It really is the small things

Have you ever been in a situation where you didn't realize how much you missed something until you had it back again?  Well that's me this week.

For months now, maybe longer than that, I've dealt with a dripping leaky faucet in my kitchen.  Periodically I would remove the handles and tighten things down and it would do okay for a while until next time.  Well it would do okay except for the fact that it didn't shut off right away when you used it.  I'd learned, over the years, the art of filling something up until just before it was where I needed it and then shutting off the faucet to let the water continue to fill to the mark I had chosen.  I have to say; not to brag, but I'd gotten pretty good at guesstimating.  Now I'm not a skin flint.  Replacing the faucet was just something that was put on the back burner because there were more pressing matters to attend to.

Well the time had come for the faucet's periodic tightening, so yesterday morning I went to turn the water off under the sink and noticed...a leak.  Not a huge leak, but a leak none the less.  I called the plumber and they came out yesterday afternoon.  Trying  to save a little ( there were still higher priority items); I had asked him to just fix the leak and maybe fix the drip in the faucet.  He was totally honest with me and said he could fix the faucet as is, or replace it with a new faucet.  I'm seeing dollar signs, but in the end, the difference between the two jobs was about $40.  So $40 got me a new, lifetime guarantee on parts, Delta Faucet in my kitchen.

Yall I have died and gone to heaven!!!!  It's one of those single handle deals, and it's so pretty and shiny!  Better yet, when I tun it off, it's off.  It's taking some getting used to.  No drips either!  I just don't know what to do with myself!

THEN!  On top of that, we currently have a landscaper out here clearing some brush to the left of our drive way.  It's been 22 years in the making; the brush that is, and has more than taken over.  But once the absentee landowner came to clear his side of the fence, we knew we could do ours.  We're, or I should say the landscaper, isn't even done yet, and the amount of wonderful sunlight we now have on that side of the house is wonderful!  I can't wait to utilize this new space for planting!  Don't know what I'll plant, but it will be something!

To date, in the last year alone we have

Replaced the back deck with a better one
Replaced the front door and added a new storm door
Replaced the faucet in the kitchen
Removed Brush from the side of the drive way

In addition, the plan is to replace the front deck with a better one in April (I hope).

The latest two items on the list; the faucet and the brush removal, were un-planned expenditures.  All of the items on this list were paid for in full at the time of service.  No financing, credit cards, or payments.  Sometimes the money came out of savings in it's entirety, and sometime we only had to take out a little to add to what was already in our checking.

Are we rolling in dough?  Uh no not really.  I brought in a little over $3000 with  my Etsy shop last year, and my husband brought in about 37,000.  We paid for things out of that like Health insurance, Groceries, Utilities, Car repairs, etc.  The last quarter of 2018 saw a huge chunk of dh's paycheck going into our health savings account to pay off medical bills.  We hope to have those paid off by April.

So how can we pay for all of these things?

1) First and Foremost; God's provision.  I feel very strongly that, because we are faithful to give Him what is his to begin with, he blesses the rest.  I can't be convinced other wise.  The back deck is a great example.  He brought in friends to help.  If we had to pay a "professional" for the same deck, it would have been more expensive.  As a result, we paid for the supplies with some extra on top as a thank you.

2) Being Debt Free-  We never saw it when we were in debt.  We thought it normal to put things like clothing, dining out, movies, etc on a card.  What we didn't realize is that those un budgeted luxuries kept us from being able to make needed repairs around the house.  We didn't have the money we thought.  And we didn't because we were making payments, with interest, for things "for fun", or that were " on sale".  Problem was, when we did have a repair that HAD to be made, we put it on the card as well.  We had to then.  Now, those fun things like dining out or movies, or even clothes, are budgeted.  We still do them, just smart.

3)  Saving!-  If you want to make payments, Make them to yourself!  We have our emergency fund, and try to keep it at the $1000, but we also have a car fund for car repairs and hopefully to one day pay cash for our next car.  We aren't to that point yet, so there is a lot of prayer over our two cars to keep them going.  I admit that, but we do have the funds to make repairs, even large ones, if need be.  We also save for car insurance.  We get a discount if we pay in full, so we make payments to ourselves each month for it to all come out on the renewal date.  And lastly we save for big projects.  We weren't able to save for these last two specifically, like I said they were un planned, but we had been saving for the deck replacement and so we adjusted things.  The deck will wait a month, but we should still be able to do it barring any other un planned expenditures.

So there you go!  Small things really do add up!  In more ways than one!  What are some of yours!

Garden fails and what I learned from them

After the brutal temps over the past couple of weeks, today Dh and I were out and about in the back yard beginning the garden prep for this coming spring (in 65 degree weather I might add). 

Usually I learn my gardening mistakes, or I should say take note of them, in the fall while cleaning the garden up for winter.  I didn't get to do that this fall.  I didn't have a chance, and was under doctors orders to not exert.  Then the holidays came and my little Etsy store was going so fast I could barely keep up (thank you very much!). 

So the holiday season is behind us, Etsy is somewhat caught up, and the weather is glorious right now!  Enjoy it while I can!  In addition, our absentee land owner next door is finally clearing out the fence line adjacent to our property.  This means we can clear ours out now.  We have a landscaper coming by to do the bulk of the work.  The job is just too big for a weekend foray.  I say all of this to say, spring is in the air and now I am getting a chance to clean up, and evaluate last years success and failures; mostly failures.

Failure #1-  Wood chips.  I don't think wood chips make a great mulch.  Don't get me wrong, they are great for in between rows of raised beds.  I know that NOW.  They aren't great directly on the bed.  It doesn't matter if they're aged or not.  My plants suffered last year, and I believe the main reason was wood chips.  Now if you compost the wood chips into the nice crumble compost, that is another story.  So From now on, wood chips will keep their place in between the raised beds.

Failure #2- My rabbit proof "Fence".  Ha!  I put this PVC netting around my garden in the hopes of keeping the cute little buggers away.  Didn't work.  I buried it and everything, but they still got in.  It slowed them down a bit getting out, but they still got in.  Another draw back is it made it harder to have access to opposite sides of certain raised beds.  This allowed weeds to take over and made it difficult to get to the produce.  The weeds took over up to the edge of the netting on the outside of the garden and made it hard to get them out.  The roots, stems, etc wrapped their self through the netting, and it was a mess.  Well that is all down now.  I'm not planning on growing anything the rabbits will be interested in this spring; carrots, broccoli, cabbage, etc.  If I do, I'll put a hoop house over it to protect from varmints. 

Failure #3- Corn!  I planted my corn too close and too much.  I affected my yield big time.  Plus I had all of my tall plants at one end of the garden, which made it like the amazon trying to get thru to pick or do other garden maintenance.  I'm not planting corn this year anyway, but when I do, the beds will be staggered.

Failure #4- Seed catalogs!-  These got the best of us as we went nuts buying seeds galore.  We were going to try this, and this, and this.  What happened was I didn't have room in my garden for all this wonderfulness, and ended up without enough of what I really needed in order to preserve for winter use.

Failure #5 Wooden seed starter boxes!- UGH!  Got this brilliant idea from a Youtube video I was watching.  It goes without saying that if wood ships will steal nitrogen from the soil, then logic would say, so would wooden seed boxes?  I mean that sounds right. Well it sounds right today, but back then I was all on board with trying it.  Yea, Back to Terra Cotta pots or seed pots.

Gardening is a series of successes and failures.  If you try something and it fails, well you know not to try it that way again.  Let me tell you though; if you have something that works well, don't try anything else.  Use what works for you.  If you're struggling with something, by all means try what you can, but don't mess with perfection.