wow, it's been a month and a half.

Not so much has happened. I've been prowling the great bargains some of which I will snatch up today and I've been hanging out with the munchkins. We have so much to do to get ready for this winter. Right now the outside temp is hovering around 55ish and it's burr cold inside! Time to get the solar heaters and such up and working. I'm not looking forward to this cold winter by any stretch of the imagination. I messed up my back really bad and wound up in the hospital ER with it...While I hated to go, I could no longer go in that much pain and not be able to walk to the bathroom. I need to do some serious exercising when I start to feel better. I want to get the walk away the pounds dvd back out and start doing it daily with or without anyone next to me.

For now I'm going to lay down and rest....I have to go back into work because they are a bit short handed.

Toodles!

oops I did it again!!!!

Dear My Favorite Grocery Store,

I appreciate the wonderful opportunity you gave us today to use our coupons against your sales to save over 65 percent on our grocery bill…I humbly look forward to getting more food for less money at your location. Oh an please tell your rude manger that I will follow his rules and will still save a fortune!

Sincerest Thanks,
My Family!!!!

So still think I’m crazy????

This is what I got today:

7 – Cheerios (around 10 oz box)
4 – Trix (around 11 oz box)
7 – Coco Puffs (around 11 oz box)
9 – Hamburger Helpers variety
4 – 2 liters of Ginger Ale
1 – Ring Pop (okay so we didn’t really need this)
2 – lunch makers for the trip home in lieu of stopping
10 – Jars of mixed Kroger Peanut Butter
5 – Bag of tortilla Kroger Chips (we love chips and salsa)
6 – boxes of hefty freezer bags (10/10 is a good deal!!!)
4 – packages of Bic Pens 12 packs
4 – packages of Orbits Gum
2 – Pillsbury cresent rolls
2 – Grands Biscuits
2 – Garlic type bread rolls
2 – cinnamon rolls
4 – 2 liters of 7up
2 – sticks of lady’s speed stick!
150.37 total cost before sales, coupons and etc.
97.09 in savings
53.28 total out of pocket expense

in total we bought 77 items for roughly 69 cents each!!!!!

So what do you think now?????

I’m shocked, but challenged enough to do better!!!!
Now moving onto the CVS ad before I fold the laundry. Also need to fix the problem of where in the world to up all the cereal!!!! We already had about 20 boxes b/c IGA had their 3/3 a few weeks ago.

look at this deal....

After seeing Kathy Spencer on the news a couple of weeks ago, she got me thinking. We are a single income family of 4 who struggles and can totally take advantage of the savings and ideas here to help us keep our heads above water.

So I put it to the test….with my bonus from work (I am a fast food manager) we decided to stock up on some paper and some other office supplies at Staples:

on 8/4 we bought a new printer (since it was cheaper to buy new than to buy ink) This one had a fax, scanner and printer all in one for 69.98, this was a lot, but the ink is a lot cheaper and in the long run this will be a savings for our family. (also this one has 4 cartridges and the old one had two, that means that we will get back and extra $2. for the extra two cartridges when they need to be replaced!)
So in this weeks ad, they had the exact same printer in there for 10 dollar less. I called the store and asked them about thier policy, they said to bring back in my receipt and they'd refund the difference.

While we were there we took advantage of some of the other savings in the ad and a clearance item:

computer desk 16.50 (clearance from 69.98) – 1.38 for using my card = 15.12
2 lolly pops (kids were really good in the store) 1.98 – .16 = 1.82
2 calculators (one for shopping one for the house) 7.98 – .66 = 7.32
2 reams of paper (1.00 ea after mir) 9.98 – 7.98 rewards – .84 card = 1.16
2 supreme matt photopaper (1.00 ea w/q) 29.98 – 27.98 – .17 card = 1.83
5 filler papers .01 each = .05
2gb thumb drive (1.00 after mir) 9.99 – .84 – 8.99 = .16
post-it notes (I'm a huge fan!!! HUGE FAN!!!) – 5.29 (free after mir) – .44 -5.29 = .44 profit
ink pins 1.99 – .08 – .99 q from ad = .91
highlighters free after mir = 4.99 – .43 – 4.99 = .43 profit
so basically besides the big purchase of the desk, lolly pops and calculators the biggest total is the tax of 3.83.
They also had a wonderful coupon for $5.00 off if you spent $50 or more….sooo my grand total after I get my rewards back is: 26.33!!!!! And I got a new desk!!!!
Thanks to all of you, you have opened my eyes a bit more!
Frugal mom of 2…..Katy

Can you imagine how excited this makes me! I must admit though, it is hard to do when you don't have the liquid funds. I know that we are going to use the rewards

exciting day.....

So today we bought a new printer, it also has a fax ability as well. Why is this so exciting you ask??? Well now I can print off coupons online, then I can get the points for the coupons and then I can get free gift cards with the points. So now I'm gonna look up some coupons and work on getting some stuff for free. I can't wait to to post my savings.....I want to totally save a ton of money and support my family!

Gonna try something new...

For the next month we are going to catagorize what we spend and keep every receipt!

We'll have to start tomorrow since I'm sure that Duck didn't save his receipts. The purpose: To see what we are spending, what we are spending it on and what we are wasting!!!!

Anyhow, back to my exciting trip to Menards: We went in with the sole intentions of buying the green algea house remover for the north wall of our house. I didn't realize that it was a mail in rebate for the full purchase price! DARN IT. I would have rather have paid the $1.00 for it or something like that. Anyhow, that means that we had to buy 10 dollars worth of stuff. So this is what we bought:

1.00 Gummi worms: didn't need
6.00 Green envy house wash: purpose of going in there
3.97 Dishwasher magic: really need to get this done more often
2.99 potting soil: okay didn't really need but can't find the peat pots and want to start fall
garden
1.78 dry erase makers: so these are one pack for work and one for home....makes my life easier.
5.98 Cuddlies...okay so thinking that these would be cheaper than buying fleece and might be
nice I took the plunge and bought 2 at this price.
0.99 3 pair canvas gloves: will help protect my hands from poison ivy this fall.
1.00 jelly beans: another non-essential
1.69 chocolate cluster - another non-essential but Duck was a good boy in the store!
27.18 is the total with tax
15.00 off from prev mail in rebates
12.18 paying out of pocket
7.78 coming back in mail in rebates

today UM gave us another rebate that he doesn't intend on turning in so that will be another 6.00 coming back to us. I think that all in all, we should have not done all three candies...maybe one or two tops, the dry erase markers will make my life a bit easier, but weren't a necessary item. The dirt, well it is bug free so I can bring it inside. The cuddlies will have to prove their worth, but I think they are going to be a good investment even if they only make it as a blanket and not a robe type thing. So we could have done without 9.67 leaving a total of $2.51 due with $7.78 coming back in credit...Something to think about next time. On a happier note...we are going to buy a printer. This will allow me to print off coupons and take them to local stores to help with the grocery bill. We'll see how well this works I want to do better, get more and share more.

toodles!
me.

What's on your agenda...

Here's my agenda....
After the meeting tomorrow we will be starting upstairs.

1. go through my closet
2. go through Duck's closet
3. go through our dresser (since we share a large on this will take a bit of time)
4. move the folding table out, put the shelving unit in it's place and move the big desk dresser back into our room opposite of the shevling unit.
5. clean up the rest of the room.
6. clean up the hallway, go through the picture frame tote and sort, go through Smiley's future clothes tote, put the the LHM clothes with the rest.
7. finish going through the boys closet, put in the boys bed. Clean the rest of the room
8. go through books on the bookshelf again, purge, purge, purge!
9. remove the border in the livingroom.
10. Go through stuff in side table drawer
11. clean out the couch that eats everything.
12. Deck scrub the livingroom floor
13. Fix the entertainment center
14. scrub crayon off the front door
15. sweep front porch and pull weeds in flower bed
16. clean front porch walls and door including frame
17. clean out filing cabinet
18. put up backing on the kitchen pantry
19. clean off kitchen table, put side table drawer in the kitchen next to boys desks
20. clean out cabinets above fridge
21. clean out cabinets next to fridge
22. clean out cabinets above stove
23. clean out cabinets next to stove
24. clean out cabinets in corner cabinet
25. clean west wall counter tops.
26. clean east wall counter tops
27. clean microwave counter
28. clean out cabinets above sink
29. clean out cabinets above dish washer
30. clean off shelves on south wall.
31. organzie pantry shelving
32. clean out cabinet next to sink
33. clean out all drawers
34. clean off tops of cabinets
35. deck scrub diningroom and kitchen floors
36. move fridge
37. move deep freezer
38. finish laundry
39. move dressers into laundryroom (see the whole idea of this is simple. The clothes get washed, get dryed, get folded and get put away immeadiately. Therefore they don't sit around)
40. clean out the cabinets and clean off shelves.
41. clean out dresser already in there.
42. clean out the cabinet above toilet and sink.
43. clean the walls and ceiling
44. scrub tub, sink and toilet.
45. clean off back porch
46. clean basement walls and shelves.
47. knock down all cobwebs and spray for spiders
48. put up insulation boards and pipes.
49. insulate window sweep and scrub floor

when the money is deposited into our account we will buy

1. stringers for the stairs and put it up,
2. 2 sheets of drywall and possibly insulation
3. paint for the livingroom

the rest will go to bills.

That will cover the inside of the house. I want to scrub the north wall for the algea and clean out the small and large garage. I also want us to get the compost taken care of as well as around the fence.

Well I must go to bed for a few hours, I have to be at work at 9 pmish and work until like 2 or 3.

Tata/

a little work and a long way to go.

we are trying to see how much wood we have. We have cut most of it into pcs that are useable....but we still need to get a log splitter. I'm hoping to have about chords of wood set up. I would love to get my hands on some oak and well I can't remember the other one, but they last longer. they are the harder woods.

