Poor Spence, his day isn't going so well

What's really sad is that he THOUGHT this was going to be a good day.  Last night he was promised a trip to the dog park for this morning (cue intense whining, jumping and running around like a mad dog).  However, instead of just going to the dog park he first had to endure a trip to the gas station (oh the HORROR!) and worse, a trip to PetSmart that resulted in a nail trimming instead of a toy.  LOL  Finally, he was on his way to the park!  He got to play for an hour, had a great time and was a happy camper.  And then we came home and it was into the shower for him.  :-(  Poor puppy.  He really did think he was going to have a good day.

The last few days have been pretty busy ones for us.  We are preparing to have company up next week and have already start making our Thanksgiving plans.  We like to be prepared ahead of time so that we have as much time as we can to visit and enjoy the company.  But the last couple of times it hasn't worked out that way for us, so now we are REALLY thinking ahead.  ;-)  We've also been discussing our (hopefully soon!) move back home.  There is a LOT to prepare for, a lot to do and a lot of work for this, but we are looking forward to it and we know that with God's blessing everything will work out for us.  I must admit though, I am a bit overwhelmed by it.  Until J and I's discussion last night, I didn't realize HOW much was going to be involved in this.

One of the things we talked about is getting a storage unit back home just before we move.  We'll of course be listing the house for sale (there's no way we could afford to keep it and we don't want to deal with renting it out) but when we list, we also have to clean out a LOT.  So rather than putting everything in storage here and having to do two stops to load up on moving day, we'll just rent a UHaul and bring down what we can ahead of time.

When we move home we know we'll be renting.  As much as it sucks to have to rent, we do NOT want to live in the area forever and we know that home prices are going to (unfortunately) decline in that city.  So rather than losing money and/or possibly being saddled with a house in what turns out to be a bad neighborhood, we'll rent until a few things happen that allow us to move a little further north.  :-)  And not to worry, we'll definitely keep everyone informed of our time line once we know it for sure.  Right now all we know is it won't be until at least February when J graduates.  :-)

Apparently my version of broke isn't the same as others

When I say I'm broke, I'm broke.  That means that I have no extra money beyond bills, gas & grocery money.  To me, these are the necessities.  And sometimes, I don't even have money for those things.  That's broke.

However, when some people say they are broke, they still have money to buy and do the things that are not TRULY necessities.  My version of broke does not include getting my nails professionally done, going for a hair cut (and color, etc.) every 4-6 weeks, or buying a new TV or digital camera.  It does not include a daily run to a fast food joint or to buy a cup of coffee, nor does it include cigarettes and beer.  These things are NOT necessities.  

So here's the deal.  If you can buy high end material items, pay someone to do anything in the realm of filing your nails, brushing your hair or cleaning your house, drink a cup of specialty coffee each day (I don't care if it came from Starbucks or a gas station, it's still more expensive than brewing a pot at home), smoke cigarettes daily, have the full and complete package that your cable or satellite provider offers, including game packages that cost extra, and if you can actually pay real money to play virtual games online, you, my friend, are not broke. 

Does anyone appreciate handmade/homemade anymore?

I'm sitting here typing this as I look out the window and at the neighbor's Halloween decorations.  She has numerous items up and did a pretty darn good job decorating, but three of the things caught my attention.  The other day I had a discussion with J,, and then a second with my mom about the cost of making things yourself.  I.e. furniture, blankets, clothes, etc.  J and I have been very much into doing our own thing lately rather than having to continue to buy from stores like Walmart and Target and we've really been enjoying creating these items, but there's a hitch.  It's EXPENSIVE!  So the two conversations revolved around the why of this.  Why is it so expensive to make your own stuff these days?  J's perspective is supply and demand on the part of items necessary to do it yourself.  Wood for instance is incredibly costly.  He thinks the cost is so high because there are so many people buying wood for do it yourself or craft projects that suppliers can demand a higher cost and they get it.  My mom and I however, believe that it is all strictly due to mass production.  Why would you spend $15 on yarn to knit or crochet yourself a scarf when you can go to the store and buy it, already made, for that cost or lower?  Is convenience the catalyst here?  After all, convenience has made us fatter, lazier and more demanding/expecting of everything, so why wouldn't it make us unappreciative of goods that good old fashioned hard work went into?

