more or less: part deux

As promised, I am continuing to document my journey of changing certain aspects of myself in order to be a more productive, loving, encouraging, time saving, money saving, life changing kind of gal.  Late last week I wrote about my endeavors in becoming less negative.  So many of you called, commented, and conversated with me concerning your thoughts on my negative diagnosis.  I appreciate so much your encouragement.  You all give me inspiration to be the kind of encourager I should be.  So thanks for that.

This week I’ll touch on the lighter side of my list.

3.  Spend less money: I haven’t yet made the official announcement here, knowing that most of my faithful readers are also close friends and family who have most likely already heard directly from the horses mouth….Christopher quit his job.  As liberating as it was, it was not done completely in vain.  See, he has been blessed with the opportunity to not only return to school in a couple of weeks, but also to work part time for our church Matthias’ Lot as a ministry administrator.  Sounds important huh?  Well we like to think it is.  It was important enough that he immediately quit his longstanding position at New Balance for greener pastures.  And greener they are.  However, this does mean, as he will be cutting back to part time, our checking account will be losing some serious green.  SOOO….this is when we finally start abiding by our budget and paying attention to how many times Little Caesers makes it in to our living room.  It’s frightening to think about the ways in which this will affect our spending, but I’ll admit it’s about time.  Living so close to a GAP has done our savings no favors.  It was only a matter of time before this spending had to be addressed.  So, this year will be about staying true to our spending limits.  Staying in more, eating out less, buying less….it’s the theme of the coming year(s) as Chris works through his degree.  I’m so proud of him. He’s so excited and I’m excited to see what he’s capable of.  He never stops surprising me in that department..  And that’s totally worth the sacrifice of those boots I really want.

4. Take more pictures: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people say to me “I wish I could be a fly on your wall”.  Chris and I do have some pretty incredible moments that most certainly should be documented.  However, I rarely ever think to grab the picture taking apparatus, otherwise known as a camera, when these moments occur.  It’s only after the moment has passed that I think to myself, “hoo boy that would have made one great photo”.  Talk about regret.  How will I explain to our future generations just how awesome we were?  Words wouldn’t do it justice.  So this year I’ll do my best to be a forward thinking photographer who doesn’t miss the moment, but rather fills hundreds and hundreds of online folders of ridiculous photos of friends, family, dogs and an aloof husband.

(Did you all hear how positive I was through that entire blog post? I found out you can’t just be positive by adding inflection to your voice.  You actually have to say good, uplifting, truly positive things. Here goes nuthin.)