Each year in January I share a post about the goals we have for the new year relating to Blind Pig & the Acorn and in recent years the Celebrating Appalachia channel.
One goal from January 2022 was:
I’m still blown away by being able to leave my full-time job during the year of 2021. Now my dream is for The Deer Hunter to be able to leave his too. Chitter says we’re starting a Pressley Empire, maybe she’s right 🙂
A similar one from January 2023:
Speaking of The Deer Hunter, it’s still a goal to have him working right alongside me full time. We made so much progress during 2022 that I’m hopeful 2023 will be the year it happens.
On August 1 we reached the goal of The Deer Hunter being able to help me full-time.
In last night’s video we talk about the blessing of reaching this amazing goal, so you be sure to watch it.
We are naturally very cautious folks and one of the main things we needed to secure was health insurance. Sometime last year we discovered we could overcome that hurdle.
Another thing a few folks worried about when we told them our plans was his retirement. The Deer Hunter worked for himself for so many years that he got started in the whole state/county retirement program late in life. He would have to work into his 70s to be able to enjoy the benefits of that. Although with the help of our financial advisor we are able to roll over what he does have into a personal retirement fund that we can continue to contribute to. We did the same for me when I left my job back in 2021.
One other thing folks were concerned about is what if? What if this all goes away?
Being debt free really helps on that front and God has blessed us beyond measure so that if everything online disappears tomorrow we will have time to figure out what we want to do. With our skills we both feel very confident we could find a job comparable to the ones we left, but even if we couldn’t secure a similar one we could certainly find employment in our area, likely before the end of the week.
We are so excited and thankful that we have reached this goal because of the Good Lord and his help. What a blessing it will be for us to work together daily celebrating Appalachia and caring for our family.
Each of you played a huge role in this achievement and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Last night’s video: Big News: Matt Quit His Job!! Insurance? Retirement? What if?
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So Happy for Y’all. Best Wishes and know my daughter and I will enjoy watching all the new shenanigans your Presley Empire gets up to.
Congratulations Matt!!! Now you can enjoy each other more and at the same time show the wonderful culture of Appalachia.
I continue to pray for Granny . Hod bless you and your family. Hilary H.
Hope everything works out for you all. If we didn’t have goals, what would there to be to achieve , to work for. Some goals we have happen sooner than others but some takes more time. When we meet our goal and achieve it, what a great and wonderful accomplishment we’ve over come. Tell Granny we love her and we’re still sending her name up to Jesus .
Congratulations Matt, and to both of you. There is nothing our good Lord cannot see you through. Trusting Him number 1 is always a plus.
congratulations to you both. Mat already looks more relaxed in the face. what a life changing decision. I am sure you two will have a joyous time working along side each other. ps I hope Granny if feeling OK.
Congratulations on reaching a goal. Sounds like you went about this prayerfully and carefully. And it matters not where you work….those “what “if’s” can happen in all walks of life. The biggest corporations can close or do away with certain jobs. As long as you keep in prayer, God will supply. The plus for us is seeing more Celebrating Applachi on U-tube.
Prayers for Granny and your family.
Congratulations! Also, I very much enjoy your “after the video” conversations between both of you.
Congratulations on attaining another life-changing goal. My husband and I were blessed. We both retired early after years of working in stressful jobs. God is good! Life is short, so enjoy working together. What a blessing! My husband passed away over 3 years ago and I am so glad we had the years together without going our separate ways every day.
THANK BE TO GOD FOR HIS WONDERFUL BLESSINGS. CONGRATULATIONS, MATT. IT’S GOING TO BE PHENOMENAL AS TO WHAT Y’ALL WILL ACCOMPLOSH. THAT’S ONE OF THE THINGS I’VE LOVED SO MUCH ABOUT YOUR VIDEOS. THE TWO OF YOU WORKING TOGETHER. NOW IT’LL BE EVEN MORE INTERESTING. I’M REALLY HAPPY FOR Y’ALL, YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY WORKING TOGETHER. IT’S GOING TO BE AWESOME. GOD BLESS YOU ALL. LOVE TO EVERYONE.
