ups and downs
The bad part about climbing under the covers to help snuggle Pippa down for her nap is that when she asleep and I get up, I always get super cold. I've got a cardigan on now but I'm still cold.
Things are FINALLY looking up around here. We got our bag back today; a potential catastrophe (can't go into details) was averted; and Pippa's weird baby jetlag is hopefully over. Yesterday she went to bed at 3pm and slept until 6:30am this morning. She after 9pm she started waking up to nurse every few hours, but she skipped dinner and never showed an inclination to get up for the day until the morning. She had no jetlag at all going west-to-east, but the trip back kicked her diapered behind, I guess. Today she has seemed her normal self so I hope that is over.
I'm sooooo exhausted. Physically and emotionally. Ever since we came back, we've been scrambling to try to avert the catastrophe, so that's been overwhelming, and Pippa has been waking me up, and I got a cold from the plane trip (I always get a cold after traveling by plane). I am so tempted to just walk back and nap with Pippa but I am going to try to go to bed early instead.
I haven't even fully unpacked yet, let alone done that much housework (other than dishes, which considering the situation I've kept pretty well on top of). I'm just amazed that I managed to serve basically healthy meals from Wednesday morning through today-lunch without doing grocery shopping and with only one take-out meal, because our refrigerator was completely empty--no milk, eggs, vegetables, meat, etc. I managed to scrape by on freezer and cupboards.
We have some financially good news... good for us I mean... LB's dad is taking break with his girlfriend and she has moved out... which means we're going back to watching him full time, which means an additional $500/month. Which will do very well for putting out some minor financial fires that have sprung up recently, and after that I want to put it towards getting out of my stupid debt faster. I meant to type student debt but my fingers knew better than my brain I guess.
What a different interest rates makes. I was just looking at my different loans, and my current balance and original balance for the highest interest loans are virtually the same, even though I've been paying this off almost two years now. In contrast, the lower interest loans are significantly reduced. That bolsters my determination to get these higher interest loans GONE. If I put an extra $200/month towards my smallest, highest-interest rate loan, I can knock it out in less than six months. I'm going to make this happen.
My generation really got sold a pack of lies. I remember in high school being explicitly told by the economics teacher that student loans were wonderful, that we should take out as many as possible, and that we should pay them back as slowly as possible and instead use our money to invest, because we easily make a higher rate of return on investments than on the tiny, tiny percentage we would pay in student loan interest. I never even thought about my student loans before I left school and realized that I had $25k in impossible to discharge debt on my back and a monthly payment that was equal to my income, and with no degree and immigration issues, no way to raise my income.
I still don't precisely regret going to university, as it changed me, the person, in ways that I don't know if I would have gotten otherwise, and ways that can't be put a price on (my religious conversion, my relationship with my husband, friends, etc etc), but this student loan thing is ridiculous. The bubble is going to burst at some point. I thought that $25k was a lot but it's actually less than the average for students from my state.
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Urgh. Pippa woke up at 4pm (aka only one hour into naptime) and seemed like she really needed more sleep, so I spent about 45 minutes getting her back down. Now it's 6pm and she's still down. I've made dinner and eaten mine. I think if she's not up naturally in 10 minutes I'm waking her up. I can't deal with another night like last night.
Things are FINALLY looking up around here. We got our bag back today; a potential catastrophe (can't go into details) was averted; and Pippa's weird baby jetlag is hopefully over. Yesterday she went to bed at 3pm and slept until 6:30am this morning. She after 9pm she started waking up to nurse every few hours, but she skipped dinner and never showed an inclination to get up for the day until the morning. She had no jetlag at all going west-to-east, but the trip back kicked her diapered behind, I guess. Today she has seemed her normal self so I hope that is over.
I'm sooooo exhausted. Physically and emotionally. Ever since we came back, we've been scrambling to try to avert the catastrophe, so that's been overwhelming, and Pippa has been waking me up, and I got a cold from the plane trip (I always get a cold after traveling by plane). I am so tempted to just walk back and nap with Pippa but I am going to try to go to bed early instead.
I haven't even fully unpacked yet, let alone done that much housework (other than dishes, which considering the situation I've kept pretty well on top of). I'm just amazed that I managed to serve basically healthy meals from Wednesday morning through today-lunch without doing grocery shopping and with only one take-out meal, because our refrigerator was completely empty--no milk, eggs, vegetables, meat, etc. I managed to scrape by on freezer and cupboards.
We have some financially good news... good for us I mean... LB's dad is taking break with his girlfriend and she has moved out... which means we're going back to watching him full time, which means an additional $500/month. Which will do very well for putting out some minor financial fires that have sprung up recently, and after that I want to put it towards getting out of my stupid debt faster. I meant to type student debt but my fingers knew better than my brain I guess.
What a different interest rates makes. I was just looking at my different loans, and my current balance and original balance for the highest interest loans are virtually the same, even though I've been paying this off almost two years now. In contrast, the lower interest loans are significantly reduced. That bolsters my determination to get these higher interest loans GONE. If I put an extra $200/month towards my smallest, highest-interest rate loan, I can knock it out in less than six months. I'm going to make this happen.
My generation really got sold a pack of lies. I remember in high school being explicitly told by the economics teacher that student loans were wonderful, that we should take out as many as possible, and that we should pay them back as slowly as possible and instead use our money to invest, because we easily make a higher rate of return on investments than on the tiny, tiny percentage we would pay in student loan interest. I never even thought about my student loans before I left school and realized that I had $25k in impossible to discharge debt on my back and a monthly payment that was equal to my income, and with no degree and immigration issues, no way to raise my income.
I still don't precisely regret going to university, as it changed me, the person, in ways that I don't know if I would have gotten otherwise, and ways that can't be put a price on (my religious conversion, my relationship with my husband, friends, etc etc), but this student loan thing is ridiculous. The bubble is going to burst at some point. I thought that $25k was a lot but it's actually less than the average for students from my state.
---
Urgh. Pippa woke up at 4pm (aka only one hour into naptime) and seemed like she really needed more sleep, so I spent about 45 minutes getting her back down. Now it's 6pm and she's still down. I've made dinner and eaten mine. I think if she's not up naturally in 10 minutes I'm waking her up. I can't deal with another night like last night.