I mentioned on facebook about 6 weeks ago that I was going shopping for a months worth of groceries because I hate making the menu and list, gathering the coupons, loading the cart, checking out, unloading the cart, unloading the truck, and unloading the bags. That's right, I hate all of it. Those groceries have finally run out. Well not run out. We still have steaks, chicken cutlets and pork chops, but it is still time to shop again. I spent $360 that day and have gone to the bread store once, pick up milk once and veggies once for a grand total of $400. It has been great not having to mess with shopping!
This month I am upping the ante. My goal is not to eat out or pick up take out AT ALL. This goal is super ambitious. I LOVE to eat out. I will get a hankering for something like Skillet's pancakes or a burger from Studebaker's and cannot rest until that need is met. It will be super challenging but I am committed to seeing how this little experiment effects our life and how much money we save. A lot of people have asked me how I planned for a month and it honestly wasn't that difficult. We always make our grocery list based on meals. Then we just make sure we have all the ingredients on the list. Now I print a calender for the month and on weekdays put whats for supper that night. Weekends are harder because we are all home for 3 meals. We usually eat a late breakfast, then snack around and have supper.
Here's a helpful tip: Assign each day a theme. For Example
Monday-Italian
Tuesday-cold food
Wednesday-leftovers
Thursday-Mexican
Friday-American
Then I just quickly list meals in that category on the calendar. Example:There are 4 Tuesdays in April
tuna wraps
sandwiches
grilled chicken salad
tuna sandwiches
I am putting this on the web to help me be accountable.I haven't told my husband yet but he prefers to eat at home so I am sure he will be supportive. I am estimating that I eat out about 5 times a week including weekends and that we spend about $400 a month eating out. How often do you/your family eat out?
This post has been a long time coming and promises to be a long read. Bare with me, as I want to share ALL of this experience with you. If you can't handle all the text, just enjoy the photos and lie to me when I ask if you enjoyed my blog.I decided to redo my cabints after a visit to my cousin Les' house. He is always in the midst of some sort of home improvement. I asked a few questions about his cabinet painting experience and decided mine need an update in a bad way! So two days later I hit up the home depot in search of the perfect color. I knew I wanted a brown hue. I was going for the feel of wood but had no intention of staining these old cabinets. They just are not worth the time sanding and refinishing would have required. While on my 30 minute lunch break,I chose a color called leather from their behr premium collection. Chosing a color proved to be very difficult. I ultimately held my top 3 choices next to a true red and chose the one that looked best. MISTAKE. I got out of my truck at work and had the worst case of buyers remorse ever. I knew I had chosen the wrong color. Too much of an orange undertone to be used in such a large area. PANIC. I really didn't wanna pay $33 again for the another color. Was $33 enough money to make me live in a hideous kitchen? Thankfully we will never know. My sweet new friend, Marilyn, told me they would gladly exchange for the correct color even though it was my mistake. I even called back to make sure she knew my paint lid clearly read "not returnable". Plug-I love Home Depot. They are so helpfuil and welcoming to this new home improver.I chose chocolate swirl for the cabinets.
