Taking Advantage...

This morning I once again heard what is becoming my most hated phrase: "...since you're home all day anyway." I can always be counted on to run off on a shopping excursion (as if I have money), be a last-minute babysitter, or make phone calls for my husband. When I make plans with my friends, I'm always the one making the reservations, calling about prices, emailing or calling everyone involved with the details. I may as well. I'm home all day anyway, right?

I know its my own fault I get taken advantage of this way. I just don't understand what the hell happened to me. I didn't used to be this much of a pushover. As a matter of fact, there was a time when nobody asked me for anything, because it was likely I would just flat-out refuse. You know what else? I had more friends then. I think somewhere between my first pregnancy and my last, I became selfless. Imagine that.

When you talk about someone being selfish, you often mean they're snobbish, stuck-up, and rude. Selfishness isn't supposed to be an honorable personality trait. So why was I so much more popular as a bitch?

Poverty Sucks...

That's it. We're officially poor people. A few months ago I would have been apalled at the idea of collecting government aid. As much as I'm disgusted with the way government aid works, it does serve a good purpose for people who actually need it. Like me.

Today I got a letter from the local Department of Human Services, saying our kids qualify for medical coverage and we qualify for $170 in food stamps monthly. While $170 doesn't cover all we spend on groceries for a family of five, every little bit helps. Unfortunately, we make too much money to qualify for medical, and more importantly dental, for my husband and I. Nevermind the fact that we can't afford to pay the dental bills even if we had dental coverage of our own. My husband and I are losing our teeth. I have a front tooth that is almost completely gone, and I've been molding a cap for it out of temporary filling compound from Walmart. I have about 10 other cavities, some only small spots, some covering at least half the tooth. In other words, its BAD. The last time I was at the dentist, we had dental coverage, and after my exam the doctor had an estimate made up for all the dental work I would require. My portion, after the insurance picked up their share, was more than $3000.

The DHS offered me a two month coverage, with a spend-down amount based on your income. For us it was almost $1800. Good luck finding a dentist who is willing to take payments at all, let alone payments on $1800, and can squeeze all my massive dental work in a window of two months. HA!

I LOVE presents!!...

On Christmas morning, we actually managed to be up before the kids. We took advantage of this small miracle by having some coffee in the quiet house. The rule in our house is everyone has to be up and have breakfast before the presents are opened. It's kind of mean of us to do that to the kids, and they act as if they're being tortured to wait that extra 20 minutes to choke down a bowl of oatmeal, but its the rule anyway.

While cleaning up the bowls, I made the anouncement that it was now time to open presents. My two-year-old daughter said, "Presents?!? I love presents!!" She didn't even realize that's what we would be doing that day. This became the joke of the day. Every time one of the kids opened something, they would say, "Socks?!? I love socks!!"

My husband bought me a breadmaker, which I'd been asking for for several months. I would have liked a sewing machine, but money is still pretty tight and the hubby thought I would get more use out of the breadmaker anyway. He's probably right; I do have a tendency to get really excited about something and then have no interest in it two weeks later.

New Year's was really not exciting at all. We don't have the luxury of a babysitter most of the time, so we spent the evening at home watching movies. I think it was a kind of a nice change.

Right now, I think I'll go make a banana bread. Yum!