Random Notes from a Taxing Weekend
1. It was a taxing weekend....as I find finances and taxes...well....taxing. I ended up spending a big chunk of time on Friday and then again on Saturday---and then again a bit on Sunday---doing taxes....both my sister's and my own. I was happy to do hers though----she has always done a lot for us so it was nice to return the favor. And part of me kind of enjoys it....but then I reach a point where I am just wound up tight and frazzled, frazzled, frazzled. We also spent some time figuring out what to do about the van and should we buy another vehicle and if so....and if no....and on and on and on. And getting all our various accounts set up in a Quicken kind of deal so we can track things a little more clearly. I told myself this is the LAST year I do our taxes myself. See if you can make me stick to that please!
2. We also began Operation Lego Room which entailed sorting through box after box after box that is filling the room right now. Stacks of school paperwork from the boys, family photos from my parents' house, jewelry that belonged to Judi, odds and ends from Judi's last months, clothes the boys outgrew.....ugh. It was dusty and messy and a little hard.
3. We ended up accomplishing a lot for the weekend but I was mentally worn out by the end. And I was worn out enough that we didn't take advantage of any of the lovely invitations we had which makes me a little mad at myself. Today we are going to look into donating our van and getting a home equity line of credit and paying off our credit cards with that since the interest would be much lower than our rates.
4. Sometimes I'm just not so good at playing a grown up.
5. Does anybody want a little plastic basketball hoop that's been sitting unused for several years in my back yard?
6. Or how about some ornamental grass? We have to divide some of ours. There's a good chunk (could probably be divided into two) of the grass shown in this picture:
and we've got another huge one that needs to be divided---it's the kind you can see in the bottom lower right of this picture:
7. Last night we roasted some pork and I made a blackberry sauce out of some berries from the farmers' market that were in the freezer. I sauteed some onion, added the berries, some red wine, some honey, some sage and a bit of salt. It was really lovely on the pork but I must admit that halfway through this process I thought, "god I'm tired....why do I make everything so complicated...would pizza really have been such a bad idea?"
8. Speaking of food....good lord we spend a lot on groceries! If any of you are better than me and actually budget.....what do you budget for groceries for a month?
9. And last, but certainly not least, here is my father in Lego---during his time in the Navy of course. Note the blue waves on the side. Owen made it for me to keep on my bedside table.