Saturday, February 27, 2010

Risks and Rewards

All right. So I've been keeping you entertained with lots of fun new recipes to try but it's been a while since I've done a personal update on our lives kind of post. So what's going on with Don and Cindy?

I think this week a lot especially we've been learning to live with the ebbs and flows of the major life changes we took on when we moved to Bellingham. We made some major decisions that promised some pretty big rewards that required us to take a few risks and a leap of faith. We've had a few reminders this week of what those risks entailed as they pop up and loom out there in the lands of "What If" and "You Never Know." Of course most of it revolves around issues of financial security and stability. And while our faith has been tested here and there, at the end of the day I think we're still doing a good job of keeping things in perspective, living in the moment, and are really really confident that we made the right decisions for us and that we're on a path to something really wonderful. It's a very exciting stage in my life, as someone who craves control, security, and stability like any good Type A Woman, to have reached the point in my personal growth where I can identify when those factors are hindering me/us instead of aiding me/us and it's so cool to know that I'm ready and willing to step out of my comfort zone to get to where we want to go.

On that same path and along those lines of personal growth, another major shift that occurred in our household recently is that I transferred all of the financial duties and responsibilities (a.k.a Control, there's that word again) to Don. Given that his career now is going to be in financial management and that I was feeling over tasked and stressed from work and household duties, it seemed like the obvious thing to do. So now Don gets to balance the checkbook, track and categorize our spending, set budgets, decide what money goes in what account, which debts we pay off first, how much money we set aside for retirement, etc. I thought I would have a hard time letting go of it and not being fully aware of where of everything that's going on in our bank account. Boy was I stupid! It's the most liberating wonderful thing that has happened for me in a long time! I know and trust that he is doing a good job with it and I worry and think less about money than I ever have before. And it's also lightened my load to the point where I have more energy to put into meal planning and grocery shopping which I am much more interested in but had started to feel like a drain just from being stretched too thin. This whole shift has brought a lot more balance I think to our life together and relationship. We even managed to get through our first financial talk together as a couple the other night since our roles have been reversed. It started off a little rocky as we were anticipating what each other was going to be thinking and feeling off the bat but we got through that and ended up having an excellent conversation finding out that we're both actually feeling really similar about where we are and where we want to be.

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