Must we learn the hard way?

Last week was a rough week for the Bovees. Jonathon was very busy with work, but some unexpected happenings brought a little stress our way, and now we have been thinking and rethinking some things. It's funny how the Lord uses certain things to teach us lessons. Too bad He doesn't just write us a letter to let us know what He wants.

All of that to say that He opened our eyes to some things that were causing our hearts to not stay on track with what He wants of us. I'm afraid that our desire to get out of debt was far surpassing our desire of things that need to still be present in our lives. We were missing great fellowship with our brothers and sisters because of work. No good! We are finding that this is something that we really need. Though getting out of debt isn't a bad thing, when it is at the top of all you think about, that's when it becomes an idol. Anything really can become an idol. And it wasn't even that we were thinking of money as much as just getting out of debt.

Jonathon developed some back issues last week, that amazingly have gotten a lot better after being prayed for at church. Thank you Father! And some vehicle issues have caused us to fork some extra money out towards that. But even after all that, we still had money to pay all of our bills and still have extra to go towards the house. It is as if the Father was telling us, you can worry and think about it all you want, but ultimately, I have it in my hands. And none of that was accomplished until AFTER we realized where our hearts were with the whole thing. He is amazing how he heals and reveals when we submit to what He wants. Then it all gets cleared up, and we are back to resting in Him again. Why do we have to learn the hard way?!

So that is our debt free update for ya. Not debt free yet, but working towards it with our hearts focused on Him and where He wants us right now. Not pushing to get the job done ourselves and not neglecting other things in life just to get it accomplished. We marvel at His faithfulness to teach us gently. I guess I'm not the one with the sore back though. That might not be so gentle. But praise to Him for healing!

Encouragement for the day: Take time to really listen to what He wants for you. Take time to check your heart even in the things that are of Him. It is way too easy to allow something that can be used by Him to become an idol. He doesn't want anything to replace Him, so truly keep Him at the top of all you think about.

Busy days in the crazy life

Wow, time can sure pass quickly. Jonathon's job is doing wonderful! What a blessing! With that comes a change in our household living. In the evenings, Jonathon puts together satellites for his next day's jobs, so we usually sit in the living room and sometimes the children help him put them together and other times we just stay out of his way as it takes up the whole living room when he starts this project. The boys love it though, with the noisy screw gun and all the various parts. Blessed to have this as part of our family's life right now. BUT we do look forward to one day not having to do this in our tiny little house. Maybe a special area (like a garage) for such assembling together of things. :)

Also, with some major van repairs (thank you Father for protection), and our computer at home deceasing, I haven't been able to get on the computer as much. Good for getting things done at home (especially with a special celebration coming up in March), but not so good with downloading pictures, keeping up this blog and reading other's money saving blogs, and staying on top of good freebies.

One freebie that I do want to share with you all is something that I have been doing for my brother's children's birthdays. It's called Hot Prints, and you can print one FREE photo book per month. Some of you may be saying, wait a minute, they are amish, why would they like a photo book. Well, we find pictures online of things they would be interested in and make it full of what they like. Benjamin got a horse book, and we just got Geneva's doll book in the mail, all ready for her birthday in March. What fun! They don't even charge shipping....completely free!

We just got our new computer tower delivered today, so I will be back to posting more of our families activities and our goal accomplishments. Oh, and I haven't forgotten about the giveaway. I was hoping to do it at the end of this month, but with the unexpected repairs of the van, we weren't able to follow our budget. Soooo, hoping for that next month. "Continue staying tune for that wonderful giveaway.

Night of Goal Planning

Well, we had a lovely night out last night. Some friends had given us a gift card to Applebees, my mom gave us a coupon also, and some friends watched all of our children for us. Was superb having a free dinner with no children! We went through numbers, figuring and refiguring what income and outflow was possibly going to be. It's hard when you don't have a regular week to week check. When it can fluctuate, you have to just roll with it and adjust accordingly.

Oh, remember earlier I mentioned about life incidences? We had one of those before we left the house. We have been needing some back tires for some time and have put it off. Well, Jonathon finally got some and they needed mounted, but we didn't have time to do that yesterday. Well, upon getting ready to head out, he just happened (the Lord directing his head I'm almost sure of it) to look down at the worst tire, and he noticed that it was bulging. Everybody unloaded and he headed to Sturgis to get them replaced, praying all the way that it wouldn't blow. When he got there, he stepped out of the van and immediately heard hissing from the tire as air was pouring out. Thank you Father for your protection and getting him there before it blew! So, money that wasn't figured into our budget at this time, but certainly necessary.

Okay, onto the goals. We wrote a lot out which would be too time consuming and I do have to go through them and reorganize what I have written down. We are thinking that it might not be possible to completely have the house paid off, but pretty close. We figured that if by the end of this year, we could have $10,000.00 left to pay off, we would be pretty happy. BUT the ultimate goal is to reach towards having it ALL paid off, so that is what we are heading for.

