Proverbs 2:1-2

I LOVE this pic with the verse. Til next time ....

Help! I was kidnapped by little green martians ....

....oh, so you don't believe that. Well, the truth is alot more boring and mundane. Sure you don't want to go with the little green men story? No? ok, but I warned you. The more boring reason the blog has been quiet is life got busy, and blogging kept sinking lower and lower on the to-do list. There were times when I thought about posting but had trouble even figuring out what to talk about. But I used my blogroll to keep up with reading others blogs. Then even that trickled away to nothing. I think I got bored with blogging and reading blogs or maybe I simply lost interest in that way of communicating on the web. Weird, huh?

Of course, part of it might have been the fact that my mom gave me her old iPad when she upgraded. Now I had a bright shiny toy to play around with. I fell in love with all the apps out there and exploring all that you can do with them. An iPad isn't the best way to surf the web, so I never got on my blog or others with my iPad and it became practicallly all I used. We also found that my son who has Angelman's syndrome took to the iPad like any fish in or out of water. He LOVED it, and was able to utilize it. He found youtube videos about dinosaurs faster than the speed of light. So with the extra money I had been saving up for a new laptop I bought myself a new iPad instead and gave Josiah the hand me down. So now we are 2 peas in a pod hunkered down over our iPads enjoying apple technology. One thing I've really enjoyed doing is taking photos with my iPad. It has a great camera and I love how I can immediately see in full screen mode what I'm shooting. I have found a half dozen apps besides instagram to tweak said photos and post on facebook and twitter. I had let my picture taking days slide as it was such a hassle to upload the photos onto my computer and then mess around with them. Now its a breeze.

To be fair tho, there were other factors. Pinterest comes to mind. Boy, is that an addictive sight. I love it! And I don't just pin items, I go back and use those pins. I've made some great recipes from it, tried some cleaning and organizing tips, found a few new hairstyles to experiment with along with new nail polish colors and tricks. Everything a girl could want. At the beginning of the year, I also quit playing a silly online game that had taken up alot of my time and made it a priority to get into the Word daily. That was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I found a rhythm that works for me: reading a passage and writing down my thoughts about what it is saying to me, then writing out my prayer requests for family and friends and finishing with prayer. I got so hooked on it that I was even able to continue with it thru the summer when the Joe-boy was home. I just made sure I got up before he did and had my time of quiet then. The goal of having a consistent quiet time had been on my heart for quite some time. I'm glad I finally gave it priority in my life. If you have been pondering the idea of pursuing a more deliberate time in the Word and prayer, I would wholeheartedly encourage you to go for it! You'll be so glad you did. Just in the last couple weeks I've added praying for countries around the world. I'm using the book "Operation World" to guide me as I pray. The book is split up into 365 days for the year to pray over a different country. It gives you an overview of the country as well as specific prayer needs for the people and the pastors and workers in the country.

And lastly, I've been doing more walking. My doc wants me to walk daily, but I usually get in a 30 min walk 3x a week. We had a lovely fall this year and walking gave me an opportunity for some great photo shoots.

So that's my boring life. How has your year gone? Been abducted by aliens? Til next time ....

Think About Such Things

What Are You Thinking About These Days?



Til next time ....

Cash Envelopes Update

Back in September I wrote about how I started back with the Cash Envelope System. I loved getting back into the cash routine, and 5 months later I still love it!

The categories I use for my cash envelopes are:

~~Groceries
~~Eating Out & Entertainment
~~Gasolene and Bridge Tickets
~~Household Needs
~~Babysitting $$
~~Gifts
~~Haircuts, pedicures, other personal stuff
~~Allowance $$ for the Hubster and I (We give ourselves an allowance to use for whatever we want, no questions asked and no need to keep a record)
~~Clothing Fund

For you, there might be other categories you would include or exclude. It's great that you can customize it to your needs.

When I started using cash again, I also started using a budget sheet every two weeks. Because we get paid every two weeks. I budget how much I'm going to put in my envelopes for each category for that two week pay period, making sure that I have more money than bills. At the beginning, there was a bit of guessing going on, but as we've lived this out the last few months, we've found a rhythm to how much we need for each cash category. I've been able to trim our gas fund and grocery fund a bit whereas our gift fund went up significantly over the holidays.

Now going into 2012, I have a better sense how much to save in my envelopes for those longer term funds like gifts, vacations, household needs (like a new club chair) as well as those funds that are spent every month like groceries, gasolene and eating out.

As I was talking about this with my husband the other day, I realized that what I really love about this system is just how much I feel in control of our outgo now. I like seeing it on paper and seeing the cash in the envelopes. I like knowing that there are cash funds that are building up over several months to purchase bigger items that are on our wish lists and not getting spent on frivolous items we dont' really want or need. I guess what I like is it keeps me disciplined and on target, both shortterm and longterm.

For those of you who are interested, here are a couple websites where you can print out or make your own envelopes. The first one is the one I use, but check out the ones that look interesting to you. #1 paper envelopes, #2 a fabric wallet #3 another fabric envelope And let me know if you're on the Cash Envelope bandwagon.

Til Next Time ...

Currently ....

I did this back in October and had so much fun with it that I thought I'd do it again. Want to join along? Just copy and paste the questions and answer them on your blog. I'd love to see what you are currently up to.

Current Books: Finishing up the Hunger Games trilogy. I'm on the last book 'Mockingjay'. Its riveting. Have a couple on the nightstand ready to go when I finish this one that look good: The Life Ready Woman, and PrayFit. Don't those sound like interesting titles?

Current Playlist: Adele. Got her cd for Christmas. she's got an amazing voice.

Current Color: Red, red, red! I love red

Current Drink: Coffee with Peppermint coffee creamer--yumm!

Current Food: none right now, kind of overloaded from the holidays. enjoying simple fair after the indulgences of late.

Current Wishlist: a comfy chair for our living room. have my eye on one from cost plus world market.

Current Needs: a haircut! and color!!

Current Triumph: I'm really happy that I got back into a regular devotion schedule instead of hit and miss. Its been wonderful to have some quiet time with the Lord each morning.

Current Bane of my Existence: the 6:30 alarm! I AM NOT a morning person, but the world seems to be. Why can't school start at 10am instead of 8am? huh? why? is there any earthly reason not to let us night owls get some much needed rest? huh? sigh .... I know I'll never change this world, but if I could .....

Current Indulgence: a nap! see above ...

Current Mood: sleepy! (not really). Happy, content.

Current #1 Blessing: Being at peace.

Current Outfit: Jeans, long sleeve black t-shirt, purple jersey knit swing jacket/cardigan? I love it.

Current Excitement: Plans to visit my sister in Denver this spring.


So how 'bout you? What are your 'currents'?

Welcome 2012

(courtesy of Lori from Fresh Picked Whimsey)