Money Madness

O.K. does anyone have this book so I can borrow it because I'm feeling like a financial idiot right now.




Here is where all those CEO's and financial advisors pocketing our hard-earned money should spend a vacation. Stocks for the Stock Crash... How appropriate.

I hate money. I know – HATE is a strong word. I dislike money to the N-th degree and financial advisors, well; they are right up there too. Apparently we are the only people on the planet Earth that are not liquidating our stock right now. Don’t know why? But we are riding the market and I’m more than depressed and worried about it.

We made the idiotic mistake of hanging onto our stock during the Dot-Com bust on the early 2000’s. My husband’s company stock fell from 121 to 25 and never recovered. And we trusted the blasted experts and rode it out then too. Have any of you lost $100,000? It stinks.

Now we are watching our splendidly diversified 401K portfolio disappear before our eyes. And the experts say to stay put. I think they are secretly hoping there are enough saps like me out there stupid enough to listen to them while they make off like bandits.

That’s o.k. I never planned on retiring anyway. I want to work forever.

Now what’s going on in the market is painful to watch but I think I’d be a lot saner about it if I didn’t dislike my own inability to control money. I’m trying, I’m really trying, but I think I may be cursed when it comes to dealing with finances.

Last month gave me such a glimmer of Hope that I can finally live within my means. I was totally hanging onto that idea of making focusing on Needs and Simplistic Living the Norm around our little forest.

This month we’ve had a few surprises already. There are things that definitely need to be fixed like the blown-out back window on Abner’s portable pool, the leaky roof, the down to one burner stove-top. But any one of those things would tip us into the red if we decide to take care of them right now.

So this month I’m still shooting for spending less than we make – Still! I’m hoping now to focus on saving money. The repairs will have to wait until we can pay cash for them. Meanwhile I’m sure the neighbors (forgive us please) will just love the sight of black plastic on our roof and duct taped plastic on our truck. Can I cross my fingers and hope nothing else breaks down in the meantime? Because if I really am cursed then the repairs will pile up faster than the savings.

Here’s the real kicker. I’ve no reason to complain. My husband makes good money, and we have no auto payments. However I think we spend the equivalent to auto payments supplying fuel for our gas-sucking drivable people movers. But honestly no matter how we may be feeling the financial pinch I realize we are a lot better off than millions of others.

Honestly my hats off to single parents, and people on low incomes wages. I don’t know how you do it? And if you live within your means you are the real hero’s. I think you should replace all those silly financial advisors on wall street because you wouldn’t be silly enough to loan out your dearly saved money to people you know can’t pay it back.

Trenadoll’s organizing class on finances was a good refresher for me. Now I’ve actually just got to put two or three minutes together where I can sit down, brain-storm and follow through with the assignments. I know I could have been doing that instead of blogging but I needed to vent.
There I’m all better… Thanks for listening to my rant.

So has any of the rest of you had to change money habits of the last few months and if so what are some of the changes you’ve made? I’m washing Ziploc bags so that I can re-use them in the kiddo’s lunches and I'm picking up pennies I see on the ground. How cool is that.

Healthy Halloween (?)

Does this scene make you shake in your boots thinking about how the wee ones will celebrate Halloween this year on too much sugar? Want to change tradition for the better?

If so then read my article over at my other home – Love is New Additions to the Family. Then you’ll have to let me know whether you think I’m on another wild ride to crazy land or if it actually has some logical merit to the idea.

Hassel-Free - Yeah Right!

So I’m keeping up with my Christmas checklist. I’ve almost completed everything so far on my list, Sooooo I’m expanding it to include these three new areas.

Last week I sent poor T-rev to pull out the Halloween decorations from the spooky, rat – infested, spider-webbed cavern other-wise known as under-the-house. While he was at it I had him bring up my two heavy boxes of Holiday Lights. So on my list to do now is…

Sometime over the next two weeks – warm, dry weather permitting I’ll let Evo-man help me hang some sparkle lights on the roof. I always envision it looking something like this…

But usually get something along this line.

But with a little extra time it might turn out o.k. provided I can untangle them.

I’m also going to have my little Elf’s write their letters to Santa.








Now’s a good time because they haven’t been influenced by all the holiday commercials brainwashing them to want the latest and greatest toy. It kind of helps that we have no cable, dish or antenna right now.

Plus if they write their letters now there’s a good chance that Santa will send them something nice in return. You know reward them for not procrastinating until Christmas Eve.






