Just Because We Can . . .

Thanksgiving 2011 - Mr. Love Bird's missing because he was working 2 jobs at the time; thankful that's over!

I've been seeing the 30 Days of Thanks going around and while I think it's a great way to publicly show what you're thankful for I also think it's a means for bragging. Some thanks are definitely heartfelt, but others are extremely materialistic with people rattling off all the things they have. I'm a big believer in "Do you!" so kudos to those that are doing this and find it helpful in some way. Whatever works I guess...

Instead I've been reflecting on how far my family has come in 2 years. It's something I'm truly grateful for: God's faithfulness. 

My church's growth group is reading Dave Ramsey's latest book and beyond the past 2 years, it's also made me reflective on my 20+ years of journals I've kept since I was 7 and how things have sometimes seemed uncertain, but in the end everything has worked out no matter how crazy it seemed while getting to that point. 

Dave Ramsey has also helped me and my family put our finances into perspective. With Mr. Love Bird's latest promotion there are things we can finally do, but we're very focused "with gazelle intensity" as Dave would say to stay on goal towards financial freedom. 

I wrote a while back about wanting to move downtown, but since then after crunching the numbers while we definitely can, we don't believe we should. We'd be more than doubling our current rent to get way less space, and it just doesn't make sense seeing that most likely we'll be moving in 2014. Honestly the thought of 3 moves in 3 years makes me nauseous!

We've had people tell us, "Oh you should get a car!" or other financial sink holes we should make, but instead we won't. We're going to keep living like no one else so later we can live like no one else and that is soon in our future! Besides all the schlepping I do around the city is how I keep my fitness ;-)

How do you balance those things you can do vs. those things you should do?