Say What?

Oh my poor neglected blog. I see that the last thing I posted was in October. Really, I have been doing stuff between October and now. Probably doing too much stuff, which is why I have not blogged. I have just been doing the normal things like preparing for and enjoying Thanksgiving and Christmas and getting ready to move to Alaska. Say What? You don't think moving to Alaska is just a normal thing? Well, I guess neither do I. In October a move to Alaska was not even on the radar for us. But I have to say that once the ball started rolling everything has moved along pretty quickly.

So we are trading the wilderness and mountains of Idaho for even bigger wilderness and mountains of Alaska. And amazingly God has given me peace and calm the majority of the time throughout this whole process. I say the majority of the time because there HAVE been a few moments of fear, panic and general feelings of "are we insane?" But so far I have overwhelmingly felt peace. You can check out more about our move at hubby's blog - www.frontiertater.wordpress.com

Just another day in paradise

My microwave has died. Sometime this afternoon it went kaputz. It happened after two bags of microwave popcorn but before I went to use it for dinner. To make matters worse, it was the primary plan for dinner.

You see this morning I had given the oldest kid the choice of what to make for dinner with the understanding that he would make it with my assistance. So he chose his favorite, which is baked potatoes. Now you also have to understand that today is the first hot day we have had all year. The first day to really go over 90. The first day that I flipped on the air conditioner. It was not a day that I would normally make baked potatoes. But I wanted him to be excited about learning how to cook. And I had let him choose. And I actually had all the important ingredients even though it is two days before payday; and I was pretty sure that any other thing he would want to eat I would not have the ingredients for. So I thought about it and decided that we could pretty much cook the potatoes in the microwave and just crisp up the outsides for a few minutes in the oven. That way I would not have to have the oven on for a long time and heat up the house. Yeah, that was a good idea.

Now it would have been a brilliant plan. And I would have had plenty of time for making dinner. I showed him how to scrub the potatoes, how to pierce them, how to check for bad spots, etc. And then we stuck them in the microwave for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes were over I went to check them to gauge how much longer they needed to cook. And they were still cold. But the microwave was hot. Smoking in fact. With that acrid burnt plastic smell.

Of course, this was the moment that hubby walked in from work. What had been until precisely that moment a calm, controlled, cheerful cooking tutorial went to everything spinning out of control. Child #1 proclaimed that the microwave was broken. Not to be left out, child #2 announces that the rabbit got under the porch and that we can't get her out (this was true, but nobody had seemed worried about it until this precise moment when it suddenly became a crisis which needed immediate attention in his eyes). Back to child #1 who is holding up the broken rubber band gun and asking if dad can glue it back together. Sheesh, you would think that I was some incompetent ninny who was just sitting there waiting all day for hubby to come home and fix everything. Let's just say that "bombarded" was how hubby felt.

But we moved on and dealt with the "disasters" according to importance. First of which was to get the baked potatoes in the oven to cook them the old-fashioned way while hubby investigated the microwave. We pretty much concluded that it is dead. Done-for. And it is only about 3 years old! Of course long enough to no longer be under warranty. Where is that Maytag repair man when you need him? And why do those ugly behemoth microwaves from 20 years ago still work?

We also concluded that baked potatoes take a long time to cook in the oven when you were not planning to cook them in an oven. And using your oven for such a long time makes your already hot house even hotter.

We finally ate dinner. I stuck with my tutorial and had him cook the bacon and prepare everything else. But can I just say that you never realize how much you use a microwave until you don't have one! I even grew up without a microwave so I should have no problem with this; but I am already wondering how I am going to survive until I can get to the store and get a new one purchased and installed. I might even have to drink my coffee while it is still hot! No re-zapping it to heat it up for me.

We did also get the bunny out. Hubby just sprayed down the deck with water and out she hopped! The rubber band gun will soon be glued. So all around we survived.

But to add insult to injury, I went to take pictures to go with this post and discovered that I had left my camera at my sister's house this weekend......

A Little Hike

Today is beautiful weather (after a lot of rain lately) and it is not too hot. The perfect morning for a little hike in the nearby foothills. To top it off it is the second day of summer vacation which is a time still ripe with possibilities and determination that we won't just slump into a puddle of goo for the summer. Two weeks from now all bets are off. But today we are full of high hopes.

