Be Nice

This is my plea for today. Be nice. To each other, and to yourself. 

This was hammered home to me yet again today. There was a deal at Family Dollar that resulted in free laundry detergent. Great, right?  Wrong, sadly. It resulted in women (and men) yelling at cashiers and managers because the employees were unsure of their own coupon policy. While there is no excuse for lack of knowledge on the employees part, there is absolutely no reason for the customers to get all up in arms and yell and curse the employees out. A simple please check your coupon policy would suffice- and if the employees were still unsure, a quick call to corporate or showing the coupon policy would also be acceptable. Screaming and yelling at the employee who is simply doing their job (and not getting paid well for it) is simply not acceptable. If they were treated how they treated the Family Dollar employees, I daresay they'd be complaining to high heaven. 

I've actually been teaching this this past week in religious education. Love God with all your heart, and love each other. 

Love each other. Be NICE to each other. Don't scream and bitch at that employee who is just doing her job. Say thank you. It's not that hard. I promise. And just maybe, your day will be better, because you were nice. 

Can 2013 be over?

Its gotten worse. Out of the 5 people in my immediate family, 2 are currently in the hospital. WTF? Bubby #1 was shot!!! almost 3 weeks ago, and is currently in a trauma center up north.  And brother Barry aka my dad, has been diagnosed with cellulitis, and is going to be in the hospital for the next 3 days. Seriously. Could September and October get any worse?   I'm not trying to tempt fate, I'm just ready for this shit to be over. 

And yet again....

It's been over a month since my last post. I haven't forgotten you, I promise. I've just had way too much stuff going on in my life. So in the interest of space and time, this is a synopsis of what happened- summer ended, school started, my brother almost lost his life, still not out of the woods, and now we are at today. 

  Charlie is turning 40 this week. We decided to have a camping trip for him- invite a bunch of friends, and we could just chill, and catch up. Well, it ended up being one of his friends from college, one of her friends, and Charlie, Luke, myself, and Busia. Which I think is kind of crappy, that people that expect him to do stuff for them don't even show up to help celebrate. That's just shady. :/ But we had a fantastic time, and so did Charlie, so it was worth it. Even if his brothers didn't show up, or his friends. 

  Camping this weekend showed me a few things- somewhat in relation to being prepared- but more so just for camping. I really miss it, but we really need to replace a lot of our gear. :(. Our camp chairs are absolute crap, we don't have nearly enough lamps, etc, etc. This means that apparently I need to start saving my pennies for camping gear that I want. :) I know Charlie will use the camp chairs until he's sitting on the ground. And we have an air mattress, we just have no clue if it has a leak in it. So I have to purchase a pump. It's just stupid stuff I have to do. And believe me, I could have used an air mattress this weekend. It was rainy, and muddy, and I fell. :( so of course I wrenched my back, and hurt my knee. Yes, I know, first world problems. 

  

So it's been almost a month....

And this month has been crazy.  I've been working 50+ hours a week, Charlie has been working 40+ hours a week, and Luke hasn't been in school.  So I've not been sleeping, or sleeping when he's home- hello, tv, you've become my new best friend.  Which isn't good.  At. All. 

But, school starts on Tuesday, and Luke will be in 2nd grade!  Oh my gosh, where did the time go?  I remember like it was yesterday him starting kindy, and me crying, not only because he's my first, but because it would be the only time I'd get to experience this.  And now he's starting 2nd.  It's First Communion year as well, so that's huge for us.  I don't want to think about that either right now.  ;) 

The garden isn't going as well as we'd hoped, either.  We've got a ton of pickles, and beans, but our tomatoes aren't producing like we'd hoped.  Each plant only has 3-4 tomatoes on it, and we've only gotten 1 tomato so far.  Sad face.  Time to do some research on it, and if we have to start them early next year, so be it.  Charlie is talking about starting them in the greenhouse at work.  I am thinking instead of putting 5 seeds in a tiny pot, maybe you should only put 2, and then be careful with them.  But whatever, what do I know....  Hahaha!  That's what I'll be doing next year, we'll have a little competition to see who wins!  

I think I'm gonna puke.

Seriously. Money (or lack of) is upsetting me so much. 

We've been discussing money in my moms' group lately, and it seems like we all have the same crappy issues in regards to money. Most of us are stay at home moms, hence how the group was formed, but there's still the huge range- $150,000 a year vs under $28,000 a year. I'm just so tired of struggling and never having enough money. Necessities are barely covered some weeks. 

