Thursday, March 27, 2014

Weekly Update & Mortgage Challenge










Not much going on here. Vader and Buddy were fixed on Tuesday. Buddy made a great recovery and back to his old self asap. Vader had a hard time, took him a good nights sleep to recovery. I think they gave him too much sleepy drugs. He couldn't walk, or hold his head up or nothing. Then he had swelling. Swelling is now down and doing better. 

I've been planting up a storm. The one green house in the back is nearly full. I will be taking photos in a wee bit. Then to fill the green house in front. Normally I have a lot of last minute planting so the green houses will fill up fast. 

Not much else going on here. There is a lot on the plate, lots of stress going around. And how I wish it would stop raining for a minute. 

Our Mortgage went from 120,470 to 120,340. Come next week we will be under 120,000. That will be a very exciting day.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

It's Spring!!!!!!!!

So excited to finally have Spring here.






I got out all my seeds and started to plan. If all goes well, should be one of the biggest harvests yet!





Before anyone asks. This is how I keep my seeds. I picked it up at Joann's. I don't have my tomatoes or herbs, in this. Those are still in shoe boxes waiting for me to figure out what to do with them.





Well last year I out grew the green house. So I picked up this green house. Hoping this is big enough to hold the over flow? We will see in about a week.


I put about 6 trays and 3 trees in there today. And then well took my eye off of it. Apparently a cat wanted a hand in things. So she jumped up and took out my lettuce tray. Not too big of a lost since I planted them that morning.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

The Wall Hanging


This popped into my head awhile back, been waiting for the perfect time to get it out of my head and onto fabric. Gotta make room up there! I designed the tree, the hearts are sizzix. I decided to actually go small and make it into a wall hanging verses a big quilt. It's not often I do something this small. I believe it's about a 2 x 3 foot size. Tabs on top to hang it. I can't tell ya how much I adored doing it and bummed I gave it away.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Weekly Update & Mortgage Challenge 3/19/14


Well it has been another week, not much I can mention here because of my level of piss-i-ness. I'm working on calming down. I'm working on trying to figure it all out. But it comes down to respect. Utter Respect. To know someone for over 10 years and to not pull them aside and say here is the deal. I had to find out from a police notice in the mail. My kids' freedom is nearly gone. And it's heartbreaking. They are NOT allowed out of my sight period. Trying to hover without them realizing it. New rules have been set. 

And honestly we can't wait to pack and move. It's something we chatted about again this week. It's part of the reason for the Mortgage Challenge. To have money in the house when we go to sell. Now that the 401k loan is paid off we can start saving, tiny amounts nothing to get excited over. BUT we are saving verses paying a loan company. 

We can't even think about leaving for awhile. We have decided not to make any plans until the in laws have passed, but knowing my mil she will never go. But set ourselves up now to be in a really good spot. For when we go we want to pay cash for a house and be mortgage free. But we need more land, we need breathing room, and we could really use a wee bit bigger house.

Our mortgage this week went from 120,600 to 120,470. Come first of April still set up to be out of the 120's. That will be exciting. Every week it's more and more of a relief. 

This week we are setting up a second green house. Next week temps will be going up and with that some of the starts will slowly be moving out to the new green house. Any tomatoes with second set of leaves, flowers, leeks and such. Hoping to regain half of the hallway. As you can barely walk in it now with two tables. Even with the tables I have found a cat on the tomatoes twice. With that loosing some. I was able to save some, but not others. So I've had to restart some. I'm not too worried about the timing. I have started as late as May and still got tomatoes. I don't want to do that this year, so as they get second set of leaves they will leave the house as not to get damaged by my house full of pets! 

Speaking of pets. So exciting, two dogs are going in Tuesday to be fixed. Buddy and Vader. After that all animals will be fixed and that is a good thing. I don't like surprise babies. And so logically no animals here can have babies. Yeah, Logically! 

Other then that, just working with the starts, in the garden, the budget, sewing, felting and swagging.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Weekly Update & Mortgage Update

And it has been a week.







Strawberry bed is done. YEAH! Now to weed block the aisles, get some pavers and to bark.






I cleaned up Tuckers bed and topped it off with more dirt.





And cleaned out Ethan's bed and topped it off as well. We are finally out of dirt. Thank God!





I got this project done the other week, but Finally got it mailed. So I will post it later, when I know the person has received it.


