Beautiful Snowy Day

 Happy Sabbath

It's a beautiful snowy day and I am thankful for today and a good week.  I decided to restart another side hustle this week and it worked out pretty well. I am doing Door Dash for up to 2 hours sometimes 3 times a week and when I got to the third day, I was happy that I was able to really stay in my town and not have to go too far.  As soon as I got on the app while I was in my driveway, it kicked in and sent me an order.  I decided to take this up because I want to be prepared for tax time which is upon us.  I still don't know the math but expect to pay a whole lot more than I paid last year especially because I didn't change my witholdings.  Without the side hustle, I did some math to see base pay projections and I was shocked to see that I am making it if not more what I had prayed about before.  My goal for this year is to make 100k and if I do well with my investments, hit my targets at my main and possibly earn bonuses with my other part time, I could get close if not hit that number.  To many 100k is is not a big number.  At this point, I am making the most money I have ever made in my life and I want to thank the Lord for it.  I still have some concerns going into this year but am giving them to the Lord.  Even with the money I am making right now, I still have huge bills coming up that I need help with.  

During my door dash week I had an opportunity to run into another door dasher who gave me some helpful tips.  I noticed products a restaurant had on their display and gave them advice on where to source their items as I am able to track the movement of certain items that come into my store and the days the competition come in to snatch up the deals.  Things are expensive and I know how hard it can be to find the things such as this one restaurant sells. I was thankful for a huge tip this person gave me.  I had one hour left to go and I had to have a restroom break but didn't want it to dig into my ratings and cause me to miss out on good orders.  I pulled up to a Smoothie King and when I entered, the person preparing the beverage had accidentally spilled it and told me she would have to make it all over again.  I asked at that moment to use the restroom and I was permitted to.  All the other places didn't really have that set up for me to do that and it was perfect timing.  My last run happened to take me back to my home town which was also perfect.

I am going to try doing it again next week.  I was able to shovel snow about an hour ago and clear a path for my car.  I know it is Sabbath but snow, storms, emergencies don't stop even on Sabbath.  I was able to talk to my neighbor across the street and despite starting much later than him and others who were out there, I was able to clear half of my 4 car driveway, the front porch and my sidewalk and car and make it inside to enjoy homemade bread with my son.  They are still outside shoveling and using a snow blower.  If it was not for my dad's tip about the cardboard, my car would still be stuck in the bottom half of my driveway.  

It is after 4pm so I need to take a bath, prepare my clothes for work tonight and shut things down.  God is good and I am thankful for the message given during the service, the song my sister sang, and even though it is cold and annoying, the beautiful snow I was able to wake up to and enjoy looking at first thing this morning.

Chill

 Happy Sabbath,

It is a cold but sunny Sabbath day and I was able to enjoy and get through a good week this week. My son turned nine years old and I am thankful for an opportunity to take him out skating, get him his favorite foods (pizza from this greek pizzeria and oreo mcflurry) and present him with gifts that he loves and is using.  I bought him his first laptop, an underwater camera which he used at the skating rink and one of those cute octopuses that are flipped to display another emotion.  Right now he is on his laptop watching bible programs.  I am thankful that I was able to take the time and celebrate it with him and beat out a snow storm at the same time.  

I am thankful for an opportunity to participate in the Martin Luther King day of service and to participate along side dignitaries that I cannot mention here as I aim to remain anonymous on this platform.  I was able to do some good photography at the event, help with set up/take down, support my pastor with singing a special section, and other things I didn't expect to be apart of, but jumped in because people were missing.  I am thankful that I was able to help the event be a success and the Lord blessed me so I could use what I have to bless others.

I am thankful for the service today.  I had to lead out for Sabbath school song service, prepare my son to sing a special selection for Sabbath school, teach for the kindergarteners and primary levels, finish out for the Sabbath school program (never did before), lead out praise and worship and my other usual parts during the main part of service.  I tried singing this time with the closing hymn in a key I felt comfortable with and played the piano with it and it went well.  

I am thankful that my mattress came for the guest room bed.  I struggled to get it in the house and out of the box. I struggled to inflate it and drag it into the guest room and after I got it on the bed and made the bed, I fell asleep on that mattress.  I like it so much I went to sleep again on it after my son ran in the room and got under the covers.  I slept last night on it and am sitting on it right now.  I guess I need to get one for my room and one for my son's.  This is very comfortable and nice and I got it at a double discount!

