From This moment forward…

When I started the Thriftehayseed blog back in April 2008, I thought that I could add myself to the masses of the ‘frugal advice’ style blogs that were so dear to my heart. I realized

1. Blogging frequently is hard
2. Most frugal advice is already out there, and has been written by more knowledgeable individuals than I.
3. I had little clue what I was doing.

That being said, I have decided that my blogging efforts on Thriftehayseed need to be refocused.

1. I will blog about things that I do to cut costs.
2. I will link to favorite blogs and recommend books
3. I will blog more frequently, without any pretensions. I will put my family first, my health first, and most of all GOD first before blogging.

Looking back at `08

Like many, I stayed up to ring in the New Year’s with family. My youngest son even managed to stay awake long enough to watch the telecast of the ball drop in NYC.

2008 was, well..
I began the ThrifteHayseed blog after my job was downsized in March. I love to write, so I thought that blogging would come easily. I soon learned that serious professional-grade blogging is not easy at all. Balancing my household, children, and marriage made posting to the blog another task to procrastinate. One month after being downsized, I began another full time job. Writing to my blog got shelfed most of the time.

My new work schedule was difficult to adjust to. As I began to adjust to the new work hours and new job responsibilities, life happened. I began to have some health issues.

By August, my health issue had gotten to the point that my doctor began to talk to me about seeing a specialist, and also having a CAT scan.

Just days before Labor Day, I underwent surgery. I took a non FMLA leave, but only missed one week of work.

What I hadn’t counted on was that my immune system had taken a traumatic blow. I began to catch every stomach virus going around. No amount of vitamin C helped. I missed work for the simple reason that I had never been that sick and weak before. Ever.

One weak before Thanksgiving, my new workplace decided to drastically reduce its workforce. In all, 80 individuals lost their jobs that day. I felt like I probably deserved to be perm. laid off – the others, not so much.

The year ended with me having no new job prospects. The economy ended down, and my rural area has been effected by it strongly.

What now, `09?
I stopped making true resolutions 2 years ago. I never seemed to keep them anyways.

Instead, I have been making a list of things that I would like to do better at.

Here’s this year’s list:
(1) Keep myself healthier.
(2) Maintain a prioritized spending budget, and cut as many unnecessary costs as possible.
(3) Study GOD’s Word on a daily basis. Study it, know it, and then put it into action in my life.
(4) Make more happy memories; Eliminate new regrets.

Happy 2009.