Monday 30 January 2012

Leaps of Faith II

 Greetings Everyone!

One of the reasons I felt called to start this blog was to witness to God’s provision and to the culture of life by demonstrating that it IS POSSIBLE to raise a family on a single income, even in this economy. You either believe in God or you don’t.  You either believe that God was telling the truth when He said “ask and you shall receive” or you believe he was lying. You either trust Him when He said “if you say to this mountain ‘throw yourself into the sea’ and if you do not have doubt in your heart…it will come to pass……whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it shall be yours (Mk 11:23-24) or you don’t. Faith of a mustard seed. That is all God has ever asked. Our level of hesitation only reveals the depth of our faith. 

This year…while on parental leave benefits alone I have: gone back to college, taken my kids to the science centre three times, gone skiing, had my kids in archery lessons AND swimming lessons. Liz has started painting again (check out her blog: www.tipsimom.blogspot.com) and the list goes on and on. All WITHOUT GOING INTO DEBT OR MISSING A MORTGAGE PAYMENT!!! 

Anyway, what I am trying to say is, God really does provide. What we did not have the money to pay for, we have been given….truly providentially.

This has been an amazing year so far! Here is an outline of what I have been doing since last September:

Home schooling the (school age) kids: While I do believe in early education, I figured I would wait a bit before I tried teaching Bernadette…who is nine months….how to read and write Latin….her older brothers and sisters however are well aware of the various declensions and cases…..Liz and I have an ongoing debate on pronunciation as she was trained in classical Latin whereas I was trained in Church Latin, however the kids prefer either to learning Hebrew…but hey, you have to walk before you run right?

Some of you may know that I also went back to College this year! I am currently in the second and last semester of the General Carpentry program at Georgian College in Barrie. Actually this is not too far off the beaten track for me as some of you know that I have been banging nails, ripping out toilets and putting up walls since I was sixteen. 

Some of you also know that I started contracting on my own a couple of years ago….so if any of you in the Greater Toronto Area ever need a painter….or are thinking of renovating your basement, let me know. 

The most exciting thing is that we have become distributors of essential home services (ie high speed internet, local and long distance phone service, gas and electricity packages and more!)  The company is called ACN and our experience has been amazing! Check out our online store:

 www.geoliz.acndirect.com

I cut my phone bill from $130/Month with our last provider to $75 dollars a month for unlimited high speed internet and unlimited calling to 60 countries by switching to our product….oh and our monthly gas bill is down too. I would consider it a huge favour if you checked out our store and recommended our services to anyone you know….the details are on the site.

And if you happen to be in the market for an awesome home-based business opportunity give us a shout!

tipsidad@gmail.com

And lastly, a few posts ago I mentioned that I had exciting news, which I would be sharing. The time has come to announce.....that I have decided not to return to education to pursue other adventures!

I just want to say that it was an honour and a privilege to work with such an amazing group of people for the last seven years. I consider them some of my favorite people in the world. I have grown so much from their wisdom and guidance. Many of them have inspired me in ways that are beyond words.

I am excited to see what God has in store for me and my family next! 

TiPSI Dad

Next post: Taking the push up challenge to the next level!

 

 

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Feeding an Army

So I was standing in line at the grocery store the other day , and the guy in front of me jokingly remarked about how much food his two boys ate in a week.  So I casually mentioned that I knew all about the consumption of food....with seven kids and all. I love the look of stunned disbelief mixed with slight admiration and slight "what are you crazy???" that comes over their faces when I say that.

 But, with food prices the way they are these days, I guess it is no wonder that people wonder how we manage to feed everybody without getting eaten out of house and home. 

Part of living within your means involves understanding the difference between shopping for  ingredients versus shopping for prepared foods...the grocery store version of fast food.

With a little creativity and some planning, it is possible to eat nutritiously with out breaking the bank! For example, instead of chips we make popcorn top of the stove which saves us quite a bit, both in money and in calories.

But buckets of popcorn do not a health diet make, so how do you eat well without breaking the bank?

Anyone who has read anything about investing has probably heard about a technique called dollar cost averaging. Basically the principle of DCA works like this, if you constantly spend x amount of dollars on any given investment, sometimes you will get more, sometimes you will get less.

If you know what to look for, you can find some great deals on food that goes on sale. For example, turkey goes on sale at our local grocery store for $1.00lb....which means that we can get two 20lb turkeys for about $40....which is a lot of turkey.

Each one of those turkeys translates into a week of meals for our family of 9! So that works out to $10 a week! Throw in some salad ingredients (3 romaine lettuce heads @$5...) so that is 1.42 on turkey, 0.71 for salad, throw in a few cents for rice and frozen veggies and that works out to less than $3 a meal for the family....that is 0.37 per person! 

Now someone out there has probably said, I don't want to eat turkey for a weeks on end and truth be told neither do we. However, that is what freezers are for. There are a bunch of turkey recipies that freeze really well. We make a batch of cream turkey, freeze it and then use it as a base for turkey pot pie, turkey a la king, pasta and turkey cream sauce...and the list goes on.

Using the principle of dollar cost averaging you can get some really great food deals AND it give you an opportunity to expand your pallet.

 

By the way, for those of you who are taking part in the TiPSI Dad Push Up challenge, welcome to week two!

 

If you have been doing your pushups you will have done 55 push ups at the time of this post. Keep up the good work! If you are just hearing about the challenge for the first time, feel free to join! No need to try to catch up, just join now and follow the directions for the rest of the year. The more the merrier!

 

TiPSI Dad

 

Monday 2 January 2012

Join the Challenge!

Ok TiPSI Dads...and Moms too! So at the start of the new year and seeing as the last post was about making and keeping resolutions, I have decided that I would do pushups every day, so, I figured I would throw out an invitation to join me in the TiPSI Dad push-up challenge!

Here is the way it works:

You do one pushup for each day of the month. So for example, on the first of the month you do one push up, on the second of the month you do two, on the third, three and so on, until you reach the equivalent of the date or you max out ie. you are unable to continue. So, on day thirty, you would do one set of thirty push ups, but you will have done a total of about 465 push-ups! (if you were able to keep up with the number of days in the month)

At the beginning of each month you can go back to one, or, if you are looking for more of a challenge, take ten seconds to do one push up, or set yourself a base line....say ten, and do that each night until the eleventh of each month, then increase by one.

Every couple of weeks or so, I will issue a push up variation to challenge you even further!

Just a couple of more rules and a disclaimer: 

  1. This challenge is between you and yourself. Nobody else. You may choose to do this challenge with a friend, which I recommend, but do not push yourself to the point of self injury!
  2. Speaking of self injury, please consult your physician if there is any question about your physical health!  I will not be held responsible for any injury incurred should you choose to take part in the challenge.
  3. I will not take any credit either for any attention garnered for your improving physique. Also, what you chose to do with that attention is up to you. Please act responsibly.
  4. Feel free to share the challenge with your friends...and please post comments about your progress!! It would be great to hear your stories. 
  5. There will not be any prize at the end, but the satisfaction in knowing that in the year 2012, you will have done 5,580 push ups!

So without any further ado.....



TiPSI Dad

 

Sunday 1 January 2012

Happy Feast Day!

Happy Feast Day!!!

Happy Feast Day, on this Eighth day of Christmas, on the feast of Mary Mother of God! May this year be full of joy and happiness for you and your loved ones this year!

This is the time of year where most of the world sets resolutions for itself in the hopes that these resolutions will help them become better persons. So as a Certified Life Coach, it is my pleasure to offer you the following tips for keeping your resolutions for this year:

Number one: Set no more than 5 major goals or resolution for yourself this year. When you set more than five all of a sudden things start to seem unattainable.  

Number two: Write them down, and say them aloud each day. There is a psychological effect of putting something down in writing...in effect you are entering into a contract with yourself. There is also something to be said about hearing your goals said aloud...just thinking positive is not enough sometimes

Number three: Do one thing every day that brings you closer to your goal. It takes three weeks of doing something everyday to become a habit, and it take three hundred repetitions for a habit to become an automatic response.

Number four: Keep track of your progress in a journal. I always recommend shopping around for a nice journal you would want to write in. At the end of each day write down: one thing that you did to  bring you closer to your goal, and three things that you are grateful for. 

Number five: Adopt a "Be" attitude not a wanna be attitude. If you spend your time "wanting to be" than all you are ever going to do is become a wanna be. So instead of wanting to live healthier, Live healthier!

You will become the average of the five people you hang around with the most. If you find yourself surrounded by people who have great dreams, but never seem to go out to achieve them, sometimes that means you need to spend sometime finding, and hanging around people who set and reach their goals. 

The key to becoming successful is not to reinvent the wheel, but to clearly identify your definition of success, find someone who is living your definition, and then do what they did to get there.


Happy new year from our family to yours

TiPSI Dad and Co.