I think someone looked down on me and said, "Well, she's done with those hurdles, let's throw some even bigger ones at her and see how she does."

So FIL may also have something wrong with his kidney. At least something showed up on his MRI. We knew this could happen, they told him so after his last surgery, but all seemed to be going well. So on top of more heart surgery, he may end up losing a kidney. So he's going to the doctor again for his heart tomorrow and a different doctor on Monday for his kidney.

If that weren't enough, my mother got back her MRI results as she's been having severe headaches. (Is there anyone not getting an MRI lately? It seems the thing to do.) She has had two mini-strokes since the last MRI six months ago. And she doesn't tell me this. I was teasing her about forgetting to put soap in the dishwasher (she teases me for similar things) and she says, "Well, maybe it's because I had two mini-strokes." I mean, come on, that is not the way you tell someone you've had a stroke, mini or not.

They were relatively minor, but I had noticed one side of her face was a little slacker than the other, but she still had control of it. And I have noticed her being slower on the uptake. I suppose I watch for these things because her mother had Alzheimers and my father did, so I've seen it up close and personal. It didn't seem like Alzheimers in her, just...something not quite right.

So I don't really know what that means for her health. She doesn't seem worried about it. She's 73, but I always figured she'd outlive me out of sheer stubborness. Now maybe it's going to happen sooner than I thought. At least I have her living will, her regular will, her pre-paid funeral stuff, and medical power of attorney.

We are prepared (well, maybe not mentally) and have been for a couple of years, but I still don't want to even think about it. In a couple of days I'm going to sit down with her and go through everything again. We haven't looked at it together since Dad died and she made a couple changes to reflect that.

At least WA state law does not require filial support to pay for long term care. 29 states legally can make you pay for your parents' care (though many don't enforce these laws). I can't even fathom what that would do to DH and I if we had to pay for long-term nursing home care for either of his parents or my mother. We've spent so much time paying off our own catastrophic medical debt. To have to start all over again would be so destructive to our lives.

I don't even know what any of this means to our future plans. We've been talking about buying a smaller house, but now I'm wondering about whether or not we will have to take in MIL or my mother at some point and if we did that, we'd need the space. I know from us living with my mother that lots of space is a very good thing. I am pretty sure either way it would fall on us. DH's sister couldn't afford it and I don't think my middle sister would allow the world to stop revolving around her long enough to take care of someone else. My eldest sister, much less the ice queen since she became a grandmother, might move in with my mom so long as Mom was still able, but I don't think she'd care for her if her mind started to go.

Can I be an ostrich just for a day or two? Because I'd really like to stick my head in the sand now.

Life can be a real pain in the neck sometimes. It seems as if you get through one thing only to be slammed with something else. Earlier this year my father died. With elderly parents you always have it in the back of your mind that something could go wrong. I was expecting it to be with my mother. I wasn't expecting it to be with DH's much younger father.

If you'll recall a couple of years ago FIL had an aortic infarction (I think that was what it was called). He had some kind of attack which took him to the hospital ER and just as they were opening him up to do surgery it burst. If it had happened at any other time, he would have been dead because that's how fast it happens. They were able to repair the bulging part of the aorta that comes right out of the heart, and they've been keeping an eye on the rest of the aorta.

A few months ago they said he would likely have to have that part repaired in a year. He had an appointment a couple of days ago and they've moved up the timetable to he needs to get it done in the next six months.

The part of the aorta that is bulging is the part that goes into the spinal column and feeds it with blood. It is a very delicate surgery in which the flow of blood will be cut off to the spinal column while it is repaired. It has with it a chance of paralysis from the chest down. If he doesn't have it done it will lead to certain death.

Unfortunately there are not many doctors who have done this type of surgery more than once or twice. To have the best shot at surviving without being paralyzed, he needs to go to a doctor who has a lot of experience with this procedure. There is no place he can go locally. His choices are Minnesota and Texas. Either place will involve FIL and MIL getting there (either flying or driving) and hotel and food costs. MIL doesn't really drive anymore, but there are lots of problems involved with flying, the most important of which is MIL's morbid obesity. We don't think she can fit into even a first class chair. It's a mess.

Last time FIL had surgery it took six weeks in a nursing home to recover and even after that it was a slow road. FIL takes care of MIL because she isn't physically able to do much. She has a hard time even walking out to the mail box. He does the shopping and most of the cooking. I can't even imagine what would happen if FIL is paralyzed.

Maybe SIL would move in with them and become qualified to be a caregiver under medicare. I think it pays more than the job she works, which is minimum wage. She's being required to sell her house under the divorce settlement (ex-BIL waited a few years to enforce this) so she'll need a place to go anyway.

I don't know how FIL and MIL will afford this. FIL is still working, but is also old enough to get his full social security check. MIL doesn't get social security because she never worked. Once FIL can't work anymore they won't have much income. It's not like we can really help financially. We're still paying off our own medical debt that we put on the credit cards years ago.

I don't know what they did with their inheritance from FIL's mother's house (around $50,000). I don't know where they stand financially anymore. They used to have a lot of debt, so hopefully they paid that off and maybe all they have is the mortgage. That would be nice, but somehow I doubt that's what happened.

The uncertainty of life sure can leave you staggering. Medical debt can be crushing. All I can do is hope for the best scenario, but even the best scenario will cost thousands of dollars. I don't even want to think about the worst.

I have monitoring on my credit report. It's an expense that is worth it to me because we are heading towards buying a house in the next year. I'm always afraid a medical bill from the past has slipped through the cracks and ended up in collection. It happened once about eight years ago, and once almost three years ago when we moved and it wasn't forwarded to our new address.

Since DH doesn't have any credit that isn't linked with mine, but I have a few things he doesn't have, we figured monitoring mine was the best way to go and then when we are closer to ready to buy a house he will send for his free ones.

Anyway, my score went up from 780 to 787. That bodes well for when we pay off a big chunk if not all of our unsecured debt with the Christmas bonus. Ideally I'd like to see it at or above 800 when we apply for a mortgage so we will be offered the best possible rates. Our credit union is currently offering 2.9%. I have liked having our current mortgage with them. They don't sell their mortgages like many banks do, so I would like to stick with them.

Yesterday DH ran the rest of the money through the HSA account. We've maxed it out. Actually we've paid more like $10,000 out of pocket on medical this year, which is substantially more than we can claim, but nowhere near the over 7.5 percent of income, so we won't need to itemize. Since we can claim the full deduction for the HSA, though, we should get back over $8000 like last year.

I've stashed every single paid medical bill and receipt in a file folder labelled with the year, just like I did last year. I don't remember how long we have to keep them for, seven years or ten years, but we have to back up the deduction if they ever ask. I'm kind of hoping that next year's medical expense isn't so outrageous.

Or you know, nothing much happened here at the Robin's nest. I paid out $90 for physical therapy, $6.93 for two prescriptions, and $225 for the monthly family plan at the chiropractor. DH spent $3.69 for a gallon of milk. Found a dime and a penny.

Homeschool went pretty well today. I didn't have to do math, DH did it. It was square roots in area. DH is going to explain it to me tomorrow. There is no way I was going to get it today. DS understands it, thankfully. I did everything else, though, which is pretty good considering I didn't sleep last night. We got the fall writing sample ready to send off. I think DS did a very good job on it.

Lady continues to ignore the new Fort Knox of a duck den and is still bunking with the chickens. I don't think she wants to be alone and also she feels more secure with the other birds. I'm not entirely convinced she doesn't think she's a black australorp chicken the way she hangs out with Half-pint and Pipsqueak all the time. Of course half the time I think those two chickens think they are ducks, so who knows? We've decided to let her be since she's putting herself in the coop when the chickens go in about a half hour before dark.

We came home today from a trip out and there were a dozen crows in the yard. It was really weird. DS went to scare them off and they flew up in a swarm and landed on the roof of the house. As soon as we got onto the porch they were back on the lawn. It was like a scene from The Birds or something. Usually they stay away because they don't like the chickens or the chickens scare them off but because of the extreme wind today none of the chickens were out of the enclosure.

We still haven't had a frost. It's 42 F out tonight so I don't think we will get one, but it's definitely starting to get colder.

