Odds and Ends

Over the next week my little girl is going to get some outside time. We're going to work in the yard and on the back of the house. I've been looking for somethings that I have been wanting for a while. The grass needs cutting something awful yet again. It's going to take forever and a day to get it done. It never gets finished. I have to buy another riding mower but for the moment I have an easy walk. It's time consuming to cut this entire yard with it but it has to be done. I have an idea of how to keep from having to cut the entire yard. There are raised beds to plant things in that can make it easier to grow things. Well, it makes it easier not to have to weed things. I saw a few but they are all out of my price range at the moment. This one is cute  http://www.amazon.com/Suncast-WGB48-48-Inch-Raised-Garden/dp/B004J0MQN6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340851060&sr=8-1&keywords=raised+beds+for+gardening but it doesn't actually meet my needs. It's ki...

There is a time when it is time to walk away whether it is from a relationship or a job. My biggest problem has always been getting people to understand that you do not work for them anymore. Well, it starts with getting them to understand that you do not wish to work for them anymore. I write for a living. I get paid by the word or by the article depending on the circumstances. I am in desperate need of time off. I have worked and worked for weeks on end staying up late nights that end without adequate sleep and cause me to be rather irritable. I have a ton of things to do that are impossible to do while I am trying to work constantly. The last two summers I did little work for others and focused on just my work. In fact last summer I did one maybe two projects because of an emergency car repair. I didn't have enough regular income to come up with the money to take care of it. A few months ago I came across a client that runs a writing business. She has different jobs at diffe...

I never know what to do when it comes to figuring numbers with noise around. I know the things I need what I do not know is how to fit them into my ever so limited budget at the moment. It's a bit strange to be so broke yet again. Another one of those unexpected expenses got me. This time it was tires. Two tires for the front of the car. It caught me off guard even though it shouldn't have and the front end is still shaking. Thankfully not as bad as it was but bad enough it set me back a bit more than I'd like. The car needs brakes. $150 worth of brakes roughly. That's coming off the top of next month so that they do not go out on me next school year. I'll be sending the baby on the bus, then waiting for her father to get home, then doing my errands because I was pushed to sell my Rodeo. I got tired of the constant repairs of the thing. Sadly if I had not had to constantly repair it I would still have it, but even sadder stripping it would have gotten me more mo...

The summer is bringing a lot of heat at an amazing speed. The yard is already in desperate need of cleaning even though the winter slowed it's growth. The first rains and warm temperatures brought with them an increase in grass, weeds, fire ants and wasps. This means that I used my Kmart rewards points to buy bug spray to fight wasps and fire ants since both are painful pests when you make them mad. The yard is in the process of being cut. Yes, process since there is only a push mower with the easy walk feature to cut it with. It is a bit large and areas that were once clean are now overgrown as a result of the heat and rising gas prices meaning it'll take a couple weeks to get it down where it needs to be. It seems as if the work never gets done. There are some repairs that have to be done before I can move. The wall has to be fixed on the outside. I am using the boards I have to do it and then siding over them. This is going to be fun to measure and figure out. I am orderin...

Seriously, I got so stressed out this week that I literally forgot my own name. I was not amused then and I'm not amused now. My expenses are getting higher and my income is getting lower. I can not manage to keep enough time free to work or to figure out my savings plan. I did figure out one thing however. My Rodeo can be junked instead of fixing it or trading it. It won't be that much but that money can be used to go toward the move. That takes care of the new light deposit with the city and possibly a crate for the dog to travel in and stay in over night. He is a good dog if not an expensive one. Although $10 a year for Rabis shots is not that bad at all. Three animals means $30 a year for them. That's not bad at all. I can use that figure to redo the budget entirely for the year. Rent is going to be a strange adjustment after all these years. The last time I paid rent was approximately two years before my five year old was born. That's been about seven years ago...

It has recently occurred to me that I am not that attached to the furniture in this house. I am trying to move but that is difficult without a way to haul the furniture. That is why I do believe that only Theresa's things will be moved at this point along with a few choice electronics that are small enough to fit in the car. My Rodeo will be going to the junk dealer. The goal is to be moved by the end of summer which is not an unreasonable goal. I am going through clothes first to get rid of all that does not have to be moved. Anything that is old and worn out beyond repair is getting tossed into the trash or the recycling bin depending on what it is. My couch for instance is worn out but the futon mattress that is on it is not. The bed in my bedroom is worn out, the baby's crib mattress and single bed in her room are not. Those are moving, provided I can borrow a van to haul them in. The kid's toys are going to have to be gone through as they are packed up hopefully in...

I would be getting rid of all the things and the people in my life that cause me undo stress or pain. It has been a long time coming. I can not handle the lack of communication before conclusions are jumped to or the fact that there is no sense of caring about me involved at all when there is communication. I'm sick of this fact completely sick of it. I keep figuring things out on paper just to figure out that they are not feasible in reality. I do so love it when nothing works out correctly. I think I have it figured out then something goes wrong. I think I have something figured out then things go horribly wrong and nothing is right with the world. To top it all off the fact that the world is full of liars and people that are too dumb to question things they hear. Believing everything that you hear can make the world a lonely place. I tried to push away someone that has been very good to me in all of this mess the last couple of weeks. Lucky for me they didn't go anywhere...

Well, I have two days off and I'm updating blogs and filling out a spread sheet. It's more fun than it sounds really it is. I have a lot of things to do and I am taking advantage of Easter weekend to make sure that I get the house cleaned up and the baby hunting eggs in the morning. I'm cleaning up and making a list of what we need around here at the same time. It's going to take a while, I'll be catching up on the laundry as I go. I haven't had a weekend off in a while and it feels kind of strange. I'm creating a spreadsheet right now and it's going slowly. There are too many pets in this house right now and I get to chase all of them around as they climb in my lap while I attempt to work and clean the house at the same time during the week. I am attempting to find storage options for this house to get up everything that there is not room for. It would seem that the more I try to get rid of things the more things that end up in this house. This afte...

Predictable is defined by Websters as " to declare or indicate in advance;  especially   :  foretell on the basis of observation, experience, or scientific reason"  Predictions can be made about the weather, animals and of course people. When is it a good thing and when it is a bad thing? It is a bad thing you can accurately predict behaviors that are going to hurt you.  When the things that you can predict are good then they make you smile thinking of them, other things make you cry.  There are patterns that appear in people, some do not realize they have patterns at all. They deny that they have them until you point them out to them. Saying things nicely is difficult when you are trying to  tell someone something straight and to the point. There will be times when you come off as being rude or just plan hateful..when all you mean to do is simply tell them how you feel....... Well, I have work to do, predictable and thoughts on predictable will ...

There is a lot to do this month. I have to get everything together for the IEP meeting, I began today by taking the questions from the school and going over them with the private therapists. I needed input from my ABA therapist and the private speech. Our private OT was her OT in the school this year and she has already put in the goals for inclusion in the IEP.  We can all agree that she needs an aid. The speech therapist will have hers for me soon. I needed us all to collaborate so that I could write out the answers to the questions as detailed and clearly as possible. The goal is to ensure that the IEP is detailed and only has to be done once. I figured out that I need to move my computer. The glare from the windows is too much for me to work through. I have to find a spot that I can charge my computer and hook up my printer with it out of the way when it is not in use. Now that I"m done with the updates for now, I'll go back to working on getting ready for the meetin...

OK the end of this school year is going to be interesting. This year not only will Little bit have an end of the year program that I'm not sure what month it is in but my oldest has a 6th grade graduation. I'm hoping they aren't on the same day, or at least not at the same time. Little bit is going to the graduation with me. If I remember right her end of year program is in the morning before noon. Graduations are typically in the evening unless it's for kindergarten, then they are in the morning. Seven years apart and in different school systems would make like interesting. I have a twelve year old and a five year old in school this year. I wish that they were in the same school system. I have had little bit in the public school system since she turned three years old and we have been to very few activities; there is either not enough notice or it's not something we can all go to and she likes her dad to be included. Miracle league registration I missed because t...

I'm sitting in the speech office trying to kill some time. I figure my ad revenue is at $1 a day this month so far on my articles on one site. That'll mean that I make the $25 minimum payout by the end of the month, I really need to make it before the end of the month. I may promote some that income is something that I use to pay the phone bill. I need it to cover the Internet once again. I'm thinking of putting another blog up dedicated just to articles in a particular niche that I write to...or maybe doing it as a set of series in order to get all of them there. I know I need to check and see which ones I have copies of and which ones I do not. That way I can keep up everything that I have done. I am thinking of going back to school, actually this will be approximately my fourth attempt at finishing my degree and I have no idea what I want to do. I have had the majority of the day off and used it to write some of my own stuff. I also took some time to clean around the...

I am rather exhausted today and I have no clue why. I slept until ten this morning which meant that the first thing I had to do was finish the article that I was working on when I went to bed and throw on a load of laundry. I finished the laundry and hung it outside, while it washed I knocked out the article. Now I have stuff soaking in the sink (delicate hand wash) and some things soaking in the washing machine. The whites are in a bleach soak. I should have checked the weather however. I have a feeling that I may be picking my clothes up out of the neighbor's yard since we are under a wind advisory. I have a feeling that my clothes are going to get dry even with the lower temperatures thanks to the wind. At the moment I am waiting for clarification to a revision request that I got which made no sense since I followed the directions. Well, I'm going over the changes now and I hear that I have more to do after this one so I best get back to work. I'll update my blogs an...

