Goals for My Future Pantry

Many goals for this time of my life revolve around my own physical health.  I have renewed my vigor, if you will, for working on a healthier lifestyle, being more active, and eating more close to the source for maximum nutrient value.



In accomplishing these goals, I have begun again to take Glucosamine Condroitin(GC) for my joints, mainly my knees so that when I walk regularly I don't have as much pain with the lesser portion of tissue in my right knee to help with cushioning.  As a strange (to me) and interesting twist, my left knee is now giving me some problems due to favoring my right knee for so long.  So, hopefully the GC will help with that too.

I have finalized my garden plan for the front yard, due to necessity, and beautification as well.

I will certainly document the process for everyone to see.  😎

All this while keeping the house and everything else juggled!  I would love to do all kinds of vegetables and melons because I just love all the jars in my pantry.  There isn't a greater satisfaction than being able to go to one's pantry and gather foods that one has processed in a healthier way, using salts that are good for high blood pressure. Fortunately here in GA, there are at least 2 different time frames where we can grow food.  I'm so thankful!!! 

I miss my pantry! 😉

 Have a Blessed Day!

Self Made Clothing

I have always enjoyed making my own clothes.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do it much in recent years due to appointments, teaching classes and just generally being busy.

What I loved most was finding my patterns as cheaply as possible, then finding the fabric I need and buying it in bulk, making whatever garment as inexpensively as possible.

However, that is not possible in every case.  I have purchased a pattern at full price, paid full price for fabric and made a prom dress for my daughter and it turned out beautifully.  Fabric is not cheap, neither are patterns.  So finding what will work or look nice is a challenge sometimes.  I like buying "lots" of patterns in my size or my daughter's size on ebay. It is usually very cheap to buy 10 patterns for $4.95 to get that "one" pattern that would normally cost $15.  Yes, I've done that before!  😄

I've made my daughter a robe from polar fleece that I found at a yard sale one year.  She was very warm and cozy and loved the robe.

As for everything else, fabric is becoming very scant at yard sales and thrift stores.  You have to look at sales, coupons, and work hard at getting it inexpensively.

Another method of making one's own clothing is by either crocheting or knitting.  Currently, I am getting some shirt patterns together to knit in the next couple of months.  I want to have a more modest cut of clothing, but comfortable and "flowy" if that is a word.  I've found some free patterns on Ravelry that I'm going to try and I just need to get my yarn together and get started.  I have some summer shirts to both sew as well as knit and/or crochet, then I'll review and decide where to go from there.  In the mean time while I wait to get my yarn gathered, I'm starting another shawl started as a gift.

Hand crafting items has become a thing of the past.  I am trying to keep the craft alive by teaching the next generation these basic skills at one of our homeschool groups.  I would love to continue long past the time when my children graduate, but we'll see.  I'm getting ahead of myself.  Needless to say, I have quite a few skirts, shirts and shawls to make this year.  We'll see how many I can accomplish by Christmas 2017.  I know what you're thinking...and of course I'll post pictures!  😊

And with that I will bid all of you adieu for 2016.  My next post will be in 2017, so I'll "see" all of you next year!  LOL

Have a Blessed Day!

In Christ,

Frugality with Clothing

Clothing needs for a family of various sizes can be one of the most frustrating chores to tend to for a variety of reasons.  We have had bins and bins full of clothes we've found at yard sales for children to grow in to, or ones that children have grown out of and saving them for the next child.

The challenge is very real to try to stretch every penny to cloth a growing family.  I love the challenge though.

I began every March in Pennsylvania, taking stock of every piece of clothing the children had.  With this inventory, I documented every pair of blue, black, tan jeans or pants, every detail that I could think of to ensure I knew everything my kids had in their dressers and closets.  I took that information and built a list of things to begin looking at yard sales, thrift stores, facebook flea markets, ebay, and every clearance rack I could find.  

I had to streamline their wardrobes when they were little, so I tried being very basic with one pair of tan, black, and blue dress pants, a couple long sleeved and a couple short sleeved dress shirts for church and special occasions.  I tried keeping an eye out for things I knew they would like, but being realistic.  

I worked very hard to find everything I could for them at yard sales first.  Yard sales were the best source for things I could find for $.50 or barter for a large purchase, grouping things together.  I loved being able to find things for my family very inexpensively.  

