And the winner is…

 

First, I want to thank everyone for their great ideas!  You gals are super   We had 8 great comments full of fabulous ideas to stretch those dollars, maintain a sense of security for our little ones, and still have a bit of fun!  To pick our winner, I did a random number generator.  And the winning number was…

4

(Renae)

Yay, Renae!  Send me an email with your addy and I’ll send the earrings your way.  Thank you again to everyone for sharing your great ideas.  Have a great night!

 

Jenny <3

Money talks And hey, I’m listening… (plus a giveaway!) :)

Recently, there was a neat thread started in one of the groups I frequent on Ravelry.  It is about saving money and being frugal.  With the economy being less than fabulous, I think everyone is looking to make the dollars stretch these days.  I thought it would be fun to share some favorite money saving ideas with each other.  I’ll bet we will all learn some handy tricks to help us through the money drought

Around here, we don’t buy a lot of name brand products.  Store brand is just as good in almost every case.  That saves us quite a bit on the grocery budget.  Everything from our flour to the syrup we put on the pancakes is store brand. 

We also try very hard not to throw food out.  The boys are like vacuum cleaners anyway lately so not much goes to waste   Leftovers are not uncommon here and before hubby went on disability for his surgery, he often took leftovers to lunch the next day.  “Waste not, want not” right?

We strive to live by the old pioneer motto “Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, Or do without.”  My towels are not so pretty but they still dry the water up so we’re not replacing them.  Everything is worn or used until there are holes.  My basement couch is older than my oldest kiddo and sags like an old gal but it’s still acceptable sitting accomodations so it stays. 

One final tip and then it’s your turn – We live by a needs versus wants credo.  Needs are things we have to have.  Wants are things we could survive without if we have to.  Needs obviously would take high priority in the budget and wants would only come into play if there is a little extra in the budget.  So, grocery basics like milk, flour, sugar, fruits and veggies are needs.  Candies, chips, cookies, eating out, etc. all fall in the wants category.  Broader scale: clothing that isn’t threatening to turn into a wardrobe malfunction is in the need category.  Electronics, video games, going to movies are wants.  And the trick is to fill the needs and hopefully a few wants but not at detriment to the household finances. 

Alright, maybe some of that is useful or maybe you are already doing all of these things.  If so, good for you!  Now, leave me some comments.  What are your favorite ways to make the dollars stretch/save money?  At the end of next week, I will use a random number generator and the lucky number will get these:

 

Aren’t they pretty?    Hoop style earrings with french hook earwires.  Each hoop holds an opaque teardrop bead surrounded by rose quartz gemstone chips.  I made these a while ago with the intent to sell them but just haven’t listed them yet.  They are brand new and have never been worn so no worries there.  These are not sterling silver, so if you have allergies to metal, and your number gets picked, I’ll send you something fab in place of these pretties.  Sound good?  Alright, send in some comments and have a great day!

 

 

 

Jenny <3

 

Surgery and more surgery!

Friday brought the first change in our lives.  The change that may or may not spur more changes…  Time will tell, I guess.  Early Friday morning, hubby and I headed off to the hospital so he could have carpal tunnel release surgery.  Now he is a disabled man, haha.  But try telling that to him.  I am constantly telling him to take it easy and not hurt himself.  He even tried to mow the lawn yesterday.  Crazy thing!

The surgery itself went well.  The doctor said everything looked fine and there was no masses or growths in there.  I guess sometimes there is?  Hubby came home with a ton of cotton wrapped around his arm and a bandage covering that.  Monday, the bandage came off and now he keeps trying to show me the icky stitches.  Bleh!  All in all, he seems to be recovering very well. 

