This time of year with all it's many holidays is a depressing time of year for me. I find people's sudden generosity curious. Why can't everyone be generous all year round? People are suffering and starving all year round. People get all bent out of shape about taking the Christ out of Christmas when Christmas isn't even a Christian holiday. It's a Pagan holiday that celebrates the winter solstice. If you were paying attention in Bible Study and take a look at the events that were taking place around the time of Jesus' birth, none of the events taking place were occurring in December. None of that was even happening in winter.
It burns my toast that so many people follow so blindly without question because that's what their parents and grandparents did. My mother did a lot of drugs when she was young. Should I have done them too? My mother's father and her bothers were drunks. Should I be a drunk too? I'm just saying; hey, pay attention and think for yourself.
Christmas has become so commercialized it's lost its true meaning. We have generations of Americans that believe you show your love by buying stuff. Mommy and Daddy love me so they're buying me a car for my sixteenth birthday. As if a sixteen year old is capable of appreciating such a gift.
You know what I appreciate? The fact that everything didn't get handed to me. I appreciate that I learned to work hard, take care of myself and be independent. No sense of entitlement lives here. I bought my first car myself. And because I earned it myself, I appreciated having it.
And my daughter feels the dinner I made for the two of us today is lovely. It's just the two of us so there's not a big turkey. She doesn't like turkey anyway. We do have a small two pound turkey loaf. More than enough for the two of us. Since she doesn't care for turkey, I baked two lemon pepper chicken breasts. I made one of her favorites, a big pot of cabbage soup. And I fried potatoes, made stuffing and gravy. And there's a pumpkin cream pie in the freezer for desert that she's complaining about because she doesn't like pumpkin pie. But it's a cream pie so I think she's going to like it. If she doesn't, more for me :)
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Friday, November 20, 2015
Made It Through Summer
Yeah! We made it through the summer without turning on the central air once. Lord knows we could not afford to cough up $200+ a month to keep things cool. We survive with screens I bought to hang in the doors and fans to keep the air circulating. The fans only added an extra $10-$20 a month to the normal electric bill which was way better than an extra couple hundred dollars we could not afford.
Despite Cherokee's protest and belief we would either melt or die of heat stroke, we were fine. She grumbled occasionally through the summer. But she always finds something to grumble about. She's like her father that way. I swear the man has Terminal PMS. I'm more of a suffer in silence person. So if I'm saying something about it, the shit is hitting the fan. Duck! And I don't like to argue. So if I'm arguing with you, I'm positive I'm correct and most of the time I am correct. Which is really frustrating because nobody ever listens to me.
And the challenge now? WINTER! Arg. I am not a fan of being cold. I hate being cold. I'll shovel snow because it has to be done. But you're not going to catch me out in the freezing cold, freezing my precious assets off participating in some crazy white people's sport like skiing or ice skating. My idea of a proper winter activity is curling up in front of a warm fire with some hot coco and a good book. If I need exercise, I'll invite someone special to join me by that fire and we can wrestle. Totally a win,win situation.
So if you haven't guessed it. I'm not looking forward to winter. I discovered last winter I'll spend over $200 a month trying to keep us warm in this rental and it never got warm downstairs where our bedrooms are. Old aluminum window, basement bedrooms and improperly placed heat vents makes it impossible to keep downstairs warm in the winter with the central heat system. I had a couple of space heaters that I used down there and that helped. But I still often found myself shaking like a leaf in the middle of the night with my teeth chattering from the cold. Not fun and it makes for an exhausted lady at work when you didn't sleep properly because you were shivering and shaking all night.
The plan for this winter? Make it through the winter without turning on the central heat. It's not going to heat the downstairs anyway where we sleep. And at first I wasn't sure what to do. Moving is not an option. I just don't have the money to move at this time and I can barely afford this place. I cannot afford a nicer place. And I was checking out the electric heaters at work one day trying to figure out which would be the best for downstairs. One, it had to be one I could afford, be on the small side and capable of heating most of the downstairs which consist of two small bedrooms, a small full bath, a short hall and a small laundry area. I'm not worried about trying to heat upstairs because hot air rises. It'll be fine.
