Philoxenos

I went to the doctor today and found out that I’m not as tall as I’ve always thought. I’m actually only 5 feet, 4 and a half inches tall. I’ve always thought I was nearly 5 feet 6 inches. I don’t know why I thought this just did. Perhaps an inaccurate measurement taken years ago.

I’m short!

I have probably mentioned that with the purchase of our house came a tightening of the budget, which wasn’t a surprise. But when you go from spending $995 a month in rent to paying, ahem, quite a lot more in a mortgage, obviously some things just don’t make the cut. And I’m totally okay with that. Well, maybe not totally okay, but I understand that this is the way it is.

In our household, my husband goes out to work and earn money to support our family and we love him dearly for it. Although there are days that I would love to go out to work just to get out of the house, I know that my calling is to stay home with our children. So Handsome makes the money and I spend it Or rather, in this case, I save it!

I can’t for the life of me find my digital camera and the battery is probably dead anyway but if I could I would take a picture of the stuff I was able to buy tonight so you can see how much I got for how little. But I’ll give you a brief rundown.

At Rite Aid (for you overseas readers, this is like a larger pharmacy/drugstore which also has a very small food section and household stuff. Their normal prices are high but their sales are excellent. ) I spent $10.62 out of pocket but will receive back $4 in rebates, so I spent$6.62. With that I got the following:

• two bottles of shampoo, the really good kind
• two bottles of sunscreen, the spray kind that I like
• three regular bags of M&Ms (we use these for Cutie’s potty training)
• 20 count Electrasol gelcaps, which we use in the dishwasher. They work really well!

So, that was the first store. Almost no people there (it was 8:30pm) and the cashier didn’t blink an eye at the coupons I used which I thought might cause a problem. Nothing unethical, just a bit different.

At Walgreens (another large pharmacy type store), I spent nearly an hour going through the store just checking things out. Each store has a different way of doing things and I hadn’t been to this one yet.

My register receipt says that I spent $16.51 out of pocket, but I saved $43.66 using sales, manufacturer’s coupons, and store coupons. Remember, the regular prices are highly overpriced, but I still did really great considering what I got. But the best part was in the clearance section they had a gift pack with a really nice lady’s razor and refill cartridges, a loofah, and some moisturizing lotion priced at $4.99, which was half price. The razor itself is normally about $6. But I had a $4 coupon for the razor. Wasn’t sure if it would work because it was a gift pack but I told the cashier that we’ll just try it and see what happens. When she scanned the coupon it went through and I actually whooped out loud! Fortunately the store was empty because it was 15 minutes before closing time.

So I got some great stuff. Definitely don’t need more toothpaste, I think I have about five tubes in the cupboard. But when I get it for 50 cents a tube how can I pass it up?! I think what I’ll do is keep it for when we have guests. Or I can give it away. I don’t imagine it goes bad? Got a huge thing of bubbles so we’re set for a long time. Some school supplies. Good stuff.

Handsome has been encouraging me to do the coupon thing because he knows that deep down I really enjoy it. It does take time, but it’s kind of like a hobby. And I enjoy getting out by myself in the evenings. I don’t go far from home (except for that amazing diaper deal!). I didn’t want to go out tonight because I was tired and I didn’t think the deals were that great. But I’m so glad I did!

If you come to stay at our house, you don’t need to bring your toothpaste. I have lots to share

In NZ it seems (from my eight years of limited experience) that it is not uncommon for folks to have an extra smaller refrigerator which they keep stocked with drinks, mostly beer. NZers seem to really like their beer. A lot. It also provides extra freezer space which comes in handy.

My parents have a beer fridge. It technically contains nothing alcoholic but it is usually packed with at least four different kinds of soda and bottles of water. Handsome and I always refer to it as the beer fridge because we both know what that means - it’s just the fridge in the garage. We rarely buy soda at home, but we’re happy to drink what my parents buy. Apparently the mooching doesn’t stop when you turn 21.

Anyway, this morning the kids and I dropped off Handsome at work and we went to mom’s house to swim. It was 112 degrees yesterday and I was still hot so I thought a swim would feel good, before the sun seared my skin off.

After our swim I was getting the kids into the car to go home and I snagged a root beer out of the beer fridge (see, it IS a beer fridge!) and brought it home. Earlier this afternoon I was starting to really drag. I needed to have some lunch so I opened the fridge and, lo and behold, what was staring back at me? An ice-cold A&W root beer!! HALLELUJAH!

God is so good. All the time, God is good.

apparently my children either didn’t eat enough breakfast (and my three Weetbix kids definitely eat enough breakfast!) or they’re growing. I’m going to go with the growing.

