Simple Woman's Daybook Entry

Outside my window... It is a bit overcast and cloudy right now, at 8 a.m., but the day is supposed to be warm and sunny.

I am thinking... About skiing with Rylan tomorrow.  I need to figure out what we are wearing and I am thinking about the drive.  The news channel just showed the traffic on I-70 this morning, and it was horrible.  It won't be as bad tomorrow morning, but the drive home will be!

I am thankful... That earlier this week, when we went to McAlister's Deli for dinner, six year old Owen was happy to play along when I pointed to different letters around us and asked him, "What's this?"  Owen dislikes playing any sort of answer-call letter games.  He dislikes letters, period.  :/

From the Learning Rooms... I heard back from Colorado Calvert Online Academy this week - they received our applications and all three older kids are registered for the fall! (happy dance)  I feel such an immeasurable sense of relief.  We hit the books this week with a renewed sense of purpose, and it felt very good.  I looked into duoLingo this week, and brushed up on my rusty Spanish by completing the intro round of lessons.  It is not as entry-level as I had hoped - more adult-friendly then kid-friendly, but it is very thorough by requiring an equal amount of reading/writing/speaking in both English and the chosen language of study.  I think Jordan will benefit from it.  One drawback to Calvert is that it does not offer any type of foreign language, so I think this will be a good stand-in.

In the kitchen...Nothing but an empty cup of coffee...be right back!

I am wearing... The Saturday requisite of pj's and robe.  No socks.  And my freezing toes could really use a pair.  Be right back!

I am creating... Still trying to come up with a solution to coming up with a weekly menu.  I hate menu planning.  I hate shopping.  What might help me is a list of recipes to choose from.  So I am making a master list of about 20-30 favorite recipes for each of several different categories: chicken, beef, pork, fish, meatless, pasta, Sides, Salads, and breakfasts.  Each list is divided into three columns: the recipe name, where I can find it (book, file, iPad...), and the ingredients it calls for - apart from staple items.  That way, when I sit down to menu plan and write the shopping list, I am sitting down with 9 sheets of paper - not piles of cooking magazines, cookbooks or endlessly scrolling through Flipboard or my Facebook wall.  Last Sunday I worked on 'Sides', and it took me all day!  I now have a nice list of about 35 recipes to start with though!  That will probably evolve into my longest list, since it includes subcategories like rice, pasta (ex. orzo), grains (ex. couscous), legumes, and by vegetable.  Some of the recipes are on simple end, like 'Steamed carrots".  No recipe needed, of course, and all I need on my shopping list is a 1 lb. bag of carrots.  I am making sure that I have a good variety of recipe complexity  - including lots of slow cooker meals to help this homeschooling mom deal with Arsenic Hour.  This is going to take a long time to finish and fine-tune, but I hope that it is done by the end of April.  I am soooo tired of frozen fish sticks.

I am going... Well, if all goes well, Rylan and I are heading to Copper Mountain tomorrow.  We'll head over to the ski shop later this afternoon and get our skis, boots and poles.  Dean and Jordan went skiing in December, and Dean got a free lift ticket from Copper after enduring over an hour of being stranded on a broken ski lift.  He has been after me ever since to make use of this ticket.  I am not the biggest fan of Spring skiing since the snow can be sloppy, but the base is phenomenal with all the snow that we have had, and it is still cold enough up in the high country that it isn't all slushy like it usually gets in late March/ early April.  So we are going!  This will be Rylan's third time on skis, but she hasn't been since the season before last, so I don't know how she will do.  I am honestly not looking forward to it.  I am hurting all over since I just started back up with running this week (horrible timing), in my hips especially.  My shoulder is still not 100%, and I am not 100% from the BR surgery either.  I am terrified of falling, being in such tender shape right now.  I am a pretty decent skier so I don't usually fall, but with Rylan in the mix, she will undoubtedly cross my path and I will have to ditch to avoid her.  Hope for the best!

I am wondering...Hmmm.. nothing?

I am reading... In the non-fiction arena, I am reading Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion, edited by Dale McGowan.  It has been on my reading list for some time.  I didn't realize it was actually a collection of essays and such by a variety of authors, but I am enjoying it for the most part.  There are a couple of pieces so far that have made me cringe because of rather bold word choice, but other than that, I find it rather rewarding to read words on a page that echo my exact thoughts - it is comforting to finally hear other people who feel much the same as I do.  I don't discuss religion much with others, so at times it can feel like you are the only one who feels a certain way.

