The Professional Domestic

Not Impressed With Our Debt Week #69

I apologize for not giving you an end of month update for October. When I ran the numbers I was disappointed in myself and couldn’t figure out why the numbers were not adding up correctly. So I just let October go.

Let’s see instead where we are at week 69.

I wanted to pay off the Bank of America Credit Card in October. That didn’t happen for a couple of reasons. One: we overspent and Two: I paid $500 towards the medical bill instead, because they were breathing down my neck.

I have managed though to get $700 paid off on the BOA Credit card so that’s not so bad. It’s not $2000 paid off but hey…..

How did I get $1200 paid off between the two when it wasn’t in the budget this month? I was blessed enough to receive a bonus and a raise at one of my jobs and unbeknownst to me I still had a whopping 70+ hours of vacation time that was just sitting there for me to cash in at my other job. So I had my manager each week for three weeks use that vacation time and add it to my check. That was definitely a blessing to me!

Those two blessings added up to 1200 extra dollars which I plowed into our debt.

Right now the Bank of America is at $1392.00 from approximately $2000 and the Medical bill is at $2500 from $3000.

This next week I will be paying another $500 towards the medical. I finally signed up for a payment plan. I said I would pay $500 each month which is pretty steep but it will get it paid by March.

The total for all of the debt I am talking about on this blog still doesn’t add up to what I want again because clearly we have added debt in other areas so I will just concentrate on the BOA credit card and the Medical and then I can tackle the rest of the stuff.

In closing this post I want to put a question out to all of you. Why are we so uncomfortable with talking about our money?

The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety and that financial worries are a massive trigger for this.

So why don’t we talk about money more? Couldn’t we help each other? Couldn’t we learn real information from each other? I don’t get it. We are comfortable about talking about the most intimate parts of ourselves but not about money. Makes no sense to me.

I’ll leave you with that thought. Until next time. -MM

20 for ’20 Challenge – October Update

October has been a busy month and with a wedding, three funerals, a sinus infection and 2 colds, Scott, Doug and I are glad October is over.

Despite all of that I did get a ton accomplished. Here is an update on my goals.

1. Build a new garage – Nothing going at the moment

2 – Major cross-stitch projects completed.

I started the HUGE Modern Folkart, Fraktur Hex project and just the one single outside border I stitched was 1073 stitches. yikes!

3 – Projects completed in our house (not to include windows).

Did not have any time this month to work on these.

4 – Books read a month.

I only got two books read, the fourth installment of Factory Girl, by Stephanie Bond and Virgins, by Diana Gabaldon.

Virgins is an Outlander Novella which was kind of fun to read. If you are an Outlander fan it tells the story between the time Jamie was so severely flogged and when he met Claire gor the first time. It was pretty good. Nice short read!

5 – Windows replaced in our house.

Waiting until Spring on this one.

6 – Blog posts a month.

I got 7 blog posts done yippee!

7 – Movies at the theater with my family.

Nothing new on this one.

8 – Hours a month studying herbal medicine and/or herbology a month.

It’s been an interesting month for number 8. I only got about 4 hours in but what I have learned so far has been amazing.

I signed up for a free course with Herb Mentor and then I liked it so much that I decided to subscribe to the whole shebang.

It’s a monthly fee for 12 months but I will always have access to it and the information they provide is well,…overwhelming at first but as I start to implement what I have learned I think it will be less overwhelming.

Rosalee Delforte is the herbal teacher and I am really enjoying her style. One thing I am concerned about though is that there are multiple mini classes you can take which are not included in the subscription price and they tend to push that a bit.

I want to see first if that information is already in what I am currently subscribed to or if that information is in addition.

The cold and flu section is of course something we should all be interested in learning about right now.

I’ll keep you updated on my experience and progress.

9 – Birthday cards sent out to 9 friends. Nada so far.

I really have to do better on this.

10 – Small cross-stitch projects done for the year.

Nothing new

11 – New herb varieties planted for the year.

