In the Meantime...

First question? Where exactly did December go?

Next question - why do I set myself up for financial failure with 'in the meantime' things.

Case in point:

When setting up my home daycare, I had prepared a nice room, painted in fun pastel colors and well stocked with toys and craft supplies. I purchased a playpen and booster seat for the baby I knew I would have. In the beginning I only knew of the baby and one after school child. But I felt I needed "something else". I "needed" a big item that was super-fun. I purchased a swing/slide combo (to my credit I bought it second hand). I bought this before my first dollar was made. It wasn't that expensive really - for what it is.. but the problem is that it wasn't a practical piece for my room. Yes, it was fun, yes it was the big item in the room that screamed "play! play! play!" but it wasn't what I wanted or needed. I wanted a play house.. have wanted one for my own children for years but felt it was too expensive to purchase new and have never been able to find one second hand for a decent price.
The slide / swing combo became apparent as a bad idea when I ended up with most kids over 5 years of age (the combo is meant for children under 4). The older kids liked it alright, but they used it as a jumping board, and the beginnings of fort building and were well over the weight limit. I became worried the kids would either hurt themselves with it, or break it or both. So I made a decision to get rid of it. I currently have it for sale in our local free classifieds and have a tentative sale set up, hopefully I will mostly recoup the money I spent for it.

I did end up with a very very nice playhouse - the very same thing I originally wanted, and it's in incredible condition, only one year old and is being sold because the owners are moving and for $60 it was a steal. In just a few short days it has already seen more play than 3 months with the other toy. It definitely has the 'wow, play play play!' factor too.

The point is - I have a problem with buying things 'in the meantime'... buying things like that slide just to have something, when I know full well I should just wait it out and get what I really want... hopefully I will learn to curb this spending habit.

Hopefully I can start using things I already have on hand - I do like my ability to wait for things I really want - to either save up or wait for an incredible sale or buy it second hand - but I need to use more creativity for my 'in the meantime' moments. A good example of this is for my front entrance way - I knew I wanted a place for mail, and a place for small essentials one needs (keys, cell phone...)near the door. This time around, I used a couple of baskets I already had on hand, and just last night I found the exact mail holder and basket I wanted and found it for only $25 for both! (shameless plug for Winners!).

Hoping for the little voice in my head to tell me to wait it out... the basket will work for now... the very thing you want will be around the corner..

Happy bargain hunting!

Something borrowed and blue

My husband's Christmas party is coming up on this Saturday. We have gone almost every year for 11 years. It's amazing really, both that in this day and age he is at the very same job he obtained when leaving university, and also to see the changes over the years.

Thanks to some great friends, we have childcare all lined up (thanks again you guys rock!!!).
Those who know me know I adore children. My kids are my life, and I am surrounded by children almost every day at least for a few hours a day. And I wouldn't change a moment. Children bring sunshine to life. I could write novels about my love for children, and how much I like to be around them and hang out with them... from acting silly to cuddling at bedtime they are quite simply put my reason for being.

But every once in awhile I like to be a grown up and go on a date with my husband (whom I've been very happily married to for 10 years). There is a special pleasure in life to take a few hours and bathe, dress and make myself into a woman who is going on a date and not throwing on her jeans and comfy shirts. To have the luxury of time, a glass of wine usually accompanies me as I lock myself in the bathroom for awhile (don't worry we have 2 of those.. the kids don't have to cross their legs for 2 hours!).

This year, through the magic of friendship, I had the pleasure of borrowing a few dresses from a very thoughtful and sweet friend (one who if she were not pregnant is usually several sizes smaller than me) However, thankfully this friend holds onto her dresses and rooted through hers and found a few that fit me.

This years dress is both borrowed and blue. Blue velvet and it is very much *ahem* va va va voom.. Very Jessica Rabbit. Thank goodness I successfully completed last weeks detox diet!

I am so thankful for friends who offer dresses, babysitting time and the like... in one day I posted on a social networking site that I needed a sitter and boom.. done. And that afternoon I posted that I had found a sitter and needed to shop for a dress and then again boom.. done. (a few offers for each request by the way!). Although the Christmas party is a luxury and not a necessity in life, it feels so good to know that my friends have 'got my back'. Even though I know my friends are always there for me, this is just another example of a tangible way to see that. We live so far from family that it's these friends who have made us feel like family, like we belong here.. even if here is a thousand kilometers from where I started.

You just can't put a price on that!

The knowledge that if you find yourself in a building that is burning, a serious car accident or needing other rescue and assistance - you know you can call on your local firefighters, police force, and ambulance crew. You can't put a price on that. Sure if you live in a city, and your crew is paid, then you pay for it from your taxes. But what if you live in a small town.. a village? You rely on a group of dedicated and kind-hearted folk to do that job. For Free.

