The Intentional Life

  Money. When my husband and I first married, I was newly graduated with an Associates Degree and he still had two more years to go at a major State University. We married young, we were both 20, and did not have a whole lot of cash between us. When we combined our bank accounts the number was 4 digits....barely. Thankfully, we both lean towards saving versus spending, and were content to live on cheap noodles, a zero dollar entertainment budget, and even went as long as possible without heat (the apartment reached 50 degrees when we finally turned on the furnace). Back then, it was fairly simple to keep track of expenditures - we just didn't make any.  But, as life goes on, a mortgage is added to the mix, children add to the expenses, and things like medical issues and car breakdowns seem to be more often than not. We didn't really have to create a budget in the early days, we just saved as much as we could. But once kids came on the scene, it was clear that we...

  Health. I’m always excited about “volunteer plants.” The random vegetables that just start growing in the Spring without any help from me. Maybe it’s because I’m not that great at gardening, so when plants spring up green and thriving, I get a little giddy.   One year it was pumpkins. I had tossed the remains of a pie pumpkin in the tired-out Autumn garden the October before. April came around and we planted a few rows of green beans. The beans came up alright, and right in the midst of all those beans, were some sprouts of pumpkin. I wasn’t expecting those sprouts, but there they were. Because I loved the idea of a bountiful harvest of pumpkins, I let them go, to see how they would fare.   Hindsight came to show, that, despite them being small and welcome in May, they became overwhelming and intrusive in July. The green beans that came up 6 weeks earlier could barely see the sun, choked out by the explosion of pumpkin vines. We ended up with some pumpkin...