And, I didn't even know I lost it. I got a letter from my old credit union from my old employeer reminding me it was there, and had no activity on the account for 18 months. So, I just faxed them a letter to close it out and send it to me. It was drawing 1.8% interest....
The account was supposed to hold money until there was enough for x shares of stock, then it would roll into the stock fund. But, my stock fund is now gone--it was turned into my IRA because the company did away with the stock when they were bought out. Our shares were liquidated and I opted to put the money into my retirement at that time. I didn't realize this odd amount was sitting in the credit union. But, I a sure I can find a way to use it since Christmas is next week.

DH came home yesterday with $75 in GC for resturants from his company. That is in addition to the hoilday ham certificate we got at Thanksgiving. He will also get a cash bonus in January. Then in Feb and April emp and spouses are taken out to eat. For the family there is free tickets to the local theme park and tickets to the american royal. They are a very family focused company. Unusual these days.

We decided to use the GC at lunch, when meals are cheaper and they will stretch to 3 meals probably.

3 little towns around here have little thrift stores that I have never been in. DH is at work, kids are at their dads, so I am going shopping. I will probably put on 60 miles, but it will be fun. I kind of live at the bottom of the triagle. Each store is located in a corner of the triangle and I have a county map, so I think I can cut across on gravel roads to keep the miles down. The sun is out, most the snow and ice is gone. So, I think the county roads will be clear. One of the stores also has antiques. Every time I drive by it I want to stop, but not with 3 kids with me. So, today is my chance.

Still no eggs in my hen house. I am now wondering how frugal these chickens are since they went on their strike against laying eggs....

unless you count my DH....The 3 little ones went to their days for a few days. He has not seen them since July, so I hope this goes well....He comes and goes in and out of their lives in spurts....

Last night was their Christmas program, and it was very very good. They each had solo's and did very well, as did all the other kids. We really have a talented group of kids at church. The little angel topped it off though, by sucking her thumb while on stage(she is 3) but she did remove it long enough to sing her short song.

Tomorrow I plan on doing some Christmas shopping. For the few clothes my girls need, I plan on going to the thrift stores. They each need a couple of skirts. The last time I found some brand new jeans for $1 that still had the Walmart Faded Glory price tag for 18.88 on them. I have also gotten sheets there, brand new in the package for $2.
This particular thrift store is run off of donations and all proceeds go to run a retirement home for women. So, a lot of people buy brand new items to take in. They can them claim the full amount on their taxes as a donation. Everything in the store is priced under $5. It is always packed with people, and very clean--not at all like some of the other thrift stores I have been in.

I also have some fabric to run thru the washer and preshrink. While the girls are gone I am going to make some new flannel nightgowns for them.

I also have 5 yards (45 inches wide) of red fleece. Any ideas of what to do with that?? I bought it for $2 at a yard sale along with a ton of other fabric. The lady was retiring after doing custom sewing for 40 years.

I listed a couple of items on ebay. No bids yet, but 1 watcher.
We made our own pizza's for supper. They should also feed us tomorrow as well. We each made our own 14 inch. Would have probably been $40 or more at pizza hut. It is more fun to make our own anyway.

DD#4 refuses to brush her hair. It is an on going battle. I do it, but first I have to catch her (litterly) to do it. My gentle 9 year old daughter turns into a wild biting tiger the second she even smells a hairbrush. Well, this morning we had a major "deratting" experience, and she says "Please let me cut my hair!!" I have asked her over and over if she wanted it cut and she always says no. So, tomorrow after church I will take her in to get it cut--before she changes her mind. I think she has enough to donate to locks of love. At our old salon in our old town, you got a free haircut if you gave them your hair to send in. But, no one here does the free cuts, so I will probably be paying around $15 to get it cut. However, to avoid the daily argument, it will be worth it.