Oldest kiddo went in for oral surgery yesterday morning.  He had an oral surgery years ago to remove his two front teeth and two extra tooth “buds”, all of which were impacted.  Aparently the original surgeon missed another extra tooth.  So yesterday, kiddo had to have another oral surgery.  The surgeon removed a full extra tooth.  It’s not a bud.  It was rooted.  A permanent front tooth had grown out in front of the extra tooth.  But the other permanent front tooth was still impacted by this extra tooth.  After the extra tooth was removed, the surgeon attached a button tab to the unerupted tooth and hooked a wire chain to it.  The orthodontist will hook the chain up to one of kiddo’s brackets and they will begin slowly tractioning the tooth out.  Sounds like great fun, doesn’t it?

Kiddo slept most of yesterday.  I checked on him every hour or so and made sure to keep pain meds in him.  He woke in the evening in high spirits and with a considerable appetite   He’s still home today due to some pain and swelling but I think he’ll be okay to go tomorrow. 

So what does a gal do while sitting in all these waiting rooms waiting for her honeys to be all fixed up?  Crochet, of course!

 

 

Have a great day!

An SSRI doesn’t mean you won’t cry…

I guess maybe I was hoping it did   I really hate crying in front of other people.  But if I get too overwhelmed or frustrated, bluh, bluh, bluh, blubber.  It’s a quiet display but it’s still a display.  My eyes get all red and puffy.  They leak and my nose threatens too also.  And I know I get red blotches on my neck.  Nothing like the tears you see in the movies at all, lol.  And where’s a dang tissue when you need it!

Today was rough.  Heck, honestly the last several days have been rough.  But at least school wasn’t part of it.  Until today.  Kiddo’s behavior was very off today.  The school finally called around 12:20 to tell me all about it.  He’d been throwing a koosh ball around and proclaiming that he… erm, “farted”.  And I found out later that he was pretending to be too tired to work in the morning and acting like he was sleeping on the desk.  He also scribbled all over a worksheet he was supposed to be completing and broke his pencil into about half a dozen pieces.  It was sort of suggested that I come and get him.  I was heading out in a few minutes to get tiny guy from his school but said I’d pick up kiddo first.  This meant a jaunt out to one school for oldest kiddo, zip over to the other school for tiny guy and then back again to pick up my tweener boy. 

I expected kiddo to be all packed up and ready to go.  Nope.  He was still in VP’s office and I could tell VP wanted to ‘chat’.  I hate these chats.  They are confrontational and they always want suggestions on managing these behaviors.  I don’t have any.  I keep wondering if the doc would prescribe me Valiums :p  Maybe that would work for the teachers and staff too?  So I was sitting there stressing over the minutes that were passing because I needed to pick up my tiny guy, miffed at oldest for causing trouble and at a loss for words to give the VP when I felt my eyes start to prickle.  I managed to hold onto them but I’m sure my eyes were rimmed with pink and shimmering with my unshed tears.  Gah!

Time-wise everything worked out fine.  I actually ended up waiting for tiny guy for a few minutes.  And we picked up tweener boy and were on our way home.  I had put in a Crowded House cd and this song came on.  Exactly…  Catch you all later.  I’ll be stocking my purse and van with tissues

Ch-ch-ch-changes…

Fall is all about changes.  The summer ends.  The children go back to school.  The leaves change colors and then they fall.  Things are gearing up to change around here too. Everything seems up in the air and uncertain right now. This song has been on my mind all day:

Shrek 2 Original Soundtrack Changes @ ARTISTdirect.com

Shared via AddThis

I guess it is time to face our version of strange and pass into a different season of life. It’s nothing serious, just a new version of normal. And that’s all I know for now. I can’t change what is coming, only what I do about it. And so, until all of my leaves settle into place, I’m left with this song whirling in my head   Ch-ch-ch-changes…

Wishing you all a great day <3

Back to School & The Ballaleena :)

The boys went back to school on Monday.  Not one of them was looking forward to it.  They were wishing for forever summer and my 9 year old said he wished there was a device that beams knowledge right into your brain.  He’s looking for a 5 second school experience, haha.  In spite of their lack of enthusiasm, the dreaded day arrived.  Here are a few pics of them before we headed off to school:

I got Girlie half dressed and still she didn’t even wake up   So far, everyone is actually having a fine time at school.  My first grader is riding the bus to school and thinks that is awesome.  Oldest kiddo has his best friend in his class this year.  And my 9 year old loves his teacher.  Yay   

Girlie has been a little lonely without the boys but it’s been fun to have some Mommy & Daughter time <3  The other day, she put on some big pink glasses, started dancing around and singing “I’m a Ballaleena!”  It was adorable.  It’s fun to have a girlie girl:

So, here’s hoping that your week was as nice as ours and that this will be a great school year for everyone.  Have a great day!

