My May Spending Fast - Update

Thanks to Beth Dargis of My Simpler Life blog, I have been on a "spending fast" since May 1st, with the object of not spending any unnecessary money. I thought I'd update on how the month went.

I've actually learned quite a bit this month. First, I have a tendency to order things online -- mainly fabric but also computer games and "gadgets" that appeal to me. I did buy myself two birthday gifts -- first was James Frey's new book, Bright Shiney Morning, but I'm not counting that against my spending fast, since I pre-ordered it last March when I first heard it was coming out in May. On the day of my birthday, I bought myself a computer game for $9.99.

I've really tightened up on my food spending, and have spent this month learning how to work the Walgreens and CVS coupon and rebate/money back programs. At this point I am getting all our personal care items, cleaning supplies and paper goods for free or nearly free. It took me awhile to get this process organized, but I'm feeling confident now and can see the advantages every week when I check my bank balance.

My weakness is yard sales. Last week I spent about $8 at yard sales, for clothes and toys for Brayden. I didn't buy anything for myself, but then again, I didn't see anything I wanted! I think I need to incorporate yard sales into my monthly budget, and designate an amount I can spend and not go over.

Jeff had a week off this month, but we spent all but one day doing yard and garden work. I purchased my vegetable plants at the flea market this year, and saved about 1/2 of what I normally spend. If I was truly frugal, I would have started them all from seed back in January, but it didn't occur to me then. We did take the last day of his "staycation" off and went to a movie (matinee, senior rate (!) $6.50 each) and dinner. However, I used a 60% off coupon from Restaurant.com , so a nice dinner cost us less than $15.00. (I don't think we'll ever eat out again without checking out that web site. I love the fact there is no membership fee. You just go on the site, type in your zip code, pick a restaurant and purchase a "Gift Certificate". The day I checked there was a 60% sale going on, so I paid $4 for a $25 gift certificate!)

I driving far less these days because of the cost of gas. I try to incorporate all my driving into one day specifically for errands. I'm hoping a tank of gas will last me 6 to 8 weeks, since everything I need is within 3 miles of my house... grocery stores, department stores, bank, post office, office supply store, etc. Walgreens is about 1/4 mile away and CVS about 2 miles. Last week I did buy gas but I first used gasbuddy.com and got gas for $3.86 by driving 2 miles, instead of paying $3.99 at the three gas stations closer to my house.

Jeff and I sat down and talked about our budget and about getting prepared for prices of everything to go up even more in the near future, and where we could cut back to prepare for it. Jeff went into work the very next day and approached his boss about working from home 10 days of the month! This would be a tremendous savings on gas, cut down on mileage on the new car, and cut down on buying new clothes for work so often. He's still waiting to hear if they're going to approve it.

We received several checks this month, including our federal tax refund (the regular one, not the stimulate-the-economy check), a bonus from Jeff's work, and some rebate checks. We have decided to use Jeff's bonus to replace the skylights in our master bedroom and Jeff's bathroom with more energy efficient units, plus put a timer on our electric water heater. All other checks went towards the principle of our home improvement loan we took out two years ago to re-do the kitchen and exterior of our house. I learned if I make additional payments on the loan, I need to do it on THE DAY the loan is due, otherwise, part of it will be applied straight to interest, not the principle.

So it's been a learning experience for me. I've always thought of myself as a frugal person, but this month has helped me examine where I can make long-term changes that have a positive effect on our budget. It's been an education!

