While signing the Mr Linky for my Tackle It Tuesday post, something jumped out and caught my eye “coupon“. Actually, two words because right behind that was my other favorite word “giveaway“. So of course I had to hop on over and see what was going on. And sure enough, Saving with the Modest Momma is giving away $100 worth of coupons this Friday (which is her birthday!).

And what did I find? A fellow modest, Florida, homeschooling mom trying to live frugally and live off of one income!!! Well, hello kindred spirit!! And since I am back on the bandwagon…again…to try to stick to using all of my coupons I need some to be able to use. So this is a great giveaway.

Go visit her site and enter to win. And while there (and here) say a prayer for those waiting for Fay to pass thru Florida. Luckily, I don’t think we will get anything but I don’t know where in Florida Modest Momma is.

oh, I have so much to tackle. Today we are supposed to start school. But I don’t even have all of our curriculum yet. And we are preparing for Fay?? I went to the grocery store last night to get a flashlight just in case. All they had left were a few kerosene lanterns (which I will not use with a baby) and the flashlights that hang off your key-chain. oh well.  I later found a little one that someone I guess changed their mind about and left in the grocery aisle. I picked it up. But all the eggs were gone, and all the bottled water and most of the bleach and spaghetti-o’s. What recipe do these people use?? I don’t even want to know.

Anyway, I woke up expecting at least rain but it is clear right now. But my hubby is being sent home from work before noon so I guess at least the wind is picking up.

So what can I tackle with him home? I think I will make him help me go thru all the boxes in the spare living room. Sorry, I am not taking a picture but just imagine moving a storage bldg of Rubbermaid totes into a room in your house. Yup, that’s what it looks like. There is no more storage where we live now and since I hope to start house hunting in a few weeks, I really want to get this done. I do not want to drag this stuff with me anymore although I have gone thru it less than a year ago!

Parting is such sweet sorrow….

 I didn’t even participate last week because I couldn’t find anything “dark”. unless it was an underexposed picture and I usually don’t even keep those on my computer. But this week, “colorful”, oh yeah baby, I love that one. The hardest was narrowing down to one picture. Which I couldn’t do but I did narrow it down to two.

This is a picture of the bathrooms near a small lake near my house. Everything on the Square (as well call it) is nautical themed.

And this is one of my favorite pics:

actually, my fave one is centered a little more to the left and the front playing piece is clear with the background fading, but I couldn’t find that one. oh well.

MSNBC is doing a live vote. Here’s what it looked like after I voted:

Go place your vote here.

I voted NO. Wanna know why? The whole phrase came about because our founders wanted religious freedom. They prayed fervently. In fact, Columbus had one person in his crew whose purpose was to pray. “Separation of church and state” is supposed to mean that the government cannot declare one religion for the whole country to follow. And they don’t. BUT…when God is taken out of everything in essence, the government has declared a religion for us all…atheism. I am not going to push my beliefs on anyone but I refuse to sit here and let my beliefs be silenced either. When one atheism challenged prayer in schools, it was removed. And now look how the school system is. Even if people don’t believe it, prayer still made a difference. I don’t think people should be made to have to do something but by the same token, it should not be forbidden by those who want to. Many of our great Presidents were often found praying in the oval office. I wonder how long it’s been since we’ve had a President “caught” praying in there? And then the Pledge of Allegiance was removed. How dare them. I believe that if you refuse to say the Pledge or stand and show respect to the flag and what it symbolizes then you are not a true country-lovin’ American. And if you are not, please leave this country that I love. This  country was once a symbol of all things good - strength, faith, liberty, opportunity, freedom and more. But now we have people that take that all for granted and instead of being productive and finding solutions they complain and tear apart everything we have worked so hard for. We hear about “change” and people jump on the bandwagon like following the Pied Piper blindly. What “changes” do you want? Not all are good. And it can be worse than it is now. The President gets blamed for everything but if you know how government works, you know that his hands are pretty much tied and he has no power except what Congress and the House allows him to do. The President cannot control our gas prices. And if he brings all the troops home tomorrow and we have another 9/11 incident, guess what? He’ll get blamed for that. I don’t want a lot of hype from a speech writer, I want a real person with solid ideas and specific solutions. When I hear a solution to a problem I want to ask “How you are going to get that done?”. (And by the way, who I voted for in the primaries didn’t even make it so I’m not 100% happy either way.)

