Family Worship Time

We try to be very diligent about setting aside time for our family to spend time together reading God's word and praying together after dinner. Admittedly there are times when we do better/worse than others. Honestly, often it can be one of the most exhausting things I do all day, and make me just want to give up trying ever again.
So, I had a thought last week in reflecting on a week of really "difficult/goofy/crazy/distracted" times - maybe family worship time is more for the parents than it is for the kids?? Maybe its just part of God's training ground for parents to teach them patience and perseverance :)
So, I hope I learn patience soon!
Seriously though, in the meantime, I am encouraged to keep on doing what I know really is making an impact on my life and my family's lives. I hope that if you don't already, you will make it a priority of your family to spend time together with each other and with God. This is one of my resolutions for improving this year and seeing how God grows us together.

Galatians 6:9 (NIV)
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

The Energy Nazi

This is one of the nicknames Julie has for me - I have always been "frugal". The last couple months I went all out to get our electric bills back under control as they went through the roof this summer (which I found out was partly due to the increase in the APS rate hike). But still, it was just insane - Almost $400 in July!.
So I did some googling and looking at ways to decrease our electric consumption without having my wife kick me out of the house. So I installed programmable thermostats on both the upstairs and downstairs A/C units (which also control our electric heat pump as we don't have gas) and then last month installed an electronic water heater timer. Got them all on ebay - Motorola thermostats are $99 each at Home Depot but got them for $50 each including shipping and the water heater timer retails for $149 but got it for $60 - you can also get a mechanical timer instead of the digital one for about $25-30. (Just be sure you disconnect the power before doing these as its 240v :)
So we reduced our Nov bill by $60 over last year same month, and December (with addition of WH timer) reduced our bill $100 (53%) over last December - our $94 December bill is our lowest electric bill in 3 1/2 years (which is probably still a little high, but no gas heating costs, so I guess that will have to do). So these basically paid for themselves in 2 months time. Will be interested to see what type of savings we get from these in the summer months. I won't hold my breath on cutting those 50%, but anything we save will be a welcome change after this last summer's bills.

Oh and yes, we instituted a total laundry ban during peak hours which I am sure helped some too - the only catch is that now I have to do the laundry on Saturday mornings - a little compromise on my part :)

Our Big News

For those that haven't heard yet, we have decided to reach out and adopt - 2 kids, hopefully a brother and sister from Ethiopia around Noah and Natalie's ages. Julie and I have both been thinking and praying about this for a while and God has really made it clear to us. We, and the kids are so excited. Of course there are a lot of unknowns at this point in time, but we believe that God is in control and trust in Him completely to see us through the process and bring us 2 of His special children in His perfect timing.
Julie started a separate blog to post updates along the way and if you know my blogging habits, that's a good thing. www.fourplusmore.com

James 1:27 (NIV) Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.