Financial Planning

On television commercials, the kids settle in to watch a movie while mom steps into the kitchen to procure snacks. As the popcorn pops merrily in the microwave, she pays bills with a couple clicks of the mouse and is ready to rejoin the family before the opening credits.

This is not my experience.

Paul does most of the online bill paying, but it seems that due dates fluctuate, banks fail to notify of new bills or error messages, scheduled payments are delayed due to technical glitches, some accounts refuse to participate with online bill pay, etc. I'm not suggesting that we go back to the dark ages of mailing checks around town, nor yet the stone ages of hand delivering bills (well do I remember driving around town with my mother, doing just this).

But certainly things could be a whole lot easier than they are.

For example, budgeting software. Quicken and Money are costly, PC-based, and don't do quite everything I want them to do.

Mint is free and fabulous. Paul and I sit down for budget meetings on opposite sides of the dining room table, each of us with a laptop. One of us has the bank account open, the other has Mint, and we zip through the month's expenses, categorizing and reconciling as we go. (Actually, we each have both windows open so that we're both following along, but one of us takes point with each application.) We can do this anytime, from anywhere, because Mint is online (rather than stored on one of our hard drives). It automatically downloads information from our checking and savings accounts, our credit cards, our student loans, our retirement plans, etc.

Weekly emails tell us our net worth and it's fun to watch this number fluctuate as we pay down debt, increase savings, and our investments go up and down. As you can imagine, it was a real hoot when the real estate bubble popped and we watched the value of our house plummet sixty thousand dollars. Whew.

But we were really unhappy with our bank so we switched to a local credit union that's absolutely fabulous in every way . . . except that they won't work with Mint. So our choices are:

1. Move to Quicken and pay a not-insignificant-amount for decreased capabilities (i.e. we have to sit near the PC and only one of us can manage the data at a time) and the lower-end models don't track investments as well as budget stuff.
2. Stay with Mint but manually enter dozens of transactions each month from our checking and savings accounts. Shudder.

Neither option sounds ideal to me. How do you manage your household budget?

Less Globe Trotting, More Home Making

I didn't have the weekend I planned for. My youngest sister had twins a couple of weeks ago and I've been longing to meet them. So I washed the car and filled it with gas. I sorted baby clothes into two stacks: "Ellie and Ada's clothes their little brother could wear," and "This really might be better for my new niece." Paul washed the clothes and I stacked them up with a few other "gifts" and books to return.

I checked the weather forecasts and put together a list of fun things to do with kids in my sister's hometown. I selected a bag of "trip food" and prepped the girls on new baby etiquette. Surely we were all ready to go!

Then Ada threw up. And Paul's cold didn't go away as expected. In fact, Ellie started smearing snot around her own face, too, dadgummit. And my sister - new mom to not-quite-5-pound-babies - worried (naturally!) that I might be incubating something less than wholesome myself.

As it turns out, I'm still well. But it's good that we didn't make the trip anyway, even though I'm finding it nearly physically painful that I haven't been there yet!

Since no one but me was 100% well and we had already cleared our schedule, we had a wide open weekend ahead of us. We did leave the house a few times - no one was sick enough for quarantine once the magical 24 hours had passed from Ada's digestive distress - but mostly we stayed home.

I ruthlessly culled the girls' rooms of large and non-essential toys, relegating most of their stuff to the basement playroom. I already replaced the usual residents of my drawers, shelves, and hangers with seasonally appropriate (if too large) maternity gear. Now I just need need to dust everywhere and then it's time to have the carpet cleaners over for a long overdue visit.

And after that - bunk bed time! Fortunately, the girls are excited about becoming roommates soon.

Yes, I Voted

Or, at least I "row-voted."  Apparently my explanations about the merits of a representative democracy leave something to be desired.  I thought Ada was pretty clear - up to and even including the spelling of the word "vote" - until she hopped out of the Cool Cool Car and asked, "We're going to get in a boat, now?"

Sadly, voting's not quite that cool.

I take Ada with me everywhere, but apparently it's been a while since I last took her with me to my polling place.  Thinking back, my mom was here in August, she was in preschool during the primaries and probably last November, too.  I don't remember the last time I voted with assistance.  Certainly it was before the current era of Many Questions Ada.

In November 2008 I must have taken her with me.  But at that point she was only 1 year old and had a slightly embarrassing habit of screaming "Daddy!" whenever she saw a picture of Senator Obama.

She really wanted to help me press my selections on the touch screen today.  I did not let her physically participate, though I did hold her up so she could see what I was doing and I explained the process as we went along.

We both found the judges bit rather boring.  And now we wait with bated breath. 

My Costume

I already posted pictures of the girls in costume from last week's Boo at the Zoo, so today I'll share my own Halloween costume. Many thanks to Paul who handled the rather tricky iron-on portion of construction.



Ada is fond of putting her hand on the baby skeleton and introducing her little brother to all we meet. Ellie prefers pointing to individual bones and naming them. "And this is the collar bone . . . "

Happy Halloween

From my two original and strong-minded little girls: a slice of pepperoni mushroom pizza and an Adelie penguin. (The former because it's one of her favorite dishes and the latter because it sounds like Adelaide. Of course.)



Seen here with cousin Abby, aka Princess Aurora, aka Briar Rose, aka Sleeping Beauty.

Why, yes, they did choose their own costumes this year! (Pics taken at Boo at the Zoo.)

Sisters

And soon they'll be roommates, too.  I'm so glad my little girls play together.

They pop bubbles.  They play with dolls.  And they dance their little Angelina Ballerina mice off to bed.

Handsome Is as Handsome Does

I've had some problems with this pregnancy.  I've been sick and I've had complications and it's just not been easy.  But I am feeling better this week.  Still, every time I think I can finally relax and just enjoy the second trimester, something alarming comes up.  And yesterday I spent a couple hours in the doctor's office getting checked out.  (Everything is fine. But notice how obscure I'm being just to avoid saying "blood" or "bleeding." Oops, messed that one up.)

I left messages for Paul and my mom after my appointment and ultrasound yesterday, letting them know that I'm back to "taking it easy" (which means avoiding many fun things) but that the baby looks great and I check out OK, too.

My mom texted back asking if her grandson is adorable or handsome.  I think it's a little early to tell, but you be the judge.  (For the record, he's right on schedule for four months along at a grand total of 8 inches long and 8 ounces heavy. And he waves at the camera.)

Religion and Politics

So there's an election coming up and a post on politics is inevitable for me, don't you think?  But perhaps my topic is a bit unexpected.

This is where I come out in support of Christine O'Donnell.  Sort of.

Not her politics or her beliefs about sexuality or her honesty (finances, education) or her character or her fitness to serve as a U.S. Senator. 

It's the witch thing.

Liberals have jumped on O'Donnell's admission that she "dabbled in witchcraft."  (She's also a former Catholic, liberal, and she used to be pro-choice.)  They seem to believe that this history will discredit O'Donnell with the religious right.

Maybe it will, but maybe not.  After all, Evangelical Christianity is about being saved.  About turning from darkness into light.  Accepting Jesus Christ as one's Lord and Savior and being Born Again.  A fresh slate.  Perhaps you remember our 43rd President?  Many did not hold the "sins" of his "youth" against him because he repented.  And that's huge.  The importance to evangelical Christians of being saved cannot be over-estimated.

Despite this flaw in the logic of attacking O'Donnell's previous religious practices, there's a much greater problem with the approach and it's the same problem with "attacking" Obama by suggesting that he's Muslim.  Use of religion as a vilifying personal characteristic suggests that there's something terribly wrong with being of a particular religion.  Is that really what liberals want to say?

Liberals did crow about O'Donnell's comments regarding witchcraft, just as they enjoyed her filmed comments about the evils of masturbation.

But of course the ones most excited about O'Donnell's revelations were the media, and not because they're "liberal" but rather because this sort of sensational story is news, baby!  We tune in, we listen, we talk about it.  In short: it sells.  We're buying it. 

And so nothing will change and instead of talking about substantive issues related to the direction this country should go, we're talking about a political cartoon in which O'Donnell's limousine is drawn as a broom parked outside the Capitol.

