Light At The End of The Tunnel

Sometimes life seems hopeless or heartbreaking, but then you run into the right person or read some encouraging words. I recently felt down and read Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks. I never realized how much heartache that man had went through in his life and it is truly an inspiring story. It really made me understand why his books are so different and why they do not have a happy ending. They are more like life and how it is full of joy, but also that good & bad things happen to everyone. I also just watched the movie, Do You Believe? It really gets you thinking. I'm a Christian, but this movie challenges us all to not just to be a Christian, but show that you are with actions. We aren't just to read the word, we are to live the word and reach out to the lost. Our church service this morning was the same lesson, so I think GOD was trying to tell us something :) We are listening; message received. I can remember when I first became a Christian, how I was so on fire and telling everyone about Jesus. Somewhere along the line, I lost that zest and I want it back! I am rededicating my life to Christ and praying that we dig our way out financially. I would like to help the youth that I work with. When I see that they do not have a hat, gloves, socks, coat, etc. I would like to buy them for them. GOD hears our prayers and listens, we just have to believe.

Out With The Old, In With The New

2015 was a rough year for my family financially. We've made mistakes and our debts outweigh our income. We've placed our home for sale with no luck so far & it's been for sale a year now. I have hope & we have always made it through even when it looks bad. I recently paid off our two smaller debts to the dentist and eye doctor. We have cut back on our cable & phone. Yesterday we switched to a different cell phone provider to save money. We spent a lot less money on Christmas this year and even then I used mostly money from surveys and reward sites to pay for it. Our meals are usually Spam, ravioli, spaghettios, egg salad, grilled cheese, peanut butter and jelly, ramen noodles, eggs, toast, etc. I've cut our grocery bill down a lot. It's going to be ok. For family fun we recently dug out our Super Nintendo and have been having Mario Cart races LOL It is so addicting! This year is going to be better! For extra money we have been listing various items around the house for sale. There's two advantages to this; the first is it's less we have to pack and the other is money. I also enter a lot of sweepstakes. My best wins for 2015 was an Ipad mini and a Yeti cooler. On a positive note, sometimes we use AMC stubs rewards and gift cards I receive from doing surveys to go to the movies. We absolutely loved the cartoon "Peanuts". I love all of the Charlie Brown specials and this ranks right up there with them. It also has good moral themes in it. This year I'm all about letting go of clutter and stress. Today I made sure I hugged my boys & husband, pet all of the dogs, cleaned out my purse & car, I pinned future vacation plans on Pinterest, and cleaned a box out in the garage; part of it I threw away in the dumpster and part of it I used as a firestarter in our fireplace. I also take daily walks with my dogs and absorb the beautiful nature that surrounds us, lose myself in a good Hallmark movie, and I love to lose myself in a good book. Two books that I recently read, I would highly recommend; "Heaven is For Real" by Todd Burpo & "At First Sight" by Nicholas Sparks. I don't want to give any spoilers, but they both have good themes and gave me things to think about. I highly recommend the Game of Thrones books and Dunk & Egg novels by George RR Martin to anyone who loves to read. They are very well written, very imaginative, you fall in love with characters that you really want to hate, & you'll be rooting for your favorites to win the Game of Thrones. Also if you can watch the series on HBO. We let HBO go after the series ended because it was the only thing we watched on there. Have any of you seen "Galavant"? It is so funny! I love musicals and comedy!