Happy Father's Day

My Dad is, of course, on my mind today. Though he passed away 32 years ago (at the age of 51), I do still think of him almost every day. Happy Father's Day, Daddy. When my kids were living at home, I always thought of my Dad and how much he would have loved and enjoyed his grandchildren. He was such a special man, he would have added a whole different dimension to their lives. He was a gentle, quiet man, who talked little, but was worth listening to when he spoke. He had a way of letting you know how much he loved you, just with a look or a pat on the back. He commanded respect, and deserved it. And he was so willing to share what he knew -- and he knew SO much about SO many things! My Dad was a paratrooper in World War II. He was at Normandy on D-Day. He was in Bastogne. If you've watched Band of Brothers, he was in the midst of what you saw. He never talked about it. His legs were full of tiny scars -- shrapnel wounds from being shot at as he parachuted. He must have seen some horrible sites and endured some frightening times, but we never heard the stories and he certainly never bragged about it. Now that I'm older, I realize how proud my Dad was of his situation in life in his later years. We had rough times when I was young, and my parents divorced in a time when few people did. But in the last 10 years of his life, my Dad found happiness -- in a marriage to a good, kind, loving woman, in being a new Dad, in adopting three kids, in his career choice, and in his stand in the community. He was the hardest worker I've ever met, and the most avid reader I've ever met. An uneducated man, he was also the smartest man I've ever met. I truly believe the last 10 years were the highlight of his life for him, and he deserved that good life. I can see now that those years gave him a lot of joy. I'm thankful to my Dad for a lot of attributes he passed on to me. My Yankee frugalness; my love of reading; my interest in homeopathic remedies; my desire to make our house a warm, loving home; my enthusiasm for gardening; my love of tent camping; and more. Every day I miss him. Every day I wish he could see me now, could meet my kids and be as proud of them as I am, and meet his first great-grandchild (who reminds me so much of him). I know he'd be proud of the life I lead, and that makes me feel good. Happy Father's Day, Daddy.

Frugal Father's Day Shopping

I hope this post doesn't come too late for people to take advantage! Purchase must be made by midnight 06/15/08 - tomorrow! Buy $100 worth of men's DOCKERS clothing at Sears, and receive a $75 Shell Gas Card AND a $10 Sears gift card. In effect, get $100 worth of clothing for $15!!! Thanks to the Stretching a Buck blog site for sharing this! Print out the rebate form here. ADDED LATER: Jeff and I are just back from our trip to Sears and it was even better than I'd hoped. There is a limit of TWO PER HOUSEHOLD rebates -- or $150 back in gas cards and $20 back in Sears cards for every $200 in Dockers purchases! Better news -- almost all Docker items are on SALE! As Jeff went to look at pants, I headed straight for the clearance racks -- and found Docker dress shirts for $9.99 (regularly $38.00). Dress pants and khakis were on sale for $19.99 to $29.99. Dockers makes socks (who knew?) and belts -- and those are on sale as well. Jeff bought 7 pair of pants for work (casual dress), 9 dress shirts, 2 packages of black dress socks and a belt. He bought one non-Docker dress shirt I found on the Clearance Rack for $4.99. Our out-of-pocket after rebates will be $40. That's less than what he normally pays for one pair of dress pants for work. On our way home, Jeff mentioned he really needed to get his car washed. About a half mile from our house, I noticed a local gas station had a sign out front - FREE CAR WASH WITH ANY PURCHASE. $10 in gas later, Jeff had his car wash, for free. The man is mighty happy with my frugal ways today!

The BEST Home Remedy - and frugal too!

I've mentioned this "Helpful Hint" (aka Life Saver, for me) before, but after a few minutes of agony last night, I feel strongly that it's worth mentioning again. I occassionally suffer from leg cramps that border on debilitating muscle spasms. It's only happened a few times in the past 4 years, but when it happens -- youchie. It usually happens if I've either been walking a lot or working hard outside in the heat without rehydrating. Yesterday, I did both and last night paid the consequences. I woke up to a really severe muscle cramp around my ankle, to the point where I could not UNbend my foot. Nasty stuff. Many months ago I got on the Internet and started looking for home remedies for muscle cramps. I found one that looked absolutely silly -- until I tried it. This is THE most amazing thing ever. The remedy is to eat a big spoonful of good ol' yellow mustard for INSTANT muscle cramp relief. I can't begin to tell you how fast and thoroughly this works. Jeff went down and got a spoon and the mustard, and I gulped down my spoonful. I swear, within 5 seconds the cramp and the pain were gone and today there's no trace of muscle soreness that you often get the day after a bad cramp. I understand it's the tumeric in the mustard that does this. I don't know why. All I can tell you is that it absolutely positively works. My daughter told me last week that she got a severe muscle cramp in her upper thigh one night, got out of bed and gulped her spoonful of mustard, and is now able to support this theory. I know it sounds bizarre. But the next time you suffer from a muscle cramp, try it for yourself. And spread the word. This is a really good one to know when you need it!

