Princess Perky's Page

Honey fudge:

New recipe, No milk chocolate chips, no big deal, subbed semisweet, I don't tend to like my fudge as sweet as the recipe call for anyway. No half cup measure? Just as JC to tell me how many 1/4 cups makes a half...after she claims no knowledge tell her we can't make the fudge. Amazingly the answer comes to her. (result is still too sweet, might have to reduce honey)

Beefless sloppy joes: don't have ground beef, I have leftover turkey, so going to replace ketchup and the like with ....not sure, any suggestions? (turkey is still thawing)

Eggless corn bread:
ah well you know it isn't the first time, the lack of recipe might be bad though.

eggless gingerbread for a house: carol sing is tomorrow, so I need to make the 'walls' today, to be decorated tomorrow. For this one I looked for an online recipe. At first glance it seemed good lots of 5 star reviews, but then there are also a lot of 1 star reviews? I found one review by the staff saying they revamped it and added flour. So heres hoping the 5 stars are after the revamping.

I very poorly juggle GS, CS, CE, Co-op, and Parenting. Honestly I can't even catch one ball much less juggle 5....

Last night was the GS Court of Awards, I was in charge of the newsletter and cooking info. Not only did I put off the newsletter till 3 hours before the meeting (which with google groups down I was unable to get photos for), I also never looked up the cooking info, so had to scramble to find it hidden in the paperwork during the parent meeting.

Next week is the CS pack party, again I need a newsletter, need to make sure proper folk have awards for advancement, and need to fund folk to bring snacks. Plus derby cars, derby rules need finalized and a CS leaders meeting run, with details of finances, a spring camping trip, and popcorn. Wonder if I reserved the FLC?

Tonight is music class and I am supposed to help with costumes for the pageant, I don't machine sew and I have no creativity, not to mention I have little patience with kids...So I really do not want to do it. I tried to quit the CE team, and was told 'nu-uh I am counting on you'.

I need to get the GS camping trip for Spring details together, as well as go to a roundtable Thursday (with covered dish for potluck). Need to get half a dozen folk to pick up their popcorn, as well as find out when the prizes will be in. Need to update a contact and health info for both CS and GS, need to figure out how to get grade 5 to stop skipping Sunday school, without getting myself into leading. Also need to decide if I want to talk husband into teaching highschool.

Need to figure out why the car wont start in less than 5 minutes (turn key, click, play with lights/air/radio, try again, repeat till it works) -yes we tried a new battery.

Need to figure out who has what for Christmas, wrap what we have, make boxes for the ornaments for Sunday school teachers, co-op folk, and pastors. Buy what we do not have, make ornaments with JC and some notecards or folders or something with the Daisy paper for some of her friends. Make pumpkin muffins and fudge for all.

Oh speaking of the co-op need to figure out what we are doing Monday, make a 'Rosetta stone', get the kids a new Latin lesson, and plan January science.

On an education note, might need to do a bit more math lately, plus UE needs some more reading help, and writing, Monday he said 'I can't write cause my letters are not pretty' poor kid.

Need to sew patches on several of my sons pants, PJs and jeans. Need to sew some wrappings for Christmas, and at some point finish some cross stitch. Also realized with company we are at a limit on blankets, so either need to get someone to make one, or make one (or more)

And my house is a mess, clean laundry is piled nearly eye level on the couch, while I snuggle under a blanket at the computer whining that I don't want to do it.

Maybe I need a kick in the rear more than juggling lessons?

Woke up to a 55 house, with kids all needing showers for church. Combined with the house guests we currently have I figured it was about time to turn it on.

Might have to think of a programmable thermostat though. Sleeping at 55 is not to bad, getting up is the trouble.

Been chilly at night, but blankets and cuddling cure that problem, the only thing I wish we had was warmer sheets, nothing worse than getting up from watching a hulu episode cozy and cuddled to switch to a ICE COLD bed, though it does of course warm up quickly.

I also took to putting a blanket down on my youngest's bed rather than her cold sheet, if I don't want to leave the warmth of her for a sheet, cant see her wanting to leave me for it either!

Company coming tomorrow, so we may need to turn the heat on for them, or not they are from up north, and so far as I know not to unfrugal. Will have to see. Course sticking 4 more folk in my little house will heat it up already! If I bake or cook at all I may be wishing for open windows, happens all the time with company here, though I am never sure what they think of the temp.

