I know that this blog has been about living simpler and that sometimes it tailspins into just stories about my everyday life... Now, more than ever, we have to live simpler. The loan we got from Tad's parents is run out and we are truly living on my income alone... Every two weeks, I pay the bills and then we have enough to spare to buy groceries (thank you Woodmans and Aldi for helping me stick to my $75 a week budget!) and gas up both cars. That's it. So today, I need an oil change.. and what are we going to do? Charge it. Oh well.
But I'll tell you what. I am lucky to work for an organization that sends me to cool conferences. And this afternoon I am leaving for the Kalahari indoor water park hotel in Wisconsin Dells. And I'm bringing my family with me. Coen and Tad will miss a few days of school, but that is okay. Tad spent 10 hours on Saturday getting caught up and then ahead on his homework. Coen will bring along his readers and do his daily reading in the hotel room. And well...Lucy's just going to skip a few days of daycare, saving us cash!
So the four of us will drive to the Dells this afternoon and spend time togehter. No rushing anyone in to coats and snowpants. No one will be going anyplace they dont' want to go. We'll be together. Either playing in the waterpark or sitting by the fireplace in our room. And I can not wait to reconnect with my family and rid us of the winter blues~!
I will not be blogging for those four days, dear readers. But enjoy the sun! And I'll enjoy the florescent Kalahari waterpark lighting. And my family. And when I return, I'll reconnnect with my blog and try to share some more money saving tips and recipes!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Schmalentines
When I was in my twenties and still looking for love (and getting discouraged often) I started making Schmalentines. What are Schmalentines, you might ask? They are the anti-valentine. They can be as disgusting, vulgar, cynical as you want and they are lots of fun to make.
This year, I got busy making homemade valentines for my son to take to school and my daughter to take to daycare. Of course, after all my labors, my son likes them so much.. (they were made out of dragon pictures he had drawn and pasted on to colorful paper...) he wants to keep five. So now i have to spend Sunday night make five extra valentines so he has enough to bring. Jeeeeez! Of course, Tad gently reminded me as I grumbled as I pasted and cut that I made it my job to MAKE valentines, when we could have just bought some...and furthermore if Coen wants homemade valentines, he would make them himself... He was right, that jerk! But oooh do I love him!
All of this led me to say...as I did, years ago: Valentines Schmalentines! Here are a few for your perusal. Happy Schmalentines!
This year, I got busy making homemade valentines for my son to take to school and my daughter to take to daycare. Of course, after all my labors, my son likes them so much.. (they were made out of dragon pictures he had drawn and pasted on to colorful paper...) he wants to keep five. So now i have to spend Sunday night make five extra valentines so he has enough to bring. Jeeeeez! Of course, Tad gently reminded me as I grumbled as I pasted and cut that I made it my job to MAKE valentines, when we could have just bought some...and furthermore if Coen wants homemade valentines, he would make them himself... He was right, that jerk! But oooh do I love him!
All of this led me to say...as I did, years ago: Valentines Schmalentines! Here are a few for your perusal. Happy Schmalentines!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Whatta week!
Well...just to update you, I did not buy Willie Nelson tickets. Now I'd like to tell you that this is because I am so full of self-control, however, this is not the case. I began typing up emails to parents asking for different babysitting dates, including the night of the Willie concert, when I saw that I actually have to WORK that night. So I've been saved by my own schedule. Here's hoping he comes next year!
That was the beginning of the week. My in-laws came home on Sunday from Florida to watch the super bowl with us and planned a stand-by flight back on Tuesday morning. On Monday morning, Lucy's daycare provider called us to say she was ill and unavailable that day. Panic! But lucky for us, Tad's parents were still in town and they gladly took Lucy for the day. Tuesday Lucy goes to my parents so that was covered... But on Wednesday we got another call and found that we would be without Lucy's usual daycare for the rest of the week! Now, Tad absolutely cannot skip any school and I had classes, presentations, meetings and appointments ALL week! Normally I can take Lucy to the office with me and she does really well, but this was my week:
Monday: Meetings all over the city at several MPS entities
Tuesday: Meeting with Milwaukee County, Meeting with a Transition Advisory Board, Meeting at a high school
Wednesday: Legislative visit day in Madison all day, meeting with legislators
Thursday: Four classes at Morse Marshall school
Friday: Support group at St. Charles Alternative school, Sex ed talk presentation
Not exactly a group of events one can take a three-year-old to....
So we had my parents take Lucy on Wednesday and Friday (I am overwhelmed at their generosity!) and our friend Jenny came over on Thursday with her son so that I could go teach my four classes.
Aside from that Tad has had piles of homework and the two of us were up until 11 or 12 every night this week working on it. Not to mention a meeting at Coen's school for each of us Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
It has been an incredibly stressful, worrisome, scramble of a week and I am so very glad its over. However two good things came of it:
1. We now have $200 worth of daycare credit! Whoo hooo!
2. I have a very profound appreciation for all of our in-place daycare. Tad's parents--MY PARENTS--and Lucy's daycare provider (here's hoping she is well on Monday). I feel so thankful for that help and the solidity of it (usually) Not having 2/3 of it this week made life real hard!