My physical therapist was telling me how her mother was volunteering with the Red Cross in a poor neighborhood in Queens. They are very disorganized. No one was in charge so her mother (who is a pharmacist) decided she would be and got things going and found an interpreter since a lot of the people in that area only spoke Spanish. They've been climbing up stairs and knocking on every door to see if people are okay or need medical attention.

A lot of folks had run out of necessary prescriptions for high blood pressure, heart problems, or diabetes, so she had to put people in charge of finding out which pharmacies were even open and if they were open, whether or not they had medicine available to fill prescriptions. They have no idea when there will be power again. I can't even imagine being elderly and trapped on the 18th floor without power and medicine.

I mean I've been without power for several days before, but never without the woodstove to provide heat and a place to warm food up. And never without necessary medicine. It boggles the mind.

Or you know, nothing much happened here at the Robin's nest. I paid out $90 for physical therapy, $6.93 for two prescriptions, and $225 for the monthly family plan at the chiropractor. DH spent $3.69 for a gallon of milk. Found a dime and a penny.

Homeschool went pretty well today. I didn't have to do math, DH did it. It was square roots in area. DH is going to explain it to me tomorrow. There is no way I was going to get it today. DS understands it, thankfully. I did everything else, though, which is pretty good considering I didn't sleep last night. We got the fall writing sample ready to send off. I think DS did a very good job on it.

Lady continues to ignore the new Fort Knox of a duck den and is still bunking with the chickens. I don't think she wants to be alone and also she feels more secure with the other birds. I'm not entirely convinced she doesn't think she's a black australorp chicken the way she hangs out with Half-pint and Pipsqueak all the time. Of course half the time I think those two chickens think they are ducks, so who knows? We've decided to let her be since she's putting herself in the coop when the chickens go in about a half hour before dark.

We came home today from a trip out and there were a dozen crows in the yard. It was really weird. DS went to scare them off and they flew up in a swarm and landed on the roof of the house. As soon as we got onto the porch they were back on the lawn. It was like a scene from The Birds or something. Usually they stay away because they don't like the chickens or the chickens scare them off but because of the extreme wind today none of the chickens were out of the enclosure.

We still haven't had a frost. It's 42 F out tonight so I don't think we will get one, but it's definitely starting to get colder.

My physical therapist was telling me how her mother was volunteering with the Red Cross in a poor neighborhood in Queens. They are very disorganized. No one was in charge so her mother (who is a pharmacist) decided she would be and got things going and found an interpreter since a lot of the people in that area only spoke Spanish. They've been climbing up stairs and knocking on every door to see if people are okay or need medical attention.

A lot of folks had run out of necessary prescriptions for high blood pressure, heart problems, or diabetes, so she had to put people in charge of finding out which pharmacies were even open and if they were open, whether or not they had medicine available to fill prescriptions. They have no idea when there will be power again. I can't even imagine being elderly and trapped on the 18th floor without power and medicine.

I mean I've been without power for several days before, but never without the woodstove to provide heat and a place to warm food up. And never without necessary medicine. It boggles the mind.

The mortgage payment hit today, with $77.42 going to interest and 303.42 going to principal, with an additional $124.14 going to principal. The new mortgage balance is now at $15,377.85, so after my December payment the mortgage will be under $15K. I know that we will probably sell it before it is paid off, but I still like to see it going down.

----------

We're still waiting to hear whether or not DH will be working an extra week or two between now and the end of the year. It's a little frustrating because he needs to know so he can buy the appropriate tickets on the appropriate dates. And of course the longer you wait, the more expensive plane tickets are, especially around the holidays.

He comes home at midnight tonight. I will be glad to have him back as I am really worn down at the moment. Both kids are sick again and I can't really tell if I am at the end of getting over a cold or at the start of a new one. It could go either way, but I'm hoping it's getting over the last of one.

----------

Yesterday I mailed in my voter's ballot and went and made the Chase payment. I also pulled some green onions from the garden. I can't believe we still haven't had a frost. I need to get moving and get the potatoes dug, but I'm kind of being really lazy about that. Without an impending frost on the horizon it doesn't seem very urgent.

----------

My doctor is retiring at the end of the year, so I need to find a new doctor. And I really don't want to as this guy has been my doctor my whole life. He delivered me and we have a great relationship. I'll have DH get me a list of the doctors on our PPO list that are accepting new patients, and I need to make up a list of the medications I am taking and their dosages. I will probably have Dr. A write me prescriptions for a year's worth of meds to send into my mail order pharmacy so that I don't have to deal with meds right out of the gate with the new doctor.

I also need to make a list of all the medications I can't take due to adverse reactions/allergies, namely penicillin and codeine. And the ones I can't take the generic of but must take the name brand of.

I so do not need this right now, but I knew it was coming. My doc is in his 80's.

----------

I ordered some Christmas presents for DS and was notified that they shipped yesterday. I ordered them last week so it's good to hear they're out the door. I'm trying not to be last minutey this year.

----------

The car payment statement came in the mail yesterday so I will write out the check and send that off. I hate dealing with their website or I'd pay it directly. It is nice to see the amount going down substantially now. The first year of payments was like it barely budged. Now I can see the progress being made.

----------

I've spent some time looking at houses online over the weekend and prices seem to have taken another dramatic drop. I am now seeing houses in the $215K to $245K range that a couple of months ago were in the $279K to $250K range. And ones that were in the $300K to 350K are down as well, about by the same amounts. I see more and more of them are pending sales as well. I'm not sure what that will mean for our prospects when we go to sell. Of course we are not going to be overpricing the house to begin with, which I think may have been going on with some of these other houses.

I just wish they'd get done already with fixing up the house since we can't put it on the market until they are.

I am so happy it is November. No more $500 payments to the doctor for DS's treatment. We will have one more $300 payment for glasses this month and then we'll be done with big medical for a while, I hope. Although we still need to save some as come January we will have the $2500 deductible again. Hopefully this coming year it will not be met so quickly. I will have to have two molars fixed, but I am hoping to use part of DH's Christmas bonus to do that.

I did send the extra $230 to AMEX along with my regular payment. Here's how it all broke down this week.

$730.00 AMEX
_100.00 Chase (no interest)
_300.00 for Mom's utilities
__92.97 to the Freezer Fund
___7.03 to the Emergency Fund
__32.97 Electric at the Old House
__25.00 to the Holding Tank for Garbage
__72.00 to the Holding Tank for Water/Sewer old house
__39.53 DH Life Insurance
__32.70 Me Life Insurance
__59.89 Car Insurance
__45.63 House Insurance for old house
__41.16 Security system for old house
_153.00 Storage
__17.00 HoA Dues for old house
_100.00 Property Tax for old house (Holding Tank)
_500.00 to Mortgage for old house
_100.00 to Holding Tank for propane (old house)
_100.00 to MacBook Fund
__28.20 Dental (DH)
__15.69 Medical (DD)
_100.00 DH's monthly allowance
__15.00 DD's weekly allowance
__10.00 DS's weekly allowance
_267.32 on groceries (did a major staples stock up, plus OTC meds)
----------------
$3075.09

I will also be making the car payment out of this payday, just waiting for the bill to get here. I took $100 in cash out for miscellaneous needs. And I will be depositing $46 from the coin jar on Monday, which puts my Freezer Fund at $1000 even. And the MacBook Fund is now at $300. I had $7.03 left after fully funding the Freezer Fund so that went to the Emergency Fund, which now sits at $1008.36.

I went down to the courthouse today and paid the property tax. I was off by $6.44, but I had plenty in checking to cover that. I'm glad I checked it beforehand and didn't just write it out for the amount I thought it was, which was actually last year's half year amount. I guess I didn't update that on one of the spreadsheets.

I also went to the library while I was down there. It is across from the courthouse. I had two books on hold, Why Gender Matters and The Artist's Way. I need to hurry and get through the book I'm reading now. I wasn't expecting the holds to come in so soon since I was a ways down the list.

I paid 50 cents for parking and $1 on library fines. Oops.

----------

We ended the day with as many birds as we started the day with, always a good thing. No duck egg today, either. I think Lady is still freaked out. Five chicken eggs though. I'm going to have to make a meatloaf and a quiche to use up some eggs.

----------

I think I am finally almost over my cold/infection/flu/general case of the yucks. I still am a little stuffy but that might be allergies. Still a little draggy, but that's probably just general tiredness. I hope.

