journal

I've been a journal keeper since I was about 12.  I'd like to challenge myself to be a log keeper.  Maybe I'll make that challenge on my birthday.  My kids have been reading my journal for about 3 years now.  I don't give them the older ones because who knows what I wrote before I was being mindful of the audience.

So they read my journal and it's a great way for me to create out story in the retelling of what I thought was important.  I hope they will keep a journal someday, knowing I will read it.  And I hope they will understand that privacy is a lie.  Happy times.

back porch

We're enjoying the back porch more this year than we have in a long time.  We've had a nice long spring so the back porch is pleasant all day.  We borrowed a pressure washer and P is painting the porch.  So several issues with mold and grossness are mitigated.  Also, I'm not pregnant.  I know that the spring of 2013 I was pregnant and then had a newborn.  Then the next year the yellow flies were terrible.  Last year the flies weren't so bad but I was pregnant.  So this year we have the porch more in order and the mom is more up for adventure.

We have a woodpecker family that is roosting within view of the porch.  We have strawberries and blueberries growing in containers on the porch.  I really prefer for the kids to play on the back porch instead of the front yard.  The back yard is off limits because it's wild.  The neighbors came over to show us a video of the 4 ft rattle snake he shot in the backyard.  He wanted to explain the gun shots.  He apparently has killed several moccasins and now the rattlesnake.  I'm so glad I didn't know they were there!

I can't remember where we got these gigantic googly eyes.  We had fun with them, on  the back porch.It's a beautiful time we're having.  We just got a new metal roof put on and are looking forward to lower energy costs.  But this beautiful cool spring is going to skew the numbers.  Oh well.  I'll take it!

This was the kids watching the men work on the new roof.  The orange paint on the ground looks so festive.  I know I've written this before, but I really like it.  My goal was to have the color look ok with leaves and pollen gunk on it.  The leaves over on the left side are from the gutters being cleaned out. :  )  Looks awesome right!? 

This was the old roof, which was fine, if 38 years old.

The new roof is blindingly bright.  The new skylights are lovely. 

hard times

Good news and bad news.  Ever since I stopped eating sugar last month, I've had a really hard time getting the dishes done.  I think I used to bribe myself to do them with treats. 

B and L still have a cough lingering for 2 months now.  The Doctor said it can last 3 months after bronchitis.  Ugh!  I feel like it's constant, someone is coughing, someone is wheezing.  At least they are happy, and active.  And there is no vomiting!  Thank goodness!

We had a nice visit in G-town.  B is turning 3 this month and we used his birthday as an excuse to take the kids to the butterfly garden.  The P-family came with us so we had a 6:5 adult to child ratio.  Yay!  It was really lovely.

 I wish we could have stayed longer but we left that part of the museum before people started crying.  The crying came later about the gift shop.  Ugh!

I was pleased with my children's behavior in the garden.  I felt really sorry for the moms escorting groups of 5 1st graders through.  We got to linger a bit longer than them.  We saw 3 groups go through.  Lots of "Don't pick the flowers!" and "Don't touch the butterflies!"

budget

For the last 10 years we've used an excel spreadsheet to track our income and expenses.  I've never been really disciplined about it so there are occasional "manual adjustments" in the record.  A few things have changed and I'm hoping to get a grip and really track our expenses better.

The good and bad of knowing all your income and expenses is that it takes some of the drama out of living.  I can't pretend that there is more money because I can clearly see that there is not more money in the line up.

We were able to pay off our student loan though.  So yay!  We're "debt free!" except the house.  And that is significant.  The house is worth more than we owe on it.  Yay!

We got a new metal roof so we're looking forward to a summer of hopefully lower electric bills.  And I need to get the AC tuned up because our electricity use was up a lot from the previous year.

I'm a big fan of the Dave Ramsey cash system.  I'd have gotten us into more trouble if I hadn't had that level of accountability.  I do get into trouble though by not really being on top of online purchases.  Drat!  I need to do better there.  That's why the money just seems to fritter away and I can't figure out where it went.

So here's to a simplified financial scene and to more accountability, ie monthly balancing.