I have one central theme today...

...blessings. I think everyone that reads my journal on a regular basis knows that I am a Christian. If not, then yes, I am a Christian. I don't write about that very much (maybe I should) but I feel like I need to share a few of the blessings (straight from God) in my life right now...

First (and the one thing that is most relevant to the Christianity idea) I want to share about tithing (spell check said that is right even though it looks really funny). If by chance anyone is not aware of what tithing is, it is giving 10% of your income (and I count that before taxes) back to the Lord. I have always been good at this. I was raised to do it, so I naturally did it. My husband, however, wasn't raised to do it. I don't know if his parents actually do it or not (I would guess that they do) but regardless, they didn't teach their children to do it. Anyway, when we first got married, I tithed from my check but not his (even though I handled the money) b/c he wasn't comfortable with it. Well, 2 years ago I made it my New Year's Resolution to tithe 10% of our total income. It was SO hard to part with that money to begin with but WOW! What a difference was made in our lives! At that time, we had approximately $5000 in credit card debt (and of course--nothing to show for it). Some had been carried over from B's life before me, some was from our wedding, and some was from vacations (and although I don't condone the use of credit cards, those were some of the best times of our first few years together and I don't regret a single penny). By March of last year (14 months later) we had no more credit card debt. Now, you may be thinking that we just got really smart and started putting every penny on our credit card...nope. We live paycheck to paycheck like 70% of Americans. We do have cable, the internet, and cell phones that are unnecessary, but we have never had to cut those off or miss a payment. Honestly, I can't tell you where the money came from. I can just tell you that God handled it all. We had also (in that time frame) had Little Bit and paid the hospital off.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. Over the last 10 months (oooohhh... this hurts to say) we have run our credit card back up to $2500. On what, I have no idea. All I really know that we bought was 2 iPods (no we didn't need them) and Starbucks (and we definitely didn't need that). We got our income tax check back last Friday and had planned on putting 1/2 on the credit card and 1/2 on the hospital bill from my biopsy last year (they have been payroll deducting that and it was holding me down to my job at the hospital). We did that and that left us with $1300 on the credit card. So Saturday, B and I sat down and looked at the money we have and came up with $875 to put on the credit card. We went from $2500 3 days ago, to a little over $500 today! We took nothing out of savings, all of our bills are paid (we both have awesome credit scores and if it means cutting something off or missing a payment, we'll cut it off...I don't play around with missing payments or late payments), plus our car insurance that isn't due until next month is paid. How awesome is our God?? Just a little simple obedience, and we're all taken care of. I am sure that there are some people out there saying "well, if you had kept that money instead of tithing, you wouldn't have run up the credit card." I don't even want to THINK about the HUGE mess we would be in if we had kept that money.

The next blessing--Pampered Chef. I am now a consultant (yea!) and again...WOW! I have never really used PC products. I cook some but mostly just easy recipes that don't require a lot of kitchen tools. I signed up a few weeks ago (I had already planned to have a party) and the party I hosted, was considered my first consulting party (even though I had my upline do the show for me). I made $75 commission off of that first show. Basically, 5 hours of time (including the show, cleanup, and putting in the orders). I already have 4 more shows booked, plus 2 that are giving me dates this week. PLUS, the consultant's starter kit is AMAZING. The products are SO awesome! Stoneware--the most amazing cookware ever! I can bake chocolate chip cookies that are soft and chewy!! With the food chopper, I can chop up chicken and eggs for chicken salad in no time, with the ultimate mandolin, I can slice my potatoes in crinkle cut slices (and not slice my fingers off) in minutes...the list could go on but I'll spare you. If you don't know about PC, please feel free to leave me a comment with an email address and I'll share more with you. If you do know about PC but maybe haven't taken advantage of the products lately, again, leave a comment (w/ your email). If you are interested in getting some of the products free or at a discount, definitely leave me a comment w/ an email address. I could not be more psyched up about this!

And my last and final blessing--the hospital. It really has been a great job over the last 4 1/2 years. I have really enjoyed most everyone I have worked with, and God has truly blessed me in that I have flexible hours. However, the time has come to say goodbye. Getting up and leaving my family yesterday morning was practically torture. After I got to work, I started having doubts about leaving--I mean, I've worked in that job for so long and the pharmacist (Johnny) that I work with directly was definitely Heaven sent to take care of me. Johnny's face fell when I told him I was leaving (I could have cried) but then I called home and B put Little Bit on the phone and she said "heeeeey mama!" (which is the absolute cutest thing she says b/c everything is "hey" something..."heeeeeey juice" "heeeeeey book" "heeeeeeeey now") and she "told" me about a book, dada, her baby, and Chick-fil-A (I think she thinks that everytime I leave her I go to CFA). I could have walked out of the door right then and there. I think it was my answer.

So there. The small things in life are what keeps us going, right? I know I complain in this journal a lot but I want you guys to know that my life is not all about complaints (I just use this as my vent). I know where my blessings come from.

Oh Oh Oh and this dress that Little Bit is wearing...it was made by yours truly. THAT is a blessing too! There are these absolutely DIVINE dresses (where did I come up with that) at the mall that I LOVE LOVE LOVE but they are $30 (for one stinking dress that she'll wear MAYBE twice). SOOOO...I decided I'd learn to make them myself. It cost less than $5. It isn't perfect (and not quite as cute as the ones at the mall) but it is a start...and I have to say--I think it is pretty good considering it is my first ever.