----------

I am really looking forward to payday Friday. We finally get to start making forward progress again now that the medical is paid off. I am so sick of debt. I just want to be done.

The heavy rains have brought a lot of water into Mom's basement. We've had the sump pump on all day. Mom doesn't want to run it while everyone is sleeping for fear that it might go dry and burn out. It's not looking likely that it will let up overnight, but I understand her concern. I put on her Wellies and went down to lift it up onto a shelf for the night because there is always the chance of it getting underwater during the night and the water getting into the motor and ruining it.

When I look at stories from the East Coast I am grateful that it is only a few inches of water we are having to deal with and not several feet. I can't even imagine how folks are coping with that. We've flooded pretty badly before, national disaster badly, four of five feet of water, but somehow it just doesn't compare. Usually our serious flooding comes from rapid snow melt, not violent winds and torrential rains. I've never experienced a hurricane. You folks over that way are certainly in my prayers and thoughts.

----------

Physical therapy today was brutal. It felt like the muscles on the side of my thigh were stacked on top of each other. P.T. meant $90 out that I had forgotten about, but I still should have an extra $210 left to send to debt when payday comes Friday.

-----------

I gave in to a craving after P.T. I has 25 minutes to kill before it was time to pick up DD, and DS was at a homeschool field trip with Mom. It is so rare for me to be alone anymore ever because of homeschooling. I don't eat before P.T. because it makes me nauseated if I do. I made the decision to swing through DQ and get a burger, fries and a bottled water. I spent $5.86. And I enjoyed every bite of it while I read my book and waited in the school parking lot.

I've done pretty well on the not eating out front. I've certainly broken the drive-thru habit. I think this is the first time I've been to a drive-thru since spring. It was good to get a little something and I feel like that's satisfied me and I can get on with the home-cooking.

I had $60 in cash left from last payday, so I took the money out of it. That left me with 4 ones and some change for the coin jar. I added $4.13 to the regular coin jar and a penny to the Canadian coin jar. Whatever is left of that cash on Friday will go into the Freezer Fund. That and $100 on Friday will top off that fund.

----------

I'm going to pull the tomatoes tomorrow, I think. Half of my kitchen table will be devoted to ripening them. I hope we have enough newspaper to wrap them. I do have several brown paper bags that I've saved that I can use as well.

----------

The remaining ducks survived the night. I was afraid the racoons would be back. The ducks look so sad though, wandering around and trying to find the missing two and calling for them. They really were a social flock. It's a little heart-breaking. Lady didn't lay today. I think she might have been shocked out of it. We'll see if there is an egg tomorrow. We got six chicken eggs, though. Life goes on.

Did you ever have one of those days where everything you are looking for seems to not be in the places they belong? The keys, the checkbook, your jacket? I swear that every spoon in the house must be in hiding or in the dishwasher, because there aren't any in the drawer. Hence my title. Even though most of my symptoms are gone, my throat remains sore and raspy. Ice cream helps, but it is a weird experience eating it with a fork. Still, whatever works.

I cancelled my appointment today. It saved me $90 for the week. I am still just too worn down. I rescheduled for Tuesday.

I found a dime in the cupholder in the van so added that to the coin jar.

Yesterday I spent $40 on a prescription, $33.23 on OTC cold medicine, $4.44 on a pill splitter, and $12.93 on orange juice. The orange juice was not a planned purchase, but I was really craving it the way you do when you're deficient in something. So I bought 2 gallons.

I am very tempted to get takeaway for dinner, except I don't want pizza and they are the only place that delivers. I don't have the energy to make baked potato soup, which was on my menu plan for today. It's labor intensive. I think today will just be chili from a can with leftover baked potatoes and green beans from a can. It's warm and hearty and the capsicum clears my sinuses. It's also a quarter of the cost of takeaway, maybe less.

Three of the chickens are now laying eggs in the box on the back porch, Curious, Georgie, and Queen. Guess the fence repair just made them learn how to fly over taller fences. Still, farm fresh delivered to your back door can't be beat.

I did my big shopping tonight. It's been a while since I've needed to go to Costco for anything other than gas. Even so, I did pretty well, I think. I spent $118.40 ($3.72 of which was tax). I got 4 cases of tomato sauce, 1 case of chili, 1 case of cream of mushroom soup (for DH, I won't touch it with a ten foot pole), cheese, organic pizza snacks, toilet paper, and quart and gallon size freezer bags.

The reason I bought tomato sauce is that the kiddos don't like the home canned straight, but they'll eat it one can home canned mixed with one can store bought. I think next time I can tomato sauce I should make it spaghetti sauce with sugar and seasonings in it. It's just too tomatoey for them. Since I only canned enough for about half the year, these 48 cans should do me for the year.

I also bought a few convenience items, DH's soup, some chili and the pizza snacks. As much as I'd like to be 100% from scratch all of the time, there are days when I just get too sick and I just want to be able to open a can or have the kids open their own can of something. Until I start canning my own homemade soup that is something I have determined to live with.

After grocery shopping we got gas there, but I can't find what I did with the receipt. I'm pretty sure it was $70 or so since the tank was empty and gas was at $3.92 per gallon. When it shows up on my AMEX I'll report the amount. If I remember.

Afterwards we went to Haggen and I got popcorn, beef hot dogs (for DH), tortillas, bread (still a little too sick to be baking my own), milk, orange juice, onions, yogurt, nasal spray, and cauliflower. Oh, and 3 12 packs of Pepsi Throwback (for DH). I spent $77.63 there.

Again, a couple of convenience items and the very unnecessary soda, unless you consider marital harmony worth that $11 for 36 cans and I do. DH is 90% on board with the organic, sustainable eating, but there are a few things I don't see him (or me) completely eliminating. Progress, not perfection.

Also spent $8.01 for 2 prescriptions today. We shouldn't have to spend anymore money for a week now, except perhaps for milk. That'll be nice. Tomorrow I should be up for cooking again. The worst of the cold seems to have passed.

...or five prescriptions later... Well, okay probably not the actual flu, just Super Bad Sinues: The Sequel. And one of the meds is for sleep, because with the super cough (codeine cough syrup, I love you) I haven't been doing much of that. At least everything was generic and I only shelled out $17.81 for all five. Nice.

As for the chickens, well, we have had several escape artists as of late. They are determined to be free range all of the time, and not just part-time. But holes have now been patched in the fence, the gate has been fixed, and wire has been placed higher. Only two of them, Curious and Georgie, got out today. They are the lightest, smallest birds. They fly the easiest and the furthest and we will likely never be able to keep them in. Despite Georgie getting her tail feathers clipped by the neighbor's dog not too long ago, she is still determined to range, though she is sticking to the yard.

I suppose I won't complain too much about Curious and Georgie, since they are the two best egg layers in the bunch. Still, it's not like they have a small enclosure. I have seen yards that are not as big as their huge pen. But the grass is always greener and the bugs are always bigger and the slugs are always...sluggier on the other side of the fence. Well, thank goodness for patient neighbors who are charmed by them and like the free eggs they get slipped now and then.

We have been letting the ducks out a little bit to free range during the day when doing garden work, but they don't really seem to like being out. They like the fenced area and they like their miniature pond and they absolutely do not like the neighbor's dogs. They are too fat to fly and never try to escape, although Lady Henry Inigo Montoya does go off away from the other three quite a bit. She has very little tolerance for Patches and his romantic overtures.

Egg production is starting to slow down as the days get shorter. Well, the 3 female ducks are still laying pretty consistently, but we are only getting about five chicken eggs a day from twelve hens. We are thinking about putting in a light, but 8 eggs a day is fine for our needs and we will probably only do so if it slacks off to a lot less than that.

The garden is still plugging along, but the days are getting cooler. The forecast is looking in the lower 60's for the rest of the week, with rain on Friday. I can't remember the last time it really rained, June maybe, and we are in for a stormy weekend. The nights are still staying above 50 so the tomatoes are still going. Not sure how much longer I can expect that. There are tons of green ones just starting to turn color. I guess if I need to I can pick them and wrap them in newspaper and let them ripen inside. Not a big fan of green tomatoes or I'd just dehydrate them.

I have five ripe tomatoes sitting on my table that I need to figure out something to do with. Maybe I'll make chili this week. In the crockpot so I don't have to put out any effort. Or I suppose I could can a single pint. Just in a smaller pan, not my full-size canner.

