Snapshot Thursday (A Little Late)

What's at the top of my to-do list?
--I'd like to have the house as caught up as possible (laundry, dishes, straightening) before going on retreat.
--I need to write a love letter to Ted for his retreat and I have to turn it in to one of the women of my retreat this weekend. So I really need to do it today!
--Finish packing.

What have I accomplished?
--I finished researching and compiling personal prayer time tips to hand out on my retreat. I'm so glad I took on this project because I really wanted to know myself! Now I'm more motivated to have some regular prayer time. Even if it's just 10 minutes...I really need it.

--Looked into savings options for highschool and college for the kids. We've decided we're going to close my 401K account that has been sitting there since I quit working March 2001. We're going to roll it over into a Traditional IRA and put the max allowed into a "Coverdell ESA". We chose Coverdell because it was the only savings plan that allows you to withdraw the money for private schooling (primary, secondary, etc) in addition to college. So in other words, we could withdraw it for our kids highschool education. We need this before college and probably won't even attempt to pay for our kids college. We will help, but we'll end up taking out loans that they will be responsible for in the long run. I paid for my own education and I think it made me more conscious of how I spent it. Plus, with four kids it's virtually impossible to pay for all of it. Mizzou is $14,000 for a year, including room and board! Highschool is $6000-$7000.

For college, we like Missouri's MOST plan. All of your contributions are tax deductible in addition to withdrawals being tax free. It's one of the top plans in the nation. We'll put a portion of my 401K distribution in this account. The rest will stay in the IRA for future Coverdell contributions. You can only deposit $2000 per child per year. Unfortunately, our annual contributions to Coverdell are not tax deductible...BUT, as with the MOST program, earnings are tax deferred and you can withdraw tax free (if it applies to schooling).

When we do rollover this money into the IRA, we won't pay taxes, HOWEVER, as soon as we put any portion into the Coverdell Account, we will have to add that amount into our adjusted gross income at tax time. With MOST, you can transfer with no tax implications. Got it? Yah, well, I spend all day on it and I finally get it. I feel good that we are finally doing something about their future education. We've been putting it off.

--We set up a budget to hold us accountable on spending. We use Quicken, so all of our checking and credit card account transactions are recorded. This made it pretty easy to come up with a budget. The hard part will be sticking to it.

WhatÂ’s bugging me?
--Where's the star poster I ordered for Sam's room over a week ago???

--I got Abby a sewing machine for Christmas. Like a good mom, I sat down with her and was demonstrating how to use it, when it got all tangled up. We spent the next 30-40 minutes trying to fix it. Abby lost interest and left. I was so frustrated. I don't have the patience to deal with it now butdarn-itt! I want to get my $45 worth out of that machine! I should have just let her use mine. It's like an little pesky burden on my back that that thing doesn't work. It's not a tension thing either. When will I take the time and take it off the shelf to figure it out? Probably never.

What's the buzz?
--Will Michelle Kwan be healthy enough to compete in the Olympics? We'll find out soon.
--Miss America was not on a major network for the first time. It was on CMT. It was pretty cheesy this year. Yes I still watch that stuff occasionally. Why? I have no clue.

What's my latest obsession?
--Like I said earlier...I am motivated to have a regular time set aside for prayer (more than just reading the scripture on my calendar every day). I have the book "Purpose Driven Life" that I bought a while ago and didn't start reading because they make you scared by telling you have to read it everyday and to not go ahead. You have a daily schedule of what you are to read. It's like going on a journey with the book leading you. I didn't want to take the journey until I could commit to reading it the way you are supposed to. Now, I feel I'm ready. I start many things and then give up. Let's see if I can make this work.

WhatÂ’s been making me happy?
--I love my MOXI box from Charter. You can call it a DVR or TiVo equivalent...basically they are all the same. I can record my shows onto a digital box just by pressing a button. If the kids are loud in the middle of a program I want to watch, I just pause the live show! Or I can hit record and it automatically starts the recording from the beginning of the show to the end. You don't have to enter start and end times. This invention is BRILLIANT I tell you! I never buy videos or DVD's anymore because I just record the shows on TV and save them for the kids. If the want Wiggles, I just scroll down to one of the recorded shows and click on it with my remote. Wiggles is on! No more waiting for the right time of day! Ted and I enjoy watching a recorded show after the kids go down. We just love it. Anyway, Ted just told me that Charter ran out of these boxes. They cost Charter $600 piecece! All employees get them free. They are too expensive for Charter to order more so no new customers can be added to this service. Ted said they were considering taking them back from the employees. *WrappingarmsaroundMOXI*. NO NO NO....please don't take my MOXI!!!! Ted said they decided against it...Thank God! Some people just don't know how important this stuff is to a stay at home mom. Now to figure out what to do with all of my video tapes. Half went to my mom. I sure don't miss rewinding!

--Speaking of recorded shows...we watch "The Office"hilariousus) and "My Name is Earl" (anothehilariousus show). And of course I record Oprah and my new interest "The Bachelor" because it's a DR from Missouri....and it's just mindless escape watching these ladies all obsessing and competing for one man. It makes me grateful not to be single.

--I can't wait to go on retreat!!!