This again is for a Spring project but I have been doing some research on what I want to plant and how I will use the herbs. The above course I am taking will help determine the varieties I choose.

12 – Recipes I teach to my son.

I have been spending more time engaging my son in at least helping me cook but I did teach him how to make homemade teriyaki sauce. He seemed to enjoy doing that so I will keep at it with him.

13 – Minutes of exercise a day.

I know in my heart I am just not going to do anything with this goal. I am not a traditional exercise kind of gal so I am going to think on a different goal to do for #13. I’ll update you next time.

14 – Walks a month.

I got 10 wonderful walks in! What a lovely time of year for walking.

15 – $15,000 in debt paid off.

I got $1000 paid down on our debt this month. Check out my update tomorrow.

16 – Proper dates with my husband (planned).

My hubby loved the musical we went to last month so much that he wanted to see another this month. We saw The Book of Mormon at our local Broadway Theater. We had a good time. The music and costumes and dancing were wonderful but I thought at times the story was a bit disrespectful but what else can you expect from the writers of South Park. Lol

17 – Etsy Listings posted a month.

I got 29 listings done! On one of my sick days home I laid in bed and got 25 listings up and I already sold one of them 🙂

18 – Books of the Bible read.

Still working on this.

19 – New Recipes tried.

I posted about the recipe I tried in this previous post Butternut Squash Green Curry rice noodle bowl

20 – Visits with people.

See my post – 20 for ’20 Visits Update

Well that’s it for now. As always I will keep you updated! -MM

SAL – Project Fraktur Hex #1

This is my first post on my newest project, Modern Folk Embroidery’s Fraktur Hex.

The original design photo showed the entire project stitched in blue.

I knew I would get bored only stitching the same color so I have switched up the color scheme.

Just the single outside border was 1072 stitches! It’s a very big project.

I have gotten a lot done in 3 weeks. Here is where I ended last night.

I can’t wait to watch this project develop and so far I am really liking the colors. Though I am still not sure of the pink.

Please visit the other members’ blogs to see what they are working on. I am going to check them out now!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie

We welcome back Connie to the group but hope that Helen will be back soon. We will miss you Clare it was fun seeing your projects!

See you in three weeks! -MM

Decorated Halloween Layer Cake

My sister and her husband had their annual, epic, Halloween party this past weekend and for the dessert contest I brought a Halloween themed cake.

I used a 10″ double layer chocolate cake and split each layer which gave me room for 3 layers of different colored filling.

The first layer I split with a knife and filled with a green buttercream layer of frosting.

Then I did an orange layer of buttercream which I forgot to take a picture of but you’ll see that later.

Then I split the second layer of cake and filled it with purple buttercream frosting.

Then I decided to frosted the whole thing with a rich layer of chocolate ganache frosting.

Chocolate ganache frosting is just cooled and whipped ganache. I doubled the recipe to fully frost this cake.

Then I made another batch of ganache to drizzle down the sides.

Next I piped a spider web and cute purple spiders out of buttercream.

Lastly I used the leftover whipped ganache and piped a ring of chocolate swirls on top.

How fun is this cake?! Plus here is a look at the inside colors including the orange layer

It was delicious!

It didn’t win the best dessert…that was reserved for my friend Lonnie’s very realistic litter box cake complete with pooper scooper lol!

Hope you have a fun, safe Halloween! -MM

19 for ’20 Recipes Challenge – Butternut Squash Green Curry Rice Noodle Bowls Recipe

Part of my 20 for ’20 Challenge is to try 19 new recipes in 2019-2020.

They say you eat with your eyes right?

In the case of the recipe I tried for “Butternut Squash Green Curry Rice Noodle Bowls” I definitely wanted to try the recipe because the photo of it on Instagram was amazing. I even texted a screen shot of it to my son and asked if he would want me to make it for dinner and he said “heck yeah”.