Wonderful! Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!
May God continue to bless you and Deer Hunter so that you may continue to be a blessing to others.
P.S. How is Granny today?
Lesley-Granny had a good day 🙂
I am so very glad that Granny had a good day.
I will continue to ask God to comfort, heal and provide for Granny in the ways that uniquely meet her needs. Onward then – because God is trustworthy.
I’m happy for you!
The Lord is good Tipper, I could not be happier for you!!! Seriously, yay, yay, yay!!!!
Well sir, one thing you have escaped that I am very happy about for you. You can’t be coerced by the various forms of madness sweeping the country as you might would have been in an kind of public job. (I don’t think you would have took much of that.) And another thing is nobody can take your property away if/when the economy implodes. That just makes me grin like a possum. One more that got away! Good for you two, living the Appalachian self-reliance by grace and hard work and being independent. Love it also that you all have thought about what if things change. “Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.”
Congratulations to you both! We’re both 70 or over, still working. We’re lucky that we can work from home, so it’s not a huge hardship. Health insurance IS a huge reason. As long as we’re content with our work, we’ll keep at it; but I’m sure we’re both looking more and more favorably at the idea of retirement.
Congratulations and what a blessing! Tipper, I wish I could talk to you one on one to get some advice so that my husband and I could reach retirement goals together in the near future. What a wonderful milestone for you all. Enjoy this wonderful time together! God bless.
I’m so very excited for y’all! Y’all have worked so hard for this and I’m so excited y’all can be together as a family! ❤️
Retirement? I don’t see it here! Quitting public work is the more appropriate Appalachian terminology. You’re working to support yourself and your family instead of everybody else’s and hoping some of what you earned filters back down to you and yours.
I guess I lucked up (with God on my side who needs luck). I got a good job with good pay and good benefits but it was brutal work. Most people lasted less than a year. A surprising number of them didn’t last though their training period. But I, being a mountain boy who knew hard work, stuck it out. Almost 40 years! I didn’t retire, I quit! The day before my retirement party I walked out.
The company I worked for offered a pension plan and a 401K when it came along. Later employees only got the 401K. I had to quit for several reasons. My health being the main one but also I was told that if I didn’t retire by a date certain I would get a payout instead of a monthly check. So now I get $1100 dollar deposit to my checking account every month. That’s $13,000/yr. If I didn’t owe on my house I could live comfortably on just that but I also get $2200 from Social Security. I have an income of close to $40,000/yr. without my IRA.
My work said they couldn’t hire me back if I quit but would hire me back part time as a consultant. I declined! My health wouldn’t allow it.
Some people need a financial advisor, I didn’t. I could have been Dave Ramsey but I had nothing to start out with. I inherited debt when my parents died relatively young. It took a while to get back up to nothing. I didn’t start from scratch, it took years to work my way up to scratch.
I was a carpenter in the beginning. Matt was a carpenter. Guess who else was a Carpenter!
Your joy brings me joy. I understand the faith, dedication and hard work ya’ll have put in. I am so very pleased for you.
Congratulations, Tipper! So happy for you and your family. What a blessing y’all are to us. Enjoy this season of your lives. Life is good and God is good!!!
Congratulations to you both! My husband and I are retired together—he after 40 years in the coal mines and me after 28 years working as secretary at our local elementary school. Now we enjoy many hobbies including gardening, beekeeping, woodworking for him and crocheting for me. We take long hikes and are happy to have five grandchildren to entertain us and keep us young. Some people say you won’t get along in retirement if you are together too much. I say—even after 42 years of marriage, there’s never gonna be enough time to be together doing all the things we love. Wishing you much happiness!!
Congratulations to both of you. My husband retired several years before me due to health reasons. We had several years together after my retirement. That was a great blessing. My husband was a great gardener and always produced all we needed with plenty to share. Our retirement years were blessed. He passed away twenty years ago. Lots of happy memories.
