1st video, snow ice cream! Yum!

If you want to make some snow ice cream check out our first video. We haven't worked out the kinks so the image is distorted but since it's snowing here I thought everyone might enjoy it!

Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

Click Here for Video!

Wow what a weekend.

Well this weekend was pretty much a nightmare! First Mike has been working hard tying to get the taxes done. We really need to hire a contract bookkeeper to do this stuff. We could get so much more done if it wasn't for the paperwork. He was planning on going to Colorado next week so he has been working hard trying to get ahead.

We shot a couple of videos for the website. Our house looked like a disaster! We had to move all the furniture to make room to do this then of course we had to do a lot of takes and it plain wore me out. I thought I would die from the pain of standing all day Saturday night. I'm not sure how many of these videos we will do or if they will work out. If they bring in some profit it will be worth it but we will see. We made homemade laundry soap and the silly stuff boiled over on the stove and I had a huge mess to clean up. It was my fault for not paying attention but it was still disgusting to see it all leave the pan! It took about 15 hours worth of work to do a 2 minute video!

Well, we had to get the house put back together right away because Elly's b-day party was on Sunday. I was a very grouchy person! I was in so much pain from the day before I didn't know if I could keep moving. Somehow I did but it was sure hard. We had to clean the entire house and decorate. I had to make the cake twice. The first one I made on Sat. and it flopped. I didn't have time to do it so I had to make another one Sun. morning. Then I was boiling a pot of homemade laundry soap and it boiled over again! Augh!!! I didn't want to waste the ingredients but in the end it didn't matter because most of it was gone when it boiled over plus I had to clean the stove, again! I HAVE A VERY CLEAN STOVE RIGHT NOW!

We canceled the trip to Colorado. We just have way too much to do and I'm too worn out for him to leave right now. (He was going to go job hunting) I was going to go out after him in two weeks and stay at my grandparents house for a week by myself. They are going to Arizona so I was going to lock the doors and turn off the phone and just sit by myself and rest. I was looking forward to it but now it looks like that's not going to work either. I really need some time to just rest. I am so worn out I feel like collapsing. Oh well.

I better run. I just wanted to update everyone.

Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

Deal of the year!

Wow, I found the best deal today! I went to K-mart to return some presents the kids got that didn't work. I was mad because I had to get a gift card and I don't go to K-mart but once a year or so. I didn't need anything either right now. I just had to take back these gifts before I couldn't.

Well, I was wondering around the store trying to figure out what to get. I came across the Scotch brand Heavy Weight Christmas wrapping paper and it was .39 a roll. All they had red plaid but it was really nice. So I got two and went to pay. I got Elly a package of socks so I thought I would take a huge $5 chunk out of the $30 on the gift card.

Well, I got up the cash register and she rang me up and the wrapping paper was THREE CENTS! Yes that is correct, $0.03! Of course I PROMPTLY grabbed a basket and went back and got the rest. I got 42 rolls altogether. I figured for that price I could use it as packing paper for the books!

Wow, what a deal! Look for pretty plaid paper in your orders soon! :-)

Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

I have solved all of women's problems.

Yesterday they had on Oprah the great working mom vs. stay at home mom(SAHM) debate, again. I just couldn't keep my mouth closed on this one.

Maybe I getting old but what difference does it make? Just mind your own business and do what works for you and your family. If working moms are going to mess up their kids by working, that's their business. If stay at home mom's are going to be mindless boobs (no pun intended! :-) that's their business.

Why do people have to keep arguing about it? I think the reason is jealousy, resentment and bitterness.

Stay at home moms hear working moms say "I wish I could stay home". That makes the SAHMs mad because they know that most families don't need two people to work. In reality they just want to work or don't want to do the work it takes to stay at home and live within your means but won't admit it so they say they have to work.

Working moms then see the SAHMs with their kids and are jealous because they get to be there all the time and don't miss anything they think is important in their kids lives.

I hear working moms say how guilty they feel for working. I don't get it. If you are doing what you think is best for your family then why are you feeling guilty?

The truth is, you can't have it all. I don't care what the National Organization of Women says. You maybe can have it all but at different times in your life, not all at once. (Yes, I know there are people out there who are the exceptions or think they are the exception.)

If you choose to work, you are going to miss out on a lot of firsts with your child. If you decide to stay at home you will feel like some days you are going to turn into a babbling idiot.

It doesn't have to be all or nothing. There are a lot of compromises. If you want to stay home but like the social life of working then work part time after your kids are in school or in the evenings or weekends one or two nights a week. Do something other than working like take a class or join a moms group, book club or whatever. Just because you stay at home doesn't mean you can't have a life.

