Oatmeal

I'm feeling all Betty Crockerish this morning having cooked oatmeal for breakfast!  Leaving some in a pan with a lid on the stove for J. when he wakes up - his will be more 'creme bruleeish' (which is really how I like mine - more custardy texture vs. soupy) - but mine is pretty thick and good.  I have to use a ton of oatmeal in the next week or so 'cuz J.'s pantry culling located 3 huge things of oats - 2 quick and one regular.  Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and meatloaf this weekend!

The pantry is coming along beautifully.  He is doing his best to keep things visible - a challenge and a half since the layout of the pantry structure itself works against that - and his wife is petite.  (That's why we have so much oatmeal - I need it for a recipe, it gets pushed out of sight and when I need it again, I buy another box....is it a box?  It's round....what do you call the oatmeal 'box'...anyway...my mind sure wanders).  I need a step stool to reach anything top and in the back anyway (always have and always will) and stooping down to the lower section is a challenge also.  Things are ordered with 'most used' at my level and other stuff at the lower/upper levels.  It will work.  'Tis a thing of beauty and I am going to be baking up a storm this weekend to use up stuff.  We have our first Cabinet meeting of the new school year on Monday and apple bread and brownies will be on the menu.

H. was out the door at 4:30 - I noticed the outdoor porch light on when I came downstairs and then went to the door just in time to see his tail lights pulling away from the curb.  In addition to the long days this week, they are working a 10+ hour overtime shift tomorrow as well.  Poor kid and yet the money will be great.  He and his friend are working on a plan to get their own place.  I have to say that H. is a far more careful money manager than B. ever was/will be.  H. knows what his bank balance is - in fact, his checking account balance as of this morning was just over $10 and I'm sure that's by design.  Today is payday and he will deposit the check into savings and then move a bit over to checking throughout the week.  It works for him and he's being pretty careful....  .  If the $10 balance was B., I'd be moving money pronto from his savings to his checking 'cuz B. is oblivious about how much money he has in any account at any time.

J. got his last non-severance paycheck today and it included a bunch of vacation pay.  As tempting as it is to hop on plane bound for France, we are carefully moving it into savings and I am carefully planning where to put the 401K $ that will now be in his next checks.  He's not eligible to participate in the 401K anymore so we plan to save that amount (net of the taxes we will be paying on it since it's not coming out pre-tax anymore) into our savings account.  I placed the buy order for our first mutual fund purchase this morning and felt very Donald Trumpish - for about two seconds.  Then I had a panic attack (mild - coffee fixed it) and surveyed my crates of oatmeal and thought 'well, we can live on rice, beans, oatmeal and good coffee'.  Take that, panic attack!

I jumped in with both feet yesterday at work and plowed through a massive amount of stuff.  Starting big things is often the hardest part for me - so having jumped in to year-end and a couple other massive projects my boss will be asking me about any day now, I feel better.  Still working this weekend - (it's August.  Read back.  I work every weekend every August 'cuz year-end sucks.  That's why they call it year-end) - but feel in a good place.  It's all good.  I love my job....right?  Yes, I DO!

Teachers are back and it's been fun seeing them this week - they have a few more 'leisure' days but like most teachers, they are in their rooms getting ready to go for another year.  Tanned, rested and excited about another year!!

Me too!  Except the tanned and rested part....I'm pale and exhausted but motivated none the less....

And it's Friday - and that means caramel frappucinos this afternoon for our Friday treat!!