The Economic Squeeze

In the last week or so the main topic of discussion around work has been about the impact of the current economic squeeze we all seem to be under lately. Whether it is the rising gas prices or the increases on the price of foods at the grocery store, it seems all areas of our lives are impacted and the situation is threatening to get worse before better in the coming months.

I have always been drawn by the challenge of trying to work the coupon deals at the grocery store. This has been something I have done off and on for years as our family needs shift. I get excited when I'm standing in line with all my groceries in the cart and my coupons in hand, knowing before I pay my bill that I have just whacked my food bill by 65% to 70%. I can't help but be amused at the initial groans from the annoyed individual standing behind me when they see me holding a bunch of coupons but when my total comes up and the clerk comments on my total savings after coupons, is all of a sudden interested and full of questions.

Currently, I work with a diverse group of men in various stages in life and it would seem odd that the discussion of coupons would hold their attention, but like me, they are sweating the current situation and looking for ways to squeeze the most value out of their spending dollars.

As a result, I'm going to be stepping the guys through the grocery store sales cycles and how to maximize the benefit of using coupons and rebating. I will put links on my blog to some of my favorite coupon sites and will periodically post progress reports from the guys. I've also decided to start along with them and take this step by step as if I were just starting out too, so then I can measure our progress as a group. We will experience the slow start of acquiring the coupons, some of the typical pitfalls of a workable file system and re-evaluate along the way to achieve our goal of facing the money squeeze without cutting out some of our favorite foods and perhaps ending with a surplus of household items which can then be donated or shared with neighbors.

So it begins......
Week One: Acquire all the coupon inserts from FIVE Sunday newspapers this next weekend. Sign up for the club cards at two of your favorite grocery stores. Mine are Ralphs and Albertsons. Also, pick up the sales fliers for those grocery stores as well as a drug store you frequent. The two drug stores I will be using are RiteAid and CVS. CVS also has a store card that you use to get coupons and Extra Care Rewards. Here is a great article that explains where we are going with all of this.

Using coupons immediately will reap you some savings, but I believe it will take approx 8 to 12 weeks to really get a good understanding of a workable system and make couponing/rebating a habit rather than a short term experiment.

Follow along with us if you like and if you have any additional tips or comments please share.

Unexpected Blow Back......

What have I done?

As a loving and supportive wife I feel it is my job to encourage and support my husband in his writing endeavors. I am in fact his biggest fan. After all, he encourages and supports my knitting habit! He even wears the sweaters I knit for him.....AND is willing to try on a wool sweater in the hottest month of Summer!!



So, in turn, I have been strongly encouraging Grant to write for himself and to create a blog of his own. What I didn't anticipate is that he would not only listen (this time) but that he would actually follow through and become a "blogger". My husband is a new member of the blogosphere.

What I didn't realize was that I would be a topic of discussion in the blogosphere!!

Independance Weekend - Catching up......

I need to get into the swing of things again.

Since the end of May, I have been overwhelmed with activities.

First, Jillian and Jimi's Senior Prom. An exciting and wonderful cash draining event, but a fantastic photo op, so I was thrilled. The one thing ....small thing really, was that Jillian wanted to wear tennis shoes with her dress so she could "bust a move" on the dance floor in comfort....[scratching my head] I was able to inject one last motherly "influence" on her before she turned 18 and she instead wore a cute pair of silver flats. She was comfortable AND still fashionable, go figure.

Grant's daughter Angela arrived from Australia to spend some of her school break with us. We celebrated Angela (19), Jillian (18) and Janeva (14) birthdays during one big bash as Peter Piper Pizza where Grant had arranged a gathering of Geocachers to welcome Angela to the U.S.

