What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow. ~ Martin Luther

Friday, April 04, 2014

Finances on Friday


As you can see, my rosemary DID overwinter indoors- but the poor thing is longing for sunny days as much as I am.  Just a little bit longer, rosemary.  Just a bit longer...

I am woefully behind on blogging.  I have our ARTS of the Month post to come (late, again!), Andrew's birthday post and I missed the yarn along post the other day.  This blogging business can be exhausting!  ;-) 

And we have a busy weekend ahead~ I'll have two additions to the house for the weekend while my parents celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary.  39th!!!  My adopted brothers and sisters are so young that they are more like cousins/friends to my children than aunts and uncles.  Out of the five of them, I am getting the 6 year old and the 10 year old.  My children are over the moon excited to have some friends coming over for A WHOLE weekend.  OVER THE MOON.

Meanwhile, I have been trying to deep clean nooks and crannies.  It is going slowly but it feels good to be rediscovering tidy corners and dusted walls.  In each area, I am happy to be plunking things in garbages or boxes for donation/yard sale.    I am seriously thinking I should just donate ALL of the books, clothes and toys and just forget about saving it all to sell at a yard sale...just to be rid of it, once and for all.  Just to stop thinking about it and feeling its' weight on my shoulders.  But then I think about that $100+ dollars I usually make and it keeps me dropping them off at the nearest Salvation Army.

While I work, I blare George Grant lectures or listen to David McCullough's Mornings on Horseback on audiobook.  It is a book about Teddy Roosevelt and so good!  Matt is a David McCullough fan so I thought I had better introduce myself to his work.   I am loving this audiobook thing because I can work (or crochet/knit!) and 'read' at the same time.  Awesomeness.

So that is what is going on in our neck of the woods.  You?

Here is a few financial efforts for the week.  Short but Sweet this week since I have children hollerin' for breakfast:

In addition to all the things I write about every single Friday like hanging laundry, baking bread, washing Ziploc, borrowing books from the library, etc...here are two other things that stand out.
  • We ran out of wood on Wednesday for syrupping and I thought we were going to have to stop boiling (at least until the weekend when Matt would be home to cut some more) and to toss the spoiled sap we have been gathering.  In one last ditch effort, the children and I walked around the place and picked up every woodstove-sized scrap piece of overlooked wood we could find.  There was enough to get us through until the weekend which means- the syrupping continues! I am so glad because I was sick over the thought of any bits of sap wasted and we had over 30 gallons of sap that would have spoiled.
  • For Andrew's birthday he really, really, REALLY wanted an incubator.  (I know, I know.)  The only one I could find was at Tractor supply- a silly Styrofoam one that cost $40.00.  I was on my way into the store to just buy it for him (while hating spending $40 on Styrofoam) when I heard someone yell "Hey Rebecca!"  Lo and behold, in the parking lot were some neighbors.  We got to chatting about why I was child-less uptown (birthday present buying) and what the birthday present was (the silly styrofoam incubator) when they said "Hey- we have an incubator that we won't be using ever again.  I was just looking at it yesterday, wondering what I should do with it..."  So they gave it to us!  When I went to pick it up, I saw it was a really large, fancy schmancy metal incubator.  They said they had raised hundreds of chickens, pheasants, quail, ducks and geese with it!  That was God.  Pure and simple.
How was your financial week this week?

15 comments:

lydia.purple said...

Awesome both the wood gathering and also the birthday gift from heaven. We have a good good father!

Terri said...

I love when things like that (birthday gift) happen!

Bonnie said...

And now you have an AWESOME story of Gods hand providing that Andrew can relate to immediately! SO cool!

Rain said...

What a great story about the incubator. I love it when that happens. Enjoy your weekend and all that yummy syrup.

Rhonda said...

No providential about the incubator and I love that your children work right along side of scavenging wood. I think you all will enjoy your syrup even more since it truly was a family effort.
I'll be linking up later in the day. I always look forward to your Friday posts.

Rhonda said...

That was supposed to be SO providential, silly auto correct......

Courtney said...

How neat God provided the incubator! And at the very last minute, ha!

Megan @ Purple Dancing Dahlias said...

What an awesome thing and great birthday present!

We have received so many great things over the years. This will be the first time in 12 years I have had to buy summer clothes for my oldest. Most of our home library was given to us. I can count a handful of items that we have actually paid for ourselves that we have bought brand new. Most of what I have bought has been books for the older kids.

I just give stuff away most of the time because I just want to be done with it and get it out of the way and I don't feel like I can sell stuff that was given to us...but I sometimes struggle with knowing that if I did take the time to have a yard sale I could make some extra cash.

I love the fact that you take the time to resell those special items you find (like the wedding dress).

Julian said...

That is SO neat when that happens!:) God is interested in EVERY detail of our lives. Even incubators;). How encouraging!
My rosemary did better when I planted it in the ground after the cold. Im not sure why even in texas it didnt do well in a pot. So glad yours is looking good! Will you plant it outside when it warms up? I love its smell.
Have a great weekend!:) Christina

Anonymous said...

Rebecca,
Part of saving for me is getting good deals on meat and freezing. How do you freeze meat for the Winter without getting major freezer burn?

Leah T. said...

What an awesome story of God's provision! Love it!

Yard sales are just too much effort for the return, in my opinion, so I just donate. There's something about being able to count donations as a deduction on your taxes. I've never done it but you might want to look into it. :)

Rebecca said...

Christina~ rosemary does great in pots in warm weather. I'll probably keep mine in pots simply because they die if left outside over winter and I want to over winter it. I know someone who lives in such a mild temperature she has rosemary hedges around her house. How awesome would THAT be?!

Anon~ I invested in a Foodsaver two years ago and it makes a HUGE difference in frozen goods. It is WELL worth the expense in my opinion.

tessyracheal said...

Hi Rebecca,
I was touring through your blog, its beautiful! I can see Gods blessing in every nook and corner of your house. You are so hard working. Your blog has inspired me to take up my garden seriously. Thank you so much. God bless you and your family abundantly

Jennifer said...

What a wonderful blessing from God through friends. Our kids always enjoy new animals. At the moment, we have seven kittens and two mama cats temporarily relocated to the bathtub until they are big enough to not look like dinner to our dogs.

Abigail said...

Three cheers for the incubator!

"Coincidences" such as these are such a powerful sign of God's tender and extravagant love to His children.