Don & Patti's Visit

Don (Hugh's dad) and Patti (Hugh's stepmom) visited us the weekend of Thanksgiving. They drove down from Minnesota to spend time with us and meet their new grandson. :) As you can tell, they each got to spend some quality time holding and rocking Enoch.

Patti and I also ventured out to shop a little on Black Friday. She found some great deals on a few things she had been looking for. I wanted to find a casual cardigan so that I could wear a few of my good summer breastfeeding tops a little longer, but I had no such luck. I brought home a nice grey cardigan, but I soon decided that it wasn't quite cheap enough for me to keep (will be returned this coming week if timing with the little one ends up working out).

This made me realize that I've been blessed by having such great thrift stores around here with prices that are much more reasonable for our budget. Of course everyone knows that it is near impossible to go to a thrift store when you have something specific in mind (a neutral colored, light weight cardigan, to be exact), so I had been putting off the trip to look at a few of my favorite shops for at least a few weeks. Well, let me say that amazingly enough God was gracious in not only providing a wonderful grey cardigan but also in providing it for $0.50!! Granted, it is missing a button.. but I never use the bottom button anyway. :)

This experience spurred me on in many personal aims that I am attempting (and oftentimes failing) to live by:

• live within or below our means
• consider the value of money in an eternal perspective (...more on this later)
• portray with my lifestyle that the earth is not my home
• live humbly and sacrificially

This is one of the passages that encourages me the most in this attempt:

¹³ These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. ¹⁴ For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

(Hebrews 11:13-16)