Rainy Day Activities for Toddlers

Anyone who reads my blog knows I adore my 2 1/2 yr old grandson, Brayden Lee. I babysit for him two days a week, from 7am to 5:00pm. We spend about 50% of our time outside, 15% of our time doing some kind of activity or game, 25% of our time doing "chores" including both housework and gardening, and 10% of our time with Brayden playing quietly on his own with whatever he wants to play with. But then, there are rainy days and I suddenly have to find new things to do with the 50% of our time that's normally spent outside. I thought I'd share some of the things we do. I found age-appropriate computer games at our local library. One in particular that Brayden has enjoyed for several months now is called "Giggles Baby - Animals and Friends". (You can find more info here - no affiliation!) He can make mice race or kitties meow or gophers pop out of holes. I put his high chair right up to the computer so he can easily access the mouse and keyboard. He will sit for 20 or 25 minutes playing these computer games by himself, and sometimes 20 or 25 minutes of a two year old playing quietly by himself is a Godsend! We have visited a few web sites on the Internet -- Noggin and Mickey Mouse Club House, for example -- which Brayden really enjoys. For both these sites I sit with him and and he can point to what he wants to do and I click on the mouse for him. Attention span on each site is about 10 minutes. Another great website we have tried is called TumbleBooks and it is online animated storybooks for little ones! You'll need to have a flash player installed to view the books, but it will be well worth it! If you have a little one that loves books, these are just perfect. They page through automatically, with an audible reader, and each page of the storybook is animated. I loved the AbraCadabra and the Tooth Witch story, myself. Once you get to the initial screen, click on "StoryBooks" to find the books for younger readers. They also have several "Caillou" animated books, which always have such a nice "message" to the story. If you have a little one in your life, you won't want to miss this web site. Oh, and there ARE books for older children here as well! Another cute site for older toddlers and pre-schoolers is the ABC site at StarFall. You click on any alphabet block, and a little animation comes up about that letter. Cute way to introduce your toddler to the alphabet! Think it's impossible to play "peek-a-boo" on the computer? Babies and toddlers will love this web site! Check out the entire Kneebouncers web site while you're there -- lots to do for babies of all ages! Non-computer things we do: Cooking - Brayden likes to dump things into a bowl, so I take advantage of it and we sometimes cook something as easy as cupcakes, or as difficult as homemade soup. Anything that needs to be chopped with a knife is done beforehand, so there are no knives in the area. Crockpot recipes are as good as homemade soups. You need something with 8 or 10 ingredients that can be "dumped" and stirred. And don't forget to have them SMELL -- spices, onions, everything! Explain what it is they are smelling. The Missing Game - I get any four objects I know Brayden can identify verbally. Last week we used a ball, a block, a marble and a gyroscope (he says diediscope). I line them up on the coffee table, and have him say the name of each object. Then I cover them all with a cloth, grab one item and pull the cloth off, with the item hidden in the cloth. Then Brayden tells me what object is missing. He loves playing this! The Front Door game - We have a glass storm door on our front door, so we can do this in any weather. Our staircase is just a few feet from the front door, so I open the door and we sit on the stairs together and talk about what we see. First, I'll say, "Oh, I see so many things! I see..." trees, grass, flowers, a neighbor's truck, a school bus, etc. Then I ask him what he sees. When he tells me something he sees, I'll ask him what color it is... We try and cover blue skies, green grass, yellow flowers -- just to reinforce his colors and his verbal skills. Music - If you have a toddler in the 2-5 year old bracket, you need to have them listen to the music of Laurie Berkner... great stuff! Some of Brayden's favorite songs -- Drive My Car, The BumbleBee Song, Laurie's Got a Skunk on Her Head and more. Check your local library -- they may have it and you can copy it on your PC :) We sing, we act out the music...we chase each other to "I'm gonna get you so you better run..." Good stuff. Sandbox - I took a medium sized cheapo clear plastic storage container that's about 2 feet long, 18 inches wide and 8 inches deep, and bought some sandbox sand ($3 a bag) and filled the container with sand down in my basement. I brought down some kitchen utensils and a dump truck... and away we go. Brayden will play in this little sandbox for at least an hour. Go the the Library! Our public library is one of my very favorite places, so I was overjoyed when Brayden was finally old enough to attend weekly Story Hour, but that's stopped for the summer. So we just go to the library to enjoy ourselves. Our library has board books and toddler books in boxes on the floor, and Brayden picks out 3 or 4 and we sit in the tiny sitting area in the Children's Room and read. He is allowed to take 2 books home with us (one book for each year old is a good rule). If you go to the library, please be sure and teach your child library manners - no pulling books off the shelves, no running, no talking loudly, etc. As someone who has worked at the library, I know that a large majority of parents forget that step and it makes it difficult for everyone. Grocery Shopping - You CAN go grocery shopping with a toddler, honest! I don't do a two-hour monthly shopping marathon, but I can definitely keep Brayden happy for 30 to 45 minutes in the grocery store. Just as we're about to enter, I give him two "jobs" -- "Brayden, your job today is to find Bananas and Yogurt" for example. I choose foods that he eats on a regular basis and knows by site. As we move through the aisles, he's doing his job -- trying to find yogurt and bananas. We talk about things we see, especially in the produce aisles. I let him smell things -- apples, oranges, cantelope, flowers, spices, air freshener, etc. Every once in awhile I remind him of what his job is and ask him if he's found them yet. I generally go to other aisles for 5 or 10 minutes, then go down the aisle that has one of his foods and let him find it. I make a big deal about what a great job he did -- and remind him of his next food to look for. That usually gets me through another half of the grocery store while he's looking. When I'm almost finished we go down the aisle where his last food is located and he's happy all over again. Then we're ready to head to the register and go home. Grocery shopping done, toddler happy, and he wasn't focused on what we weren't buying (junk food, toys) because he was too busy looking for the things we did buy. Completely avoid aisles that you know are going to cause confrontation (candy aisle, toy aisle). When we arrive at the check-out I pull out any "squishable" food and then put Brayden in the cart and have him help me put the food on the check-out counter. This keeps his eyes in the opposite direction of the candy at the check-out lane! We do lots of other things -- coloring, "writing", reading, play-doh and if I'm terribly tired or if he needs something to quiet him down before naptime -- Baby Einstein DVD's. Very rarely do we turn the TV on and very rarely is Brayden ever bored!