I am thankful that I have gone this month so far without purchasing any food items for myself. I have been experimenting with the ingredients I have at home and clearing out my pantries and freezer.  I made up a bread recipe that my son loves (stove top fry/sautee version) and I got him to like eating cheese sandwiches so that is another food victory.  I have made east and indian asian inspired dishes with what I stockpiled over the years and so far everything has turned out tasty and filling.  I hope to get to the end of this month and make a single grocery purchase for myself on January 31st to cover for next month.

My energy bill is nearly $300 this month.  Last month it was about $250.  I am trying hard to cut back as I prepare for tax time and I expect to have to shell out alot of money for that.  I am thankful for what I have, to finally understand more about my actual networth and develop plans to get rid of this debt I have accrued.  My track has me set to pay off both credit cards by the end of this year (one possibly as early as August).  I have been using the snowball effect and I am encouraged at least with the credit cards.  

My son is looking on what I am typing so I am going to get off of here, but God is good. Even on this chilly but sunny day.  May you be blessed and have a wonderful weekend and new week to come.  Thank the Lord for all that He has done for you :)

Beginning and Ending

 Happy Sabbath,

Good week and a good day.  I have been investing for almost two weeks and although my input has been small, I have made more in a few days than a year with three times as much sitting in an account gaining at common savings interest rates. I am going to give this a serious try and continue investing. I have to try.  

I am thankful for this even being put on my mind to do. In doing so I took some time to check my accounts and balances.  I did multiple checks for different things this week and there were some good things and bad things that occurred. For one, I had created what I thought would be my primary budget for the year.  I went to do one final check when I saw several major transactions were made that hour and it turned out, my son decided he wanted to purchase some robucks for the Roblox game without my permission.  I headed to the bank to try to fix the situation temporarily until I could get Roblox to refund the money.  I went to a branch I had never been to and I put money in the drawer following the directions.  The atm stole my money and didn't give me a receipt or other option. It just sucked up the money and said that my transaction could not be completed at this time.  I pulled over and called the main number (it was Sunday morning) and they gave me a provisional credit and would open an investigation. I'm sure during their play back of the camera they saw and probably heard some colorful language I'm not proud of.  I was refunded by Roblox but they deleted the account so all funds I had authorized for decorating the avatar were lost.  I have since made a new character and beefed up security so my son cannot make additional purchases.  I have another character I play with so I can meet up with him in the Metaverse.

I am thankful I have gone 2 weeks without making any purchases for myself.  I am trying to save money as I am in for it for tax time.  I thought I had saved enough but I clearly did not and I don't have alot of time to prepare.  I am cutting my grocery budget and eating what I have.  I do have a lot and can go likely into the next month without really needing to make any more purchases.  

My mother came to watch my son Friday as I had a dental appointment.  I had a heart to heart with her and was informed more about her and my dad's situation which is more dire than I realized.  If anything, my heart hurts for her.  I love my dad but know how flawed he is, how flawed we all are.  I was the one years back when she wanted to leave him I was the one shouting at her telling her to pack her things and let's go mom!  I moved out with her but she decided against what others were telling her and went back. She is staying in the same house because of complicated financials.  There is no more love there and has not been for a long time.  But this is life. This is how people are and the things she shared, very disheartening.  What she said was enough to motivate me to go purchase a new mattress for the guest room. I want to prepare it so if she needs to just get away, she will have a comfortable bed to sleep on when she comes to my house.  The mattress will be here I believe Thursday.

I now think on the turns my life took and even on some of the terrible things I know about other family members.  Perhaps someone spoke a curse against my dad for the treacherous moves he made in the past and it went on to affect his children, me being one of them. There was something my mother shared that I cannot utter on here as I promised not to let that out.  It's just sad.  It's awfully sad.  I pray my mother has happiness and joy return to her.  My dad is messed up but I pray that the Lord gets his attention and takes control of him.  Changes his heart.  I do not pray for reconcilation between them.  Too much damage has been done.  I pray the Lord's will be done in both of their lives whatever direction that may be.

