Monday, March 22, 2010

Blessings


I love that the Lord finds so many unexpected ways of blessing us. Surprise blessings are such a sweet reminder of His tender care for us.

This past Friday we got our taxes done, and boy were we in for a surprise! Ever since my Handyman and I were married, he has handled his taxes as a someone who is self-employed. That means that taxes aren't automatically withheld from his paycheck. So every spring when we file our taxes we know that we're going to owe money. This is fine, we know that it's coming, and we save up to pay it.

Well this year was the first year that we are able to claim Sweet Pea as a dependent. That coupled with the fact that when I was working I had the maximum taken out in taxes, because I knew we always end up owing money anyway, along with various other credits/deductions, resulted in a tax return! For the first time ever! And it's pretty substantial! My Handyman was so incredulous that he came home from the tax man's office and re-calculated everything, just to be sure.

I know it's not a good financial plan to try to get a big tax refund every year, since it isn't that the government is sending us free money, they're actually sending us money that was ours all along, and we just lent it to the government interest-free for a year. That said, however, having gone from always owing money when we file our taxes to receiving money back is a really nice feeling.

We plan to beef-up our emergency fund, and maybe do a couple fun things for ourselves, too.

Friday, March 5, 2010

More Creative Fun

I had so much fun yesterday making a tote, that I decided to make another one today. This one is smaller, and mostly meant for Sweet Pea to play with. She had so much fun with the tote I made yesterday, carrying it around and, of course, putting the handles over her head and off again repeatedly. So I made one just for her. This one only took about an hour to do, and it was really fun!


I used left over scraps from a quilt I made for my niece.



It's even reversible.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Afternoon Project

I was feeling crafty this afternoon, so I decided to try my hand at making a tote bag. Sweet Pea is showing more and more interest in books, and I want to start going to the library with her regularly. So I thought it would be fun to make a cute bag to bring the books home in.


I used some scraps of cloth that I had left over from making Sweet Pea's baby quilt. I found this website which gave step by step instructions for making a basic tote.

Here's the finished product.



The lining is an off-white floral pattern, but it's hard to see in the photo.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

More Gratitude

26. Quiet day at home, without obligations

27. Long conversations with my mother

28. A family I long to spend time with

29. New recipe, warm dough rising

30. Warm cup of tea

31. Unintelligible baby talk

32. Mailbox full of samples and coupons

33. Renewed connection with the one I love

34. Encouraging words

35. Weekly meal plans