We just finished lunch and I’m down a half a loaf of bread. My 4.5 year old and my nearly 3 year old both ate two peanut butter and jam sandwiches and a cheese rollup (melted cheese rolled up in tortilla) and the 3 year old also ate a nectarine. And Little Boy also ate a sandwich so we just used ten slices of bread. That’s half a loaf.

Fortunately I have discovered the wonders of the bread outlet so I’m now getting bread about 50-75% off the grocery store prices. But because we use so much bread when we do use it, I like to use tortillas as much as possible. The kids love them. No crusts to cut off. I can store 30 tortillas in just a few inches of space, whereas two loaves of bread take up much more space in the freezer.

My cell phone just took a very long swim in the pool.

The kids and I have been at a friend’s house and they wanted to go swimming. This isn’t a problem, but with my three kids and her four kids, all aged under 6, and only one real swimmer, it took two moms keeping an eagle eye on them to make sure they were safe.

We had two little boys that thought there were invincible so one of us had them by the shirts the whole time. At one point my middle daughter thought she might be able to float without the benefit of floaties so she took a bit of a dive and my friend splashed out to get her, so she was pretty wet. And then her daughter took a plunge so I reached out to get her, getting myself pretty wet.

At this point we figured, well, we’re already wet, might as well enjoy the water, so we just stayed in the pool. Much easier to keep everyone safe, too! (we had been just standing on the steps).

It wasn’t until we got out of the water (after about 15 minutes) that I realised that my phone has been in my pocket the whole time. It was vibrating, shuddering its last bit of life out, and then it went still. And there was water inside the display. I think it’s probably dead.

I’ve got it submerged in a pot of dry rice which is what all the internets recommend. I’m most concerned about the SIM card of course because that’s got all my info on it.

I called Handsome to let him know that my phone is out of order and to call me on our landline if he needs me. His response, after laughing, was to say at the rate I’m going through phones (this is my second since we moved to America - the first got smashed on the bathroom floor)  he’s going to buy me a tin can and string.

Of course with my luck I’ll accidentally recycle it!

This being responsible stuff takes time. Of course time spent now is time saved later. Let me explain.

We have a budget. We’ve always had a budget but we’ve not always followed it as diligently as we should. Since buying a home we have been very diligent in tracking all money spent to be sure that we know exactly where money is going and to make sure that we don’t spend so much on non-essentials that we don’t have money for essentials. Like food. Or these days, petrol.

We use an online financial system that requires us to flick through and assign transactions to certain categories. No big deal, really. However, this takes time. Handsome is much faster than I am because he uses it a lot more than I do. And if I’m just doing normal transactions it’s no big deal. But like today I had to record some cash that I received from my mom as a reimbursement for some pizza I bought for her. So I had to figure out how to do it and then do it. While I was at it I did the other transactions that were sitting there (we do this every day or so. Transactions from the weekend usually don’t come through until Tuesday or Wednesday). This took me about 20 minutes.

20 minutes seems like a lot of time when I’m trying to get things ready for guests tonight (and of course blogging is a high priority!). But if I didn’t spent that 20 minutes now, I would probably end up spending double that later when Handsome and I are ‘disagreeing’ about how much was spent in a certain category or trying to figure out where the money went because there doesn’t seem to be as much as there is supposed to be.

And actually, that 20 minutes spent also gives us peace of mind. We know where the money is going, we know how much we have and, as Handsome is always telling me, it gives us immense freedom. We don’t have to worry about how things are going to be paid because we know that the money is there. And if I’m out somewhere and see something that I’ve been looking for (like a duvet, for example) I know the money is available and I can buy it with a clear conscience because I know the money is there.

I think it’s 20 minutes well spent.

If I were choosing a health insurance company based solely on their advertising I would choose Kaiser Permanente. Has anyone else heard their radio ads? They just make me feel warm and fuzzy, which is of course what they’re supposed to do. They’re working.

There is an amazing deal on diapers happening right now at Walgreens. If you are interested, go HERE to read about it. That post gives great instructions.

I wish I had a picture to show you (don’t ask me where our camera is because I don’t know) but I bought 584 diapers (which I figure is nearly five months worth) for $27. I think that’s less than 3 cents each. I normally buy them at Costco for 17 cents each. What a deal! Now, I know that these are not the same quality. I know that. I’ve already opened a package and I can tell. But considering that I bought enough diapers to last until nearly the end of the year for the same price I usually  spend per month then I’m okay with that.

