Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we are going over to my Mom and Dad's house for Thanksgiving. My neice, Karen, is here so it's an extra special day. She has been here for a week and she is such a wonderful, fun, intelligent woman. It's been great spending time with her and catching up with everything going on in her life.

This Thanksgiving is also extra special because we are all together. My Mom was sick with pnemonia earlier this year and was in the hospital for 15 days. I am happy to say that she is fully recovered and I am so thankful to God that everyone is healthy and happy.

This year, as usual, I am in charge of the peas and carrots caserole. Irene is making a cheesecake, turnips and corn pudding. My Mom is making the turkey and all the rest of the trimmings. Yesterday we went to our annual excursion to Delicious Orchards to get a pumpkin pie. Of course, we had to get a lot of other goodies too (who can resist). :)

Traditions are so important. I know from talking to my kids that they love going to their Mommom and Poppop's for Thanksgiving and Christmas and wouldn't want it any other way. Every year that we can still do this is such a blessing. Despite all the crazy, unexpected things that happen in life it's comforting to know that there are still some consistencies that see you through life. Enjoy each moment for what it is. Take the good, let go of the bad and have a thankful heart to God that His promise is always that it will all work together for good.

Summer 2011

Since Christopher has summer vacation, I've been trying to have some kind of activity going on every day. It may be the library, Swim Club, Chuckie Cheese's, something so get us out of the house and occupied for a few hours. So far I've been somewhat successful. I think maybe two days out of the summer we have done absolutely nothing and that was because it was either SO hot or Chris was fighting a stuffy nose. Christopher has a DS now and I believe that if allowed he would only want to stay home and play it. He does stop on his own and draw pictures or watch a TV show and I have to blame my own laziness for not focusing on his summer reading. I just bought a nice new basket to put his summer reading books in for easy access and we still have not picked up a book. Which reminds me that he has a free ticket to Great Adventure for his school reading program and we'll have to go there in the next two weeks. There...another thing to do.

So far this summer we have:

Gone to the park
Mall
Mommom and Poppop's
Yankee game
Swim Club
Aunt Kim's house
Aunt Michele's house
Camping in PA
Vacation Bible School
Ocean Grove
Birthday Party
Chuckie Cheese's
Family Time Live...then night swimming (FUN!)

We still have to go to:

Runaway Rapids
Allaire Park
Point Pleasant
Gread Adventure

And I'm sure some other things I can't think of at the moment.

Sarah was in the Color Guard last year but has decided not to join this year. At first I was a bit skeptical about her decision but she says that she much prefers to be involved with plays. She going to be in the "Showcase" this fall and Color Guard would make her schedule insane. She is 17 this August and I feel that she has the right to make her own decisions about her activities. It was so cold going to watch her at the football games last year that, as much as I didn't mind going and watching her, I won't miss freezing waiting for half time.

Happenings

I never know what to put in the "title" of my blog post. Unless it's something very specific I usually write about a lot of things that are going on at the moment. First I wanted to write that I saw two really great movies yesterday; "Salt" and "Young Victoria". I like "Salt" for obvious reasons. Action; the action scenes were fantastic. "Young Victoria" was such a beautiful love story. I actually cried. I can't remember the last time I cried over a love story. It was very touching. When you watch a movie like that it makes you long for that again in your own life. Now at 50 I look at "young people" and envy that aspect of their lives. Starting out on a road together where you are so naive about life's problems and yet you're bound together by such an intense love and attraction for each other. It's like you can conquer the world!

Louis and I went to Brookdale on Monday to register for his classes. I was anxious to get it done because he wanted to have no classes starting at 8:00 and he wanted two days free to work for his Uncle Matt. So in we went and spoke with this wonderful counselor. She wasn't overly friendly...that didn't make her wonderful. She was helpful...to the point...direct...honest...and she knew what she was doing. As we sat there and she worked with Louis to select his classes, I was praying silently that God would direct them. Louis still isn't sure what he wants to "do" when he's through with school and I told him the other day that this is a heavy hitter prayer that he should commit to praying for. I think ALL prayers are big but in a way..career...spouse...big changes and committments, need a TIME of prayer and not just a once prayed for situation. That's just me. I need to apply this in my own life too. I have a decision I'm struggling with now that I need to really get down on my knees and pray for and maybe even fast for and I find myself procrastinating. Anyway, praise God that his schedule is in place and all is well with him. :)

I have this theory that when my palm itches that money is coming my way. I know this is silly but I say it all the time to my family. If I'm scratching my palm, which rarely happens by the way, I'll comment on it and say money is coming. Two days ago we were at Christopher's friend's birthday party and my palm started itching me. I thought to myself I wonder if I'm going to be getting some money in the near future and by how it was itching it would be a BIG sum. It stopped and I didn't think any more about it. Yesterday, Nick calls me and says that an investment he made five years ago with Rhodia is coming due and that the money should be in the bank today....it was....$3,300!! Can you believe it! I don't know what I'm more excited about the money or the fact that my palm was itching me and, BOOM, there the money is. God it so good!!!