I want to suggest some ideas to save. Check out some of my links to the right for blogs that will help you save money on groceries or everyday necessities. Hip2save and Moneysavingmom are my two favorites, but there are lots out there that want to help households save weekly, so take advantage of those blogs and the knowledge that those women share with their readers.

We are now in lock down mode, trying to save as much and spend as little as possible. It's a challenge and actually something that I enjoy doing. Not all women could handle it, but I am not one who needs much to be happy and really, I find great pleasure in making things work without having to buy something.

I also wanted to give you all a heads up to a giveaway I am planning to do in a month or two. Not sure of what it will be just yet, but I the plan is if we have stuck to our goals this month, then I will give something fun away. So, stay tuned to what it might be......

Our House Is A Very, Very, Very Fine House

We have a great little house. I love how quick and easy it is to clean, how close my children are to me at all times, so I know what they are doing, and how it has kept us from being in the "American Dream" mentality that has gotten so many people into a whopping of debt. For all these things, I am thankful! It is a 2 bedroom home of approx. 840 sq.ft., filled with love....and with children. We manage with my husband and I and our 4 children, but it is getting quite tight as our fourth addition back in May brought more clothes, a crib, and a different level of toys. So, if I hear you complain that you don't have enough room in your house, don't be alarmed if I don't show you pity. = )


This is why we WANT to get out of debt, save to add on, and build more space. Notice I didn't say NEED. Do we really NEED more space? Absolutely not. We are wonderfully taken care of with all of our needs being met right here where we are at. Would it be nice? Definitely! So, this is why we are striving for such a huge goal. We realize things won't go perfectly. We live in a fallen world where there is sickness, unexpected vehicle repairs, natural disasters, and other unplanned events. But we are focused as much as we can be. So, here we go. Tonight we go out to dinner to sit down and write out our goals for this whole journey. Stay tuned for what we got accomplished.

Just had to post some pictures of Benaiah. Today I walked into the house after carrying wood and found him sitting on the floor clapping his hands with such delight. He used to fist clap, but today was the first that those hands were opened up in a real clap. He even made sounds from his clap.

Alegra was loving it and praising him to get him to keep doing it.

Maybe she has him trained. = )

He is our sweet little baby. He is working on his top front teeth. Having a hard time of it, but getting closer. He brings us great delight watching all of his new development. Still waiting for him to crawl, but if he would wait til woodstove season is over that would be great. Doubt that will happen, but we'll see. Until then, we will be very thankful that he still just sits. Much easier that way!

Goals for our financial well being this year

The Bovees are seeing things brighter this year. So many things have been changing including our children, us, and our work situations. I am continueing to do massages one day a week, and Jonathon just added to our Bovee Family Services business, satellite installation (or something like that). It is getting very busy, and we are seeing so many blessings and open doors just about everyday. It's exciting for us as we sat back and waited on the Lord for so long to help us out in this area. We are now seeing His blessings!



Our heart's desire is to be debt free. That doesn't mean everything except our mortgage. When some people say they are debt free, they mean credit cards and other debts are paid off, but not the mortgage. We have no debt except our mortgage and are looking to get that paid off this year. Yep, you heard me right. Our financial goal for this year is to get our mortgage paid off. So, that means the Bovees are in lock down mode. No going out to eat (unless we have a gift card or equivalent of), no extra entertainment expenses unless extremely cheap, keep grocery costs low, and do the best we can at keeping ALL expenses low. This shouldn't be too hard for us as we have been already living this way for the past year or so. We just have to make the committment to continue in this lifestyle to help us reach the.......


Once our house is paid off, our goal is to begin saving money to add on to our little house. So, that will mean more lock down. In order to put money in the bank we will be careful of every expense and give up plenty to reach this ultimate goal that we have had for so long. But as long as we live frugally, our money will go here..... And then once we reach that goal, well, we don't know what the next one will be. We'll see when we get there. So, this blog is going to become more of sharing with you our journey at getting our goals accomplished. I would like to share with you some great free or inexpensive deals that might be of interest to my readers. The things that we do for entertainment that helps us not spend money and also still live life happily, will be posted with pictures. And I will keep you updated on how we are doing with getting the mortgage paid off. At the end of every month, I will post where we are at and how much farther we have to go.





I am hoping that this will help us stay on track, will encourage others to do the same thing, will get our readers to give us suggestions on what they do to save money, ask questions on how they can save in certain areas, and support one another in getting out of the bondage of banks. Let's all do it together! Please join us in this journey!





In a week or so, you may notice that the blog looks a little different. I will be changing things up a bit to give it a fresh new look, and since I will be here more often, make it more enjoyable for me to come visit as well. :) Soon to come, pictures of our little house, so you know why we NEED to add on, pictures of our family for those of you following that don't really know us, and the fun will begin soon of great deals and ideas of what we do to save our family money.

Looking forward to the journey with you all!