I'm talking about Volunteer Fire Fighters in particular. Because my father is one. He has been with the same force for well over 20 years. He keeps current with training, hours and hours and hours of it. He gave up many nights of Trick Or Treating with his kiddies to be at the fire hall just in case the local kids grew restless and started some fires. He wears a pager and he will drop everything that he is doing and rush to the scene. He fearlessly (although I suspect there must be some fear.. but he would never tell me that) dons his protective suit, helmet and breathing gear and walks into burning buildings on.purpose. He does it because he wants to help protect his community. Because he cares.

Recently in my small hometown (village) there was a series of unfortunate incidents. Some members of the group decided it would be a kick to purposely set fires. These were trained individuals that the whole community trusted with their lives. I cannot express my disappointment at that enough.. every fire that my father goes to fight is one more opportunity that he may not come home again. When I see that somebody purposely put him that position it outrages me. We're not talking about restless teenagers. We're talking about grown men - and one woman who was also involved.

I am not here to condemn them. I'm pretty sure they must already know it was wrong. And it's not my place to say whether or not justice will be served. Maybe it will. This post is not to judge, condemn or be angry.

This is about upholding those who do it for the right reasons, who continue to fight fires.. and that the community depends on. I recently watched an interview where members of the community stated that they had lost faith in the fire department. That makes me so sad... my father has worked for over 20 years to establish a sense of trust and community that for some has been wiped out with the foolishness of a few others. If you are in that small community and reading this - I hope that you will see that there are still many dedicated individuals who have been doing this for a very long time, not because they have to, but because they choose to. The countless nights I spent as a girl listening to the police scanner that we had - wondering if my Daddy was coming home... the accidents that he attended and could not speak of afterwards. I implore you to think about those things before painting the whole crew with the same wide brush stroke.

I hope that our little community will bounce back, better than ever.. and not let the polarizing effect that occurs so often come between them. May those who did it be held accountable, do their time, and move on - may those who, like my dad, continue to be there for the community be able to do so without the cloud of negativity following them around.

TV time

About a year ago, we cancelled our subscription to satellite service. We found it was much too expensive for us, because we would often use pay-per-view for movies instead of renting from the neighbourhood store that was a dollar cheaper, but would require we get off our butts and go rent a movie. As with most things, if you just have to click, you will spend much much more money than you otherwise would. (think online shopping!).

Sure we went through a bit of withdrawal. We used our PVR extensively. When we finally had an opportunity to sit down and watch tv, about 9:00 p.m. most evenings, we enjoyed having our favorite shows on demand, instead of building our schedules around tv.

Shortly after cancelling the subscription, we stumbled upon our favorite show's websites. Most of those sites allow you to watch full episodes online for free. Yes, you do have pay for more internet usage. But it still works out much much much cheaper. The very ironic thing is, we had a few channels we really wanted but refused to sign up for as they were premium channels and our monthly bill would have sky-rocketed. We quickly found out after cancelling our subscription that most of the shows we love are also available for free online on those sites. I won't give them away, but if you like home design, cooking, and new discoveries you can guess.

Also CBC and other similar sites have many shows that we like and we can watch the next day.

So - we don't get first dibs on the shows, and maybe they are a bit older, but we are watching even more television than we ever did before.. and we are loving it. We also subscribe to Netflix.. for about $9 a month our kids have access to all the tv they could ever want. And we often find movies we would like to watch too, and tv episodes.

We have taken our monthly bill from over $75 a month to less than $10 - I do have to figure out the extra internet usage but since we also go with a discount service for that, I know it's not much. Not only are we saving a lot of cash, we are also enjoying our tv experience much much more! And we are totally not slaves to tv-land scheduling!

Kitchen Reno

It is mid-November, we have embarked on a kitchen renovation. For 9 years I lived with a kitchen that was enclosed, I never liked being in there. The cabinetry was dingy and old, the fridge was a teenager and the countertop stopped being pretty in 1983. Nevertheless, we made do because that is what we had to do. It was functional enough but it never inspired us to want to spend any more time than necessary in that room. We did have a back door in the room that let in some nice light and a clear view of our kids playing in the back yard. I don't want to complain, I always felt fortunate to even have a kitchen of my own and food to fill the cupboards.

