The kids are LOVING that $30 swingset. I'm so happy. :)
And yesterday we went cherry and strawberry picking with good friends, first stopping by our TKD Master's house to see their freshly-hatched baby quail. (OMG sooooooo cute!) One of the babies hatched while we were there. Mollusc (ever-patient and ever-vigilant) stayed at the incubator while we were checking out the progress of all the fruit trees in the yard, and she got to watch him come out of the shell. Wow! :)
When we got home, a bill was waiting for us from the tax man for summer property taxes, and can I just say, "GULP!"
So it's a good thing we splurged on that fun stuff when we did, because it's belt-tightening time from here on out. You know, I don't mind paying for the roads (though it would be nice if they were better maintained) and I don't mind paying for the library (though I pay cash over and above taxes for the priviledge of using our local library) and there are a few other things I find acceptable, but it ticks me off that the people who reassess the value of your house (whenever they find it convenient -- i.e. when they want more $ ) are the ones who stand to gain from that reassessment. So it doesn't matter that houses here in MI don't sell for anywhere near what you paid for them, and that you have to keep your house on the market for at least a year in order to sell it; they still raise the assessment value. :-/
I have a new motto:
"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." ~St. Julian of Norwich (who, by the way, was a chick.)
18 comments:
Wow, I love that quote! I think I will print it out and stick it to the fridge. Maybe the entire bag of flour that the little ones spilt all over the floor won't seem like a big deal!
Love your blog!
~April
April - Welcome! :) You know, it really does help me focus on the Big Picture.
Thanks for coming by and for taking the time to comment. :)
Hmm, sounds very like Dr Pangloss "everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds"
Propery reassessment is all the rage here and is very ugly.
HAHA!! And if I change just 2 letters of my name. . .
NO wait. Stop it! Stop it! I'm trying to embrace this. ^_^
Property reassessment bites. :-P
My mother went on a letter writing rampage last year when they hiked property taxes in our county in Nebraska. And being a home owner myself, I was quite shocked when we got our letter as well.
I bet Mollusc loved seeing the baby quail hatch. How wonderful!!
Great motto, too. Chicks rule.
I'm thisclose to refusing to pay for the taxes that maintain our roads around here because they very clearly do not.
Whatever happened to no taxation without representation? I haven't felt very represeted in a long time.
Oh. My. God. One of my friends posted this YouTube clip on her blog. I immediately thought of you for some reason.
Amanda - I feel like doing that, except that I know I'll be wasting my time. :-P MuNKi's grandpa used to start every outraged letter to a congressman with "You Dirty Carp!" ^_^
Kitkat - No kidding. And yet we'd be the ones committing the crime, not the people misappropriating the road funds. :-P Maybe we need another Boston Tea Party. ^_^
(Oh, look! Uncle Sam is reading my blog now. ;) )
Amanda - OMG! What a riot! ^_^
MN property taxes went up when Pawlenty(the horse's ass) reduced state $ to local fire and police depts. Pawlenty's rationalization is that HE didn't raise taxes, the counties did!
Baby Quail :) Aw!!
Property taxes :( Grrr!
That chick St. Julian knew what she was talking about! ;)
Now if I can only REMEMBER it when I most need it. And BELIEVE it.
How do we know that chick didn't say that just before she jumped?
Tshsmom - Arrrrgggh! Doesn't it make you wonder where the $ is going? Well, we know that here some of it goes to bribe kids with iPods and laptops if they show up at school for "count day." (After which, of course, they return to truancy.) Wouldn't it be interesting to see where every penny goes?
Claire - I agree! ^_^
Cameron - Aye, there's the rub, eh? Especially the believing part. I think repetition ad nauseum might help. ^_^
Mr. Fab - Oh dear. You raise a vaild point. ^_^
I want to see pictures of the swingset please.
One of my favorite sayings which has, by the way, appeared at Joe's place as well as mine. I love Julian of Norwich. A mystic, yes. But was she beatified? Hmmm......I'll need to do some Googling.
Egan - maybe. . .
Gawpo - I guess not. Yet she's referenced as "St. Julian of Norwich" in a lot of places. Which is why I always thought she was a guy. Well, that and the whole "Julian" thing. I mean, how many Saints are women? Are there any? I guess there's a St. Anne. Right? I dunno. I wasn't raised Catholic. In fact, I was raised in a religion that taught us that Catholics would one day hunt us down and imprison us for worshiping on the true Sabbath. ^_^
Julian was an Anchorite. These people used to wall themselves off--COMPLETELY--alongside a church and they depended on the kindness of others to even bring them food because they could not leave. Anchored, you know. I will click the link and she what you brought home...
See? All they say is that, in her 60s, she "shut herself in complete seclusion." They don't use the "A" word, but trust me, she threw out the anchor.
I forget that people almost always think she was a man--Julian. Speaking of which, if I knew how to add a link in a comment bar, I would link you to one of my very all-time favorite actors: Julian Sands. (does he spell it like that???)
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