In regards to fiction, I am still slogging through Diana Gabaldon's Drums of Autumn.  It is almost punishing at this point.  I. just. want. to. finish. it. and move onto something 'funner'.

In the garden... Last week I picked my first tiny crop of butter lettuce and baby spinach, and it is just about time for picking again.  My 'crop' is planted in a single seed-starting flat, and sits in my large west-facing window.  We planted several weeks ago, and they are growing fast!  I will wait to transplant them outside for a couple more weeks.  We are also maybe just a couple weeks away from picking some fresh green beans.  The kids picked some dried-up bean pods that had poked through our fence from the neighbor's garden, so we planted them (indoors) in January to see what would grow.  Low and behold, the plants have climbed up a trio of 6 ft. bamboo poles and back again, flowered profusely and now numerous tiny green beans are growing.  It has been fun to watch it grow a few inches every day!

I am hoping... I don't hurt myself tomorrow..

I am looking forward to... Some mommy/daughter time!

I am learning... or 'relearning' Spanish verb conjugations.  uugh.

I am hearing...Owen singing along with a Backyardigans song on TV, Colin playing with toys upstairs and the washer entering the spin cycle.

Around the house... Today is 'get every-last-bit-of-laundry-done' day.  And 'find Colin's lost tennis shoe' day.

I am pondering... Not much, at the moment.

One of my favorite things... Vanilla yogurt, granola, sliced bananas and juicy blueberries.

A few plans for the rest of the week...Ortho appts for Rylan and Jordan.  Rylan is just finishing up 18 straight days of cranking her new expander, so now they will measure and determine the date the braces will go on.  Maybe Jordan will hear when his braces will finally come off.  Which is 9 months overdue, at this point.  We also have our homeschool science fair next weekend, so this coming week will be spent working on our projects.  Jordan will be presenting his work he is doing on his quadcopter, and Rylan is experimenting with making butter.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Denver Zoo, 2-27-14

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A change is on the horizon..

Colorado Calvert Academy

yep

It's no secret that this year has been difficult on the homeschooling front.  Or last year.  Or the year before that.  Or the year before that.  Each year has presented its own unique challenges, and the majority of them were mine in the making.  Apparently I thought that since I was a HSAHM, (homeschoolingstayathomemom), I had oodles of free time on my hands.  So I volunteered up the wazoo for whatever I could get my hands on in an attempt to prove myself to my toughest critic: me.  It totally backfired.  I learned that being too busy with fluff means that you won't have time to educate your kids.  My kids are not lacking in ability, but they are severely lacking in instruction time, and as the years have flown by, the accumulative effects are showing.

The lack of time can't be addressed until I clear my schedule.  This year has shown a very sharp decline in doctor appointments, thanks to resolving my shoulder issues last spring, and my BR last fall.  These appointments have been sneaky time-wasters.  I am resigning from our homeschool association's board, effective in May.  I am stepping down from leadership in the Girl Scout troop, also effective in May.  After three years, it's time for another mom to take the helm and share the burden.

So with all the 'free time' on the horizon, I intend to fill it with the things that had been desired all along -long lazy trips to the library, museums, afternoons spent reading, playing games and craft projects.  And I will have this time because someone else will be doing the legwork of the planning, the curriculum procuring, the grading, the feedback (some), the record-keeping.  That someone is Colorado Calvert Academy.

The clouds of discontent have been looming for years.  We knew the present situation wasn't working, but the answer was never to stop homeschooling.  We (Dean and I) love the freedom it provides, and we want the kids to stay at home.  But.  With days and days going by with minimal progress, what was going to be the catalyst for change?

For one thing, I have trouble getting things done when there is minimal accountability.  I am not the type of person that ever tried to sneak sloppy work by the boss in the hopes of squeaking by.  I was a type-A, straight-A student.  Sloppy is not acceptable.  But when there is no one looking over my shoulder, reminding me that I really need to stop surfing the internet and get schoolwork going, or that I need to stop wasting time in a fruitless effort to communicate with the unwilling masses of our homeschooling association, or that working on the finances of our Girl Scout troop during school time is not necessary...I will fritter away the hours.  Day after day.  I need accountability to keep me on track.  After seven years of not punching a time clock, I got lazy.  Very lazy.

Looking down the road, in the long-term, I feel a rise of panic when I realize, deep down, that our children will not be prepared to lead the kind of life we are hoping for, if nothing is done to change our course.

