No More Stuff

Starting today, I am not buying anymore "stuff" for a month. No more books or clothes or miscellaneous stuff. Both my Kohls bill (which I never carry a balance on anyway) and my Visa (which I, umm, sometimes carry a balance on) will be paid off at the end of the month, and I intend on keeping it that way.

I'm also tired of material items cluttering up my house. It accumulates fast between the four of us, and I'm done with my part of it ... for at least a month.

I'm hoping to spend the time I would spend (a) scouring Amazon or (b) walking the rounds at Kohls or (c) running into Michaels or (d) checking out the non-grocery side of Super Target or (e) some other equivalent and instead spending it on getting rid of things - FreeCycle, eBay, donations, etc. I also want to check out some consignment shops around here. Unfortunately, the military spouses do not run one on base here ... so I need to find something else. Husband has had a lot of luck on Craig's List recently (my postings produced ZERO buyers, so I don't have so much faith in it anymore). I am also stockpiling books, CDs, and DVDs for a trip to Dallas in September. The only places that buy-back here give you store credit, not cash.

So, yes, still mopey and now obsessing over minimizing and simplifying.

I am not saying I will spend NO money. I'm certainly up for pedicures and the movies and things along those lines, but I'm not spending money on anything that takes up room in my house ... at least for a month. Let's see how it goes. We'll call it "No Stuff September," but it ends September 21.

Christmas in July

I am on it.

I got the bases of my Christmas cards cut up and scored today. I even purchased my first Christmas gift for someone! I'm hoping to have all my Christmas hoopla complete by Halloween, so I can participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It's good motivation and will hopefully make for a smooth holiday season. It'll be so quiet this year - more than likely no extended family and no House of Toys or House of Trees. Regardless, we will make it a Merry Little Christmas.

I have my "to buy" list written out. The kids and I went to Hobby Lobby where, for the first time, I was thrilled they already had their Christmas stuff out. We got some nice craft kits to make a few gifts and they had all their glassware 50-percent off - I got several jars for things like dried herbs (hey, ladies from my writing group will love it) and dry mixes (for the neighbors).

So, remember my dishwasher detergent? I ran one load of dishes, and they were fine. The next two loads, however, are awful. Ugh, we'll be washing dishes BEFORE putting them in the dishwasher until we use up all this lousy stuff. I shouldn't make a final verdict just yet, but it's not looking good.

The boys and I had a really good day. Don't get me wrong, I still needed to escape to the book store after my husband got home (where I bought a magazine that I thought was about urban homesteading but is mostly about growing weed indoors ... I'm too embarrassed to return it).

We went to the dollar store and bought 15 tubs to sort the Lego blocks into (mainly by color). Aside from Bean's two largest (and, umm, most expensive) sets, all the sets are mixed together. The playroom often looks like Lake Lego - you must wade through them to get to anything else. Their wooden trains have been put away in favor of Legos. I step on Legos all day ... they find their way into nearly every room of the house. By some miracle, I haven't vacuumed any up yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

I actually did a little bit of research on "Lego block storage" BEFORE deciding on a system. By set would be my first choice, but it's so tedious to find each piece and put it back together like that. By color is an easy ways for the boys to help. It's not flawless, but hopefully it'll be better.

Also, Moose added the following to his vocabulary:

"I need help."
"Trash can."

What a wordsmith.

Dishwasher Detergent

Husband was so impressed with my laundry detergent success that he asked me to make a dishwasher soap. We buy Cascade Complete exclusively, because it works. However, it's nearly $6 a box. I dumped a box of Cascade Complete, a box of Borax, and a box of washing soda into a bucket and mixed it, then I transferred it back to the Cascade Complete box and another old Cascade Complete box and a small plastic container. I filled the "rinse aid" with vinegar. We'll see how this goes. I hope I didn't just waste $6 of Cascade Complete.

I went grocery shopping with the boys for the first time in a month. What a nightmare. Moose was particularly annoyed. He wailed most the way in and out of CVS (we were in there for not even 10 minutes and it felt like an hour). Thankfully, they were both strapped down at the base commissary, where I spent a small fortune. I guess this means I am cooking again.

Sweet Home Louisiana

Made it back Thursday morning around 6 a.m. I took two 5-Hour Energy Shots to make the drive and it took me like two days to recover from the stuff. I had a similar experience with caffeine pills in college (took them for a week, completely melted down, and never touched them again). On the plus side, I made the drive in 13 hours and 20 minutes (including stops) AND painted the office when I got home. I finally passed out and proceeded to have a pounding headache most of the next day.

The house was standing and the boys, dog, and plants were alive. I suspect my husband makes a better homemaker than I do (the house was certainly tidier). However, all three guys were happy to have me home AND I was happy to be home with them (you know, after the energy shot hangover passed).

My mom is doing OK and will hopefully be back at work by the end of the month. It's been a long and miserable process for her.

My husband had a PET scan while I was gone. We got great news Thursday. The scan was clear. Thank goodness.

