Princess Perky's Page

When I think of cloth bags I think of something like a pillow case tied at the top, and truthfully kinda baggy.

like these

Which is, well not right. I like the crisp edges of a paper wrapped gift. I also like the ribbons.

So when I tried to go cloth I searched for some way to appease my desire for boxy presents, and yet not use paper.

The result was I found a pattern for a tote bag that is so easy to make I did 3 in 2 hours, and with tied with a ribbon around it looks nearly like paper wrapped presents. (only better!)

the origional

I took that bag pattern, cut the size down in thirds, and hand sewed em. I did not do a handle or cuff. though I did tuck it inside itself so that the present 'wrapping' would be easier.

I also made one a bit bigger to use most of the fabric scrap I had. And one that was a bit, off in proportion (but it was what I had)

Last night while we were wrapping, I finished up a 4th bag so each kid gets one cloth wrapped gift. I think they will be reusable, just small.

If I knew how to use a machine, I bet I could whip up a dozen in short order they are SOOOO easy. And it would be a great way to use up any old rectangles of fabric that might be around....I might look into borrowing a machine, so long as someone else threads it, I hate that step.

I can't get pictures off my camera right now or I would show you the adorable pile of presents we have.

I love my chocolate fudge recipe, not to sweet, and VERY fudgy you know smooth, not quite creamy, but also not hard. And most importantly to me, not 'chalky' or grainy.

Peanut butter fudge on the other hand I have a problem with, I have tried several recipes tweaking away, yet I cannot come up with one that isn't grainy. And frequently they are more sweet than peanutbuttery. Don't get me wrong I like sugar loaded peanut butter as much as the next person, but I would prefer a proper 'fudgy' peanut butter fudge' so what is the sercret, what makes fudge fudgy?

spending log:
Tuesday: $467
Wednesday: $0
Thursday: $154.08
Friday: $0
Sat-Mon: $0 (well church bucks)
Total= $624.08

See this is why I rarely keep spending logs, they are usually boringly empty.

Though tomorrow I expect a jump, we are going grocery shopping early, since we don't want to do it the day after Christmas.

Last night was my oldest first sleepover. He spent the night not sleeping at a friends, and I spent the night not sleeping here.

He is finally home and I can relax, sure he got some bumps and bruises, cut elbows and knees, but nothing worse.

Next time wont be so hard, it was good for both of us, but oh I missed him. (truthfully the total lack of sleep was Els fault not GMCs)


Spending log:
Tuesday: $467
Wednesday: $0
Thursday: $624.08
Friday: $0
Total= $624.08

Yesterday my husband surprised me with a new big giant flat screen monitor, that was apparently a good deal. He said it wouldn't fit in my stocking, so I got it early. He also spent around half an hour telling me why it was a good deal, I don't remember any of it, but I am glad my husband cares about it.

Spending log:
Tuesday: $467
Wednesday: $0
Thursday:
BJs gas - $34.11
BJS food and monitor - ?? he used cash (poker money)
Food lion - $82.90
Trader Joes - $40.07
Total= $624.08

Lotta money, but not as bad as if I knew what the milk and such cost!

We recieved our free game as a prize for taking tests on

bookadventure.com.

And included was a flyer about a million minute game challenge

I remember reading about this eons ago, but this time the flyer has good timing, the cub scout theme for January is 'Amazing Games'. So I will be asking the scouts if the would like to incorporate the challenge in their meetings.

I think I may also cheat and let the Girl scouts do it too, it will keep us busy for January and then in February we have a Garden Journey to begin.

The spending log:
Tuesday: $467
Wednesday: $0

For the most part I am lazy I do not keep track of every penny, though most are on my bank statement.

But, with other folks being hit up for money, I find my friends asking me how we do this whole one income thing, and why we have no complaints about the recession.

I sat down and figured out how we could cut money from our budget if we needed to, but I also thought that most of the cutting has been done.

