What I did for my Birthday and other Stuff

I think I fell off the wagon, both with my blogging and with my finances.

I feel like I'm just in survival mode most of the time. I work, and want to just get to the end of the day so that I can relax and get some sleep. On a typical day, I only get a few hours at home in the evening with my family and then I'm off again to do more work, only to collapse into bed in the wee hours of the morning. This doesn't happen every day, thankfully, or I'd be a zombie by now. But the number of hours in a day that are eaten up by doing something for one of my sources of income has been steadily increasing. When I have downtime, I prefer to sit on the couch with Cub, teaching him the letters of the alphabet, or with DD2, reading 'Failbook' or something similar.

I must still remain silent on what's happening with work. When I am able to talk about it, perhaps then you might get some understanding of why my life has become so busy lately.

The finances are a mess. We've gotten behind in almost everything again, and that is because I have neither the time, nor the inclination to work on our budget. It may sound like an excuse to some, but this time of year is one of the worst for us financially. Within a month or so, our biggest contract should renew, and a large payment will come in. With that, we budget for a year, get caught up with bills, pay extra toward the debts and schedule in some fun for the family. I tend to stress out quite a bit about this contract renewal in the spring, so being extra busy is helping me to cope with the stress.

My 40th birthday came and went this past weekend without too much fuss. We celebrated on Saturday with a family dinner out, generously paid for by Gramma. DD1 then took the younger two overnight so that Dad & I could have a night out. We went rollerskating earlier in the day which was an absolute hoot! I haven't been on roller skates since I was 12 or 13. After a few laps around the rink, I was getting the hang of it again. I managed to keep myself upright until I was getting off the rink for the last time. My skate got caught up on something while stepping off the rink onto the concrete floor, and down I went onto one knee. I laughed and thought, well that could have been a lot worse. That evening we went to Yuk Yuk's and I indulged in two glasses of wine. The more I drank, the funnier the comedians got. I wonder why that is?

Sunday, my actual birthday, we spent most of the day just lounging on the couch and chatting while watching t.v. We did our grocery shopping, then headed over to DD1's place. She made dinner for us before we brought the younger two home. DD2 made me a huge birthday card complete with pictures glued on it. Grandcub got me a DVD of a show called 'Pushing Daisies'. We watched the 1990 version of 'The Night of the Living Dead'. It was a good evening all in all.

I have to get ready for work now, so 'll sign off. I hope to be back soon with another update.