I took all the doors off and got started by cleaning, sanding and painting the actual cabinets. This was only my second time to paint. ever. We painted Cameron's room "tink pink" shortly after buying our house 4 years ago. That took about 3 evenings just working on it when I got home from work and wasn't running the kids around. Throughout the process personal hygiene has been at an all time low. I bathed and washed my hair and thats about it for the last 2 weeks. I thought the kids could parttake by painting the insides of the cabinets, turns out I'm a little too anal and controlling for that sort of family fun. Devin was knee deep in Les Mills Body Pump training so his only contribution was pulling the fridge out from the wall. Next I painted the doors. Then I chose edgy red,also a behr paint with primer built in. My friend Christy had an awful experience with this paint but I didn't have any issues. I love red and have wanted to paint over the gosh awful off red streaking paint job that was in our dining room when we bought the house. Painting the door and those 2 walls was pretty uneventful. The area above my cabinets was a challenge. I wanted to paint over the wall paper in case we didn't like the red. I figured it would be easier to pull the wall paper down than to try to cover such a vibrant hue. Straight out of the box I had problems with the Frogtape brand paint tape. It would not stick and was very difficult to apply. Then the wallpaper bubbled. I have left it up there for now. We plan on taking the panels out completely and making shelves above the cabinet.I had to use primer to cover the awful wallpaper. I chose a pint size can of basketry colored paint for the least prominent wall of the kitchen and did all the trim in chocolate swirl. Trim was a little tricky as we have popcorn ceilings. I know everyone hates popcorn ceilings but I don't really mind ours. But the painters tape would not stick so I made another trip to the store for a handy edging tool. It was well worth every cent of the $3 I paid. I ran out of the terrible frogtape at about 11pm one night so I pilaged our shed and found the scotch painters tape from left over from Cameron's room. It had been sitting in a locker under our carport for 3 years and worked perfectly. High five Scotch. Two thumbs down Frogtape! The only good that came out of the frogtape was that the hubs really like the way it looked with the colorscheme so I ended up buying lime colored accents for the kitchen and dining area. Knobs were another difficult decision. I wanted the $4 glass ones and still think they would have looked great but I just couldn't pay $100 for knobs for a $50 paint job. I regressed to my trademark gold, but remember this is my family's kitchen and ended up getting a great deal on a brushed silver bucket of knobs for $34.I had a really hard time finding a curtain or valance to cover my kitchen's eyesore:the window that is too high to see out of and looking into our beautiful.....carport. I settled on a $9 panel curtain from wal-mart and my darling friends Charlotte helped me hem it to the correct size. Next I wanted to paint the zen tree design I envisioned but could find nowhere.The final image is not exactly what I would have chosen:the dark and twisty girl inside me wanted leafless winter branches but I am happy with the design we made. It's not too sunshiny I hope.My pal Jamie suggested making a freezer paper stencil. Cameron helped me draw the image and my friends Shelly and Bubba let me use their lighted drawing table(used for drawing tattoo images) to exacto cut my stencil. Devin helped me paint the curtain and it was a great final touch to our fab new kitchen.
Total spent:$236.16 This successful project brought to you by:Les,Tiffany,Charlotte,Shelly, Bubba, Marilynn, Jamie, Scotch paint tape, and the Home Depot.
I wanted to find a kitchen with a similar color scheme to what I am going for because I couldn't decide how the dark cabinets with red walls would work. So here is and image of my pallet. The cabinets will be a chocolate brown, no stained. Otherwise the wall to cabinet ratio is pretty on. So give me some feedback before I hit up the paint store tomorrow.......
I am ever so upset right now about something that impacts my life in NO REAL WAY. So I will vent here and move forward. Today the Celtics traded Kendrick Perkins, Nate Robinson, Semi Erden (I am in no mood to google check the spelling of these names so just roll with me),Marquice Daniels, and Luke something. KP-Danny said Shaq plays better with our starters. News flash my friend:he is old,older than the big three who are seasoned to say the least. We won a championship with KP, we lost a championship when he went out in the finals. He is a heck of a lot younger than Shaq and could have produced for this team for seasons to come. Shaq's days are numbered.The apparent justification is that KP was gonna leave anyway because an extension could not be agreed upon. They should have kept him, got another ring, and let the cards fall where they may. Our vets and the fans deserve that much. Nate-He's a showboater and takes poor shots when he should pass and never really understood the cadence of the this team. Good ridden and I wish him the best. Semi- Has been productive during his minutes this season,if you aren't gonna give someone a chance why bring them to our team to begin with. Marquice- He's hard on the eyes but gels well and plays his role off the bench. He has played a role in many wins this season. Luke- I like this kid but we have been fortunate enough not to need much from him so I cannot argue either way in his case.Well yes I can- same thing as Erden, why bring them in and not give them a shot at success.
