Reading Memories

I was feeling a little crafty today! I love when that happens. I was recently inspired by this post to create and keep track of the books I read so I created this:

Now I know that Shelfari is a great resource and I still plan on keeping track there as well, but there is something satisfying about actually writing down the name of a book that you have read and when you read it. I am planning on also writing down the books that I begin but don't finish because I am a big believer in the fact that there are way too many books in the world that I WILL like to force myself to read something I am having a hard time getting into.

I chose the paper for the cover of this notebook because it reminds me, for some reason, of my childhood. Probably the colors and flowers since I was a child of the 70's. I'm surprised it's not paisley since that is what my mom always insisted on dressing me in. It was not until about eight years ago that I could look at paisley without whining about it. Now I like it again, go figure.

While I was creating the book for my books, my childhood reading and book memories came flooding back to me so I figured I might was well write them down!

I was a very early reader. What I think happened is that my older sisters would read to me and I started following along and recognized words that kept showing up. It's the same way my daughter learned to read at age 3.

Anyway, I remember that I would walk to the library with my sisters. It was a little over half a mile from our house. A lot of people wouldn't let their kids do that now. But off we would go, with books to return and hopes of what new books we might find. We probably made that trip once every two or three weeks. Sometimes our mom would take us, but most of the time if it was nice out we would just walk.

Once when I was about five, the three of us went and I was looking through the card catalog to see what I might want to read about. One of the librarians came over to me and said "All the books for children your age are over here.", and led me to the picture books. I waited until she turned away and then went back to the catalog. She came back over again and told me to quit playing around with the cards. I mustered up as much courage as I could, put my hand on my hip and told her "Those are BABY books and WAY to easy for me!". Luckily, about this time Kathi came over and told the lady to leave me alone and that I knew what kind of books I wanted and that if I needed any help I would certainly ask for it. Then she went with me to pick out some not-too-easy books. (Thanks, Kath for having my back even then!).

Walking home from the library was the worst because I would have a huge stack of books (wow, nothing has changed in 35 years!)tucked up under my chin and would have to walk home like that! I imagine it was probably only ten or so books but holy cats! Not moving your head or your arms for a half mile walk was torture! I don't know why we didn't bring a book bag with us. And I don't remember walking TO the library like that so I have no idea how that all went down. I mean if I brought them all HOME with me I must have had to take them all BACK too, right?

I also remembered trying to teach my friend Aleah to read. We were just in kindergarten and back then they didn't start teaching reading until first grade if I remember correctly. But since I already knew how I thought I would teach her. Everything went great on some words like dad, mom, tot, etc. But all the other words she was getting WRONG! I couldn't figure out what was going on until I realized that she was reading from right to left and not left to right. She was Pakistani and that was the way she was taught at home. It was one of my first cultural lessons,(the first being when my neighbor said something about my "little black friend" and I told her that Tonya wasn't black, she was brown.)

So it was an afternoon on memory lane for me. And now I am going to go try to fill that book up. I am reading "The Third Angel" right now and so far it's really good!

I Need a Maid

OK guys, I am trying to get organized here. I always feel so much better and calmer when my house is organized. And I love the way things look when they are tidied up. The problem is that I don't like to spend all my time cleaning. And face it - - it is NEVER ENDING! Gah! I wish we could just all go naked one day so that I could say that every. stitch. of. laundry. was. clean. And I wish that my family (including myself) did not feel the need to sully every flat surface in the house with junk. And I wish that my 17 year old did not use my dining room as the receptacle of her coat(s). And shoes. And flute. And backpack. If I could train her father to hang his jacket up in the closet instead of on the back of the chair, it would be a miracle. But it's so FAR to walk to the closet! It's a whole six feet away from the chair! Did I mention that he actually needs to PASS the closet on his way to the dining room chair? Deep breaths. . .

