Many folk are buying gold and silver as insurance against the collapse of the US dollar.

Why? What good is it!

With the paper money I can at least insulate the attic or burn it for heat.

Gold on the other hand serves no useful purpose. Can't eat it, can't burn it, can't grow anything out of it. It isn't even useful as a container to cook in.

Though I think silver at least can make decent silverware, so long as you have the time to care for it.

I personally would prefer a few apple trees or some potatoes.

So I decided it is officially to much work to do both Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts on the same day.

I told my Webelos leader I was not going to do them both anymore and his face was like a gift to my heart. It showed disappointment instantly, (then a more respectful face of understanding.)

When I explained I was moving the GS to Thursday, his instant relief was music to my heart.

And then just because it was a bad day, I mentioned how I would quit the CS and let them find a replacement..."H@!! no" was his immediate reply. Not the best word choice, but I loved the sentiment.

So is it bad of me to love knowing others find me helpful? Or better still irreplaceable.

My husband has been asked to take a 'furlough'. Which is a nice way of saying don't come in one day a week for a month.

So we are using the first two weeks days (this Friday, and next Monday) to go to PA. Bit of last minute, but well seemed like a nice silver lining anyway.

One of the next weeks we will use for my husband to take my daughter to work, she hasn't had her turn.

And maybe with one I will get some 'Honeydew' work done?

If you happen to have time on your hands and are avoiding work at all costs, you could check out one of the many facebook apps.

But I warn you, it could mean the end of productivity!

I have spent the last 2 hours playing chickionary while waiting for my mafia timer to refill my energy so I can go do more jobs.

For no other reason than to watch the experience tick up and new levels.

What a waste of time, ooh I have more energy, gotta go!

1500 Frisbee

I am sure the author is not the only person who learned the hard way freebies are not always free.

I wonder how much I have spent on lessons in my life...

I know in homeschooling one of the hardest lessons is that paying for something doesn't mean it is the best tool for your kid..very hard when folk buy prepackaged curriculum's! Even I with my mismatched use what you find method have come across an item or two that was a waste of money, yet I feel obligated to use it.

We have been converting our library of CDs to MP3, and of course that makes you look closely at what you have.

Having kids I spend more time listening to

'veggie tales' or 'fisher price ABC's' with the occasional 'classical' thrown in. Or if I am really in the mood for my own music some 'classic rock', or 'newer rock'

BTW our children's first intro to music was all the same artist we like to start them off right. Seriously packing to go to the hospital for UE we had to dig up the CD.

But now we are finding one of my favorites..trash

Along with lots of .. stuff my husband liked. But oddly enough we both grew up with Oldies, and yet have almost none.

But now I am looking forward to being able to find the music I want without finding dust

So I heard once that "If you eat good, and sleep good, You will have a good time"

I neither slept well nor ate well this weekend.

Let's look at food first. I packed plenty of fruit and some trail mix, I assumed the camps meals would be acceptable for carbs and protein.

Lunch was chicken strips on a white hotdog bun with sweetened applesauce and chips. Now the average Joe (or Jane) might find that acceptable, I on the other hand discovered a body used to whole wheat and unsweetened fruit (that also happens to be hypoglycemic) can't eat like that.

Dinner was more white hot dog buns with dogs in them, and chili for topping. Now my chili has lots of good stuff, tomatoes, beans, onions, meat, flavor. Their chili on the other hand..not so much.

Breakfast was white spray on pancakes..that tasted something akin to rubber and foam.

Then there was the sleeping, now I am not normally a difficult sleeper, I don't nap well, but I do fall asleep easily and usually stay there as long as possible regardless of how uncomfortable I am.

This time I was not only sleeping in jeans (because my Daughter wouldn't sleep out of my arms and I wasn't smart enough to change before the rest of the camp went to bed, and wasn't willing to let her scream and wake them up.) I was sleeping on LOTS of roots, with covers that were constantly being stolen. I was shivering from about 2 am on. At 6 am when my normal Sunday alarm went off for church I was HAPPY to get up! I jumped for joy! Which is the first time in my life I have been happy to get up, I hate mornings. Even for a good thing like Christmas, I would normally prefer to postpone morning till noonish.

PLUS my daughter HATED it (EL, 10 months) so she was up constantly, waking me up. Fortunately only one other person heard her once in the night, so I wasn't the bane of the camp.

Part of me wants to say never again...the other part of me figures I can solve those problems.

