Giving, Good Reads, De-Cluttering and {a winner}

The Giving
"We help at home in the U.S.A. through Wounded Warriors. We believe that it is important to help those brave men and women who have fought so very hard for our freedom. We also help many miles away through Compassion"
We sat down as a family and discussed where we wanted to give and how. We continue our giving throughout the year, not just one time. It's how we choose to do it, but you can give in a way that works for your family. It's just how the spirit moves ya!

GOOD READS

My first good read and one that makes our hearts swell with all that BIG LOVE goodness is from our family buddy Osmel in Columbia. Osmel lives in a wooden home, that is basically two rooms on the side of a swamp. He is very, very poor. We sponsor him through Compassion and it's been the best thing ever! Because of our sponsorship, he goes to a school where he learns all he can. He attends church and has Bible study. Also, he is learning how to make good choices and a good life for himself to break the cycle. 

 Well-known bloggers, Lisa Leonard of Lisa Leonard jewelry and The Nester, author of The Nesting Place, also sponsor a child through Compassion.

Some other good reads that I have read this summer have been for fluff and for self and now I'm onto my professional life reading as a teacher as I need to start finish two courses. 

I have fluff reads first and I will keep on reading more fluff...
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Island Girls by Nancy Thayer
Tapestry of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg
...and more fluff reading to go...

Here are my self books because focusing on you is a good thing. It's healthy and we all need to re-polish once in awhile. Summer is the best time for me to do this.

 

The Life Changing Magic Of...- Learning how to be organized. A life long feat for me. We are having a HUGE yard sale at my sisters and it feels so good to get rid of so much! Bye, bye "stuff" that I really don't need! I want to go into this new home with items that are meaningful and not just items that are around "just in case" I need them. It's getting to be too much! Way too much!
Living Well, Spending Less- Love this book!!! You can go to Ruth Soukup's blog here. It's full of a TON of free tools. Also, she includes a myriad of money saving tips. Dave and I will have paid off my last graduate loan soon {from 2000...way too long} and we will be totally debt free! A feeling that is just overwhemingly gratifying. We cash flow it all.  We live on a very strict budget. We know where every penny is going. We are not normal. No credit cards for us. Never again! We follow Dave Ramsey's plan and have attacked my student loan. My old friend, Sallie Mae doesn't like me very much anymore. As Dave Ramsey says, "We live like no one else, so we can live like no one else." Ruth Soukup advocates his plan too. It's been amazing!!!
 Challenge yourself. I am. We are.

Warning: If you can handle only one thing at a time, don't read both of these books at once. They might be a bit too much and you might just put the books away and think that we're all looney tunes. I am reading both of them at once, but that's just how my brain works. ;) I write in my books and highlight and bend pages. I am a librarian's nightmare!

How do you organize yourself?

{WINNAH, WINNAH CHICKEN DINNAH!}
THE WINNER of Kate's picket fence is... MATT V.
Kate will be making SUNDAE SCHOOL this weekend for you!
CONGRATULATIONS!

My son picked the entries out of a cup. Wicked official, I know. ;)