DH helped some people unpack a bit last night, and he mentioned some boxes labeled 'yard sale' I was thinking "You paid to move that!" but then I thought about how much stuff I have sent to the good will (I don't do yard sales) and I realized my poor FIL and mother paid to move all that stuff!

I can't remember exactly that old physics law, things in motion tend to stay in motion? well things in your house tend to just stay, no particular reason sometimes, they just do! And if we move, we then pay to move said stuff when we pack up the whole 'kit and kaboodle'.

I don't think a move is in our future anytime soon, but if it is, I hope to NOT pay to move any 'stuff' that we wouldn't miss.

You know when you get a hunk of beef to make a roast one side has the huge line of fat? That is what this lady on Orahs heart looked like! I mean seriously it was covered in fat! and they had to cut thru the fat to get to the heart to do the bipass! (oh and her lungs really did have black tar on them from smoking!)

I also learned that we love the one brand of peanut butter that has partially hydrogenated stuff, which apparently takes all the good out of peanut butter? And the butter spread I let DH train me to use is bad for you (for the same fat)

So now what? I was thinking I aught start cooking with more margarine and less butter and now I find I should dump the margarine!

Oh well, 20 some years of habits, I can take a few more to get healthier..first step use up the beanut butter, and margarine spread we have, second, try other brands/go back to butter sticks...

So I saw Pfadvice had his todo list, and I thought how tecnical and fancy! Mine is mostly in my head, when I do write it down it is on a scrap paper..plus it is revolving, so I generally lose it long before all 10-0 billion things get done!

But on the few times when I do focus on just the basics, or high priority tings, they seem to get done and I seem to have time, like mornings, I only have three (sortof) things on my list.

1. Get ready (with threee kids that is more than one thing! showers, hair medicines, breakfast, diapers, make beds.....oh and at some point I do try to comb my hair!)

2. Dishes (update dishwasher, fill empty handwash, whatever)

3. Laundry (hang it, fold it, wash it wahtever)

Now all that is done in about 2 hours, give or take, and I can relax knowing something got done today.. 'course since I am sitting beside my todo list with only 21 things written on it (trust me theres more I didn't write)....well that is why I am sitting here typing not working, I am not sure where to begin! silly ain't it.

Would call a weed a flower and delight in picking them daily to bring in for the vase!

We have a plethora of dandilions out back, plus some clover, some 'white daisies' and some thistle. Those are all weeds (especially the thistle!) And yet my children love to pick a flower or two every chance they get and bring them in for my vase (a rotating collection of weeds and the occasional rose from DH is often in it)

I love watching the kids delight, but I sigh in the thoughts that the neighbors really do want me to get rid of my weeds...

Well I broke the thermometer we had for yogurt, which kindof sucks, I am pretty good at telling when the yogurt is hot enough, but then you have to cool it, and I am guessing in the dark here, if I succeed we will have yogurt for the week, if not...

Wish me luck!

So I quit, trying to be her that is! I can do many things right, but sewing is not one of my talents, so I am giving away my machine

(anyone want it?)

I am also no good at scrapbooking, I just gave my stuff to my mom, she seems to like it.

But before anyone (like me) goes thinking I am not good for anything..I am good at teaching, so long as I do it my way, so I give what I don't use to my mom and adapt the rest. (Mom also teaches her own)

I am also pretty good at crossstich, maybe if I stop trying to be good at all the other stuff I will have time to do it!

Plus I love baking, so I keep all the baking supplies I use (but I don't do cheescake, so anyone need a springform pan or 3?)

The less time (and money) I waste on attempts at being susie homemaker, the more time (and money) I have to do what I am good at!

Childcraftbooks, my two love them.. I loved them as a kid, and most of the out of date stuff is funny or cute not to bad (like housecalls by drs!)

After my brother and I were done with them my Aunt used them with her kids for a time, and now I have them for mine!

They have short information about all kinds of things, just enough to whett the appetite, we go get more out of the library when we need to. I have no idea how much mom paid, but it seems well worth it now!

