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Hey, have you heard about this pandemic thing? :-)

The weirdest thing about this whole thing is that more than anything in my lifetime -- more than the great recession, more than the tsunami a few years ago, more than even 9/11 -- I know nearly every person in the world is affected by and thinks about COVID-19 nearly every day. We're all having the same moment in history, but every person's situation is slightly different. So all I can really comment on is how it affects me...
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Great ideas and thank you for the comments last post. I want to say ML is a good guy. He's very easy going and a lot of stuff I do because I want to do it. He never tells me what to cook, clean, or anything. He doesn't care. He says I don't care and you do it. Which is how I end up doing it. To him we can live in a mess, dirty, etc. He said don't stress out it's fine. Even the kids are fine. He literally was on a call during lunch came upstairs with phone and headphones...
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Hi All-

I hope you are all well. My husband and I have been at home since March 17 with little physical contact with the outside world. DS#2 who lives with us is still working. Our town's tally of deaths due to COVID is somewhere in the 40 range and closer to 700 in the positive cases. We live in a blue collar immigrant community with many people working in factories and crowded living arrangements. Needless to say, our town has been hit hard.

On a bright note, we've been...
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Well, I knew it was coming. My computer pooped out. I ordered an ASUS, a 2020 model rated best for under $600. It was just over $600 with tax. It will come on the 15th. I don't know how I will transfer stuff, just going on faith that I can. I do have my spreadsheets on a thumb, so I'm not worried about losing them.

Not how I wanted to spend my money!
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Cool and damp is our weather. To be honest, with that and the gloom, it is very discouraging. The garden isn't doing well, and twice we have had to cover plants because of a chance of frost. Yes, we knew taking a chance planting stuff so early, but DH needed the garden to help him keep busy. He walks about every day in addition to the gardening.

We did get some of our first radishes on Friday. What a delight. My leaf lettuce still isn't big enough to pick.

One of our local...
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I had hoped/planned on paying off the first medical debt in June. There is no way. So far this month I have made only minimum payments. I have another $150 set aside but I feel like I need to hang onto that until I make sure I have enough for next month's minimum payment.

With husband working no overtime and my hours minimal at my second job we have no extra to go around.

Hopefully Covid will get better and the overtime will pick back up in time for us to save for vacation...
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Meatloaf recipe:
Text is https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/mini-meat-loaves-with-chili-sauce/ and Link is https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/mini-meat-loaves-with-ch...

It was easy to find online. Phew!
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But yikes, so busy at work. It's like digging a hole with a teaspoon trying to get to the end of my dropboxes. One of my people is up for promotion, and I had to review/rewrite half of her file. She's got kids at home, trying to teach four classes, and if we can get her file through this teeny window before things get cancelled at the university, it'll be such a relief. So I spent half the day on that.

But we do have some financial news. Our DD has won some sort of an academic...
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Had a busy few days helping our youngest move (yesterday) into her own place she is a bit excited I will go over today after she finishes work and help her put her bed together and put a few things away...so finally can knock that off my list to do things, got the car title transfered into my name, got the house cleaned today been so busy only did the basics even managed to clean the washing machine..so feeling pretty achieved today..still have stuff to do and still looking for...
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So I'm going to tell you what it's like being a parent trying to work even part-time and have kids at home who aren't able to self-sufficiently do work on their own. My kids are in 2nd and 4th grade. I have to sit with them and do their work. I have to troubleshoot any problems. I have to help my 2nd grader with a pretty in depth schedule because she has a lot of anxiety.

My 4th grader is independent learner but this week has started off poorly and we had a problem with...
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Happy mother's day a day late because I was enjoying not being online for a day! Whew. I read a bit on my tablet but overall I refused to do everything I do.

DH was so tired from doing everything (on a weekend) that I normally do he went to bed very early and took a NAP during the day.

He got up at 7 am with the kids, made me pancake breakfast. He then had to clean and walk the dog. I gave him a break and he went out and got takeout lunch because he could barely keep...
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I only got halfway through recording my April payments last month, so my spreadsheet was mixed up and I couldn't tell what I'd recorded. So I'm just going by March debt totals to see how much we paid in April and May combined.

US Mortgage: $1,541
UK 1: $378
UK 2: $80
UK 3: $84

In total, we paid $2,083 of debt in April and May.

Current household debt:
US Mortgage $370,357
Loan from friends (duplex) $9,000
UK Mortgage 1 $28,311
UK Mortgage 2 $5,968
UK Mortgage...
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Got my last free bagel today. Now I need to stay home for a while. I have lots of food, plenty of books, Netflix and Amazon Prime, and it's cold outside, so I have no excuses.

I'm doing two loads of laundry today. Because of that, I will put off cleaning the kitchen till tomorrow. But tonight I will try to remember to spread a baking soda paste in the oven, so I can clean it tomorrow. After I get done cleaning the kitchen, it will be time to make granola again.

I figured...
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Our state had our restrictions eased today however not as much as other states. While cases have dropped dramatically in Australia, our state's cases have had the highest rate of new cases (14 overnight while other states have had 1).

Mother's Day was yesterday and other states eased their restrictions on Saturday so there were many celebrations. Our State Premier held off announcing restrictions until today which angered many people as they could not celebrate with their...
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Happy Mother’s Day to my SA family 🌸
Hope you all had a fabulous day.

Financial update
Today I paid extra on the credit card 💳, not much but every little bit helps.

I can’t wait to get back to some normalcy so that I can tackle this card aggressively, I’m praying that I can get this paid off by the summer, and then it’s the student loans. But I’ll continue to save until things seem to be a little normal.

Went to Walmart early this morning, the...
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We ordered a Mother’s Day dinner from a classmate’s restaurant. We had smoked filet tenderloin, Parmesan whipped potatoes, stewed okra & tomatoes, smothered green beans, Sensation salad, garlic dinner rolls, bread pudding, & white wine. It was absolutely delicious! Since I just tested negative for COVID-19 & am asymptomatic I decided to break bread with my parents for the first time in 2 months. I really enjoyed spending the day with them. Hope your Mother’s Day was special as well.
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We're eating at home so much more but I'm wanting to find healthy low carb foods that will fill me up because when I'm bored, I'm snacking. It helps having regular walks to both keep me busy and burn some calories. I found a great vegan cream of broccoli soup that I've made twice now. Super easy and tasty.

We also were watching on Netflix Nadiya Hussain’s Time to Eat which is really good and inspiring. We want to make her seasoning that goes in her rice noodle dish.

I...
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I went to Panera this morning at my usual time, then realized because it was Sunday they wouldn't open for another hour! I didn't want to go all the way home, nor hang out in the parking lot, so I went to a nearby Walmart, planning to just run in and pick up some coffee creamer. Well, once I got in there, it began to make sense that I pick up this, and that, and this, and that, and in the end I had three tote bags full. I spent $55 on groceries and $18 on household supplies,...
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My initial feelings on lockdown, posted over a month ago:
I am just so buried at work, life continues on as it has. We are homebodies and try to generally limit unnecessary errands, always eat our meals at home, etc. so it's been a small change for us at this point.

I only leave the house to go to the office. MH only leaves the house to go to the grocery store.

At 8 weeks of lockdown, I'd say not much has changed for us. One-income living has prepared us for "quarantine...
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In my last blog post, I mentioned the need to change the name of what I have been referring to as our Big Goal for the last couple years, which was originally started as a house downpayment goal for our next home, potentially four years from now when my husband retires. Sooner if we love the next place we get stationed with the military.

The new name needed to have a more positive vibration, as I was starting to feel like Big Goal sounded like something unattainable or just...
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