GYM-STAR!

Since we didn't do anything interesting today (productive, yes, but not interesting), I'll post some cute photos of our niece Addy at her gymnastics recital. We hear she did great and really enjoyed herself (and we sure wish we lived closer so we could attend these types of things - Eli is playing ball again this spring, so I'll have to post a photo of him in his gear one of these weekends!)

 Congratulations Addy!

And as far as our productivity, we FINALLY tackled the office, after literally years of neglect... Jay cleared out the closet, tossing some things and designating others to sell. We dug through piles and piles and PILES of papers on our desks - mine being half covered in bill stubs and the other half in kiddo schoolwork/artwork, and I don't even want to know what Jay found, since most of it went into the trash or shredder. I can now type AT MY DESK instead of the kitchen counter... We vacuumed. We dusted. We found the floor. We can breathe in here again! And on top of all that, we made time to re-evaluate our budget once again... We spent all of Thursday and Friday at a "Workplace Financial Wellness" course where we learned shocking things such as needing to live WITHIN OUR MEANS (and what that percentage actually is, which was the shocking part) and how much we'll need to save for retirement (without depending on our pensions or social security - neither of which are guaranteed). Breaking down all the different numbers with professionals/financial coaches was both enlightening and helpful, and we feel like we now have the tools needed to truly get out of debt (in the near future, rather than just "someday... hopefully soon"), so that we can start saving (something we're very, very behind on). And though the class ended on a bit of a womp-womp with warnings and instructions for protecting assets, and setting up wills and trusts, one of the final numbers we crunched was how much can be saved in 30 years by investing (not just saving, but investing) as little as $5000 per year (that's just a little over $400/month). I felt at least partially redeemed seeing that number and knowing that while we're not doing much, we're doing SOMETHING by contributing automatically to our TSP every paycheck. It's going to take a lot of work, but we'll get there, and we can't let past mistakes (or growing pains, since much of our debt is due to living on volunteer and grad school stipends for years, and having two children so close together, requiring a hefty 'investment' in daycare/private school) get us down. Sure, we've made some bad financial decisions (ahem, buying two NEW cars in quick succession), and it seriously SUCKS to add up the line items and find out exactly how much you spend on groceries and restaurants and clothes/shoes (our biggest offenders, in that order), but those are things we can change. So let the changes keep on rollin'... we're on our way out of the hole!