I'm Done!

Well, I'm done with our personal stuff anyway (I've still got the ranch stuff to do, but that's for another day.). It felt good to print out a "Tax Related Items - 2013" Report for our accountant. As usual when I reviewed what we had done with our dollars this year, I wondered if we were doing as well as we could. We have always been glad to donate dollars to those who are less fortunate (now, that's a cliche!), but is it enough? We've always figured a 10% tithe is a starting point, a floor, not a ceiling.

I have noticed that the older I get, the more cynical I am. I am not very quick to donate to unknown causes or those who spend huge amounts of donated dollars on salaries or TV campaigns. I tend to look at percentages of donated income that actually goes to the people or causes the agency purports to help. I have a great deal of difficulty looking at financial statements that show six plus figure salaries. I've also noticed that we tend to donate to causes where we know and trust the people involved. I just hope this kind of scrutiny doesn't translate into stinginess...

Perhaps I've spent too much time dealing with figures lately. In addition to the bookwork I've been doing, I had a conference call this afternoon with the Audit Committee for the Executive Board of Mennonite Church USA. We were reviewing the official audit of last year's financials. It was an interesting phone call. We had people calling in from Kansas, Texas, Pennsylvania as well as Indiana. Everyone just had to make a comment about how cold it was where they were. I almost felt guilty saying it was 73 degrees here!

It is only the end of January, but I am beginning to notice more plants that budding or starting to bloom around here. And, my new baseball scorebook arrived in the mail today. (I enjoy keeping score at the games -- it helps me to stay focused and I like to be able to look back at previous innings to see what a player had done the last times they were at bat.) The schedule for the Spring Training Cactus League here in Arizona is out. I've been trying to plan our attendance at games so that we manage to get to all of the ballparks in the area. We're planning to follow the Mariners from park to park.

I am definitely starting to think SPRING!