They now retail for 470, but ebay has lots of older sets for less than $100 (some down closer to $10)

I decided to skip Sunday school and church, becauae I wanted to sleep, yet here I am not sleeping!

I also wanted to escape the problem of my 'energetic' son, life is just easier when we don't go out and don't have to worry about what he did to whom and where.

I suppose I can chalk it up to saving on gas though

I have spent the morning looking for a universal muffin recipe, with no success, they all call for whole wheat or bran, which I have none.... So I am left with no recipe and I am supposed to make muffins for church tomorrow.

If I hired myself as a housekeeper I would fire me! Not that the work is terrible, but common anyone putting in a 4 hour part time day could do a better job! Trouble is I spend my day putting out the proverbial fires instead of working! Well that and hiding in the proverbial broom closet for a 'break' (what break I have an infant I can't leave!)

Anyway I am working on it...


This is sort of how I treated finances before, so long as I put out the fires nothing got to bad and I could go back to the broom closet (or housekeeping) but now that things flare up less finances are easier and I don't mind facing them most days.

The one good thing about paying thru the nose for healthcare, Drs well-checkups are free. Which means today was no cost...well for the checkups (both kids are doing great, UE=20lb, 28inches. GMC=38lb, 42inches. .)

The trip to the store to spend the kids easter/birthday money ont he other hand...

Actually we diodn't do so terribly, JC wanted shoes with her money and found sandles, so we spent an extra couple for her to be able to get both. (am I living my girlyness thru her?)

GMC wanted a lego that they didn't have, so he got a slightly less expensive one to play with now and put the rest of his cash away.

And we got a new booster for GMC, so that JC can have his, so that UE can have hers.. complicated but tons of fun fitting all that in the car.

The troubles was lunch! DH wanted Moe's...not quite as cheap as the pbnoj I had packed, but more fun since my BIL came. The kids really like time with him.

Desk that is, PFadvice does this picture share thing and I just figured why not, I am stuck indoors due to rain anyway!


Behind the keyboard is the thumnails of one of the kids work, so I know what I have done already.


You can see both cases underneath, Mine is the pretty one with the green light . Stacked on my husbands is all the kids schoolwork, and his crappy mouse.

It was an expirament that failed.

Sometimes not having the right ingredients works well though. I invented 'hockey chili' from substituting, but last night was not one of those successes.

Edison failed a bit before making the lightbulb. I recall penicillan was an accident after many failures. My kids all failed many times before they learned to crawl, my youngest is busy failing to walk (we call it trying though).

I wonder how many failures, on average, it takes to make a success? I wonder if anyone keeps track (of their own failures, or of famous ones)?

And it has spare loot! I fibd that weird, and oddly a bit scary, what will we do with it? We waffle back and forth on what to do with the spare loot (I am using cloth diapers for a reason right?)

Some days we think it should go in the savings for the next car, some days we think it should go to pay off the house, some days we think we should get life insurance.

Right now we kindof decided to alternate pay extra on the house when they send a statement (quarterly) and put it into savings the rest of the time. This month is house, and I need to move it fast before we spend it!

Last night my husband made the trip for yogurt and stopped at lowes for some bug killer. While at the grocery store he bought me roses, at lowes he bought me play sand (for the fossils, we missed doing it at the birthday party so we are going to do it in May-I think)

Later that evening he told me he used all cash, leftovers from gas money gifts (we buy gas with checkcard use cash for other things, but it all balances) and complained that all his hidden stash to buy me things was gone. I said "you did buy me something, you bought me sand" Now what kind of girl remembers the sand not the roses!!!!!

They are beautiful, and displayed in my kitchen, but apparently to me the sand for my kids is worth rememberiung in a pinch!

I actually discovered that my finances were a mess because of flylady.

Let me back up a bit. I am a disorganized person with a todo list a mile long, who always managed to pull it together for the occassion, just don't supprise me!

