Crafty girl

I haven't been on in awhile mostly due to my new obsession, knitting (no I'm not a granny) It has been lots of fun making beanies, bags and scarves, I am actually going to participate in my first music festival as a vendor, along with my cousin. hopefully somebody wants to buy some of this stuff I've made! I am very excited and anxious, with a side of nervous!

Let's see, as far as being "debt free" in two years we had a small, well not small set back. That being the new car in our drive way~  We LOVE it though! So now we are focusing on being MOSTLY debt free. I guess it's OK to have a car payment. (see how I justify this stuff??)

I have been super busy becoming a full time part of the PTA at our school (go hawks!) trying to knit enough stuff to sell Saturday, really excited for summer to come! Also trying to help out my grandma as much as i can, our family took a HUGE hit in March with the loss of my favorite grandpa, everyone is just trying to fill that hole.

Finally, I planted my garden in the ground , my little  seedlings are out of my hands now!! I hope they make it but i don't have much faith in my gardening abilities. We shall see!!  That's it!! That's all I got!

:)

Trying to find balance

So I have been watching way to many documentaries lately (I'm kind of a junkie).  Everything from "Maxed out" which I think EVERYONE should watch, to No impact man which I also recommend. (watching it that is not going as far as that family did for a year!) Watching these shows has made me realize that some advise I always got from my mom was so much deeper than I thought. "Take care of yourself, lookout for number one because no one else is going to." Now in my teen and early twenty years this advice was doled out specifically regarding boys. So for a long time that is how I took it. I did take care of myself, was never dependent on a guy for anything. But what i did not realize was that this advice was so much broader, I now know that NOBODY is going to look out for us, not the companies, not the government, nobody. Most of the people we think are looking out for us are really looking out for their bottom line. I guess this has been my biggest lesson in the last few years. I've said time and time again that I am so glad that we are back in control of our life, now I guess I am just taking that to the next level.

Today I finished watching "No impact man" It is a story about a family (mom dad 1 baby) who are going to live for one year causing no negative impact on the environment. No trash no cars, no electricity, no commercial soaps, no food that is not local (within 250 miles was their cut off) and no toilet paper..... They went to the extreme, considering they lived on the 9th floor of an apartment, and elevators use electricity they were committed! Could I go this far? No effing way! I have already implemented some "environmental" practices in our home, but I have to say it was purely to save money! So now I am thinking what else can I do? I am trying to have a compost pile for a garden that I have planned this spring...again to save money...but now I am thinking what else, what else can I do? what else am I willing to do? where can I make more budgetary cuts, where can I make more consumption cuts? what am I willing to do without? I am at a point now that I am figuring out what I am NOT willing or able to cut. I guess that is a start. I would never recommend or allow toilet paper to not be used in my house by why can't I make my own dish soap? I have more time than money...

We are still on track to be debt free in 23 months now I think, It is not fun, but actually seems do-able. I am afraid to say that we feel like we can see the light at the end of a very long dark tunnel. But It just seems to feel that way, having said that I wonder what is just around the corner that we haven't planned for yet! My washing machine is making a horrific noise! :(  Till next time!

:)

Spring Fever!

The last few weeks have been BEAUTIFUL here. Just the yearly spring tease though woke up today to what we call "snow" here in the valley. Meaning the grass had a white dusting on it.  I am ready for the warmer days and sunny sky's. So I started my herb garden and it is doing pretty well. I can't wait to start cooking with MY own veggies and MY own herb's/seasonings!! It's pretty exciting. I will post some pics of my workings as I can figure out how to do that and I have "workings" to post.  I am very much looking forward to this spring/summer season! I have wanted to have a garden for several years and now I have the yard I can do something!! YAY!!

:)

Back in the 21st century!

Got Internet hooked up today! Nice! Did it all by myself as the hubb's is gone to meetings again! Wireless throughout our house pretty impressed with myself. (Those that know me well know that I'm not the most tech savvy) I say I know just enough to get into trouble! So I will try to get on more and ramble about whatever goes through my mind.... I can only promise that if you are sleepy this may help you sleep! :)

I am still on track with my goal two whole weeks can you believe it? only 23 1/2 more months to go! I have found that air drying my clothes instead of using the dryer for everything should save me about $30 a month on my electricity bill, I am testing this theory.  Greg was able to get us new phones and lower our phone bill so that is a good thing, I am surviving not having an IPhone. I am getting used to my palm pre plus. Greg seems to really like his android, though he feels like a complete traitor ( we are a house of Mac) I think that the Apple corp has enough of our money that we are still in the cult! (we have recently added an apple TV to our arsenal.) thanks to the in-laws!

