Another Friday, another peek into the chaos, calm, and everything in between. Here's what’s been on my mind this week…
ONE.
I finally got my new planner in the mail this week! It’s been a couple of years since I’ve used a paper planner but I’ve had enough with scattered post-it notes and my scattered brain so here we go again! I went with Plum Paper and I’m really happy with it. I added the bill tracker to it and am now wishing I’d also added some notes pages and the blog tracker, but maybe next year! My planner is set to start in December so in the meantime, I have become sticker happy! I love all the pretty layouts people do. I’m not very creative visually, but I’ve ordered some stickers off Etsy (yay!) and I’m excited to see what I can come up with.
TWO.
Some of you may know that lately, I’ve become really interested in finances. I've been reading finance books and have started following finance blogs. While this is decidedly not a finance blog, I have some exciting news to share regardless: as of last Thursday, we have zero credit card debt! I’m really not a credit card fan AT ALL. I know that people use them for a variety of reasons, but I try to avoid them at all costs except for emergencies. Sometimes this means we have to wait weeks or months to buy things we want since I wait until we have the money and refuse to charge it. While this can feel disappointing at times, it’s best in the long run. Anyway, we had a small balance on our Visa card from my maternity leave and bathroom project, and we also had a Lowe’s balance from last year when we had to buy a new fridge and dishwasher. After throwing as much extra money on them as possible, they are now back to zero! I’m so excited because that means we’ve been able to start saving a bit more too and rebuilding our emergency fund. We now have three debts TOTAL: our mortgage, my student loans, and our auto loan. Now granted, they are pretty large debts, but it feels good to say we only have three. Hooray!
THREE.
I like to start my Christmas shopping early so I can spread out all the spending it entails, and so far, Jerry and I have been able to cross two people off our list… not too bad so far, right? I’ve also been trying to come up with gift ideas for Caleb. We’re not going crazy on gifts for him this year since he’ll be clueless about it, but we do want to get a few.
FOUR.
I recently upgraded to an “enhanced” DVR and I am much more excited about it than I should be. I can now tape up to six shows at once (used to be only two) and it can store about ten times more on it! My DVR is jam packed now with all kinds of shows (that I don’t have time to watch, but whatever). I’m loving a lot of the new fall shows including a bunch of sitcoms: Dr. Ken, The Grinder, Grandfathered, and Life in Pieces. I’ve also started watching Code Black, Quantico, and Scream Queens, all of which I’m way behind on but really enjoying. I also have Limitless, Wicked City, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on the DVR but still haven’t gotten to start them yet. I like to try as many of the new shows as I can, but lately, I have no time! As for what I’m reading: a really good horror/mystery book called Bliss House by Laura Benedict as well as several nonfiction titles. On deck will be Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling for my book club and because I love her. After that, it’ll be all Christmas books all the time! I’m most excited for Richard Paul Evan’s newest, The Mistletoe Inn.
FIVE.
In Caleb news, he’s started saying a couple of words! After months of practicing with him, he finally decided to start saying “Dada” and “Mama” last weekend. I really don’t think he knows what the words mean yet, but it still feels pretty awesome to hear him saying “mamamama!” I love it! He’s also up to 65 books in our baby reading program at my library which he will complete after 100 and get his photo up on the wall of fame. The rules say you can count duplicate reads, but my OCD rules say that he must read 100 different books, and we’re at 65. Moving right along, I’d say, since the program just started a little over a month ago. Once he finishes the Baby Bug program, he will move on to the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program. So fun. A lot of libraries are doing these programs so you should see if yours is, and if not, you can sign up on their site instead.
So that’s what’s going on in our world lately. Our weekend should be fairly low-key since I’ve recently started grocery shopping on Thursday nights. Jerry and I used to spend hours on Saturdays grocery shopping and running errands and it kind of sucked. Since he works evenings, the weekends are the only time we get together, so now we don’t have to shop on Saturdays anymore. I do have to work until two tomorrow (we do rotating weekends), but afterwards we are staying home and having a pizza night (Jerry’s request).
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