Sense to Save

Gratituesday: Grateful for new opportunities

When I first started my blog in 2007, I was able to draw on some skills I learned in college. My degree is a BA majoring in communications & culture, and I have a certificate in journalism.

But blogging also taught me quite a bit about websites and social media — things I really needed to learn on the job here.

I’m grateful that I’m now able to use my skills to do some work with my church’s website. My husband (the techie) and I are doing little improvements to the site’s appearance and function. We now have a social media presence and an e-newsletter for church members. Hopefully this will help our members stay informed of church activities, but also provide helpful information to visitors.

Recently, I interviewed a new church elder for the site. I did a phone interview and it was my first one in probably 4 years. Then, I wrote up a little profile story about him.

I was really rusty and it took me forever. It was fun, though!

I’m looking forward to doing more newsletters and web stuff for our church.

I’m grateful that the Lord has given me this background, and that He has found a place to put me to work.

I guess this project is one of the things that is keeping me a bit busy from this blog, hence me wanting to take a slower blogging pace.

(The other reason? My kids! Such a busy, fun age. They really need a lot of my attention and that’ll continue as we start preschool stuff at home.)

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers, one of my favorite blogs!

Slower posting schedule for awhile

I’ve been busy lately and rather than let this blog stress me out, or scramble to post *something*, anything, I’ve decided it would be better for you and me if I just posted as I was inspired and had the time, rather than trying to follow some specific, self-imposed schedule.

You’re busy, too. Why should you have clutter-y posts from me if I’m not really into posting?

Your time is valuable.

So, I’m adopting a slower, easier view of this blog. I don’t need to take myself so seriously with blogging. It’s just not where I’m at right now.

I thought about reposting some things from the archives, but I figure if you wanted to read those posts, you could navigate to them on your own via my toolbar at the top.

[See series, archives, babies & your budget, and retirement guide.]

Lastly, if you’d still like to keep up with my posts whenever they do happen, please consider subscribing so you won’t have to click over to the site all the time. Along those lines, if you’d like blogs that post more often, feel free to unsubscribe. I’ll understand!

Updates: Counters are beyond chipping; seedings; college

- Our counters are um…well, have a look for yourself:

Yeah. We’ve got money earmarked for replacing the counters and I hope to get that project going soon. We’ll pay a professional to install. I know we could in theory do it ourselves, but we think it’s worth paying someone who knows what they’re doing and has the time.

This charming area of counter space is right next to my sink. I washed dishes then wiped down the counters, and had to scrub just a little because something was stuck (this was an area where there was already faint chipping). And then huge pieces of the paint wore all the way down to the original. Hrmph. We have chipping on the island, too.

Bummer that it didn’t work out, but hey, on the bright side we haven’t painted our kitchen walls yet so now we can make sure it matches the new stuff.

- My seedlings? Dead. Time to buy some pre-grown plants. Or whatever they’re called.

- Shane just got word that his employer is cutting the education reimbursement program. So, if he wants his master’s, he’ll have to pay for it himself (for now). We know he can do 1-2 classes per year and we can claim a federal tax credit to cut our own expenses (assuming that’ll continue). Right now, he’s not going to enroll this year. Our kids are so young and busy — and since it doesn’t seem urgent, we’ll just wait and see if his employer brings it back.

We have some money in a 529 account in his name. We won’t add to it for now. If he never uses the money, we can just transfer it to our kids.

Did you see my guest post on Money Saving Mom this week? It’s called How to Stay Motivated When Paying off Debt.

My post on maxing out our IRAs in 2012 was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance and the Carnival of Retirement.