So along with a few other mothers and a group of kids we started off. And I am happy to say that I did okay.... Except for the uphill. Which is only about half the hike. Which only helped to underscore how totally out of shape I really am. But I did fine on the downhill. Why, oh why, must all hikes go uphill at some point? And I am pretty sure that there is always more uphill than downhill. Oh, I know that elevation-wise they have to be equal when you complete a loop; but I know that they sneak more uphill in!

The kids loved it when we reached this little grouping of rocks called Castle Rock. You could look out across the valley and see the city below.

All-in-all it was fun and I felt like I accomplished a little exercise for the day. I may even do it again.

Blogs, girl time and Saturday productivity

So all da boys are out cutting wood this weekend which leaves me home with a little girl time. Now my dillema is how much of it to blow on fun stuff like watching movies and endless hours of reading blogs versus getting something productive done (that I can tell my hubby I accomplished something while he was gone).

I end up sorting through the office, which is no small task. I still had not pulled all the 2009 filing to store, much less started filing anything from 2010. I am going through all sorts of files of miscellaneous stuff like rototiller rental reciepts, old Lowe's ads, every money market transaction over the last 4 years.... (why do I have this stuff???) The idea is that somehow, eventually, it will lead to me being able to balance my checkbook. What has happened to me? I used to be a very diligent, track every penny, checkbook balancer. This was when I did it all with a pencil and paper. Now that I use a computer to track and balance I put it off for way too long. I think it is because I have to make sure everything is entered before I can balance it. And I have to sort through the filing to enter stuff. And I have to have a place to file it before I sort through it.... You see my problem.

Anyway, I am tackling it today. Until I decide to take a break and look at a few blogs. HOW in the world do these women get all this incredible stuff done and still blog about it? Now I am not only feeling unproductive because I just blew an hour reading blogs and not getting anything done, but also slightly inferior because I am not doing any of their amazing projects. Woe is me!

Blogs, and really the computer in general are my love-hate relationship. So much cool information, so little time. Especially as I am using my time to find more cool information that I may never actually do. Oh well, such is my life.... Back to my office so that I can say I accomplished something today.

Or maybe I should just watch a movie and eat chocolate bon-bons instead.....

Rainy days and Mondays....

First off, it is Tuesday, not Monday. But it is raining, and it is Spring Break, and it has been raining pretty much since the Monday of Spring Break started. Which means.... no parks, no picnics, no bike rides, no sending the kids outside when they are fighting, no jumping on the trampoline that we just got last Friday. And to top it off my kids have this really annoying habit of never actually saying that they are bored. They may BE bored, but they will never say so. Which is really annoying to me because I have always wanted to use that great old mother line: "If your so bored I can GIVE you something to do!" And then proceed have them clean the bathrooms, do the laundry, ect. But they just never say it. I sort of suspect their father may have beat me to using this line at some time in the past and thereby teaching them to never say it again. Darn men.

So how are two kids who are NOT bored and are only allowed limited video game time going to spend their inside days? (Not reading, that is for sure at my house.) Well so far it has been games. Chess, checkers and Monopoly. Last night they played a version of Monopoly called Oceonopoly with fish pieces. This morning the little terds invented their own version complete with their own homemade game board and lego pieces.

Now I love the inventiveness of this, and I also love that it keeps them entertained, but it always ends the same way. You see whenever they make up games they also make up their own rules as they go along. Of course the rule made up always favors the one who made it up and they invariably end up in a fight and someone pouting in their own room. (Fine! I'm not playing with you any more! You can just play by yourself for the rest of the day!)

Now this always gets my hopes up that playing alone will finally lead to one of them actually saying the "bored" word. However I think they can read my mind because so far they have always made up after about 15 minutes.

I ask you, how is a girl supposed to get her bathrooms cleaned around here?

