Odds and Ends

I was reading a blog post that lead me to read this  article  and it reminded me a little bit of spending time with my grandparents when I was little. They like Annie's parents were raised during the great depression. Anything saw as wasting got you in trouble. Funny I see things that I want all the time that I never bother to buy. It's strange but once I get those things I never touch them again unless it's an electronic device. I actually use some of them. A few months ago I purchased a paper shredder, I've used it once. I bought it because I wanted to shred my junk mail and put it into compost with worms to make potting soil. I don't have any worms in the yard. I might but the ground isn't good for digging them with all the weeds out here. That and I can't remember how to do it anymore. I have to find the instructions for composting with worms. They turn kitchen scraps and stuff into potting soil. It's actually very interesting. I realized that I ...

I'm not really fond of surprises but I got one today to prove it. My light bill came in. Not only is it $165 more than it was this time last year but it's made us go $158.92 over our monthly budgeted amount which means that we'll be seeing an increase in the amount that we pay for it very shortly when the settle up bill comes due. Ready for the actual bill amount? I wasn't but I'll tell you anyway. It was $405.72. There are three of us. My theory is that it has to do with the leaky roof, windows and falling duct work none of which I can afford to replace. My other half doesn't listen he's trying to get us a mortgage we can't afford to pay on something larger. I'm trying to go smaller to encourage people to go home. We got the last of my other halfs tax forms and we're still waiting on my 1099 so we can file. I'm a good mind to do all of my adding by hand and go ahead and file them electronically. I have a feeling that we're going to be ...

Unfortunately it's not and I'm already exhausted. Today was a preschool day which meant that I was up early. By some small stroke of luck this morning the short and sweet news articles that I like posted at 6a.m. I managed a total of six short and sweet articles all day. They go very quickly, the time it takes to write one which is all of five minutes can mean that you go back and over half of them are gone. $9 today but that's fine only $11 less than my daily goal and I took the afternoon off at noon. We didn't have private speech today because the therapist was sick but we did have ABA. Today was one of those days that I got the feeling the therapist was distracted a little bit. I think trying to probe new skills and make a therapy plan when a child is trying to act as if you're not there is a bit difficult and cause you to feel a little confused. At least I know that it is for me. Now how do you politely tell someone that wants to focus on something else that...

OK not so interesting but I'm going to tell you about them anyway. I figured out that so far I have just over $73 in payouts coming for February from writing sites. I have almost $500 going out in February that doesn't include supplements or gasoline. I put $20 of gasoline in the truck today and got a little over half a tank that brought it up to just over 3/4 of a tank. I was fortunate enough to pay $2.99 a gallon instead of $3.05 a gallon. I've got to top that tank off as soon as possible and keep it from getting below 3/4 again. I'll have $3.59 left after my gas purchase goes through. One of my phone bills was just paid automatically it would seem, that still leaves the $3.59. I'll be glad when my 1099 gets here. Then I'll know what I'm going to have to go through and figure out by hand in order to file my taxes this year. Actually, that seems like something I should be doing right now. I don't want to have to print out all those reports but it look...

Well, it's hard to believe but it is in fact Sunday once again. This year is beginning to go by rather quickly and I'm not so sure I like it. I'd love to be able to go ahead and file my taxes but other than that I'm not really in a hurry this year. I've managed to do a lot of nothing since the new year began. Oh well, it's fine I'm not in a big hurry to make sure the house is sterile or anything. I did manage to figure out what sites I would be writing for this year. That took a bit of pressure off after the December changes to a site that I spent a lot of time writing for when I didn't have private clients and since I gave them up. I finally found a way not to give up clients all together while ensuring that I don't end up stuck with the same type of work to do repeatedly! I was rather happy about that. I have found that I prefer to make my own laundry soap and I even managed to find all the ingredients. The main problem is that I have to go to ...

Today was spent mostly in the bathroom with Theresa, now that she's got the idea of potty training she's trying really hard not to have an accident. This means that she'll sit on the potty for an hour at a time to ensure that she was through using the potty. She's trying so hard and I'm so proud of her. While cleaning training pants is among my least favorite things to do it makes it a lot easier to potty train. I noticed that when I stopped taking her out in pull-ups she started staying dry longer while we were out and making more of an effort to use the potty when she's actually on it. The biggest problem? I seem to be one of a very few people that can tell when she has to go to the bathroom. That could end up creating a slight problem until I can help her to verbalize before the fact. I have a bunch of laundry to catch up on. It's supposed to be 52 degrees tomorrow which means that all the laundry will be hung up inside. I have to dig out the clotheslin...

