If you can't say anything nice... Come sit next to me.

Me: Hi!  I have been saving money and I would like to give it to you in exchange for fixing my roof!  Won't that just work out wonderfully, since that is what you DO for a LIVING?  YAY, sunshine! Butterflies!  Puppies and clouds! 

Contractor #1: [No answer] = You suck, and I don't want your stupid job.
Contractor #2: "This message box is over the size limit." = I suck and everyone is complaining at me.
Contractor #3: "That will be a million gazillion dollars, please." = Ha ha!  You can't afford me!
Contractor #4: Measured. Still waiting, and am hopeful on this one!  Like a fool.

Sigh.

Equally annoying is the fact that my children have decided that they are only going to eat macaroni and cheese.  This is SuperDad's fault, because he makes a simply fantastic macaroni and cheese with DeBole's corn noodles, three kinds of cheese, and ham bits. 

$400

<<9906_09_12---Fall-Color--Autumn-Colour--New-England_web.jpg>>
Can $300 cash and $100 in Target gift cards buy fall and winter clothes (including coats, hats, boots, and snow pants) for three children?

What say you?

It's the Little Things

It's hot at my house.  Not all the time, but right now, it's hot.  We drink a lot of cold things and we hang out in the baby pool. In the winter, it's cold.  Cold, cold, cold.  Brrr.  We wear a lot of clothes and use a lot of blankets.  And when our friends come over, they're all JEEZEALOO, people.  We have plastic over our historic (cough - old - cough) windows, under the insulated curtains. We do lots of little things when we can, like hang laundry to dry, and use the bread maker and crockpot instead of the oven, and turn off the lights when we're not using them.  Basically, all the time, we try to conserve energy in our house.

I just heard from the utilities company.  And our monthly payment just went from $229 a month to $138. 
Woo! 

New Day

<<k0382902.jpg>>
Okay, so yesterday's post was a little sassy-pants, wasn't it?  Let's be more POSITIVE today, shall we?
And I have lots of reasons to be positive because:

• I get to see Awesome Friend (see below a couple of posts) and her NEW BABY this weekend!  I've made SuperDad promise not to turn New Baby's name into something silly, as he tends to do, things like, "J-Diggy" and whatnot, because most newly post-partum moms are NOT AMUSED.
• I have 3.5 days off from all 19 of my jobs.  YAY!  Why do I have so many jobs anyway?  I have no idea. 
• If I had a rubber stamp that printed POTTY TRAINED, I would totally stamp it on D's forehead.  Go Big D-Diggy!  ;)  When I was in daycare, I remember my daycare lady potty training her son and teaching him that when he put on his underwear, the "door" when in the front.  I went home and looked for the door in my underwear, but I still haven't found it.  That was topical.  Or not.
• Miss Baby M is now, officially, finally, and naturally, sleeping through the night!  YAY!  Why I'm more tired than I was before, I don't know.  Probably it's all the time I spend lying awake at night worrying that everyone is okay, since they haven't woken up.  Sigh.
• And, uh, insert gluten free and frugal on-topic things here.  Hee.

Happy 4th of July, folks!  Don't blow up your hand, please!

A Squeaky Wheel Situation

E has been attending a day camp of sorts.  It's three hours long and so, of course, involves a snack.  And so, of course, we sent along gluten-free snacks.  Because, of course, she can't ever just eat what everyone else is eating.  At any time. Ever. She is so great about this, it's amazing. There have been so many times that she has to sit by and not have a cupcake when everyone else is having a cupcake.  When she eats the healthy thing I packed for her, because she can't have what every other kid in the room is having. When she has to be different, everywhere she goes.  When she has to say "no, thanks, I can't eat that," even though she is only 5, and that's hard enough when you're 30.

But, we've been asked to please not send quite so "many" snacks.  Because the other kids get "jealous." 
Of course. Why should every kid learn that they can't always eat everything they want to eat? Only my kid should learn that.

<<E copy.JPG>>

Saving Up...

We have lots of little savings categories that we're working on all the time, to make sure we have enough money for every upcoming expected expense.  They currently include:

• Gifts
• Car registration
• Savings (Really a small overflow category)
• Christmas (Halfway there, people!  We're going to do our best to simplify Christmas this year, and replace STUFF with time together whenever we can.)
• Roof (Our debt snowball is currently on hold as we madly set aside money for our roof - I honestly don't know if we're going to get this one covered without making use of a little debt from our home equity line of credit.  I'm sad about this, but it is what it is.  We're far from perfect, and I don't think our roof can make it through another winter.)
• School clothes (Preschool is out for the summer and we're saving the tuition up to buy school clothes for fall. I'm thinking about the best ways to do this, if you have ideas.)
• Oil changes
• Medical expenses (This is just kind of a fluff account, to cover expenses until Flex Spending checks arrive.)

I have an Awesome Friend (who just had a new baby, YAY! And probably isn't so much reading my silly little blog right now) who just keeps at least X amount of money in her checking account to cover this kind of thing.  I do not have as much self-control as Awesome Friend.  If I have money sitting around in my "regular" account, I'll just go to Target and stand out front throwing money at the building.  Effectively.

Just Cute

The early bird gets the...

Cinnamon Chex.  The rest of you late sleepers can have the rice ones. 
Enjoy your sleep! 
Love,
The Mama

Fat. Cat.

I get that being a cat is hard, what with all the napping and snoozing and eating without standing up thing.  Not to be judgy or anything. But… seriously?  When your brother-cat THROWS UP on your foot?  That's pretty much time to try an approach other than just contorting your face into a deeper glare.  Like, you know, you could GET UP.  Or not.  Whatever. 

Things I Need To Do That Won't Get Done Today

1) Weed the garden - Oh yeah, did I mention we added another bed to the square foot garden?  Yep.  I thought I was BRILLIANT for using cinder blocks.  Until they got so HOT and also became SPIDER HEAVEN.  Sigh.  (Note: To do next year, buy those lid things)

2) Put away SuperDad's clean laundry.  Which he possibly MAYBE could have done himself, especially since he prefers a origami-style folding method which requires some sort of advanced degree in spatial relations. And we all know I can't even pick out the right sized container for leftovers.

3) Give the kids a bath. Note: Baby pool full of dead grass not suitable replacement.
4) Put baby back in her OWN bed after night time feedings. Yeah, right.