Goals for 2010 and 2011

Happy New Year!  I'm here, let's see if I can keep it up.  I wanted to take a look at my goals for 2010 and see how I did with them, as well as set out some more goals for 2011.

Here were my goals for 2010, along with how I did:

 

Financial Goals

 

Pay down $1,300 directly in credit card debt. Pay down $1,500 in other debt. Pay down $1,080 in regular credit card payments. Total: $3,880. Round up to $3,900. Even with paying down as much and as often as possible, I'm basically $3,000 deeper in credit card debt.  I paid down $1,375 in other debt.  I made almost all the regular credit card payments.
Open a TFSA and put $1,300 into it. I opened an account and put $1,200 into it.
Put a minimum of $520 into the Emergency Fund. I pretty much cleaned out my Emergency Fund when I went to the US for a wedding but there's $1,236.72 in it at the moment.
Put a minimum of $520 into my RRSP. I put $350 into my RRSP.
Keep putting money into my set aside accounts, rural credit union account, etc. I was inconsistent with this, though better than in any recent years.
Keep current on all my bills. Not always.
Come up with $3,000 for Dear Child’s dental surgery. Well, we paid for it although a good chunk of that is the increase on the credit card.
Pay off both Home Depot payment plans on time. Done!

 

Rural House Goals

 

Plan out and create a garden in the front of the house (south west side of driveway area). Nope.
Plant lavender border. Nope.
Go to house 2x per month in summer. Nope.

Finish new floor in master bedroom. Nope.

 

Physical Goals

 

Get weight down to 120. Nope, still sitting at 132, but some of that is now muscle.  Not all though....
Walk for at least a half hour per day (or use elliptical for same length of time). No way!

So, I won some and I lost some.  What are my goals for 2011?

Financial Goals

1. Pay off all our outstanding debt.  Not as insane as it sounds, as we are expecting a small inheritance shortly.
2. Put $1,300 into the TFSA this year.
3. Increase the Emergency Fund by at least $520.
4. Put a minimum of $520 into my RRSP.
5. Put the set-aside money into my accounts regularly.
6. Get current and stay current on all my bills.

Rural House Goals

1. Go to the house a minimum of once per month when the weather is decent.
2. Build the bedframes that have been there for a year now!
3. Step up the search for land once we have the money for a down payment.

Physical Goals

1. Go out to exercise at least once a week.
2. Exercise at home every day that I don't exercise elsewhere.

 Let's see how I do with these goals.  I think I learned some valuable lessons last year and have developed at least somewhat better habits.  I'm also taking better care of myself, which is really just as important as getting my financial life in order.

 

 

 

Halfway Through Summer?

Okay, so when did that happen?  One minute school was letting out and the next minute I blink and summer's half gone.  I said before that things had been pretty overwhelming and they did get significantly more so over the past month.

An older family member who had been seriously ill since the beginning of the year became critically ill, was hospitalized and was then transferred to palliative care for a couple of weeks before passing away.  It's been a rough time for the whole family.  Lots of time spent in the hospital, lots of stress, knowing that the outcome wasn't going to be good and less attention paid to a lot of other things.

Things are slowly getting back on track.  Dear Child has spent one week at day camp so far and goes back for her second week tomorrow.  The following week her nieces come back and all three girls go back to swimming lessons.

I got a big, brown envelope from the school in the mail the other day.  I was thinking that things were all under control on that front because I already bought DC's uniforms and handed in both a series of post-dated cheques for tuition and a separate one that only gets cashed next June if I don't put in at least 12 hours of parent participation at her school.  Silly me, I forgot about the school supply fee, the workbook/textbook fee, the field trip fee and at least one other fee of some kind.  Lovely.  Even better, they all have to be paid on or before September 1st, which is the first day of school this year (early, because all the High Holy Days come early this year, finishing at the end of September).  Since the kids will barely be in school through September they get to start on the 1st instead of waiting for the day after Labour Day.  Lest I forget, there will also be the hot lunch fee about a week after school starts.

I had intended to spend every other weekend and every long weekend at our house.  Needless to say, that hasn't happened.  I finally went for 2 days the other week, Sunday and Monday.  It meant taking a day off work, but I desperately needed to do some yard work and there's tons still left undone.  I hope to go again next weekend.

School's Out...For Summer!

Yesterday was the last day of school.  This summer I'm lucky, in that my Eldest Daughter is home on maternity leave.  That means Dear Child will hang out with her.  (Not sure that Eldest Daughter considers herself lucky, since that leaves her with 4 kids every day, and 5 if my Number One Son's daughter comes too, as she did some of the time last summer.)

Next year will be a much bigger financial burden for all of us, as she'll be back at work and all the girls will have to go to day camp right through the summer.  As it is, we are putting them in a couple of sessions of swimming lessons (necessitating me leaving work to pick up and drive everybody to and fro).  The lessons are 4 days per week for 2 weeks (but only 1/2 an hour per day) and we hope that the sustained amount of pool time will enable everybody to move up at least one level.  Last session (which was 8 classes once a week) nobody passed, although they all made progress.

DC will go to day camp for 2 weeks this year too, as my granddaughters' other grandparents are taking them out of town for 2 weeks.  That will give my daughter the relative quiet of only having her nursing baby at home.

Yesterday was payday. I paid some stuff then and some more this morning.  Right now I'm pleased to say that I'm current on all my bills (paid the water today) and that I have $651.14 in my TFSA, right on track for the year.  Property taxes for the rural house are due next week.  I have to check, but I think I have enough in the rural credit union to pay them.  Yay, me!

