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Well....I'm starting a new personal journey that is going to require me to do A LOT OF WORK! While I haven't been staying on-task with my running (wow, big surprise), I think finding Financial Peace is going to be so much harder than any half or whole marathon. However ironically, a quote that Dave Ramsey uses is "Saving is a marathon, not a sprint."
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Hope House is offering a 13 week class to better educate our staff and families about finances. We're using Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and the teachers of Hope House are the "guinea pigs" before presenting to the clients. There are several steps that are used, in the correct order, that will bring financial freedom for anyone no matter what income level.
I already know that my biggest obstacle is going to be...wait for it...its gonna shock you... DISCIPLINE. Yeah buddy. The first step of the program (seriously, there should be 12!!) is to save $1000 for an emergency fund as quickly as possible. Did I mention THAT I'M BROKE?!?! (hence the program, of course.) Did I mention this was going to take discipline? Did I mention this was going to take some serious work? I did? Well then I must be trying to convince myself. I know the sacrifices I will have to make and I know that I am gonna have to be truly and brutally honest with myself and only I am accountable for my failure or my success.
I also wanted to point out that our first class was on "Fat Tuesday" and as a non-practicing Catholic, I can't help but wonder if I just created my Lent project. The class is 91 days and Lent is 40, so I think I will look at it as giving up spending for the first 40 days of Lent, I mean class. So my goal will be any money intended to spend on eating out will go into my emergency fund. There...I said it out loud!
~No, Libilibis I cannot go to lunch. No Libilibis I cannot go to lunch. Well, Libilibis...(Dear Lord, please give me strength!) =)
I have a very long road ahead of me with a few tough truths and owning of mistakes that I need to take care of to clear my path to a road to financial/personal peace and freedom. I also believe that this will be a task that will reconnect my spirituality as well, a part of me I lost thru my adult years.
Dave Ramsey refers to his steps as Baby Steps...and so I begin, one small step at a time. Now, to work on that running schedule again. (Dear Lord, please give me strength!)
By the way, for more info about Dave Ramsey's FPU, click on his name. I will also add it to my link list.
I hope everyone had a warm and romantic Valentine's Day. I had fun creating and receiving a few happies myself. My valentine and I made the most of the weekend even though he had thrown his back out and I ended up with a bad cold. I was also able to share the love with my aunt by dipping these gigantic strawberries in chocolate and adding a dab of love who then shared them with her sweetie and friends.
Now here it is President's Day, I'm off work and curled up nursing said cold. I think tomorrow I will incorporate a dip in a vat of sanitizer into my curriculum. Now that's sharing the love, right?
We got for really real snow! 4" of pure fun packing white stuff. And since I don't have any 2 legged children, I took lots of pictures of my 4 legged ones. They had so much fun chasing snowballs, eating snow, and finding treats in the "Dirty Ol' Snowman". Of course, I had lots of fun too. I haven't made a snowman in sooo long. This makes our third snow day in four weeks. I LOVE being a teacher.
Well, it wasn't really a snow day, more like an icy mess...but a day off none the less. This is our second "Snow Day" and its rare here in Memphis much less to have two in the same month.
Our first one was a complete bust when we barely got a dusting of snow. But funny thing about that was they closed the schools the next day because it was simply too cold not because of road conditions. Then, "White Death 2010" came two weeks later. For two years in a row, we have gotten a slippery mess of this stuff just after my birthday and I get the benefit of enjoying a few more days off. This time, it was not horrible but enough to cripple this poorly equipped town that almost kept us in. (When one has a 4x4, one tends to want to "play in the snow".)
Speaking of my birthday, Michael and his family gave me a new digital camera. There is a long and funny story as to why this is so auspicious (I'll save that for another post) and I thought this was a great opportunity to check out what the camera can do. The pictures at the top were taken the day after all the sleet/rain/snow descended upon us and just before it started melting. Not too bad for a little point-n-shoot. When I grow up, I hope to have my own DSLR to play with.
I do hope everyone else has survived their winter storms and are getting ready for the spring. Now that I have a new digicam, I'll find all kinds of things to post!!
In honor of Akili, the newest addition at the Memphis Zoo born January 28th, I wanted to share my giraffe experience with y'all. This was taken about 18 months ago. Having a chance to meet such a majestic family was one of the greatest moments of my life.