So enter Colorado Calvert Academy.  A fellow homeschooling mom has been using Calvert since her daughter was in K.  She has talked about their experiences over the years, but for whatever reason it never really appealed to me.  She used Calvert via a virtual school, and I think that was my turn-off.  I didn't want the pressure of staying on someone else's schedule.  Now I see that that very thing is what I need most.  In return for joining an online school and jumping through their hoops, I get a top-notch curriculum for free (you can do Calvert curriculum at home - to the tune of $1200/year/student), the teaching support, field trips, potential school friends for the kids, and relief from the financial burden of purchasing my own curriculum from at least 15 different sources on an annual basis.  The $$ savings will be huge.  HUGE.  Also factor in the time saved researching different curriculums - I have spent HOURS trolling the internet for new stuff, different stuff, ways to use stuff... on and on...  Not to mention, knowing how much to do in a day, pacing, working in too much of a subject area into the schedule or not enough... well, staying on schedule period...  I have always been akin to planning waaaay too much into a day.  The kids get burnt out and so do I.

We start when school officially begins, just after Labor Day.  I can't wait!!!

Sláinte!

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A mom turns 70

My mom celebrated her 70th birthday today. Mom invited her sister Sandy to come play duets in church (mom on organ, Sandy on piano), and then after church have a party with friends and cousins. My mom and aunt Sandy have a lot of cousins.

Mom and aunt Sandy grew up playing duets in church because my grandma was the church organist for their Methodist church for decades. A summer visit to my grandparents meant thunderous joyful duets in church (mostly the postlude) with my grandma on the organ and mom on the piano. If luck would have it that we were all visiting at the same time, mom and Sandy would play. People would not get up and file out, they would stay and listen and applaud like crazy when they finished. It was the same after church today. The congregation and choir started to applaud, and then mom and Sandy launched into 'Happy Birthday', followed by a very solemn 'Amen'. Haha..

 

We wandered down to the party room, where a lot of yummy potluck food was waiting. We had a good time visiting with relatives and watching a continuous slide show of family pictures from all stages of mom's life thus far... She has traveled so many different places, and is still doing it now. In a few weeks she will be flying to Paris, and at the end of the year she is traveling to South America for a five weeks tour where she will visit Argentina, the Easter Islands, Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia and a whole bunch of stuff I am forgetting.

My SIL made a memory book and asked everybody to write down a specific memory of an event they shared with mom. I wrote about the time mom and I drove across country, on our way home from Boston. I was 21, and it was in August, just a few days after my birthday. I flew to Boston, where my mom and my brother were waiting to pick me up at the airport. Mom had previously drove from CO to Washington D.C., where my brother lived, and they drove up to Boston. When I arrived, we did the touristy things you do in Boston, including a visit to "Cheers", for a celebratory beer in honor of my birthday. Trouble is, I left my luggage at the airport, in a luggage locker. Including my purse and I.D. :(.

We left Boston and drove north, visiting places along the way. Kennebunkport, LL Bean flagship store in Portland, Bar Harbor, and then camped in a campground in Acadia National Park. It was our last family adventure. We camped, we drove, we got lost, we hiked, we bickered, we ate....we had such good time. We saw my brother off on a plane back to D.C., and mom and I continued to meander our way home. We saw the Man in the Mountain in N.H., crossed Lake Champlain on a car ferry, drove into Canada, came back across and braved a desolate, scary-looking Detroit, drove through morning rush hour traffic in Chicago (that was an experience), saw our old house in Madison, WI, and then came on home. It was a lot of fun. My mom is the best travel companion. Our family has the habit of driving on blue highways, so we see a lot more of what there is to see, and get invariably lost several times. In getting lost we have made so many neat discoveries, hole-in-the-wall eateries, colorful people...my mom embraces that experience above 'getting there'. I love that about her. :)

Happy Birthday, mom. Thank you for all you provided me, taught me, and modeled for me.

 

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When the day is done...

I had a crappy weekend.


Like, really crappy.


Events in the dramatic lives of that of our homeschool community - our email list of families we know and love, and of families we have never, ever met except through words on the computer screen - took a real nose dive early in the day on Friday.  And...well, I was as deep in the fray as you can get. 


