"Financial Peace Revisited" by Dave Ramsey

Yes, ANOTHER book post! I finished about 3 books this past week, but this book I had actually been reading since around November. I may have mentioned this before, but Rich and I enrolled in the online "Financial Peace University" course around November. For the package we paid for, we received 16 weeks of online access to the online videos for the course, as well as downloading the workbook that accompanies the course (and the audio version of all of the video sessions), and they also send you Dave's book that is supplemental reading for the course. 

A little background info - Dave Ramsey is a Christian financial expert whose basic underlying goal is to help every man and woman get out of debt, get an emergency fund, get a savings plan, have a secure and substantial retirement fund, and be successful in life. 

Rich and I took this course together, and I HIGHLY recommend it for everyone - whether you are single, married, divorced, old, young...you will benefit! One thing that was never really touched on in our early marriage classes were finances and the importance of being on the same page. As Dave Ramsey says, in every marriage there is almost always one "free spirit" and one "nerd." I'm sure you can guess which one I am and which one Rich is. :-)  That affects everything from spending to budgeting to...well, EVERYTHING. I wish we would have done this sooner. Because, just like in raising children, buying a house, or any other major decision, finances MUST be done together and both spouses must be on the same page in order to be successful. It CANNOT be the philosophy of "one person handles it all and the other one is in the dark."

I won't go into detail, but as we moved to Colorado, grew our family, etc... we were stupid and ran into debt. The largest of our debt is a personal loan my mom extended to us for house repairs. Buying a "fixer upper" is fantastic if you get a great deal and can do most of the work yourself, which is true for us. However, if I could go back and redo it, I would have NOT taken a loan and just "lived" with the mess and issues for a while longer and paid cash for everything. Anyway, for a long time this debt has bothered me b/c I never had debt. Even living in the 2nd most expensive (or maybe most expensive) state in the U.S. (Hawaii) while making only $19,000...I always lived on a tight budget and never carried a credit card balance or debt of any kind. It BOTHERS me to have debt. So, I am VERY thankful for this course! :-)

The book is fabulous and even if you cannot take the Financial Peace University course, you need to read this book. Even if you aren't in debt...even if you already have a good savings account - READ THE BOOK. Dave sets up 7 easy steps for financial success. 

The first step is to have a $1,000 emergency fund. Once this is set up, you CUT UP EVERY CREDIT CARD. Then you pay off all of your debts in a structured way, which Dave calls the "Debt Snowball", starting with the smallest debt first. Then, once you get rid of all debt (outside of your mortgage), you save 3-6 months of money that will pay all of your bills, so that in case something should happen, you know you have that safety net to carry you through until something else comes along. VERY SMART - being the constant worrier I am, having safety nets are huge for me. Once you have that done, you start working simultaneously on saving for retirement, investing, and also saving for your child's college. 

This course was a major blessing to us, and we have learned so much. We even learned some great things to help our children learn at an early age the importance of "give, save, spend" and how to raise them to be excellent stewards of what God has given them. This isn't a "get rich quick" course. It is all about making your money work for you, being a good steward of what God has given you, and later being able to give back to others as God has blessed. 

I won't share our level of debt because I know my husband would KILL Me - and it's different for everyone. But I will say that we implemented our new "super strict" budget on January 1st. I set up our budget and did all of the math since I'm the nerdy "I love this stuff!" type of person but had Rich go over it all with me. We had 3 areas of debt and with the budget we live on (Rich has a good job but we aren't making heaps of money, we will soon have 3 kids, and I don't "work" at a "paying job" to stay home with our children right now), I figured it would take us 4.7 years to pay everything off, with the first debt in the "debt snowball" taking about 19 months to pay off. The Lord started to immediately bless us with a completely UNEXPECTED bonus, a job promotion for Rich, and just a few extra things here and there. What should have taken 19 months looks like it will be gone in 6 months. That's right...6 months. We are psyched to see all that God is doing and is teaching us! 

