#$%#&#@!!!!!

You may notice something different about the blog. Something odd. Something like all of the pictures not showing up. This is because Blogger has disabled FTP completely and all of the users like myself that have been using FTP to upload their blog posts have to switch to a new method. There are several work arounds and the one that we've tried isn't currently successful because my site host won't let us change the CNAME to something with a trailing dot. Ok, so really I have no idea what I'm talking about because after reading all of the work around instructions on the blogger, "What to do if you are an FTP user" my eyes glazed over and I became preoccupied about wiping the drool from my chin. Please bear with me as I try to figure out this mess. I may end up just changing hosts and moving over to Wordpress which I've been meaning to do for the past 4 years but haven't gotten around to.
Maybe this will push in me in the right (write) direction and I'll just overhaul the damn thing completely. Like a phoenix from the flames.

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3...

Testing the new Custom Domain.

Dear Connor - 5 Years, 6 Months

Dear Connor,
I'm running so far behind in my posts that I actually feel guilty for not writing your letter. But I've been busy. Making gluten free pizza crusts and little scraps of cake so you don't feel left out in school. Washing the clothes and just being Mommy. It takes a little bit of time. The good news is that we are trying out wheat again. It's been 3 and a half months and while we've seen some positive improvements there hasn't been anything so dramatic that we couldn't chalk it up to maturity. Today we went to see Nana and you had a Nutty Bar and from there we treked to Grammie's where you enjoyed a bowl of goldfish crackers. Hamburgers for dinner on a real whole wheat bun. And you had no reaction at all. Can't blame a Mommy for trying I guess. We'll just keep on keeping on with the wheat and see what happens. You'll be thrilled to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch tomorrow.

We got you into a charter school for Kindergarten and we are thrilled. The local school that our neighborhood feeds into wasn't bad, but this school is even better. You'll have to wear a uniform, (which I like) and the school day is an extra hour so you can learn foreign languages and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about how hard it's going to be for you. Usually you start to unravel around 3pm which is about the time that you'll be finishing up your last class. I'm doing everything I can to help you adjust, including putting you in school five days a week right now. I know you have the whole Summer to unadjust, but at least it gives you a little bit of a edge.

Over the past two months, you've ridden a pony, learned to do a solid front roll, made some recipes of your very own in the kitchen and learned to read. You actually already had a ton of site words and when I showed you how to sound out the word cat, you were off like a rocket. From there you were sounding out everything. I couldn't believe how fast you picked it all up. I know when you learn to read without any help at all, it's going to be the best thing ever for you. Today you went running outside to play with a book in your hand, because you wanted to show the neighborhood kids the story of The Dark, Dark Room. um. I don't think they were as into it as you were. You climbed a rock wall at the zoo, discovering your apprehension for heights and actually hit a baseball. I'll save your obsession with snakes for the next entry.
I love you,
Mama

Magic

It’s mid afternoon and Tristan is in the bathroom. I am questioning Connor about what type of object he just put into his stuffed dogs mouth, and he’s explaining it was medicine. Then I am questioning where the medicine came from and how he got it. (Turns out it was half a piece of chalk)

I hear the water running in the bathroom and see Tristan come racing out of the bathroom and back in again, half naked and holding the step stool. The water is still running. He throws the stool on the floor and hops on it, as I come in and say, ”I’m not sure what Tristan is doing in here, but it’s no.” Tristan ignores me completely and whispers, “look at dat water”.
I look at the running facet and there is an air bubble in the spout. Instead of coming out in a single trickle, it’s coming out in two symmetrical trickles instead of one. I have to admit, it does look pretty cool. I look at it for a minute and then turn it off and then try to turn it back on again to see if I can repeat the trick for Tristan who is still intently watching. I said to Tristan,” How did you make it do that, baby?” And he whispers, “magic.” And walks out of the bathroom.

Fishing for compliments

Me: Good Job, BUDDY!

C: Ok I’m going to go and put this trash in the trash can and then we can talk some more about what a good job I did.

Sweet & Sour

Me: Why didn’t you hang your clipboard up?

C: Because the nail fell out of the wall

Me: Why didn’t you tell me that? I would have fixed it.

C: Because I thought you would yell at me or sumthin’.

Me: Honey, I would never yell at you over something that you did by accident. When you do something by accident always tell me.