I'll have to post more later....I'm going to go to bed. I have to go in early to do some SOC info and then work 2 shifts.....then off for 3 whole day!!!!! JOY JOY JOY!!!

How many clothes do we actually need???

So I posed this questions to my wonderful husband....He's what he has asked for:

3 pr of work pants
4 pr of casual pants
3 meeting pants/jackets
5 work t shirts
5 work long sleeve shirts
3 work sweaters
5 casual shirts
5 casusl long sleeve shirts
5 casual sweaters
2 pr of pj's
10 pr socks
10 pr undies...

So now I need to work on this list for myself an both of the boys.

We have decided to fix the basement stairs, this will mean that once this is done, the deep freezer, washer and dryer will all go downstairs. This will leave plenty of room in the pantry for the dressers to be brought downstairs and put in there. We will also put up hanging lines in the pantry, this will be basically a family walk in closet. All the clothes will be in the same place, and no need to run up stairs to change or whatnot. It will also help the clothes get put away instead of dropped, rummaged through and tossed around by 2 children and then have to be rewashed...AGAIN! We will also be sealing the basement as well as possible and getting the furnace down there. We will be moving all the wood over to the house in October, his will help us put it down the hatch faster and easier.

Well I've got 3 trash bags full of clothes and toys ready for the yard sale. We are doing 2 stack, one for the yard sale and the other for LH. We'll see if we sell anything, if now...it'll all go to friends and FC or LH.

The more you make, the more they take....

wow, so I got my raise and it didn't affect my check, after Uncle Sam got his fingers in it, it was gone. So much for more money coming in. I think that I may change my dependents and remove the extra coming out. Hopefully that will make a difference. Looks like this check is going to go to bills and car gas. Energy usage was 2391 today, we have to change something. I'm thinking we need to shut off and remove the second fridge, we also need to make sure we are shutting off the water heater and I'm thinking we need to purchase one of those solar adjusters for the front porch light with the ability to still shut it off inside. Multiple AC units are going to have to stop also and we didn't really do any laundry yesterday so that isn't a factor. hum...where is the energy sucker at...I'm gonna hurt him!!!!

We are getting a good deal of firewood coming in, unfortunately we don't have a working chainsaw nor a log splitter. We bought one the other day and it turns out that it doesn't cut, hum....a chainsaw that doesn't cut, that's an oxymoron. So Duck is taking it back and we are going to try to get a different one. I'm really not happy with the current outcome and I think that it is very important for the store to give us a full refund, especially since it is less than a week out of the box.

I will be planting a fall crop of broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, cabbage and beans. Yesterday we pulled a bunch of the broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage bases. I want to start building the coldframe and tomatoe cages. I'm wondering if we have enough fencing extra from tearing down the large unused portion of the dog pen. This would be incredibly important in the bean box. I'm going to start rough drafting 14 8x8 boxes and see if I need them all. Assuming that things are still going on track, we will be able to get more production out of our garden next year. That's the goal isn't it, to get better each year.

Okay, I need to go, we start school this year today, we will not have to take off for all the vacations or pegan holidays that the school celebrate therefore we can get out time in at a pace that works for Sunshine and get him moving forward. I've looked at Calvert Homeschool, but I also found a cir. from a school on the east coast, now I just have to find the link in the hundreds of my fav links.

Daily reading

daily reading: 13286

Goal is to have energy usage down to 1600 this week...we have been very bad, but we've been running off the solar and wind mill the past two days for cooling so hopefully that helps.

Okay....so

I have the highest respects for those who lived in "old days" who shelled enough beans to last their families until the next harvest. I think I would need 2 more SETS of hands and a lot more land. We just spent an hour shelling kidney and black beans only to get less than one quart canning jar full. Humm....So i'm going to plant a lot more, let's see what I can get out of it. I always (usually) have a 2 gallon bucket full of mixed beans ready for bean soup, while I don't cook the whole amount it makes a nice mixed bean soup and I throw a handful in when I make beef veggie soup.

I also took JM and AM some yummies, a didn't know what SC would want, but she told me! So tomorrow I have to remember to take some to her. I'm gonna get up in a few, I'm resting my back and work on laundry, the kitchen and picking up the shredded paper mess the boys made. Trust me they are going to help or it will be a long night sitting in the diningroom. I'm going to have them take it out to the compost pile since we have put a bunch of frut rines out there recently and want to even it out with carbons or is it nitrogens..hum gonna have to look that one up. I also got a bag idea that I want to try, I will have to make it to Walmart southside for some inserts.

Okay, I need to scoot, I need to find room in the fridge for the tomatoes and beans.

toodles...

gardening fun.....

by the way, there are new pics posted on facebook...







Well apparently I can't copy my FB post, so you'll have to go there to read it....

So here's the peppers that I picked yesterday, I was hoping the green ones would turn red, I think I'm gonna leave some of them sit out to see what they do. Now I need to get some green bells for salsa and I'm ready to go! I'm going to plant some green beans around the current corn stalks to help with a bean supply, I'm also going to replant some kidney beans to increase what I have now. I must say that I'm a bit disappointed in the amount that we got, but I'll take before and afters to show where we stand. I am happy and feel very blessed with the amount of produciton coming from the garden since I didn't get the tomatoes steaked up and the broccoli was too late to pick. We are looking for a good healthy fall crop and will see what we can do about the cauliflower that didn't produce anything. GRRRR. I also gave up on cucumbers, kinda a waste of time anyway, we don't eat them fast enough and pickles are really cheap, next year will bring better and bigger results with the new layouts, 14 8x8 boxes. We are also going to build our tomatoe cages from scratch.

Okay I really must run, lots to do and little time to do it in.

bummed back

I've been down for a week now with a bad back. I finally went to the doc on Friday thinking that I couldn't make it through the weekend without help and sure enough I couldn't. I missed so many hours this week due to pain.

I wish that Duck could get done with school sooner than later, I really want to do what I'm suppose to do, what I need to do and I can't do that working as much as I am. I can't even get my gardening done, I have so many red tomatoes sitting on the ground it isn't even funny. I lost all my broccoli and I have to harvest my cabbage before I lose it too.

The corn is growing tall and the tasses and hair is coming out.

Well a big storm is coming in and since I have been able to pop my back I need to get stuff done while I feel better.

update...

work has been strenous....I will be very happy in 2 weeks....Super Sat will be over, I will be on vacation. In the mean time I have so much stuff to do.

Garden up date:

I have lost 2 zuchini plants, this is very disheartening. Also several of my tomatoes plants are turning brown at the bases, I will have to investigate and take care of this problem. I've lost over half my kale to some stupid catiplillars.....their eviction orders will be signed tomorrow...I have to get rid of them. I will fertilze and replant the zuch....

Mon and Tue I will be in service all day, working on the garden and getting a packing list together.

I have to go to bed now, it's late and I'm very tired.

new reading....

11217-11158 = 59 kwh or 2107 in the past 28 hrs.

Today was a rough day for me, I really don't know why. More than likely because I had to go back after having 3 days off. I'm also moody today obviously. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day, but hopefully a better day!

daily reading

11158

BEEN A LONG WHILE...

Okay, so Facebook is really cool! I need to remove myself from the games though, there is a time and place for everything and they are consuming my life. I've put posts on there that I'll have to transfer to here to blog spot. Today we planted all the corn, we found a new system in doing it and it worked so incredibly well...none the fact that teamwork played a huge role in it. The only thing that I have left is to plant the onions, peas (which is too late, will have to wait for fall planting), asparagus (this is so very detailed it's not even funny), more strawberries, cucumbers, more tomatoes and more peppers. The squash and zuch is thriving leaps and bounds. I gave my first to SC but found out that she didn't like it so next time I'll give it to someone else. I'm sure that tere are plenty who do like it. I also need to replentish my supply. We mistakenly planted pumpkin in the garden instead of the wood yard, it got pulled today. The black beans are coming up so well it's great, the kidney beans are in too! I also found cherry tomatoes this afternoon. I'll see if Duck can down load my pics. I'm pretty sure that I sprained my right wrist today, and I'm really not sure I know where my brace is. It is hurting something fierce. But work must go on.

Let's see..oh yea my mother died on May 27th, while we knew it could any time, it was expected that she was maintained healthwise and was going to outlive my grandmother. She died of a heartattack in her sleep. I look forward to the resurrection where I'll be able to have a meaningful realtionship with her. Until then and forever I have a wonderful family and a fabulous group of friends.

Duck missed his summer semester signups so he will be home this summer looking for work. Okay well a lot has happened and there isn't enough time to say it all, I'll transfer over my posts as I can, until then this is my journal and I need to do a better job of keeping it up. Below will be a list of stuff we want to get done in the next 10 weeks.

Reroute the dryer (even though we don't use it a lot, it still gets used on rainy days and when put in shower surround clothes need to be unwrinkled)
Get all the wood cut
Get a LOT more wood.
Get funace installed and ready
Get windows sealed
Insulate the basement
Clear out our rooms and get the carpets cleaned
clear off front porch
plant cucu
plant aspar
plant toms
plant peas
plant lettuce
plant onions
start tom's for fall planting
Get boys room set up
Start fall gardening in Aug
Set up hyroponics.
Get lettuce beds started.
Possibly get green house set up.
Get water system set up.
Paint livingrom
work on deck
put up pool
put together solar panels
put up another windmill
purge toys
purge boy clothes
purge mommy clothes
purge daddy clothes
purge dishes
purge backroom
purge basement
purge book shelf

Okay so I think that's enough for now...not sure what is on my other list..but here is a 9 week list. Some impossible due to money, everything else we already have.

So much to do....so little time.

I can't believe how much I have to do and how little time I have to do it in. Tomorrow is the first day back to work for me an I hardly have half of what I wanted to get done, done.