Living in a varying degree house makes one a bit off on temperature judging. Sometimes I think my 'nicer' winter and summer wear is worn backwards, short sleeves in winter for visiting, and layers for summer!

So if you are ever at my house and I ask you if I need to open windows or turn the heat on, tell me honestly, I can take a layer off or fetch a sweater, but you prolly didn't arrive expecting anything other than a 74 degree constant.

Oh as to why the electric is high, seasonal baking and computers left on I think. Will have to work on the computers at least.

Lux's post got me thinking about the cost of our place, we have a mortgage so it is quite a bit higher than hers.

Using round figures, cause I am nothing if not a lazy mathmatician...

house = $35 (mortgage includes insurance, and taxes)
utilities = $5 (electric, water, gas..am I missing anything?)
ETA: Internet = $1.50

so 43ish a night? Guess better than a cheap hotel due to the amenities, but not as lovely cheap as I could wish for.

On a slightly different topic, The scouts need a cheap place to 'spend' their popcorn earnings. I would like to do something fun/big and different from 'just camping' But the only idea I have that we might be able to afford is DC..cause that is free attractions, and you can camp fairly close to the city cheap, leaves us with travel and food that I think we aught to be able to afford. 20 -30 per scout for the trip...

Anyone have any other ideas?

Not only does it dip below 60 at night, it isn't too high in the daytime.

Husband put his flannel jacket on, I asked where he was going, he said "nowhere, just cold"...truth is he doesn't have any sweaters, or sweatshirts!

Ah well, the kids manage fine, unless you are asking them to change clothes, or do something early in the morning/late at night they don't seem to care about the temperature.

so still no heat on, wonder if I can make it to Christmas? (once I passed Halloween, Thanksgiving was my new goal, and honestly this close, I might just aim for Christmas)

The house is now quite cold in the morning, I decided to take out some of the warmer blankets and pile them on the beds.

When I peeked at the thermostat this am it was 64 degrees. Since we set the heat at 62, there is no need to turn it on yet. And right now at 71 degrees it would be almost silly to run the heat just for AM warmth.

Oh and I don't want to be the parent either, of the kids! Can I please be the one to live in a fantasy world of flamingos and swords, while I ignore my chores?

1. Take your kid to the dentist to have 3 cavities filled (3!) He did great btw, though he chewed up his mouth after, leaving it quite swollen. Oh and being all swollen and unable to chew properly we had to buy soup and icecream.

2. Take a busted backpack with a lifetime warranty back for replacement, they no longer make that cheap version and you have to pay the difference.

3. Send husband and son off to a marathon shopping/library trip that takes so long it crosses two meals, which are of course eaten out

4. Head out for the 'big' Christmas shopping trip of the year to buy most everyones gift before the actual Christmas rush.(actually we didn't do this yet, but will after nap)

At least I am in a good mood, lucked out on being 'high' this week .

This week my husband will be home every day, and no pay.

I could stress out about it, but. Wouldn't help much, instead I am putting him to work. Well today he mostly just helped with co-op, but now we are headed to the library before dinner.

Tomorrow I have hopes of kicking him to the garage for some cleaning, or work, or whatever.

Wednesday we have a dentist appointment, and Then Thursday and Friday are again days I hope to get some work out of him.

Stressing never helped anyway.

I just posted how we set up a deal where someone does our shopping, obviously not free. And yet for me still rather frugal.

Because I do not drive. If I drove I could go shopping during the day when husband is at work, or on the weekend while they have a lazy morning, or any number of options. But since I do not drive and our time is rather limited we made a choice.

Not driving on the other hand saves us all the car insurance, all the gas of me heading off to yet another free daytime event (there are tons around here, for homeschoolers, preschoolers and more)

Now I still will mow the lawn myself, an hour away from the kids is better than paying someone!

Finances is all about choices, so in one way we are spending more, but in others we will be cutting back to balance it all out. (Heat is still off...)

I just set up with a friend of mine a deal. She goes shopping for me, I pay her a modest sum for gas and trouble.

This is supposed to free up some time for y husband to actually spend with his kids. So far it freed up time for him to go to an AV meeting. But I have hope.