Happy voting.

Accomplished:

one Angelina Ballerina 7th birthday party.  With the help of some wonderful kids, their parents, and my own family: Paul, his sister, Ann, her husband, Rob, and my parents (in town for the event).

Ellie wanted to invite non-ballerina boys in addition to ballerina and non-ballerina girls, and she wanted an Angelina Ballerina cake.  As our theme we chose the episode "Two Mice in a Boat," in which English ballerina mouse Angelina is partnered with a pirate-loving boy mouse named Sammy for a boat designing contest.  They can't agree on a theme - princess or pirate - and hijinks ensue.  In the end, they're forced to compromise and and work together, of course.

So we too started out dividing into teams to decorate cardboard box boats with paint, glue, flowers, flags, etc.  Much fun and mess was had by all.  They got pirate tattoos or ballerina glitter (or both) then whacked at a ballet slipper-shaped pinata.  We opened presents - the first time Ellie's been willing to do that! Still, being Ellie, she generously handed most of her presents back to her guests - then headed back outside for games.  Each child popped a balloon to reveal his or her task (e.g. dance a pirate jig, spin like a ballerina ten times. etc.).  Then they played Pirate Pirate Princess, a game that bears strong resemblance to Duck Duck Goose.  They wound up with a little Pirate King (Simon) Says.  And - finally! - it was time for cake and pizza, the highlights of the event.

Ellie had a great time.  And I love love love love love making her happy.

Pumpkins and a Birthday, Must Be October

Pumpkin picking . . . and not one photo of the field itself!




7th Birthday, Take 2:

Found Moments

This morning we all overslept.  I got to wake up both girls, probably for the first time ever!

Paul headed out for doughnuts while I soothed the girls out of bed, towards the bathrooms, and into clothes.

No one was stressed or rushed, the girls enjoyed their doughnuts and sausages (because today was rescheduled birthday day) and everyone got out the door to school on time.

Only Mommy and Daddy didn't have time to shower and dress.  So Paul came back from dropping Ada at preschool and met me on the front porch.  We sat outside together for thirty minutes with our mugs of coffee, sharing a doughnut.

We chatted, we felt the fresh breeze on our faces, we enjoyed the neighborhood's changing leaves.  It was glorious.  Then we came back inside and got ourselves ready to face the day.  We were running a little late, but it was totally, absolutely, easily worth it.

Glorious autumn.

The Birthday that Wasn't

Today, Ellie turned seven years old.  Seven!

Unfortunately, it did not go as planned.

She was so excited about her birthday.  She planned her birthday breakfast: doughnuts (a family birthday tradition) and sausages (that's all Ellie).  For her birthday lunch she requested that I bring some broccoli cheese soup to school.  I was to be her guest reader in class, and she chose Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Collandro for the event.  For special snack to share with her friends, we chose s'mores (last weekend's camping trip and summer grilling with Nana and Grandpa up on the mountain still fresh on our minds).  We packed graham crackers, chocolate bars, and "toasted" marshmallow fluffy spread for her classmates.  For dinner she selected spaghetti, red sauce, meatballs, corn, and garlic cheesy bread.  After Ellie went to bed, Paul and I decorated the kitchen table area with festive birthday fare and settled plans for the next day.

Then she woke up.  And she didn't feel well.  This happened a couple more times overnight and in the morning she tried to be excited but just couldn't maintain the necessary energy.  She couldn't stop coughing and bringing up phlem. (Yuck.)  She ran a low-grade fever.  She has been telling us for a while that she doesn't feel well, but couldn't describe the problem or any pain.

"I'm not very well, Mommy."

"Does your head hurt?"

"No, my head doesn't hurt."

"Does your throat hurt?"

"No, my throat doesn't hurt. I just feel yucky. I'm not well."

Well, the seven of us living in this house at present have passed around a nasty and long-lived cold and vicious cough.  I suffered through it for nearly two months (!) and I certainly felt yucky much of that time.  I thought Ellie's problem was a combination of the cold and wanting a break from school.

