Well we arn't broke yet...

The good:
-Sent tax return plus bonus almost ALL to the car...I can't wait to see next months bill with the new lower total!
-Food under budget even with eating out twice and extra convenience for illness!

The bad
-Gas for the car and gas for house was over budget partly due to a trip tp GA. being gone for a day cost a good bit of gas, but didn't save on heat much...

The Ugly
-miscelaneous! UGH, between the postal runs (mostly for husband ebaying stuff) and the medical stuff, and the suprises for my bros kids, plus ours, plus the treat my husband felt they needed while I was sick...UGH!

Actually the end of the month we have more money in than we sent out (so more goes off to the car next week)

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Non financial if I discount the week of absolute sick and reduce goals for the week after, I did amazingly good. (1 miss, 4 half days on workouts, all yep on food)

For March, in addition to all old goals:

Financial = Get up earlier than kids.....not sure if it will help, but I tried for this last week, up early means more stuff is done, and half my todo list saves me money. (bake not buy food to share/serve, check on bills not ignore, ect.)

Excersise = add abdominal and legs work for 5 minutes a day.

Diet = Limit treats to two servings a day (that would be my servings! though I do aim for less than double recomended, but seriously who can eat only a half cup of ice cream?)

So in effort to be semi respectable tonight (lenten thing at church) I decided holes in the jeans would be bad and hunted up something nicer. You may recall my recent medical issue, it came with a two size expansion (sorry not a size 8 anymore )

Well I am back in 10s, not great, and more irritating since I do not have a little one to hold...

But all my jeans that I know fit now, have holes, so I headed to the closet to see just how close to an 8 or 9 I am, grabbed one pair of size 9s and tried them on.

I couldn't even get it up to my hips much less over them! Talk about depressing moments! I checked, all other jeans even close to 9 have holes.....so I grabbed a pair a bit smaller..and a bit stretchier....

A size 6 and they fit! Good grief they have changed sizes dramaticaly! So I checked my size 31/34 jeans (you can't change that, 31 inch waist means 31 inch waist...no getting around that)...one fits, one doesn't (different cut, big hips).

I decided to dich the 9s..every time I have a kid (or lose one) I go thru the down phase of weight, and every time I come to the size 9s and I try them, and every time I get depressed because they don't fit....seems to me I am storing them for nothing but trouble!

The number (9) doesn't really bother me much, it is the fact that I haven't worn them since highschool (pre kid), and all outside reports (plus the tape measure) say I am thinner now.....shrunk in storage or something? I dunno, but out they go.

Remind me when I am all grown up, just how hard the whole process was....

I do hope some day to be all grown up, not giving up fun, but not having to war with myself to do simple things..like clean a kitchen!

Friday is my birthday, and I will be 20something...again . And in that 20something years I really feel I spent very little time growing up.

On the other hand in the last year or 3 I think I have done a great deal. From getting the finances straight to getting my job under control, to figuring out small talk...ok no I really havn't figured that one out yet. Working on it, really I am.

Anyway as the kids grow and work out their own lives I wonder how I will feel when they are teens, or when they are young adults, will I remember how irritating little details like filing papers can be, or will I be so good at it, I find their incompetance annoying..like their lack of table manners of yesteryear.

Will I teach them enough so they can 'keep house' or will I wonder over to visit and peek in their closets to find they still clean by stuffing it all in there?

Will I be able to guide them on track to finding a proffession they love, or will I rush them into a job and life they hate just because I want it for them?

Will I sigh in frustration as they struggle to decide how important church is (or is not) and I watch the oft empty pew?

Or will I get it all right find none of the above did I fail to teach, and yet still complain over niggling details like failing to iron their shirts........

Knowing me, I will be complaining, it is what I do best.

No not mine, his:

We checked out the health food store, flour was 79cents a pound for whole wheat in bulk...and you had to put it in a plastic bag to take it home...somehow that doesn't sound 'organic'....... I can't recall the price of whole wheat at the former store though.

Also got yellow corn meal at 99cents a pound....that I am sure was cheaper at the food lion.

And saw MANY nuts and grains (saw quinona, I might try it, wonder if I spelled it right) most were well above the cost of white flour or nuts at BJs, though I am sure many were healthier.

Saw spelt flour, dying of curiosity what that is, and tasted three kinds of cheese...got suckered into buying one for the party we went to that night!

This is a problem! I bake every weekend (and then some) and I always use baking powder, in large quantities.

I tried one batch with soda and umm, shoot what is that stuff called.....cream of tarter, thats it, I read somewhere that the two in some combination works almost as good. We shall see.