The only trouble is admitting to someone how picky we are!

so far I have learned.
1. No Aldi's cheese, no matter how cheap.
2. Must be just one brand of canned tomatoes...Not that I know what it is.
3. Saying 'juice' to friends is not the same as to husband who knows which kinds we drink...(no apple, no grape, always 100 percent, no tomato, though the one kind of veggie fruit stuff is good....)
4. I have to find out what the fat/beef ratio we buy is? I don't even know how you find that out (I never did the meat shopping....)
5. Folk do a serious double blink when they know just how much we spend on fruit and veggies.....(family of 6 we eat over 3lb of apples every week...and 2lb of veggies every dinner not to mention some of 'whatever is in season', among other staples, onions, lemons, mushrooms, etc)

Down here in NC, almost south, We don't need heat for long, and honestly while we complain a lot, we don't need much of it, compared to mountains or up north.

So some would think we totally cheat on the no heat thing. But while our start date can be later with ease, keeping it as late as possible is a challenge. See when you don't have to do more than run the heat for 15 minutes in the early morning you figure it is cheap enough no big deal to turn it on.

But cheap as 15 minutes is it is still money spent that will never come back. While a sweater I already own is free.

Course there are thousands of ways to save that money, This year I choose to try and keep the heat off to save it. (last year I didn't.) Another person might find heat more important and save by buying different foods (we are picky in many ways).

Still another might prefer to buy some expensive foods, turn the heat on early but skip eating out for the month.

Whatever gets you through the month 'in the black' is a good plan.

Finances are boring, money comes in money goes out, roughly the same every month.

The most interesting thing that has happened lately, my husband isn't going to get paid this week, instead the hours from this check will get lumped into the next one.

Happens all the time, and we don't really notice much.

Oh I peeked to be sure the checking accounts had the money in the right spots for the upcoming bills..umm wait I didn't, but I will....brb.

K yep, all accounts have plenty of money for upcoming events/bills.

See boring.

but boring is good when it comes to money. Well exciting new deals on groceries would be nice, but I'll take boring over juggling money to pay bills any day.

Just had a long conversation with my oldest about money and debt and CC's. Mostly about how we choose what to do with our money, so even though we have an average income, we don't have an average life. And don't have much to complain about money wise. (though one could always complain if one wanted!) He overhears plenty of folk complaining about paychecks being to far away, and then hears me tell my husband it is fine if his is late. (though I do like knowing so I don't take money out of the wrong account at the wrong time)

How come women can think a man sexy while he is fixing something, but a man can't think a woman is sexy while cleaning. (least not without being told he is sexist and misogynist, and backwards, and whatever else feminists come up with)

I doubt any woman really cares what that the man is working on, it is the wonderful muscles in the arm industriously employed. Arms we can imagine wrapped around us. (after the honey-do task is done, or at least begun)

And I doubt men find dusting sexy, not sure mine would notice one way or the other. It is the standing on tiptoe in that French maids outfit (even if the outfit is only in his mind).

So why is one demeaning while the other encouraged?

Speaking of French maid outfits, I was in France and didn't see a single maid wearing one. (sorry to disappoint you fellows)

Oh any my guy doesn't fix cars, and I don't dust, I just pulled generic themes.

Come to think of it, when don't men find healthy women sexy?

Every year I start to get excited about the fun of Christmas...and then more and more agitated at the red suited myth surrounding the holiday. This year Digg brought the topic up long before I normally deal with it. So far no one has asked my kids what they will be asking from a mythical creature, or if the saw him in stores, and no one has gotten upset that my kids will not lie anymore than I do. Which means I found it relatively easy to type this year! No erasing sentences filled with swearing and pent up anger .

third comment down

The comment may have moved up or down since posting, but the one that caught my eye is of 4 reasons why folk use Santa.. the exact reasons I don't. Here is their post in italics with my comments after.

..... useful purposes.
1. He keeps small children from nagging their parents about presents they want for Christmas. Tell it to Santa, I have no say.

My mother taught me I could ask for 2 thing every Christmas, this made me narrow it down to what I really wanted. (good practice in frugalism) Now I let my kids ask for one thing. (though I keep my ears open for their debate) I also am very honest about why I will not buy an item. (not worth it, bad for you, going to break to fast, you already have some, not healthy, etc) No nagging, and no lies.

2. He can be used to make the kids act better. They know that I'll still be nice to them even when they act bad. I was already planning on taking them to Chuck E. Cheese's, I wasn't going to cancel or leave one behind because one kid is being a dick, so they won't believe it if I tell them they'll get no presents if they are naughty. Santa is a more distant figure, though, and they've heard from a lot of people that he knows who is naughty and who is nice.

