Making Your Home a Haven: Showing Thankfulness

Oooh ya'll! Today, Tammy has a good one for us!

Our challenge for today is to encourage a sense of thankfulness in our home- thankfulness to God for all He's done for us; thankfulness to our sweet husbands who toil daily to take care of their families; thankfulness to friends and family, who support us and pick us up when we need it the most.

Here are some of the ideas she has given us for today:

• Do something for a family member that shows how thankful you are for them!
  Spend time with your family, talking about and praising God for His many blessings!
• Brainstorm something special you and/or your children can do for someone else in need.
• Sit down (include your children if possible!) and write or make a thank-you card for someone who has blessed you recently.

Ya'll know I'm a fan of thank you notes, so I'm looking forward to doing this one! I'm curious to see what I can get done today. :)

And before I leave, can I ask for a couple of prayers for strength? After putting it off for many months, Southern Hubby and I sat down this weekend and actually prepared a household budget. (How adult of us! lol) We are now following Dave Ramsey's envelope system. I bought the starters kit back in February. (Now can you see how long we've been putting this off?)

We're really excited about starting, but also very nervous. We are very used to whipping out the Amex whenever we need to pay for something. And like Dave mentions, it's very easy to spend, spend, spend when you don't see your bank account dwindling. He correctly ties emotions to money. When you are actually seeing the money leave your hand, it's hurts a heck of a lot more than just handing over your credit card and seeing nothing. We'd really like to pay off some debt (college student loans, my truck, put more towards our mortgage, and start a gift/Christmas fund) and not have the majority of income going to paying off our credit card expenses each month.

And it's already worked! Yesterday as we headed out, I thought to myself, "I really need some coffee. I'll ask SH to swing by Starbucks for a skinny vanilla latte." My mouth started watering until I remembered that that money would have to come out of my 'fun money' envelope. Yikes! Suddenly, I didn't feel like handing over my $5 for a coffee. I'm becoming very stingy, err, frugal with my money now! :) If anyone has succeed on this system, I'd love to read some stories about your experiences and maybe some tips if you have them!

And lastly, I'd really appreciate if I could get a couple more prayers for my sissy, S. Today she finds out if she has been accepted into a teaching program at her college. She's pretty nervous, as we all are. Please pray that it is in God's plan for her to be accepted. She would make a fabulous teacher! In fact, I considered actually going back to teaching if we could get into the same school! How fun would that be?!

Happy prayers in Him,

xoxo Y