Columns

Don’t Cut Yourself Too Short How to Balance your Time and Finances There are two things in life that are the hardest to come by – time and money. The last thing you want to do is to cut yourself short with either of these.

When it comes to time and money, no matter how you spend it, you can’t get it back. But you can save them, with a little creativity, ingenuity, and planning.

In order to manage our money, it helps to have a budget. A financial budget is a tool that helps us know where our money is coming from and where it is going.

A Time Budget works in a similar way. To best manage our time, we need to know what we are doing, when we need to do it, and whether or not that time is being used efficiently.

I’ve Got Some Famous Friends…

Have you heard the song Famous Friends, by Chris Young and Kane Brown? The chorus goes like this: “I’ve got some famous friends you’ve probably never heard of But back in Rutherford County, our crowd is second to none You might not know ‘em here in this big city we’re in But when I go back home, I’ve got some famous friends.”

John and I visited Grand Cane, before we moved to DeSoto Parish. We’d have lunch downtown with John’s parents. It was always a meal to remember, because my father-in-law, Billy Franklin, was a celebrity. People walked in the door and headed straight for our table. The man could hardly finish his meal, what with all the handshaking and conversation. And he loved every single minute of it. As I sat quietly eating my meal, I’d wonder if that was how the family members of Hollywood celebrities felt. It was pretty cool.

Don’t Cut Yourself Too Short - How to Balance your Time and Finances

There are two things in life that are the hardest to come by – time and money. The last thing you want to do is to cut yourself short with either of these.

When it comes to time and money, no matter how you spend it, you can’t get it back. But you can save them, with a little creativity, ingenuity, and planning.

In order to manage our money, it helps to have a budget. A financial budget is a tool that helps us know where our money is coming from and where it is going.

A Time Budget works in a similar way. To best manage our time, we need to know what we are doing, when we need to do it, and whether or not that time is being used efficiently.

Goin’ to California

The catch phrase and common answer throughout John Stienbeck’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel “The Grapes of Wrath”. Written in 1939 and chronicling one Oklahoma family’s flight from a failed Dust Bowl farm in Oklahoma to the promise of a better life in California. A grueling but exciting journey that thousands of Midwestern families made.

I almost went on a similar journey back in the late 90’s when Lowes Company purchased a similar chain of west coast hardware stores concentrated in northern California and Washington State. Lowes corporate put out a big push to all its employees, especially, to department specialists and middle management to transfer to help transition these stores. AND they were selling the opportunity big-time with promotions and hefty stock options!

Have you ever found yourself in a slump? Life is stale. Your creativity feels similar to a dry creek. There are things you want to do but can’t seem to find the motivation. If this is where you stand, it may be time to get an Accountability Partner.

To understand what an accountability partner is, you must first know how to define Accountability. According to Dictionary.com, to be accountable means to be “subject to the obligation to report, explain, or justify something; responsible; answerable; capable of being explained; explicable; explainable.

An accountability partner is someone who is on a similar journey. This person can be a friend, family member, or even a professional counterpart.

You Don’t Have To Explain It All

My youngest was in Cub Scouts, so we met weekly at his Den Leader’s house to have our meetings. His leader Tammy’s son Evan was a friend of Cameron’s so it worked out well. It was a good group and the kids had a lot of fun and learned about Scouting. But I observed Tammy doing something that I didn’t understand. So I asked her about it.

When Tammy would ask Evan to do something, anything, she would explain why she wanted him to do it. I mentioned my observation and asked her why she did that. She replied, “Well I find Evan does what I ask him more easily when I explain to him why I am asking him to do something.” I stopped, started to say something, and then stopped again. Then I said, “Okay, well I was just wondering.”

As the old saying goes, April showers bring May flowers !! Can you imagine the size of the blooms we gonna have after alllllllllll this rain !!! But, come July or August, we will have forgotten what rain looks like ha ! So we take it as we get it and move on.

Our resident gardener, Mr. Billy Emfinger, is proud of the rain and all the plants he has outdoors. I myself am a plant lover as well, so we spend lots of time talking about plants and gardening out on the back porch. Several residents will roll down the end of hall 4 just to look at all the plants he has outside. Those that wish to go outside and look at them go with us at times just to get some fresh air and see the plants. There are rocking chairs, a ceiling fan, and plants galore, as well as some humming bird feeders. Its a nice place to relax !!!

When in doubt allow your mind to operate on a logical thinking method. Sometimes you just have to allow instincts with a mixture of logical analysis guide you in the right direction. Some will assure you that their method is the correct route and others will do the same but will it be the right conclusion for in that which you are looking for. It’ll come be sedulous confidence in your own perspective.

Don’t let your tongue out run your thoughts. Be gradual in your approach to approval and by doing so it’ll be a incisive decision you made that turned out successful because of your thought processing pattern.

So… think intelligently. It’ll prove to be quite the precise answer you were looking for.

Who is this Proverbs 31 Woman?

DeSoto Extension Agent

DeSoto Cattlemen’s Association Holds 2nd Quarter Meeting

The DeSoto Parish Cattlemen’s Association held their 2nd quarter meeting this evening at the DeSoto Parish Extension Office. Joshua Salley, DeSoto Parish County Agent, welcomed the group and introduced the speakers for the evening. Ronnie Sale, LCA District 1 VP, introduced himself to the group and offered his assistance to the cattlemen of DeSoto Parish. A great meal was provided by Marcia Griffin and was sponsored by Clint Byas with HerbServ, a local company specializing in aquatic weed control.