...an average level of individual development...

I've mentioned previously that I'm back in school. I'm pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Psychology at Ashford University online and plan to obtain a Master's in Occupational Therapy by the time I'm finished.

I miss going to school on campus, but I'm finding the online format has allowed me the ability to continue, and hopefully this time, complete my Bachelor's degree. The format is simple. Class begins on Tuesday and continues for five consecutive weeks. As soon as one class ends on Monday, the next class begins with no break--and no summer vacation. But I should finish my degree faster and I only have to focus on one subject at a time. However since we are covering an entire semester of material in five weeks, it is still fairly intense. I'm truly enjoying the experience and believe that being able to concentrate on one subject at a time has allowed me to really learn the material more in-depth than when I was attending traditional classes and working on 4 or 5 subjects at once.

This month we are studying theories of personality development and one of this week's subjects was Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow theorized that a person must have his basic, instinctual survival needs met before he would be capable of pursuing anything beyond those needs. Only when the need for food, shelter and safety are met is a person able to turn his focus on greater achievements such as love and friendship. These needs must be met before a person would be able to look toward higher pursuits such as self-esteem, and so on. Maslow uses the symbol of a ladder in his description, however I like this pyramid graphic, which demonstrates the same upward, tiered progression.

For an assignment, I just took an online assessment based on his work and my results are interesting...I have "an average level of individual development". Nothing says "normal" like being called "average", I guess. Still, at this particular point in my life, in my current living situation and financial situation, I have to wonder if the test results are completely accurate. Here's the chart and abbreviated description of my results, with a link to the site if you'd like to take the assessment yourself.

Physiological Needs		||||||||||||||	54%
Safety Needs		||||||||||||||	60%
Love Needs		||||||||||	37%
Esteem Needs		||||||	30%
Self-Actualization		||||||||||||||	55%

Maslow Inventory Results

Physiological Needs (54%) you appear to have an adequate supply of basic necessities. Safety Needs (60%) you appear to have an adequately secure environment. Love Needs (37%) you appear to be content with the quality of your social connections. Esteem Needs (30%) you appear to have a high level of personal competence. Self-Actualization (55%) you appear to have an average level of individual development.

Take Free Maslow Inventory Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Although I'm not thoroughly convinced of the accuracy of results, the test did cause me to take a moment to reflect on my current circumstances and examine how I feel based upon where I am at this point in life. Truly, I never anticipated having to start over again and relearn how to live and survive on my own in my 40's. It wasn't part of my plan, but the only constant in life is change and therefore, to survive, we must adapt. And adapting is hard. Life still feels like a constant, up-hill daily struggle to survive. But, according to Maslow, I'm adapting quite well. I guess I'm just gonna have to take his word for it.

Hot Water Pipes, Leaks and Ripped Up Floors...

It's been a CRAZY week here! The past several days I've had to take the baby and spend the day at my mother's apartment...mine has a huge hole in the floor. They dug down past the concrete and rock, right to the dirt of the earth! But they fixed the leaking main hot water line for this building (lucky me, got the apartment on top of the leaking hot water pipe--this is the second time the maintenance crew has had to do this!) and now we have really nice, comfy, hot water for showers and dishes again.

At the moment, there is a plywood barrier in the kitchen to keep us off the newly poured concrete. Thankfully, Chelsea seems to be staying away from that. Tomorrow, we'll be out of the apartment again for them to replace the tile. Unfortunately, they'll be putting in "extras" they have lying around and won't actually "replace" the tile in the entire area until "they have extra time and can fit it it"...read--"it's not going to get done until you move out and we have to prepare the apartment for a new tenant". Well, it's HUD housing, a huge complex in Tulsa with well over 1000 units and the maintenance guys are really very nice, so I don't mind having bright yellow, orange and stained grey tile until I have my own place again. The guys are nice enough that I won't complain--they're doing the best they can with the job they have! Wouldn't want their job for ANYTHING in the world!!!

Anyway, the whole experience has just thrown me off-kilter. I can't seem to get a handle on this week, I'm forgetting things, having a hard time focusing on my schoolwork, and just generally feel befuzzled! Hopefully this time, the repair will take and we won't have to go through this again. Of course, Chelsea is taking it all in stride and loving having the extra time at Nana's house. And it's nice to get away from the "slums" for awhile--but I can't complain...it's roof over our heads for a price I can actually afford on no income. God provides.

In the midst of it all, I'm still seeing the chiropractor three times a week. I don't think I'd be able to maintain an actual job at this point if I tried! Life gets really hectic at times, and this is one of them. But, I look hopefully into the future, believing that someday soon we will have a home of our own in an actual neighborhood, a new career and baby girl will be the top of her little preschool class...I'm not giving up on the dream!

 

My Dream Home

A sweet little bungalow in Tulsa

God is Good!

I'm always amazed when God miraculously intervenes in my life--and by now, I shouldn't be. I'm one of his little girls and he has taken care of me every single day of my life. BTW, I hope you enjoy my new layout...I like this one alot!

Today, my brother-in-law purchased a Hyundai SUV for only $2300 at a car auction which I will pay for out of student loans. It looks to be the only car in the auction that wasn't a victim of an accident, it just has some storm damage. At first, I thought I was going to have to live with the broken windshield and dents for awhile, but to get the title on a "salvage" vehicle, you must fix the things wrong. So he's having his guys take the dents out, fix the windshield and he's taking care of getting the tag, tax and title taken care of. So for less than $3000, I'll have this cute little vehicle and NO car payments! It'll be two more weeks before I have it, but God bless him, he got me a pretty sweet little ride!

