This past week was scary. Finances were already too tight, then John's salary is cut on top of it all.
But.
God is good.
After a morning of consoling a crying three-year old over the lack of Cheerios or breakfast food, I received a note from a friend telling me God placed it on her heart to wire money. I was able to go out and buy cereal and food for the week!
Last week the cats circled my ankles begging for food. I opened the cabinet and we were just about out. I had to give them a third of their daily serving. I asked God to somehow provide so the animals wouldn't go hungry.
A friend pulled me aside later in the day with the "God placed it on my heart to give this to you." She shoved dollar bills into my hands. Just enough to buy more cat food! Later in the day I was approached by yet another friend who handed me a gift card to the local grocery store as well as some cash. Both from annonymous donors. We were about out of food again and now we can supplement what we picked up at a local food bank last night.
Right now all of our resources are going into keeping our house any paying down the tens of thousands of dollars of medical debt. We still have to alternate which bills get paid each month and which don't (Exel Energy doesn't waste any time calling you again and again reminding you you haven't paid the bill for the month. Sorry. They have to wait till next month.)
Nonetheless, God is providing for our most basic needs. If we lose the house, we have a plan. Kyle and I would have to move to PA. John would stay and work out the details. That would be hard and heart-breaking, but we have a plan. We won't be living in a refrigerator box on the corner of Hampden and Wadsworth!
Things look bleak. But I feel a sense of peace. Those of you who've followed me over the years know that peace isn't exactly an inherent quality of mine. My first reaction to anything hard is FREAK OUT!
I'm finding that when I give up my lust to make it all better, that's when God steps in and acts. My flying around like a bumble bee on speed to make extra money right NOW only gets in His way.
That doesn't mean I'm sitting back in my reading chair analyzing my belly-button. I'm taking reasonable actions to add to our income. There is no fast answer. Building a business takes time. Between my writing and my AVON, hopefully one of these days we can bring home enough to stop going to the food bank we found last night.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Busy, busy, busy
I've been a bad girl. My poor blogs are being ignored and shoved to the bottom of the priority list.
What have I been doing all this time besides chasing after the now 3 year old Booger, trying to get him to use the potty not his pants?
For the past two months I've been writing for a cool website called examiner.com . Examiner is an info/news site specific to a particular city. They are servicing about 60 cities nationwide. Examiners are writers who are experts on a particular topic. Readers can expect at least 3 or 4 articles each week from any given examiner. Sometimes more if the examiner is a "breaking news" kind of writer.
Me? I'm the Denver Outdoor Recreation Examiner. I get to write about anything and everything outdoors. I do a lot of local stuff, but sometimes take things to a broader level (state or national). Scouring local news sources and Google Alerts keep me up on breaking news about anything outdoor rec.
Yes, I do get paid for it, but I get paid by page hits, so visit me, make me one of your favorite examiners and hit my pages often.
Several of my friends from Words for the Journey are examiners as well and I'll do a post real soon with their pages so you can read them as well.
My novel is being shopped to acquisition editors by my agent. So any day to forever I may or may not get a book contract. In the mean time, I'm working on novel #2.
To make enough money to pay for groceries and medical needs I've started an AVON business. A lot of hard work goes into building something from the ground up, but I'm encouraged. AVON unlike many other direct sales companies requires very little capital to get started as a representative. Get this - $10. Yep. That's all I had to invest to start making money. They have incredible training programs that are all free. I'm seeing small profits each 2 week campaign.
Building my customer base is key to making money. The more product I sell, the greater the percentage I make. My goal is $550 per campaign. I'm at about $200 and need more customers!
Before you think of spicy scented old ladies with blue hair, AVON has radically changed. It's actually cutting-edge when it comes to skin care products and undercuts Wal-Mart and Target!
My friend Susie is working on a price point comparison chart featuring commercial brands like Cover Girl and Almay as opposed to Clinique and Lancome. I'll share it once it's done.
AVON is quite high-tech. I have an online store from which people anywhere can order products and have them shipped to their door. There are a heap of free shipping coupons available and if shipping is needed, it's about $3.
Psalm 42 keeps the music flowing. We have are singing for a sister night at New Life Lakewood for a multi-housing ministry sister night. The one we had at my church, Bear Valley, went really well.
Finally, John's attention has been focused on taking the remaining units of his Architectural Registration Exam. He has one tomorrow and has been studying like a mad dog. I'm on Booger duty 24/7 and carry more around the house so he can get this done.
Whew. I'm tired thinking about what I need to still do today.
What have I been doing all this time besides chasing after the now 3 year old Booger, trying to get him to use the potty not his pants?
For the past two months I've been writing for a cool website called examiner.com . Examiner is an info/news site specific to a particular city. They are servicing about 60 cities nationwide. Examiners are writers who are experts on a particular topic. Readers can expect at least 3 or 4 articles each week from any given examiner. Sometimes more if the examiner is a "breaking news" kind of writer.
