This is probably going to turn into a rant.
Life is moving right along here in Colorado. It’s hard to believe the Christmas season has come and gone and we’re well on our way to March. Archie is 7.5 months old, and our sweet Emery will be 4 in April. Where does the time go? But seriously, where does it go? It’s a new year, and I have lots of goals for the new year.
2024 was an odd year. Leaving Alaska, moving to Salida, and then having a really long 42 week pregnancy… delivering Archie via c-section and having to recover from that awful surgery! And then of course a few weeks later discovering our rental had been taken over by mold which led to 6 weeks of moving around the state with our little children. We were so relieved to buy this house!
This house. What a lovely place– with a LOT of work needed. It’s been really, really slow going. I don’t know if some of the updates will ever get done. We aren’t necessarily having full buyers remorse, but holy cow, we’ve discovered so many things that need fixing/updating/etc. It just adds a constant day to day stress when your house is a DIY work in progress. With that DIY comes the cost, and the time needed to complete tasks. With a toddler and a baby who rarely sleeps (he does not take day time naps unless held or driving – and even then, they are very short), well, you can imagine the mess we’re in. It seems every time we turn around something else is going hay wire. The freezer door? Broken. The bedroom blinds? Broke this week. Currently have a sheet hanging to keep the light out. Which doesn’t work, so Archie woke up an hour early today. The boiler? Screaming when it turns on when its under 40 degrees outside. The carpet? Needs replacing. The outside? Needs painting. We’ve been here since October and I feel like we’ve not much accomplished. It’s disheartening. I so badly wish we were not always up against the wall when moving — both with finances (hello 2025, inflation, and being a young adult in this new world – I know SO many others are going through this exact situation), and housing selection.
Speaking of finances, this month we’re diving into Dave Ramsay’s Financial Peace University. Its been a huge kick in the butt. It’s hard to sacrifice SO much because of your financial situation or decisions made in the past when you were just trying to scrape by. For us, its overwhelmingly our student loans. Ben only has 1, thankfully, but I have… 10? Some day we’ll be able to refinance but until then, I’ll pay on my mortgage worth of student loans. I did go back to work for this purpose. I work when I can, which is not much with Ben’s work schedule. For the next couple years we’ll have to sacrifice family time so I can work various amount of shifts a month. Thankfully we get our evenings together, if we can’t get weekends.
Some days I wonder why life is so much harder for people now a days. We work hard, too, despite what some older generations think of us. But many of my friends are in this exact same boat. Some of my friends cannot afford to buy houses, so they rent. For years. They cant afford to do much of anything while staying home with their children. But childcare is insanely expensive. So there’s that. And people wonder why so many men and women are opting not to have kids these days. We can barely afford to just BE, let alone provide for children. And we make ridiculous amounts of money. I guess it took the ridiculous amounts of money to make the ridiculous amounts of money. College. Grad School. Internships. Etc. Student loan debt. Car debt. Rising price of EVERYTHING. Can’t even buy a car now without 12% interest. A girl friend of mine with a credit score of 820+ just went in to buy a vehicle and they told her nearly 13% interest. When we bought my car it was 3.9%. Two months later and Ben’s truck was almost 7%. Our car now is too small for our whole family. But do you think we’re getting a bigger vehicle? When hell freezes over!
2025 sucks .
We have a million and one things to be thankful for. Truly. But sometimes, I wish things weren’t so dang challenging when you’re just trying to do it all right. End rant 🙂
Side note, because I think some people think college isn’t worth the student loan debt. And maybe at times, it isn’t. But if I had to choose – I’d go to University all over again. If I had to choose, I’d relive Semester at Sea 1,000 times. Id definitely had gotten my Nursing degree right away, rather than Psychology first, because that wasted tons of money and time. But if I had done that, I never would have moved here, and then we all know how that would have ended up.
Life. Wish us luck with Dave Ramsay’s program — if you know about it, you know about it. It’s life changing. Here’s to a better future for our kiddos than we’re dealing with now as (almost) 40 year old(s).
| jenn at home | 