Day 223 and God healed our printer

LOL. Well, I don't know if I'm joking or not, but I am kind of freaked out. Remember me talking about our printer not printing right in color? We wanted to replace it, but it wasn't really a priority right now, we were more concerned with getting things caught up. So anyway, today I'm printing off some stuff in color, labels for the toys so it didn't matter if the pictures weren't perfect, they just had to be good enough for the kids to be able to tell what they were. Well, they were printing out wonderfully. So I went into this website and printed out these glove puppet patterns I was wanting to make and they were perfect this time! (I had printed them out before and they were horrible) So I don't know what happened. If something was clogged and it didn't clear out until I had used the new cartridge for a while or if God really did heal our printer. Either way, I'm grateful, happy, and relieved that it's working again. Definitely a praise!

Today I've been working on getting stuff ready for next week. My online classes will start, plus we're starting an alphabet curriculum here. Oh, and another praise! The other drop-in I had interviewed with a few weeks ago called and they want to come two days next week. So that will be a little bit more for the baby EF. I really feel like God is blessing us.

Day 222 and debt update

Here's the promised updated debt list. The total includes what we'll be paying today with Tom's paycheck.

DLO: $14.40-PAID!
DLO: $34.11-PAID!
Radiology: $37-PAID!
Urgent care clinic: $46.15 (August 2007)-PAID!
Urgent care clinic: $40.55 (November 2007) PAID!
Urgent care clinic: $21.50 (February 2008) PAID!
Dr. Office: $79.20-PAID!
Dr. Office (June 2006) $105.02-PAID! Dr. Office (March 2008, Tracy & Tasha)-$63.44-PAID! Dr. Office (August 2008, Tasha) amount yet to be determined.
ER Doctor: $93.54-PAID!
Dentist: PAID!!! Dentist: $27-PAID!
Auto parts store: $161.73-PAID! Auto parts store: Our portion: $191.81/Josh:$140.30:paying $50 on our part August 22^nd.
Josten's-PAID!
Second half 2007 real estate taxes: $148.64-PAID!
Hospital: $261.16-PAID!
Car loan: Balance: $1535
House: paid $2345.42
Credit card #1: $2970-paid $375
Credit card #2: $1104-paid $125
Credit card #3: $990-paid $125
Credit card #4: $899-paid $504.19 (balance $395)
Credit card #5: $908-paid $100
Credit card #6: $2509-paid $300
My student loan: $12, 913 (in deferment due to my full time student status)
DH student loan: $53, 248(in forbearance)
As of August 22^nd: $7549.07 in debt paid off!

It's so good to feel like we're making progress again. Next week when I get paid from some families, I'll have more to update. On the baby EF, once I add the $50 from Tom's paycheck and the $20 from the drop-in this week, it will be up to $145.

Day 221 and I can Drive 55 revisited

On the Enid News & Eagle website, I found a commentary by Jeff Mullins regarding a grassroots effort to reduce the national speed limit back down to 55. http://www.enidnews.com/opinion/local_story_233010148.html?keyword=secondarystory . If you can't get that link to work, then go to www.enidnews.com and under the Opinion heading, click on the article: "Double nickel not worth a dime" Mr. Mullins did not agree with the effort and I have to admit, I went back to driving 65. I couldn't stand the driving 55! I really couldn't see that it saved that much gas and it was making me crazy. I guess if it was the law, I'd have to do it, but I sure wouldn't like it.

Good thing it's time to go shopping, my cupboards are getting pretty bare. LOL! I can tell I've had more kids the last couple of weeks because my pantry is about wiped out.

Tonight, Tom was strong enough to resist the urge of me begging him to bring home Sonic drinks. I also resisted the urge to go out to eat and I made Tuna Helper for supper. It was really good, even if I had to make it. LOL.

Day 220 and the First Day of School!

Well, it was the first day of school today. I had 6 kids, 3 girls and 3 boys during the school day. Wow, that's the first time that I've had more than 1 or 2 girls in over 3 years! It was strange (and wonderful)! The new drop-in girl did great which was nice.

I'm going to try to post a debt update tomorrow or Friday.

My baby started 10th grade today. How can she be 15 and in the 10th grade? How can she have just finished Driver's Ed? Sniff...sniff...

Gotta eat supper and get ready to go to church.

Day 219 and one of "those" days

Well, let's just say it was one of "those days" with the kids and leave that at that. To top it off, my allergies are killing me and my eyes are itching like crazy. Uck.

So in the interest of being totally honest, I'm going to confess something. I'm having Tom bring home supper from Enid tonight. I'm so tired, I feel so lousy, and I just didn't have it in me to cook. I know, I'm a huge hypocrite after my rant about Josh asking me for money yesterday. But in my defense, I got my financial aid refund today. It wasn't huge, but I was able to pay my past due cell phone, gas, and cable bill and pay for the ad I put in the newspaper for my child care. So I'm going to take a little and splurge on supper.

Day 218 and One More Day Till School Starts

I've enjoyed the summer but I"m sure glad to be making more money and to be getting back into a regular routine. Josh started his classes today, Tasha starts Wednesday, and Serenity and I start Monday.

I've got a budget done for the rest of this month and have started on Septembers but haven't finished it yet. I am going to hold onto these textbooks, I just can't bring myself to sell them for 75 or 80 cents. I cashed in the change I rolled on Saturday so now our baby EF is $25. It's weird how much better I feel with even that little bit in there. Just knowing that it's not completely empty is somewhat comforting!

I had a frightful moment when I was on the phone with Serenity earlier. She couldn't get her gear shift to move and I was thinking "AAAAHHHHHH, I don't think $25 is going to fix something like that". LOL. Anyway, she got it, I guess it was just stuck. Phew!

Today as I had a moment here and there, I worked on my menu and grocery list for the next couple of weeks for when I do my grocery shopping this weekend. As I mentioned, we're not eating out until we get everything caught up to date. Then this afternoon, Josh has the nerve to come in and ask me for $10 so he could go eat at the BBQ joint. The boy has a job and more money than I do right now, but he wants me to pay for HIM to eat out. ARGH!

Oh, and no, I didn't give him the $'s!

Day 217 and Enthusiasm Vampires

Another thing that Denise Ryan spoke about at that conference a couple of weeks ago was "enthusiasm vampires", which is basically people who have negative reactions to all ideas. You know the person, the one who has a negative comment to make about every idea you ever had. I've known several of those and sadly, I think I've been one several times, too. Denise thinks you should distance yourself from those people when possible and shut their voices out of your life. How can you do that when the voice is your own? I guess that goes back to the self talk I was talking about yesterday. You have to change that voice, teach it a new line. What about if the voice is a spouse or another family member? One idea that Denise shared was to point at them with two fingers in the shape of a "v". They would have no idea what you meant, but you would be aware of what they were doing which helps make you able to resist it. As with anything else, I think just becoming more aware of it in yourself and in others helps a lot.

I looked up the two textbooks that I wanted to list on half.com tonight and they are both down to 75 and 80 cents. I"m not sure what I"ll do now. That hardly seems worth the trouble. I'll think about it and decide what to do with them.