C: Oh. It wasn’t an accident.

Dear Tristan - 3 Years, 6 Months

Dear Tristan,
Where did my baby go? Just a few weeks ago you were snugly and cuddly and now all of a sudden you have turned into an independent three year old. For the past week you've been in more time outs than all of last month combined. At first I thought that you just weren't napping and that was the problem. But now this reluctance to listen happens whether or not you've had your siesta. I think maybe you are just testing the waters as you gain independence.
You've started whining my name. Instead of calling me Mama, you say, Ahma. And you say it about 100 times a day.


You've discovered how to change clothes and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that this is a skill that you like to practice multiple times daily. You'll sneak upstairs and come back down wearing black dress pants and a Winnie the Pooh t-shirt. With this comes your obsession with shoes but at least you don't give me grief when you are getting dressed in the morning.



You are testing the waters with the attitude as well. You are more likely to get angry or retaliate against your brother when he wrongs you and you've taken to snatching things from him, something you wouldn't have dared a few months ago. I think we've been soft on you since you were the littlest but now that you are starting some of the conflict, you've found that suddenly Mommy isn't as tolerant as she used to be. You don't like this, not one bit.



You are giving up the nap. Now you can skip nap without cranking up a whine-fest at 5pm. If I put you down though, you will still sleep, which is super for me because while you are ready to give up the nap, I'm not ready to give up the nap. Because you are still enough of a handful that I like having the occasional couple of hours to get some stuff done, like wash all of the clothes that you've been putting on all day.
I love you,
Ahma

Couch to 5K

Something happened to me when I started the Biggest Loser for the Moms Club. Something odd and unexpected. All of a sudden. I could not stop eating. I think it’s in part due to the “I’m about to start a diet” mentality. You know, you know you are about to start a diet so you eat like it’s going to be the last bowl of ice cream you ever have. I started going back to the gym hoping that was going to get me back into the swing of things and it’s definitely helped although probably if I stopped eating after 6 I would see more results.

I saw on FB that my friend Amanda is doing a Couch to 5k program. I looked up the program and recognized it from last Summer when I tried it. Last Summer when I tried it though I was stopped by two things. Heat and pavement. Running on pavement sucks. And the heat, well it’s not very motivating.

But now with a gym membership, I had hope. And air conditioned room full of treadmills and sweaty people… and treadmills are much easier to run on.

The very first day of week one of the program, it felt like my shins were on fire. By the end of the week it wasn’t so bad though. The second week was tough but wasn’t as hard as the big jump in week 3. From 90 to 3 minutes. And I made it through. Today I did the first day of the third week and it almost killed me. But I made it. Which means that when I do it again on Wednesday it’s going to be even easier. The site says that most people give up around week three. That’s good for me to know. So I’ll be sure and load the iPod with some motivation to make it through. If you know any good songs that have a good running beat, (really really fast), let me know.

Hopelessly Devoted

I am hopelessly addicted to this:

Blue Cheese Avocado Dip
Ingredients:
4 ripe avocados peeled, seeded and coarsely mashed
1 clove garlic, finely minced
4 scallions, finely chopped (green part only)
2 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 cup Plain Oikos Greek Yogurt or Stonyfield Farm Fat Free Plain Yogurt
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

It is SO good. We never have crackers laying around anymore, so we use tortilla chips or veggies to dip in it. Even Tristan, famous for his dinner time, "I'M NOT GONNA EAAAATTT DDAATTT" whine eats it. Delish.

I Heart Valentine's Day

I've been using the new Gluten Free Betty Crocker cake mixes to make cupcakes for Connor (and his class). The mixes are expensive, but man they rock. Some people say that they can taste the rice flour in those. I say if you can taste the rice flour you don't have enough icing on it. I've had them without icing though and can't taste anything but chocolate cupcake.



Because I thought he might feel bad if he had to eat different cake than the other kids, I volunteered to make the cake for the class 100 day celebration as well. The 1 is GF but the zeros are just regular cake mix. I didn't do that because of the taste, but because of the expense. With only the 1 being GF it's a $10.00 cake. If the zeros were GF too it would be a $20.00 cake. It was delicious y'all.





