Sandi's 2019: Wow This Is A Challenge!

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SandiSAHM
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Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Sandi's 2019: Wow This Is A Challenge!

Post by SandiSAHM »

It's official, we're having a guest for Thanksgiving. :D Who has never had a traditional American Thanksgiving meal (well, he's been vegetarian all his life, so the real 'traditional' wouldn't work for him anyway). I've got most of this thought out. What I need to do is write it out and get a list worked up.
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Jackielou
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Re: Sandi's 2019: Wow This Is A Challenge!

Post by Jackielou »

SandiSAHM wrote: Mon Nov 18, 2019 10:00 pm I hear complaints from empty nesters that once the kids are married you hardly ever see them.

I saw my parents pretty routinely when I still lived in their town and was married. When I moved many states away - divorced / remarried / had kids - $$ for travel was waaay cut back. If my mother (who has no $ issues whatsoever) wants to see us, it's loads cheaper for her to come here than it is for all 4 of us to go there.
Hmm, I guess because the boys are not married (perhaps will never be as they will both be in the 40's very soon) they manage to get home or phone quite often.

We always seemed to find a way to visit the parental units even when living provinces apart. Most times while the kids were growing up that was our holiday.
Jackie
http://inthelandofthelivingskiesii.blogspot.ca/
SandiSAHM
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Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Sandi's 2019: Wow This Is A Challenge!

Post by SandiSAHM »

I read Jackie's post above and it reminded me that, technically, my eldest is an adult. By law, anyway, though I'm of the mind that until your education is done and you're fully autonomous when it comes to job, bill paying, etc., and your prefrontal cortex is completely engaged with your frontal lobe (~25 yrs of age), you're still my kid.

It'll take her, given school, 'til around 23... maaaaaybe 22, if she's a first-round choice for the program she wants, to be out of school. Once she's employed she can start paying rent, her own car insurance, all her own gasoline, etc., get a taste for REAL adulthood. Right now all that's asked of her is that she save, and think before spending, which she's really good with.

I think having been a late-in-life mom (my first at 35 and my 2nd just shy of 39), I may be a little skewed on letting "go." Which is fine, an 18 year old certainly still needs guidance.
SandiSAHM
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Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Sandi's 2019: Wow This Is A Challenge!

Post by SandiSAHM »

I've been trying to come up with a title for next year's low/no-spend 'diary' and all I can think of is "2020 - will the $ hemorrhaging stop?"

Went to a going away party last night. Someone set it up for everyone to go to a mid-$ restaurant to take these folks out. The whole reason they're leaving is $. They both have to go back to work (in their 60s); they thought they were going to start a business (him) and go back to school to be a nurse (her) while here close to their siblings but nothing panned out so, 6 years later, restart. I kept wondering why we didn't just do a potluck and take all the $ dropped in that restaurant and give it to them instead? EASILY, with all those people, $1500 - $2k spent. Not that it would have kept them here by any stretch but it could have made the transition period a bit easier. <sigh>

I feel bad; neither of them needs the hard physical labor to which they are returning (both have been wrecked by what they used to do) but they're going right back into it. It's not that they don't love it, but it sure doesn't seem to love them back much.

Enough of my blathering about things I can't fix.

DH only has 2 trips planned for the first half of 2020. I'll get to see him more :D And he's building a custom console (my living room...honestly I *BITE* at decor); I've seen things I like but can't bring myself to part with the $ asked and he finally said, "You know I can build that" (yes, I do know that, but I thought he was way to busy and a little shy on tools). He's got a friend lending him a drill press and router and already did the drawings for it, so this is pretty cool - AND he can teach DS and DD how it's done. I love to paint / finish wood, so that's my part.

I'd have been willing to wait for the right thing to come along on Craigslist - or close to the right thing with a little TLC needed, but this will be exactly the right size : )
Dgflorida
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Re: Sandi's 2019: Wow This Is A Challenge!

Post by Dgflorida »

Sounds like a great piece and a great opportunity for DD and DS to learn a skill. Congrats.
SandiSAHM
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Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Sandi's 2019: Wow This Is A Challenge!

Post by SandiSAHM »

Dgflorida wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 6:24 pm Sounds like a great piece and a great opportunity for DD and DS to learn a skill. Congrats.
You know, I hate to say it and possibly mess up their track record...but those kids did half the deck-building, easily, and that thing is perfect. Square, juuuust the right fraction of a degree of incline so water can never pool...

I'd almost be tempted to let them do the coffee table while their Dad does the console. Two for one :)

And they just volunteered to go help fill the truck for the moving couple Friday a.m. There goes at least 6 hrs of build time :lol:

That's okay; the living room has no timeline, the moving couple definitely do.
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