it's been a nice, quiet, productive weekend. things feel . . . more in control than they have in ages. saxy's dad sent us a little more money and we paid off the final bill, so we only have a few things left to finish catching up in the utility department. the kids have money on their school meal accounts to last them a little bit as long as they stay within the guidelines they were long since given. jewel and i have money on our phones for awhile, saxy has gas money, we've even covered food all around for a bit and have more money set aside for the next week or so. a few extras have been picked up - some new wrist braces for me, stamps, a few things for saxy's work, and so on. we had hoped to have a bit of a buffer, but i think we both knew that wasn't going to happen there's just too much that gets shoved aside in the need to survive that comes up when survival isn't in question. some are needs, others are wants, but there's always something.
in addition to progress in the bill department, i made progress in the writing department. not a lot - i'm still trying to recover from my 3 months off it seems - but some progress. i even have a new short percolating in my head. haven't done any writing on it yet, but it's there and will come out eventually. i'm also feeling much better since making a major decision about dii. really, one less thing to "worry" about--i'll just do what i need to do (which really is what i should have done since the beginning). not being so stressed about money, for the moment, or about dii should help with my writing by freeing more energy for it. now, let's all hope my motivation catches up to it.
my office also got a bit of a facelift this weekend. i finally cleared out 99.9% of the mess that had taken over. jewel helped set up and reorganize the new file cabinet and get some of the stack filed. we still need to get through taz's drawer, but i also need more of the wide hanging folder, so it can wait a little longer. at least i no longer have a 3" stack of stuff waiting to be put away. the floor is cleaned up--my teacher stuff that i don't use unless long terming is all tucked in a bin, oldest daughter's things got stored, and all the other miscellaneous stuff taking up floor space has all found new homes. i actually do have a floor in here! on top of al the cleaning, saxy found a good deal on picture frames and now my b.a. diploma, my sigma tau delta certificate, my certificate of recognition from e.o.p.&s., and my 2 e.o.p.s. plaques for being student of the year are all now hanging on the wall. we also framed a gift from kitten with saxy's and my names on it and some stuff about those names plus a picture of her in one of her dance outfits. it looks really nice.
finally, we had a bit of an early valentine celebration. saxy picked my up a stuffed "biker" tiger complete with a black "leather" jacket and the wrist bands. he has a t-shirt that says "wild thing" on it. saxy tucked a roll of sweethearts in one wrist band, a bag of candy heart is the front of his jacket, and hid the bo bice cd inside the back of the jacket. my husband so spoils me. he's also treated me to breakfast and cheesecake this weekend. unfortunately, his v-day stuff isn't here yet--we're waiting for amazon to send it. but he doesn't mind; he knows what he's getting and happy with it. he and do seem to take care of each other and keep each other in mind when we can.
so, really, a nice weekend. we're broke again--or almost broke, anyway--but quite content. things were looking dire not too long ago, and now everything is fine. it'll be a struggle to keep it that way, all things considered (we can't seem to get that damn gas bill below $200/month even when we keep the heat down as much as possible), but that's nothing new and at least we have respite for now . . . and a few nice extras to make that respite a little bit more fun.