Today, with a fever and the violent cough she couldn't control, I knew I was wrong.  I took Ellie to the pediatrician, who sent us to the ER, where the pediatric nurse practitioner looked in Ellie's throat and found it full of impressive pus pockets.

Oops.

So Ellie's back home, happier but still sick, and on antibiotics for strep throat.

October 11th has been rescheduled for this Wednesday.

Drunk Driving

St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Dan McLaughlin was arrested in August on suspicion of drunken driving.  Other drivers called 911 to report an "erratic driver."  An officer responded and pulled over the local celebrity, who refused a breathalyzer.  (Booking photo courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.)

This story wasn't immediately of special interest to me, other than my obvious concern about drunk drivers on the same roads I travel.  Where it got interesting was in the discussion following the article, where respondants seemed split between certainty that McLaughlin would get a special treatment/a slap on the wrist and confusion over what he really did wrong.

These comments are representative of the latter point of view:

1. He was drunk, so what, he didnt kill a puppy, DUI's are a revenue stream plain and simple.
2. Looked like he had a good time. I agree, how can something be a crime without a victim?
   Checkpoints amount to an illegal search.
3. Drunk driving is not a crime. In order to have a crime, you have to have a victim. Who is the victim in this case? I thought so. Oh, so you want to start criminalizing POTENTIAL crimes? God help us all.
4. Anyone who drinks has probably driven home when they shouldn't have, so I would not claim otherwise. I don't know this guy or his drinking habits and I don't think most of these people do either. Could it be he was out with friends and went over his limit by one or two?
5. Could've happened to anyone after a glass or two of wine in this spread-out town . . . 

Every now and then I'm confronted with evidence that others see the world very differently than I do . . .

What I've Been Up To

Family photo:


Apple picking:


And all church family camp (with running water and heated cabins):

 

(Both good photos of Paul, the girls, and me courtesy of brother-in-law Rob!)

Post-Racial Society

Most people don't think they're racist.

And of course many people think that racism is so over. 

Because I occasionally have poor impulse control I click over from a St. Louis Post-Dispatch news story to its discussion tab.  And I'm always disgusted by what I find there.

For example, this morning's news brought word of a man named Lavell Collins who was shot and killed in the city of St. Louis last night.  No picture accompanied the story.  But perhaps because of his name or the neighborhood in which the shooting occurred, the five immediate responses to the news were:

1. Are they sure it is not another case of suicide, or assisted suicide? That seems to be very prominent in North St Louis it appears from all the deaths of fine, upstanding young men.
2. More thinning of the lowlife herd in NStL. It is long past time for St. Louis to DO something pro-active against the proliferation of lowlife violent crimes.
3. Was he on his way home from church or had just delivered groceries to his elderly grandmother? Just another day in the neighborhood..... lalalalalalal
4. Draw a line east-west down the center of the City. "Separate But Equal"! That's the solution.
5. WONDERFUL,MAGNIFICENT,SPLENDID,BEAUTIFUL!These are just some of the words I use to describe my feelings when I here great news in the morning.This is how you thin the heard,just hope these lowlifes don't find out that this makes most white people happy or they might quit the destruction of their own kind.

But those comments and the many many just like them on news sites across the country are not racist.  They can't be.  Because racism no longer exists.

I really do intend to blog again.

Eventually. I have no real excuse. My schedule is a little different than it used to be, with Paul's sister, her husband, and their three-year-old living with us now. :-)

I'm freelancing during some of my "free" time.

And of course there's my ongoing evening sickness.

Which is not all bad!

I mean, it sucks and I'm so ready for it to be gone, but I'm looking for the silver lining, here. I'm not losing weight like crazy and the baby's not in danger and I'm getting plenty of nutrition, etc.

But I did discover that all of my old maternity pants are way too big so I went out to buy myself an under-the-bump pair of jeans to tide me over until the giant over-the-bump tent pants fit again.

The next day I returned them. And tried on two more pairs before I realized that I'm a few sizes smaller than I thought I was. Hip hip hooray! (More accurately: smaller hips, smaller thighs, hooray!) Granted, these are elastic waist maternity pants. But they're still "boyfriend" jeans and they're still a size I haven't worn in lo these many years, since way before I started having babies.

