Even before the economy sunk to new lows, I was always on the lookout for good deals. While there are always people who seem to like to pay full price for things they must have, like the newest electronic gadget, I’ve always waited for a sale whenever I could. It wasn’t always about budget, more the thrill of the chase. As long as I had time to wait for whatever the item was, I liked getting something for less - and using the remaining money for something else for myself or for a gift for someone else.
I wonder how many people pay full price for things these days. I’m always shocked to see people are still lining up for the latest Apple or phone, I’ve never understood the need to have the latest gadget first. But I guess other people who like to be the first in line probably don’t understand a bargain-hunter like me!
While I really enjoy cooking during the cold winter months, I can’t wait to start using the BBQ more often now that the weather has gotten warm. Many of our winter meals are rich, warm, and filling - a lot of comfort foods. We try to avoid the oven when the weather gets hot, so many of our meals are based on using the stove top and the outdoor cooker, though I do use my electric slow cooker all year-round. I do find coming up with summer meal ideas to be more of a challenge for some reason, so I think I need to start scouting around the recipe sites for some fresh ideas for this year.
We recently ate dinner at a neighbor’s house and the meal was delicious and simple. Along with some tossed tomato pasta and some grilled chicken, they made some scrumptious grilled veggies that were absolutely wonderful. They simply sliced up the eggplant and zucchini lengthwise, coated them in some olive oil and grilled them outside on the BBQ. Simple, healthy, and delicious!
For weeks we’ve had a coating of potent green pollen covering everything outside. Everyone’s car looks green, and there’s really no point in washing them at this point since a brand new coating of pollen will be covering them again within another day or so. Porch furniture is green, parking lots too. Even the grass in the yard has a powdery green coating layered on top. Of course that means we’re all inhaling this lovely pollen too. Our local news recently quoted that it’s the worst pollen count on record. It’s no wonder that allergies are off the charts too.
The tricky part with allergies is finding a medicine that works without making you feel miserable in a different way. Some of the non-drowsy medications don’t seem to always work as well, but if you take the other allergy pills you end up feeling a bit off-kilter. So then it’s the question, do I deal with the ridiculous sneezing or do I take medicine that make me function at half power. It’s crazy!
Yesterday we celebrated Easter with our family at my sister’s house. Now, even though as adults we should know better, we still start the holiday digging into the kids baskets with them. Well, we actually eat some of the candy that didn’t make it into the baskets rather than taking their candy. It’s a bit of gorging of course, but we figure it’s only one time a year so why not. Then after we rest and read the morning paper, we treat ourselves to a big breakfast of French toast or pancakes with bacon and lots of syrup and juice. After Church it’s off to the big family get together, where we eat again.
So the family dinner includes ham, roast beef, mashed potatoes, biscuits, gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans, and more. After sitting around chatting and stuffing ourselves we usually try to get some fresh air and make room for dessert- a perfect time for the kids to do an Easter egg hunt. Why do so many holidays revolve around food? Of course along with dessert there is usually a second round of Easter candy to go around. After all of the sugar and food, it’s no wonder we all crash early for the night.
Okay, I feel like I’ve become obsessed by weather lately. I think the colder, grayer, and drearier the weather becomes the more it distracts me. It could be because the gloomier it gets the more I start wondering when we’ll have a nice sunny day to enjoy. I miss being about to go outside without having to bundle up in a warm coat or hiding under a hood or hat to keep the rain and sleet off of my head. And we live in the South, where the winters are supposed to be milder. Well, not this year it seems.
So I realize my obsession is not so much the current weather as to when will the weather turn nice again! We recently had a beautiful day only to slip right back to the winter weather the very next day. On a positive note the kids love being out of school and getting to play in the snow and build a snowman. So I guess not everyone is feeling gloomy about the forecast. Meanwhile, I’ll just keep longing for springtime!
While we haven’t even had a chance to enjoy Halloween, people on the radio on mentioning how many shopping days are left until Christmas! Forget a mention of Thanksgiving - is it because there just isn’t enough money to be made marketing that particular holiday? Well I for one wish it would just slow down a bit and that the stores would stop pushing Christmas before we’ve had a chance to enjoy living in the moment and the current holiday.
Halloween is fun but Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite food holidays and family get-togethers. I enjoy the big turkey and all of the delicious side dishes. And what’s not to love about all the yummy pies and desserts. While writing this I do realize it might sound like I love it most of all for the food, but truly it’s also fun to be with some of my favorite relatives and siblings. Especially when we cook together for the day - half the fun is messing around in the kitchen together. Cleaning it up is another story!
It seems everywhere I look these days there are pumpkins for sale. I don’t recall seeing them everywhere when I was younger, and certainly not in September. It seemed they used to just be around closer to Halloween rather than over one month before the holiday. And they were only in a few places, like a garden center or a pick-your-own farm. Or maybe that’s just how I recall it. Now I see them outside every grocery store, gas station, home supply store - you name it. Beautiful mum plants too that are hard to resist. It makes me wonder where they are all being grown.
