Let's Get Organized

Our summer vacation time is swiftly coming to a close, and we're starting to get exited.

Yesterday morning, the kids and I went to the store and got all of our school supplies; binders, crayons, pencil boxes, pencils, paper, etc. They were so excited by it all that we were soon pulling packaging apart, putting school boxes together, coloring binder labels, and having a grand old time. I even went so far as to put together their math and language arts binders, an activity which involved pulling apart a number of 100+ page workbooks, hole punching them, and organizing them with deviders. I even made and printed out and hole punched a bunch of experiment pages for science. It took me a good few hours. Before we knew it, it was time for dinner!

I still have to get History ready, which involves pulling apart another workbook, scanning the pages, making a disk, printing them out, and hole punching them all. We also need to finalize our daily and year-long schedules, but there's still time.

We start school the second week in August.

We're almost there.

Vacation is nice, but we're getting ready for life to be normal again.

Kasper

Every time we go out to visit my family, I ask if I can have my brother's cat, never really expecting them to give him to me. Oh, I pout, act cute, and eventually grin when they don't take me seriously. But seriously, I love my brother's cat! He's one of the best kitties I've ever met; social, good with kids, laid back, doesn't bite or scratch, and isn't needy.

So, I got a surprise when I asked if I could take him home with me this time.

Turns out, a friend of my niece found a stray kitten and asked my niece if she could take care of him until the girl convinced her mom to let her keep him. Well, my sister consented, but then the girl wasn't allowed to keep him after all. Unfortunately, my sister already had three cats, the maximum allowed by city ordinances, and couldn't keep him either.

So, with us being in town and knowing my adoration of my brother's cat (who the kitten resembles in personality), they asked if we would take him.

Long story short, we now have a kitten. His name is Kasper. We don't know exactly, but I think he's somewhere around two to three months old.

It's almost strange how naturally he has fir into our house. Seth and I both grew up with cats, so having one seems so, well, natural. He's good natured too. He loves to play, explore, go outside, be around us, and sleep in the window sill in the basement and on Bailey's bed. He gets along well with the kids too and even our rats (though we have to be careful when they "play").

I like having a cat. I like it a lot, and it's a decision that I seriously doubt we'll regret.

Mint.com

After deciding to get my finances in better order, I started to look for a program to keep track of my spending. I've used Quicken before, so I went to their on-line sight first. Turns out they have a free on-line financial tracker called Mint. It acts similar to the old pre-2004 Quicken programs, which is what I used before, plus the added on-line capabilities. Very basic, but very useful.

Pros:

It's FREE

Easy access from any internet linked computer

Works with my Mac

Quicken style program

Create budgets

See data in chart and graph forms

Track your spending/income/net worth

Automatically downloads bank info

Info/advertising for other financial opportunities without being obnoxious

Cons:

No immediate downloads of transaction data (this may just be my bank)

Transaction data can take a few days to download

Information is all on the internet

It is only a basic program without all of the bells and whistles

Anyway, I like it. It covers all my basic needs and then some. Very nice.

I definitely think it's worth checking out.

Dry Night

Blake, for the last few nights, had been insisting on taking his diaper off to go pee in the toilet. Very annoying for us, because we had to then put it back on and deal with his whining.

Well, after a bit of debate (we're leaving for vacation in less then a week), we decided to let him sleep in underwear. He loved the idea. And what's more, this morning, he woke up dry!

I guess he was ready.

Now lets hope that vacation doesn't ruin it.

The Money Book

My husband, who is self-employed, came across a book on a financial blog geared toward those of our kind. It's called The Money Book for Freelancers, Part-Timers, and the Self-Employed: The Only Personal Finance System for People with Not so Regular Jobs.

Since I am the one who does the finances in our house, I had already come to realize that the traditional methods of saving weren't the ideal method for us. When your income flow is unpredictable, it's hard to save x amount predictably. So, I was interested, and, after reading the reviews, decided to get it.

I must say, I like it. It's easy to read and understand, and the authors use civilized humor which makes the reading enjoyable as well.

The plan works off of percentages instead of flat sums, really, really, really emphasizes prioritizing emergency savings, taxes, and retirement as well as paying off debt, and helps you find ways of prioritizing and saving for other things you want. It does all of this while understanding where the self-employed, etc are coming from (a non-stable income flow, business taxes/deductions, lack of good/any medical coverage, absence of a 401K, etc.).

Also, being a homeschooling mom, I thought about how I would like my kids to know these things. After all, don't most high school/college students fit into this category? Babysitting? Working at McDonalds? Lifeguarding over the summers? These aren't exactly stable, benefits producing jobs, but they can learn how to save according to their earnings. And, what's more, the percentage of people who fit into this category is growing rapidly. The odds are that our kids will be faced with this kind of work at some time or other in their adult careers.

In any case, especially if you fit this category of employment and even if you do not, I think it is a very enlightening and helpful read.

Summer Project

I'm almost done. Almost. Just a bit of touching up here and there. . . .

Here's the before:

Three weeks, 13 tubes of caulk, 8 rolls of blue tape, 6 gallons of paint, 1 gallon of primer, and over 50 man hours later, I've got this:

Big difference.

Sierra Made Pancakes

Ever since Blake was born, Sierra has been in charge of making her own breakfast and Bailey's. SHe used to just do cereal for the both of them, dumping it in a bowl and adding milk. Last year I taught her how to boil water so that they could have instant oatmeal and hot chocolate.

Well, this morning I supervised while she learned to make pancakes for the first time. I showed her where to turn the temperature on the stove to, had her measure out the pancake mix and water, stir it, spray the pan with cooking spray, and make the pancakes. She did a really good job. I was impressed, and the kids were thrilled to have something different for breakfast.

Yay Sierra!