Of this....
Field Service
put all laundry away
move our room around
go through the boys clothes and pull out winter
go through our clothes and do the same.
Take all stuff to goodwill
can veggies, veggie soup, bean soup, chili and possibly beef stew.
wash all the canning jars the are left over
weedeat the yard if possible
plant more veggies if possible
take care of the eggs

Wow, that's all that I got done. (in red) That's not a lot! But I've been so busy.....

Time to try to get more done. I have laundry in right now, I need to do a load of dishes and clean the livingroom first. Then I think that I want to work on my room.

Okay, going to start. Need to get into bed early and get ready for work tomorrow. I'll be so glad when finals week is over.

Toodles

Productive day....

9577 - 9477 = 1840 wph. WAHOOOOO....that's really good considering all the cooking I've been doing, the laundry and dishes getting done. Oh and the yesterday morning I came home really sick, Duck covered me with 2 blankets and I couldn't get warm, he ended up bringing down the space heater to help me. Still high, but seriously not as high as I thought it would be. We really need to get back to shutting off the water heater at night.

The past 3 or so day I've been suffering from moderate to sever headaches, Sunday's was a migrane. It made me so sick that there was times I kept a trashcan handy. Nothing has been able to knock them out besides trying to sleep. The worst part is the light sensitivity to light(I'm sure I didn't spell that right).

We went to the store this morning bright and early, got some stew meat, sausage and beef. I have already canned all the stew beef for veggie/beef soup, next and only waiting on the dishwasher to finish sanatizing the jars is the chili, I think I'll have to do the second batch tomorrow. I will make potatoe soup tomorrow and I'm going to make green bean/potatoe soup also. Poor Kale plant is going ot be naked again. The plants in the garden are doing well, mostly that is. Some of the tomato have fallen over, not sure if it is too wet or they are going to die, we'll see in the next couple of days. I have enough water from the past rain to more than likely fill one of the rain barrels. Duck is going to hook up a hose spigot to it before we dump it all in. Hopefully before Thursday since we are going to have more rain at the end of this week. Time to get the corn, rest of the tomatoes, beans, cucu and peppers into the ground. I'm really happy with the thought that we are going to have too much food, on the other hand I'm nervous that we are not. I can't believe how much beans and tomatoes have gone up at Save-a-lot, it's crazy. When I first started shopping they were 29 or 39 cents per can...now they are 59...R U KIDDING ME? That's high. Yet another reason to plant a big garden.
Okay, it's Tue, guess I forgot to post this....

a great few days...

While not much has gotten done around my house in terms of cleaning perse, we did get a lot done...well Duck more than me.

9477 - 9327 = 1288 - wow that's exceptional. That's even with a new dishwasher and running a ton of laundry and dishes. GREAT!!!!

Duck got the dishwasher put in the stove put in and both wired, the shelves put up in the window seat and the shelving unit upstairs assembled. That's great! I got 30 tomato plants planted, 15 or so beans, 3 zuch, 3 squash, 4 cabbage.

Got a lot of plans this weekend.

Field Service
put all laundry away
move our room around
go through the boys clothes and pull out winter
go through our clothes and do the same.
Take all stuff to goodwill
can veggies, veggie soup, bean soup, chili and possibly beef stew.
wash all the canning jars the are left over
weedeat the yard if possible
plant more veggies if possible
take care of the eggs

Okay
I need to go to bed, I have to get up early.

Toodles.

Today.

What a mostly productive day. Took a 15 min nap that changed my day. I got over 1/2 the garden planted. The only things left are the onions, pleas, cucus, corn, asparagas and peppers. I'm going to plant more beans and tomatoes also when they grow a bit. I didn't make it to the meeting unfortunately. I'm finally getting ahold of this schedule that I'm working. Duck got the wood cut for the shelving unit in the window seat, got the dishwasher unloaded and is working on the wiring and getting it installed, getting the wiring done for the stove, got the screen window put up and helped me a lot in the garden. Have I ever told everyone that I have a wonderful husband. Tomorrow we are going to finish the massive cleaning, we have all the laundry done, it just needs put away and then the det ailed cleaning like the windows, dusting, cracks/creveces...yah know the annoying stuff. We are also looking at purging a lot. Since we have company coming this is as good of time as any. Well 2am comes really really early.Good night all.

YIKES>>>

9327 - 9235 = 7077 wph. YIKES...This has been from the dryer, washer, water heater and dishwasher. I've washed 8 loads of laundry, only 5 made it out to the line, 2 loads of dishes and I'm going to take my shower so I can shut off the water heater.

Well it's time to head to bed, this has been a long and mostly productive day. I want to get all the laundry done tomorrow and get the house finished, we have a guest coming and I want it to look nice.

Toodles.

quick reading and then off to clean some more.

That bad boy is spinning so fast!

9235 - 9175 = 1000 wph. WOW>>>>>>>> THAT'S FABULOUS!!!!!!

Okay, so the water heater thing is really paying off. Okay, now it's time to blow all that good nonusage and clean the entire house, I have about 20 loads of laundry to catch up on. Thankfully it is going to be sunny out, while not that warm the sun will still dry the clothes.

Hopefully I can remember to get a reading later tonight.

Morelater....

tata

been 3 days..

We've spent so much time outside that the inside is so neglected. I did get most of the boys room clean, I need to rent a carpet cleaner and I'll be done. Work has been good. I have so much to get done around here. Some of the garden is planted, most isn't. We bought more stakes and fecning for the garden, I'll get it in this weekend.

i have to get to bed but here is a reading for the past 3 days:

9175 - 9088 = 1130 per hour in the past 77 hrs. that is excellent!

non productive day...

I got to talk to my favorite Amy today, I love that girl she's awsome!. We talked about my fav...gardening, she told me that she was putting one in and I offered her some stuff to start. I really need to work out in the garden, but I really need Duck's help. It stinks having two days off that he has to go to school on. Wed is blown b/c he had BS and I have to go to the store. Thursday is meeting will probably get some things done before and Friday is the end of the week already. These plants cannot wait that long...peroid. We sectioned off the garden today which is what I wanted to do a long time ago and it is off....very off. So I think that I'll fix it somehow, but I'm not going to have as much zuch, squash or egg plant, I'll have to replant when the cabbage, cauli and brocc are done. Hopefully this will give them enough time. I am thinking of building a thing to hold my lettuce plants, that way when you water one they all can be watered a little more by the overflow.

Sunshine came to me today an told me his penis was red, I made him let me look at it, he had a hair warpped, possibly either a hair or fiber. It was white so I'm thinking it could have come from his pullups. not sure, but I'll keep a close eye on it. I may be taking him into the doc if it doesn't get any better by Thurs.

Going to be doing some crash cleaning today, I have a lot of laundry to get done and a lot of laundry to put away, I think that it is time to put all the winter stuff away and start weeding through our clothes. we simply have tooooooo many.

I need to run...got too much to do!

9088-9005=1203 in the past 3 days...that is really really good. We found that turning up the thermostat on the hot water heater is paying a great deal. Yes it uses more electricity to heat up the water initally, but it gets hotter faster and stays hotter longer.

great day...

today I had a great day with all 3 boys. I planted the broccoli and cauliflower that I had, I have to plant a bunch more to get it germinated, this is part of my plan for the stage gardening. I also planted some flowers and over 200 corn plants yesterday. I am sooo happy to report that I have spinach already, it is still small but looks delicious. Can't wait to pick bunches of it and can some and fresh for the rest. Okay, I need to go to bed, no reading today, it's going to be bad anyway, I did laundry and dishes today and have to do it again tomorrow. I want to finish the kitchen and work on the launryroom and the boys bedroom.

Night!
Me.

reading....

9005-8893=1436 wph. That is high for as much time as we have spent outside, but the past few nights have been cold and we have had the heater.

The garden is tilled, the cover is on it, the bricks are laid now we need to set the plants.

I reconfigured the garden to a more accurate amount of land, then we found out that Duck tilled about a foot more. So we are going to line the potatoes and lettuce buckets along the side with the extras.

Okay, well it's time to go to bed, I have a lot to do tomorrow and I have to get up early to go to work...last day of the week...YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

reading...

I'm gonna doa reading and then make a new sketch for the garden as mine has disappeared and then I'm going to clean the house.

8893-8820=1460 wph. not very very good, but okay....

Not all is lost...

I helped Duck finish up his paper today, he had to get to 4 pages and I have a nack for extending the words a bit. We paid the water bill, pulled out money for all the other bills and pay them tomorrow, I also paid the insurance for the next three months. We looked for lawn mowers today becuase ours would not start, neither the rider nor the push. Now my yard is taller than my neighbors and I still don't have a mower to take care of it. I hung 4 loads of laundry out, and maked out the garden. We are extending it to be a true 24x40 Gonna look over the final lay out tonight to make sure that it is going to work and fit. The green beans are starting to wilt a bit, now it is going to be nice on Wed and rain on Thur. I didn't make it out today in FS with the intentions of getting the yard cut and more house work done. I need to run and put the dishes on the wash cycle, I'm going to run all the clothes upstairs and start folding. I will also have the boys clean up the livingroom...just as soon as we are done with dinner. I'm having grapefruit (which is making Sunshine gag and nearly throw up by just eating it, thanks hon) and chili cheese dogs, Smiley will have CCD and pineapples or apples and Sunshine will have nuggets and an apple. Duck has already left for school so this is a good time to get more house work done.

I'll do a reading later probably after we all take showers.

TTFN

reading.....

8820-8786=883 wph in the past 38 hours...ROCK ON! We are going to see a huge jump in this today, going to clean out the frige and get the rest of the laundry done. I think that I want to till the garden but may have to wait until tomorrow. Gotta send of my jury duty thing...I hate the idea. I want to get going so I can weed eat, Dad sent me the new loofah seeds from his harvest.

Later everyone!

