Starting off again

Wow, it HAS been awhile since I bothered to do anything blog related. Such is the vacuum of the holiday season. Too much to do in too short of a time. Not to mention I just find myself placing more and more on my plate schedule wise. Oh let’s get real, I do that with food too. I had been doing good with my diet before the holidays hit. I think eggnog is the nectar of satan. It is time to get back with the program Theresa.

We’ve got about a week before Erin is back!!! I cannot wait. Unfortunately she will be coming back to some difficult issues. Her mother-in-law suffered a stroke two days ago. It is still uncertain as to what is going to happen. Jerry is flying home to be with his mother at Erin’s insistence. He was so torn between being there for his mother and being home when Erin got back from Iraq. Poor sweet man. I’m glad Erin convinced him to get to his mama.

So, lets see what is on my mind lately. Well, to start, I hate the amount of money that flowed out of our accounts during Christmas. We have a budget but time and time again we go over it at Christmas time. It boils down to our weakness. The only thing we can do about it is building up stronger discipline. And this year it is especially glaring given that we are one of those statistical families who have already lost half of our retirement savings to this struggling economy. I keep hearing that I shouldn’t worry because it will bounce back. My concern is when and at what cost. At our age the bounce back is a bit more difficult. I know, I know….suck it up.

I have been finding ways to save a penny though. Yesterday is a perfect example. We were in need of king size pillow cases. Well when we got rid of the fullsize bed this past summer we had all these sheets left from it. Yep, I sewed us up some new pillow cases. Even Bob says they look perfect. So, 20 minutes of work saved us not only the price of new cases but the gas and time to purchase them. While I had the machine out I recovered some of our pot holders in the kitchen that were looking pretty nasty. Wha-laa. What is the saying…”make do, use it up or do without.”
I would like to plant vegetables this year instead of flowers. I don’t care if it would make us stick out like sore thumbs in the subdivision…it is far more practical. Who knows…maybe we’ll start a trend in the neighborhood. I know I’ll never have the kind of garden here that I had back in Wisconsin but at least we could have a salad garden. Not only does it help economically, but environmentally AND emotionally. There is something therapeutic about growing something that ends up on your table. A real sense of satisfaction. To feel productive.

We have Office 2007 on our computer now. It is actually hilarious to be sitting here typing. I write like I speak….fragmented and smacking of my hick upbringing. Well that gives grammar check fits. LOL I don’t worry about it. If I were to correct all such things I wouldn’t be sharing what is honest and immediate on my mind.

I’m fighting some weird symptoms again. I really do not want to go to the doctor. I am so sick of all the tests. So instead I have been trying to make adjustments in my eating, activities and so forth hoping to find some sort of magic mix that brings me back to center. One thing that is helping is I have walked away from the Wii. They have all those warnings about people with seizure disorders to be wary of the system and I ignored it. Well I never did it on a regular basis so it really didn’t affect me. Well, once Mario Kart came into the house and my addiction to that game started my symptoms spiked. So, no more competition on the Wii. Sad. I will play an occasional game of Tiger Woods golf with my hubby though. Oh, and bowling.
Anyway, I will continue to see what changes help and go with that. If it goes on too much longer then of course I will have to surrender to the fact that I’ll be in for more tests. ARGH! Not good considering our insurance has changed and the coverage is not as good.

Back to frugal stuff. Bob and I did start something new this year. No more gift giving for anniversaries, birthdays, Valentines and so forth. Instead we are setting aside the money we would have spent on something and using it for something substantial later on. What that will be we will decide later. But some ideas have been things such as new furniture or a vacation. This makes FAR more sense than buying stuff just because you are “supposed” to for any given occasion. We are both loving this. So far our anniversary money has been placed in the account. Next up is Valentines. This is great.

Well the fire is going good in the stove now and it is time for breakfast. Hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow.
Hugs to all!!!