There's other stuff but I can try to share that next week with hopefully some better updates. For beginnings or continuation of good things, my son's birthday is tomorrow.  He will be 9 years old.  I look forward to celebrating it and going somewhere fun with him.  NO matter how hard things are and how cruel people are, God is good and staying with Him, any grey day can turn into sunshine on cloud nine.

Have a blessed and wonderful Sabbath day and week.


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Definitely A New Year

 Happy Sabbath,

I need to charge my computer and the cord is in another room so I will try to be quick.  I had a good week this week and am thankful for the spark of creativity and ideas, I thank the Lord for inspiring me to do something new.  I don't have the verse here that I wanted.  I want to say it was in Corinthians, I'll have to look over a journal entry or vlog I filmed to get it but I will start with this.  Monday I worked and decided I was going to not waste a bunch of money on food that I tend to gobble through because I tend to be greedy. I thought to myself to save those funds and if I can deny myself gobble activities each week, I can put aside a decent amount of funds for bigger projects.  I saved those funds that night in a harder to access savings account. Right before my break, I thought to myself to purchase yet another grid like book so I could do some serious financial planning.  I also needed a composition book for my job so I picked that up with a pack up pens and purchased it. I headed over to where I take my break and every day on that shift at midnight I go to read a Bible verse. I saw a verse that talked about those who sow little seed get little crop and those who sow alot get a larger yield.  Reading that verse spurred me to go on in the next few hours (perhaps not in this specific order but it occurred nonetheless) to purchase a website to start moving on a business idea I had over the past year or so and open several brokerage accounts, investing in cryptocurrencies and the stock market.  By Friday I have put in at least $350 to test the waters of my own cash, purchased at least three shares in full and many partial stocks and watched accounts go up and fall over the course of the week.  If I had put $1000 in for one of those stocks and waited one day, I would have made over $100 cash just by doing so.  I did see loss the next day but the full shares I paid for, I intend to hold on to them and see how they perform over the next few weeks.  I had a habit of listening to nonsense in my ear piece when working overnight.  I would listen to stories of people's tales of treachery and music and other things but this time I decided to listen only to videos that would educate me on the stock market, building businesses and developing other skills. I intend to do more of that tonight and next week.  I learned alot just by doing so and am looking forward to seeing where this will take me.  I have a google number as a result of me trying to get set up on amazon for a sellers account.  I have etsy accounts and I am going to take some time tomorrow to sit and plan out more with my business venture.  I paid money into this so I have to give it serious thought now.  Things that I didn't think were possible now are being reconsidered.  To some or even many, making $100k in a year is nothing as they make it in a week or less than that.  I am making $65k and want to try.  I want to see how far I can go with my impoverished self.  I aim to live below my means.  That means no more hauls at Whole Foods and Trader joes whenever I have the taste for it.  That means I cannot spend over $100 or anything like I did just about every single time I was ready to leave my part time for the day.  It means paying attention to the numbers in my account and not buying what my son wants any time he wants it.  I have wasted so much of this money and it could have been going not only to savings but to help make more money and improve on other things.  So my budget must be redone. My habits have to be reset.  I am going to start having to turn the heat down and switching lights off in rooms I leave for a significant time block.  I have lived very comfortably in 2021 and the stress of early 2020 when I needed this part time and had just started it is no longer.  My credit score is 802.  I checked it yesterday and praise the Lord because the last time my score was 800, it was before I got involved with someone I should never have dealt with.  I bought my first car and my score dropped down to the 700's.  I have always been good with paying my bills even when people wanted to defraud me and trip me up, I still did what I could to handle my own. My goal now is to get to 850 and I am working to pay off my credit card debt (only two cards which are coming down because of this part time job).  

I made alot of big financial moves this week and I want to sow big.  I want to take those chances.  I want to see where this will go.  I am looking forward to the future.  

I didn't make a written list of goals for this year. I prayed about things I wanted to do and have.  You don't have to wait until the first of a month to start anything.  Pray to the Lord and start today.  Now is your moment. May God be with you.

A New Year

 Happy Sabbath

Going to keep this short since I'm behind on getting on here.  I am thankful for a new year.  I am thankful for Jesus and what He is doing in my life.  I am thankful that He hears us and cares for us and no matter what He is always there for us.  

I learned about an hour ago my sister's grandmother passed away last night.  I pray that she is comforted by this same Jesus who continues to do marvelous things in my life and in the life of others.  He knows how much she loved her and in my short time meeting her, it truly was a pleasure for me to have that encounter with her.  We all have different beliefs and lifestyles but I know she was a beautiful soul and hope to one day see her in the kingdom when He will come again.  