Congratulations Matt and Tipper, I am over the moon excited for the both of you! My husband and I retired early as well, and have never regretted our decision for one minute. Like you we don’t need the fancy cars, houses and toys, we like to live a very simple life, surrounded by the love of our family! Praise God!
As I was reading todays post, I was so very thrilled by this awesome news. Congratulations Matt and Tipper for achieving this amazing goal. Look at like this to, Matt can eat more delicious tomato sandwiches. Yippy!!! Take care and may the Lord God bless you and your family always. Granny is in my prayers. AMEN
So happy for both of you! Being debt free is a blessing that allows for so much freedom. Hopefully you will continue to be blessed with good health so you can enjoy your new adventures. Still praying for Granny!
Congratulations on (not only) reaching your goal, but also on setting one and doing the work required to get there. Very impressive!! It suggests that success will continue to be a part of your life. Well done.
This is wonderful news! I am so very happy for both of you! Our God is so very good!!
Congratulations to both of you! I’m excited to see you continue to grow. You and Matt are a lovely couple and make a great team. I especially love your popsicle break chats. I buy Outshine bars because they looked so good when y’all were eating them, peach and grape are my favorites. My consumption of TV now is mostly YouTube channels like yours, although watching wheel of fortune and jeopardy is still a nightly tradition at my house.
Thanks again for sharing a glimpse of your life in Appalachia with me.
Congratulations!! So happy for Matt and you both!! Tipper, you may have to give Matt 2 popsicles now. 🙂
Congratulations Matt and Tipper. What a blessing. You are both still young enough to accomplish so many more goals and the joy of doing them together and as a family. Wishing you all the very best and prayers for Granny.
Congratulations to you both, enjoy it.
Congratulations Matt & Tipper !!! so happy for you and your family. Looking forward to seeing that garden next year 🙂
Congratulations Matt! Two suggestions (1) get a few Boer meat goats for the steep hillside and (2) find a few flat acres close by an grow some “Danny” corn from Deep South Homestead. Danny & Wanda, the Mississippi homesteaders, really have it going on.
How exciting for you both to step into this new season knowing that it is both a blessings and divine appointment all rolled into one journey. Having ” reinvented” my calling several years ago God has been faithful to lead and guide through all the transitions…. You are both a definite inspiration to others as you follow where the “Father” leads you and at the pace that He walks. May you experience a new freedom to explore together the “gardens” of your life….Thanks for allowing us to view the journey, vicariously to laugh and cry together through the peaks, valleys and meadows.
Alex
Congratulations on your Retirement Deerhunter but be careful as I am sure Tipper has a lot of plans & projects for you. She already works you like a borrowed mule from daylight to dark then when you are about to drop from starvation she gives you a popsicle…..LOL…I really enjoyed the video this morning and when you guys were discussing your financial situation it just occurred to me that GOD has blessed you guys with wealth beyond imagination….I thank GOD for a family like yours…keep up the good work and GOD bless…..
Congratulations! I don’t always get to watch your videos due to not having much internet up here, so you may already have the following – maybe someone in your family can start a channel teaching the basics of how to play a musical instrument. Ya’ll play so many different ones the sky’s the limit!
This is such wonderful news. Congratulations to Matt! My first request is for a Matt video on the best ways and tools to sharpen just about everything. God bless all of you.
Great idea! Including kitchen knives.
Salutations and congratulations on reaching this well-deserved goal in your lives! God is GOOD!
Enjoy the freedom!!
Congratulations to you both!!
Congratulations! Matt, it will take a few months to get used to being your own boss. I still roll out of the bed at the same time I did when I was working. You’re going to love this less stressful time in your life and I hope you and Tipper never have to hold public jobs again.
