Three weeks, 1 client, 17 more months left

That's right, I only have 17 more months until my lease is up. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking to be done with my rent. I'm simply looking at how long we, the Raiches that is, have to live on the street. I'm pretty confident now that the house will be the next thing to go. We are trying hard, though. We've cut our spending drastically. We've cut way down on things like food. Whereas we once each had our own plate of food at dinner, we now share. The biggest person gets to start the meal - that's me. I eat what I want, then Andrea, then Mia, and then Jonah, who by then is getting mostly crumbs. Dixie gets the lick up what's on the floor.

We've also cut in other ways. Thinks like gas for the car have become a comfort item and had to go. The way I figure it, I have two children and at least one of them can walk. So now, thanks to extra clothes and things in the garage, I have hooked up a harness to the front of the car that is a perfect size for Mia and she pulls us where we want to go. Don't worry, we live on a slight hill and park facing down so it's not that hard for her to get started. I mean that would be just cruel to have her pull going up. It is hard for her, though, to try to get up to highway speed, but she tries and we're proud of her for that.

We've also cut the heating out. Really this is just a comfort item. I figure we can burn most of the items we don't need thereby cutting down our footprint on the environment. Also, it forces, I mean allows, us to get close to each other. The other bonus about getting close to each other is that we can pick the nits out of each other's hair and thus cut down on water usage.

Really, in the end, this has been a real family builder. I just hope my kids see it that way when we get them back from child protection.