Stop the World, I Wanna Get Off!

It seems that the busy times in ministry and motherhood aren't stopping anytime soon, well actually January and February are USUALLY pretty slow unless there are a lot of funerals that is. Working outside the home isn't going to be working for our family at the time, the dentist agreed to let us make payments, they first suggested that I take out a dental loan after reviewing the terms I would never pay 14% interest on it, our credit cards are less then that! However we have worked hard to pay those and not run them up is dental work an EMERGENCY? I explained what we believed as far as debt and they agreed to let me make 4 payments interest free! So little Presbyboy will be all taken care of.

I am a person that LOVES schedule, the ministry is anti schedule and based a lot on need and Emergency visits at least in an older congregation. I was looking at the calendar for the next two months and every weekend seems so filled, all summer was jam packed. I guess I am a homebody at heart. I have been thinking of starting some kind of Pastor's wife meeting for our Presbytery, I have a few ideas running around in my head, do any of you attend a ministers wives fellowship? Any good ideas would be appreciated.

Lots of Change

I haven't worked since DH and I got married, kids came pretty quickly and I could never earn enough to pay a baby sitter and make it worth my while plus I always wanted to be home anyway. However our church is unable to pay us more so either DH would have to get a second job as a chaplain etc. or I would...so I will be going back to the hotel where I worked 6 years ago,I called my old boss to see if I could list him as reference on my resume and he said he would hire me back. I will be working 2-12 hour shifts (his days off). which are DH's days off too hence why I won't need a baby sitter. If a funeral or something comes up Mom can watch them , but she really can't do it more then once in a awhile.

Presbyboy is in need of fillings, we don't have the denomination dental and even if we did they wouldn't pay for general anesthesia which all dentists seem to require in children younger then 5 years old, I never had a cavity till 21, but my brother had TONS and I think Presbyboy must have gotten that end of the gene pool. How much is general anesthesia for a 3 1/2 year old...1,000 yup! plus they have to give him a test to make sure he will tolerate it well, plus fillings. I hate to do all that for teeth that will fall out in a few years but if severe enough the cavities can go to the permanent teeth. I may not work forever but for this season I am.

A Beautiful Wedding on the Cheap- Part1

As a ministers wife in a sizable church I attend a lot of weddings. I also attend a lot of funerals but that's another post altogether. I've seen a lot of great money saving ideas and a lot of "why did they do that" things. Don't have money for a wedding planner talk to a minister's wife of a big church most likely she will have some great ideas.

Building-First of all a problem we run into a lot is a couple is a member of a small church that can't hold all their guests or the couple isn't members of any church, finding a location that's an actual church sanctuary in the traditional sense of stained glass windows and a long center isle is the "picture" a lot of brides have for their wedding day. If you go looking for this type of church you can expect to pay a rental price, this is in addition to the Pastor's honorarium, keep in mind someone has to play the piano , run the sound system and clean up the pews after your ceremony, most large sanctuaries aren't cooled or heated to a comfortable temperature except during regular times so that is also an expense. Those things also have to be done for your rehearsal so for those people involved they will be giving up their Friday night and Saturday.

Decoration- Our church actually has beautiful candelabras, an arch and white pew bows and greenery most people don't even know the church has these and you can use them free of charge so they buy their own if your talking a hundred pews that a considerable savings. If you are investing in fresh church flowers make sure someone will transport them to the reception so they do double duty.

If your church doesn't have these there are party and banquet supply companies that rent them.Don't waste your money!

In this day and age so many women have tattoos, I mean big ones, if you have bridesmaids with these, please don't pick a dress that will show them off, nothings more distracting the looking at the tattoo on a bridesmaids back through the whole ceremony trying to figure out what the Chinese characters say.

Find out what flowers are in season and work around those. I got married around Halloween but had Lilies and pink roses, not in season! I ended up ordering 12 dozen of each from Sam's Club and doing my own flowers, yes, I saved a lot but I sure was tired. I probably should have had Autumn colors.