Today, I started a journal for my phone. In the quest to keep lowering our bills, I've decided to write down what I do to earn money on my phone every day. Viggle, ibotta, swag bucks, shop kick, jingit. Whatever it takes to earn enough to make having a smart phone worthwhile. Because I will downgrade if its not worth it. That's a huge expense, which sucks. I wish wish wish that we could all go back to no cells and just a home phone. But apparently that's never going to happen. 

I'm going to give the journal a month, see  how close I come to $40. If its close, I'll bump it up somehow, but if it's not even close, forget it, I'll drop my iPhone in a heartbeat!

There's nothing wrong with being prepared.

I've been doing more research lately about prepping, and disasters, and all that fun stuff.  I've pretty much come to the conclusion that there is a huge range of preppers, and I'm pretty much on the mild end.  I think we all are on the preparedness spectrum, to a certain extent.  Savings account?  Prepper.  Under your bed savings account?  Slightly more hardcore.  Buried in the back yard?  Even more. 

In Chicago, during the winter, the weather people tell the citizens to keep a few things in the trunks of their cars- a wool blanket, or really any blanket will do, a flashlight with working batteries, kitty litter, water, food, and a change of clothes or two.  Some even keep a gas can with 5 gallons of gas.  This is just in case a snow storm shuts down the interstates, or the person accidentally drives into a snowbank, and can't get out, or the rescue people cannot get to them right away.   I have one, but it's only because I grew up near the city, and worked there for several years.  My dad gave me my first one at 17- it's habit. 

I think as far as we'll go is self sufficiency.  We want to be able to eventually live off the grid at least part of the time, without sacrificing comfort.  At least, that's what I'm researching toward. 

I've become one of *those* people!

Not really, but I've started to become a Prepper.  You know, that television show 'Doomsday Preppers' on National Geographic?  Where families and groups of families prepare for the Apocalypse?  And we all watch it, and make fun because of COURSE, that's NEVER going to happen.
Well, I'm not here to preach my religion at you, because well, that's not my business to do so.  So if you define apocalypse in the religious sense, then keep on walking, because that's not my bag.
But, if you define apocalypse in the government failing, food prices going through the roof, etc, then, welcome!  But, I'm still not a person who thinks that the government is going to fail.  However, I do believe that food prices are on the way up, and that we need to be prepared for the future, whatever happens.
I've been reading a lot about prepping, and what all needs to be done.  And I've come to a very basic conclusion that some people do not consider stockpiling as prepping, and prepping 'cray cray' and hoarding is acceptable, because you got it all free.
Hoarding, as seen on A&E's Hoarders, is not okay.  It's a mental disease, and definitely should be treated as such.  Hoarding as seen on TLC's Extreme Couponers is not acceptable.  It is not a mental disease, and should be treated as those people are greedy, clearing shelves of items they don't need, simply because it's a good deal. 
Prepping is not cray cray.  Prepping is quite simply, preparing yourself for what might happen in the future.  Look at the recent tornadoes in Oklahoma.  How many of those people wished they had a copy of something as simple as their insurance policy?  Or the phone numbers to their credit card companies, because the credit cards were lost/destroyed?
Stockpiling is prepping- think about it.  You purchase something at a low price/free, to save it 'for the future' when prices are not going to be as good.  I think it comes down to when people think prepping, they think clothes, medicine, prescriptions, money, etc.  But going forward, on this blog at least, I will use the two interchangeably.  Because they really are the same thing, in my eyes, one just encompasses more than the other. 
Most of us already have a very basic prep going on.  We (general)  have our marriage certificates, birth certificates, passports (if we have them!), Social Security cards, and assorted other important papers, in a lock box that we keep under our bed, or in our closet, usually with the key hanging out.  Because that's what we do.  But, do you have cash in there? Do you have copies of your driver's license and credit cards? (Front AND back?) Insurance paperwork? Copies of eyeglass prescriptions?  Copies of medical records? What about copies of medical prescriptions?
I will admit, starting to do research on this, and seeing the destruction in Oklahoma, I've come to the conclusion that we are woefully unprepared.  Talking to friends who are much further along on the prepper path than we are shows how much more we have to do, or not do, and decide what will work for us, and our lifestyle.