Late night update

It's after 11 p.m. here and I have a baby boy inside me who has hiccups, I think. Only they are the kind of hiccups that apparently cause his entire body to flail rhythmically against my bladder. I should be asleep. But feeling like I need to pee every 30 seconds is not conducive to sleep, regardless of how tired I happen to be. So, I sit here. Very awake.

I have been working for a bit on trying to begin crocheting a rag rug. I bought a bunch of sheets from the thrift store today for $1.25 and ripped them into strips. I was inspired to do so after looking for rugs for the bedrooms of the new house and realizing how bloody expensive those things are, even second-hand. I am sure I'll be able to make a couple of decent rug for the girls' room and the nursery for less than $10 each. If my wrist holds out, that is. Right now, my largest hook is a K hook. I think I need at least an M. My hand is cramped from pulling the fabric so hard. On the plus side, though, the rug is nice and tight. On the negative side, I may not be able to use my right hand tomorrow.

I'm doing my crochet while listening to Andrew Peterson. I am so, so, so excited to have found a Christian artist, other than Fernando, whom I absolutely adore!! I love Peterson's voice, his melodies, his harmonies, the way his albums are produced, his lyrics... everything. Love it. I think Counting Stars is my favorite album, but that might be just because I've listened to it most. It's just so good!

I really should be asleep. We had a mostly good day which, once again, had a bit of friction in it today. This happens to us most Thursdays and I think it's because we just don't have enough sleep/ rest/ recovery from the night before. We have a great kids' program at our church on Wednesday nights. Annalivia was involved in it last year and really enjoyed it and Dennis ran the sound for the program. But this year, Dennis is working on the house, so Daniel, Emmeliese and I have been taking Annalivia to the church and then helping with the nursery care. We get home late about 8:30 on Wednesday nights and get in bed by 9:30, usually, but I think it's kicking our rears. I'm considering having us take a break until after Christmas. In fact, I think I've mostly decided that we need to take the break. I hate to leave behind such a good thing, but I know we need to choose the better thing, which is peace between us all at a pretty hectic time. I just need to get up the courage to tell the pastor that I'm leaving him without a nursery attendant.

Tomorrow, we are going to go to the apple orchard, I think, with my niece and pick the last of our fall apples. I've been canning applesauce and apple butter and apple/cherry jelly, but I think I need to get some apples and make some applesauce to just freeze and eat in the next few weeks. My children love homemade applesauce so much; they will eat quarts of it at a time if I let them, which I do since I don't add sugar to it and the fiber in it tends to help their little digestive systems. I'd like to have some available over the next weeks without breaking into the canned stuff until later in the winter.

Anyway, I best go to bed. In just a few minutes, it will be the first day of October, which means 4 weeks until we move into our house, 8 weeks until Thanksgiving, 11ish weeks of pregnancy and 12 weeks until Christmas. Goodness, that's a lot to do.

I take it back

We went to the Et Cetera Shoppe today. I found Daniel a 3-piece navy polyester suit for $2, a pinstriped suit vest for him for $1 and a sweet navy and hot pink plaid jumper for Annalivia for $1.50. That's a pretty good haul, in my mind. And we managed to get out of there without any second-hand toys! That's really quite a feat.

Before we left, we also stopped by the Christmas Store in the basement of Et Cetera. I found this antique embroidered tablecloth and 8 matching napkins for $6.95! A good soak in OxyClean and I think they'll be in great shape for the holidays! And there's lots of other good stuff down there that should be examined without two children who want to touch everything in tow. I guess I sort of, a little, understand yesterday's line.

Big triumph! (And some advice solicited)

I drove down to Eureka tonight. I wasn't sure why I felt it necessary to come down, except that the Rock Falls house is unkempt and overwhelming and I seem to have connected the feeling of morning sickness with it, so whenever I walk in the house, I feel nauseous. (For the record, there are some They Might Be Giants songs that I can't hear without feeling sick because Annalivia listened to them all the time when I was prego with Daniel).

Anyway, it turns out that being down here afforded me the opportunity to sit beside Dennis and watch as he paid off all of our credit cards, one by one. I won't embarrass us by mentioning what that number equals, but suffice to say, it was a lot. And now we are free.

The only debt we now have is my student loans in the amount of about $40,000. We are wondering whether we should just pay those off, or... not. They are financed at an interest rate of about 4.6%. Our current investments have been paying, on average, about 14%, I think.

What would YOU do? And I mean, YOU, not Dave Ramsey. I'd like to hear your opinions.

In the meantime, I think tonight, we may rest a little easier. I know Dennis sure will.

7 months of bad hair is enough

The last time I had my hair professionally cut was on Dec. 1, 2007. I got it cut and I wasn't really happy with it and decided that I was just not going to pay for an icky haircut for the next year.

I made it to last week, when I decided my own haircutting technique (i.e. grab a clump and saw at it with thinning shears) had run its course. I have terrible hair right now. Long haired dogs that have lived on their own in the wild, foraging for squirrels in thickets full of burrs and sticker bushes have looked better. Really.

