28 For Supper

I have no explanation as to why my posts appear and then disappear.  I didn't realize it at all once again yesterday until I saw Dee's email to me this morning about it.

Kevin, Lauren, Grandma and I plus Lily, CW, Jack, Tony, Sabrina, Tabby, Nando, Scotty, Chuy, Allen, JoJo, Martin, Yolie, Chuck, Sarah, Preston, CJ, Ray, Hazel, Mae, Marcela, Gina, Cristy and Chris all ate dinner here last night.

Yes, 28 people.  More like the number I used to routinely cook for each evening, but without all the past drama, issues, and impending violence.  None of that anymore as the years have rolled on.

Lauren, between Yolie and Marcela, is almost 24 now, and Cristy had reminded us how Lauren had been the pass around baby for so many years, as everyone always clamored to hold her, this exotic-to-us blonde and blue-eyed treasure.

It was nice.  I laughed until I cried eventually as JoJo was in his usual character.  A series of photo bombs on Sabrina's phone, this is so typical of him.

Good news via my electric bill - as it came in $120 under budget.  Yeah boy, that doesn't happen often.

Two personal finance blogs this morning with major emphasis on living under ones means and then the importance of a budget here.  I'd be paralyzed both with indecision and with fear without a written budget, as it lays out what I have and what I can do each month without accidentally going into debt.  How would I know anything without this road map?

And living beneath one's means?  Pretty much the only way I know to thrive and prosper.

A goal I've been planning to do is to freeze my credit, something recommended by Dave Ramsey.  It's a win-win for me.  I don't wanna use credit, nor borrow money.  I'd just as soon do without as the stress of debt is too much of an emotional burden for me.

But I'm failing miserably in minimalism or even in decluttering.  Just two days ago my desk was clear. I'm sharing a picture of what I looked at this morning when I came in my office, but in my defense, the curtains will soon be hung, and I'll move Lily's new sewing machine to her room, keeping my ancient original one here in the office.

And doing the required paperwork for a family of this size is a bear in and of its self.  Sabrina's FAFSA and my tax return must be done rapidly in order to get her college plans in cement.

But first these curtains...