I have been stopping by blogs but just haven’t updated my own.  Life is crazy.   It is the busiest time of the year for me and things will be sane again in January.  I plan on taking at least a week off in January. 

– MONDAY –

I woke up early and actually had some energy.  This is actually pretty rare, especially since I haven’t been sleeping well.  Before going to work I fried and package 6 pounds on hamburger and washed two load of clothes.  I worked from 9:30 until about 7:30.  I got home a little after 8;00.  It is a bit of a drive from my office to my home.  I paid the bills and switched the laundry around.   Then it was off to bed.  Tommy and I read our Christmas book.  We started a great tradition last year we learned about from HeartWomb.   We wrap a Christmas book in wrapping paper for each say until Christmas.  Each night Tommy opens the book and we read.  He loves counting the books each night to see how many days until Christmas.  It is going to be a great memory for us!   I love that we do this every night.  SInce I am out of the house so much working I really cherish the time I can be with the kids and Hubby. 

– TUESDAY –

Up early again and doing ok.  Tired that is for sure.  I was up showered and dressed by 6:30.  I did the laundry and picked up a bit and was out the house by 7:50.  I headed off to Rosemount and did a couple of school observations.  I love observing in the early childhood classrooms.  The kids are so cute and have such energy.  The teachers are great!  One reason I liked it so much as I had though of becoming a teacher in Special Education.  But instead I ended up as a social worker for children with disabilities.   But I love early childhood special education. 

Stopped at the library over my lunch and picked up a couple of books.  And headed back to the office to get busy.   I have a homevisit tonight at 6:00 so it will be another long day.

MrsCatherine has a great entry on her blog about our wants vs. needs.  She reminds us that we are the sum total of our time and how we use those hours.  I wonder what that says about me…..I work too much and away from my family too much. 

We have been reviewing how we have done financially over the year with our new budget this year.  We seem to be right on target.   In November we committed paying off our credit cards and car loans.     We are using the snowball technique.  We pay the minimums on all payments and choose one that we pay an extra $100 on.  Once that one is paid off we roll that extra $100 and the minimum payment of that one onto the next bill.   I really hope we can keep up with doing this.  According to the projection we did, we should be able to have all this paid off by November 2007.  Then we will use the same system to hit the student loans and house.  We have to be debt free by retirement.  We are really working towards that goal, but it is hard with three kids and stuff. 

So I will be adding some tips here and there that have worked for us or that I want to try. 

TIP OF THE DAY: 

I sure wish we would have thought of this years ago!!  It is so simple and so helpful for us.  It was a DUH moment for us.  Each week at payday we put into savings 1/4 of our house payment.  Then at the end of the month when we need to make our mortgage payment it really isn’t so hard since we have been setting aside money for it each week.   One of us gets paid every Friday.  It is a great way to know you are on track budget wise, etc.