I pondered the chart all day, it takes me longer than to average bear to comprehend everything, I was also listening to Suze Orman on a podcast, her callers giving a pile of numbers, asking her can I afford this or that.
Current figures indicate it takes some $226,000 per child to raise a child from birth to adulthood. Do the math.
$226,000 X 39 = right at NINE million dollars. See? Not possible on paper, but with God all things are possible. Living beneath the federal poverty guidelines at all times, oh well.
Living sacrificially makes me feel good about myself, I don't need anyone's gratitude, this feeling comes from within and can't be taken away from me.
Frugality is my exercise. I literally obsess over my spreadsheets and charts almost every single day., conjuring up possibilities to get us through the month.
Michael took my four oldest sons last night to move furniture, but the fellowship, the leadership example they get from him is nothing short of amazing. They adore him and later found themselves where we can never afford to go, Five Guys, nor would I want to as I don't eat dead cows, but they all came home smiling happily, resuming the nightly game of Shoot-out.
Michael was asked if the boys were his there at the restaurant. He's 28 for Pete's sake, if I was his wife, I'd have been insulted. She's a stunningly beautiful woman with two young children, not four older teenagers.
Martin successfully completed summer school, now joining Allen at the Parks Department job.
"I know this sounds ghetto," one of my grown daughters told me over the phone, "but my baby's daddy is helping me out."
Deep sigh.
I'm just glad I suppose that she recognizes that she could be doing better. I prefer that the thought come from within her, rather than from my mouth.
"Why do you talk to Dr. Mandy?" Jack asked me quizzically, positive I'm the smartest woman on earth since he's lived here his entire life and has watched me navigate some tough, tough challenges.
I explained that everyone needs counsel, advice, suggestions and perspective, that's the tact I take with my kids also when addressing their therapeutic needs.
Finishing up at dark last night, Jack, Tabby, Nando and Scotty all standing there watching me weed, they were pigging out on blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries, it's with no little amount of satisfaction that I look at my gardens. I still see a ton of work to do, yet I've made mongo progress this past year.
I stopped at a yard sale this morning when taking Allen and Martin to work. Got a perfectly unused North Face book bag for pennies on the dollar. A hundred dollar book bag. Who on earth has a spare one hundred dollars for a book bag? It blows my mind. Do you know how many blueberry bushes that could buy instead? I transplant the shoots each fall thus ending up with free blueberry plants.
Life doesn't have to be expensive, one just needs to be willing to work at stuff.
Nando proudly got a bucketful of eggs from the chicken coop.
"Folks think we're rich," Lily told me, she of the Ed Hardy shirts and shoes - again pennies on the dollar.
Why am I emphasizing brand names here when I'm so not a fan of them? Just to demonstrate how easy it is to own them if one so desires to do so, and Lily does, so here I am making her happy for pennies. Lily's so creative that she can buy stuff and reconfigure it, thus making it uniquely hers. She certainly has a particular style.
Allen wearing Lily's tiara and JoJo wearing Lily's tie. I have no explanation.
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2 comments:
I just killed a spider plant and I'm not sure why it didn't make it. Should I have put it right in the window like you did? How often do you water yours? I think they are so pretty and I was very disappointed when it died.
Thanks, Jaime
Spider plants do well in the sun, I water when the soil is dry but really when I think about it, I mean heck, I root them in water so I'm supposing they can't be over-watered. Sometimes they just die, sometimes they're diseased from the plant nursery of origination.
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