WOW......Hoooorah....

Today was a long day at work. I hated it, but it wasn't as bad as the week before.
Today afterwork I went to the store, most of my coupons came in and I used almost all of them. I check out the deals and then I go onto ebay and see if I can find some coupons. All in all today for example, I spent 75 cents for a bag of cheese that normally cost 3.29. WOW! I spent in total 69.21 on over 255 dollars worth of groceries. I got 144 items which made them about 48 cents each. UNREAL! T...hat's awsome.

energy...

8786-8752 = 1478 wph.

Night!

Yet another long day.

Today's reading

8752-8704 = 980 wph in the past two days. It is amazing what shutting the water heater off, not running the dryer and spending most of the time outside does for ones energy usage. Incase anyone hasn't done so, change your fans around. On hot days they should be set to clockwise. This will force the air down and away from your body.

I thought I posted yesterday but obviously I hadn't. I'm so very very very disappointed that it is going to rain tomorrow, mon and tue. Those are my day off.

Starting Wed, I start working 5 days a week. I'm very excited about this. This will give me more time in the afternoon and possibly allow me to go out in FSM another time durning the week. It will also give my family a more stable set structure.

Well going to go, I have stuff to do.
Katy

long long long day..

I'm simply going to give a reading, clean for 30 min, wash my uniform and go to bed.

Reading:

8704-8661 = 1792 wph..wow that's a lot higher! We haven't even been home nor running anything. time to investigate.

On a terrible note...I found out that my deep freezer had been unplugged for some time. everything on top was thawed...thankfully it still had a layer of ice, although squishy...I can now still use it. We went to the goodwill in Ill today, I got some beautiful summer skirts, gonna steal the pattern and make me some more. Then we went to RK and bought strawberries, potatoe starts, blueberries, grapes, pulley for the windmill, I think that's all but not sure. Then we went to Kroger, AutoZone, Walmart and home. What a run for our money. I really miss my SUV.

Okay, gonna go clean for 30 and go to bed.

Night,
Me.

What the what???

8690 - 8661 = 1208...that's awesome.

The memorial of Jesus Christ was amazing..as always. As brought out in Luke 22:19 this is what we are to celebrate.

While this was a wonderful event the news that I heard afterwards was depressing.

All well, life goes on huh? I'm going to bed.

Night.

BTW....

Panels are here, Houston, we have solar panels...well at least they are still in the box. I plan on cleaning the rest of the house (as much as I can do) which will give Duck more time to complete this weeks homework and get started on putting them together. Tomorrow night is the Memorial of Jesus Christ's Death. We will be attending this most wonderful event!

Night...

Long day.......

Well it's almost 9, feel like 7, but Duck has been gone for a while. I need to ask him to help me bring in all the plants since it is going to freeze tonight. I also want to cover the kale. I brought in a bunch of the jars that are still loitering my front porch to be cleaned, some are in the dishwasher now and the other are soaking in the sink. Nothing like cleaning out years old dead spiders to creep someone out. The last of our blankets are either in the washer, on the line or in the dryer. At least I have enough to keep us warm tonight. I will make the beds in a bit and get the laundry put away. I'm still suppose to peel and cook the potatoes tonight. I ordered some coupons off ebay today to take advantage of some of the deal this week.

I guess I'll take the reading since we have shut off the water heater and I only am going to do one more load of clothes before bed. I'm going to go ahead and empty/reload the dishwasher with the dishes that are left, mostly canning jars, I have several the need to be sanatized.

So without further ado....the reading for the few hours today...this is really really going to hurt...

8661-8612 = 4083 wph...

That's rough....

Well at least my dishes are clean, clothes are clean and we are clean.

toddles!

missed a day....

Today's reading will be high so I am going to read it now and then again later.

8612-8575 = 973 ...now that's what I'm talking about!!!! And that is not running on an solar or wind. The K1 heater seems to really be doing the job. Even though it took 25 dollars to fill it up it has lasted for what 4 or 5 days. It will make it through today and more than likely one more night if needbe. I'm thankful to see the temps starting to rise. The is good for starting the garden outside now. I need to weather the plants a bit and then get them into the ground. I will also transplant the lettuce plants, when we looked at them today they are getting really really big. Duck also got the wire rack set up last night. We will finish hanging the lights and get it ready for the hydroponics setup.

I'm doing a bunch of laundry today so I need to get to it. I'm thinking that if it gets over 50 or so I may hang the clothes out. Duck will install the stove after I get the area all cleaned out which will only take a few minutes. I'm going to pull out he bread maker and make some banana bread, and I'll do potatoe soup on the electric skillet. I have about 15 loads of laundry (we are doing all the covers, sheets and pillows since we've all been so sick. I also have to do a few loads of dishes and then I will be bringing in the the canning jars. Okay, well time to get to it. I'll do a reading tonight to see how bad it gets.
toodles..

Katy

Today was fiercesome...

It is amazing how one mistake can set a 2 hour rollercoast ride off track. When one person decides NOT to stay in their freaking position as they should it hurts everyone. One person trying to stock set us back pending more than 4 at one point. Then we had another who was certainly not living up to potential. Why do we want such people to continue to work. If they don't like thier job and they are not going to do a good job, why don't they try to find one that they do like. Life is too short to work at a place that drives your blood pressure up and makes you unhappy. Leave....I say all this and my BP was way up there today. There is nothing worse than seeing a coworker who you are moderately close with struggle so much and not be able to do anything to help. It was like she was drowning and I couldn't even throw her a life perserver. If I had things to do over, I would. It was so hard today because of 2 people.

Today's reading is 8575 - 8548 = 1227..that's more like it!!! yehaaaaaa. 1787 monthly.

Well I'm really excited to report that my lettuce is coming along really really well. I checked on of the pots upstairs and sure enough it was really coming up as it is in the peat pot shoe boxes down stairs.

Well it's time for bed, I have to be up really really really early to go to work and it isn't going to be a fun day. I hate being at work 3 times on Sundays, but it has to happen. I'm really tired, my uniform is in the washer.

I really miss my kiddos...I can't wait for Mon, two day with my family is so close yet feels like soooo far away!
Night
Katy

Menu time...

We are having to go to a menu that envitably we will not follow. But we really need to work on it. We are now living on one income and let me tell you, it isn't much. With savings and my check we will do good to cover our basic bills.

8548 - 8407 = 41 or 1413 wph. bringing monthly to 1846 wph.

Thur L - Grilled Cheese
4-1 D - Speghetti

Fri L - PB & J
4-2 D - HH, Veg, Pot

Sat L - Ramen, Fruit
4-3 D - Beefstew

Sun L - Coney Dogs
4-4 D - HH, Veg, Pot

Mon B - Pancakes
4-5 L - Mac & Cheese
D - Stir Fry

Tue B - Oatmeal
4-6 L - Soup
D - Ckn dump, pot

Wed L - Ravoli/Sandwich
4-7 D - HH, Veg, Pot

Thur L - Grilled Cheese & Fruit
4-8 D - Slsbury stk, veg, pot

Fri L - Sandw. or PB&J
4-9 D - HH, Veg, Pot

Sat L - Ramen, Fruit
4-10 D - Chkn, Veg, pot

Sun L - Coney Dog
4-11 D - HH, Veg, POt

Mon B - Pancakes
4-12 L - Mac & Cheese
D - Chicken Mush

Tue B - Oatmeal
4-13 L - Soup
D - Pizza

Wed L - Ravoli/Sand
4-14 D - HH, Veg, Pot

I alloted weekly 5 for breakfasts during the week, poptarts, cereal, waffles or toast. I'm going to use what I have in the deep freezer first.

I am also so happy to report that the lettuce has come up and the cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli is coming up. I've made lettuce beds out of older mini totes. We are not putting the lettuce in the garden so we can use the room for more tomatoes and beans. I want to can 50 or 60 pints of salsa this year...perhaps I wil do it by the quart instead since we do eat it a lot. I'm so looking forward to the garden florishing this year.

The house is staying nice and warm, infact I think that it is time to turn the K1 heater off. It's time for bed anyway.
3 for chicken nuggets and 5 for small pizza. bringing the montly total to 264.06

Well I need to run, it's late.

Long day...

Not a whole lot to say, It has been a long cold, rainy day. Energy reading for the day is:

8507 - 8476 = 1550, that's excellent! If we can keep this up maybe we can get down to the 1650 for the month. Current running mo. total is. 1833...not sure if it is possible.

It is very cold, yucky and windy outside. I hope that Duck brings in the heater soon.

Well it's off to meeting tonight....
toodles.

okay day!

On my way to work I was started to the point of physically shaking. I was stopping at the light, it only takes a bit to turn green since it is that early in the morning. When I saw something out of the corner of my eye, someone was within feet of my car door. At 3:50 am, who in the heck is walking on the highway. I left early because we were dead. When I came home I slept for about 3 or 4 hours. I was very very tired as I am now. I need to do my bible reading this evening or tomorrow if I leave early. We cleaned up the rest of the garden and now are ready to till. We even cleaned up the back patio, swept it off, moved things around and picked up the old pots. I've decided that I will NOT be putting the lettuce in the garden. I've got the cutest little pots for them.

8476 - 8436 = 1429 wph. Wohooo! YIPEEEEEE> good job us..that is really good. I'm sure it won't last, but let's see.

We'll I'm exhausted, night!

The day is beautiful...

Smiley is laying beside me fighting sleep, he is so tired he couldn't walk straight outside. Sunshine built a brickman (yah know a man made bricks not snow). I think that the cops stood us up. They still haven't showed. Duck is missing yet another day of school, he is still hacking up a storm and has little voice. *GRIN FROM EAR TO EAR* Okay it isn't that great he is cranky. I hand tilled about 1/6 of the garden today. We are still going to have to get a tiller since we are tilling new soil this year. The boys kept pick up the wiggles (worms) and putting them into the compost bin.

