Have a Better Life

Some time ago I mentioned that something was going on with me but I was not prepared to write about it, well now I’m.

For quite some time I was under the weather. I was sad, nervous, fed up with everything, no patience to take care of the house, the kids, the husband, I was full with everything. Although I knew what these signs were I was hoping they would go away by themselves, but they didn’t. A depression was diagnosed and medication was prescribed. It is a very light medication, only one pill a day that makes all the difference.

Having had a depression in the past makes me feel more aware of all the signs and ways to overcome depression. Although I tried to overcome the symptoms by myself, the need for medication was a reality. Under medication I’m aware of the level of depression I was already in and it gives me space and will to overcome this as soon as possible.

What were the signs (symptoms) I had that alert me:

• Extreme sadness
• Crying all the time sometimes just…crying without a motive
• Lack of strength to get up everyday
• Fed up of people around me and, I know it sounds terrible, but it included husband and kids
• I felt exhausted physically and mentally
• Lack of interest for activities with the kids or with anyone else
• Lack of appetite
• Hating myself
• Blaming others for my state of mind
• Too much aware of death issues and not caring if I was going to die or not

Well I was really getting inside a dark world and I now I know that I should have asked for medical help before. As I mentioned before I’m only taking one pill a day and I’m not attending any psychological appointments. As I had one depression in the past, as I know what I have and accept it, as I’m having a fantastic reaction to the medication I don’t feel the need for extra appointments. I need to take this pill at least for four months; depending on my evolution the medication time can be extended.

I really feel this medication was my savior and, although I don’t like to rely on medication, I feel I need it and right now I can say I can’t get on with my life without it.

Easter is just two weeks away and my son is already on school holiday. Usually he has holiday one week before Easter and one week after but once this year Easter is a little late school closes two weeks before. Pre-schools will close only the week before Easter so my daughter still has school for one more week.

When they don’t have school they stay in daycare. Fortunately the daycare where my kids are has a lot of activities and the schedule is already done for school holidays. Next week my son will go to the movies and watch Hotel for Dogs and my daughter will watch Caroline.

We have full time jobs so we had to choose a great place for my kids to stay after school and on holidays.

Choosing a daycare is a difficult task therefore the decision must be made taking into consideration several factors.

• Facilities: Does the daycare have approved by Social Security facilities?
• Employees: Does the daycare have the required employees for the number of children it has?
• Meals: Does the daycare provide meals? Do they have healthy meals?
• Children: Does the number of children exceeds the maximum allowed number?
• Certification: What companies certified the daycare as a quality one?
• Opinion: Gather several opinions of mothers/fathers with kids in the daycare.
• Activities: Does the daycare provide extra activities?
• Trust: Do you trust the daycare director and employees?

Daycare is a place we should trust to take good care of our children. We also should be aware that our kids have the right to give their opinion. So if you have your kids in daycare ask them frequently if they like the employees and colleagues, what activities they have, etc.. A good environment is a excellent factor to raise happy kids.

January, February and March were are tough months. January one life insurance and six month payment to our Medical Clinic; February one insurance and one birthday party, March two insurances and one birthday party. The best part, the Mortgage dropped in March.

Birthday parties at home we are done for this year. It’s my 40th birthday this year but as usual there will be only a small birthday cake just for the view and that’s it. Insurances will repeat in June, July and September and sometimes I feel I need a POS system to control all these payments.

Vacation will be more a homecation (as usual), I don’t even know if we will have money to go away just for a couple of days.

The truth is I want to go away for at least a week to have a real vacation, but I know we don’t have money for that and having a swimming pool at home and the beach 15 minutes away I can say I’m very fortunate, so no complaining from me. I hope the weather will be great and the wind goes blow another place else.

Regarding the staying on the budget issue, we will keep trying.

As promised here are the photos of our living room. Only one wall is dark red, the rest of the room is white. Although it seems like red in the picture, it is more a dark red color. We had the chance to show the living room on my daughter’s birthday party (the tables on the photo are prepared for the BP) and everybody loved it.

Now we have some other room to paint but once my husband only as time after work it’s very tiring to paint one room after another so for now he’s doing a break before moving to another room.