I have been trying to follow the Motivated Moms chore system. For only $8 you get a download of daily chores with nice little checkboxes (love those!) to check when you have completed an item. It's a good system because eventually you will get to some of the tasks that never seem to get done. Like vacuuming your curtains or furniture and cleaning off the top of your refrigerator.

I struggle with some of the daily chores though. "Make the bed" is tough because there is usually either a sleeping human or two sleeping dogs (or both!) there when I leave in the morning. And I just don't really think about it again until it's time to go to bed. And when I try to "read to children" she rolls her eyes at me at tells me that I have issues. When "clip children's nails" comes up on the list, she tells me, "That's gross!"

Oh well, at least my trash cans will get washed out at least every six months or so and my stress levels should start to go down a bit as things get neater. Speaking of which, I better get off the computer and start tackling some of those flat surfaces!

Back to Square One

So you know the slipcovers that I am having made for my couch and chair? Remember how excited I was to have found fabrics that I liked and that were in my budget? Okay, well maybe you don't ALL know because I neglected to actually blog about that part. But if you know me in real life you know that I chose three coordinating fabrics, super cute and that I was excited! I bought eleven yards of the seat fabric already and then ordered the other two fabrics from an online store.

*********grinding halt******** Um, yeah. About that? The main fabric that was to be used on my couch and chair for the main pieces? The store only has nine yards. And I need at least twelve. And it is no longer being milled so they cannot re-order it. Dang!

So it is back to square one. But the hard part now is that I already have the cushion fabric so I am sort of penned in to making it work. I think I found a perfect solution from another online store so I have ordered up a sample. And at the time I ordered the sample they had 50 yards of the fabric in stock. Keeping my fingers crossed for a perfect match!

I Can't Believe I Did That (Again!)

Note to self: When you buy the huge bottles of shampoo and conditioner from Costco to re-fill the smaller bottles you already have PLEASE remember to check to make sure you are putting conditioner in the conditioner bottle and shampoo in the shampoo bottle! And if you think you checked - - check again! There is no money saved when you make this kind of mistake. That is all.

(Yes, that is TWO, I repeat, TWO times I have done that now! Geesh!)

Much Randomness

So much randomness I don't even know where to begin. So let's start with something I am making! This will be a scarf. It will be a scarf because frankly? that's all I know how to knit. Except for the back of a baby sweater that was for my nephew who is now four. Oops! I really need to learn more. My friend Jan has invited me to a class at the knitting store she works at one day a week but I just haven't had the time. So I keep knitting scarves. I now have five.



These are some of the fabric samples I ordered last week. I am having slipcovers made for my couch, chair and ottoman. I am so excited to have them done. But first I need to choose a fabric. It has to be the right color, the right weight and the right price. When the lady who is going to sew them for me came over with her sample books, Tim and I found one right away that we liked. But when we checked on the price it was $40 per yard! And no, it was not lined with gold. Just priced like it was! And that was the low end of that line. But to add insult to injury we need 30 yards. Um, even the designer said "No, that is WAY too much money!" for which I was grateful. So she turned me on to a couple of websites to order some samples from. So far in this batch there are three that are contenders and they are $12.98 per yard. So now I just really need make some decisions: should I do all the pieces in the same fabric or mix it up? do coordinating piping or matching? So many choices!

Here is what I have been eating. And eating. And eating. And now I am almost done with them and I need to start stalking the Girl Scouts at the grocery store. I think they may be laced with crack or something.

Here's the girl I get to spend the next two nights with in Greeley. Isn't she cute? She made All-State Honor Band and was the only one from her school to do so. I didn't really want her in a hotel room by herself so I am going too. I don't know why I am worried about her being in a room by herself because next fall she will be off at college doing all the things that college kids do. Wait. That may be why! Yes, yes, I think I'll keep her just to myself for the next few months until I have no choice. While she is at rehearsals I will be holed up in our room finishing (starting!) our scrapbook of our vacation last June. My scrapping mojo has been missing in a big way so I don't know how this will turn out. But I am bringing Firefly Lane with me so I will totally have something to do if the scrapping dries up. Or I run out of adhesive.



