I wish....

I could help all my artsy friends make all their amazing creative things.

I could help them make a living out of their art.

I could make a living out of helping people find their bliss.

I could help heal people when they got sick.

My family and I weren't sick, again.

I'm really starting to think the only reason why we aren't deathly ill all the time, is because God protects us from illness, because I'm pretty sure we are surrounded by germs.

Sorry I'm ranting, we were just starting to feel better, now we seem to have caught ear infections and upper respiratory infections.
What's the saying; "Heal thyself." ?

I want everyone to check out my sis's (Nicolle) blog. She is an artist and I'm trying to convince her to paint and frame her art. She makes books and sews and all kinds of cool stuff, maybe someday she can sell it on Esty.

http://yu-zen.blogspot.com/

Did I already post these jewelry pics?

Save Yourself! Do it before March 31st. Please!

ok, so finally a good part to this whole tirade.
In Suze's book "Women and Money";
there is a limited time offer (2/27/07-3/31/08)to open a savings account with Ameritrade for free
and at the end of 12 months, (if you have deposited at least 50 dollars each month) then they will deposit 100 dollars into your account. This is your own personal account! not for the family, couple or anything else. I really hope someone else decides to do this, because we are not doing our families any favors by not taking care of ourselves

http://www.saveyourself.com/

click on it and then click on the "open a save yourself account" button and it should direct you to the website and it's pretty easy from there. If you get lost or confused, call me! I have already set this account up for me. At about 5:30pm today. Finally!

Money management?

Just in case I get accused of plaigiarism, I am reading Suze Orman's book "Women and Money".
I wanted to post some or all of her ideas to help women become powerful in their relationship with money.
She starts with about 2-3 chapters about we are not in touch with our financial relationships and how destructive that can be. Mostly she tells us we are are scared, weak, lazy and then finally says to take control. It sounds like it's about a 5 month turnaround time to start owning our money.

Anyway, here are some of the first steps.
1-Balance your checkbook!
I'm not sure why. but I guess there are alot of people who are scared of doing this. I suck at it but I still do it.

2- Open a checking account that does not charge you for anything. This is to be your cash flow for bills only.

3-Open a savings account and put a specific amount auto debit (at least $20) every paycheck (get direct deposit if you don't already have it.)

We are trying something different ourselves. We add up our bills, make sure there is Enough in the account for these bills, then take any left over and put it in the savings account. If we check the account and there is not enough, we take what is needed and put it back in the checking. We also use a cash budget for groceries, that way we don't go over.

I'm starting to think check cards are evil.


I know this is probably annoying to some but I'm also doing this for us and I think if I post it, it will help me stay on track and keep track of any progress or failure.


Let me know if anyone wants to join me in doing this.

Just because I don't get a paper check each month, doesn't mean that I can't be financially secure!

Are we done yet?

I know I probably should'nt but I'm in such a bad mood that I have to do something and blogging is all I can come up with.
It has been over a week and we are still sick. I got a wonderful break in the clouds on Wed. night when Bruce, Lilli and I got a blessing. Ever since then I am actually functional as a cleaning lady but not as much as a nice mom. Lilli is still really sick and Bruce has moments when he feels ok but that's about it. We all have this awful cough that grows stronger as we talk more.
I want to say that it has been nice watching tv for the last 7 days but it's really getting old.

I'm grateful that Bruce's mom was nice enough to come all the way out from Allen to bring us groceries yesterday. That was really nice of her. Thanks, Roxy.

I want to sit here and pretend that i'm ok being stuck at home for over a week, but I'm not. I had the most awful feeling of emptiness and loneliness yesterday and my family is so sweet to just try to wait it out. We have our moments where we lash out but strangely enough, they are less than when we are not sick.....

I wonder if this is what jail feels like!? Maybe what the pioneers felt like when they were sick and snowed in and couldn't go anywhere!?

FLU

All 6 of us are deathly ill with the flu, if you could pray for us, it would be truly appreciated. I'm trying to post more jewelry pics, especially for my friend Julie from Cali.

New goals!

Is there such a thing as NEW goals? Do you ever find yourself repeating the same goals because last year you never reached them? YUP. So I don't really have any new goals, they are all old ones;
Stop yelling at my kids.
Exercise daily.
Take some useful classes.
Do something kind for someone each day.
Spend more time teaching the kids good stuff.
Less TV.
Make more creative stuff (with the current supplies I already have).
Get my house more organized.
Read scriptures 3 times a day.
Go to bed and get up earlier.
More plants in my garden.


So besides the overly ambitious goals; Bruce already got us a membership at the Rec. Center. I have not yet gone. My excuse for today was that Ethan threw up this morning. I was too tired anyway....

But, I got on a friend's favorite blog;

http://theblackapple.typepad.com/inside_a_black_apple/

and I obviously noticed how talented she was, and seems very sweet.
What blew me away, was that she was happily making a living, making pretty things for other people to enjoy.
That has got to be a dream fulfilled for some, maybe most. I wonder if I would like it. I really love teaching the kids (preschool) to be inquisitive, experiment and to be artfully creative. I get flustered when the kids don't want to participate (mostly my boys) but I really do enjoy introducing these concepts and watching them explore.
Does that mean I should try harder to be a teacher?
Anyway, I am making jewelry currently and I'm actually happy with the results, but I love new ideas so shoot some of your favorite jewelry my way and let me see if I can recreate it at a lower cost. I will post more new pics asap.
I would really like another creative outlet. Maybe not so expensive? That probably doesn't exist, does it?
Probably not paper crafting *sigh*. I can't make it look clean and nice!!
Maybe something else.

Cats?

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I found this earlier, it was the most harmless, but not the funniest. I thought it was fitting for my silly story.
We heard an insanely angry cat trying to ward off Satan's kitty last night outside our bedroom window.
It sounded like someone was trying to cut through glass with a blowtorch; but this hiss was more of a rapid-fire hock and it was loud!
I've never heard a cat do that. I've heard hissing and even cats fighting but not like this. I almost jumped up and grabbed a gun! I did wake up Bruce, poor baby. I felt pretty dumb when I realized it was cat fights!