I'm still cleaning things out and attempting to get rid of everything but what I actually use and will continue to use. That's easier said than done. About the only thing that I accomplished today was to do a load of laundry and start another one in addition to doing revisions that will probably be returned and writing one new article that was accepted within minutes. That wasn't how I wanted to begin the day but I take it as a lesson learned that next time I have five days to do something I'll take more than a day and make sure I've covered all my bases by proofing it more than twice as I write it. I did remember to put some of the over concentrated five gallons of laundry soap that I made into a smaller vinegar bottle and dilute it just a little bit to keep from having to rinse the clothes twice for soap residue. At the moment I would have a load of jeans in the machine that I really need to find hangers to put them on so they'll dry. Funny thing is I only s...

OK so in an hour we're going to leave for speech therapy. It's the first session since last Tuesday and I'm really hoping that whatever problem that was going on has been resolved.Yesterday was a holiday and my little princess put her shoes on to go to therapy. Tomorrow is a school day, the second day she's been since the holidays. Poor little thing is so confused I can feel it, daddy did speech with her a few minutes yesterday. The good news is that for today's appointment I can leave her in cloth. I just have to take extra clothes, underwear and plastic bags to bring them home in so they can be washed. Little one actually tries not to use the bathroom in her cloth, every time I put her in a pull-up even if it's over night she seems to lose a little bit of progress. I packed two extra outfits and five extra pairs of underwear. We'll be gone for just over an hour and a half so that should be enough. I'll make sure she's clean and dry before we leav...

I've ran scan upon scan and it appears I get to back up all my items from my computer and wipe it out completely. Then I have to reinstall the system. I'm wondering if I have a backup that'll do that for me without messing up anything too badly. I'm not even sure if my backups will work. I'm wondering how a child that has to have everything in its place can make such a mess. I've been boxing up things to donate that don't fit the kid or us and that we don't use anymore. I have a bunch of boxes by the front door but no way to stop and unload them just yet. It's going to take a few trips when I finally get it all boxed up. I read a chapter out of "Thinking in Pictures" today. I'm reading a couple pages a day out of "Wife No. 19" (it's a rather long book that's taking me a bit of time. I started reading my bible for the first time in years a few days ago. A few chapters a day. I'm going to review the first two boo...

I've been cleaning up a bit today but I still managed to get a little and I mean a very little done around the house today. I managed to get a little bit of work done today just a few short articles. I've been running scans and removing programs I don't use and haven't used since they were installed. My computer is running faster already and I'm no where near done with the scans and the cleanup. In fact there is a scan running in the background right now. When it finishes I'm going to remove a few more programs and delete some files I don't want before I do another disk clean up and run another scan. I'm not thinking of it as losing time I could be working I'm thinking of it as decreasing the time it takes me to get things done. It's amazing what you can accomplish while you're waiting on a computer to be scanned and cleaned out. I managed two loads of laundry, mostly made dinner and poured up the rest of my laundry detergent in a one gallo...

OK note to self do not take a test when the baby is awake. Wait until she goes to school next time. I should have passed but I didn't. Now I have to wait three months to do it again. Oh well such is life. We don't have school today, the cancellations began yesterday afternoon. The speech therapist made it into work today and we get to go in an hour and a half early so they can let her go home. It seems there may be areas with icy patches. The temperatures are supposed to be in the twenties overnights the rest of the week. Fun, fun, fun. I have a whole $2.56 at Text Broker, I managed a couple short news articles yesterday. I've been looking for more but they keep disappearing rather quickly. I only need $10 to request payout since they have my tax form I won't have to wait once I get it. If I can do a few of the short news articles a day I'll have it in no time. I write at a few online sites to earn my living and I'm trying to expand  to write at even more....