Well any parent will tell you kids are nothing but suprises! I discovered after having my first that my last minute ditch for paying bills or cleaning up the clutter were not going to work. Guranteed when I needed that 5 or 10 minutes of work, my son was going to need me. No matter that for the past week he took a nap at this time or played on the floor, whatever, today when I need the time that is when he would have a problem.

I tried to do it my way for months, Mostly I managed, but then I had my DD, now I had two kids needing me when I was supposed to be working, all my bandaid solutions were falling appart, I was paying overdraft fees and CC bills were piling up (using the CC to try and avoid the overdraft fees!)

I found Flylady and discovered I was not alone! I struggled with the idea that a routine is worthless when it is constantly interupted and finally hit uppon the perpetual todo list, when I am done fixing the kid 'emergency' (potty, sharing, booboos, whatever) I would go right back to wherever I was on my list. Simple right? but if my list wasn't written down, I would lose my place!

After I managed all that, life was much easier, and I again managed to get it all together err mostly. Then I discovered I had time for that dreaded thing I kept pushing further and further down the todo list in hopes it would disapear, the checkbook balancing! At first I tried dusting instead (another dreaded chore) but I discovered a calculator was still better than the duster, so I went back to the checkbook. I needed help! and Savingadvice was there for me, lots of little ideas, lots of encouragement, and best of all no telling me what an idiot I had been!

Now I have things mostly in order, but I am slipping I can't balance the checkbook a math error is escaping me, and the longer I avoid it the more hopeless I feel.

(BTW I still don't dust!)

I can't really say again, it's not like we were all healthy in between. But now instead of an odd cough on GMC, and a horrid snorkle on UE, we now have a horrid cough/snorkle on UE, an odd cough on JC, and GMC seems to be better. Oh yeah plus My husband doesn't feel good and I am miserable. I hate being sick.

I have no desire to go use a cloth diaper (Thank you God I don't Have to)

I have no desire to go hang dry any laundry (Thank you God I actually have a dryer!)

I also have no desire to go workout, eat healthy, or any other good for you things, which may be adding to my miserableness. I think when I work out more and eat better I get sick less.


Edit to add, nevermind about GMC, he just had his sickness move up to the nose, and out of the coughing mostly. weird.

Never go shopping without the next meal packed, I think that will be my new motto! Ever since the CC got paid off I have been rather lax about packing meals and it shows we've been out to eat twice this month both because shopping ran late and we wanted dinner/lunch.

On a good note the grocery bill wasn't too terrible though we do have to the other store to get yogurt tommorrow. And I found a birthday presant for my niece, and a cool book with map 'stuff' for my son (I can make up math and English, but maps and geography?)

We are finally home! REally home.

We had an interesting time.

Tuesday we got a flat tire, plus lost twice. (Dh was NOT happy!) but we fixed Grandmas computer, no printer or internet though..Forgot to hand over half the stuff we had.

Wednesday we got lost once, late twice, forgot to hand over half the stuff we had.

Thursday I caught the oven on fire...Boy does a fire extinguisher make a HUGE mess!

Friday I escapped! I went out shopping with my mother, and dinner with my cousin, best day of vacation I have EVER had! (took UE with me, left the older two with the ILs)

Cost wise the trip actually turned out pretty cheap, every one kept treating us!

I am not the type to pad my house, or put my kids in a bubble, but I am reasonably intelligent, I put knives out of reach and teach kids not to mess with the mini blind cords...unfortunatly I also have a kid now who looks like he was in a fight with a long fingered demon!


I left my two reasonably well behaved (well ok so mostly the misbehavior involves inapropriate giggling) in one room to watch fire trucks, while I went to change a diaper in the other room, I came back to find my 4 year old in the window (for a better view) I of course gave that look, you know the one meaning 'you know that is not acceptable, don't make me yell at you'. He got out of the window and onto his bed, with a cord around his neck, couldn't have been more than 3 seconds but that was long enough for an awful mark!

here is a website dedicated to information about blinds

parents for window blind safety
I dunno that I will cut the cords, 'cause that just means they are only dangerous when up...but I need to do something, cause it is a nasty mark for the small offense of climbing on the window!

