Catching Up With Life

Happy New Year everyone!  Sorry that the blog has been so quiet.  With Hubs home for the holidays, working more hours with the kiddo, my business picking up (clearance sales!) and what feels like endless issues with my elderly father, well, life has been a bit chaotic.  

Yes, Hubs has been home for over a week now.  He heads back to work tomorrow.  Boo hoo, but it is all part of the life we live.  I’ll be missing out on some of my usual work hours with the kiddo to get him to the airport.  I’m thankful the family is so accommodating when it comes to the comings and goings of Hubs.

We managed to get our eye exams in before the end of the year and are both getting new glasses.  Since we are going without vision insurance for 2019, getting this done was important.  That, and I wouldn’t have liked paying for the coverage and not using it!  Our cost for four pairs of glasses (we also got prescription sunglasses) was $720.  Expensive, but we had prepared for it by maxing our FSA in 2018.  Our remaining available balance covered all but $52.  An FSA can be a bit of a gamble in that it is a use it or lose it account.  Although we had until March 15 to use it, strange to say, I’m happy losing those funds is no longer an issue.  For 2019 we are only contributing $1,500, $840 of which Hubs company gives us.

My job with the kiddo will likely continue for several more months.  The baby has become far more active, which is not easy given that he is hooked up to a feeding pump for all but four hours a day.  Even if it weren’t cold and flu season (which was the primary reason they wanted to keep him home), at this point, he would be too much for the in-home daycare provider the family uses for their three-year-old.  It wouldn’t be that bad if it were only the two kids, but the woman also watches her one-year-old grandson.

My house currently looks like I’m a shopaholic!  I seriously have bags and boxes everywhere!  I need an undisturbed solid block of about 6 hours to get it all inventoried and shipped out.  Until that happens (after Hubs is back to work), I’ll keep shopping and adding to the chaos.  Not necessarily a bad thing because it is actually cheaper to send off larger shipments.  In the midst of the mess, I remind myself that many businesses started off in basements, garages and on dining room tables.  Someday I’ll have a main floor office in which to keep it all contained!

My dad is moving to assisted living tomorrow.  The past two weeks, I’ve been dealing with endless emails, phone calls, and text messages related to his care.  I really can’t complain though as my sister has been handling the brunt of things with taking him back and forth for labs, doctor visits, etc.  Additionally, she has been covering the four hours of one-on-one care he is now required to have until his admission to the Big House.  For my new readers, my father has been living independently in a continuing care community.  Given that his condo is on their grounds, they can (and did) dictate additional care they felt he needed.  No arguments from us as his mind is really slipping.

I still need to write a blog post on goals for 2019 and give an update as to our numbers.  Stay tuned as I’ll try to get that in writing in the next few days.