I had no idea which heater to purchase to add to the space heater I already owned. So I decided to ask a coworker for that department if she had any recommendations and I explained the situation to her. She asked if I had considered purchasing some electric blankets. Thank you, Amber. You're an angel. I had not considered electric blankets. We had one old yellow electric blanket in the house when I was a kid and my mother wouldn't let us use it and I never saw it get used. My mother acted like the thing was the devil. Which it couldn't be because that's her job.
Wow, electric blankets are not cheap. And I wanted my daughter and I to each have a nice one. Besides, if Cherokee didn't like the texture, she wouldn't use it and I would have wasted money. I don't like to waste money and we don't have money to waste. So I started shopping around and I didn't like what was available at Walmart and stuff. Plus, I would have needed to shell out a chunk of money all at once that we couldn't afford.
So thank you Fingerhut. I found an electric blanket that I was sure Cherokee would love and I was able to get two. They're not cheap blankets. But my Fingerhut account allowed me two get two very nice electric blankets that I have a small monthly payment for that I can manage comfortably. And I really like my new electric blanket. It has 10 heat settings. 1 being the lowest and ten being the hottest. Thus far I have't needed to turn my blanket on any higher than two. If I shut my bedroom door, not only does it keep me nice and cozy, it heats up my whole room.
It's not super cold and snowy yet, but so far so good. Yes, I'm going to have a higher electric bill. But at this point I'm not expecting the electric bill to get any worse than last winter. Plus, my gas bill isn't going to jump because I'm not going to run the central heat. We'll take it one day at a time and see how it goes.
Despite Cherokee's protest and belief we would either melt or die of heat stroke, we were fine. She grumbled occasionally through the summer. But she always finds something to grumble about. She's like her father that way. I swear the man has Terminal PMS. I'm more of a suffer in silence person. So if I'm saying something about it, the shit is hitting the fan. Duck! And I don't like to argue. So if I'm arguing with you, I'm positive I'm correct and most of the time I am correct. Which is really frustrating because nobody ever listens to me.
And the challenge now? WINTER! Arg. I am not a fan of being cold. I hate being cold. I'll shovel snow because it has to be done. But you're not going to catch me out in the freezing cold, freezing my precious assets off participating in some crazy white people's sport like skiing or ice skating. My idea of a proper winter activity is curling up in front of a warm fire with some hot coco and a good book. If I need exercise, I'll invite someone special to join me by that fire and we can wrestle. Totally a win,win situation.
So if you haven't guessed it. I'm not looking forward to winter. I discovered last winter I'll spend over $200 a month trying to keep us warm in this rental and it never got warm downstairs where our bedrooms are. Old aluminum window, basement bedrooms and improperly placed heat vents makes it impossible to keep downstairs warm in the winter with the central heat system. I had a couple of space heaters that I used down there and that helped. But I still often found myself shaking like a leaf in the middle of the night with my teeth chattering from the cold. Not fun and it makes for an exhausted lady at work when you didn't sleep properly because you were shivering and shaking all night.
The plan for this winter? Make it through the winter without turning on the central heat. It's not going to heat the downstairs anyway where we sleep. And at first I wasn't sure what to do. Moving is not an option. I just don't have the money to move at this time and I can barely afford this place. I cannot afford a nicer place. And I was checking out the electric heaters at work one day trying to figure out which would be the best for downstairs. One, it had to be one I could afford, be on the small side and capable of heating most of the downstairs which consist of two small bedrooms, a small full bath, a short hall and a small laundry area. I'm not worried about trying to heat upstairs because hot air rises. It'll be fine.
