Does anyone have a family mission statement? If not, I challenge you to come up with one. A family mission statement can help you define what is important to your family - your goals, values, and priorities. It can help shape the decisions you make about your time and how to best use your resources. i think it could go a long way in simplifying your life.

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"Ordinary riches can be stolen: real riches cannot. In your sould are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken away from you." -- Oscar Wilde

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Our highest priority family value is integrity. No matter what we need to act in such a way that is honest and consistent with our states values, priorities and goals.

Secondly we believe in our marriage. We believe that the best gift we can give our children is a strong marriage. We want them to live knowing the stability and security that a strong marriage provides. Sometimes this is very difficult to do and it helps to get a reminder every now and again.

Our third highest priority is family. This is what got us into financial trouble when there was a crisis in our extended family. We gave up a lot for our family in the effort to keep it together. We are forever grateful for the chance to adopt DD and now we're trying to recover financially in order to continue to support her and give her the life we think she deserves (me stay as a SAHM, hubby travelling less, etc).

Everything else we do supports these three highest values. Understandably, hubby has to work - and so do I (I work from home) - but we also have given up opportunities to work more or at optimum times because we need to spend time as a couple and as a family.

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"Poor people work for their money. Rich people make their money work for them."