So, I caved. And I made an appointment at one of the hipper salons in our very non-hip town, asking them for their soonest appointment. I have had to wait until this Tuesday when I will emerge with a new hairdo, hopefully.

I'm excited. I'm not sure what has possessed me to go this long feeling hair-frumpy, but I've learned a lesson -- regardless of the money this experiment has saved, it's really not worth it.

Incredibly practical financial advice

For the last few months, I have been reading The Simple Dollar. It is a great personal finance blog written by Trent, a guy who has pulled himself and his family back from the financial edge. His advice is straightforward, simple, and well-written. I find that I am adding his posts to my favorites more than anything else I encounter. Trent has a great post on budgeting up today.

I highly recommend The Simple Dollar. You may not agree with everything, but you'll almost certainly find something helpful there.

Redbox, Redbox, how I love thee...

Do y'all know about Redbox?

Redbox is a movie rental system that is in places all over the country. I had heard about it a while ago and didn't think there were any Redboxes around here, but the other day, I realized we had one at a grocery store I rarely visit across the river. Then I read The Centsible Sawyer's post about Redbox and realized I needed to get on board.

There are several truly great things about Redbox.

1. Rentals are $1/ day.

2. There are almost always codes available for free rentals.

3. They have lots of new releases.

4. They are quick and pretty convenient.

So far, we've rented Dan in Real Life, Barbie Mariposa :), The Dark is Rising: The Seeker, and Catch and Release -- for FREE!! They were all in great condition and it has been really nice to try out new movies for FREE!!

Free money!! (really!)

Have you heard about Revolution Money Exchange? It is similar to Paypal and if you sign up before April 15, you will get a free $25 for doing so.

AND you can refer friends and if they sign up, you will get a free $10 credited to your account, up to $500.

If you think it's something you'd like to do, please consider clicking through on my link!


FYI -- this is totally completely legitimate and above-board!

Free Starbucks on Tuesday!

Tomorrow, visit a Starbucks at 11 a.m. Central Time and get a free cuppa.

Visit any participating U.S. Starbucks store on Tuesday, April 8 at 9 a.m. Pacific Time (12 p.m. Eastern Time) and Starbucks will give all customers a complimentary short (8 oz.) cup of the new Pike Place Roast™ to enjoy as they participate in a simultaneous, nationwide, coast-to-coast, coffee tasting conducted by Starbucks coffee experts. More here.

And lift a toast to your friend April who is, alas, too far from a Starbucks to justify gas cost for the free cup. :(

More on CVS...

Since a couple of folks have asked about it...

Here are some great links on the CVS Extra Care Bucks Program.

A great intro is here. An article titled CVS 101 has more detailed info. There's even more info here, Making CVS Work for You.

It can be overwhelming. My advice is -- don't give into the pressure to find The Perfect Deal your first times doing it. I wandered around the store today for 30 minutes and emerged with nothing. Digest what you can and if you think it will help you and your family, go try it out, and try not to get discouraged.

And let me know how it goes!

My new best friend, CVS*

I LOVE CVS!!!

I went and got a deal today. I am such a newbie at this and am almost completely unable to do it on my own. But thanks to brilliant, wise and amazing Money Saving Mom and the very creative Centsible Sawyer, I was able to get -- 1 lipgloss worth $8.99, 1 bodywash worth $6.99, 2 deodorants worth $1.69 each and a gallon of milk -- ALL for $3.12!!!

AND I got $12 in Extra Care Bucks to spend next time. "Next time" is going to be tomorrow, I think, when I'm going to try out a different deal and see if I can make some more ECB's! So much fun -- and all this stuff I don't really need!

*with apologies to my real best friends.

Our resources

Dennis and I are not what I would call "frugal" people. Not at all, really. We like getting a deal on something as much as most folks, but I would not say we have a frugal mindset.

Or, rather, we haven't.

In the past few months, I've been taking notice of the expendable and disposable nature of many of our daily choices in our lives. We have not been deliberate in using our resources, I'm ashamed to admit. And it is something we are working on changing. Our goal is to learn how to live on less than one income and it has been, rather abstractly, for some time. Now we are taking concrete steps towards that goal. Baby steps, but actual movement, nonetheless.

I've found a lot of inspiration from several places recently: Like Merchant Ships, Money Saving Mom, Frugal Hacks and Frugal Abundance. Most of the women who write at these sites are motivated to frugality less out of absolute necessity and more because of their personal philosophies and especially, their faith.

I am very appreciative of these people who challenge me to put faith into action in ways I've not considered, or have been lax in enacting. I'm realizing that the way I treat my resources -- and not just the money we earn -- but also my time and my talents and the treasure I have in possessions and, most importantly, people -- speaks volumes to the extent of my desire to follow Jesus with my whole self.

So I'm working on becoming a "frugal person" with a frugal mindset. I'll be letting you know how it goes.

Anyone near an Office Max tomorrow? Need Sharpies?

If so and you've not seen this coupon, run out and take advantage of it. Looks like you can print the coupon twice and give another to someone else in your party. A 12-pack usually runs about $25. This is a good deal!!