Life in motion

Everyone who knows me knows that I am not exactly the most . . . organized person around. SIGH! It's not that I don't try. I have good intentions but then those intentions fizzle after a few days of not getting any help around the house from anyone else. With Nate right on the verge of crawling – I predict that by his 7 month "birthday" he will be crawling, and that is such a short time frame from now (about 2 weeks, give or take a couple days), I have got to get that apartment into tip top shape. Yesterday was spent in spurts of starting to get it cleaned up in 15 minute intervals – thanks FLYLADY.com for that hint. It makes it less tedious.

I also have gotten a great kick out of using my awesome and super cheap electric "fly swatter" to kill the gnats that have invaded our house – we found a part of a lime down the garbage disposal that wasn't "disposed" of, which has been the cause of a swarm of gnats. UGH! Lime is gone and I've had great fun zapping the suckers and seeing the bright spark and hearing the loud popping noise. The portable bug zapper looks like a small tennis racket and cost $3 at Harbor Freight! It's sooooo addictive. Heeheehee! Takes 2 DD batteries too. But one word of caution – DO NOT TOUCH the metal zapper when the button is pressed. My very much deserving ex-husband just had to try my mom's a few years ago. He touched his finger to it and zapped his fingertip black as well as said several choice words. Served him right after all he did to me and our daughter. LOL!

There's also discussion about moving in with my mom to save some money on rent for a couple months in order to get us caught up. It would save us almost $7400 if we lived with her for 6 months – that's just on rent and water alone. In turn, I could use half of that money to put back into my savings account to replenish the several thousand dollars of what was left of my inheritance that ended up going toward bills to keep our heads above water. I now have 10¢ left of it after making a final transfer to cover Nate's tuition, rent and electricity. The other half would go toward Nate's hospital bill from when he was hospitalized twice in January for RSV.

It seems that while I have become hyper vigilant about what needs to be paid and taking care of the bills/debts, Oscar is completely the opposite. It's kind of like it completely escapes his mind that aside from the "normal" monthly bills to be paid, that there is the need to give me the inheritance money back that was used for bills to keep a roof over our heads, clothes on our back and food in our tummy, pay Nate's hospital bill AND pay my mom back for all the money SHE paid to make sure he could keep his truck and bike. He doesn't understand that it is not "out of sight, out of mind, out of problems" but rather, "if it doesn't get paid, it goes on our credit scores to wreck them".

I really don't think he's ever had anyone tell him he couldn't get something he wanted and that the bills have to come first. It was kind of a shock to him. I just want to get out of debt (of which, really, there isn't much, but enough to make me sweat right now) and have a good grasp on our finances so that if either one of us loses our jobs in the future we don't have to panic. I thank God mightily for His provisions for us over those several months of Oscar being out of a job, but I'd rather not have to have, God forbid, another several months of joblessness and wondering how I'm going to afford formula and diapers for Nate and food for Emily's lunches. Thank God for His mercies and grace.

I have looked into Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University at our church, which starts this week. I am making Oscar go to it with me – zero excuses, unless he has to work out of town for storm breaks – which could bring in major money for us. The class charge is $50 per person for 13 weeks which includes the class kits. It's Wednesdays at 7PM. So much for going to Hill's this year for the free concert series, but really, getting our finances in order is vastly more important to me.

My concern is that Oscar will make excuses to not go and if he's not there, he's not going to understand the incredible importance of being financially sound and he'll continue to make the same mistakes over and over again where finances are concerned. As it is right now, once he got his first paycheck on this job and paid a small part of the bills this month, he completely blew off the hospital bill and paying me and my mom back and had his heart set on upgrading his Harley to a bigger model – at double what he's paying now. I put my foot down and let it be known that I was not saying "no" for good, just "no" for right now b/c #1 HE (and we) can't afford it at this time #2 there are BILLS that need to be paid #3 with his credit right now, the last thing he needs is to be getting a bigger bike he can't afford and would have to give up for not being able to afford and #4 we have got to get our feet back under us financially first before we do anything else. He was really ticked about it, but after he calmed down and a couple days of reflection – and gentle reminders, he realized that I was right. I know he wants to "play", but right now we have to work hard.

Since when did I become a responsible adult? LOL! I'd love nothing more than to be able to tell Oscar he can get the bigger bike he has his heart set on, but that's not reality right now. Dave Ramsey's philosophy is "live like no one else now so later you can LIVE like no one else". I can't wait to go through this course!

If you have a moment, please pray that Oscar finds the will to make the classes that he's already signed up and paid for (my mom is the one paying for us to go b/c she believes just as strongly as I do that we really, truly need to go through this). I know this will be hard for him, but we need to take control of our already tight finances and he needs to get the proper mindset about everything.