Then as if that wasn't enough fun, we had Jillian's High School Graduation. Neither Grant nor Angela had experienced an American High School Graduation ceremony before (but Angela did point out she had seen it in movies before) so it proved to be interesting for them. I didn't even think to prepare them for it, because this is all I have ever known a graduation ceremony to be. They were expecting something more somber and dignified...... but really, let's be honest. It is really more like a carnival. It is fun, exciting, noisy and HOT with most parents in the stands just plain RELIEVED and shocked to see their kids in the traditional Cap and Gown. Then about 2 hours later sitting in the summer heat under blinding sunlight, you are so over it!!! Particularly, if your child's name is called at the beginning of the ceremony you just want to grab your son or daughter, hug them, congratulate them and leave them to cheer their friends on the rest of the ceremony.

But wanting Grant and Angela to have the full American High School Graduation Ceremony experience.....we stayed for the ENTIRE thing...even getting there 2 hours before the ceremony began so we could be assured of seats. I think it safe to say, Jillian had someone fly in the furthest to see her graduate!

Jillian hated the hat, cursed the hat, refused to take pictures with the hat! The thoughtless rebel! Still, I was touched by the moment, seeing her holding her diploma and knowing another big milestone has passed....and then I did something my mother would do, I cried. (OMG, how freakin embarrassing!)

So, with a week to recover, we did it all again. Janeva "graduated" from Middle School and is now officially in High School.

I managed to get a few more photos at Janeva's ceremony, and she was enjoying her time in the spotlight.

Once again, another milestone, more tears (me), and the realization that I am becoming more and more like my mother. I just can't wait to read Jillian's and Janeva's blog when THEY become more like ME!!!!

Oh yeah.....Karma, embrace it, I say. 8-)

Janeva's First Sweater - Flashbacks

Last weekend I was going through old photos and came across some photos of Janeva and the very first sweater I ever knitted for her.

Of course it comes with a story.

Soon after the holidays back in 1998, I decided to try my hand at knitting again. Knitting something for Janeva made sense since she was the smallest person in the house at the time. So I bought a pattern and some yarn from a LYS and got re-introduced to knitting.

Of course I had to pick a Cable Knit sweater to start with. I picked a color that I just knew would look great on Janeva so I didn't have any worries about the color.

I plugged away and knitted on this sweater each night after work. Janeva would sit next to me on the couch and watch me intently and asked me questions.....she was 4, so she asked me questions about questions at that age!

I told her that I was knitting her something and she was even more interested. But as the sweater progressed, just a normal wave of stress hit our household. Thinking that knitting was a great stress buster I just continued on.

As with any knitting project, I was getting more and more excited as the sweater took shape. By the time I had sewn the sweater together and picked up the stitches around the neck I could hardly contain myself.

I finished the sweater at the end of February and was tickled to hear the weather reports of some particularly cold weather coming our way. FANTASTIC!!! I was going to finish the sweater and Janeva would beable to wear it just in time! I casted off the neck and sewed in the ends. Moment of truth. I told Janeva to get ready to try on her new sweater and with delight she came running over. I was HORRIFIED to discover that that somewhere around the time I was knitting the armholes, my gauge changed and I had started knitting tighter. So tight in fact, the neck of the sweater would not go past her forehead! BUT THE STITCHES LOOKED GREAT!!!

With great determination I was not going to let this sweater get the best of me. I ripped the entire sweater out, steamed the yarn, rolled it back into 10 neat little balls and started over.

I finally finished the sweater in JULY. No weather reports of cooler weather in the forecast. I still presented the sweater to Janeva.



Janeva delighted in telling me how proud of me she was was excited to model it for camera.



After the photo shoot Janeva gave me a big hug and a kiss, then handed the sweater back to me and said "This color is YUCKY!".

This was the only day I could get her to wear this sweater. Yet I still love this child very much.

The Passenger - A Test in Motherly Love

So, on Wednesday, April 30th, Jillian got her Learner's Permit. Because she is over 17 1/2 years old, the lady helping us at the DMV happily announced that Jillian wouldn't need to bother with the "Behind The Wheel" formal training. (she wasn't joking!)

