Settling in the boys

Now that the boys are both  home for the summer, it's time for them to leave :-)

employment beckons.

DS1 started work in his gf's little town last Wednesday. He is living with her family, who will take amazing care of him. Not that this particular 22 year old needs 24/7 care.  I sent them off with some baking for her family and all the leftovers from our big welcome home DS1 bbq last sunday. It fed gf's family the next night.  He is excited to see all his 'brothers'. They get along very well. Most excited to see him were gf's cat and gf's 3 year old niece who is so excited to not have to see her uncle through a computer screen. She's been glued to his side most evenings.

DS2 heads off today. He is working as a Park Ranger about 3 hours from here. We pulled in some favours and rented a fifth wheel for him to live in as he had no place to stay. It's done in some crazy early 90s colours but is MORE than comfortable for him. We have spent the past few days getting it loaded with what he will need to survive. Today DH is going to pull it down to his new job site. We have borrowed my dad's truck as you need a truck with the fifth wheel hitch.

My house is full of their things. Everywhere. both have agreed to slowly go through their things over the summer and weed out what no longer fits or is desired. Perhaps that will make room in the drawers and closets for everything.

for DS2, this will be his first real summer employment REALLY away from family. Last summer he worked at a provincial park but stayed with my sister so he had a home base. And his first dog :-)  The summers before that he was volunteering at his camp up north and lived in a tent most of the time. It's exciting for his first really real job after finishing college.

I am slowly getting more comfortable with them being gone most of the time. I still mourn their childhood and wish I had used that time better.

May change

Feels like forever since I actually HAD change to report here.

2017 certainly has not started out the way I had hoped, but there is still time.

Last weekend I took my change to the bank and put it towards 'back to school'

• 1 roll of toonies - $50
• 1 roll of loonies - $25
• 2 rolls of quarters - $20
• 1 roll of dimes - $5

What this tells me is that I have started actually using cash and not debit/credit again.

Most of the change comes from my weekly jar money, and more specifically, comes from my grocery shopping change.

So yes I probably have another $100 this month I could have spent on groceries, but we managed fine without it and I am glad to have put it towards planned spending.

DS1 is home now so grocery will definitely go up.

A productive weekend

I am a happy mama. Both my boys are home now......intrermittantly

DS2 formally moved out of his apartment where he went to college. Boy he's accumulated a lot in the two years while he is gone. He is home for a week and then he is off to his summer job as a Park Ranger ( I really hear 'hey hey hey boo boo' when I say that)

DS1 made it home Friday. He left at 4:30 his time and made it here 17 ish hours later. He brought most of his stuff ( a LOT of clothes) home, even though he has one year left.  He's like a hyper Chihuahua for the first few days when he gets home. and EATS. He just nicely left for his gf's town where he starts work there for the summer. He is lucky to have good inlaws who will take care of him. I will see him when he comes into town for hockey and on weekends.

So what did I accomplish during the weekend besides my family time?

• 9 hours at the school cleaning, sorting
• more loads of laundry that I can count. Most of this was DS2's
• Baked a sour cream coffee cake for the  gf
• made 8 dozen butter tarts
• made 4 dozen muffins
• cooked up big batches of ground beef and made little frozen packs of it for DS2 for spaghetti, chili and tacos
• family time in the backyard
• family bbq tonight at my parents'

and now I am relaxing with a glass of wine.

SUPER grateful for the energy that blessed me for a good chunk of each day

5 weeks of school left

Boom!

It's like an old episode of Unsolved Mysteries

Tuesday.... noon... a woman decides to better use her noon time for errands when her tire blows.

Thousands of miles away.....(and three days) her oldest son is driving and boom! his tire blows.

coincidence??? or another unsolved mystery??


Long story short I ran errands on Tuesday at noon and my tire light comes on to say it's low.  I run to the gas station to put air in it. When I unscrew the air cap, WHOOSH!! it goes flying across the parking lot to parts unknown, while the little brass valve flies out and lands a couple feet away. As I ran to grab it, my tire donates all it's air to the atmosphere.

I had to get DH to run over and swap vehicles to handle this or I would have been late for afternoon classes.  He took it to get fixed and $135 later it's apparently better.

The same thing happened to another of my tires the night before we were to drive down to see DS last fall.

DS2's tire blew yesterday in the same manner. I am glad it happened while he was still in his college town and not starting the 17 hour drive home to Canada.

His bill was $110 US.

I know I have an Emergency Fund but it's really my TFSA. I need to start a real emergency slush fund that is accessible easily for things like this.

RRSP

Forgotten in a pile of April mail that wasn't 'open now' necessary, was my RRSP update.

With the dollar tanking and things going crazy market wise, I had honestly expected a dip.

I was pleasantly surprised.

My last RRSP statement was $13 925.48


My mix is ethical bonds and dividends. Very conservative.

I am pleased to see that my balance is now is $14 176.55


In  a 2017 with lots of money and health hits it was good to see a little positive.

This was a gain of $251.07