Aaaaaahhh

Do you hear that huge sigh of relief?

You should. It's pretty big.

DH called while I was out for lunch to tell me that he just got his paycheck and obviously received the rest of his supplementary pay for directing the plays and running the newspaper, which came at just the right time. It made his paycheck double what it normally is. Considering I wasn't sure how we would be paying all our bills this month since we used up all our savings and our expenses are slightly more than our income no matter how I finagle the budget. I had just been hoping to get all our tax stuff together ASAP so we could get our refund back. It has been for a LOT of money the past few years (three kids = lots of deductions). But now I don't have to wait quite as anxiously. As soon as I'm finished writing this post I will be opening up Microsoft Money and balancing the budget and seeing where we stand.

I came to a huge financial realization a few days ago. While I agree that watching my sister's newborn along with my three and her other child will be challenging (to say the least), all along I've been thinking how great that extra money will be. I've even started fantasizing: being able to pay all the bills at the beginning of the month, putting something into savings each month, maybe being able to afford regular cable in BOTH tvs . . . Well, I don't know how I missed this, but to make life a little easier for myself, I decided that I couldn't run my Mom's Morning Out at the same time I'm watching the baby - it would just be too much. Somehow I didn't really stop to think about the fact that I would therefore not be receiving that money, which when I worked it out, comes to the exact same amount of EXTRA income I will be receiving from my sister when I start watching the baby. In other words, there will be NO change in our income at ALL!!! Yeah. Just peachy.

DH has been working late the last few days (they just auditioned and started rehearsals for their next show at school), and for the first time ever, the kids have been REALLY affected. We start each morning with one or both of the boys crying and whining for their daddy. B was saying, "I miss my daddy." over and over again. When I told him that he would see him tonight and then all day tomorrow, but he had to go to work today, he tearfully replied, "That makes me so sad." I'm glad that he's able to verbalize his feelings (can you tell I've been working on that a lot with them?) but, man, that just breaks my heart.

I did something totally out of character today. I knew the boys would be upset that we were not staying for lunch today. We're in between sessions for the Friday afternoon program I run at the Temple (which includes a brown bag lunch), so we weren't staying today. On the drive over to the pick them up, I started thinking about the lack of friends I have even though there are so many women that I am friendly with and what I could do about it. So, I stepped out of my comfort zone and invited one of the other moms that I have enjoyed chatting with while we wait to pick up the kids and her son to go out to lunch with all of us. She agreed (and seemed very happy to be asked), and we had a terrific lunch at McDonalds. I'm so proud of myself.

Okay, off to fold the laundry and then balance the on-line checkbook.