So maybe a log of what my family spends would help. (though a log of what we didn't spend would be better, if you don't see it on here, we didn't buy it)

Tuesday:
Dentist $395 (two fillings husband)
Post office $70 (three packages, plus Christmas cards)
Scouts $2 (extra so I could buy the quarters)

total = $467

A rather expensive day for us. Today I expect no money to be spent, but tomorrow will be grocery's so that will be big.

On an unrelated but personal note, GMC is sitting quiet as can be, reading Lemony Snicket 'A Bad Beginning'. A book he turned his nose up at earlier, but after alternating chapters with me for a few days he suddenly has to know what happens to the poor Baudelaire children. Bad news is I can't very well read over his shoulder, so I don't know what happens to poor Sunny stuck up in the cage.

Tomorrow, and no I cannot go to the store.

So we did potatoes, tomorrow I guess we will do pasta.

Looking up that pasta bake someone mentioned.

Only this time I am out of meat, no ground beef left.

But I have to say the shepherds pie went over well enough, and the night was rather nice, they surprised me by being on time, 3:00 on the dot.

They also surprised us by saying they would be back tomorrow.

A Mother in Law to be precise.

And I forgot they were coming when we went shopping last week. (in fact only remembered when they called from an hour away!)

Not only did I not buy any vegetables last week, we had just a few and I forgot and thought, I also didn't buy any company meat, like turkey, roast or ham or steak.

Nope I have some ground beef (less than a pound), and pasta or potatoes (they don't like rice) and corn.

Corn is not really a vegetable, but it will have to do tonight as I have no intentions of serving them lima beans! (they don't like them)

I do have tomato, but to the best of my recollection the other daughter in law (who is a very good cook) always makes either spaghetti or lasagna (wish I could have some, did I mention she is good) so I don't want them to have the same food two nights in a row.

Anyway that leaves me with two options, some kind of pasta and some kind of potatoes...not really sure what.

Did I mention I was out of vegetables?

About the only think I have a large stock of is chocolate to make fudge out of. and while delivery of the annual Christmas fudge is hottly anticipated by friends and such, take a guess as to how my mother in law feels about it...yep, she doesn't like it.

They said they would be here around 3pm, so I expect them by 4:30 or so.

Which gives me 2 hours to figure out what to cook for dinner, and cook it.

The Scouts did such a great job at selling popcorn we had money to spare.

Some we put away just in case next year isn't as awesome, and some we needed to cover awards and program costs.

But the rest we told the boys we could splurge on, so we did some research called some places and let them vote. They chose bowling, I call back to set up the time/date and they tell me the price went up, over a dollar per boy. And they are reducing the package. We would not have put bowling on the list if the price was 10.50, 9.25 we thought we could barely swing. 10.50 doesn't seem like that much of a jump but....$1.25*20 folk is 25 extra, we already thought 9.25 was a bit more than we had to spare.

I was not happy. I called the cubmaster and he said he knew of a few other lanes, so he will call around to find out if he can get us a better price or at least the original package.

Very frustrating, we have our pack show to give out awards and such Saturday, I want to let them know when and where we will bowl ASAP, but the newsletter has to go to be printed tomorrow.

Si looking at the kids clothes a week or two ago, I was thinking GMC was short on non patched pants, JC short on warmer dressy stuff for church, UE short on jeans, and EL short on warm clothing in general (babies need more than adults)

But I never like to pay for clothing if at all possible, so I mentioned my need to gma and contemplated who had the right sizes to pass along.

In just a few short weeks I was given hand me downs to fill every need, except UE's jeans, but really the kid can wear PJ pants most of the time anyway.

It is amazing what happens when you just let folk help you rather than go pay for a fast fix.

My theory on politics just may well be summed up in that phrase.

When I try a new plan for behavior or learning, I am right here to see if it works, make adjustments as needed, or just plain dump the whole thing if it is wrong.

