Make Memories

I had on my angry face for a lot of yesterday. It was an early release day so normally it would have been a great day. I was actually really enjoying it until the principal from Noelle’s school called. She is my 13 year old.

He is known for punishing people over stupid things and punishments that are overboard. He started as principal two years ago and the newest rumor is that for some reason or another he will not be returning next year. Everyone is very happy about it.

It all started back on Tuesday. Noelle’s friends have not been getting along all the time lately. As school let out “S” grabbed “A” and slammed her into a locker. When “S” raised her fist to punch “A” in the face Noelle grabbed her arm and stopped her. Then “S” grabbed a handful of “A” and Noelle’s hair. She ripped out their hair, threw it back at them and yelled that she was going to kill them.

The next morning the girls went to a teacher to report the incident since (like always) no school employees saw it. I wanted to go to the school but Noelle asked that I let her handle it. I have for years taught my girls to try to handle things without mommy stepping in and now when I want to help she did not want it. (They grow up too fast)

Well, Friday the principal finally talked to the girls and called me. He called me to tell me that my daughter was getting detention for the incident. We have since found out that it is the same amount of detention as the girl who was actually trying to attack “A”.

Since he started at the school he made a rule that in the case of a fight you are not allowed to defend yourself or try to break up a fight. He tells the students that the only acceptable response is to let the yourself or the victim get attacked and then tell an adult as soon as possible. This sounds insane to me.

He actually got rude with my daughter and said, “You just have to try to be a hero don’t you”. After he talked to me (actually he got yelled at by me)… he then acted as if my daughter made it sound worse than it was. He asked her if she  just made stuff up when talking to her parents to make her school life seem more interesting.

I am so furious with him. I got even more mad when I found out that he  gave the girl that was attacked twice as much detention as my daughter and “S”. I already yelled at him when he told me that he was punishing the other girl. He stated that he felt they were all in the wrong. He must be one of those men that believe that when a woman is beat she deserves it.

He of course would not tell me what punishment the other kids got. It was probably better for him that I did not find out the punishments or what he said to my daughter until after I talked to him. I did however warn him that if something happens again with this girl I will be filing a police report and he can then answer to why he did not handle it properly.

Okay, I feel a little bit better now. I am a very nice person but as you can see I am not so nice when you mess with my kids.

This whole daylight savings thing is really getting to us. Arizona does not do daylight savings time so we are not used to this.

We have all had a hard time falling asleep at night. We are all wide awake at bed time so we have been staying up too late. This of course also means that morning comes way too early. Getting everyone up in the morning has been quite a chore.

The lack of sleep is starting to get to me. I just don’t feel as motivated to get things done this week. I am also a bit more crabby too. Each night I tell myself that I will force myself to get to sleep earlier but I just lay in bed unable to sleep. I hope we adjust to the time change soon.

So does anyone else have these same problems with daylight savings? Is this normal or is it just because we are not used to it? I guess this goes on the list of things I miss about Arizona.

Yesterday was a dark and rainy day. Everyone wanted to do something special to make the day seem brighter. So what did we do? We watched a movie and had fun making the food together.

Through time advertisers have tried to convince us that we need to spend money to have fun. Sure we could have gone out to dinner and then gone to the movies but it was not necessary. We could have spent $100 or more doing that. Now is the time to get back to basics and simplify our lives. It is time for good old fashioned fun.

All we did was look around at what we already had in the house so it was all free. The kids get a lot more excited about eating at home when they get to help decide what to eat. There is also another phenomenon that makes the kids think the food tastes better when they help make it.

In the end everyone had a great time and felt it was a special day. You can make almost anything seem special if you all do it together and try to have as much fun as possible. Turning up some music and dancing around while cooking makes it twice as much fun!

So what do you do when the kids are home early and you have nothing planned?

Paper Mache! I have never even thought about doing paper mache at home before. Usually kids do it at school in art class. That is what I thought at least.

I do not know if it is cut backs or people not wanting to deal with the mess. Maybe it is not wanting to send kids home with dirty clothes. What ever the reason I just realized that Nicole has not done paper mache ever in her whole life. Neona and Neolle loved doing it at school so we had to do a paper mache craft.

James came home with balloons from work. This is what made us think of it. After many ideas we decided on making fish. We used the balloons as the body and taped on cardboard for fins and tails.

The girls are having a blast doing it and it is incredibly cheap so they are doing a few layers a day. All you need is old newspaper, flour, and water. Paper mache is a great way to make art and recycle.

The paste is a simple mixture. Just mix flour with twice as much water in a bowl. Then dip one inch strips of newspaper into the mixture. Wipe off the excess and place the strip on your form.

