Internet Dangers

I have truly enjoyed having my blog and being able to keep in touch with so many loved ones. But, it is easy to forget that the things we write are here for all to see. I sometimes get caught up in someones blog and I'm not as careful as I should be about the information I give in my comment. This is an innocent mistake and we all make it from time to time. But, I've heard so many stories about strangers being able to track people down by the information they find on the Internet that I just wanted to remind us how careful we should be.

Here are a few things to think about:

• Be as vague as possible about where people live. I live in Oregon.
• I think we should follow suit with whoever's blog we are on. For instance, if the blogger hasn't mentioned their children's names we shouldn't either in our comments.
• We are a tight knit group and sometimes we know when people will be on a trip. I think we should be careful not to mention when someone will be away from home, unless they mention it first.
• We should also be careful about naming and giving out information about people who are not blogging.
• I think we should leave last names off of comments and posts.

I am going to try to be more careful in the future. I am also going to go back through my blog and delete some old comments and posts that give a little more info than I want out here for all to see. I truly love getting comments, so please keep commenting, let's just all be a little more careful.

Tis the season for tax returns. This is the first year we will be getting a refund in many years, plus this year we will all be getting a little kicker in May. The point of the "kicker" is to boost the economy. The government wants us to spend our tax money to get the economy back on track.

I have read conflicting information on this theory. Some say that saving more money is the way to a better economy because we will be more finacially secure if we save the money or use it to pay off debt. Others say if everyone saves their money and no one spends, or buys anything then we will be in trouble. I am curious as to what your opinions are and what you plan to do with your tax money.

Here's our list of priorities:

1-new tires for both vehicles
2-pay off truck
3-new or used lawnmower
4-new livingroom furniture (ours is 14 years old and falling apart!)

The furniture may not happen, but hopefully we can at least save some towards it.

Tightwad tip of the day: Drink more water, it's CHEAP!

The joys in the life of a listmaker

Howdy ladies! Today I want to share with you a few of the tips I have gleaned from my wonderful new tightwad gazette.

1. Make a home made cream soup instead of buying cream of chicken, mushroom, ect.:
2 Tbs butter or oil
2 Tbs vegetable (celery, mushroom, onion, ect)
2 Tbs flour
1 cup milk (she uses dry milk, I use soy)
1/2 tsp chick bouillon

saute veg. in butter or oil. Add flour. Mix well. Add milk and bouillon. Let thicken then salt and pepper to taste. This is very quick and easy, not to mention tasty. I just add it to chicken and steamed rice. Yum!

2. To keep your sos pad from rusting, put it in a baggie in the freezer. It is usable for weeks like this, instead of just a day or two before your sink has a nasty rust stain!

3.-This one cracks me up, but I have done it!- Smash your toilet paper roll before you put it on the holder. It spins around easily a few times then stops. This is supposed to keep kids from having to much fun unrolling the toilet paper!

Okay these are some of my favorites so far, but I will keep you updated when I come across more good stuff!

Some of the goals when I started this blog was to be able to share recipes and helpful hints, I have gotten sidetrack from time to time (hopefully it's been entertaining!) but I want to keep my focus on these "little things" that bring me joy. I must make a confession though, today I was headed for the grocery store when I suddenly remembered, I hadn't made a list! Panic!!! I breathed in and out slowly. I stopped the car right where I was (my driveway), I had to make a list before I got to the store, I mean, I might forget something!! Amazingly, I didn't have to go back inside to scan cabinets, I was able to recall the 6 items I needed. Maybe I could be done with list making all together! No, no. Then I would have to change my blog name. Who wants to go to all that work. Besides lists are some of those"little things" that bring me joy.

Catching Up

Wow! It has been so long since my last blog! I thought I would update all of you on the goings on at our place.

We had flu in the house last week. That is some terrible stuff going around. I have managed to elude it so far. I have become very aquainted with the lysol spray and disinfectant wipes. Everyone is doing better, so I hope it's gone for good.

I have been getting the quilting bug. I put my Olympia border quilt back in the frames and I have a great place to keep it set up, but it is not in the way. I can just go over and quilt on it anytime I have a few spare minutes.

