God, What is Mine to Do?

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend the Forgotten People conference at Lifebridge Church in Fort Wayne, IN. I learned a lot, but I think the most important thing that I took home was this one quote: "God, what is mine to do?"

In the context of a speech on an entirely different topic, pastor's wife, Lynne Hybels shared this phrase. She said that when she felt overwhelmed with grief and compassion for people in need, she asked, God, what is mine to do?

I am not faced with the same challenges, but my life is filled with callings.
There are so many things that I WANT to do.
I want to spend $25 an hour and drive half way across the state so my daughter can take the horse riding lessons that she wants.
I want to drive back to Fort Wayne every time there is an invitation for my daughter to see her friends there. I want to send my musical child to Juliard.
I want to help my small town to organize a Cub Scout Pack, but I also want my boys to enjoy their time in the pack their in even if it's in another town.
I want to take my fighter half way across the state so he can train and wrestle with the best.
I want to make sure that my children brush their teeth properly so that they never have another cavity.
I want to compose every lesson so that they learn exactly what they need to know, and are never confused.
I want to say yes to every job offer because they always sound so interesting.
I want to take every class that the local college has to offer, just for fun.
I want to say yes to every ladies night, writers group, and SWA invitation.
I want to attend the Tuesday Bible study, and the Thursday Bible study and the Sunday morning Bible study, and I want to help in my children's Sunday school classes too.
I want to be there every time my child sings, her sister acts, her brother wrestles, his brother wins...
for every award, every honor, I want to be there. It's why I homeschool.

But, then I can not always have everything that I want. I can't give her the riding lessons, or him the best wrestling team. I can't get her to Juliard or be in more than one place on Sunday morning.

I can't feed the hungry or clothe the poor or save the world.

There are many things I want to do that I can't.

I could feel guilty when I have to choose who's award I'll witness, or which drives I'll make, or what charities I'll support because every time I say yes to one thing, I'm saying no to everything else that wants that hour, that day, that dollar.

I can't do all the things that I want to do.
But, I can ask God, what is mine to do? I can listen for His answer, and I can try to obey.

Before you go to the store...

I'm still cutting out coupons as I begin to write this, so I don't yet know how it will all turn out. Follow me along on today's adventure.
It's 11:30 am and we are done with math, science and history. I was up at 5:30 to keep up with my course work. Then, I began to work on one of my many Mom duties: grocery shopping.
This is not my favorite task, and I go out of my way to avoid it. In fact, my most creative meals are made when we have little to no food in the pantry and I have to improvise. It is in my nature to be lazy about the tasks that I don't enjoy, so if there is easy to make food in the house, then, that is what we eat. The really good recipes come out of necessity.

I do, however, find great pleasure in the challenge of meeting my family's needs without spending money. Our family of 8 has a grocery budget of $300 per month. It's my job to stay under it. Some of my tricks are explained in other posts, but today I am going to try out our local Sav-A-Lot. I am driving my daughter to the equestrian center this afternoon and there is a Sav-A-Lot store seven miles away from where she will be.

Remember: travel time and expense must be calculated when figuring your costs and savings.


I've not been there before because it is 28 miles from our house. So, I will be dropping her off and driving 14 miles total (7miles each way) to try out the Sav-A-Lot and see how much I can get in my budget. Now, I'm not an extreme couponer, I don't buy coupons - in fact, currently, we have a lady at church who gets her paper at 5am, reads it and then brings it to church for us, so I'm not even buying a Sunday paper at this time.

Now, my van averages 21 miles per gallon, so the 14 miles will cost me 2/3 of a gallon of gas. At $3.79 per gallon, that is about $2.53 that I am spending before I even get to the store. You could calculate wear and tear on the vehicle also, but I'm not quite that detailed... yet.

Remember: Nothing is really FREE, even when it says FREE.

I have shopped at Sav-A-Lot before, so I know that I will need to provide my own bags and boxes, so I am packing those. If I don't bring them, I end up at the checkout, tempted to buy the bags they sell for ten cents each, and I don't want to do that, so I'm putting them in the car now.

Previously, they did not accept coupons, but I checked their website today and now they do, so that is why I'm trying them out again. I want to see how their prices minus coupons compare to my other shopping options, so I will take with me: my COUPON BINDER (this link goes to Couponing 101 where she has a great video demonstration of a coupon binder) and my PRICE LIST (scroll to the end of this article for a copy of my price list) I am making sure that my coupons are organized, and that I have all of them in the binder so I don't miss anything.

I also know that I tend to spend more when I bring my children. They distract me, they ask nicely for things that I wouldn't normally buy, but don't mind them having, and generally, I just end up spending more when I'm not focused. So, I am taking one child to an activity, and asking my teenage daughter to watch my two preschoolers, and taking just one or two of the middle kids. This will help me to stay on task and spend less.


Check back later to see how it went.

FREE! Get FREE! stuff here

FREE TOWEL
That's what the ad on my table says. The word FREE is in BIG BOLD lettering. The word TOWEL slightly lighter and smaller text.
The bottom left hand corner of the ad tells me to go to www.zest.com for details. (I'm providing the link, not because I think it's a great deal, but because I'm using their ad to make a point, and it only seems fair)


So, in a really, really, really tiny font size that I can barely read it says, "*with 5 UPC's plus $5.00 shipping and handling."

