A fond farewell

Here it is, post 450 of 450.  The last promised post of the Miser Mom blog.  I'll say all the standard yadda-yadda about how much fun it was.  All true;  take that for granted.  Ditto on how much I'll miss posting and reading your comments.  I'm not sure it's really good for me to write about myself (me-me-me) regularly, but I admit I get a very selfish satisfaction out of writing about my kids and my penny-pinching ways, and I've very much appreciated the pats on the back I get from other people.

So, now that I'm moving on, where do I go from here?  What lies in store for me once I turn my back on this blog?

Well, if all goes according to plan, here's the Miser Mom future.

Winter 2012-3:  We've been planning for my husband to be deployed to Afghanistan for a year, but it's looking less and less likely that he'll get called up.  We'll know for sure in January -- at that point, either he heads overseas for 10 months, or he doesn't.  Because he's so incredibly ancient (in army terms), there's no way he'll be deployed in future years, so it's now or never.

March 2013:  I run the DC Rock-n-Roll marathon with my girlfriends.  To spend this much money and time on a single race is sheer selfishness (in a studly, athletic way), but I can't wait anyway.

Summer 2013:  We finish paying off the home.  After a few more months to build up an emergency fund, my husband becomes financially independent.  Perhaps he retires; perhaps he negotiates a reduced presence at work.  Either way, by that point we know we can live on my salary alone, should we need/want to.  Jubilation ensues.

Sometime 2013:  We adopt X-son from Haiti.  We've filled reams and reams of paperwork, and yet we have absolutely no guarantee that this will work.  In fact, I'm expecting that there will be even more crazy paperwork and expense and delay in the future.  But I'm pretending this is going to happen this year anyway.  More jubilation.

Fall 2013 to Spring 2015: During these two years, I teach and work on my book.  Oh, yeah, and I train like crazy in the pool, on the bike, and on my feet.  We get all three boys through the early stages of puberty and into high school.  Because of all my bike riding (woot!), EITHER we downgrade from two cars to one, OR we keep the Prius and trade in the other car for a van that can transport our big family and many bikes to various races and other places.

Summer 2015:  My sabbatical starts.  My guy and I do an Iron-Man-length triathalon.  Either jubilation or hospitalization (or both) ensues.

Fall 2015:  We pack up and head to Rwanda for six months.  Why Rwanda?  It seemed like a good idea to my husband, and I couldn't come up with any good reason to say no.  Rwanda, then, it is.

Spring 2016:  Back in the U.S., together with my colleagues, I finish our book on projective geometry applied to perspective art.  Oprah's Book Club will not list this as a "book of the week".   The New Yorker will not review it.  I'll be happy anyway.  Again, jubilation.

Spring 2018:  The boys graduate (God willing) from high school.  My husband and I begin searching seriously for a new, smaller home in the city.   And we turn, in a serious way, to financial independence for me, too.

Threaded through all this wishful thinking, sometimes more apparent than in other places, is the theme of joyful (even jubilant) denial of immediate personal gratification for the sake of an even more jubilant serving of others.  That's the reason I started this blog.  It's also the reason that, 1.5 years later, I'm leaving it.

So thanks much to you all, with especial thanks to Dogs or Dollars, and to Rozy, to Penn, and Grumpy Pre-tenured people, to Carrie H, and Escorpiuser.  Big hugs to my protege, Waste-Less Grad.  Y'all are terrif.  If (ever?) I come back and do intermittent follow-up posts, it's because I feel both gratitude and obligation to you guys.

Hugs.