I was watching Joyce Meyer the other day. She is absolutely one of my favorite speakers. She said some things that really got me thinking about my wrong behaviors. I tend to wake up and my first thoughts are so negative. I'm not sure why except that I've been carrying around a lot of burden the past few years and I believe it has affected my outlook on life. Like a "what's the point" kind of attitude. Anyway, she said when you wake up in the morning...praise God...even if you don't feel it. Acknowledge His blessings and say "even though I have some hard things I'm going through today, thank You that You are with me to help me." I never looked at it like that before. It was nice waking up this morning and applying that. I even cleaned up my kitchen and prayed for Louis, who was walking out the door for work. I'm still in counseling and I do try to focus on the "baby steps" of progress. I'd rather be making baby steps than completely standing still. I think God feels the same way. :)

Blogging again!?!

I've decided that I would like to start blogging again. Not right now because I have a busy day today but here are some things that I would like to write about:

Maddie
Extreme couponing
Joined a gym
Feelings ;)
Kids
Money
Looking for a job
and more!!

Frugal Tips

I have a list of things that I have been wanting to post.

I keep the heat at 65 at night and 67 during the day. We have oil heat and it stretches the time between deliveries.

This summer I would like to put a room air conditioner in our living room to cool one room since at night we have a ceiling fan in our room which keeps us cool at night. This should help keep the electric bill lower in the summer.

Keep warm soapy water in the sink to do quick dish washes during the day so that the dishwasher does not have to be run as often.

Keep all leftovers no matter how small to be used in soups or stews.

Keep away from plastics such as plates, cups, etc. Use these for special occasions only.

Use paper towels sparingly. Keep plenty of dish towels in the kitchen to grab instead.

When eating out don't order drinks. Ask for water instead. I always order water with lemon.

Share an entree. With the portions most restaurants give there is plenty of food for two.

A great find

About a year or so ago I was browsing through the book sale section of our local library. I noticed that there were two books that were first editions. One was The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway and the other was a Ray Bradbury, I can't think of the name off hand. Anyway both books were 25 cents each and I figured I could sell them on Ebay. The procrastinator that I am, I put them on a shelf and told myself I would sell them in the near future. A year or more later, Nick put The Old Man and the Sea on Ebay and we wound up selling it for $46. What a great investment on my 25 cents. The first edition was a book club edition which sells for much less than a true first edition release. The Ray Bradbury is still on my shelf and I'll be selling that in the near future.

Another exciting things happened recently Our kitchen drain was clogged and I didn't realize it so I ran our dishwasher. I heard a trickling sound in the kitchen and realized that it was leaking on the kitchen floor. I stopped the dishwasher and bought some drain cleaner and later that evening the clog was cleared up. I ran the dishwasher and didn't think any more about it. A week or so later I noticed that our living room floor was feeling a little bouncy when you walked on it. I moved the carpet and realized that our wood floor was buckling. I mentioned it to Nick thinking that someone must have spilled something and we realized that the dishwasher water had seeped through the wall into the living room and under our wood floor.

There was no way we could just replace the buckled floor section so we weren't sure what we were going to do. I told my sister, Irene, and she said why don't we submit a claim to our Homeowner's policy. I thought what the heck, it can't hurt to get some money to compensate. We have a $500 deductible so I figured we would come away with a few hundred dollars. The claims rep came to our home and after looking at the damage the water caused determined that we need new bottom cabinets around the dishwasher since the water did cause some wood rot there also. Of course when you get bottom cabinets, you need top cabinets to match so when all was said and done the insurance is going pay for the floor and for new kitchen cabinets. Nick said that it should be a substantial amount of money. I'm so glad that we listened to Irene and called in the claim.

Walmart freebies

Never underestimate the usefulness of free samples. I've been going to Walmart.com and ordering free samples for a few years now. I have quite a basket full of them. They come in so handy when you're about to wash a load of laundry and realize that you have no laundry detergent. Just take a pouch of free sample laundry detergent and viola laundry accomplished with no interruption. There is usually a pouch of fabric softener too. There are so many other little samples that have come in handy over the years.

Also, we were having a snow storm last week and I was in need of milk. My 1% milk was almost empty so I drove over to the quick check (I had no time to shop) and bought a whole milk. I divided the whole milk in half using the empty milk container and added water to both. I got two gallons of milk for the price of one.