The weekend was full of family, enjoying the water, and celebration. Exhausting! Luckily I have a short work week, looking forward to relaxing over the upcoming weekend.

I will be busy the rest of this week getting the condo rented. The tenant moves out today, so I will meet up with her to do the final walk-thru after work. And I have several people interested in looking at the condo tomorrow after work. So hopefully by the weekend I will have a new tenant. A little hectic, to be sure, but once the new tenant is in place things will relax a bit. This stuff gets easier with practice. Also I'm learning to just plunge ahead with the tasks that need to be taken care of, instead of avoiding and hoping the issues will just "disappear".

My savings is a bit stalled at the moment. With the child support delay while exhusband is in the process of retiring from the military, and a huge payment to my student loan that was not expected, I've actually had to take out of savings this month. I do get paid tomorrow, though, and I'm still expecting tuition reimbursement. If I don't get the reimbursement this paycheck I will be calling to check on it. I've got till the end of June, though, to make my goal, so I can still make it!

Well, trying to! I placed an ad for my condo to get a new renter, my current tenant leaves on the 31. Today I will call our handyman to paint, and call another company to clean the carpets. I also want to replace the stove in the house, but I don't think that will get done this weekend, maybe after work one night next week. I'm going to have a very busy weekend because my big brother is getting married!

So the biggie for this weekend: wedding and family.
Biggie for next week: finding a new tenant and getting condo spruced up.
Biggie for the next two weeks after that: wrap up school.

Child support money will be a bit uncertain for the next few months. ExH is retiring from military, and needs to find a civilian position. He didn't plan very well, and some expensive repairs have cropped up on the house he rents out, so CS will be delayed a bit until things settle with him. I wish I could go in there and "take charge" of finances, but that is no longer my job! Really as long as he pays CS I should have no comments on how he chooses to spend his money. He has always been very good with taking care of our kids financially, even beyond CS, so I know that once he adjusts to this new phase in his life he will continue to do so.

After just a few hours on Amazon, my textbook sold! I ship it out today. After shipping and Amazon fees I clear $93. Not too shabby! That will go in the cruise fund, to finally break the $800 mark.

I had a fun weekend. Some great family time outdoors, a girls night out, church, and home doing crafts and cooking. Even quality time with SO!

I found a cute teddy bear at the thrift store and stitched some "fidgets" on it for my students. Part of my new craftiness! I was proud of myself at the end. And it was a lot of fun.

There will be plenty to keep me busy until June. 6 days until my brother's wedding... lots of anticipation! I do have a cold, though, so I need to get better soon. I'm also waiting to hear if I will be offered a position for summer school.

I have a small cloth basket on my desk that is wide enough to fit file folders and other papers. During the week I quickly scan through mail, hold onto the stuff that I need, and drop it off in the basket on my desk. That way I toss the unneeded stuff right away and get it out of my kitchen. Then when I've got some downtime (like early Sunday morning while the rest of the house is still sleeping)I check the basket. I have a chance to schedule bills online, jot down dates in my calendar, and file everything away or toss it away after bills have been paid. Some things linger in there a while, but this way I have to see it every week until I take care of it or decide it isn't of value. I try to keep the basket as empty as possible.

I'm starting a new hobby, teaching myself a new craft. So this weekend I've been hunting for materials around town, pricing them online, and just getting set up. It's kind of fun getting into something new. I don't really "create" much, and I am now enjoying the process. I'm not allowed to tell myself that I am not "crafty" or creative. Everything has a learning curve, and I'm going to stick with it until I get better!

I listed a textbook on Amazon. I wanted to try this route before just selling it directly to a textbook company, as it looks like I can make a good $50 more listing it myself. Of course, if it doesn't sell, then I've made nothing, and I will sell it to the textbook brokers. But I'm going to give it a little time to try to sell first.

I received my paycheck yesterday, and all of my bills are scheduled to go out for the 15th. I still haven't received my tuition reimbursement in the amount of $850. That will be nice whenever it gets here, though it will go straight into savings.