Our Vets are no more pleased with this decision than I am. KP cried and is moving his family as we speak.
I hope I am wrong and we bring home banner 18 but logic(something obviously missing from the Boston front office) tells me my Big 3 and the best coach in the league will miss out on getting another championship before the time comes to hang up those legendary jerseys. Literal tear.
A hundred years ago in 1999 during my first semester of college I smoked my first cigarette. My best friend smoked socially but I was never interested and did not understand the appeal. I cannot really tell you what got into me that day but I can tell you I had just eaten dinner in the dining hall and all my smoker pals were in between the high rises partaking in a nicotine treat and I joined in for some reason. A few weeks later they sat me down for an intervention and showed me how to actually inhale. It was a good time. Smoking was like an accesory. A trend. NOT SOMETHING I INTENDED TO DO AS AN ADULT. My friend and I would come home and go drive around so we could smoke. Eventually my dad found out a pulled the ash tray out of my truck in disgust. I quit twice. But here I am 11 years later, 29 years old still a smoker. I am like a nicotine after school special. And let me be honest-it is a drug. I'm sure all drugs are fun at first. It really is awful once you need a substance. Imagine being hungry but knowing that eating is wrong. Having an itch and a 5 fingernails you cannot scratch it with. That's the closest I can get to expaining my addiction experience. I quit by using chantix in 2009 from January 26 through April 28 and the most stressful workday of my life knocked me off the wagon. I finally decided to quit randomly on a Wednesday(my dad's birthday) after seeing a smoker's lungs from the bodies exibit compared to that of a nonsmoker. No smoker had ever complained to me about lung or chest pain, but my lungs hurt often. And I feel constant fatigue. Now it doesn't make much sense to continue doing that to myself so that day I finished my pack without fanfair and intended to be done. Then as part of the closing of the chapter I went outside to pick up some empty packs and clean up my smoking area. Dog-gone-it. I found a pack from the day before with 3 more cigarettes in it. And like any addict I smoked those suckers. I woke up the next day and drove straight to work. I did not stop and get cigarettes. And thus-I stopped smoking. I prayed for this for my entire adult life and continue to pray that God will keep me strong. Other than praying away the withdrawals and cravings I also eat sunflower seat to satisfy the oral fixation. I realize most of you understand the advantages of my quitting but humor me while I list them.
become a better role model
feel better
look better
save cash
enjoy more free time
Obviously I do not wanna raise smokers and do not want my kids' friends to put me in the trashy smoker mom box. That's gross. Also my lungs don't hurt anymore and I already have more athletic endurance. Those smoker lines around my mouth will surely fade over time as will the yellow on my teeth. It's logical that receiving more oxygen is great for all my body systems including skin and hair. In the interest of honesty I will confess to spending about $5 per day on a pack of cigarettes. That is $150 per month. Now I get to save or BLOW that money. It's my "I stopped smoking fund." Timewise, I was smoking for about 140 minutes a day.
Now for what I will miss:
the thrill of the first puff of the day, after work, after a meal-yum
smoking while talking on the phone-one of my fave pass times
getting out of this house with these loud heathens for 7 minutes at a time
not eating everything I can reach
the social smoking with my two best smoker pals
I do love it. I feel like I am speaking of my mistress. It was time to end that relationship and move on. This major life change has opened some doors already. I have been spending my time organizing my kitchen(it's better than way since nonsmoker Misty eats. A lot.). I find it easier to spend that $150 per month on me. I would never have done that before. Ever. The biggest adjustment is falling asleep. It's really hard. I probably don't require as much sleep now but when I lay down I just lay there for hours. Hopefully that will subside sooner than later.I am on day 23 and am told that it takes 21 days to form a habit.
