Blue Monday

Sweetie had to go back to work today. As much as he hates wearing it, he looks so incredibly sharp in his service uniform. He has more ribbons and badges than many generals do, and it's sad that he isn't going to continue his military career after the 20-year mark.

The kids are playing fairly nicely this morning. I know that they are getting tired of being stuck in the house, but with the amount of snow outside right now, there's not a lot that they can do. I have snow pants for three of them, but they are way too big around the waist for my tall, skinny kids. I need to find some suspenders or jury-rig something to keep the pants from falling down. Once I get them fixed, I'll feel better about letting the kids go outside and play in the snow. It's incredibly cold outside right now, and I want them to stay safe and warm once they go out there.

I plan to spend several hours today in my quilting loft. I have too many quilts that I need to finish, and I'm tired of being so far behind. I signed up for a New Year's Day longarm quilting class, and my goal is to be caught up on everything else by then. I want to be able to take that internet-based class along with the other quilters, instead of just waiting for the DVD to be sent to me next month (which is what I did last year--I still don't have that quilt done). Quilting is my favorite hobby, as well as something I want to make money doing, and I really do need to make it more of a priority.

Tomorrow is trash day, so I need to bring up some of the bags of garbage from the basement. Did you know that the movers that the military hires are required to pack every single thing in your house? Even if it's not something you really want or need? After many such moves, I've discovered that we have a lot of stuff in boxes downstairs that we really don't want. Broken picture frames, school papers that have long since lost their special meaning, clothes than have been outgrown, etc. I'm throwing out a lot of junk as I sort through our old boxes, and I'm also building quite a collection of items to be donated to charity or sold on eBay. If I keep this up, we won't have quite as much stuff to move if/when we go to a new home. It's also creating a little more space in our basement, so the kids have more room to play while they are cooped up inside.

I'm going back to college next week, and I've been shopping for textbooks online. Why do textbooks cost so incredibly much? It seems almost criminal to charge over $100 for a book that will be used for only ten weeks. I'm searching for classes that fulfill my graduation requirements but don't require expensive textbooks, and aside from calculus, I'm dropping the ones that have unreasonable book costs. Fortunately for me, I still have my calculus textbook from my days as a mathematics major. The math homework this college assigns is done online, so my textbook is still good for practice and/or reference purposes. I'm not really looking forward to going back to school right now, but with only two quarters left, it's time to get to work and finish my degree. Besides, if I don't graduate this spring, my oldest son will have his degree before I do, and that just seems wrong. Right now, I'll graduate the exact same day that he does, and we'll celebrate together the next day. That's good enough for me.