I am thankful for my son willing to step up and do special music today.  He had chosen a song called, People Need the Lord and I was able to spend time with him yesterday and this morning practicing singing and signing the song.  He did so well and I hope that his singing brought joy to the Lord and that the angels rejoiced with him as he went through it.  

I am thankful for my church sister who gave me a call to check in.  I had a nice talk with her after going on zoom for a church meeting and although I am hesitant to open up to have friends, I haven't closed off consideration.  I closed last year with an attitude about friendship and still those feelings linger.  I am being extra careful about who I let near me and intend to continue doing so for 2022.  I cannot make the same mistakes I made last year.  

I am thankful for my aunt who called me before sabbath school started.  She is a pianist for her church and wants to connect with me more often so we can play and learn songs together.  She gave me one of the hymnals I rely on for our church services.  I play Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow from the African American Heritage Hymnal and the bulk of the hymns I play are from the Seventh Day Adventist Hymnal.  There are many great songs in her hymnal and I would like to bring some of them into the worship services we have.  I was discouraged at first because although I am supposed to be the music director, people tend to disregard what I have to say and put up what ever they want to do.  I stopped fighting what people are doing and just give them the go ahead.  This morning, I felt some kind of way when the church leader called me to tell me of a plan that I knew was not going to work.  She had spent considerable time putting together a presentation with midi music for certain hymns and expected the congregation to jump in and sing on time with the audio.  If it were something that could work, I would simply play piano for those songs but clearly with internet issues, different devices and signals overall, there is no way for things to sync up properly on zoom and she ignored that fact.  When she started, a church member was unmuted and said that it hurt her ears and spoke down on this idea.  

I personally feel that we should continue doing as we had.  I will play the melody for the song first and church members as they feel ready can sing a verse while everyone else mutes.  I cannot play while someone is singing, the timing is going to be wrong.  I have asked another sis from another church to cover service next week since the pastor will be speaking.  The pastor prefers to hear her and has not disguised how he has felt about other peoples level of musicianship.  Everyone has room to grow and he is definitely no exception.  Knowing that he prefers and most people prefer her over me has been a source of discouragement too.  I have and will continue to ask her to cover service when I know he is speaking. She has an amazing voice and beautiful piano skill although she doesn't read music very well, she is able to tackle pretty much anything and play by ear.  For me, I do not have that amazing voice and although I sometimes will play music and sing along when I'm home playing by myself, I opt not to do that for service.  My son was called out of order last week and when we were to play something I found myself singing along and playing to encourage my son to sing and that is not normal for me.  

I'm getting away from it all. I was discouraged when she (church leader) wanted to do it in a way I knew would not work.  She was also the main speaker today and I felt as though she was coming for me in the sermon (she called out a few things that can only really be specific to me). I had received a message earlier in the week about a program and my name was put down for special music.  I need of course time to prepare and I didn't even know what time this event was going to be so because no one asked if I was even available or willing to do it, so I decided not to.  There are people who just throw names on a list and expect you do jump when they have you down.  I'll tell you now I'm not a grasshopper.  I ended 2021 practicing the song my son would do for service, praying and went to bed around 9pm.  I had already celebrated the 2022 new year at 5am and 6am with Kiribati and New Zealand because I was not going to wait up till midnight on the Sabbath and watch secular material.  

Alot of different emotions this morning and afternoon but I don't want to allow these things to get me down.  I don't know if I will have all of 2022.  Perhaps my time will be shortened like my sister's grandmother.  I need to live my life like every day is my last.  I am thankful to see another year.  I am thankful that I have family, have a church even without walls, and have Jesus.  I prayed a number of things before today...the morning of 12/31..... and I feel like the Lord is going to answer one of these many things I asked about.  I saw something yesterday afternoon going in that direction.  He knows what I asked about and so I will have to be patient before revealing it on here.  I know what I saw.  May I never forget it as when He does answer, I want to be able to put it in words in the order that things occur.  He heard me, but am I hearing Him?  I need to make sure that is happening this year.  

May I hear Jesus' voice this year loud and clear and may I be obedient to His will for my life forever.

 So much for keeping it short :)