My personal opinion is that moms should stay home with their kids but it's not a all or nothing situation like I said. I stay at home but I have a lot of hobbies. This is one of them. Even though we are trying to make it into a full fledge business I'm not the one doing it, Mike is. (I will have to hire someone if he finds another job.)

In doing this I give up a lot of things like doing book tours on radio and TV because I don't have the time to pursue it with a 3 year old. In 18 months when he's in school then maybe I will start doing more interviews but right now I can't do more than a couple at a time. (I'm NOT saying that if Oprah called I would turn her down :-) but I can't go out on a full book tour right now. ) In doing so we don't have as many sales as some authors but that's our choice.

I think people need to stop worrying about what others say or think and just worry about themselves. If you're a SAHM and it irks you when others say "I wish I could stay home" then come up with a nice but firm answer like "I work hard to save money so I can stay home." Then get over it and get on with life.

By the way... just so my inbox doesn't get flooded with emails I do understand that there are single moms and families that really do have to have both spouses working. If you are making under 25K a year, then yes, you probably do need both. My mom was both a working mom and stay at home mom so I've seen both sides and as a kid been affected by both. But I am talking about the normal middle class family making 30-40K a year or more. Unless you have a huge amount of medical bills or something like that then for the most part it is a want for both to work.

My point in case you missed it is MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS! Stop worrying about others and just deal with your own life.

OK, I feel better now that's off my chest.

Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

What do you want?

I was working on the budgeting book again today and about ready to trash it.

I am having a hard time. I just don't get it. What is so hard about budgeting? When the money is gone I stop spending. Since we haven't had a problem with budgeting I guess I'm not sure what areas to cover.

So.... I thought I would ask.

What is it you're looking for in a budgeting book?

What types of questions would you like answered?

Is there more than what we already have here that you want to see?

We need some input and would love to hear your comments and what you would like to see.

Mom and I are thinking of combining it with another book we are working on instead of a stand alone book.

So... send me your two cents! What you do want to learn?

Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

Most of the piles are gone.

Finally!

Well, mom came over yesterday and we got most of the piles gone and the laundry room re-organized.

We went through all the clothes for the kids that I have saved in bins for when they go into the next size. I had several people give me hand me downs and so I had a ton of stuff. We went through and picked out the nicest items and are going to give the rest to the thrift store.

I have to say I thought I was going to have a breakdown right then and there. I don't know why it is but I HATE, ABSOLUTELY HATE, YES, I SAID HATE sorting clothes. I felt like I was going to have an anxiety attack. Mom kept pushing me on to get it done and I'm glad I did now but man I was sick afterward!

I was so sick I went to Bible study 6 hours later and while there as we were taking prayer requests I completely forgot the name of one of the gals. The bad part is there were only 3 of us and I have known her for 3 years! Talk about feeling dumb!


Housekeeping has never been my specialty. I don't mind cleaning but I get tired of picking up "stuff" all the time. With little kids it seems like it's everywhere. I pick up one area and POOF the next area is double the size.

Oh well. That traumatic experience is over and now we have nice clean and semi-organized rooms.

Now, I need to think about the birthday party on Sunday.

Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

Update

Well, I got Elly's room done in time for her birthday. It turned out really cute. She just loves it. The only bad part was that she peeked right before we were going to show her. We put a big piece of wrapping paper on the door for her to "open". Mom was going to look at it before she did and Elly opened up the door and saw around the paper. I almost burst into tears and was mad at her all at the same time. We worked a week on it and kept her out of it the last two days while I put it together and she blew it before we could surprise her.

Oh well. She felt bad and I got over it but it is now her "favorite" room. Now the only problem is her and David keep fighting because she doesn't want him in her room and of course being 3 he just can't resist the temptation to irritate big sister.

I took some pictures and will try and post them in the next few days. I need Mike to help with that since I haven't learned how to do it yet. It's something I need to learn but my brain is always so foggy that the thought of learning yet another thing is overwhelming.

David is really sick, again. He threw up all night last Wednesday. He was really sick then for two days throwing up and now he has a really bad cold. He is up most nights coughing. Our heater fan was going out and making a REALLY loud noise when it ran. Between David and the heater we haven't had much sleep again. We did get the heater fixed, $350, Ouch! Hopefully David will start feeling better in a day or two. I took him to the doc yesterday and he said it's just a virus.

Mom is coming over this week to try and help me get the house in some sort of order. With switching and re-decorating the kids bedrooms the house is a disaster. We have just been moving "stuff" from one place to another. It's very frustrating and depressing trying to get everything in order. Even though we've lived here 3 years we never really got things the way they would work for us because we were planning on moving. I'm hoping to get it in order so that if we are here it will be usable for me.

