The First - It's Like A Holiday Around Here

It's almost the 1st. Almost time to flip our calendars. In our house, it's celebrated like a major holiday.

A few days before the first, any first, Beth begins to remind us, "Omos time to flip our calendar!" She knows that she gets paid the first of each month. Her money, SSI is deposited directly into her account so she doesn't see it. But she knows it's there! :)

She gets about $600 a month from SSI. (Supplemental Security Income) Each month we have to report her income (Chuck does this) so they can adjust her payments. Did you know she's not allowed to have more than $2000 in the bank? If she does, she looses her SSI payments. I don't know if that's state or federal law, (it's federal) but it doesn't make sense to me. I can understand $30,000 or some huge amount, but $2000? It just seems like a small number. How does she save up for anything? Vacations? Large ticket items like a refrigerator or a TV?

Anyway, Beth does pay rent. We started having her pay rent a few years ago. It's only about $300 a month, but it helps with water, food, electricity, etc.

She used to have a lot more spending money but now that she's not working, we give her $20 each Saturday for breakfast at church on Sundays and bowling on Tuesdays, then the rest she can spend however she wants. Occasionally she'll have enough money left over at the end of the month to take us all bowling or to the movies or wherever. She loves that! We do too, actually. :)

Flipping our calendars also means clipping toe nails, changing her bed. (I know some of you might be grossed out thinking she only changes it once a month, but life gets SO busy and flipping our calendars is just a good marker for us.)

I also try to sit down with Beth and we go over the coming months activies. Birthdays, holidays, vacations, etc. Just so she's not totally surprised by anything. Of course it's also a great opportunity to work on handwriting, speech... do we ever stop parenting?! :)