Looking ahead...

Yeah, yeah, I know, I look ahead too much...keeps me from living in the present. Screw it. We're trying for kids, gotta look forward to plan.

The porch construction started today! With a little luck, we'll have a new screened-in porch within a week or three. I'm really looking forward to that...have been delaying getting started on seeds, because I had no clue if I'd have a porch at all come summer. With the contractors building it now, I can probably still do quite a bit of container gardening this year, thanks to our delightful climate. Guess I need to stop begrudging the tropics, if it could help feed us this year...

Renewing the lease for a year...no real choice there.

Reorganized the dining area yet again, in an attempt to give us a dining table of sorts that we could actually eat off of, if we wanted. May try setting up my sewing machine there this week...I'm really getting the itch to try some basic sewing work (quilting or women's tops are at the head of my interests...quilting cuz I've been rereading the Little House books, and tops because I'm reaching a point of needing some new ones...and I'm not going to spend $20 on something that was made by a Chinese girl half my age, if I can make it myself instead...we'll see). Also still thinking of making a weaving loom out of two of the knitting looms Mom J gave me for Christmas...I procured a small slab of plywood from Mom's, which I'm sanding and staining...then I'll glue the looms to either end of the board and see where I go from there. Really don't know what I'm doing, so it's a learn-as-you-go thing.

We're in significant debt still, and we're trying for kids now, so I don't look ahead to SC as a specific destination right now. I know I still want to move there, and I'll be pointing us in that direction. I research other cities in the hills, like Spartanburg and Anderson. I know I don't want our kids to reach school age and still be a) living in Jacksonville, and b) in an apartment; so with that knowledge, I'm crafting our budget for the next year, and then the next two. I don't even want to look for housing for rent, as in a house, in Jacksonville, because our price range isn't a safe area of town, period. I know there's going to be crime anywhere we move, but there's no reason to hunker down and make yourself to home with it if you don't have to. Where we're at now is bad enough; I really wonder how many of our neighbors are legal (as in, have green cards), because in the last year, the complex has been overrun by tan-skinned individuals who drive 15-passenger vans to get to work, and pay their buddies in cash at the end of the day. That gets my uppity white-girl ire up...makes me want to approach them when I see that, and ask them for advice on filing quarterly tax returns, just to get a reaction. And that's not me being a bigot...my potential brother-in-law does the same thing: works for a golf course, makes a pile in tips, spends it on his booze and pill habit instead of his child support, and doesn't give a thought to filing quarterlys like he should, since he's an independent contractor. I'd wish an audit on him, but the guy's already facing jail time probably for the child support issue. F*cking idiot. Every time Husby and I visit, we toy with the idea of whisking our adorable niece back to Florida with us. About time we make our own kids, so we can stop thinking about stealing relatives, huh?

But I digress...this is going to be a good year, a rebuilding year. We're trying for kids and chipping away at our debt. I'm planning a camping trip with Husby in May, because I have no intention of being in Jacksonville, or Florida for that matter, when Dad's 1-year rolls around. And the rest will come together of its own accord...I'm in a good place.