That was the beginning of the week. My in-laws came home on Sunday from Florida to watch the super bowl with us and planned a stand-by flight back on Tuesday morning. On Monday morning, Lucy's daycare provider called us to say she was ill and unavailable that day. Panic! But lucky for us, Tad's parents were still in town and they gladly took Lucy for the day. Tuesday Lucy goes to my parents so that was covered... But on Wednesday we got another call and found that we would be without Lucy's usual daycare for the rest of the week! Now, Tad absolutely cannot skip any school and I had classes, presentations, meetings and appointments ALL week! Normally I can take Lucy to the office with me and she does really well, but this was my week:
Monday: Meetings all over the city at several MPS entities
Tuesday: Meeting with Milwaukee County, Meeting with a Transition Advisory Board, Meeting at a high school
Wednesday: Legislative visit day in Madison all day, meeting with legislators
Thursday: Four classes at Morse Marshall school
Friday: Support group at St. Charles Alternative school, Sex ed talk presentation
Not exactly a group of events one can take a three-year-old to....
So we had my parents take Lucy on Wednesday and Friday (I am overwhelmed at their generosity!) and our friend Jenny came over on Thursday with her son so that I could go teach my four classes.
Aside from that Tad has had piles of homework and the two of us were up until 11 or 12 every night this week working on it. Not to mention a meeting at Coen's school for each of us Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
It has been an incredibly stressful, worrisome, scramble of a week and I am so very glad its over. However two good things came of it:
1. We now have $200 worth of daycare credit! Whoo hooo!
2. I have a very profound appreciation for all of our in-place daycare. Tad's parents--MY PARENTS--and Lucy's daycare provider (here's hoping she is well on Monday). I feel so thankful for that help and the solidity of it (usually) Not having 2/3 of it this week made life real hard!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Blue eyes cryin' in the rain
Well...my eyes are not blue. And there's definitely no rain. But I am cryin'. Here it is: The first concert that it is breaking my heart not to go to... Willie Nelson. He is coming in March and I want to go I want to go I want to go I want to go!!!!! How can I not?!!!! I grew up with Willie Nelson singing me to sleep, singing me awake, playing all the time on my parents' record player. When I hear his voice, I am ten years old again, cozy in my bed, listening to the sounds my parents and their friends having a party downstairs. I want to go I want to go!!!
So Willie Nelson is coming to Milwaukee and it hurts my heart to miss it.
I am trying to decide if it would be terribly irresponsible for me to charge these tickets on my credit card. We have one income. A broken washing machine. Other broken things. And already a growing credit card bill. But I want to go.
What should I do? Buy them? Or wait and try to win them? I am not sure, but the pre-sale is tomorrow! I'll keep you posted on how irresponsible I get!
So Willie Nelson is coming to Milwaukee and it hurts my heart to miss it.
I am trying to decide if it would be terribly irresponsible for me to charge these tickets on my credit card. We have one income. A broken washing machine. Other broken things. And already a growing credit card bill. But I want to go.
What should I do? Buy them? Or wait and try to win them? I am not sure, but the pre-sale is tomorrow! I'll keep you posted on how irresponsible I get!
Friday, February 4, 2011
A reminder from my 23 year old self
Tonight I am bored. Tad went out with some friends and I put the children to bed. I cleaned the house. Walking around, mopping and dusting with my iphone in my back pocket, playing a Mason Jennings station on Pandora... I felt a little melancholy. I am bored. It is February. I just finished a week with a lack of usual daycare coverage and a snowstorm. This means that I have been in my house and entertaining my children non-stop since Tuesday at noon. (Aside from a brief foray to the office today, accompanied by my daughter). Tad had plans tonight. So yes. I'm bored. I live in Wisconsin and its February, of COURSE I'm bored.
So anyway, as I listened to music, and moved around my house... cleaning it, the music got me thinking, as music does. So my thinking path started out with me feeling a bit resentful. Yes, resentful, I'll admit it. I went over how hard I have been working at work and how much work it is to be a mother and remembered when I was single and childless and I did whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. I wallowed in that for a while.
But then, my mind and perhaps a song, took me back to the age of 23. It was a night much like this one, winter in Wisconsin, probably even February. I was home with my sister, Beth in our lower duplex on Frederick Avenue, students at UWM. We were bored. We were single and young and interested in going out and looking for some action. Some music, some bars, someone to flirt with. I remember being so frustrated and just so BORED and thinking that someday I would fall in love and have a house and a family of my own and then I would never feel like that. Funny. I guess we always have something to wish we had, no matter what we do have (and don't realize). But here's the thing. That night, as Beth and I walked through the dark snowy night to the bar down the street, I remember looking in windows of houses and seeing people moving around and thinking...'I wish I were in that house.... I wish I were in that one...'
