Gather Little by Little

Photo by: Hamed Saber

Earlier this week I wrote about some various low cost Father’s gifts in anticipation of Father’s day which is this Sunday. Until this week, I was expecting to get a video game for the Wii  and hopefully some great “kid made” gifts from my children. Turns out, I received a very different gift instead.

As I type this, my house is completely silent, with the exception of the refrigerator, and the pumps on my aquariums. You could literally hear a pin drop. See, my two oldest boys are at the beach with my in-laws and my wife headed up to spend the week with my other 4 children at my in-laws mountain house. I couldn’t go as I had two employees out on vacation this week, along with some work related items I just couldn’t miss. As a result, I’ve been a “bachelor” for the last 4 days. Great right? 4 days to myself, no kids, nice and quiet….WRONG.

When I arrived home on Tuesday, no kids greeting me at the door and no spouse with a hug asking me how my day was. Missing also was the smell of dinner I so look forward to…see my wife is an awesome cook. I made a sandwich, turned on the news and started working on my to do list for my various blogs. That evening as I went to bed, by instinct I walked into my one of our children’s rooms to kiss them goodnight…opps, no kiddos…I forgot.

Repeat this same scenario for the past 4 days. I am missing my family significantly. I sometimes have to travel out of town, and I miss them then too, but it’s different. I associate my home and them being here together and it’s just plain creepy for me to be here without them here.

My Father’s day gift is going to be seeing them later this evening as I head up to the mountains to stay the weekend with them. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder…I agree.

Carnivals

I participate in a few carnivals this week (yes I actually remembered):

• The Carnival of personal finance hosted by PTMoney included my article The M-Network Vacation Guide – Low cost summer family vacations. – PT did a great job, including some awesome music for the summer, my favorite being DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince – Summertime
• The Carnival of Debt Reduction hosted by Moolonamy included my article Surround yourself with constant reminders as an Editor’s pick!
• The Carnival of Money Stories was hosted this week by Pete from Bible Money Matters. Pete included my article A reader question: Budgeting and reminders.
• MoneyNing hosted the Festival of Frugality. My article Freecycle rediscovered was included.

The Gathering

• Plonkee asks: If you didn’t need to worry about money, what would you do all day?
• Ron from The Wisdom Journal shares his Top 5 Personal Finance Blunders
• Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity tells us to Beware The Monthly Payment Math Trick – Excellent advice…never, ever negotiate with payments
• My Two Dollars has a great guest article that talks about the things that Sucks The Budget Of Working People.
• Pinyo from Moolanomy discusses a topic near and dear to my heart: Money and Marriage: On Combining Finances (Reprint)
• Paidtwice has a thought provoking post asking Do You Want Retirement To Exceed Your Present? – Going somewhere without knowing where you are going is a bit tricky.
• I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this guy, but Wise Bread shared an article about “Food Cloner Dude. who tells you how to make restaurant and store bought foods at home! Some great videos here and I can’t wait to try the Twinkie recipe!
• The Dough Roller shares 10 Ways to Earn Extra Income – I would much rather bring in extra income than reduce expenses.
• MITBeta wrote a follow-up article on my article Consumer spending on pets is at record levels. MITBeta goes into detail on how much they’ve spend on their two pets.
• I’ve been planning to write up an article comparing hybrids to standard gas cars. Well, Million dollar journey beat me to it and did a great job: Hybrid vs. Gasoline Vehicle Comparison – Are Hybrids Worth it?
• Being Frugal shared 7 Surprising Ways to Save Money
• Trent from The Simple Dollar shares a really great article on How to Budget Using ING Direct