I had no idea which heater to purchase to add to the space heater I already owned. So I decided to ask a coworker for that department if she had any recommendations and I explained the situation to her. She asked if I had considered purchasing some electric blankets. Thank you, Amber. You're an angel. I had not considered electric blankets. We had one old yellow electric blanket in the house when I was a kid and my mother wouldn't let us use it and I never saw it get used. My mother acted like the thing was the devil. Which it couldn't be because that's her job.
Wow, electric blankets are not cheap. And I wanted my daughter and I to each have a nice one. Besides, if Cherokee didn't like the texture, she wouldn't use it and I would have wasted money. I don't like to waste money and we don't have money to waste. So I started shopping around and I didn't like what was available at Walmart and stuff. Plus, I would have needed to shell out a chunk of money all at once that we couldn't afford.
So thank you Fingerhut. I found an electric blanket that I was sure Cherokee would love and I was able to get two. They're not cheap blankets. But my Fingerhut account allowed me two get two very nice electric blankets that I have a small monthly payment for that I can manage comfortably. And I really like my new electric blanket. It has 10 heat settings. 1 being the lowest and ten being the hottest. Thus far I have't needed to turn my blanket on any higher than two. If I shut my bedroom door, not only does it keep me nice and cozy, it heats up my whole room.
It's not super cold and snowy yet, but so far so good. Yes, I'm going to have a higher electric bill. But at this point I'm not expecting the electric bill to get any worse than last winter. Plus, my gas bill isn't going to jump because I'm not going to run the central heat. We'll take it one day at a time and see how it goes.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Frustrated Farmer Wanna Be
I hate being frustrated. I want to have enough acreage that I can't see any of my neighbors. I am sick and tired of having people up under me constantly. I had bought a little grill for our little deck so I could cook outside this summer and not heat up the house. Except the back of my unit faces the backs of other units and they're barely 10 ft away. I don't dislike my neighbors but I'm not a social flutterby. If I step out onto my little deck to do a little grilling, I'm fine with saying the basic greetings, but I'm not interested in having a conversation 90 % of the time. I just want to step out and cook undisturbed.
So I've been doing some research because if I could get the land that I wanted I should do something with it, right? And I decided I would like to grow some various small groves of fruit and nut trees, lemons, limes, pecans and such. Maybe some free range chickens and a few goats too. And I learned there are grants out there for beginning farmers and women who want to farm. Except, I can't seem to find where they're hiding what I need to get started with my new dream.
It's mind boggling. It's like they don't want anyone to take advantage of the available grants, so they hid them. Not to mention I don't really have any grant writing experience. Why does it have to be so hard? No wonder no one wants to be a farmer. It's too damn complicated. And here I am, a single mom with two special needs kids, a special needs younger brother and my own mother is several cards short of a full deck so I carry a lot on my shoulders as it is and I can't seem to figure this out.
But I haven't given up yet. I'm trying to find what I need to make this happen. In the mean time as I torture myself trying to figure this out, I keep praying I'll win how ever much a week for life from Publishers Clearing House. There's no lottery here in Utah so that's my only hope. That and Obi-Wan Kenobi. May the force be with me.
So I've been doing some research because if I could get the land that I wanted I should do something with it, right? And I decided I would like to grow some various small groves of fruit and nut trees, lemons, limes, pecans and such. Maybe some free range chickens and a few goats too. And I learned there are grants out there for beginning farmers and women who want to farm. Except, I can't seem to find where they're hiding what I need to get started with my new dream.
It's mind boggling. It's like they don't want anyone to take advantage of the available grants, so they hid them. Not to mention I don't really have any grant writing experience. Why does it have to be so hard? No wonder no one wants to be a farmer. It's too damn complicated. And here I am, a single mom with two special needs kids, a special needs younger brother and my own mother is several cards short of a full deck so I carry a lot on my shoulders as it is and I can't seem to figure this out.
But I haven't given up yet. I'm trying to find what I need to make this happen. In the mean time as I torture myself trying to figure this out, I keep praying I'll win how ever much a week for life from Publishers Clearing House. There's no lottery here in Utah so that's my only hope. That and Obi-Wan Kenobi. May the force be with me.
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