On the contrary, my children do know I will cancel or at least keep them in the car/corner/non-fun spot for a time while the other part of the family has fun. I do not rely on the boogie man to keep my children from going round the corner either; though it would be easier.

3. It's fun to see the kids get so excited about him coming to bring them presents.

Nothing wrong with seeing kids get excited about giving presents and receiving. Do you need a false name for the giver?
My kids love all parts of Christmas, from carols and cookies, to angel tree gifts to shoe boxes. From pageants to special books, and steak dinner. Christmas is a wonderful time of celebration and tradition. I don't need any falsehoods in my story (yes I do believe in Jesus, I never make up anything to support what is believed through faith)

4. It's good training for future atheism. When they learn that it's possible to believe in something made-up just because that's what people you trusted told you was true, it's easier for them to make the jump to not believing in God.

umm yeah....I know if you have been perpetuating the myth you tell your kids 'it's different'. And I know plenty of Christians that survive the childhood lies. But why? I also know those that found the truth about Christmas the turning point in becoming atheist. Why risk it? If you do not believe in Christ, and yet still want to celebrate the holiday, why lie? Why can't you just say the whole tradition is fun and you enjoy it and you like giving folk presents?

I think the number one reason folk do the whole fantasy thing is because their parents did it. It is tradition, and those die hard. Christmas itself is a collection of traditions adapted from various Winter Solstice celebrations.

Jesus certainly wasn't born in December no matter what all those stories show you. But Christians wanted to enjoy their traditions and the church felt December was as good a time as any to celebrate the birth of our savior. The difference between Christian symbols and the red suited myth is that we believe the stories we tell our kids.

I believe Christ has eternal life, so when I tell my kids we choose evergreen to decorate as a symbol to remember His eternal life I mean it. I tell my kids we decorate the tree with all sorts of fun tidbits of our life to remind us of all the wonderful blessings we have.

We use the advent candles and crèche to remember the story. Presents recall not only the greatest gift from our Father but also the story of the Magi giving Jesus gifts (and yes I know that was several years after birth, and I tell my kids so)

No part of our tradition requires me to lie. I never have to worry that my children will 'discover the truth' I have tried to give them the truth from day one.

That was the line I just read to my kids from a history book. Simple, direct, and false. Why on earth would anyone write that! Not only were there plenty of 'torries' there were plenty of folk who wanted to let well enough alone!

Why was it right for the colonies to rebel against their country, but not right for the south to rebel against the American govt?

Simplest answer, because the victors write history. I wish it were not so. I would like to hear all the honest truth when I study history. They say those who refuse to learn history are doomed to repeat it, I wonder what is to be said of those who feed false history to their children?

In case no one has noticed, my posts lately are less on money, more of a cathartic release of frustration.

And for the next session....

Well, I am not very talkative today I guess.

If you ask me, yeah 'your' budget could use tweaking, 'your' choices with kids could be different, and 'your' free time spent different..so if 'you' don't want to know, don't ask.

I have asked myself a thousand times 'would it be better to ...." fill in the blank with drive, have cable, send the kids to school, use XYZ product, spend time on this or that, and more. Trust me I question my motives, my intents, my methods before, during, and after.

If a plan isn't living up to what I expected, I check and see if I am doing it wrong, or at the wrong time, or if I simply have no idea what I am doing. There are very few absolutes in my life.

But those absolutes..yeah if you aren't doing it my way, I do think you are doing wrong. Sorry. While we are on the subject I have never yet met a short hair cut on a woman I liked. You wouldn't grow your hair out for me, so stop asking what I think of your hair/life/parenting/whatever plan, it isn't my hair, nor my plan.

BTW I read to fast to kids when stressed out, I can't type when folk are looking over my shoulder, I often miss the forest for staring at the end of the path I'm on. I can't remember faces or names, or most things actually. I am both an unschooler, and a type A schooler (extreme opposites!), I dream big, but take shortcuts, with obvious small results. I have yet to save real money with coupons, I don't line dry, properly garden or use dried beans, and I often eat out, just because I hate cooking (which I am not good at anyway). I can't keep my house more than moderately clean to save my life, I have no decorating talent, inclination nor even a copycat ability. I honestly have to make a list of more than one thing todo, I spend way to much time on the computer, and I have no idea how to cure my oldest of being me, my second of being a sheep, my third of wallowing in anger, nor well so far the fourth is really no trouble, not to mention a thousand other faults that would take up to much space here....so no my thinking 'you' are doing it wrong doesn't mean I know all the answers nor are perfect. It just means I am not making 'your' particular mistake.