Not wanting my mom's lousy kidneys and my husband's cancer to take all the attention, I decided to FALL at a bookstore yesterday. It was the perfect storm - flip flops, long dress, door with metal slates, carrying a box of heavy books. I went down hard, dislocated my pinky and skinned and bruised my knee. I was so embarrassed. I don't remember falls sucking this much as a kid. My finger is in a splint (most the time, the darn thing gets hot and itchy) and my knee hurts every time my pants touch it. So, umm, fun times.

Post-fall, I dropped some items off at a locally-run thrift shop and saw TONS of plastic pots in their dumpster. I asked the employee (or, more likely, criminal doing community service) if they were just throwing them away. He said yes and agreed that it was wasteful and loaded 20+ into my trunk. Plastic pots aren't my first choice, but FREE plastic pots certainly are.

I am convincing Husband to build me a chicken coop and run. He's surprisingly on board with the idea. City ordinances OK chickens, but we need to get the by-laws for our neighborhood. Hopefully no one has thought to ban them.

Bean starts school in exactly one month! He'll be a real kindergartner at a new school. I should probably figure out how to register him for that foolishness. I am also hoping to get Moose into a private pre-school a couple days a week starting this fall.

It was Artist Sunday at church today - church members and people from the community came out to sing, read, dance, and play. There were belly dancers, little ballerinas, violin, piano, drums, poetry, stories, etc. Artists also had artwork (jewelry, paintings, collages, books, etc.) on display and for sale in the church classrooms. Very neat.

Am in the middle of three books right now - Urban Homesteading, Cutting for Stone, and a book written by a local friend. I'm enjoying all three and having a hard time deciding which one to pick up each time I get a chance to read ... now wonder I can't keep the house tidy. Ha ha.

Victory

Amish Monster Cookies are possibly the best cookies in the whole wide world. They are every cookie - oatmeal, peanut butter, M&M, and chocolate chip. Goodness gracious. They are worth every calorie and fat. Amazing. More on them later.

I found Washing Soda at Kroger last night around 9 p.m. I needed chocolate chips and Walgreens (where I needed to get in on a peanut butter/mayo/Ragu/tea deal) did not have chocolate chips OR washing soda, so I ended up at Kroger and victoriously found both. They also had a Coin Star machine. My French's Fried Onion container held more than $26 of coinage, which I turned into an Amazon gift card. AWESOME.

Made my laundry detergent. It's a bit more watery than I would like, and I haven't washed anything with it yet, so I have no final verdict on it yet. I also want to break down a cost comparison. I went with the Tide mixture, because having three boys and a dog requires a bit more cleaning power. More on that later too.

Good News

Husband's CT was clear. For all purposes, he's cancer-free. The doctor is running some blood work to double check some things, and Husband will need to have CT scans every 6 months forever, but I think we'll get to keep him :) He may do precautionary radiation, but he also has the option of doing nothing except the CT scans. We'll see what the doctor suggests.

If he has radiation that means no more babies. Well, no more babies in the traditional way. Honestly, I feel like we have two happy and healthy children. It's not necessary to bank his, umm, boys (or girls, maybe) before treatment. As far as I'm concerned, let's just adopt a little girl - IF we want more. Then we know it's a girl and there's no turkey baster (or morning sickness or fat-ass-ness) involved. It's not the most important thing in the world, but it's something on our minds.

Husband jumps into training tomorrow. He'll speak to his commander about what is going on, and I'm guessing that they'll push him through training unless the Flight Doc steps in and says no. Of course, the Flight Doc wasn't available to talk to him today. No surprise. He still has multiple doctor's appointments over the next few weeks and isn't fully recovered from surgery. It clearly makes more sense to wash him back a class and keep him on casual duty while he wraps this cancer thing up. But, no one cares what I think. I'm used to that.

I am going to make Amish Monster Cookies for the journaling group tomorrow.

I am still on the lookout for washing soda, because I want to make a batch of laundry detergent - I have been to two Walmarts and the commissary and cannot find the stuff. I thought it'd be hard to track down the essential oil, but that was EASY (call crazy hippie store and ask if they have them and they do, they have all sorts of essential oils for reasonable prices, Bean decided on orange essential oil this time around - I kind of liked the lime, but I thought orange was a safer bet for my first batch). Husband thinks I am a lunatic. "Making your own laundry soap isn't even something that's ever dawned on me that could be done," he said. I told him I had SEVERAL friends who make their own and the DUGGARS make their own. I quickly realized that mentioning the Duggars was not making the idea appear NORMAL and shut up. I did buy a pretty blue 5-gallon bucket for the detergent, though. Hopefully my husband doesn't get a hold of this one (all my other buckets are lined with GROUT).

Boys are good. Bean is scrapped up on his arms and legs ... all from, umm, like walking. Moose is also pretty banged up and has a pretty rash on his face and buttocks. He pooped SIX times today. Big, full diapers - not like I caught him mid-poop and he had to finish. So, so gross. We tried out a new park today and checked out the campground my in-laws will stay at later this summer. Verdict: Not Ghetto.

We also visited the farmer's market downtown. Wow, Tuesday is nothing like Saturday. Not even half the booths were set up. It was pathetic. It was also super-hot and there was some lady singing who sounded like a dying cat. Much, much different vibe Saturday mornings. Verdict: No Tuesday Nights at the Farmer's Market.

I can't believe it's not even 7 p.m. Bedtime cannot come soon enough!