Maybe I'll even feel well enough to go out for a jog tomorrow.  If I do, I might reward myself with a "running for two" tech shirt.

Announcement

"Sarahlynn, it's great to see you. You have a certain glow about you!"

This is how my OB/GYN greeted me at my annual visit this summer and is how I learned I am pregnant for the third - and, presumably, final - time.

Officially.

Because I'd sort of known for a couple of weeks already. I got suspicious when my period was late. But I was having fun on vacation. Until one day I ate some onion rings and my body revolted.

Then the altitude in Wyoming started really bothering me.

I tired quickly.

I grew nauseous if I went more than two hours without eating something protein-rich.

Then I was just exhausted and nauseous all the time, period, even after we returned to sea level.  The heat made me whimper and cower indoors.

And then I went in for my annual well woman visit and learned that I am a very well woman, indeed. And hopefully I will remain so until about . . .

April Fool's!

Family Togetherness

Preparing for the ride to the top of the arch. Imagine: all 6 feet, 4 inches of Paul in the tiny available seat on the left.



Dance class! (Ellie in pink, Ada in purple.) "Can we go back again tomorrow, mommy and daddy?" Ballet, tap, and tumbling in a relaxed but structured environment. Perfect. Bonus: another little girls with trisomy 21 in the class!

Reading and Cooking

Over the past week or two I've read:

Like mother, like daughter!

• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
  
• March by by Geraldine Brooks
  
• The Heretic's Daughter by by Kathleen Kent
  
• Sanctuary of Outcasts by by Neil White
  
• Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
  
• probably a couple more I've forgotten,
  
• like Case Histories by Kate Atkinson,
• and gotten ahead on my Newsweeks.

This one, too.

One of Ellie's all time favorite dishes is pearled couscous and she's always thrilled to help prepare it. Also served with this meal: Greek salad, spanakopita, and roasted chicken and potatoes seasoned with basil and rosemary. (I didn't make the spanakopita from scratch; that would have cut too far into my reading time!)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

This week for Barrie Summy's Book Review Club I've chosen The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

"Sarahlynn - See what you think? Carol"

Perhaps every other book club in America has read this novel sometime in the past two years, but neither of mine did. I'd never heard the title until my mother-in-law passed the paperback to me. We're both avid readers, but our tastes don't always overlap (hooray Diana Gabaldon!) so I wasn't sure what to expect. And I waited about a year before picking it up.

Then I really really enjoyed it.

As a fledgling writer who never seems to get quite as much writing accomplished as I set out to do, I was touched by the author's story. Mary Ann Shaffer wrote for years and years and years, probably her whole life. She belonged to writer's groups and researched and wrote diligently. But she never finished a book to her satisfaction until this one, which she sold when she was 74 years old. She died before the final requested rewrite, and her niece - also an author - finished the project. Both of their names appear on the cover.

But I read all that later, after I'd finished the book and needed to know more about who wrote it. The book itself - the story, the writing, the characters, the style - grabbed me and made me not want to finish.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a novel told in letters between an immediately post-World-War-II English author and her friends. Right off the bat, this is not a subject that causes my breath to quicken (except, perhaps, in hasty retreat).

But the main character, Juliet Ashton, has a voice I simply adored. I want to be her friend. I want her to be alive and real today so that I can be her pen pal. I'll even learn to respond to letters, I promise!

The novel tells the story of the German occupation of the British Channel Islands (between England and France) during the Second World War. No, but really. The history just provides fascinating snippets scattered along the way of the real stories, all of which were far more personal.  Individual growth, relationship building, priority setting, and even a mystery.

I have no idea how Shaffer and Barrows managed to write about such sad, indescribably painful, terrible things without making light of them but while still keeping a bright, funny tone to the novel. That feat alone was masterful. While some of the letters were extremely hard to read, I always ended up laughing somewhere along the way. And since there are no chapters, just a series of letters, naturally I read straight through to the end. It's a quick read.

Carol, I enjoyed this one very much; thank you for encouraging me to read it!

--Sarahlynn

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