savings fund

when i was little, my parents (well, probably my mom) gave me a little cleaned-out tin can. probably a green bean can. that's probably the canned product we ate most often. she peeled off the label, gave me a large assortment of colorful, beachy, vacationy stickers, and had me decorate said can.

this was my savings tin. i loved that little can... i can still see the little pink flamingos, beach balls, and flip flops. nothing was more satisfying to me than to look inside, and see a rolled up stack of bills and a heavy clank of coins in the bottom. not that there was a ton of cash in it at any given time (it was probably all $1 bills), but i learned early in life the joys of saving.

when i would go to summer camp, i always had my little stash of savings to spend on (the most delicious) limeades (in the world) and a sweatshirt and a t-shirt. or on vacation to florida i ALWAYS had this strange obsession with little ceramic pigs? and then i saved up enough money to pay for my trip to taiwan. i never monitored how much money i spent in college once i got a debit card. i just... never spent a lot. basically, i'm saying i'm a saver.

aaaaand theeeeen we decided to move 20 hours away. with a house note. and no job. and $5 gasoline. but i just started this new book... it's called

it's about God using the hard things in our lives to shape us. taking a really big financial risk like this scares me. watching savings dwindle... freaks me out. but God has good plans for us, and after everything i've been through, i cannot deny God's hand in it all. God, give us the wisdom to make good decisions.

(also, on a small sidenote, i decided why i love reading inspirational christian books so much... my love? language is words of encouragement. i drive charlie CRAZY asking him to say something to encourage me (we're still working on the whole communication thing :p) and since it's maybe not charlie's strong-suit to throw out random, encouraging things at me, i think i'm going to have to learn to receive that elsewhere. like books such as these!)