Sorry about the absence in the last few weeks. I didn’t forget about you all. I just had a lot of my mind and a lot on my plate it seems. I have also been rethinking about how I do a lot of things and sometimes one needs time to focus and assess.

One of those things is my income and how it is coming in the house. For a long time, I was a believer of multiple streams of income and for many reasons, I stepped away from it. For one thing, having multiple streams of income are a lot of work and take some time. The upswing of multiple streams of income is that one always has a back up income when one fails. I hope to talk more about this further on this week.

Another thing on my mind is the health of my children. The schools right now have several strains of viruses going on right now. The only thing that we have caught is called the “crud” by the doctor. This is all good considering they have cases of Influenza A, strep throat, bronchitis, stomach viruses, and pneumonia in the high school alone. What became very apparent to me was my lack of skill when it comes to treating these things naturally and at home. So now I have a new area I need to work on.

Along with the health of my children is the injury Shali sustained 2.5 months ago has not healed yet. She sprained her right groin muscle so you can imagine how painful this is. She saw the family physician initially. She was in physical therapy for a month when they sent to an orthopedic surgeon. He took x-rays and recommended another month of physical therapy with no basketball, but she could continue to try to dance if she could do it. The dance team changed the routines so she could do them without the kicks and jumps. We went back a week ago to the OS and he ordered a MRI. We found out she is not healing and he is not sure why. He doubts it is because of her activity level so hence the MRI.

Unfortunately we are in the process of waiting for approval from the insurance companies to do the MRI. That really frustrates me that the insurance companies think they know better than the doctor what the patient needs. With the current healthcare industry and what is coming down the tubes, we are in for a lot more frustration.

Christmas shopping is coming along nicely and, so far, I am impressed with some of the deals I have been able to get. I am also impressed with the money I have saved so far. I wish I was keeping track so give you all a better idea. I might have to tally up when I am done. The goal is to not go into debt for Christmas and I usually succeed at that goal. I do have Dane and Jordan done except for a few stocking stuffers. Shali and Paige are almost done and Paige’s birthday on Saturday is done. Whew!

On another note, we lost our dog, Lily, today. This has devastated everyone in our house. We loved her so much and she fit into our crazy life so well. We will miss her like crazy.

This week, I am going to skip the usual frugal happenings list. I did a lot of the same things as the last few lists as well as tried one or two things. With the Christmas season and having a little extra money on hand, I had not had to sweat our budget so much. January will be back to the grind stone with being frugal as much as possible.

Thanks for reading! Have a great night!

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