Fortunately God sent a storm of sleet on Sunday so I had to cancel Elly's birthday party. That did give me a break to not have to deal with that on top of re-decorating her room. The roads have been really bad. Today is the first day they are finally clear. I slid into the yard when I tried to get into the driveway yesterday. It was funny to see skid marks in the yard but I'm just glad I stopped before I hit the house.

Mike is still looking for a job. He is mainly looking in Colorado. I'm not sure it would be the best for us to move back there even though I do I miss it. There are several reasons which I won't talk about right now but we are going to just wait and see what comes up. It is stressful being in limbo but hopefully soon we will know what we should do. It's funny, I hate Kansas but if we were supposed to stay here and we knew that was what we were supposed to do it would be easier to make the best of it. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Well, I will go for now. I'm going to try and put one "one more pile". It seems they are everywhere and keep multiplying but I'm going to keep forging on. :-)

Tawra
www.livingonadime.com

If you want to work at home...

My friend Cindy Rushton has a WONDERFUL work at home series available.

Here is the announcement I received from her:



Hey there dearies!

I am SO excited! Quick announcement! I promise to make this a super fast note. I just HAD to write you and tell you about this!

Remember over the past few weeks how I have been sharing about my husband's new business super set that was about to be available??? Well, guess what....

Yep! It is now available!

Building a Successful Home Business Seminar Set is here!!!
Full Business Seminar Ready to Download
Over 160 articles!
25 Ebooks!
PLUS! Extra bonus audios and extra interviews with REAL business owners!
AND! We have an insane price this week!


Order Your Set Here Today for the Best Savings!

Here is the link:

http://www.playmasters.info/businessset.html


She is having a special sale this week but today is the best price so grab it quick. It will help you jump start your home business!

Tawra

Gotta Love the Thrift Store.

We needed a bed frame for Elly's new bed. We got a mattress and box springs from my brother but they didn't have the frame. I was on my way to the used furniture store to put up a set for $23. I decided to stop by my favorite thrift store on the way. Would you believe they had a set for $7!

I was so excited. The only thing wrong was a wheel was missing but that wasn't a big deal. We just yanked off the other three wheels.

I also found a queen bedskirt ($3) that I will just pin up to put on her bed. It matches her comforter perfectly.

I found a picture ($2) to put above her bed instead of a headboard and a full length mirror ($5) and a corkboard ($2)for her "art". The mirror isn't one of the cheap back of the door mirrors. It's got a really nice oval frame. The frame alone would be worth it!

The price of the room has gone up to about $45 but I don't think that's too bad for an entire makeover.

Mom made some new pillows and curtains. I am going to try and put it together tomorrow while she is at her best friends party. They are born 3 days apart so that will be helpful for me. :-)

We may have to cancel her party on Sunday. We are supposed to have a lot of snow. If so I will let her open the presents from us and save the others and have her party next weekend.

That's the update on the room.
Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

Took the tree down.

I finally got the Christmas tree down today. I have been so sick I just haven't had a chance to do it.

We decided to organize the kids rooms and move kids around. The boys are sleeping together now and Elly has her own room.

Her birthday is next week and so mom and I decided to surprise her and for her present make a newly decorated room. I've spent the last three days painting both their rooms. (I did the boys while I had everything out and the rooms were decluttered)

We found a canopy at the thrift store for $10 to put over her bed. Mom has some material to make new curtains and a tablecloth for her craft table. I am going to paint some flowers on the wall for a "new" headboard. I think it will look really cute when we're done and we will have spent about $30 total including paint for a completely new room with some accessories.

I have to confess, I am so worn out I could just collapse. I WISH I WOULD collapse but of course we don't have medical and so even though an extended hospital stay would do me some good in the long run thousands of dollars in medical bills wouldn't.

The house is a wreck and I feel like I'm just moving "stuff" from one place to another. We (mom is helping me) get one room organized and in the next is a pile of stuff from the first that I have to find a place to put. I just don't have the strength or the energy to keep up with the regular housework while I do projects like this. (Ok, I don't have the energy to keep up with normal housework on a normal basis but we won't discuss "details". :-)

Oh yeah, did I mention we are having a birthday party here on Sunday? Augh!

It is very frustrating. I keep trying to remind myself that I am trying to do "normal" person things in a "CFS" person's body but after 18 years I forget that having CFS isn't normal.

Mike and I have been driving each other nuts too. After working together for a year we realize, we hate working together. :-) He's an extrovert and needs to be around people and likes to talk all the time and I'm and introvert and like my space and quite.

