Day 2882 – How Checks Made Me Cry

The title for my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents, came from a very tough financial time in our lives. There were little to no bookings for photography, a massive amount of debt, and a lot of discouragement. On one particular day, I was paying bills, and after I paid everything, I had 2 cents left. When I realized that our daily bread had been provided that day, I cried. We were still in debt, money was still tight, but our bills were paid with a little left over.

Today, I had a similar experience. For the full story, let’s go back about a month. We use checks sooooooo rarely, to the point that we had our first apartment address on our set. We haven’t lived there for 5 years. I ran out of checks at the beginning of May, and I placed an order. I knew they took a while, but for some reason, they were sent back to the bank. I received a call on Tuesday to let me know my checks were just chilling at a branch about an hour away. They asked if I wanted them mailed to me. I said, honestly, I’d rather just pick them up because I’ve been waiting so long. They offered to interoffice mail them to my local branch, and that they would arrive the next day (yesterday). I called that branch yesterday and they hadn’t arrived yet. This caused me to stress and get angry. What injustice! I need those checks! I have two important checks that HAVE to be written today. I was all keyed up to demand free checks if my personal checks didn’t arrive. I lost sleep over this. What am I going to do if they don’t come in? How am I going to handle this? I worried over my large to do list with all of my running around. Not fun, let me tell you.

This morning, I listened to a sermon about the “Why are you so downcast, oh my soul” verse. I love that verse. I love that reminder that we need to talk to our souls and be like, um, dude, don’t you remember what God has done for you? Come on now friend. In the middle of this sermon, I received a call. “hey lady, your checks are here, calm down and quit worrying.” Is what the rep would have said if she could read my mind. I thanked her, hung up the phone, and just cried. I cried for joy that I wouldn’t have to run around today. I cried because I got the call so early in the day. I cried because I couldn’t believe that God loves me so much, that He cares about little things like this.

So soul, you need to calm down and trust.

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Day 2881 – I’m In A Different Time Zone!

In an unexpected turn of events, my internet was down this morning. I spent the time working on a spreadsheet for Bret’s business. Every so often, using my phone hot spot to update things. It did come back on (yay!) but I feel like I’m about 6 hours behind schedule. So we’re pretending I’m in Hawaii, because it’s 9:33 a.m. there now! Woo!

For fun, here’s a photo of me actually in Hawaii almost 20 years ago!

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Day 2879 – I Need A Weekend To Recover From The Weekend!

Whew, what a draining weekend! It’s been a blur of trying to rest, working on businesses (super big news, I might be releasing my next book early! Eeep! Maybe even as early as two weeks from now), and just feeling like crapola. If there’s one side effect from having mono years ago, it’s that if my body is sick or not doing well to any degree, it won’t let me do more than I physical can do. It’s like mono gave my body an off switch. The brain and body are wonderful things, and I can’t wait until I’m operating at 100% again! I think that hardest part of not feeling well is knowing you’ve been capable of doing what you want to do, but you just can’t.

Ok! Enough complaining, here’s a photo of me feeling 100%!

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
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Day 2877 – How I Hoped To Spend The Weekend Vs. How I Will Probably Spend The Weekend

Since Bret and I are each building businesses right now (Bret real estate investing, me a business around my road trip book), we’re constantly working. Weekends aren’t days off but days to work longer hours. We did squeeze in a mini picnic last night on our living room floor with CFA nuggets, but beyond that, it’s work work work. But we were thrown a wrench when Bret got sick….and I may be coming down with something as well. So here’s how I thought I’d be spending the weekend….

Versus how I actually will spend the weekend…

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Day 2876 – Repost – Living Light Tips – Organizing Your Home

Originally posted 5/26/16. With a little update at the end.

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We started living light or living a very minimalistic way when we moved into this apartment. We still sleep on the floor and we still only have camping chairs for our furniture. We have gotten rid of more than we’ve purchased in the last year and we have made even more changes that have made our lives simpler.

I’m a big fan of The Modern Mrs. Darcy. She blogs about reading, life and everything in between. She recommended a great book and one I wouldn’t have thought to pick up on my own – Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD: Tips and Tools to Help You Take Charge of Your Life and Get Organized. My biggest take aways were:
– Store things where you’ll use them (extra towels on a shelf in the bathroom instead of the hall closet)
– Only have 1-2 types of socks and don’t match them
– Only have 1 type of reusable containers

How we’ve changed things:
– Not matching socks….ok, just Bret’s socks. I have a soft spot for fun socks – superhero socks, Star Wars socks, silly ducks, etc. I have to match mine. BUT they’re super easy to match. Bret’s are the same white sock. This has saved me maybe a few minutes for each load of laundry, but that adds up.

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This was something I already had going on, but it’s a good minimalist tip. Bret has 4 work shirts and 2 work pants. I’ve labeled 4 hangers so I can keep track of what he’s worn already (I also set a calendar reminder).

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We got rid of all of our random reusable containers and only have 2 types. Red Rubbermaid and some green ones I got from the dollar store. We also got rid of all of the dishes that weren’t in the black and white set. image

A brand new thing we’re trying is washing, drying and putting away the dishes immediately after using them. I read a great article on Becoming Minimalist about how why he does this (mostly taking the stress out of having something hanging over your head). It makes a lot of sense and I want to take a look at other areas in my life where I can apply this (I’m looking at you four different to do lists!)

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What about you, what are some things you do to have a more organized and minimalist home?

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5/26/17 update – Not too much has changed from above, except for the dishes. We don’t have a dishwasher in our new place, so we have to handwash our dishes. We are trying to wash them all at night. We did get rid of about a half a car load of stuff, including some dishes, on our last move. We still haven’t bought more than we get rid of, and we still sleep on the floor (doubt we’ll ever go back at this point).

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel