Odds and Ends

There are several things that I rely on daily, but finding something I cannot live without was difficult. The fact is that I have lived a number of things that are often taken for granted, some luxury, some not so much of a luxury.

Chores are never ending but there is one that I hate more than most. It has nothing to do with the manual labor involved, there is little. It can even be done with a stool to sit on, lean or otherwise add comfort to the chore.

Doubles as a Desk My favorite room no longer exists, it is my office. It is no longer a separate room or even tucked into a corner. The ideal is having my office space back, it includes a customized desk and all my creature comforts.  I will find a coffee pot that fills itself to continual provide much-needed caffeine and software that types what I am thinking to give my fingers a rest as typing by voice never works for me because of the accent. The door will have an alarm to alert to those that would interrupt while I am deep in thought. There are no phone jacks or signals from cell towers.  My office is the one room that no one enters as I enjoy the books, notebooks, and other office supplies that fill the room.

I love having plans not to have plans. The days when you just lay around watching movies, napping or otherwise doing nothing are my favorite. Having spur of the moment visitors is not on the agenda for those days. We like doing nothing and really do need to know in advance if we should cancel those plans to do nothing. Soon the posts that I managed for Month of Prompts will go live, and I will be off enjoying the peace of doing nothing. 

I have had a lot of time to think lately and it has led me to the conclusion that I am in desperate need of something to occupy my time. I chose a manuscript that I have spent years working on to see how much progress I could make on it during the next month. 

While things are looking up, I still have a great deal of stress because of expenses at the moment. The holidays are coming up and I am not prepared in the least for them. The money isn't coming together, the school is nickel and dime this, nickel and dime that.

Yes, things are looking up. Two years after Shorty and I left our home for personal reasons we are in a place where things are falling into place. Grab a drink and indulge in our happiness with me.

We are pinching pennies  because Shorty has a wish list and I have debt to get out of while making those wishes come true. The change jar is something that I have not been able to implement in a while because I was using my debit card for purchases. Now Shorty has a jar to hold the money she earns doing small tasks; she is learning money management and how to find something for less while waiting on the larger ticket items ($5 and up).  it adds up

I remember summer seeming to be just a little longer than it is now when I was a kid. The time I get to spend with Shorty seems to decrease every year. The weather days give me additional time during the school year but they also extend it into summer. It's not much of a trade-off when it comes to the time I could spend with her. 

I am already thinking of December. Not only will it be Christmas time but Shorty has a birthday two days later. I have no problems deciding what to get her this year; Shorty has already made requests. Hence the pinching of pennies.

I have been revisiting the some of the series on savings and credit cards over at  M3  to refresh some skills. The instructions given in the post are feasible, and I need to implement them for this Christmas. I also need a small emergency fund set up for things such as illness etc. Let's discuss my reality for these situations.

Independence Day has families across the country celebrating and the spirit in the air is amazing. Today we take a moment to be thankful for our freedoms, they are far more than the ability to grill out, drink a beer and stuff ourselves as children learn the basics of loud noise followed by beautiful colors.  Hope your holiday is a happy one, and you remember those that sacrificed everything so we could walk freely. 

My stress triggers are something I am just beginning to figure out. It is important to know them because stress triggers my nerves. It is difficult to describe how my nerves act up when this happens so I will not attempt it today, instead I will focus on the triggers.

In recent years I have found that I prefer watching shows from when decades ago. There are only a handful of shows that come on today that I sit down and watch. I have a tendency to stream things on my computer or the Roku channels on my television so that I can pick and choose what I watch and when I watch it.

It is bill day. I will out of pocket while my head spins paying everything and checking the lists I made to ensure that I budgeted correctly for this month. I found that I was out of somethings that I didn't even realize I had ran out of while I was searching through the cabinets for things. I know that there are some items I should buy this month because I can save money on them and earn cash back this month. The cash back will aid with the expense of Christmas. It is time that I actively do something about the extra weight I have put on without getting side tracked. That will help us to reduce expenses as well. It is just time to start finding the recipes that I will make us through the holiday season. Shorty likes it when we make homemade cookies and things so I will be finding the recipes for them again since I have lost all of my cook books. Index cards will come in handy as well as I lost all of my recipe cards in the original move as well.   I hope that your day i...

We are aware that there are consequences to the actions we take and the choices that we make. There are some consequences that are not predicted or even considered when things are set in motion. We live with this daily. Shorty is a special child in a number of ways. 

There are some things that I want to achieve and some things that I need to achieve before the close of 2015. I have already achieved the finalization of my divorce and being restored to my maiden name of Childree. The name on my books now matches, it seems I knew then that one day I would reclaim my name.  What else would I intend to achieve this year?

It is not easy to entertain a child during the summer when it is to hot to do much outside. Shorty likes the park but it has been to hot to get anyone to take us to the park so that she can play. It will have to wait until the temperatures cool down some. In the meantime Shorty is using her imagination to run a restaurant and build cities full of tiny people that she talks to all day long. We have been to space and on road trips without ever leaving the living room. It is turning out to be a rather relaxing summer after all.

I am on restriction from purchasing any of the cute clothing I want. I cannot fit into it at the moment so the only clothing I can buy right now is in the bigger sizes. I can have just enough that I am not naked between laundry days. How am I fairing so far?

It's just me and Shorty now, over the last year we have fallen into a routine that involves taking care of each other. This week was no exception. The temperatures soared and I found out that I am not as accustomed to the heat as I once was. Shorty on the other hand enjoyed it a great deal even coming in to get drinks and cool off instead of pushing herself to exhaustion.