I went away to the house last weekend and spent some money, money on myself (gasp!) as well as gas.  But I just have the $50 odd dollars I charged for gas on the way back to pay back still.  And I made the regular $90 payment on the credit card anyway.

So, I have to pay for swimming lessons and I'm going to start some exercise stuff of my own that I'll also have to pay for.  And I only have about $150 left in my chequing account for food, etc. for the next 2 weeks.  But all in all, I'm not doing too badly.  And my hubby should be transferring some money over to me at month end.

Steps Forward and Back

I had some ambitious goals for 2010.  My first payday for the year was yesterday.  How am I doing?

First of all, I took one fairly big step backwards at the end of December when we were going away to our rural house.  I bought discontinued bedframes at IKEA for $170.98 and charged it on my MasterCard.  Yes, the card I've barely used in over a year, the same card that just increased my credit limit by $3,000.  I'm really glad I bought them though.  We've been sleeping on mattresses on the floor at the house and it's not that comfy.  Having the bedframes will really help.  We got them to the house in our car by putting down half the back seat and running them up between the front seats.  There wasn't time while we were there to put them together but I hope to do them on the next trip.

Then we were at the house for the weekend and I charged groceries and birthday presents for Dear Child to the tune of $159.14.  I did have money left in my chequing account but I thought that a cheque I'd written for $162 hadn't cleared yet.  I didn't want to end up bouncing a cheque, so I charged it all.  Turns out, luckily, that the cheque had cleared and I just hadn't noticed.

So, the net result was that my card balance went up from $5,868.52 to (gulp) $6,198.64, almost $200 over my old limit and $330.12 higher in total.  And it will be worse in a couple of days when the interest hits my account.

However, there is also good news on the horizon.  First of all, I got a raise!  Okay, it's not huge, just 2% but there were no raises last year so this is good.  I've paid the $159.14, plus paid the water and made a payment to Home Depot. Oh! Oh, oh, oh!!!! I almost forgot!  I paid off the first Home Depot payment plan on December 31st!  That's one of my goals for the year (because it was due January 1st).

I also took a big step toward another one of my goals today.  I had to go in to the credit union to activate my new, permanent debit card (the temporary card they gave me when my card was skimmed was only good for 30 days) so I opened my Tax Free Savings Account at the same time and put $50 into it.  My goal this year is to get it up to $1,300 by the end of the year.  Yes, I know that you can put in $5,000 per year (and that my eligible amount for this year is $10,000 because unused amounts carry forward from year to year) but let's be realistic.  It'll be a stretch to make my goal.  There's no way I'd ever be able to put $416.66 away each month, unless I did it at the expense of paying down debt.  How dumb would that be?  Ooh, I'll earn maybe 2% on $5,000 of savings while paying 17% on $6,000 worth of debt.  Don't think so.  On the other hand, having an extra grand or so in an account that can be accessed if I need it is a good add-on to the ever-underfunded Emergency Fund.

While I was at the credit union I deposited cash to my rural credit union account (via the ATM).  Why cash?  Well, I pay to order cheques and they take a minimum of 5 business days to clear from the one credit union to the other.  Cash should clear once the amount of the deposit is verified the next business day.  The cash was for all the rural set-asides I've created.  That includes the electric bill, property tax, garbage pickup and fuel oil.  When next December rolls around and I need another tank of fuel oil the money will all be there.  How grown up and responsible is that?

So, all in all, I'm doing fairly well in the financial area.  And I've been walking for half an hour 5 days out of the past 7 (yet another goal).

Goals for 2010

Okay, so here are my financial goals for 2010, with a few goals for our rural house and my fitness thrown in.  There are a lot more goals here than last year but many of them should be relatively easy to carry out.  For instance, I already wrote and sent in all the post-dated cheques for that $1,500 of debt and the $1,080 in regular credit card payments will happen if I just pay $90 every 2 weeks.  In fact it will be more than that but I don't know exactly how much more.  Last month I paid just over $88 in interest, so there's about an extra $2 that I'm paying down, plus the interest I'm charged goes down every month as my balance declines.

 

Just before I start listing goals I wanted to share that I logged onto my credit card website the other day to see if my most recent payment had posted and if the statement was available.  It wasn't, but I got a shock when I looked at my available credit.  I guess starting to pay $90 every 2 weeks has had an effect.  My credit limit has just been increased by $3,000!  You keep hearing about the opposite happening these days.  People are complaining that their credit limit has been cut or that their interest rates have increased.  Well, not only has my credit limit increased, but I've noticed over the past several months that my interest rate actually declined at least twice!

 

Financial Goals

1. Pay down $1,300 directly in credit card debt. Pay down $1,500 in other debt. Pay down $1,080 in regular credit card payments. Total: $3,880. Round up to $3,900. 
2. Open a TFSA and put $1,300 into it.
3. Put a minimum of $520 into the Emergency Fund.
4. Put a minimum of $520 into my RRSP.
5. Keep putting money into my set aside accounts, rural credit union account, etc.
6. Keep current on all my bills.
7. Come up with $3,000 for Dear Child’s dental surgery.
8. Pay off both Home Depot payment plans on time.

 

Rural House Goals

1. Plan out and create a garden in the front of the house (south west side of driveway area). 
2. Plant lavender border. 
3. Go to house 2x per month in summer. 
4. Finish new floor in master bedroom.

 

Physical Goals

1.  Get weight down to 120.
2. Walk for at least a half hour per day (or use elliptical for same length of time).

 

Okay, so there are my goals.  How about yours?

 

Miscellaneous Day Here at the Blog

Wow, has it really been over a week since I posted?  I've been commenting here and there on other people's blogs but I keep falling asleep about the time I usually start writing my own posts.  I also had a flareup of a chronic back problem on Tuesday.  I ended up taking a T3 around 11 pm, which meant there was definitely no blogging that night!  I'm the sort of person that, if drowsiness is a possible side effect of a drug, I'll be out cold.  It was still acting up in the morning, so I took 2 Advil at that point.  Luckily, it's better now.

I do have a variety of things to mention.  First of all, another one of my comments was featured in this week's Monday Mailbag on The Simple Dollar!

I've won a Starbucks card from Betty at Bouncing Back from Bankruptcy and I'm thrilled about that!  I can already taste my decaf white chocolate mocha with extra whip!

And I commented on Give Me Back My Five Bucks that Krystal should do one of her December Goals (to come up with her goals for 2010) as one of her famous challenges since all of us PF bloggers are probably planning a similar post sometime between now and New Years.  She said it was a great idea and that the post would go up soon but the post that appeared was her 2010 goals!  Now she's off to Vegas and I'm not sure if she's planning to do a challenge post or if I should do one.  I certainly can't post my goals for next year yet because I'm still working on them.

The next little while is going to be very busy.  I have lots of evenings coming up with parties or other events I need to attend.  I don't normally go out much in the evenings, unless I have to go back to the office or occasionally to attend a class for an hour or so, once a week.  And, a couple of times when I'm not going out, I'll be babysitting my granddaughters because Eldest Daughter also has parties to go to.

We have to seriously think about whether we're going to go to the house during winter break but we have to co-ordinate dates with ED, S-in-L and the girls too.  They'll be away or off part of the time but there are also days when people have to work.  Plus, going is contingent on getting 2 new winter tires because winter tires (and carrying chains) is mandatory through the Hope-Princeton all winter.  I'm still not quite sure how all the money is working out.  We did get the fuel oil delivered yesterday and I paid them via telephone banking this morning, once I'd confirmed the exact amount.  So, that's a relief.  I've also called and left a message for my next-door neighbour, asking him to check to make sure the furnace is going on.  If we had already run dry the reset button has to be hit in order to get the furnace running again.  And it would probably also mean another clogged sensor (with the gunk from the bottom of the tank) and another furnace servicing.  I really hope it's okay but I'm trying to focus on the fact that we have a year's supply of fuel oil now.  If we have to service the furnace I'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Actually, in the last couple of days I've started to worry about the car again.  It's been making a kind of groaning noise when you back out of a parking spot and it's progressed to sometimes making a noise as you start or stop.  It sort of sounds like a transmission issue and I'm so not dying to have to drop more money on the car at this point.  I'm still pretty touchy about the $2,600 or so we've spent over the past couple of months.  Son-in-Law will probably take it in to the place he goes to one of the days that he drives it next week.

Too tired to write any more now.  Goodnight!

Debit Card Woes

My debit card was skimmed the other day and the credit union called me to tell me they were mailing me a new card.  If I needed one faster I could go in to my branch for a temporary one.  Friday was such a short day that I didn't have time to go in and they were closed for the remainder of the weekend by the time Shabbos was over.

This kind of messed me up in a couple of ways.  First, I was supposed to transfer some money from that credit union to the one in the Interior that I pay bills for the house out of.  No card, no way to withdraw cash (and I wanted cash rather than a cheque because I think the hold comes off faster for cash than a cheque).  Second, I couldn't get any groceries, even essential ones without a card.

Anyway, I went in today.  They gave me a new card, a copy of my statement for the past month (no money missing, Thank G-d), I withdrew money from my city credit union, deposited cash and a small cheque (really small, like about $13) into the rural credit union, then went to the grocery store on my way home from work.  I only bought the bare necessities: a protein drink, sour cream, a minestrone soup mix, a box of 6 year old approved cereal, a bag of chips and a bag of cookies (the last two for use in Dear Child's lunches this week).

We had latkes with sour cream for dinner and tomorrow will be minestrone soup.  I'm falling asleep at the keyboard, so that's all for now.

Still Trying to Fix the Blog Feed!

So far, I've asked for help from Google and haven't heard anything useful.  The only response was from someone else who is having a similar problem and also wants to contact someone at Google but couldn't figure out how!

I tried deleting the feedburner feed and redoing it, then deleting my subscription at Google Reader and resubscribing.  It showed me the same thing as before and said that I hadn't yet subscribed, did I want to?  I clicked on "List" (which shows the list of posts instead of the posts themselves) and FINALLY my 2 latest posts appeared at the top and showed as unread.  However, I have no clue how to get rid of those 25 or 30 posts that aren't mine and no way to be sure that more of those fake posts won't appear!

In other words, I still need help!  I can't just contact the person whose blog is attached to mine because when you try to open it you see a home page for a few seconds then get redirected to something called blogpop that says the domain name expired back in October.  Yet all those spammy posts were from as recently as November 15th.  I'm so confused and frustrated.

Sooner or later I'll actually get back to blogging about personal finance and my life.  Depending on how crazy things are around here (my Eldest Daughter is out of town again for a week) it may not be until Wednesday, which will also be payday.  I'm very grateful that this will be a normal cheque but I still probably have more things to pay than money!  The biggest thing I'm worried about right now is the fuel oil situation at the house (and how I'll pay for it, of course).  I was down to 7 or 8 inches of fuel in the tank the last time we were there and it's been pretty cold at night ever since.  Even though the heat there is set at 10 Celsius (and I shrinkwrapped the drafty window) I know the heat has been on a lot.

It's Been a Busy Week

Today was my fave kind of Wednesday: Payday!

It's been a really busy week. Last weekend was the 2 holiday days that finish off Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. Simchat Torah is when we rejoice with the Torah. We finish the cycle of the year's reading with the end of Devarim [Deuteronomy] and begin again with Bereshit [Genesis]. At Simchat Torah there's singing & dancing with the Torah, a lot of l'chaims [toasts] and it's always fun. Dear Child had a great time dancing with 2 of her school friends. They were all over the place, dancing in a circle or a line with hands on each other's shoulders, on both the men's and women's sides. She also went outside with her Abba when they took the Torah out and danced it around the major intersection just outside the shul doors.

Sunday night, as soon as the holiday was over, we took down the sukkah (in the dark) and loaded it into the van. We got everything together and headed out for our rural home. It was late when we got there and it was pretty cold because we keep the thermostat at 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) when we're not at the house. We cranked it up and got to bed pretty late but DC and I were still up by 8:30 am Monday morning.

We did a lot in one day. I weeded all over, pruned my lavender, did laundry, shrinkwrapped DC's and the spare bedroom windows and put together one of two IKEA bookshelves. Hubby did the lawn, watered and took out 2 dead cedars. We loaded everything up and drove home again, arriving just before midnight. It was one busy day.

Anyway, back to today. Did I manage to accomplish as much today financially as I did physically on Monday? Well, not exactly. I did a lot of food-related things though.

First of all, I somehow didn't get the form for hot lunch. It was due this morning so I had to go into the school office and fill out the form and pay for it. After school Dear Child and I went grocery shopping. We got pretty much enough food for meals for everyday for 10 days or more and half a salmon, which is 2 Shabbos meals (but I don't usually use it even 2 weeks in a row, let alone serve it twice on the same Shabbos). So, I have at least one more Shabbos meal to figure out before Friday afternoon but that's not too bad.

We got breakfast cereal and oatmeal, snacks for DC's lunch for over a week and some paper goods. Actually, I spent $10 on facial tissue. Does that sound like a lot of money, just so we can blow our noses? At Safeway one box usually costs about $4. Now, that's a lot. Today, they had bundles of 6 for $9.97. That's only $1.66 each. But it gets better. The bundles were Buy One, Get One Free. I ended up with 12, count 'em, twelve boxes for only $0.83 each! All in all, I spent about $200 on food and household products but that included a couple of pricy items, like a big jar of decaf coffee, that will last much longer than 2 weeks.

On the way home I put $40 worth of gas into the car, which was almost empty. It didn't fill it totally but it's now over 3/4 full. I still have a couple of bills to pay over the next day or so but it's good to know that I won't be running out of food or gas anytime soon.

Sukkot Reflections

The first two holiday days of Sukkot are over, as is the first intermediate day. We've been blessed so far with lovely weather. It's a little cool, especially at night or first thing in the morning, but I really enjoy eating in the sukkah. I just bundle up a little.

My Hubby took 3 days off and is enjoying spending time with Dear Child, who is off school until next Tuesday. And Dear Child's social life has never been more active. Her teacher had the class over this afternoon to her sukkah for a little party, she's going tonight to the centre for dinner and a movie with her big sister and 2 nieces, and she's having a pajama party/movie night with her best girlfriend on Thursday (although she's not actually sleeping over).

Part of the fun she's having this year is the joy of eating in as many sukkahs as possible. With what's planned, she'll eat in 3 other sukkahs, besides our own. Plus, Eldest Daughter and her family all ate with us tonight (Monday night). The past 2 years we've spent all or most of Sukkot at our rural home. We love that too, but it's a different feeling. We're the only Jews for miles, so she never even sees another sukkah. And we invite all the neighbours for an afternoon sukkah party and have our next door neighbours over for dinner in the sukkah, but it's all about educating them. Yes, we're those funny people who eat in that strange tent with bamboo on the roof for a week, but it's okay, we don't bite....

This is the difference between living in a community and starting one of your own. When there are lots of other people doing the same thing it's a lot of fun and you feel like you're part of something. When you're the pioneers it can be lonely. For a child, sometimes it's nice to see that all your friends do the same thing (and at the same time, just how different each family's sukkah can be).

The difference for me is that I'm working all the intermediate days this year. I love having those days off at the house, getting the garden ready for winter, doing little tasks in the house. For some reason, it usually includes putting furniture together at some point. I even like that!

Right now I have 2 bookshelves at the house that need to be assembled. One is for books and will go in our bedroom. The other is for display in the dining room. I've taken a lot of the memorabilia from the various trips I took as a child there and I'm looking forward to setting things up on the shelves! These are things like a wooden and woven palm outrigger canoe from Fiji or aboriginal print mats from my parents' trip to Australia, or a huge beautiful shell. I don't even remember half the things that are wrapped up in those boxes and I'm looking forward to seeing them again after quite a few years. All the things come with great memories of the trips we took but I'm one of those people who really needs to see and touch them in order to truly remember.

For me, this nesting that I do at the house in the fall is a wonderful way to unwind. I miss that I'm not getting the chance to do that this year. I'll go back after Sukkot to take the sukkah back to the house and do a quick once-over of house and yard, but it won't be the same. It'll be rushed and busy, with me trying to cram as much as possible into a day.

I'm telling myself that the advantages are that I won't be falling behind at a busy time at work and that DC can socialize with her friends in their sukkahs, but I have to be honest. I'm missing the quiet time at my own house.

Over the Mountains and Far Away

I was going to post last night, but I was just too tired. I took Dear Child and Dog and went to the house on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, Hubby has been too busy to come, so we went by ourselves again.

I really didn't mean for 5 weeks to go by without making the trip but every weekend there has been some reason why we couldn't go. Since 3 out of the next 4 weekends are religious holidays when I can't drive or do anything (and when I want to be able to go to shul) I was determined to go this time.

DC had a wonderful time playing with her friend. On Sunday, starting at about 9 am, I mowed the back, front and both side yards (with the push mower), pulled weeds in about half the front garden and around my grapevine, did 2 loads of laundry, loaded up the sukkah into the van and then drove home Sunday evening.

Gee, I wonder why I was tired....

We didn't even drive into town. The furthest we got from home was on Shabbos afternoon, when we went for a long walk with Dog. I'd like to go back either the weekend after Rosh Hashana (although that's tricky because Sunday night is the beginning of Yom Kippur and I'd have to be back in time for Kol Nidre services) or the weekend after Sukkot. Heck, I'd even consider going out the night of Sunday, October 11th and return the following night (since the 12th is Canadian Thanksgiving). Later than mid-October, and we'll be running into the possibility of snow in the mountain passes.

In fact, I think that unless I go just before Yom Kippur, I have to buy 2 new snow tires first. I don't believe I blogged about it but we spent almost $700 on the car 2 weeks ago (including 2 new all season tires for the rear) and have to spend maybe $600 on it this week. So, I'm just dying to buy some snow tires but you have to have both snow tires on the vehicle and carry chains from the beginning of October until something like the end of April in order to go through Manning Park.

What happened to our previous snow tires? The same thing that happened to our last pair of all weather tires on the rear. The tread just gets worn right off in about 4 months. Clearly, there must be some kind of alignment problem (the back end of the car seems to shimmy a little) and yes, we need to get bushings done, hence the $600 this week. That should at least help although it's been pointed out to me that there may be some kind of rear suspension issue too. I hope not, but we'll see.

The only bright spot in all this is that Hubby finally got the commission from a big job and we paid cash for car repairs this time! So much better than borrowing from family, putting it on the card or other things we've had to do in the past.

Anyway, I want to go back at least once more before the snow flies to do more yard work and put together that IKEA bookshelf I took there when we went out on the August Long Weekend. I'd love to spend Sukkot there the way we usually do, but that's just not happening this year.

Last winter we didn't go there for about 5 months. That was awful. I mean, the drive is no picnic when the snow is bad but I miss the house and I'd like to go at least somewhat more regularly this year. Even every 6 weeks would be okay.

All of a sudden I'm falling asleep at the keyboard, so maybe I'd better quit for the night.

Finally, an Update

Wow, I haven't posted in forever. It's been a combination of all the previous reasons (Blogger issues, exhaustion, resistance, not wanting to blog when I'm not doing what I ought to be doing) but I really have to get over myself and just get back to it.

Anyway, I'm coming up on my birthday, Dear Child starts Grade 1 on the 1st, my new Executive Director arrives a week later and work is about to go crazy. Fun!

At least DC got to do 2 weeks at day camp before it ended in early August. She loved it and wants to do more next year, so I'll have to plan for that.

We went to the PNE the other day and had a great time although it cost about $100 all told. Oh yes, plus I entered the draw for the prize home (5 tickets for $25, including a draw every day for a car). It's a great house, very suitable for us, and this year it's supposed to be set up on a lot just outside of Kelowna (about an hour and a half away from where our rural home is). If I won I'd sell the lot (worth about $275,000 for the bare lot) and buy land in our area with that money. Then we'd have the house assembled where we actually want it. No, I'm not likely to win, but it would work out very well for us if I did.

I finally had impressions taken to replace my "flipper", the retainer-with-a-tooth that our Dog tried to eat a few months ago. It'll be ready tomorrow evening. I hated how discoloured my teeth were (which was really noticeable when you looked at the tint of the fake tooth) so I've been using special toothpaste and Whitestrips for the past several days. Maybe it's just because I'm about to be another year older, but I've felt the compulsion over the past few months to pull myself together a bit. Hence the new glasses, the new flipper, wearing lipstick (usually go "natural"), going to the physio.

This is one of the two times of year that I tend to do an in-depth look at how various aspects of my life are going (my birthday/Rosh Hashana time and the secular New Years). I'll do that privately (much of it is too personal for me to put down here) but there will likely be some new goals for me to discuss shortly.

It's Been A While

It's been a while and I really don't have a good excuse. The weather has been hot, I was away for the August long weekend, I haven't been sleeping well and I've been reading compulsively but not blogging, or even commenting very much.

And I don't really feel up to doing any kind of an update right now. I'm tired and I have 4 girls all day tomorrow, now that camp is finished. I'm just feeling kind of unmotivated and rebellious but I wanted everybody (the handful of folks who possibly haven't given up on me yet) to know that I am still around. In a way I feel like I really need a vacation.

I just can't afford to go away and I have responsibilities too, both family ones and work. But I'm feeling very flat and being away last weekend wasn't enough. For one thing, I had both Dear Child and my 4 year old granddaughter. Plus, I had to come home just about the time I felt like I was accomplishing anything.

I'm looking forward to going again (not sure which weekend though) because I want to put together the bookshelf I bought at IKEA and took there. Then I want to go through a couple of the boxes of memorabilia there and put out stuff on display on the shelves. I think that will feel nice. But what I'd really like is some alone time and I know that's not going to happen because, wherever I go, I'll have DC with me at the very least.

Anyway, my apologies for being in such a grumpy mood.

