Random Thoughts

What a quick week!  I can't believe its over already!  I need to learn to make time to exercise if I'm going to be this busy because I absolutely need to exercise!  I'm developing rolls where there never used to be rolls.  Eww. 

I've been playing in the West Michigan Concert Winds for the past month now and I'm really enjoying it.  My lip is slowly regaining its stamina.  Because I"m constantly licking my lips during practice, they get chapped very quickly.  I've found a product that I really like and thought I'd share. 

          

This works in a few hours.  It even feels wet when you put it on. 

Another thing I like:  my crockpot.  What a time saver!  Its so nice to come home and have dinner mostly made.  My favorite thing to do is to throw a few boneless chicken breasts in (frozen) with a can of cream of mushroom soup.  That's all.  Its so easy and all I have to do when I get home is heat up a vegetable and maybe throw together a salad.  And then I can open one of my many jars of homemade applesauce and dinner's done. 

Happy

What really makes me happy today is this, which was suggested by my niece Nancy.  Its hysterical!  I was laughing so hard at the ridiculousness of these cakes that I was in tears.  But those are good tears!  Take a look and see if you agree. 

Sunday Confessional

So its not technically Sunday anymore; I'm still up so I'm counting it as a Sunday.  What am I confessing now?  And does anyone really care?  Probably not but here goes:  I'm messy.   I'm not dirty, I'm just messy.  Its a constant battle to retain any semblance of organization in my house.  I try.  Really, I do.  I can clean my house so its spotless if I'm having a party.  But on any other day, I just don't care enough to spend that much time putting things in their place.  Besides, those things I've put away find their way out of place in no time and I have no idea how they got there.  I found a website once, called Flylady.  She has good ideas and I'm sure if I followed her plan, my house would be fairly clean, but like all other ideas that need consistency, I'm bad about following any plan. 

I once spent a semester doing student teaching in a room that was horrendously messy.  I'm talking MESSY!!  It was so bad that it made me physically uncomfortable to be in.  I've decided that this teacher was a hoarder to some extent.  (Have you ever seen that show on A&E?  Its disturbing.  Like a car accident that you don't want to look at but can't look away.) By the end of the semester, I'd developed a twitchy eye that sometimes still bothers me.   Anyway, I'm not that bad... 

Happy
There are a few things that are making me happy today: 

1st:  My sister-in-law Linda, who had been diagnosed a year ago with multiple myeloma got a clean bill of health from her oncologist!  This past year was a horrible year for her;  she had just about every complication a person could have, and had a stem cell transplant in late fall. I am soooooo happy for this news as Linda is one of the best people I know.  She is a testament to answered prayer for sure!

2nd:  I found a blog that makes me laugh on a daily basis;  Sleep Talkin' Man. This man was on the Today show last week but I found their blog about a month ago.  His wife records his nightly sleep talking and puts it on the blog for all to read. He says the funniest (and sometimes filthiest) stuff! 

3rd:  We got a new truck today.  Well, its actually 17 years old.  Its a red Ford F-150 with a snow plow attachment that my daughter has named Cleetus.  I love how my kids have to name everything.  DD #1's car is named Owen (which is appropriate because she be 'owen' us money for the car).  My car is named Shaniqua.  She's a cute little red, sassy Grand Prix.  The kids even named the dog's new chew toys -  the pink fuzzy bone is Lucy, the blue fuzzy bone is Steve, and the weird green animal is Jimmy.  I will draw the line at naming the furniture.  That's just completely unnecessary. 

I hope you find something that makes you happy today too!  Life's too short to be unhappy. 

Bread and Progress

Last night I made bread...again.  I've been making at least 3 loaves a week for the past month.  Its actually very simple to make bread, and its very cheap although maybe not as cheap as buying it at the bread store.  But it sure is delicious, especially warm from the oven, and slathered in butter.  I'm trying to be more adventurous in what I add to the bread to change it up just a little.  Last night I used warm beer instead of water which resulted in a very fluffy and delicious bread.  Later this week, I'm going to post my recipe and some pictures.  If I can make bread, anyone can.  Trust me on this!!!


Guess its time to review my progress. 