I met with the other guy's insurance company today for them to assess the wrecked car. I was certain (as was my lawyer) that they would total the car out. The problem with this is that when they do that, the insurance company takes possession of the car. And they are only obligated to get me a rental until they give me money for the car...and I would have to pay the costs of insurance above the basic liability that I had on my car. So I was looking at being out of a vehicle until the SUV was ready to drive.

Lo and behold, the insurance man gave me a choice. I could have him total it out and he'd take it then and cut me a check OR he would give me 95% of the costs of repair and he would cut me a check and I would keep my car. AND, rather than the few hundred dollars that I thought I was getting, he gave me over $1000 for that old Mitsubishi! That's enough to survive this month until my student loan check arrives.

God is so good. I cannot say it enough! God is SOOO good!

Money, Decisions, and the Future

It's been a rough few months. I've gone from having no income (for one month) to having more than I needed (for 6 weeks) to having just barely enough to pay the bills (now) to looking at possibly having no income again. This time, I'll have student loans to pay the bills with, but I'm looking at going months between checks, so it is now essential that I learn to budget.

I have a new checking account--my first checking account in over 3 years! I've been operating on a cash basis for so long that I'm really nervous about the account. In fact, I'm so used to living on the cash at hand, that I have about $60 in my purse and about $70 in the checking account and I keep thinking "I'm down to my last $60". But that can't be bad. The money in the bank will be there if I really need it, but I'm not using the checkbook or the bank card at all at this point. I've paid a few bills online with the bank account but that's it so far. Once my loan arrives, I'll open a savings account as well and then things will get really complicated...I'm pretty nervous over these new money issues.

I know this all seems pretty elementary to most anyone reading this. And a 43 year old woman who is nervous about having a checking account and scared of the checkbook is pretty rare, I imagine. But I've never had to do any of this. I went from a daddy who took care of everything to a husband who took care of everything. When that all changed four years ago, I just floundered. But now that I'm getting my feet under me, I guess it's time to grow up--finally!

I did discover a wonderful website that is really helping me keep everything straight. It's ClearCheckbook.com and is basically an online checkbook register. I haven't paid for the premium service yet, but probably will at some point. They also have an iPhone app, which I could see would make this an extremely valuable resource as you would be able to enter a transaction at the time you did it rather than having to wait until you're at the computer. I can see myself breaking down and getting an iPhone at some point down the road as well, but at this point I'm just happy to have my $1.95 home phone service.

I decided when I received an unexpected check from Chelsea's father and the bills were all paid that I would take just a tiny bit of it and have my rings resized so that I could wear them again. I've lost a tremendous amount of weight since I purchased these rings and none of them fit any longer. Driving down the road, I ran across a pawn shop that did ring sizing and jewelry repair so stopped in. I happened upon a Yamaha keyboard, full-size keys, for only $50. I'd really like my daughter Bethany to have an opportunity to learn piano and I've sincerely missed owning one myself. (I've played for 37 years now, but haven't had my own piano for the past 4 years.) So, the rings are still too big. But I'm so glad I bought the keyboard! That's been a goal of mine for quite some time now and we are all really enjoying having a keyboard and making music!

Savings Challenge for 2010

I've always been one to pick up pennies. But I've never been one to save them.

Years ago, I have a friend who saved pennies. She bought one of those big water jugs--the kind you take to the store to refill--and filled it with pennies--just pennies. It took her 3 years to fill it. When she cashed it in, she had accumulated $300 of money that she would have never really known she had. I was impressed enough to go buy myself a water jug. I'd get about an inch of change in there (I saved ALL coins, not just pennies), but then I would get low on cash and see that jug sitting there...and you can figure out what happened next. That was about 8 years ago and I gave up.


A few days ago I was at the grocery store and a woman had a zip-lock bag of coins that she was dumping into one of those coin-counting machines. She'd only dumped in half the bag at the point I walked by and the screen, which was counting her money as she dumped it, was reading out $27.00, $28.00, $29.00...

I was impressed.

 I decided at that point to return to my plan to save coins, but for me to really make this work, it's going to have to be a goal--a challenge for myself. So here it is:

For the remainder of 2010, I vow to save every coin I have, whether from change or from the parking lot.

For the remainder of 2010, when using cash, I will ONLY spend dollar bills on items, no matter how small the overage is. If I get 98 cents in change, it will go into the jug. I will not use 2 pennies from my purse.

For the remainder of 2010, I will empty my coin purse every night before bed into my money jug.

For the remainder of 2010, I WILL NOT count the coins I have saved (so as to not tempt myself) and I will paint my money jug so I cannot see the inside of it.

For the remainder of 2010, if I find that the jug is full before December 31st, I will take the coins to a change machine, cash it in, and deposit that amount into a separate savings account.

At the end of 2010, I will use the funds I have accumulated to take my three children on a vacation--after all, this is money I'm not really missing as I go through the year so I may as well just make a memory, have some fun and enjoy life a little bit :O)

I've already begun this process. It really makes me take a moment to think about those tiny little purchases. The taco I purchased last night was 99 cents...$1.07 after tax. So I put the 97 cents I received in change in my savings coin purse and realized that the taco just cost me $2.00, not 99 cents. But the change that I got back would have been puttered away without my realizing where it went anyway, so now, instead, I've saved that 97 cents for a family vacation.

For the remainder of 2010, I will be researching great family vacation spots! It'll be a little bit difficult because I truly have no idea how much I will have to spend on this vacation until that final day of the challenge. But I imagine that if a water jug full of pennies equals about $300, then a water jug full of all coins will come up to WAY more than that! My goal is to fill at least 3 water jugs with pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and possibly dollar coins by December 31st. Talk about a Happy New Year!!!

This is going to be a lot of fun! I think I might even ask the kids to join in and bring me coins when they have them--it can be a family challenge. Matthew and Bethany would both really enjoy having something for us to be working on together and we all get to reap the benefits of our hard work together! Win-Win!