I would support this lifestyle choice. If I could choose it.

Right? Skunks have a lot going for them. Not great at crossing roads, but every lifestyle is going to have drawbacks.

ETA: OTOH, I do have to wake up in the morning and go to work, but I also smell very nice right now. Apple Betty Soap + Chocolate Scrub = I smell yummy

I, too, would like to choose this skunk lifestyle choice.

Skunks are living right, man.

You guys, we deserve ALL THE GOLD STARS. See the top mail tray in this picture: [link] See how the only things in it are a tiny stack of this month's bills (and that thing in the back is Tim's ex-wife's G.E.D., which we need to return to her, which is why it's standing on end)?

Until today, it was STACKED up to the middle of the light switch on the wall (we don't use that switch, fortunately). And not just stacked, but stacked 2 deep. (See how this month's bills are turned horizontal, so there is room to put more envelopes behind them, also horizontal, thus having 2 stacks of envelopes? Yeah, we had that, close to 2 feet worth. How many years of mail, you ask? FIVE FRIGGING YEARS. (Bills are always -- and have always been -- paid on time, but other stuff just piled up. AND, I feel I should note, that double-stacked pile did NOT have credit card applications or other overtly junk mail.)

This is what ADD looks like in our house. And my role in it is that I didn't want to turn into the nagging wife, or slide into a parental role, or do things for him that he can/ought to do himself. So I left it alone, beyond occasionally mentioning that the damn mail pile was going to avalanche and kill the villagers. (And truthfully, I actually didn't realize it was 5 years' worth of mail. If I had, I would have busted out the nagging wife routine.)

We took the dog to a new groomer today and had to provide proof of his rabies shot. Well, we couldn't find the certificate from the vet. This prompted a furious scramble through the mail stack (which did not turn up the rabies certificate), followed by a rueful "I'm sorry I let this get so bad."

An apology is not what I wanted; what I wanted was for it to be dealt with. So after we dropped the dog off at the groomer (we found an acceptable proof of vaccination), we came back and started hacking through 5 years of mail. Open envelope, briefly scan over the contents, look at date, then file/recycle/shred. I helped, and we got through it in about 3 1/2 hours.

And now we can see the bottom of the tray, which only has this month's bills. GIVE US ALL THE GOLD STARS.

(Except there's also a box on the table -- a box that reams of paper come in -- that's ALSO full of papers. No, seriously. This man needs to go paperless SO HARD. But we're going to go through the box next weekend, come hell or high water.)

And you can damn bet I'm going to police the mail much more carefully as it comes in the door, instead of just tossing it in the mail tray.

I have a basket full of paper I need to go through. I'm off all week, so that will be one of my goals.

The other goal is to get a better grasp of my financial obligations. If I want to move when my lease comes due, I need to start socking away some moving money. I also need to rebuild my savings cushion. Responsible adult crap.

Separately, we got Cards Against Humanity for Christmas and CJ, K-Bug, and I have been playing almost nightly since. You KNOW you have reached a certain level of relationship with your kids when you can play this and not hesitate too much over what cards you play/they are welling to play.

And put out a big bowl of water when it gets warm.

From having done this myself, you may want to keep changing/refilling the water every day. The animals will spill it, or foul it. Not to discourage you, just letting you know! They can use fresh water in the winter too, it's hard for them to find water if it freezes at night. Heavy bowls are best; if it's light, it'll spill easily, and raccoons might carry it away. I lost a ceramic bowl that way. No idea where the little bandits took it.

"I need this. I really really do."

WAY TO GO TEP AND TIM!!!

I, um, may need to do that myself.

We had to empty the shredder at least 7 times. And I took 2 Trader Joe's paper bags out to the recycling cart. But it is by god finished.

Papers piling up is my nemesis. I hate dealing with it, and it shows. One thing I'm really going to work on this year is dealing with the mail, every single damn piece of it, as soon as it comes in the house. Pay it, file it, or chuck it, immediately. My bills are all paid automatically - because otherwise they wouldn't get paid on time, and this is why - but the flood of mail still sometimes has important things in it, so I can't just throw it all away without looking at it, and my tendency to Not Deal means it all ends up in a box somewhere.

This is how I ended up not even knowing that I HAD a pharmacy card, and paying full price for all my prescriptions for almost a year, after Cigna relieved itself of paying for prescriptions and my company got someone else to do that. Of course they notified us, and sent us a card. I just didn't read the mail. Totally my stupid fault.

This is how I ended up not even knowing that I HAD a pharmacy card

I found an unactivated Discover card of Tim's, with an expiration date of November 2013. For real. (His reaction? "Oh, I wondered where that was." So casual. HUSBAND, I CAN'T EVEN.)

I seriously expected to find cash money or an uncashed check, but I didn't. We also never found the dang rabies vaccination certificate, and we both remember seeing it in the past. So my new plan is, when Kato gets vaccinated in 2015, to scan the certificate when we get home and keep a PDF copy on our computers.

I have a plastic box next to the mail box. Every night when I get the mail, I put the junk in the box and only take important stuff into the house. It made me very happy to dump Hubby's NRA renewal form and their magazines into that box.