Taxes are finished!

I finished our taxes last night, and efiled the federal taxes. Quite a refund due, since we have three kids for child tax credits, and Tori's Hope Education credit. I'd change the withholdings, but we lose Liza's child tax credit this year, and Pratt gets to claim two of the kids if he is current with child support, so . . . We just give the government an interest-free loan.

The taxing challenge this year was dividing everything between two states, since James's residency changed when he retired from the military. Each one handles the numbers slightly differently, and both had to be filed on paper because of the situation. But the refund from one will cover the tax due on the other, so we get to put the whole federal refund toward paying off our equity line of credit!

We're really working on clearing that so we can start looking for property for our "hole-in-the-ground", as my sister-in-law refers to it. We still haven't decided between going underground or building a super-insulated strawbale house. We'll wait and see what fits best with the land we find when the time is right. Each step gets us a little bit closer. . .