My lump sum payment came today. Phew. I'm glad it made it here safe and sound. I go back and forth between feeling guilty and lucky and happy and selfish about the money. *sigh*
Originally we were going to put 2K onto the LOC, but in the end we decided that we will put 1500K onto the LOC and the other $500 will go into the holiday fund because we REALLY want to go to the UK in June 2010.
I put $40 into the EF, and $30 each into the Car and House Fund.
I've updated the Side bars accordingly...I just need to make one for the UK 2010 trip.
1. Wading Pool
2. Splash Pad
3. Take one of the city Hikes
4. Have a fire in our backyard
5. Fill up the pool in the backyard and turn the hose on
6. Visit Assiniboine Park and the English Gardens and the Fish Pond
7. Have Friends over to play a game
8. Go to the library
9. Take a walk to the park
10. Visit Grandma for the afternoon
I was hoping that my money would have come today...but it looks like it won't be here until Monday. :( Boo on them.
I've been working on a design for a welcome banner for my church's Family Sunday services. I made this mock up in Publisher quickly at lunch today.
The idea is that it will be made out of felt and the hands are hands of congregation members that I traced last week. It'll be lots of bright colours.
What does everyone think? It will involve a lot of sewing! I think I am going to go visit my Grandma.
We also have tickets to Star Trek for tonight! I'm soooooo excited!
It's official! The Lump Sum Payments are out! I should get mine in the mail tomorrow. Fingers are crossed and I'm saying prayers that I get it tomorrow and it doesn't get lost in bureaucracy land.
I've heard rumors that after taxes the checks are for $2,484. It's sad that it's taxed that much. I was budgeting to get $2500, but secretly hoping that it would be more like $3000 or $3500...but alas, I don't think that's going to happen. Anyways, free money is nothing to complain about.
This is the plan for the monies....
- 2K onto LOC (Yippee Skippee!!! -- this will bring our LOC total to $1,964)
- $20 to EF (slowly but surely)
- $20 to House Fund (baby steps)
- $20 to Car Fund (baby steps again)
- $40 to Holiday Fund (saving for long weekend in September)
- $100 ($50 each for spending on whatever we want)
- $150 for fantastic night out (cause we like to have fun)
- $134 to save for Andrew's birthday party and Andrew's birthday present (which is in 1 month)
I've been maintaining my Excel Savings Tracker for 2 months now. I love updating it every time money transfers into our saving account, or my payroll savings bond get taken off my pay, or I add change to my Christmas Spare Change Jar, or I get a check from PineCone Research. I'm also improving my skills with Excel, a program that I rarely get to use at work except for my little Excel Tracking Sheet that doesn't use any formula's.
According to my nerdy tracking in March we saved a total of $245.96. This includes everything: EF, Holiday Fund, Car Fund, House Fund, and Christmas Fund. Not too shabby! Seeing the numbers grow every week is an awesome feeling!
But wait! It gets even better! (excuse the exclamation points) In April we saved a total of $251.73!!!!!! $5.77 more. Small, but exciting to me.
I find it absolutely amazing and astonishing that all this started with $10 a week just over 1 year ago. Sometimes I get discouraged about the amount of debt we still carry (4K on the LOC and 14K on the Consolidation Loan and the mortgage) and I get upset at how slowly those numbers are going down. & it sounds silly to say this, but when I start feeling down about the money situation I open up my little Excel Savings Tracker and look at the amount of our total savings. That always makes me feel better.
Dinah is pleased.
Today was the first Sunday that we had Family Sunday at my new/old church. It went so well! The minister got this fabulous resource book called "A Year's Worth of Children's Church" and we are going to use it to help plan the Sundays. It sets up each service into simple and easy to understand parts. Cheering, Sharing, Listening, Exploring, Singing, and Praying. I think it's a wonderful book and I can't wait to use it.
The minister did most of the work on this service and the theme was "Using Our Hands & Noah's Ark". I was solely responsible for the activity in the Exploring section and we finger painted! Each child made a lovely little poster that said "Our Feet Take Us To Where Our Hands Do God's Work" (I put up a picture of Andrew's Poster--he got distracted while he was stamping his hand...). After they did that they went wild finger painting on a huge piece of paper.
I also got my Mom to trace everyone's hands onto felt and I'm going to make a Welcome Banner out of them that the chldren will carry around at the beginning of the Family Sundays.
I really enjoyed myself today. Husband even came and helped! Andrew had a ball and so did the other kids. This really feels like the right thing for me to be doing right now. I feel connected to this and today I felt at ease with the children and helping to lead the worship hour. I felt more connected to God and to my Church then I have in a very long time. Today I did not feel like I was running blind. Instead it felt as if I was acting on behalf of a bigger entity. Today I realized that this is what going to church and being part of a church community and being Christian is supposed to feel like.
Praise be indeed!
PS. Just for good measure I'm throwing in a recent picture of Andrew being his silly old self. :)
We have saved 100% for the camping trip at the end of May! A big ol' pat on the back of my back. :P
I've added a new widget to start saving for our little camping trip that is scheduled for September long weekend. I've estimated that the cost will most likely be about the same for this trip and we should easily save the $215 by September.
Husband also wants to start saving for a trip to the UK in June 2010. His very close friend is getting married and he wants to go. He also wants to go and visit his friends and family. He's not been there since Andrew was born...so over 4 years. The UK trip will be the next big saving scheme.
the concert was lovely. leonard was lovely. his music was beautiful. everything was beautiful. i'm so glad that i had the opportunity seeing him perform live. it was an honour.
it was certainly hard to believe that he is 74 years young. it was also quite interesting being at a concert that had audience members ranging in age from their 20's to their 70's.
i heard every song i could have hoped to hear. from 'waiting for a miracle' to 'closing time' to 'hallelugiah' to 'the future'.
this is a much younger leonard, but i think this might be my new favourite leonard song.