Emptying my Brain Day

Things I keep meaning to blog about and no longer want on my brain (there's only SO much room!): The berries I mentioned in a previous post are black mulberries (once I had that info, I went and looked them up and sure enough, they're black mulberries) and they are edible. I wish I'd asked the question two weeks ago when they were at their peak, but now I know and will be better prepared next year. I may try and get one or two jars of jam from them to try them out. Thanks everyone! If anyone else is interested, here's info and recipes! I think I'm going to try the Mulberry Cobbler and see how it goes. Need a good link for kids' activities this summer? Check out Rocks in My Dryer's list of web sites! What a goldmine! Grandkids visiting? Or want to take the family out to eat on a budget? Check out this website and find out where you can take kids out to eat for free! When you get to the site click on SEARCH at the top of the page, then put in your state, then town!

And speaking of kids and summer -- here's a recipe that used to be one of my kids' favorites. Buy a bag of Chips Ahoy cookies. Buy a pint of vanilla ice cream. Sandwich a small scoop of ice cream between the bottoms of two cookies, wrap each "sandwich" in plastic wrap and presto! Ice cream sandwiches with a twist. These used to be a big hit at Girl Scout meetings too.

If you're interested in leading a more frugal life (something the price of gas may force on all of us fairly soon), check out some of my favorite frugal websites (most, if not all, will offer weekly suggestions for buying "scenarios" at Walgreens, CVS and WalMart that will show you how to get items for free, or nearly free): Be Thrifty Like Us

BeCentsAble - "Awaken your shopping CentsAbilities!"

CentsibleShopper

Living on Little out of pocket frugal living

Want to learn more about shopping at CVS for little or no money? Check out Money Saving Mom's article called CVS 101 for a good place to start. Declutter and gather some good summer reading at the same time. It's a win-win situation. Post your books (hardcover, paperback, audio, fiction, non-fiction) on PaperBackSwap.com, receive credits when people ask for your books (you pay shipping - media mail) and use those credits to get new books for yourself for some great summer reading (They pay shipping). No library due dates, no "ohmygawd, I left that $30 hardcover in a hotel room on vacation"... perfect for the summer. I've been happy with every book I've received! And when you're done decluttering your books, how about decluttering your DVD's on PaperBackSwap.com's sister-site SwapaDVD.com. Works on the same principle as the books -- list your DVD's, get a credit, pick new DVD's to watch. It's a great way to have some movies for your kids and grandkids this summer at a fraction of the cost of buying. You pay shipping ($2.05) when someone chooses one of your DVD's, but you don't pay shipping when you order a DVD from someone else. C'mon -- you know you're not going to watch Die Hard III anymore! And by the way -- it's REALLY easy to list books and DVD's -- all you have to do is type in the ISBN number -- no description, no photos, no programs to download. MUCH easier than Ebay!

Don't forget -- Sunday is Father's Day! Jeff doesn't read my blog so I can tell you here that his is going to be a "Deadliest Catch" themed day. No, I'm not taking him fishing! He's getting a DC t-shirt, a "Shut Up and Fish" bumper sticker, and the new Deadliest Catch PC Game. Since he only has his work laptop, you'll understand what's going on if I don't blog for a few weeks.... it means he's on my computer playing his new game!

OK, last thing. I have a new favorite TV show. You won't believe it. It's a show called Mobile Home Disaster on the CMT channel (I think that's Country Music Television). Ohmygawd, it is SO funny. The host is John Caparulo and he's the sexiest thing on TV -- well, no, not really, but he's one of the funniest and I find a sense of humor to be really sexy! Combine outrageous country humor with Home Makeover with frugal living, and you've got a recipe for success. At least in my book -- which usually means the show will get cancelled soon. But hey, I like it! Worm poop lovers unite!

OK, my brain is back to it's normal empty status, so I'm good to go. I'm off to make cupcakes for Jeff's poker party tomorrow night, and while waiting for them to cook, I'll be browsing my local paper to pick out yard sales for Brayden and I tomorrow morning!

Do you know what these berries are?

We have two trees that have these luscious looking berries on them. I have NO idea what the berries are! I'd love to know if I can use them for jam or ?? any recipe. Anyone have any idea what they are? The trees are about 7 or 8 years old, maybe 12 feet high, and were planted on their own (we didn't plant them and they weren't here when we moved here 20 years ago). If you know, please tell me! These trees are VERY prolific -- just look at all these berries on the ground going to waste!