For those of you who might be wondering what in the world I’m doing, here is the run down of our morning:

7am: Handsome and I woke up and couldn’t believe it was so late. We normally get up about 6am without the benefit of an alarm. Thus he very quickly got up and had a shower as he needed to be out the door by 7:30.

7:10: Children up and breakfast started. Much wailing because I said we weren’t having cereal today, just muffins and fruit and yogurt which is certainly enough but they are creatures of habit. I started emptying the dishwasher and dropped a cooling rack on my left foot. There is now a LARGE lump on my foot.

7:40: Children outside to play while it’s still cool. Much fighting over the car. I’m really str8uggling with all the fighting. Why can’t they just get along?

8am: I hung out some washing while kids played outside.

8:15: had a very quick shower while Precious watched over Cutie and Little Boy.

8:30: started Circle Time - started learning a new hymn “Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus” , started our B verse from ABC Bible Verses and read the read-alouds that go with our Sonlight curriculum.  While all this was going on Little Boy played with blocks (I want him to be included even though he’s playing) and Cutie got on and off the couch, listening with one ear. Precious sat next to me and didn’t want the reading to stop!

9am: Lesson 3 and 4 in Horizons K math. Definitely review for Precious but I figure it gives her confidence. We worked on left and right since she still hasn’t mastered that.  Hopefully this will help her get her shoes on the right feet! She’s nearly five and still walks around with banana boats on all the time. Cutie sat next to Precious and worked on her ’school work’ too. She has a little workbook and I gave her some crayons. Her job was to colour the crocodile and frog green and colour the pumpkin and carrot orange. Little Boy played on the floor.

9:30am: We made playdough! And I realised that I don’t have any food colouring, so that’s on the list. I told them to pretend it was winter and they were playing with snow. I love warm playdough.

9:40: While they played with playdough and Little Boy played in his room, I hung out another load of washing. And took down the load I put up at 8am. It was bone dry. In 90 minutes. It’s not super hot out right now but it’s a bit breezy and almost no humidity. But I’m glad I hung up the laundry because it dries so quickly and means I don’t use the dryer which heats up the house and uses electricity.

At some point in there they had morning tea. I think it was while I made the playdough. Right now Precious is cleaning up the playdough (that occupied them for about 45 minutes) and Cutie is reading book. Little Boy is trying to eat playdough so I better sign off!

I’m still alive, although I feel like I’m about to fry from the heat. I forgot how nasty summers in Central Cal can be. Last Sunday it was 110 degrees. What is that in Celcius? umm…. 43 degrees. 43!!! And the humidity was like 4%. It’s so hot I don’t even let the kids go outside and play from about 11:30-5.

So, other than trying to beat the heat (it’s been much cooler this week - only hitting 98 or so) by drinking a lot of water and making homemade popsicles, we’ve been at VBS!

For those of you down under, VBS is this amazing American phenomenon (I don’t remember ever seeing it in NZ) where churches offer a week long kinda day camp thing. This week is our week. I’m teaching fifth graders. I requested first graders. Fifth graders are very different from first graders. Let’s just say, I’m really tired. And a bit dehydrated apparently.

But tomorrow is Thursday, so only two days left. And the time passes by amazingly fast. Believe it or not I was surprisingly organised at home so I had meals made in advance so i haven’t had to do much cooking except for doing some vegetables and I’m keeping up with laundry. And of course Handsome is a great help at home, too, so we’re doing well on the home front.

Unfortunately I’m not sure how the children are going to fare. The first two days I was quite concerned about the two younger ones. The preschool/nursery is only available to children of workers, but there were still quite a few kids and I have a feeling that the workers really didn’t know what they were in for. I contacted the director  Monday afternoon just to let her know what I observed and she said that she was on to it. Tuesday was much better. Today I was surprised that Precious, the nearly 5 year old, was very clingy and crying a lot. Doesn’t help that she kept seeing me around the facility. I think it’s the noise. She has this thing with noisy places and just doesn’t like it.

So, we’re eating and sleeping and living. Our new house continues to amaze us. I think our garden will probably be dead in a a few weeks. We’re watering but we’d have to put a lot of water on to keep it all alive and doesn’t that seem like a waste of water for something to grow that we’re not going to eat? We’re really just growing it and then cutting it down and putting it in a big bin to get tossed into some wasteland somewhere. Maybe it’s composted. I don’t know. But I’m thinking of making some changes and putting in succulents. Why pretend we live in the tropics (which get rain weekly/daily/hourly) when we live in a desert (I can’t remember the last time it rained - maybe 8 weeks ago?)?

I could go on and on but that really wouldn’t make sense to anyone but me. so I’ll stop.

And Teri, please tell Andy that I spent his quarter but I promise to find him another