Thank God Friday! - Press On!

It's Thank God Friday and it's actually Friday and I'm actually blogging!

I'm thankful for that.

Whew. Done for the week!

:0)

I seem to be writing about Turkey Bottom Haven and the Great Shelf Explosion in every post.  I'm sure that the rest of you are getting pretty sick of it.  But, I tell you what... too bad! ;)

This week we were on a mission to complete 6 shelves (4 small and 2 VERY large ones).  The most we had completed before in a week was 4 ... 2 large and 2 small.  Last week we only did 2 large ones.  It was not an easy task and to be quite honest it wasn't always easy.  We have 2 more to complete when Ben gets home tonight, but for the most part they're done.

I spent a lot, and by a lot, I mean no less than 6-8 hours a day, in the dungeon that is our workshop.  My fingernails are chewed up and dyed with stain and paint.  I haven't brushed my hair since sometime last week.  We still managed to have 4 days of school this week... though we did spend our read aloud time in the dungeon.

By Wednesday I was positive that we were getting no where and that I would die in the dungeon.  I had a huge meltdown. IT.WAS.NOT.PRETTY.  But, if you live in a dungeon, no one expects you to be pretty. ;)

I wanted to quit.

I kept hearing my friend, Dave Ramsey, saying, “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.”

I think I might make myself a sign that says that.  A nice sign made out of scratch paper and marker.  Nothing that would require paint.  I'm sick of paint.  :)  You know what, that's a great idea.  I'm going to do that right now.

But the thing about dungeons is that if you keep working eventually you make your way up into the castle.  In my reality the castle isn't an drafty ancient sign of wealth ... but instead it's a picture of my freedom. 

Now, don't get me wrong.  I love our shelves.  Hotsauce and I make an awesome team!  We have a good time working together.  We compliment each other in ways that only God could design.  I just get overwhelmed from time to time.  I'm reminded though that handcrafted items take time.  They are special because they didn't come off an assembly line in China.

And just in case you missed this guy you have to see my new favorite shelf...

He's still done in the dungeon... but he'll be breaking out soon!  Seriously that keyhole and lock are so amazing.

I keep calling him the gorgeous black guy that lives in my basement.  I think Hotsauce is getting a little jealous! ;)

We will keep plugging away in the dungeon working towards our financial freedom all the while making wonderful items!

Press on friends!

Dear Winter, I hate you. Sincerely, Me.

It is a balmy 0 degrees out today with a wind chill of -20ish.  Holy frozen snot Batman! Welcome to the Tundra formerly known as Iowa!  The good news is that we should have some cloud cover tonight which will warm things up to around 29 degrees on the positive side in the next few days.

Heat wave!! ;)

I despise winter.  It makes me sad.  Seriously, I think I smile less in the winter.  We have neighbors who call the cops to come and check on us to see if we're still alive because they only see Hotsauce leaving the house to go to work. 

OK, that's not entirely true. 

But, our neighbors to the east did ask our neighbors to the west if we had moved because they never see the kids outside playing anymore.  My neighbor replied, "It's winter, they never come out in the winter!"

Here's the thing.  Every year winter comes to Iowa.  Some years are worse than others.  Winter 2011/2012 was wonderful.  Do.not.tell.the.farmers.I.said.that.  There was very little snow and really quite warm.  I loved it.  But, history tells us that every year winter comes and every year I will whine and complain. 

I have lived in Iowa my entire life.  I have moved more times than I would have liked, but always in Eastern Iowa and never more than an hour and a half from where I grew up.  I expect to live in the town that I'm in (or a short distant from town) the rest of my life... and every winter I will complain for the rest of my life. 

So what does this have to do with our financial journey?  Before we read Dave Ramsey's "The Total Money Makeover" every year we would go further into debt.  Every year we would complain and think that perhaps in a few years when Hotsauce was making more money, or when the kids grew up, or even when we win the lottery, things will change. 

Things never changed.  Except that we slipped further and further into debt.  Some times weren't as bad as other times, but things were never really good.  We grew frustrated with ourselves, with each other and at times with God.  We prayed for blessings. Would God ever answer our prayers??

We all know the saying that if you feed a man a fish he will eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish he will eat for a lifetime.  So God took us fishing.  He made us bait our own hook.  He taught us to be patient instead of impulsive.  He taught us about ourselves and each other.  He used Dave Ramsey's teachings to change our lives.