Thanks to ImaSaver...I read ours and called in an order for propane. That was about 50 minutes ago. And, he has already come and filled it. His dispatcher called him just as he was approaching our road on his way home. He had just made another delivery on past us aways. The timing could not have been more perfect he said. It came right at $600. Actually we had enough to go for probably another 2 weeks, but with more bad weather coming, I was afraid he may not be able to get into the grass to get to the tank. Plus, my parents are coming next week, and my dad keeps it warmer than he used to. (age and arthritis...)

Its for my chickens. It is a ceramic tile, 12 x 12 that has a heating element in it. It kicks on at 32 degrees, but never heats above 90 degrees. I am going to use it to set my plastic chicken waterer on. It will keep the water from freezing. It will also use much less electric than the 2 and 3 heat bulbs we have hanging over the water now. So, in the long run it will save electric, and also be a lot safer to use.

It is above freezing today, and the ice on the ground melted, but a lot of the ice on the trees is still there. It surprises me it is still there since it also rained this morning.

My mom faxed me one of my stories this morning. I orginally wrote it so that it could be added on to. So, after the kids go to sleep tonight, I am going to start missing with it. I could not find my copy of it anywhere, but I did find all my research I had done for the story. This one was a college paper. She is also going to send me the high school one that was published, but it is bound, so it can't go through the fax machine. I had several copies of it but they were all lost in a fire.

My other book, which I did complete is now more than 25 years old, so I own the publishing rights on it again. I don't know if I will do more with it or not. It was on money saving tips. However, it is now so dated, that its a "whole new world" out there. For example, the internet, and online banking did not even exist when that book was written. I will have to get my old PC out though to do anything with it--it is saved on a floppy. So, I will have to save it from a floppy to a regular disk, then go to the other computer and resave it from a regular disc to a cd...I do still have copies of that- although they are water damaged. (Lesson learned, always keep things backed up or copied and in the bank box-you suffer the loss after a house fire for YEARS).

If it works, the picture I am trying to post is of our ice--the view from the bedroom porch.

I got it off of freecycle, the day the power went off. So, tonight was the first time I had the chance to go downstairs clean it up, and load it up. I got it to put our school materials in (we homeschool). Its a 5 drawer metal legal sized monster. Its now full and I get items almost daily in the mail.....so, I guess I will have to keep my eye out for another one. So far, we have not spent anything on educational materials, short of a dry erase calendar and one math book on fractions. All our materials have been free.
I priced file cabinets-the one I got off of freecycle runs $249 new at office depot. So, I think I did o.k.

Weatherman says more ice and snow in the next couple days. But, we are back up with full power for now.
We made a library run, to stock up on more books in the event it does go out, and bought some more lamp oil. Stores were all out or almost out earlier this week when everyone had no power. There are still thousands of people out in our part of the state.

Our electric went out at 12 a.m. Tuesday morning. It came back on a bit ago, but we only have it for 2 hours, then it will go back off. The lines down our gravel road were down, they are back up now. However, the coop substation we run off of has so much ice damage that it can't run the entire grid. So, we have it for 2 hours, then it will rotate on. Over 700 in our town of 2900 are without power.

It came back on and when we got the word it was for only 2 hours, we flew into action. We turned the furnace back on, took showers, quickly tried to thaw out water tanks and refill with hot water, plugged in the tractor, charged batteries, heated up the chicken coop, did 2 loads of laundry and dried them (which normally I don't do), threw all the carharts in the dryer to dry out, blew dry all the wet boots, recharged my laptop, cell phones and camera....

It should go back off in about 20 minutes.
We have been heating with the fireplace. The stock tanks & chicken house were the hardest to keep warm. All our heaters were electric.

I have now located on craigslist, (and hopefully will go get tomorrow) a propane heater for a stocktank. The amish use kerosene heaters for their chickens, but I am a little leary of those since they have an enclosed flame.....So, the chickens will have to tough it out. Did you know their feet turn green when they get cold?? Just like our nailbeds and lips turn blue....

