View from my computer on Wednesday afternoon.
Do my eyes look crooked in that picture? I know that they say that one eye is always a little bit higher than the other… but my head is actually a little bit crooked exaggerating the effect…
It probably goes without saying, but I’m pretty sure that if you’re bad at journaling, you’re bad at blogging. The social network gurus say that you should blog every day… just like taking a shower. I must be pretty stinky.
It may make some of you squeamish that later on in this post you can see a couple of numbers from my bank account. There are two reasons. One, I am super stoked about my new online banking stuff. But the bigger reason that I am so excited is that we are making it! After losing Ava, after my accident leaving me unable to work the same way I did before, after family drama, and after extensive health issues with other family members… we are more than keeping our heads above water. Praise God.
We are living in an absolute miracle of a house. Many of you helped us in so many ways in the early months and years following my accident. It has been four years now, and God is blessing us abundantly.
Shelly and I have never been closer. She is such a blessing to me. I can’t believe I’ve known her for 16 years! I am lucky enough to have many days when I feel the exact same way I did about her in those early oogly googly days. (There are days when I want to blast her with a firehose… but that just comes from living in the same house as another passionate person.) She strives to be like Christ. She loves me deeply, and she is an amazing mother. It is so comforting to be married to a woman who is still trying to improve our relationship after this long. She knows where she struggles and she works hard in those areas. Wow! I love you Shelly.
My kids are amazing. Watching them grow and develop is a supernatural process. I have learned so much about love because of them.
My family is a great blessing as well. The hours that they have spent on the road, and the money that they have spent on gas and food are mind boggling. They have been here to sacrificially help every step of the way. When I think that they feel about me the same way that I feel about my kids, it is very humbling.
I am also getting multiple ways to financially make ends meet. It isn’t much, but it’s just enough… and in an economy like this, I am counting my blessings (literally).
Speaking of finances, I have a new favorite company that is making my life easier…
This isn’t a commercial (I wouldn’t mind getting paid though)… I’m just passing along some helpful info for you people out there that are online a lot.
The setup takes a lot of work. I took automatic payment off of every single bill that I had at different companies, and entered them into Virtual Wallet. Once you do this, you get this sweet little calendar that shows you your cash flow for the whole month.
You can see on the calendar that I have a $921 bill tomorrow. That is property tax. Then I have a bunch of bills on Friday. Mind you, I don’t have to do anything to pay these bills, PNC does it all. I just have to make sure there is money in the bank!
There is also an iPhone app… you can see that after I pay all my bills on Friday, I have seven dollars for the weekend! Wowsers… property tax sucks. But you can transfer money to and from one of your savings accounts by sliding that navy blue little button. I don’t use it much because it is a lower interest rate, but it is nice to have. You can also send out one time payments to different companies in about 30 seconds.
Anyhow… I have used online banking before, but it has never been this good. If you are willing to commit to getting all of your bills online, Virtual Wallet makes budgeting and finances way easier. (end commercial)
Anyhow… maybe I will start blogging a little more now that life seems to be (just a little bit more) under control. Who knows how long that will last.
Grace & peace
