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So as many of you have probably guessed, Hubby’s unemployment has meant putting our dreams of the perfect preschool on hold. Which sort of means two additional hardships: a delay in my need for part-time childcare while I work from home and a delay in Lil’ E’s need for socialization with something other than the back of mommy’s laptop! Of course, for the time being the childcare part is taken care of by the stay-at-home dad, but we’re hoping that is very, very temporary.

Well, I am pretty hopeful that perhaps we’ve found a good solution, at least for one day a week! My mama-in-law brought this ad on UrbanMamas to my attention a few days ago. Today we met Amy, her husband, and their almost 2 year old son and our families seemed to really click. After stopping by their place this weekend, we’re going to move forward with the “childcare swap” idea and see how it goes! (Many thanks to my M.I.L.D.E.W. for doing something right, which it turns out, is pretty common… a little more like a M.I.L.D.E.R.)

So keep your fingers crossed that this is a mutually-beneficial set up that allows both Amy and I to get a whole day of work in sans toddler- without financially paying for it!!! woot-woot.

The Longer I Lay Here Lyrics
Artist(Band):Pedro The Lion

one, two, three, one ready go…
you’re up with the sunrise
and down when the work’s been done
with excellence industry
diligence naturally
i would like to be you
just for a few habit-forming years
laziness cuts me like fine cutlery
i need a miracle - someone to help me
myself
sweet jesus, i need you
forgive me this sin
not hookers or heroin, gambling or gin
it sounds so ridiculous, but i just can’t lick this
i need a miracle - someone to help me
myself
someone to help me
help myself

Quite truthfully, Portland’s month of rain, rain and more rain is not really that bad. Maybe its the honeymoon phase. Perhaps I’m being idealistic. My survival mechanism is to go about life as usual, get on your jacket and head out. DO NOT STAY IN DOORS! Yes, the backyard is too soggy to play in, and the parks are pretty much the same. BUT the sidewalks and streets are filled with minor puddles on my way to indoor activities. Besides, without a car, staying out of the rain is hardly a choice. Walk we must, come rain or come shine. And its been a while since there was shine.

This morning, the clouds parted, and a very nice day broke through for a few hours. I was able to run out and feed the bunnies, take my counter composter to the bin, and inspect the vegetable garden a bit. It was enough to give me an itch for the glory days, namely, May-July when we had just moved here and the clear skies smelled of bloomin’ roses, and tulips and wild flowers greeted you at every turn!  I can hardly remember our yard, sprouting with overgrowth that covered the paths, a gorgeous display of colors so rich in beauty that we ran out to take pictures and eat strawberries from the garden all month.

But as I’ve told many of you, the rains have brought with them, for me, a nice kind of hibernation. Bears do it, bees do it, let’s fall in love- type of feeling. At first, I had to turn to St. John’s Wort to keep the dark couped-up mood at bay. But that only lasted about a month (I’m way too forgetful to have to take something for very long!) and it was enough to get my spirits up and get my lifestyle OUT of the house. Since then, I’ve welcomed the rain and cold as a much needed r&r for this gal whose spent the past 23 years in the Florida sun. LOOOOOVIN’ the cafe’s and bookstores with their bottomless cups of java and cute mittens on my hands to hold my mug. Still prefer it to climates so UN-wintery.

But must admit, sometimes those darn puddles just annoy the ever livin’ crap out of me. Sometimes the constant drizzle of rain that makes any work put into your hairdo completely worthless gets under my skin. Sometimes I get the urge to put on a bikini and grab a beach towel and lay out in the grassy backyard and have some good ol’ Vitamin D toast me up. Sometimes the darkness by 4 pm is just the most ridiculous concept and I literally contemplate how some one needs to write a report about it and hand it in to the Big Guy.

All this to say, I can SURE appreciate Portland’s amazing Spring/summer combination, and I can’t wait. Just a few more months that, if all goes as usual, will fly by and then, oh the joys we will see of our bulbs spring back to life, of the wisteria on the gazebo start popping with little green leaves, the wild flowers I hope to plant after the last frost start to liven up our curb-side appeal. Such images and thoughts keep my heart nice and toasty during this month. Needless to say, we’ve been reading lots of The Cat in the Hat lately, and I’ve scoured my Rainy Day Activities with Toddlers book a few times!

