Money makes the world go round

Anyone else noticing how expensive the world has gotten since the calendar turned to 2011? Maybe it's just me, but it feels that way just a wee bit.

Gas prices have shot up again, which they did warn us about in the news quite a bit, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. I hope the predictions of where those prices could go by this summer are wrong, especially when we're planning a road trip to St. Louis to visit the Kondrick relatives that live there. Fortunately we should only have the gas as our main expense for that trip, but still, if the prices climb higher...

Then there is groceries. Because we are working hard to not go out as often, we expected that our grocery bills could be a bit higher. But so far I'm a bit in sticker shock. The biggest thing I've noticed - though again, it was reported in the news so I'm not as surprised - is coffee has gone up in price. Not enough that I'm quitting my addiction mind you, but I am watching for deals a bit more. I'll buy what's cheap each week, that's fine.

My Netflix subscription went up a little bit awhile back - which I knew about - but hadn't really paid attention to until recently. I don't want to give it up - but man.

I'm sure there are other things as well, I guess because I'm working on being more budget conscious, I'm noticing these things just that much more. I saw a friend on Facebook post about wanting a money tree and I thought - wouldn't that be just awesome?

Fortunately, it's getting to be tax time and we'll likely get a refund, so that will be nice to help with projects since day to day life is coming with a bigger price tag!

Blog changes

Change is good.

I have been reading up and looking into different things that can help "spice up" my blog so to speak. Well, ok the appearance of it anyway, not necessarily the content (though that probably could use some spicing up too, so I'm not just always doing things like whining about the weather...)

Many of them involve some different things like fonts and signatures - which are not as easy to use as I had hoped, but I'm working on it.

Starting today, I am going to be ending each post with a signature. Just something I thought I'd try and that I was easily able to figure out myself. It's nothing special - just my name. I have no secrets on this blog and nothing that I'm ashamed to post. So signing off with my first name is just fine with me.

Or I could end up hating it after awhile too. We'll see how it goes.

With any luck, hopefully with the assistance of my tech savvy husband, I can play with some of the other things I've been experimenting with.

Stay tuned!

Winter blahs

*Warning - whiny weather related post coming up. I felt a disclaimer was only fair, ha ha!*

Anyone else have the winter blahs? You know, usually, I do not get spring fever until mid to late February. This year it's hitting me early and it's hitting me hard.

I'm tired of shoveling the driveway every time it snows.

I'm tired of cleaning off my car every time it snows.

I'm tired of bundling up and looking like Nanook of the North every time I go outside. (Side note - short hair and hats? Yeah, doesn't work so well.)

I'm tired of driving around cautiously, not sure if I'll find black ice at an intersection (I have spun my car twice this year - not hitting anything or anyone fortunately, but that's two times too many in my book.)

I miss the sun.

I miss grilling food for dinner.

I miss longer amounts of daylight.

Yes, this is all coming from the girl who not six months ago said "I am not a summer girl". Follow the link there to my blog post on a hot day. And how I said, "remind me of my complaining on a day in January when it's 20 below." It's not 20 below (yet) but look at me - I'm complaining.

I know, can I ever be happy? Ha ha. Seriously, fall and spring are the best times of the year I think. And I do enjoy winter sometimes - I like snow even. I enjoy winter activities and sweatshirts and jeans are my favorite form of clothing so that works well for me. I think the fact that our fall got cut WAY short this year with the arrival of a snowstorm on November 12th is what is seriously contributing to my attitude about winter at the present. And also the fact that we pretty much made the decision to just take a break from running through the winter. We never found a solution that worked well for us. I use the elliptical every day but it is not quite the same.

So, I'm anxiously waiting for the snow to melt just a bit and the air to thaw a little. Just enough so we can get at our grill again. Enough that I don't have to squash my hair with a hat when I go outside. Enough that I can drive and not fear what my car is going to do. I don't need to rush spring, just enough of a thaw to take the edge off winter, just a little.

That's not too much to ask of Mother Nature right? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Taking back Sundays

Sundays are supposed to be restful. Reflective. Relaxing. But, for us lately, that hasn't been the case. It really hasn't been the case for quite a long time now actually.

We started treating Sundays as the one day of the weekend to get everything done. Grocery shopping. Chores. Stuff that is actually more work. Definitely not relaxing.

The biggest thing, is the grocery shopping. I don't know why I chose Sundays as our day to do this. The store is usually extremely crowded. If we have been at church in the morning, by the time we get home and have had lunch and are ready to head out there, it's nearly the end of the afternoon. By the time we finish at the store we get home in time to have dinner and then the day is gone. If we have other errands to run? Forget it. The whole day is just shot. And lately, it's been getting to us. We're not going to bed feeling refreshed to face our workday. Instead we're wiped from rushing around all day.

So, we decided, let's try taking back our Sundays. The simplest way we could do that is as I mentioned last week, find an evening that's free and do the shopping then. We're on week two of this experiment and we're loving it so far. Yesterday we were gifted with it not being a Sunday that we had to sing somewhere, so we slept in, went out to breakfast and then came home to make a roast. We had the whole afternoon to just work on the roast and while it cooked we got to relax and it was great.

It may sound so simple and maybe even a little silly, but I really love Sundays now! The challenge is finding an evening to go to the store and making sure our meals are planned out but so far, we're making it work pretty well.

My goal for 2011 is to keep it going. Keep Sundays sacred, or well, at least stress free!

A good weekend

It's been awhile since I've had a weekend as lovely as this last one was. Not to say I've had bad weekends as of late, but through the holiday season they were so busy. Or they were snowy. They definitely haven't led to much couple time for just Nate and I. So this weekend was a much needed treat.

