Mother’s Day Weekend…. Waaah, I miss my daughters all being together at home.

It’s been a busy financial week starting with 3 more rebate checks in the mail from Verizon for a total of $90.00. Instead of putting it towards the challenge, we used it to buy plants for our yard and a new hose. DH spent last weekend planting including a half wine barrel herb garden. The seed mat is sprouting today after having two incredibly beautiful days, followed by three gray cool days here on the North Coast of California and I have a beautiful red hanging geranium outside my kitchen window.

My middle daughter is here visiting with her two dogs and have been here all week, makes for a pretty crazy house, two little 4 year old terriers and two big mixed breeds that are barely over a year old. They don’t know whether to play or fight!

Yesterday I went over MD’s budget with her, giving her a clearer picture of where she stands. She is self-employed like me (same job actually) and does well, but is much clearer about putting away for retirement and how much she has to spend on “extras”. She is very open to our discussions and I LOVE having them! Let’s face it, I love giving my kids financial guidance! I just would hate to see them make the same mistakes their dad and I have made.

Today I did a spreadsheet for myself (my first attempt), itemizing out my monthly gross earnings, deducting insurance, then taking out the appropriate percentage for taxes (40%) and retirement (20%), leaving me a VERY clear picture of my monthly net earnings.

I was able to talk DH about of going out to dinner Tuesday. We were both tired, but went in and cooked up some leftovers together. I had a “burrito” made with leftover tri-tip from Sunday and DH had leftover sausage from Sunday breakfast with some scrambled eggs.

DH is also humoring me in an attempt to use less paper towels. I got a plastic dishpan full of older “flour sack” dishtowels to use for wiping up spills and cleaning. I put them in the cabinet right next to the sink while held our toaster, so I moved that. We rarely use our toaster anymore. I have been doing really well cooking during the week with DH continuing to cook on weekends.

Unfortunately I did receive notice today of State Income Tax Due. I have been trying to call them. The check I sent them did not clear when my Federal check did and I called them. They told me not to worry, sometimes it takes up to 8 weeks for a check to clear. Then today I get this notice of owing $934.54. In the meantime, the check I wrote to the state did clear, but I have a hard time thinking my accountant made this big of an error on our returns. So I am not going to panic until I talk to them. Talked to them, it’s okay, they see the payment, mix up because accountant originally e-filed, but Federal rejected, so we mailed copies of both returns, but should have only mailed Fed.

DH is bringing home a side of beef he bought at the local university sports auction. Every year he gets something interesting…It is grass fed, raised and donated by a local family. I have not eaten much grass fed beef, actually have I ever? So hopefully it will be good. It’s home, we crammed it in the freezer, no eating out for a year!!

Middle daughter arranged a Father and Daughter day June 10th, with us all meeting in San Francisco with my husband and daughters all going to a Giants game. My husband has taken the girls several times over the years. Our youngest daughter will be coming home for two weeks during that time from North Carolina. Oldest daughter is flying down and back to Oregon in the same day so we will all be together. Well they will all be together at the game and dinner later. I will be back at the hotel, probably working!!

This is my first mother’s day as also a mother-in-law to a wonderful son-in-law.



I want to take the opportunity to say Happy Mother’s Day to all of us and to everyone’s mothers. I hope we all have a wonderful day!