Here is the gist:
Over a month ago, a lady I've never met comes up with an' issue' that is really a non-issue.
Others on the list chime in, and now they've hopped on the bandwagon too.
Really - it's a non-issue.  We solved this non-issue two years ago.  I remind them of this, because it is my job, as Secretary, to keep tabs on the happenings of our group.
They all proceed to ignore me.
I spend a few hours of time I don't really have to explore this non-issue further.
I share my findings, they all still ignore the facts, but they want a meeting.
I reserve a space, outline the procedures for the meeting (after researching what they are) and announce the meeting - again, not because I am a busybody, but because it is my job.  This, again, takes hours of time I don't really have, but I did volunteer for this gig.
The day of the meeting, the lady who wanted the meeting alludes to the fact that she will not be attending, and asks who can be her proxy.
She gets an immediate response, but sends her stuff to someone else.
The meeting time arrives.  Eleven people from our group of 120 families show up.  Really.
We have great discussion for two solid hours.
We never really to do hear what this lady had to say, because of technical difficulty with a smart phone.  Nobody's fault...
Not surprisingly, everybody at the meeting agrees that this really is a non-issue, and we table the discussion.
Meeting results are announced the next morning by somebody else.
The lady immediately flies off the handle, and accuses the attendees of the meeting of making rogue decisions without input, and that we voted out of fear of the issue that is a non-issue.  She uses some pretty bold language to make her point.


What would you say?  How would you feel?


Here are my feelings at that precise moment I read her email...


I spent HOURS of my time researching in preparation for this meeting, this meeting that this lady wanted to have, and she didn't even have the courtesy to show up, or at least offer an explanation before the fact.
A few other individuals spent hours of their time as well.
What this lady said felt exactly like a slap in the face.
This group is the most ungrateful bunch of whiners on the planet.
I have given sooo many hours of my time, on behalf of this group over the years, and it really, really sucks that so few people are willing to share to load.
This lady just hit every last nerve in precisely the right spot to provoke an immediate response from me.


So I responded.  I called her on her choice of words, I reminded her that people put a lot of time into this discussion - a discussion she didn't even bother to attend - and that all who were in attendance made the kinds of decisions we did based on the information we had at that moment, and that no VOTE had been made - just an agreement to form a committee to look into this issue that is a non-issue further.  I've been one of the moderators for this email group for a long time, and have handled many a blow up.  I am blunt when need be, but not mean.  My concern has always been that our discussions be civil, but not personal, because we are a community, first and foremost.


Her response?  The most pathetic passive-aggressive response you can imagine.  Complete with terminology like" I'll crawl back under the rock from whence I came".  I did not attack this lady.  I called her on her choice of words.  I called her on her assumption that others would be doing the work.


I send a message right back - not giving her the attention her words are craving for - but letting her know that we are a community, and her opinions are of equal value to everyone else's, and if she still wants to share them, join the committee!


A friend immediately responds privately to me with kind words, as she knows exactly how sensitive I am to this kind of thing.  It helped.


Another 'friend' immediately responds privately that my email was too long and attacking, that I should have let '__' respond instead, and that I should now be quiet and let others 'sweep up the mess'.  My thoughts?  Not fit to print here, I'm afraid.


I see two other friends in person a couple of hours after this all began.  They both thought that what I said had to be said, and that I said it just fine. 


And then more time passes, more emails are written on the thread (not by me), and then the paranoia sets in.  I begin to second-guess myself.  I begin to think that my friends are just being nice, but that they don't really know how to tell me that I am actually a real bitch when these list blow-ups happen, and that I don't really handle it well.  Ever.


Yeah... deep paranoia.  Now I am the one crawling into a hole.  And that is where I have been all weekend, in a deep, dark hole feeling like everybody just puts up with me but doesn't actually like me very much.  I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking - and the things I have come across have all spoken to me in a different way.


A blog post about what our calendar really says about us...


My calendar says that I prioritize time spent doing things for our homeschool group and our girl scout troop way too much.  It also says that Rylan has too many activities - but she doesn't seem to think so.


An article detailing the experiences of Rachel Canning, an innocent woman mistaken for another Rachel Canning, an 18 yr old girl suing her parents for college tuition, in regards to strangers engaging in cyberbulling.


This quote stuck with me: "It's really shocking how bold people can be when they're behind a computer screen,"


Ouch.  And the truth is - its true!  When you are behind a computer screen, writing to somebody you have never had personal contact with, it IS shocking the things you can say.


I don't want to be this person anymore.  I don't want to be the person that tells other adults how to behave.  The type A in me will never bring other people in line to my liking, and why - oh why- does it matter so much to me in the first place?  Why am I more concerned about some other lady's issues than with the fact that my six year old still struggles with identifying all the letters of the alphabet? Where the hell are my priorities?  I don't know..