That and I’ll have a better idea of what they want so I can expand my simple Christmas list.

And the last thing I’m working on is starting to tackle those Christmas lists.



I found this darling little pencil holder on clearance in an after-school shopping supply sale and I thought it would be perfect for My Holiday Planner as a Holiday Shopping Helper.




In it I keep a smaller version of my gift list, coupons, pens, and pencils. I always try to keep it in my purse this time of year so that I can pull it out when ever I’m in a store and looking for sales.
The first thing I’m going to try to accomplish on my list is gifts for family and friends that I have to mail. I’m also looking for shipping supplies and hope they go on sale.

Recap:

1. 
   Hang some Holiday Lights.
2. 
   Write Letters to Santa
3. 
   Organize my Gift List and Shopping Helper.

Only 79 more days to go...

Playing Tag with Memory Loss

Ever have one of those days. This has been mine today.

Maybe it's because I've been without internet for three days.

Maybe it's because when I went to jog at the track this morning the gates were locked and my jogging key didn't work.

Maybe it's because I had to cancel my visit with my Young and Gorgeous Counselor and going to my exercise body sculpt class because I was home with two sick kids.

And then again, maybe it's because it was raining.

So to top it all off someone wanted to play with my mind today. I’m not laughing. But only because I’m thinking I’m a prime candidate for early onset dementia or Alzheimer’s.

So Mrs. Empress of the Home tagged me – which normally I love because I never get tagged and it means someone actually view’s my little spot of blogging ground. Don't get me wrong I love Mrs. Empress of the Home, I grovel at her all knowing feet she is so creatively talented. It was a fun assignment too. The Premise-

Instructions:

*Go to your Sixth Picture Folder then pick your Sixth Picture.

Could be scary right? You never know what’s lurking in your photo closet of horrors. Could it be a bad hair day, childbirth photo, or you wearing an insanely bad fashion flub? Well I lucked out and found this gem.

Trouble is – other than I know it’s a photo of Lea, I have no recollection of ever taking the darn picture, can’t begin to tell you anything about it, like location, why she’s dressed up as a bloomin’ flower or if she’s at school, church or what. They say you lose brain cells while pregnant, well maybe those six pregnancies sucked my brain dry or I wasn’t even around for this picture. My hope is that my husband attended a school event that I couldn’t go to and took the picture – otherwise I’m in serious brain trouble.

So in hopes of seeing someone else in my boat of brain-less because of big families I’ve decided to tag mom’s of huge families to see if they have any better luck with the whole memory thing. So I’m tagging…

A Shower of Roses

Who Says Eight is Enough

Are They All Yours???

My 5 Little Monkeys

O Laughlin Clan

Good Luck with the memory ladies.

Dream On - Updates!

Suffer through some updates and I'll give you a taste of my Halloween insanity near the end of this post.

So I finally tackled the Master Bedroom Closet. Remember how I threw out half of my clothes. That was just clothes and didn’t really involve any of the closet. But seeing as what a disastrous state the whole mini room was in I decided it was time to find the floor again.

It also worked to my advantage because it's where I hide Christmas stuff as well. (Shhhh, Don't tell the kids) You know, the place where you stash all the little things found on clearance in the after-holiday sales. Trouble is with the mess I wasn’t sure what I’d purchased and even which corner I’d hid it in.

So 3 tall kitchen bags full of clothes for charity, two full garbage ones as well, and lots of re-sorting and…

Ta-Da! Will you look at all that floor space?

Want more? Well even if you don't I'll still show it. From This...

To This...

Oh I'm not done yet. I'm still trying to talk Prince Erik into letting go of my fat scuba equipment. It's been 8 years since I last used it and I just am too small to fit in it anymore.

O.K. it's still there but someday. Meanwhile - Look at all the hang space I freed up.

O.K. that was the last one.

So while I was knee-deep in the closet clutter I found some nice surprises. Holiday shirts I purchased for the girls last year at less than $2 each in the holiday clearance aisle at Target. I’m excited because I bought them guessing at my girls shirt sizes this year. I think I’ll save them for our Dream Disneyland vacation. My closet was pretty empty in the gift category but I was able to knock a few things off my to-get list.

I took the Holiday Inventory Page I told you about for my Hassel-Free Holiday Planner and listed the items on it that were located in my Master Gift Closet.

I can look at that list now and see who I haven’t located ornaments for, and start to now come up with a Gift List Idea sheet using my Gift List Planner Page.