One night in November, we cut up EVERY SINGLE CREDIT CARD. So scary but also SO FREEING!!!! There were a bunch more than this but I had already thrown out a bunch. (Rich cut the "cool pattern" in them. Hence - his "free spirit" while my nerdy self was cutting them up into a billion pieces and making sure card numbers and names were totally obliterated. :-))

"In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer" by Irene Gut Opdyke

In the past week I read another amazing book that was recommended to me by another dear friend. As soon as I saw the title I thought, "Wait a second...I think I HAVE that book!" :-) One of my most favorite things to "shop" for (since I'm not much of a shopper at all) is books. In fact, when I was single and teaching, I'd give myself a little treat now and again and walk 1 1/2 miles to the mall and then spend HOURS in Borders, gathering books and spending the extra money I earned from tutoring after school. However, because of a very demanding teaching/grading schedule, I almost never had time to read, so I had stacks of books all over my bedroom. And if you know me at all...that spells HEAVEN to me. :-) So now, as I finally have settled into this house and fallen into a "routine" of sorts with the kiddos and housework, I am starting to be able to dive in to the huge pile of books I own and mark them off my list! (And by "list" I mean like "Epitome of Nerdness" in that I have an Excel spreadsheet alphabetically listing every single book Rich and I own, as well as a separate column for "Read".)

Anyway, I found this little treasure on one of my bookcases and dove right in. It is fabulous. I've read many books on the Holocaust survivors, but I believe this is one of the first that I've read of a Holocaust rescuer. I won't give too much of the story away, but this book is an autobiography that is well written, easy to follow, and attention-grabbing from the start. Irene is a young woman growing up in Poland that soon finds herself at nursing school many miles away from her family when the Germans invade Poland. What follows is her incredible tale of survival, sorrow, pain (she was raped by soldiers as she was trying to escape capture), and determination. She ends up working for a German officer as a housemaid while using his very own house to hide Jews in the basement. She is an amazing woman, and this book is absolutely fantastic! I think I finished it in about 5 days of reading at night before bed! I also enjoyed the pictures that were placed in the book - I love having real faces to go with the family and friends and survivors that she describes in the book!

Teaching Disclaimer: This book is fabulous for an older teen girl to read and would work well if you are teaching on WWII and want some supplemental reading. However, rape is mentioned. It is in no way graphic at ALL (basically just mentions, "I was raped") or distasteful but if your child doesn't know what rape is, it could lead to questions. She also is forced into a physical relationship with the German officer she is a housekeeper for. Again - no real details are mentioned, and she isn't explicit, but that topic also comes up. (I.E. "I slept in his bed." or "That night I found myself in his room.")

"Evidence Not Seen" by Darlene Deibler Rose

I finished this book several days ago, but have been sick with this pregnancy and unable to blog about it until now! I was told about this book by a friend and fellow book-lover. Wow, is this book fantastic! 

It is set during the time period of WWII and is another autobiography. If you remember from my last book blog entry, I had finished the book "Unbroken" - a biography of a POW imprisoned in Japan during WWII. This book also features a POW during WWII, but she was held in a Japanese camp located in New Guinea. Darlene Deibler Rose was a missionary with her husband to New Guinea. Soon after they arrived, though, WWII broke out and the Japanese quickly took over the island. I won't give major details away but she is captured and interred in a Japanese POW camp away from her husband. Written in her own words, this incredibly journey of faith challenged me so often in my own walk. To have faced such devastating circumstances and witnessed such atrocious things and yet still have a heart of love for people (and her captors, no less!) and the work of God was quite a rebuke to my own passive, easy life. One thing that continually impressed me was her vast bank of Scripture memory. She was able, although stripped of her Bible, to continually encourage herself and others with verses she had memorized as a child, teen, and young adult.  She took on a role of leadership in her barracks, held daily devotionals for her fellow inmates, and witnessed multiple times to her Japanese head of camp. It is virtually impossible to walk away from this book without continually seeing the goodness of God and the miracles He accomplishes in and through His faithful children!

I HIGHLY recommend this book!

Education note: If your teen (probably more geared for a 9th-12th grader unless your junior higher reads at an accelerated level) is needing to find an autobiography or historical book to read or do a book report on, this would be the perfect book!

