Having No God

I've come to the conclusion that neither of my parents nor any of my brothers believe in God. We weren't raised in church. We attended public schools, and we all have different views on politics and life. I guess I'm just saddened to be the only one in my family who believes in a higher power and often prays to that power. I'm not comfortable in churches, and my bible collects dust. I'm less interested in the history of my religion but more interested in the future. 

There are some horrible things going on in the world, and there are glorious miracles happening every day. I can't help but pray for others who need support nor can I help being thankful for the blessings I've received.

I have a friend who's very young daughter is dying from a rare genetic disease. There is no cure, so my prayers are usually asking for more time for this young girl to be on earth and surrounded by love ones as comfortably as she can. I can't for one second believe that when this baby dies, that'll be the end of her. I have to believe she will be in Heaven waiting for her parents to join her. 

Therefore, I can only hope that my brothers are never in a situation where they have to say goodbye to a child or spouse. Either their views on religion will change, or they'll be looking at a very dark future. The best part about dying (for me) is my belief that loved ones will be reunited later. There is so much pain and suffering on this planet, that I couldn't bear it if peace and tranquility didn't follow.

Not Working From Home

Next Monday, I officially start getting paid to stay home. I'll be a stay at home mom (SAHM) with a weekly income all while not having to actually do work. It's an agreement made between my father/boss and myself. It all legally ties into my future ownership and how much my stock will be worth, but this money is going to truly help our family.

Currently, I work the first half of every day Monday-Friday. While I'm at work, I do very little work at all. For the most part, I spend my time playing on the internet. Because I'm at work, my husband has to be home and awake to watch our son. With this new plan, he can finally begin signing up for late night overtime slots and early morning overtime slots. My pay will be the same, except he will be working more hours at time and a half. Also, I'm due to deliver our daughter in March/April. Prior to this plan, I was going to take 6 weeks off without pay and would probably end up bringing my daughter into the office with me after that point. Our financial situation is terrible right now, so that 6 weeks of unpaid leave was scaring the crap out of me. Now, we won't be worrying about it.

I've talked to my husband about our financial goals. We really want to cut out fast food restaurants and if need be, head to the grocery store more often. He works 2nd shift and his days off rotate each week, so me being home all day every day gives us more time to see each other and have family time. We want to be more frugal with our cash and we're really looking forward to tax refunds this year. Our Prius is close to getting paid off. Our refund will be big enough to pay it off with some excess money left over. Getting rid of debt helps our income stretch out farther. I intend to use the cash from the old car payment to throw into our newer car payment, so instead of paying $200.00/month, we'll be paying $550.00/month.

We have some possible major family changes approaching this year regarding careers and home addresses, so I can't easily predict how our lives might change. I know we're having another child. From there, everything else is up in the air. It'll definitely be an adjustment staying at home and trying to better our finances, but I am thrilled to be away from the family business drama. With winter FINALLY approaching, it'll be nice to hibernate indoors rather than scrape my car off every morning and drive through blizzards to get to work.