I retired on a Friday and when I woke up on the following Monday morning, I thought to myself I am going to like this and have never looked back. I do miss being with my coworkers, most of them have now also retired. For many years I worked 7 day rotating shifts, 7 straight days 48 Hours off not 2 days and then back for 7 more days on a different shift, and one 4 day weekend off each month. On some shifts you were with your coworkers more than your family. I joke and say I missed my calling in life, I would have excelled at being a bum and would have exceeded all expectations!
Congratulations! You and your family are a great team!
What a blessing and testimony! May the victories continue!
This is AWESOME news! Congratulations to the Deer Hunter and to you on this great achievement!
I saw it on the YouTube video last night, but time got away from me as I was going through a few of my other subscriptions on there and I forgot to comment on the video, but this is such awesome news for the two of you! Enjoy the time together, working together, and working with your girls, too, while celebrating our beloved region here!
Now since the girls have their own channel and do their thing, I think it’s time for you branch Matt out to do some outdoors videos on hunting, fishing, cooking, and the like! He could be the YouTube equivalent to ole’ Bill Dance and his former fishing show! But seriously, I think it would draw and audience as he’s very well versed in the outdoors here in Appalachia and it could really do these younger generations coming up a lot of good. So many don’t necessarily have the outdoors/hunting/fishing-type-role models in their lives much less male role models, sadly.
But again…I’m so happy for the both of you and the growing Pressley Empire! God is GOOD and has definitely BLESSED y’all!
Congratulations! I am really enjoying Matt in the videos. I love his common sense and humor! Being together everyday is the best. Some people say my husband and I are joined at the hip! When you see one, you see the other!! We are so thankful for this. Prayers for all! Take care and God bless ❤️
Congratulations Matt and Tipper!!! I’m so happy for you both being able to achieve what you have and doing it where you want to be is wonderful. Keeping the Lord first and knowing He will never leave you or forsake you will keep you on the right path.
Tipper, I’m as old as Granny so I was concerned for you both going up that hill to those wonderful new planters you put up there. As you get older, you really do watch where your stepping more concerned about tripping over something, and there are a lot of rocks scattered around those planters on the hillside:) I didn’t comment but I was sure concerned so when you said you both had realized it and had a goal of putting in steps, I wish you could have seen me smile and say YES:) If it gets more burdensome to tote water up there, Matt could run a line to each one and put in a watering system to automatically water if you hit a really dry spell. My oldest son put one in years ago in his large garden and it worked beautifully. Right now you are spry and able to bounce so to speak if you fall but you don’t want any broken bones.
Praying for Granny too!
Congratulations on reaching your goal. I am happy for you both.
Congratulations! I’m so happy for you both & wish independent work for everyone. It is a privilege that will change your life in all kinds of wonderful ways. One more reason that affordable health insurance available outside of employment is so important as we take back control of our lives.
And although you said your not interested in travel, beyond Appalachia, I hope you change your mind to see our beautiful country & our wonderful world. So much to see & learn.
Congratulations Matt and Tipper!!! What wonderful news! I am so happy for you and your family. You have reached what I call “SUCCESS!” To be able to do what you love to do and to enjoy life and to not worry about finances is a true blessing and knowing that God has made it all possible as you give Him thanks! I’ll continue to watch as you share your life and knowledge with us. You are a wonderful family that I really love. Best Wishes!
Watched the video last night. So happy for you both! I know there was probably some anxiety in the decision, but I can imagine the freedom you both are feeling. Even though there is still a lot of work being done, I’m sure it’s a relief to know that there is some freedom in it. Congratulations to you both!!
Congratulations Matt and Tipper!!! All things work together for the glory of God!! Love your family!!