Training them young

I had two full days with Brayden Lee this week. My daughter went to a Reds baseball game with friends on Thursday night, and since Friday is my normal day to babysit, I offered to just keep him overnight. (My purely selfish reason was that if she picked him up at 11pm to take him home, he'd be wide awake and not get much sleep, and I'd be stuck with a cranky child on Friday!)

On Thursday evening after dinner (he ate spaghetti - yay! Something other than chicken nuggets!), Brayden and Jeff went out for some hot tub time. (We turn the temp down to 96 and I set a timer for 15 minutes.) How sweet is this photo of Umpa (Jeff) and Brayden? They have such a wonderful relationship -- you can see it in both their eyes!

After the hot tub, Brayden played with his garage and cars for awhile (which is a very calming and quiet activity for him), then it was off to bed to read a story. I have a book called "Ten Little Monkeys" which has been his favorite book at my house since he was old enough to read to (6 months). We hadn't read it for at least a month, so he was happy when I pulled it out. Each page has a little monkey poem, plus a number 1 through 10. On each page, he pointed to the number and asked me what it was. When we got to the page with the big green 10 on it, Brayden said, "Umma! Two Number 10!" and pointed at the page, then flipped the book closed to point at another number 10 on the cover! I thought that was quite clever :)

Brayden hadn't slept at our house for several months, so his "big bed" (our guest bed) was a little strange to him (he naps in my bed normally), so it took him awhile to fall asleep -- about 11pm! He slept until 7am the next morning, which is really about 2-3 hours less than he'd normally sleep.

We decided to clean house before going out (I do try to teach him that we have to do our work first), so Brayden vaccuumed the family room and kitchen for me. How's that for big help?