I did up what I think is the last of the prunes and they are on a tray in the freezer. There might be a few more, but I'll need DH at the top of a ladder to tell me if there are anymore on the tree and he won't be home until Wednesday. I am too short to reach, but I think I still see a few up there. I was right and ended up with about 8 quart bags full (or will do when the rest of these get packed into the last bag).

I'm still getting a couple handfuls of green beans every three days or so. There are a couple of yellow zucchini struggling along and I may get two more cucumbers before the weather turns. I should be able to harvest another broccoli by week's end.

I really need to do up a meal plan for the week. I am kind of doing the whatever is easiest route right now, but that way leads to overspending. Dinner tonight was scrambled egg sandwiches and stir-fried green beans. Simple, easy, not too much effort.

DD is going to try to go to school tomorrow after being out sick for a while. Ugh. 7 a.m. Even the chickens don't get up that early right now. DS felt good enough to do all of his lessons today, though he is still feeling yucky. The nice thing about homeschooling is he is able to sleep in when he doesn't feel well and it's okay if we don't finish lessons until 7 p.m. I am not, nor ever will be a fan of Algebra, but it's really not fun when your brain feels like it is full of snot. Still, we beat it (the algebra, not the snot).

One of the things that helps me to stay incredibly organized when it comes to bill paying is my bill box. I love this thing. It is specially designed with 31 slots for each day of the month and two drawers beneath to hold things like stamps, address labels, envelopes, pens, whatever. As the bills come in I file them in the corresponding number that is one week before their due dates. I can tell at a glance that bills are coming due so I never have to worry about it.



I've had it for a few years now and I totally would not give it up without fight. What kind of methods do you all use to stay on top of the bills you don't pay online?

Anyway, here's what I paid out of Friday's paycheck:

$1000.00 Medical DS
___41.16 Security system for old house
___21.18 Medical DS
__400.00 Old house mortgage (plus extra to principal)
__200.00 Chase
__757.82 Car payment (plus extra to principal)
__300.00 Glasses (2nd month of 3 months same as cash)
___44.87 Phone for old house
___70.56 Internet
__144.00 Water/sewer old house (2 months)
__300.00 Mom's utilities
------------
$3279.59

I still have to buy some groceries, I'll have a $90 physical therapy session on Wednesday, and need to get out $25 to pay out the kids' allowances. Otherwise I am right on target for the month. Just having that big check ready to pay off the forward head posture treatment for DS tomorrow has lifted a tremendous weight off my shoulders. I can face the rest of the month without it looming.

I got a little lax about reporting the stuff I paid within the last few days and figured I should do that before writing up what is coming out of today's payday. This all came out of the last paycheck from two weeks ago. I did find out what the new monthly amount on the car insurance is now that the other car has been sold and we only have to deal with the van. It was a drop of about $26 a month.

$158.50 WMTC
__66.02 Electric old house
__59.89 Car insurance
__45.67 Old house insurance
_225.00 Medical
__39.53 DH Life insurance
__90.00 Physical therapy
__32.70 My Life insurance
_153.00 Storage
-----------
$870.31

I also saved out $500 for DS's medical which will combine with $500 out of the paycheck today to pay off the remaining $1000 owed for his forward head posture treatment, which will continue for a while, but thank goodness will be paid off. I really did not like the way it felt to have that looming over us. One more month and I can get back to using that $500 a month on debt repayment.

Electric out at the old house is way up because of the workmen using power tools and lights on the weekends and possibly hot water to wash up in. It amazes me that 8 days of use a month can make the bill jump by $45. And I will be so glad when we don't have to pay for storage anymore, but until the house sells and we can buy a new one, there it sits.

Oh, and I also got a bit of gas the other day, $20.53, at a station near home because I didn't want to drive across town to the Costco where it's cheaper. That should be enough to keep us good until DH is home on Wednesday and can fill up the tank and also run in to Costco proper and pick up toilet paper and vitamin D.

I paid out $225 for medical today and forgot to get a receipt. I will get one tomorrow as I need it for the HSA. DS got his x-ray today and we will have the results tomorrow, so it's not an extra trip to get the receipt. If all goes as the doctor suspects his forward neck posture will have been corrected almost completely.

I also picked up two self-adhesive Ace-type bandages for my daughter at $3.99 each, plus tax. Lost my receipt to the wind and don't want to do the math, but approximatly $9 for that. It's not tax deductible anyway, so I don't need the receipt, but just like to keep things exact in my records. I'll do the math later.

I made a payment to AMEX online yesterday of $500.

I put $10.26 into the coin jar this week. I got a rebate check from my insurance company's safe driver thingy for $19.83. All of that will make it's way into the freezer fund.

The lady who works on my leg cancelled on me again today. She rescheduled for tomorrow. I really hope she can make it this time. It has been 3.5 weeks now and it is starting to affect the way I walk. I know she was hurt, but she has managed to see some patients, and I've been cancelled on four or five times now. I can't put off this treatment much longer. I will need to see someone else soon, or I'll be back to walking with a cane or worse, a walker. I really don't want to leave her, but loyalty only goes so far and I can't cripple myself over it.

I set up the October budget spreadsheet and have everything on track for the month.

Homeschooling is still going along pretty well, though I have had one or two days where I just wish I could bundle DS off to school and have someone else deal with him for seven hours. When DH comes home for his two weeks off shift I think I am going to just take a few hours and go to the library and sit in a chair and read and just be away. Or the park if it's not too cold. Somewhere free. I just need some serious "me" time. I'd go to Barnes and Noble, but they took out the couches and comfy chairs. It's no longer inviting. Did they do that in all of them or just our local ones?

I used to love to go to B&N and look through their cookbooks. I would buy one book, but with me a cookbook has to be thoroughly gone through for me to know I would make the recipes and being able to sit in a comfy chair and go through them carefully and gently until I found a good one. It was a nice ritual. I don't really buy books from them now that I can't do that. I won't just buy one and hope it'll have recipes I can use.

I'd like to find some animal husbandry books, particularly on rabbits, but I'm not going to buy anything I can't take the time to comfortably look through first and know it will meet my needs. Because of my leg I can't just stand there for a half an hour looking either. Take away the little things and you take away my desire to shop there, pure and simple.

Well, I cancelled my dentist appointment for tomorrow. My ear still hurts too much and my throat as well, to sit through a cleaning and after having been on antibiotics for over a week with no progress, I'm sure this is a nasty virus. I didn't want to get them sick there, so I've saved or at least put off, the cost of a cleaning this month. I go three times a year due to some damage caused earlier in life and the third appointment is not covered. I've rescheduled to mid-October, which shifts the payment to a better month and hopefully that gives me enough time to get over this forsaken thing.

Oh, it is better than yesterday, though so hopefully that means I'm on the upswing. Yesterday was "oh my gosh, I think I'm going to die from this ear pain, will it never end," and today was "I think I'll live but I'm not going to enjoy it." LOL So a tiny bit of progress. At least I have my sense of humor back, right?

I have missed three weeks of seeing the woman who works on my leg due to her car accident, so that $90 a week has eased things a bit. She called me today and we've tentatively scheduled for Monday, but with the understanding that either one of us was likely to cancel depending on health or injury status. It was good to hear from her. She's become a dear friend over the last couple of years and we chat non-stop when we have a session.

----------

Homeschool has gone much, much better this week. We are getting through things better. Math and literature take more than the allotted time, but the other subjects go faster so it all evens out. Today we only put in a half an hour more than the required time and I can see that things are beginning to go more smoothly on DS's end as he gets into the swing of it. I am pretty sure neither one of us is going to go crazy now.

------------

The garden continues to chug along. Today I picked green beans, tomatoes, a kohlrabi, and some more prunes. The broccoli is getting bigger right on schedule and there are several tomatoes getting red and another kohlrabi that will be ready soon.

The pears on my table are now ripe so I will try to make and can the pear sauce tomorrow, though all I want to do is just bite into those lucsious things and eat them straight. Must resist. There will be more for that.

About half the tomatoes on the table are ripe, too. I hope the rest get there before I need to do something with the ones that already have because I don't want to make two small batches of sauce I want to make one big one.

