1. Another day of substitute teaching. Wednesday and Thursday, I taught Civics for juniors who are taking the ACT next week. In Illinois, all juniors take the exam as an achievement test. These students have studied all semester for the exam and on Wednesday, the assignment was a practice essay for the writing portion of the exam. On Thursday, they studied with a computer program for the math section.
Can I say how disappointed I am that most of the students are completely unmotivated to prepare for this important college entrance exam? As the mother of two homeschool students who spent over a year studiously preparing for the ACT, it surprised me these juniors were completely blase about it. Sigh.
2. We didn't attend a tea party, but I hung a tea bag on my rearview mirror to support the idea. The federal and state income taxes our family paid in 2008 was nearly twice our family's income in 2000. Re-read that, please. The amount we paid in taxes this year was twice the amount our family lived on in 2000. While that's certainly an indication of the huge financial blessings we've enjoyed this decade, it is a bit breathtaking to look at the bottom line number on the tax return.
3. WE'RE DEBT FREE! Do you ever listen to the Dave Ramsey radio show? When those following his financial program pay off their last debt, they call in and he has them yell a celebratory "I'm debt free!!!" When the economy and stock market took such a nose-dive last year, we decided to take the money in our 401K plan and pay off the mortgage with it. (Terry had wisely taken the money out of the stock market last summer before the big decreases so we didn't suffer the 40% losses that many did.) This week, we made our final car payment and paid off one other remaining small loan. For the first time since I graduated from college, I am debt-free. Terry is debt-free for the first time in his adult life. We have been blessed beyond describing and in these difficult times, I am humbled that we are out of debt. Don't get me wrong, we worked very hard and sacrificed quite a bit to get here, but without God's providence we would still have holes in our purse.
4. My sister-in-law baked Ree's Grandma Ivy's Prune Cake for Easter dinner and it was delicious. If you are like me and haven't forced yourself to smash prunes to make this cake, you really must try it!
5. The Cardinals are 9-2 for the first week-and-a-half of the season and on Thursday they won Game One of their series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Baseball play-by-play is the background noise of my summers.
6. Newly installed Bishop Timothy Dolan of New York is a St. Louis native. Seriously considering Catholicism opens a whole new perspective on my hometown. I like it. A lot. Read the last part of Dolan's wonderful installation mass homily at The Anchoress, here. I can't wait to visit St. Pat's with Luke next time I'm in New York and can only hope to attend a mass celebrated by Bishop Dolan.
7. Books read during my lenten blogging fast:
Atlas Shrugged (started in January)-- review to follow soon
Surprised by Truth, eleven conversion stories compiled by Patrick Madrid
My Cousin the Saint by Justin Catanoso
Tuesday's with Morrie by Mitch Albom--Cassie got this from the library and read it over Easter weekend. I enjoyed it a lot.
Still reading:
The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn
The Forgotten Man by Amity Shales
John Adams by David McCullough (listened to it on CDs a couple of years ago)
On Being Catholic by Thomas Howard
Happy Friday! Go Cards~!!!
Blessings,
Sandy
5 comments:
Lynn is reading Atlas Shrugged and she LOVES it. I know she would like to talk with you about it.
Why didn't Terry tell us to take our money out of our mutual fund. We are sad. But happy for you.
YOU ARE DEBT FREE !!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!
The credit card companies are killing us.
We are trying to pay off...but they have all raised the interest rate ten percent on us. We are struggling :o(
I would LOVE to talk to Lynn about Atlas Shrugged. ;)
Donna, I am sorry I didn't think to pass along Terry's advice last summer. Truth be told, I thought he was overreacting. I'm so glad I learned to let him manage our money several years ago. ;)
We paid off several credit cards in 1997 with a second mortgage on our home. The banker we were working with to get the house mortgaged (we had bought it with financing from the seller, a God-thing without doubt) wouldn't give us the first with the credit cards hanging out there. I am so thankful he worked with us and Terry stopped by his office to thank him the day we paid off the mortgage. (He switched banks a few years ago.)
I will pray for your finances as I continue to pray for the overall economy. I'll post later about our food storage and other contingency plans.
Thanks for your kind encouragement!
I will pray for you too, Donna. It is no fun.
Wow, Sandy. Wow. This is so ironic, because Curt came home with the same idea Terry had (take money out of retirement to pay off mortgage) and I've been balking. First, it isn't last summer and second, we would have the 10% early withdrawal penalty besides the regular tax.
We're still debating...
But, I'm going back to work full time for two years. We plan to have the mortgage paid off by then and we have no other debt.
HOW EXCITED you must be! What a fresh and clean feeling.
If you could hear Bishop Dolan and the Cards won the World Series, it would be a year to remember!
How is Cassie's modeling coming?
Love ya,
Carol
Carol,
Since Terry is over 59.5, there was no penalty for us so that made the decision a bit easier. To be quite honest, the deciding factor was our fear of the Federal government deciding to fold all pensions into social security. That's certainly far-fetched, but given some of the other unprecedented moves this administration and congress have taken.....
Will you be working full-time doing the job you've been doing part-time? My pay from subbing, though far from full-time, has helped us in this debt-free and savings-building quest.
Cassie hasn't done any more modeling. She was asked to apply for a job at Hollister (apparently they recruit on college campuses) but she didn't have a car to get to the mall. It's not my favorite store so I'm not sorry she didn't do it. She will be waitressing at home this summer, perhaps at the pizza place where she worked in high school.
How is your senior doing? Are you going to miss homeschooling next year?
I'm going to be discussing McCullough's John Adams at my blog, Semicolon, this week. I read it during my Lenten blogging fast :)
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