Ever feel like you are bleeding money??

I can't believe it's almost February and time to pay another year's registration fees at the kids school. I'm continually amazed at just how expensive it is to send four little kids to school two mornings a week. If I didn't need the break so badly and if the kids didn't get so much out of it, I'd have to drop it due to the overwhelming expense. But, the kids do get a lot out of it and I do get that much needed break. I think the timing for registration kind of stinks though. After all we just finished up Christmas, we just paid our property taxes, and we are about to pay our federal income taxes. There was a time when I got refunds, but the past few years we've had to pay. Along with many other expenses lately, I feel like money is just rolling out the door.  At least it's providing additional motivation for me to cook (YUCK)!!  I'm going to the grocery store Thursday and plan to prepare some recipes sent to me by friends.

I have not yet convinced Jerry that we should homeschool the kids, so this time next year I'll be deciding where the kids attend kindergarten. There are so many factors to consider; expense, location, and schedule. Their current school goes through kindergarten, but the kindergarten program is only four hours a day. Compared to other kindergartens I've looked at, this is considered a short day. The other kindergartens generally have about a seven hour day which seems a bit long to me. From a cost perspective, the four hour day and seven hour day schools cost about the same. Personally, I think the four hour day is too short and the seven hour day is too long. But, I hate paying seven-hour prices for four hour days. So, at this point I just don't know what to do. Thankfully, I still have another year to decide. And thankfully, I still have another year to save as much as possible before embarking on the oh so expensive five day a week schedule.

Here I am moaning and groaning about preschool and kindergarden...  we still have college and weddings in our future...  YIKES!!!!

On another note, I loved the storyboard used in my recent posts, but learned that when I turn the blog into a book which I do every year as a keepsake, the board is considered one picture and thus multiple photos are sharing the space meant for one photo (hence they are VERY SMALL)....  so, I've learned how to place photos side by side on the blog to try and solve this problem yet keep a storyboard feel....