I have to say that I don't know what I will do in 18 months when David is in school and Mike at work. (Hopefully he will have a job by then.) It's hard to believe that David will be in school in 18 months. He only 3 but that seems like such a short time or, it seems like such a long time depending on the day. :-)

We aren't sure what direction the business will go after Mike gets a job. I just hate being in limbo. The last 5 years have just been a "wait and see" for us. We waited for a new job for Mike. He got the new job and it was one of the worst jobs he ever had. He was stuck there for three years and in the same time we moved into this house and that was a bad decision so we have been "waiting" on the job situation to see when we could sell it and move to something that would work better for us.

Then he came to work for us but it's just not working out so now we are in limbo again. I have to say I would love to just plop down and stay somewhere for a while. I moved so much when I was single and the first 8 years we were married that I am totally burned out on it! (I think I/we moved 10 times but who's counting. :-) I was feeling frustated painting the kids room knowing that I'm just doing it for the next person. It needs to be done before we sell it so it won't be a total waste of time but it is still tiring.

Well, I guess that's it for today. Mike is working out of town today so I am going to go sit and enjoy a book by myself. It's not the hospital but I guess it will do. :-)

Tawra

Visit our Site!

Saved my towels!

I finally saved my towels! We live in KS with high humidity and our towels mildew all the time. Of course if they are white it's fine but the colored ones I could never get the mildew gone. I hung them on the line, dried in the drier and vinegar and Clorox 2 none of it worked.

I finally found a solution! I soaked the towels overnight in the washer in warm water with about 2 cups of Borax. Then in the morning I let it wash. Then I washed them again with borax and detergent.

They came out great!! A week later and still no mildew smell. Before they would start stinking after a day or two. Gross!

I'm glad I got that irritating problem solved! :-)

Tawra

Replaced the bathroom faucet and getting organized.

Our bathroom faucet started leaking. When we went to do the "simple repair", replacing the gasket, we found out that it was cracked and had to get a new one. Of course while we were taking it out the water supply started leaking too and we had to get two new valves.

It ended up being a 5 day project, fortunately only two days without an upstairs bathroom faucet.

We did get it fixed and I have a pretty new faucet and didn't have any major problem that W-D 40 didn't fix in the end but it was very time consuming.

Now it looks like the hot water heater is going out. :-(

I must say, I hate doing stuff like that. I had to fix the bathroom towel rod, again for about the 6th or 7th time. The silly thing would never stay up. So I was determined today to try and fix it once again. I think I have it done but time will tell.

Today we started cleaning and organizing the kids room again. It was HORRID! Mom came over to help and we started yesterday. I must say I started very begrudgingly. I'm not feeling good and it seems like all I do is pick up to find 20 other things that "appear" that then need to be put away. Yes, I keep on the kids to get it picked up but it's always a pile here or a pile there to deal with.

As I've said before, I'm not "one" with this house. I hate it and it was the biggest mistake we've ever made. It's hard keeping up with it because nothing really has a place and a bi-level is horrible for me going up and down stairs all the time. We moved the main living items like the TV, eating etc. so that everything is upstairs now and I don't have to go up and down so much.

Well, as mom and I were working on their room we decided that maybe it would be better to move David from the upstairs bedroom and let him sleep with BJ and let Elly have her own room now. Even though he's 3 he's still in the crib just because we didn't want him up and running around without us knowing about it alone at night upstairs. (Everyone but him sleeps downstairs) This house is so noisy I'm sure we would hear him but we just didn't want to take a chance.

So.... tonight we moved their sleeping stuff and we are going to try it for a few nights before we move all their stuff. I really hope it works!! I haven't decorated either of their rooms just because we have been planning on moving from this house, then not, then move the kids rooms but David wasn't old enough, then not, then selling this house again etc. They have basically just been living in undecorated shells for rooms and I just hate it. It doesn't really feel like it's "put together".

That's the excitement for the day. I will let you know if mom and I kill each finishing it their rooms and how the sleeping arrangements go. :-)

Tawra

Video ideas.

Since I'm married to a tv/video producer we figured maybe we should use his services. :-)

We have some ideas for videos but we were wondering if there was some particular you would like to see.

We were going to start with how to hang clothes on the line and baking bread and cinnamon rolls. (a frequent question)

Let us know what you would like to see!

Tawra
Email Me!!

P.S.We had to close the blog to comments for the moment so please feel free to email.

Become Debt Free!

I heard a wonderful teaching today on Becoming Debt Free.

This will help you to get focused on getting out of debt!

Tawra

P.S. Since we are trying to become totally debt free I will mention here, in case you didn't see the site ,that we are having a sale on our new BEST OF LIVING ON A DIME. E-book series!!
Check it out!