Wednesday and Posting Works

Okay, I'm opening this in Firefox again on a different computer and it works. I guess I'm going to have to try putting Firefox on my laptop (I normally use Internet Explorer) and see if it works consistently. Right now I have a sample of 2 attempts, 2 successes. Interesting, but not statistically significant.

Today is Wednesday and I just got paid. I've been working a bunch of extra hours because my co-worker has been taking vacation so why don't I have very much money? I got my vacation pay for the year on my last cheque and didn't transfer it right away into ING (bad girl). I wanted to do that today, but that will only leave me with just under $600 and all my bill payments and end of month/beginning of month expenses that come out automatically total more than that! Plus, it might be nice to be able to buy groceries and gas for the next two weeks and I'm planning to go to the house for the BC Day long weekend just prior to when I get paid again. Translation? I've been spending my vacation pay and I'm not going to be able to fix it until after the next payday (which will also be for more hours than normal). What I really should do at that point is to transfer the money as fast as I can, because what's sitting in ING can't be frittered away.

I'm actually going to pay the bills from my laptop later (because I then save a print screen of the confirmations) but here's a list of what I'm planning to pay today (although not the exact amounts because I don't have them with me).

MasterCard $90, my usual every 2 weeks payment
Shaw internet ~$45
Bell cell ~$90
H2O ~$40
IKEA ~$45, the full balance owing from my trip there a couple of weeks ago

In other words, just over $300 worth of payments. And I want to get to my credit union so I can deposit my BC Benefit and another small cheque into my rural credit union account to cover my monthly service charge and the electric bill that will be coming out shortly. I think that's pretty good for today.

EDIT: Okay, I didn't get to the credit union (truthfully, I forgot all about it) but I did pay a total of $334.91 on those 5 bills and the 2 cheques to be deposited are sitting in my purse. I've been looking at my MasterCard statements and I see that sometimes (more often than I had realized) I only pay once, which really just takes care of the interest. I've made reducing my MasterCard debt by at least $100/month one of my mini goals now and I'll be keeping a closer eye on it. I actually want to get that card down below $5,000 before the end of the year. That would mean I'd have to pay off a little less than $900 in 6 months time ($150/month). We'll see how that goes.

I'm Back and I Can See!

Dear Child, Dog and I had a great time at our rural home for 5 whole days!

Dear Child went swimming with her friends at an outdoor pool, where they do Swim Club a couple of times per week.

We had a Canada Day picnic at a local event and stayed until 9:30 pm because DC was enjoying herself so much.

We went to the beach and had a picnic dinner there, and made a sand castle.

We went back to the beach Friday, played in the sand, waded in the lake up to her waist (my hips) and shared a large popsicle. Then we came home and made pizzas for Shabbos dinner.

We took long walks around our little unincorporated place with Dog, exploring streets we've never been down before. I think we hit pretty much every street in town.

We found a new (local) video store and rented movies. DC had her friend from next door over to watch a couple of them.

DC also played with her friends whenever they were home, doing art on the computer, playing board games and running through the sprinkler.

My old school friend came out from town, had lunch and played 2 games of Scrabble with us.

We looked at the second piece of property I'm interested in with my realtor and I'm still interested in it! To date, there have only been 2 other properties that passed the visit to the site test and they were both significantly more money than this one. There's some stuff to research and all but the listing realtor isn't terribly interested in the property so it's not like it's likely to sell tomorrow. Heck, I've been pushing for info on it and to be able to see it for the past 3 months (since the week it came on the market) and she finally faxed the info on the weekend. We'll see.

Oh yeah, and I completed several hours more of backbreaking work in the garden. At least it looks fairly decent now. My grapevine is alive and has 3 leaves. The rosemary plants died, but the lavender is fine. Two of the three are budding. The peppermint is hanging on but the apple mint is spreading all over the place (it's in the front and I pulled some out from the back end of the far side of the house). The lilac is also healthy, although it doesn't look like it flowered.

And my biggest news? I picked up my new glasses today! They look nice, I can see and I'm happy with them.

And They Say You Can't Go Home Again....

There are definitely times when I think it would be useful if I could clone myself! As I mentioned in my last post, I've been incredibly busy. My lunch with my Executive Director ended up being postponed to this week because we didn't have time last Thursday!

I did go to the doctor and the news was all good. She said all my blood work was normal. I'm not anemic and my thyroid was normal. The stress test results were normal too (meaning that I didn't have any kind of problematic heartbeats during or right after the test and that my heart rate slowed back down afterwards within the appropriate time frame). She feels that I'm not getting enough exercise and told me to do a half hour per day, every day. I'm trying, but it's not always working out that way. I think it will take a while to get in the habit and to manage to fit it around everything else.

Dear Child had her Kindergarten Graduation (which was very cute) and only has 2 days left of school. Tomorrow is a field trip and Thursday they pack all their stuff up to bring home and get their report cards.

My summer schedule is going to be insane. Mondays generally home with all 4 girls. Yes, four. This summer my oldest granddaughter is joining us, as her mother is working Thursday to Monday (and my Number One Son works Monday to Friday). Tuesday and Wednesday my daughter-in-law is off and has all the girls. The catch is that my son-in-law (the one we share a house with) has to take our 3 with him at 7 am and drop them off with her on his way to work! This should be, um, interesting considering that I spend about half an hour on average from 7 to 7:30 am talking to Dear Child, stroking her, tickling her, anything that will wake her up (while not putting her into a grumpy mood). Then we normally leave at 8 am. She moves fairly fast once she's awake but she's very hard to wake up (her father's daughter). There is No Way I want to get up at 6 am and start trying to wake her. I have a hunch she may be going in the van in her nightie with food she can eat in the car! Thursday and Friday are my son-in-law's days off and he gets all 4 girls here.