Here is one more thing that got me thinking.  It's a song by The Alternate Routes, Nothing More.  I've listened to it, over and over this past weekend.  Here are some of the lyrics...  It is the last line that sticks with me the most.  I think it pretty much sums up my emotional well-being for the past ten years, actually.


To be humble, to be kind.
It is the giving of the peace in your mind.
To a stranger, To a friend
To give in such a way that has no end.


We are Love
We are One
We are how we treat each other when the day is done.
We are Peace
We are War
We are how we treat each other and Nothing More


To be bold, to be brave.
It is the thinking that the heart can still be saved
And the darkness can come quick
The danger's in the anger and the hanging on to it.




I am an angry person.  I get angry when I want to resolve a situation that I know I can't control.  I get angry when it's really sadness and fear I feel.  I get angry when I don't know what my role is.  I get angry when I feel apart, separate.  I get angry when I feel overwhelmed.  I get angry when I feel hurt, or frustrated.  Anger is my go-to emotion.  I guess I feel a little too comfortable there, since I spend so much time feeling this way.


Anger shortens friendships.
Anger shortens just about everything, really.


I don't want to be the person I am anymore, when the day is done.  I rarely feel good about my day when it's over.  I am usually listing my regrets, playing that endless negative loop in my head of what a terrible person I am.


I will be holding that first verse in my mind, repeating it over and over, in the hopes that I can remember to do better before I say or do something I will later regret - or at least wish I had handled it differently.  Changing the things in my life that aren't working is one thing, but changing a major personality flaw is a whole other deal.


The first step is always admitting you have a problem.

Technical difficulty...

 

I often construct my best written work in those precious few minutes before I fling back the covers and start my day. The problem is, I don't actually write it down. I think to myself, "I can hold these thoughts in my brain for a few minutes longer, until I sit down at the computer and write because I can type at the keyboard much faster then I can on my iPad".

The problem is, I never get the chance. I'll make the mistake of looking at the calendar on the iPad on my way down the stairs just to make sure we don't have to be somewhere soon, and then by total default I'll fall into that evil abyss that follows: email, Facebook, Flipboard, Hay Day and - if I'm desperate for distraction - Zillow. Two hours later I will resurface and realize that the kids have started their day by emptying every cereal box available, drinking a half-gallon of apple juice - the other half is spilled on the floor, Colin has decimated yet another entire roll of toilet paper - in fact, he has wrapped it around his naked little body so that it looks like a skirt (true story), Jordan has disappeared with his computer, and Colin has also 'redecorated' yet another room in the house. Colin is a busy boy. You would think I get that by now... Pass the bonbons, please.

If I would just bypass the iPad and go directly to the computer, I could document these ultra-important, life-altering thoughts (cough) quickly and efficiently, and then begin the day properly with a shower, an actual breakfast that does not come from a box, and maybe even remember to pass out the vitamins.

The problem is, I am not on friendly terms with the computer right now. She is slow. She forgets what she is supposed to be doing. She will sit there and insist on taking the time to open Spotify FIRST, when it is really Internet Explorer that she should be working on getting open for me. As I sit waiting for her, my expertly-worded thoughts are slowly disintegrating. What was I going to say? No idea. Let's go read trash talk on the Yahoo! Home page instead! Oscar dresses! No wait! PINTEREST! Yesssssss. Two hours later I resurface and we all know what happens when that happens....

To be clear, I am still talking about my trouble with my computer, not that I have a severe procrastination issue - okay?

If I do actually get through the ridiculously long launch time for the browser, and open my blog and log in, and not get distracted by reporting all the stupid web addresses that spam my blog, I just might actually start a missive. First I have to begin with a picture, because this is how I do things. Problem is, where is the picture I wanted?? Camera? iPhone? iPad? For the past year, I have been racking up pictures on the iPad. Over a thousand. For all this time, I have not been able to transfer them to the computer hard drive. Finally, two days ago, success! I even emptied my iPhone and the camera! Finally, all the pictures were in ONE place. I could now write about the pumpkin patch! Birthdays! Thanksgiving! Christmas! I start a new post, and prepare to upload the picture. Waiting....waiting...waiting...waiting

#*%^+¥&@!

Open a word doc, insert the pic, copy, paste in blog post, we're good to go. Writing, writing, writing... Post done! Just updated the world that Dean has a new car.