On the positive side I was able to say "she is not a happy camper" and for the first time I actually had a camper to say it about! (It is one of my stock phrases for cranky babies)

UE and JC had a lot of fun though, both had a bit of trouble sleeping, but enjoyed some nature walks, crafts, a 'bouncy bridge' (cable bridge), a 'pirate ship' (pirate shaped pavilion), the campfires,staying up late, playing with tents, and of course just being outdoors.

GMC was of course happy to be back, BBs, Archery, climbing wall, plus crafts and fires. He slept fine, I think he is getting used to roots and the like.

So points to remember for the next time I camp:

1. Pack all my own food including whole wheat carbs, and real protein (hot dogs and fake sugar filled chicken doesn't count).
2. Pack an air mattress if I have a baby/toddler with me.
3. Acquire a larger sleeping bag, meant for two at least.
4. Pack something to hold organic waste till we get back to a compost bin (all that perfectly good scraps going into giant plastic garbage bags.....)

All of the sudden I am getting emails asking me to make certain someone is signed up for all the stuff we need to take camping Saturday..I don't think I signed up for that.

And I have to find out who is going on the field trip the following Saturday.

AND I know I gave this job away finding out who is going to the summer Day camp...info and money due tonight..there is a reason I gave it away.

Plus I am missing a bear leader, may be missing a cub master, and missing an assistant GS troop leader. (the Leader is me)

This is not my day

BTW the company did show up last night, at 6:30....bit later than the 2pm phone call.

I used to have no need of those weekly organizers, what would be the point when I barely have anything scheduled?

Now I am working with a group of moms on a homeschool book club of sorts, and we are having trouble choosing a day.

I actually sat down and typed out my weekly schedule (evenings only)

Some Mondays-meetings for church (CE or Tech)
All Tuesdays-scouts
Most Wednesdays- Music
Most Fridays (after Lent)-games here

That doesn't leave a whole lot of free time! But at the same time I don't really want to drop any of them, though I would love to do scouts during work hours so we can have more nights home.

The Daisy troop voted to grow butterflies for their garden service project, so now I am hunting butterflies.

I found several kits online, which seem a bit pricy.

I also found a few websites, which ask you to already have a native plant (like milkweed) for your butterfly. which we don't of course.

I wanted to find a local butterfly farm, would be nice to support a local group, but I can't find info of any in the Charlotte area.

so we will prolly go with the kits, because they come with food.

It is amazing how much I can get done when she takes a real nap.

It is also amazing how relaxed I feel with a snack eaten, juice drank, and a todo list as long as my arm all checked off!

Course the todo list for the other arm is still there, but one thing at a time (or 20)

I really didn't know how hard it would be to find curtains, I thought if I was willing to spend some money I would find nice ones easy and move on.

Unfortunately what I am finding costs 150 or more and isn't quite right!

So still looking.

I did however get a desk, once I get this living room wall done I will take a picture, it is all coordinated and I am being very strict about putting things in it. though it is slow going, I hope to have it all done by Easter.

EL doesn't like naps, in fact lately she doesn't like sleep period. SO she is screaming at me not awake enough to go play, but not willing to settle down, and I can't think straight, I know there was work to be done on the computer, I just don't know what it was....

I said I didn't want to be frugal with this tax return (which BTW we keep as small as possible by claiming like 20 dependents or a bunch anyway, but overtime is taxed at a much higher rate, and he works a LOT of overtime)

OK so back to how irresponsible I am being.

1. bought a new entertainment system, IKEA generic, not top of the line, but affordable black and simple, all qualities I like.

2. bought new hats for everyone in the family. I always wanted a new hat and gloves and easter dress every easter as a kid, but never got them (why pay for something you will only wear for an hour a year?) Well this year I told JC I would buy her one if she wanted (just the hat), and happened to see a perfect one for EL, and one for me (though much less girly, cowboy with green beads) AND UE and GMC wanted one, though not girly of course. So we found an adorable armyish hat for GMC, and UE looks absolutely honestly AMAZINGLY adorable in a black fedora (I think it is a fedora anyway) so I spent good money on hats when we all have perfectly good if not so cute hats at home...but man were they ever cute in their hats on the way home!

3. organizer boxes, in pretty colors. Normally I think of function when it comes to organizing, and an old shoe box is just as good as a storebought box and hurts less when it busts..but this time I wanted matching, and a dozen of them. So I bought them.

4. Ate out twice in two days!!!! (all that stuff had to be shopped for, and unfortunately took two days.) yes I spent two days and not much to show for it, hard to find something worth paying for.

