Franks working overtime tonight. As much as I don’t like him to be gone, I do like the impact it makes on the paycheck. Years ago, when the kids were little, the difficulty of him being gone for 16 hours outweighed the fatter check. With the twins and a toddler, plus two more – my job as a SAHM was no cake walk. Some days, now, it is still difficult when he is gone for days on end. But I’m getting used to it. Bill-pay time is not as stressful when there’s a couple OTs on the check.

Right now we’re really working on getting our finances in better order. Big picture is overwhelming, but taking small bites of the debt pie here and there is manageable. One thing I need to do is renegotiate one of our credit cards, or refinance somewhere else. The card is $8000, and I don’t think the balance is even moving with the minimum payment each month. Craziness. For a long time life was so crazy (not just in Toddlerhood, but more recently) that we were in survival mode. The goal was to survive, attention was not given to these small details. This year, though, as my hours were cut from work, I used some of that time to do a better job of house management, and the benefits are overwhelming.

If anyone has any tips about paying down credit card debt, I’m all ears.