And now, here I am, 12 years later. And I can say this with absolute honesty. The house I'm in, the one with the lights on and a warm glow coming out...the one with the kids sleeping upstairs and the husband who will be home in a few hours and put his arms around me until I fall asleep... The one where a woman sits in side typing on her laptop, listening to Iron and Wine, a little bit bored... THAT is the house I want to be in. I began to want to be in my own window, and stop looking into others probably when I was about 27. Just before I came home from the Peace Corps. And once I was happy with my own window, I found Tad. And as soon as I met him, I remembered that night when the 23 year old girl was looking in windows. And the moment I knew my life was going to be lived with him as my partner...I knew that there would be no more windows I longed to be inside of...
I guess it may sound a little overly romantic.. but its the truth. And I will get bored no matter where I am and what I do. So tonight I am done cleaning my house. And I am going to keep on listening to music, and try to dust off the boredom and appreciate the quiet of the snow outside and the songs that I am hearing.
Good night.
So anyway, as I listened to music, and moved around my house... cleaning it, the music got me thinking, as music does. So my thinking path started out with me feeling a bit resentful. Yes, resentful, I'll admit it. I went over how hard I have been working at work and how much work it is to be a mother and remembered when I was single and childless and I did whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. I wallowed in that for a while.
But then, my mind and perhaps a song, took me back to the age of 23. It was a night much like this one, winter in Wisconsin, probably even February. I was home with my sister, Beth in our lower duplex on Frederick Avenue, students at UWM. We were bored. We were single and young and interested in going out and looking for some action. Some music, some bars, someone to flirt with. I remember being so frustrated and just so BORED and thinking that someday I would fall in love and have a house and a family of my own and then I would never feel like that. Funny. I guess we always have something to wish we had, no matter what we do have (and don't realize). But here's the thing. That night, as Beth and I walked through the dark snowy night to the bar down the street, I remember looking in windows of houses and seeing people moving around and thinking...'I wish I were in that house.... I wish I were in that one...'
And now, here I am, 12 years later. And I can say this with absolute honesty. The house I'm in, the one with the lights on and a warm glow coming out...the one with the kids sleeping upstairs and the husband who will be home in a few hours and put his arms around me until I fall asleep... The one where a woman sits in side typing on her laptop, listening to Iron and Wine, a little bit bored... THAT is the house I want to be in. I began to want to be in my own window, and stop looking into others probably when I was about 27. Just before I came home from the Peace Corps. And once I was happy with my own window, I found Tad. And as soon as I met him, I remembered that night when the 23 year old girl was looking in windows. And the moment I knew my life was going to be lived with him as my partner...I knew that there would be no more windows I longed to be inside of...
I guess it may sound a little overly romantic.. but its the truth. And I will get bored no matter where I am and what I do. So tonight I am done cleaning my house. And I am going to keep on listening to music, and try to dust off the boredom and appreciate the quiet of the snow outside and the songs that I am hearing.
Good night.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
To say 'dang it' or to say 'darn it'...That is the question.
This morning I went into the kitchen and saw that both Tad and I had forgotten to put the thawing pork into the fridge overnight.
"Dang it!" I said, throwing the possibly bacteria-ridden, illness-inducing product into the garbage.
"Mommy!" Came a shout from Lucy. "You said 'dang it.' You should say 'darn it'; its nicer."
Hmm..is it nicer? I wondered who told her that.
At any rate, tonight's dinner was ruined and I was saying far worse things in my head than 'dang it' or 'darn it'
But when I got back to my desk after a staff meeting at work, I saw that MPS is cancelled for tomorrow due to the coming snow storm and early dismissal today. I had planned on a regular night, waste not want not and all that and just fashioning some dinner out of other in-the-house supplies. But now...
SNOW DAY!!!!
I stopped at the store on the way home and picked up some more pork for my previously planned pork and hominy stew and some bread and some other provisions--mostly chocolate flavored.
We are having a good dinner tonight and dessert after. Tomorrow will be a sudden middle of the week weekend day and we'll have homemade zucchini bread and smoothies and watch cartoons all morning long!
Oh. Wait. We have no more zucchini. Darn it!
"Dang it!" I said, throwing the possibly bacteria-ridden, illness-inducing product into the garbage.
"Mommy!" Came a shout from Lucy. "You said 'dang it.' You should say 'darn it'; its nicer."
Hmm..is it nicer? I wondered who told her that.
At any rate, tonight's dinner was ruined and I was saying far worse things in my head than 'dang it' or 'darn it'
But when I got back to my desk after a staff meeting at work, I saw that MPS is cancelled for tomorrow due to the coming snow storm and early dismissal today. I had planned on a regular night, waste not want not and all that and just fashioning some dinner out of other in-the-house supplies. But now...
SNOW DAY!!!!
I stopped at the store on the way home and picked up some more pork for my previously planned pork and hominy stew and some bread and some other provisions--mostly chocolate flavored.
We are having a good dinner tonight and dessert after. Tomorrow will be a sudden middle of the week weekend day and we'll have homemade zucchini bread and smoothies and watch cartoons all morning long!
Oh. Wait. We have no more zucchini. Darn it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)