My son and family is always the high point in my life. My son is doing amazing in everything he chooses to do. He is excelling in sports. He started school and is doing amazing. Even better than we though. His teachers love him, the noon aids love him, every one that knows him loves him. They all love to tell me that he is a great student. But he is also kind, polite, and helpful. All the hard work is already paying off. My wife got a promotion and a nice raise. Actually she is chasing a possible job change right now that would give her another raise and much better perks. I found a little side hustle and I am starting to make a little bit of money. Plus it just helps my confidence. Being a stay at home dad is a really important job and its amazing. But I am used to working. If I am not helping out financially I feel like a burden. So making this little bit of dough has been amazing for me mentally.


The bad. Financially this year has been hell. We have always had some emergency money. I never thought we would use it all up and some in a year. But everything in our house broke. A/C repairs, water heater, etc. Just annoying shit that added up. Then my wife has had a lot of stomach issues for years. I got tired of hearing about them and made her go to the Doctors and figure it out. Test after test after test. Specialist vist after specialist visit later they figured it out. Nothing to serious. A pill once a day and a few tests a year to monitor it. But all those visits and shit added up. Then add in another ER room visit for kidney stones for her. Man those bills killed us. Oh yeah she ended up breaking her leg at the end of summer. Lucky we maxed our deductible by then. But 3 months of recovery were hell for her and me. She was stuck to the couch/bed for 3 months. I had to manage the entire house myself. Again finances came up she was on disability which wasnt close to her full pay.

But the year is almost over. She is back at work. My son is still doing him. Financially we are going to make it. Not behind on any bills. It could have been worse. Not everyone has that emergency fund to dip into. So it could have been a lot worse.