Grandma's Pearls

Leap Year

Today is Leap day. That sounds so very strange to me. It just doesn't sound right, like Leap year. Guess I shouldn't look a gift day in the mouth. Technically, it is an extra day added to the days that I have lived already. Since I am almost 50, the extra day is a good thing. So, over the course of my 49 years, I have been given an extra 12 days so far. Who knows how many more of those I will get, certainly not me. I don't know where I was going with that thought, it was just there.
I am so ready for spring and a little more warmth and new things growing. Don't get me wrong, winter is ok, I'm just tired of being stuck in the house. It wouldn't have been so bad this year if our landlord wasn't so stingy with his money. Unfortunately, the people that we rent from are just in it for the money. They expect us to fix things and still pay all of the rent without any kind of discount. If it something major, they do the temporary fix or a quick fix and then forget about it because it is fixed for now. There are a lot of landlords like that where we live. Things are hard for everybody and I understand that but putting one wall heater in a four bedroom house is hardly fixing the problem. We have small electric heaters in the bedrooms that we use and I use the oven to heat up the house enough that you don't feel the chill in the air all of the time. You can't use a gas oven for hours on end though. Yes, I have a window or two cracked, don't want to overload me brain with carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide, whichever one it is. Things might be hard but they aren't that bad.
You know, I always thought that life would get easier as my kids got older and moved out but it seems as if it is still just as hard now as it was back then. Aren't you supposed to have a little extra money for things for yourself? I had 5 kids and 4 of them have moved out, a long time ago. Most of them have kids of thier own and seem to be doing o.k. for now. My husband makes almost 3 times what he did when all of my kids were little and in school and living at home. So, why are we still living paycheck to paycheck, like we did back then? It doesn't make sense to me. It seems like it should be easier to make ends meet and have a few dollars left over every week, but that isn't happening. I mean, I buy groceries and the bills are paid but a couple of them are continuously behind. Seems to me that shouldn't be happening. It was that way when the kids were small and it shouldn't be that way now that they are grown. I know that the economy is in turmoil right now and that is probably why it is still so hard to make ends meet, but it shouldn't be that way. Things are supposed to get easier, financially, as you get older. You have less people to feed and less clothing to buy and your bills should go down because there are less people using the utilities but I just can't see where it has gotten easier for us.
My husband works over 40 hours every week and he makes decent money now. A lot more than the 5.50 an hour he started out making all those years ago. But things just don't seem to be any different now than when all of the kids still lived at home. We still just barely scrape by every week. What's up with that? It just isn't right! Things are not supposed to be this hard as you get older. I know there are a lot of people out there and they will say that I am full of it. Atleast I have groceries and bills and a place to live and I understand that, but, it still doesn't seem fair somehow. I am grateful for the things that I have and I don't mean to complain but it just isn't right.
On a good note, my oldest daughter is going to go to nursing school and get her LPN. She's already a CNA and has been for sometime. Now she is going to become a nurse. Ofcourse, that could change between now and December, when the next class starts. She usually keeps the goals that she sets for herself and it would be great for her to be able to take care of her kids without needing her husbands income. They have been having problems and it would be good if she had a job where she could support herself and her girls, all by herself. Just incase things don't work out between them. They are trying to make it work, but, you never know what the future holds. On that note, I will stop for today. I might not be able to add anything else until Monday. Maybe nothing exciting will happen over the weekend and I will be totally relaxed and stress free when I add some more to this little blog.