The 100 should have stood for everything I did that week. When did Valentine's day become so hectic? We had the 100 day celebration, a field trip, a school project due, valentine's for both of the boys classes, teacher presents, conversation hearts for husbands work friends, conversation hearts for some of the moms at the preschool, a present for our baby sitter, presents for the boys and for husband. Granted I didn't have to volunteer to make a cake and cupcakes that week, but it wasn't the baking that was difficult. It was everything else with it. I'm all for bringing back the Valentine's day that was just a bunch of paper cards. I miss simplicity.

Knock on Wood

I've had a lot of questions over the past few weeks about the GF diet and how it's going. And the answer? Fantastic. Connor is super conscious about not eating foods with gluten in them. The truth is, I was worried about him feeling like the weird kid, but in fact it's the opposite. It makes him feel like the special kid. He's proud of his diet and doesn't seem to feel deprived at all.
One of the Moms at the preschool asked him last week if he he wanted some chips to which he responded, "Only if they don't have gluten in them." I can't believe that this is the thing that he's chosen to listen to us about. He doesn't listen to much he has to say, but he hasn't rebelled at all with the new diet. I am beyond surprised. I wonder if maybe he feels better without it.
We are starting to see changes. It might actually be WORKING! It seems to be happening slowly, but it's happening. He hasn't gotten a yellow card in school in 3 and a half weeks and that's never happened before. I couldn't be more proud. The circles under his eyes seem to be lighter also.
Making lunches and dinners are starting to be less of a challenge for me and we are probably eating better that we ever have, consistantly. We always have eaten fairly well, but without the gluten we can't just order pizza one night. Which sort of sucks. But is better for everyone.
He hasn't been sick as much either. And his moluscum is finally going away. I can attribute that to the vinegar baths and tea tree oil that we've been trying. It's so much easier than the Dr's approach to it, which was to burn it off. That might have worked for me if he'd only had 3 spots of it, but since he had 20 there was no way I was going to torment him like that. Especally since I kept feeling like with the eczema and the moluscum that something was going on with his immune system. Didn't it make sense that these were symptoms of a bigger problem? Why did I stop using holistic medicine in the first place? That probably deserves it's own entry though. For now I'm just glad that finally we are able to utilize the tools that will best help Connor be the best Connor he can be.

GF Baking 101

Gluten Free baking is interesting, my friends. It's completely different than baking with wheat and in some ways it's easier. Aside from the 5363 ingredients that it takes to make something that looks like bread and tastes like rice smells, there's no kneeding, you just mix, rise and bake. Here are some observations I've made so far.


- The GF dough isn't like dough. It's like cake batter. Bread has to be poured or spread, (in the case of pizza crust) into the pan.

- Do not taste it. GF Cookie dough doesn't taste anything like the cookie dough that you make yourself or buy in tubes at the grocery. It's fairly close, but just not quite right.

- Let your bread cool completely before slicing it.

- GF baking can be expensive. However, homemade GF muffins are cheaper than traditional wheat bakery muffins.

- When it doesn't turn out according to plan it will be upsetting. Possibly if it does turn out it will be upsetting if you aren't used to the flavor of the new flours and are expecting wheat flavor.

- It doesn't taste like wheat. You can't make it taste like wheat. But you can give it the texture of wheat, and then mask the flavor with other things. (Like peperoni, mushrooms and extra cheese).

- Set your expectations low. And hope to be pleasantly surprised.



These cookies don't look exactly like a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but they are close enough. I thought they were pretty good considering they were made from things that had names like, millet and sorghum. I made enough batter to freeze so that we could have decent cookies whenever we wanted.

Check it peeps. It's not stuffed crust, but it was pretty damn good for a gluten free pizza crust I had to mix, rise and bake 12 hours in advance. Because you know, I'm not doing anything else around here.

Tears of joy.

Snow Daze

We didn't get a whole lot of great pictures in the snow this year for some reason. I think it's because we turned on the gas fireplace which the kids have never seen on before. They were so enthralled by having fire in the living room that they didn't want to leave the fireplace.

The Sugar Bear however was all about charming our (generous) neighbor into going down the hill with him. I might have done it, but that sled looked pretty small and I didn't want to get half way down the hill, have it explode underneath me and then continue the rest of the way Looney Tunes style.

Connor walking up the hill after limping down it with the Bilibo. He was pretty miffed over something but we never figured out what. We have determined that some days his problem is that he is just prematurely 14 years old. You know. whatever.

