Hanging Laundry And Airing My Thoughts
My daughter, Anna Maria, is a lover of the earth and has encouraged me to take better care of my corner of the planet. A few years ago she was talking about hanging a clothes line and drying her clothes outside. I decided to surprise her and order one from the internet and send it to her. While I was pricing the different styles, I saw one that was perfect! The best way to describe it’s structure to someone is to tell them to picture an umbrella turned inside out from a severe wind storm. It was big enough to hold a few loads and best of all, it was portable.
Now, I grew up with a gas dryer. I remember a neighbor having a clothes line and when it rained, my mom let her use our dryer. The closest I ever came to line drying clothes was in a hotel room. (And does a pair of panty hose and underwear count?) [Read the rest of this entry...]
I was room mom for my daughter’s class for 3 years and had a wonderful time celebrating all the usual holidays and took advantage of some overlooked holidays. When my daughter went on to 6th grade, I was ready to put on my room mom apron and kick off the school year. I was shocked and yes, I must admit, little hurt, when she asked that I take a back seat this year. I think she wanted to spread her wings at her new school and having a mom everyone knew would certainly cramp her style!
My husband and I are fans of talk show host and money guru, Dave Ramsey. In fact, he is the at the source of most of my blogs about budgeting and finances. One tool Dave employs in the use of “money envelopes”. My husband and I have incorporated these tools into our budget and have achieved success and have come to rely on our envelopes daily.
As a mother of three children, I am so disheartened about the trend in Hollywood and in reality shows featuring moms raising children with cameras capturing every move. Specifically, I am referring to Kris Jenner, Kate Gosslin, Deana Lohan, and all of the Real Housewives of Orange County.
I subscribed to the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover program a few days ago and am anxious to track and report my journey to financial fitness. I have read both of Ramsey’s books and found them to be very helpful. Ramsey has a “7 Baby Step Program” to achieve financial freedom. He has quotable gems of wisdom that make one rethink how money should be spent. “Live like no one else, so you can LIVE like no one else!”; has been the mantra of fans of Dave Ramsey. He also refers to many of the items we buy as “stuffits”, stuff we don’t need that only clutters our lives and homes and empties our bank accounts. After reading both of his best sellers, I tried my hand at Baby Step One, which is to save $1000.00 dollars and keep it liquid in a bank account or physically in your home. The reasoning behind this is that most expenses on our credit cards come form emergencies which are usually more than $300 but less than $1000. If you use cash, you avoid using your credit card which will cost you the added interest charge and let’s face it, who pays off their credit card balance every month? If there is an emergency that would require you to pull out your credit card, you use the cash instead. Then you restock your emergency fund to $1000 and go ahead or resume pursuing Baby Step 2.
First, let me say something about cooking: Everyone can cook! I often hear women say, “I just can’t cook!”. What I hear is, “I WON’T cook”. Well, it’s time to suck it up people! The recession is at our door and we can no longer sneak past it on the way to the restaurant. Also, ANYONE can cook! If you can read, you can cook! There is so much help and support for you! There are old fashioned cook books to new media websites to find easy recipes. You can even go a more traditional route and call your mom, grandma or auntie! I find the web a terrific way to find new recipes that are easy to follow! The 
Kate Gosslin deserved to be left by Jon. I called this years ago. As I saw the show unfold, I was amazed to see the treatment of her husband becoming worse and worse. She controls and demeans him on EVERY show. She overrides any decision he tried to make. If he puts the kids into time out, not only does she take them out, she tells the children he is mean. She makes fun of his weight and his hair loss. She is down right bitchy! “Oh, but she has to be controlling to handle all those kids!” I hear mothers lament. I was a kindergarten teacher and for 7 hours a day, I could control 30 kids without being a jerk!
“Michael Jackson died”….the text message read on my cell phone. It was sent by my friend Linda. Linda was a huge fan of Michael Jackson so I am sure it was all she could do before she turned on the tv for the news. CNN still was not reporting that he was dead; it was unconfirmed. Still, the news was shocking and today, the morning after, it is still difficult to believe. As I see the photo with the dates under it, it is still a stark realization.
Sarah Palin and Todd took issue with jokes David Letterman told about their daughter. A few nights later, David Letterman clarified his jokes. He thought he was making a joke about Bristol, the adult daughter and not the 14 year old. Now there are discussions going on as to whether or not the jokes were tasteless, offensive, or even fair game. My 11 year old and I had a lively conversation about it and I was very impressed with the position she took and how she defended it. But, that is not what I want to blog about. There is a bigger issue for me here.
So we started the home schooling and there have been some wonderful moments. I am working with, Mrs. Lloyd, a lovely and patient teacher at our local public school. At first, I was hell bent and rigid to get my hours in and followed a lesson plan to the “T”! It was efficient and I found that we accomplished all the lessons in a matter of a few hours. Then, with Mrs Lloyd’s encouragement, I started to relax and enjoy the lessons and looked for creative ways to extend the lessons. There was less and less paper work to turn in to Mrs. Lloyd and more and more to talk about!
First, to those of you who read my blog daily, thank you! I appreciate your stopping by! I have not blogged in almost a month and it is because my husband, our daughter and I made a very important and life changing decision.
Here’s one of my favorites, in fact, I am making this later today for my daughter and her babysitter! I’ll have just enough for leftovers for hubby’s lunch.