So, on the surface, it looks like I'm getting a break over the summer because I'm only responsible for one day per week instead of the current 3. However, my 4 year old granddaughter is registered for 2 or 3 weeks of summer camp (and the baby is registered for a week, as of today!). The older camp kids eat lunch there and finish at 1 or 1:30 pm; the littles finish at 11:30 am. That means on Tuesday and Wednesday I can only work until 11:30, go downstairs, pick up Boo Boo, hang out in the building until the older group finishes, pick the 4 yo up too and head home. Meanwhile, my own child will be happily playing with her niece, half an hour or so from home. Mondays should be even more fun. I'll be doing multiple pickup and hanging out at the centre for at least 1.5 hours with the older girls too. And I still haven't decided if I'm going to try to put DC in camp for a week too! The best part of that is that it would be an Orthodox kids camp instead of the community centre one, so it's in a different place and I don't know if it has the same pick up time ('cuz you know I'm good with being in 2 places at one time, see cloning comment above). I've been putting it off because I haven't checked with all her friends' mothers to see if their girls are going and which weeks, etc.

Anyway, to get back to what happened over the past few days, Dear Child complained of an upset tummy on the morning of her graduation and threw up in the car on the way to school. Into a plastic Safeway bag. The kid gets brownie points for not getting anything on her Shabbos clothes because they were all supposed to be dressed up for the graduation. I ended up taking her to my office for a couple of hours and we just took her to school in time for the event itself (I talked to the teachers and that was the decision as we didn't know if she was sick or just nervous and we didn't want her to miss the graduation).

After the graduation party I took DC home, we threw things in the car and I headed off on a 4.5 hour drive with a kid who had already been car sick once that day! Yes, I gave her Gravol and she had a fresh bag handy! Baruch Hashem [thank G-d], things went well and we arrived without incident and in enough time that I accomplished about 2.5 hours of intensive yard work before Shabbos. It was the first time in about 7 months that we've been to the house, so not too surprising that there was a lot to do!

Shabbos we just hung out, went for a long walk with Dog (who is in 7th heaven whenever we go to the house) and she played some with the kids next door. And yes, I did warn the mother that she might be sick. While she felt fine (no aches or pains, no fever, no further queasiness) she did develop the runs intermittently on Shabbos and Sunday. When she had to go, she really had to go. Within about 30 seconds. I was terrified of putting her in the car Sunday afternoon for the long car ride back to the city because I wouldn't even be able to pull over to the side of the road in that kind of time frame.

I did about another 4 hours of yard work on Sunday, some by hand and a lot with my neighbour's heavy duty weed whacker that you hold with 2 hands and swing kind of like a scythe, while holding down a button on the side and squeezing the trigger all at once. Do you think that was what the doc had in mind when she talked to me about exercise? By the time I finished I was in serious pain from my back, arms and right hand. When I say "finished", I mean I did all I could do but had to leave one of the side yards for next time. I ended up talking to Hubby and Eldest Daughter on the phone and the decision was to stay over Sunday night and come back some time on Monday. She worked something out for her girls and we just stayed and relaxed. I left a voice mail at work and that was that.

I took DC into town Sunday evening to buy a couple of things from the store, including a small pack of pullups for her to wear to bed and in the car, just as an insurance policy. She still had 2 more bouts, one about 11:30 pm Sunday, the other at 6:30 am on Monday, so it was a smart thing to do, although she's been out of that sort of thing for ages. We stayed until 4 pm Monday, then headed back and she's been fine. Whew!

My son-in-law took today off to do some work on their van so I worked the whole day and went back for some more time this evening. Now I'm not short any hours, even though I didn't work Monday. I'm really tired though and I'm covered in giant, itchy mosquito bites. At least 32 at last count. I don't think they liked me cutting the grass. Either that, or I just taste really good to them. So, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is payday and Wednesday, so we'll see just what I can accomplish.

Busy, Busy Week

Things have been crazy busy and they're continuing in that vein. Busy at work, with Dear Child's school as it draws to a close, with family, with fundraising and with preparing to go to the house this weekend for the first time in over six months!

I was short parent participation hours so I've been doing things like thank you cards for the teachers, buying food for various events and so on.

And I haven't been sleeping particularly well.

Tomorrow and Friday are the capstones of the week. Tomorrow, among other things, I need to ferry everybody around, work most of the day, go for lunch with my Executive Director (who is leaving), go to the doctor for my test results (finally), go to the school for an assembly and a BBQ, and possibly get together with my oldest son.

Friday I'm only working a couple of hours, instead of all day. Dear Child graduates from Kindergarten in the middle of the day and then she and I are going to go to our rural home for the first time in over six months! Hubby has other obligations, so it should be interesting.

I have to arrive there with enough time before Shabbos that I can mow at least the front yard (and preferably all of it) because I got a phone call earlier this week, complaining about the appearance of my yard. One of my neighbours is trying to sell and it seems the jungle is putting buyers off! Since I can't do yard work on the Sabbath, I need to arrive with a few hours to spare on Friday so I can make it look decent before their next open house.

I'm going to make a bit of a list of what else needs to be done once I get there because DC and I are going back for a few days from Canada Day on. That's really when I'll be able to do a couple of things as well as kick back and have some fun with DC! We can go swimming in the lake and take Dog for walks up into the hills. I also have 2 properties I want to look at.

