What A Difference a Year Makes

We use Shutterfly to store photos online.  It is an online photo album.  While we do have hard-copy photo albums that chronicle important events in our lives, I like the way shutterfly organizes photos by date.  You can scroll back and see what was going on last year on this date or seven years ago to this date.  It is quite amazing to see a couple of things: #1 How much of our lives are cyclical in nature.  Each year we do the same things at the same time of the year.  As Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven..."  #2 How much our lives change year over year.  Just looking through photos shows how quickly your kids grow up (and we grow older!)  It reminded me to make the most of every day we have!  And to be grateful for what God has given us.

As I was looking through Shutterfly tonight, I was comparing this year at this time frame with what was going on last year at this same time.  We were very tired of the mud around our barn.  We had been unwise, failing to plan, and built our barn in the lowest area of the property.  Trekking through the mud several times a day had worn us down.  Time to solve that.  A year ago we began building a "wing" on either side of the barn to allow more covered area and to keep things dry around the barn.  The photo below shows the north wing complete the last week of October 2018.  The south wing was completed the first week of November 2018.

Here is a photo a year later, showing the north wing completed, dirt hauled in the build up the area under the wing, and the animals enjoying being "high and dry."  Can I add with emphasis that the humans have enjoyed being high and dry, too!  Getting this improvement done has improved our quality of life - seriously!

I read a blog called "The Art of Manliness." each time a new installment is posted.  Brett & Kate McKay write timely advice on all manner of topics to give men knowledge to be more effective - from very practical tips on efficiency, style, "how to" instructions...  I can't begin to tell you how much I've learned from their writing.  Their recent 'Sunday Fireside' article is posted below:

In the realm of personal finance, living “paycheck to paycheck” means that you’re able to just cover your expenses with the money you have coming in, but never save or invest beyond that.
It’s an unfortunate position to be in financially, and it also describes well the way in which many people live life in general.
When you metaphorically live life “paycheck to paycheck,” you do just enough each week to maintain your current existence. You take care of the urgent and outstanding tasks the neglect of which would disrupt the status quo, but you never take action on things that would improve and progress your situation. You thus remain stuck wherever you are.
Changing this pattern — tackling the proverbial project of “getting one’s life together” — can seem overwhelming. But it needn’t be. All it takes is completing one single to-do — one single task that moves your life forward, even slightly — each week.
Make the doctor’s appointment; choose a workout program; turn off notifications on your phone; send the job inquiry email; order underwear; text the invitation; find a recipe; take the pants to a tailor; replace the light bulb.

Accomplishing just one task a week may not seem like much, until you realize that at the end of the year, you’ll have moved your life forward in 52 ways. That’s far better than living “paycheck to paycheck”; not only will these small-but-consistent steps put a little something away for you in “savings,” their accumulation will also garner interest, reaping dividends as the weeks become years, and the years become decades.  

It is a good thing to get things done.  I like to get things done.  It is a good thing to look back and see progress made and enjoy even small steps or small victories achieved.  Sometimes we are victim to being so happy to mark things off the to do list and working so hard that we fail to celebrate.  As far as getting things done, I'd like to think that we do better than "living paycheck to paycheck."  However, we need to do better at enjoying the fruits of our labors when we get things done.