I think that todays reading is going to blow us out of the water. I'm not sure that we can recover it this month. So far in 18 hour it is 8436 from 8402 which is 2125 per hour, I haven't ran but on load of laundry and no dishes. It was really cold last night inside house. We ran the space heaters all day and night and all morning. I don't think that the one in our room shut off, I'm pretty sure it has a broke temp thingy. We need to replace it this year. Duck also left the water heater on all night.

The lettuce, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are peaking their heads out. I'm so very excited!!!

Okay gotta run...

what a day...

Okay so the sheriff should be here in the morning, we are still in aw over the fact that something that pathetic was stolen.

Todays reading is:

8402-8334 - still really high.. 2833 wph. monthly running total is 1919 kwh. We really need to bring this down, we were avg. around 1666. The heaters have been on a lot today, it was in the 40's all day and rainy. We ran the dryer a bit to keep it warmer. I'm really thinking that the K1 idea may work as long as Sunshine's asthma can take it. This month it is just going to have to be high. Until the weather breaks and I can hang laundry outside and not run the heaters.

Well I'm heading off to bed, I'm going to be up early cleaning so the boys can not follow me around messing it up.

One would never believe .....

So I read in the paper last week that there has been a lot of theft going on around my town. I'm not sure if I blogged about it or not, but low and behold...today we had to call the police dept. It appears that we were victims of the thief. Right when Duck found the motivation to put my wire shelf up so I could bring my plants in we realize that the wire shelf is gone. Okay, so I know what you are thinking...don't worry it went through my mind too. Who is their right mind...or left for that matter, would steal a wire rack? We bought it at the hardware store and paid about $60.00. We looked all around the entire house and garage for over an hour. So I decided that since they said there was a lot of unclaimed property, I'd call and just ask, even though it sounded absurd. So when I talked to the sheriff they said they'd have to call me back. So they finally called me back after the officer working on the case found my wire rack. Can you believe it? They stole my wire rack....hum what is this world coming to. So as I type this I wonder if my blue tooth hands free set is still in the truck along with the mp3 player that had all of our songs on it and the inverter to make it play on the radio in the car. Come to think about it the power converter should also be out there. So Duck has gone out to look so we can contact the police in the event that we are missing this stuff. I can't belive this...we felt like we lived in a close community, but had no idea that we were victims until it was time to finish the project. Duck said that it was all out there, they must have stole the rack probably thinking that they were getting something different.

Okay it's off to fold more clothes we are rearranging rooms until Duck needs to take a nap, he's lost his voice and is fizzling out pretty quick.

toodles..

Oh my!

So it has been a long day for being so short! Sunshine cried out in his sleep I bet every half hour or so. I finally woke him up and asked him if he was okay, he said, I fine mommy and went back to sleep only to keep it up. He had a breathing treatment before bed and did fine for most of today, he needs to take another one.

Today it was 61 deg in the main part of the house...burrrrrr. I turned on both space heaters and the dryer this morning, it quickly got up to 70 and I shut the all off. We are going to get K1 tomorrow incase we need it later this week. We also drained the water heater to see if it had crud in it. I'm fustrated that we didn't use the water instead of letting it run down the drain, but with how our hook up is, we had no pressure to make it go upstairs...therefore no choice. While it was slowly draining we went into the hardware store to pick up the shower surrond we saw on sale. While it wasn't what we wanted, it was the right price and only needs to last 2 years. We are going to put an actual shower in when Smiley gets older. I really want the one with the seat, but we can always buy a seat if we need to. I enjoy sitting while trying to shave my legs...when I actually get the privacy and time to shave. While there we did pick up a watt meter, plumbing for the sink that is leaking, a chop saw for the energy project wiring for the electric stove. We were looking at a convection oven, but it just didn't make sense, the oven will be up this week. I couldn't believe how much wire was, it is stupid. We also bought a motion sensor switch for the boys room, so tomorrow we will be rearranging again. I think that when Duck goes to school I will work on the boys room.

We are pretty sure that there is no money unemployment for Duck therefore we will be living off my wages alone. Time to get back up to 40. We have worked out some things to help us including the food aspect of growing our own, possibly buying a pig when we save or half a cow. For those who are sitting there with a puzzled, bewildered look on their face, we would buy them from the butcher already taken care of. We just need another deep freezer and have no budget for it. Something else that we will have to save for.

Today's reading is 8334-8280 = 2250! Wow that's still really high, but it can't be worse than having the gas heater on. We didn't get the solar heaters done this season, I'm hope to add those to our list for this summer...the list is getting so long. Duck will more than likely not be able to be finished with school this winter, more than likely next spring.

Well I've gotta go back to work....
toodles

today.

8280-8229 = 2125 wph. YIKES. that is getting bad. Monthly total so far 8280-7803 = 1807 wph. That is really high, but considering the fact that we are using the space heater a LOT, especially since we are all sick, I guess that isn't bad. We did just get a notice from the elect. company about a rise in our energy bills. That stinks..

We also paid for our hotel room for the convention. I'm feeling a lot better than I did at 5am. I thought I was going to be sick. That seems to be going around work also. I hope to find a rid tomorrow. We are putting up the entertainment center to move the TV, we will move the old TV upstairs, the TV in our room to the boys room and the TV in the boys room to the garage to be given away.

I want to put up the rack upstairs for the plants today. This way we can up the new plants on them and get them going well again.

Gotta run, need to get some things done. We are also looking at bringing in the keroscene heater for the next couple of nights.

Indiana Labor Law...

Are employers required to provide breaks to employees?
Indiana state law does not generally require employers to provide rest breaks, meal breaks, or breaks for other purposes to adult employees. Minor employees (under 18 years of age) who work six or more hours in a shift must be given one or two breaks totaling at least 30 minutes. These breaks may be taken at any point during the minor's shift. Indiana Administrative Code 610 IAC 10-3-1 requires break logs to be maintained by the employer to document all breaks provided to minor employees.

Certain other categories of workers, such as airline pilots, truck drivers, and workers covered by a union collective bargaining agreement may be entitled to mandatory breaks under other applicable regulations or by contract. Check with the appropriate regulatory agency or with your union representative.

http://www.in.gov/dol/2345.htm#B4 <----website it came from..



Question: When must breaks and meal periods be given?

Answer: The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require breaks or meal periods be given to workers. Some states may have requirements for breaks or meal periods. If you work in a state which does not require breaks or meal periods, these benefits are a matter of agreement between the employer and the employee (or the employee's representative).


http://webapps.dol.gov/dolfaq/go-dol-faq.asp?faqid=317 <-Department of Labor webiste

I'm so sick of people talking out of their ears...when they have no idea what they are talking about. We are only required by law to give meal breaks to those who are minor....and there goes the smoke breaks...they aren't required by law. Now if they want to move to a state that allows it they can find those facts on the DOL.gov website.

I love it when I'm right, while that doesn't happen often, I'm right about this!

Me.

It's Friday...

Today I should be happier. I have the next 4 days off. I planned on going to the assembly but we are all sick with that stupid cold/virus thing. The boys are still really congested. Sunshine is now running a fever, he woke up yesterday crying for a treatment, he was having troubles breathing. 8229 in 47 hours makes it 1382 wph. That's awsome! I've gotta get ready for work, I certainly hope that when I come back after my 4 days off that everyone is healthy. This is not fun, all 4 of us are sick. I've slept for about 12 hours straight and still feel like I could sleep another 8.

On a side note we found an amazing deal on a tv last night. We weren't going to buy one, but this was worth it. Now we will have to find an entertainment center for it.

Well just got home from work and I need to look up some things. There are those who think they deserve more legally than they do...or at least the last I looked.

I also found something out that was interesting. The first admendment is regarding the government. No one can say something that is against the government that implies injury, but as far as freedom of speech, that doesn't apply someone is say on a job. They can be told not to speak about certian topics, or a certain way. One of the other mgrs is taking a political science class and this was covered in the past week.

So I'll print off what I can find.

toodles..Katy

Didn't take the reading last night...

So here it is 36 hours later.

8164 today 8095 last time. 1917, that wasn't as bad as I thought. I thought it was going to be much higher. I did 2 loads of laundry, 2 loads of dishes, ran the space heaters and hot water heater. Today we plugged in the solar/wind backup, we'll see how long it lasts, and how much it will help us.

Gotta run, I want to take a nap before I have to go back to work.

long day...lots of energy. :(

Daily reading was 8095 YIKES Oh my, that is really not good.

70kwh 2917 wph.....oh my, oh my, oh my.

We had a mgr meeting today, this next week is going to be interesting. Today the store was late getting opened, the mgr was really really late. I really wish the openers would have called me.

Okay, I need to go to bed, it's late.

night...

Third time is the charm...

That is how many times I clocked in and out at work today...I certainly hope that this isn't every Sunday...Although I really enjoy being able to go to the meeting here in town and would do what I can do to make that happen. I'm really pleased with the meeting today, Br. S did a wonderful job!

I'm feeling very under the weather. I picked up some more cough drops, vit C drops and some cough drops for the baby. There isn't any cold medicine that I can give him, he is either underweight (which is what our doc said is most important), under age or both. So for now it will be breathing treatments, motrin/tyl. switch, vit C and rest. Speaking of rest...time for bed.

Night!

Yet another long day....

So I opened this morning. NO one called me to tell me that I didn't have a prep person, D said that she didn't have my number nor access. To top it all off, another mgr changed thier schedule totally screwing me. The deal is simple, if I get to leave for my meeting, I can come back and help during truck. If I don't I have to drive nearly an hour away and can't come back for truck. I thank B and D for helping me make it to my meeting...I only wish that other mgrs would help out.

