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I've been so busy...throughout the morning I attempted to post, and just ended up with unfinished rambling that I liked getting out, but am not sure anyone much cares about;
( Large Family Stuff - Groceries and Transportation )
( Homeschool stuff, mostly about Annie's recorder and eventual flute, and Isaac starting some minor stuff because he wants to )
Aaaanyway...I am really satisfied with college right now. I got all As on every paper and test in philosophy, throughout the semester, but then during the last week of class I had procrastinated a bit, and it bit me in the ass when the kids got headlice, we were preparing for the holidays and Jake got sick all at once. I never turned in my last two papers and kind of bombed the last test (though I never saw the actual grade). I was afraid I'd end up with a C or even a D, but I went online today and saw that I got a B, and was happy enough. I should have known it would average out well - we had to write a new paper every week in there, and had I think 5 tests total as well. I think I even had "Extra credit" sort of points from a couple of times that he graded on a curve and I had a 100 to start with.
I went down to the college today, to change my Spring schedule. I was going to do morning classes 3 times a week up at the Kendall campus, but Grant hired an employee who works mornings AND got a job himself working two days a week for Verifone, so there's just no way. This initially dissapointed me greatly, but I think it'll work out really well. I'm doing Human Sexuality through independant study, the professor seems very straightforward and I already have my syllabus; and Abnormal Psych - which I'm really, really interested in - through the Virtual College Miami Dade has. Which in itself is a pleasant surprise; the class grading is going to involve participating on messageboards and in chat sessions, which I didn't expect. Both of these classes intrigue me enough that I want to read the textbooks and write the papers and all. Also, I have the flexibility this way to make SURE I'm done before the new baby arrives (and isn't it funny that we put it that way - as if the baby weren't right here in my lap, this minute...can't really get much more physically present than it currently is). My due date and the end of Spring term were slightly overlapping, enough to make me nervous about finals and all, so this works out more practically than a structured class schedule.
We have two parties lined up in the next week; my old high school friend Alice is throwing her annual New Years Eve bash, and though it is not geared towards kids, she and her family don't mind them, either. They live on a huge piece of rural land and there will be a bonfire and fireworks outside (display style, not fools playing with little things), and a ton and a half of healthy food options inside, as well as many people who either attended high school with me, or taught us (her parties have age ranges that are insane, it's a mix or her and her parents' people - there tend to be lots of political and philosophical discussions and nothing too loud). Then on the 6th my friend Kristin, the La Leche League leader, is throwing herself a 30th birthday party that kids are expressly invited to spend watching movies, playing together in the play room or dancing through (she has two of her own and everyone she knows is an attachment parent of some sort). I think I'm going to make her a fairy as a gift, because that's right up her alley, though I'm still deciding on some kind of cool drink and snack things (it's "Bring Your Own Beer And Bon Bons").
And LAST (since it IS 2:30 in the morning and Grant has been unconscious on the couch for an hour now) our budget just keeps looking better. The employee Grant hired is REALLY working out well, and his time is both getting extra things done G couldn't do on his own, AND providing a new structure of accountability for Grant to do the things he can. Plus the Verifone job I mentioned - it's an 8 hour day with 30 minute commute, 2 days a week, and will bring in an extra $1400 a month for us. I know you aren't supposed to talk figures when you discuss money because people think it's tacky, but I really don't care - in the next two weeks, we've got $2500 coming in (and that's from the business, which means $5000 is coming in because only half comes to us and the other half pays business expenses). We aren't rich or anything, I mean...we have enough bills to eat up that $2500. And last month was great, but we had Christmas and travelling to fund, and an extra van payment we were behind, so it was like "great Thank God because great is barely enough"...I'm just saying, we caught up and funded Christmas and did the travelling. And this month we'll actually pay all the bills. He just picked up another account last week, and the Verifone checks will start coming in - which will be all for us, not associated with the business. It's nice to see things coming together. We can actually scrape out the money to go to the Bodies exhibit that's in Miami now, before it's gone, and are talking seriously about putting Ananda back in dance after tax return time - and letting Isaac start, too, since he's pretty much always wanted to. That will all be contingent on finding them classes one after the other, though - Pinecrest is a 35 minute drive and I can't do it round trip twice a week.
I'm actually getting nervous, as I count up all this good stuff right now. The house is clean-ish again, finally, since I FINALLY got enough of the gifts donated, sorted, assembled, assimilated and organized to the point that I could clear floors completely and sweep and mop all of the tile and scrub the counters and my desk - it's not just piles of junk on increasingly yucky surfaces, now. And since I had to clean out some closets, shelves and cabinets to make that all work, those areas are cleaner than they've been in months or even years, as well.
