That is the only title I could come up with at this moment. It is indeed Monday and dreary, with rain, I think, predicted for the day. Depressing clouds block the non-existent sun and all of the freshly fallen snow from Friday has melted to show patches of brown dead grass. Can you tell that I'm ready for spring?!

In my last post I shared that the federal taxes are filed and accepted and the refund of $4,583 should be direct deposited on 2/1. I'm using those funds to get the property tax monkey off my/our back. This is the first year that our state or county is offering a prepayment option, so I'm exercising that and with my accumulated $1,600, I should be able to pay off $6,000 of the $6,800 by 2/2. While I'm still in paperwork mode my goals for the next two days are to finish up state taxes and scholarship applications/financial aid paperwork, which is really just sitting down and re-entering all the numbers. I'll hopefully have that done and finished by tomorrow with DH faxing the supporting documentation to the Facts Tuition folks on Wednesday morning.

Our weekend was low-key, but we did have our first monthly family outing. I'm one of those people who has recently figured out that the calendar isn't really something to live by. It can be totally overwhelming by activities and things. This Saturday upcoming is an example of great schedule chaos: the Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby is 12:30-3:00. Set up is prior and our den is in charge. I have another child with a basketball game one suburb north at 11:00 and another child with a baskeball game TBD. So that means that I rush from one activitiy to another and worry about being late and/or worry about coordinating with other parents.

Yesterday was one of those rare days with NOTHING on the calendar, a whole blissful Sunday to ourselves. We opted for early Mass at 8:45, came home and spent 1.5 hours on quiet work (homework, projects, reading). After lunch we went to see "The Muppet Movie" - DH and I loved it a lot more than the kids because of its recollections from our youth, but I think they liked it. Cost for outing: $8.37 on movie theatre candy at CVS, and $24 admission. It seems to me that is about what I spend locally for outings with the kids, to bowl for an hour is $32. So anyhow, family time is now on the calendar and I've got a clue to re-aligning our outings so they're in line with priorities (faith/family/friends).

I created a major excel spreadsheet that I think will work for us. No more different sheets with different categories; it is now one long sheet with each of our major umbrellas of expenses: Discretionary (Living), Fixed (Utilities and Mortgage) and Reserve (short-term expenses we call Extraneous). I've increased the % to 401K back to 10, after lowing it to 4 back in Sept when we ran out of HSA funds and had to pay $250 a month for asthma meds.

Passive Income Challenge has $350 in it, and I'm not including the pending $283.

All in all, things are fine, despite the depressing weather!