One of our big 'must-haves' when we were looking for our new home was a nice kitchen, or at least one that had the potential to be nice. I had always wanted to knock down the wall between the dining room and kitchen in our other house, but it was a structural wall, which would have meant a great deal of money and work, and asking for help. When my husband installed a wood stove in our basement, and put the chimney through that wall it squashed the dream for good (sorry honey, I know it was the only place for it to go.. I do..)... and when potential buyers came through the house, 7/10 of them said 'I wonder if we could knock this wall down'... if I was feeling really honest I would say 'no'.. other times I'd let them figure it out on their own...

In any event, I now have a kitchen that I love. I loved it the day I saw it, simple white cupboards (with no melamine in site, and no oak strip on the bottom!) nice ceramic tile floor, appliances I adore (and that work well, AND are from this century), the room is light and bright and I know I will love it forever. I do miss my gas stove (the one and only splurge from the old kitchen - and we sold it with the house...) but have gotten very used to the electric again.

If that wasn't enough, to already love the kitchen, we also knew we would be able to knock down the wall separating the kitchen from the large open dining/living room combo room. We are going to install a lower set of cupboards, and a countertop of course. We'll also add a small raised section to hide the mess a bit and add an interesting perch for the kids for breakfast, or for a glass of wine for our guests while we cook. The wall will have a very large blackboard/white board/cork board of some kind with the phone for our 'command centre'. The extra cupboard space will allow us to find a home for our various appliances we couldn't bear to part with but have never really had the space for. And we will also double our work space, and my dream - a place for buffet style dinners! I am so very pleased that I will finally have a kitchen I love, and be able to make it the true heart of our home, to have guests in and not be secluded in the kitchen, to have an open spot for easy conversations, and to have loads of storage and work space. I have simple tastes, it may not be everybody's dream kitchen, but it is mine.

Of course, to fit into my blog, I need to elaborate on how we are being frugal. Luckily for me, my hubby is very handy. He is an electrical engineer so he has no problem relocating electrical outlets and light switches. He also can easily identify structural things like knowing what is load bearing and such. This past Saturday while I was babysitting to pick up some extra cash, my hubby tore down the wall (and even cleaned up the mess!). He capped off the electric part and rebuilt the 'header' of the wall to match up with a part we are keeping (which helps hide the stove and keep it built-in). We will source the cabinets and countertop ourselves, and install them ourselves too. So just a little dry-wall work, and some basic installations and we'll be all set for hundreds perhaps thousands of dollars less than hiring a contractor.

Big kudos to my husband for this one - I have never in our 14 years together seen him not able to do something. Whenever he puts his mind to something, he can do it.. he amazes me and I am so thankful for him. From building satellite components (the real ones, up in space) to carpentry work, plumbing, jam-making, beer-brewing, to being an all-around great guy to be with... he does it all :-)

Batch cooking - pay off!

So we're embarking on an incredibly busy week. It's my first full week with the newest and littlest darling in my home childcare (who is currently sleeping). It's my daughter's very first "show and tell" day tomorrow which means she is a nervous bundle of energy. It's the first week of new sticker chart we're doing for our two kids so that we can establish the very best behavior in them. We're also doing a kitchen reno, finishing off our entrance-way, assembling a make-shift second kitchen, and planning Christmas.

This morning, determined to stick to my ideals (and my written-down, handed-out-to-parents-already lunch plan), I got up early, and made spaghetti for my crew. I happily sent my husband and son off on their merry (if very different) ways this morning with yummy home made spaghetti packed in their lunches. And my daughter and I and the little one will enjoy it for lunch too. Thanks to my big batch sauce making day, I had a little lunch sized bag of sauce all ready to go - I took it out last night to thaw in the fridge, hubby put the pot of water on to boil while I took my shower (and I found out that when one runs water at the same time as the shower, the shower turns FREEZING cold - but I digress...) and then I cooked the spaghetti while reheating the sauce, while packing the other lunch components. Easy peasy. I'm pretty sure I would never get up and actually make spaghetti sauce before 7:00 a.m.

So, while I'm still adjusting to our new routines, I'm feeling pretty confident we'll be able to do it all... if we can manage to stay organized.

Coffee Maker Part 2

So it's Saturday morning. And I have a brand new coffee maker.
Yesterday was payday (well actually Thurs. because the bank was not open yesterday) but since it was supposed to be yesterday we treated it as such.

My husband went out last night and bought the maker. He didn't see the maker I had mentioned at the store, it's possible they were sold out.

But what he did find was an even better coffee maker on sale from $89.99 to $44.99. For an additional $15.00 we got a better maker with more features, and it looks prettier too ;-)

After my initial frown at the higher price, I see that this maker comes with a permanent coffee filter. The same filter is $8.99 and did not come with the other maker, so I see a big value in that.

So folks, I now own a coffee maker, and therefore will end my morning coffee woes.
Happy Saturday folks!