Me? I'm the Denver Outdoor Recreation Examiner. I get to write about anything and everything outdoors. I do a lot of local stuff, but sometimes take things to a broader level (state or national). Scouring local news sources and Google Alerts keep me up on breaking news about anything outdoor rec.
Yes, I do get paid for it, but I get paid by page hits, so visit me, make me one of your favorite examiners and hit my pages often.
Several of my friends from Words for the Journey are examiners as well and I'll do a post real soon with their pages so you can read them as well.
My novel is being shopped to acquisition editors by my agent. So any day to forever I may or may not get a book contract. In the mean time, I'm working on novel #2.
To make enough money to pay for groceries and medical needs I've started an AVON business. A lot of hard work goes into building something from the ground up, but I'm encouraged. AVON unlike many other direct sales companies requires very little capital to get started as a representative. Get this - $10. Yep. That's all I had to invest to start making money. They have incredible training programs that are all free. I'm seeing small profits each 2 week campaign.
Building my customer base is key to making money. The more product I sell, the greater the percentage I make. My goal is $550 per campaign. I'm at about $200 and need more customers!
Before you think of spicy scented old ladies with blue hair, AVON has radically changed. It's actually cutting-edge when it comes to skin care products and undercuts Wal-Mart and Target!
My friend Susie is working on a price point comparison chart featuring commercial brands like Cover Girl and Almay as opposed to Clinique and Lancome. I'll share it once it's done.
AVON is quite high-tech. I have an online store from which people anywhere can order products and have them shipped to their door. There are a heap of free shipping coupons available and if shipping is needed, it's about $3.
Psalm 42 keeps the music flowing. We have are singing for a sister night at New Life Lakewood for a multi-housing ministry sister night. The one we had at my church, Bear Valley, went really well.
Finally, John's attention has been focused on taking the remaining units of his Architectural Registration Exam. He has one tomorrow and has been studying like a mad dog. I'm on Booger duty 24/7 and carry more around the house so he can get this done.
Whew. I'm tired thinking about what I need to still do today.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Don't pay your morgage!
Leave it to the O-trauma administration to come up with this great idea: punch the people hurting the most. A lot of homeowners were conned into buying beyond their means by the Democrat Party's belief that owning a home is a right, not an earned privlidge. Banks were forced to finance people who couldn't pay back loans. Fannie and Freddie are the poster children of that disaster. Will our "hope and change" prez help the people duped by his party? Nope.
As a parent, how do I teach my child about responsibility? Be frugal. Save. Don't squander. - when those behaviors are punished and irresponsibility and is rewarded? Personal responsibility is no longer a value of this new "hope and change" culture.
The new administration's beating down of the people he promised to help continues.
O-trauma is ripping scholarships out of the hands of poor kids in DC forcing them from the private education they earned, back into failing schools. But his kids go to one of the most expensive schools in the Capital. Public education was NEVER a viable option. What does this say about our prez? He doesn't want his daughters "soiled" by low-income influences.
Throwing fake money (I say fake b/c they're just putting ink on paper with nothing of value to back it up) only makes things worse. Obama's doing exactly what the consumers did to get into this mess in the first place! Over-spending. Extending credit beyond reasonable ability to pay.
Some of these trillions of dollars come from countries that hate us and are salivating over the chance to watch America collapse on itself. Who is Big Spender Obama selling us to, and why?
My family will continue to pay the mortgage and credit card debt and pray God will protect us from the insanity our government is imposing.
... it is not only the over-mortgaged whom Obama will ignore, but those who have lost their jobs! If you do not make enough money such that your mortgage payments come to 31 percent of your income, you can't get your mortgage refinanced. If your income has dropped to a point where your monthly payments on your loan consume a greater part of your earnings than 31 percent, you are stuck. - Dick Morris former CLINTON advisor
As a parent, how do I teach my child about responsibility? Be frugal. Save. Don't squander. - when those behaviors are punished and irresponsibility and is rewarded? Personal responsibility is no longer a value of this new "hope and change" culture.
The new administration's beating down of the people he promised to help continues.
O-trauma is ripping scholarships out of the hands of poor kids in DC forcing them from the private education they earned, back into failing schools. But his kids go to one of the most expensive schools in the Capital. Public education was NEVER a viable option. What does this say about our prez? He doesn't want his daughters "soiled" by low-income influences.
Throwing fake money (I say fake b/c they're just putting ink on paper with nothing of value to back it up) only makes things worse. Obama's doing exactly what the consumers did to get into this mess in the first place! Over-spending. Extending credit beyond reasonable ability to pay.
Some of these trillions of dollars come from countries that hate us and are salivating over the chance to watch America collapse on itself. Who is Big Spender Obama selling us to, and why?
My family will continue to pay the mortgage and credit card debt and pray God will protect us from the insanity our government is imposing.
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