Salty Zebra

            I've spent much of my adult life hiding or apologizing for my blessings.  My husband has a good job which, while it brings with it some of its own challenges, has allowed me to be able to raise and homeschool our children without having to work outside the home. We have been very intentional about being good stewards of what God has given us and obeying Him when it comes to our finances.  This comes into play with everything from learning to tithe to obeying Him when He called us to pay off our debts.  This involves being generous with our time, talent, and treasure.  I believe it is a result of God's provision through my husband's income as well as teaching us to manage it well that has us in a place where we are comfortable financially.  But so many of the people in my life or that I encounter are not in this place, so I feel guilty when I talk about opportunities I have, like travel.  I feel like I need to hide it or minimize it.  I even catch myself planning

      When asked recently about my hobbies, I had to of course mention board and card games.  When my kids were young I hated them.  I played because I wanted to be a good mom, but I ended them as quickly as I could and avoided them if possible.  When my kids entered their teen years, some friends of ours began introducing us to two kinds of games I'd never heard of before: deck builders and European games.     The first deck builder we played was the DC Deck Builder game.  Once I wrapped my head around the concept I was hooked and in the last eight or so years since I started I've collected every base set and expansion available and I'm bought into the kick starter for the new sets coming out early 2023.  I love the variety, the challenge, and the fun brought by this game style and I've added a few others in this genre to our collection as well.     European style games also impressed me far more than the traditional games like Sorry and Uno that I was raised with.  Ou