It's now 10:20 am, and I've been up since 5:00 and gotten SO much done! I love it! I just love having a good, productive day.

I woke up at 5:00 because right before bed I heard the weather report saying it was going to be 57 degrees last night. I wanted to get up early and open up windows and air out the house. I love my central air, but after a short while, the house just feels "stuffy" to me, and I look forward to times when I can open up all the windows and air the place out.

Since I was up, I put coffee on and decided to make use of the cool morning and get some gardening done. I re-set the alarm clock for Jeff, got his lunch packed and his breakfast made, and headed outside by 6:15. I went to the vegetable garden and got all three vegetable beds weeded and hoed by the time Jeff got up at 7:00. I sat down with him while he ate breakfast and had a second cup of coffee, then headed back outside as soon as he left for work at 8:00. I filled the sprayer up with insecticide (sorry to all those who are cringing), and sprayed the 20 new trees we planted and my smaller ornamental shrubs and trees. Normally, I don't spray, but the cicadas are here in larger-than-normal numbers, and they will use small trees and ornamentals for something (laying eggs? hatching babies? I forget what...) and I didn't want to lose all those trees I planted. I also got all three perennial beds weeded (again!), and Weed-B-Gone sprayed in the driveway where weeds grow up between the cement slabs. I also sprayed insecticide around the perimeter of the house, the deck, the patio and the garden shed -- simply as ant prevention.

It felt so great to get all this done by 10am! Now I'm going to spend some time doing laundry and hanging it out (it'll be back up to the mid-80's by this afternoon), a quick trip to WallyWorld for tension curtain rods so I can sew a skylight cover in Jeff's bathroom. We always put one up in the master bedroom during the summer months -- it really helps keep the bedroom cooler. I also want to pick up some potting soil and transplant some houseplants that are looking a little gloomy these days. If I can get all that done today -- I've had a great day!

The vegetable garden is looking good! I've got blossoms on several tomato plants and one green pepper plant. Eggplants are looking really healthy. Zucchini's just poked up through the soil, but green beans, black beans and cucumber seeds may have rotted from all the rain we've had. I'm going to replant them as soon as I finish blogging.

Busy week

I have a lot of things I need to get done this week, aside from my regular household cleaning, tending to the garden, babysitting for Brayden, etc. I need to make a list to keep myself organized this week, so here it is:

1. Laundry - including bedding because it drys so quickly out on the line during this hot weather. DONE
2. Meijer's store - Apparently the only place you can buy Cremora in our area these days. I don't normally shop this store, but I need to stop by and buy 10 bottles of Cremora to stock up. I went. No Cremora. That means NO store in our area sells Cremora. Bah humbug.
3. Coupon clipping -- I sent Jeff out to buy two Sunday papers -- he came back with FOUR! All this coupon-ing apparently appeals to the accountant in him :) I have a lot of coupons to clip and my CVS, Walgreens and Kroger deals to plan. DONE
4. Menu-planning - after I do the above.
5. Vet appointment - Tuesday. Oh boy. Joey loves his cage and the trip in the car -- NOT. DONE
6. Time Warner Cable repairman on Friday - Don't even get me started on Time Warner Cable these days. I'm still recovering from getting hung up on, then getting a recording at 10:10 am that their offices weren't open, then having my entire DVR box erase all our taped shows. RRRRR
7. More weeding -- this wet Spring and now hot weather is just been an incubator for weeds. The gardens I weeded just two weeks ago are over-run with weeds again, despite mulching and putting PREEN on them. I'll save this for the end of the week when slightly cooler and less humid weather is supposed to arrive. - DONE
8. Call telephone company to come trim trees hanging over our wires -- this may appease the next-door-neighbor a bit as well, since they are trees near the one he wanted to cut down. Done, but only informed by Cincinnati Bell that they no longer provide this service ahead of time -- they wait for things to break. Higher prices, less service...that's the way these days!
9. Buy a new fountain for the little pond in the front of the house - our plastic turtle has succumbed to plastic-turtle-disease and needs to be replaced.
10. Hair cut - Long overdue!

I now have Brayden on Thursdays and Fridays, so I need to re-arrange my normal weekly schedule. Here's what I've come up with:

• Mondays - Coupon clipping, sale planning, menu planning, other paperwork and filing, possible CVS or Walgreens trip, Laundry (weather permitting)
• Tuesdays - Housework - upstairs
• Wednesday - Housework - downstairs, laundry (weather permitting)
• Thursday - Brayden, gardening
• Friday - Brayden, yard sales, possible 2nd CVS/Walgreens trip if sales warrant it
• Saturday - Quick housecleaning and pickup, grocery shopping
• Sunday - Gardening, relax, fun stuff