Last night I had a dream about extremely large vicious snakes trying to get me. I noted that I wasn't able to do my review last night. I'm to the point of being resigned to not being able to do a review every night without fail because of the kids. It can't be God's will that I have to do it at the cost of lost sleep and inability to focus. That just leads to a more stressful life and more irritability and discontent.

However, the fact that I routinely have these dreams shows me the direct and immediate cause and effect in my spiritual life. Perhaps the message here is that I have to accept not being able to do it every night but I must night rationalize not doing it when I can. It is a matter of spiritual life and death.

Yesterday we had baseball practice at a gym and I saw a poster of a "life skills" wheel. It had some skills like these:

Health Skills; eating right, exercise, healthy habits (like sleep), no drugs
Social/Interpersonal Skills, conflict resolution, refusal skills, boundaries
Professional/Career Skills
Community Skills
Giving Skills
Financial Skills; budgeting, Consumer Skills; Delayed Gratification
Academic Skills
Homekeeping Skills
Decision Making Skills

It was a wheel with each skill being like a large spoke. The middle was an empty hole. I thought that God should be at the middle of the wheel. But them I thought that decision making should be at the middle because it is the most important and it applies to all. I thought that then one could say that there is a power behind the decision making. That can be self, society, or God.

I looked for this online today. I saw many types of wheels like this. sometimes they had some morals or principles at the center. Sometimes they had a vagary or platitude.

I thought that the "life balance" wheel was mot interesting. I like it from the approach of trying to keep a balance but going with the organic flow of life rather than trying to "pre-manage" or schedule a balance.

Today there was a lot to write about today but unfortunately I don't have time for it all.

There was a big deal today with our finances. My wife and I sat down a did a budget this afternoon. We had a major disagreement and an argument. We both got extremely angry and we had to step back and recover. But we did and we kept communicating. We both got over it and both had to concede positions we felt very strongly about.

We both agreed to look at the great fact that we actually did get throught the budget and that it was a great accomplishment for us.

In the evening we received an unexpected financial gift from my Dad. I think it was a gift from God.