after Christmas….

 

 

 

I had such a wonderful Christmas!  It took me a good long while to get into the holiday spirit this year, but once I managed it, I really enjoyed myself.  The kids had a blast, of course! 

We started out at my mom’s house on Christmas Eve, where the kids got to see what "Santa" brought them.  Chloe scored big with her Dora the Explorer kitchen, and Ben got a ride-on Little People firetruck.  Ben also got this really cool LeapFrog puppy named Scout, who can be downloaded with customized songs, games and even Ben’s name!  He loves it.  Mom and Dad got me a beautiful heart shaped basket with a quilted lid; it’s big enough to use as a yarn or sewing basket.  I have no idea what I’m going to do with it yet.  Then we brought the kids back home and put them to bed so Aaron and I could wrap all of our gifts for Christmas day. 

We all slept in a bit on Christmas Day, getting out of bed at a lazy 9:00.  The kids opened their gifts (an art kit, Crayon maker, and Melissa and Doug necklace kit for Chloe, and two Melissa and Doug toys and some board books for Ben.) then had breakfast and then we just hung around until time to go to my grandma’s where the kids got more toys and I got some really awesome Pyrex and Corningware for my kitchen.  I’m trying to eventually get rid of all the plastic and Teflon in the kitchen, so those gifts help a lot.   

The only really "off" part about the entire day was when my aunt started going on and on about this "spiritual dream" she had about me.  She’s a hard core Methodist, a pastor, etc, etc, and she literally loses sleep over the fact that I’m not Christian and saved.  Honestly, I’m glad she cares about me, but I just wish she’d recognize that, as an adult, I’m capable of making my own faith choices and they happen not to coincide with hers.  She and I do get along just great when she isn’t waxing poetic about Jesus, but as a hardcore fundamentalist, she really does think I’m going to hell.  *shrug*  I see that as her problem and not mine, though. 

Right now I’m just killing time until I have to get in the shower to go to work.  I have to be there at ten and I climbed out of bed extra early today. 

I told Aaron on Christmas night that next year I’m going to try to have all the holiday prepping done at least a week before Christmas.  I didn’t get to enjoy myself and the time leading up to Christmas as much as I usually do because I was so rushed trying to get last minute things finished.  Hopefully next year Aaron will be well established in his new career, and that will help quite a bit. 

He’s doing very well in his classes, and I’m so proud of him.  In the classroom portion of his training he came out first in his class.  He’s getting ready to start the "on road" portion of his training when he goes back on Tuesday.  Only four more weeks until he finishes training and gets started on his externship.  It’s going to be a hard four weeks, financially, but we’ll make it.  And it’s worth it to be scraping now in order to get him where he needs to be later.  When he finally does get a job, our income is going to quadruple and that’s such a blessing.  It’s going to be so nice to quit worrying about money.  Granted, a lot of my money worries are self-created because I’m so horrible with keeping track of it, but I’m working on that, and I think I’m going to get one of the Dave Ramsey books to help me learn to manage money better.  Hopefully it helps.

This was supposed to be an entry about Christmas…how it turn into one about money?  Lol. 

I found a book on clearance at work yesterday that I snapped up: Homebuilding for Dummies.  We get a lot of odd clearance things shipped in from elsewhere in retail land, and one shipment happened to be a bunch of how-to books.  Anyway, Aaron and I are hoping to build a home (and do it as green as possible) in the not-too-faraway future, so a $5.00 book on homebuilding can only help.  We want to do all the labor ourselves, or as much as is feasible, and do as little contracting as possible.  It’s going to be a really simple house – square rooms, saltbox layout, etc.  Minimal supplies and no fancy architechtural stuff.  I’ve actually been working on the house design myself.  Actually, I’ve been working on three designs – one single level, one two story, and one single level with basement.  I’m hoping to do cost estimates on all three, and we’ll be able to use the one best suited to the land we eventually purchase.

Okay, enough killing time.  I gotta get in the shower!