Loads of Diapies

We’ve been getting a lot of baby gifts lately: via mail, walk-in, etc. The main theme of these gifts, though, is clothing. And all the same size. Pee Wee’s friends are getting KJ all kinds of cute little outfits and so are our relatives. The problem is that we’re running out of diapers.

I breastfed Mags exclusively so I knew that breastfed kids go through a little bit more diapers than bottle fed (Pee Wee was bottle fed). I forgot that part though. Every time KJ has a meal, he fills up his pants. We’ve already gone through the two mega packs we bought before he was born as well as the ones the hospital had in his isolette. Pee Wee, unfortunately, has since run out of funds and isn’t going back to work until the second week of June. Uh-oh. Now I wish I would have told everyone to just buy diapers.

Steve’s a little irritated because of the diaper buying. Afterall, we just convinced Mags to use the potty for her BMs (last month). No more diapers! At least that’s what we were singing for a little while. We’re over that now.

A Cabin in the Woods

Yesterday I blogged that I was thankful for everything that I have. And I am. I’ve been working on a budget today and realized that we’re a lot better off this month than I thought previously. Looks like we’re going to be able to pack our Briggs and Riley and go to our “cabin” in the woods soon. Maybe even as soon as we get our “economic stimulus” check. I’m sooo thrilled!

We haven’t been down to Grand Haven since last August (I think) and I really like spending time down there. It’s like a little village in the middle of nowhere, but there’s plenty to do. We usually get a two-bedroom pet cabin, so we can take our pooch. This time we might not be able to take him, though, because of all the car seats. Mags and KJ sure do take up a lot of room for such little people. At any rate, when we go down, we take our food and other supplies and just hang out for a few days. We were hoping to hang out for a week this time, but sadly we can’t. Three days will be plenty, I think.

The resort isn’t really a “resort” like you think. It’s a woodsy type place (cabins) and there is a swimming pool and a club house. Plus horse back riding, golf, hiking, etc. It’s really nice. Last time I went up in the woods and didn’t come back for hours. It was so incredibly peaceful. I can’t wait to get back. It’ll be so refreshing. I can’t access the Internet down there, so I can’t be stressed out by jobs (or lack thereof) or silly Internet drama. I won’t be able to check my email or my page stats and I won’t be able to fret if no one is clicking my ads. I’ll just be free to be without. I love that. When we go I’ll make sure to take a few pics and post them here.

Counting My Blessings

I have issues with budgeting and planning. I don’t like to do either. However, with the way gas prices are today, I think it’s a good time to start. My husband and I aren’t going to retire any day soon and we’d like to keep our home, so this is something I really need to get a grip on. Right?

Lately I’ve seen a lot of people asking “What are you doing to cope?” That’s a good question. The economy is tanking and people are feeling the pinch. It’s come down to “Do I keep all 5 cell phones? Cut down to basic cable? Eat day old bread?” While I’ve been trying to learn to cut down on our expenses and find extra dollars here and there, I’ve been thinking of what my grandparents had to endure. And somehow managed to survive.

My great-grandmother was born before the Great Depression. They managed to live on $2-5 a week- if that. They didn’t have a car (much less two) and couldn’t afford to buy their children a different pair of shoes for each different outfit. As a matter of fact, my grandmother once told me that they had their “Sunday best”- which was only worn on Sunday - and their everyday clothes. Two outfits. That’s it. How did they do it? And meat was only eaten once a week- or twice if there was a holiday. They convened at the neighbor’s house when there was an interesting radio program playing, otherwise they did without (no TV mind you).

I look around my house and realize that we’ve got it good. I’m typing this on a PC and posting it via the Internet and if we were really that bad off, I would have neither of these luxuries. I wouldn’t have a special shampoo or be able to choose whole grain bread over white bread. I wouldn’t be able to say “Hey! I need new sandals because these are just ugly!” Nope. I would be canning and hoarding and scraping to make sure my kids had a roof over their heads, not worrying about going to basic cable instead of America’s Top 150 on Dish. My children have closets full of clothes and have milk and meat everyday. I’m scrimping and saving to keep these things. So they don’t go without them. Not so they’ll survive. Because I have no worries that our money woes are going to cause our kids to get sick, go homeless or die. We are LUCKY. I don’t think enough people realize just how lucky they are.