I'm getting sick, my throat hurts, my chest hurts and I am exhausted. After tomorrow I will have worked 46 hours this week...not my idea of fun. While we need the money but don't I really would rather not work that much, it makes for little time for my faith and my children. The baby is still sick, he is cought, well both of them are. We started breathing treatments to help break up the stuff in their lungs. One is crashed out and the other seems as if he is going to. I took a few hour nap today, thankfully! The time change has screwed everybody up in one way or the other...mine is sleep.

I'm really really really sad about my plants, it has now been determined that it was the children who used scissors to cut the plants for some unknown reason. They are nearly a total loss and I will have to start over tomorrow. I will use the peat pots again since the germination time is nill.

We have decided that as long as I use the gym, I can sign up. This will be a month to month thing. As long as I still go, I can keep paying the dues.

Daily reading is 8025.. That's 41 kwh or 1708 wph. better!!!! It was cold today so the heater was running and the dryer a bit. It is vital to keeping the usage down by turning off the water heater off...

Well I must go, I need to go back to work in about an hour...not sure how long I will be there.

Horrible day...

Well, the car isn't fixed, the day was so long at work, it was so bad it isn't even funny. Why are we forced to settle for substandard?

Christian is getting worse, he is still funning a fever, he is even more cranky, his eyes are reddened, he is stuffy, coughing and conjested. Poor little guy. Time to do the humidifier stuff. I think we will give him a treatment in the morning...speaking of which, the time change is today, I need to hurry and get my stuff done...

07984 tonight's reading...OUCH! -7890 94kwh in a day... 3916 watts per hour. Okay, so let's face it, we have been heating the house with the dryer and space heaters, it is going to be high. That leaves our 4 day average at around 1885 per hour. which isn't really bad, but isn't good either. We will work on this...

ON a more sad note, apparently my plant hating cat had gotten into my bedroom, he broke and chewed up all my starts, they are all now trashed and I have to start over tomorrow. The good new is that the peat pots only take a week or so to germinate. We will put the shelving unit this weekend, install grow lights and start nearly completely over. I was happy to see a few of either cauliflower or broccoli had made it, but that was probably it besides one of the green bean plants.

This was Sat post.....forgot to hit the publish post button.

oh what a long day!

I worked 7am to 4:40 pm. I'm exhausted! Then I come home and Smiley is running a 102 fever. If it wasn't that he is happy and moderatly energetic for a 3 yr old with a fever, I'd be worried. Poor little guy has goose bumps on his body that is radiating so much heat. Last night he work up at 5ish....

Smiley: Mommy, where's my blanket?
Mommy: getting blanket, he you go baby.
Smiley: Mommy, where's my Clifford?
Mommy: I don't know (turning on cell to have a small light), did he fall on the floor?
Smiley: There's my Clifford. (Tucks Clifford in and snuggles up to me)

Then there was silence for a moment (and I mean only a moment)

Smiley: Mommy, what are you doing?
Mommy: Honey, mommy is sleeping, she'd tired...please go goodnight.

He stayed awake, but laid there quietly until I left for work, I asked Duck to crawl up next to him so he'd feel more comfortable to sleep.


Okay, so work was long, tiring and quite frankly I didn't want to be there today. I was tired from being up all night making sure that Smiley was okay, covered up and at the end of my horrible sleep..quiet. I'm just plain tired.

Our energy usage has seemed to go down a bit...from 7890 to 7935...that is 1875 per hour which is still high, but all in all not bad since we have been running the dryer all day and the space heater a bit to keep the inside a bit warmer since the baby is sick.

Well I need to go, I want to pick up the livingroom and then get my uniform washed and get ready for bed.

Night.

It's meeting night...

reading is 7890...that is bad, that means 56 kwh, that's 2333 per hour.

Yikes....that means that leaving the water heater on all night and the electric skillet (major mistake) was a horrible mistake in terms of energy usage. The only difference was the florscent light was on all night but that doesn't draw hardly any wattage.

Okay...time to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Gotta get ready for the meeting.

toodles!
Katy

One of many....

wonderful, beautiful days outside with the munchkins.... It was so nice we took the boys outside to clean up the yard. The boys took it upon themselves to clean up all the sticks in the play yard and we worked on the two holes that Duck fell into. Apprently we have a well established mole running around...his holes are big enough to knock a grown man over and for my 3 yr old to sit in. NOT GOOD. I dumped last years potted soil on top of them and stomped for a bit. We also covered compost number one with one bucket of soil and will put a black tarp over it. Tomorrow I will buy worms on my way home to throw into the new compost bin. We will also put the rest of the straw into the new bin and keep rolling it. We are going to pull up the fences and start putting in sections privacy fencing. I asked Duck if we could buy a new patio suit and he agreed that the one we saw would suit our needs and was reasonable enough. I will get rid of our old one in exchange. He is also building me a cold frame either this evening (he thinks he has enough stuff in the garage) or this weekend when we can pick up the rest of the stuff. We are going to hand till the garden unless we can find someone to do it really cheap. I want to get the ground covered laid and get the beans and tomatoes into the ground. The beans are growing so fast I can't keep them inside much longer. I was thinking about doing one of those topsy turvy things, but I am not so sure about how well the beans will grow in there.

Well I need to run, we have the windows open so the fresh air can come in and I will make sure that we have laundry to dry tonight to warm the house back up when it cools down too much. It is currently a nice 70 degrees inside the house with the window fan sucking in some much appreciated fresh air.

I think that I read the meter really wrong yesterday the reading should have been 7803 not 8803. Today's reading is 7834 which means in one day we used 31 kwh which breaks down our hourly average is 1292 watts per hour...that is really really good. Usually we run about 1666 per hour.

Okay...gonna shred some paper and get it ready for compost.

Toodles.!
Kate

And the hits just keep coming....

Let's just say that I'm very happy it is getting warmer. I do hope that the warmer temps keep coming..to a certain degree of course. I'm thinking that we are going to start beaking the ground up tomorrow and Thursday. I would like to see the three tomato plants that are big go into the ground with the protective covers. As soon as I figure out how to get my pics uploaded, since my phone is giving me trobles I will post the latest pics of my plants. They are getting really big. We are going to be looking at a wood furnace addon coming up. Most of any of our free time will be spent this summer either tending the garden or cutting up wood.

We are going to be doing daily meter reading...to see where we are at. This will also help us keep track of how much our bill is going to roughly be. Normally we are around 1200 kw per month.

Todays reading is 8803. I am also running the four biggest energy suckers at the same time :(. The dryer is keeping the house warm, the washer is keeping the drying running which is keeping the house warm, the dishwasher is cleaning the dishes and the hot water heater is keeping the water hot for the dishwasher. Since I was in cold it isn't running more for the washer. I will do my best to keep it running less but keeping the house confortable and chores done.

Well I need to get going, I have to make sure my uniform is clean, my keys are somewhere I can find them and I need to take a shower before we shut the water heater off for the night.

Toodles.

What a bad day..

So we thought we found a lawn mower for $100. too go to be true right...we it was. The lady said that it was a newer one, it was much older than she said, it was also about an hour away. On the way there we got lost and had to turn around and the truck started giving us trouble. It feels like the axle or bearings are shot. It was a scary trip home with a trailer. Good thing we didn't have the mower with us. Now we spent more money driving there, and have to fix the truck immeadiatey.

Now the truck is broke, we didn't get the mower and wasted all day and didn't get stuff done around the house. We will have company in the morning and now I'll have to be up all night getting ready and finishing up what I needed to get done today.

One a lighter note Duck hung the door on our bedroom, I will get the dished done tonight about a bunch more laundry. At least that will b...e something. I also want to mop the livingroom, it could use it again.

All in all it was a crappy day.

busy, busy, busy....

So obviously I have been really busy lately. We have picked up A LOT of things for various projects around the house. We are getting going on those tonight and get a few done this week. Hopefully that rain will stop by Tue and I can go out into the garden and do some hand tilling. Wed I hope to build the cold frame and get the lettuce plants under them atleast. The beans are growing by leaps and bounds. I have also taken down the sorting table that I had all the starts on, it seemed as if they got a lot more sun when they were all on the table next to one another. Also the beans got a lot more sun.

I still have yet to clean all the canning jars that we bought, just haven't had the energy or the time. That is my biggest goal for this weekend. I also want to get the rack up, the grow lights mounted, the shelf moved from the boys room, get our bed moved, get the 220 times installed, get the bedrooms completely cleaned, ALL the laundry done, the front porch cleaned off and yard and start on the basement. We have an apt on Tue afternoon and I'm going into FSM tomorrow.

Last night we found some killer deals at Wally World. $3.00 for a pack (6 and 7 per pack) of boys undies...okay so what's the bid deal right? They were 6 per pack before the clearance. Sunshine will not need undies for a couple of years. Today I bought some of those topsy turvy things, I'm disappointed in the fact the they don't come with seeds. How much do seeds cost really? Worse than that..I can't find any seeds for strawberries. So in the one that is suppose to be strawberries, I will put leaf lettuce and the one that is for tomatoes I will put some roma's in. On another note I did see that Lowes has asparagus, which I'm really surprised. It was a good price, but it just takes so stinking long for those to grow it is unreasonable. Work has been fun, Sat we were busier than I have ever seen, or we were just so short handed we felt it! All in all it has been going a lot better for now...not sure how long that will last.

Well it is off to cleaning and purging, I'm sacking all the stuff that needs to go and getting rid of it to those who need to take it. I also am going to start sorting the boys present bags for the convention. I've been buying misc here and there, toys that are on clearance, puzzles, playdoh, crayon etc...stuff they'll enjoy.

Hopefully I will have more tomorrow!

Katy

Today...

