Facebooking at All Costs

As within anything in life, I am learning the importance of moderation in all things. It is amazing how some of these great tools we have can be used for so much good and so much evil, even if it is merely even in our own personal life. After all, isn't the world made of a whole bunch of personal lives.

Let me start with, I LOVE facebook. Really, I do. I have found myself pulling out my phone in conspicuous locations at work, so as not to be seen, to check status updates. I hate to admit it, but I even have spent extra long sitting in the bathroom, to look at facebook (of course while my hands are still somewhat clean). The other day I went onto networked blogs and spent hours working on getting people to follow my blogs. Thankfully, last year I gave up on the games on facebook, it was even worse then.

I realized on my way to work yesterday that I have been out of balance. Facebook can be a fine tool. It is a great way to connect with others, but it can also be a time waster and even something that distances me from God. The more I choose my favorite time waster when I should be choosing more eternally valuable things, the more I am loosing a little bit of that spirit that draws me closer to God and that I need, to direct me in my day to day life. I can feel a difference.

Now for the hard part, to figure out what amount of time on facebook is ok for me personally. When should I put my phone away and avoid looking at it at all costs. I started by spending a large amount of time asking for forgiveness and for help yesterday, and it has helped. Now, I need to start listening to that guidance and following it. The key to everything in this life is balance. Moderation in all things, including Facebook.

Avoiding the Debt Trap, and Trying to Get Out of It

In the process of trying to improve our credit enough to buy a house this last year, we succumbed to the debt trap. Boy is it a trap. I remember all to well now, why we never wanted to go back.

It just doesn't make sense that lenders won't lend to you if you have no credit, i.e. no debt. However, we started our way back in by buying a car last fall, because my car was having serious problems, and we hoped it might improve our credit. It helped some, but not quite enough.

A couple months later, we got a small credit card. That did the trick, within a few months, we had a new house, with a nice new, hefty house payment. Of course, it is a beautiful home! We love it, and it is perfect in many ways. However, shortly after we moved into our large new house payment, our family vehicle, the trusty suburban, (a necessity for a family of 8 and 1 dog), suffered from a terminal transmission.

Enter hefty car payment #2. Within one year, we went from 100% debt free, to an oversized home payment, 2 extra large car payments, and 1 not small enough credit card payment. Wow, have we felt the weight of this. It is amazing how horrible it feels to have debt, and how enslaving.

Now that I am moving forward with my new business, Bay Area Birth, I have been very tempted to get into more debt. In the church I attend, we have many times, and very recently again, been counseled to stay out of and get out of debt. So, with each new, better, and better credit offer, I have had to try harder and harder to push the thoughts out of my head. With a lot of prayer and change in thought patterns it is getting easier.

One experience I want to share about this, is that yesterday, I was told I was going to be sent home early. I was very upset about that, because, especially right now, every hour I work is counted into my budget. I was planning on the extra 2 hours or so I should have worked.

As I was gathering equipment to take to a patient's room, a recent credit card offer crossed my mind. I thought about how I could buy some needed supplies for my business, and pay for more advertising. Just as quickly, I pushed those thoughts aside, and prayed fervently that Heavenly Father would help me have the strength to follow his guidance and avoid debt, and that if I were to follow his guidance, he would help things to work out.

I went into the patient's room, and by the time I left, about 20 minutes later, the charge nurse came up to me and said they would not be sending me home after all. I knew it was an answer to my prayers, and I had passed one more test in the process towards getting out of our debt trap.

Bay Area Birth is open for Business, and I am an official Midwife!

First of all, I knew it had been awhile since I last blogged, but how has it really been over a year?!? Crazy. Back in August I took my licensing exam, and passed! Hooray! Making me an official CPM or certified professional midwife. Then I applied for Texas licensure and am now an official LM as well, or Licensed Midwife.

With all of this officialness, I also have an official website: www.bayareabirth.com for my official business. :) I also have a blog for said business: www.bayareabirth.wordpress.com. I wrote a post about my very first birth as a midwife with Bay Area Birth as well. Check it out.

You all know how much I love repeating number, well, believe it or not, my very first birth as a solo midwife was a beautiful baby girl born on 10/10/10 at 10:10pm. On top of that my new Texas midwife license number is 99110. Since I was born on 9/9 at 11:11pm, that really felt to me as if Heavenly Father was saying, this is what you were born to do.

I am extremely excited to get busy as a midwife! I hope to share more stories about what has happened in the last year and what is happening now, very soon.