Midweek Bullets ...

How about some midweek bullets (for lack of any "big" things to write about) ...

• Some sports stuff ... the Vikings have re-acquired star receiver (and sometime pain in the butt) Randy Moss. Exciting times for the Vikes who need to get their season rolling.
• Liverpool has been bought (pending approval from the league and some legal details). This is very good. Their current owners are, to put it succinctly, lame.
• The kids had soccer last night and had a great time there.
• We babysat the local cousins last night while Laura and Gow had a date ... both girls were really interested in the gerbils, but didn't quite know what to do with them. Sally wanted to hold them, but everytime one touched here, she'd jump back and be pretty timid. Daisy was very excited by the gerbils, but lacked any finesse, so was restricted to just looking!
• The Excursion is still on hold while we get the DVD situation straightened out. The seller is getting it repaired, and then we'll (I think) go through with the sale.
• Cyndie and I had art class this morning and really enjoyed that. We were both very happy with the paintings that we came up with.
• Tonight is Cyndie's last sailing event of the year. She's really enjoyed that.
• We worked on our budget last night. We're going to try very hard over the winter to really curtail our expenses so that we can pay cash for the new truck (assuming that happens) and still do some of the projects around the house that we want to do.
• The jacuzzi has sprung another leak. We're really getting tired of that. We'll see where we decide to go with that little gem.
  
• It's a beautiful fall day ... I think the temperature readout in the car on the way home from art class said 73. Awesome!
  

So there you have it, some midweek fun.

Midweek Doings

We're meandering through the middle of the week here in Wildwood-land. We have health issues, fun stuff, academics, all kinds of stuff to talk about, so here we go, in my favorite, bulleted format:

• Emma had a little cold on Sunday (I think), and then Tim picked it up. I think his was aggrevated by some allergies. Anyway, he came home from school on Monday pretty wiped, then didn't sleep at all well on Monday night (and as a result, neither did Cyndie). He did a lot of laying low yesterday, but even by then was feeling much better, just a little tired. By today, he's feeling 100%. We still kept him home from school in honoring the school's request to keep kids home for 24 hours after they are better. I can't remember if I wrote this before, but on Monday, Timmy's class of 16 only had 5 kids. Another local school shut down for the day. I guess it is sickness time!
• Emma had her second before school spanish class today. She really enjoyed the first one and is liking the extra session. We'll see how much it helps her really pick up the language (or not).
• Cyndie and I have been pretty excited about the prospect of buying a boat. We've done quite a bit of searching online and are trying to schedule a trip to a showroom to just look around. We'll see where it all leads, but it's an exciting diversion right now at a minimum.
• We also met with our new financial planner today. We're looking forward to that, and him helping us out in saving money for the future!
  

So that's about it from the Wildwood DeVries!

Renewed Blog ... day 3

Yes, this is three, count them, three days in a row with the blog!

Things on my mind ...

• Timmy went with a friend (Alton) to Pierce's Farm this morning. His friend is from MOPS and pre-school, and this trip was with the pre-school that Timmy went to last year. Timmy really enjoyed playing with Alton, and another good friend from pre-school, Ben. I think Cyndie will try to arrange a playdate with Ben in the near future.
• Cyndie's big clothing exchange is tonight. The basement is full of tables, and the front room and dining room are ready too (they look far different than they did on Monday morning when I went to work when they were filled with cardboard boxes ... maze style).
• The kids are growing! We were talking about needing to get new winter boots last night during our monthly budget setting.
• Speaking of budgets, things sure shape up differently when you don't have a mortgage payment to fit into the budget!
  

Back and Bloggin'

So, it has apparently been 18 days since I last blogged! What can I say, I got rather busy in there. I'm not going to try to recap everything, but we had a good camping trip in there (the first weekend I missed), and a big birthday party for Timmer (the last weekend). Added in there was lots of busyness with work, construction around the house (thanks Dad), adjusting to glasses for Tim, school for the kids, having a dog again, the weather beginning to get cool ... believe me, it was full of activity.

So here are some things I'm thinking about right now:

• Praising God that Cyndie just signed for the wire transfer to pay off our house here in WI! Man, that's going to be crazy come next month when we don't have a mortgage payment to make! I'm sure it will hit me first in a couple of days when Cyndie and I sit down to look at our budget for next month and have a bit more money to allocate! We're going to go out for a celebratory dinner tonight!
• Timmy's totally enjoying learning to read some words. I've started working with him to sound out words. When he does it, he get's this huge grin on his face, it's really cool. I think I'll work with him on some sight words too.
• Both the kids are enjoying playing with the gifts Tim got at his birthday party. Cyndie had a great idea to only let him open (as in the box they came from the store in) a gift or two a day so that he'd actually play with them ... and it's working.
• Lots going on with church this week as last Sunday (yesterday) was the last at the YMCA with this Sunday the first at our new location. That means a busy week of moving sound equipment, doing a practice at the new building for the worship team, etc., etc.
• It's feeling extremely "fall-y". Today is in the low 60s with high winds. Lots of leaves are falling down and it's feeling brisk!
  

Starting July Off Right!

So, we're starting a new month, and kind of starting a new era for the Wildwood DeVries. We've sold the CA house, and now have quite a bit of money, certainly more than we've ever dealt with before, to steward. On the way to and from the cabin (20 or so hours total in the car) we listened to some CDs by Dave Ramsey, a financial guru who happens to be a Christian (but whose advice is not overtly Christian). Anyway, we are very convicted that we don't want to let ourselves get back into the mode of "now we have some more income/money, but where is it all going". We want to be more intentional with what we do with our money, and how we manage it on God's behalf. So we're doing two things.

First, we're going to have a monthly budget (which Ramsey calls a Cash Flow Plan). His point is that if you don't direct where every dollar is going to go before it's on hand, then the dollars tend to seep out here and there and by month end, you haven't put aside anything for saving, and you're short on this bill or that, etc. So here we are ... more financially free than we've been for a while, but on a budget. And we're happy about that. It's actually pretty liberating to know that, "yeah, I have $50 to go out for dinner ... I don't have to worry about that". Or, "no problems, I can deal with a $500 water treatment related bill because I have a fund to deal with large, bills like that". Anyway, it's good stuff, and we're excited to start that.

The second thing is that we're going out today with our local realtor to look at some investment properties. We've really been blessed with how real estate has worked out for us. And we're not afraid to get our hands dirty and but in some sweat equity into a place. So we'll see where that goes! Should be interesting!

So there you have it, a new financial dawn for the Wildwood DeVries. It'll be a little work, but we're excited to be able to see some results!