We still did a lot of stuff this weekend too - but it was all on our own timetable for the most part. And we managed to have dinner with both sets of parents too! Otherwise, we visited the homebrew store so Nate can clean kegs and fill them with new deliciousness. We bought a TV with the money we got from selling Nate's Taurus. We really didn't need a new TV, but we found one for a good price that is a little bigger than our current one and still fits our space. Plus, it has a few more plug ins than our current one had as well so if we want to add like an Apple TV or something we can. And now we're going to mount the old one on the wall in our bedroom so I can get my old boxy one off of my dresser! It's not like we even watch THAT much TV - but it was a fun purchase.

We spent the rest of the weekend watching things on the new TV, playing a few video games and just relaxing. It was a great weekend.

Something that is going to help us make the most of our weekends is that we're trying something new in terms of when we grocery shop. I don't really know why or how we made Sundays our grocery day, but we have for the last four years. And some weeks it really eats into our Sunday. We like going together and both having input and such, so we've decided we're going to try going on an evening for awhile and see how that goes. So, this week we're trying Tuesday. We're going to try to change "how" we shop as well - which will help us not go out as much as we really try hard to save money this year.

I guess it's the little things sometimes that make a difference! At any rate, I'm feeling good after a nice weekend with the person who means more than life itself to me, so that's a good way to start a Monday!

First Random Thoughts of 2011

Been awhile since I've just posted a bunch of random thoughts, so guess what? You're in for a treat today! Either that or you're rolling your eyes and clicking the "Close Box" right now, but if not, read on my friends.

-Looking back on January's past I realized, so little goes on in this first month of the year. Many times it flies by barely noticed and in the blink of an eye. I don't know if it's because it is so darn cold that we just hunker down and hibernate until it's all over? I know in years past January was spent gearing up for the Follies show at our old church, but we haven't had that now for a couple of years. It is just a very uneventful month. So far this month is shaping up to be a little more exciting than usual - I planned a Partylite party with Miss Gina and we're hoping to go the Ominfest at the Science Museum and a couple of other things. So that is kind of nice.


-I have never been one to like Pop Tarts. I can remember my peers being so excited to get them as a treat when we were kids and being like "I don't get it, I don't like these." Well let me tell you this Christmas season, thanks to a friend who got to review them on her blog, I discovered Gingerbread Pop Tarts. And let me tell you - these are so good. Like so good. They go great with my morning coffee. They're not like regular Pop Tarts. I love them. I was so excited that Target still have a few boxes left on the day before New Year's Eve - because I had to get some more to enjoy these for just a bit longer!


-We have finally killed two of the kegs out of the bar - which means Nate gets to keg up some fresh batches of beer and we'll have new ones to sample finally. He has two that he brewed a couple of months ago now, so it will be nice to finally get to try them! We have one more keg that is almost gone too, so he's going to have to brew yet another batch. Darn. Ha ha.


-We actually found some people to buy Nate's old Taurus, which is very exciting. We're getting about as much money as we'd probably have gotten back on taxes for donating it, the perk, we'll have the money now as opposed to later. Of course, the fan had to not be working when they came to get it last night, but it was likely clogged with ice, so we're trying again today now that it is warmer and worst case scenario, Nate will replace it real quick, sounds like it's an easy pop one out pop another one in type deal. And then my driveway will be back to having only two cars in it! Score!


-Our cat Pippin has been very naughty as of late, clawing at the couch and no matter how much claw trimming I'd do or where we'd stick her scratching post, she'd still do it. I finally dug out this cat house that is quite large and is also made for scratching and stuck it in front of the couch, I just hate how much room it takes up which is why I'd put it away, but it made such a huge difference - she doesn't touch the couch at all anymore. And her and Taylor (the other cat, who does not have claws, long story for another day) are having fun playing "king of the tower" with it. So it's not asthetically pleasing, but I'd rather keep my couch in good shape and keep my kitties happy! I'll leave with a couple of pictures of the cats and the cat house so you can see what I mean.

Taylor is "king of the cat tower"

I thought Pippin was stuck at first - no, just hanging out

So there you have it. First random thoughts post of 2011. I'm sure there will be more to come! Right now I'm blaming it on the fog I'm in from this minor cold - I still don't have it nearly as bad as Nate did, but it could be done with me anytime now!

The New Year

So this is the new year. And I don't feel any different.

The clanking of crystal. Explosions off in the distance.

So this is the new year. And I have no resolutions.

For self assigned penance. For problems with easy solutions.

-Lyrics from "A New Year" by Death Cab for Cutie

So this is the new year. Well, the third day of the new year. Back to "normal" whatever that means. The holidays are pretty much over. I put all my decorations away. I am back at work. I am ready for a fresh new start.

As I've already stated, 2010 wasn't horrible, but it wasn't necessarily the best year either. But I'm excited to now be in 2011. I'm anxious to see what this year holds. So far it hasn't been much different from the end of 2010 - I have a minor headcold, not nearly as bad as what Nate had however. I do hope it doesn't last long.

I don't usually make resolutions, but I am trying to resolve to not let the little things bug me as much. Because as much as I say I don't - I really do not do well at that. So I'm really going to work on it. Don't sweat the small stuff. Life's too short to worry about small details. Things need to roll off my back more.

Also working on budgeting our money a bit better. We have some things we'd like to save up for and I'm trying to be more proactive about it. We're guilty of going out a lot - especially on weekends - for dinners and such and sometimes it can really add up. We're trying to scale that back to once a week again if we can help it.

Beyond that I am just open to whatever 2011 has to offer me. I hope that it's a good year for everyone. I'm even beginning to accept that looming big birthday I have at the end of this year. It's not sounding as scary for some reason.

Welcome 2011. Let's make it a good one.