We Did It!!!

After a few years of planning, hard work, and careful budgeting, it's official!

Jason bought the house in late 2002. A few months later, he was laid off, and worked odd jobs for 3 years. When we married in 2006, the plan was that we would live off Jason's income, and use mine to pay down the mortgage. Which would have been fairly easy, except that a few months after we got married I quit my job as an engineer at Raytheon and starting working part-time at H&R Block and Accountemps, with a significantly reduced annual income.

But our goal was to pay off the mortgage by the end of 2008, so we did what it took and got it done.

Wednesday I went over to our Credit Union to send the wire transfer to pay it off. While I was there, I got out 2 $100 bills so we could pay for our celebration dinner with cash. Jason invited me to buy a new dress for our celebration, so I went shopping afterwards. =)

Thursday night we put debt free bumper stickers on our vehicles.

Friday, we took the Fairlane downtown to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. We got valet parking. The food and service was terrific. The steaks were mmmm... so delicious!

We told our server what we were celebrating, so he brought this at the end of our meal:

Then we went to Hilbert Circle Theatre for Yuletide Celebration! We met up with Ken and Kristy, and Adam and Jenn. Yuletide Celebration is a lot of fun for the young and the young at heart.

I've been smiling for three days straight - I definitely recommend being debt free for a mood booster! =)

Thoughts on the Season

Today at lunch, a lady was ranting about how horrible Christmas was going to be this year, because everyone in her family had decided to cut back on how much they're spending on gifts. "My parents are giving me 50 cents!" she said, which I assume was an exaggeration. She went on and on about how people are choosing to be cheap for the sake of being cheap, not because they don't have the money.

Oh, how she doesn't get it.

While I hope people are making wiser financial decisions in today's troubled economy, that really shouldn't impact Christmas - because Christmas is not about the gifts we exchange. It's about the Gift God gave us for Christmas so many years ago. Beyond that, it's about what you can give, not what you can get.

Which leads me to the book I'm reading during lunch, "Ordering Your Private World" by Gordon MacDonald. It's been teaching me quite a bit about the importance of having Christ first in your life, even going so far as to schedule on your calendar the time that you're going to have listening to what God has to say to you (not just talking to Him). The part I read today discussed that General George Patton would frequently stop his soldiers to ask if they knew what their mission was - that the mission was the most important thing they could know.

So I started thinking about it - what is my mission? What is my mission today? What is my mission for this week? For this season? For the year? For my life? I must be a bit off track, because I'm having trouble answering these questions. I have goals, things I want to (or need to) accomplish. But are they my mission? Probably not.

The context of this discussion is the importance of Sabbath rest. Not just "taking time off" to relax, but really spending a day enjoying God's presence (and presents). Looking at the past, the present and the future, in terms of what God has in mind for you. It's been a long time since I've done that.

How about you? What's your mission? Are you spending time in Sabbath rest? Can you answer these questions quickly, or, like me, do they make you pause?