OK we're under a Winter Storm Warning so the schools in the area are closed tomorrow. Theresa's speech therapist lives in Florida and I do believe the roads coming in from Florida are closed. Well, she may take 231, and I don't think it's made the closed list yet still I'd prefer she stays safe. There are road closing everywhere and I really don't like cold weather. The thought of the cold has made me shiver all day and now as the possibility of icy rain, sleet, snow etc gets nearer I find that not only is my tooth ache worse but I'm developing a soar throat. I've found more drafts in the last couple hours that I have in the last ten years. It has to be the fact we're getting extremely cold weather that makes me notice these things. Theresa has decided that she would rather dump her food out and eat off the floor it seems. I know that food she's fighting clean up of was in a bowl when I gave it to her. OK little bit is now in bed with no prot...

but that didn't stop me from hanging a load of towels outside in hopes of them drying before night fall. I have a load of pants in the back that should be dry by morning hopefully since tomorrow is Sunday and I don't want to go naked Monday. I have more laundry to do but I really don't feel like it. I'm wondering when the baby figured out that I have a bad back. She knows and she knows the more she struggles when I'm trying to get her to do something the more pain she puts me in. It's $100 upfront to see the doctor just to have him tell me he doesn't know the cause and write a prescription. I don't have insurance so there are never x-rays or anything else ordered to locate the cause. At the moment I'm trying to determine the best type of indoor antenna for my location. If I was in town it would be simple but I'm not. I love to have choices when it comes to television but the charges for cable are getting to be beyond my budget. I'm afraid...

I'm wondering why I spent over two hours doing dishes today. I want a dishwasher but I don't want to spend a fortune to maintain it or use that much water to do the dishes. I'm also wondering how I ended up with two of those standing clothes baskets over flowing. I managed to get one load of laundry washed and hung up today, I put another one in soak. I'm auditioning stain removers I want one that works on every stain. I'm wondering why I'm not in bed yet since I have to get up in the morning. I'm useless without my morning coffee so as long as I get up in time to have a cup or two it'll fine. I'm tired so I'm not going to make enough sense to babble so I'll be going now. I managed to vacuum a little bit. I have to get up the papers that Theresa threw on the floor at some point. I've got to find my file folders. That was an irritating moment a while back, I love telling someone I have something while they continue to tell me to get it...

Actually if my mind wanders any farther away I won't have one at all. My proud of me moment today came when I managed to refill my black ink cartridge without getting ink on the table. I did however get it on my hands and shirt in one small spot. Theresa and I stopped at the grocery store after speech. I went over board a bit but I got what we needed. The store didn't have baby wipes or pull-ups so I went next door to get them. While I was there I noticed that the exact stain remover I'd just bought was about 40 cents less. I made a mental note not to buy it again if it was over $2.50, that is if it works like it's supposed to and get the stains out of my clothes. I've gained a 6th of a pound since the 1st. OK so that's being a bit obsessive but that's my mind set at the moment. I think I want to go finish the degree I started but I don't want to have to physically sit in class. I'm looking into going online but I'm not sure a grant would cov...

That's the marathon for today. I agree with Ava Gabor, I want Park Avenue. I just don't want the cold weather that they get up there. I have to admit that the idea of a penthouse view is kind of nice but I doubt I'd last long if I ever got it. I don't like having my neighbors so close and I can look in their windows. I don't want to live out in the middle of nowhere either, well at least not without owning most of the middle of nowhere so that I have the run of the surrounding area. I'd love to have peace and quiet to write in but you have to have something to write about. I managed to write a total of three articles today.  Birds falling from the sky  and two that are waiting for review. I also accepted an offer on one about  schedules and Autistic children  which is now published. So all and all it was a sort of productive day. I washed Theresa's training pants today and they should be dry by morning. I'll be washing another load first thing in t...

OK so it's 2011 and so far I've seen wind and rain. When does the fun start? My brother in law tried to call at 1 am. He's either not that bright or he wanted to begin the New Year on my bad side. I just love the phone waking me in the middle of the night when there isn't anything wrong. I'm wondering where the "Jetsons" and "One Tree Hill" went on my "On Demand" menu. That's a rather silly thing to wonder but it's what's in my head at the moment. I'm watching a "Dallas" marathon, so far the episodes are one I've never seen because they came on before I was born and didn't make it to the regular re-run rotation. Theresa just drew all over her little stomach with a dry erase marker. She's four and she's already figured out how to go turn on my television in my bedroom and put it on whatever channel she feels like watching at the moment. I do wish that she'd listen a bit better but that...