Uncovered, Exposed, and Bare ~ And Dreams

NO! Not me! Good grief! Our souls; our hearts! That is a fear that can come from sharing about your life and blogging; especially when you know that friends of your friends are starting to read your blog. Wow!

Anyway, "On with it, man!" I haven't blogged for a few weeks and so I thought I'd sit down this evening and write a few lines about what is going on.

First, (here comes the "bare" part) Melissa and I have enrolled in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. (Click the link if you've been in a cave and don't know who Dave or what FPU is.) Anyway, what we're finally admitting to ourselves is that basically, we don't know how to save money or manage what what we have, for that matter. We have never been disciplined in that practice. But, we're making steps toward change. Fortunately for us, God has blessed us with incredible patience and love toward each other and we are both on the same page, admitting that we both have faults. It's been very good.

Secondly, (here comes the "exposed" part) primarily because of our lack of discipline in finances, but also due to other circumstances we are in a bad spot. We have 4 creditors that want money and they want it now! They call and we ignore the phone. We've all gotten quite good at it, sad to say. If we were in our early 20's and could know what we know now, oh my goodness! We would definitely become millionaires. No foolin'! Even so, if we were out of debt and know what we know now, we could still become millionaires, eventually. But, we're not out of debt. And right now, I don't know how we ever will be, with our current circumstances. So...

Thirdly, (finally, the uncovering) we are trying to change our circumstances. We are trying to create additional "streams of income"*. For a couple of years now, Melissa has been giving piano lessons to mostly homeschoolers in our area. Even when we moved last fall, I believe they all stayed with her and now she's even added a few more. It is our prayer that she be able to add enough students so that she can quit her part-time job at Dillard's. Please join us in that prayer.

Also, I have had the dream of having my own Custom Woodworks shop. I have built quite a bit of the furniture that is in our house and have put it on my website. Check it out if you want. I need to get some better pics of our king-sized bed on there. The ones I used were taken for the purpose of showing the paint job Melissa did in our room. I think my next step toward making this dream a reality is to get a brochure and some biz cards printed up. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas on how we can get these two businesses to really take off, please comment or email us.

Another dream Melissa has had is to open her own pie shop. Now, if any of you have ever tasted one of her pies, (or seen my gut the past few years) you know this woman can cook! I mean it. She has got some great recipes for pie and cinnamon rolls that will knock your socks off and make you loosen your belt! Thing about this dream is we can't do it in our own home due to food regulations. This brings along another dream we have...

Hey! Joseph was a man of God and a dreamer, so there!

We want to build our own Strawbale Estate. I say estate because it's not just a house. We want a ranch, some land. We want to have a horse, a cow or two, maybe some chickens. We want to go back to simple living in today's technological world! By that I mean we don't want to be pioneers and do without every modern convenience. We're glad we live in today's world, but want to do it more simple. To experience life to the full, as we see it!

Oh my! This is quickly becoming a book and didn't want to do that. I'm starting to just spew forth all of my heart and ideas. Time to reign it in for those of you who are still actually reading this.

Bottom line? Ok I'll sum it up. Please pray for us. We are in debt over our heads and want OUT! We want to live well, give well and save well! We appreciate your thoughts and prayers.