I got two of these all sicked. It started out Friday night all night long with Ethan throwing up. He was then stuck on the couch until Monday. What is today? Wednesday, so Tuck went down last night, we finally had throwing up today. All over my living room floor. Got that cleaned up and him in a bath, and into bed early. Hoping he sleeps all night. 

So last Friday started out as a good day. We ran south for some errands and hit goodwill and came home with boxes and boxes of jars. Probably my biggest haul from a goodwill, our 401k loan would be paid off today. Anywho talking about what a good day we were having and then BOOM. I got hit with something I wasn't expecting. And I won't go into lots of details here. But I want to remind people there are two sides to every story. Just because one person is telling you one thing, doesn't mean that there isn't another side. It's best to know both sides of a story because making any judgements. 

You may know someone for 30 years and not realize there is a whole other side to a person. But there is. I don't know, I hope this whole issue doesn't turn into a "thing" because I am in no mood, I have no time and this person will just be removed and I won't turn back. I should have left this person when she kicked me out at 19 and I should never have said another word to her. When people don't add anything positive to your life it's easy to just say bye. 

Just remember there are two sides to every story. Please know both sides before making any judgements. 

Something else on my mind. Right before my neighbors mom passed on I remember a talk we had. And she was PISSED. She had just been hit with cancer and it was bad, actually it took her in less then two months it was so quick. But why she was Pissed? Not because of cancer. But because she had just gotten to a point in her life where she was free, she had no husband, no kids under foot, grandkids doing ok. She was ok money wise. But her life was her life and she could do as she wished and she was liking that freedom. 

Got to thinking about the issue that happened on Friday. And once you retire. From about age 60 on, and if you have your health. You don't have kids living with you. Your time is yours. Boy my mother in law took full advantage of this time. From book club to red hat to everything else she does. She is packed busy and out there doing. Just amazing how different people are? I have a mother that is doing nothing but whining because no one is taking care of her. She has all this time, get a hobby? Join a club? take a hike? nope spends her days yelling and whining because no one is there to take care of her. Sad when she is gone and looking back on life to see all the whining. 

Maybe that is why I like sewing and gardening. I could spend hours and hours just lost at the sewing machine. I have so many ideas and not enough time. I don't know just thoughts? 

So anyway a good week money wise. The 401k loan is paid off. YEAH! We now have that money back in our pay check which will allow us to hit small saving goals. really, really small goals. 

The Mortgage is down to 120,600. Still on track that the first week of April to be out of the 120's. 

Hoping for a quiet week ahead. Quiet and no spending of money! Oh and sick kids getting better and I don't want a third one sick.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Weekly Update & Mortgage Challenge






Yeah, these two are just cute. Well except for tonight when I found a pup digging up my tomato starts! Trying hard to calm down right now. Needless to say they are on a table now and I will check in the morning, on how many I lost. It's still early I can replant. Just beyond pissed. And he actually knows it.





We finished putting in these three beds. We have room for more, but stopped. Moving brick and dirt into the back field is really hard work. Plus going through goats and such.





Then I tore up this area. Put down more weed blocker so I'm ready to bark. I installed the filing cabinets, plus two planters. I will paint the filing cabinets at another time.


And since we still have yet more dirt left, I tore out the last strawberry bed. I wanted to do it last spring, but ran out of time. So it was overtaken by grass last year. We also tore up the grass next to the bed, we will put down weed blocker and pavers and bark it. This bed was just in ruins so out went some of the wood. So we need to replace the wood and weed block and fill and hopefully then run out of dirt? Get to that when ever it wants to stop raining around here?

On the Mortgage Front doing very well. Tell ya it's dang hard. But when you see the numbers drop oh so worth it. From 121,120 to 120,732.17. That is paying the Mortgage payment, a little extra I saved and my weekly amount I have been doing. Tell ya I can't wait to be out of the 120's all together. 

Also this Friday is our LAST 401k loan payment. What an exciting day that will be. We have talked about some small saving goals. So starting to build that up this Friday if all goes well???? Just keeping things small. But if something happens, I want to be ok and ready and not ever think about borrowing from the 401k again! Once all saving goals are meet the money will go back into our weekly budget. Then maybe we won't be saying a lot of Make Do. Make Do. Make Do. No money so make do, can't afford food until such a day, make do.

Now if it stops raining we will be out working on that strawberry bed. Plus a whole list of chores to do. Oh and two puppies are being fixed at the end of the month. That is ever so exciting. Although apparently I'm the one excited? Go Figure?