And my local grocer stopped selling whole wheat flour..again a problem, Ig o thru 10lbs in a little less than a month, now I have to go find a new store to get it from.

Course snce I sent him in for flour, my husband tried a substitute, unbleached flour..instead he may have acuired a replacement for regular flour..wonder if I can find it in 20lb bags somewhere? (that is about a month of flour. 20lb of white, 10lb of whole wheat)

Now of course the heating bill is for the coldest part of January, but it still seems odd to open today, when it was a nice 70 degrees outside, my highest bill for heat all year!

The good news is, it should be my last high bill, the bad news is..I will be wanting AC soon!

BTW we took advantage of the day and took a walk wonderfully warm, a bit windy, and oh my youngests face watching leaves blow around! it was soooo cute, I wished I had a camera at the time to catch it.

This was said by my husband last night, in a 'I can't believe you set it so high, what is wrong' kind of tone, then while I was trying not to laugh at my once 'anti less than 70' husband, he did the same thing I do most days and pushed the button to switch it to saying the setting vs the 'actual temp. and it is still set at 62 from several nights ago.

Yep two great pieces of news.

1. My house is comfortably 67 in midday, simply due to nice warm sunny NC weather, and

2. My husband has really converted to a cooler house

Course at bedtime the house was still 67 and we were both shivering, I swear the time of day has way more to do with how cold I feel than the temp.

I never have enough time, and today I thought about looking at my days schedule like a budget, and finding the 'leaks'

I quickly thought about all the things I do and how much time I spend on each, and I found they don't add up to 24 hours!!!!

I have gaps, time that is slipping by with no record of what on earth I did with it!

Now looking closer I can find some, sitting on the couch with my DD in my lap talking to my husband about my day....but other gaps..how on earth can it possibly take 2 hours to get 3 kids dressed showered and fed?

I have to work on speed or something, and I definatly plan on being more concious of my time next month, I might not write it all down, but I want to find out just what I am doing with my day that is using up all the time.

And then I want to decide how to use my time more instead of just letting things happen, like money I want the splurge to mean something, not just some silly waste that will be forgotten long before the month is up.

I looked at a pack of 2 black dry erase markers for 2.17, pack of color for 2.99, and color with hangers and erasers attatched for 3.99.

I was looking at those dry erase options thinking 'I am rich, I can afford to pay the extra to get color, just because I want to'. I also thought I am smart, I am not paying extra for hangers, I store them in a bag in the threering binder I use.

The truth is, I can do the same work with black as with color. I don't even need the marker at all, I could use something cheaper, scratch paper, or something. I could keep using the faded one I have.

But I could afford to buy the color dry erase markers, and that little choice makes me, rich.

And now for the quickies:

*also bought a rice steamer for my birthday, mom said go buy one, and I did. Felt great to be able to just buy it (cost a bit more than the markers...)

*husband found some silicone bakeware on sale, bought a LOT.....and said 'I can't help it, I get excited when things are on sale'....I didn't say anything, I could hear his acnowledgement of how silly it was in his voice, and anyway I think I can give them as gifts.

*more stuff was sold! more stuff out of the house, though also more postage...though supposedly at some point I will get some back from that.

We were sitting in the car for some reason discussing the frequent 'how do I get my spouse on board' threads.

And he mentions 'well like if your spouse is still buying a pop every day for a buck you could just mention how you drink water, and ask if they think an insulated cup or something would help them drink water more'

ummm, I did that....

But I didn't remind him, I fiugured he certainly remembered and didn't need to be reminded of the unfrugal habits I helped him break.....

so do I get a medal?

My son wants sheets with cool animals, dinosaurs and general 'fluff' between the words..and I am finally making my own after way to lng searching for 'fluffy' ones.

The main trouble is his knowledge interest beats his emotional level..he is young, but he wants to read about things older kids do. Hard to find.

Anyway, I decided to be easy for my first try at harder fluffy papers, I used dinosaur clip art found on office, and wiki intro then made up a couple simple questions.


(ain't print screen grand?)

Now here is the thing, I am sure Wiki and microsoft wont mind me using it for my kid..but will they mind me offering it to other kids? (like free)

Office publisher for educators....

Many things we make for kids are the same templates over and over, crosswords, word searches, fill in the blank, maps, ect....

And kids like fancy clip art with the 'work'...but I personally do not enjoy hunting up worksheets only to reject half because they look too boring. Nor do I want to go make them all interesting myself, nor do I want to go pay store prices for fancy sheets that half the time contain errors.

I just want a simple template suggesting a couple clip arts, space for a name and date (yeah I know I could tell my kids work apart, but of all things that I do feel need practice, name and date tops my list.)

Anyway, buisnesses get tons of em, I want one.