Salty Zebra

   My husband recently received his severance check from work (he was laid off in May but given two months as a paid employee following that), and my job is to find the best way to help that check continue to grow, while also keeping it fluid and useable. In the past when we had extra savings to set aside, like for retirement, we would invest it or put it into a Certificate of Deposit (CD). My husband has actually done a fabulous job setting up laddered CDs that each have a 1-year term and mature every month of the year for our backup fund. That way they are earning money, many of them 4% or better, but we can still access it at least once a month. With little or no income coming in (unemployment hasn't materialized yet) though, we'd like to keep this severance money even more readily available. Thankfully, God recently taught me about High Yield Savings Accounts.  You can read about these on the Doctor of Credit site or Nerd Wallet , but I'll break down the basics for y...

  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love   Ephesians 1:4  Do you ever feel like you’ve messed things up beyond recovery? Do you feel like there is hope for others, but not for you because of how bad things have gotten? Does the situation you’re in seem hopeless? The pain unending, the diagnoses one after the other worse and worse? Is it not just up to you, everyone around you seems to be against you? I have really good news for you today. God knew every aspect of everything you’re facing today and already worked out a plan to deal with it – before the beginning of the world!   That’s right, before He spoke the words, “Let there be light,” ( Genesis 1:3 ) he already knew the names, faces, and hearts of every soul that would inhabit the earth. He already knew what we would be like, how we would react to situations, and if we would be open to loving Him. He knew that we, as humanity, would turn against ...

  I’ve spoken to many people who think they are too far from God, too sinful, too dirty to accept Jesus as their LORD. Paul was one of those people, but he didn’t even know it. In fact, he thought he was serving God as he set out to arrest Christians and haul them back to Jerusalem for punishment ( Acts 9:1-2 ). He thought he was serving God as he stood watch over people’s coats as they stoned Stephen, an early leader in the church ( Acts 7:58 ). After meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus ( Acts 9:3-8 ), Paul went on to write much of the New Testament (13 out of 27 books) in the form of letters to the various churches in which he recognizes that he was a terrible sinner, even the worst of sinners, and that Jesus saved him anyways ( 1 Timothy 1:15 ).   This “worst of sinners” became an apostle of Christ. What is an apostle you might ask? This isn’t a word we use much today outside of religious history references, but it is a gifting of the Holy Spirit originally attached to ...

Image Credit: Canva AI   I was thinking through recently what I want to write about here on the Salty Zebra Blog. A while back I started to develop rhythms of Travel Tuesdays, Wellness Wednesdays, and Potluck Saturdays, with Bible study filling in the rest. These were intended to inspire me, but eventually became a constraint instead. I felt like I had  to write about wellness on Wednesdays, but sometimes I didn't have anything on my heart to write about. So, I'm breaking out of the mold and just writing about something fun that I've been enjoying lately that, perhaps, you might too!  As I've written about before ( 1 , 2 , 3 ), I've been learning about how to use credit card sign up bonuses (SUBs) and other benefits to further my travel dreams and daily living. The key to this, as I've mentioned before and will mention every time I talk about credit cards, is PAYING OFF YOUR BALANCE EVERY MONTH! If you don't do this, you negate any benefits you get and can f...

  Did you know that you could cruise to places other than Alaska out of the Northwest? It's true! Most, but not all of these cruises are repositioning ones bringing the ship to the Northwest for the Alaska Season in the Spring and then moving them on to their next destination in the Fall. A few of them are actually roundtrip out of the Northwest to other Pacific locations. Let's break down the options available to you!  The easiest way to catch a cruise is to hop right on a ship near you. There are over 700 cruises leaving Seattle, WA and Vancouver BC in 2026, but as you guessed it, the vast majority of these are Alaskan cruises. I cannot encourage you enough to take one of these, I do almost every year, but sometimes you'd like to try something different. I get that because I do to! The good news is that about 100 of these cruises go to destinations other  than Alaska, so you have lots of places you can travel to. Have you ever wanted to go to Hawaii, but can't stomach...

   Welcome to a new study! I always love the feeling of starting a new study or a new class! The possibilities are endless. I haven't messed up or fallen short yet - so maybe this time I won't 😂. And I'm so excited about the subject we're discussing, Secure in Christ . This study covers the book of Ephesians, one of my uncle's favorite books that he taught me once many years ago could be read in just 30 minutes! Who knew you could receive such a wealth of knowledge in such a short time, but I plan to spend a great deal more than 30 minutes diving into all that God has to teach me in Ephesians this summer.   We'll be focusing on one chapter a week for six weeks, but as always, my blog posts will span the two-week break as well, so they'll be more like 0.8 chapters per week. In Ephesians 1, we'll be looking at how we are chosen and redeemed. Chapter 2 teaches us about being alive in grace. Unified under Christ is the theme of chapter 3. Then in Ephesians ...

 To:  Spy Team Leader  CC:   Mission Commander  From:   Agent C RE:   Mission Update Well, this update is going to be pretty short because we didn’t do anything I can show you today!   Your parents spent the morning packing and then the afternoon shopping for presents for you and your siblings.   When they finished shopping, they called you and then went for a walk along the water.   It was about sunset and the sky was beautiful with the cliffs and water. Then, when they got back to the house, Dad spent a few minutes taking pictures of the night sky.   The stars here are so amazing! Just a few more days and we’ll be home! -Agent C ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To:   Spy Team Leader  CC:   Mission Commander  From:   Agent C RE:   Final Mission Update I can’t believe my mission is coming to an end.   I am pleased to tell you that...