So yep my Holiday plans are moving ahead, the house is a little less cluttered.

Good news on the Accountability to the Max area as well. After two weeks of the dial on the scale not moving I finally lost 2 lbs, all in the past 2 days. I think it’s a hormonal thing, but I’m tickled pink that it’s moving again in the right direction.

This week I’ve also logged 13 miles of mostly jogging and tomorrow I’m going to attempt 4. It so helps that there is a motivational reason for me to run in the rain. I really want to beat my abysmal time from Last Year’s Half Marathon.

Oh and look what I found while cleaning out the closet. Proof that I'm an insanely addicted to Family Theme Halloween costumes.

I took these pictures six years ago when I was overly obsessed with all things ‘Lord of the Rings’. This was the year I went all out with expense, and time trying to get every detail right. Each costume is handmade and although you can’t really see from these pictures, full of details. From Gimli's Helmet to Galadriels crown it's all made from scratch because I could find anything in the stores or online seeing as how the movies were still coming out.

A then much shorter Abner as Legolas.

Prince Erik as Gandalf, and Evo-man as the perfect sized hobbit Frodo. No that is not a wig it's his hair.

I have to say the T-rev's costume of Gimli was my most challenging but also probably my most rewarding. I loved how he walked around and announced himself as 'Gimli the DORF' (unintentionally, of course).

So have fun looking at them and thank your lucky stars that you’re not as obsessed about Halloween as I am.

I found some other pictures of Halloween past as well. Those I'll post some other time through-out the month.

As you can see from when I posted this I'm not doing to well with cutting back on computer time. So this weekend Prince Erik agreed to help me brainstorm and figure out how I can do better.

Spreading the Artistic Love

Believe it or not there are some people out there who actually take the time to peruse my little spot of blogging ground. I’ve been given a couple of awards and I’m flattered beyond belief. So I thought I’d spread some warm fuzzies and pass these awards onto some of my favorite places to lurk and learn.

The first award was given to me last June by Debi over at Who Says Eight is Enough? . See what a procrastinator I am. She nominated me based on ‘Fawn is an amazing writer and mom and just is inspiring and so creative.’ Wow. I think it’s the first time ever I’ve had three compliments on one sentence. Thank you, Debi for my first ever blog award.

So this little ‘Beaut’ of an award is called the “Arte y Pico” Award. Way back when, and across the ocean blue, it was started at this site.

Someone said it’s in Portuguese, Not sure because my foreign language skills consist of backwoods Idaho - English, a dozen Spanish words and a handful of Danish ones. From what I can tell, the original intention of this award is “dedicated to many who nourish and enrich the spirit and creativity. They see dedication, creativity, camaraderie, joy and above all, ART - much art. I wish that this prize is entertaining to all bloggers who share this space and enrich it a little more each day." ~ Arte Y Pico

The rules accompanying this award are simple:

1. 
   You need to choose 5 blogs you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, or contribution to the blogging community regardless of language.


2. 
   Each award should have the name of the author and a link to her blog to be visited by everyone.


3. 
   Each winner should show the award and put the name and link to the blog that presented her with the award.


4. 
   The award winner and the one who has given the award should show the Arte Y Pico blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.


5. 
   
   
   Show these rules .

So the first recipient of my award goes to LIFE, RIGHT NOW Susanne is the talented mother of two darling munchkins and she expresses her creativity and art through the medium of photography. I happened to know her personally before I ever started blogging and she was one of the main reasons why I’m here today. Ya gotta check out her darling tykes.

Then I can't help but plug Just for Today. Ms. Trenadoll got my nod because she's just so darn witty. Oh, and she's a genius and funny too. I've envied her writing style since I was a wee gradeschooler. I definately am waiting for her to write professionally one of these days. As luck would have it she lived One and a half years in Portugal so this award is aptly placed. Oh, and Trenadoll be sure and translate the award so that I know I'm really complimenting you instead of spewing unintended insults.

Faith of 'Has Anyone Seen My Cape,' shows her creative artistic style through her writing. I’m so waiting for her to get discovered, be offered a book deal and then let me pay her a bucket-load for a signed copy. Several times I catch myself just wishing she would go on and on and not stop. I love her talent for putting two words together and not sounding like some hick like me.