Goal #1:  I have been doing NO running for a while.  I don't know if I mentioned this but I have suffered from plantar fasciitis in the past and after a busy day at work, I can really tell.  When getting up in the morning, it sometimes feels like there are knives shooting up into the bottoms of my feet.  I'm just so afraid that running will make it return that I'm hesitant to run at all.  I do plan on buying a new, decent pair of running shoes, and I'm going to get some new inserts for them.  I'd also like to buy a pair of Dansko shoes for work - I hear good things about them from other plantar fasciitis sufferers.  They're just sooooo expensive!  (maybe if I consider it an investment in my health I'll feel better about it)

Goal #2:  I've been using the Quicken program for just about 2 weeks now and it is really enlightening.  It takes a little time to set up and I noticed that unless I reconcile some entries, the account balances aren't correct.  But once that's taken care of, it gives me a nice pie chart that shows where most of my monthly payments are going.  And while I knew where most it was going, its quite a shock to see it in pie chart form (in full color!).  According to Quicken, most of my monthy expenditures are towards credit card payments.  But because I made a huge payment to the first bill on my list, this only makes sense.  And until its paid off, I imagine this will be the way it is.  I just have to keep telling myself that its allright.  

Bittersweet

I lost a friend Friday.  And although he wasn't a particularly close friend, I still feel quite sad.  Rick was a former co-worker of mine and was a good nurse, a hard worker, and just genuinely a nice guy.  I didn't know much about his personal life except that he loved his kids.  That much was evident in every conversation I ever had with him.  He would talk about their school activities, or how he had built them a play center in the backyard of his home, or just about their day-to-day lives.  What I didn't know about Rick was that he was a single dad.  Or that he worked 2 jobs.  I never heard him raise his voice in anger, or say a bad word about anybody.  Really, just a nice guy. 

I understand that he fell down the steps in his home while carrying in groceries.  His son called 911.  He was taken to a local hospital where another friend of mine just happened to be working that day.  How tragic to see a friend come in to the emergency room and know that there is nothing that can be done to save him.  I feel bad that Lori had to be in that position, but I also am glad to know that Rick was taken care of by someone that truly cared about him.  And its a comfort to me, and I hope to his family, that Lori was there. 

Out of this tragedy though, comes a blessing for 11 families;  Rick's family decided, in their grief, that someone should benefit from his death and donated his organs to The Gift of Life program.   That just gives me goose bumps. How unselfish and admirable is that?  And that would be just like Rick; to offer help where it is needed in whatever way he could. 

In the news article that I linked, it states that his neighbors agree that this tragedy should be a reminder to slow down and take the time to appreciate your loved ones.  If you're reading this, please remember to do that.  Rick would want it that way. 

And then the Schwann's Man came to the door

Gosh darn you, Schwann's man!  You and your sinful ice cream and other frozen convenience foods.  You know I can't say no, don't you?  That chocolate peanut butter bliss ice cream you forced  let me buy did my butt absolutely no good.  And we won't even talk about what you did to my budget.  Why won't you leave me alone?  Go pick on my neighbors...

Sigh

Well, I start out with the best of intentions.  I really do.  This whole eat from the pantry challenge sounded good in theory, and its something I could do if it were just me in this house, but my kids are demanding that there be something to eat when they look in the fridge.  Can you believe it?  My son has a hollow leg these days and is eating everything in sight.  DD#1 has started college again and is bringing her lunch in an effort to save money. (Yay!) And you can't make something outta nothing so ultimately, what I'm trying to say is...I went grocery shopping.  Not only did I go shopping, but I overspent on my budget by about $50.  Maybe that category needs to be looked at again. Anyway, sometimes I think that by setting goals, you're just setting yourself up for failure which leads to guilt.  I don't need any more guilt in my life, thank you very much. 

On another note, I have the Quicken up and running.  That program is very cool!  Its also very enlightening and also guilt producing.  But its helping me see where the bulk of my money is going. It will even pay bills for you if you want it to.  I'm letting it pay my electric bill as a test to see how it runs. That's one of the few I haven't automated so we'll see how it goes. 

Today I'll be hanging out with 25 or so 2nd graders as a guest teacher, (which is just a fancy term for substitute teacher).  What I'm bummed about though is that I could've worked at the hospital today for 5 times what I'll make as a guest teacher today.  Darn it!