Recap of Week #3

We're on the downward side of January. Here's how I did on my 2012 Goals this past week.

1. Finances -- once again we came in under our weekly discretionary budget!!! And the results are posted on our study wall. Some of our success in achieving this goal stems from the fact that we aren't going out to eat. I planned our meals for January and so far we've followed the plan pretty well.

I did make an "oops" this week -- we were supposed to have Beef Stroganoff on Thursday evening. When I was making my grocery list, I checked to see that we had Cream of Mushroom soup in the cupboard -- yep, there was a can. What I forgot is that I needed two cans. I used the can we had in the cupboard on Tuesday for One-Dish Chicken Bake and didn't have one on Thursday for Beef Stroganoff. My husband asked me if I wanted to go get something to eat. After shopping my cupboards and freezer, I realized that the only quick meals I could make were breakfast or frozen pizza. Out to eat sounded much better.

He took me to Schlotzsky's -- one of my favorites places to eat. Lots of people know that I love Schlotzsky's so when I receive restaurant gift cards, they are often from Schlotzsky's. Indeed, I had three gift cards in my purse to this fine restaurant! So, the meal was provided by other's generosity! Thanks!!

Due to a scheduling change, I didn't have a meal planned for Friday night. My husband brought home Sir Pizza's Royal Feast -- LOVE it!! Only $13.75 for a pizza that will feed him once and me three times!!! YUM!!!

In the past when we have restricted our spending this tightly, I would sometimes feel deprived because we have to limit our eating out. But getting to go "out to eat" twice this week and only spending $13.75 was terrific!!! And, knowing that I have other restaurant gift cards in my wallet helps -- we can go out to eat for cheap if I get desperate!!


2. Spiritual -- Galatians 3 is finished. Thanks to the Holy Spirit who teaches me. I hadn't thought of the Kellogg's Christmas party (that I wrote about in my post) in years. How is it that this memory came back to me when I reading, studying, and mediating on verse 1? The Holy Spirit is responsible to teach me all truth -- He prompted the memory as an illustration of the verse to teach me.

And then, to think about being declared "righteous" by the thrice-holy God. It causes me to worship this gracious God and to praise the Saviour who exchanged my sin with His righteousness (II Cor 5:21).

Wonderful week of study in His Word!

My husband asked me yesterday how I was doing on my Scripture verse memorization. I replied that it wasn't February yet so I didn't have to report. I think he's smart enough to know that my reply indicates that I'm not done learning the verses. I have attached a copy of the verses to my computer monitor so they are easily accessible, but that's about as much as I've done to learn them. I've 9 days to master the verses -- lots of time, right??? :)


3. Personal -- six blogs last week! Wow, I was wordy!!! :) Of course, most of them were written last Sunday afternoon. Must have had too much caffeine that day!!! When I have a lot of caffeine, I become a "motor mouth" and catch myself doing a lot of talking -- I wonder if that works the same with my writing.

In my pursuit of my bachelor's degree, I attended two more classes this week -- I was on time to both!!! In fact, I was over 10 minutes early on Friday!!! Amazing, I know!!

After Friday's class, I'm a little concerned that attending class could be a waste of time. We were assigned to read Chapter 1 as homework. The textbook is not hard to understand. I read Chapter 1 and learned the content. In class, we went over all of the content in the chapter. Did I learn anything in class? NO!! I had learned it while I was reading the chapter. I hope that this is not a trend of what the content of our class time will be when we are assigned a chapter to read.

Overall, another good week in staying on task with my 2012 goals. This blog is definitely making a difference.

Next Post: A Powerful Example