Friday, October 3, 2008

Day 264 and I'll be back on Monday

I got all my homework done and submitted the last paper this morning. So my weekend is free, free, free from homework! Yeah! It is an extremely busy weekend with me going to Tulsa tonight and tomorrow, then going to my cousin's wedding tomorrow night, and then Tom (and probably me) taking Tasha and her friend to OKC for that concert on Sunday night. So...I've decided to take my first break from the blog since I started it last January. I'm looking forward to getting away and especially excited about meeting one of my favorite authors: Jeff Johnson (he has the Explorations Early Learning website in my favorites list at the bottom of the page). He wrote a wonderful book on overcoming burnout for child care providers and I am excited to get to hear him in person and get to meet him (if I can get up the courage!). We've communicated through e-mail several times, but you know, it's harder face-to-face. LOL. I would feel guilty about spending money to get away this weekend, but it did come out of my REWARD check (I get that money twice a year from the state for staying in child care). Heck, who am I kidding? I feel a little bit guilty anyway...

Hope you all have a blessed and wonderful weekend!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Day 263 and crunch time

I'm done with one rough draft and working on the other, I have 2 pages out of 6 written. I want these done before I leave for Tulsa tomorrow, it's going to be a super busy weekend with the child care conference and my cousin's wedding. Oh, and as if it weren't busy enough, Tasha and her friend won tickets to see the Music Builds tour in OKC on Sunday night! How can we not take them to see that?

Back to work!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Day 262 and Dave Ramsey's plan

Well, unless you're an ostrich and stick your head in the sand (which is what I like to do, LOL), you've heard about the governments proposed multi-billion $ bailout. Dave Ramsey has proposed an alternative to this on his website: http://www.daveramsey.com/, if the link doesn't work, it's also in my favorite links at the bottom of the page. When you get to his page, click on the "common sense fix" to read. Anyway, I know next to nothing about the economy or the stock market or anything, but his ideas seem fairly reasonable.

I'm in the middle of writing a 6 page rough draft of one of my final papers and so I better get back to it before kids start getting up. After this I have another 6 page rough draft to work on and I'll be done with homework for this unit.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Day 261 and Grocery Stores

With the stock market in turmoil and the prices on everything going up, saving money where you can at the grocery store is more important than ever. The grocery stores work hard (and who can blame them?) to get you to spend as much money as they can.

A few weeks ago, Tom did the grocery shopping for me. To make it simpler for him, I organized the list by aisles so he could just go through Aldi's and find what was on the list. This reminded me of how when we first got married and I did most of my shopping at Jumbo's, they used to have a map of where everything was located. I could organize my list by that map and zip in and out of there in no time flat. I loved it! I guess they figured out they could make more money by moving things around and making us hunt for it. Because since they got rid of the maps, every time I turn around, things are rearranged. It's very annoying, and Wal-Mart does the same thing too.

Something the stores do that make you think you're saving money is those items on the end caps. They put items on them so you'll think they're on sale when often, they're not. Either the store has an abundance of them and needs to get rid of them or the manufacturer has paid for that spot. The thing that will help with that is being familiar with the prices.

Even just a sign on the shelf does not mean an item is on sale. A trick I remember from when I was in high school and worked at a grocery store was putting a sign on something that we had a back stock of to try and move it.

The trick is to be aware. Be aware of the ways the stores are trying to get you to part with your money. Be aware of your own temptations to part with your money. LOL.

Does anyone know of any other tricks of the trade that the stores use?

Monday, September 29, 2008

Day 260 and I guess my problem is solved

Well, I guess my problem is solved, but it has created another one. LOL. I now have two full-time openings in my child care program. I plan to offer the spots to my two drop-ins first and then go from there. Honestly, it's a relief to at least know where things stand.

My back and shoulder are doing better today and I even exercised this morning! Go me! They still hurt but nothing like on Saturday. Poor Tom broke a toe yesterday and he chose to skip the exercising. He stubbed it on the little couch in the book corner. I felt so bad!

Please pray that my openings are filled soon! Have a great week! The weather was gorgeous today!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Day 259 and muscle relaxed tonight

I am really muscle relaxed tonight. I took a muscle relaxer for my back and shoulder when I got home from church around 8:30 and I"m just not getting a chance on the computer. I'm headed to bed soon but wanted to check in for the night. Hope everyone had a nice weekend!