Life
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Let’s Talk About Emergency Funds (part 1)
Monday was tax day, so this seems like an appropriately themed week to return to my roots as a personal finance blogger. I had been considering running an updated version of my You Are Not Paying 35% in Federal Taxes from 2016, partly because I paid a lot more in taxes this year than any previous year and still did not come close to paying 35% in federal taxes, but honestly, I just never found the time to sit down with the numbers. And then, another topic came up. A lot of the time, when I write about finances here, you will see me refer to Stacking Benjamins. Stacking Benjamins…
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Gratitude Journal #11
Apparently, you can train your brain to be happier by keeping a gratitude journal, so I am giving it a go. My goal is post about 100 things I am grateful for over the course of the year. (This should average out to just a little over 2/week.) However, I am going to try and stay away from the standard family/friends/pets. Please know I absolutely am grateful for my family, friends, and pets. I would not have made it through the past couple of year without each of them. But if I am trying to train myself to be happier, then I want to start recognizing the smaller things in…
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Sometimes We Cause Pain
Last week I wrote about the importance of story, and that I am trying to figure out how I want to tell my story here. And there are lots of details about my story that will never make it here, because they are not just my story. It is a story that belongs to a lot of people, and I believe those people also have a right to control how much information is out there in a public forum. So I do not share details here. But what I can share is that the last three years, for me, have been a balancing act, and not an easy one. They…
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The Importance of Story
I found out yesterday that one of my favorite authors, Steven Brust, is helping put together a conference specifically on story this summer. I am super excited about Narrativity, and am working to put all my ducks in a row in order to go. Because story is important. Story is important to all writers, and most creative people out there. Story is not just important in fiction. It is important in non-fiction, including blog posts. It is important in game development, for video games, role playing games, board games. Story is what draws us in and keeps up coming back. Story is how we connect. Way back when I was…
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Gratitude Journal #7
Apparently, you can train your brain to be happier by keeping a gratitude journal, so I am giving it a go. My goal is post about 100 things I am grateful for over the course of the year. (This should average out to just a little over 2/week.) However, I am going to try and stay away from the standard family/friends/pets. Please know I absolutely am grateful for my family, friends, and pets. I would not have made it through the past couple of year without each of them. But if I am trying to train myself to be happier, then I want to start recognizing the smaller things in…
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Serenity
On Facebook, a friend of mine is running an introspection group page, where each day, she poses a question for us to think about. We started in August and are continuing in September. One question from August was “What’s something you wish someone would say to you?” and yesterday the question was “What would make you happy right now?” These may seem like fairly innocuous questions, but for me, they have sparked a serious bit of introspection, for how I answer them. You see, the first answers that pop to my mind when I read these questions are things that are not going to happen. I can want. I can…
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Back in the Saddle
Here I am, back in front of a blank page, trying to figure out exactly how to say what I want to say, in the way I want to say it. If you have followed this blog (and thank you, if you have), you know I have taken most of the last two years off from blogging. I have put up a post here and there, and tried to do some things for NaNoWriMo, but really, I have not been writing here. The truth is, I have not been writing anywhere. The last two years have been a slice of hell for my family. And no, I do not say…
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My Husband, the Bum
If you ask C what he does, he will tell you he is a bum. If he is a bum, I do not care. It does not bother me that he spends a good part of every day sleeping or playing video games. Because here is the thing – he deserves it. He EARNS it. I love Pop Tart. I love her more than just about anything, but there is a reason I am the breadwinner in our family and C is the stay at home parent. I get home right around 5pm. That means that by the time I walk through the door, he has been dealing with whatever…
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In Praise of the Routine
Two weeks ago, I woke up on Monday morning in a condo at the beach. I do not remember exactly what time, though it was not that late, as we got up in time to go swimming in the indoor pool and take a soak in the hot tub before making a few more s’mores over the gas grill, packing up, and heading out to the beach. A week ago, I woke up on Monday morning in a four star hotel, about an hour later than I usually do. I watched some TV as I took my time getting dressed and then went downstairs to partake of a free breakfast,…
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What the World Owes You
If you have seen this going around Facebook or other social media, you might reasonably have thought that the world owes you a legal pad and a pen, but nothing else. The problem is, when most people see a meme like this, they are thinking of a spoiled 22 year old who thinks he should be given an A for simply showing up to his college courses. But as a foster parent, I see the world differently. I do not see adults (spoiled or otherwise), I see children. And guess what, as a society, as the world, we do, in fact, owe our children many things. So here is my…