The most fun we had, though, was when we went to a yard sale I'd seen advertised in the paper (because it had his size clothes and toys). We arrived and walked up the driveway, and Brayden timidly held my hand as I looked around. I did find some great clothes (nearly new Children's Place and OshKosh clothes for 50 cents each!), and asked Brayden if he saw any toy he'd like and he said.. "Ummmmm....... noooooo....." I chose a Hot Wheels Steering Wheel for him to play with in the car, and I found an age-appropriate battery-operated race car for him. He was so excited to play with the steering wheel when we got back in the car! I said to him, "Do you want to go back to Umma's house and play with your race car?" and he said... "One more yard sale!" LOL So off we went.. to one more yard sale...

At the next yard sale, Brayden had the hang of the whole thing. He walked into the garage like he owned the place. I told him to look for a toy to buy, so he began looking at everything around. He walked by so many things I thought he'd like, but about half-way around the tables, he suddenly said, "Umma! Red Elmo cup!" and sure enough, clutched in his little hands was a great plastic cup shaped like Elmo's head... for .10 cents. "Do you want to get that?" "Yes!" and then he kept looking and found a very small toy watering can for another .10 cents. And look what I found for him -- for $3 (it sells on Amazon for $55!).

When we got back to my house, the first thing Brayden wanted to do was have some applejuice in his Elmo cup. He's used to Sippy Cups, so when he took his first drink, he dribbled a bit. He took a look at the cup and said, "No top! Big boy cup!" and was so proud of himself.

We actually had a thoroughly enjoyable day together (which is pretty standard). We cleaned house, went to two yard sales, Brayden had some Umpa time, and we spent time reading, drawing, and playing outside. Brayden is officially the flower-waterer now with his new little watering can, and the morning glory seeds I planted on the back deck have suddenly sprung out of the dirt and are two inches tall since Brayden watered them. It must be the love and absolute joy of a little boy watering his first flowers that made them grow like that.

Walgreens $10 coupon - today only

Head to this website and pick up a $10 off $30 purchase good at Walgreens today only.

Not-so-neighborly neighbors

My next door neighbor is no longer speaking to me. I'm hurt, frustrated, and a bit angry by the entire episode, so thought I'd vent here.

Yesterday was a beautiful day and I grabbed a new quilting magazine and an iced tea, and headed for our back deck to enjoy the weather. Between babysitting and gardening and yard work and this and that, I hadn't had a chance to just sit, relax and enjoy. So that was my plan.

I heard voices next door, and didn't pay much attention. I knew our neighbor was out working in his vegetable garden, and he's a gregarious guy, so I assumed he was just chit-chatting with another neighbor. I looked up a few minutes later and saw six men in shirts with a tree company logo, looking up at the trees in the corner of MY yard, pointing, discussing... Now, my neighbor had jokingly (I thought) told me he wanted me to cut down my trees in the back of our yard because they're blocking the morning sun to his vegetable garden. I thought it was just wishful thinking on his part -- there was no way I was cutting down trees! (Let me add -- his has a HUGE very sunny yard, but his small vegetable garden is in the ONLY shady spot on his property.)

So, I watched the tree men and the neighbor gesturing and pointing and making cutting-sweeps with their hands, all the while looking at MY trees! I walked over to them, and said, "You're not planning on cutting my trees down, are you?" and Neighbor said, "Wellllll... I just want them to cut the TOPS off - not the whole tree." THUD! Are you kidding me?!? I just looked at the tree guys and said, "Those trees are on my property and you don't have my permission to cut them." Honestly, I was in shock -- how could anyone even consider doing that to a neighbor?

The tree in question is this big tree just to the right of the electrical lines. He wanted to "top it off" from the top of the lines up. The electric line pole is the corner of the boundary line -- the tree is obviously to the right of that pole. (And actually we believe we own about 10 feet to the left of the pole as well). That's my vegetable garden you see -- his is about 20 feet to the left of that.