Once yard sale season was over, I took stock in how much I was able to fill with yard sales.  Once I saw how much, or how little, I was able to visit a variety of thrift stores getting things on their sale days.  I made sure to look for good quality clothing, always, and it always helped to look for name brands like Liz Claiborne, Old Navy, Lee, and etc.  I loved going to huge thrift stores and finding deals.

Next I'd always keep an eye out for my kids' sizes on the facebook fleamarket sites.  Sometimes I could get some good items, other times I just kept scrolling due to the unrealistic cost.  

Ebay was among the last points only because of the cost of shipping.  I've liked ebay because you can look for specific measurements for clothes to ensure a better fit.  Many times I've found jeans, shirts, things like that for less than half of what they originally cost brand new.

Which leads me to the last point--new.  Buying something new is so totally foreign to me.  We have always tried stretching so much for so long that it seems unnatural to buy something "new" off the rack.

Fortunately, when we followed this plan, we were able to drastically reduce our clothing budget.  

How do you make time for this type of work?  A little at a time!  One day for the inventory while you do that particular child's laundry, then move on to the next one.  It is more like a conveyor belt type of action once things get moving.  Once the inventory is done, you are done with it for a whole year.  Once you get your list done, you can simply just move on to your list.  I've tried pulling everything together in an Excel document spreadsheet so that I can see things much more clearly.  

I hope this helps someone!

Is there anything I've forgotten or not looked at?  Probably!  I hadn't even mentioned the bags and bags of clothes we were blessed with from friends. 😊

Have a blessed day!

God Bless,

Frugality in Caring for Ourselves and Our Family

Frugality is all encompassing in our lives.  Some people, for whatever reason, go to a variety of lengths for the sake of saving money.  I appreciate, even admire, those who live on such small amounts of money, stretching every last penny.

To begin, we need to address our medical needs.  I am one who believes very firmly that to take care of ourselves involves eating nutritiously, exercising within a reasonable amount (not becoming obsessive), getting enough sleep, and as the need arises, visiting the doctor, whichever one is necessary.

Eating nutritiously involves something different to each person.  Due to our uniqueness, each of our nutrition needs are different.  For example, a man who is 25 years old, 200 pounds, and works construction will have different nutrition needs than a 25 year old man, 200 pounds, and works behind a desk.  Our lifestyles need to take in to account how much exercise we get as well as our nutrition levels, how much we consume in carbohydrates vs not.

Eating nutritiously will also keep our bodies working at optimal levels, as does exercise.  I personally use hand weights, stretches, twists, leg lifts, walking, swimming and sometimes it feels like it isn't enough.  I'm considering adding in Christian Yoga as well as the T-tapp program.  These are programs for myself.  It wouldn't be "ok" for someone else, though.  I'm trying to look around to find these programs less expensively than "new."  I'm waiting patiently to find them.  That's a big part of this process of frugality--patience.

Getting enough rest is always a challenge, especially in today's busy society.  Everyone's body is unique and the needs of each person extremely vast, so to put everyone in to a cookie cutter of expectation is unrealistic.  As a parent it is our responsibility to make sure our children get the rest their little bodies need.  Also as a parent, it is important for us to care for our own needs for rest as well.  Sleep for moms of little ones who wake through the night is fleeting.  It is important for new moms to sleep when little ones sleep-round the clock to recover well from giving birth.  It is unrealistic, though, to expect toddlers and school age children to sleep as much as a newborn, so if mom has more children, it gets tricky juggling sleep.  I have put the older ones down for their naps, snuggled baby to nurse and fallen asleep with baby safely in my arms.  I've also put kid shows on, snuggled a little one, and fallen asleep for a 20  minute "catnap" without having an issue.  It is something to discover what would work well for your own family.  If a new mom doesn't get enough rest, she will develop Post Partum Depression.  I've been there before and it is a very scary place to be when the walls start closing in on you.  When that happens, it is important to tell someone to get some help.  In our society, it is a sign of weakness if we ask for help, but in my opinion, it is a sign of great strength to ask for help.

At the different stages of life there are greater needs for rest and less needs for rest.  We need to recognize those needs and adjust accordingly.  We need to communicate with our family of that need and ask for their help when we need to just go take an hour nap to feel re-energized to take on the rest of the evening fulfilling our responsibilities.

In order for our mind to work well, we need to eat, we need to sleep, and we need oxygen in the form of exercise.  In order to think about all that we need to accomplish, think clearly, and work on the variety of levels of frugality that our own personal family situation dictates, requires that we care for our bodies in an optimal manner at every stage of life.  Take care of yourself so you can take care of others!

Have a Blessed Day!

