Krissy Thomas

Making Promises

Promises, promises…Did you ever say that in your head when you were a kid? You know, when someone would promise something, but they’d already let you down so many times that you just couldn’t believe them, but you just didn’t want to not believe them?

How many times…do you think your kids, or someone else in your life has said that after you’ve promised something?

As a mom, it’s really hard for me when i see my kid’s being let down because of promises broken or unmet expectations.  I guess one of my biggest lessons learned through hurt feelings is: “follow through with promises.”

I mean, there are times when I absolutely can’t follow through with certain things, but mostly I can. There are times when I’m exhausted beyond belief. There are even times when I simply don’t want to, but once I’ve given them my word, that becomes a pledge I need to keep.

Why this thought now? I dunno… I want people to know that I’m a girl of  my word…whether it’s a child or an adult. There are enough flighty people in our lives…I’d like to be the one of the few…ya know, the exception to the rule kind of person that others know is dependable…I’m just sayin’…

Photo By:  discoodoni

Chad Arnold Blog

My friend Chad has started a blog…This is my friend who recently went through a liver transplant. The back story is heartbreaking, but even in the sadness, there is hope.
Would you please visit, read, join the conversation and allow your life to be changed?

I worked at a Pottery Barn for a few months a while back. It was such an interesting experience. I realized that people spend lots of money to make their homes look just like a magazine.

I remember one specific customer who would come in weekly to purchase something. Another customer told me that their house is all “Pottery Barn.” I wasn’t sure what that meant, so when I asked, they told me that their entire home is completely furnished from with Pottery Barn products.

I like Pottery Barn and all and I think they have great stuff and I can understand getting a table here a rug there, maybe some frames or something that you adore, but seriously, every piece of furniture from there? For what? To say that you bought it from there? I guess what really threw me for a loop was that so many folks want to set their homes and interiors apart but all they really end up doing is copying somebody else. Pretty, yes, functional, yes, but real life? I’m not so sure. Sadly, most of us will never see the homes of the folks who have the “perfect”  home because more than likely, one of us would mess it up for them.

My real life is more barn than Pottery Barn. It’s messy and dirty and things break and kids spill and dogs pee. My real life is not a page out of a magazine. Real life is letting in the people who come knocking on my door asking for a cup of sugar, or selling a magazine subscription. Real life is knowing that my less than perfect home is always perfectly welcoming to anyone. Whether its a group of loud teen age girls or just a couple of boys wanting to play WII…they know that the stuff in the house is just “stuff” and the people in the house mean much more than any specific thing in the house.

Sometimes I wish I had a perfectly put together clean house, maybe even with some Pottery Barn schwag,  but in reality…I’d rather have a house that’s well-lived in, rather then a house that’s well put together.

I was laying with my little boy a few minutes ago. The lights were out in his room, but light from the hallway was peeping in and bouncing off his bright blue wall. He started moving his hands around and making shadow puppets. it was pretty fascinating to watch.

i could see little creatures and shapes take form, and i kind of forgot that it was just my little boy and his two little hands creating this imagery.
then this thought crossed my mind. how often in life do i look at the shadows and get worried or afraid and not bother to figure out the sources of the shadows?

how differently would i perceive things if i started to look at the hands in motion and not the shadow puppets playing on my fears?

So, I’m gonna tell you some stuff about me, but I want you to tell me some stuff about you.

I’m in an interesting place in life and because of that I’ve discovered some stuff about myself which includes these truths:

1. I hate debt and want to get out of it as quickly as possible.
2. I do not appreciate that my yard is dead and landscaping costs are exorbitant.
3. I am thankful that the exterior of my house is finally painted and I won’t have to worry about that for a while.
4. I do not like that the fence looks like it needs to be replaced.
5. I’m sick of the piles and piles of stuff that have accumulated in my basement over the years(garage sale, here we come).

Okay, so those are a few of my things that I don’t like to talk about, but have taken up way too much brain space in my head recently. Do you see a common theme? Most of it has to do with money. I get it… issues with finances make me feel insecure!

But here’s the deal, I’m done with being afraid to tackle things(ie…the fence, the yard, the paint etc…) because of 1. the cost, or 2. my ignorance of the issue(investing, retirement planning, etc…).

So this is my little statement to say that I’m gonna take control of this area of my life (Uh…helloooo Dave Ramsey!) so that I won’t live in fear about something I have absolute control over.

The End.

Okay, so tell me…are you living a financially healthy lifestyle? Do  you have debt? If you are debt-free, how did you achieve that?

photo credit: daviddmuir