I am not saying it was an epic fail but…

I guess we are just not fans of green curry and that much coconut milk made me a bit ill. At first it was pretty tasty but as I ate more and more it ended up being too rich for me. I also didn’t really know how to eat it. A fork? A spoon? Chop stick probably.

I have always understood noodle bowls to be more of a broth based dish. There was only a cup of broth in this recipe and TWO 15 oz. cans of coconut milk. My mom said that sounded like way too much coconut milk.

Maybe I read the recipe wrong.

Plus it was an expensive meal for us with ingredients I don’t keep on hand because again I guess we are not fans of green curry. I did use our own garden grown onions, green onions, and butternut squash which helped keep the cost down.

What did my son think of it? Coming from the 17 year old his exact words were “it tasted goofy.”

Haha! Well there you have it!

Please feel free to check out spicesinmydna.com for the recipe and let me know if you make it and what you think about it.

Until the next recipe! – MM

20 for ’20 – Visits Update

shallow focus photography of a man in white collared dress shirt talking to the phone using black android smartphone — Photo by Hassan OUAJBIR on Pexels.com

When I originally set “Visits” as a goal for my 20 for ’20 Challenge, face to face visits were what I had in mind.

I have changed my perspective on this a bit because if I want to visit with someone, such as a busy mom with four children for example, a face to face visit is nearly impossible. Add in the people that are thousands of miles away and that truly is impossible to visit face to face.

I also have thought more about the quality versus the quantity of the visit. A visit doesn’t have to be hours long. Even 15-20 minutes can mean a lot to a person.

It’s been a hard month for us. On October 5th my mother’s brother, my uncle, was killed in a car accident. It was unexpected and very tragic. He was very, very full of life.

From this tragedy, did come many small visits with family members and with people we had not seen in a long while. Some of these visits were face to face and some were via Facebook.

I hope from these small visits with people and from this tragic event that as a family we can spend more time talking with each other instead of always being too busy to connect.

Another visit not involving my Uncle’s death stood out to me this month. I have a friend that had a bad situation with her son over the summer and I reached out to her to see how she was doing and lend some support. She said just reaching out to her really meant a lot. We chatted via text and in the end I said we should get together sometime to chat further. This would be where the busy mom thing comes into play because it would be next to impossible to get together for coffee. Then I thought later why wouldn’t I just call her?

Why don’t we talk to each other on the phone any more? It’s weird isn’t it? We always used to talk on the phone. Even at the law office where I work it’s kind of foreign to talk on the phone. Most correspondence is through email and not human phone calls.

Is that why we all have anxiety issues and feel disconnected? Do we worry we are going to get caught on the phone with someone and not be able to get away from them? Are we too absorbed in our lives to even make a simple phone call to someone?

Don’t get me wrong texting and emailing and messaging someone is good too but I do miss hearing someone’s voice.

I knew when I chose 20 visits as a goal, it was something I needed and missed in my life but it has turned out there is a lot more to this visiting thing than I realized. This is all good stuff! Something we can all learn and be aware of.

It means a lot to get a phone call from someone or to reach out via text, email or messaging. Even a card mailed to someone with an ” am Thinking of You” is a tremendous boost to people that need a lift in their spirit.

Keep visiting with people! I plan on doing it any way I can. – MM

Not Impressed With Our Debt – Week 64 of 80 – Hospital Bill

I finally had to call the grant department about my emergency room bill to find out the status of my application. Like I thought, we earn too much and we were rejected.

I spoke in depth with the woman and she suggested going on the payment plan. I told her what had happened the last time I went on a payment plan and even she agreed they were ridiculous. Her advice to me was to keep paying as much as I could monthly and if someone from the collection department called to ignore the call and block the number. I kind of chuckled at that. But honestly that’s what I have done before.

This week I will call and set up a payment plan for as low as I can get away with every month to satisfy the hospital goons. My plan is to pay as much as I can each week and hopefully in a few months that bill will be paid.

One good thing on the debt paying front is that I got $500 paid off on the Bank of America card this week and I had my husband add $20 more a week to his 401k because we got 2 more major bills paid off.