Contemplating Future Home Plans

In my previous post, I wrote about plans for my vegetable gardens in raised beds and how I envision it coming together.   We have some "need to do" projects for our house that will be tackled some time this Spring, Lord willing.  Between putting a new roof and new windows in, that also incorporates a new door and windows for the Sunroom.

The area here will be framed out, replaced with French doors in the middle and a window on each end where the stationary panels are.  To the extreme right, there are 4 panels that will be replaced in the same way--framed out and 4 windows installed.

When looking for houses here in GA to purchase, we decided to look for foreclosures or houses that "need work" so that we could get one for the lowest price possible, paying it off early and doing the majority of the work for ourselves. Our ultimate goal was to become "debt free" as quickly as possible.

Why?  That will be a good topic for another post.  😉

Regardless, making plans to fix things takes time, effort, and money.  Fixing things the least expensive way possible (like a broken dishwasher) is what we've done for years.  If my husband cannot tear it apart, go get the pieces needed, and get it running again in a few hours, then there is truly something wrong with the item.  We have purchased older lawn mower/tractors with attachments for less than a fraction of what it would cost new.  With that, though, there is always something that breaks or wears out.  We replaced so many things on that mower, but it worked for us.  My husband sold that mower when we moved to GA.

We have felt that it is so very important to have goals when our over arching theme is frugality.  There are definitely some "need to do" things that frugality may need to be put by the wayside for quality, but in those cases it is very few times that happens.  However, planning, goal setting, working on those things little by little, ensuring safety of everyone in the home, and being good stewards is what we strive for in our lives.

The choice to live more frugally is simply that--a choice.  Please remember there are all kinds of levels of frugal choices out there.  For many it is a matter of taste or product preference.

We frequent yard sales, flea markets, thrift stores, auctions, ebay, facebook flea market groups, and craigslist for a lot of our needs.  When we need to buy something new, we wait until the money is available.  We need to "put off" the "I need it now" mentality relying on credit at every turn because eventually that credit will be used up and there will be no money to pay for emergencies.  This takes personal discipline.  Yes, things happen and you need to dip in to the emergency fund.  That's when you tighten the belt, stop going out for expensive meals, and get the emergency fund back to the level it needs to be.  (I'm saying this to myself just as much as to my readers.  If I don't follow my own advice I'm a hypocrite and I don't want to do that.)

When making plans, we look around and make lists of things we need.  Right now we need some office furniture, some other pieces that I'd like to have for plants, a hall table for a lamp to sit, some clothing items, any craft items dealing with knitting or crocheting, clothing needs and anything else we can think of--all gets put on a list.  I don't bring the list with me when I go to all the above places, but I keep things in mind when I am looking.  I use to make an inventory of everyone's clothing with color, size, type and what I need to look for to get that person to the next size.  That began seasons ahead of when they needed those items.  I had bins in the attic with the next couple of sizes up for each child.  When the oldest son grew out of something it went in to the bin for the youngest.  That was then, now the oldest tries passing off his old clothes to the youngest and he gets laughed at because the youngest has tastes of his own as well as his own size.  LOL

Frugality with making home plans is all encompassing, reaching in to every part of our lives.  We need to be frugal in this area in order to be sure we have resources in this other area to fix it properly or to fill a need that could be filled inexpensively.

One of those things each of us have to personally decide for ourselves is "how far are we willing to take this frugality thing?"  For me, I've tried every kind of paper towels on the market, but I always come back to Bounty.  This is my own personal preference, so I try to find it the cheapest way I can, buy it in bulk or with coupons and don't worry about the money I "could be" saving.  We've purchased generic items and things from Aldi just to try it before buying more than one of that item.  We've found that it's about an 85/15% split with regard to Aldi items.  We usually like just about everything we try from there, but occasionally we find something that just doesn't taste good to us.  Once again, it is purely personal preference, so trying new products that are cheaper than what we've bought in times past has become commonplace for us.

All this to say that in order to be able to afford making changes or fixing things that are broken, we have been frugal in many areas, pushing the envelope in many ways to creatively free up more money.  One of the places I began looking for ideas for greater frugality was The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn.  This book encompasses 3 of her other books that just compilations of her newsletters.  I know many of the ideas in there do not include many couponing ideas, blogging for money, affiliate links, ibotta, or any other new ideas that have come out since the book was published, so keep your eyes peeled for technological advances in saving more money since this book was published.