The Tangle Monster

Have I gotten your attention? :-) This is probably going to sound a little strange, but since this blog is dedicated to our "mayhem", I thought I'd share with you. :-) 

Caelynn, even from around the age of one, has had these amazing curls sprouting from her head. :-) We love her curls...except for bath time. I've used adult professional conditioner and various detanglers but it still is a struggle to get through her hair. She used to HATE getting her hair combed and so one night, in desperation, I told her, "Honey, I'm so sorry! The Tangle Monster must have been in your hair!" And THAT was the birth of..."The Tangle Monster". Now, every bath night, as I comb her hair, she regularly carries on a full conversation with her beloved Tangle Monster. I turn away from her so she doesn't see that the Tangle Monster is indeed Mommy with a deep, growling type of voice. As I start to comb her hair she will say, "Um, Tangle Monster?" and wait for "him" to growl back, "Hello? Caelynn?" Then she launches into whatever she has done that day. She tells him her Sunday School lesson, her favorite songs, what she learned that day, what games we played, if she got any treats...it always varies. She will start each new sentence, though, with, "Tangle Monster?" just to make sure he is there. I think she really believes he is present and with her during each hair combing session. At the end of combing, when I announce, "No more tangles!" she will say a goodbye to her Tangle Monster, usually saying, "I love you, Tangle Monster!" 

It sounds silly...but I'm going to be really sad the day she realizes he doesn't exist and it was just her silly mommy trying to turn a hair-combing session into something fun. Might make a great children's book, though! ;-)

"Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand

Holy mother of pearl, is this a GOOD BOOK! I started this book last month but because of the sheer volume of it, it took me a while to read and then I got sick. This book emotionally touched me in so many ways. 

I feel like I have read A LOT about World War II. It's one of my favorite eras to read about because it fascinates and horrifies me at the same time. I have read many, MANY Holocaust memoirs, books on the "Band of Brothers", and other works. I felt like I was pretty well read on the entire subject of WWII. This book proved me wrong. Yes, I've read about war tactics, Pacific theater battles, life in German-occupied countries, and most of the extermination camps in Europe. What I had NOT read was an account of our amazing POWs that were held in horrible conditions in Japanese POW camps. This book made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me think, it made me ANGRY, and it opened my eyes to a whole other side of history that I had never really known about. 

To try to keep the story as concise as possible without giving away pivotal parts, this story follows one of the most amazing POWs we have had the privilege to have in our country. Louis Zamperini was a troubled child that eventually turned to running to give him purpose in life. He became such an amazing runner that he made it to the 1936 Olympics in Germany. When WWII began, Louis joined the military to fight for his country. What he didn't expect was a plane wreck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a record-setting amount of days in a small yellow raft, almost being eaten by sharks, being strafed multiple times by Japanese bombers, and almost making it to an island before being captured by the Japanese. What followed next is almost too horrific to write about. YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK! Overall, it is pretty clean. There are a few swear words and the "f" word is used once (because it was used in a quote). The story, though, is well worth the read, and so well written. You may recognize the author's name - she wrote "Seabiscuit" which went on to become an award-winning film. There are fabulous photographs, mostly provided by Louis himself, and the writing style of the book is awesome in that it has fabulous descriptions, fantastic details, and footnotes to give further information about a certain statistic, person mentioned, or place. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly suggest this for anyone who loves reading biographies or WWII history.

The Money Saving Mom's Budget by Crystal Paine

I forgot to post about this, but I HAVE been reading in order to try to meet my goal of reading 30 books by December 8, 2012. This book was great. If you are familiar with the couponing world, you most likely have visited or read about the blog "Money Saving Mom". The wonderful lady who puts this website together is the author of this book. She is a Christian lady who strives to live her life (stay-at-home mom of 3, homeschooling, paid blogger) debt-free. Her tips are awesome and if you are new to the world of budgeting, saving money, couponing, etc... then you will greatly appreciate this book! It is a super easy read! :-) She also provides some worksheets in the back to help you organize your meal planning, budgeting, couponing, household activities and full downloads are available on her website - here http://moneysavingmom.com/ 

Our Little Announcement

So AGAIN it has been a while since I have written. That is for two reasons. #1 is that I've been pretty darn sick. #2 is that I was afraid I would "blab" the news before we were ready to tell people. ;-) Our news, you might ask? We have baby #3 on the way. :-) We've known for about 5 weeks now but, since suffering two miscarriages over the course of the past few years, we like to wait until we have reached a somewhat "safer" part of the pregnancy. I also wanted to wait until we had our first ultrasound. I've had two kids now - and yet even with having TWO positive pregnancy tests, daily morning sickness, and sickness throughout the day, I am always petrified at my first ob appointment that they will say, I"m so sorry, sweetie - you are just fat. There is no baby." :-) No joke - that is my fear. :-) 