As you know, I’m not big on their tube, but I hopped right over to get a gander at you and your man and you said “my love, my lovey dovey” and that was so cute- just like you two lovebirds sitting there side by side through life’s journey! A handsome couple too I must say you are! Congratulations is definitely in order here on this retirement occasion! I wish you moonlit walks holding hands, beautiful sunrises drinking coffee and postem together looking out over your porch, and just the sweetest time of your lives! Remember the song “I had the time of my Life?” Lol You are beautiful people with lovely souls (and it’s a pleasure to know I can get a T-shirt soon.) Lol. I think I’d buy used paper plates as long as it was helping you. Lol. I tell my friends about my friend Tipper in NC. Not many know I just see you on video and we don’t hang out. It’s kind of my secret but not really. They don’t ask for details and I ain’t volunteering any. Lol If I got gardening hacks or whatever I learnt from you, I just say “my buddy in NC showed me this here.” Oh yeah let’s not forget Zipper the black sweet runt kittie who’s named after you, Tipper. She’s a little sweetheart like my friend in NC….
Congratulations to Matt! Glad to know he will be there next spring to keep an eye on the planting of the Cherokee Purples! I retired two years ago haven’t found anything wrong with it yet. Enjoy
Congratulations to you both for reaching y’all’s goal of being debt free and now both of you working for yourselves! As much as you two love being together, working together and being with your families, it will work out great for y’all. Plus, if Matt gets on your last nerve you can send him to his Man Cave. ;D I know from your videos you both have already been planning on things y’all wanted to do on the homestead, but just hadn’t had time, well now y’all can put those plans into action. Tipper, you realize you now have to let Matt get a dog! ;D
Congratulations that you have reached this chapter in your life! Such a blessing to be able to be together each and every day and work along side of each other. I get so tickled of all the likenesses of you and Matt and my husband and myself. He had to take an early retirement from INDOT (Indiana Dept of Transportation) due to health issues. I continued to work part time as our church secretary waiting & counting down the days until I could retire as well. The day I got my first SS check was the day we got the news of his diagnosis of Mid-stage Parkinson’s Disease. It wasn’t what we had planned for retirement but evidently God had a different plan for us. I wish I had retired earlier and we could have enjoyed time doing things we had planned since he is no longer able to travel and go places. I am pretty much his fulltime caregiver and driver but we enjoy each day to the fullest. Cherish each day together and enjoy your time working and eating popcicles!
Congratulations!!! God is good indeed!
Tipper,
This is beyond wonderful! Congrats to the whole Blind Pig crew! ☺️
I am so excited for Matt and you. Retiring and being able to be together is a blessing. My husband retired in May and I plan to retire next year. We are debt free and pray to stay that way. Our love and prayers to Granny and all of you.
Live like no one else so you can give like no one else! You two are great success stories that working the debt snowball really works! Praise be to God for His many blessings! I’m so happy for you!
Congratulations! So happy for y’all to be able to work side by side while enjoying each other’s company. God is good!
Congratulations! I am very happy for Matt and your whole family! May God continue to bless you all.
Tipper, I am so happy for you! You and Matt are such hard workers it is wonderful to be able to do what you love. I applaud you for making it happen (along with God’s help, of course).
This is an awesome achievement, congratulations!!
Now get to enjoying that freedom and take a huge breath of fresh air
Doing the happy dance for both of you! God is so good and His blessings never end. Best wishes for a long lifetime spent doing the things you love.
I’m proud of ya’ll and thanks be to God., What an inspiration. When I grow up i want to be just like Matt. Of a type we are.
Welcome to retirement world!!!
I’m so happy for you both! My husband of 45 (almost 46) years are so excited for y’all!
I have a feeling someone will get a Christmas puppy
What a milestone! Glad for you.
Congratulations!
Let us praise our God and in all ways give thanks. Moving out into the deep is less scary when He is with us!
Congratulations Matt! We are happy for you and and Tipper! My wife and I retired in Oct. of 2022! It has been a blessing! Didn’t think we would ever get there but it takes time! Being debt free in every aspect made it possible! We thought we were going to have to work longer but our financial advisor gave us the ok!!! The good Lord gets all the credit for helping us finally reach this goal in our life! Since our retirement we got 8 Peeps, now chickens back in March of this year. getting eggs now, planted a small vineyard 6 trees apple, peach and pears! Also a grape arbor, thornless blackberries and blueberries! Planted all of this in the spring of this year and everything is looking great so far! We feel blessed! We Enjoy watching your YouTube channel! May God bless your family in all that you do!