Had an email forwarded to me by a high school friend from my old high school english teacher. She was cleaning out some papers, and came across some stories I had written in high school. She had published some of our writings, mine included back in the 70's and 80's. She was wanting to know if I had written anymore. Her son is a publisher and she is trying to track me down to write some more short stories to add to the series I had started then. He works for the same publishing house that published the orginal book of short stories. Now, the bad part is, I have no idea where my written copies of my works are even at. I do have it on a disk, but no longer have a computer that takes a floppy disk. I will need to reread by works before I make a decision, but it sounds like fun. That was almost 30 years ago, and the details of the story line are getting a little fuzzy..... If I decide to do it, I think I will try to keep it a secret from my husband for awhile, to see how it goes along.

No one around here has any lamp oil left on the shelves. Luckly we have unlimited wood to burn and a fireplace and wood cookstove to burn it in. And, if worse comes to worse, we can move into our RV and run it all off of propane. Our hotwater heater is propane so that will keep us in hot water. We can cook with cast iron over the fireplace. The kids think that is cool.

The power just died, and I have 4 hours of battery on this laptop, so will go for now. You all keep warm!!!

Oh--$20 spent on a power inverter--to recharge multiple items in my car while driving, $16 on batteries-normally we use rechargeable ones, but not enough time to get them all recharged.

It was unnecessary for my budget and for my wasteline, but necessary for my mental health....
I spent $24 on ingredents to make enough fudge and chocolate candy to fill a semi.
And, I am sure it will all be gone by Christmas, so will have to make more then.... Not that my DH or the children would complain.
Last night I made peanut butter fudge, chocolate fudge, and layered fudge. Was good.

Its getting foggy, and looks like more snowmoving in. I need to go out and move the truck from the barn up to the house garage to unload it. When the renters I had in August moved out, they left behind several barrels of icemelt and kitty litter. I plan on moving those barrels into the garage. If I did my math right, 2 rubbermade barrels, the sand, kitty litter and icemelt add up to close to $80 that I won't have to spend this winter for melting.

DH will probably have to take the truck (4x4) to work tomorrow if this weather pans out.

I also need to go look for cows. I haven't seen any all day today. But I think when I throw hay out they will come running when they hear the tractor. If you have never seen a cow run, well, its rather a funny sight. The old fat momma cows go sideways as much as they go forward. Part of our cows are white, so they will be even harder to find in the snow.

Just now clumps of snow started floating by my window. Guess I need to get out and plug in the bobcat also incase we need to plow our way out in the morning.

The chickens have been acting rather weird today. Flying into each other, into the fence...then I noticed that when the girls took the kitchen scraps out to them, my used tea bags got thrown in with them. Its so cold, I hope they don't give themselves a heart attack. If they do, I guess it will be chicken in the freezer...Usually the tea bags go into the compost pile.
Its very cold-21 degrees out. We plugged the tractor in, and will have to feed hay later this afternoon or evening. We are supposed to be getting some ice and snow for the next 2-3 days. I really am not looking forward to that at all.

I had a post for childcare on snowdays. It got flagged. I had a post for selling kids cardharts, it got flagged.

I and about 1 or 2 other people are the only ones I see advertise in my town on Craigslist. (My town is iddy biddy). So, is it one of them not wanting competition?? Or just someone at random picking out and deleting my towns ads??

I am going to relist them again, but this time by the county or possibly the next town over the other way (Our farm is actually in the middle of a triangle between 3 towns). Will see what happens this time.

I woke up to snow, and it is still snowing- big huge flakes. It has also been foggy out and I don't recall the sun peaking out any today.

I broke down and spent $61 on line ordering a heated tile to put the chicken waterer on. It looks like a ceramic tile, but has a plug. It only heats to 90- warm enough to keep the water thawed, but not hot enough to fry or bake a chicken. Of course by the time it arrives in the mail it will probably be spring.....The waterer froze solid over nigth- all 7 gallons of it. We had to bring it into the house and put it in the shower with hot water to get it thawed out.

Didn't go anywhere. Too cold to.

For those of you who use Craigslist.org have you noticed how many people are..well, almost "begging" for handouts? Is this normal this time of the year for this website?? (I just started using it several months ago), or have times really gotten that tough for some people?? I just wonder how many of the requests are legit, and how many are just gathering items free or for resale.

