Sifting through medical bills, correspondence, and other related items is no fun. But it’s part of our lives, especially for those of us who have family members with special needs. For a couple of weeks, I’ve been catching up on the filing for those types of items. I’ve been preparing to make payments for the bills after comparing with insurance EOB’s. And, I’m preparing to write the report that my adult son with special needs is required to fill out annually relating to resources he receives from SSI. (his disabilities occurred before the age of 22.)
The bill paying is a standard process, one that we all do for a variety of things that we are billed for during the year. It’s not tough, the process that is. However because our son receives secondary insurance through Medicaid , it takes some extra phone calls to find out what has been paid , and therefore what the remaining balance might be. This process is standard, not really difficult or frustrating to me. But I still have to write the checks.
The record-keeping for the annual report that the government requires from my son with is more detailed and highly frustrating to me. I keep all of his receipts and create an itemized two-category list for the government: food, and "everything else"). Actually the form that makes up the annual report is relatively simple. I just transfer the totals of the columns of numbers I have created… and then sign it verifying that there are no errors, before mailing it off.
Sifting through those receipts and deciding the totals for the food and non-food frustrates me. I make separate trips (when I have enough time) for food and for those other things my son needs. But often, I end up needing to make a trip for both categories of things. Then… I’m drawn to Wal-mart, where I can pick up ALL the items on the list whether it’s food… or clothes, hygiene products, etc. When I give in to the Wal-mart temptation… I end up with a receipt that has to be sorted into the categories for the government. It takes time, and a calculator (there’s some prorating of the tax on the receipt… when splitting things out into two categories.). The frustrating part comes in the fact that it is such a DAILY process… or at least, it should be.
How do I discipline myself to get this done when the strong temptation is to put it off? Procrastination never helps anything and in this case, it really makes the matter worse! The cure for my procrastination (and my frustrations) is to add the necessary steps into my daily routine… which of course means subtracting something from it (my daily routine I mean). How does your daily routine work for you? Does it suit the needs of your life? Does it need a bit of tweaking? Are you leaving enough room for the things you are responsible for? More importantly, are you leaving enough room for the things of God?
““Then Jesus said to them,
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.”
And they were amazed at him.”
.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment