Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Home

I made it home yesterday afternoon just in time to watch my to-do list odometer flip from 999,999 to 1,000,000 things to do.  My to-do list is magic, because every time I check off one thing, two pop up to replace it.

Maybe I need to stop checking things off.

I have a sinus thing going on, so I have to blow my nose every 11 seconds.

I yelled at the kids tonight because they were misbehaving at bedtime, and it took an hour and a half to put Jack to bed, but only 20 minutes after I finally broke down and gave him Tylenol.

We met with our life insurance guy today, and I think he is trying to sell us way too much insurance.  As in, well over seven figures worth of insurance.  How many kids do you have, and how much life insurance do you have?  How did you arrive at that number?

According to the same insurance guy, if we want to have enough money to put all of our kids through a state school, like Purdue or Indiana University, we have to start saving $2000 a month.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

If I had an extra $2000 a month lying around, I wouldn't live in this house.

We're absolutely screwed if they want to go to Notre Dame or some Ivy League thing.

I don't understand how we're ever going to be able to make college happen, ever.

I have already started teaching the kids that if they get (and use) a full ride scholarship to any university, Mommy will buy them a car.  (No fair getting a full ride to State U, but then deciding that you want to go to Princeton, Prettybabies.  That will not count.)

Mary Grace has already chosen a pink "hug bug" as her car of choice.

Her first report card, ever, came home today and it was excellent, so only 51 excellent report cards to go.  (That doesn't sound like much - 13 years of school, 4 report cards a year, 52 report cards over the course of K-12).

I don't honestly know why I'm posting one sentence at a time today, it just seems like the thing to do.

My throat REALLY hurts.  Whiskey is good for that, right?

We had breakfast for dinner tonight.  Bacon, scrambled eggs/omelets, and pancakes.  The pancakes were "dessert."

We also got the stuff to make caramel apples with Karen and her kids on Friday, but I couldn't find the sticks.

I can't believe I suggested an activity as sticky as caramel apples as a thing to do with 7 kids under age 6.

I think this sinus thing has gotten into my brain.

Talk to me about report cards, caramel apples, and life insurance in the comments.  I'm going to bed.

7 comments:

Astrogirl426 said...

Oh hon, I hear you - some days it seems like everything's conspiring against us.

Re: The insurance, the way we figured it was, how much our income is currently per year multiplied by the number of years until the kid is 18 (so basically, enough money to live on until the kid goes to college/moves out and I can work full time). So if the hubs is making 50,000 a year (BWAHAHAHA oh that's just too funny! I crack myself up), we multiply by 10 cuz the kid is 8. Then we added a bit more for cost of living increases/inflation, and I think we came to $650,000.

As for the sticks for the apples, try the craft store. They should have them. Even Walmart's craft section might, but try the craft store first if you can.

Good luck - I hope you can get through the next few days with some sanity left! Hell, I hope we do!

Bev said...

It appears from current events that you simply encourage your kids to go insanely in debt to our government to pay for college and their living expenses for those years. Then they should bitch, moan, cry, and camp out in public demanding that those loans be "forgiven" when their pumpkin never turns into a gilded, horse-drawn carriage.

I spent much of my career in higher ed and the amount of money borrowed by students is mind boggling. Many, if not most, have no specific field of interest or idea how they will even make a living after college, let alone pay off this debt. It is a fun, responsibility-free ride for several years though...yippee!

Enough of that...if you can't find "apple sticks" at a craft store try buying disposable chopsticks at Panda Express or any similar fast food place.

Chuck said...

How much were you and prettyhusband helped through college by your parents? I think that, whether it is through inheritance or scholarships or grants or whatever, you guys will make it happen when the time comes. Or they will take out loans and you can help them with those if they need it. Hopefully we will be in a better place in 15 or 20 years and the burden of student loans won't be what it is today (A Trillion dollars) but it isn't looking too good. love, Uncle Downer!

morganna said...

I think we have 7 figures of life insurance if you add it all up. For my husband, we calculated it basically the way Astrogirl did. For me, we figured out how much my husband would need to keep them both in daycare and/or summer camp full-time (when they weren't in school) until they each reached 18 -- on the assumption that he would keep working full-time but no one would be home with the kids. When we did this, I had been calling around, shopping preschool/daycare, so we used the highest monthly amount I had found for one kid to do the calculations -- most places in town being cheaper & giving a discount for the 2nd child. In reality, he probably won't need that much -- would spend more time at home if something happened to me. So we figured he could use it to hire a housekeeper, or send them to science camp, or college, or whatever.

Amy said...

Thanks for the comments, y'all... Follow up to follow. Oh, and I found the sticks at the other grocery store. I'll post pictures of the stickiness.

Rob Monroe said...

No offense, darlin, because I know BJ will bring their scores up, but if you refer to them as "Ivy League Thingies" there is a good chance they won't be going there. :)

Hope that a day later means you are feeling a lot better by now!

Connie said...

you can be insurance poor if you're not smart but the two of you are brilliant so you'll be fine... as long as there is 'pay off the mortgage' and enough money to survive without the lost spouse's income / contribution and have a trust, will, financial poa, healthcare poa and living will in place... you are good to go... don't help pay for the insurance man's mercedes.... and, stop fretting about college.... heaven knows things will be completely different by the time your kids get there and heaven knowns they'll get academic scholarships and if not, there is lots and lots of aid, student and parental available.... worrying now about something you have little control over will just make you crazy... relax and enjoy these precious moments now! the rest will take care of itself... have faith. Lots of hugs and love! Connie