5. I tried and failed to buy new curtains/blinds for the kitchen and my sons room, I will keep looking.

6. chocolate, a new dark chocolate to try (not bad) some chocolate peanutbutter fudge eggs (easter bad habit) and the shrimp GMC asked for.

I am now about 2/3 of the way through the designated waste fund of the return, and I plan on buying a desk to match the entertainments system, plus possibly a few more boxes to organize, the curtains, and then I will be done and go back to not spending much of anything for months.

They had plenty of other deserts so mine wasn't needed or used at all.

I hate baking when folk don't appreciate it.

I busted my hand so I will post the recipe later

Just remembered 20 minutes ago I was supposed to bake desert for tonight!

So I made some mini maple cakes, and now G is scooping them, J is rolling them, I am trying to remember what else I had to do on the computer

EL is sick, she was sick on Saturday and still is, I hate colds, and I hate when my baby is sick.

On other notes, we are listening to a history online

island story Very interesting way to cover old history, we are only on chapter 5 now.

I found an online community page maker thing Ning. I am exploring it's use as a cub scout page, would be a simple website to remember, and we could let others update photos so it wouldn't all have to be me. I still am researching it, but I just might use it for the pack, and the girl scout troop. Would be nice to have all that info in one place.

Well our return will be a bit bigger than I expected, and we do have responsible things to do with it, beefing up an EF and such. (no debt aside from the house)

But I don't want to be responsible. I want to waste some money. Well not waste, I want to spend some on things for the house and kids.

I want some canvas type 'boxes' to be slid into shelves, one for library books, one for library Cds and movies. oh and one for baby toys, so I can have them easy to reach, but not so messy looking in the living room.

like these

Then I want to get my kids to the library and other places more often, since I don't drive, I am going to have to get others to do it for me, and for that I need to be able to help with gas at least some of the time.

I also want something new in my kitchen windows, not sure what though. I kindof like this roman shade But not sure I am willing to splurge that much on each window.

Though I did see some that had neat prints silk screened on the shades, that I might pay more for, but not the prints I saw. A cute simple scene. Saw a nice one that was mostly black and gray, with a few flowers in yellow, neat simple, enough color to not be drab, drew attention to the flowers, but not gaudy. Since my kitchen is mostly gray and black it would be pretty cool.

But looking at prices, I find it easier said than done. Ah well we shall see.

I believe libraries to be the greatest invention since, umm well greatest ever.

And to show my love, not only do we make frequent use of ours, we also support them monetarily.

By that I mean we pay plenty of library fines!

Every so often I notice it has been months since we paid a fine, been visiting too often turnover of books going to well. So I try to lose a book or two. Not to long, just long enough to accumulate a fine, or have to buy the book.

Then I can say I have done my civic duty and can go back to returning books more frequently, or renewing them at least.

ETA-this is just a joke, I do not intentionally create fines! I am just absent minded, and it sounds better this way. I do not advocate intentionally forgetting/losing books!

Tonight is the first night of our church Lent 'happenings' which is what they call music and classes.

The kids get music class, the adults have options, and all can have dinner for not to terrible of a price (6 adult 3 kid) Much cheaper to do it myself, but then I would have to do it, and eat and be in the car by 5:30, this way I just have to be in the car at 5. And the evening is taken care of.

I figure the extra cost makes up for the free music class, and the kids really seem to enjoy it.

Now if I could get rid of the last 8 boxes of girl scout cookies tonight that would make it all worth while!

Seems we will be getting about double what we expected, which is nice, been planning on an entertainment system for some time, this will be enough to pay for it.

Plus some to the savings, and a bit left over for something splurge-like. Not sure what, but something.

I really do, not only is it a lousy system that ;lags behind other browsers in all the cool features, it is riddles with easy access for viruses.

I am not a careless person, in general I stick to sites unlikely to harbor ill intent, and when down loading I follow reasonable precautions.

But I still get a virus on occasions. Right now I have a virus trying to convince me to run a virus scan..which when checked allows the virus to download other nasty stuff (just cause it looks a good deal like Microsoft doesn't mean it is) I only have to deal with this virus when I work on IE..which I only have to do for scout work. I would really prefer them to reconfigure their website to accept Firefox. but since I gather the website is volunteer run, I don't really get to complain.

But I am anyway aren't I...

This is the song we will be singing for Girl scout Sunday. I found many choirs singing it on youtube, very nice work, but, not helpful for my family to learn.