Also, apprently it is now legal in the state of Missouri to scalp tickets. I saw some of that already starting on Craigslist.org also.

I responded to an ad on freecycle and tomorrow morning and going to pick up a set of 20 animal encyclopedias. The lady who posted it is a former home schooling mom passing them on.

The girls have been out today, (actually not a bad day-its in the 60's), but I stayed in.

Supper is on--roast, potatoes, celery, carrots & onions, homemade bread, peaches, and at the last minute I made a pumpkin pie and stuck it in the oven.

I spent a good part of the day on the internet. I have printed off pictures of notes, symbols and geometry shapes that tonight I will cut out and put onto index cards to make into flashcards. I have some clear contact paper I will cover them with to make them last longer. I found some real good flashcards, but wasn't about to pay $9.99 a set for them.

I used to, back when I own and co-owned my own businesses. But, it has been about 5 years since I have used it. I am thinking about reactivating my account. I was just wondering if they still have the same quality of items??? I noticed their silicone baking supplies are much cheaper than the ones I saw at Walmart.

We won't be leaving the farm, so no money spent. Can't decide on what to fix for supper--I have chicken thawed an also a roast. One is for today and one for tomorrow, but don't know which is which.....
We had a dinner last night at church. All my pumpkin pie disappeared, and all but one or two pieces of my Mississippi Mud Pie. I also took 2 relish trays-brought back just enough to finish off at supper tonight. Also have some leftover cranberrys to eat tonight as well.
Does anyone have an idea of how to spice up the cranberries?? I thought once I had some with apple and something else in it....

No one else had said it yet, so thought I would. Notice I didn't use the word "shopping" in that statement, in an effort to be frugal.
Its cold and icky/rainy out. Would like to stay in, but need to get out soon and do chores.

It looks like the last vacant house is about to be rented. The family that has been looking at it, I have not met--however my parents have showed them the house twice now. I have spoken to them on the phone and they seem pleasant enough. I just spoke to the woman, and found out I know her soon to be mother in law--she was a former teacher of mine,and I will add one of the best teachers I have ever had.

Now, about 5 minutes ago, the old bat (and yes--that IS a nice term for her) that lives catty cornered from our rental house has called all beduzzled because the family is "of color". So, without thinking, when she tells me that, I rudely blurt back--"oh my gosh--I forgot they don't use GREEN money". She says "huh"? So I told her, I don't care what color the people are, as long as they take good care of the house and pay me on time. Then I pretty well told her she was out of line. Then she tells me that years ago, "people like that" robbed her fathers store--(like in 1937...) So, there are no white robbers???? She really ticked me off, but now I feel almost sorry for her. She is probably in her early 90's. I think its so sad that she can be that judgemental of a person she has never met based on what they look like.
It will be the lady her children for now, then in a few months her will be then husband. She is also a teacher-almost 40 who is working on her masters degree. The man she is marrying has an older sister that was a year ahead of me in school, and his mom was one of my jr high teachers, and his uncle my math teacher and his other uncle my 5th grade art and band teacher.
I am giving them a break on the first months rent, and they are going to finish some painting I started and never finished. Her future husband is a professional painter.

I think I will take the rest of the tomato cages out of the garden so we can plow it. I got about half of them out a couple weeks ago and got interrupted and there it ended.

DD#3 is fixing lunch today. Scrambled eggs, OJ, bisquits, and pears. Last night DD#4 did supper-grilled cheese, salad, tomato soup and pudding.

Sadly, they learn cooking much faster than cleaning up the kitchen afterwards--but they are coming along

The all have the laundry down pat as well.

They have each learned to knit, and we will soon be adding crocheting to that list.

We are working on baking currently.

Next month we begin piano and sewing. Right now I am making some music flash cards. I printed off the notes and symbols from the internet, and am putting them on index cards.