So, very long afternoon later, my neighbor (who drinks way too much, had the day off, and apparently started drinking very early) has cussed at me, told me he was going to build a cement wall down the length of the property boundaries, told me he was never going to speak to me again, and more -- believe me, much more.

Now, this guy has been a GOOD neighbor. Yes, he drinks (I'd actually thought he'd quit but...) and sometimes does some stupid stuff (blow up his pool pump because he mixed too many chemicals; completely burned his garden when he, again, went overboard with insecticides, etc.), but he's also one of those neighbors that would give you the shirt off his back. He brings his snowblower to our driveway every snowstorm and cleans the driveway for us. I bake him brownies in return. He's not the best neighbor, but he's certainly not the worst.

I recognize that all this isn't my fault -- he had no right to call those guys to cut down or even trim our trees. But I'm beside myself because I know he's a good neighbor and I hate that this is going to come between us! He won't listen to reason, he now believes our boundary line is off and wants to get it surveyed (which is really going to be a rude awakening for him, because we actually own far more land than he thinks we do...and have always left that alone)... and worst of all, he turns his back to us when he sees us. It's so sad!!! Jeff went over to reason with him today, and there was just no getting through to him that he had no right to even bring the tree cutters in to "top" our trees. He just won't listen to any of it. He says *I* was beligerent (possible - I was angry) and approached him "in the wrong way" -- well, I'm not sure what the RIGHT way is, when you look outside and see tree cutters about to climb up your trees, but...

Regardless, I'm sad about the entire episode. I attributed his lack of common sense to his drinking, but today is a new day, he's sober, and he's still angry and not speaking. I told him I was sorry if the way I approached him at the time bothered him, and I was truly sorry that he was going to let this come between us as neighbors. He just brushed me off, and later brushed Jeff off as well.

So that's my vent. It didn't do any good or change anything, and apparently things aren't going to change in the near future (until he gets the land surveyed and finds out how much of "his" land we actually own, that is)... I do think he needs to apologize to either Jeff or I for even having called those tree cutters to quote him a fee to cut our trees, but I'd settle for just having my neighbor back again.

Ah well... I guess if this is the worst thing that happens to me this week, I'll be having a pretty darn good week.

Frugal Black Bean Rice Soup

It's a gorgeous cool Spring day here -- probably one of our last cool days -- and a good day for planting more seeds in the vegetable garden and for soup. I want to plant black beans in my garden again this year -- they are so easy to grow, and they dry and store so beautifully - so I got out my container of black beans from last year's garden to put some to soak overnight and plant tomorrow. Since I had the beans out, I decided to make Blackbean Soup and Cornbread for dinner. I rarely use a recipe for soup, and, since this is still cooking away in my crockpot as I write this, have no idea how this is going to taste! However, I make great soups (really!) and have confidence this will come out OK!