I realize I may have been preaching to the choir with some of my readers, but I'm finding there is another generation of younger folks who have not heard or understand these concepts.  I'm finding myself in an interesting position that I've never been in before now--one that teaches and guides others in the neat things I've learned.  I'm not the end all for information, of course, but sharing information may help someone who stumbles across my blog.

How are you planning for your future home fixes?

Have a Blessed Day!

Humbled and Content

Tonight as I read blogs of my friends, I read things about contentment, emergency surgery, gardening, essential oils, Proverbs 31 women, and the list continues.  There are many many people on my subscription list from all over the world, all walks of life, and all stages of life.  I am so very thankful.

As I read about everyone's flower gardens, I allow myself to dream.  I dream of all the beautiful arrangements, flower and vegetable beds, and yard sale finds I hope to find in the future.  It truly is a blessing to visit everyone's blog to get such wonderful ideas of how I can redo the blank slate in our front yard, side yard with overgrown weeds, bushes, and trees, the enclosed back yard with the pool and deck.  I dream....

I want to start with my mail box.  I know this seems rather silly, but my mailbox in PA looked like this:

My mailbox here will resemble this with the Black-Eyed Susans, but a little different due to life circumstances.  We had to throw up a quick mail box, so we bought the materials locally, nothing decorative, but simple.  It filled the need.  So now, I'm looking at it as a blessing.  It is a basic box with wood to hold it up.  I've seen mailbox wraps to make it pretty with the changing seasons, so I'll consider those when I see them again.  I like Mary Englebrett designs, so we'll see if I can find something along that line. ;)  It will probably be a while before I do anything along that line because I wait until I can find it at the lowest price possible. :D

Along the front of our house is a lovely railing.  In some places it needs to be replaced, but it is simple and I love it.  

(The railing in the above picture along the front porch.)  

The railing pictured here shows what I mean.  It also shows the blank slate of the front yard.  We're going to have fun planting and watching things grow.  :0)

We'll replace the bad parts with new, repaint it and put up some window baskets.   The ones pictured below are the ones I'd like to put on the railing.

These are the ones from our PA house that we planted about 4 years ago.  

I'm excited to gradually get my flowers back and add to my collection.  For now, I look back at pictures from my flower beds in Pennsylvania.

For now, I am choosing to be content with empty whiskey barrels, no veggie garden, and the blank slate.  We are still getting doctors testing done, establishing ourselves in practices in the area and getting to know the seasons.  We're researching many things about the area too, with regard to flowers and growing, pest control and things like that.

I am humbled that so many folks have taken an interest in our daughter's story in God of Wonders Beyond Anything and Everything I Ever Knew or Understood and Resting on the Promises, in His Wings of Love.   We are currently in the midst of neurological testing, EEG, Neuro-Psychological testing, MRI/MRA and getting appointments for all those, as well as establishing ourselves with a new dentist.  Why all this testing?  Why now?  Well, in Pennsylvania we were told that once something came up, to pursue testing then.  We've had rudimentary testing done on her, but nothing extensive, giving us a picture of her brain.  So the Dr's down here in Georgia are using this opportunity to get all that done.  I'm thankful for that too.  Now we can see what's going on and if there is further treatment needed for her. There is no need to worry.  Nothing is "wrong" with her, we're just taking this opportunity to get all the testing done that we can so that we can get a better picture of her brain.

As for me, I had an MRI of my right knee done and found I have a complex tear in my miniscus, degraded cartilage (bone-on-bone), and arthritis.  The Dr plans to "clean house" addressing all the issues in one surgery.  The therapy is to just walk.  Wonder of all wonders, it's amazing!  The very thing I've been wanting to do for such a very long time, but can't due to this hurt knee, I can now do after my surgery.  Hooray!  Remind me of that when I am trying to get out of bed or a chair after my surgery and it hurts.  ;)

God has lessons for each one of us, on our own levels, adjusted to each of our own needs.  I am so very thankful He loves me to prune and grow me more for Him.  

God is Good!  

Blessings,

Almost a Month and Lots Happening

As I showed in my previous post, we had concrete floors.  Now, we are pretty close to having them done, minus the threshold pieces.  It looks so much nicer than bare concrete!

The living room floor after flooring installed.  It's lovely!  

From the other side of the room.

Photo Bombed by Biscuit

Getting Gus acclimated to the pool...or just having fun putting him on the inner tube.  LOL

Biscuit's turn! 

A graduation celebration dinner at church.

Visiting with Grandparents and one special uncle.

"And these alligators are found in the Flint River?  I guess we shouldn't swim in there!"

