Fourth Time's A Charm!

We started our fourth Financial Peace University session last night, with our biggest group yet.. probably almost 30 folks! This time the class meets in the computer lab at Tyner Middle Academy (which is also our new building for Sunday services, held in the cafeteria of the school), so everyone is getting used to setting up in a different space.

The start of a new class and meeting new people is always very interesting and exciting to me. This may sound weird, but I like the dynamic of people coming in not really knowing what to expect, and often being skeptical that this material can actually help their personal situation, later to find a much different opinion as they really dig into the material.

During the video section, Dave Ramsey talks about the first "baby step", which is getting $1,000 in the bank as soon as possible to establish your emergency fund. When he said "Baby step one is the easiest step, and it's the hardest step. It's the easiest because it's only $1,000...." and I heard a guy in the back go "psh!" ha. I know how he feels: "$1,000 is a ton of money! There's no way that's happening any time soon!" I'm excited to see how further classes and discussions will change his perception of his ability to do this. Usually learning to budget does the trick pretty easily ;•)

Many people have similar stories to share about their finances, but I'm always very interested to hear everyone's unique perspective. From a high school kid "just trying to keep some gas money" to folks having been through bankruptcy. The range is wide, but there are tidbits of every discussion that are helpful to everyone there.

I'm really excited about people getting excited on their own about this! It's funny - I feel like initially to get them there at all, requires excitement and redundant promotion from myself as a coordinator pumping them up to realize how much they want and need this. It's really fun when doing so turns into a genuine realization of that on their own.

Side note, I love listening to my husband tell our story about getting out of debt. He tells it so passionately, and not without some emotional reaction. It's very touching! I love how much this has come to mean to him, and to me.

The Green Beef

I just did an experiment on Facebook ratting on green living a little. It's funny who and what gets commented on those things, but it is kind of entertaining to ruffle people's feathers.

I'm going to state my real opinion, or rather my "beef" about "Green Living" here, so that my opinion is clear, and not misunderstood. I consistently feel the desire to go on sporadic rants about the things that bother me about this topic.. but they haven't always been well presented in the past. And for some reason I'll feel better if I can well-present it and get rid of it lingering in my mind :•)


Beef #1: This is the biggest thing that upsets me about "living green" : When "Greenies" (hopefully unknowingly) give off an "I'm better than you because I do things the right way and you don't, but you really should because it makes you and everything better" vibe. That vibe is condescending and kind of rude. We all have our ways to live, and this idea is in my opinion a form of prejudice.

Beef #2: Yes the environment needs some help (although I think sometimes people underestimate how powerful nature is in the first place). Yes if we do things to help the environment, it will improve the environment. Eating organic food or putting a wind turbine in your yard isn't going to change the world. It might change your own world some, but isn't that a little selfish?

The scale of what we do is what will actually get things done about it. Yes grouping together may get it done.. but how many Greenies actually combine forces intentionally, go the government or wherever.. and try to actively improve things on a worldwide scale? 

Beef #3: Constantly ratting on all the everyday objects/foods that are going to "kill" us because they're not greenishly safe is like elderly-ailment-complaining for twenty somethings.

Beef #4: Greenies striving to be "green" in every possible aspect of life. *Not Attainable slash Impractical!* How many Greenies own a car? hybrid or otherwise... how many of them use roads to get places? Trees had to be killed to put those roads down, good Lord! Gotta walk or bike I suppose, sucks for those who work 25 miles from home too.. do they make safe rubber bicycle tires? Better make sure. Also for bikers, Share The Road goes both ways.

Beef #5: I wholeheartedly support healthy eating! While I agree that healthy foods should be affordable and available to everyone, I just cannot bring myself to support a struggling-income family paying extra for organic or specialty items. Maybe you can get coupons for these, but often there are cheaper options than that. I also hate when people bash cheap grocery sources for not having healthy foods. Walmart sells organic. They also sell fresh fruits and vegetables that are totally healthy for anyone's consumption.

Also: Chicken, beef, pork and fish are not our "friends". I personally don't eat beef or pork because they tend to be fatty and I just don't prefer them. Here's the Bible: "One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him."

Eating meat in general isn't a bad thing. Even certain processed meats. Maybe if you eat like 10 lbs of it a day, yeah some issues may arise.

Beef #6: "Organic” does not necessarily mean “healthier.” The USDA makes no claim that organically
produced food is safer or more nutritious than conventionally produced food. It's also good to note that everything in moderation is okay. Let your kid have a cupcake on their birthday without worrying about what kind of sugar is in it, for crying out loud.

Melission

A conversation with a friend yesterday reminded me of my college days when I would note how many of my friends had decided to enter the mission field, whether temporarily for a trip or to plan to make it a lifestyle one day. I used to feel like doing a "mission trip" was something I had to do or should do some day, but I never really felt called to it.

Then I learned about finding my "gifts" .. those God-given traits you possess for the purpose of carrying out His plan through your life. I wondered what my gifts could be. I knew I had to find out one day because otherwise I'd feel like I'd be wasting my life without knowing what to do with it. The obvious one was something creative, but I never really found a way to use that to directly and personally connect with people in a spiritual way.