BLACK BEAN SOUP

2 cups of dried black beans 1 ham hock 1 cup chopped onions 2 cup chopped celery 1 cup chopped carrots 1/2 # ground beef 1/2 pkt of Good Seasons Garlic & Herb Dressing mix (dry mix) 2 cups tomato sauce 1 tbsp oregano 2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce 1 tsp black pepper 1 tsp red pepper flakes 1 cup long grain rice 1 cup diced ham 1 tsp hot sauce I put the beans in a pot of cold water (about 4-5 cups) and let it sit for 5 minutes, then picked off anything that floated (these are home-grown, so you do get little bits of leaves, stems, hulls, etc.). I rinsed and put them in clean cold water with about 1/2 tsp baking soda (supposed to reduce the gassy-effects of beans!) and brought them to a boil, boiled them for 5 minutes, turned off the heat, covered and let sit for 2 hours. (Meanwhile I pulled out another 1 cup of beans, placed them in a bowl with some water to soak to plant in the garden later this afternoon so I have another year's worth of beans!) I pulled out my small crockpot (it's deeper than my 6 qt crockpot and better for soup), and put in the chopped onions, celery and carrots, ham hock (bought fresh at the local Farmer's Market), 4 cups of water, and 2 cups of tomato sauce (from my garden tomatoes last year). Because I had a half-pound of uncooked ground beef in the fridge that needed to be used up, I tossed that in too. (Yeah, I do that.) I also had a 1/2 packet of Garlic & Herb salad dressing mix leftover from making Herbed French Fries** last week, and threw that in the pot. I added oregano, worst. sauce, black pepper and red pepper flakes. Because it's 11:00 when I'm doing this, I put the crockpot on high. If I'd planned ahead better, this would have been in the crockpot by 8am, and I'd have set it on low. As soon as the beans are done with their 2 hour soak, I will add them in. About 2:00 this afternoon, I'll add in the rice. At about 5:00, I'll take the ham hock out, let it cool, and dice up the meat. I'll also add in the additional diced ham* and hot sauce. Sometime this afternoon I'll taste the cooking broth, and if it's not flavorful enough, I'll add in two or three beef bouillion cubes to up the taste a bit. I'm hoping this will turn out like a nice thick beans and rice soup, with savory chunks of ham throughout. I plan on serving it with homemade corn bread. A nice hearty meal for a cool Spring day! *I want to mention the diced ham. In New England, we call this "boiled ham" and in Ohio, they call it "cooked ham". You find it at your deli counter, usually for at least $2-$3 a pound less than other lunchmeats. I ask the deli person for ONE 1/4 to 1/2 inch slice. I take this home and cube it up, and place 1 cup servings in small freezer bags. I use this ham for additions to macaroni & cheese, omelettes and scrambled eggs, breakfast burritos, and soups and bean dishes! I usually get 4 meals out of one slice (under $2) of this ham! It's not a fatty or salty ham, but does have a nice mild ham flavor. A good way to put meat in your frugal budget! ** Here's a GREAT low fat recipe for homemade French Fries. I took two large Idaho potatoes and sliced them lengthwise into 1/2 inch strips (skin on). I put them in a ziploc bag with 1 TEASPOON Canola Oil, and tossed them well until they were thoroughly covered with the oil. Then I added 1/2 packet of Good Seasons Garlic and Herb Salad Dressing Mix, tossed it all again. I Pam-sprayed a cookie sheet, set the oven on 400, and spread the potatoes on the cookie sheet, put them in the oven for 15 minutes, turned the potatoes over and put back in the oven until nice and brown - about 10-15 more minutes. These were delicious and far lower in fat than "regular" French Fries.

Organizing My Brain Day

I've had several different unrelated items on my mind that I've wanted to blog about, so it's time to just lay it all out for you - for what it's worth. MOVIE REVIEW - Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Jeff and I decided to go to the movies yesterday, since school was in session and it was a weekday afternoon -- it was like having the movie theatre to ourselves (I counted 8 people in the movie when we arrived). I'm not a big Indiana Jones buff nor a big adventure movie fan, but it was a movie I knew we would enjoy (I'm not going to get Jeff to go to a chic flic or a light comedy). Neither of us had read any reviews of the movie, nor knew what the storyline was going to be before we went in, and for some reason we both expected Harrison Ford to make a minimal appearance just to introduce the newest "Indiana Jones Jr". We were pleasantly surprised that Ford was the main character throughout the movie. However, I do think it was apparent Harrison Ford AND Steven Spielberg had both aged and perhaps were past their "peak". The first 30 minutes of Ford's acting was horrible -- he said lines like he was reading them off a cue card for the first time. I don't generally notice these things, but this was SO obvious it hurt to watch it. And Spielberg didn't fare much better, in my opinion. There were some serious editting flaws in the movie. For example, immediately after a scene where comatose-like Oz is sitting in the tent with Henry Jr and Karen Allen, in the next scene in front of the tent, you can see in the tent and see Oz adjusting his costume. This is followed by a scene of Allen and Henry Jr helping Oz stand up and walk out of the tent, followed by a scene of a soldier ordering Allen and Henry Jr (now sitting down in the tent again) to stand up and take Oz out. Bizarre that these kind of flaws get through on a big budget Spielberg film. Despite the flaws, we both enjoyed the movie. The plot was easy enough to follow (though honestly, a bit bizarre and not as Indiana-Jones-ish as I'd have liked), Cate Blanchett did a stunning job of acting, and there was enough humor to give you a break from the non-stop action sequences at the last third of the movie. Scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 7.5. BOOK REVIEW - BRIGHT SHINY MORNING by James Frey