Tristan digging for worms. It doesn't matter the weather. If that kid is outside he's looking for worms for his worm farm. It lives on our kitchen counter. I know, right? Now you can't WAIT to come over for dinner!

Whose yer Loser?

You may have received an email from me regarding the MOMS Club Biggest Loser competition that we are holding to benefit the SPD Foundation. Now believe it or not, donating to the SPD Foundation wasn't even my idea. In fact, at first I didn't want to do it because I didn't want people to think that I had engineered something towards my own cause. But I talked to a couple of other Mommies, who thought that it would be better to help a foundation that at least had something to do with someone that we knew rather than just a nameless foundation just because. But since I happen to be involved with the SPD Foundation anyway, it's full steam ahead.
The competition involves participants, (like me and Jorma) losing weight and getting a pledge amount from sponsors for each pound that we lose. If you didn't receive an email from me and want to support the cause, bring it on. We'll take your money. Or at least we'll take your money to the MOMS Club to give to the SPD Foundation. I'm posting random updates on the blog so that everyone can gain amusement from our loss. It should be entertaining at the least.

Dear Connor - 5 Years, 3 Months

Dear Connor,
Something magical happened this weekend. It snowed. You and your brother couldn’t get out the door fast enough. After about 20 minutes, you couldn’t get in the door fast enough because it was dang cold outside and still sleeting. Daddy took you around a few laps in the sled, you tried to make some snowballs out of the sleet ice combination and concluded that snowball making was very hard. We did explain that it wasn’t good snowball snow, but that didn’t stop you from trying. For some reason the snow seeped in and cut off communication with your brain because later in the afternoon we let you out front for a minute while we finished bundling up your brother and then Daddy walked outside to find you standing on the roof of his car which was completely coated with a thick layer of ice. I don’t know how we’ve managed not to be on a first name basis with everyone in the ER but so far we’ve (you’ve) been lucky.

Today all of the kids were sledding down the hill in front of our house and you took a couple of turns and then decided that you wanted to go and sit by yourself in the snow by our house. Daddy came over to make snowballs with you and you were appeased for a little while but still didn’t have much interest in sledding. You did however have interest in the snow cream that we made yesterday, announcing that since it was made from snow instead of ice that it was ice cream. You cracked yourself up.
I don’t have any endearing you and brother stories to tell this month. There’s been mostly fighting. Always the fighting. I think it’s probably a phase or at least I hope it is. Your “little bother” can’t help but poke you when he walks by. And you will not resist the urge to poke him back.

Every day at school you have a different friend that’s your new best friend. I’m happy that you are making friends and I am angry for you if you tell me a story about how you were snubbed by another child. One day, you told me that you told the little girl in your class that her shoes were very pretty. You said that you told her that so she would like you and want to play with you but she still wouldn’t play with you. She was trying to teach you something very important. That no matter how hard you try you’ll never figure out girls. Just ask Daddy.
I love you,
Mama

Dear Tristan - 3 Years, 4 Months

Dear Tristan,
Every night when I put you to bed, you demand three things. A story. A lullaby. Snuggle time. Since you have your big boy bed, either Mommy or Daddy can climb into bed with you, while you pretend to be falling asleep. When I get up to leave it starts an epic tantrum that lasts for approximately 10 seconds and then stops so you can ask, "Tomorrow, can we go ice skating?"

I thought that you might actually know what ice skating is, since you've seen a little segment on one of your TV shows about a kid that goes ice skating with his mom. Since there's a new ice rink about 15 minutes away, we decided that on Saturday, we would take you ice skating. You were pretty excited about it all the way there. You didn't mind waiting in line. You were excited to see the ice skates that you were going to wear. Then we put them on you and you refused to walk on them. After a few minutes you had your feet under you and were walking just fine as long as we were holding your hand. We watched the Zamboni clean the ice and then went to get onto the rink. I picked you up and put you on the ice, ushering you over to the wall. And after a month of begging to go ice skating you decided one thing. No way in hell were you getting onto that ice. You were doing pretty well too. You had your feet straight and your balance was superb. I really think that you probably could have skated without my help at all. But that didn't matter because you started screaming and clinging to me or Daddy so desperately that we knew there was no way that you were going to get out there. We tried a few more times but each time you acted like we were bringing you to certain death. So you settled for sitting on the sidelines with Daddy, eating Reeses cups and watching the skaters.