---------

I am making chicken stock overnight in the crockpot. I've got 4 chicken carcasses and a bunch of vegetable peelings that I've been saving in the freezer as well as a fresh leek and some sad looking but still decent parsley and other herbs from the garden. In the morning there will be beautiful, delicious broth for mere pennies. I may end up doing chicken noodle soup tomorrow instead of pizza because of my throat. I have some diced, cooked chicken in the freezer I can throw in to make it pretty easy as well as some fresh veggies I can chop and let simmer all day tomorrow. If I have enough leftover stock I will can it, otherwise I will freeze it.

And I think that about covers it.

The woman who does the therapy on my leg was in a car accident this week. Not horribly serious, but she was rearended and it still hurt a lot. She was hoping to be good enough to come today, but she had to cancel. I feel really bad for her. She has come to be a great friend to me over the last couple of years and I credit her methods for allowing me to walk almost normally again. I really hope she will be okay.

Because she cancelled, the $90 that I normally pay for each 1.5 hour session won't be used. I budget this amount weekly, but in skipping a week of therapy I obviously won't be needing it for it's original purpose. I am debating what to do with it.

I could use it towards buying organic tomatoes for canning. I'd be able to purchase more than I planned on Saturday. Or I could put it in the freezer fund and be that much closer to buying a chest freezer. Either one of these things is an investment in the future food needs of my family, albeit one in a more long term manner than the other.

I should probably aim towards the tomatoes because we won't be buying a beef until June or July of next year and there is plenty of time to get the freezer fund up to snuff. At the same time, it sure would be nice to have the freezer purchased well before we need it. But the tomatoes won't be around for much longer and it really does save a good amount to buy them in season. Argh. This shouldn't be a difficult decision.

I wrote out a fairly long post yesterday, but as often happens when the formatting has been changed on the blogs, it got eaten when I hit post. I know it'll settle down again once all the bugs get worked out, but it's still frustrating to lose a post into cyberspace after not losing one for so long. I got complacent and didn't hit copy/save first.

As I recall I mentioned paying two more bills since I had the money left in the account, the phone bill for the old house of $44.87, and the internet bill for this house of $70.56. Usually these would come out of the next payday, but I figured if I let it sitting there I'd find some way to fritter it away between now and Friday.

I remember being quite annoyed at how full the envelopes from Comcast were. Three extra pages in each one just for their cable listing offerings. I don't get cable, I don't care to get cable and I don't need to see my bills stuffed full with the extra paper. Plus each envelope also had a full page on their Eco-billing. So ironic, Comcast. 4 unnecessary pages per envelope and you want me to think you care about saving paper? I don't think so. I'd go paperless with them, except their website crashes every time I go to use it. They won't combine the two bills in one envelope either since one is for the old house and one is for here, even though both are sent here for payment, which would actually save some paper.

I got the bill for the glasses. It cost $813.23. It is 90 days same as cash. We will pay $213.23 this month and $300 each for the next two months. The dental I finished paying off this month, so the $300 that had been going there will now be going to the glasses starting next month. Once the glasses are paid off I can then look into getting my teeth fixed.

I have enough in checking to cover my appointment on Thursday and $20 bucks left in my wallet for milk and crackers, the only two things on the grocery list I'll need before payday Friday. I am running it this close to deliberately. For one reason, if I don't have the cash to eat out, I won't be tempted, and if I don't have the cash to buy soda, I won't be tempted there either. Or as tempted. I am starting day 3 no soda and I think I am through the worst of the caffeine withdrawal.

Now that the stomach virus has finally settled down and gone away *knocks on wood* I am starting back on controlled carb eating. I feel better with more protein and lower carb veggies making up the bulk of my diet and I get sick far less often when I eat that way and have more energy. I basically have felt sick for the last month so I need the boost of eating better to get me back on track. And I've got some lovely veggies from the garden that need eating.

Speaking of eating I still need to sit down and make a menu plan, but since we didn't end up eating pot roast yesterday, that's on the agenda for supper tonight.

After doing my grocery shopping today, in which I spent $45.96, I had enough money left in the checking account to pay a couple more bills, so I went ahead and paid the phone bill for the old house, $44.87, and the internet bill of $70.56. There is enough left for my medical appointment on Thursday, and I have $20 in my wallet for milk which I will need to buy on Wednesday when DH comes home and possibly crackers.

I recieved the bill for the glasses today, $815.23. It is 90 days same as cash. I will pay $215.23 this month and $300 for the next two months. Fortunately starting in October I will not have quite so much money tied up with medical. I paid off the dental on Friday so that will free up that $300 a month for the glasses. I only have 2 more payments to make on DS's forward neck posture treatment, so the final payment will be made in October. In November, that $500 a month will go back to paying down the credit card. Maybe we'll finally see some progress then. Right now we are just pretty much standing still.

DH is supposed to be checking into orthodontia for me to see if this insurance covers it or not. I'm thinking about getting Invisalign for myself if it's not too expensive. I've got a gap between my front teeth that didn't used to be there. The dentist thinks I'm tongue thrusting at night and it's causing it. Anyway, I don't like it. But it's a vanity, so if insurance won't cover it or if it costs too much it'll have to wait until the credit card debt is gone.

--------------

I noticed both of the billing statements for my phone bill and internet bill were ridiculously fat. There was no logical reason for them to be so fat. They should both be a single page, since the phone bill is a plain line for the security system and has no special add ons or long distance service, and of course the internet is pretty straightforward.

No, the reason it was stuffed so full was because both of them had 3 pages of what Xfinity offers for cable. Umm...I don't have cable. I don't want cable. I don't need that info. Plus each bill had a full page devoted to *drum roll please* eco-billing to save paper. Yeah, right. Way to go on that one, Comcast. And I'd totally do online billing if their website didn't crash every time I tried it. And I don't believe they really care about it that much, either, because if they did, they'd let me get one bill even if the phone line is at a different address than the internet service. They are both still sent to one address to be paid.

----------

Caffeine withdrawal is no fun, but I am making it through day 2 of no soda. Go me.

Adjusting to the new school schedule hit me hard today and I was ready to go to sleep at 5:30. *yawns* Hopefully DS won't give me any grief about going to bed tonight. He's been yawning for the last few hours. I've got a few financial tasks I need to do, but am too tired to do today. I'm afraid I'd screw up entering stuff into the spreadsheets.

I spent $90 on medical today. I was tempted again to get takeout, but really wanting to meet this challenge of no takeout in September is helping me to overcome that temptation. So far I am 5 for 5 on cooking at home this month.

I made the lasagna today and an extra one for the freezer. I have found that the hassle of making lasagna means I should always make a double batch because it's just so much work that only making one is not worth it.

WAVA is still not on top of things. I may end up saying screw it and putting together my own curriculum after all if they don't get their collective heads out of their collective backsides. We've faxed them everything they claim they needed and gotten confirmation of these things and then they turn around and claim they never got them, even with copies of the confirmation letters sitting in our hands. And you can't get through to them on the phone. It's an hour wait on hold and of course they keep school hours so just try getting ahold of them at any other time of day and you can't. So annoying. If DS didn't like the K-12 program so much I'd not even bother at this point.

/whine

I sent for another $5 gift card to Amazon from Swagbucks today, so that should show up in a week. I have gotten $25 worth of free gift cards this month. This is the first month I've managed to do that in. Not bad for 10 minutes worth of effort in a day (if that).

I've qualified for a couple of the good surveys at ACOP this month. Will probably have a decent cash out next month.

----------

I have two crockpots full of tomato puree cooking down into sauce. I have decided I don't care that it takes longer, it's hands off and that makes it easier for me. The whole house smells like tomato sauce.

----------

I just found out that my mother invited two of my nephews up to stay next week. Starting on the first day of school. There has been the whole long summer to do this and she invites them up the first week of school? And the first week of homeschool for DS? Sometimes I don't think she thinks things through. My nephews are supposed to be homeschooled, but my sister is...lazy about it. Oh, they do get educated, but not on any kind of a schedule. This is just going to make things ten times harder for us. Oh, well, it's not like I can do anything about it. This is part and parcel of living in someone else's home.

----------

I hope our house sells fast and we come out of it with a good down payment. I really want to not be subject to Mom's whims. I feel like the dang thing is never going to get on the market, though. They were supposed to paint the outside of the house last weekend and the inside this. For whatever reason it didn't happen and now they are planning to paint it this weekend. The weather is supposed to be good for it, but I'm not sure about how much longer.