On the other hand if a school system wants to change methods they have to buy TONS of stuff, reeducate tons of folk, and try it on Tons of kids..then they risk looking like fools if wrong, so they generally try not to change anything while you still recall how recently they started.

Multiply that by all the school systems in all of America, and you have a rather large number of folk (geese).

Or look at finances, in my family (and many others) hunkering down and keeping expenses minimal is best..But for folk with more income than debt, keep on spending folk.

I do not need a fancy car nor maid (though I would like the maid!) yet folk with cash to spare, please hire a maid! that is a job for someone, who can then put food on their table!

The debt friendly America in general needs to stop spending, the rich can have a ball at it.

Small scale changes are best made in the family..large scale advertising of generic ideas is fine, but large scale everyone do it the same is a bad idea.

I have to give us some credit, we have been making many changes due to our health, environment, and finance desires.

Not only do we mainly use plastic or glass to store leftovers in (not generally ziplock or saranwrap) we also use paper bags, and often reuse gift bags from year to year. (some bags are a bit of tradition here)

This year I am going to speak to my husband about NOT buying wrapping paper. How about getting a cheap set (or saving some we acquire) of cloth for the angel gifts that are wrapped? And/or using cloth for the 'fancy fudge' (some folk just get foil wrapped...)

And maybe if we acquire a non girly bag he could try to use it for a store or two? It can't hurt to ask right.

I did read of cloth bags for produce..but we rarely use a bag (grapes come in one, bananas don't need one, apples come already in plastic, usually when buying other fruit we only get one and don't need a bag....)

Or cloth for bulk flour...but we don't (yet) buy anything that way.


I am going to look into other places we use plastic and see where else we could cut down... though I am American in putting my garbage in plastic... I wonder what would happen if we put it in paper, would that be better or worse environmentally? paper could be recycled, the plastic isn't very well recycled (usually we use those plastic bags from stores for the garbage)

A bit more thought will have to go into it.

BTW those cloth diapers work ok, not to bad for travel and not to difficult to wash, trouble is, she is sick...so I really don't want to use them.....but I will. Soon as I run out of this sleeve, honest.

Life is all about choices, and what priorities drive those choices. But so often, it isn't our heartfelt priorities driving the choices, it is the priorities of the moment.

I care about recycling and the environment, yet I still do not use cloth bags for groceries. Or even paper all the time. I still use my dryer with abandon, and chemical dishwashing soap, not to mention disposable diapers when I feel like it.

I care about health, yet I just had myself a handful of chocolate, and still haven't managed a healthy breakfast (been up for 4 hours). The closest I have come to working out for over a year is vacuuming.

I care about our finances, yet I just went through and identified ways to reduce the budget...and have no intentions of doing any of them. Even though I know we are not saving enough for retirement.

I care about having a clean house, yet I am sitting here, not folding laundry, mopping, sweeping, washing dishes, or cleaning anything.

I wanted to find a link to a free reading test that I had the kids take last year.

So I searched my blog for it, figured if I thought it was good I might have shared.

Well searching for reading turned up lots of results, some rather interesting, but not the right one.

Then I tried quiz, still no luck, though again some things worth rereading.

I don't recall the next few tries, but they took way to long as I reread some old posts.

I finally found it under [nevermind, lost it] but in the meantime I had a grand old time reading all sorts of old posts and thinking about the past. I guess this is why folk like journals, but this online stuff is way better for folk with lousy hand writing.

I also noticed the better reads were far away, did I write better then, or just being from so long ago made it better?

Boy do I wish there was a way.

I failed to cut and paste into a new email, and forwarded a long back and forth, with the 'show quoted text' I often forget how long emails can be. I have no idea what sort of history is in the former messages, and no way of knowing if the folks I sent it to will read it or not.

I could go look at what is in it of course, but I am not sure if it is better to pray they don't read below the signature unknowing, or start finding out just how much trouble I could be in.

The worst part is letting others have my friends email address.

I feel terrible and I don't know how to fix it.