This is great news, and another amazing thing is that you have achieved your goal without putting any of your content behind a pay wall! You have freely given of yourselves to enrich others by example! God can surely bless this type of labor! Love you all!
I think Matt could do some wonderful DIY projects that women like me could follow. My husband has been very sick from chemo and colon cancer and he was a general Mr Fix-It before his illness. He can’t do what he once could, sadly. I bet Matt could show us how to do things that we need to do around the house. I’ll have to keep him in mind when I come across odd jobs. I’m happy you all achieved your dreams!
Congratulations on this achievement!!!!
Congratulations Matt and Tipper!
Congratulations!!! How awesome! Praise the Lord!!!
CONGRATULATIONS! Best wishes for the future.
Congratulations! For reasons I will not get into I retired at 60 years old and my wife a few years later. We started out on our marriage when we were teenagers (1974) with $10 in our bank account. My wife did not work at all until our children started school and then only worked part time until they were in high school. She worked 22 years at Walmart and I worked one other job before working 38 years at Michelin, both of us worked “blue collar” jobs. In all of the years we were married we never ask our parents for money to help pay our bills. Paying our bills ontime always came first. We were also debt free when we retired and I am still debt free except for the normal monthly bills. No I don’t live in an expensive home and don’t drive new cars. Some of the happiest times of my life was the years she didn’t work and the 7 months of being together each day after she retired before she died from complications during heart surgery. Now living without her is more of a burden than a joy, but I know I have to keep going on for my son and grandchildren. Good health during your retirement years is a blessing. We were satisfied with having our needs and doing without a lot of expensive wants. Michelin paid all of my retirement and I had a small 401k, I also invested my retirement money with a financial adviser.
Hellfire great news now Matt can get his own dog.
Oh y’all, as I said on my comment in your video last night, I am beyond happy for y’all. This is such a beautiful blessing for sure. I hope you do get out & about. In fact I’d love for you to come over to Scaly Mountain & see our Community building that use to be the old school here in Scaly. Scaly use to be referred to as The Flats of Middle Creek. There are still some if the very first families who live in the area. In fact there is a man who has a team of mules & he uses them to plow his garden. Farming was & still is a vital part of this small community, although much land has been sold through the years and new homes and residents have appeared, slightly changing the landscape. There truly are some salt of the earth people here I believe you would really enjoy meeting.
Enjoy your fantastic workday together, and enjoy this much needed cooler morning. It is 7:33am and it’s 56 on my porch. Ohhhhh such a nice change.
Enjoy you and your sweet family so much. Continued prayers for Granny.
Congratulations!!! God will continue to guide and bless you both. Such a great example of financial planning for security.
Prayers for Granny.
This is great! The 2 of you both working on CA will make for some good videos for sure. I’m so happy for y’all to have achieved this goal. I bet Matt is still kind of in shock when wakes up in the mornings and realizes he doesn’t have to go anywhere, what a feeling! Looking forward to seeing some good hikes, cooking in the woods, and new adventures. And maybe some trail cam videos of what’s lurking around you out there. Congrats y’all! Love and prayers to granny❤️
Congratulations!!
That is exciting!!
I’m sure you have that “honey do” list already done.
God is truly amazing and helps us to achieve our goals.
Congratulations Matt and Tipper! So happy for you and what this means for The Blind Pig and Celebrating Appalachia. My husband and I also follow Dave Ramsey and will hopefully be able to do something similar to this in the future.
Your good news is good news for all of us readers/ viewers. We can’t wait to see what you and your Executive Assistant, along with his lovely young Assistant come up with for us all to enjoy and learn from.
Congratulations, I’m so happy for you!
What wonderful news! I’m so happy for you both!
Already said this but I am so happy for you all. We are coming up to Brasstown for the fall festival in October and would love to meet y’all.
