Make Memories

There is no school today because we are on spring break. I love having the kids home.

Last week Nicole had to make dolphins for a school project so we made a big batch of salt dough. I made extra so that they would have some left to play with this week.

Salt Dough is cheap to make and usually you already have what you need. This makes salt dough a great last minute art project to entertain kids that are bored.

You Will Need

• 3 cups Flour
• 1 cup Salt
• 1  1/4 cup Warm Water

Directions

1. Mix the salt and warm water in a bowl until the salt is fully dissolved.
2. Add flour a cup at a time and mix to make a soft dough. You may need to add more water of flour depending on humidity.
3. Knead  the dough until it is nice and smooth.
4. Have fun and start creating things.
5. Bake your creations at 200 degrees until they are fully dry and hard. Large items may take a long time.
6. After they are fully cooled they can be painted.

Where does the time go? I really try to do way too much at once. This week I wanted to take advantage of the weather being a little bit better so I got even further behind.

One day I took the girls and one of Noelle’s friends to the Mc Donalds in the town next to us. Thursday we drove 30 minutes down the interstate to Target to get Noelle’s friend a present. We bought a movie so then we picked up some sandwiches at Subway. That is the only fast food in the small place we live in. Today we decided to go to the park after school. We ended up with two extra kids so the girls had a blast. I did not feel like making dinner so it was just frozen pizza.

I let a lot of things go this week but we had a blast. I am so excited about summer coming. I love having the girls home all the time.

Time is flying so fast that I did not even realize that this next week is already Spring Break here. I have been so busy that it felt like it should be another week before it started.

I am so happy to have the girls home for awhile. The girls are pretty happy and celebrating too. This means that they have no school until the day after Easter. Yippy!!!

I hope the weather is nice!

Yep you read that right…  This is me time.

I got a few really cool emails this last week. They all had to do with one of my other blogs. I have many websites but my blogs are where I get the most excited.

It started at the beginning of last week when an advertising company that works for a nationwide company asked if they could feature some of my posts in a regular section of a website they are building.  I of course told them that as long as they give me credit and a link with each post like they promised I would allow it. Then I did a happy dance. I will not name the company now because I feel like I will some how jinx it.

Then yesterday I got two emails from a company that I do some reviews for on that same other blog. The emails were to inform me that I got a $25 and a $50 bonus for having the best post on those jobs. Again a happy dance was done.

That brings us to today. I was emailed about another national company that chose that same blog to participate in a fitness challenge that benefits a charity. I am sure a few of you got that same email. It said 100 blogs were chosen but only the first 40 to accept the offer would be able to do it. A few of you tend to get asked by the same companies as me so I hope I replied soon enough. It would be fun to do together. Plus I would love the free pedometer they are giving out.

So yes, like I said this post was all about me.

Poor Neona has had a rough week. Sunday she said that she did not feel well and slept most of the day. By that night she had a fever of 104. Neona hates taking medicine so it has not been an easy week for either of us.

As the week has progressed we have all started to get congested and feel a little sick. None of us has gotten as bad as Neona though. She still has not gone to school this week.

That poor little thing. I feel so bad for her. She has not even been able to really eat. The way this house is set up it has been much easier to just have her in my room. She has pretty much lived in my bed. The kids bedrooms are on the second floor and my room is off of the livingroom.

I have been so worn out today that I have not gotten anything accomplished that I planned on. I will have to really catch up on things tomorrow.

If you have not already heard of this site you really need to check it out. Pandora is not your average internet radio.

As I sat here listening to music, I was trying to think of a post for today. Then it hit me. I should post about the music.

Many sites make you pick through their stations and hope that you like what they play. Other internet radio sites make you pick out your own songs one at a time. Then you listen to them over and over. You also never end up listening to anything new.

Pandora is more like an intelligent radio station. Pandora was created by the Music Genome Project. The project takes songs and breaks them down into “genes”. The different parts of music that make them different from each other.

When you go to Pandora it will begin by asking you for a song title or artist name. Then it begins to make your station. It creates a station just for you. It looks at what you like and then finds songs that would be a good match. Pandora classifies songs by 400 attributes and 2,000 focus traits. Using all of that information it creates your station.

Your station has the ability to learn from you too. As you listen you can give songs a thumbs up or thumbs down. This helps your station become more “you”. It also helps you find new music to love. I have found many wonderful artists this way. You are also able to share your stations with friends.

So what am I listening to right now? I am listening to my Diana Krall station.

As I started the new posts in the Simplify & Save category I had many people mentioning this one. I guess I just never thought of it before. It is a cute idea though.

You are supposed to fill water half way up in a container and freeze it. When it is fully frozen you then place a credit card in the container and fill the rest of the way with water. When you have frozen it a second time you are left with a credit card that can not be used easily.

The idea is that it will stop impulse spending. You no longer have it with you when you are out doing things. You are supposed to take the card out of the freezer when you want to use it and wait until it defrosts. This makes you take the time to see if you really need to use it or if you are just being wasteful.

The Good… Yes, if this is followed exactly you will limit impulse spending. You can use the time to think your spending through. I think it is more symbolic. It reminds you of your goals and to be sensible.

The Bad… You really do still need to have self control for this to work.  The big wasteful spender will still want to use the card after it defrosts. They will also probably feel guilty about using it and buy more to make themselves feel better.

The Ugly… The really desperate person will probably destroy their card by breaking apart the ice, microwaving it, or putting it in boiling water.

Sooooo, depending on what kind of spender you are this might actually work for you.

I have also met someone that keeps their cards in a safety deposit box. This will also limit and delay your ability to use them.

I mentioned yesterday that James has been going through huge work changes. It has been up and down for a long time. As the economy collapses people are not spending as much money any more. This also means that businesses are having an even harder time making ends meet. Businesses are closing down left and right.

James’ work has been going through a process of restructuring changes for a long time. Some have come and gone after they did not work out very well. There were even talks of a take over for awhile. Now as the dust settles and the restructuring should be complete it has brought on big changes.

The biggest changes have been in upper management. They decided to cut back on salaried positions.  They fired people that were not preforming well and moved around everyone else.

So what does this mean for us? James went from running stores in Madison to running stores in northern Chicago. Now instead of a 30 minute drive to work he has an hour drive. We do not want to move since we have moved way too much because of his work already. Plus as soon as we move anywhere there is always talk of another move.

Our hope is that they will see how bad his stores in Madison are doing without him running them and they will let him come back here. Until then we hope that gas prices stay down.

I would like to wish you all a Happy St Patrick’s Day.

As always, life is very busy with our family. There are huge changes with James’ work but that will have to wait for a future post.

The more I talk to people about the principal here the more I am glad that they did not renew his contract. I truly hope the principal next year is much better.

It seems that everyone is excited to see him go. I sure hope no other school gets stuck with him in the future. He must have been a better teacher than a principal.

The weather here has been incredible. I have had the heat off for 3 days. I even had windows open! The weather is supposed to change and be bad for a few days but it was nice for awhile at least. The girls have early release tomorrow so I guess we can catch up on house work. It is hard to convince yourself to clean when you finally have warm weather.