It's calving season again on the farm. Dh starts working 70+ hours per week at this time of the year, instead of the usual 60 hrs. Interesting how we're due with baby right in the middle of this busy time!

Anyway, the farm keeps the heifer calves and we split the bull calves with the other full-time farm worker. Then after a few days to a week we get to sell them at auction. This is usually a good extra income for us, but we're not sure what calves are going for this year.

We shipped our first calf this morning, so I guess we'll find out how much they're selling for when we get the check in tomorrow's mail. How awesome it would be to be able to make some nice headway in paying off our debt! We've also put our 9 yr old dd in charge of morning feedings, so she'll be earning a bit from each sale, too. She's pretty excited to have a source of income. I'll be anxious to send an update tomorrow with the amount of the check!

Paycheck today and I've paid the bills. I was able to put $200 toward debt. I know that seems like a good thing, but when you're trying to pay it all off by the end of the year, it seems that it's just not enough. We also have a car repair coming up on Friday. Why is there *always* something to spend money on?? LOL

OK, enough of the "glass is half empty" mentality!

How is my glass half full?

I have an awesome husband who loves us all so much.

We have healthy, great kids and the newest one is due to make an appearance in the next month.

Dh has a job that pays the bills.

We get to live in a cute farmhouse on 75 acres with a river running alongside the property.

Our extended families are wonderful and not difficult to deal with.

The sun is shining and I am healthy enough to do the work that I need to do each day.

What more can we expect? God is good! And even when things don't seem so peachy, He is still good. It is good to be content.

I love a mechanic that you can trust. And that lives just up the hill from your house. You can bring your car there and walk home again. Plus, know that he's not going to do work that doesn't need to be done and charge big bucks for it.

Our A/C wasn't working in the car and I was feeling like it was a splurge that we really couldn't afford. We took it in this AM and our mechanic couldn't find a leak! He recharged it for $45 and it works great.

They also figured out what the "chirping" noise is that the car is making. They're going to fix it next week, after a new paycheck. So . . . some of the extra money that had been set aside for today's repair can go toward our CC debt. Yahoo!

We had a fabulous time visiting family. I was able to attend 2 class reunions (1 was the class I grew up with from preschool thru 9th grade, the other I went to the last 3 years of school). Was so nice to catch up with everyone. One of the greatest thing was that our 15-pass van got better than expected gas mileage - 14.5 mpg. I was expecting that gas was going to cost $175-200. It was under $150.

My great-gramma was released from the hospital while we were there and we were able to visit with her each day for 3 days. She really is something else! One tough lady.

Glad to be back home and get back on the road of paying off debt. Time to get some things listed on eBay and Craig's List. Had a paycheck today and paid $100 toward medical. Not sure if we can afford to pay toward the credit card or not.

Next week we're getting the air conditioning looked at in the car. One of those wants (not a true need), but would sure appreciate if it was working.

Glad to be back here and look forward to catching with everyone's blogs!

Saw an ad on Craig's List for a lady looking for baby girl clothes and toys for a granddaughter due in August and size 4 girl clothes. Met her somewhere and she picked a lot of what I had left from the rummage sale in the 0 - 6 month range and some nice toys. I also went through our size 4 bin and found a pile of clothes she could use.

Picked up an extra $30! Am glad to add that to the sales totals. Hey, just realized that we reached our goal for Household/Rummage Selling Totals. Thank you, Lord!

There were two brand new items in the rummage that didn't sell, so I returned them at their respective stores.

The first was a pair of maternity jeans that I never wore and still had the tags on. At first I showed the lady my receipt and she said that she couldn't take them back at all because the receipt was so old. I told her that I had called in and someone said I could just return them without the receipt for store credit. She refused. So I asked her to call a manager. The manager said that they could take them back. Hmmm, it sure pays to ask!

The second item was a slow cooker that I purchased for a wedding gift. The wedding was canceled, so no need for the cooker. They could only put the credit back on my store card, even though the card had long been paid for. She said to contact the company and ask them to mail me a check for the credit amount.

So now I get to add $33.00 to the household/rummage totals.

Dh and I ran through the frozen custard drive-thru for a cone of my favorite flavor: Turtle! A date for less than $4. Can't beat it.

Well, it wasn't what I was hoping for, but it was still a good rummage sale. My friend and our kids made a little, and my total profit for the day was $441.

We opted to not run an ad for the sale and run a one-day Sat sale. We basically got the people driving past our house, probably not anyone from the major intersections.

I was surprised that we didn't see more people interested in the baby girl clothes. We have some really nice stuff, even some new with tags.

All-in-all, I'm going to try to be content with what we made. We're thinking about putting out the signs on Wednesday (4th) since our town has hundreds that show up for the parade.

I'm also planning on selling several items on eBay in the near future (vintage 1/2 gallon aluminum cans, Leap Pads and accessories, and maybe even "lots" of the baby clothes).

Our trip next week is paid for, plus some to throw at debt. I'm thankful!

I was going to sleep until 6 am, but dh got up at 5 am to finish and put out signs. I couldn't sleep anymore, so here I am. It promises to be a perfect day for the sale: sunny, high of 77 degrees. Right now, though, it's a chilly 47. Brrr!