For one thing I cannot sing a round! I know most folk make fun of me for it, but it is true, I simply cannot handle singing one thing while others sing something different, but then I really don't sing period. I just sort of change what I am singing to follow someone and if I have lots of someones to choose from, I get confused as to what I am supposed to be doing.

Anyway, found a girl hoping to make a big project out of many different voices, has her own voice doing just one 'track' so we are listening to that, and will do so every day to learn the words.

sing for peace
I also found the words here

Now I have JC singing 'donna nobis pachem' in all sorts of different tunes all over the house. She likes to sing, but cannot carry a tune to save her life. (GMC can do the timing, but his notes are..a little off)

My fingers are all busted up from sewing patches on, though I did find this glue that works well to 'sew' patches for things that don't move much, works on the daisy tunic, but not so well on a back pack.

Tonight GMC gets his Wolf badge so I will have to sew that one on too, I am debating on sewing it to his shirt that is too short in the sleeves, or getting him a new shirt and sewing it along with all the other patches anew.

sure would be easier to make up my mind if he were a bear, Webelos have a different shirt, but as wolf he needs to be in blue for another year and couple months.

I completed the scout newsletter (cub) so now I can move on to one of the thousands of other items on my list.

Tomorrow is our Blue and Gold, I have no doubt I will forget any one of the millions of items that need done, but I am trying to keep things straight with a black book.

It even fits in my pocket.

Speaking of my pocket, I now have a ton of photos of scouts, and I do not look very good in any of them.

Apparently I need to work on how I fill the uniform. Wonder how far down the todo list that will fall.

So while hunting around Hulu (free online tv shows) for something to kill time when L refuses to nap in her bed (I do get nighttime off, but she really hates napping)

I stumbled across

nanny and the professor adorable old school show about a nanny and three children. Oh of course it is old and has the stereotypical nanny stays home while professor works (though he works with plenty of women) and the sound effect for her 'magic' is just silly. but it is sweet.

Happy kids, little troubles, and cute. and at the end of a short show I can go back to working. Though I would rather not. I want to hire a housekeeper to do the cooking and cleaning...

I have mentioned before how most baby 'stuff' is really not needed, and today I happened to read a much better article including safety links about

car seats, strollers, baby baths, cribs, and diapers.


She does take 5 different posts to tell you, but that is because of the important information.

my two cents:
Everyone has their own quirks, habits and desires. So if you want a special pillow just for nursing go for it, I want two computers and at least 2 laptops for two adults, and really GMC needs a computer or laptop of his own... I just don't go telling others they HAVE to have the same number of computers (Do you folk really share computers?) Oh and I do have a crib, and bucket seat, but it stays buckled to the car, not a carrier.


If you want more of a laugh try silly baby contraptions

I wish all new mothers caught up in the gotta have it lists could read these kinds of articles. But the advertisers wouldn't make much money on it.

Even though my husband has been willing to use cloth bags on occasion, he still frequently comes home with plastic bags. My least favorite are the ones holding one lonely item..

So while googling something completely different I came across

this site, with instructions to make plarn, or plastic yarn from grocery bags.

With it you can make a pretty valentine bag:


among many other crafts in the blog.

I don't know how easy plarn is to work with, but it would be a cheap way to learn to crochet without having to buy yarn.

Plus on the same sheet is a recycle craft I think I will do with my daughter no crochet needed.



Amazing what you can do with garbage...

Just had to share what made me laugh Ou Loud today (like for real, not just a smile and type LOL, but honest my kids really want to know what is so funny.)

Venn diagram

If it doesn’t show up well in this picture please go read it on think geek!


floor mat:
Also comes in a shirt form. But in my case you wouldn’t be able to read it around the kid perpetually tucked on the hip so I pick doormat.

Perfect timing for me as we are about to head into a month or two of no company. This Friday will be our last games night for the lent season, We need a break and most folk know when Easter is, so we decided to take time off.

I am hoping that we will build an entertainment wall and replace most of our CD and VHS collection. We want to convert completely to DVD and MP3, which takes up so much less space. Really that is my only reason for wanting to switch.

I would like a vacation, but a maid at home would do the trick just as well really.

Oh I don't like all my kids do, and many times, like this morning I wonder why I even try. But then, really would not being here help? I would still have to come back to the same kids.

I hear a lot about retreats, and weekends away from the kids, and I really just don't get it. Not saying anything against it, I don't get football either, but not planning on a national campaign to ban it.

So given a choice of a weekend away from the house (and away from kids) or one at home...I choose home.

Now if I could get home and kids elsewhere, that would like once or twice. Not to often though, I do like spending time with my kids.