It's no secret that I'm a long-time James Frey fan. Before he was O-famous, he and I emailed several times, and I'm privileged to have an autographed copy of A Million Little Pieces. I was excited when I learned he was coming out with a new novel, and pre-ordered it months ahead on Amazon.com.

I knew I wasn't going to read another Little Pieces story, but having read the editor's description of the book before ordering, I wasn't sure what I was going to read. And now I know that the editor probably had a hard time describing this book because it is so unique that it almost defies description. Just like A Million Little Pieces and My Friend Leonard, Bright Shiny Morning pulls you into its pages and won't let you go even after you've read every word. Frey does an excellent job in building characters you truly feel like you know, though you also come to understand you probably wouldn't even glance at them if you walked by them on the street, with the exception of the world famous actor. He tells many stories in this book - and though the characters of each story aren't connected, he manages to connect them through his ability to make you care about each individual. He uses the history of Los Angeles almost like "rest areas" between these stories -- he bounces back and forth between scenarios and characters and just when you can't wait to learn what happens next, he throws in new characters in smaller vignettes that have nothing to do with what you've already read, but just gives you more and more to savor and contemplate. Now I understand why his publishing house had such a difficult time describing this book. It sounds SO complicated and fractured, but trust me, it's not. It is a totally unique piece of fiction and another Frey masterpiece. It is probably unlike anything you've ever read before, and certainly unlike any of the ho-hum out-of-new-ideas-but-still-a-bestselling-author titles currently on the bestseller list. This book is currently #52 on Amazon's list, but it's definitely #1 on mine. Buy this book. I believe you'll probably still be able to buy a 1st Edition, 1st printing copy. Read it. Savor it. Then put it away. At some point in time James Frey is going to gain the acceptance and recognition from the literary world that he so deserves, and you're going to have a collector's item on your hands. Trust me on this one. The O-crap may have made him temporarily famous, but his unique writing style and storytelling are going to make him a Pulitzer Prize winner at some point. It's just a matter of time. PRODUCT REVIEWS - Products I'm loving at the moment:

DiGiorno's Faccaccia bread pizza & DiGiorno's Garlic bread pizza -When I have Brayden for my two days of babysitting, I like to have something fast and easy to cook when he leaves at 5:30. Once a week, we have one of these pizzas. I've never liked frozen pizza, until now!

Mr. Clean magic eraser - If you own white sneakers that aren't so white anymore, these Magic Erasers are truly miracle erasers! They work on SO many surfaces and even get magic marker off laminate. Worth every penny, but get a coupon here.

Scrubbing Bubble Automatic Shower Cleaner - I'm not big on new-fangled gadgets, but had a coupon and a sale that enabled me to buy two of these for $5.00 each. Normally, I clean my bathroom tiles once a month , but no more tile cleaning for me! These push-button cleaners actually WORK and keep the tiles clean all the time. Initially, the sprayer didn't quite reach the back wall of my bathtub/shower area, but they've since come out with a dual-sprayer that works much better. (I actually complained about the back wall cleaning, and got two coupons for FREE shower cleaners, so upgraded to the new dual cleaner.)

There, my brain is unloaded and I can go about my day free of bloggie things to write about... until the next one comes along!