Blackberry Bliss!

If I haven’t said it here before, I love blackberries <3  They are my absolute favorite berry of all.  I have a blackberry bramble (best way to describe it) in the back yard.  Last year we had enough berries to make a few smoothies and a Cheesecake with Blackberry Sauce.  This year, my berry bramble has been very good to us   The kids have been out there for weeks eating berry after berry.  I was sure that there would be no berries for Blackberry Sauce this year.  I was very wrong.  We picked 12 cups of berries this week!

 

Aren’t they gorgeous berries?  I told hubby (he doesn’t really love the bramble, lol) that to purchase that many berries at the grocery store at full price would have cost him around $50.00.  Even on sale, they are still $2.00 a cup.  The boys were hoping for enough blackberries to make pie.  We wound up with enough blackberry filling to make a pie…

and Blackberry Cream Cheese Streusel Bars…

And there was a ton of filling left over.  The kids liked the streusel bars the best so we’re making more of them with the rest of the filling.  I love blackberry season   Have a great day!

Peridot <3

Beading and jewelry have been a big part of my blog lately.  I have loved beads for as long as I can remember.  When I was a girl, I had a neat little bead necklace with a beaded doll pendant.  Mine was a lot like this one but had more blues and reds in it.  I wish I still had that little bead doll

When I was in high school, I bought some plastic beads at the craft store just because I liked them.  And in college I found this neat store called Bryson’s Rock Shop.  I don’t remember if they carried beads but there were bins and bins full of gemstones and pretty rocks.  There were shelves of fascinating geodes and marble pieces.  I need to find my way back to that store soon

Yesterday, Dave from Rings n Things was talking about peridot.  Back in college, I picked up a little bit of peridot from the rock shop.  I put it inside this little wire cage (also from the rock shop) and wore it as a necklace.

The gemstone for August is… yep, peridot.  Peridot is a very old gemstone.  It has been found in ancient Egyptian jewelry.  It has been nicknamed the emerald of the evening because of it’s radiant green shine.  My peridot is unpolished and just small stones but I’m very fond of them anyway.  This tiny collection is all that remains of the scoop I bought in college.  Some have been lost by my little ones and some have been given to elementary school children at a show and teach   These few little stones that remain are not very valuable in the gemstone sense but they have a nostalgic value to me.  Now they hang on my keychain and I can’t help but smile when they catch my eye.

Have a great day!

Looking for some Loomy fun?

Then today is your lucky day   Head over to http://gettinitpegged.com/ for Bethany’s Blogiversary!  You’ll find tons of fun, super patterns, a neat little Loom-Along and more.  Have fun!   

 

 

 

Yes, another bead related post :)

Beading Daily has a fun post up today.  You get to decide what beading stitch you are.  No quiz questions, you just pick based on the descriptions.  I am…

 

 

You are: Herringbone Stitch

Life for you is a series of ups and downs that eventually lead to a harmonious and ordered whole. You rely on a little help from your friends for grounding and support and you probably know a thing or two about walking a tightrope.

Try this project: Rivoli Cuff by Merle Berelowitz

 

Alright, if you’ve read my blog for awhile, you know why life might seem like walking a tightrope at times.  But all in all, I always feel so very fortunate for my precious family and wonderful friends.  So, if you are looking for a little fun in your day, go check out the Beading Daily post and decide which pretty beading stitch fits your life   Have a great day!