On a side note, my amazing and beautiful pride of my heart two year old finally, tearfully, could not hold his bladder while straddling his potty today. Having been given an amount of water equal to the Willamette River, he ended up peeing at least 5 times in two hours; 3 times in his potty, twice on the chair during dinner. Poor guy!!! BUT he was SO happy to finally “make water” in the potty and the difference was completely and utterly due to giving him a book to read while doing his business. Hmmm… both Hubby and I like reading material while we take our potty breaks, so I suppose its no wonder! We are interested/anxious to see how the next few days play out as we use diapers for only outings and night… particularly when it’s time for Lil’ E’s mid-morning Numero Dos.

Job Update: Hubby still working to find employment, part of the 5% of the nation we heard about last week. Has applied to upwards of 20 or so legitimate ads, in addition to unemployment agencies, with several follow up phone calls on his part but no leads as of yet. We are working to stay busy and positive and not blow any money we have because we are so depressed! I literally got on my knees in the shower yesterday praying for a job that would make my husband happy. I know some how that all this will turn out all right in the end. There are so so many people we know that are going through just incredible hardships right now, so it certainly puts us in the “can’t complain” category! Thank GAWD!

Hope you all are trudgin’ through your January’s with high spirits, by and large unaffected (at least negatively!) by whatever weather and life conditions you’re facing!

Tonight, for perhaps no other reason than the fact that there is such a scarcity of anything new on TV, (particularly on a Saturday night… particular with an antenna!), I, Vivian, watched the New Hampshire Republican and Democratic debates. I might add that my sheer surprise in some of the outcomes of the Iowa caucus this week is what actually prompted me to stay on the debates once I flipped there.

In the past, I’ve tended to keep my head out of politics to deal with the situations at hand… bills, medical needs, college, my baby, our jobs…

Tonight, for perhaps the first time, I realized that it is precisely these issues, the one’s I struggle with daily, that were talked about in the debates, and that actually go to effect my life all the way from the White House. (Correction… the Republicans, who happen to be, I might add, my current party, debated primarily on foreign policy and keeping America the “strongest nation in the world.” *make sticking finger down my throat gesture*)

I was impressed with the level of discussion between the democratic candidates, however. A few times, I thought, my gosh… these are MY issues. I am middle-class, I am uninsured, I can’t afford a home in this market, MY husband is unemployed due to the economy,  I get very little tax relief… - WHY DID THIS TAKE SO LONG TO SINK IN???

It was also clear, fortunately, that at least 3 out of the 4 candidates (again, just referring to the Dems here) seemed to have grasped what is the “voice” of my issues, that some how or another they had an up-close experience with some one just like me effected by the status of our nation.

I felt very much better educated on what sets each candidate apart on these issues, as well. Hilary certianly “knows her stuff” and has a proven track record, but I’m with a great many others in wondering if that means she’s really the best person for the job of “change”, maybe even because of it (her experience). Obama didn’t impress me as much as I thought he would, though I really REALLY liked his idea of NOT mandating adults to buy their own health insurance (BUT making it affordable so we CAN)- HOWEVER, we would be mandated to buy it for our children, for the sheer fact that they do not have a choice. For me, this was one of the most interesting ideas of the evening. I was more impressed by Edwards than I expected myself to be, perhaps particularly on his campaign of going to battle for the middle-income families. Facebook, one of the sponsors for the debates, was asked to poll its participants the following question: “What was the biggest surprise”. An overwhelming majority voted for “Romney saying that the drug companies are NOT THE BAD GUY” and BOY do I agree with the Facebooker’s. When he said that, I was like, woah, what? I mean, sure, okay, in an ideal world we can try to believe that for the most part their bottom line is “making us well”… funny, because from what I’ve gleaned it is typically the practice of drug companies to manufacture chemicals that treat symptoms… leaving out the “make us well” part because we are left with weaker immune systems and further medical ailments long-term. In the meantime a marginal percent of us can even afford the drugs to presumably make us well, while the drug companies make awesome amounts of money keeping us popping pills. Interesting to take a look at traditional Eastern medicine and compare who is actually getting “well”.

But, of course, I digress to the issue of environment and sustainability. What little (in my opinion) was mentioned about this in both debates, particularly the Reps, really invoked my curiosity, for obvious reasons. Hubby and I were intrigued and starting looking on-line to find some more resources on where each candidate stands on the “green” issues in particular.