I am also piecing a baby quilt. It is spread all over the diningroom table and floor. I worked on it exclusively all day yesterday, and was amazed how the house stayed clean. Today I haven't had any motivation for it. I just left everything laying right where it was and complained loudly if it looked like someone had stepped on it or moved anything. There are some small joys to living in a house with no little ones to get into things.

Dale has been doing some wood working projects with the few days off he had this week. He is building a bench to put at the foot of our bed. I am excited for him to get it done. It's going to be so cute. He is also building bookshelves and 2 night stand/shelves I saw in better home and garden. I feel very blessed not only to have a trim carpenter for a husband, but one who is willing and eager to please me. I love him!

This week, so far,we (Andy) have finally been able to hit the books and make up for lost time. There hasn't been much time for school since before christmas. I have set up a "schedule" but I have to really work to keep him on it. I have been sticking to my guns though, I want this school stuff done! Andy does too, he just doesn't want to do it. He is much more interested in finding a job. We have been out the last 2 afternoons. He has turned in several applications, hopefully something will pan out. After a job comes his license, so this makes finding work that much more important.

And my final thought for todays blog...

For about 3 years I have been asking for the tightwad gazette for christmas. This year in our family everyone picked out their own christmas gifts, so guess what I got!? I have been reading it almost everyday. I found an interesting recipe in it for home made hot chocolate. Here it is:

Hot Chocolate
8 oz hot milk
1 tsp baking cocoa
1 tsp sugar

The recipe actually calls for dry milk, but I used soy milk and 1/2 tsp more sugar (I love it sweeet!) I was amazed at how good this hot cocoa was. It is easy and cheap. Why buy hot chocolate mix??

A week away

Sunday we will be heading back to Washington for about a week. Dale has some work to do there and as work here is slow, this seems the perfect time. I am excited to visit family and friends. We will be able to make more definite Christmas plans ( We are having an Italian feast at my house, I am soooo excited!), take walks (Gale :), and just relax and enjoy each other.

There's only one real problem: Schoolwork! It must be done and I have been doing a lot more overseeing here of late. I thought about cutting back for the trip, but honestly if I cut back every time something comes up, we would never be doing schoolwork. We have been enjoying math ever since we started geometry, so that won't be a problem. So sorry for those of you still in Algebra, every time I think back to it, my eyes start to cross from the brain strain! The schoolwork will definitely cut into my time away, but it must be done! Hopefully we can get started early and then have the afternoon for visiting. If the other homeschooler's will cooperate with this system and NOT do anything crazy like call off school because Andy is in town, (hint, hint) things should work out well.

Check back with everyone next week!

My profile

I was editing my profile today and when I got to the favorite movies entry, I tried to think about a few more movies that would fall into this category. The first things that came to my mind are Aladin and the Lion king. I refused to list them, feeling some how immature for choosing them as my favorites. As I sat there trying to come up with better answers, I remembered the many, many times I have seen each of these classics.

Andy was totally crazy over Aladin. About 10 minutes before the end of the movie he would say over and over again how he wanted to watch Aladin. As the end drew nearer and nearer, he would get a little more frantic, being afraid that we would let the movie be over (He was 2). So, needless to say we watched Aladin all day long, day after day. You would think that after all that I would hate the movie, but that was a long time ago and I have a soft spot in my heart for the little guy. In fact I have been know to break out, at any given time in, "A whole new world."

The Lion King is the first movie we took Andy to the theater to see. We ended up owning it, and putting it on in the mornings allowed me a little extra sleep. I just love simba, and again, the music just stayed with me. "I'm gonna be a mighty king, so enemies beware!..."

I have decided that I am not to proud to admit that these wonderful children's movies are definitely some of my favorites, and even top my own childhood favorite, Sleeping beauty. I hope the rest of you can still enjoy a fun kids movie once in a while!

Thanksgiving

This thanksgiving is going to be little different than usual. This is the first time we are hosting it and I am so excited. We have Randy and Cheri coming in from Colorado just for the thanksgiving weekend. Bill will also be heading over on Wednesday night in time for church hopefully and stay the weekend. I can't wait for everyone to get here!

