Days 15 and 16 - Check List

These last two days have gone by fairly easily, not much drama. Since the "soon to be" ex left, there really hasn't been much drama. There have been a few moments, but nothing that I'll bother you with here.

I take the train to work every morning now. I used to get a ride from the "soon to be" ex...but not anymore. We only had one car and he took that with him. I don't really like the arrangement, but, it's too far for him to travel from job to job to take public transportation. Any way, as I was riding on the train, all the things that I don't know how to do, as well as the things that I need to do started running through my mind.

It's tough having children and no car living in this city. There are things that we want to do, places that we want to go that we just can't get to. Who wants to spend hours on the bus to get to a mall that you used to drive to in 30 minutes. What can I say, some families never have a car, but we did, so that's what we're used to. Right now I get the car for a few hours on Saturday. So the second thing on my list is to get a car. But you know what's funny...I've had several cars in my life, but I've never bought one on my own. My father gave me my first car, and by the time I got a second I was married.

What's the first thing I need to do you ask? Get my credit together. I've been trying to work on my credit for the longest. But now that I'm facing being a single mom and the primary caregiver for four children, I have no time to waste.

Then, I thought about the little things I need to learn. How to change the windows in the house, how to work the electrical box in the basement. How do handle the water that comes into the basement when it rains really hard. We've never really had to have repair men come to the house. The "soon to be" ex was a very handy man and did most of the minor repairs that we needed around the house. Do you know I don't even know how to cut the grass! I know I can figure out how to use the mower, it's the fact that I've never done it.

I told the kids that I wanted us to sit as a family and make a list of all the things that we needed to learn and do around the house, and we'll work on them together, as a family, the way that it always should have been. I think it will especially be good for my daughter to learn how to do some of the things that I never learned how to do. I want her to be as independent as she can be.

So I'm off to start the check list.....I wish everything else was so easy.

But, this too shall pass.

Posted by La'Tanya Williams-Brisbon at 10:10 PM 

* Update- I am very proud to say that I did purchase my very first car! I recently traded up! Can't tell you how much of a thrill that was. I did learn how to re-set the breakers in the electrical box. I even learned how to cut the grass AND trim the hedges, LOL!. I'm still working on my credit. I had to make major shifts in the household budget, but it can be done, slowly but surely.