And for some reason or other they seem to want to paint the outside first. Even if it rains. This is not a good plan in my mind. *sighs* Since they are fitting us in around other people there is not much I can do about that either.

----------

We have close to $800 worth of eyeglasses to pay off in the next 3 months (same as cash, fortunately). If it isn't one thing it's another. Our vision insurance only covers glasses every 2 years instead of the industry standard of every year for lenses and every 18 months for frames. They do cover one eye doctor visit per year though.

Unfortunately both kids' prescriptions have changed so much that there was no way of putting it off for another year. Fortunately DH and I are not having any problems with ours and can wait another year. Personally I think insurance companies should take into account changes in the prescription and if there is a valid change, then pay for it or some of it, regardless of how long it has been. Just wanting different frames sooner is not valid, but the eyes changing enough to make a major difference is medical and should be covered no matter what.

Next payday I will finally finish paying the dentist for DH's crowns. Yesterday I made another $500 payment to DS's doctor. That leaves us owing them two more payments, or a total of $1000 left. Ugh. But no interest. I think I'm putting half of next year's tax return straight into the HSA next March.

----------

I borrowed $300 from the freezer fund which will be replaced over the course of next month (I hope). I needed to buy school clothes and supplies before school actually started and with all the extra medical I've had to pay from DS's head injury this summer, I couldn't budget enough for it. It was either that or take it out of the emergency fund, which I couldn't justify. That is okay, though.

Fortunately DS didn't need much because he's homeschooling, but he did need fall appropriate clothing as he has grown way, way too much since last fall to fit into anything he had. And DD had to have non-marking sole shoes for PE separate from her regular shoes. She has PE all year though and at least her feet have stopped growing. She should be fine except for snow boots (which can wait a few months) and she can always use mine if she has to. DS will need them if we have a bad winter, though. And DH said something about needing new work boots soon. It never ends.

---------

We got 3 duck eggs today. We were pretty sure we had 2 males and 2 females, but now it's looking like 3 females, with Patches being the one male. Because ducks don't lay more than one egg a day.

For the last week or so we have been getting about 5 eggs a day, but today we had 8! We had to give away our first dozen in a long time. It's fun to have a rainbow of colors like this:



We spent about a half an hour picking blackberries outside our chiropractor's office. They don't spray. We got 1 gallon (me) and a half gallon (the 2 kids together).



Although I think it should have been more. They were whining about the tiniest scratches with no bleeding. Well, mostly it was DD. That's part and parcel with picking blackberries and they were sticking to the outsides while I was going in more where the real thorns were and drawing blood. They should have got as least as much as I did with two of them picking. DD is just not an outdoor worker. Maybe I'll just have DS help me next time and DD can stay home and clean the house. She's much more an indoor worker.

I am going to make jam from this, plus the one pint we got from the last of our own berries. Hopefully tomorrow morning, but maybe not until we get back from Tacoma. It's in the freezer. If I decide to make it in the morning it can be easily thawed out in the microwave.

I will probably go and pick some more next week when DH is home and the red ones will have turned black. He and I can get a lot more done in the same amount of time. I'd like to do a third batch of blackberry jam and also have some frozen for smoothies.

Right now in the store for non-sprayed blackberries it costs $13 for 4 pints. I much prefer my 13 pints for free (plus a little blood and sweat) price!

If I feel up to it tonight I will pick some more blueberries from the back yard, too. I think they are starting to wind down now and I'd like to not lose what is left from laziness!

On the non-harvest side of things I mended the pocket on my favorite pair of shorts. It was ripping away from the side seam and making a hole, so I hand sewed it closed. I used a blanket stitch to prevent unravelling. It's tighter than a running stitch, which would likely just come undone soon.



I also picked up two prescriptions and spent $27.68 for them. There was no other spending today.

I received my two $5 gift cards from swagbucks today and dumped them in my Amazon account, only to find the last two were missing. Turns out when DS ordered his Kindle book he clicked the wrong thing and it used the gift cards instead of taking the money out of my checking account. (He paid me for the book). So my balance is only $10, not the $20 I was expecting it to be. I told DS that I had to do all Kindle book stuff from now on. Not that it will be much anyway, most of what we get for the Kindle will be free.

I am less than 100 points away from getting another Amazon card. I've been doing a lot of searching this week looking for homesteading blogs and using their search bar to do it and I've been getting some big point amounts for it. I've also had the SBTV going while I read blogs, which I've done a lot of this week. It adds up. I might actually be able to get 5 $5 gift cards this month. $25 a month would sure be a nice take for something that doesn't take much time.

Sometimes it really feels like I'm living my life on hold; like I'm just putting my time in to get to the other side of something. Right now that something is my son's medical bills. We have three more payments to make of $500 each, one for August, one for September, and one for October. Then in November we can start slamming that extra $500 onto the credit card debt again.

It's been one thing after another this year. First my physical therapy, which ate up close to $3000 and then this whole mess happening with DS's head injury which is going to come in around $3000 when all is said and done. Part of me really wants to go after the other boy's family for medical expenses (not punitive damages, just actual costs), but they are poor and it would probably just push them into bankruptcy in which case we wouldn't be reimbursed for the injuries that boy caused anyway. We totally have a case, but it's probably just not worth pursuing.

The head of admin is trying to set up a meeting with the principal and the vice principal and a few other people. I am not holding my breath about them taking responsibility for this assault. I doubt there will be an expulsion of this kid either. He should not be allowed back in school after what he did. Not that it much matters since DS is homeschooling this year, but he could attack other kids in the same way. They have just handled things badly from the beginning.

It just bothers me, too, that without the extra medical debt this year, we'd be out of credit card debt by now. It's frustrating to me. I feel like I'm a whole year behind because of it all. I know we will get there, we are getting there, but I want it to be now.

I really hope that what DH has been told at work is true, that Christmas bonuses will be double what they were last year. Because if they are we will wipe out that debt in one fell swoop. And if not, well, the tax return we get this next time will as we have maxed out the HSA and will get to deduct the full amount. I know it's coming whether at the end of December or sometime in March. I just really want it to be now. That impatience to be done with it is strong.

We have had debt due to medical stuff for so long. I am used to living with it, but I want to be over. It's been such a long road. I can see the end, yet I know how far it is still to go.

I can't count on the house selling. Not in this market. It would be nice if it did, but who knows. I certainly don't.

Out of yesterday's payday and about $300 from short term bill savings, I paid the following bills:

__32.88 Electric
__10.59 Medical
_400.00 Mortgage for the old house
_301.30 to Chase (no interest for 18 months)
__90.00 Medical
_300.00 To Mom for her utilities
_757.82 Car payment (plus extra to principal)
_685.86 to BoA credit card (will pay more next week)
_176.09 Paid off computer (18 months same as cash)
__70.56 Internet
__44.87 Phone for old house (for security system)
_144.00 Water/sewer for old house
__49.91 yearly propane tank rental
_125.00 Cash for groceries
__25.00 Kid's allowances
------------
$3605.18

I just raised the kids' allowances from $7 and $12 respectively to $10 and $15 per week. They have really stepped up and started doing a lot more of the daily chores and helping with the gardening. I've told them that if they slack off though it's going back down.

I have $42 left of my grocery money for the week. Aside from milk I should not need to buy anything else this coming week. I thought I needed to buy chicken legs or thighs, but I did some digging around in the freezer and found 3 pounds which I cooked up for the next few days lunches. There may be more in the freezer. I do have two whole chickens and some boneless, skinless thighs.

It will be a short grocery week as we are going down to Tacoma on Wednesday, spending the night, going to the Point Defiance Zoo on Thursday, spending that night, and then coming home on Friday after morning rush hour. That wipes out our vacation savings, but we have nothing else planned for the summer.

Our hotel room has a microwave and a fridge and there is a Top Foods (like Haggen) nearby. We will bring a cooler with some food from home and our little egg cooker (which does boiled eggs or poached and our microwave bacon cooker, so we can have bacon and eggs for breakfast that we bring. I am going to roast a chicken on Tuesday and pick all the meat off the bones and we will bring that in the cooler. I will also bring along coleslaw and salad and a bottle of dressing and maybe a couple cans of green beans. And peanut butter, jelly, butter, and bread. We will probably eat out two meals (one at the zoo), but that is in the vacation budget.