Why can't there be a unsend button? like the timer on the edit buttons here? since the email sits in servers for a time anyway, why not an hour delay or something?

I suppose asking my email to be idiot proof is a bit much.

I had just settled EL in for a nap, when the doorbell rang, now I like packages as much as the next person, but not at naptime!

Even a few minutes later and she would be properly settled, not in that half awake kinda asleep checking to see if all is well in the world phase.

Sigh, and on a Tuesday to boot, we have scouts, I need to get work done, plus dinner and all before we leave, could the timing be any worse?

I read the SA article about the

Holidays with financial halfwits

And I have to say I can relate, but not totally. Most of our differences revolve around parenting issues. Which means no one asks us for anything.

But they do tell us their troubles, or at least used to.

You see we are weird, we breastfeed, I don't work, we homeschool, eat whole wheat, lots of fruit/veggies, frugal, libertarian, and a pair of loners.

The last is why we don't mind telling folk what we think.

recent conversation:

1. Them: Your kids are doing schoolwork on Saturday?

Us: Are we supposed to ban them from learning on particular days?

2. Them: Don't you have school today?

Us: Every day, which is why we are here learning about the bank/store/garage/whatever.

3. Them: How can you afford that?
Us: We make our sacrifices other places.

4. Them: You paid how much for a loaf of bread?
Us: we feel the whole wheat is healthier.

5. Them: Don't you get babysitters?
Us: rarely, but the kids are in bed by 9pm so we have plenty of married together time.

If we can boil our opinion into one simple sentence we prolly will use it on anyone who gives us their opinion. If not, a simple 'Oh' is given.

I used to explain my point of view in detail. Which is prolly why my husbands family doesn't like me.

Now I try hard not to get into any discussions... even about homeschooling. When I do fail, I usually regret it.

Folks who know me, know I dislike shopping in general, and wouldn't dream of shopping on Black Friday.

I have often mentioned how ridiculous it sounds to get up early to fight crowds for yet another thing to add to the pile of stuff already cluttering up the house..or did before I was told it was tactless.

Anyway, this year was different, I got up..well not really too early, ate breakfast and then went shopping. I didn't even stop to take off my Pajamas! (don't get excited, cold house, I sleep in sweats)

OR rather my husband did the shopping and I made him put half of it back...from the living room floor.

It seems that some websites had 'black Friday' deals. Ones you could take advantage of from the comfort of your own home!

When we bought the fridge we got a card for the store to use on it, because it offered some sort of deal. Dunno what sorry, not the memory in the family, but suffice it to say it worked out cheaper.

When we received confirmation that we were approved the gal said something like "umm so you are approved with a 10 thousand credit limit, but you don't have to use it all, don't go crazy or anything, we aren't trying to add to anyone's debt."*

Now as a family with cash in the bank to buy the freezer, and then some I could be offended, but truth is I thought it was sweet. Sure she lumped me in with most of America assuming I debt, but she meant well. No need to get mad at her.

If I hadn't been busy corralling all the kids I might have mentioned our financial state.

For one thing that is like the lowest limit we have on a card, we have enough credit cards to buy a house..in CA or NJ. No need to worry a high limit will send us on a spree, those thing expect you to pay them back...with interest!

Well we did it we have a new fridge, spent a bit more than I wanted, and boy do I hope my memory is correct that freezers on the bottom are better?

I already love not having to lean all the way down to the floor for my favorite item..chocolate.

I could do without the ice maker, but apparently it is standard these days.

Now on to figuring out how to fill it back up, when husband is at work, and we have scouts tonight...I hope the regular stores are open regular ours tomorrow.

Might put a damper on baking but thankfully I only signed up for fudge and pumpkin pie...I can do the fudge, and if I must skip the pie...need an egg I think.

Well we returned home from PA to find the fridge is busted, all the stuff in it ruined, and a puddle on the floor.

Not a happy return, but it was a good trip.