I am disappointed in not getting even a little help with the ER bill but now that I know I can concentrate on getting that bill paid off quickly.

We are back in the right direction of paying down our debt folks and it feels good! I’ll be back with an update on the 30th. -MM

SAL – Autumn House #3 – Finish!

Autumn House is finished! Happy Dance!

It’s been a really bad week with sickness and personal loss but I am back on the mend and will get into my newest large project Fraktur Hex asap.

Hope you are all doing well! Please do some blog hopping and visit the other fine stitchers in our group. The links to their blogs are below.
Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Clare, Renee, Jenny, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne

Not Impressed with our Debt Week 62 of 80 – Monthly Update September 2019

I was waiting until I heard about my hospital bill to update you on our debt, but so far I have heard nothing.

I took the advice of my friend Kathy and applied for a grant through the hospital.

I was reluctant to apply but in the end I got all of the paperwork together and filled out the application and handed it to my friend in the billing department and now I am waiting for them to review it.

August was a wash for us financially. What I paid off in debt we spent on our trip to Ireland for our daughter’s wedding. I am fine with that actually. I wash is good in my mind.

September was school taxes so $1500 went to that.

October is looking more promising. I have a plan to pay off our Bank of America credit card which has $2000 on it at the moment. At the end of this month I can let you in on how and if I get it all paid.

Here is how our debt is looking at this point:

Last update our total owed was $32,080.81.

Right now our total is $32,647.05.

That’s a little over $500 increase but like I said between Ireland (which was lovely!) and school taxes I am not surprised.

Back on track for October!

How are you doing with your debt? -MM

20 for ’20 Goals Update

I started my 20 for ’20 challenge early, inspired by a friend’s goals in another group I belong to. I didn’t want to wait until the new year to start getting things accomplished.

Here is what I have accomplished so far:

1. Build a new garage – So far my hubby and I have been trying to look at every angle to this project. Do we truly want to tear down our old garage? Could we salvage it? Could we update it and slowly fix it up in stages? Is it worth even saving? We even looked at ready made Amish built garages. We definitely have crossed the brand new, big and beautiful garage from our list. We just can’t afford that. Any advice on this one guys would be welcomed. Stay tuned.

2 – Major cross-stitch projects completed. I purchased a beautiful new chart from Modern Folk Embroidery a few weeks ago and I am ready to start it. I have a small part of the border done but am working to finish the Autumn House first. The other large project I am looking to complete is the mystery SAL that Modern Folk Embroidery Offers every year. I plan on participating in that. Hopefully I can keep up!

3 – Projects completed in our house (not to include windows). Last spring a part of our garage’s roof blew right off leave our already dilapidated garage leaking. We knew we needed to get the roof repaired but we weren’t inclined to spent a lot on it. With advice from a handyman friend my husband has been working to get the roof repaired himself as best as he can. He hopes to have it done tonight actually! There are at least 3 other projects we want to work on over the winter and Spring which I will write about soon.

4 – Books read a month. After considering my reading goals for the months ahead, I want to include magazines in this category. One of the magazines I read this month was over 150 pages and I read it cover to cover. Here is what I got read in September:

A Glorious Freedom – Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives By Lisa Congdon – This was a fabulous, inspiring, motivating book about women over forty following their dreams and having careers and accomplishments some into their 90s and 100s. It’s never too late! I highly recommend this book.

Where Women Create – Mindful Studios – Inspiring Wellness and Beauty Magazine – This was another inspiring, beautifully photographed read for me. I enjoyed reading each article sitting on my front porch everyday with my coffee. I was disappointed when I finished it because…I wished it hadn’t ended! lol. I plan on purchasing other editions of this magazine for even more inspiring articles.

