Hello 2016

 

I am so happy that 2016 is here and 2015 is over. Last year was not a good financial year for us. 2015 started off rocky for my business. I actually lived in California from February 1st to July 5th. I took my two youngest sons with me. I tried to improve my business relationships while I was in California, but things did not go as I had hoped.  My income loss was due to a client of mine being bought out by a bank. This bank decided not to use my services after the merger. The merger happened in March 2015. My income was now a third of what I was making from 2014. This caused great financial strain for my family.

In June we decided to put our home for sale. We were now forced to down size due to the reduced income. It was a hard decision, but we felt it had to be done. We had a couple highly interested in buying our home, but they were waiting for their home to sell before they made an offer on our home. 

Months passed by with not knowing what we were going to do. We just had to believe and have faith that God would take care of us. We lived paycheck to paycheck. I did manage to scrape together to pay our $2,000 tax bill and our $2,000 tuition bill for school. It was sometimes nerve racking. It has been many years since we had no savings to fall back on. We had always had a savings, but not anymore. We went back to making our own bread and getting raw milk from a dairy farmer. We have our own chickens; that give us fresh eggs. I've found ways to keep our grocery bill low. We even cut down our electric bill. You talk about living on faith and trusting God to meet your needs. We were doing this day to day. God is so good and he takes care of his children. 

I did start experiencing some health issues starting in July. It could have been the result of the two auto accidents I had in 2015. I have seen a chiropractor on and off since March. Chiropractic care has helped me. In August I started experiencing other symptoms that the doctor says is due to peri-menopause. I had many people pray for me and send me encouraging emails. I am so thankful for friends and family.

December seemed to come so quickly. I felt I had no time to prepare for Christmas. We had an after Christmas dinner on the 26th. I served a New Mexican meal. I made homemade tortillas, beans, carne adovada, green chili chicken stew, calabacitas, quesadillas, pumpkin empanadas, and biscochitos. I cooked for two days. Everything came out delicious. I do enjoy cooking for my friends and family. I told them it is all about making the time to cook and following the recipes. It seems like Carissa and I will be making tortillas for now on. 

I was contacted in early December from an old co-worker. This former co-worker is now an AVP of Real Estate for a credit union. She contacted me because she started this new position and wants to use my notary service.  I provide notary services for real estate transactions. This is an answer to prayer. I started to cry and praise God after I got off the phone with her. I even prayed to God, thanking him for blessing us/me with a new client. I will start receiving business from them this coming week. 

The other good news is, that we have decided to take our house off the market. We are not going to move now that my income will be increasing.

I believe in keeping things simple. Well, it is simple in my eyes. I really do believe that you need to have a child like faith, which is simple. It is easy for some and hard for others. I pray that 2016 will be a year of simplicity in faith for you. Have a child like faith with an expectancy of God being there for you, in your time of need.

God bless you and have a joyous new year!