At least we made it in one piece anyway.

I realized wile there how much I need my kid free time.

UE had major trouble falling asleep the first night (he doesn't like nights and strange places make it worse) so I sat up with him, online, but still not free to do as I liked. As I finally fell asleep (I think before him) I realized how much I need that evening to myself, normally all the kids are asleep by 9 or at worst 10 (El stays up later than the other 3) and I have one or two hours to be 'free' or quietly free anyway.

All that nightly time ads up to why my husband and I don't really have a major urge to get babysitters to often.

In fact the last time we had one was while UE still didn't sleep (seriously for like 2 years the boy didn't sleep) poor babysitter was surprised when I told her I don't care if he is up when we get home, so long as he isn't screaming. That was over a year ago.

Not that I wouldn't mind being able to do more, but no not much. I am getting a babysitter so we can go to the dentist without kids next month.... yeah some kid free time and I am using it to go to the dentist!

-My kids do 'worksheets' in all sorts of places so we have a few clipboards, one is the old kind with the big silver 'clip'. And GMC thought it was loads of fun to tilt it up and down and goof off while he should have been working on writing.

So why is this a good part of my day? because learning about

'fun house' effects is more useful than knowing how to write neatly in today's computer world, besides it made us smile.

-I do let my kids in on mathematical shortcuts, but they don't always remember them. Today the whole simple fast way to multiply by 100 was forgotten by GMC for some reason.

So I told him to multiply the old fashioned way (write it down) Of course you aught to know, no one in the house likes to write things down, his math is always a problem number beside a final answer, with the occasional barely legible scratch work somewhere else on the paper.


I said "multiply by 1"

him-6.2 but..." more whining

Me- "now multiply by 10, write it down
10
* 6.2 (stacked)

and do the work"

him- ....62..

Me- "OK now "

Him interrupting- "Never mind I can do it now."

I keep hearing "I don't have patience to homeschool". Which is the funniest thing, I have no patience yet I homeschool!

Maybe I should let you all in on the big secret...my day isn't all cooperative kids or ingenious ways to get them to cooperate.

In fact this whole week my daughter has been a royal PIA. Seriously, between forgetting how to write double digit numbers (81 and 18 are not the same) and ignoring work entirely, I am not sure one productive activity has occurred without punishment in days!

Right now I am escaping dealing with her sitting on the floor talking instead of sweeping. My first response would be yell, then punish, along with a lot more yelling. I have no patience for this sort of thing, I figure the simple concept work first then play aught to do the trick, but nope we have to have a battle over cleaning up the food she dropped. (and that is why I am online ignoring it till I work up the strength to speak with her sans yelling)

But, 'this too shall pass'. Last week GMC was the one not working. Kids take turns so far as I can tell. Not that GMC isn't driving me batty right now, he seems to have forgotten how to divide this week. Something he has been doing for eons.

Again 'this too shall pass'. He learned then forgot then relearned how to subtract with borrowing (I was so surprised at how easily his sister picked that one up!)

And UE simply will not memorize his alphabet...I know he is young yet, but really after all this time, I am a bit bored repeating it! Not to mention he STILL pees when asleep (nap or night).

I think 'this too shall pass', I know it took JC forever to learn her alphabet (they all knew the letters long before the order) On the PTing.... well I have heard some boys bladders take awhile o mature?

Little El, on the other hand is adorably content, patient, and gives me a perfect excuse not to yell, mainly that she is nursing right now . Unfortunately....'this too shall pass'!

So please don't tell me you have no patience, all parents have enough, relax, type a blog post or something, then go back to the repetitive life that is the job of raising kids.

"This too shall pass.....I hope"

Either our utilities are cheap, or we are good at conserving.

My electric only rises to $100 in August (major AC use that month), and my gas only $100 in January (Maybe a rare February).

This is with lousy attention to shower lengths (truthfully that is the one splurge I would hate to cut) and multiple computers on for many hours a day.

