Bear with me, please.

I know it's lame to say "I'm busy, so I can't post" but that's exactly what I'm doing with this quick blog. I really miss you all, but it's CRUNCH TIME with taxes and I'm ALMOST done. The thing is, with me being a musician, I "get" to calculate all my mileage, take phone bill percentages, tons of business expenses, and figure out 4 different 1099s, 2 W-2s, Schedule C, and Schedule SE (self-employment). I have taken over $5,500 in business expenses from everything you can possibly imagine (think instrument insurance, violin magazines, all possible government per diems for my travels, strings/rosin/other supplies, bow rehairs, concert tickets, CD purchases, etc). It is really a huge pain, plus I'm a little worried because I'm going to end up owing about $2,600 in taxes!! I am trying to trust that it will all work out, that God will provide the money (I am a Christian--and I know I have a lot of Christian readers! Love you guys!) but it's so hard sometimes. I feel like I am supposed to be a musician because there have been way too many instances where I could have or should have quit playing the violin but somehow always pulled through, kept going, and have made it this far. And I'M NOT GOING TO GIVE UP ON MUSIC JUST BECAUSE THE US GOVERNMENT HAS RIDICULOUS SELF-EMPLOYMENT TAXES. But seriously, I'm scared. I'm pretty much draining my savings account to pay them, and I will make sure to set up an escrow account for this coming year, to help prevent this next year at tax time, but in the mean time the next day is going to be super challenging to write 3 humongous checks (federal, state and pretty staggeringly high city tax!)

I promise I have cool pictures for you--I'm getting creative with food, obvi, since I need to severely cut back on ALL expenses for a while. (Cheers to Emily's amazing food budgeting skills!)

And part of the busyness is that I'm going to be baby-sitting 3 times in the next week (and hopefully it'll work out long term, since I really need a morning job--all of my music work is done in the afternoon/evening). Which is GREAT because I need the money, but I spent 3 hours there tonight getting to know the family, and tomorrow I'm there from 8:30am-12:30pm. Then I HAVE TO mail these taxes! And I'm teaching violin tomorrow from 4:30-9:15 (leave my house at 3:30pm). So I might not be able to post a real blog until Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, but PLEASE don't give up on me!

Thanks guys, and I have been sneaking in reading a couple blog posts for short tax breaks. ;-)