He landed on this site, which I love for its simplicity in outlining the green profiles of candidates from both parties. (Seems a WONDERFUL site for all things green, at that.) So as you bounce this all around in your head as I and so many American’s have been doing as we approach November, I do hope that the green issues will effect voting. I really got a wake up call tonight, and I hope I won’t be the only one in the next 10 months.

Okay, ya’ll. Life is just TOO much for me these days!

The latest, for those of you who don’t know:

Hubby called today to tell me that his job ends as of tomorrow- the business is going bankrupt, so two weeks to Christmas they can’t even afford to keep the staff hired. We did in many ways see the writing on the wall for this one, so he had several resumes out there and had spent some time focusing in on what kind of jobs he’s looking for in the past few weeks. We just didn’t expect it to be RIGHT NOW without much warning. Luckily, he will be able to file for unemployment and is planning to go into a staffing agency on Monday.

Not 4 hours later, I got a call from an interview I had yesterday that went really well, offering me the job! There’s lots of details, which to me are quite exciting, but I won’t go into them all. Suffice to say, I’m looking forward to what this new job entails and the opportunity for what it might lead to long term. I will be the part-time (mostly from home) web content manager and personal assistant for an “international speaker and national best-selling author” small business guru, who in person is just a hoot! It was a very encouraging process getting the job, and I’m hopeful not only about the supplemental income it will provide (in conjunction with Wiley) but also the experience I will no doubt gain.

All this nutso stuff, not just with our job situations but with my dad, friends who are going through some crazy circumstances right now, so on- it’s just been a strange couple of weeks!  I can only imagine what God is cookin up and all that hot pepper He’s throwing into the pot for FLAVA!

Though these opening and shutting of doors is enough to give any one a major headache, I feel more than anything a sense of gratitude and comfort. Today, anyway!

Ok, so yesterday our pastor Rick told us about this movie that just came out from the same guy who did “Supersize Me”. It’s called What Would Jesus Buy? (seriously, watch the trailer) and its a spoof with a tele-evangelist character named Reverend Billy and his church, The Church of Stop Shopping. He and his Stop Shopping Choir are out to warn the world of the coming Shopocolipse, by doing things like exorcizing a WalMart sign, singing special Christmas carols in malls with lyrics replaced by Stop Shopping messages, and praying that the boy who plays video games come to see the difference between the virtual world and reality.

This is not a “christian” movie or anything, and yet this guy can see that there is some obvious idiocy with buying butt loads of presents for a holiday that is about celebrating the birth of Jesus, who was perhaps even anti-materialistic, a Man who gave gifts of sacrifice and service and used his resources to help the least of these. This year we’ve decided we are not buying more than one or two gifts for each other and are sending family and friends cards, letters, and a cd of family photos to be “near them” during Christmas. It’s more than “Jesus is the Reason” and corny conservative church cliche’s- its about spending less money on material things, giving to the needy, and spending more time in worship and contemplation.

Again, I don’t want to sound cheesy here, but perhaps if you get a chance to check out this movie (I know its only in select theaters) or just spend some time this year considering why the hell we spend so much on gifts at Christmastime, we can start to make a difference in the way Americans celebrate this time of year.

Ok, I’ll leave you with song lyrics from the movie, which are just too funny:

Beatitudes of Buylessness

Blessed are the Consumers, for you shall be free from Living By Products…..

Blessed are you who stumble out of branded Main Streets, for you shall find lovers not downloaded and oceans not rising.

Blessed is the ordinary citizen who holds onto a patch of public commons, for you are the New World.

Blessed is the artist who is not corporate sponsored for you shall give birth to warm fronts of emotion and breakthroughs of Peace.

Blessed are you who confuse “Consumerism” with “Freedom,” for you shall be delighted to discover the difference.

Blessed are the advertisers and commercial celebrities, for you are waiting for the remarkable restfulness of honesty.

Blessed are city neighborhoods that people have flown from in fear, for your children shall return to illuminate the dark economy.

Blessed are the workers in the supermalls, for the town your employers’ killed shall come back to life!

Blessed is the breadwinner with out-sourced dreams who sits in the SUV stuck in a Christmas from Hell, this year a gift will set you free

Blessed are the young women in sweatshops, for the things you make will fly you like magic evening gowns to the City of Light

Blessed are you who disturb the customers, for you might be loving your neighbor.

