It’s Christmas Eve and we just cancelled all our Christmas plans because all three children have varying degrees of fever. Evelyn is the most unwell, but Isaac is a close second, despite his declarations of “I FEEL FINE!”
Yeah, I’ve taken your temperature kiddo. Don’t lie to me.
Amy who has been sick the longest, is also the closest to better, but she also hasn’t really been out of bed for three days. For my high energy girl, this is a big deal.
In any case, we’ll have a low key Christmas here, with salad and ham and presents.
In other news, Pocket Money!
What do you do?
Recently Nathan and I decided that our children needed to be helping out more. So (when they’re well) we’re making them wash and dry the dishes – Amy washes, Isaac dries, and fold their own laundry. It seems pretty age appropriate to me, but I’m interested in your thoughts.
You can read my entire article at Money Circle, with all my reasoning.
My bookshelves are filled with books I bought pre-loved. Worn edges, creases folded in, sweat in the pages. I love it.
I wrote an article for Money Circle about second-hand shopping and why it’s an excellent option.
We live in a throwaway society. Our oceans are full of plastic and we’ve gotten to the stage that when things break, we replace them rather than repair. I’m not judging you, because I do the same thing.
Recently my desk lamp broke. Pulled off my desk too many times by the inquisitive toddler, the switch died. When I shook it, it rattled, and clicking it produced nothing. Not even a fizzle of electricity through to the bulb.
I complained to my husband and prepared to throw it away and buy a new one, but he promised he would try and fix it.
On a side note, WHERE DID MY WEEK GO?
How is Christmas this close already? EEEEK.
For a long time, I didn’t have any savings. When things went wrong, which they frequently did, we were left without any backup plan.
At the time, a savings account was beyond us financially. Between rent, commuting and our growing family, we had nothing left over. But the panic every time I thought about paying the car registration, or the power bill, or something breaking eventually got to me and I couldn’t do it anymore.
(Yes, we’re still in the hospital)
It’s that time of year again. Car parks in the shopping centres are becoming increasingly crazy and a little old lady nearly ran me over in her quest to find candy canes that hadn’t been shattered to pieces by excitable toddlers.
It’s a strange time of year. School is wrapping up finally and people, while supposed to be infused with holiday spirit, are just seeming grinchier.
I blame money.
When I was a child, I distinctly remember searching for my shoes in my bedroom. It must of been the end of the long weekend, and I rarely wore shoes at home if I could help it (I rarely wear shoes at home now too – some things never change). I found one sandshoe, but the other one was lost.
This was a big problem, because I only had one pair of shoes, and one pair of gumboots, and you couldn’t wear gumboots to school.
Eventually we found my shoe, and big sighs of relief abounded, because shoes are important. I think I used to have dreams about being barefoot at school with people laughing at me. Related: I don’t have pretty feet.
I remember being astounded, as I got older, that some people had more than one pair of shoes. They had dress shoes even. Adults had lots of shoes? REALLY?
Now I have lots of shoes, and they’re pretty.
I’m writing more about my childhood and poverty over on Money Circle today, and why it feels like I’m rich today.
