2 Timothy 3:16,17

All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.

Message board update..

Well... I pared them down! I now only have 12 on my list. 2-3 I only look at maybe once a week.. so those I will keep as "read only" ones for now. I own one, so that is a keeper. LOL One, I am only staying on there until I save some more information from there that I want to keep, and then I am deleting my account. That is more because anything I post where I defend my beliefs, the post gets deleted. But the other post that is posting falsehoods is left. Yeah, I see a pattern there. (And I want to point out that I am only defending my beliefs) I don't need that kind of treatment!

The others are ones that I love and don't ever plan to leave! (I hope I never have a reason to leave!)

Needing to pare down my message boards..

Okay, I have come to the conclusion that I need to lessen the number of message boards that I visit. The only problem with that is that I now have to DECIDE which ones that will be.

Checking out the current USDA..

monthly food cost quide. The most recent the site says is available is December, 2008, but I could not get that one to work, so I looked up Novembers. USDA

Since Donny is only here for summers and college breaks, I am calculating our costs on a family of 4. Their "thrifty" plan has me spending $604.90 a month! On my goodness......

My personal goal (and I usually make it) is to spend on $300.00 a month on food and $50.00 on non-food items.

And we live less than an hour from D.C., so our cost of living is not exactly cheap!

What is your family's costs compared to what the .gov thinks you are spending?

What I am currently reading, for pleasure...

The is where I wanted to put a picture, but I could not get things to cooperate!

Duggars: 20 and Counting.

I am only about 1/2 way through it....but it is really nice and informative.

Going down memory's lane....

I just finished reading a blog of a friend of mine (do I say former? I would rather not, but it has been too long since we have talked)...

For awhile I could not access her blog, since it is a part of her board and I am not a member there.

Reading it was bittersweet. It reminded me of all the good times I had there. Don't get me wrong, I still stand by my reasons for leaving, but it does not change the fact that I miss what had been. (Does that make sense?) There will never be another place like that one and I hope that whatever "growing pains" it went through, it came out the better for it.

If you are reading this... I think you will know who I am thinking of.....

Still trudging along....

Classes are going great so far... will start my fourth one on the 2nd of February! It is my Art class, really looking forward to what that one will entail!

Been subbing alot at the school and praying that I get an interview for a teaching assistant position. I will hopefully hear soon about it.

Feeling as if I caught a cold...so taking it a bit easy so it does not become something else!

I got my books today!

I am so excited! Okay, alittle scared too, but a good kind. he he he

I am done!

Okay... I mean that I am officially done with the Fall Semester!

Now I can just relax a bit until Monday, when the Spring semester begins. LOL

Here's to a great new year everyone!

Gearing up for 2009

As the year draws to a close, I think about what I did this year and what I want to accomplish next year.

I am not making any resolutions, but I do plan to stick more to my household cleaning schedule and make my weekly menus on a regular basis.

I am continuing my goal of $300 for food and $50 for non food items. I also hope to continue to reduce that further since most months there are only four of us at home now that Donny is away at college.

I have gotten a bunch of seed catalogs in the mail, and hope to work on getting seedlings started this year, thus buying fewer started plants come garden time.

The last days of 2008

I have found out that my final grade for History is an A! Yahoo! I am so happy!

Now just waiting for the final three classes to come through. Of course, I still have two that are not finished. LOL

Next week will be busy. I need to get my car inspected by Thursday. My sister and her husband fly in Wednesday morning and then Sweetie and I will be going out that night. See... the 31st is our anniversary! Going out to dinner and maybe a movie!

Then on Thursday, we will have a few family members over for dinner. It has become our tradition to make a standing rib roast on the first. Not sure how it started, but everyone looks forward to it. LOL

The semester is drawing to a close...

and I am very happy about that. LOL

I have received my first official ending grade for a course... for my "Personal and Community Health" class I have a "B". I am very happy with that grade! I just hope the other classes are that (or higher!) History should be an "A", unless I really tanked on my final! LOL

The kids are out for two weeks, so we are currently at my mom's and then we will just hang out at home for the rest of the break.

I have already signed up for my classes for next semester. Taking another 13 credit hours....so it should be another fun semester. LOL Hey, if I am going to do this, I am going to try and get it done as fast as my schedule will allow!

Time flies.... when you are busy.

Alot has gone on this I last posted.

School is almost over.....for this semester. I have already registered for next semester.

I have some things I want to post about...but do not have the time right now... I should have time after the 21st.

But I just wanted to say "hi" and that I am still alive.

Paperbackswap

Have you heard of this website? It is wonderful! I have found some books that I have been looking for for quite awhile!

You post books that you are willing to get rid of... in exchange for credits that you use to receive books from other people. You pay the postage on your end...and those that send to you pay the postage on their end.

I'm back to blogging....