Today was a real eye opener for me, not that anything incredibly new happened, but it was just sort of filled with little ways to reduce, reuse, recycle and limit your carbon footprint and all that and it happened so effortlessly that I am left wondering why in the world didn’t we do this sooner?

Let me explain:

Today we had to run a few errands at lunch time- our first errands via bicycles. A normal trip out to Freddy Myer’s on Broadway takes us by car about 10 minutes with traffic lights and parking. By bike? 15 minutes, tops. I couldn’t believe how quickly we were there, and how easy it is to pull Lil’ E behind me on a trailer- I could hardly tell I was pulling the extra weight in comparison to having him up on a seat. One of the things we needed from Freddy’s was rain boots for Ethan, because we’re going with the church to Sauvie Island Pumpkin Patch tonight and it might be muddy. We found some for 14.99, though he liked a different one with a dinosaur face on it but they did not have it in his size.

After we got several bags full of things stuffed in the bike trailer (there sure is a lot of room in that thing!), we stopped to split a grilled veggie burrito at Cha Cha Cha’s for 4.00. Next door is Bella Stella Resale, where I knew she’s had a good selection of random used rainboots and coats in the past. So I popped in and low and behold- the dinosaur boots were there, in his size, slightly used, for $6.99. (Needless to say we’ll be returning the other ones!)

Upon returning home in again what felt like record time, we were greeted by a box full of produce from Organics to You, our first weekly order of home delivered organic produce and grocery items. Here is what came in this week’s “small” bin for $30:

• 4 Gala Apples - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 4 Fuji Apples - *LOCAL, farm direct
• 3 Bartlett Pears - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 3-4 Bananas
• 1 Cauliflower - *LOCAL*
• 1-2 Leeks - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 Kale - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 bunch Carrots - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 bunch Parsley - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 bunch Green Onions - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1 bunch Celery - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1-2 Onions - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 1-2 Delicatta Squash - *LOCAL, farm direct*
• 2-3 baby Bok Choy - *LOCAL*

Everything was in great shape, fresh, not over or under ripe at all. I was delighted to see things I don’t normally pick out, like Bok Choy and Delicatta Squash, as well as some yummy favorites like Cauliflower and lots of apples. We have so much that I will have to go down to the one person bin for next week, or skip a week.

I must say, being on the bike for the errands kinda took the “errands” part of it out of the trip. Unlike a car, there is fresh air, scenery, you take back roads and kinda just enjoy yourself. Lil’ E took a nap, Hubby and I got some exercise. No wonder people do this in Europe all the time. What is America thinking???

Anyway! It was also VERY NICE to stop at the bank and deposit the sale of the car today. Whoopie!

Final thought? Carpooling is not only green, its also sweet. Our friend Eric offered to tote us to Sauvieland tonight, thanks Eric!

It’s official. We have no more car! It’s a little scary, to be honest. But we thought it through a lot and I think we’ll be okay once we begin to use the local bus’, bikes, and FLEX cars more. I got a $70 bike trailer off Craigslist now so I also have a way to take back library books and pick up peanut butter at the grocery store, lol.

I’ve actually been kinda excited about the aspect of us taking more time to plan things and not end up running errands inefficiently.  I wonder how much gas we used in the last 4-5 months simply going 1 mile and back from the movie rentals and grocery store, when we could’ve done one trip per week or something and actually been organized about it! Well, this morning we catch the bus to church and back, which is actually a pretty sweet deal. It’s the same bus the whole way, and the driving time is about 30 minutes, which it takes us to get there anyway. There’s more walking time, which Hubby and I rather enjoy.

I think the most difficult aspect will be Hubby’s now 2-3 hour commute each day, along with the $100 monthly pass for the Washington busline. Interestingly, his boss has offered an old truck he could use for his commute, so we’ll see how that pans out. So long as the gas doesn’t exceed the pass, it could work out nicely. Don’t you just love generous people? It makes you want to go out and help others too. But that’s a whole other post.

With the rainy season upon us, its not always easy to bus it to the farmer’s market these days. With the sale of our car impending, and no bike trailer to carry groceries, getting produce and grocery items will be a bit difficult, to say the least. But I’m really apprehensive about the trailer, for irrational fears of having the most precious thing to my heart trailing around behind my bike on the side of a busy road. Anyway, I typically bring $40 to the Portland Farmer’s Market each week. I look for the best deals (which aren’t always organic but at least local) and then I spend a little at the grocery store for items not produce related. The market runs every Saturday from May - December.

