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Great cheap vacations

Apr13

Some people like to tell me that I am “cheap.” Those are the people who have a lot more money than I do, usually born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Or they have what I like to call a “Sugar Daddy” or a “Sugar Mamma” in their lives. Because of that they can afford to travel around the world and eat all of their meals at restaurants every day of their lives. Me, I have always had to work for a living. And for the majority of the child-raising lives of my kids I had to work full-time, take college courses at night, and raise my kids on a shoestring. So I prefer to think of myself as “frugal.”

One trick that I learned about saving money back then was to not even bother fighting with their father for who would get the kids on a holiday, like Easter or Halloween. I’d go ahead and let them spend the night before at his house, and the day of the holiday, and even the next day too. I’d put off shopping for Easter candy, or Halloween candy until the day AFTER the holiday and then I’d go to the stores and buy a modest amount of holiday-themed goodies at the drastically reduced prices and when they would arrive home I would give them the small token gifts and they would be perfectly happy with what I had given them.

I became pretty skilled at providing cheap vacations as well. Those days were largely before the Internet was even invented, so I would use a travel agent to line up a time-share condo rental and cheap air-fare if the destination was too far to drive, or I’d arrange to drive to my parent’s house in the Washington DC area, stay with them (for free) and do a lot of the Smithsonian Museums, the National Zoo, and spend some great time with my parent’s at their beach house on the Northern Neck in Virginia. We’d go for boat rides, and picnic on the beach at Shark’s Tooth Island, and hunt for shark’s teeth. My siblings would show up and we’d use the family boat to go tubing and water-skiing. A day trip or two to King’s Dominion, or Luray Caverns might round out the vacation. Good times can be had without having to go deep into debt!

Fun With Easter Eggs

Mar29

photo of decorated Easter eggs

 

With no little kids around the house, we haven’t decorated Easter eggs for several years. But I do like seeing what other people do with their eggs, and I thought this photo of decorated Easter eggs was really clever. I doubt that I would ever attempt anything like this, but I admire people with the imagination and talent who can do this. I usually am content with the PAAS box of dye pellets and some stickers or white crayons to doodle on the eggs. I have been creative with two tones eggs and stickers, but that was a long time ago. Maybe some day I will just boil a dozen eggs and color them for the fun of it – kids in the house, or not!

Our Current Big Baby Boy Boom

Feb19

Has anyone else noticed that we are having a bit of a baby boom? Maybe it is just my circle of family and friends that are currently going through this baby business, but it seems like this year I have been bombarded with invitations to baby showers and announcements of new babies landing in my mailbox at the end of the drive way and in my email inbox as well. There is no where else to hide, yikes!

My sister’s sister-in-law just had a surprise birth announcement in her family, so I am sure that I will go buy some receiving blankets and a few little outfits for her new granddaughter here in the near future, then wrap them up and get them in the mail. This is the first girl to arrive of all the other births this year. Everyone else has been having baby boys. And these baby boys are coming out big and strong. I haven’t heard of one yet that isn’t at least nine pounds!

The one thing about baby showers that I enjoy is the shopping for the presents. There is nothing quite like going into a nice up scale baby store and enjoy looking at and touching all the wonderful baby clothes and all of the other tons of baby related items. They always smell so nice and usually everything is extremely soft. I would never order something for a baby over the Internet, that would suck any enjoyment out of the whole ordeal!

Longer Days Ahead

Feb16

This year we once again start Daylight Savings Time some what early this year, believe me I’m not complaining.  I have always been a huge fan of Daylight Savings Time, so I don’t mind losing just one hour of sleep in return for an extra hour of daylight in the afternoons. Daylight Savings Time, or DST, always begins on the second Sunday of March (this year it’s March 10th) and ends on the first Sunday of November (which is November 3rd). I have no problem with the loss of sleep rather quickly, because then I can enjoy some late afternoons out in one of my gardens or on my yard swing with any or all of the critters that we have here at the house. Weather permitting of course.

I wish that they would consider to keep all the clocks around the world on Daylights Savings Time. It must be so confusing to live in counties and/or states and/or territories and the like that don’t participate in this crazy, twice yearly, ritual that was started so long ago. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I found out that not everyone everywhere was utilizing all that Daylight Savings Time has to offer.

Men’s Wedding Rings

Feb15

I remember, back many, many years ago, when I was planning my wedding day, how I struggled with what to give as groomsmen gifts, for the 4 guys standing up for us on our big day. There was no Internet to help with the wedding accessories that are necessary for all the people involved in the process. It was a good thing that it was a wedding attended by numerous bikers, that made it a bit easier to find things, there was plenty of Harley Davidson products that we ended up utilizing and were appreciated by all. But the Internet certainly would have made the whole thing so much easier.

Now that I have found out that my ol’ man lost his wedding ring months ago, but was afraid of telling me about it, it looks like we will be looking online for a replacement wedding ring. Back in the day we would have been very limited as to what we would be able to find in the good old fashioned brick and mortar stores. And since we aren’t in a huge rush, heck it’s been months since he lost the original one and has managed to do without for that long, I don’t see the need to rush right out and buy just any old ring. So far I really like the men’s wedding rings at jewelryvortex.com, but I have a feeling that we are going to butt heads when it comes down to the final decision and things could get real ugly around here.