Wait, I have to do ALL of this???

Running a house.  It’s one of those things that mom and dad don’t really prepare you for anymore.  You don’t hear anything about bills, a mortgage, or the little things that make it a life instead of just existing.  You don’t hear about the anticipation of tax time, or adult Christmas as we look at it in our house.

Since it’s the first day of the new year, I’m doing the expenses for December, and a budget outlook for 2011 based on 2010’s numbers.  All I can say is thank goodness we’re getting a return.  The budget, despite my best efforts, is always short the last few months of the year.  We have huge overdraft fees.  I’ve had to choose between insurance or food.  But we always make it to the end of the month to begin anew.

Hopefully, with not having to replace two sewing machines this year, I can actually save myself from this type of stress, that paying for a plane ticket for Donovan to come home won’t break us for the rest of the year. 

Oddly enough, I’ve got a good feeling about the coming year.  New house, the van will get fixed, and I can put a good chunk of it away.  I hope.  I’ve got a set amount for each thing that we do that HAS to be put away.

I also have to figure out if we’re going to go to Estrella War.  It’s this huge war in Arizona put on by the SCA.  I’ve never been, the kids were always too little.  I doubt that I will though.  The thought of doing another war with the kids and the dog ALONE is the stuff of nightmares.