Star Wars, Build-A-Bear and Home Refinancing: Week One

Week one of 2020 was busy for us in the Dahlhouse.  It began on New Year’s Eve.  I took the Fab Four to see the new Star Wars movie.  Raising teens and toddlers at the same time can present challenges at times, but mostly it is fun.  One such challenge is seeing movies.  Such a range of ages and tastes.  I chuckled to myself as I navigated the movie theatre, popcorn buying and seat selection, that the mom in me 15 years ago would have never taken a three year old to see a PG-13 movie in a crowded theatre.  But four kids later...I bought Man Cub M+Ms, brought his blanket, bink and trains and we were doing this!  He was good as gold and I only needed to remind him to be quiet a few times.  

I’ve been a long time Star Wars fan but haven’t really kept up on this new trilogy very closely.  I was surprised at how many times I cried through the movie.  Gahhh...I’m such a softie.  Parent/child relationships, light/dark, love ugh...pass the tissues.  Who would have thought I would be crying in a Star Wars movie.  Never the less....I was. 

We let the kids stay up to midnight on New Year’s Eve.  Then I paid for it the next day with how grouchy and emotional they all were.  

We had fun taking silly pictures with the filter on my phone.  

Over the break we were able to take a trip to Build-A-Bear.  Both Miss B and Man Cub got gift cards for Christmas and they were burning a hole in their pockets.  

This was Man Cub’s first time building a bear and he enjoyed every minute.  I thought it was fitting that they had a Thomas The Train Bear.  So perfect for him.  

Even on the most seemingly perfect of days...we can end up sitting on the mall floor waiting for the tantrum to pass.  Poor guy just doesn’t quite understand why he can have all the toys and cars he sees at the mall.  The concept of paying for them hasn’t registered yet.  So we wait it out while the teens are in other stores shopping for video games and Office sweatshirts.  Another example of the challenges of raising teens and toddlers.

Luke had a recheck on his broken foot.  He broke it the day before Thanksgiving falling UP the stairs chasing his sisters.  The doctor is concerned about the possibility of the stretching of a nerve in his leg, so he is recommending that he sees a specialist that will test his nerve.  Not really certain what they will do with the outcome of this information, but I will find out more next week.  Meanwhile, the bruising and swelling have decreased and he is healing well.

One of our goals for this year and next year (as it seems it will be) is to pay off all our debt.  Living off one income is tough and over the course of the past three years we have racked up quite a bit of credit card debt.  I have felt embarrassed about this in the past, but I don’t anymore.  Mark reminds me that this is a season.  Medical and therapy costs have been astronomical for our family this past 18 months, and all the expenses of raising kiddos and life.  It is time to make some changes and we have been completely overhauling our finances.  So refinancing the house was an option that we looked into.  Not with the plan of taking any equity out of our home, but seeing if we could reduce our interest rate to lower our monthly payment.  Well...we didn’t decreases our payment but we decreased our interest rate and the overall life of the loan to 20 years instead of 30.  So in the long run, we will be saving a lot of money in interest.  Short term not a monthly savings.  However, we have a good plan, and I have been educating myself on the finer points of budgeting, cash and debt reduction.  It’s been quite the education so far.  

Christmas was packed up and put away.  I really loved my tree this year.  It was the first time I have ever really had a vision for a Christmas tree and decorated it for me.  The kids had their tree for their lights and ornaments.  As much as I love Christmas, I was ready for the fresh beginnings of a new year.

The end of week one saw us celebrating 21 years of marriage, which seems impossible since I am only 25!  Haha.  Yes, we were babies when we got married.  Me 19 him 20.  A lifetime ago.  I’ve been so blessed to spend most of my life with this amazing man of mine.  We went to dinner at Ilani and Line and Lure.  We had the cutest little table next to a fireplace.  The dim lights and candles were romantic and we had such good conversation planning this next year.  I love you Dahl!

Happy New Year my readers.  I am believing many blessing and happiness for all of you in this new year!