In January, the girls are planning on taking sewing at home school coop. However, they each have to have their own machine to take each week--so Santa has been hunting down some nice used ones from free cycle and craigs list. Meanwhile, xt month we are going to start learning some basics on mine.

Of course, all this is in addition to their book work--reading, writing, penmenship, math, history, social studies, geography.....

Lately we have been using a lot of National Geographic (DH grandma subscribes for him for his Christmas every year) & MO conservation ed materials. I bought a US timeline at the teacher supply store awhile back, and we are working our way across it. We started in 1492 and are now up to 1775. I tried to time it so we would hit Jamestown at Thanksgiving but we were a couple weeks early. We will skip Lewis and Clark as we already did that in great detail on vacation--we followed their route for about 1700 miles with the camper.

We have been working on our money management as well. Each are involved in their mutual fund accounts, their CD and savings accounts. Now they have "paying jobs" for people at church. When someone is out of town, my girls feed animals, bring in mail...
I make my girls pay taxes (of course, the "tax" goes into their savings accounts) They didn't like it at first , but now they know how real paychecks work. Just wait till the find out my 10 cents on the dollar tax is cheaper than what they will really have to pay. And, in real life it doesn't go into their savings!

Well, yesterday afternoon, we had a horse with an attitude. She kicked down the west pasture gate, and she, and 11 cows took a walking tour of the yard. Evidently the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, as least to equine and bovine eyes, as no one wanted to go back into the pasture. There are still a few stalks of things in the garden space so that is where their tour ended. Finally the cows went back, but the horse continued her attitude. Bucking, kicking, rearing....90 minutes later she goes back in. (at least they can't fly like when the poultry got out)

Of course, DH is at work...he is ALWAYS at work when something gets out. The girls got the gate back up. However, the cows all decided to sit beside the gate for 2-3 hours after. You could see them wishing that gate to come back down.

Then, at 1:34 a.m. (DH is home this time), our lab-a real farm dog, starts sounding the alarm. About the same time, I hear a very raspy breathing outside. I peek out the window (would have never done that if DH wasn't home) and see COWS in the front yard. Here we go again. So, we get up, get DD#3 up and we prepare to rodeo. By the time we get out there, the cows are heading down the drive, and across the road into the corn and bean field. Luckly, about this time we realize these are not OUR cows--they belong to the neighbor a road over, and they are heading home at a fast pace, with our lab & a neighbors dog running them the correct direction. So, around 2:30 we make it back to bed.

Dang dog won't herd our cattle for me, but does it for the neighbors cattle.

The girls & I got up early this morning and took a pickup load of food and winter clothing to the Ministers Alliance. It is an all on one food pantry/clothes closet/training center/crisis center. If there is a need, they try to fill it.

As part of our homeschooling, I have the girls do "service" projects, and that is what the girls chose to help. They have successfully organized 2 drives for food and clothing so far, and another is to start next Sunday at a couple of local churches. It has really opened their eyes to people in need, doing without, and the importance of getting a good education to get a good job, and budgeting.

Until we got involved here, my girls had no idea that some adults could not read. In fact, the 11 year old has helped teach an adult to read. I was very proud of her--she never told any of her friends or even me--the principal at her school 2 years ago caught her doing it--teaching a janitor after school in the library. Only the librarian who was in the room when the lessons were going on knew. I just thought she was reading after school.

For the past several years, I have used the Franklin Covey dayone organizer. I have the leather binder book case cover thing, and have always just bought the refills. This organizer is organized the same way my brain is. I also have in it an address book, credit card/library card holder, places for photos, and a section for special notes--like my ink cartrige size, clothing sizes, a pouch to hold a caculator, pens & a notepad, and a coupon organizer. It has everything except a kitchen sink in it.
Well, I can't find the refills. I called Franklin and they say it is a "made for Walmart" product and they don't sell it directly. But, all the Walmart stores around here have decided not to sell the refills (have to buy the entire set up again including the binder and address book and all the plastic pages...) for $30 some bucks. All I need are the $7 2008 pages. None of the other brands who make refills will fit my book.
Today I looked at one more walmart on the way home from church. Down that aisle I saw the manager and voiced my opinion to her. You know what she did?? She agreed with me, because she used the same system and is also unhappy that their district manager dropped the product. She sold me the entire new binder with the pages all in it for $7!!! She agreed it is a waste of money and materials. Yee haw for her and her customer service!! A rarity these days!

