Since this is the year to buy a home for us, I’ve been keeping a close eye on our real estate market. It’s crazy, but the Southern California market has rebounded almost back to where it was during the peak of the housing boom. Not quite as crazy, but almost. So finding a home below $400,000 will be a challenge.

I’ve been enjoying two weeks of vacation and haven’t been very productive during the holidays. However, now that my vacation time is coming to a close (I still have one more week, though), I’m ready to get back to work.

This holiday season, I (or should I say Mr. LH, mostly) made 18 Santa and reindeer cocoa cones to give to colleagues at a fraction of the cost compared to last year’s mason jar gifts. The outcome was adorable and inexpensive gifts. I received lots of compliments on them, especially the Santas, which were more difficult to create.

The best time to start investing is 20 years ago. The second best time to start investing is today. Lots of us realize that we’ve lost some time that could have been spent investing, yielding a lot of future income and security.

I’ve been a bit absent from my blog lately. Much of this is due to my job; teaching takes up the majority of my time as Mr. LH can attest! But on top of the day-to-day hours I put in teaching our future generation, I’m also creating a side income stream through TeachersPayTeachers.com.