All of these complications lead me to look into the home delivery service, as I often see various vans outside the doors of houses in our neighborhood, dropping off groceries and bins of food.

Several full-fledged grocery stores, such as New Seasons Market, offer this service for a fee, and many local farms offer “drop off” sites for a seasonal membership (Sauvie Island Organics, for example, rounds off to about $25 a week, from my math, which is pretty good, but you have to pay $805 for the 8 months of service, and you still have to go to the drop off sites on the right days.)

What I want is something without a fee, that tells me what I’m getting each week, and that provides more than just produce. Oh yes, and if you could just leave it on the door, thanks. Is that too much to ask?

Apparently not! Organics to You offers home delivery of fresh organic produce from several farm locations, and all you have to do is schedule for the size bin you want (one person, small family, large family, etc) including extras such as “Juicer Bin”, “Kids Bin” etc. To top it off, they offer an ever expanding selection of high demand grocery items, such as bread, milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, eggs, coffee, - even Chai! (Meats are coming soon!) You see the price (and, by the way, the brand) for what you’re checking off and it all adds up to one sum which you can either pay in advance with your credit card or leave cash under your door mat! The prices, compared to non-discounted items at, say, Wild Oats (prices I am most familiar with) are by and large comparable, if not cheaper, (although for the time being, I do have Hubby’s 20% discount) PLUS you are not paying for gas OR the time/chore of getting your groceries each week.

Pro’s: esp without a Hubby discount: no travel and very little time invested (takes two minutes to fill your order). Price is reasonable, and best of all, it makes it very easy to stay within your grocery budget, as most of us would do if we actually saw the total adding up AS WE WERE SHOPPING!

Con’s: If you are not concerned about organics AND you are not a big produce eater, then obviously its cheaper to go to your local grocery chain.

Below was this week’s bin for a “small family”, which costs $30. I think its MORE than enough for us and I might go down to the one person bin every other week, and with the savings buy some grocery items such as my milk, bread and eggs.

SMALL BIN

Hello, For the week of October 22nd. ENJOY!

1 Pomegranate
4 Gala Apples - *LOCAL, farm direct*
3 Bartlett Pears - *LOCAL, farm direct*
2-3 StarKrimson Pears - *LOCAL, farm direct
3-4 Bananas
1 bunch French breakfast Radish - *LOCAL*
1-2 Onions - *LOCAL, farm direct*
2lb. Red Potatoes - *LOCAL, farm direct*
6oz. Crimini Mushrooms - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1/2lb. Green Beans - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1 Lettuce - Some *LOCAL*-’last of the local lettuce’
1 bunch Chard/Kale - *LOCAL, farm direct*
1 bunch Broccoli - *Local*
1-2 winter Squash-(Gold Nugget) - *LOCAL, farm direct*

*LOCAL* = locally from supplier
*LOCAL, farm direct* = Locally direct from farmer

I’d like to add that even the website for this organization is impressive to me- with recipes, community pages, so on. I will get my first delivery next week, and I’ll let you all know how it measures up!

Well, it’s very chilly- currently 58 but should get down to 47 tonight, which has been typical these last few weeks. The sky is still clear and the grass dry, so its definitely Fall weather. During our frequent walks down to the Fremont Wild Oats area, (stop at Cafe Destino for soup, run some errands around Wild Oats-mail something out, pick up rice milk-,then onto the library to see what movies have been returned, so on), we were able today to pick up acorns and bright purple and yellow leaves: the first bits of Autumn inviting us to collect and admire.

I never share much about the specifics of my marriage or finances or relatives, etc, but I wanted to write today about our recent goals of getting out of debt, saving, financial freedom. Like many young parents, esp in college, we used credit cards to keep us afloat through our years of less than 30,000 combined (at least 4 years of our 5 year marriage), and in the end we ended up with a large amount of debt. We now pay minimum payments towards debt reduction that totals 25% of our monthly income, and about half of it is high interest cards (some student loans, some personal loans). At last Hubby has found work and is now working 2 jobs for us to recover from the move and unemployment of this past summer, and we have been struck with the conviction that we must get a handle on it while we are finally making a little income. Through a dear friend of mine, we were able to apply for a credit counseling service that does the one monthly, low interest payment type of thing. It turns out this will be incredibly helpful, reducing our minimum payments and, because we are “friends and family” we have no fees whatsoever. Because we are saving so much that would have been eaten up in high interest, we can put extra on our monthly payments and get out of debt sooner. Not including student loans, it will take us 4 years, max. Incredible, isn’t it? (Incredible as in- audacious, unbelievable, inconceivable- that a young couple with college education would spend the next 4 years climbing out of consumer debt.) Ah, America- delicious consumer market dream-turned-nightmare. With a little bail-out from friends or family here and there, we have managed to pay our bills when they are due and stay afloat, but barely.

