Sunday

'Tis the season!!

We are enjoying this advent season!!

Thursday

The girls will play!!

We have been

Making the most of these beautiful Fall days!

Dreaming

I love color. Especially the color of a newly painted room with crisp, white border. I'm already dreaming about the color scheme of our new home. We are on a budget so no new furniture here. We're going to have to match the walls to what we already own. Something else that is important to me is that the house has a sense of flow to it. While I love bright, bold colors I don't want each room to feel like a separate, cut off space.

One of my favorite bloggers, The Nester has a knack for choosing color. The colors in her home would match perfectly with our living room furniture.








This is the color in her bedroom, which I love!



Ryan says I tend to get the cart before the horse. And he's probably right! Ha! I know a lot can happen before we close on this house, but I can't help but dream!

Sunday

Plans

I don't think I've ever mentioned this on my blog before, but I am a Pampered Chef consultant. With all the moving we've done in the past 4 year, I have let it sit on the back burner. As a family we have decided to tighten the reigns on our budget in an effort to pay off our student loans early. We are so grateful to have been blessed enough to attend an amazing university, but wish we could have done so without taking out so many loans. Here's to wishing I had heard of Dave Ramsey before my college years!!

Well there's no use in wishin!! I am a planner. So if I see something that needs done, I feel better if I have a solid plan in front of me. This past month we have been praying for God to provide us with a way to get our student loans paid down. We felt very convicted that the money would not be handed to us, but we would be working hard for every penny! So here comes the plan, well actually, the three part plan.

1. I teach voice lessons and my husband has the capability of teaching guitar or piano lessons. I have committed to teaching 20 voice lessons a week (only ten hours of actual time) and he has committed to 10 (only five hours of actual time). This would allow us to put a large chunk of change onto our student loans. Yikes! I'm praising God for this idea, because it is definitely the biggest way we will be able to save.

2. We just had our offer accepted on a beautiful duplex in Northumberland. By living in half and renting out the other we will be able to save on expenses and save between 2 and 3 thousand a year.




3. I have also decided to start up my Pampered Chef business again. I will most likely only do 2-3 shows a month but every little bit helps right?

So our plan is in action, and my first order of business is to put my first book order in by the end of the month. Any takers? You can look at PC's website and let me know if you want me to add an order for you.

This is on my wishlist!


Thanks for your support!!

Thursday

Thankful Thursday

Thanking God for-

-a group of girls I can go to for laughs, Truth, understanding, and fun

-the promise of warmer weather, even with all of this rain

-the God given strength to continue with my healthy eating plan

-an amazing week with my incredible sister. She is such a blessing to me, plus my kids LOVE her!

-a husband who is hardworking and passionate about what he does

I want to encourage you to think of the things you are thankful for today. It is so easy to dwell in the negative. I have found that one complaint breeds another and before I know it I've got myself in a nasty mood. The more I surround myself with uplifting thoughts the more joyful I feel. So today I encourage you to extinguish the negative by voicing the positive!