I have a font (well, two) and a few other things

1. So it seems like more than half my company but definitely half of Joburg is on leave.

It's quite glorious - home in 15 minutes :) I can also find parking (prime "you have to be at work at 7.30" parking) easily in the basement at work.

And with that head space it seems my focus is better at work because I actually got some good work done today despite having to split my day and bring the kids home at lunch.

2. Speaking of kids, I've been deliberately not following the entire Sandy Hook story. I was never any good with this kind of thing and it's much worse now I have kids.

I'm not going to talk about the issues surrounding guns..... but this morning while driving to work, a caller on the radio said it's amazing (as in not) how when kids die in America there is a big reaction but kids die all the time in other countries (Iran and similar) and nobody makes a fuss. I do find that to be true (personally I think Americans are excellent marketers :)) but I just thought, "how sad that you can't feel compassion and empathy for these kids and teachers too". Of course I feel huge sadness and empathy for any kids who die unnecessarily, most especially preventable deaths.

3. I was decluttering like crazy in my study this weekend (actually in the kids' bedroom, the kitchen and my study ) and found my World Vision card (a card with a picture of my kid with his details). I felt immensely guilty that I hadn't sent a Christmas card so I wrote out one quickly, made him a little notebook with cars all over it, stuck those in an envelope and sent them off. It will not get to him on time but hopefully he'll get it early in new year.

And then I remembered the item on my 38 things list to sponsor a second child. So I wrote to World Vision again. I'd phoned in August, the person was out to lunch so I left a message but didn't hear back for whatever reason. Hopefully we get that sorted too so some of my increase goes towards good :)


4. Speaking about money, I've been soooo wasteful this year and I'm afraid it's not going to stop til I order that Seafoam kit for Project Life. Last night I sat and did my new budget with my new salary. I like to do this immediately so I can "tell the money where to go" instead of letting it all happen and wasting it away.

Notice how I ever-so-smoothly mentioned I've decided to do a version of it. A cheap version by the way because I have no intention of buying the binder and plastic pockets. Will blog next week.

Well, once the budget was done, I started doing my 2012 financial review, the personal one. I have to work up the strength to do the business one.

As an aside, I met with a new client today who outright told us "2012 has been a terrible year for business". True for me too but you don't go into a meeting with people you hopefully want to impress saying that. *sigh*

I set a big, juicy money goal beginning last year (to pay off our house) and we did it... by June.

This year the only big, juicy goal was the USA trip. And you can see that reflected in my wild spending. I'm so glad I set another big, juicy money goal in August (a savings goal) because I'm there already. The key will be to keep it untouched! I actually want to move that money out from under my very greedy eyes. It's far too easy with one-click shopping and the like!

5. I have a little problem with my phone. When I delete messages there, it still shows on the ipad, and vice versa. Freaking me out. I love the simplicity of the apple system the most and at the moment it's complicating, not simplifying my life.

Has anyone had this problem?

6. Have I told you I reached my reading goal of 60 books early in November? So I set a new goal of 70 because I'm an overachiever. I'm on 66 as we speak, busy reading books 67 and 68.

This is an excuse to be a somewhat lazy bum....... I love it!

I should manage it if I stick to my two hours reading and writing blogs a day :)

7. And then to end on a very light note, I decided to go goth. I've been trying to wear red nail polish because it's nearly Christmas but I'm not feeling it. The minute I press publish, I'm taking off the red and putting on black. Had a meeting with yet another person today who said she only wears black or red! :)

PS I always get pics of these two kissing :)

What colour nail polish do you like wearing?


What's on your mind?

PS see the writing on the pics? That's mine - I have fonts!!!! The top two are me writing freehand on the ipad and the next two is me using a stylus.

They both don't look very much like mine so I'm going to redo them and when I'm happy I'll let you have them too (if you want :))