Simultaneously, we tried to go to Imago Dei (our church) Financial Peace University, and although we found the 4 hours on Sunday morning to be a little long for our family day, in the end there are some sunday school conflicts with having children in both services so we have opted to continue educating ourselves and try to go without FPU at this time. In the meantime, I’ve paid my very last overdraft fee for a large corporate bank that cares SQUAT for the little guy, and have opened a savings and checking account with an internet bank, ING Direct. With them, there are never NSF fees (because of the automatic line of credit opened in case this happens) and the interest earned on the savings is 4.3 and on checking, 3.8 (for the balance we have in there, if you have more balance, you earn more). Then I grabbed a home budget tool off Kiplinger.com and with as liberal and comfortable figures as I could apply to each expenditure, including tithing (charitable/giving) and saving (automatically out of each paycheck and into that 4.8% savings account) combined 20+% of our income, we should still have $400 dollars a month left over.

This is where I just can’t believe it. With spending money, haircut money, every little thing accounted for, we should still have $400 lying around some where at the end of every month. Now, granted, our income has only been double in the last month, so September has been more like damage control month than starting your goals month. However, this was such an eye opener that I must track where our money is going and use the darn ENVELOPES and CASH like every thing I’ve ever read has said to do. If we truly have left over after tithing, saving, bills, debt, and even renting movies and drinking Starbucks here and there (budgeted for, using cash), then I will be floored. It means that when friends need funding for a missions or we feel called to give some other way, we actually CAN. It means if we need to visit family in Florida once a year, we can save this and actually buy the tickets. It’s just crazy.

I also worked out how we will save that emergency fund of 3 months worth of income (min.) by the end of 2008 using the compound interest in our savings account along with automatic transfers off the top of every paycheck into savings. One year, no surprises, we could actually have our emergency fund filled. This has never, I repeat NEVER, appeared possible for us. I’ve read books before, Suzie Orman and who nots, we’ve done coupons and budgets and snowball effect and bla bla, but for some reason or another- nothing really worked. Yet I’m very hopeful that discipline this time around will stick.

Discipline: the word brings definite negative connotation to my spirit. Perhaps by a church (shoot, an entire sub-culture of Christianity) that defined discipline for me for so long as the “walk the straight and narrow” road of a “disciple”. Read your bible and pray for hours, don’t do anything “wrong” (including kiss your husband before marriage, lol- which I was NOT able to abide!), so on. It took the joy out of living and created a sense of shame at every inkling of rebellion and questioning. When I was involved at a Presbyterian church in Lakeland, the emphasis was the opposite- there is NO mold, it messaged, your identity is in Him. The rules and rituals were not glorified, in fact maybe they were in some ways looked down upon, particularly if done with a heart that was trying to please God, to be enough for God, so God would approve or love you more. It was a great blessing to be around those who practiced unconditional love and extended grace in a very real way. But still, I came to see discipline as “legalistic” and shunned daily practices or boxes to squeeze into.

But I came across this quote, which I ironically wrote in my journal some time ago and had since completely forgotten, from Henri Nouwen, Catholic priest and writer:

“In the spiritual life, the word discipline means ‘the effort to create some space in which God can act.’ Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that some where you are not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn’t planned or counted on.” (italics/bold added)

It struck me that in the regards to finances, discipline can be viewed much the same way. Discipline on how you spend and where your money goes creates ROOM, it means your cup is not completely dry, that you aren’t sucking the drops off the coffee table and paying high interest on your imbalance. It means you have SPACE in which “something can happen that you hadn’t planned or counted on”- another pregnancy, a broken leg, a family vacation you never thought you could take, a way to give to some one in need.

So, although this has become a slightly longer post than I intended, I have a feeling my journey with money and debt and spiritual applications could be useful to some of you, so I share in hopes it helps