Basic budgeting should be taught as part of a required personal finance course in schools everywhere. In my early marriage years, I learned basic budgeting as I struggled to survive living from paycheck to paycheck. I made barely enough money to support a wife and two growing sons and I had to learn to be frugal.
God only knows, God makes his plan.
The information's unavailable to the mortal man.
…Slip Slidin' Away
About a year ago, I mentioned how I was giving until it hurts by supporting one brother-in-law and his family here in the Philippines. Soon after that, I started supporting ANOTHER brother-in-law and his family. Charity never ends.
Do you want to see a movie that makes you wish you were a kid again? Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is the film to see if you do.
If I yell "Help me, Mr. Wizard!", I would love to hear the words "Drizzle, Drazzle, Drozzle, Drome, Time for this one to come home".
Well, it may have worked for Neo in The Matrix, but it doesn't work for me.
In only a couple of weeks, my vision has blurred slightly and my dandruff has returned, negating all the benefits of living in the Philippines on my health.
Not only that, but I'm slowly going insane. My four-year old inaanak (godchild, and one of many) is so hyperactive that she makes other hyperactive children look like they're moving in slow motion. I've been trying to get some other work done, and what should take about an hour takes about three! I'm stuck with her 2-3 hours per day (and I'm stuck as a pseudo babysitter). So… if I fail to write anything on a given day (until I return home), it isn't because I don't want to.
As I stated in an earlier article, there's no place like home!
(Image source: Toonopedia)
I'm incredibly tired right now, so I figured I'd mention this before I headed off to sleep. I spent most of the night on the instant messenger with my wife in the US and my son and his wife in Germany. I spent most of the morning running around town and taking care of business.
My daughter-in-law, Diann, announced that she's pregnant and that the baby's due in September. That means I'm going to be a grandfather! God, I suddenly feel really, really old (and I'm only 47).
(This is a guest author article.)
In our busy lives, though we know it, but we don't find time to realize how much we love the ones closest to us; Our parents and siblings. The past Tuesday, I realized it pretty strongly!
I go to college from 9 AM to 5 PM daily. Tuesday is pretty hectic because of 4 continuous lectures of 'Engineering Drawings' right after the lunch break. I must confess, thinking about it alone, makes me dizzy. This time the home work sheets were incomplete with most of the class so we planned a mass bunk. I left the college just after the lunch break at 1.30 PM and was fast asleep at 2.15 PM, the time I found my bed. It wasn't before 7 PM that I woke up from a state of almost unconsciousness for I had never been so tired and had never slept that long during the day. I call this a state of unconsciousness for a reason that I'll bring out later in this post.
My brother, who is two years younger to me at 15, usually returns home (by the way, we stay alone in Chandigarh. He's here for taking coaching classes to prepare for engineering entrance exams two years later) after 8.30 PM from his classes, after leaving at 1 PM or so; the time when I am not home.
So… I woke up at 7 in the evening. The dim daylight was just as it is at 6-7 AM in the morning. With my half-opened eyes, I tried to find him in the bed. He was at the coaching center but I had not the slightest idea of it, thinking it was 7 in the morning. I opened my eyes wide to this nightmarish situation. I was sweating profusely, with my brain 'properly non-functional' and my heart beating hard and fast. I was more than worried and tensed that where might he be. My phone wasn't with me that day & I felt so helpless that I could not contact him. And such thoughts came to my mind; he might have come at his time and knocked madly at the door and I did not get up and open it to him. Maybe he left for some friend or anywhere else. I didn't know where. I never felt this miserable any moment, ever in my life.
I decided to go down (we live on the second floor) and ask from our landlord whether he had come or not or did he tell them where he was going for the night. As soon as I reached the ground floor, I saw the street crowded with people, children playing gully cricket, ladies gossiping and the landlord himself standing at the door with some local men discussing the trends in share market and dirty Indian politics. Ah! This couldn't be 7 AM i thought. I asked my landlord what the time was giving an excuse that my wrist watch had run out of battery. "Its 19:15 son."
And I had almost crashed down the staircase with relief holding my head. Phew! It felt lighter than before.
In 15 minutes I realized how much I loved and missed my brother!