Today I added up all of our out of pocket medical expenses for the year so far and we've hit $7,371.89. I know we have at least $2500 more in out of pocket medical expenses to go this year, $1500 on treatment for DS alone, and another $1125 that will go to another doctor.

We all need to have our eyes checked and get new lenses before the year is up and DD wants to try contacts this year. We still owe $300 on DH's dental work which we will finish paying off in September.

I still need to get oral surgery to fix my two oldest molars, but am waiting until after DH's dental work is paid off. I would like to do it right before Christmas break so that I wouldn't have to worry about homeschooling DS while zoned on painkillers. But I may not be able to wait that long if they start to hurt too much more.

Either way our HSA is maxed out and we'll be able to deduct the full amount allowed on our income taxes this year. I just need to have DH run the money through.

It hit 81 degrees today. There is a nice breeze though, so the only place it really felt like 81 degrees was inside my car and that was with the sun shade up. Fortunately the car's AC cools it off in about 2 minutes. Having open windows and fans going is enough to cool the house right now. I am glad. We don't tend to have AC in this part of the country except in our cars. But I would totally want to use it on a day like today.

We went swimming today (and my super thick, long hair, which usually takes four hours to dry is almost dry an hour later). Although it was a little crowded, the lap lane was empty, so I got my 26 laps in. The pool had one of those really screechy toddlers in it. You know the type that have discovered they can scream and it echoes like crazy in places like indoor pools or churches or McDonald's playland? And the parents have given up trying to even shut them up when they do it? Yeah, love that. Glad I was underwater for most of it. The lifeguard did finally tell the dad that if he couldn't make the kid stop they'd have to get out of the pool. That seemed to shut the kid right up. Wish she'd said something sooner!

I'm picking more berries tonight as soon as it cools off a bit more and the bushes are in shade. I cut my first broccoli today. It was the one that was accidentally in with the cauliflower and way ahead of any of the other broccoli. And I finally finished transplanting the rest of the everbearing strawberries. They now live in pots on the deck where the chickens cannot eat them and the rabbits will not come. I still need to get the last of the cabbage starts in the dirt. These are supposed to be good for overwintering. We'll see.

Day 8 of the No Eating Out Challenge went just fine. No temptation today at all despite going swimming. How is everyone else doing on the No Eating Out Challenge? Anyone else still going with me for the second week? Anyone else want to join in for the second week?

I spent $90 today at my appointment and then $14.43 at the grocery store. I also gave the kids their weekly allowances ($7 and $12 respectively). DS also got paid for mowing my mother's lawn. He got in two mows last month instead of 4 because he was still recovering from the concussion early on, but she pays him $5 per mow so he got $10 and was happy. He's saving up for some kind of fancy new game machine. He also, the little stinker, won a free Kindle in a drawing at the chiropractor. Of course I don't want to buy him anything to go on it so he'll have to use his own money for that, too.

He asked me if he could have the gutters when they took them off the house and put on new ones. I laughed because I knew what he was thinking. Aluminum! He already has his aluminum can business, but he figures the gutters can get him a tidy sum when he takes in the cans next time. I said he could have them.

DS will be helping me with the transplanting. He's such a help in the garden, hoeing and watering and digging. And carrying heavy stuff. He is getting so strong now. You should see the muscles on this kid. He's starting to get six pack abs at 12! And his biceps are pretty impressive when he makes a muscle. Where did my baby boy go?

After having to come up with $500 unexpectedly for my son's medical treatment at the end of last month, it meant that after paying all bills we had $450 left to get through the next two weeks. Well, today is the last day of that two weeks. Tomorrow is payday. It was harder than I thought it would be, because I have gotten used to the ability to buy little things pretty much when we want them. Big things we save up for of course, but if I wanted to buy a bushel of organic apricots, normally I would have been able to just go and do that. If I wanted to go and purchase a couple extra garden stakes, I could do it. With that extra $500 missing from the budget, there was no way.

I had to really remember how we used to do things back when things were super tight, but fortunately it's not been that long ago. So we all did some belt-tightening and we've made it through. And with $49 still in the checking account, so clearly it's doable. The kids had a few cases of the "I wants" but I just kept reminding them of the medical bills. We don't believe in hiding the truth about finances from our kids. They are old enough to get it and we want them to live in the real world and not understand the truth about money, budgets and bills. This month I have budgeted for the extra medical and although it will still be a little tight, it won't be so much of a challenge as being blind-sided by it.

It has shown me though that there are places I could tighten the budget so we could pay off a little bit more or save a little bit more, so I think I am going to keep that in mind for the future.

---------------

Tonight for dinner we had roast chicken. There was a lot left over (I got a five pound organic bird). We will be eating it for lunch for the next couple days in one form or another. I picked all the meat off the bones and I've finally got enough to make stock. So tonight before bed I am going to throw the chicken carcasses I have been saving in the freezer and all the onion skins and tops and bottoms, garlic skins, and carrot peels that I have been saving along with a whole fresh onion, some carrots that are getting to the end of their life, a bunch of celery leaves and the innermost stalks no one likes to eat, some crushed garlic, peppercorns, turmeric, marjoram, sage, sea salt, basil, thyme and parsley into the crockpot and cover it with water. I am going for some major flavor. I will let it cook on low overnight and in the morning I will have beautiful chicken stock.

Then I will strain it, pour it back into the crockpot, saute fresh carrots, onion, and celery and cook them until they are soft. I will add some of the chicken and then I will pour it all into quart jars and pressure can it. The recipe I saw recommended you put your chicken and vegetables into the jars first so that it fills them about 2/3 of the way and then add your hot broth. This way makes sure that the heat penetrates all the way to the center of the jar, very important in canning. I might do 2 pint jars of just broth, too.

We will then have homemade shelf-stable chicken soup and broth ready on the shelf. All I will have to do in the future will be to heat it, add some noodles if I want them, simmer until they are soft and there you go. Homemade, healthy, organic soup and you can bet it won't cost what it does in the store, especially when half the ingredients in the stock are things you would have thrown away or composted anyway.

------------------

I picked three more pints of raspberries today, another quarter pint of blueberries and 10 blackberries. In a few more days I think the blueberries will be in serious business and another week and it will be the blackberries turn to explode.

And I'm pretty sure we're going to have grapes this year. I just am not sure when. Does anyone know when grapes get ripe in the Pacific Northwest? They are Concords.

Or maybe it's just been the roughest week in a while. DS is finally improving with the concussion, but he has also been diagnosed with forward head posture which was aggravated by, but not caused by, the same thing that caused the concussion. His head isn't seated properly on the neck. It can cause many of the things we have been seeing in DS including a decreased lung capacity (by 30%) making it difficult for him to have any stamina while running in PE. It pinches the brain stem and can cause irritibility, sleep problems, quickness to anger, digestive issues, etc. It is treatable though.

He has to do these special treatments that are going to cost $2500, $500 a month. Treatment may run longer, but that is the full cost even if it goes on all year. I have made the first payment, so just 4 more months worth to come up with. We probably won't be reimbursed for this from insurance since it is an out of network doctor and it is alternative medicine, but it's not like there is an in network doctor that isn't too far away to drive to this often. Because there is one though, it looks unlikely they'll let us have it. If I hadn't seen the improvement already I'd be very wary of the whole thing, but it really is helping. He has to wear a one pound weight band on his head as well for 20 minutes every morning and night to help correct it.

We will not be able to get a half a sustainable, organic beef in December like we were planning because of this expense, but we should be able to get one in the spring. We will still be able to buy some each month out of our grocery budget though as we've been doing. Tomorrow we are going to the ranch to buy some beef and pork. My plans are for 4 beef chuck roasts, 12 pounds of hamburger, 2 pounds of bacon, 1 package of sausages and 8 pork chops.

I am not going to buy anymore of their chickens though. They are only 3.5 pounds which makes the pieces very small, and I prefer to have a 4 to 5 pound chicken so I can have some leftovers for making another meal. Well, I had a bit of leftovers (one back portion and one leg), but not nearly enough to make another meal for four with. And they aren't nearly as flavorful as the beef and pork. I am going to try one of the local chickens that they have for sale at Terra Organica (they are bigger) and if I like the flavor, I will purchase several from the farm. I have the money for the chickens set aside.

We had the last ranch chicken for dinner tonight. I cut it up successfully by myself without Mom hovering by. I've got it down now and I think I can do it with no problems from now on. I think I will invest in a pair of poultry sheers though. It would make cutting between the back and the breast easier. Mine are buried somewhere in storage and weren't the best pair anyway, so a really good new one is in my future. Maybe that'll be my Christmas present this year. We also had potatoes from the garden, lettuce from the window boxes, and some organic nectarines.

When I was out in the garden today I noticed the raspberries are ripening. In a week I should be able to make jam. There might even be some for picking tomorrow. I also checked out our blueberry bushes (which are now taller than me) and they are so loaded with green berries, I know there's going to be a lot of picking this August. I think we will probably get at least 5 gallons per bush and I might be estimating on the low side, so lots for the freezer and plenty for jelly.

The Italian prune tree is loaded this year. Last year we didn't have too much as there was a bad windstorm at the wrong time of year and most of the blossoms got knocked off before pollination. This year will make up for it. There will be plenty for canning. The blackberries are also loaded with blossoms and I think I will get enough to make a batch or two of jam this August.

I'm going to get a couple of flats of strawberries tomorrow, too, so I can make jelly this week. I'll be making grape jelly (from pure grape juice) while I am at it. Might as well only get the kitchen hot and sweaty once.

The grapes are doing pretty well this year. I saw some blossoms. If they produce, it will be the first year they have. There may be a few bunches for eating, but I doubt there will be enough for jelly. Still, if there is, I will make some. It is hard to find good-tasting organic grapes that are reasonably priced.

The compost bin is off to a really good start. Adding in the chicken bedding is going to make it really fertile. DS loves to take the vegetable and fruit scraps out to the bin. It might be a boy thing, but he likes to see the stuff break down and rot. It seems to be his favorite chore and it is one he can do right now as opposed to mowing the lawn. He can't operate machinery until four weeks post concussion.

Today was payday. I haven't done a payday post in forever, but I have been keeping all of my spreadsheets updated and my checkbook balanced. All the bills are paid until the middle of July so it's going to be pretty much automatic pilot on that until the next payday in two weeks.

We did get accepted for the 0% for a year Chase VISA card I talked about a while back. We have received the cards but are still waiting for them to do the transfer from the BoA card. The next payment isn't due until the 21st so I am hoping they will do it before then. It has been pending for a while now. Banks sure can move fast when they want to, when it benefits them, but they sure drag their feet when you want them to move quickly.

I spent the morning at the doctor's office having my eye checked out. I have an infection of an eyelid gland, which explains why it is triple the size of the other one. I had to go to two different pharmacies to get both the antibiotic pills and the steroid/antibiotic eye drops. Well, I did if I wanted to start treatment today and it was hurting enough I didn't want to delay another day when I waited all weekend as it was. The drops are already helping. The swelling has gone down a little bit and the pain has gone down a lot. I spent a total of $20.39 on prescriptions.

This evening I got my plants out of their pots and into the ground. It seems like an awful lot of work for only having planted 7 things, but I still feel a good deal of satisfaction.

Here is a shot of the garden after it was weeded:



The entire area was covered in weeds and potato volunteers on Saturday.

Here are the three tomato plants and basil, oregano, and thyme:



The tall plants are the double pink poppies. One is about to open and bloom, maybe tomorrow or the next day.

The green thing, which you can see better in the first photo, is my compost bin. The white thing down by the chimney is a rain barrel that collects water off the roof via the drainpipe.

This is the zucchini, planted clear down by the rain barrel. It will sprawl into something huge in a few weeks' time so we gave it a lot of space off by itself.



Here are my window boxes full of green romaine and red sails leaf lettuces. These ones you can pick the outermost leaves of and they will continue to grow. I've been picking them about every other day.



And last, but not least, this perfect bit of loveliness is growing in the front yard next to the deck.



I hope to make it over to Joe's Garden tomorrow to buy some more starts. If I don't go tomorrow I probably won't make it until Friday. So far I have spent $15.23 on the garden. That includes some seed packets I have not planted yet. As long as we have a decent summer, that should pay me back within the first week of the tomato harvest. Even with more output for starts, I will still drastically cut my produce bill this summer.

Today I sat down with the last four books of checks and entered everything into my spreadsheets. I have been remarkably lax at doing this lately. Though I balance in the checkbooks themselves, I like to have a copy on the computer, too. I finished updating the information on the April Budget Spreadsheet and entered in everything on the May Budget Spreadsheet, then I set up the June Budget Spreadsheet. I still need to transfer everything medical off the budget spreadsheets to the HSA spreadsheet, but that should be relatively simple since it's now detailed on each month's spreadsheet. I really need to stay on top of that better.

I sent some money to ING, including things that are either paid for bimonthly or half yearly:

$100.00 to the Emergency Fund
_100.00 to the Vacation Fund
__72.00 to the Holding tank for Water/Sewer
_100.00 to the Holding tank for Property Tax
+_17.00 to the Holding Tank for HoA Dues
-----------
$389.00 total to ING

This is all out of last Friday's paycheck. Then I wrote down all of the bills that are due between now and the 15th, which will be our next payday after the one tomorrow. The one tomorrow is the small two day paycheck. How small it is depends on whether or not they take out June's medical. Usually they take that month's medical out of the first check earned that much, but for some reason, every once in a while they take it out of the first one paid of the month. So it could be anywhere from $800 to $1325.

I have $1200 left from last payday and the bills due between now and the 15th total $1006. I'll keep back about $300 for groceries and miscellaneous expenses. Whatever else it left over goes to the BoA VISA. It will at least be $500, but I am hoping this is the amount without medical, because then I could send a lot more to the VISA.

I know I said I would never do business with Chase again, but they keep sending DH these really good offers. This last one is a no-fee balance transfer and a 0% interest rate until August of 2013. It sure would be nice to get the interest off the BoA card and just be using it for the autopays and DH's travel expenses that we pay off every month. We would only use the Chase card for the balance transfer and then pay it off fast with no interest incurred.

When I thought we'd have it paid off by the end of this month and we would have had to pay a transfer fee, it wasn't going to be that big a deal, but now that we will likely have the balance until the end of the summer, it's worth it for three months without interest. And then we can cancel the card when it's paid off. I guess I'm okay with using Chase so long as they are not using me. And I can deal with their crappy customer service (or hopefully never have to) if it means no interest.

We had a cleaning service out to the house today. They will need a couple more days out there, but that will have to wait until the next time DH is home. I don't want to be making that drive twice in one day to unlock the house and turn off the alarm and then go back and reset it in the evening. But we will get it scheduled for the Thursday after DH gets back. Then we will need to get the carpet shampooed.

After that I'm not sure. We might be ready to sell it As is/Where is, as in "you take it as it comes and you fix anything that is wrong with it because we are done." Doesn't matter what they find on the inspection, doesn't matter if it needs to be painted or a new gutter put on or whatever. As is/where is, and it will be priced accordingly. I just want it gone, enough to pay off the mortgage, which will be just under $17K when I make the payment tomorrow, and have some money to go to a good downpayment.

We bought it for $65,000 in 1998 and it's assessed at around $110,000 and I'd honestly be happy at this point to get what we paid for it. Sure I'd like more, but you get what you get in this market. Once it's sold, it will free up each month:

$375.86 mortgage
__72.00 water/sewer
__41.25 house insurance
__20.00 power
_100.00 propane
+_44.89 phone for the security system
-----------
$654.00

and then when we move out of Mom's and into our own place we will have:

$154.00 from storage
$300.00 for the utilities we pay for here
--------
$454.00

$654.00
+454.00
---------
$1108.00

So $1108 freed up just by getting rid of that house and moving out of this one. I think that's worth a loss if we have to take one. And once the credit card is paid off there will be another $2000 a month free and clear. So $3108 will be available for house payments and running a household. And since we are looking at 1500 to 1600 square foot houses in the $219,000 to $250,000 range our house payment should only be around $1200 a month. More than enough to run a house and put some money in the EF. I really can't wait for that day to come. I am sick of throwing money away.

Oh, and our debt to income ratio is now under 45% so we will qualify for the really good mortgage loans when the time comes. Actually once that mortgage is gone and the credit card is gone we will be around 25% and that will put us in great standing.