I'm a little nervous, because I'm not perfectly ready: not everything is priced, we have to move everything onto the lawn and set it up, etc. Oh well, we'll just have to see how it goes.

I'm also stressing out about having a good showing. Man, there's so much to worry about, if one let's oneself! LOL

Will update later today as to selling totals.

We decided on a one-day (Saturday) rummage sale and are having it this week. We must have it so that we can take our trip to see family next week, plus have more to put toward debt (or emergency savings). We're also planning on putting out the signs on the 4th, since our little town has a parade with MANY people that come.

I need to price items. I need to buy soda and water to sell. I need to make signs. I need to weed out more things in the attic. I need to make my lists of what to do Friday, Friday night, Sat AM . . .

So much that I need to do and I'm overwhelmed and tired. ~sigh~ Time to get a diet coke and get motivated. Maybe a little chocolate would be in order, too.

But not for the reason you may think. I had to bring 2 daughters to the dentist yesterday for fillings. They have really bad teeth, but we're still going to give a better effort at taking care of our teeth.

Total co-pays were ~$150. Totally wasn't expecting this to come out this month.

Time to go work on pricing for the rummage sale. Now the proceeds will have to go toward debt, trip to see family AND paying off the dentist work. ~sigh~

Too many other bills due to make a pmt toward our credit card. Did pay off a medical and made a pmt toward pre-baby bills. I'll view that as progress and not stress about the credit card . . . this time.

"Slow and steady" has truly become my motto for paying off the last of the debt. There's only so much that we can do and we'll be diligent, but I need to quit stressing out about it. Remind me of this next paycheck.

I love surprises - especially those that are monetary and in our favor. Today we received a health insurance rebate from dh's employer for the past year. We weren't sure when we'd be getting it, so it was a pleasant surprise to find nearly $500 in the mail today!

I'm anxious to get it in the bank so I can schedule another credit card pmt. This'll get our total debt under $5,000. Woo hoo!!

Well, the book sale was yesterday afternoon. I worked for the sale, so the evening was spent sorting the remaining books and cleaning up the room where the sale was held. We started the calculating at about 11 pm last night and finished at 5 am. Long night!

Now for the exciting part: My sales totaled $732.95!! More than my total goal for all book selling. This brings my grand total (so far) to $816.93. I'm so excited to send the payment to our last remaining credit card!

I do have some books left and will continue to sell them via eBay, perhaps half.com, and on an email list I'm on. Maybe I'll see my DREAM amount of $1,000 total yet!

Getting ready to bring about 40 boxes (WOW) to today's homeschool used book sale. Dh keeps asking where we got all these books. ~smile~ I'm so excited to make some more $$ to apply to debt!

My goal is $500, which I don't think I'll have any problem reaching. Especially since I'm nearly 1/5 of the way there! (See sidebar.) My DREAM is $1,000 - that may be a reach. However, there's always eBay for whatever doesn't sell at the book sale.

I am also working the book sale from 11am - 11pm. Yikes! Hoping that I'll make it without collapsing (since I'm 6.5 months pg).

Also had another paycheck to apply a little more toward debt. I just keep saying to myself, "Slow and steady wins the race." Helps a little to keep me patient while the debt slowly goes down.

Blessings!

Our state homeschool association is having their annual homeschool convention next weekend. Each year they offer a used book sale and items generally sell very well there. I am SO hoping that I'll be able to sell enough to pay a nice chunk on our debt!

We've been ruthlessly going through our books (curriculum, reference and reading) to weed out what we wouldn't absolutely need if we end up in China next year. Yesterday we got 8 shelves weeded down to 3.

As we've been pricing items for the used book sale, I've been putting items on eBay that sell better there. It is so nice to have several items up for auction and more ready to go!

My GOAL from the sale of all of these books is $500. I'm actually hoping for more, but that's the least I hope to walk away with. I'll have to post totals as they come in . . .

Once again I was only able to apply $100 to our debt this last paycheck. I get frustrated with this, because I'd like to get it paid of so much quicker.

I did pay $50 toward medical bills (pre-baby deductibles). It's nice to start paying toward that already, but it takes away from paying off that last credit card.

If we're going to pay it off before the end of the year, that would mean selling $200+ on eBay each week! I don't think that's going to happen.

So, I guess we just keep chipping away at it and trust that it will be gone eventually.

Yesterday I was able to pay only $100 toward our last big debt. There were a couple of other credit cards that had small amounts on them that took away from the amount that we can normally pay each paycheck toward the big debt.

Plus, we're going to a wedding this weekend and need a little extra gas $$ for our big 15-passenger van for the trip.

I'm hoping that once these two weddings are over we'll be able to apply more to the big debt.

Another thing to consider: If we move to China, I'll be needing to invest in the next 3 years of homeschooling supplies. Our state's annual convention is the beginning of June, just 15 minutes from our home. It's a great time to purchase books and save on shipping costs.

So it looks like it may be June before we can REALLY start paying down that debt! :-)