Sorry, I got on my soapbox but I listed to a talk show for a little bit today and callers were asked how they were voting for and why. Even though they knew who they were voting for, they really had no idea why. No idea of anything the candidate had successfully accomplished. No idea of real qualifications.  It was almost like these people had been hypnotized or brainwashed and yet they are allowed to vote. I think if we are going to change everything about the US we might as well rectify the voting qualifications; how about an IQ test or at least be able to write how they would feel about certain issues and then a panel (God only knows how they could be selected!) could determine which candidate fit that criteria. Because clearly the voters don’t know. Scary….

It’s haiku Friday

my assignment is on time

let’s wrap up my week.

My baby is sick

he is covered in hives and

refuses to eat.

There has been no change

in our detergents or food

-rules out allergy.

It happened before

same thing three weeks previous

but with a fever

so the doctor said

“It’s a viral infection

let it run it’s course.”

There is no fever

accompanying the hives now,

diagnosis please?!

1. What did you last replace batteries for? a calculator
   
2. What have you thrown away that you probably could have had repaired? probably a food grater. the handle broke off.
3. Among items in your line of sight right now, what should probably be put in the trash? two bites left of an oatmeal cookie left by my daughter right beside this laptop!! and she knows not to eat near the computer.
4. When did you last use disposable cutlery while dining in your house? two weeks ago was my daughters birthday and we bought tons of plastic forks, let’s just say unless i save them for whenever we need them again, we might be eating with plastic forks til Christmas.
5. Whose actions cause you to waste time you otherwise wouldn’t waste? hard to say. seems the only relax downtime i have is with my kids but I don’t consider that a waste. i guess great bloggers cause me to spend too much time on the computer when i should be doing something else.

I had nothing to do the first half of this week except get ready for school to start up next week. That meant making sure I had all the books together, make up some assignments, print off lesson plans and a schedule, set up our school online with our umbrella school and enjoy VBS.

Except that the baby came down with a bad cold. And now the hives are back. Again. And I have no idea why. I was speaking with a lady tonight at VBS and she said her husband suffered from something similar and the doc said it was an allergic reaction to something airborne, like a blossom pollinating. Now, how in the world am I supposed to figure out what that would be?!! So far the fever hasn’t come with it. But the loss of appetite has and that has me worried since he lost so much weight last time and hasn’t regained any of that back yet. I keep trying to at least give him PediaSure but even that is a battle. I am only giving him Benadryl and applying cortizone cream. I just pray this time doesn’t last a week again.

Masterpiece Weddings is hosting a Let’s Eat Cake Fund Raiser for St Jude’s Hospital. All of the proceeds will go to the children’s hospital.

This is dear to my heart - although I don’t personally know Melissa she is a local Florida girl, I used to decorate cakes as my first SAHM job, and my son was healed of lymphoma but St Jude’s is a reminder of what could have been for us and my heart aches for those families.

Even if you are unable to attend (it’s going to be held February 17, 2009 (and February is a GREAT time to visit Florida btw!) at the Paramount Plaza Hotel in Gainesville Fl) you can still send a donation thru the site.

Life Is Like Champagne is hosting a wonderful giveaway and you know even though I have terrible luck, I just can’t pass up a giveaway!! Especially this  one. She not only loves Sinatra (our favorite Sirius station is Simply Sinatra) but has great taste in art. She found krisblue, who has an Etsy store where she sells her wonderful art.

I love the Follow Your Heart series.  

This week instead of a photograph, I really just wanted to share a picture that was drawn by my daughter. I think she is talented but of course being her proud mom, I am  a little bias. She has been drawing since she could hold a pencil. We homeschool and every paper she has ever turned in since she was able to write always has had doodles all in the margins! It’s very interesting when she does my grocery list; she will start off writing it but then gets bored and the rest of the list is drawings of what I need to buy.

Okay, brag time over…I guess I really should to a photogragh that I’ve taken. I love to photograph flowers and landscaping. Here’s a shot I don’t think I’ve shared before…