Beautiful daughter with her sewing machine.

The living room window that needs a treatment of some sort.  I'm not sure what, but since this window is so huge, it will probably be something simple.  We have new pillows that I found at the local W*lmart on a 2 for $12 deal, so I couldn't resist adding more color to the room.

I just love my drive home!  This area is so beautiful!  (Sorry for the bug splat on the windshield!!)

The view out my front door.  This is such a quiet neighborhood, it is almost like living in the country!

The morning this picture was taken, I was on my way to get my blood work done and to talk with my Dr about the Trim Healthy Mama Plan (THM) life changes I've been making, as well my right knee.  I found out that my right knee is "bone-on-bone" and it gets worse when I ride/drive for long periods of time.  The verdict?  Less riding/driving, less walking, more THM cooking, and more swimming.  With my blood test results back, I know that I can rest assured that THM is working!  I've lost 35 pounds, my Triglycerides decreased by half, my A1C is 6.1 and my fasting is 105.  I've not seen those wonderful numbers in YEARS!  You betcha I'm sticking with it! 

Strong young men hard at work, replacing worn out steps and putting in new concrete.

One side of my office is going to be a sitting area and I think I have a pretty good start with these wonderful pieces I found at a yard sale and an online facebook flea market group.  The wing back chair is a reclining chair.  The side table is an antique from the 60's or 70's, the lamp I just loved, so I bought it for a good price....and.

...the magnolia swag that I thought was so pretty.

In the next couple of weeks, I'll finally be able to get some curtains up on the dining room window, my oldest son's window, the office, and hopefully our bedroom.  With everything being so busy, I'll be able to sit down long enough to get my sewing machine out to work on some stuff.  I also plan to keep my eyes peeled for more furniture for the sitting area.  I love decorating "on the cheap."  

Have a Great Day!

God Bless,

Chicken Bone Broth

A couple days ago I made "Fotato" Soup out of my Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook.  It was the 2nd time I made it and based on the popularity of it the first time (they licked the skillet clean!), I doubled the batch.  I wanted to ensure that my husband had something yummy and soothing in his stomach when he got home from work (more on that another day).  I found that I didn't have any chicken broth, so I sent my kids to get some at the local store.  I was glad for them to go so I could get the cauliflower chopped up and ready to go while they were gone.

When I saw the broth sitting on my counter, I thought to myself, "I've made this before!  I can do this!  Why should I use this store bought junk instead of knowing what is going in to my food?!"  So, I took out the only bit of meat I had in the house with bones in it--a 6 pound whole chicken--to defrost.  We had it for dinner last night and whatever was left--carcass and all--went back in to the roaster to get all yummy and delicious with lots of garlic, Himalayan Pink Salt, thyme, sage, and some pepper...and of course lots of water filled to an inch within the brim of the 18 quart roaster.  I turned it on to 225­­°F and from 5:00PM to around noon today the carcass and leftover meat simmered and made some lovely golden bone broth for my family.  

When I do broth, I have 2 different ways that I can do it.  This time, since there was so much of it, I chose to do both.  I had a limited amount of freezer containers and didn't want to go to the store to buy more.  I had 4 quart containers and 3 pint containers, which meant labeling with contents and their date of being frozen.  This way everyone knows that these will need to be used within 6 months of the date on the container.  I let them sit on the counter until they are cool and then line them along the inside of my freezer door where they fit perfectly.

With the other amount of broth, I had to get the pressure canner out along with unearthing the canning lids and rings (quite the challenge when things were not exactly put away because a place for them had not been established yet.  Oops!)  So, finding the lids and rings, we got everything moving, sterilized, and in to the pressure canner with only a couple inches in the bottom.  

They spent 3 hours in the pressure canner at 10 pounds of pressure to ensure there is no food poisoning to occur.  We will label these with their contents once they cool by tomorrow morning as well as their date, like the ones with the freezer container.  I make sure to leave them on the counter over night to cool so that they seal.  If they don't seal, I can pop them right in to the refrigerator without skipping a beat and saving the lovely contents for the next meal.  

I've made broth with chicken breasts before.  I usually simmer the chicken for 2-3 hours, then freeze.  Very few times have I pressure canned it, but this time I did.  