I received a $5 rebate in the mail, which will go to the cruise fund. That brings the cruise total to $767. I'm chugging along to $800!

I am also still waiting to hear about summer school. I applied this year because it is super close to my house and will be very convenient. Although a few assistants who applied have been notified that they weren't selected, it haven't heard one way or the other. There is a lot of competition for the positions this year because the program was slashed due to funding, so there are very few positions available.

My brother is getting married on Memorial Day weekend, so there is loads to get done before the big day. May is swooshing by, it seems!

This time of the month gets a little dull, financially. I've put money in savings, paid the bills, now I have what is left over to work with until the next paycheck. Repeat.

I'm such an optimist, though. I'm just thankful my finances are "boring" at the moment. I've had the days when everything breaks at once and the savings account dwindles to zilch to cover it all. I'd much rather have boring finances!

I will, however, continue to seek out opportunities to improve my finances and learn more. Soon I will be looking for a new tenant. That is some income. I have applied for summer school. That is another opportunity. It's something.

I'm already looking forward to next weekend!

I did a 5K "extreme" mud race this weekend. Mud is much more painful than I thought! There were mud hills, walls to climb, tunnels, water pits,and barbed wire to crawl under. It was great, a lot of fun! I'm also proud of myself for accomplishing this, I'm in much better shape than I was in my 20s, even though I might have weighed a little less back then (I'm 35 now).

There will be some big meetings this week, as well as another field trip. Busy, busy! It makes the week go by fast. I plan on getting my exercise in through a zumba class this evening, followed by a dance class. I've done two sessions of yoga/stretching already this month towards my 555 goals.

On the financial front, I received a $14 check from selling books. This will go right into the cruise fund. I will also be taking $160 out of savings to pay for an appointment for SO and myself.

Hope everyone has a productive week!

For some reason I'm up an hour early. I feel like I've gotten enough sleep, so I'll just enjoy the quiet.


So I stole Baselle's idea to add a 5 year goal because I realized that I froze up at the idea of where I want to be in 5 years. Maybe the timeline is just too close to fathom my wildest dreams? But I'm putting them down here. As ridiculous as some of them may seem, or as dull, I'm putting them out there for SA to see. I'm just telling myself, why the heck Not?! Why can't I set anything I want for a goal?

-Have a Baby with SO (working on this!)
-Live somewhere tropical with my family(SO is working on this with the military orders)
-Teach overseas (assuming we get the military orders SO is working on)
-Take family on a fabulous trip to celebrate oldest DDs 18th bday, assuming she wants to hang out with us (hypervenilating at the thought that my baby will be 17.5 in 5 years!)We're thinking Australia, or Africa
-Purchase a small place somewhere warm on the water in the states (rent it out in the meantime), or in previously mentioned tropical paradise

I know that anything can happen, and that is one of the scary things about putting dreams and goals on paper- the possibility of heartache. Just like love But you can't get anywhere without taking the risk of dreaming, and then taking steps to make it possible. I know that these goals might get changed, for example, depending on college options for DDs. Or SOs orders. And life happens- better than you can imagine and the devastating. But you've got to start somewhere!

When it comes down to it, I'm perfectly content to stay where we are, with my little family and steady job and comfortable home. These other goals are just icing, a new way to enjoy life and see different things. I figure I'll go for the icing now, while we are in the position to do so. But I also know that WE (that's me with my family) will do just fine wherever we end up!

Now I have to think of some goals for myself!

1. Run 5 extra miles this month- 1 extra mile per workout
2. Complete 5 yoga routines from my yoga app
3. Replace my 3rd cup of coffee with a cup of hot herbal tea (this one is going to be tough!)
4. Cook at home 5 out of 8 weekend dinners. This one will also be tough and requires some planning.
5. Whip up smoothies for breakfast/lunch- I would love for this to become a new habit!

5 year goals- In the next 5 years, I will:
-still working on these. This one is tough, because I know that I WANT to complete a specific certification program, but this program requires a lengthy practicum that involves logging in hours over the course of a couple years. I don't know if I'm going to be in the same area for a few more years.