Today was pretty good. I made it to my early morning gym class, had a busy day at school, and then went to the gym with my kids after school. After dinner I checked off a few things on my homework "to do" list. Now I'm settling down to review the budget and clean out my email.
I mailed out a $6 rebate, and this afternoon I received a check for $6 from a rebate I sent out a few months ago! That will go in my local savings account emergency fund.
My November budget is laid out and ready to go, just waiting on my paycheck on the 30th. It looks like I may need to hold off on classes in the Spring. I need to take a course to maintain my teaching license instead. Besides, this will give me more time to save up for the tuition. Sigh, after I'm all done with my program it will be time for my daughter to start college!

(Not a budget related post, I'll deal with that later!) Many houses on this street have put out decorations and lights, it makes it fun to walk at night. We have done our part to decorate as well, my kids are old enough that they took care of the outside decorating and had a lot of fun doing it. We have also enjoyed making some fall goodies like pumpkin cake and caramel covered apples.

The weather has been beautiful lately, and the trees have turned colors. Activities in school have a festive theme to them, even though they are not directly related to Halloween. In my class, for example, I teach a unit on bones in October. One of my favorites!

I guess I'm just feeling grateful for these nicer moments in life. Things have been pretty heavy lately and I realized this weekend that there is still a lot of lightness out there, if that makes any sense at all.

Work is finally settling down, the workload is just now at a more manageable pace. My coursework is still current, I have been very careful to keep up with it, or else this house of cards will quickly tumble!

My own kids have been doing great in school thus far. I am so proud of them. School has always been a struggle for her, she has always resisted the work. But she has all A's right now! My youngest has all A's as well, and she has been keeping herself organized and on schedule very independently!

My savings is still on hold. All of the extra money goes in an account for tuition, which I empty when I pay for the next semester. I should be done with all of this over the summer. I'm excited about using that money on other things, like my savings!

I may put Spring semester on hold, it depends on how some life events pan out.

I will be visiting my mom this weekend with the kids. My mom had an extensive surgery, then developed a very serious infection and had to be admitted back into the hospital. So now she's in rehab... the nursing home kind! (The kids got a kick out of saying grandma's in rehab!) Weekends away usually mean more spending on eating out and fuel. I will just adjust the rest of my budget to account for that.