That is what I call NOT FREE! Technically, the towel may be free, but the soap you have to buy to get the UPC's is NOT and $5 is not the world's cheapest towel.

I bring this up because, I often see blogs and ads about free stuff or nearly free stuff, or hear people talking about the free gift and free products that they received, and I'm here to tell you to read the fine print.

So, I challenge all my readers to check the prices of towels the next time you are out. Can you buy a towel for $5 where you normally shop?

My son WANTS to be homeless, and it's all my fault

Today, my 10 year old son told me that he wants to be homeless when he grows up. Perhaps, I have said "How are you going to survive as an adult when you waste so much?" one too many times.

Sometimes, we say things to our children with the best intentions, and they backfire.

Ask my daughters how much a gallon of milk, or gas costs and they know because I've told them over and over again. Usually, I am sharing this wisdom when I see them wasting something and I spout off how much it costs per container. Then, I even make them measure out a serving and measure how much they've used and I make them complete an entire advanced math lesson on the exact amount of parmesan cheese they just put on their spaghetti down to the penny.

Maybe I've gone too far...

It isn't just food. I do this when they forget to close the door and the heat or air is on. Just to be clear, we don't even pay for this. We live in a parsonage and our utilities are all included, so this isn't money out of my pocket. But, I did pay these bills for long enough that I know how much it costs, and I can just about figure out how many seconds can go by with the door open for it to cost a dollar.

I stopped at the bread store on our way home from homeschool co-op today, and spent the rest of the trip home explaining to my children how much money we were saving by driving only 8 minutes out of the way in order to get bread for 69cents or 89cents per loaf. When it takes one loaf of bread to make a snack of PB&J sandwiches, the savings add up fast.

After we got home and I was putting away the bread, I made another comment about the bread, and my son said, "Oh, are we still talking about that?"
I answered, "How are you going to survive as an adult if you don't understand how much things cost?"

He said, "I'm going to be homeless and live in a cardboard box so that I never have to worry about bills." He is brilliant, and I imagine that he really will live quite a simple life when he is grown, and it will be all my fault.

This article was blatantly stolen from the Albion E-News, but it is an email only publication, and they don't include a way to "SHARE", and since my girls are featured, I had no choice but to resort to thievery.


The two blonde girls are mine.

ROTARY CLUB OF ALBION HEARS UPDATE ON ALBION YOUTH THEATRE

At the Sept. 1, 2011 meeting of the Rotary Club of Albion, Rotarian Dolores Manthei introduced guest Rainbow Weldon who is associated with both Albion College and Children's Theatre groups. She introduced seven Albion youth involved in theatre who presented three skits that she composed from Alice in Wonderland. The skits were Alice Meets The Tweedles, the Tea Party Scene, and the Queen Scene.

Then Dory Lerew, secretary/treasurer of Albion Youth Theatre, told about Teen Theatre Summer Camp. The Mazoola Children's Theatre sends directors to Albion for one full week. The children and youth, ages 5 to 18, practice every night during the week and then give two performances on Saturday. The shows they have produced are King Arthur, Pinocchio, and Jungle Book.


Photo caption: Members of Albion Youth Theatre: Nathanael Kurtz, Sumita Strander, Summer Johnson, Vikram Strander, Daryus Mastin, Brennen French, Caitlin Johnson.

Photo courtesy of Miriam Daly.

Getting paid to write

So, I'm reading this book The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman. He wrote it nine years ago, and at that time the going rate for a copywriter was $65 - $75 an hour, and this rate was for a freelancer with no overhead; agencies and designers that hired writers charged their customers even more.

A few weeks ago, I answered an ad for a copywriter; the pay? Well, there was no hourly rate, but they offered a flat rate of $5 for 3000 words. Now, I type about 50 words a minute, so it would take me one hour to type 3000 words. That does not include any time for conceptualization or research. That is less than minimum wage, and it's depressing because someone said yes to that job. It wasn't me.

Even more depressing is that people are lining up to apply for jobs like these. So, what do I do? I write for free. I hang out here on my blog, sharing my wisdom with all of you, and I'm grateful that you don't seem to mind when I miss a day. But, I suppose if you were paying me, then you would probably mind too. I also write to sell my own stuff, like when I listed my NOOK for sale. And, every now and then, I take on a paying job, but not at $5 an hour!

I would not be considered a Well-Fed Writer. My writing skills do not pay the bills; my husband gets that honor. But, I don't try very hard... I'm unreliable - see how my daily tips don't really come every day? You can make money writing, and lots of people do. That $65-$75 range may be a little out of sight since the onset of blog mania and plenty of people out there selling their wares for a pittance. But, I would venture to say that the writers who take a job for $5 an hour or less aren't very good writers. If they were, they would know that they could charge more and get it.

So, I'm a little bitter when I see my skills sold for so little. My Daily Tip for today goes out to all my Professional Writer friends. It's simple. If you are good, you can make money doing what you love to do. So, don't sell yourself short. Let cheap customers pay for bad writing. When they are ready for something good, they should know they'll have to pay for it.