Oh and my number one fault? Opinionated, vocal and tactless. (and poor at math apparently) Better make that my top three faults.

*you refers to no one in particular (maybe it refers to me), I am an equal opportunity criticizer

I posted a link on FB, and angered a friend.

I suppose the link is a bit strong when it speaks of compulsory schooling. I should have been more sensitive to the public school folk.

After all it would annoy me greatly to read any one of the many articles stating homeschoolers are idiots.

Only the truth can hurt your heart, lies are merely words. Sad thing is the truth of an opinion can hurt too.

And truthfully my thoughts on public school would hurt others, and I should keep them to myself, just as I offer no comment on a hair style I dislike.

Though posting a link isn't the same as saying my opinion, it is close enough.

Between the two scouts I do a fair amount of 'management'. Lots of paperwork which is just deadly dull, but also getting folk to do a job.

The hardest part is finding out who is good at what. I have folk who are willing to help, folk who are jumping at the chance, and folk who drag their feet. And I have to find what job they will be best at. Generally whatever you offer to do I will take, but...it isn't necessarily the best position for you or the scouts.

Take leaders. I am sure National has some things to say about accepting whoever will do the job, but let's face it, I have limited resources! I often put someone in based on warm body vs height requisite. Meaning if you are alive and taller than my son you just might be in charge.

IE "Here Mr (or Mrs) parent I planned XYZ for the meeting here is the book, there are the boys, have fun."

After I do this once or twice with a variety of folk I find which parent becomes a dump and run to avoid the responsibility, which will adapt the program well, and which will barely slog through. Of course I prefer the adapters, but will settle for a slogger. (the dump and run folk I try not to speak of, if you can't say anything nice...). Sloggers I keep as backup and/or try to find committee jobs for them. They make wonderful assistants if they are good at discipline, then you get a goofy guy for lead.

The real trouble comes with folk who offer to help on the committee, no leading boys, but a whole slew of jobs. I have to get you in to a leaders meeting and find you a few jobs, out of 100s available, struggling to not overload you, but also not underwhelm you (volunteers are like muscles, use em or lose em, overwork em and you strain them, only dedicated folk continue when overworked, or ones you beg mercilessly)

The most annoying part...finding a volunteer job that matches their paid job is usually the WORST position. The PR person is terrible at newsletters, the Tech guy can't fix the sound system, the teacher is the worst leader, the banker the worst treasurer. I mean really if you can't trust folk to be good at what they are paid to do/ schooled in what can you trust! (positions named have been changed to protect the IRL folk, so if you are one of my scouts don't think I am talking about you)

And then comes the manager nightmare, how to get the job to someone else, without insulting the first person, and making sure the second is a better fit....

Oh and try to make all this look easy, cause you can't get many new recruits if you act like you have a rough job, they have to think it is easy enough they can do it in their spare time.

Now off to slog through some paperwork. (need me an adaptive secretary!)

So I am up way to early this morning wondering what to do for the church potluck picnic today. I was going to do meatballs, but haven't solved the keeping them warm problem. No crockpot, and we will be there at 9am lunch is at 11isham.

Besides I wanted to do something healthy. Not that we are health nuts (though you know in some ways compared to the average American we might be). So I explored the fruit and veggie stocks. a bag of granny smith apples, some Clementines (not very good btw), a few bags of veggies too small to serve my family, and frozen fruit.

Not very inspired I headed to google, the best place for answers. 'frozen fruit recipes' yielded several sites chock full of smoothies which may be good in their own right, but don't make for good potluck foods. As well as a plethora of fancy foods like cheesecakes and torts. And some simple ones that just take too much time for a Sunday morning when I would rather be sleeping like pies.

Then I found

thriftyfun and a forum post on frozen fruit. First it was odd to see someone finding frozen fruit, a staple in my house, to be special. Then there was the 'savor the natural sweetness' post that had my sweet tooth laughing (see not really a health nut), and then the perfect recipe! a 'crisp'.

So I washed a cake pan (the casserole dish has meatballs in it) and dumped in most of a bag of frozen mixed berries, topped with a sprinkle of cornstarch to thicken the sauce (praying it would help not harm) and topped with a mix of butter oatmeal and flour.

