Living Hale

Like most Americans, we have struggled with budgeting. There have been times when we have overspent our budget. There have been times our eyes led us to buy items we simply could not afford. We have been crippled by consumer debt, and slowly worked our way out of that debt. A few years ago we said, "No More!" We had had enough of the roller coaster ride and took action. We decided to live within our means, spending only what we earned. It was not an easy decision. We really had to lean into it, and tripped some along the way. Today we can say say that we do live within our means. It's still a struggle (and we always long to make more money so that we don't have to cinch our belts so much). The most helpful tool we have found to help us live on a budget is Goodbudget. The Goodbudget Logo Goodbudget is a website and mobile phone app and tool for budgeting. No matter where we go, we are able to enter purchases into the app from our mobile phone. So, there...

One of the great things about being part of a family is that we get to learn new things. Each person has unique interests. Often those interest grow or change over time. This is especially true with our kids. As their world of knowledge broadens, so do their interests. Our son has developed an interest in micro-nations. What is a micro-nation? It's new to us too. A micro-nation is a created country. Our son and his friend have discovered a few of these micro-nations online. The founders of the nations may create a currency or a constitution for their country. Of course, the micro-nations are not recognized by the United Nations or other official governments, however, they may be recognized by other micro-nations. If you do an online search, you find a plethora of micro-nations throughout the world. During our winter school break, we visited family. Before the visit, my son discovered that one micro-nation was located near our extended family. He begged me to visit the Republi...

Time is slipping away from us. It seems like the past year just flew by. Unfortunately, we feel that as a family we were more reactive than proactive. The days simply passed us by. We didn't have a real plan in place for living the past year to its fullest. My wife said that she felt we had so much wasted time. We wasted time forcing our kids to act a certain way rather than appreciating who they are. We wasted time being angry with things outside of our control. And we wasted time neglecting things within our control. We are not big on New Year's resolutions. I don't think a date on a calendar is the best reason to enact life change. Of course, we look to a new year and think about what we could do differently or change in the new year. New Year's resolutions seem to fail because people feel an obligation to make a change. I think real change comes about with a heartfelt moving need for change. This is exactly what we felt after looking at our past year (real...

             Every summer, our family develops a new passion. One year, it was geocaching. One year, it was watching “American Ninja Warrior.” This year, our passion involves visiting some of the sites of the National Park Service. During the visit, our children collect a Junior Ranger booklet for the Visitor’s Center and work on earning their Junior Ranger badges. It has been a great joy to visit some of our nation’s national parks and monuments and learn so much about the parks through the Junior Ranger program.             Our son loves nature and animals. As I was researching about the Rocky Mountain National Park before a visit last year, I stumbled upon the Junior Ranger program. Each park has its own booklet and badge (or patch) for children. And since each park is unique in what it offers, each Junior Ranger book offers something new for our children to l...

Here is one of my favorite blog post that I wrote a couple of years ago. I am a rock hound. I have a small collection of rocks. Of course, these are not run-of-the-mill rocks. I have geodes, rocks with amethyst and quartz, and others. It amazes me that our creative God spent so much time developing the variety we see in these rocks. If I was in the place of God, and I was feeling creative, I might have developed a dozen different style of rocks. If I were in the place of God, and I were creating gemstones, I would have come up with a handful, and called it a day. But, as I look at the world around me, I see so much diversity in rocks and gemstones. Just consider the fact that there are so many types and colors of sapphire, or ruby, or quartz.              Then I look around more at the world God created. I see the rich tapestry of color. There are so many hues of color. One body of water can display an almost infini...

Two years ago, our family seemed to be living the perfect life. Sure, there were struggles and difficulties. But, we had a beautiful home, fairly well-adjusted kids, jobs that were almost ideal and paid well, and many friends. We were able to take great vacations. We never worried about finances or the future. Then our lives began to spin out of control. Our family faced an unexpected crisis almost two years ago from which we have yet to recover. The past two years have been filled with changes and challenges of all sorts. We have left jobs, left home and friends, struggled to make new friends, faced layoffs, sold a house, bought a house, re-financed a home, moved from one state to another state, struggled to pay bills, and been “under-employed.” We have taken vacation that put us in debt. Our kids have experienced emotional and physical setbacks. We have struggled to find our way and find our purpose. I think each family member has gone through seasons of depression, sometimes se...

Our family has had times of plenty, and times of want. As we have traveled and journeyed together through life, we often find great ways to save money or redeem money. But, we hate to keep all of this information to ourselves. We want to share. Doesn’t everyone want free money? We thought so. But not everyone is willing to spend just a little bit of time (and we do mean a little bit of time) to save money or make money. It amazes me that people are willing to spend two plus hours watching a sports event on television, but are unwilling to spend five minutes to make a dime. It surprises me that people don’t want to spend a few minutes because they feel that saving a little money doesn’t make a big difference in their lives. Really? A quarter a week over 52-weeks is $13. I know that’s not a big deal. But, we have found ways to save or make at least $5 a week. Over the course of a year, that’s $260. We can find a lot of fun stuff for our family to do with $260. We think it’s worth a l...