Marilyn's Musings

As usual, I'm really busy. Income tax time. Before I did my own I did my grandson's, his girlfriend's, my granddaughter's, my son's and his wife's. When it came to my own it was a bit more complicated this year. Mine s always more complicated because I count my writing income and spending as a business. I've always done my own taxes--even before Turbo Tax. I'm good at reading directions and understanding them, I'm not good at math. When I use a calculator, if I add the figures 5 times, I'll come up with 5 different totals. In the days before computer tax programs, I made my husband do all the addition. I gave him the list of numbers and he added, gave me the totals and I put them in the proper spot. Now, Turbo Tax (and all the other tax programs) take care of the math. All you have to do is put in the numbers. I've had two years it was more complicated. One was when I inherited a bunch of stocks from my mom. The stocks had all taken a...

Yep, it did. 2010 is creeping up on us. Frankly, when I was young I certainly didn't expect to see the year 2010. I've lost many of my high school friends--some passed away at far too young of an age. One of the girls I went all through school is gone, several have lost their husbands. What do I attribute my longevity to? Good genes. My dad lived to be in his 80's and mom was three years shy of 100. But, when you come right down to it, it all comes down to what the Bible says, "There's a time to live and a time to die." Only God knows when that time will be. What is different about now and when I was younger? As a young woman, no matter what hours I worked, when I came home I always had to have an evening. That meant at least an hour to do something I wanted to do just for me. When we had a houseful of kids, we always had a bedtime for them, which got later as they got older, but there was always a time when they were in their bedrooms and we had our "eve...