Tipper and Matt, so happy for you guys! In these times of our country, I’m glad your family can afford to have this chance to be together! Retirement is great! God is so good to us! Kay Kelley from Ohio
Congratulations on achieving your goal. You two really are a “tag team” and work so well together! We love to watch your interactions!! (My husband and I are much like you two).
Maybe I missed any updates, but how is Granny? I continue to pray for her and y’all.
GOOD FOR YALL!!!!! Yes there comes a time when you have to step away. Think about yourself. Once you retire you are going to see how busy your life will become. Yeah for your whole family.
I can’t tell you how happy I am that you have reached your goal. The deer hunter has worked long and hard. I know this because my own father was in the same fields. Carpentry and working for the man. All my life until I was nearly an adult he worked two jobs. Carpentry in the morning and factory worker at night. God has blessed richly. I have come to love your whole family partly because I relate to you in life events but mostly because you are my brother and sister in Christ. God bless you
Such exciting news for you and Matt! So pleased to hear it and I know you owe a big thanks to “The Debt Snowball” man for his ideas and philosophy!! May you both move forward in your Appalachian journey and continue to educate the rest of us.
I am so happy for you all beyond measure God has truly blessed you
I am also excited to see your new content you talked about on last night’s video
Congratulations can’t wait to see what the future holds in store for you and your family
God be with you and prayers continue for granny I hope you can give us an update on her soon
Congratulations Tipper and Matt!!!!
I love it when the good guys win
That’s so wonderful!! Praise the Lord! Thanking God right along with y’all!!
And we watched as you made your announcement…I do remember when you said your goal was for Matt to be able to quit his job and lo and behold, it has happened. I am sure being debt free has been a major effort to achieve that goal. Being a part of your every-day lives has made us feel like we can talk about you guys to other people as though we have known you for a while. Just yesterday I was telling my friend that ‘Tipper’ said, and she asked, ‘Tipper’? Then I had to ‘splain’ who Tipper is. (splain is something Desi use to say to Lucy’ on the show I Love Lucy…before your time…lol. So, we do feel like you are out next-door neighbors and are allowed to peak into what you guys do. Hope Granny is holding her own and are praying for her daily. God Bless you guys and Bless Corie’s heart, she has been dropped down a rung on the ladder…LOL
Dropping down on the ladder is hard to differentiate if the ladder itself is moving up. If Corie dropped down one but the ladder moved up two then she still gained a rung. Does that make any sense?
So happy for you two. It will be great to have Matt working with you and to see your dreams come true.
This is exciting news for you guys!!! Congratulations! The freedom of setting your own hours and answering only to yourself is worth all the extra work (that honestly doesn’t feel like work, you just do it most of the time without thinking about it being work). Working for yourself vs working for someone else is like owning your own house vs paying rent. When you pay rent, you don’t have to pay to replace broken appliances, etc, but you can’t paint your walls the colors that you want, and the many other rules made by someone else that you have to follow. Owning your own house puts all the responsibility onto your shoulders, which can be overwhelming at times, but you get to do everything the way you want in the long run, like choosing the refrigerator that you like instead of what someone else buys for you. That is true freedom! Watching your video last night reinvigorated me in my own life and self employment. I still am feeling pretty exhausted (which is par for post covid), but I have immense joy in being able to follow my dreams each and every day! God is good, and everyday has blessings that are more numerous than can be counted. Just being able to get up from whatever task you are working on at the moment, and moving around your house or yard without feeling like you have to ask permission to – that is huge! Another thought, in a 9 to 5, retirement is what you work towards. And when you reach it, your life becomes is mostly in its final chapters. Being self employed, doing something you love, keeps you in the game of life with purpose everyday. My Dad has been self employed his entire adulthood (except when he was in the Air Force), he never has “retired”. He doesn’t have any desire to. He enjoys what he does, it not about the money, it’s about loving living his dreams, doing what excites him. Congratulations again to you guys !!
Donna. : )