I’m still coming up with a budget, though. I like our little luxuries and don’t want to have to give them up. I like having cable and the internet and being able to buy my kids little cheap toys every so often. I like being able to choose between good food and processed. I like that I can take my girls to a decent doctor and not have to worry about them dying from an ear infection (my great-uncle died from an ear infection when he was 1 year old). We have one car (and it runs!), two tvs (we married our households so one of them is 15 years old), and one PC. Our bills are paid on time every month and our refrigerator is always stocked. We’ve got it good. I’m not complaining. I’m counting my blessings.

There’s a Cow in the Road

We tried- and failed - to organize our basement over the weekend. We’re still knee-deep in moving boxes and we were hoping to get most of that stuff either to the Goodwill or out to the trash. It was a mess. Honestly, my husband and I just can’t even work on the most mundane projects anymore. He wants to keep everything and I want to throw it all out. Why is this so difficult? We’ve only got so much room for the KISS collection and other necessities like, oh, the washer and dryer. Do we really need to save all those boxes of crap for “just in case”? I don’t think so.

On a lighter note, we went out to the countryside and were stopped in our tracks by a wandering cow. She somehow got out of her pasture and was happily walking up the road. Steve got out and tried to corral her into what we thought was her barn. Oops. We soon found out that she doesn’t belong to that particular farm and that’s why all the young steers were getting agitated. The farmer was a little irritated, I think, when he saw Steve trying to close her in one of his stalls. Seems that she belonged to the guy up the hill and he’d have to come take care of her. How funny is that? Ok, well, maybe not that funny, but at the time it was a hoot. Here’s this big ol’ Jersey cow, lumbering along, mooing happily and we interrupt all her fun. Sorry, Elsie, but you’re in the way. I’m sorry, to say though, that Steve was disappointed that the farmer didn’t want to be his new best friend and/or mentor. The guy raises beef and Elsie was quite obviously Dairy. Hello!

No. We really can’t just have a cookout and invite insane relatives. We’ve got to do things a little differently in my neck of the woods. Isn’t that special?

Starry Morn

I like to wake up to a dark room. I don’t know why, but I really don’t care for the sun glaring at me when I’m still sleeping. So at night we pull the window blinds and I sleep peacefully until a child wakes me up (I’m lucky like that). By the way, we don’t use venetian blinds, which is an important fact with regard to the story I’m going to tell.

This morning I woke up to little red flashes. I couldn’t figure it out. They were all over the far wall and jumping across my face. What the…? I look around and see that someone has poked holes in one of the blinds and sunlight was coming through just enough to bounce of a decoration made from red tinfoil (long story). Some of the tinfoil was moving because of the breeze from the fan. Voila! There’s our culprit.

Of course, the culprit (Mags) was quite thrilled with the little red dots jumping around on the wall. She has no guilt for what she did and, I’m pretty sure, she’s planning to do it to the other blind if she can get her hands on it. She said she wants it like that in her room and, honestly, I wish she’d done it in her room. Sadly, for me, her favorite room is my room and, so, my blinds got the fun makeover.

On Commenting

I was thinking (I know, slightly shocking) that I’m a member of a lot of different social sites. I also like to read a lot of different blogs (to my detriment). But I don’t comment a lot. Ok, I rarely comment. I’ll throw something out there every now and then, but I just don’t feel comfortable with it.

Why do you think that is? I find different postings to be worth wasting my time (not wasting really, just not working), but then I just click out and find something else to read. I swear all this reading and without the social interaction is going to cause me to have Lasik surgery or something (my mother had that recently…sigh). I even joined a “club” for bloggers and what do I do? Peruse the postings for interesting thoughts and then leave without posting mine.

The really sad thing is that I’ve made it a point to bookmark some good conversations so that I could come back to them later. I wanted to astound and amaze with my witty commentary and then…nothing. I just let it go. Why do you think that is?

I’ll tell you it’s not because I’m afraid of confrontation or because I might not come across as intelligent as some of the commenters. I’m thinking it might have something to do with just keeping my distance. I’ve learned some hard lessons in my years online and one of those was to be extra careful about who you let get close to you. Maybe that’s it.

At any rate, I’ve wasted a couple of more hours reading and thinking. Now I’ve got to make dinner. And those damned writing samples still aren’t typed out.