things we have on hand whether it be from my craft/sewing closet or our kitchen cupboards. I have been blessed to be on the receiving end of many people cleaning out their craft supplies however so I have an abundance to work from. Pictured above is a miniature picnic that Megan and I put together for my niece, Lilly. Below is a wreath I made for my sister Keren.
  
• I do sometimes find things at second hand stores or garage sales that are new or basically look new and I will gift them at times. 
• I wrote a post a while back on saving money on gifts that has more thoughts, ideas and details.
• Our Christian radio station in town has something called "Shopping on the radio" that offers gift cards to local businesses at a discount. I will sometimes buy those and either just use them as gifts or use them to buy gifts. It also supports the radio station in the process.

Health

• I make it a habit to drink plenty of water each day. It is tap water (when at home that means well water) so it is free.
• I do a lymph massage every morning.
• I drink warm vinegar water every morning. (2 tablespoons raw organic apple cider vinegar in 16 ounces of warm water).
• I try to do some activity/exercising outside at least 5 days a week.
• I eat a lot of whole grains, vegetables and unprocessed natural foods. I limit my use of sugar.
• I rarely have caffeine.
• I try to get at least 7 hours of sleep a day.
• I don't have a gym membership instead I enjoy working hard, biking, walking, etc that I can do for free.
• I try to spend time stretching at least 5 times a week.

Insurance

• A couple of years ago we switched from having a partially government subsidized health insurance to instead using Samaritan's Ministries which is a Christian Health Care Sharing program. That ended up saving me over $200 a month and my deductible went from $6,000 to $450 which is quite significant. Though none of us have needed to go to the doctor during the time we have been using it (praise God!) and so I can't give you first hand account of how well it actually works I have heard from others that it does work well when you have a need. I know that personally I really, really enjoy getting to send my monthly checks (11 months of the year I send them directly to another believer who has a medical expense) to someone whom I can learn a little about and pray for as well. If you should decide to check them out and join would you please say that Abbi Cobb referred you? That will take a little off my expense for the next month if you do.
• Really sit down and talk with your insurance agent and make sure that you have the coverage you actually need and want. I was able to get rid of some redundant coverage this year that saved me $34 a month. Not a lot but over time it adds up.

Laundry

• I make our own laundry soap
• I don't use either fabric softener or dryer sheets. (This not only saves me money but has made it so I have less headaches as well - I used to love the smell but after removing most unnatural scents from my life I have less headaches - I never knew that they were associated before.)

Personal Products

• I only use shampoo about once a week (I do shower daily but I have found it is better for my scalp, hair and pocketbook to shampoo less). I did have to get to that gradually but your body will stop producing so much grease if you don't strip the oils so often.
• I use a menstrual cup.
• I buy toilet paper in bulk from a local paper supply company.
• I make my own deodorant most of the time (and I like it better than what I have bought when I run out of time to make it).
• I make my own lotion bars. 

Phone

• I use a tracphone instead of having a plan I have to pay for every month. That has worked pretty well for me. I spend around $150 a year for having a smart phone.

Those are a few of the things that I do to save money. I would love to hear what you do to live frugally!

The Fruit of the Spirit is.......Faithfulness

Faithfulness is a trait that has long been very important to me. It is one of God's characteristics that I find myself most often thanking Him for. Though I love adventure and trying new things, having stability and knowing there are things that I can rely on give me incredible peace. Though I have found that people aren't always faithful - God is. 

    To be faithful you are committed to someone or something. You are honest and trustworthy. A faithful person doesn't leave when something gets hard. I have been blessed to have many faithful people in my life as well as a faithful God. As humans we are never perfectly faithful like God is but with the Holy Spirit working in us we can do our best. 

     "It is a trustworthy statement:

For if we died with Him,

we will also live with Him;

If we endure

we will also reign with Him;

If we deny Him,

He also will deny us;

If we are faithless,

He remains faithful,

for He cannot deny Himself."

2 Timothy 2:11-13

    I remember years ago (before adulthood I am pretty sure) this scripture just stopping me in my tracks. Today it makes me emotional just reading it.  God cannot be unfaithful, to do so would be to deny who He is and He won't/can't do that. So no matter what happens in life - I have a faithful, unchanging God who loves me! I really think we need to grasp hold of that so that we can realize what the Holy Spirit can do in us as well if we let Him. By the gift of the Holy Spirit we can be faithful - committed - not wavering.

    We are called to be faithful to the Lord.  Revelation 2:10 says "Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." This being faithful is not something to be taken lightly. God calls us to be faithful even through extreme trials and suffering.

    We are called to be faithful in our work for God. Though this verse doesn't use the word "faithful" it describes it pretty well: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 15:58. In 2 Timothy 2:2 & 3 we see Paul telling Timothy "The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Faithful men (and women) are the ones that are needed to teach others the good news. In that faithfulness we will at times be asked to suffer hardship. Are you willing? Do you remember the parable of the Talents in Matthew 25? Both men who did something with the talents given to them and gained more were commended because of their faithfulness. Do you want to hear " Well done, good and faithful servant!" someday? I do. 

    We should also be faithful in our marriages, our friendships and our jobs - truly whatever we have committed to doing. Proverbs 28:20 says "A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished". 

" I will sing of the lovingkindness of the Lord forever;

To all generations I will make known your

faithfulness with my mouth."

Psalms 89:1