For over a week, my printer has refused to print. It kept telling me I had a bad cartridge-I tried 3 and still got the same message. Took me all afternoon, and several downloads and it now works!! Since we homeschool, I was kind of at a loss. Good think it was a holiday week! Next week we will hit the math a little harder to catch up. I had their lessons all printed out at the time except for the math--thats when it broke. (I try to keep a week ahead on our planning, so if we go out of town suddenly or something, its all ready). If I had printed it at the library, they charge 20 cents a page, plus the gas and time getting there.

Didn't go to the store after all. I need to get my secret pal from church her gift and give it to her at church Sunday. Then it dawned on me that tomorrow is Sunday. Why waste gas going to the city today, then again tomorrow?? We will be at church twice tomorrow (morning and evening) so I will get her gift in the afternoon between services. Some Sundays we come home between (for 4 hours) and other times we stay in the city and go to my mother in laws or to the library. So, tomorrow I will just take her card and a gift bag and pack it and take it in Sun evening. Thus, saving 2 gallons of gas.

well, I did twice to walk as far as to the turkey fryer. DH fried a turkey yesterday. He did it with his usual hot cajun spices. But, by the time its fried, the heat of the spice is much much milder so that everyone can eat it. We went to the inlaws for the holiday, so we had no leftover turkey at home-although we could have brought some back if we wanted. But DH already had a bird and he really enjoys cooking in the fryer. But, we decided since the stores and roads would all be busy, we stayed in.
I do have to get out later today though. But, I am waiting until I have to go out.
I ordered some free gift cards from mypoints this morning. I had enough points to get 3 $10 ones. I debated between getting them from Walmart or Red Lobster--I did Walmart. I think I will put them in the girls Christmas stockings. I think it said I had 60 points to go to earn another free gift card, so I can possibly get one more before Christmas.

Mainly so it covers up the sleet and ice. It is just now start to stick. The kids love it, the chickens aren't so surre about it - they keep holding one foot up in the air, the ducks could care less, the rabbits are buried in hay, the horses are rearing up and running around in it, and the cows are all napping in a circle by the front gate.
So we are off to the dairy in a few minutes: http://www.shattomilkcompany.com/farm.html
They have the best milk--I even like their rootbeer milk. Its so creamy is taste like a milkshake, even though it sounds kind of gross.
The girls are going to churn butter this afternoon for dinner tomorrow.
Then I am off to meet a lady--she is getting a car seat I had on free cycle, and I am getting an afgan she had on free cycle--she started it and never finished it, but all the yarn and needles come with it. We traded things one other time too.
Then to the post office to mail the book I sold last night on half.com

31 degrees out and sleeting. Ugh. I didn't take the girls to the library for the weather (its the next county over--about 20 miles-our county has no library). But, we do need to run down the road to the dairy and get some cream so the girls can make butter today.
Tomorrow we go to the inlaws for the big dinner. I am to provide the bread and a desert. After inspecting my pantry, I think I will make mississippi mud pie. But it would be nice to have fresh butter for the bread.

As we speak, my parents are showing my home to a prospective renter. I readvertised it, but with a new twist on it this time--a tip from one of my husbands uncles.
Instead of saying no pets--they pay higher rent if they have a pet. I tried to have a higher deposit for those who had a pet, but they all said they couldn't afford it. But, DU pointed out that renters will agree to paying $50 more a month for a dog, before they will agree to pay an extra $250 deposit for a pet--even though they will be paying more and it won't be refunded back as it is part of their rent.
Wish me luck. Had it rented before-but they were air force and got orders to leave before they were moved it--so, I gave them their money back. The work I was doing on it is almost done--about 2 hours painting left and a pipe to repair and thats it.