Christmas - part 1

I have so many Christmas pictures to weed through that I'm going to have to give them to you in small stages. So, you may be seeing Christmas pictures well into January. :) I'm actually proud of myself. I only took 197 pictures over the course of the week. That is way less than normal.
One is of Ava making Santa cookies and the others are of my Meme holding Nora. Meme is 87! She looks great! No matter how much green baby food Nora gets, her nose stays orange. Drives me crazy.





Now for a little preaching...

The word less brings me to our families New Year's resolution (Ava and Nora don't have much say in this). Kevin and I are always discussing how we can improve ourselves, our marriage, our parenting, each other, etc... And for the record, we don't try to "change" each other but provide "improvements." Ha! 2008 was the year for strengthening our marriage. We both came to this place where we finally felt that we had fully trusted God and each other to "leave and cleave." "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." Genesis 2:24. Sounds silly but we were both relying on our parents for various things and during the course of the year, we both just stopped and surrendered to each other in our marriage...trusting each other and relying on each other unconditionally. Then we spent 2009 continuing that commitment to each other and our children. During the course of the year, we woke up so to speak about our bad habits and financial pitfalls. Again, we were both on the same page. It's a God thing. So, we have spent the last few months discussing monthly budgets, cutting back on "stuff", and searching for ways to make a difference in our finances. I was led one day at the bookstore to pick up Dave Ramsey's book and that was by no accident. That book has changed our lives! I'm so thrilled to be able to say that as of yesterday, we have paid off our car and all but one credit card balance! We thought it would be so hard and impossible because even though the debt wasn't big, our one income was already all assigned out to various things. But....it can be done!

That synopsis of the last 2 years leads me to 2010. All of the changes we have made over the last few years has made us want to focus even more on needs vs. wants and pay CASH for everything. If we don't have it, we don't get it. Groceries = cash. Emergencies = cash. Vacations = cash. I want my girls to see me pay with cash and not plastic because if we think they aren't paying attention...then we are sorely mistaken. I may not have furniture in our foyer after living here 4 years but who cares! I'd rather be debt free! Those things will come. It's tough, but we thrive on tough. That is when we rely on each other and God's provision even more! I can't wait to see what else 2010 will bring!

Shoo - all that blabbing made me tired.