Heh, I just discovered I had used that title already, guess I make a lot of mistakes!

This time it is the cloth diapers, I am a 'closet ECer' which means I ask my baby to pee on demand, honest he can do it, and I never would have considered such a crazy thing except JC did it, (and I thought that was pretty crazy too.)

So wheres the oops? It is next to impossible to pin a diaper on a baby while they are standing up on the counter (it is merely hard to fasten a disposable diaper), which means you have to get them to lay down, pretty hard when they are busy bouncing in self pride!

The solution would be a pull up, but that is expensive if disposable, and not to cheap for washable. I think I need to honestly look getting some washable ones though, UE loves peeing in the potty and hate diaper changes (and is not old enough to old it for real underware, though I know many who do that)

We ran out of diapers, that means we have to use cloth, or have a kid pee on us, or an emergency run to the store.

Actually it is easier to have to use them, than it is to chose to use them!!!

very odd.... I might have to think about that the next time I sigh in choosing a frugal rout. It might just be the choice that is the hard part!

But we will be making a run to the store before Easter vacation, for veggies at least if not diapers, oh and diapers out, I am not packing/washing diapers at the ILs!

Well my baby had to go to the Docs yesterday, he ccame home with two perscriptions, one for albuteral! They have a nifty little inhailer thing for kids, very odd looking, but does the trick, he had the best nights sleep up till 3 am in 4 days, I on the other hand had company, so I still didn't sleep!

The scripts came to 50, a 150 without insurance. The apointment was 40, again 150 with no insurance. I have normally healthy kids (4 sick visit in 4 years) but with all the vacinations, and well kid checkups (and pregnancy) we still save money having insurance.

(3 am btw, we changed a diaper worried about the new weezing then fell asllep, without wheezing or gurgle breathing, no meds, just pray and wait, and this morning he ate solid food!)

Well I saw the blog about different coin jars, and thought how weird mine is now.

We have one for pennies, I am not usre why? Partly because we don't drive the church crazy by letting the kids take pennies, which brings us to our other 'jar'.

A tupperware coin tower. The kids love to sort the coins and then take them to sunday school (no bills, they would rip) meaning we generally have none to call our own around.


Except wierd coins and special coins, for that we have a lock box (like anyone wants our 2$ worth of foriegn currency and holey coins (really with holes)

Mainly I think it all takes up space, so what does that say about us? we have to much junk?

It finally kicked the bucket... I suppose when DH gets home he can check into it to see what might be fixable, but I am not much of an optomist, it is dead, and I am going to be line drying more than just the occassional load, or the 'Im in a frugal mood' kind... That sucks, I really hate line drying cothes! well I shouldn't complain, at least I have a working washer(err knock on wood?)

Keep good insurance! I just had to get two perscriptions filled for my two kids. cost to us 6$, cost without insurance 70!

The drs apointments were almost 70 for us, but without insurance they would have been almost 300!

Really glad we have insurance!

I feel terrible about it, but DH just took the kitten off to be cared for by someone experienced at this sort of thing. I just couldn't do the midnight double feedings (several for the kitten, several for my baby)

Now I am going to miss the little thing, I didn't even get a picture

Well the backyard scrap stealer had kittens, and is now MIA, which leaves us with one adorable kitten, umbilical cord still on!

Wanna know how much formula for a kitten costs? I havn't found out yet, but I bet it will be a depressing number, and sad to say I am a pessimist, there is no way a baby cat looks about a day or two old, will survive! But I am not going ot let it starve without trying...

I suppose I am happy that Jeffery and Nate are making some money, but....

Some days when you have three snotty kids,a cough of your own, and a house in need of major cleanup, you just want some mindless entertainment.

In comes PBS, and the internet!

Terrible waste of electricity I am sure...

On a positive note, we are 'making' clay fossils for DSs birthdya party, and possible doing some early to 'bury' for them to dig up. I have seen some kits, but we are prolly just going for playdough imprints that we then 'shellac' or something.

Now all I have to do is make invitations (fast) and send them out, oh plus decide on food...