Colder than a....

Fill in the blank as you see fit!  Brian and O'Brien say that it's a high of about 18? today, and I honestly think that it hit that last night sometime.  Thank God our house is warm and cozy, even though our furnace hasn't turned off for more than about an hour at a time since Sunday!
I've also been shirking my cooking duties- I haven't done anything cool from Pinterest, and I've just been slogging through just making whatever sounds good from our menu and the freezers.  Tonight is shrimp quesadillas to clean up the leftover shrimp from shrimp scampi last week.  I do occasionally splurge on shrimp- although not very often- that's $4 per meal just for that.  Leetle high, no?
I did, however, take one more step into self sufficient hood.  I made my own laundry soap.  Thank you Duggars!  It is sitting in my kitchen right now, because it's HEAVY, and Charlie hasn't taken it downstairs yet.  He's making noises about once he finishes his current container of coffee he'll load it up, and take it downstairs.  I'm like, whatever, just move it out of the way so I don't kill myself on it!  I haven't used it yet, like I said, I still have some Gain downstairs that I want to finish first.  Yay for saving money on both our laundry, and the Goodwill laundry I bring home to wash and resell on ebay!
It seems like I've been running around with stuff to do.  I hit Goodwill on Friday per my paycheck schedule.  :)  I've been posting on ebay like a fiend.  My goal is to make my student loan payment every month through selling.  If I can turn $50 a month into $350, we'll be doing well.  :)

New Year's Resolutions/Goals

It's mid January, and I've been thinking a lot about my new year's resolutions.  I've slowly come to the conclusion that I don't do resolutions, I do goals.  It's a different connotation- goal vs. resolution.  A resolution implies, to me, that you WILL achieve it.  And if you don't, then you're a failure.  A goal, implies that you would LIKE to achieve it, but there's no fear of failure if you don't eat your eleventy million servings of veggies a day.  If you had 7, that's great!  Tomorrow, you can try for 15.  It's a different way of looking at things.
My goals that I've set out for myself this year are a good mix- things I can easily term resolutions, because I will achieve them, and goals that truly are goals- I won't achieve them completely this year, but I will get a super good head start on them, and then NEXT year, they can be my resolutions!
*My weight loss.  I need to continue that.  I've lost 40 lbs recently, and I'm pretty steady at where I'm at now.  I'd like to jump start that again, and start dropping the pounds again.  I've signed up for the mini again this year, and will do at least 2-3 more 'fun' 5k's.  I'll walk/run the mini, and then walk the Color Run, and probably the Glo Run.  Not sure about the 3rd race I'm planning yet, there's a ton, and I'm not sure where I want to go.  :)
*Organizing and streamlining our house.  It's a decent size house, and we're not exactly a huge family, but at the same time, we have an entire room that SHOULD be our office, and it's not.  It's filled with crap that I've accumulated from Goodwill, because I'm trying to start a resale business.  Which is going well, I just have a huge amount of crap to go through.  And then of course, I'm a yarn fiend, so that needs to go as well.  Either into gifts or sell it/give it away.  I'm a huge fan of all things Amish, and they only bring things into their houses that are useful and necessary.  Everything has a place, and everything goes IN IT"S PLACE!  I have a problem with that right now, and I realize that I have to reorganize, get rid of stuff.
*Wrestle the budget under control.  That's one of my biggest problem areas right now.  I have no problem picking up a Diet Coke after work, or McDonald's on my way home.  That's a huge expense every week, that I basically fritter away.  That needs to stop.  I also want to get my one credit card paid down, and work it with my business.  Basically, shop for supplies for the business with it, pay it off with profits.  That way, I can see what's working, and what's not.

Done (almost) with 2012

I am so glad that 2012 is almost over.  It has sucked in so many ways, and I'm truly hoping that 2013 is going to be better.  I mean, honestly, I'm not sure how it can be worse than 2012.  Right?

I'm still decluttering, and it's going ok.  I mean, no one's buying a lot of stuff on eBay right now, but that should start picking up here shortly- I made a trip to the outlet this morning with Luke, so now I've got some new stuff to post and try to sell.

And of course we were snowed in the day after Christmas.  We got 11 inches of snow in about 6 hours, and everyone was shut down- except the malls and stores.  And even some of those were closed.  This is our view from our front porch, inside of course.  :)  Insane, isn't it?  They're calling it Snowpocalypse 2012.  Or Euclid, according to The Weather Channel!