25 Random Things

25 random things about myself. It seems a bit narcissistic, but then isn't blogging in general a bit narcissistic? Anyway, it also seemed kind of fun, so here goes:

1. I always have a hard time starting things - I write things one way and then redo them another. I can't seem to just dive in and go without thinking way too hard...
2. .... and i overanalyze things, and re-analyze things....
3. I am not particularly observant of my surroundings. There is a lot of stuff I really just don't notice. (But once I am aware of something you can bet I will find some way to analyze it!
4. Have I mentioned that I am annoyingly analytical?
5. Not a phone person, I really just don't like to talk much on the phone.
6. I love to gather and collect ideas. And I constantly generate ideas. Not so great on the follow thru of many of those ideas.
7. I really enjoy doing jobs like sorting, filing, copying, shredding. You know things you can just veg and do. Plus there is such a sense of accomplishment - you can see your progress.
8. I love learning new things. If i didn't have to worry about time or money i could probably spend the rest of my life taking random classes that interested me. Photography, neurology, economics, astrophysics....
9. I would like to learn to weld.
10. and knit... and crochet (i actually am working on learning to crochet right now)
11. I love all types of food. I love to try new recipes. I like almost every kind of ethnic food i have ever tried. And i am fortunate to have a hubby who is even more adventurous in eating than i am.
12. I have picky kids tho - which really annoys me until i remember that i was once a picky kid, so there is hope.
13. I generally take terrible pictures; something i would like to change.
14. I have visited more foreign countries than I have visited states in the U.S.
15. And I have not visited a foreign country since 1991, so almost 20 years now. This includes Canada, which is really sad because I live in a state that borders Canada!
16. I rarely like to watch any movie a second time. Unless i have completely forgotten it.
17. I quite often find it easier to get in a conversation with a group of guys than a group of girls.
18. I like football and find it interesting, which may be why #17 happens.
19. I have actually taken birdwatching.
20. I seem to collect books, and yet i feel like there are so many i have not read.
21. I would love to have a totally self-sustaining, off-the-grid acreage: chickens, solar panels, woodstove, root cellar, etc. At least i like the idea of such a thing.
22. I am a skeptic and a rarely believe any "new study" unless I can look at the data myself and read about how the study was set up.
23. I debate people all the time in my head. I am learning to say less and less out loud because I am also learning that most people don't like a friendly debate. But it is happening in my head. And I sort of like the debates in my head better anyway - at least I can win those! ( I used to be queen of the yabbuts, where I answer a person, "Yeah, but....." )
24. Underneath it all I am a bit non-conformist, so in the end my list will be something other than 25.

Let's try this again!

Oh look! Last time I posted was in October - and now it is January! Now that is just pathetic! Reading lots of great blogs lately has inspired me to try again - I might even include pictures as well. (Although all my pictures are taken on my sad little point-and-shoot camera that is old, old, old. I went to buy a new rechargable battery for it and the salesman just laughed... they don't sell those batteries any more at normal stores by-the-way. Probably could find one on the web or at a camera store, but not sure if it is worth replacing...) But I digress. I will start again. And so that I don't feel too bad about it I will start with my applesauce making which actually occured in October; so hey, I am keeping the spirit of October alive in the dead of winter! Whatever. Now to choose a person to write in. Part of me feels weird writing like I am talking to someone else, when I know that I am the only one reading this. But to write it like I am talking to myself is just a little too weird. (Not that I don't talk to myself all the time anyway...) And to talk about myself in the third person is even stranger to me, so I guess by default I will stick to the tried and true. Who knows, maybe someday someone else will read this. Although that is a somewhat disturbing thought as well.....

My thoughts on local grocery stores

It is a rainy Monday and I am feeling the need to give some constructive criticism (aka: griping) to several stores. And in fairness some kudos too. Being the main shopper of the family, I have built up enough experience at these stores to have developed some opinions about how they can change and either attract customers or keep the customers that they already have.

WINCO: After having kids this store used to be my main weekly shopping store. I used to drop $100 to $150 here weekly. The first blow to our relationship started when they quit giving a store credit for bringing my own bags. And then after starting in on couponing I have seriously cut my expenditures at this store. Yes, it still is the best store to go to if you need to pick up a specific grocery item that you know is not on sale anywhere else; but really my love for this store has definitely waned. I used to think that they had really great prices. Now I am just not that impressed. I am not sure if my expectations have changed or if their prices have creeped up. A little of both I suppose. I also have noticed that the offerings in the bulk section have decreased. Several spices that I used to be able to get in bulk are no longer offered. They are generally a little coupon-phobic. I can appreciate the no-frills, bag-your-own groceries to get a lower price; but lately I have been getting a lower price other places without bagging my own groceries.

PROS: overall low prices (but not always, be careful!), high volume of turnover so you rarely have to worry about expiration dates, great shopping cart return design: you are never more than a few cars away from one and they face both directions. Decent bulk foods section.
CONS: rarely do they advertise a sale and unadvertised sales vary from store to store, bulk foods selection seems to be shrinking, prices here have been rising over the last year whereas they seem to be decreasing at other stores causing the price difference margin to be shrinking IMO. Coupon friendliness varies from store to store and cashier to cashier. No rewards program.