With the thought of thanksgiving, I have decided to list a few of the things I am sooo thankful for. I'm sure everyone out here is doing the same, Tis the season to be thankful!

I am thankful for:

-My wonderful husband and what God has given us. I remember so often back 15 years ago when he was so sick. I thought he was going to die. I tried to prepare myself and plan what I would do, but God had a different plan and I am so thankful that I have him with me each day.

-My son. God is so merciful!

-My parents and the examples they have been to me. I lean on those things so many times, even though they are far away.

-My in-laws. I am so blessed. I couldn't have dreamed of a better family. I thank God so often that he brought them into my life. They are a huge encouragement to me!

-My dear friends. God knows how each one touches me. Again I am so thankful he has brought them into my life. I can't imagine it without them!

-The Brethren. The "family" of God. It is so beautiful to be a part of it!

-My wonderful little nieces and nephews. They mean so much to me.

-My son's close friends who have become like son's to me. I truly love them.

Okay, I could go on all day, and maybe I will, but not on here. I want to try to be more thankful more of the time, not just during the "season." I hope everyone has a great time coming up with their "thankful" list!

On my own

Andy has been staying at best bud Isaiah's this week. I have a list (surprise ,surprise) of a few things that I wanted to get done while he was gone. Andy is pretty independent about getting his school work done. I don't usually get involved to much, so I didn't see having much more time than normal to get my list done. Wrong! I can't believe all I have been able to accomplish with only me here. I have all day and there is no one to talk to or to distract me from my goals.

It's amazing! I have also noticed a cleaner house. Andy is pretty good to pick up after himself (when reminded of coarse) but I have a lot less dirty dishes and laundry with him gone. Also, the Calvin and Hobbs books haven't been cluttering my kitchen table everyday! I thought that the books just magically flew off of the shelf everyday! (sometimes multiple times a day) Now I know who the culprit is!

I have also been working on getting myself around earlier. Normally I will try to clean the kitchen or do laundry first, only to find myself still cleaning the house at noon, in my robe. I have made huge efforts to rectify this problem. Yesterday I was dressed before 7 (am of coarse) and this morning I had exercised, showered and dressed by 9. I am hoping to continue this success when Andy returns. That could be a problem since getting him to take less than a 30 minute shower is nigh on to impossible, but if I get my HOT shower first, maybe he won't take so long. (hee, hee)

As I enjoy this week of accomplishments, I can't help but look into the future and think that this is how it will be in just a few short years. It takes away the joy of my peaceful, accomplished week. So, to those of you who are envying me my time alone, give your babies a big hug and a kiss, and enjoy them while you have them!

Complain, complain, complain

I feel like all I ever do is complain, and today is no different. Most of you know that I like to tackle my grocery shopping all in one day every month. I have a brand spanking new, huge walmart just minutes away, so I thought that would make the day even easier. WRONG!!

Many times in the past I have gone into walmart only to find that they are out of stock on 3 or 4 items on my list. My new walmart has carried on with that tradition and went even further. There are many bare shelves and in some areas it is plain to see that they have spread one item out along the shelf to make it look like they have more stock than they actually do.

Today I went in to get my snow tires put on while I shopped. It was supposed to take 1 hour. No big deal, I would browse for a while and then get my list of things. The list was considerably smaller than it used to be because of my previous experiences of them being out of this or that. Even though my list was only 5-6 items, they were still out of stock on 2 of them. Then to make matters worse, the car took 2 hours instead of 1! I am furious with them!

I want to boycott walmart. I am comparing prices at other stores and amazingly Walmart isn't as cheap as I thought they were!

A New Post!!

Yes we successfully moved to Redmond. Blah, Blah, Blah... I am so done with the whole moving discussion so I am not going to be blogging about it for now anyway.

Moving on...
I just got back home from Oklahoma. I had a wonderful time and feel like the Lord has perfect timing. I was able to sit in some very encouraging meetings. I enjoyed seeing my family and spending time with them, it's never enough time.

I am VERY glad to be home and getting things back in order.

Sorry so short, sad today, not in the blogging mode.