Sorry, sorry, sorry. I know, I should update more. There’s tons of exciting stuff going on, which would be fun to talk about, but with all the excitement, there’s less time to write, etc., etc.
The most prevalent thing right now is our coordinating a Financial Peace University course at our church this spring. We just had “orientation” this past weekend, and classes start on February 10.
In typical Beth-like fashion, the decision to do this went something like this:
1) I want to attend Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsey’s 13-week personal finance course).
2) The closest FPU is in Hazelwood (way far away from us).
3) Why can’t we just have the class at our church?
4) Talk to a couple of people to see if it’s OK. It is.
5) Call Dave Ramsey’s company to get more info.
6) Get all excited about it.
7) Commit to coordinating the class this spring.
8) Realize the huge commitment this actually is.
9) Oh, crap.
But we are muddling through. Despite my rather pitiful promotion of the thing, our enrollment is very respectable. I won’t be talking about any of the folks’ details here because it’s all confidential of course, but I will continue to keep you all updated about our progress towards debt freedom and the like.
Speaking of progress, we hit a bit of a snag in the ole debt snowball this month as Tim underestimated (by nearly half) my income for the past year. The fact that my income has grown so much over the past year (even with a month off for the baby) is great. The fact that we hadn’t been paying estimated tax payments quarterly since we thought the new little tax deduction would cover it is not. Great, that is. So we had to send off an emergency tax payment to the IRS this month.
What is super-great, though, is that we actually had the money. When Tim got really down about his miscalculation, I reminded him that, if this had happened only six months ago, we would have been sunk. I mean, trying to come up with three grand back then would have seemed impossible! Now, I wrote out the check without even hyperventilating. Would I have rather the check been to Ford Credit? You bet your sweet bottom. But, hey, the next one will be. I just need to get the numbers figured out for February.
Not that I’m obsessed with our budget. Who has time?
Elliott is —–>this<------ close to crawling. He is scooting everywhere on his bottom, and that, combined with his rolling and general squirming skillz means that the kid can get just about anywhere he likes. Which is wherever the paper is. The boy has a serious jones for paper. And woe to you, sir, if you should take away the paper once he has it. Wherever did he get that temper??? We’re in a good patch with Auggie too right now. I hate to risk a jinx, but he is just a super little boy and I couldn’t be prouder to be his mom. What a lucky mom I am.