Today we celebrated and looked forward to the 2013 Royals baseball season!
Enter the Kansas City Royal FanFest!
Enter the Kansas City Royal FanFest!
Royals infield
Hoch & Duffy
Royals outfield
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Host a Swap to Help Others
So I am reading the book 7 by Jean Hatmaker. She used herself as a social & spiritual experiment to find a deeper faith and listen to God. For seven months, she gave something up or reduced it, choosing seven areas of her life: food, clothing, shopping, media, waste, possessions, and stress.
I am just starting the chapter on her 4th month, having read food, possessions, and clothing. And I love the book! I'm not sure I could do what she did (only each 7 foods for a month, give away 210 things in a month, and only wear 7 clothing items for a month), but she is amazing!
One idea she shared did inspire me and I am going to suggest it at work. She suggested to have an item swap at work. Everyone who wants to participate would bring things they do not need/want anymore. Hopefully this would stay above the "this is just crap" line! You can separate the items into different areas of the room: clothing, kid stuff, jewelry, gifts, decorations, etc. People can look through and take what they would like, for free! Then the things you don't need are gone from your house and you have picked up some things you may need. Anything not taken at the end of the day gets donated to a shelter or Goodwill store.
Ask all participants to donate an open amount. This money can be donated to a local charity or wherever your workplace chooses.
I hope this happens at my work!!
I am just starting the chapter on her 4th month, having read food, possessions, and clothing. And I love the book! I'm not sure I could do what she did (only each 7 foods for a month, give away 210 things in a month, and only wear 7 clothing items for a month), but she is amazing!
One idea she shared did inspire me and I am going to suggest it at work. She suggested to have an item swap at work. Everyone who wants to participate would bring things they do not need/want anymore. Hopefully this would stay above the "this is just crap" line! You can separate the items into different areas of the room: clothing, kid stuff, jewelry, gifts, decorations, etc. People can look through and take what they would like, for free! Then the things you don't need are gone from your house and you have picked up some things you may need. Anything not taken at the end of the day gets donated to a shelter or Goodwill store.
Ask all participants to donate an open amount. This money can be donated to a local charity or wherever your workplace chooses.
I hope this happens at my work!!
Thursday, January 10, 2013
43.4%!!
Our big payment to the student loan went through and now we are up from 28.9% to 43.4%! I am beyond excited at this jump in paid-off-ness!! We are on our way to our goal!
To Do: Random Acts of Kindness
One of my coworkers and I were talking about Random Acts of Kindness and it got me all excited to try some! I love the idea of warming someone's heart unexpectedly. That's the best kind, really! Who doesn't love a sweet word that isn't prompted by anything?!
I started some kindness with writing letters/notes. I absolutely LOVE stationary and have lots of greeting cards as well. I find myself "saving" these cards for special occasions, but then never really using them. So I pulled my boxes (yes, plural) out and got started. I looked at both my address book and the employee list at my work. Then I got started. I wrote about ten cards and had fun delivering/mailing them. I was excited for the recipients to get their cards!
Then, I went to Pinterest for more ideas! I mean, of course, I went to Pinterest. Where else do we get ideas nowadays?! Here are some blogs I found about RAKs and a list of some I'd like to try!
It's Hue I Love - this great blogger listed her RAKs and even provided her readers with a freebie RAK card
Katherine Marie - titled "One Year of Kindness", this family celebrated a RAK each week
Baker's Gift - Quick & easy! Doesn't have to be only a Christmas gift, could do this with any oven mitt
Heart Attack (although, you might have to be sure of who you send this to, don't want to make anyone uneasy)
Ideas (created with the help of many blog posts)
-Pay for the drinks/meal for the person behind me in line
-Leave $1 bills taped to toys or other items in a dollar aisle or at the dollar store
-Pay for the groceries of someone who needs it
-Drop bakes goodies off at the post office
-Provide the secretaries at work with surprise Sonic drinks (they do so much for us!)
-Leave a 50% (or more!) tip for a waitress/waiter
-Taking new coloring books and crayons to the local children's hospital/waiting rooms
-Treats to the local library branch
-(completely) Random Easter egg hunt - I think this would be even more fun totally out of season! Fill Easter eggs with treats and coins and hide at a part. Leave an Easter basket and a note telling the finder to have a fun hunt!
-Donate toiletries and diapers to a women's shelter - include nail polish, lotions, etc.
-Pick a name in the phone book and mail them a happy note and a lucky $2 bill
-Donate diapers and wipes to a shelter
-Pick up trash at a park
-Carry someone's groceries
-Buy a pizza and have it delivered to a friends' house, don't let the delivery person tell who it's from!
-Slip a $10 or $20 bill into someone's purse or coat. This could get tricky!
