Various Things

I feel very scattered these days. I long for several days of not much going on just to get things accomplished. Here is what is keeping me so scattered:

• Motivating Robert, who is working to finish his Eagle Scout requirements before his 18th birthday - which is in April (gulp!). He's almost done, just needs the cattle prod to get him to finish up.
• A finger injury that has been incapacitating me harp-wise for the past 10 days. The moral of this story is - never, NEVER clean without wearing rubber gloves. I made this mistake and got two badly embedded splinters. I can't tell if Paul was able to get them all out completely. one area is doing really well, finally, but my index finger is still very problematic. I've been to the doctor and the orthopedic doctor. I'm on antibiotics now (finger ended up red, warm to the touch, and throbbing in pain on Sunday). The plan is to soak the finger in warm water, use vitamin E oil on a cotton ball covered by a band-aid, and to call if not better by the end of the week. In that case he may need to go in and dig it out (eek!). Needless to say, but harp is gathering dust.
• Our uncluttering of the basement and Julie's closet meant a lot of fairly good stuff that we decided to sell on e-Bay. I've had some good sales, some duds, but I have a whole batch of costumes and other sewing related things to put up for auction. The extra cash is most welcome!
• Sticking to our commitment not to incur any more debt and to live within our means. This is a challenge, but in a really good way. Being blind to one's financial state is no way to live. However, this means some needed creativity by the whole family and a willingness to eat pasta, beans, and rice those couple of days before payday when we run out of money.
• The next step in our home remodeling. This is a cheapie: we are painting Julie's room and our foyer and upper hall. We are also finishing up the woodwork in the basement to put up around the doors, windows, and floorboards. This will make the room very nice, and all we need to buy at this point is paint and bare wood baseboards we will refinish. Eventually, with our e-Bay money, we are going to buy bunk beds so Julie and Tyler can be together in the same room (instead of Tyler being in the over-sized closet/nursery that is really supposed to be mine and Paul's walk-in closet!).

The happy news is that I have two weeks vacation time coming in May. So that's a pleasant thought. Truthfully, I wish I could be home again full-time. That is a goal for me, once we are out of debt. I do long to be here, to spend my time being a homemaker, supporting the family by being here all the time, planing meals, gardening, making the house lovely, spending more time with spiritual devotions. I've started reading The Tightwad Gazette again for some ideas on cutting costs. The happy thought is that there is an end in sight, and I will be done with working outside the home in the foreseeable future.