We've declared that next time we go out to do something as a family, it will be something that you can get into also. I know you love a Reeses cup, but I felt like you were cheated just a little bit. I will confess though, when we took off our skates you were running around not listening and I told you to sit still next to us or I was going to put your ice skates back on. You sat.

You still pitch a fit some days when I take you into school. But it's not nearly as big of a fit as you pitch when someone says the word nap to you. I have to say I definitely appreciate the irony of you having a flat out tantrum about how you don't want to nap, mostly because you are so exhausted that you find it necessary to sob over anything that doesn't go your way. Like the nap.

Your brother has figured this out and announces loudly on the way home from school that you're going to have to go home and take a nap because tormenting you is his favorite thing ever. I guess there isn't much to do in the car so you guys like to see who can make the other cry the loudest while Mommy is driving. Before you start feeling sorry for yourself though, you should know that you do your fair share of tormenting Connor. Mostly you completely ignore him causing him to have a screaming tantrum because he's trying to talk to you and you aren't listening to him. You just stare out the window with a smirk on your face. I've never had to pull the car over, but it's coming. I know it as surely as I know that you'll never ask me if you can go ice skating in the morning again.
I love you,
Mama

Bread of my Ancestors

Wheat is a relatively new addition to the human digestive system. While humans have been on the planet for 100,000 years, for 90,000 years we ate what we could gather or hunt. This adds up to a 45 year old human eating wheat for the first time at 41 years of age. While 10,000 years IS definitely long enough for the human body to evolve it’s digestion processes, we also have to consider that wheat was primarily grown in Southeast Asia and didn’t make its way to Europe, (where my family hails from) until much, much later. The bread that our ancestors ate was very, very different than the bread that we eat today. I am explaining this because when I made my first loaf of gluten free bread last night that’s what I was thinking. This is the bread of my ancestors. Well, except they didn’t have Xanathan Gum.
 The bread I made was from a mix containing different starches (think potato) and rice flours. The yeast in the package was several months expired which didn’t help the matter.
I mixed the bread, being very careful to follow the instructions. The bread didn’t rise at all until I put it into the oven to bake at which point it gustily soared 8 inches above the rim of my bread pan. Didn’t matter. I was still hopeful. When it was done we had to cut it out of the pan, which made me feel tearful since I was anticipating a beautiful bread loaf that could be sliced and used for sandwich bread for the kids. But still, I was hopeful. The bread of my ancestors was waiting. I pulled off a chunk from the warm loaf and popped it into my mouth. The bread of my ancestors… well, it’s pretty nasty.
I was so disappointed that it made me sad. I was anticipating something that didn’t taste like THAT. It was awful! I put some oil and spices on the table to dip it in which definitely helped get the bread down, but after dinner I could not get the taste out of my mouth. I was mad at the bread of my ancestors. I was mad that it didn’t have that luscious taste of wheat even if it did have the texture. I was mad that it smelled sort of fishy.
The good news is that regardless of how I felt about it, the kids tagged it, not minding at all the fishy taste that was masked by the olive oil and spice. I don’t think they even knew it was different at all.
I have to master this bread thing though. Connor told me today that all he wanted for dinner was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And that made me sadder than even the bread of my ancestors.

Bon Appetit!

Living Gluten free isn't difficult. It just requires planning. Since we happen to have two children under the age of five there isn't much in our life that doesn't require planning anyway. The person that it's most difficult for is me. Not with the eating, but with the preparing. Since I'm in the kitchen three times a day, (four if you count snack), I'm faced with the cooking challenge.
Making the kids lunches for school isn't a problem. I have to make an extra snack for Connor to take so the preschool doesn't get stuck worrying about having GF food for the entire class. I try to make something special for him to take. He likes it when he gets different snack and all of the other kids want what he's having. That's just fine with me.
I'm about to start experimenting with GF flours which can be pre-mixed in a baking mix that can be used as a bisquick type base for muffins, cakes or pizza crusts. The flours in any base likely contain some or any of the following; sweet rice flour, brown rice flour, millet flour, sorgum flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, guar gum and cornstarch. Because these are speciality flours they are expensive too. I've heard a lot from other people about how expensive it is to eat gluten free. I think it's only expensive if you get obsessive about replacing the foods, that you are missing. If you are used to eating prepackaged foods and trying to replace those, it's expensive. If you don't mind spending a little bit of time in the kitchen, it's not that expensive or that difficult it's just time consuming. I'm sure that the bread doesn't have that delicious wheat flavor but the kids will be so happy to have a pimento cheese sandwich that they probably aren't going to care. Bon appetit!