Start another post. I want to write about our Valentine's Day. Trying to problem solve, I spend the next twenty minutes logging out, restarting the computer, and waiting for the browser to open, all in an attempt to solve the issue with not being able to upload pictures to the blog. Open blog, write an opening paragraph, pick out six pictures to upload...waiting...waiting...waiting...

#*%^+¥&@!, #*%^+¥&@!, #*%^+¥&@!

Open a word doc, do it the hard way, add captions, proof read, save and post! Whew! Wait... Why isn't it posting? It's frozen. Refresh. All pictures lost, we're back to the first paragraph - without the revisions. What happened to the saved version?

Stupid #*%^+¥&@! computer! Is it Blogger? Picassa? Internet Explorer? Sigh.

 

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Upsizing from one to two...

Conventional wisdom states that downsizing is an effective way to simply your life.  We 'downsized' to one vehicle three years ago, when my husband blew the head gasket on my baby, my Subaru Forester, while driving up to Copper Mountain to go skiing.  This was a very abrupt transition into the land of ONE VEHICLE.  We have managed, for the most part, quite well.  Luckily it happened in the spring, so all during that spring and summer Dean managed his 70 mile roundtrip commute to work by a combination of bus and bicycle, but I'm sure that it wasn't easy or fun.  That fall Dean lucked out and got into a commuter van route, and it has served him well for all this time.  Dean got the word two months ago in mid-January that the company that owns the vans was ending his route.  Dean's van had a few riders come and go over the years, but the riders had dropped off, and it was no longer sustainable when four riders dropped to just three.  Even though Dean and the others tried to find other riders, it wasn't going to last.  We had a month to figure out what Dean was going to do.

I went into panic mode.  That spring and summer that we adjusted to having one car was also a moment of reckoning and when we made the jump and began Financial Peace University.  Without the financial burden of a second car (we owned it, but there was still insurance, annual registration and maintenance), we could do so much more with our debt snowball.  And now, when we were sooo close to paying off all our debts and poised to sell our house and move into something that could accommodate our growing children, coming up with a down payment, and finding extra money in the budget for a car payment, insurance, taxes, registration, fuel, maintenance... pretty much decimated our snowball.

But.  Life with one car has not been easy.  Juggling multiple schedules - especially on busy Saturdays - meant multiple headaches.  We've had to miss stuff, be late to stuff, be early to stuff and sit and wait in the car, or drive back and forth for three solid hours to drop-off and pick-up various adults and children.  There were weekends that the kids and I stayed home, while Dean took out all of the car seats and loaded up the van with scouts and gear and went camping.  I actually liked those weekends, because then I could just stay put with the kids.  There was always the worry though, about a multitude of "What if???" scenarios that crossed my mind.  There were also several times that my either my mom or my dad had to come to our rescue and lend us his or her car when schedules dictated that we had to be in two different places at the same time.  Every week meant a new plan, where we would have to negotiate the family schedule and figure out who needed to be where and when.

It also has not been easy on Dean.  It meant a huge loss of personal freedom for him.  He couldn't just take off from work during his lunch hour and do some errands or go to an appointment - that had to be scheduled with the other van riders, and he could only put so many miles on the van.  It also meant that he could no longer go to work early to take part in spin classes, or stay late when a deadline was looming.  He couldn't run errands after work, he couldn't stay after work and participate in any of the social things he used to do like golf league, training rides or poker nights.

I think that downsizing to one car makes great sense for some - couples or families with fewer children.  For us, though, it actually made life much more complicated.  I am glad for the experience, because when push came to shove we know we can pull it together and manage it, and it did influence our decisions and help us say 'no' to some things.  But the very nature of our home school experience and our suburban surroundings, when the activities we do are spread far and wide, morning, afternoon and evening, means we have to travel by vehicle to 95% of what we do.  It's sad, and I wish it weren't that way...but it is what it is.

So, taking into account all the benefits of having one car versus all of the headaches that it means for this suburban family, I am feeling very grateful that in the end we managed a very good deal on a new car, and were blessed with a most fortunate timing of a tax refund and small work bonus.  We were also rewarded for all of our hard work on maintaining a tight budget while working our snowball with an excellent loan rate (0.9%) because of a good credit rating in relation to the much lower debt load we are now carrying.  If all goes well, in 2-3 years' time we can revive the dream of moving.  Most of all, I have a happy husband.  :)  He has waited a long, long time for this day - and the new car, a Mazda CX-5, is a fun ride!