So now I have to fight the urge to buy them too soon, especially the mums since I like them to last until Thanksgiving and if I buy them too soon they look pretty sad by the time late November rolls around. In the meantime I think I’ll concentrate on cleaning up my messy yard and putting away some of the decorations before the cold weather arrives. Then I can go wild and buy some of the beautiful fall decorations I can’t seem to resist.
Between different jobs, school, sports, and other responsibilities, sometimes the hardest thing to do is to find the time to just kickback with the family. It really seems like we’re all so busy working and running around that we don’t even have the time to appreciate what we’re working for. And for all of the wonderful technology that is supposed to make our lives easier, life seems crazier and more hectic than ever. There’s no doubt that computers and hand-held devices have allowed work time to creep into family time so much more than it used to years ago. I can even remember when we didn’t have telephone answering machines. Now we have cell phones that allow people to reach us around the clock, any day of the week. No wonder we’re so tired sometimes!
Perhaps the trick is to just turn it all off sometimes. As much as I love my computer, there are days that I just don’t want to touch it for a change. The email can wait one more day, can’t it? And I can’t imagine what is so important that some of us can’t seem to stop chatting on the cell phone rather than enjoy a quiet walk. A better balance in life is something worth striving for, isn’t it?
Recently my friend’s van has been giving her a lot of trouble. So since her husband needs the other car for work she’s spending many more days at home then she’s used to. Without a car during the day, there’s no running out to buy groceries or take care of errands. Now that the kids are home from school for the summer it’s a bit more challenging. Luckily they have a nice yard and a pool so they can get outside and have some fun. Plus they can have some friends over. But now that they’ve been home for a few weeks everyone is getting pretty restless. You don’t realize how much you need your car for so many little things until you actually have to go without it.
I phoned to speak with her the other day & she couldn’t talk at the time because they were all in the middle of a “Lord of the Rings” movie marathon. That’s over ten hours of movie time! But they sounded like they were having a blast and least they were all enjoying it together. The funny thing is I don’t know what she’s going to do when school returns and she’ll have to go back to work too. I suppose that is the key to having fun in the summer whether you’re young or old, just being able to just kick back & relax and not have to be anywhere at a certain time. Sure sounds good to me.
Cutting down on clutter is always a battle. And unless you live alone, you’re not just dealing with your own clutter, but everyone the junk that everyone else brings into the house as well. So even if you have the very best intentions to stop collecting trinkets and other things that seems to multiply in a home, you have to contend with others that might not feel the same way. The trick of course is to attack a little at a time. The easiest things to try and get rid of is old magazines and papers. Unless it’s a collectible, there really isn’t any reason to hang onto old magazines since the truth is we rarely if ever open them up again. So out they go, whether it be donating them to a doctor’s office or another place people sit around for hours, or off to the recycling bin.
If you have children then you also have a lot of toys around and lots of little plastic things they’ve brought home from various birthday parties and outings. Now some kids like to hang onto every last bit. it’s best if you can first try to get your kids to help you sort through the stuff - maybe some is worth selling and the thought that they might make a few dollars could inspire them to action. If not, then you’ll have to tackle it discreetly when they’re at school or asleep. Be sure not to get rid of anything they really love though, because they’ll haunt you about it for years to come.
For awhile, during the spring, it seemed like it would never stop raining in the where we live. It had gotten to the point where we craved seeing the sun for just a day to break up the gloomy gray skies we were seeing day after day. The good news is that it finally brought us out of the drought that we had been living with for a couple of years. So as the spring turned into summer everything was lush and green and water was plentiful. And then just like that nature seemed to turn off the water spigot in our area. By mid June we were looking for a break from the relentless sunshine and doing our own silly versions of rain dances to get the clouds to come visit and bring us some much needed rain. Though looking at the map on weather.com makes me grateful I’m not in living in Texas right now.
Of course, while we’re in the midst of mid 90’s and anxious for something to water our crispy yards, we have family in Northern New York that have had non-stop rain for days and days with cool weather reaching only the mid 70’s, which is quite low for mid July, even for that area. I guess that’s just the weather for you, another thing we can’t control. Our local news says there’s rain in the forecast this week, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Like a lot of people, I’m a bit more careful about what I buy these days. I’ve always thought that I was someone who spent wisely, but I have quite a few impulse purchases around the house that really weren’t worth the price that prove me wrong. I’m not the only one guilty of it in our home, both of us have quite a few gadgets in the kitchen and garage that we’ve used once or twice only to discover they weren’t quite as useful or handy as we thought they were going to be. And shopping wisely is not just about the money since all of these extra items seem to add a lot of clutter around the house.
So I’ve found it works much better if I take a little time to decide whether I really need to make a certain purchase or not. Browsing through advertisements or the stores can be pretty satisfying even if you don’t take out your wallet. I often take an extra day to mull over a purchase and if it’s something I still want the next day or the next week, then I go ahead with the purchase. I’ve found it really cuts back on the impulse buys and saves quite a bit of money. And what to do with the old impulse buys? Sell them online or in the local paper - it clears up some of the old clutter and gves you some extra cash too.