Windows 7 Update

If you’ve ever used a Mac you’d love Windows 7. Actually, I should say if you’ve ever loved a Mac instead of used. I’ve used a Mac and PC both, but finally determined that there are better ways to stand out from the crowd than overpaying for your computers. (Let the hate mail, BEGIN!) I still have problems finding things and got extremely pissed over the new security settings that won’t allow you to go into any of the hidden folders unless you change the security settings to allow yourself to do it. It seems stupid that the main account that has full admin rights has to give itself permission to view these files. I finally moved my email over to my laptop, putting a stop to the putting down the laptop and going into the office to check my email and then forwarding email to my gmail account on my laptop cycle that I started. Yeah, I know, speaking of stupid right?

Now that I’m getting used to Windows 7 I’m starting to like it a little bit more. It’s definitely shiny. And what girl doesn’t like shiny?

Resolutions 2010

Although I resolved several years ago to never make resolutions again, to prove myself consistent I broke that one and started making resolutions again. This year I’ve resolved to:

· Get healthier, lose some more of the baby weight, (22 lbs down and 40 to go). I’ve got to start going to the gym again. I’ve been on hiatus since I’ve been having some digestive issues. They’ve thoroughly checked my gallbladder and other organs but still there’s no answer as to why I’m suffering from constant upper right quadrant pain. It takes so long with all of the testing and such that at least I know it’s not serious. If it was serious, I’d be dead already.

· Attempt to make it to church at least once a month. This includes finding a church that’s not all judgey and weird.

· Have someone over for dinner once a month (I stole this from my friend Julie and it’s a good one). When I say dinner, I don’t mean getting all fancy, I mean just having someone over… even if we are eating tacos. No good china, just some good friends and a bottle of wine. Remember that we are gluten free, ‘round here so expect a dish containing potatoes.

· Finally find some way to take that Anatomy class that I need to start on my going back to school journey.

· Jorma resolved to do a family outing once a month and I’m totally piggy backing his. We don’t do enough fun stuff as a family. Usually by the time the weekend comes we are exhausted and content just to hang out together on the sofa like a pile of puppies watching TV and giggling.

· Get my blog moved over to something better like Wordpress or Movable Type. I’ve been putting that off forever because it requires actually purchasing webspace instead of riding out the free web hosting like I have been doing, but it really limits me. I’d like a little more control, a better site and maybe even a storefront selling something… maybe sensory toys? There are a ton of people making little bits of cash from their own websites online and while I’m not expecting anything lucrative, it’d be nice to generate some sort of something.

I like posting my resolutions on my blog because it helps to hold me to them. Because then I can go in and take a look at the end of the year and see how I’ve done. I need accountability. So let’s take a look at last year’s (cringe).

· Put on makeup everyday - Does chapstick count as makeup? If Chapstick counts as makeup I did this one!

· Try out some cardio. I love yoga, but I'm not losing any weight... just firming up. I did this! Religiously for a while. For a long while actually. I lost 22 lbs but then came to a screeching halt in September when the first cold come to our house.

· Embrace joy. I’m not sure I did this like I should have. I think I just got so busy that I stopped enjoying all of the things that I should have been and started just trying to make it through. I will try to do better at this, this year.

· Spend more time doing things that are creative. More art. I did this! I joined the Matthews Artist Guild and set up our spare room as an art studio. This involved getting rid of a bunch of Jorma’s weight equipment, but that wasn’t a big deal since we have a gym membership.

· Set up a budget for the family and use it... for a whole year. I did set up a budget. And we didn’t use it at all. This is because it was my intention to set up a cash budget for spending. But we don’t use cash. It would work better if we set up two additional accounts with debit cards and moved our spending money for the month to those. And then used the main account for bills only.

So all in all, I didn’t do that bad. Maybe I can make this year’s happen. I think I can, I think I can.