We went to look at a couple of houses today. Still not ready to buy by a long shot, but really just wanting to get a look at some of the houses that are out there.

I really liked the first one, except for the fact that the Master bedroom is on the second floor. There is a bedroom on the first floor, but it is small and the bathroom is only a shower stall and it's off the kitchen, which is not anywhere near the bedroom, but about as far as you could get. But it was beautiful.

I really wish it had been laid out differently, but I know that what I want in a house is a master bed on the first floor. I'd prefer no second floor at all, but that's not always easy to find.

It's in the perfect location. It's one block from our favorite grocery store, one block from our main credit union branch, two blocks from our favorite restaurant, within walking distance of my daughter's best friend's house, and it is in the same school district and they'd be going to the exact same schools.

After that we went to a new housing development on the outskirts of town. We really liked one of the model homes and it's under $300,000. It had the kind of open floor plan we like where the living room flows into the dining room flows into the kitchen. The yard is small enough to maintain easily (with a push mower even), but big enough to feel like a yard.

The Master Bedroom is sizable and on the first floor, the master bathroom is sizable. No tub, but doublewide shower stall with built in chairs, dual shower heads and totally handicapped accessible. There is a second bedroom/office on the first floor as well, that would be perfect to put the piano in and the treadmill and the desktop computer. There was an alcove for a washer and dryer and a two car garage.

Upstairs it had two decent-sized bedrooms, a bathroom with a tub, and a large alcove area between the bedrooms that would have been big enough to fit a double bed in or a couple of desks.

It was really, really nice and would have met all of our needs...except it's not in the same school district, since it's technically outside the city limits. I'm not even talking about the two schools they go to, but the entire district. And let's just say that the Meridian school district is not known for it's high educational standards.

I'm a little bummed as they will be building houses there for the next few years so in a year or so when we are ready there would be something available in the floor plan we want. But I can't see ripping my son away from his best friend. He needs her too much and she really needs him, too. They've both been bullied so much in the past so finding each other and being a support to each other this year has made a world of difference for both children.

Oh, well. We'll find something, eventually, in the area that we want. It'll be the right house at the right time. I'm sure of that.

My mortgage payment hit, too. $84.99 went to interest. $290.87 went to principal. The remaining balance is $18,253.41. The next payment will put me under $18K.

I keep thinking about how the next time we have a mortgage things are going to change so dramatically. Having bought a house in 1998 when prices were low has meant a small and easily manageable mortgage payment for years. The very idea of having a mortgage of $1500 seems staggering in comparison.

Part of me thinks maybe we should just save longer for a downpayment. Although our current living situation can sometimes be annoying, it is doable for as long as we want to stay here. We could stay an extra year and save even more money for a down payment. Even when we do put our house on the market (hopefully this summer), there is no guarantee it will sell quickly or at all, so an extra year of saving may well be worth it. DH and I are beginning to talk about it. I guess we will see what happens.

Why is it the simplest of homemade things can often taste the best? Tonight's meal was an example of that. For dinner I pan-fried some wild Alaskan true cod in just a little bit of e.v. olive oil, lightly seasoned with fresh ground sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and Lawry's seasoning. Along with that we had some Trader Joe's corn, some boiled broccoli, and my homemade cole slaw. Milk was the beverage of choice and the four of us split an heirloom navel orange. It was mostly mine (I had half), but everyone wanted a wedge or two because when I peeled it the aroma it produced was staggering.

My cole slaw is incredibly simple. It takes me a minute and a half to make. Three minutes if I have to shred the cabbage myself, but I generally get the 1 pound bag of pre-shredded from Trader Joe's for $1.29. My dressing is easy, 1/4 cup of organic Canola mayonnaise, 1/4 cup of canola oil (olive oil flavors it too intensely) and 2 tbsp of honey. Stir with a whisk until blended and dump into the cabbage. Mix. Done.

From start to finish dinner took 15 minutes to make and everything was fresh and easy. I love that in a dinner. It was fast because I was organized. First I put on the pan to boil water for the broccoli, then I started the fish cooking. I cut up the broccoli and washed it and dumped the cabbage into a bowl. Then it was time to flip the fish and by then the water was boiling so I put the broccoli on to steam. I turned down the heat on the fish, covered it and mixed up the dressing. I put the corn in a bowl with some butter and salt and put it in the micro for two minutes. I dumped the dressing on the cole slaw, pulled the fish off the heat, returned to the slaw to mix it, then pulled the broccoli. By then the corn was done. Presto chango, dinner in 15.

Faster than driving to get fast food and 100 times healthier. It was about $12 for the whole meal and McDonalds would have been about $25 to feed us. So all around a much more convenient use of time and a better use of money.

Well, it's been a couple of days since the stomach virus ended the worst of its activities and today I decided that it was time to start eating well again. I watched that documentary Forks Over Knives last night, and though I will never give up meat or animal products, I think there was some decent information there.

I've tried to eat vegetarian in the past and was always starving. I hate beans and soy products and I dislike lentils. That pretty much screws up the idea of any kind of healthy vegetarianism.

I am going to lean towards more vegetables, though. My go to veggies tend to be green beans and organic instant potatoes. It isn't because I don't like other vegetables. I do. It's just always been easiest to open a can of green beans and nuke them for 2 minutes and instant spuds are self-explanatory. But it's probably the least healthy option, what with them lining cans today and plastic packaging.

To that end we bought lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, broccoli, radishes, green cabbage, purple cabbage, scallions, onions, potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, oranges, pears, and strawberries. We got some dried mango and dried bing cherries and some raw almonds.

My goal for dinners is going to be a plate that is half lower glycemic vegetables, 1/8 other type of vegetable like corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, or carrots. 1/8 fruit, and 1/4 animal protein from as natural a source as I can find. If I have room at that point I might add 1/4 cup of oat cereal. I'm not particularly worried about whole grains and bread for the most part. Hopefully it won't get too expensive and I won't get too lazy to actually cook.

I am so tired, but last time I let this slide I didn't even end up posting it at all, so these are the bills I paid out of the most recent paycheck.

$600.00 AMEX
$375.86 Mortgage Old House
$261.00 Dental
___7.28 Doctor
$142.00 Storage
__32.70 Life Insurance Me
__37.61 Life Insurance DH
__41.25 Insurance for Old House
__83.98 Car Insurance
__39.37 Security System Old House
$104.22 Emergency Fund
$180.00 2 months of tae kwon do lessons
------------------
1905.27

I have spent about $200 on groceries (did some stocking up on canned goods) and also did allowances to the kids. I have about $70 left until Friday.

I cleaned out my purse today and added $11.37 to the coin jar. I think I have enough quarters now to roll them, but don't feel like checking right now. If not it is pretty close.

I spent $90 today to get a therapuetic massage (1.5 hours) as I had some pretty severe muscle spasms over the weekend to the point where even the super powerful muscle relaxant didn't work.

I also spent $31.68 at the grocery store buying 2 kinds of milk, oranges, bananas, lettuce and some salmon.

DH came home this morning. It is really nice to have him here again.

I transferred the $104.22 to the ING portion of my Emergency Fund. I also added January's interest which now brings the total EF to $4004.47. So that's one big goal met for January.

I did the bills and go the checkbook balanced, but now I need to go to sleep and I'll record te bills tomorrow. Or actually later today since it is 2 a.m.