Wow, the heat of the summer is upon us. Somehow I always seem to forget how hot it can get in July until the month arrives again. While I do love the summer months and the time we can get out to the beach or the pool, autumn is by far my favorite season. There’s nothing quite like the cool, crisp air and the beautiful fall colors. Plus during the fall months you can enjoy going out and about wearing a light jacket instead of the breaking into a sweat just going to your mailbox in the summer’s sweltering heat.
So what’s the trick to staying cool this month? Well for one thing, it’s a good idea to get your outdoor chores done early in the morning or later in the evening. If you’re going out during the midday, it’s important to cover up well and slather on some good sun block too. Of course there’s nothing like cooling off in the water to take the edge off of any hot summer day. Even if you don’t have a swimming pool or beach nearby, you can just turn on the hose or the sprinkler for a little fun. You can even get a kiddie pool to soak your feet in or for you favorite furry friend to cool off in.
Wow, it’s hard to believe it, but next weekend is the July 4th holiday already. Time feels like a runaway train sometimes. The news channels seem to think it won’t be as big a travel holiday as it has been in the past since gas prices have gone up a bit again and many people are still struggling in this economy. I’ve never been very big on traveling on the holidays myself. I usually try to avoid it if I can since I can’t stand to be stuck in traffic or crowded airports. I much prefer traveling on off-peak times, so much more peaceful and generally less expensive too.
So this July 4th weekend we have a big neighborhood party going on. It’s great fun for everyone - lots of fun safe play for the kids with water balloons and harmless poppers. Then we’ll bbq and do the big fireworks when it starts to get dark. It’s a great way to get to know neighbors better and for the kids to spend time hanging out with other kids in the neighborhood. All and all a fun family way to spend the holiday. And then when things quiet down in a couple of weeks, we can head to the beach when it’s not so crazy and crowded.
I love to garden when I have the time, though I’m not practiced enough to be a pro at it. I don’t know the names of all of the plants we have around the yard, but I do try to keep care of them and keep the weeds to a minimum. One of our favorite annual traditions is planting a small vegetable garden. We don’t have a very big yard, so the spot is located in one of the open corners next to the shed and one of our big evergreens. The spot seems to have a good mix of sunshine and shade, though we live pretty far South so the summertime sun can be pretty brutal at times. As a whole, we’ve been able to grow some pretty good veggies over the years, mostly tomatoes, eggplant, pepper, cucumbers.
This year our little garden is failing miserably for some reason. Before planting we had added a good dose of organic fertilizer into the soil to replenish it. When we removed the plants from their containers we loosened the dirt as we always do, everything seemed to get off to the right start. But that was about a month and a half ago, and the plants are quite stunted. Oddly some tomatoes are popping out on a couple of the plants yet they only stand a foot or so high, which we’ve never encountered before. So we’ve turned the surrounding soil again and added some fresh fertilizer. I don’t know how much that will help. Otherwise it might be time to check with one of the local garden centers to see if we can salvage anything or if we still have time to start over.
It seems most of us end up running around all week long- whether its spending time at work and school, or running the many errands and carting the kids off to sporting games and play dates. So when the weekend finally rolls around we simply look forward to making time for some good old-fashioned family fun and much-needed precious rest and relaxation. While some people seem to prefer to pack their weekends with things to do, a lot of us prefer to try to schedule as few things as possible and take a break from the constant feeling of being on the go.
Top on the list is skipping the alarm clock and catching up on some much-needed sleep. Then there’s making time for some family meals, from big breakfasts of pancakes, bacon, and eggs to dinners cooked outside on the grill. Or maybe as a special treat, Mom and Dad can take a break from cooking and go out to eat for a change. Another favorite is family movie night - finding a movie everyone can enjoy and popping up a batch of buttery popcorn. It doesn’t matter so much what we do for family fun, as long as we focus on turning off the cell phones and spending some great time together.
Backyard barbecues and patios have come a long way over the years. In the years past a nice backyard might have had a simple wooden picnic table set on a concrete or brick patio. Dad would cook dinner on a simple charcoal grill filled with a bag of coals and lit with some lighter fluid. Now, years later, the backyard has become a festive outdoor living space, often treated as another extended room in the house, an oasisi lavishly furnished and decorated with comfortable cushioned seating and full outdoor kitchens with huge grill tops and refrigerators too. When it comes to decorating, no one does it quite like Martha Stewart .
If you visit her site you’ll find she has some wonderful examples of great outdoor living spaces along with fabulous decorating ideas in the outdoor living section. Her section on creative outdoor spaces has some great tips, descriptions, and photos full of fun and colorful ways to add pizzaz to your backyard areas. From canopies and handmade lanterns, to unique lighting fixtures and lovely grapevine covered arbors. You’re sure to find a theme that you and your family will love.