ALBERTSONS: Sort of a love-hate relationship with Albies. Pre-kids I shopped almost exclusively here and then for years I did not shop here at all. Now I find myself shopping here more often, but not always finding it a pleasant experience. They have great sales that match up with coupons and catalinas, but their non-sale items are grossly overpriced. If they would just price their non-sale items a little bit higher than other stores, say 10-50 cents, then I would probably pick up more than the sale items while I am shopping. I will pay a few cents more to save me a trip to another store, but I just can't bring myself to pay 2-3 times as much! So with the ridiculously high regular prices, Albertsons needs the special sales and really needs to cater to the coupon shoppers. It will seem that they are doing this, such as by offering double coupons, and then they will put tons of restrictions on them, or they will really crack down on the cashiers who will then be wary of coupons. I also really do not like the recent changes to the gas program. I have been buying less from them since this change.

PROS: Good manufacturer sales that match up with coupons. A gas rewards program.
CONS: Overpriced non-sale items. The corporation comes across as trying to cater to couponers but the individual stores tend to make the couponers feel unwelcome. Low-volume turnover so you really have to watch the expiration dates. Very likely to be out of any really good deals. Recent changes to gas rewards program make it harder to earn rewards.

FRED MEYER: Probably my favorite of stores lately. Their regular prices are somewhat more expensive than Winco, but they do have great sales. I love how they rotate fairly consistently between sales of necessary items like eggs, milk, o.j., bread, etc. They also have a rewards program for both store rewards and gas rewards. They have great clearance sales and are one of the few places that frequently puts items such as legos and video game software and equipement on sale. Plus you gotta love the free child care while you shop.

PROS: one-stop shopping, good sales, rewards program, free child care, fairly coupon freindly. Generally high-volume turnover. Can get rainchecks on most sales.
CONS: Sales are generally store brand, fewer manufacturer sales than Albies (but that is okay with me), poor cart returns in parking lot (I wish they would steal Winco's design and placement). Fewer catalinas than Albies.

Our wishlists

Mostly things we want, a few we need...

ME:
Nice suit jacket / blazer to wear with dress pants or skirts
A couple of dress slacks
A pizza peel
Pressure canner
A new rack for my water canner
Laptop computer
Wii fit
A new salad shooter
Pampered Chef small dough roller
Digital video camera (plus get all the old video transferred to DVD's)

HUBBY:
Greenhouse
New matress or matress topper


KIDS:
Ski pants - size 8-10
Trampoline
Wii Resort game
Legos
Redecorate rooms and seperate boys

HOUSE and YARD:
replace or refinish wood floor & front room carpet
replace formica countertops
kitchen tile backsplash
refinish or replace cabinets
pavers for side and sitting area
Arbor w/ Concord grapes
Compost Tumbler


NECCESSITITES:
New tires for pickup
pickup 30,000 mile service
Chimney swept and inspected
New burners for grill
New vacuum

goals this week

Here are my goals for today (Monday):
- start blog
- letter to sponsored child / get some vacation pictures to send
- thank you note to mom
- GET STAMPS
- make, send car pool schedule
- see if raincheck grapefruit has come in yet at Albies

Daily goals:
- bible study
- exercise

Goals for the this week:
- finish downloading and organizing crockpot recipes
- get books back to Joy & Jason
- make jalepeno jelly
- call orchards for apple picking / Williamsons to see if applesauce apples are ready
- organize water/drinks in garage
- start (and maybe finish?) scrapbook for Joy
- make some cards
- go thru boxes of old papers in garage

Maybe if i write it down i will get at least half of it done!

Here I go!

So today, on the verge of 40, i am entering the blogging world. While i know that everything i put on here is open for public view, i really am not expecting anyone else to read it. (But i will try to be careful, just the same.) It really is more for my own benefit. i am starting to see the benefit of having a place to put all the bits and scraps and links that i use. My goal is to put recipes, garden info, coupon links, etc. here so that i can easily find it later. We will see how successful I am!

BTW - If i am blogging it must mean that it is on the downhill side of the slope of popularity because you know that i cannot ever start doing something until it is past being fashionable!