ACM Credit Card Processing

My mother in law used to run a thrift store. She gave it up after a while, though, because she wasn't able to keep up with it, but helping her and discussing business with her was about all of the information and experience I've ever had with merchant accounts. I used to wonder why some places wouldn't let you use a credit card if your purchase was under a certain amount, but I learned about transaction rates from her, and learned that it is important to find a credit card processor with cheaper transaction rates if you want your transactions to be worthwhile- especially if you are processing a lot of transactions in small amounts. 

Today I ran across the ACM website- it's a card processing  company that even leases it's clients card processing machines instead of selling them so that business start-up costs are as low as possible. It looks like a great company, and a great website, and could very easily be the best credit card processing company I've ever encountered... especially since I've never bothered looking into credit card processing companies and have nothing to compare it to! 

Bill Pay

I've somehow managed to acquire the task of bi-weekly bill paying. It isn't the most fun job, but Quinn hates doing it so badly that I would much rather take a half hour and make all the payments and sort out the bank account than let him ruin an entire evening with it.

So here I sit, paying bills.

I'm actually pretty proud of us when I do this job. We've made so many "sacrifices" to make sure that our lifestyle fits our one-income budget, and I'm very grateful for that. The fact that my husband is willing to live with one car, no cable tv, a basic phone plan and no regular spending budget so that I can be home for our Gavin is a constant reminder of what great character he has. On the other hand, it makes me sick that our world has inflated everything to the point that a family has to scrape the bottom of the barrel every month in order to survive on one income. The cost of living ought to be low enough for those who are careful so as to allow one man to support his family by working hard 40 hours a week. It's not fair to anybody to make it thus.

That said, I love being able to generate my bits of income that round off the edges of our life and make it a little easier than bare bones. My mother made me a beautiful cross stitch that matches one she made for herself years ago. It's a sampler that shows different scenes that are representations of the virtuous woman from Proverbs 31. For me, I love the aspects of it that show the productivity of that woman. How she works with her hands, and is "like the merchant's ships." She is not idle, she clothes her household in scarlet- all of these point to her being very resourceful and a good steward of her time. God has given me so many opportunities to "cash in" on my time that I can't hardly keep up with them, and I am so grateful for that!

------------------

I finished Gavin's stocking. I'm very happy with it. I'll post pics once I get decorated for Christmas. (which is only 39 days away!) I love to decorate the week after Thanksgiving. We always pick up our tree that weekend and the whole house gets to smell like fresh pine and cinnamon.

-----------------

Gavin is growing up all to quickly. He's finally decided to attempt talking and has a whole list of words that he surprises us with everytime they fall from his luscious little lips. He's also teething constantly, meaning he's drooling a lot. It's hilarious to see a string of drool dripping onto his shirt and watch how it grosses him out. He'll try to wipe it off, then start shaking his hand and going "mom? Mom? MOM?" until I dry it off. He loves building block towers, but the colored side of each block has to be facing upward, so it can be a tedious task. He also loves playing outside. Warm days like yesterday thrill him because he gets to spend hours on the back patio, examining leaves and collecting sticks.

Gavie has discovered the joy of crayons. Time to pick up some coloring books! 

I'm off now- time to run laundry and get some work logged while the baby is still asleep.

P.S. So, we were short $95.82 with this week's budget, since sick boys and medicine and soup supplies and vitamins and what not came out of what we set back towards the house payment this week- I started paying bills and one bill for $73 wasn't actually due until next month, and one bill for $53.50 had been adjusted down to $29.39- That means that we had an unexpected $97.14 of bills NOT due- Ha. God is so amazingly good. :D

Outdoorsy Kinda People

I found a reason to own a pair of classic Levi's, though I'm not quite ready to spend money on them. I'm too in love with my soft, thin designer jeans. But ...fall is here. There are a lot of very happy aspects to that statement, but there are also some very...well...less than happy aspects. The number one unhappy aspect is that camping season is over. I know that isn't true for everybody, but for me, as a mommy, camping season is over until warmer weather finds its way back into the woods.

Either that, or until my baby boy gets old enough that I'm alright with leaving him with his Grammie. When that happens I'll be happy to buy up some winter camping gear and hit the woods in sub zero weather, if only to spend some time snuggled into a sleeping bag with my Mr. Man. It'd take a lot of gear though- boots, wool socks, thermal gear, a coat I didn't mind ruining in the woods, gloves, etc. I was looking around today and found this Canada Goose parka that would be a good start. It's beautiful, and looks like if I wore it I would be the goose...the roasted goose. Can we say c-o-z-y?

But for now, with the little person so young, I'll spend the winter at home, playing with him on the living room rug in my lovely, warm little house.

But maybe next winter...