I have a lot to update on but my main concern the last few days has been the fact that I have a stiff neck. I just woke up this way on Wednesday and it won't go away /sigh/ I guess if it persists I will have to go to the doctor about it(I have to talk to her about birth control anyway). Lets hope after the weekend the whole thing will have resolved itself!
So my first bit of information is that yes M is doing great in school, as far as I can tell they all are. I'll know better once report cards come out ... I agree with someone's comment that M looks like Dot from the Animaniacs. She really does ... right down to the "I'm to cute to punish!" attitude /sigh/.
I have been busy with a mini-reno this last week or so; I ripped out the carpet in the back room and painted the plywood sub-floor in there. I also took down the table and put it away. We never eat at it and it was just taking up room. I love the table(my Mom got it for me several years ago) and it may serve it's proper purpose somewhere down the road. At this point the back room is mostly used as our main entry and now works perfectly for all our coats and footwear sans table. The floor doesn't look the best but I much prefer it to the stinky carpet that M couldn't seem to resist peeing on. Now my next big job is cleaning the basement carpet again because of M /sigh/before I have to close windows more often. Thankfully school seems to have distracted her enough that peeing on the floor is less interesting to her. Although she is certainly still great at making messes and getting into things when I'm not paying proper attention!!
So the back room is now properly set up as our mudroom/entry room, since white paint was what I had the floor is white ... which of course shows the dirt but I don't mind. I'll either clean it or it'll stay dirty - at least it won't stink!! Total cost(less my sweat and tears) - $15 for paint gear that I bought out of the $50 a month allowance I allow myself now. J & I have taken a very close look at our finances recently and realized we are now maxed out on all our credit(1 credit card and the line of credit from the bank) and have no wiggle room at all. It's a big old fashioned debt pit. Now the good news is that our house will be paid for in about 8 to 9 years /happy dance/ and we are now on a strict budget. The bad news is that the van needs work and we can't afford it until the end of October. J will have to carpool until then but he is not happy. I'm trying to keep the cost of food down and the last two weeks we have done well in averaging out at just under $150/week for food. I am now planning all meals again and cooking more stuff myself. Making stuff from scratch is cheaper but takes more time which really is something I have a lot of anyway even with planned trips to the Y(which I really have to get on!). We'll see but so far we're doing pretty good. Thankfully J gets a portion of his check taken every pay and put away in bonds which is our Christmas fund so we have no worries there and with my personal rules about the number of toys the children get and a nice purge of toys right before Christmas we should be fine.
Otherwise nothing much is new with me and mine. I'm once again trying to get the housework under control because I feel a large reason my neck is bugging me is that the house is not under control. So I am doing housework therapy, wish me luck!
Cass :)