In about an hour we shall see if it was successful enough.

On a side note, I was talking with a friend who mentioned junk food and said 'oh you guys never eat any of that', with an air that implied I must not have normal temptations.

I had to laugh, I love my chocolate, and would gladly eat pringles, cheese puffs, poptarts, or little Debbie hostess cakes any day! But I wont let my kids see me doing it all the time, and since I am home with them all day, we (mostly) don't buy them.

We are not health nuts, just in general healthy (ish) people. Off to breakfast.

We were recently at a renfest with the two older kids. They had saved up some money for the trip, and upon entering JC immediately made a beeline for a cute little shop that sells knitted ornaments, dolls and the like.

She found a cute finger puppet for $3, when I pointed out she could get two for $5, and each would be cheaper she declined.

Cheaper per item, but more money spent. I constantly hear folk who 'couldn't pass up a good deal' failing to consider that they might need the extra money more than the second item.

Though I told her I would pay the $2 for the second and we could take it home for her little sister.

After a free ride on the butterfly swings she found a 'princess wand', she couldn't find a price. A nice shopkeeper came over and said it was $5. JC checked it would have used up all the rest of her money, so she decided to pass.

Then later she was looking at tiara's, at first she ooohed and awwed over various pink flower and ribbon contraptions, but then she put it all back. She told me she didn't think she had enough money for one. I offered to check, but she said no.

Meanwhile GMC was spending his money on archery (he loves this), and the frog thumping game, and beef jerky.

Mommy was spending hers on tips for entertainment (wonderful pirate show this year) and food....and a parasol.

When I got back, my MIL commented on how I could have gotten one at the dollar store. And proceeded to tell me how most of the clothes she buys the kids come from there (the ones that either fit weird, arms too long while you have to rip the wrist area to keep it from cutting off circulation, or are just plain small, size 5 on my 3 year old)

She also told me how cheap the chewy ships ahoy where there (stale, I love those fake cookie things, and I only ate a couple cause I took em before I realized they were stale) And how the cheerios always come from there (also stale, but I don't eat em anyway) Among other interesting things (those bandaids that wouldn't stick)

I am all for frugal and cheap, in general I do not waste (much) money, BUT if the quality is suffering I would rather spend a buck or two more. You would think I grew up on fancy foods all high class or something, but actually I grew up on peanut butter, cheap mac and cheese, and hotdogs, with the occasional curry by my father. Clothing was all handme downs (I had no idea some folk went 'school shopping'). Money wasn't spent on foil, but when we did buy store bought cookies, it wasn't cheap it was the good ones out of the red bag. now those are worth the calories and the price! (but not to often, like never bought any as an adult...)

Now I do not eat hot dogs, nor boxed mac and cheese. But I do still use mostly hand me downs.

Spending money is all about choices. I would gladly trade any amount of stale cookies for one really cool parasol (that I will still be enjoying for years to come).

Not that I fault my MIL for buying the cookies, her cookies, her taste buds, not mine. To each their own.

In general I do my complaining to my husband, not at him, but with him. When frustrated he is my confidant, my support, my sounding board.

Which means I do not join the cranky crowd. So most folk think I am happy and content and spoiled.
After all if I weren't spoiled I would have something to complain about right?

I read once that one shouldn't air their dirty laundry out in public..and I took it to heart. Keep your complaints at home. Don't lock em up and let em rot. Do air them out, but air them out at home, when company is not over. That way you get clean clothes (or a fresh start on troubles) and no one else has to smell your stinky socks (or worse).

Now obviously I also complain on line a good deal (I have a whole complaint category, the most used) And I am not perfect in public, catch me on a bad day and you don't want to hear what I say (which is why I avoid speaking). And even on a good day I slip up and complain to non family.

But the upshot of this whole non complaining attitude, folk seem to think the grass is pretty green over here.

Truth is what grass there is, grows sparse, and full of 'weeds'. The dry spots are bigger than a car (a kiddie car) and the tough prickly low hedge, which is only green in summer, grows far better than the grass.

So don't come over to my side looking for green grass. If you come, expect to see, and hopefully enjoy, wildflowers (unconventional beauty, in surprising places), plenty of bugs (try being fascinated at the next 'bug' in your day), and a few empty stretches to use your imagination in (a mind is a terrible thing to waste). You wont ever find a picture perfect golf lawn, that you have to live a whole different life for.