I have tried not to make this blog all about my life as a mom. I don't view myself as just someone's mom. While it is a huge accomplishment to have kept them alive and out of juvy for this long, it is not where my ENTIRE identity lies. That said. MY KIDS ACTIVITIES HAVE TAKEN OVER MY LIFE. I am pretty sure my inner circle is sick of hearing about it so here I sit venting on the world wide web.
I just read 2 articles in 2 different women's magazines about knowing how and when to say "no". I doubt there has ever been an article of this sort in a men's magazine! My kids certainly do not get everything they want but apparently extracurriculars are my weakness. They are are at ages where they are still finding their niches. I want to offer them a little bit of it all. I would hate to think they could have excelled or enjoyed something if only I had given them the opportunity. This theory has produced chaos that looks something like this.
As I type this it doesn't look that bad but I co-lead girl scouts and assist the basketball coach for daughter's team. I am ashamed of myself for getting into this situation. The next 6 weeks will be trying while we finish basketball and cookie sales. It is the perfect storm for the nervous breakdown I have been plotting since my daughter's birth 9 1/2 years ago.
It all kind of snowballed into the current schedule.This is our first(and last) year of girl scouting. No one at the parent meeting would volunteer so my friend and I volunteered. SUCKERS.Cameron is on her 4th year of dance. We chose dance in kindergarten as her first activity because it's fun and noncompetitive. We lucked into a very skilled instructor who doesn't taking the art too seriously. Last year the teacher didn't offer classes in our area which was good because my little ballerina was a little burned out. But we are back at the same studio and Cameron enjoys dance so much. It is also our first year on boy scouts and aside from the schedule conflicts it causes it is really not much of a pain even though they meet weekly throughout the school year. My husband takes him when he is not out of town for training.This is my son's second year of PIPS and it's not too bad because they stay after school and just have to be picked up at 5. Having his practice uniform clean every week is not so easy. The performances cause a huge conflict with his bball practice and pack meetings.This is his first year in basketball. Cameron has played bball for 3 years and it is my favorite of all our stuff. I love to go and yell like an idiot at the games. Plus it is inexpensive and only lasts for 6 weeks.
Aside from these activities we have tried gymnastics for both. They liked it but it is really expensive and they wanted to try other things. My son did t-ball last year and it was a big fat dud. We have avoided doing soccer even though they both ask every year. Last year we were 4H members but never had time to put a project together.
If you have children you know that leaving the house to go do ANYTHING is like getting a bill passed through congress. You have to make sure everyone has matching socks(lol) and the necessary accoutrement for whatever activity is on the agenda. Add in an unoccupied sibling and you have to gather the book, video game, or homework they will need to be stimulated during brother or sister's activity.No matter what you bring it really only keeps them out of your hair for about 15 minutes.
Next year per a family agreement, we will be dropping pips and girl scouts. So that means a maximum total of 4 things at a time and that will only be in January and February:basketball for both+dance+boy scouts.Sigh. I have learned that being overbooked just makes me wish my life away. Right now I am wishing for March when I can spend some time at home without my mind racing, thinking about everything I should be doing or can do tomorrow. Until then-like a true addict-I am just taking it one day at a time....
I just finished reading a book my former Jane magazine editor Joshua Lyon. Pill Head is a nonfictional account of his addiction to prescription painkillers. He also interjects the stories of several other addicts throughout as well as his research on the topic and interviews with experts. I happened upon this book at the public library. It was right up my ally because of the line of work I do and my love for nonfiction. I just love a memoir.
I immediately loved his writing style a knew it would be a two day, don't do anything unnecessary until I'm finished book. If you ever read Jane magazine you know what I had gotten myself into as far a adult imagery and themes. I bought the magazine once back when I had time for fashion, but could not read it because the language was way too liberal for my taste. Once I got two pages in and read about his career there I braced myself for 270 pages of questionable morality. Consider this your disclaimer.
He went right into the onset of his addiction. He was assigned to research online pharmacies. There was an epidemic of closed door Internet pharmacies who worked with irresponsible prescribers to dole out narcotics to our pill obsessed nation. This was in the early 2000's. I remember the ads all over magazines, TV, and the Internet. He easily got registered with one of the pharmacies and was prescribed some benzos and Vicodin. The only question the doctor had when he called was, "how many?". When he received the Vicodin he immediately took 3 tablets. Then he went into the "bubble" he would remain in for years. Instant addiction. He discusses the warm feeling that overcame his body upon his first experience with pain killers. Americans are addicted to all types of medications but his focus is painkillers. He recalls that he liked them because contrary to the hangover effects of alcohol and cocaine, he would feel absolutely fine when he came down from his "bubble". He speaks of isolation and how taking the pills made him feel socially comfortable. Apparently in his world drug use is rampant and binge drinking and doing acid or cocaine socially is just par for the course. He was functionally addicted. He maintained employment and relationships throughout his drug abuse. His tolerance became so high that when his appendix ruptured and they attached the morphine drip, the opiate did not even touch the pain.
He describes his experience "scoring" pills on the street and networking to keep a steady supply after the government cracked down on the Internet pharmacy industry. I didn't know benzos(xanax for example) are just currency for painkiller addicts. They are prescribed legit scripts for benzos and then upchange the tablets for painkillers with other addicts who prefer benzos. The author describes going the the DEA in Washington D.C. to research the policies and what is being done to help addicts and generally prevent addiction.Prescription drug abuse in the new meth in most parts of our country. He talks about the stigma that street drugs have and the safety abusers feel using something manufactured in a legit setting and given by a physician. Ultimately he completes rehab and continues to work on his sobriety.
My Take With the work I do, I see and speak with prescription drug addicts on a daily basis. It just comes with the territory. We have the time to monitor patients and refuse to give refills before they are due. I concede that there is only so much we can do. The will of an addict is strong. In this book I learned about prescription monitoring programs which are a valuable tool for health care providers. They are mandated by state government and operating in about 30 states. They track controlled substances prescriptions and provide a history for doctors and pharmacies. It is within the HIPAA laws because everyone who has access to the information has the right based on the HIPAA act anyway.This is a responsible health care providers dream. Sometimes we have to call eight pharmacies to make sure a known abuser has not received the given drug we are dispensing within a reasonable time frame. I contacted the administer of the Texas program and learned that our program is not online yet which was disappointing because this resource will be so valuable when we can access it.The last thing I want is my name on a prescription that kills someone or ends up on the streets in the hands of a reckless teenager.
He discussed detox and medicines that help fend off opiate receptors in the brain. This was probably the most interesting and new information I learned from the book. Based on his research, he endorses Suboxone. He also brought to light an issue that I had never considered that is not exclusive to rx addiction. When these addicts are being treated prescribers are giving them drugs "off the label". This means prescribing the medicine to treat something it is not FDA approved to treat. Just like aspirin relieves pain but also can assist your cardiac system, some prescription drugs have duel uses. However if the FDA has not approved the drug for the alternative purpose, the outcome can be adverse. This had never occurred to me because I rarely know what the drugs I dispense are treating. Often I learned anti psychotics are used to treat mood and depression. Or sleep medication used for anxiety.
The most off putting issue for me was his resistance of God in the rehabilitation process.It was a non issue to him and isn't really addressed at length. I guess I am used to living in a world of believers and he was raised in a world of nonbelievers. It makes sense now when I think about how easy it would be to go down a self destructive path if not for our faith. I mean this guy talks about doing cocaine with the casualty of drinking a soda.He lacked the foundation to make good choices about his health and soul. He also experienced those feeling of loneliness because he did not have the comfort of knowing there was something more than this life. I have a feeling people who believe in God or even another spiritual ententity are much easier to rehabilitate. He mentions being sexually abused two times but does not speak about it very specifically or even relate it to his addiction. I hope that he will resolve these issues as he gets further into the 12 steps.
Final review: Good read, very educational. (even if there were parts that made me blush and pray no one was reading over my shoulder)
