No Average Mom

In the first six months of this year we were able to pay off the majority of our debt burden. We still have student loans and a mortgage but no longer carry credit card debt or have car payments to make. Becoming debt free has totally changed our attitudes about spending and living within our means. If we don’t have the cash to make a purchase we wait until we do. One of the first things I did when our debt was paid off was to cancel our credit cards. I simply didn’t want those crazy high credit limits available to us. I thought this might make online shopping difficult but it really hasn’t. I have found there are ways to make purchases safely online without using credit cards. One such way is to use “eBillme.com”. I haven’t personally used this site yet but after looking at it I think it my be a good fit with my new spending philosophy. This site not only offers a means to pay for purchases online but also offers aj madison coupons and coupons for many other online merchants. I am impressed by the fact that this site encourages people to spend within their means and to live a debt free life. Living under a cloud of debt can be a very heavy burden that is hard to get away from. We learned the hard way how it can debt can accumulate very rapidly and can take years and years to pay off. Living without debt is a freeing experience. While we are not truly debt free I consider the debt we do carry to be positive debt rather than negative. We bought a home well within our means rather than our dream home. Our educations have only allowed us to better our lives and that of our children. Credit card debt never did anything for us but drag us down. The sad reality is that many people are paying for years on silly stuff they put on credit cards like a meal out or a new pair of sneakers. I am glad to know this will not be our reality in the future.

For 3 days I have had cold. Summer colds are the pits. There are so many things that need doing and I can’t just sit inside hiding from them. The children need taken here and taken there. The yard and garden need tending. I realize there are much greater illnesses in the world than a cold. I am thankful it is just a cold. What made today bad is the fact that on top of the cold I ended up having an allergy attack. This has happened the last 3 times I have gotten sick. There are very clear differences between my allergic reactions and my cold symptoms. What I do not understand is why I am not having them in whenever I get sick. It worries me just a little bit that one day I may have a really bad reaction because my allergies seem to be getting worse not better. I never had them in the past at the same time as I had a cold. At least the medication I am taking is working and I am back on my feet rather than lying in bed.

We seem to be living across the street from what is a perpetual garage sale. The people that moved in have a garage sale every Friday. I have never lived next to someone who does this. I have heard about people who just constantly have a garage sale set up in their yard or garage but haven’t witnessed it firsthand. This sale is kind of strange. The people are selling stuff that people clearly don’t want. My approach to a garage sale is that is stuff doesn’t sell after the first two days then it isn’t going to sell. I then donate it to charity. These people however seem quite intent on selling every last item no matter how many times they have to set up an tear down this garage sale. I wonder if there is a limit to the number of garage sales you can have in one year? I get that people need money but it is quite distraction in the neighborhood with people parking all over the place. I suppose there are worse things that they could be doing besides constantly selling stuff in their front yard. As long as people stay out of my yard and driveway I am not going to think too much about it.

Yesterday we made a very tough decision. For six years we have had two cats. We got these cats when they were just about 4 months old. Both of them were fixed before we brought them home. One of the cats has always had an issue with peeing on dirty laundry that might be laying on the floor. This occurred infrequently over the years but as time has progressed has become worse. He has graduated to marking just about anything imaginable from his scratching pad to bags. In the last month the problem has become an issue that we knew was not going to be solved with adding more pans or different litter or more intense cleaning. This cat began being on the carpeted steps to our finished basement. The carpet is glued down and no matter how much I have cleaned it he still marks the area. Finally last night we decided that for the health of our family he needed to go to the humane society. The total number of cat pans in our house was up to four and it wasn’t having any impact on his behavior. Our lives were beginning revolve around making sure there was nothing out for him to mark and cleaning up after what he did mark. He really is a beautiful and sweet cat but my gut told me that his next step might be to pee in our beds. I even tried retraining him by confining him to an room of the house with multiple pristine pans. After what I thought was a fair amount of retraining he immediately began marking the house again when set loose. We feel absolutely awful for what came to be but short of letting him live outside there wasn’t much we could do. The vet offered no insight and we tried everything imaginable over the years to correct the problem. Dexter, I am sorry… very sorry.

I heard a new term this week that was related to the recession. The article I was reading suggested that we are headed towards a “double-dip recession”. I found this intriguing and did a bit of reading on the subject. There are mixed opinions as to whether this will indeed happen or not. It does have me a bit worried to say the least. I have to wonder what it will mean for unemployment and the future of our nation. It is already a tough job market out there. Ask anyone who has recently gone through employment screening and they will fill you in on the challenges faced by job seekers. The article also detailed what could happen with the price of goods in the coming months. I can only imagine what might happen to oil prices and such. You can’t open a newspaper without reading about job cuts and budgetary woes in our area. I can open hope that this speculation does not prove true. Our nation has seen enough financial trouble in the last year. It would be lovely to think that the glass is half full and not verging on being emptied yet again.

We began the process today for a new chapter in our youngest son’s life. He was enrolled for cyber charter school today. The interesting thing is that he will be attending a preschool or K4 program using this method of education. I never would have thought that online learning was available to such young children but it is! He cannot wait until the time comes that he can sit down at his own computer and go to class just like his big brother. There is a part of me that is just a little sad to think that my little boy is ready for school. The truth is that even though I see my kids all day everyday I still want to savor each part of their childhood. At least I can relish the fact that I won’t be dropping him off at a school building and walking away sobbing. I still remember the first day of kindergarten for my oldest son and how heart broken I was. At the time I believed he would be the only child I ever had and I could not envision my life without him in it all day. Later on when we realized that cyber charter school would better serve his needs I was able to fully appreciate how fortunate I am to be able to be his teacher. I look forward to watching both my children thrive and learn in a loving and challenging educational environment.

I spent the better part of the morning baking a number of foods. I also went across town and bought 25 pounds of peaches. My entire family is looking at me as I type wondering what there is to eat. When I told them to go look in the kitchen you would think I suggested we crack open a bottle of Lipofuze and share it or something. There are tons of things in our house to eat. Fresh and healthy foods of an infinite variety. The problem they are having is that there are not tons of junk or highly processed convenience foods in our kitchen. My thinking right now is that if I spend hours baking and cooking then you need to fend for yourself and get a little creative. Make a sandwich or have a bowl of granola. I am not spending this particular cooking a big meal after cooking and baking for hours.

I just finished going through several boxes of clothes offered to my children by one of our neighbors. It was a really generous offer on her part that is very much appreciated. My youngest son is currently in heaven because many of the clothes were his size and feature his favorite television characters. He is currently wearing a pair of Buzz Lightyear pajamas and running gleefully throughout the house. If the clothes hadn’t come from someone who I knew well I would obviously want them to be washed properly first. I love knowing that the clothes are fresh and clean and there is no problem having my child wear them immediately. I also love that they were free and the sizes are just right for now and in the future. Once again the notion of the more you give away the more comes back to you is proving true. We have given away countless things recently and have in turn been given stuff we needed by other people.