Start, Spark, Begin

As the New Year resolutions begin to wind down and become tangled in the day-to-day operation of good intention (in my case it often stops there) I can’t help but think that is why I don’t think 2010 (or any other year) will be THE YEAR that makes me or others truly different.  But, I can’t stop hoping to start again either.

For me, the changing of the year doesn’t hold the promise it does for some.  It’s the middle of winter, I’ve gained the holiday weight, and it’s raining outside with little chance of stopping until May.  So I think I really prefer my new beginnings in the spring.

In the spirit of the season (even if it isn’t stirring my soul) there is a spark of positive change in the wind for us.

We are hoping to make some changes in this household.  We don’t have the resources we need to live the life God is calling us to live.  We live comfortably, lacking nothing, and are pretty spoiled in many ways.  But, we need to change our spending habits.  We need to change our home.  We need to change our lifestyle.  All that if we want to add another member to our family through adoption, if I ever get to be a full-time stay at home mom, or if we ever want more room in our house.

So, here are some of our activities this month and some of our intentions for the year.

This month we’ve been doing the “Eat From the Pantry Challenge”.  We have continued to buy milk and eggs, but otherwise we are trying hard to just eat up what we already have.  It’s surprising how much we have tucked away and how easy it has been.  Not all the meals have been stellar, but all have been edible.

We are cleaning the garage and I wish I had taken pictures.  It went from trash-heap to a usable workspace.  Now to start using the workspace to create some things to make changes around our home.

We are beginning to use coupons again after a hiatus of not using them (partly because we stopped getting the newspaper and mostly because I am lazy). Now Hubby is getting them online.

We hope to begin living on only Hubby’s paycheck. We haven’t done that in years past and we aren’t sure yet if it will be a reality for us in the future.

We hope to pay off Husband’s school loans.  They aren’t overwhelming (like mine), and we are tired of having them around.

We hope to begin volunteering in our community once a month, in ministries we believe in and are drawn to.  As Christians, I thought we probably should know who the “least of these” are in our community.

We hope to have less screen time in our lives.  Less TV, less browsing, less blogs, less phones/iPods/games, just less.  And to replace it with relationships and fruitful labor.

This year, I hope to live my priorities.

I would love to hear from those who read this (family and friends) how do you save?  What have you done recently that was fulfilling? Challenging? Helpful to yourselves or others?  What goals top your list?

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