Factory Girl Part 3 – By Stephanie Bond – I admit, I enjoy author Stephanie Bond. Her writing is easy reading and sometimes that’s just what I need at the end of the day. Bond is on her fourth serial e-novella. Factory Girl is her newest along with her previous series, Coma Girl, Comeback Girl, and Temp Girl. Each of these series are six months long and you can read ahead or like me read just one excerpt a day. I look forward to my daily Stephanie Bond installment. She also writes full length fiction as well. Check her out!

Magnolia Journal – Fall 2019 Issue – At first I was really engaged in this issue of Magnolia but by the end I fell a bit out of love with it. It didn’t get into the meat of why we aren’t feeling whole and the recipes and decorating ideas were few.

That’s it for books/magazines for the month!

5 – Windows replaced in our house. Nothing on this one yet.

6 – Blog posts a month. Only got 5 blog posts in for September. This post was going to be number 6 but I am a couple of days late. More posts for October!

7 – Movies at the theater with my family. My husband and mother and I went to see Downton Abbey last week! We are huge fans of the series and were very sad when it ended so we were thrilled when we heard the movie version was coming out in September. It did not disappoint! Seeing HighClere Castle on the big screen and all of our favorite characters again made our hearts happy! Even if you have never watched the series I still highly recommend the movie.

8 – Hours a month studying herbal medicine and/or herbology. I only got about 2 hours in studying herbology this month. It’s hard to know where to begin studying because there is so much one can learn on this subject. I hope to have a clearer path to learning on this for October.

9 – Birthday cards sent out to 9 friends. None sent out this month

10 – Small cross-stitch projects done for the year. I worked on multiple small projects this month but I haven’t finished any of them yet.

11 – New herb varieties planted for the year. I won’t work on this until Spring.

12 – Recipes I teach to my son. I barely saw the boy this month so nothing accomplished

13 – Minutes of exercise a day. Ok I suck at doing this and that’s exactly why I put it on the list of goals. I officially exercised once this month. See what I mean about being terrible at it? I say officially once but unofficially I get a lot of exercise. Setting up and taking down for the farmers market each week is a lot of physical work. My part-time bakery job is great exercise. My gardening is exercise, and going up and down the stairs to help out my church put school supplies away for the year is also fabulous exercise. But it’s not specific targeting exercise that I need. So I will continue to work on this in October. (Hopefully).

14 – Walks a month. Again I only got one official walk in this month.

15 – $15,000 in debt paid off. check out my update in my Not Impressed with my Debt blog series coming tomorrow.

16 – Proper dates with my husband (planned). This is an interesting one. We had two official dates both kind of planned. Basically a date for us is just being together for a couple of hours without anyone else to entertain. My husband is one of those guys that likes to be “on”. If you know him than you know what I mean. A date for me is when I get him all to myself and he is “off” for the night. No one for him to impress but me.

Our first date was getting the oil changed in the Subaru. Fancy huh? It’s an hour drive to the dealership we bought the vehicle at so it gives us time to talk and then we go out afterwards for something to eat. While waiting for the oil to be changed we checked out all of the new models which is always fun and then we went for dinner. We usually try to go to our first date restaurant but unfortunately it had closed 😦 so we headed back closer to home. We had dinner at a local diner and had fun. Hubby even snapped a photo of how much fun we had. Can you tell I am not a big fan of selfies? Of course he posted the photo on Facebook and got some teasing from his friends that I didn’t look too thrilled on our oil change date night and suggested giving me a better night in the future.

Date number two was unexpected but we were given tickets to the musical La Cage aux Folles and boy were they fabulous seats! We really enjoyed this as our date night and my husband loved it. What I didn’t realize was he had never been to a professional production of any kind, ever! We have been together for 12 years and I never knew this. Well that will change now because I love the theater and will plan more dates like this for him and I.

17 – Etsy Listings posted a month. I got 18 listings done this month. Hooray! Check out my Etsy shop here Red Mill Vintage and New Etsy Shop

18 – Books of the Bible read. I am working on the book of Daniel and will give an update next time.

19 – New Recipes tried. The only new recipe I have tried so far is the cauliflower chowder recipe that you can read about here Cauliflower Chowder.