The Stingy Rich

A recent government study proves my point: those earning less than $10,000 give 5.5 percent of their income to charitable causes. Those earning over $500,000 give less than 3 percent.

I thought this to be very interesting, and very true. If I tithe 10% of a thousand, it is only $100. I don't think about it and it silently slips out of my bank account with little notice.

Change the numbers a bit and lets say God decides to bless with a heftier sum, maybe $6000. 10% of that is now $600 dollars. That only leaves me with $5400, and I find myself justifying out the wazoo why this money was not something that I need to tithe on.

That greed must look so ugly to God, as he usually blesses us with finances to bless others and I have trouble letting go only 10% of the whole.

Don't Download This Song!

http://www.dontdownloadthissong.com

Mortgage

Entymology:
1390, from O.Fr. morgage (13c.), mort gaige, lit. "dead pledge" (replaced in modern Fr. by hypothèque), from mort "dead" + gage "pledge;" so called because the deal dies either when the debt is paid or when payment fails.

Source: www.entymonline.com

I am writting from work right now, very excited as we just heard back from the Credit Union (yeah weird) and they are ready to process our mortgage with no co-signer and at a great interest rate with lots of flexability.

We will be going in to Saskhousing September 1st to send away the offer to purchase!!!!

Woohoo!

Updates

New Look

Blogger has just released their beta of their new Blogspot interface. Hence the new face to my blog. i highly recommend updating your blog as it gives you many more features and a much nicer interface. My blog now shows up properly in IE and Firefox.

Home Purchase

We had an appointment with the local Credit Union, this went okay but I was not really impressed with the quality of service. The loans officer we were dealing with was overly pessimistic and did not help us to feel that we had much of a chance of qualifying. Later it became apparent that she didn't really know what she was doing as far as working with the CAHP program.

Today I had an appointment with a mortgage broker, the same one my sister and brother-in-law used and it went much better. He was very positive and encouraging. We now need to wait a couple days to find out.

Our good friend Ron came over today to look over our basement again and to go over our plans. He is the one who is going to be doing the rennovations for us. We are going to cut two new windows into the foundation for the bedrooms as a part of fire regulations, but everything looks like it will work with the layout we have planned.

We will be beginning our rennovations October as long as everything keeps going as planned.

Moooola!!!

Gotta love the Government, there is a disability tax credit that we were supposed to be receiving for my oldest son since 2000. So we got surprised with a huge back pay on this months child tax, talk about timing, man God is good!

Job

There is an interesting little story behind it, but all of a sudden two weeks ago I go from being a commission salesman to computer tech. I was a little confused and frustrated with the process but when the hand of God moves, it moves. With the change in position I pick up one more shift which means 3 back to back 13 hour days but a substantial pay increase.

Baby

Sarah is finally out of the first trimester blues. Sickness is gone and she is more or less back to her normal self minus a some energy. Baby is 3 months along and the reality of having a family of 7 is finally starting to set in.

Brothers

I am really feeling out of touch with my brothers. I had coffee with CWG, Moose amd Jaydon last Thursday which was awesome. It felt so good to get together again and talk and laugh like we used to.
We have had some really interesting topics come up at our Wednesday morning breakfasts including pornography, Israel and finances.
I find my heart almost aching for some of my other brothers that I have literally lost contact with over the summer, I don't know where they are at but I sence some struggles. Need to get together soon!

The All-Pro Dad Playbook

1. Spend time with your children-Value their interests and their schedules.

2. Earn the right to be heard-Listen first. Listen for how they feel. Listen for what makes them smile.

3. Discipline with a gentle spirit-Be aware (know what happened). Be alarmed (admit it bothers you). Be accepting (solve the problem but save the person).

4. Be a role model-Display humility, integrity and patience.

5. Teach the lessons of life-You are their teacher, their mentor and their guide.

6. Eat together as a family-Eat a weekly family meal, have a monthly family celebration and take a yearly family outing.

7. Respect your children's mother-Respect her with words. Respect her with time. Respect her with agreement.

8. Read to your children-Read a book. Read from a magazine. Read from the Internet.

9. Show affection and appreciation-Show them their strengths. Show them unconditional love.

10. Realize a father's job is never done-Let them hear your voice, for life. Let them have access to you, for any need. Let them feel unconditional love, forever.

By Chad Bonham, contributing editor to New Man.

Home First

We are one step closer to owning our home. We were fortunate enough to find out about a program called "Home First". Rather than trying to explain it myself, I will give you the official description:

The homeownership option of the Centenary Affordable Housing Program (CAHP) is now being offered through HomeFirst, a Government of Saskatchewan initiative that offers programs to meet the current and future housing needs of Saskatchewan people.

CAHP-Homeownership, is a program funded by the federal government through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the Government of Saskatchewan through the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation (SHC), and the local municipal governments.

CAHP-Homeownership offers people a forgivable equity loan of up to $19,500 based on household income and unit price. If the loan recipient stays in the home for 10 years, the equity loan will be forgiven in full.

People are eligible for the program if they are a family with dependants, including single-parent households, and people with disabilities with a housing impact directly related to their disability. Housing may be single-family dwelling, semi-detached, duplex, condominium, apartment style or row housing. Applicants are required to participate in homeowner education. Included in the homeowner education package is information on money management, understanding credit, mortgage readiness, home-buying process and post-purchase home maintenance and repair.

Many of the houses that are for sale are on our street and it just so happens that our home is one that will be on the market if we move out. So we will be able to just go from renters, to owners in one smooth (hopefully) step. We love our home, and the opportunity to actually own it is just unbelieveable.

If we are going to stay here for the entire 10 years we will need to do some renovations. I have been using a simple cad program and planned out the basement. Currently our basement is completely open with our bed in one corner, TV area in the other, laundry area in the other and then the computer room in the other. It is nice and open but no privacy. Here are the future plans:

A: New baby's room

B: Master bedroom (with ensuit bathroom)

C: Bathroom

D: Laundry room and work area

E: TV\Computer area

F: Stairs down to basement

This Thursday we have an appointment for a mortgage application, after that we will make our offer on the house :) and rennovations to start as quickly as possible after that.

Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported. Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one. The documentary also explores the ways that U.S. journalists, for reasons ranging from intimidation to a lack of thorough investigation, have become complicit in carrying out Israel's PR campaign. At its core, the documentary raises questions about the ethics and role of journalism, and the relationship between media and politics.