All kinds of stuff

Finances: Well, it wasn't good news from the financial advisor. Good thing I've got the finances organized a bit better and I'm actually tracking the finances now. We'll definitely have to be on a very tight budget from now on. I wasn't surprised by any of it since I had done the 2 year tracking project. We spent WAY too much money up at the other house paying for all six of us. Besides spending tens of thousands of dollars on the remodel, the amount for gas and groceries was very high. Not unexpected for feeding and transporting six people. At least we're in an okay place right now. We can pick up the pieces and move forward from here. It's a hard lesson to learn but I'm glad we have FACE'd our finances. FlyLady's FACE Control Journal has really been helpful in this situation. It's amazing how so many things are connected: finances, budget, menuplanning, grocery shopping, etc. I'm grateful that FlyLady has a control journal for finances.

Holidays: The Holiday Control Journal will be out in a couple of weeks. I'm definitely going to use it this holiday season. It will help me to stay focused and not go overboard. Last year I totally went overboard on spending for Christmas. Most of it was spent on families that were having financial hard times. I bought presents for 3 or 4 families. I enjoyed doing it but I certainly wasn't focused. I spent way more than I should have. This year we won't be able to afford any presents. We just don't have the money to buy presents or treats for the holidays. The holidays have become so commercial anyway. We can resolve not to spend much money but still enjoy the holidays. If it's not in the budget we can't spend money on it.

Blessing the house: It's so nice to have the house mostly organized. On a day like today, when I'm not feeling well, it is so much less stressful being able to look around and see the house looking good. If it were looking bad and I was feeling bad, I would feel even worse. But I know that with just 15 minutes at a time I can get a few things done without stressing myself out.

There have been a lot of questions on the FlyShow lately about how to encourage your DH to declutter his stuff or if it's okay to declutter his stuff for him. FlyLady almost always refers people to the HEYTOM.net website. There is a letter on there from her DH Robert. He explains why guys' clutter isn't really clutter to them. It's an interesting read. I have to say that I have not only encouraged David to declutter but have decluttered for him in the past. Lately though I've taken a step back and realized that it's his stuff and it's not really any of my business. He keeps it all pretty well contained so I can't really complain. Both of us have done lots of decluttering this past year. There was just so much stuff that we weren't ever going to use again. Robert says guys hold on to that kind of stuff to hold on to the illusion of youth, the illusion that 'some day' they will be that person again. I can see that with David. He's given up all of his camping stuff to Dyrk and it seems to have had an effect on him that I can't quite describe. You can tell he was saying goodbye to a part of his life, not just stuff. It was kind of sad. It's hard to live in the present. I think that we often are trying to harken back to our wonder years or looking forward to the golden years. We don't often just enjoy where we are today. I think that David and I are learning to live in the present a bit more each day. Maybe that just comes with age, I don't know.

I have a course to do online and I got a card in the mail today for it with a price of $16.95 instead of the $50 that another company wants for the same exact course. We can afford $17 a piece but the $50 each would have really put us in a tight spot. I'll look into it to make sure it's on the up and up.

Almost time to start on dinner. As I wrote earlier we're having a turkey dish tonight. There's eggplant in it so I hope I like it. If not, I'll have a bowl of cereal. :-) Off I go to start dinner.