Well I'm on my third batch of bread. Tomorrow I'm going to make some for a diabetic neighbor and then I think I'll make some more banana, some cranberry and then some chocolate chip. Yummy! I didn't have to work today. I have a huge stock pot of chili on the stove right now. The house is sitting warmly at 81 which means that we will freeze tonight when the temps drop back to normal. I really need to consider pumping some of the heat upstairs...Okay...now that that's done and the soup is stirred the baby has awoke from a short nap. His fingers must be asleep and tingling, he is upset but doesn't want to be touched. He keeps trying to pull his fingers down and then he cries...poor guy. Sunshine is FINALLY getting his adult tooth in from where it feel out two years ago. YIPEEEEEEE. That really does explain a lot for him this past week, including the fever that just came on and went away quickly without meds.

Tomorrow after work we are heading into town to get a shelving unit. I have also learned that my hydroponics idea is not going to work, so it is back to plan B. Hey atleast I had one right? I still wondering if the pea gravel is going to work, I'd rather not buy hydroton if I don't have to. The beans are so big that they are climbing, I had to run to our little hardware store and buy some dowel rods. Hopefully they will keep until I can plant them safely. I think that I may start the hoop house over the bean area that way I can directly plant after a week of warming them up. Since I'm planting 60 bean plants I really want to get started on getting them transplanted so I can reuse their containers. And since I'm stage planting this helps as well.

I just tried the strawberry bread..not to bad. Probably not something I'll make often, but it has a good taste. I really want some blueberry, but the prices are so high. I will have to catch them when the go on sale. My last batch of muffin/bread is in so I will get the kitchen all cleaned up, or as much as I can do tonight and then start folding clothes and getting ready for bed. I'm sorta tired but not so sure that I'm tired enough to go to sleep. I took a very short nap this after noon from pain, but it was enough to make it go away. It seems that everytime I lift something well....let's just say that my incision is still ripping from time to time and it isn't pleasant.

Well it's off to stir the chili and unload the dishwasher and change the clothes over and lay my clothes out for tomorrow and stir the chili again and get the livingroom picked back up....well you get the picture!

Toodles
Katy

Ahghhggrrr

It has been snowing (flurry) since 4 am. Yes 4 am, that is what time my day started. It finally stopped moments ago, it will be really nice to see spring. I can hardly wait.

We got our electricity bill today. We used 1231 kwh last month...that's a lot for us expecially since we haven't been running the electric heater. That avg out to be 1769 watts per hour. OUCH. We will see where we can cut. I know that if we don't have more sunny days the solar panel doesn't do anything for us durning the winter. I think that shutting the water heater off more will certainly help. We are also looking to install motion sensor lights upstairs (that are really awsome) that we will get from the local hardware. They are a bit expensive but as long as they save us some money since the boys are not shutting the lights up.

On a happy note Smiley woke up in the middle of the night to use the potty! YIPEE....this is a great step!

Well I need to put all the clothes away that I folded last night and finish washing the bed sheets!

Toodles!

So far...so good!

Today I was very happy to go into service this morning. I was a good day. When I came home Duck was doing his homework the boys were playing so I started the dishes, started the laundry and then started on the netty pots. I used the yogrut containers from work that they toss and a soldering iron. I hope that this will work, I have a few more pots to do so I can put them in the tote. Tonight I will mix the nutrient solution and let it set overnight.

I transplanted most of the beans and sunflowers into bigger pots. Tonight I will plant some more beans and tomoatoes. I'm thinking about starting them out in bigger pots, I know for certain that next year I will be starting earlier and in bigger pots. I think that I'm going to be behind.

I went ahead and planted a few more tomatoes and broccoli. Tomorrow after work I will create an inventory of what I need and what I have. I will go ahead and plan as if I have the lettuce in the garden, if the hydroponics system is functioning (the one outside) by then, I will replace with tomatoes since it is best to grow cabbage and tomatoes together to cut down on cabbage worm.

I got a LOT of laundry done tonight, I will put it away and head to bed. I have to be up early so I need to hop to!

Night!
Katy

Another Blah Day.....

Nothing really new here. I'm really happy to see some more seedlings from 2.8 growing well under the grow light. I am excited to get the new lights up to introduce more plants. Duck picked up the pea gravel tonight so that is a start on the hydro systems. I am very interested in trying the system out this weekend, I really just needed the motivation to get it done. I also am trying to go out in service in the morning, I wanted to this morning unfortunately I woke up too late to get ready. I think that I'm going to take my shower tonight. The boys have been ruthless today, they have been fighting and screaming. We are working with the baby, he loves to scream all the time...sadly this is one of the signs that Sunshine showed when we first thought about ASD. While I don't think that this is a possibility, we are working hard on getting this behavior changed. Smiley is very affectionate and very strong willed. It is amazing to see the two when they see the sunflowers that they planted growing, like kids in a candy store. Well it's time for bed, I need to get up in the morning and try to get my shower done tonight. Another lazy day, not a lot done, but a dent in the chaos of our lives!

Toddles!
Katy

By the way, the one in the 2 liter is an experiement, I started it out on the 8th as a tomato plant, it has grown really really well!

Here is another pic of the lot of them. I am very excited at the beauty that Jehovah allows us the pleasure of witnessing.

Planting spurt..

The first planting took place on 1/25 or 26th I can't remember but I have it written down on the popsickle sticks that I used to label each plant, the second was on 2/8 and then the third today. I have some pics that I'm downloading right now. I'm trying to get my hyrdo system up, hopefully we will get one up this weekend. I'm lacking the following...netty pots, gravel and fertilizer. Miracle grow is the cloest thing that I can find right now at 20-20-21. I'm going to have to try it atleast. If it doesn't work then I will use that mixture to water the rest of my plants, clean the items and then order some from the internet. I really rather not do that, but I will. I have found a system that I really want to try, it seems the best for my needs for inside the house. So I would like to let everyone know right now and finally, my hydroponics system if for vegatables ONLY nothing illegal which I've been asked if that is what I'm doing. Hello! If I were doing something illegal would I post it? Would I spread info about it? Nothing is further from the possible truth. We are very excited at the possibility that we will be able to eat fresh lettuce year around. Here is one of the systems that I'm going to be trying..I'm really looking forward to seeing the results: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHiKKuAanyE&feature=related

Okay...so I really enjoy planting. I've read that Farmer's Almanac in parts that pertained to our area. I've leared a lot of useful info and we will be getting material for the cold frame which I hope to have pics of this weekend. (my work weekend) if we get them done that is!

Next it is locating a tiller...hopefully my neighbbor comes home soon :) If not we will have to either pay someone to come out and do it or rent one.

On a funny note I hurt myself really bad last night...in my sleep. The funny part is doing something that I hate to do...yoga. I was dreaming that I was doing yoga, which is really odd, then I felt a HUGE sharp pain and quickly woke up in a yoga pose. I pulled the muscle in my sternum and I would like to say, it hurts REALLY BAD.

Okay, I hope that you enjoy the pics, the youtube video and if you get bored...go to youtube and type in hydroponics. On a side note, it would be good to stay away from those referring to marijuana. There is some wonderful info and check out the verticle gardening ones too, they are really cool!

Night, Kate

A bit better today..

I feel a bit better but I still feel this heavy burden on my shoulder..not sure what it is or how to explain it. In the mean time I think that I will do more reading in the society provided material on family and children. I plan on going out into service both days this week as long as it is atleast nice.

On a lighter and much happier note...I would like to propose a question...What does $50.00 get you? Late last night I saw an ad on Hoosiertopics.com for 200+ canning jars..make an offer. I stated all I could give would be $50.00. They even delivered them to us today..now my front porch is covered with canning jar...guess what I'm doing tonight? Yup...cleaning jars. This also means that I will have enough this summer for all my tomatoes, peas, corn and beans. YUMMY, and oh so exciting...

Gotta go..toodles~

Working upstairs today....

We moved all the plants upstairs, I'll try to post some pics if I get them. I'm really rather depressed today at some news I rec'd. I really hate it when people degrade my parenting. Last time I checked they were my kids, since they aren't abused and they aren't bad children. We don't have conventional teaching as most in the day in age. We don't do anything without our children and again we are told that's wrong. (well there is only one thing that we do without our children...but to keep this G rated, it is left up to mommy and daddy time) Why is it wrong? Why would we have children if we didn't want to spend time with them? In 12 yrs Sunshine will be 18 and will be off doing his own thing...infact I probably don't have to wait that long, I'm probably looking at 9 or 10 yrs....why waste a minute with them now?

Okay, today was a bad day. I am still really upset and not sure how to approach it. While I think that I will ride this one out, in the mean time I'm not sure what to do or think. I'm really tired, my eyes are sore and hurt so bad. I am just dumbfounded.

This afternoon we cleaned the spare room and set up the plants inthe window, they perked up today so I'm thinking it will be good lighting for the starts and the hydroponics. Now I just pray the boys leave the plants alone. I will put in a grow light so that I can have the 16 hours that they want. We will go get the tubing for the hydro systems this weekend (mon or tue since I work in retail). I think that I have enough buckets to start and I will order some offline as well since I want to use the right mesh pots. If I can grow all my own lettuce that would be great! That will free up a LOT of room in the garden to plant more tomatoes. We are also going to build a hoop coldframe.

Goals/Plans for this weekend (done by Tue)

Fold and do all laundry tomorrow (fri)
Finish up boys room (Sat)
Laundry Room (Sun)
Kitchen (Mon) Hydro system
Livingroom/Hall (Tue) solar stuff

Okay I need to go, I see a shower and motrin in my very near future...

Me.

ye-ha!

First of all I really want to say that I'm so happy that my adorable kitty came home. I really missed him, he shows me affection when I'm just sitting doing nothing and the boys get a big kick out of feeding him and opening the door for him to come in or go out. He is a wonderful member of our family that will never be able to be replaced!

