Priorities...

A tiny bit earlier today.  I woke at 6:23 to a call letting me know the replacement glasses were ready.  The Vision Center closes at 7:00.  Once again, I threw on some clothes and raced over to fetch them.

The woman who called was not happy to see me.  The one who does the fitting was already gone.  Apparently, they make the delivery calls at the end of the day expecting folk to come later.  Not then.

Oh, my!  It is ever so great to be able to see the television and street signs again.  Yes, I still cannot see the floor or the sink and need an updated prescription.  However, there is a vast, vast difference between my old prescription and current one. Wearing the broken ones meant picking them up off the floor constantly.  Wearing my old pair meant nausea and headaches because I just cannot see with them.  I was quite happy to hand over my broken glasses as part of the warranty replacement.

The woman also made a less than positive comment about the "convenient" timing of the breakage, being that the warranty was just about to walk out.  So happy was I to see ever so much better, for one I was a duck.  Her words rolled off my back like water.

I do wish I were a better duck more of the time.

Earlier, I had also gotten a text about my prescription that is at a separate pharmacy.  I was not going to get it today, but since I flew over to the Vision Center, I stopped by the pharmacy to pick it up.  And, being that I was slightly productive, I went ahead and unpacked the Subscribe and Save box, put the items away, and took the packaging out to the recycling bin.

Today, I was thinking about budgets and such ... and sewing machines.  I know there is this little hem doohickey you can slide along fabric to keep an even measure whilst sewing.  Surely one of those (a set of those??) is just a wee bit of money.  I thought that I should get one, cut one of the curtains upstairs, and see just how hard it is to shorten them by hand.  Maybe practice will power by sewing just a little bit of a time and leaving everything out that I need until the curtains are done.

Since I keep seeing that commercial about BetterMoneyHabits.com, I have been thinking a lot about that third factor in the main video: prioritization.

The other day, I saw this house.  If I had the means, this is exactly how I would have Christmas lights.  I like the all white look and think these are so tastefully done.  The house is similar to mine, and so lights like this would look most lovely at my house, too.  Only having lights on all evening (or night) costs money.  I learned that in Alexandria with my first home with the piddly little strands I put in my crepe myrtle by the front door.  As much I would like to have my first Christmas tree ever this year or to have lights on this most incredible of houses, money for trees and decorations and running lights is simply not even at the bottom of a priority list.

Today, I was talking debt with someone who wants to reduce debt for the millionth time, and all I kept thinking whilst listening is how important prioritization is.  I mean, my first year here, when I had the hope I would find an easier job and still work, I had cable.  Giving up cable was so hard.  And I miss it.  But cable is not a priority.  Yes, streaming makes it less painful, but ... oh, the football games I cannot see!!!  SOB SNIFF SNIFF

If you are serious about getting out of debt, you prioritize doing so over lifestyle choices.  Lifestyle as in LearnVest's 50/20/30 Rule in budgeting, which I think is such a solid guideline.  I can guarantee you that those who are struggling with debt spend far more than 30 percent of their net income on flexible spending (lifestyle spending).  And I can guarantee you that those who are struggling with debt have fixed costs they should not be carrying.

It is like reading.  It drives me nuts when folk tell me that they don't have time to read.  They do.  The truth is that reading is not high on their priority list.  It especially drove me nuts when Christian folk would tell me that they admired how much I read the Bible because they don't have time to do so.  This was back when I was working, when I had a life, when I had to make choices.  Reading the Bible was a priority for me.  So I did it.  I bite my tongue quite a bit upon hearing those kind of statements, but I am screaming in my mind:  JUST BE HONEST.  READING THE BIBLE ISN'T AS IMPORTANT TO YOU AS EVERYTHING ELSE YOU ARE DOING.

Okay, I am a wretch.
But I am also not wrong.

Anyway, something else—totally unrelated—that I thought about today was the 457th reason why having the back porch open is so utterly wonderful.

At my last job, a co-worker gave me these lady bug window clings for my office.  When I left there, I took them home.  I stuck them in my car on the drive here, and I put them on the kitchen window when I arrived.  They do not actually fit with an old home filled with antiques, but I sure do like them.  Well, I noticed that with the back porch lattice walls gone and the kitchen so well-lit at night, I can easily see the ladybugs each time I get up to fetch fresh icepacks to put beneath my head so I can go back to sleep.  [Dratted nerves.]  Seeing the ladybugs never fails to make me smile, no matter how wretched I feel.

The daughter of an interior designer would never have ladybug window clings in her house.  Nor would someone closing in on 50.  Window clings are for children, for youth.  Ah, but this middle-aged daughter of an interior designer who has a most lovely home also has ladybug window clings.  And she can now properly admire them because of the radical change to the back of her house.

Things that make you smile are great.
Those secret smiles.
The ones that settle deep within.

In case you haven't heard, "Longmire," canceled by A&E last spring, has been picked up by Netflix.  That most awesome of shows is not ending!  I may be rather late to the party, but I'm still celebrating.  It's one of those shows that watching it is like reading a really good book.

I sure do like to read really good books.