However in the past couple years as Jon and I have been leading the Financial Peace course, I believe I have found my "mission from God" *Blues Brothers voice*. Helping people learn about finances and how to change their life by it - I never thought I'd be into that. I'm not a numbers person! I'm still not incredibly a numbers person. But my faults don't matter. What matters to me (and I think what matters to God, through me) is communicating the truth (about the subject, and essentially about life itself) to people, and helping them realize that changing certain habits is what God wants for them. This is HARD sometimes to reveal to folks, and the hardest to reveal to folks who need it the most! But this is good for my mission. It keeps me having something to work on and be challenged by. Right now in the form of learning how to talk to people about it.

I'm not very comfortable being in front of a huge group of people by myself in a classroom setting, but I've realized that I can help people one on one quite well and quite naturally. I'm pretty excited about this.

It might seem weird helping people come to God through money. That's what it sounds like. But if you open the Book you'll find it's quite an important thing to achieve in life, in God's eyes. If you don't know God or don't want to, you at least have to recognize that being good with money is something desired in life. It's also about living right, communication and doing good for others too.

I've never been one for "Christianese" speak (ie using language that makes you sound like a Bible beater) because I was once (and still am!) quite annoyed by it. I hope that my choice to discuss things not in that manner is a means for me to connect to and help anyone and everyone willing to open their mind to the best things God has for them in life.

Onward, I say.

Snow Me Impressed

I am very, very sad to say that my hand was not involved in making any of these amazing creations.. however some folks over at Southern Adventist University (whose campus we live on the backside of) are incredibly creative and know how to make a stranger smile as they drive by.

I had to go over to the campus today to take some photos.

 Check out this HUGE snow man!! The base has to be 6 or 7 feet wide. It has melted down some since my first contact with it, as did the mini snow man to it's side. The juxtaposition of the 2 snowman sizes next to each other was pretty comical though.

I'm not sure exactly what the creative direction is on this one, but it looks like a cool curving road going up the side of a cliff where a small snowman resides on top, ha! The blocky shapes make it look like an odd modern sculpture of some sort.


And this next one is the coolest most awesome ever !! ...

Someone made an igloo!! A real-life, adult-can-fit-inside igloo!

Here's the doorway looking in and the floor of the inside.. perfectly carved out.. I can only imagine how long and how many folks this took to accomplish...

Here's the view of the inside from the doorway.. you can see the block structure they used, I couldn't quite tell if they used actual blocks or if they mounded the whole thing and carved out he inside and then reinforced the exterior with more snow. AMAZEING. It really is incredibly impressive. And it's big! It could probably sit 5-6 adults inside.

These works make me jealous that I didn't create them, but it makes me happy how it attracts strangers to come discover it, and leaves them driving away with a huge smile on their face like it did to me.
Truly inspiring.

Happy 2 Years!

The best kind of resolution is the one that lasts for more than a week, a month or a year... It's the kind that • changes your life • by consistent application. Here's to our second year of living on a PLAN, working together in commitment toward our goals and never giving up on the resolution we made 2 years ago to get there.

Happy New Year! and to my husband, I love you very much!

Bad Trends

I'm always observing social trends and the affects they have around us. Some trends are incredibly useful, while others... are definitely pointless.

Sometimes people my age do things that I'm not sure I understand. Some of these people are referred to as "hipsters". If you're not quite sure how to identify the hipster style, this chart can help:




Others who may not be hipsters also sometimes enjoy these styles because of their over-infusion into our culture I guess. As all teens and twenty-somethings tend to do, everyone wants a style that makes them stand out. However, partaking in fads makes you blend in! Oh the irony. Anyway, I've picked up on some faddy trends of late. The more I see them the more I wonder how much longer these things will be trends, such as...

Mustaches. Mustaches on everything: jewelry, tshirts, fingers under your nose. Why? I'm really not sure. I don't know that I could wear a mustache necklace and be taken seriously anywhere. It kinda says 'I want to look like I'm in a 1920s barber shop quartet'... and while those are cool, subconsciously mocking it isn't really as cool.

Skinny Jeans. Oh Lord. While these may look alright on rail thin women, they are questionable on men and everyone else... and most of the folks I've seen wearing them in public look like the two above. They can't be comfy! They certainly aren't flattering.

Ugg Boots. Ugg stands for ugly, it's in their name! Everyone and their brudder has a pair of these, typically worn over the bottoms of jeans. I'm not sure why they're so popular, but they do live up to their name.

Ugly Purses. If you glance by the handbag sections of most department stores, you'll find seas of bulky, ugly shoulder bags that look like filled diapers! They seem to be getting bigger and bigger too, and they're always shoulder bags and not slings, which would be killer on one shoulder if you fill it up as it intends.

Duck Face. This moronic expression can be seen ALL OVER Facebook. I'm not sure why this has become trend but it's rather ridiculous. Many people (girls and guys) apparently find that making this face makes them look better or more attractive somehow by pulling the cheeks together and adding an attempted innocence to their glance. It's pretty annoying. "Punch me."



There isn't really a good way to conclude this. Of the people I know who read this blog, none of these things really apply. So I guess it's useful to be aware of these stupid trends for some reason.

Blessings In Code

My boss here at ARS has been asking about Jon working his website coding abilities here every time she brings up needing more developers. I told him she wanted him again last week. They had a phone interview about working freelance, on his own schedule whenever he wants and she hired him over the PHONE! She must really like him. He is quite likable :•)

So he accepted! He may be working in my office or remotely, depending on the project. He starts this Thursday with a half day on a test project so she can assess his mad skills. I'm pretty excited. I think this will be good.