The Sewing Mom

My daughter and I sat down together and just finished going over all of her option for registering for Junior High. My daughter is a fairly mature 11 year old and yet, do you know how difficult it is to talk about high school and college plans with a girl who still loves her stuffed animals and only goes shopping with me if she can go in to the toy department?

The Junior High Counselors met with all of the 6th graders last week to discuss what they should expect as the head to 7th grade in the fall and what their options were. Last night, my husband and I attended a similar meeting for parents where we learned some interesting things about the Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs here in the state of Texas.

So this afternoon, my daughter and I sat together and talked about all of the information we had each received. I stressed to her the importance of not just looking at 7th grade, but looking ahead, even as far as college. This is certainly not easy, but when I think of how fast these first 6 years of school have gone by, I have a feeling the next six will speed by even faster. At this point, I think the planning makes me feel better, makes her think I’m obsessed, but in the end is good for her future.

I have one of those kids who has known what she wants to be when she grows up for as long as I can remember. Although her decision has occasionally changed, she always dreams of her future. There are so many possibilities for her, she could even grow up to be a Girl Mogul and I just want to send her down the path that opens the most possibilities for her. I even found this cute black t-shirt that says “Future Leader of the Free World”. Might as well dream big, right?!

This year for Christmas, my daughter and I both received Razor Pocket Mod electric scooters from Santa. These are very fun little electric scooters that we ride around our neighborhood. It’s nice that we both got one because then, when my daughter has friends over, they can ride mine.

We enjoy these scooters, and together, we wrote a Product Review: The Razor Vapor Pocket Mod Moped that was recently published at Associated Content. I hope you take a minute to check it out!

Yes, I’m still sorting through stacks of paper on my desk. It seems to be a never ending process. This could be because I took a break from cleaning my desk in order to clean the kitchen island. The island is where the stacks of paper seem to begin. They usually start there because that’s where the incoming mail gets dropped and typically sorted.

So, I was cleaning the island and found a piece of mail from our mortgage company that hadn’t yet been opened. It looked pretty official, and seeings as how this is tax time, I thought it might pertain to our taxes. I opened it, only to find it is a refinancing offer. Now, I’m not sure what to do. I didn’t really shop around for mortgages when we moved here, I used the company that the relocation company referred me too, mainly because they were able to give us a very good rate and a very fast closing, 10 days.

I know we have a very good interest rate right now, but with rates being cut by the Fed over the last two weeks, I think we could get a lower rate now, by as much as 1/2 a percentage point. I’m not sure that it’s worth it though to refinance after less than a year. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to call the number in the letter and find out exactly what they are offereing. The quote is free and maybe I can get some free financing advice as well.

Well, if I want to get some sewing done today, I need to get back to my paper sorting. By the way, I’ve filled the recycling bin a couple of times all ready, not to mention the number of times I’ve had to empty the shredder bin!

relaxation 001, originally uploaded by sewingmom1.

I walked into my daughter’s room over the weekend and discovered her & the dog enjoying a completely relaxing evening together. I’m not sure how long they had been like this, but I gathered it had been quite a while! Plinko, the dog, is happily chewing on one of my daughter’s socks. I, of course, had to ruin the moment by taking the sock away, but only after capturing it on camera.

I’ve been working for the last week on clearing off my desk from all the clutter and stacks of papers that accumulate over time. This has been no small task, and, although I can now see my desktop, I am by no means finished.

One of the reasons it is taking me so long is that I carefully look over every piece of paper before tossing it. First I have to decide if I still need it. If I don’t need it anymore, I have to look it over for any personal information that could be on it. To me, personal information that I wouldn’t want out includes phone numbers, address, marital status, income figures, account numbers, driver’s license information and of course, my social security number.

When I find a document that has any pertinent information on it, I shred it. I have a shredder located right here at my desk, I make it easy on myself. I shred so much paper that I have to empty it at least once a week. By the way, this is my third shredder and my second professional strength shredder. I wouldn’t be without one.

Unfortunately, as hard as I try to make sure nothing personal gets out, I don’t know if I will ever feel totally secure. Probably one of the biggest reasons I feel this way is in the mail that arrives every single day. Junk mail, mainly in the form of credit card offers. I receive at least one of these every single day, and on a big mail day, I’d say there could be 5 or 6 in the mailbox. I usually don’t even bother to read these, they tend to go directly into the shredder.

I’m considering using a service called lifelock that would help me reduce the amount of junk mail offers I receive, plus, they protect my name and personal information, with a guarantee of up to $1 million! That might certainly help me to feel more secure.

What things do you do to protect your identity?