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!
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!
You are such a beautiful writer Kelly. Maybe you should think about a book!
ReplyDeleteOh, "Anonymous"... maybe some day when the Turkeys are all grown up! Or maybe when I can think of a topic to write a whole book about! Who knows? Thanks for the compliment!
Deletejust start writing....go where it takes you...we will all be waiting!!
ReplyDeleteYou are so kind! And not the first one to tell me this. Perhaps I need to start listening?
Delete