Monday

Sometimes evaluating your life on Monday can look a lot like this:

Time

This is an average, weekly guess. I spend…

35 hrs of sleep

30 to 35 hrs at work

25 to 30 quality hrs w/ my family

10 to 15 hrs working on church stuff

5 hrs of lesson planning and grading

4 hrs watching tv

3 hrs on Jesus time (prayer, scripture, small group time)

…something’s wrong here

4 Days in to November

4 Days in to November, and Bethany and I are already considering cancelling television to enhance our finance situation. We have been diligent w/ saving our savings account money and sticking to our budget, but we want to go further.

Bethany really thinks that spending 115 on food a week is a bit much for a family of 3 (and the kid doesn’t even eat that much…). She has been working hard w/ sales, coupons, and using what’s in the pantry.

Last night, Bethany asked me about getting rid of the cable. With taking away cable and tivo, we’d be saving about 60 something bucks a month. All of our shows are on the internet… and when the TV is on randomly, it’s on HGTV for some home improvement show… we’d be missing nothing special.

So… we need to have further discussion about taking away the TV… What do you suggest? Have you survived w/out television for a long period of time? Thoughts and feedback are welcomed!

Safe House

Last night, I went w/ the other ministers from Sandals to Operation Safe House; a local teen shelter for run-aways, homeless, and conflicted kids. In all honestly, I wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of going over and spending my evening w/ teenagers. I do it all day long at work and wanted a night w/ my peers and friends.

When we got to the house, there were 8 kids… all between the ages of 11 and 17. The majority of the 8 were about 13, 14, and 15…We took a tour of the facility and then sat down to play pictionary. They were pretty excited to have some other form of entertainment for the night… these kids are on a strict daily schedule and can’t even leave the house, so having some form of alternative excitement was well received.As the night continued, I had a conversation w/ 2 young girls… both in high school and both kicked out of their house by their parents. Not something that I was expecting to hear… I had a preconceived notion that they would have run away from home, making a bad decision for themselves… yet it was the opposite. They had been pushed out of their home for one reason or another. Anyway… it broke my heart because they kids were so nice, polite, and thoughtful… much more well behaved than my students.As we concluded the night, I asked one girl what movies or books she liked… and (of course), like a natural teenage girl, her response was Twilight. She really enjoyed the movie, but hadn’t read the book… So, I told her that she could have my copy… I’m not going to read it again. This afternoon, I’ll be dropping the book off and probably saying, “Go Team Edward.”… I know the book will not be able to solve her family problems or find a permanent housing situation, but at least she will know that someone took the time to love on her.If you haven’t had the chance to visit Operation Safe House, click and find out more.

October Money

I haven’t posted about our finances since the beginning of October. Things really haven’t changed…. especially since the spending of money can’t change according to the income of money.

Our goals for October were to stick w/ 10 bucks a week for allowance, 115 a week for food (in and out of the house eating), and don’t take any money from the savings… well… we almost accomplished these goals. The month of October wasn’t horrible… nor was it perfect. We kept to our food and allowance budget… Bethany and I have both decided to cut off Starbucks completely because our beverages cost almost 5 bucks each. That’s just ridiculous… only on special occasions will we be purchasing coffee. We did pull some money out of savings this month for 3 reasons… 1. We bought Delaney some new winter clothing (a must, if you ask me). 2. We needed a date night. Bethany and I hadn’t been on a date since August. 3. I think we also purchased one or two Christmas gifts in there as well.All in all, it wasn’t a bad month. I know that I have been covering classes on my prep period to help bring in a couple extra bucks… nothing substantial, but it’ll help overall. November should be interesting… same rules apply! I’ll let you know how it goes.