Friday, January 21, 2011

Weekly Wrap - Feeling Grateful

I'm so pretty...oh so pretty....I'm so pretty, and witty and wise.....in my wrap:)

Newsbeat: I used to work with a woman at the Royal Bank about a hundred years ago who used to sing the "I'm so pretty" song every morning before the doors were unlocked. I always wished I had her confidence.
Today was a wild and woolly day. My "broken angel" had a tough day - trying to bite staff (not succeeding thankfully), but biting holes in both of his slippers, biting a pilates ball and breaking it, biting a box and ripping it, ripping his one holey sock into pieces, biting the bottom of his backpack ripping a big hole in it. Oh yes, it was one of those days. All I did was record, record, record. But now the day is done and Michael and I are relaxing, with our feet up, at Starbucks both enjoying a free drink. Me because of a slow order last week so they gave me a gift coupon for a free drink and Michael because he gets a free birthday drink.
It's so nice to unwind:)The week has been full of ups and downs - birthday, sick child, $500 cheque coming from my car insurance, my broken angel. Up down up down. Yet I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for a week spent well: celebrating, reflecting, writing, mothering, reading, exercising, discussing and laughing.





Here is my three week chart. One more week (and a bit) and I'll be able to see the whole month:) The big news of course is the $500 I'm getting from the insurance company (not reflected here of course as I haven't received it yet)but I'm putting some on my Line of Credit and the rest into emergency savings. This will REALLY REALLY help because in February my pay will be approximately $340 less than January. So it's a darn good thing I've joined Sharon's NO Spend February which I may just have to continue til July when my pay will slightly increase due to not having to pay union dues and also my Canada Pension plan will be paid in full. I have six poor months and six good months financially over the year. Could be worse, could be way worse.

My misc. spending will have to be held in check. This month is higher than usual due to $152 being spent on my prescription sunglasses. I am very happy with my food, entertainment, gift and transportation totals and I don't foresee adding very much to those. My food buget still has most of its money due to Angela's "pantry challenge" and Michael has helped with the gas money:)


Heartbeat: While we were driving to Starbucks Michael told me about an acquaintance of his who he just found out had died in November. We had just seen him a few weeks before. At this point we don't know how he died. We find that as we get older we think about our mortality more and more and that we need to stop wasting today by only "living in the future". I used to think I wouldn't be happy until I retired. I found out that my thinking was very flawed. Today is all we really have. Michael finds himself guilty of thinking that he hasn't accomplished enough yet instead of feeling thankful for what he has today. But - we also can't stop dreaming and planning for the future so we have to find the balance. Here's what we came up with.


Live for Today so that We Can Plan for Tomorrow.


Are you living for today?

5 comments:

  1. Your background is really neat, but incredibly hard to read. Maybe change your type color.

    I know what you mean about facing your mortality. Seems the older we get the more funerals we attend and I now realize why my grandparents talked about illnesses and deaths so much.

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  2. Sounds like a rough day! Glad you were able to take a nice break afterwards with Michael to unwind & relax! :)

    I am very much living for today... just found something out that's given my life a serious dose of reality... so I'm living for the moment!

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  3. I'm trying to live for today..nothing like having a mother facing death unexpectedly to shake me up. My parents saved pretty much their entire lives to enjoy retirement but my dad got sick the year my mom retired and had to retire 2 years early and deal with cancer ever since. Now my mom has it even worse. I want a purpose and to enjoy each day as a blessing. Not easy for this pessimist to do!

    susanna

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  4. That is why I like the title of your blog so much. Life begins NOW. Sometimes I get bogged down with worry about retirement. It is flawed thinking.

    It sounded like you had a good week overall. And your budget looks great! I can't wait to see what we do in Feb.! :)!

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  5. I dont think I am living for today financially, as I,m always checking to see where I am going to be in 3/6/12 months time, then I tried to work it right up until I retire, my head is spinning and I,m getting obsessive, so I am going to try and rein it all in without losing my motivation.

    In other areas of my life I think I am living for the day, this is due in part to hubbies bad health.

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