last night i sat down to look at all of our upcoming expenses. it was depressing actually. and while there’s nothing particularly pricey on the list, all of those “nickels and dimes” add up quickly.
school is starting in a few weeks and it’s time to start looking at school supplies. and while you can find a box of 24 count crayola crayons for 25 cents, two boxes of those plus the other fifteen items on each of the two separate lists adds up to more than just a couple of dollars. and we don’t spend much on backpacks right now because neither of the boys are ready for an expensive adult size backpack that will last several years so they both need a new one and that’s another 30 bucks.
and school is just the beginning of the list…
the boys need at least one more week of swim lessons before summer is over and that’s not cheap.
plus soccer (deadline for $10 off is today) is $65 per child, assuming i manage to sign them up today.
*children are expensive.
we also have two birthday parties on saturday which won’t cost a ton but we are on a budget here and it’s thinning quickly.
my mother-in-laws bday is in two weeks and my mom’s bday and parents anniversary is a week later.
and not to be selfish but i REALLY REALLY need a hair cut. and an I.T. band strap. but i don’t get to come first. i gave that up the day i got pregnant.
the boys really want to see despicable me and typically we don’t go see movies at the theater because, well, it’s a flippin’ fortune, but i really want to take them to see it.
and honey asked me to save money out of the budget each week for something but i can’t remember what it was.
and let’s not forget that we are still saving for Disney which is going to be a fortune and unlike what seems to be EVERYBODY else, we don’t have rich friends or family offering to take us. and let’s face it, we just aren’t rich ourselves.
i just spent almost $200 on the dog and i’m not sure i even like that dog. that’s not true of course but writing the check was painful.
this is why it’s taking us 20 months to save for this trip.
however, on the bright side of things, how lucky am i to have parents and friends to buy presents for? and how thankful am i that i can provide new school things for my kids and i get to watch them play another season of soccer? how freakin’ amazing is it that my husband is gonna take a week off, which he hasn’t done since our honeymoon seven years ago, and take us on vacation!!!
i guess what i’m saying is, there’s a lot to complain about (and our finances are always being pulled in a hundred different directions) but at the end of the day we have so much more to be thankful for.
I took Nathan to see his doctor today. He started having random stomach pains in june of last year. We started treating him for acid reflux at that time. The first drug had no effect at all. We tried a second medication and saw little change leading to an increase to an adult dosage of the same med. After three months of no changes michael and I assumed that nathan, being our little drama king, was just faking. Until about a month ago when he stopped eating. At least one meal a day he will take two or three bites and then say he can’t eat because his belly hurts. It’s hard to know what to do about an ailment that has no evidence, but when there is an obvious truth, such as diet and appetite changes, concern starts to set in. His pediatrician doesn’t feel good about starting him on another medication when the first two didn’t help anyway so we are being referred to a pediatric gastro-interologist (I’m certain that’s spelled wrong) at vanderbilt. I don’t feel afraid. I truly don’t think we are facing anything serious and after battling asthma for six years and our scare with cystic fibrosis, we can handle this! So say a prayer for us just in case and I’ll update when I know more.
it’s monday once again. honey is back at work and all of my excuses to ignore my “chores” are gone with the weekend. the boys are quickly bored because i can’t entertain them on monday’s due to my catching up on things. the boredom of course, always leads to bickering. and while i typically try to limit video game playing, monday is kind of a free for all. go do what you want for as long as you want as long as you aren’t fighting. i just don’t have time to referee!
i am actually happy that monday is here. the weekend was slightly hectic.
friday night we spent some time at Home Depot looking at hardwood flooring, new shutters, a kitchen sink, a new kick plate and door knocker and a few other small things. it’s home improvement time around here. that was a blast, but we came home to a street full of police cars. oh joy! the house three doors down from us was broken in to. due to my “mild” panic disorder i stayed wide awake on the couch watching movies and pausing the tv every six minutes or so when i was startled by a sound. at 5 a.m., when the sun finally made it’s appearance, i dragged my sorry butt to bed. i was supposed to get up at 5:45 to run with my trainer but i slept instead. i spent saturday being less anxious. it turns out they new who broke in and it was just a couple of kids that the owners children new. so, like i said, less anxious. so saturday night i decided to take a stab at my six miles i had missed in the morning. around mile two i noticed a black car creeping past me and then making (what seemed to me as) an intentional turn to creep back up behind me. so once again my anxiety kicked in. my heart was pounding and i felt like i was in a movie. i have never run so fast. my left leg is still aching. i took a cut through a neighbor’s backyard and ran straight home locking the door behind me.
i hate when things like that happen so close to home. i go through every day feeling safe behind my four walls but break ins and what not make me realize that i’m hiding behind a piece of glass. you can lock your steel reinforced door but it’s only held closed by a wooden two by four. i don’t want to feel like my home is not a safe place.
people say that i should just trust God. okay, well, God lets bad things happen. he doesn’t just protect everybody and never let anything bad go down. i can’t just expect that because i believe in Him that i am forever protected by Him. if you do then you should prepare for disappointment.
enough about my anxiety disorder.
also on saturday, i had to take nate in to the dr because the had an infected bug bite on his thigh. he had been attacked by chiggers at my sister-in-laws a week ago while riding their zip-line. the dr. said it needed to be cultured to make sure that it wasn’t mrsa and that a regular anti-biotic could get rid of it. what she meant by culture was four adults will hold him down to the table and i will use a scalpel to cut a layer of his leg off. she didn’t mention that i might black out.
i should have known i would get sick. that’s what happens every time. jonah’s first blood draw. jonah’s and nathan’s first ivs. one of the flu tests and one of the flu shots. holding them down completely sucks the life out of me. it is emotionally and physically draining. and when it’s over i have to sit with my head between my legs while i drip of sweat.
so, like i said, the weekend was hectic.
fortunately my emotions are back in order and i can go back to a normal fear free life.
so here’s to monday. thank you for coming. i will try to be more thankful for you from now on.