He brought our financial winter into the hope for a financial spring... and someday perhaps a financial summer!!!! 

Oh, how I long for summer!

What a crock... pot!?

I received a text from my friend, Danielle, today asking: "I haven't checked the blog for awhile, but was wondering how your snowball is coming?"

Photo by Kamshots

I laughed to myself a bit and thought, "You could check the blog, but it wouldn't do you much good! I've almost completely fallen off the blogging wagon!"

What I actually replied was, "It's melting every week!"

I just wish that it was a smaller snowball or melting faster... maybe there should be a January thaw for my debt snowball?  The good news is that it's melting and not growing, so that's good news!


I am reminded that Dave Ramsey likens this journey to cooking a meal in a Crock-Pot vs. cooking a meal in a microwave.  It takes time and isn't a get rich quick kind of journey!  Shootfire!  I'd really like it to be the other way around!

It seems as though building a business is also more of a Crock-Pot journey!  Turkey Bottom Haven is growing in "likes" weekly.  January has the potential to be one of our best months.  We are crazy busy, but we are constantly pouring our "blow fund" into it.  We have a lot of money wrapped up into 2 projects ... one that isn't quite finished yet and another that doesn't seem to be going any where fast!

It's hard not to grow frustrated in the process.  Especially since there are some definite highlights!  For instance, we only had time to make 2 shelves last week.  We dropped them off at The Pickin' Shed on Saturday.  Before we made it back home one of them had already sold! That truly was an answer to prayer!

How are your snowballs coming?  Is your debt growing or melting?  Anyone have a story to share with us?  Any frustrations?

I am a Mama first...

Let me tell you what...
I.am.tired.

My gazelle intensity is fading a bit.  I have not been making wise decisions with my "bedtime" and I am feeling it today.

We are in the process of making 2 more shelves.  They are made out of antique doors.  I love them.  But, they can be a pain in the rear end sometimes.  All of the doors that we use have been removed from old homes.  All of them also have layer upon layer of paint.

Old houses typically have lead paint.  Lead paint can poison people. Poisoning people is probably bad for business.  Not to mention against everything that I personally believe in.

So I've spent hours ... lots of them ... scraping paint off doors and prepping them to be safely used for shelves.  Hotsauce and S.O.S. have also logged some scraping time as well.

After they are prepped I prime them. Then I paint them with a base color.  Then I paint them again with a different color.  Then I paint them with a top coat.  When that's done I sand them.  Then I apply a glaze.  More sanding.  More glaze. 

When this is done Hotsauce puts them all together.  When he's done I do touch ups ... you know, sanding, painting, sanding, glaze, the usual.  And finally I apply a clear coat.

This may sound pretty systematic and it usually is... but in the midst of these going ons I also have been doing spelling tests, listening to memory verses, answering questions about missing undies, breaking up fights and reminding myself that no matter how tired and overwhelmed that I am ... I am a Mama first, Master Shelf Painter second.

Some days I don't want to be a Mama first.  I would rather paint and lose myself in the thing that I enjoy most - making something beautiful and praying that it will bring great joy to its owner.

And then it hits me... the time that I invest in my Turkeys it will make them beautiful and they will bring joy to the One to whom they belong.  And when my priorities are right, I too become more beautiful and bring joy to the One to whom I belong.

No matter what journey you find yourself on, whether you're trying to honor God with your finances, or just trying to make it through the day, or whatever your lot, I would encourage you to balance your priorities.

Make first things first.  The rest will fall into place!

Shelves are flying off the shelves!

Oh.my.word.
I'm seriously doing a happy dance.  Hotsauce is too.  He's just doing it in my mind! ;)

As I said last week Turkey Bottom Haven has expanded its business and is now selling shelves and a few miscellaneous items at The Pickin' Shed (you should check it out on Facebook).  Well, I believe that we had a successful weekend!  We have one shelf on hand as an example and then brought in four shelves to actually sell on Friday afternoon.

We sold one on Friday.
Yes!

We sold another one on Saturday.
Oh ya baby!

We sold another one on Sunday.
Shut the front door!

We almost sold out in our first weekend!  I was so nervous about them selling that on Friday night I woke up in the middle of the night and started praying.  I probably woke up three or four times and prayed that God would have them sell.  He came through!

This was one of my favorite ones!  She already sold, but we will spend this week making more and restocking the shelves at The Pickin' Shed!

What do you think of her?  Tell me you're in love.

