Celebration.

Today is a new day, with new hope. Thank goodness.

There have been better days than yesterday, but there have been much much worse days. So I think mostly I'm just grateful its today now.

Niko is back. Matt and I washed him last night. We got to use the HOSE outside!!! Washing a dog outside is infinitely better than washing a dog inside. It was good fun. And now Niko smells clean and lovely and I'll agree to hug him again. ;)

I passed on Natalie's magazines, 5 of them at once, on and on in the cycle of recycled magazines. It's a good system I think. Perhaps not for the economy but it is for the environment. And as someone I love once said, "This country could USE a little recession!!!" Ha..

I started reading the Simplicity chapter of Celebration of Discipline last night. Granted - I rarely have time to read, but I thought it might be good to break up the schoolwork before insanity hit in. I like a lot of what I've read so far. Especially that the author (who is the author... i know this.. richard something .. foster!) makes the point early on to say that despite popular opinion Christ and the bible IS quite clear on "economics." Which I enjoyed reading his references for. A lot from proverbs, but also from the life of Christ and others. If ONLY I could learn simplicity. He also talked about the assault from the world, especially this country, that wealth proves who you are. Unless you own this, or wear this, or look like this you are made to not fit in. One thing he said is that we are encouraged not to wear or drive things until the point at which they literally wear out. I don't know. I think its a great temptation for me to think that I am not as affected as I truly am by the mindset of consumerism and I would do well to try to break it. Matt and I want to live as though our money belongs to Christ as well. All of it. Proverbs, which I'm reading a chapter a night, speaks so much about generosity and how God is faithful to those who are faithful to give. Mother Teresa wrote something once about "the more you have the less you are able to give." So I get to thinking about what I don't necessarily need and what I can give. But it's a harder thought to deal with than I originally thought.

Anyways, Matt and I did decide to cut back our budget. Which I'm excited about. It's hard though because there are lots of birthdays and the what not. But I told him I would try to reign grocery store spending. The amount and magnitude of HEB in our checkbook is so silly.

So, there it is.

The David Crowder Band pandora station is the BEST STATION EVER! They play hymns.. mmm...