And lastly, I cannot BEGIN to tell you the number of jokes the above pictured girl can make about this little item. It is a bone folder. That is all. But oh NO! It is so much more. Go ahead and scroll back to look at that face..... yep! That sweet little girl makes way inappropriate jokes. For which I blame her father. She sure didn't get it from me! Ok. Maybe a little.

Grace in Small Things - Week 2

Here are five things I am grateful for right at 4:11 on Monday:


1. A healthy child.

2. Two lovable dogs. Especially the yellow one.

3. High school band music.

4. I got off work on time today!

5. LoneStar ranch dressing on my fries at lunch today.

Why I Love My CPA

Once upon a time, I was very excited to get our W-2's in the mail because that meant I could sit down at my tiny, green octagonal kitchen table with my sharpened #2 pencil and a calculator and do my taxes on the 1040EZ form. After filling the initial one out in pencil, I would do it again to make sure I got the same numbers and then copy over my pencil markings in pen, the way I imagined the IRS people wanted it done. And then I would mail it off and wait for six weeks for a nice sized refund check to be mailed to me. That day was always like a second Christmas because that money was not earmarked for rent, utilities or gas. It was "free" money and I spent it with abandon; dinner out, new shoes, books, new shoes, makeup at the Clinique counter, new shoes.

But times changed. We bought a house, we had a child, we were adults. And I still did my taxes the same way, albeit at a newer white farmhouse table. We had way more W2's because we both had two jobs, and I couldn't use the EZ form anymore because we had mortgage interest (in the late 80's - yikes! I can't believe everyone told us what a great rate we were getting at 9.3%!), child care expenses, flexible spending plans, education credits. It was time consuming, but I did it! And when we got our refunds, we spent them on things like tuition, car repairs, house repairs, car repairs, child care, car repairs.

Every year it was the same except I started using my computer and a purchased tax program to figure everything out for me. And I didn't wait for a check anymore. They direct deposited into the account that I had specified. And I adjusted my withholdings so that we had our money ourselves all year long instead of getting a chunk back at the end of the year. Oh, except the last two years we owed because I changed employment and didn't withhold enough and Tim's mom died and left us some money which occurred in the 4Th quarter which the feds didn't like and penalized us for it. Yeah, other than that it was a piece of cake.

Until this year. This year I had to change my ways for my sanity. There were far to many things to take in to consideration like the loss of our child tax credit (why does the government think that kids need less support after they turn 16?) another distribution from my mother in law's estate, etc. and I was totally stressing out about it. So I hired a CPA. OMG! How come no one ever really told me how freeing it could be? I gave her all my neatly organized receipts and two days later she is calling saying that my return is done. Yes, we owe again. Who knew that you had to pay self-employment taxes if you did a couple of weeks work on the side and they sent a 1099? I mean, I paid my estimated income tax on it but there was that self employment tax snafu. And again, Jeanne's estate distributed the final payment to us on December 30th so we made a quick estimated payment on that but the federal government thinks we were hoarding the money and assessed a penalty. Again. But wait! Who is this knight in shining armour? Our friendly CPA argues that we didn't receive the money until the 4th quarter so there is no way we could have paid any earlier. And they waived the penalty!

Oh, and by the way? She looked at last year's return? And we way overpaid the state. Turns out that not all of the money we received from my mother in law's estate was taxable according to Colorado. So who owes who NOW, huh? Oh yeah! We are getting back all but $200 of what we had to pay in last year. Plus interest! Lynn, you totally rock. And this year, when we get our refund from the state, it will not be spent on dinners out, shoes, car repairs, child care or even books but will sit very happily in our savings account until I can choose the right fabric for my new slipcovers. Or until Amy's first tuition deposit is due. Whichever comes first.

The End.