Yet I often see gas and electric averages of 100, or much higher.

We do have high tolerance for high/low temperatures (might be keeping us trim..

again bad language

And we 'power strip' most big items to keep down the 'phantom' power use.

Plus we have mostly CFL lights. which we are fairly good about only using wen needed.

But other than that we are pretty normal. using dryer, dishwasher, and other electronics to our hearts content.

I have this very old shirt, blue button down, soft fake denim.

I also have a red flannel given to me by my brother.

The blue one has holes in the sleeves so the cuffs are nearly a separate item, plus holes by the pocket so I had to button the pocket flap to the collar to keep it sorta up, and a few other holes to boot.

The flannel had a huge rip up the back rendering it into two separate sleeves, not worth wearing.

So I took the two and started stitching the flannel to the blue one...why on earth I would rescue this shirt when I really can afford a new one (and/or new to me) is...well because I can.

Or rather because I wanted to know if I could.

Can't very well knock something until you try it right?

So far the shirt is half fixed, and yes I think I can do it. I only hand sew, machines bring out the worst in me, by hand is a bit soothing, so I had a relaxing evening fixing some fond memories...but I sure will get some funny looks if I ever wear it out of the house.

I wonder just how much I save over the years repairing things rather than buying new...I have patched pants, 3 pair for GMC this year alone, and pillows, and bedspreads. I don't have a clue how to do socks though, that certainly would have saved me money, GMC is terrible with holes in socks. Should I add up the cost of new pants or goodwill price? just how much is a pair of pants anyway? Most all of our kids items come as gifts or hand me downs, I really don't know the cost of dressing a kid.

Rather fortunate that way. I actually usually have more clothes for the kids than dresser space...the only trouble is all boys tend to wear holes in their pants .

The kids heard of "Miss Mary Mack" and wanted to know how to 'play'

Seeing as how I never played I had to turn to the wonderful internet for help.

dltk Mary Mack

Now we have a pattern and the words, kids killed an hour practicing, and I forever have Mack Mack Mack burned in my skull.

Fortunately research shows rhythm is good for babies, so we have a new way for the other kids to keep El happy while I work.

Maybe I am wrong, but I have great difficulty stopping my kid from reading.

Last night while preparing for company I was grabbing a few last minute things out of the living room, I turned to GMC...and just couldn't interrupt his book over a piece of paper.

I put the paper in the recycling myself. Sure fire way to get out of helping mom...be engrossed in a book!

Then later noticed some clothes of his and did have him put those away...only to watch him read while he walked. Just like I used to do.

While surfing and wasting my time today, I came across an ad for some hotel or another.

"It's your turn to host the holiday events"

Then the words were covered with photos of cranky folk you prolly don't want in your house.

Now I know relatives can be difficult but are they that bad? isn't it a good idea to deal with them once or twice a year to remind you how lucky you are to have escaped?

actually there might be some science behind why you need some disagreeable folk in your life...

language is terrible, but message true

I have heard folk think it is safer to have two incomes, but financially I feel better with one.

We have friends with two incomes, both are having their hours cut, rather stressful. Having one income be reduced is stressful enough but two at once?

My one income household can't have that problem, cutting my zero income is impossible .

But if my husband were to lose hours I can go get a job..no not a great job, but I am certain I could get 'grunt' work. Child care and fast food both have high turnover, and are always looking for folk to work.

Aside from the fact that we don't use all of our income for living, we don't even use all of our earning power. Which is why this economy doesn't really bother us much.

Some might argue that earning power could have been making money all this time to store away in case of his job loss. (in the mattress I guess since stocks are so terrible .) But remember what I do with my skills all day is 80% for the kids (and 20% wasted here online!) Not all decisions are purely financial.

This does not mean folk who like to work should quit, Whatever floats your boat folks.

"Make $1000 a day, free software, CC required"

Why would you need a CC if it is free?

The gullibility of some rare folks leave ridiculous ads like this one.