Happy Father's Day!

I am so thankful for my Dad, and so I thought I'd use this Father's Day opportunity to blog a little about him. (Hee hee, Dad, you've been "blogged"!)

My Dad was in the military, and so when I was growing up we lived in a lot of different places. Sometimes this was hard, as it was difficult to make new friends or attend a new school. However, I still wouldn't trade the experience for anything. I got to visit and live in some amazing places, and now I miss traveling.

My Dad taught me a lot of things, but one of the greatest lessons he taught me was how to handle money. You see, my Dad did something with the Army budget (oh, this is terrible; I don't know exactly what!), so he was usually up to his eyebrows in high-ranking idiots who didn't know how to spend money, and then he had the frustration of trying to teach low-ranking idiots how to keep their paycheck for longer than 24-hours. Dad always told us, "It's not how much you make, it's how you spend it", and he was exactly right.

When I was in high school, one of the ways he illustrated this lesson was to make us live off of a budget. Other than the meals we ate at home, we had to budget exactly how much money we needed for 3 months. This included items like shampoo, shoes, clothes, etc. He would "audit" our budget to make sure it was realistic, and then hand over the cash. If we overspent, that was just too bad for us! At first, getting that much money seemed overwhelming, and the urge to splurge was difficult to resist. Thankfully my Dutch stinginess saved me from disaster, and I began to see the fun in finding bargains. I found brand-name clothes from Goodwill (which my family re-named "G.W. Fashions"!), and when the three months was up, whatever was left of the money that I had been given I was allowed to keep for whatever. Wow, what a lesson in saving!

Another lesson I learned from my dad was that one can never out-give God. Although we didn't make an issue out of giving, Mom and Dad always let us know what our family was doing financially to help others. Dad was very generous, and it was always funny to listen to Mom and Dad's conversation, which would go something like this:
Dad: "So, - - - - needs some help. How much do you think we should give him?"
Mom: "$50?" (Note: Mom is Dutch. Sometimes it's hard to overcome breeding. In her defense, she's now generous to a fault. It's hard to shop with her, because she tries to buy me everything in the store! Oh, she's gonna kill me for saying that!).
Dad (in surprised voice): "I was thinking around $100?"
To us, this was hilarious, because Dad always had in mind twice the amount Mom did.

Dad also taught me the lesson of hard work. Dad's in his 50's now (or 60? Gosh, I'm terrible with numbers) but he can still outwork most men half his age. Saturdays around our house was always dedicated to cleaning the garage (hee hee, poor Dad, we still tease him about his garage!), and Dad worked us hard all day. His favorite motto was, "We work hard, but then we play harder." Going to the pool in the evening or going bowling after working hard all day seemed twice as rewarding, because we had a sense of work well done.

So, this Father's Day, I'd just like to thank the Lord for my Dad, a wonderful man. I love you, Dad, and I just wish I could be there to say this in person!