We are also planning on making some with hooks this week.  And we have plans for another style of shelves that will blow your socks off!





I'm still doing a happy dance!

Never forget those eyes...

I've been going through a bit of a blogger blah.  I have several posts that I have started and for what ever reason I haven't been able to finish.  Perhaps a little bit of the winter blues?

Part of the reason is that we are in the midst of Baby Step #2 and while we are plugging away at our debt snowball I don't really feel like we are accomplishing much ... or what we are accomplishing doesn't deserve a blog shout out.

I think God is reminding me that even in the slow and steady parts of life that something is happening.  This whole process will take several years.  We often dream of the day when we will be free to bless others with our money.

And that is a blessing that we felt last night.

I just finished writing about how our business, Turkey Bottom Haven, is expanding.  Well, part of expanding our business is needing materials to build our shelves.  In order for our budget to work we have to use our blow money and Christmas money to buy materials.  We are more than willing to do that, though we anxiously await the day when we start selling them so we can have our pocket money back!! :)

Last night we headed to Independence to go to the lumber yard.  We bought the extra lumber we needed and headed to Walmart for paint.  Of course while we were at Walmart we thought of several other items that we needed.  So into the cart went 5 gallons of milk, 3 lbs of butter, shampoo, conditioner, chicken breasts, cheese and so on and so on.  Why does this always happen when you walk into that store?

The paint was coming out of my blow fund.  So I paid for it first.  While standing in line the lady behind us kept making eye contact with us and smiling.  I noticed that she kept her eye on the kids, who were patiently sitting on the salt bags waiting for us.  As the groceries were totaled up I started going through my "food" envelope to pull the money out and noticed that the smiley lady was pushing her cart closer and closer to us.  I thought she was getting overly anxious for us to finish up our transaction and get out of her way.

Turns out she had another plan.

She whispered to the cashier that she would like to pay for our groceries.  Hotsauce and I were preoccupied and didn't hear what she had said.  I looked at the cashier waiting for him to tell me the total and he looked at me and stuttered, "Um, she, she, she, shhhheeee, waaa...."

To which, I scrunched up my forehead and stared at him.

So he started motioning to the lady behind me.  And in a very shy manner she said, "I would like to pay for your groceries."

I didn't know what to do.  This doesn't happen to us.  My face immediately turned red.  I could feel it starting in my neck and crawl up my face.  It was pure emotion.  I look at Hotsauce to see what I should do next and he looks at the lady and says, "Thank you."

Hmmmm.  Why didn't I think of that?  He's so profound sometimes.

She replies, "You're welcome.  You have a very nice little family." And she smiles a wonderful smile that comes out of her eyes.


And I'm blessed.  More by a smile that comes out of her eyes... or perhaps her heart? ... then I am by her actually paying for our groceries.

As we wrangle up the turkeys Hotsauce adds, "God bless you and thanks again."

I pray that God will bless that smiley lady.  I know He blessed us.  I also pray that I never forget her eyes and I pray that God will give me those eyes some day.

Thank God Sunday?

Let's pretend that it's Friday. 
Wouldn't it be great if it really was Friday night instead of Sunday night? 

Three people have asked me why I didn't post Thank God Friday ... so I know that I must be in high demand.  Of course, those three people were my husband, my mom and my friend that lives in my house.  Seriously, I.AM.BIG.TIME!

This one is pretty exciting.  At least it is for me! 

Turkey Bottom Haven is the beginning of a dream for me.  I would love to turn our small online shop into something bigger.  I would love to go into business with Hotsauce and open our own store.  And make millions.  Or enough to make a solid income.

We are a long way from that.  But, every day I pray that God will bless Turkey Bottom Haven.  I pray that it would be a blessing to our family and a huge help on our debt free journey.  I have developed a friendship with Emily from The Pickin' Shed and on Saturday Hotsauce and I made the journey to see her shop.

It was exactly how I pictured it.  A glimpse at my own dream.  I'm pretty sure she's making millions right in the middle of Coggon, Iowa.  It's a pretty much a metropolis... so it could happen. 

While talking with Emily we developed a plan to consign a few of the shelves that we (and by we I mean Hotsauce) are building. 

Here's a look at it:

I know, she's a pretty girl!  She's going to be available in a couple of different colors. 

And so our dream is building.  Our business is expanding.  Our debt is shrinking. 

Our God is good.  Oh, so good to us.  We are thankful and looking forward to where He's taking us!