March is determined to be absurd.  In January I refused to believe that January set the tone for 2023.  That we were going to have another *crazy* year (after the last several crazy years).  But I give up at this point.

My newest employee has been out sick 3 times already this year (once for a whole week) and had her third emergency this week.  This work jinx clearly remains (this is everyone who works for me).  My other employee was hospitalized last weekend.  It's just how it always is.  We just had a few months of peace before newest employee's life went to heck.   I am very burned out, between busy year end stuff and all this constant covering for employees.

My kids are exhausting.  I thought it was supposed to be easier with adult (or almost adult) kids.  😁  MM(19) got jury duty so I helped him to get that postponed.  I had to do a double take because I was sure when I saw the envelope that it was MH or I.  & of course, still no idea MM's housing situation.  Might be scrambling next week to figure it out.  This is the big crazy stressful thing and I will be happy to move past this.  The rest of his college years should be pretty easy once we find him a place to live.  DL(17) has never been my *easy* child, but I do appreciate how much simpler it will be with him going to college close to home.  

We had postponed St Patty's Day dinner to this weekend, when MM is home for spring break.  DL(17) just informed us that the marathon he was planning to do is this weekend.  !!  So MH was supposed to talk to his parents about that.  Hopefully we can just bring them the corned beef and they can host.  The marathon is in their city.  It's the first I heard of it.  But...  I am used to MM(19) being the easy child and taking care of stuff.  Time is flying, the school year is almost over.  This is what DL(17) is doing for his senior project.  Now that he mentions it, yeah, it had to be coming up fast.  It just wasn't on my radar.

Plus we just have a bajillion other things going on.

Last weekend I did move some money out of our mega high interest bank.  It's been at 3% - 3.5% during lower interest years but is no longer competitive.  I expect they will eventually bump up rates but I don't care enough to wait around or keep the account open indefinitely.  For now I moved most of the money back to Ally (4.0%) and will happily close the other bank account if they don't bump up rates in the next few months.  Will give it a little time, but would mostly be happy to have less banks to keep track of.

MM(19) is coming home for spring break next week.  It's basically a repeat of his last spring break.  Taxes, dental cleaning, internship interviews, etc.  A real chore week.   He's got some money piling up not earning anything and so I will recommend that he open up an Ally account.  Or maybe he would just be happy to put some cash at Fidelity.  Will give him some options to consider.  He still has some Ally account (with a $0 balance, that I asked them to close some years ago).  It's been a nightmare to get some of his minor accounts moved over (Fidelity was very difficult, but it's done.)  So is some of why I want to tend to this while he is on break.  In case Ally makes it difficult.  

MM(19) has $3,000+ that should be earning some interest.

I had a comment about interest on my last post.  I bought more I Bonds earlier this year, so interest should continue to bump up.  & waiting another month to see what 12-month I Bond interest is compared to other options.  I have another $20,000 I can dump into I Bonds.  

I had a good declutter streak last weekend.  Listed some odds and ends on Craigslist and they were gone within 24 hours.  Also have a charity coming by for a pickup.  I missed the last pickup.  I have accumulated two bags of stuff.  All of the above had been set aside at some point.  I just hadn't gotten around to the last step of disposal.  

MH shipped some books to some family that was struggling and that misses the ability to buy books.  $37 to ship a pile of books he got for free.  Some part of me is, "Meh, that's what the library is for."  Lord knows no one ever bought me any books.  Which is probably why I am more than happy to just utilize the library and not clutter up my home. (Is just how I am used to reading books.) But with all the free scholastic books we got when our kids were little, I also don't mind paying it forward.  I mean, ask me again how often this happens.  (I expect MH had a little sticker shock at the post office.) In the meantime, I am happy to have that pile of books gone.  I took some to work for my coworkers to sift through and MH shipped the rest.  (MH had gotten all the books for free because they were "damaged."  90% of them had no visible damage, or nothing anyone would care about.)