My plans for further collecting bones to make in to broth are to go to the local butcher and see if they will sell me bones with very little meat on them for my bone broth.  I'm going to try to process this once every couple of weeks to make sure we always have bone broth, chicken, ham, beef, and whatever else I can find.  If/when I get the bones from the butcher I'm going to freeze the bones, so I can put them in to my roaster, fill it with water and let it cook for a couple days.  I'm going to get more organized so I can make sure the broth is done in the canner by a certain time so we don't have to worry about missing church.  Yes, I messed up.  But, we were able to reclaim the time by having some card playing time while the younger 2 finished their school work.  

Now on to garden planning!  Oh!  And I'm getting an idea of what to do for my canning pantry!  

What do you do for food preservation?

God Bless,

A New Job for Mr. G

Monday, February 1st, began unlike any other Monday here in southern Georgia since our move here the end of August.  My Mr. G secured a job that is unlike anything he's ever done "for pay."

Prefacing for a bit, my hubby has a sweatshirt that says, "Mr. Fixit" on it from years ago, probably 20 years would be my best guess.  He's always been tinkering, always making something do on the tractors so we didn't ever have to get a new one, always fixing things himself no matter what the issue--unless he knew it was beyond his realm of ability to do it--whether time constraints or realizing he had limitations to what he could do.  There have been times when he had to rely on plumbers and other fix it guys to come in and take care of those kinds of things, but all in all, he's pretty  much done it all on his own--with a little help from a couple Jr. Mr. Fixits in training.  ;)

In years past, he has worked in the human resources dept of the belly of a navy ship, in a ship yard too, in a paint store, for a power company as a lineman, in a pool store installing pools, pool filters, working in the store itself, and in corrections.  Now, with his experience as a "Mr. Fixit", the Lord has seen fit to tailor make a job just for my Mr. G.  He is now installing and changing filters in a variety of commercial settings.  He has his own company truck, ipad, phone and so forth which is something he is getting use to.

Back to Monday--it started bright and early for me.  I wanted to be sure he had a proper lunch and breakfast because neither of us knew what to expect, so I got up before he did and made sure it was all ready to go.  We could have breakfast and prayer together before he left for his day of work.  What a blessing that time was for both of us in the morning before he left for work!  We were able to talk just a wee bit, pray together about our days' concerns, have coffee and enjoy some peace before our days began.

My days have gone like this--after Mr. G leaves, write scripture verse of the day, read Bible and pray, get kids moving on chores, breakfast, laundry (whoever has laundry that day) and school moving.  After they're off and running on their school work, I exercise, work on my daily chores, and getting other things done.   Then we break for lunch, laugh and be silly together, work on anything Daddy needs them to do, then it is either back to school work, free time, working on some project in the house or exercising for them.  If it is their day to make dinner, they usually start by 3PM.

This week has been a week of growth for all of us.  It seems to have been very busy with lots of things to do every day.  Inevitably, I've come down with a cold.  I'm treating with lots of Thieves and RC oils and diffusing Raven and Lavender too.  It started on Wednesday with a runny nose.  Then it went from there.  I haven't been coughing, oddly enough, but I do feel the thickening in my throat.  I've been putting alternately Thieves and RC on my throat and it is helping.  I put Thieves on my feet last night too when in nights previous I'd put Purification.  We'll see how long this one lasts.  I'm hoping it won't last long, though.  My days have had an added nap in for a bit--even just 20 minutes--with sickness, just to help me feel better.  I'm hoping Mr. G doesn't get it.  Whew!

Why a new job for Mr. G if he's retired from the state of PA?  Isn't his retirement enough to live on?  Yes, it is, but our ultimate goal is to be debt free.  Right now our house in PA hasn't sold (please add that to your prayer list), we have a very small mortgage here in GA that we'd like to pay off in 5 years vs the 10 year loan we have with the bank.  Plus we have some student loans to continue to pay on.  So, as you can see, we're working on decreasing the debt with this move, but need the job for paying 2 mortgages, utilities and upkeep on 2 properties 900 miles apart.  Eventually the house in PA will sell and we can hit the student loans and house payment "double time" and get them paid off quickly.  We're hoping to "owe no man anything but love." in 5 years.  With God's grace and His blessing, we will accomplish the goal of living debt free.

We hope to be able to bless others, help our children get established in their own homes when those times come and in whichever direction they feel God leading them in their lives.  We also hope to be able to go see family more often.  The fact that we haven't done that really bothers me, so with lots of prayer and work at being more frugal, by the grace of God, we'll be debt free, hopefully in 5 years.

If anyone has any questions about how we're doing this, please take a look at The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.  We've implemented many of the principals in this plan.  I would encourage you to take a look and let me know what you think!

God Bless,