Yarning Along- finishing up and starting over...

 "~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~"  Ginny at Small Things

Make a plan to boost your income. Whether you have always worked full-time or you’ve been stay-at-home mom, the reality is that after divorce, families must muster the new financial realities and time to support two households. This means that your quality of life will decrease, and you need to make more money. How will you do that? Go back to school? Get a promotion? Start a new business, or take on freelance work on the side?

Make a plan for where you will live. This may mean paying your current mortgage on your own, downsizing, or relocating to a new city. Your address is a critical element of your life: it affects where your kids go to school, proximity to family support and what your monthly finances will look like.

Find out your credit score for free at AnnualCreditReport.com, and make a plan to boost it if it’s low. Just because your husband had a big salary and high credit score doesn’t automatically mean you do, too. This three-digit figure is the ticket to a new future, as it affects your ability to get an apartment, mortgage, car loan, and a job.

Figure out where your emotional support will come from. Divorce can be one of the most stressful, horrible things a family can encounter. Who will be the wind beneath your wings? Do you have a few girlfriends you can lean on? A family member or twelve? Accept that one person isn’t enough (they’ll get sick of you). Start asking around for a good therapist.

Park your emotions and figure out how many assets and how much money you are truly entitled to. By starting negotiations with a cool head, understanding what you are legally entitled to and bringing a bottom-line dollar figure in mind, you are more likely to prevail in any deal-making.

Park your emotions and figure out what you truly believe is the best custody situation for your kids. Spite, anger and jealousy have no place in visitation negotiations.

Take a deep breath and accept that you will lose some friend- and family-support. You will also gain friends. Life is changing. You are starting anew in all parts of your life.

 Accept that you will likely be poorer. Fair or not, women and their children are statistically poorer after divorce than when the woman is married. This is usually not true for men.

 Know that you can be richer. I often run into women whose careers and businesses flourished once they got out of stressful relationships with the wrong person. Happy people tend to be professionally successful.

Decide that you will be happier. Whether the divorce is your decision or his, accept that the relationship was not working. Life does go on. Happiness comes again— if you welcome it it

- See more at: http://mommasaid.net/2012/12/07/guest-post-10-things-to-do-before-you-leave-your-husband/#sthash.sXYe3S8j.dpuf

Make a plan to boost your income. Whether you have always worked full-time or you’ve been stay-at-home mom, the reality is that after divorce, families must muster the new financial realities and time to support two households. This means that your quality of life will decrease, and you need to make more money. How will you do that? Go back to school? Get a promotion? Start a new business, or take on freelance work on the side?

Make a plan for where you will live. This may mean paying your current mortgage on your own, downsizing, or relocating to a new city. Your address is a critical element of your life: it affects where your kids go to school, proximity to family support and what your monthly finances will look like.

Find out your credit score for free at AnnualCreditReport.com, and make a plan to boost it if it’s low. Just because your husband had a big salary and high credit score doesn’t automatically mean you do, too. This three-digit figure is the ticket to a new future, as it affects your ability to get an apartment, mortgage, car loan, and a job.

Figure out where your emotional support will come from. Divorce can be one of the most stressful, horrible things a family can encounter. Who will be the wind beneath your wings? Do you have a few girlfriends you can lean on? A family member or twelve? Accept that one person isn’t enough (they’ll get sick of you). Start asking around for a good therapist.

Park your emotions and figure out how many assets and how much money you are truly entitled to. By starting negotiations with a cool head, understanding what you are legally entitled to and bringing a bottom-line dollar figure in mind, you are more likely to prevail in any deal-making.

Park your emotions and figure out what you truly believe is the best custody situation for your kids. Spite, anger and jealousy have no place in visitation negotiations.

Take a deep breath and accept that you will lose some friend- and family-support. You will also gain friends. Life is changing. You are starting anew in all parts of your life.

 Accept that you will likely be poorer. Fair or not, women and their children are statistically poorer after divorce than when the woman is married. This is usually not true for men.

 Know that you can be richer. I often run into women whose careers and businesses flourished once they got out of stressful relationships with the wrong person. Happy people tend to be professionally successful.

Decide that you will be happier. Whether the divorce is your decision or his, accept that the relationship was not working. Life does go on. Happiness comes again— if you welcome it it

- See more at: http://mommasaid.net/2012/12/07/guest-post-10-things-to-do-before-you-leave-your-husband/#sthash.sXYe3S8j.dpuf

I'm FREE!!  Yes!  Tax season has ended...at least the main part.  There are some extensions and some payroll taxes and sales tax returns that need some attention, but the April 15th rush is done...so I can get some stuff going here. 
Yarn Along ...here's the scoop... I finished the Half-Stitched Amish Quilt Club last night.  I finished CABIN this morning.  I have had Secrets Over Sweet Tea for quite a while as a borrow from a friend and it's time to read it.  Under the books you will see a stack of magazines.  Some have been started, some may even be finished and some are never opened.  Time to look through the pile and figure out what still needs read and what is done and then pass them along to the waiting room.

Now the update on the knitting Yarn-  It seems that when I set my Juliet down, something got goofy and then I picked it up and couldn't figure out what went wrong, so I just started knitting and then three or four rows along, I looked closer and it has a booboo.  It shows and it's on the front of one sleeve, so my friend who is a good unravel-er, is taking it back to the mistake place and I'll start back up soon.  And you'll notice that brown ball of yarn...yeah, it was once the better part of a shawl, but it's the week of ending, so I looked real close at that lovely alpaca and decided that I didn't really like the way it was turning out, so I unraveled it.  I can do that part, because it was all coming out.  When I need to stop midway, I phone a friend.  And I rolled it in a ball and then  I will start again, I think a bigger needle size and maybe a different shape....I'd like something shawlish, but a long, skinny triangle shape.  I'll keep looking or experimenting. Until then, I have some other thoughts.  I have this great bright green cotton yarn and I'd been wanting to try a market bag, so I found this pattern for a GRRLFRIEND Market bag, and thought I'd give it a try... so I'm working the bottom on double pointed needles.  A little tricky for me traveling around, but soon I'll convert it over to a circular and then I won't have to be so careful about it falling off the needles.  Sometimes you just have to look at where you are, and if it's not going well and you have the ability, change the course.  So I am. And there's that other great ball of yarn that I bought a long time ago, made a hat and although I loved the yarn, the hat just wasn't right, so I balled it back up for another chance.  Something scarfy or shawly, but there's not much...but it is lovely....something will come of it...trust me.. :o)

So, what are you reading and knitting this week??