Category Archives: observations

Happy New Year!

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Long time, no write.

I took some time off of posting since we got kind of crazy around here and had lots of family come in for a visit.

Hope everyone has had an amazing start to 2011!

We have rung in the new year by staying in our pajamas for two whole days – love it!

Derek and I decided to make some financial goals for our family this year.

Along with those large goals, I’ve made some smaller financial goals for me to focus on. Hopefully, these smaller goals will help us reach the larger goals.

I’m probably going about it in an odd fashion but I think it’s a method that will suit me.

I’m going to make new goals each month in order to save some money. Hopefully after the month is over I will have made some long term changes. You will have to check back every month to find out what our goal is.

January’s financial goal is: to spend $125 less on groceries/eating out a month.

After looking at 2010”s financial statistics I think we spent entirely too much in this catergory. My hope is to carry this into other months but for now the focus is saving on groceries/eating out in January.

I’ll let you know our progress at the end of the month – plus give you our new method for February – it’s definitely an out of the box one.

Have you made any financial goals for 2011?

Swimming on Empty?

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Here’s another story from my swim practice the other day:

I swam all practice next to a 20 something guy who I’ve seen for the past couple of months. After practice we were talking with the coach about some health issues and the supplements both men take.

Our coach said he takes 1200mg. of fish oil a day. Sounded like a lot to me until the young guy said, “Oh, I take 5000mg a day.” I said “Wow, now that seems like a lot.”

Frankly I don’t know what constitutes a large consumption of fish oil but when our 65 year old coach is taking a quarter of the dosage this young guy is I don’t think I’m too far off base.

The young guy said, “Yes, well I take 3 fish oil in the morning, 3 fiber in the morning, and then at night I again take 3 fish oil pills and 3 fiber pills.”

6 fiber pills a day.

Just take a moment and think about that.

One of the first thoughts that came to my mind is that he must work at home. alone. on a laptop. with a long cord. with only his cats. and his toilet paper.

Influences from the Past

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I only ever remember lacking two things when growing up. Other than those two things I had an amazing childhood.

We had a house of 6 people – 4 girls, 2 boys. We were constantly going through supplies and my mom made runs to Sam’s or Schwegmann’s all the time. But…we were always out of toilet paper.  I have used thousands of napkins in a way not intended by their manufacturers. When we would get to the point of using napkins, my dad would always go out for toilet paper.

For some reason he would always come back with one roll!  I never could understand it. We had two working bathrooms and he would still just come home with 1 roll of toilet paper. So before the night was over we were back to napkins.

Besides toilet paper we always ran low on toothpaste. A countless number of times we would have cut open the tube and would scrap our toothbrushes in there..for days. It didn’t always happen but it happened enough to make an impression on me.

As a result of these memories, I currently have no less than 24 rolls of toilet paper and probably 5 tubes of toothpaste in my house. You never know when you might run out.

Well fear not, I too am making my children obsessive about something.

I don’t know what it is but I hate buying socks. The thought of spending money on socks drives me crazy. I would rather wash and rewash two good pairs of socks then buy another pack.

But recently this is what I heard, “Mom I need new socks.” “Mom, there are holes in all of my socks.” “Moooooommmmm, I can’t find any socks.”

I don’t know what they are talking about.

sock feetIn fairness, I would like to say that not all socks find the laundry bucket. In the last day I have found socks in random places – under the TV table, under a bed, 3 on the playroom floor, 2 in the car, 1 on the stairs, and 1 on our entry way ledge which is at least 15 feet off the ground. Why would a sock possibly be up there you ask? Alex: “But Mom, I needed a football and couldn’t find my football so I used my sock.” So you see, I only accept 50% off the blame.

So the other day during our Christmas shopping we went out to buy socks. Each boy got 6 pairs of socks of their choosing. I’m sure when they are old enough they will each have 63 pairs of socks in their drawer.

No family… you do not need to give my boys socks for Christmas. Nor do I need any toilet paper or toothpaste.

Obsessions anyone?