In my nearly year and a half of freelance writing, I’ve written about a little bit of everything. From real estate to parenting to how to get rid of acne, I’ve expanded my knowledge and shared what I learned with others. I can’t say that I’ve retained every drop of it, but those things I’ve picked up along the way have come in handy sometimes.

But lately, I’ve had a lot of trouble writing about things I am not already knowledgeable about. And even a lot of things that I do know a little about. I was hoping it was just a passing phase, but I’m beginning to wonder if I’m losing my touch. Sometimes I think my “way with words” has just up and disappeared, and sometimes I just feel like I can’t get motivated to do the research I need to do. But it’s quite disheartening, because I truly do love to write.

Maybe I should try doing some fiction for a change of pace. Or maybe I need to take a creative writing class to expand my writing skills. I’m willing to do whatever it takes, if I can just figure out what that is.

I’m hoping that next month will bring a break in our financial difficulties. It certainly should, because Hubby will start getting full checks from his new job. He’s working 50 hour weeks most of the time, and compared to the 20 or so hours a week he got at his last job, it should be a huge improvement.

I do need to quit getting so far ahead of myself. I’ve already got a mental list of things I want to buy. Many of them are actually needs, but I even need to slow down on them because there are just so many. I need to look at new clothes for all of us (yes, we honestly all need some), water purifiers to tame our well water, some sort of storage for our towels and linens… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Oh, and let’s not forget Pumpkin’s school supplies!

I suppose I should try to make a list of things we need by priority. It won’t be easy, but it will be helpful if I can make myself do it.

I finally got my hands on a Xavix Port. If you’ve never heard of one, it’s a game system. Each game comes with its own special wireless controller- the bowling game comes with a bowling ball, the tennis game comes with racquets, and so on. Hubby got some free Xavix games when he cleaned out a closed hardware store, and I’ve been scouring the Web for electronic deals to find a good price on the port ever since. I finally did, and it arrived yesterday.

We’ve mostly played bowling so far, and it’s awesome. Pumpkin kicked my and Hubby’s butts at it, though! We also tried out baseball and tennis, but couldn’t really get the hang of those. I guess we’ll get them figured out eventually.

I’m trying to find a good deal on this Jackie Chan boxing game I’ve heard about. I read reviews online, and they said it provides a great workout. It isn’t cheap, though. I don’t have the money to buy it at any price right now anyway, so I guess it’s just as well that I can’t find a deal on it. Maybe by the time I have the money to get it, I’ll find a good price on it.

I haven’t posted here, or on any of my other blogs, in several days. I could say that I’ve been hard at work, but that wouldn’t be entirely true. I’ve just been in a serious rut.

I suppose I could blame my lack of productivity on my aging computer not having enough RAM, but that would just be an outright lie. Although it has been notoriously slow, that’s just nothing new. My brain just has not been functioning lately.

I’m still having lots of trouble concentrating, and now I’m also having trouble staying motivated. I don’t have any tight deadlines right now, but if I did I don’t even think that would help. I do have a fair amount of work lined up, and if I could make myself get some of it done before the end of the month, that would really help our short-term bottom line. But I just can’t seem to get going.

I hope it’s just a temporary fluke of some sort, but it could be the medicine the doctor put me on. I am going to give it the 4 weeks the pamphlet said it could take to reach its full effect, and if I’m still in this rut, I’m going to see if she can try something else. I just can’t live my life like this.

Well, I just did a search on it, and the North Carolina sales tax holiday is always on the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday in August. So this year it will be on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Here’s a rundown of what will be tax exempt:

• Clothing of any size and type, with a price of $100 or less per item. Rentals are excluded.
• Sport and recreational equipment with a price of $50 or less per item.
• Computers with a price of $3,500 or less per item. Monitors, keyboards, mice and speakers that are sold separately from a CPU are not included, nor are peripherals.
• Certain computer supplies. These include:
  • Storage media
  • Handheld schedulers and PDAs that are not part of a cell phone
  • Printers
  • Printer supplies (paper and ink)
• Most school supplies with a price of $100 or less per item. You can find a complete list here.
• School instructional items priced at $300 or less. These include:
  • Reference books
  • Reference maps and globes
  • Textbooks
  • Workbooks

Not in North Carolina? You can find a complete list of states that offer sales tax holidays, along with their corresponding dates, here.