And BTW, did you see those golf 'greens' during the last drought...my yard flourished in all it's ungreen disorder, while the golf courses were anything but green.

Now a complaint, Major toothache, I need to get the other two wisdom teeth out ASAP!

I don't drive...that is in some respects an obvious way to save, no insurance for me, no car, no gas, no car related expenses.

But there is more to it than that.

For one thing, I can't sign my kids up for tons of classes, nor take them tons of places every day. Not that I have anything against 'stuff'. Just that I have to be very choosy so that most activities are done when my husband is around to drive, or when a wonderful friend will drive me (in return for gas money) I know many a broke person who thinks nothing of spending hundreds a month on different children's classes. I believe children need a great deal of 'down time' to create their own play, too much driving form one class to another takes away that time.

Another more useful result of not driving, when I am out of something, I HAVE to make do, I do not live less than 2 miles from a grocery store, or any other store for that matter. So if I am out of something, I must improvise.

You can sub for just about anything.

Out of one kind of tape, use another, or use glue, or creative folding, or a stapler.

Spaghetti sauce on rice is perfectly edible. Seriously, make it spicier and it is called 'Spanish rice' Really rice can be a base for anything you would put on pasta, or potatoes, and vice versa.

Most dishes can manage without a spice or two, baking as well. and most items in a recipe have a decent trade available. google em . When cooking it helps to know the type of taste you need to replace (sweet, hot, acid, whatever) or chemical habit of the item (binding, rising, ect)

Crafts are great examples, use a bobby pin instead of a paper clip, or a paper clip instead of a 'brad'. Look at what you have, not at what you think you need, I am always surprised at how inventive I can be when neccessary.

When I teach the kids a new game, or math concept, or science, I often find instructions calling for certain 'manipulatives' (items you can move). If I know the point I can sub. For example, 'teddy bears' are often used to count or graph. I have a bucket full of miscellaneous animals to count, and duplos are uniform in size enough to graph. No cash spent.

Need some shapes for tessellations? google and print em. Science is a little more random, but so long as you know what you are trying to do, you can fake it at least part way.

Not that any of my inventions will be winning awards, nor being paid for. But that isn't the point. Making a craft with the kids or playing a game, or cooking isn't about making money. It is about having fun without spending.

A list of things I have spent 1K or more on....

1. Multiple cars over the years
2. House
3. One of my rings, might have? I only recall that it cost way more than needed.
4. husbands non college education, well over 1K on no degree. and no real life skills either (though in his defense he started with chemical engineering, fun, but not applicable to computers really.)
5. Oh yeah, one of the many dental trips prolly topped 1K...combined they certainly do!
6. Forgot JC's birth, several of her medical bills (simple, easy delivery, no complications) were over 1K, total around 5K for all. UE was over 1K all added up, but no one bill was that high.
7. El's birth was also over 1K I think? or it could have been 800? I am so not good with numbers

Umm, that's it. While the sum total of replacing the computer might cost more than 1K, the parts were bought bit by bit as they went on sale, so not 1K all at one time.

Even the vacation to DC was less than 1K. (and all other trips less than that)

I actually have several strategies for keeping out of the store, but the strangest I think is the 'liquid gold' theory. So named after someone long ago in my youth said perfume was so expensive they must have bottled up gold. Needless to say I still do not wear perfume regularly.

When I was a kid I was convinced that the price of foil was so high you might as well be wrapping your food in gold; which you then throw away. We hardly ever used it, and I was surprised to find, after years of not listening to directions to use it, that a box was only a couple bucks.

I still to this day have difficulty using foil, I own some and use it for a few recipes (fudgie brownies). But I had to discover the stuff wasn't so expensive before I would use it. (generally a lid for covering, and oil for greasing make it unneeded)

I make this work for other expenses. I avoid knowing how cheap something is and assume the price is too high. This keeps me in the mindset of 'I can't afford it'. I happen to have a terrible memory (really terrible) so I find it easy to forget if I happen to see the price of anything.

The reverse of this is used to sell items all the time. Infomercials break down costs into 'low monthly payments'. Disney suggests a trip is 'less than you'd expect'. (since I expect it to cost a years salary, less than that is easy, affordable is another story)

Any frugal person knows to add up all the monthly payments plus fees before considering an item, but a non number cruncher like me can turn it into a 'gold' item..I just assume that three monthly payments of 39.99 would be way too much for any gadget, no math needed.