Ticking Items Off the List

Well, I was busy today! No, I didn't tile the floors, but we did move a bookshelf from the living room into the bedroom (which necessitated moving a bunch of stuff and tipping my bed on its side so we could get the bookshelf upright -- love those 7 foot ceilings!). It was blocking the glass front one that I wanted hubby to attach to the wall in the living room. Somehow we never got that far.

But I did clear off our nightable and windowsill and clean them. I also cleaned the inside of our bedroom window and the outside of ALL our windows! We vacuumed under my bed while it was on its side and my hubby filled the new bookshelf with all his music and sports magazines.

Maybe we can finish with the glass front shelves tomorrow. Then I can empty the 6 boxes in Dear Child's room into there.

On Friday I finally got my missing pay and my benefit cheque as well as two other small ones. I made it to both banks and also used the credit union ATM to deposit to my other credit union account in the Okanagan. The benefit cheque went in there to cover 2 months worth of electic at the house, the pay one went into the credit union here to pay for part of the cost of Dog's upcoming vacation and the other 2 cheques reduced my overdraft slightly.

Oh yes, and I baked cinnamon buns today! I was busy, I tell you.

Almost Year End

I can't believe how fast the last little bit of 2008 is flying by. My final payday of the year is on Wednesday, which is also the day we're having the family over. The plan was to go to the house on the 25th and come back on the Sunday (giving us 4 days there). I'm not sure what's happening right now. My Hubby has some other obligations on a couple of those days and the weather has been incredibly bad, with whiteout conditions off and on along the freeway out in the Fraser Valley. There's also a lot of snow in the passes on the Hope-Princeton.

Possibly I'll go on the Greyhound, whether for 4 days or just for one or two. I'm still very concerned about how the place is holding up through the exceptionally cold winter we've been having. But how much will I be able to do if I go by myself and without a car? There's also very little chance of my getting the plumber in over the statutory holiday to check my pipes or clear our little blockage. I guess he might come if my pipes were actually frozen but I don't want that to be the case. It would be very serious and very costly.

Of course, a big part of the reason for going was also to look at this piece of land I'm interested in. I still don't know if it's possible to take our equity out of my daughter's house at this point in time so I don't know if the whole thing is feasable.

The other thing I should do over the next few days is to set some goals for 2009. I have some ideas floating around at the moment but I can't say I'm ready to list them. Once I've worked on them for a bit I'll post them.

What if We're Snowed In?

It's a bit unlikely that we'll actually be snowed in, but we could lose our power and the cold water pipe leading to our sink seems to have frozen this afternoon. The pipe runs along the outside wall of the house for at least a short distance and is the only one affected at this point. Right now we have the cold tap turned on a little way and have opened the bottom cupboard doors in an attempt to get more warmth into there.

My son-in-law isn't home. He's been plowing and sanding ever since 7 am. However, he talked to Eldest Daughter on the phone and says there's really nothing else to do at this point. His hope is that the pressure of having the tap open might clear the line and I guess we're just hoping nothing has cracked inside the wall.

It's really kind of odd. I mean, it's only been down to 17 or 19 Celsius (edit: That should be Fahrenheit, of course. 19 Celsius would be a warm spring day.) and our area of the house is always very warm when they have the heat on upstairs. It was also actually colder outside a few nights ago, with no problem. But I don't know. I'm sure son-in-law will have a look at it when he can. He's scheduled to work tomorrow but I don't think union rules allow him to work 15 or so hours and then work again with less than 12 hours off in between. I'm hoping he can look at it in the morning. It's also a bit warmer now and will probably warm up another few degrees because it has clouded over and begun to snow heavily. We're actually forecast to receive 15 to 25 centimetres tonight and tomorrow (up to 10" of snow). This is just not Vancouver weather.

I'm concerned about the house but my neighbour has always been good about checking on it for us and letting me know when there was a problem. I may give them a call tomorrow though. They were saying on tonight's news that the wind chill in some parts of the Okanagan will drop temperatures to around 40 below (which is 40 below no matter which temperature system you're using). That's cold. Really, really cold.

But what if it snowed so much that we were actually snowed in for a couple of days? This is one of the reasons for always having a supply of food on hand, as well as bottled water, lamps or candles, etc. We have a coleman stove but no propane at the moment. My Eldest Daughter and son-in-law have a propane BBQ that they could use (but I can't find the adaptor kit I bought several years ago to use a large tank of propane with our stove). Possibly they still have some of the small propane containers left over from camping this summer. We have 7 or 8 gallons of bottled water, about 2 dozen Shabbat candles (that burn for 2 to 3 hours), only a few tea lights and a couple of big pillar candles that would last for a few days.

As for food, we have some basics. There's brown rice, white beans, whole wheat pasta, a big bag of oatmeal, 3 boxes of dry cereal, a few tins of tuna, apples, sugar, tea and coffee. There are some other things on the shelf too (like a box of brownie mix and another of pie crust mix) and a bunch of stuff in the fridge and freezer like hash browns, french fries, Yves ground "meat" (a soy substitute), cheese, milk, butter, eggs, carrots and so on. So we'd have enough to eat if we were stuck for 2 or 3 days and, if there's actually small propane canisters upstairs, we'd be able to cook quite nicely.

We'd stay in our bedroom for the most part, pile all our blankets and quilts on the beds and dress warmly. We'd only venture out to go to the washroom, to cook and to take Dog for walks. It probably wouldn't be the most fun we've ever had but we'd get through it without huge problems. The big thing I learned from this is that I should buy some propane.

What about you? If your power went out for 2 or 3 days how would you manage? Would you freeze? Would you have water and food? Would you be able to cook? Are your cell phones charged?