I seem to be obsessed with "Once Upon a Time" and I have no idea why. It's addictive, all it took was watching the shows that I had missed from the beginning during the marathon that was shown. I was hooked. Fairy tales have never been my thing but the fact that these had lost the happy endings was somewhat of a hook for me. I can't explain it but I adore the fact that no one is where they are supposed to be according to the stories that we were read as children. It is like "happily ever after" met a dose of reality. I still want them to get those endings but I like the fact that there are obstacles in the way. Last Sunday's episode was one I particularly enjoyed. The fact that the Oscars are on instead of QUAT would be a bit of a sore point right now. I need a fairy tale even if it's just for a moment. I guess I'll dream of them. Maybe....... Well I want to take a nap, so I'll be going now.

OK life is life and things happen whether you're prepared or not. I got paid for the project I did, an extra article will be paid on the next project. Nice. That's money that will come when I need it more.

When school begins we will lose our Friday spot for speech. It's being eliminated to prevent checking my child out in the middle of the school morning. That means that we'll have one day that doesn't have any therapy involved at all. Before that happens the speech therapist has decided to work every other Friday at some point in the near future.  I'm looking forward to it. I can remember when we didn't have five days a week of therapy and I loved those days. Little bit made faster progress after we went to five days though. I'm tired and the fact that we've reduced one therapy to every other week is a blessing to me. It's a blessing to my lack of work time too. In fact that every other week therapy session will be eliminated soon. Only one session to go.  When school starts we will likely eliminate ABA whether we want to or not. The time slot isn't going to work with a full day of school to allow the kid to socialize. We should keep four days of ...

I have no idea. I'm almost done with the current project and by the time it is done I'll have learned four new formats. This client is easy to work with so I think I can stay with her for a while, that is if she has consistent work available. This project is supposed to end on Tuesday. There are still three articles to do that I don't have the subjects for just yet but should have them shortly. In the meantime I'm continuing to clean house. There are some cleaners that I need to use up. I'm not sure why I bought them, they aren't what I prefer at all. I mean the smell the comes from this makes me a bit sick to my stomach, gives me a headache and dizziness. Hint to those of you that make dish detergent, laundry supplies and the various other cleaners you attempt to program us that we need have way too much perfume in them. If I wanted everything to smell like perfume I'd buy a bottle of my choice and use it on them. On the bright side spray bottle tops...

I used to make plans and more often than not something went wrong with them. Usually that something was someone popping up and not leaving so I could go. Other times it would storm or something would tear up so I never made it to my destination. I finally gave up and stopped making plans all together. I even stopped making plans for working because despite asking people numerous times to give advanced notice before coming out there were always pop up visitors when I was the busiest. Now that the constant interruptions are gone I can work. That is if I can keep work lined up and deadlines met. I have to make some repairs so that this place lasts a bit longer because the day I get to replace it appears to be slipping further away. I spent some times making plans for repairs; the order they get done in depends on the cost and the time involved. There are a lot of repairs and cosmetic issues that require attention. Hopefully they will be taken care of a little at a time. I have a...

Next fall the baby goes to Kindergarten. I’m not looking forward to it at all. I mean she started school at 3. That means by the time she reaches Kindergarten she’ll have spent two and a half years at the preschool. Time that was originally supposed to be spent at home with mommy; then we got her Autism diagnosis. The rules all changed and now it’s time to transition from the special needs preschool to what I’m hoping will be a mainstream Kindergarten class. April is when we go back to Dr. Cotter to have her Autism re-evaluated. The appointment is in April because the woman did not hear me ask for a June appointment; that or she wasn’t listening. I am not looking forward to the visit with Dr. Cotter. I do not care for her at all. That however is a different story. This summer we will focus on therapy and the recommendations from this re-evaluation. We’ll be hoping that the diagnosis have improved again. I’m hoping that those green sheets are all positive. The therapists, the ...

Recent events have been rather stressful and I started to think about the things that cause me stress. The list is kind of long and there is no end in sight. Well, there is an end in sight; it’s called throwing everything that stresses me out. No, seriously I did take a look at my stress and I think that I can do something about it. At least I hope that I can. Being broke is among the biggest stressors that I have. It’s not enough that I manage to pay take care of expenses and the needs of a special needs child; something has to tear up frequently. I’m tired of having to come up with money that I don’t have to repair or replace things that shouldn’t need either. Working from home has started to cause stress. I took some time off and did what I wanted instead of writing for others. Well, now it feels like I’m being punished for taking time off. Jobs are few and far between most of the time. I had a regular run before the end of the year and more work was to follow but it didn’...