Have a good one!

miss my phone :(

So My Iphone finally took a dump makes me sad! And in my new quest I just can't find it in myself to fork over the several hundred dollars to buy new ones! So we settled I got a palm pre and Greg got a droid of some sort. (they were the free ones) I just only started using my palm last night and while I do miss my Iphone and if I could afford it I would have one in an instant, I think this will work, it isn't as "user" friendly, but I like things simply laid out for me. I do enjoy the multi tasking, and that the message updates are placed on the bottom of the screen and not the middle. As I am sure you can imagine Greg is having a hard time with this, he is an apple purist, and has been forever. It is nice to have a smart phone again I have been using my old Nokia flip phone for the last week YIKES!! how did we live when our phones were only...well...phones, yuck.

Tonight I will attend my first PTA meeting, I resisted as long as I could, (I'm not a "join the club" type of person) but I think that the more involved I am in Erik's school the better it will be for him, knowing that mom is around and he can't get away with much may make him work harder. (not that he is having any problems) I still can't believe my little baby boy is now just another kid on the playground. We had to get him a new winter coat and socks this week and jeans are just around the corner. I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW BIG HIS FEET ARE!!! I can put his socks on my feet! crazy! I think he is going to be a tall one!

Well, I think that is all I have for now!

Resolved.

So the new year rings in had a fantastic holiday season with the family! Missed everyone I couldn't see. But had a lot of fun in Washington with the in laws! Ate to much, drank too much, and loved every minute of it! So we are pretty much all settled into our new home now and loving it! Still need some stuff to fill it up yet, but it will all come with time! So I have decided that I want to be debt free in 24 months! I have worked out a budget to allow that and I am prepared to make the sacrifices that need to be made to make it happen! ( I just have to make sure our car lender won't stick us with a huge penalty for prepayment) I don't think it is going to be easy at all, in fact I hope I can stick to it! But the carrot at the end is being debt free by 32 not a lot of people can say that! I think that will give us much more freedom than we have now. I have been reading a book called "The tightwad gazette" it is a cool book about different ways to save money and teaches you how to do those things. The lady that writes it is very easy to follow. So I am trying to be cheap basically, we will see how it works I can do anything for a couple weeks, it is the follow thru that I'm not so good at! We shall see what sticks and what doesn't. I will keep you posted!!

my own "central perk"

Sitting in a coffee shop on a Sunday morning with my honey. Drinking coffee and blogging, could I get any more yuppie? We just made the move from Medford To Talent and I'm not going to lie I was worried, the Talent of my youth was basically a wasteland a city wide ghetto as I remember. Not the case anymore, it is the kind of town where the second time I went to the grocery store in town the checker recognized me. People actually smile when you pass them and there is a humm of chatter in the background of the coffee shop. I think I like it here. It helps that last night we had a movie night with the kids, most readers will know that this is a weekly tradition in our house, but last night no one was piled on each other, we were all comfortably seated with a gas stove heating the room.  I think I love it here!

On a funny "moving note" We moved our kitties in Friday night and as agreed put them in the part of the house that is the laundry room shop and storage room, the next morning Zeke was no where to be found, or so I thought. I saw Lily come out of the ceiling and was convinced that Zeke was in the wall luckily I saw a spot where I could pull part of the wall out and let him out, he just wouldn't come out!! the kids were worried I was annoyed and the dogs were curious! When Greg finally got home and was able to crawl into the yucky stuff and look in the wall he said there is no way he could be here. Crap I thought did he get out some way? We adopted a what will be will be attitude when Greg said "He's right there!" Sleeping the grass clipping bag part of the lawn mower. That turd had ignored our calls, food shakes and searching until his "daddy" started calling. It's official Zeke is Greg's cat.  HAHA lucky Greg!!

Until next time.....