Hubby got his first check from his new job. He was disappointed because he thought they paid up to date, but they hold them back a week instead. I figured that out pretty quickly, but try telling him anything like that. Sometimes they just have to learn the hard way.

I also got paid from a couple of projects, but we’re still a little behind on things. So we will still have to spend very carefully until the beginning of the month. Therefore I haven’t resumed my browsing of new computer desks just yet.

I need to find out when the sales tax holiday for clothes and school supplies is. I’m hoping we will have some money by then so I can get most of Pumpkin’s school shopping done. Not having to pay tax saves you more than you might think. When I find out, I’ll post it here.

We didn’t get to take a vacation yet again this year. But now that Hubby has a good job, I’m hopeful that things will look up for us. I’m going to try my best to take Pumpkin to Tweetsie Railroad before it closes down for the year. It may not be a real vacation, but she will enjoy it.

I’m also thinking ahead to her birthday. It is in a few months, and I hope we’ll be able to have her a nice party and get her at least some of the stuff she wants. The girl dreams big, so there’s not much chance she’ll get everything she wants, but I’d like to get her a few nice things.

I’ve even thought about Christmas. One of the things I’d like to do is get Hubby is a compressor and some air tools. I had planned to get that for him a couple of years ago, but for some reason I didn’t. Maybe this year I can do it.

I suppose I shouldn’t be making big plans just yet. Anything could happen between now and then. But I’m ready to get out of this slump and quit worrying so much about money again. Not wasting it, mind you, just not worrying so much.

There are a lot of adults in Hubby’s family who live with other family members. One particular household has three adult children under its roof, plus a grandchild. I just don’t see how people can stand it myself.

I said something to that effect to Hubby, and he said, “Why pay for a place when you can live with someone else?” I guess that’s one way of looking at it. But it would drive me absolutely nuts. Since I first moved out from my parents’ place, I’ve lived under someone else’s roof twice: I moved back in with them once, and Hubby, Pumpkin and I lived with his parents for a month one time when we were having housing problems. In both cases, I was ready to tear my hear out.

If it came down to that again, I think I would start pricing cheap hotels. It almost got to that point before we bought our house, and had we not been so desperately broke, I probably would have done it if it had come down to it. But thank goodness it didn’t. And as long as we can keep up the payments on our house, we shouldn’t have to worry about it.

Hubby and I are once again broke. There are bills that need to be paid. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but it doesn’t seem like we’re ever going to reach it.

Hubby gets his first paycheck in a couple of days. I’m also waiting on a check from one of my writing jobs that I had hoped would show up last week. So we’re trying to spend as lightly as possible until they get here. It’s not hard when you don’t have any money to spend, though.

I’m not even going to be able to make my dentist appointment tomorrow because I can’t afford to buy gas. Oh well. I suppose I can always reschedule. It’s not an emergency or anything. All should be well by next month, which is probably when I will be rescheduled for.

When Hubby had a job cleaning out a hardware store that had shut down, he got his hands on some pretty cool stuff they were planning to throw away. Some of the things we got out of the deal include a new cordless phone, some Xavix games (which I need to get a console for so we can play), and a digital photo frame.

I hadn’t even taken the frame out of the box until the other day. I thought it would take batteries, but it has an AC adapter, which is nice. But it does need either an SD or flash memory card. I had an SD card that I had been using in my digital camera, but I’m not sure where it is. So if I can’t find it, I guess I’ll be buying one.

I have yet to decide what I’m going to do with it. I might keep it for myself, or I might put some family pictures on it and give it to my mom as a gift. But either way it needs a card, so I won’t be doing anything with it until I find or get one.