The Ye-Ha...I bought some coupons off the internet the other day...off ebay. They were for those totino's pizzas. The local little store had a special 5 for $4.00. That means that they were 80 cents each which is a huge savings from even save-a-lot or Walmart at 1.25 each. Then...with my coupon I saved $1.00 for every 3 that I bought, which means that if I bought 15 then I would save $5.00 off the $12.00 bill leaving a difference of $7.00. This would have made each pizza only 47 cents vs the reg price. Over all I'm very pleased with my coupons and savings...

Today was a rough day...I got up at 10 til 3 this morning and started my day. I picked up CB and had her come in a hour early so we could get prep done. It was nice to have it all done in the first thing in the morning. It gave us a good start to the day and got it off on the right foot. I'm irritated at the people who constantly stand around or lean over everything instead of doing their work...if you are bored find something to do. How would they like it if I asked them to work off the clock and not get paid? Why should they get paid for doing nothing? It really is one thing if they are totally done with their work, the store is clean and there is nothing left to do, but I see an excess of laziness. While I admit that I have a few moments where I stand, I'm seeing it a lot in the crew and some of the mgrs. Quit being lazy, find something to clean or sweep...or go home. If your going to be a waste of time and manhours...why even come in? Okay, enough with that...I was happy to leave early and come back, but it made for a really long day. I had to stand during the meeting to stay awake and try to stay out of pain.

I was very happy that my wonderful Duck let me take a nap..the boys were so cute, they came up and woke me up, they were so loving and adorable.

I need to go, I want to get some things done.

Toodles...

Seedlings....

Since we are staging our garden we are happy to report that the first set of seedling have germinated. They were planted on 1/25 and have sprouted really well. I was also shocked at how fast sunflowers grow. Sunshine, after watching Walle had one of his overstimulated excitement skits of how happy he was to see the plant...of course now all our shoes are at risk..he keeps wanting to put the seedlings in a shoe. We will start round two on Monday, I will transplant the seedlings to a green pot and then start over. I want to get more seed trays, they are a bit costly right now, but if they are heavy duty it is something that I will enjoy using years to come. We think that we've found somewhere to get the fertilizer for free...and they will even load it. I will of course give them money, it takes gas to run a tractor and time, that time and cost should be compensated. If they refuse, I will take fresh veggies to them this summer. I am so happy to have found someone..we need approx 5 loads in the trailer and maybe one for the neighbor. We will also be doing a potatoe experiement this summer. While the potatoes worked just fine in the tire idea..it was a pain in the neck to dig them up and there is a lot of chemicals on tires. So I'm going to use old dogfood backs that are turned inside out. Since they have good drainage and they are made of a tarp material they will work well for my sack and I don't even have to spend that much money on them since the dog eats the food and we just throw them away. We are also going to cut his pen in half, since he is the only dog left out there, he doesn't need all that room. We will bury a cattle fence around it so he can roam free. We will also consider the double gate idea as well. I would like to pour a concrete run for him for at least part of it. We will use the other side for corn and beans and loofah. We will be working on the apple trees again this year...but the biggest project thus far will be they hydroponic system for the lettuce and tomatoes.

Well I need to get to work.

A full day at home...

Well Okay, I woke up this morning still feeling weighed down in the chest...and no, it wasn't my boobs. I feel like I've been punched and the perps arm came out the other side. This generally means that I'm getting sick...DARN IT. I don't have time for this. I did however manage to get some stuff done today. I'm happy with what little progress I made in the laundry room, I'm going to try to finish it off before heading upstairs to bring down the dirty laundry baskets and bed sheets. I took a five minute nap today and it really did me wonders...not sure why, but it gave me the boost that I needed.

I am very thrilled to report that we found that the broccoli, cauliflower and bean plants that we planted on the 25th have come up...this is right about on time. Once they are a bit bigger, probably next Monday I will transplant them into the green pots, which are bigger, and start them over again. I will keep each stick with the plant to document which live and which don't. This will give me a much better idea as to how much and when to plant. Since I want to start the tomatoes and some stuff early and do it in bi-weekly phases, it was important to start early. This will give me an early crop and a staggered crop which will prevent waste and allow a run of supply, not just one time frame.

a couple of happy pics...

My fav breastfeeding pic...I was parked in the car one day, Duck took the pic, he was such a happy baby.

This is him now....he's such a big boy...



Sunshine is getting so big to! He is getting so smart day by day. He is teaching his brother so much and has started drawing again...which makes me happy. Now if he'd only let me keep his work.

I'll have to get the new pics off the camera to show you how big he's getting.

Apollo came home finally. I was brought to tears to think of the fact that my cat had more than likely frozen to death in the below freezing temps. He finally came home, best to our thinking he was probably stuck in a garage or shed or something until whomever set him free. He was hungry, very hungry actually and thin. He ate so much and then rested and wanted back out.

Well I need to run, I have to be up really really early.

Me.

hydroponics....

So...looking at this title many will think that my mind is heading down an illegal raod. On the contrare. It is a wonderful idea! Building a garden in water makes sense for those who don't have access to land to build garden in and who want to grow year around but are like me who are stuck in a cold climate state. The ideas are amazing~you can grow things faster and inside year around....oh.and the best part is...it's cheap to do. We have plans for three different types of systems, two that can be put inside and one that is strictly for outside. If we can get it done in time, this will grow all of our lettuce plants. Well we are going to have company tomorrow and I want to get my stuff done today...I'll look up more on hydroponics...here is a youtube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah3zrGRmx80&feature=related

Service and cleaning...

Today we went out into service, we had a great time. I was very very very pleased to have the opportunity to speak with one of the other sisters. I found out that she batch cooks for herself once every 6-9 months and will be doing it again really soon. WOW I really love the idea of batch cooking and I feel that canning soups and such falls under those ideas. I volunteered to help her if she needed any...I can't wait. I will also give some seeds to her from my seed share for her neighbor who gives her veggies regularly. I also heard that another sister would be great to get into contact with about a possible garden for her...I have some seeds set aside for her as well. It is amazing how God really does bless us.

Duck had school today, it seemed to go well. I will help him type up any notes he needs to get done, this way he won't have to spend hours upon hours of typing, he can dictate and I can type. I have several loads of clothes to fold so I really want to get to it before it's too late. I want to get them all put away tomorrow so I can purge what needs to be purged and go on to possibly painting.

Toodles.

I strongly dislike....

bird food. I'm not a bird...I'm a human, there are humans who have made good yummy food for us to eat which I love to consume. Now, this being my first day, I can't have any. Here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: yogrut, fruit and walnut salad

Snack I had 2/3 can of mandrain oranges drined (in light syrup)

Lunch: 1 cup mixed white and brown rice, 1 cup mixed veggies, 1/3 chicken breast baked.

Let's see what dinner holds out.

Dinner: 1 1/2 cup of mix rice with soy and teriaki sauce, 8 oz of nonfat yogurt

I will probably have a snack of either fruit or yogurt, I could eat yogurt for every meal...

Me.

Day two and the funk...

Day two of potty training has been a success. While Smiley is still really upset he can't wear a diaper he is really looking forward to getting cars undies. I tried to clean a bit today and it worked well, I got some done. I know that this house doesn't get dirty or messed up all at once, so I can't get it all clean at once. We are working on a schedule that will be good for all of us.

Today we got our gas bill...ouch! It was over 200 dollars. This isn't going to be a good week at all. We will just have to watch it.

I'm starting my diet in the morning, this will hopefully be the one! I've been in such a funk lately, I have no energy no nothing. I'm feeling rather depressed and just down, I need to get this done, this weight off and get more motivated to get things going. So I will make a rewards list for myself. This way I have something to work for other than loseing the weight. Something small but rewarding all the same. We'll see how it works.

Today was the day...

when I got up this morning I went to my meeting, I came home after talking to S. I decided that today was the day I was going to potty train the baby who is now 3. He has been refusing to take off his diaper, to wear underware. Well I now know he can do it. He has had one accident all day long. That is unbelievalbe. He has gone all day long going to the potty until we left to go to a friends house for dinner. It was a good time, good friends, good meal, good times. Gotta take little big man to the bathroom.

Toodles.

What to compost...

In case any of you were ever wondering.....here is a list that someone put together of things that you can compost. This is estimated to reduce the amount of waste by 1/3.

http://www.plantea.com/compost-materials.htm

Copy that link and put it in the keyword search to see all the different things you can compost. Some of the most interesting that I found was urine, dryer lint and tea bags. I think that we are going to try to do a lot more this summer with compost, we are going to set up a two bin compartment.

Well I need to jump up and get some things done around here, S was nice enough to give me the day off since labor was bad and we got a new manager back.

My heart breaks....

I watched some videos after I posted last. My heart breaks for those in Haiti and all over the world that is struggling. We are worrying about which TV we are going to buy or which dish washer I want and there are people starving in light of a serious quake. I've been told that we've lost at least 16 brothers from the Haiti congregations, relief work has already started for the congregations in that area. They are already rebuilding the halls and finding refugee for the families. There has got to be something that I can do, even if it is small. I heard a story about a mother who's 2 yr old was at daycare, she ran to the daycare to find it crushed, but she could still hear her daughter. She talked to her for days while rescue crews arrived and started to pull away the rubble, she made it out alive and nearly unhurt. The torment that must play on a parent is gut wrenching. To think that the are down there searching for thier families and finding dead bodies or have to listen to them pray to live and in most cases still die from the time it take to reach them is impossible to think of as a parent. For the 2 or 3 minutes that Sunshine was missing that day, I nearly passed out from not being able to breath and scared to my wits end....I couldn't imagine going through this.

Tonight was the first night that we forced our kids to sleep in their own bed. Sunshine told me that he was sad. I laid next to him for a few minutes and told him that he'd be fine that I would be right across the room. He kept waving to me and signing I love you. I'm really proud that he made it to fall asleep, we'll just see if he stays that way.

I should get off of here, I want to be up in 5.5 hours and I have a meeting in the morning.

Tata...
Me.