Take a look at Haylee of Live, Laugh, Love, Capture it all… Haylee share’s her amazing creativity through the art of photography. She is a professional photographer but takes the time to blog some of her favorites. The music, the children, the whole feel of her amazing blog makes me want to run barefoot through the grass with my kids. I love, love, love her art and so wish she lived close enough to me so she could capture my family. After visiting her blog I'm often tempted to swing in tree swings and play dress-up with my girls.

My last award goes to Empress of the Home. Mrs. Homemaking Cottage, Creative Mom of Seven amazing kids, Queen of Domestic Craftiness, and so on and so on. When I grow up I want to be just like her. Oh, yea, she’s all that and younger than me too. Her creative artistic style is on full display with the darling things she sews, wonderful food she creates, and sound advice she generously shares.

So check out all these fine, artistic, creative, and dedicated women! If you’re anything like me they will bring a little bit of joy into your life and make you want to be a better person. So spread the love and leave them a comment thanking them for spreading their artistic talents.

I’ve got another award to give out so keep your eye’s peeled over the next couple of days. I promise I won’t wait four months before I pass it along.

What? Me forget Halloween?

No, I haven’t forgotten Halloween! And for those who are just getting to know me you will soon find out how nuts I am over this holiday. Family themed costumes, forcing the kids to sing and dance for their goodies, parties, healthy food. Did I just say 'Healthy' in conjuction with Halloween? See I am a little off my rocker, but in a good way.


I’m going to pull out the stops this year and do both Christmas and Halloween at the same time. They may have to ship me off to the funny farm when all is said and done, but my family will be smashing in our matching costumes and I’ll be able to relax over Christmas.

Yes, I decided on a theme – the boys aren’t too thrilled but are willing to play along as long as I let them foot the bill to buy an extra costume of their choosing for the big night. What me? Complain that they want to spend their money instead of mine? I’m good with that. They will have to wear the theme costume to family involved shindigs though. We are revisiting one of our old favorites and doing the...

So here’s a sneak peek at who’s playing who.

Prince Erik – The Witches ‘Oreo’ Soldier. Watch the Movie they march around chanting ‘Or – Eo’.

Me, Myself and I – Wicked Witch.

My kids might want to be singing the ‘Ding-Dong, The Witch is Dead’ song by the time the end of the month roles around.

Abner – Tin Man

T-Rev – Scarecrow

Evo-man – Cowardly Lion

Lea – Glenda the Good Witch She’s got the golden wavy hair down pat. Won’t even have to try and make her look like Glenda!

Princess – Dorothy

Hope – A Munchkin (what else) She’s got the perfect height and curly hair

Boots & Chilly (Princess’s Build-A-Bear Monkeys) will be going as Toto and a Flying Monkey.

My Halloween goal – To only spend $100 on costumes (all ten of them), handouts, décor, you know the whole sha-bang. And that's it! Not a penny over. I think I can do it. I found a blue and white gingham slip cover ($4.99) at the local thrift store that I’m going to make over for Princess’s costume. And found some great curtains ($2) that when dyed will be perfect for Evo-man’s main costume. I don’t think I’ll have a problem finding material for the costumes that way. Yeah for thrift stores! The main expense will be in accessorizing.

So here’s what I’m doing for my Halloween countdown this week.

1. Pull out and put up Decorations. They are stored under our house and while I'm getting the Halloween boxes out I'm going to go ahead and get out the Christmas lights at the same time. Why waste a trip. I plan on finding a dry nice weather day, after I look at the 10-day forecast, to hang the lights. There’s no way I’m doing it on a rain, ice, snow slicked Thanksgiving Eve again.

2. Start sewing the costumes that I have the supplies for now – this week. I’m going to have to average at least 3 costumes a week to be ready on time. I’ll probably have to turn the dining room into a sewing room for a month, but I’ll try and get some Christmas sewing in as well. If sewing isn't your thing and you can't find what you need at the local thrift store do some internet searching on inexpensive costume ideas. It's amazing what you'll find.

I might have to make November my cleaning month to make up for putting Prince Erik through the dirty house blues.

3. Plan your Halloween on Paper. We are doing a Healthy Halloween again this year.

That means we aren’t buying candy to hand out. See I’ve learned so much over the past two years about family health and I know several children that suffer from diabetes and childhood obesity. I will definitely fill you in on our plans as far as the healthy and non-food alternatives we plan to use. Plus, if I buy the candy, well I’d have to kiss my $100 to Smiley good-bye because I have no self-control around chocolate or any kind of candy for that matter.

Anyway, I’ve got to launder my thrift store finds and unpack some holiday boxes.