Items I figure must be 'liquid gold' include (but are not limited too)
-disposable products
-convenience foods
-junk food, chewy chips ahoy cost an arm and a leg don't they?
-Newfangled gadgets, it took years before we found a flat panel monitor that was less than gold plated.

I still don't know what foil costs, but paying for something you are going to throw away seems a bit strange anyway.

First of all remind me never to go camping on the same day we give blood!

Second remind me to make GMC eat a LOT. This is the third time he has gotten sick while camping; I am amazed we still go!

But he does love it, and he especially loved how this time he got to look at the planets and ask lots of cool questions of a true Astronomer.

First of which was if he could look through a telescope and see the volcanoes on IO. Apparently you need Hubble for that.

Fortunately we were backyard camping only 15 minutes from home, so we made it home and to sleep relatively easily, and managed our early day to church..with 2 meetings after, and being in charge of Fellowship on the walkway. (food in between services for all to share)

I just had a challenge on FB to get 35,000 customers. Now a day is like 4 minutes, so I do have unlimited time, but.

I set the ticket price at $1 (down from $20) and went from 20K visitors to 35K in just a few 'days'. My profit went from 100K a day to 200K a day. Seems to me charging less and having more folk in is better than charging more and having less folk.

Now I do know that not all facilities for 20K folk can be expanded to fit 30K in just a month, but I still wonder if companies are not all shooting themselves in the foot to charge so much.

Take books. I enjoy a good book, and I read plenty, but at todays prices, I use the library, or the internet archives. (old ones where the copy write has expired). On the other hand if the books were cheaper, or if current books were available with a few ads on the side, I would read them more.

Movies/TV I rarely ever pay for, but I do frequent Hulu. A couple ads is an easy price to pay for my favorite shows.

Cleaning, I would pay a 10 year old a couple bucks to sweep my floor and tidy my bathroom, but I wont pay an adult 40K a year to do the same.

Video games, and computer games suffer the same problems, I would pay 20 or maybe a rare 30 for a decent game, but 40, 50 or even 60? Never gonna happen from me.

There has to be a mathematical equation showing the relationship between price and folks willingness to pirate. I think that while there will always be folk who pirate to avoid even a dollar, but there are many more who would rather pay a reasonable price for a reasonable product.

When you want to work on a letter sound with young children, you don't need full alliteration, you just need lots of words that begin with a certain sound. Suppose you start with D. Any kid can be prompted to come up with Dog, or Daddy. Most can follow clues to dragon, or dream. If you read Dr Seuss you of course go with Donald David Doo dreamed a dozen doughnuts and a duck dog too.

House rules will differ for each house, but in ours, whoever comes up with a word last wins. So saying half a dozen in a row to use up words is common. We also have very lax rules for the kids; they can repeat any word, while Mom and Dad must use new words. Oh and using any outside help, like google is cause for disqualification. Other than that, we just aim to have a fun discourse full of the letter of the day.

After an hour or so we have used up dreary, darning, disco, dwarf and all the compound words like doormat, doorknob, or daytime, daylight, and daylong. So we move on to bigger words like destroyer, destiny, declare, and deviate, or derivative.

Somewhere around lunch time we get desperate and decide to try all the places we know, like Denver, Dorchester and Dormont.

Then we start to borrow foreign words, like derriere, or dormir , dos , and deux.

By dinner time we start to get desperate and decide all words have various forms, so dine, dined, dinner, dining, dines, and diner all count as new words. Back to that French, conjugation is now fun. Je Dor, Tu dors, il/elle dort, nous dormons, vous dormez, ils/elles dormant. (And that is just for present tense, which is all I know)

By the time we head to children’s choir practice the other adults want to know we are fighting over who can conjugate the Latin Deo first, which essentially means remembering all the different forms sung in any song we heard, because neither of us knows Latin very well. (Dona, Donno? Domine, dues?)

If this is all done with the giggles and excitement of a couple parents competing for fun, kids will learn something. From how to compete (don’t get all worked up, it is for fun!) To how to graciously lose, kids are learning. Not to mention since you repeat the sound “d” so many times and “D is for desist!” at every word any young child has to pick up some letter sounds.

Now I decidedly must decamp,and deliberate some other kind of delectable drivel to delight the dedicated readers of my decidedly disaster of a drawn out note.