The neighbor across the street has in her yard a little ghost sign on a stake as well as Lucy and Linus cutouts.  These are the types of decorations that are made on thin sheets of plywood, cut out to the shape of the character and then painted to look like them.  Something that I've only ever seen sold at craft fairs.  I thought to myself, "I love buying stuff, especially holiday decorations, at craft fairs.  Sure, it's more expensive, but it's so much cooler to have something that was handmade rather than mass produced."  But given the vastly large numbers of mass produced items today, it really made me wonder, does anyone appreciate handmade/homemade anymore?  While walking around our neighborhood it's obvious that most people (probably 99%) have only decorations that have come from a store.  Hardly ever do you see anything that came from a craft fair.  To me, there is nothing better than handmade/homemade goods because you know they were crafted with love and passion. 

Whether it be a piece of furniture or a loaf of homemade bread, I'll take the handmade/homemade any day.

Purging and rearranging...because Fall is in the air!

Well ok, not so much today as it's getting pretty darn warm outside again, but overall the feeling of Fall is here!  I've been slowly but surely working on Fall cleaning but not REALLY getting into it yet. 

This morning when I woke up the first thing I thought of was "I need to fix a pot of coffee".  J and I hardly drink coffee during the summer, it's just too warm, but during the Fall and Winter months it's pretty much an every day thing.  So I get the coffee started and in the meanwhile decided to get a decent breakfast cooked.  While cooking breakfast I'm tidying up the kitchen and thinking that I really need a better system in there than what I have (had) going which of course gets my mind spinning... 

Now rearranging my kitchen is nothing new.  J has come to expect the kitchen (as well as the rest of the house) to be periodically rearranged.  Hmm, come to think of it, I'm always rearranging because as soon as I get one room "done", another one beckons to me.  LOL  So as soon as I'm finished eating breakfast I jump up and get to work.

Now not only was I on a mission to rearrange, I was also on a mission to purge.  I'm sorry, I don't care who you are, how great of a housekeeper you are or how well you stay organized, at some point, everyone has to do a purging of the kitchen.  That's the place that just "collects" stuff, kind of like most coffee tables do.  Cabinets and drawers are the perfect place to just put stuff...stuff that you need, stuff that you like, stuff that you might use one day and stuff that you just don't have a place to put it in.  By now my kitchen was becoming a bigger and bigger mess because I no longer had anyplace to put anything.  So I started with the Tupperware cabinet...always my first choice...to make sure that everything had a lid and vice versa and the continued on through the rest of the kitchen.  By the time it was all said and done I'd thrown away an entire garbage can of junk.  Between the missing Tupperware pieces, the expired dry goods, etc, I managed to get my cabinets clutter free and arranged in a way that is much, much more efficient.  Yes, I'm a dork like this.  I LIKE to purge and rearrange my kitchen.  :-) 

That and it's fun to watch J figure out where the measuring cups went this time.  LOL

Seriously, it may sound silly and boring to some of you to clean out and rearrange your house, but for me it's almost like therapy.  I always feel a renewed sense of self when things are all cleaned up and moving things around helps keep life interesting because it changes your perspective.  Quite literally you will follow a new path, look in a new direction and find new things to love about your home.  And to me, any of those things are worth the little bit of time and energy it takes to rearrange things once in a while.

What?! I WANT to stay home today??

Talk about a complete 360!  I guess following all of the "excitement" of the last few days I just need a day to stay home, recuperate and catch up on things around the house. 

It's now mid-afternoon and I've done a great job of balancing being a total slacker as well as housewife extraordinaire.  :-)  Laundry, dishes, dinner planned, phone calls made, internet surfing, TV watching and of course a bit of iPad game playing under my belt so far and I STILL haven't had even a single itch to leave the house.  My hubby is loving it, he's always glad for a day spent at home.  The weather is again beautiful and I have the doors open wide to catch the breezes as they happen by.  Even the dog is happy!  He is alternating between sunbathing, playing with his toys in the yard and coming inside for naps.  I'll tell you, installing that dog door was the best thing we ever did.  It is seriously making me consider installing a kid door when we get to that point.  LOL

So this afternoon I'll finish my housework (I've still got floors to do, and that for me is a chore since there is so much ceramic tile in this house to mop) and later we'll go for another walk.  Potato soup and veal cutlet for dinner tonight.  :D