Or did you even realize I was missing? LOL

Sorry I did not announce I was taking a break fro here... it was a bit of step away or risk losing my last bit of sanity.

October was not a good month for my family. You all already know that I lost my aunt, I broke a bone in my foot, and my daughter lost her hamster. What happened after my last post was not good either.

On the morning of October 23rd, I received a phone call from my 19 year old away at college. He was informing me that a very good friend of his, and our neighbor was killed the previous night in a car accident. This news hurt our hearts greatly. This was the closest person my son had ever lost, at least that he is old enough to remember. He came home the following day, even though we offered to come get him right then, but he wanted to let his Professors know where he was going. I took the news very hard, harder even than the news of loosing my aunt. But then again, I had not seen my aunt in years, but our friend used to be at our house often. No parent should have to lose a child, death is a terrible thing to deal with, but someone so young just seems so much more tragic.

Also during this time, our mini van did not pass inspection. I sat for three hours waiting and then get an estimate for over $700 for what needs to be done to get it to pass the state inspection. When it rains, it poors!

I did not get much accomplished with my college classes for almost the next two weeks. The things that did have deadlines were not my best work and things that did not have to be done by a certain date just sat there, untouched.

I have finally gotten things pretty much caught up, and hopefully producing work that is more up to my usual standards.

So far November has been better. Dh worked on the van....and guess what? A few bolts were loose, and when HE took it to get re inspected, it passed! Let's just say that we will never go back to that place again. He did not even touch one of the areas they told me did not pass....so that right there tells you volumes! Anyways... I was just so thankful that we did not have to use our emergency fund for auto repairs.

I also got a wonderful sale price on bottom and top round roasts. I grind these up and pay less per pound than store bought ground meat! Plus, I know what is going into that package of ground beef that I put in the freezer.

I truly do plan to post more...now that school is back on schedule, and my emotions have come back to order. (I still get sad if I think about him, or I run across a picture of him with my kids, but that is just part of living)

I had tried to set a challenge figure to keep my budget at last month....but that did not happen, so I am starting again with November. I will post about that as I get my figures together.

Thursday, 10-16-08

Not alot going on... Picked my mom up yesterday so she can catch her flight Friday morning to go to Texas for the funeral.

I am behind on school work, but have plenty of time to catch up.

Trying to get back into the practice of keeping a price book, prices are getting all screwy! Yesterday I realized that basic canned veggies are 3 cents a can cheaper at Walmart than Aldi's! So... who knows what else I will find. Also trying to get back on track with a monthly budget. Need to do some adjusting now that there is only four of us here. I should get it down nicely.

Another update...

Goodness, it has been 9 days since I last blogged!

Been really busy with school. Working with the seniors and the school. And family life.

Besides the above, which is pretty much weekly, I also broke a bone in my foot, we lost a pet and the worst...my aunt passed away. I am limping along, my daughter is coming to terms with the loss of her hamster and my mom is getting ready to fly out to Texas for the funeral of her sister.

I took my first mid-term for college, a history one. I am confident I passed, but not sure what my grade will be. I have another one due for Cultural Geography. I had hoped to do it this week, but it just will not work this week, so I will do it Tuesday of next week.

Anyways... life goes on, it just takes some time

This was a hard week....

coursework-wise that is! (I think I just made up a new word! LOL)

Ian was home sick on Monday, I worked on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday...oh and had to go and meet up with Donny since he was home for a long weekend.

I got SOOO behind on my assignments for the week! I usually like to have everything done by end of day Friday... so I have the whole weekend free. I just finished my last assignment less than an hour ago... not what I wanted, but at least I am done before the due date.

I don't plan to let that happen next week, it is just too stressfull.

I hope your week went well....

Still surviving

Been really busy. Course work has really picked up. Just finished the first of 4 essays that I will need to do for History. And that is JUST history. LOL Does not include all the other classes. But I am pacing it and so far so good. My biggest issue is that I hate to be graded! LOL And of course, what is the whole point of college, but to submit work for grades. LOL

Anyway... I am getting there, plus working here and there at the school and for the senior care place. I know it will all be worth it in the end!

Hugs to all you out there that read this blog and cares about the life of one lady in Virginia! ;-)

It looks might once a week (or less)....

might become normal for this blog for now.

My online courses have gotten really busy now, plus the last two started up yesterday and they have just has much if not more assignments than my other three! I am starting to question my decision! I know, I will get through this! (Well, God willing, anyways!)

Kids are doing good....family life is going along nicely. I am starting to get teaching assignments, and so far I am keeping up with my own schooling. So really, I can not complain too much. I knew going into this that I would be losing my online "play" time. I just miss some of the chats I would have!

Anyways...please keep me in your thoughts as I wade through academia and continue being a wife and mother in the process!

Hugs!