-Pay for someone else's meal at a restaurant
-Send Valentines in August
-Send someone a card or package just because
-
...more to come!
I started some kindness with writing letters/notes. I absolutely LOVE stationary and have lots of greeting cards as well. I find myself "saving" these cards for special occasions, but then never really using them. So I pulled my boxes (yes, plural) out and got started. I looked at both my address book and the employee list at my work. Then I got started. I wrote about ten cards and had fun delivering/mailing them. I was excited for the recipients to get their cards!
Then, I went to Pinterest for more ideas! I mean, of course, I went to Pinterest. Where else do we get ideas nowadays?! Here are some blogs I found about RAKs and a list of some I'd like to try!
It's Hue I Love - this great blogger listed her RAKs and even provided her readers with a freebie RAK card
Katherine Marie - titled "One Year of Kindness", this family celebrated a RAK each week
Baker's Gift - Quick & easy! Doesn't have to be only a Christmas gift, could do this with any oven mitt
Heart Attack (although, you might have to be sure of who you send this to, don't want to make anyone uneasy)
Ideas (created with the help of many blog posts)
-Pay for the drinks/meal for the person behind me in line
-Leave $1 bills taped to toys or other items in a dollar aisle or at the dollar store
-Pay for the groceries of someone who needs it
-Drop bakes goodies off at the post office
-Provide the secretaries at work with surprise Sonic drinks (they do so much for us!)
-Leave a 50% (or more!) tip for a waitress/waiter
-Taking new coloring books and crayons to the local children's hospital/waiting rooms
-Treats to the local library branch
-(completely) Random Easter egg hunt - I think this would be even more fun totally out of season! Fill Easter eggs with treats and coins and hide at a part. Leave an Easter basket and a note telling the finder to have a fun hunt!
-Donate toiletries and diapers to a women's shelter - include nail polish, lotions, etc.
-Pick a name in the phone book and mail them a happy note and a lucky $2 bill
-Donate diapers and wipes to a shelter
-Pick up trash at a park
-Carry someone's groceries
-Buy a pizza and have it delivered to a friends' house, don't let the delivery person tell who it's from!
-Slip a $10 or $20 bill into someone's purse or coat. This could get tricky!
-Pay for someone else's meal at a restaurant
-Send Valentines in August
-Send someone a card or package just because
-
...more to come!
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Finding Money Around the House
As we are working toward to goals for 2013, Bret and I are trying to find ways to get more income for our budget. Enter, the Swap Shop! The smallish town we live in, there is a Swap Shop that is basically a mini-Craigslist on Facebook. Participants post items/prices they would like to sell and people comment/message when they are interested in purchasing.
So, hunting around the house we went!! We found some things we don't (and sometimes never!) use to post. And then people have paid us for those items. We have made about $40 doing this! I am excited about this and it just makes me want to search for more things to sell!
We have decided to save for our goals with half of that money and use the other half for fun stuff. I'm looking forward to making this income work for us. Now, I've gotta go find more things to sell ;)
So, hunting around the house we went!! We found some things we don't (and sometimes never!) use to post. And then people have paid us for those items. We have made about $40 doing this! I am excited about this and it just makes me want to search for more things to sell!
We have decided to save for our goals with half of that money and use the other half for fun stuff. I'm looking forward to making this income work for us. Now, I've gotta go find more things to sell ;)
Monday, January 7, 2013
Cleaning House
We are working on cleaning all the accumulation in our house. We are coming up on three years in our first home and there is just so much STUFF everywhere. This weekend, we went around the house to gathered things we don't use or don't need. There was a lot of "Well, maybe we'll use it someday..." and "If only...". But we had to stay strong and just clear things out. Now we are just preparing for our garage sale. Is winter over yet?!
Found these on pinterest and LOVED the quotes!
Found these on pinterest and LOVED the quotes!
(source)
(source)
Goals for 2013
My husband and I took time to make goals for ourselves for 2013. We tried to be specific and will hold ourselves to these goals. I will try to come back to them each month or so to reflect on them.
- Plan a vacation for just the two of us. Save to pay for it up front!
- Pay off at least 75% of student loans! - 28.9% as of December 2012
- Save and buy a "new" vehicle - $2,000 saved as of December 2012
- Save 70% of emergency fund - 54% as of December 2012
- Get basement and garage ORGANIZED!
- Floor the attic (more storage)
- Bret to purchase the firearm of his choice - taking conceal & carry in January 2013
- Organize a Legacy Drawer
- Make wills for each of us
- Build a 72-Hour emergency kit (here and here)
- Be intentional about finding opportunities to give to others
- Plan our meals by the week
- Keep communication open and loving between us
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