If Money Brings One Happiness...

Then I should be miserable!!

But, oddly, I'm not. Okay, so I do stress out about it once in a while. But it's not making me miserable.

Now why am I blogging about this? Because I'm learning so much right now about faith, family, being frugal, hard work...all because our finances are extremely tight. And I can't just keep these lessons I'm learning to myself...I've got to share them.

Now, as a side note so no one freaks out for us, Rob's business is doing well and it's growing. Maybe a little slower than originally anticipated, but we've seen two months of solid growth and we can only hope it continues. We just need to see a lot more growth before the revenue catches up with the expenses...and when you own your own business, you often put money that you don't have back into your business because you know that will give off the dividends later.

And that brings me to one of the greatest lessons I have learned. Faith in the "later." Hope in the future. So many times in the past few months, I have sat down to pay our bills and looked at our dwindling accounts and thought...we have X amount of months/weeks before we run out. And I freak out. Then I study my scriptures, pray, or go to the temple, and I'm reminded of the assurances the Lord has given us over and over and over again...that He will take care of us. He will make sure we have what we need. And, you know what? He has. The loan that we thought would never go through finally goes through just in the nick of time. And other things like that have kept us on our feet.

But why has God blessed us so? All I can say is that I know that the principles of paying an honest tithing and a generous fast offering are based on truth.

Malachi 8:10 says it best: "10 Bring ye all the ^atithes into the storehouse, that there may be ^bmeat in my house; and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the ^cwindows of heaven, and pour you out a ^dblessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

We're still waiting for there to "not be room enough to receive it"...but at the very least, God has not forgotten us and He is making sure we have our necessities covered...and then a little more. But one blessing that we have received abundantly is one of happiness. Sure we are stressed out and busy and worry. But we are happy. So often the Lord takes away our worries and stresses long enough for us to enjoy life, enjoy being here, enjoy being together, enjoy an outing. And then the worries and the stresses are so much more bearable.

I always thought we were very frugal while Rob was going to school. But we have learned to be even more frugal (if that's possible!). We've been learning how to better get by with what we have instead of needing to get things new (in terms of clothing, decorating the house, supplies for my hobbies). It sure has stretched my creativity! One week I was itching to make some home improvements, but I knew I shouldn't go buy anything. So I found this great idea from a friend's blog, copied it on canvas I already had with paint I already had, and I made a free new wall hanging for my home!

I've also been trying really hard to tighten our food budget...that's been hard because we prefer some things that are more expensive like real butter...but I try to make more things from scratch...and it's sooo good when it's freshly made! And, frankly, our wish list just keeps growing and growing. But...hope in the future...someday...until then, we make do without.

And through all this, I have come to accept and almost embrace hard work as a means of happiness. When I was at my parent's home this summer, I spent some time weeding their backyard because I was enjoying myself. My mom thinks I'm so helpful, but I was really just having fun! (We're renting a home that is taken care of by professional landscapers, so I really just needed my yard work fix!) I have learned that when I feel blah or down, the best thing I can do is work on something, work for someone, work on homeschooling, work for the Primary, work on bringing more patients in to Rob's office. And it helps me feel better!

Okay...now tomorrow I have to pay the bills, so I might not be singing the same tune...