I think things might finally be settling down with my inlaws.  Charlie spent the entire Christmas day with them, and I was at home.  Which was wonderful.  Apparently, his mom said something about how I was missed, and my sil made a comment that she wished I was there so we could talk urban homesteading.  And yes, that would have been cool, but I am not up to dealing with that right now.  After the whole thing blew up, she wrote an apology that she hopes we can start over.  And I'm all for that, but Jebus Christmas, respond to an email that my husband sends you about possible plans to hang out together!  I am not planning on going up there until *next* Thanksgiving- definitely not Easter.  And I'm not even sure about Luke's birthday party.  I've told Charlie that I won't be there, so don't expect me to help you.  I really don't want to see them at all any time soon.  I *wish* I had great inlaws, but such is life.  I am sometimes jealous that other people have wonderful inlaws that treat them like part of the family.  I get people who act like their sons hung the moon, and I'm expected to bow and scrape.  Oh well.  I will get through.  :)

Total Life Makeover....

I'm reading a book called Almost Amish, by Nancy Sleeth.  She talks a lot about simplifying your life, and living more like the Amish do.  This isn't the first book that I've read about simplifying your life, or even about the Amish in that regard.  But, maybe because of events recently, and family discussions we've had recently, it's hit me a lot harder than normal.  We've fallen away from Dave Ramsey.  Our bills are barely under control.  Murphy has moved into the spare bedroom.  And honestly?  Murphy needs to leave.  And this blog isn't just about money, and it's not about Dave Ramsey.

I want to live my life more like the Amish do.  Less facebook, more face to face.  Less clutter, more peace.  More family time, less TV.

This isn't going to be an easy change- I admit that.  Charlie will be on board with it, he already hates the TV. Luke, not so much, but he's only 7, so what we say goes.  :)  We'll start out easy- 1 evening a week, no tv.  Then 2, then we'll go from there.  I am already decluttering, but need to do more.  I'm trying to sell stuff, and that's working, it just needs to go faster!

If we start with one thing, one simple change, then the next change won't be so hard.  Or so huge.  It's just the first step.




And it begins with turning off the television 1 night a week.  Where it ends up?  Who knows- but that's the beauty of the journey.  I know where we'd LIKE it to end up, but God's really in control of that.

Honestly? I'm scared.

I normally try and stay away from political postings, or at the very least, broadcasting my political leanings.  Whether you agree with my views or not, it's definitely a way to make enemies.  Today, is really no exception, except to say I'm super scared this morning.  There were definitely some good victories yesterday in the elections, yay to Glenda Ritz becoming Indiana's Superintendent of Education, yay to Joe Donnelly defeating Richard Mourdock.  Unfortunately, there were some boo's as well- Rupert Murdock only getting 5% of the vote for Indiana's governorship, Mike Pence winning the governorship, Ryan Guillory losing his race.  Notice I said nothing about the president's race.  I am scared since Obama won, but I would also have been scared had Romney won.  Neither one was a good fit for me and my beliefs.  And now the hard work begins again.
Charlie and I were talking last night while laying in bed before sleep- I remember listening to the radio when Clinton got elected- and I wasn't this nervous.  Gore "won" yet he didn't, and I wasn't this nervous.  And therein lies the rub: where do we go from here?
I am still an American, and I am still proud.
 I begin at home.  I teach Luke to be a good citizen.  I teach him to be a good Catholic.  I teach myself (and our family) to be more self sufficient.  I learn more about government, and get involved somehow in the process.  I work hard, and don't let others take advantage of me, but at the same time, remain compassionate for those less fortunate.  I give to those who need it.  I pray for others.  And somehow, we'll ALL get through the next four years, no matter who we voted for.  And it will all be fine.

I can't even imagine.....

I was going to write a post about food, or Pinterest, or something else, but then decided to write about death. But not in a morbid way.
Two friends of mine lost someone very dear to them recently. A former co- worker lost his daughter last weekend, and another friend of mine lost her son to brain cancer. So I've been thinking a lot about seizing the day.
I admit that death is a very natural part of life, I'm a biologist, I accept that, and it doesn't bother me.  However, when children or young adults are yanked away, it really bothers me.  I think because I don't feel they lived their entire life.  But, they did, because God decided what is best for them.

Must....Clean....House

The yard sale was a huge bust, no one showed up.  So I spent 45 minutes lugging everything out, to sit for 6 hours to lug everything back inside.  Argh!  Such a pain in my ass!  I swear, I'm never doing one again, I'm going to rely on ebay, facebook, and craigslist to rid my house of my crap from here on out!  I posted several books on Paperback Swap, and luckily only 1 isn't on hold for someone.  So that means that 5 books will be mailed out.  So then I can browse for other books that I want to read or actually keep without spending a ton of money on them!  Which, Charlie hates, but oh well!  ;)  

Dinner is simmering in the crock, I'm trying REALLY hard to like my crock- I think it's a texture thing.  It's Santa Fe Chicken, so we shall see.  The boys also have Scouts tonight, so I have to have dinner ready within the next half hour.  :)