Here are the girls’ fish  after the first coating. For a thicker more stable project you can add more layers each day. This gives the project time to dry in between. It also gives the kids more days of fun.

After a few more layers the girls will be painting their fish. They are really excited about painting their fish. I can not think of a craft that is so fun and so cheap.

We are getting into the swing of things with the Simplify & Save posts. I hope you are enjoying them. We all could use a little saving so I suggest that families begin by tracking all spending to see where all the money goes. Many times we are nickle and diming ourselves into debt.

Most people do not look at the full picture. You look at what you spend on your normal bills and living expenses but not the everyday spending.  I know I struggle to get James to see the full picture many times.

His day consists of stopping off at the gas station before the 20 minute drive to work. This differs day to day but it usually consists of one or more of the following… energy drink, juice, donut, breakfast muffin,  newspaper, and maybe even a candy bar for later. Through the day he may stop at another store for some soda or gum. I do not even want to know how much he spends on the soda machines in the stores he runs. He is a diet coke addict.

This is actually a pretty normal work day for a lot of people. Let’s really look at it as a whole though. Add it all up and it comes to a lot of money spent. It is even more if he buys a lunch instead of bringing leftovers. Have you ever really looked at the little spending. The few dollars here and there. It does really add up.

I challenge you to keep a journal of ALL spending for even as little as a week. I do mean ALL spending. The small purchases are often what puts us over the edge.

Let’s  say someone spends $10 a day on things they do not really need. Many people do and do not even realize it. After a month they have spent $300. That could be a lot of money to pay off bills. After a year that is $3,650. Think of what you could do with that money!

Do not cut up those credit cards just yet!

Yep, you heard me right. When people get into trouble with too many credit cards and too much debit they tend to cancel their cards. You will prevent yourself from using the cards but it will hurt your credit even more.

Your credit score is directly related to how much credit you have available to you. When you cancel credit cards you drastically lower how much credit is available to you. This means that your credit score drops too. While you are trying to be more responsible it ends up looking less responsible on your credit history.

So what is the right way to do it? Pay off those cards but stop incurring more debt. It can be a temptation to those that have trouble with spending, but now is the time to get your finances in check.

To build credit back up without going back into debt you should use your credit cards  once a month for a small purchase. Purchases should be kept to only what can be paid off right away on the next bill. This keeps the card active and shows you are paying off your bills responsibly.

Are you running on empty?

It seems like every day I talk to another person that has been laid off. Even more people are experiencing stress about money.

Some people are in a constant panic that they will be laid of next.  Others are worried because while everything is getting more expensive they are not making any more money.

For years people lived well beyond what they could afford. People felt that since it was easy to get credit, why not buy everything you want. The thought was… Why not just put it on a credit card and pay for it later?

So what is the problem with that? The future that people did not worry about is now here and it is not as good as what they planned.  Even the people that planned a little better are now having to deal with higher prices and employment problems. The domino effect is starting to hit everyone.

I have decided to do some posts that discuss how families can cut back and simplify.

I figured that maybe someone out there would be interested in our new meatless meals we are making so I will share another recipe. Remember that I am not a measure everything and make everything exact kind of cook. I just throw in this and that.

The other day I made a Spinach Lasagna. It was sooo good.

In our new meatless meals I am trying to add more ingredients so that you do not miss the meat. So I went for adding garlic and spinach to my normal lasagna.

I have seen many recipes for lasagna over the years but why use a long overly hard recipe for what should be a fast and simple meal. People think lasagna is hard to make and takes forever but it does not have to. So here is some yummy and fast lasagna.

Directions

1. Lay lasagna noodles flat in a 9×13 pan and pour boiling water over them. Let them soften while you get the rest ready.

2.  Mix a defrosted bag of spinach with 30 oz of Ricotta cheese, minced garlic and 2 eggs.

3. When the lasagna noodles are soft, you are ready to assemble your lasagna.

4. Spoon a thick layer of your sauce on the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Your favorite prepared spaghetti sauce will work. You will need 2 normal sized jars. We used a meatless kind.

5.  Start layering in this order…

* Place 4 lasagna noodles so that they overlap

*  Spoon a layer of sauce and spread evenly

* Spoon a layer of spinach and ricotta

* Top with mozzerella

6. Continue to layer until the top layer of noodles. At this point you should be out of the spinach and ricotta mixture. The top layer will be just sauce and Mozzarella. Make sure that you have all of the noodles covered in sauce so they do not dry out and burn. We buy the huge bag of mozzarella because James likes it very cheesy.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let the lasagna sit for a few minutes before you try to cut and serve it. If it is too hot some of the cheese will melt out and not look as good on the plate.