Plans

Looking at life from the viewpoint of possibly being someone's mother 9 months later.....it's an eyeopener, and not in any way that I've paid lip service to before; I mean an actual eyeopener, a holy-crap-we-HAVE-to-get-our-shit-together-no-more-f*ing-around eyeopener. I don't think I'm pregnant yet, though that's mainly for superstititious reasons (it was our first try, I want it too much, we're not that lucky...), but ever since we did it, I've been looking at life with a slightly shorter eye. Usually my eye is way the heck out in front, dreaming of a house with a patch of land for a garden and chickens and the freedom to homeschool while still maintaining health insurance...yeah, they're definitely more dreams than plans, but still...That's fine for a 5-year plan, but the 1-year plan has to get some attention now. Between the ancient carpet and walls, stale smoke permeating everything, and serious space issues, I'm having trouble finding it acceptable to start a family at that apartment. I get that it may be unavoidable while we clean up our credit enough to move, but that means a pissload of work in the interim.

First up, the boxes...under the table in the dining area, stacked in the corner of the living room, stacked next to the easy chair, stacked in the walk-in closet...I packed to move us 2 years ago, and we never unpacked. We don't have a storage space, but if we can't downsize all that crap, then it's time to start shopping for one.

Secondly, purging and repositioning furniture...both end tables, the glass and heavy wood (bedroom) coffee tables, switching out the worktable for the typewriter table in the garage (as a sewing station), acquiring the computer desk, turning current computer desk back into a dining table, downsizing dresser contents in the bedroom and finding better storage for some clothes (to make room for eventual crib)...that's a good start.

Third, fresh area rugs over the current carpet, like EVERYWHERE! Scrubbing down all the walls and vents, buying new HEPA filters, convincing Husby to smoke on porch until he quits, and anything else I can think of to green up the joint...

Of course, the budgeting hasn't taken on enough of a life yet...looked at those bullet points from the last post, and we're still slacking in key areas. But I have a better handle on the finances of late and while we're still painfully behind, we haven't been bouncing stuff, and Husby's folks just suffered a financial (and emotional) setback that made it all too clear that we have to stop "borrowing" from Grandma; it's SO time to stand on our own two feet.

So...on the off chance my assumptions are incorrect in that first paragraph, guess it's time to get started...

ACK!