Ok...I can stop typing...really I can...here I go shutting up...
( Large Family Stuff - Groceries and Transportation )
( Homeschool stuff, mostly about Annie's recorder and eventual flute, and Isaac starting some minor stuff because he wants to )
Aaaanyway...I am really satisfied with college right now. I got all As on every paper and test in philosophy, throughout the semester, but then during the last week of class I had procrastinated a bit, and it bit me in the ass when the kids got headlice, we were preparing for the holidays and Jake got sick all at once. I never turned in my last two papers and kind of bombed the last test (though I never saw the actual grade). I was afraid I'd end up with a C or even a D, but I went online today and saw that I got a B, and was happy enough. I should have known it would average out well - we had to write a new paper every week in there, and had I think 5 tests total as well. I think I even had "Extra credit" sort of points from a couple of times that he graded on a curve and I had a 100 to start with.
I went down to the college today, to change my Spring schedule. I was going to do morning classes 3 times a week up at the Kendall campus, but Grant hired an employee who works mornings AND got a job himself working two days a week for Verifone, so there's just no way. This initially dissapointed me greatly, but I think it'll work out really well. I'm doing Human Sexuality through independant study, the professor seems very straightforward and I already have my syllabus; and Abnormal Psych - which I'm really, really interested in - through the Virtual College Miami Dade has. Which in itself is a pleasant surprise; the class grading is going to involve participating on messageboards and in chat sessions, which I didn't expect. Both of these classes intrigue me enough that I want to read the textbooks and write the papers and all. Also, I have the flexibility this way to make SURE I'm done before the new baby arrives (and isn't it funny that we put it that way - as if the baby weren't right here in my lap, this minute...can't really get much more physically present than it currently is). My due date and the end of Spring term were slightly overlapping, enough to make me nervous about finals and all, so this works out more practically than a structured class schedule.
We have two parties lined up in the next week; my old high school friend Alice is throwing her annual New Years Eve bash, and though it is not geared towards kids, she and her family don't mind them, either. They live on a huge piece of rural land and there will be a bonfire and fireworks outside (display style, not fools playing with little things), and a ton and a half of healthy food options inside, as well as many people who either attended high school with me, or taught us (her parties have age ranges that are insane, it's a mix or her and her parents' people - there tend to be lots of political and philosophical discussions and nothing too loud). Then on the 6th my friend Kristin, the La Leche League leader, is throwing herself a 30th birthday party that kids are expressly invited to spend watching movies, playing together in the play room or dancing through (she has two of her own and everyone she knows is an attachment parent of some sort). I think I'm going to make her a fairy as a gift, because that's right up her alley, though I'm still deciding on some kind of cool drink and snack things (it's "Bring Your Own Beer And Bon Bons").
And LAST (since it IS 2:30 in the morning and Grant has been unconscious on the couch for an hour now) our budget just keeps looking better. The employee Grant hired is REALLY working out well, and his time is both getting extra things done G couldn't do on his own, AND providing a new structure of accountability for Grant to do the things he can. Plus the Verifone job I mentioned - it's an 8 hour day with 30 minute commute, 2 days a week, and will bring in an extra $1400 a month for us. I know you aren't supposed to talk figures when you discuss money because people think it's tacky, but I really don't care - in the next two weeks, we've got $2500 coming in (and that's from the business, which means $5000 is coming in because only half comes to us and the other half pays business expenses). We aren't rich or anything, I mean...we have enough bills to eat up that $2500. And last month was great, but we had Christmas and travelling to fund, and an extra van payment we were behind, so it was like "great Thank God because great is barely enough"...I'm just saying, we caught up and funded Christmas and did the travelling. And this month we'll actually pay all the bills. He just picked up another account last week, and the Verifone checks will start coming in - which will be all for us, not associated with the business. It's nice to see things coming together. We can actually scrape out the money to go to the Bodies exhibit that's in Miami now, before it's gone, and are talking seriously about putting Ananda back in dance after tax return time - and letting Isaac start, too, since he's pretty much always wanted to. That will all be contingent on finding them classes one after the other, though - Pinecrest is a 35 minute drive and I can't do it round trip twice a week.
I'm actually getting nervous, as I count up all this good stuff right now. The house is clean-ish again, finally, since I FINALLY got enough of the gifts donated, sorted, assembled, assimilated and organized to the point that I could clear floors completely and sweep and mop all of the tile and scrub the counters and my desk - it's not just piles of junk on increasingly yucky surfaces, now. And since I had to clean out some closets, shelves and cabinets to make that all work, those areas are cleaner than they've been in months or even years, as well.
Ok...I can stop typing...really I can...here I go shutting up...