Some may ask, "Okay, we've read the birth stories of the other two. She CLEARLY said that she was DONE having kids after she had Matthew." Yep, I know. I blame peer pressure. There are so many friends on facebook that are pregnant that I got the 'baby bite". I expect large presents! Just kidding. Actually, I thought I WAS done after Matthew. I have difficult pregnancies. And while I have been blessed that they haven't involved early hospitalization or bed rest, vomiting for 30 some straight weeks is HARD on the body. And having to be induced with each one, enduring long labors and hard deliveries and high blood pressure and such makes it so much harder to have any more. I had told Rich that I was done...he wasn't convinced. We went back and forth, and I will admit that we had many an argument over it. I also don't do well on most birth control medicines. Any that have ANY form of hormone in them make me sick b/c my body is just THAT SENSITIVE to any form of extra hormone. Anyway, we fought back and forth. We both came from families of two kids - one boy and one girl. I was totally happy with where we were at. Plus, the cost of children. Many of our friends here and at our church home school their kids. We, however, just are NOT on board with that and unless God drastically changes our hearts and minds, that is NOT an option for us. I'm not slamming home school, so please don't start the hate mail. But, I do believe it is a personal decision each parent needs to weigh VERY carefully and coming from a background and degree in education, I come from a very different standpoint than others. Maybe some day I'll write on that if anyone cares. Anyway, children are EXPENSIVE and while we believe that God provides for the little ones He gives us, we also believe in counting the cost and being able to properly care for the ones He has given us charge over. So, back and forth we went, weighing the pros and cons of having a baby, with Rich always saying, "Please one more?"

Then, one evening while Rich was away at his grandfather's funeral, it really hit me. I wanted one more. I was actually a little startled to hear myself saying it in my head - b/c I KNOW what it involves for myself and my body. I also knew that Matty's pregnancy was worse than Cae's, which I thought was bad enough. So the likelihood that this one would be even harder was a great possibility. And with being thousands of miles away from family, not having any help, and already having two kids to care for, it was scary. But, I also knew in my heart of hearts that this was FROM GOD that my heart had changed to having this desire again. The funny thing is...after I had Matthew, I packed up ALL of my maternity clothes to sell. When I stopped pumping milk for Matty, I got the pump ready to sell. I had all of Cae's baby clothes in bags - but I couldn't bring myself to sell anything. And that was when I really was "DONE" with having kids. The Lord knows. ;-) 

So, after telling Rich of my change of heart, I sat him down and went through some MAJOR fears and hurdles I felt we needed to overcome before we'd try for #3. I'm a worrier by nature. I've always (until I had Caelynn) had a job, earned an income that I could fully sustain myself on, and also have a little savings. It was a safety net for me. After I had Caelynn, I stopped working so I could stay home with her. We moved to Colorado and suddenly my entire financial "stability" was on my husband. I was okay for a while but I specifically remember a panic attack I had at like 3 a.m. one morning after I had just had Matty. I was feeding him, holding this tiny newborn in my arms and I broke into a sweat. "What if Rich loses his job? We have ZERO savings. We have credit card debt. We aren't financially prepared. What if one of the kids gets sick. What if... What if... What if...." It was HORRIBLE. I didn't want to go through that again. So I told Rich I really wanted us to get financially secure before we had another child and have 2 of our 4 debts paid off. So, I set a date - a goal for us. Rich agreed we needed to be more on track financially but didn't agree with me setting a "deadline" on God. Several months later I started to feel convicted about it. I WAS setting a deadline on God. A condition of sorts. A "I'm willing to have another baby IF You do...." That is so wrong! So, we got serious about our finances but at the same time decided that we'd let God take the reigns and bring our little one when He felt we were ready for it.

Meantime, we started doing "Financial Peace University" with Dave Ramsey online. It has been LIFE CHANGING for us. We have been able to pay off one debt totally and should be finished with our 2nd debt by June, Lord willing. What was my original goal? 2 debts paid by the time we start trying for a baby. By the time our little one arrives, we should be well on our way to paying off #3 (out of 4 total) of our debts. What was the date I had set? January 1st. When did I get pregnant? Sometime during the week before Christmas. Amazing how God works, huh? ;-)

Here is a picture of our little one, due sometimes around September 14th. My blood pressure is already a little bit high so the likelihood that I will be induced early again is a real possibility. I'm guessing I'll go earlier. THe funny thing - both of my kids came EXACTLY either one week before or after their due date. Both were induced. Both were induced on a Monday and born on a Tuesday. Maybe I should request the same for this one if we have to go through the induction route. Easier to remember. ;-)