Who are we as a people? We define ourselves every minute!

Recently I had a soul defining moment that I've been dodging for YEARS.

It's called RETIREMENT, and it's LOOMING over us like someone else's nightmare.

And it has another name:  DEBT.  I finally had enough about a year ago.  Jim quit his job and went to the more risky venture of contracting his services.  In the process, he finally started getting paid closer to what he is worth.

And nothing changed.  Okay, his diet plan got easier to pay for.  But that was it.

How did that happen?  I know because I've always kept track of our money, but I didn't control it.  We simply responded to need and concerns.  We've tried very hard to teach our kids to avoid some common mistakes, mistakes that are labeled as DEBT.  Both of our sons have bought their cars with cash.

And then one son wrecked his car.  Yucky lesson.  It doesn't look too bad, does it?  But you can't see the underside.

You can see the flat tire but you may not realize the wheel itself broke.  Three of those wheels broke.  And all because someone else's schedule was more important to her than my son's safety.  He narrowly missed hitting a black SUV whose driver thought her left turn into the grocery/gas store was more important than my son's right of way on the state highway.  He missed her.  She didn't even have the grace to stop, but the person behind her did.  That lady made sure he was okay.  That curb he jumped?  It's okay too.  They stopped tallying the damages at $4,500.  He only paid $3,500 for the car.  The sign it broke is gone.  He's saving money again for a car instead of school but he still needs money for school next year.  

Remember last post where I talked about remembering the ugly about where our country has been?  Remember the Civil War?  Remember blacks being shoved to awful schools and the backs of buses?  This isn't a racial problem.  This is a courtesy problem.  This is forgetting we are all children of a loving Father in Heaven.  This is about being more concerned about others than our schedule or convenience.  

As my husband puts it, "People over processes."

This is where our education needs to redirect.  We've spent time and money on anti-bullying messages and we have bullying in our social media.  Let's spend time and money studying history again.  Stop tearing down the Confederate statues, not because they're good but because we NEVER WANT TO GO THERE AGAIN.

History unlearned is history repeated. 

Rudeness, all about me attitudes, result in unnecessary automobile accidents, road rage, hurt feelings, offenses taken where none were intended.  Go find a book.  Not fantasy but history.  Learn about what happens when people care more about themselves than others.  Then check into yourself.  Are you more like those who wanted your conveniences over the life of another human being?  Slavery wasn't just about black people.  Indentured servants were treated worse.  Factory workers?  What do you know about the plight of those children on the Orphan Trains?  Have you heard about them?  Liken what you're reading to yourself.  Are you more like the best in them or the worst?  What face do you wear online?  Behind the wheel?

THAT, my friends, is what defines us as a nation.

Prayer that my minimizing might help others

Have you ever reached that point that you realized that you were working like crazy and getting behinder by the minute?  Have you reached that point of having four or five quilt tops that are ready to be sandwiched and quilted but no funds to pay someone else to quilt them?  Or realized that you don't have anyone that really needs them?

Or have you heard the word MINIMALIST so many times that it's starting to wear on you about how much you AREN'T living that reality?

Or maybe TAX time slaps you in the face and you realize that later is now?

That happened here.

So my frenzied reaction to having a federal tax bill is this:

And you are saying, "HUH?"

But some of you may recognize this as a small, comfort sized quilt.  This one is actually going to somebody my friend knows, but I have a duplicate headed to the Ronald McDonald House.  

How is that going to help?

Simple.  It's a tax write off using fabric I already own, already bought.  You know, the stuff you have had so long that it feels like it was free?  (Thank you, IRS, that's only a figure of speech, but I didn't buy it recently.  It has been sitting on my shelf for at least a year with no landing place in mind.)

When I figured out our taxes this year, I became more and more tense because our usual write offs were disappearing.  And my brief foray into the land of reporting to someone else's workplace for a paycheck resulted in an additional $200 tax (on less than a month's and not a whole lot of money worth of effort.)  With that paycheck, my husband flew out to see his parents and our daughter--both necessary adventures so I have no regrets.  At least until I prepared our taxes with Turbo Tax's help. 

But the pain began much earlier than inputting my W-2.  

You see, my daughter moved to college last fall.  And became self supporting.  So we lost half of her support deduction.

She's our youngest so this pain started several years ago when my boys turned 17.  They're 22 now.  At 17, the automatic child exemption stops, but you can still keep them as dependents for tax purposes as long as you are still supporting them and they don't make more than a bare minimum.  So we haven't been able to claim them since they were about 18.  

Our daughter just turned 19 and our fun was over.

Maybe you can relate?  Or dread?

I only made two charitable, in kind donations last year, and I savored both of them.  Between our tithing, other cash donations, and those TWO in-kind donations of household goods and clothing, we didn't have to come up with THOUSANDS in federal tax.  

This year I hit the ground running on this whole minimalist idea.  Our bookcases are emptying because books make a really good donation.  So far I've donated 4 boxes of books with 3 more boxes sitting on the floor behind me.  I haven't even gotten to the point that I can put all of our books into the bookcases we'll take with us when we downsize our home, let alone move into a tiny house!

THAT is painful!  Books are my life, my freedom, and my education.  They're my defense against our society's soul destroying effort to rewrite our country's history, the good, the bad, the ugly.  Because it ALL made us who we are today.  Maybe especially the ugly.  Without remembering the ugly, we might become even uglier.  With those memories, we can become more kind.  Without them, we might cycle back around to become more cynical, more proud, and more prejudiced.

All this makes slimming down my book collection painful.

So is slimming down my fabric collection.  Both, however, can be put back into circulation to enrich another generation.  Children who have medical troubles and children and adults who need to learn time-honored values may hopefully benefit from my efforts.

Taking it easy

In the last few days, I've finished enough blocks to bring the total to 36.  I think I'm going to settle with that and make a square quilt.  So my next challenge is how to put up a design board to lay up the blocks.

Additionally, I've been resting.  Sunday my family and I went to choir practice to prepare for an ecumenical service, and I came home with a bad case of laryngitis.  Monday I wasn't better; it turned into a full-fledged cold.  <grumble, grumble>

The weather turned cold too so I've been staying home with this:

I love honey vanilla chamomile tea!  Recently I discovered Integral Collagen from Trim Healthy Mama so I've been adding a teaspoon of the collagen into my tea.  It doesn't do much to the taste, but it's good for hair, skin, and nails.  As a wife and mother, chief cook and bottle washer, sewist, accountant, and whatever else is needed, I am in need of extra help in that department!  Believe me when I say I've drunk a lot of this tea with the collagen today.  It's the only thing keeping the sinus headache at bay.  Hopefully my husband will bring some Nexfed home for me tonight!

I've also been taking advantage of the quiet time by reading the Dark History of the Tudors, by Judith John.  I picked it up at Barnes and Noble last week for less than $10 because my daughter is studying European History this year.  This book gives a fairly brief summary of each of the Tudors with the most time spent on Henry VIII.  There are some new stories I had not read before now, but overall it is a good starter book of the Tudors after the War of the Roses.  She didn't go into much detail about that time, but then I got tangled in all the Henrys at the beginning where she discussed that.  It was sometimes difficult to follow the Marys, Elizabeths, and Seymours but the Henrys were the worst.  Consistently putting Roman numerals behind the name Henry would help.  If you can get past the first few pages (and Henrys) of the book, it becomes easier to follow.

  

I guess the best part about being sick is taking it easy and putting other tasks to the side.  I need to read 7 more books this year to meet my goal, but I'm perfectly okay with being healthy while I do it!!!