I had a few busy days with the living room painting a birthday party on Saturday and my own daughter’s birthday party on Sunday. And that is what I am going to write about today: Catherine’s fifth birthday.

Yes, my daughter is five years old and I feel the baby is gone for a long time already but I refused to accept it and I have a little girl now.

I did it with my son so now it’s time to do it with her. Here are the words that come up to my mind about Catherine:

• Independent - She is a very independent little girl. She does (or wants to) almost all tasks by herself like bathing, dressing, brush teeth, eat, etc. .
• Grown-up – She is very mature and independent to her age so sometimes she looks like a little grown-up
• Baby - For me she is my baby
• Sweet - She’s the sweetest thing I have.
• Kisses and Hugs – She likes to give me kisses and hugs all the time, very different from my son and she also loves to receive.
• Demanding - She’s very demanding, she wants to be the boss and wants everything to be done the way she wants.
• Pretty - She’s pretty, beautiful and adorable
• Flower - She’s my flower.  Flower was the blog name I gave her when I started blogging.
• Photos - She loves to pose to photos and sometimes I get the cutest and at the same time strange photos I have.
• Helper - She wants to help with every task: cleaning, cooking, gardening, etc.
• Organized - She likes to organize her stuff and our stuff. If she sees an open drawer, she closes it. I hope she continues this way.
• Clothes - She wants to choose her own clothes and loves to dress with skirts and short sleeve t-shirts.
• Artist - She’s a little artist when it comes to drawing and telling stories. She has an amazing imagination and she already does amazing drawings.

Here she is with her birthday present:

This last week I’ve been a little away from blogging world because, besides having a lot of work in the office, I haven’t been having the help of my husband around the house. The reason is a very valid one, he is painting the living room.

We have been on this house for almost 9 years and some rooms have never been repainted. The living room had the walls with a lot of mold that cleaning and washing didn’t remove. It was a little difficult to stare at the walls day after day and do nothing.

Winter brings wet walls and mold and therefore the walls shouldn’t be painted, but the sun and warm weather makes that possible. We took advantage of a few shiny and warm days and decided it was time to paint the living room just in time for Catherine’s birthday party on Sunday. So this week, instead of my husband leaving work and pick up the kids at daycare, he went straight home to paint. Besides avoiding to pay a painter, I save some time searching for the the best diet pill for my husband. He really needs to lose some weight and painting is a good exercise for him to lose a few calories.

All rooms have white walls but for a long time we wanted to change something so, he is painting one wall of a different color. I’ve got the “before” photos but only tomorrow I will be able to take the “after” photos. I like the color but I must confess it is a major change. Of course now we need some decoration items to match the color of the wall but money is short so we have to wait to buy them.

The living room has again clean and beautiful walls. I will post photos as soon as possible.

Middle of the month and as I expected my bank account is red. All the grocery products are being bought with the credit card and we continue to be careful with extra expenses.

I know credit cards can lead us to a tricky situation with a roller coaster effect but I’m carefully using my credit car.

First of all my credit card, which I have for a few years, it’s the only one I have ever had. Although I was offered other well known credit cards I never accepted them. Why do I prefer the credit card I have?

1. It gives me back 1% of the amount of every purchase I pay with it

If I spend €500 I earn €5. When the amount reaches €10 I receive a check at home of that amount to be used in some hypermarkets.

2. it is not associated with any bank account I have.

I can take control of the amount I owe without being afraid of the money being discounted directly on my bank account balance when I don’t want to.

3. I can choose the percentage I want to pay starting on 5%

By default I have a 5% minimum payment but I usually pay a lot more or even the total amount to avoid the high rates I have to pay.

4. As long as I use it a few times a year I pay no annual fee to get the card renewed

As I use the credit card throughout the year it costs me nothing.

Even when I have enough money I usually use the credit card to take advantage of the 1% money return and on the same day or the day after I pay the amount through Internet. This way I get my 1% and at the same time I keep the balance €0.

Of course there are a lot of credit cards I can choose from, some probably offer better conditions than the one I use but I refuse to get another credit card for now. One is enough and I am going to stick with mine.

What about you, what do you look for when you search for a new credit card?