This explains A LOT!! I'm driving on the California Highway to and from work having to concentrate on just surviving the other driver's around me. The roadways in California have to rank as one of the worst because of the numbers of unskilled drivers we have. Now I know why.

Jillian's dad paid for the formal instruction so we are making good use of it.


The flip side is she needs PRACTICE with a licensed driver (over the age of 25) with her.....I suppose that the idea behind this is that the licensed driver can instruct the new driver and help prevent him/her from getting into an accident. (My preferred method of risk mitigation is to just simply take the keys away from them!). I was hoping to pass this task over to Grant, who was a police officer with the traffic division in Australia. So Jillian ends up driving on the wrong side of the road....big deal...at least she will learn to signal and stay in her lane which is more than most of the drivers around here. Grant has thus far passed on riding in the suicide seat..... I mean ride as the licensed driver.

That leaves me. Mom. Mom who is high strung at the idea of my kids crossing the busy street at the ages of 17 and 14. I get to ride with Jillian while she practices. After calling the DMV and the Highway Patrol and their telling me that "No, you may not have medicinal alcohol to calm the nerves before the practice sessions nor be under the influence of mind altering medication either." I braced myself ...that's just GREAT...I have to do this stone sober and as I enter into my heart attack years. I couldn't be more or less ready.

So we go........

The first time Jillian sat in the driver's seat of my Chrysler Sebring Convertible, she looks at me beaming, I tell her to put her foot on the brake before she turns the key, she sweetly asks me this question......keep in mind, the look on her face gave no indication whatsoever that there was anything wrong with this question........"Mom, which pedal is the brake?"

Me: "HOLY MOTHER OF GAWD" (speed dialing the El Cajon police to see about a waiver on the whole drug/alcohol/impaired issue....FOR ME)

We discuss the pedals and the fact that if she hears me screaming, I'm expecting her to step on the big wide pedal to the left of the long skinny pedal. Jillian feeling ever confident turns the keys and we are off.

With the exception of her starts and stops and turning, she is actually doing better than I thought. We drove around the neighborhood (I don't like these people anyways) and then practiced in the parking lot of Holy Trinity Church. (I just needed to be closer to God at that moment). Jillian got the starts and stops down smoother. I won't even go into describing her attempts at parking. Other than to say we have a one car driveway and at the end of our session she pulled into the driveway and parked the car...ONLY ONE TIRE was actually ON the driveway. The sweetest part was she got out of the car and looked proudly at the car and didn't seem to wonder about the parking job.

I suddenly realized why the Pope kisses the ground after a flight. I think the poor man is flying with a student pilot!! I didn't actually kiss the ground but I did pause outside of the car and was thankful to be home.

Yesterday was a huge day for us!! Jillian had a hair appointment getting ready for her Senior Prom which was last night. I clearly was not in a lucid state at the time and apparently agreed to let Jillian drive us to her hair appointment. ON THE FREEWAY...MERGING into and out of traffic and everything. We arrived safely, but I was completely dripping in Flop Sweat. (Flop sweat is what I call it, when you see a performer on stage that has completely screwed up their performance and the look of horror on their face and the sweat is oozing out of every pore of their skin. THAT is a great description of me after riding with Jillian on the freeway!!!)

We have had some very sweet tender Mother/Daughter moments during these driving sessions. Like the time that Jillian sweetly said she feels like we are having great bonding time. I thought that I was seriously bonding to the seat of the car, but I like Jillian feeling closer to me. She also complimented me with "WOW Mom, you are doing great! You haven't yelled at me once this trip". She didn't realize it was because I wasn't breathing.

I remember when I was learning to drive, my mother would gasp for air and grab the door handle...flinching and gasping the entire time I was driving those first years. She would announce that there was a red light up ahead only for me to tell her that it was 4 blocks ahead! Tell me to slow down and to watch for pedestrians. (come to think about it, I'm the one gasping and grabbing the door handle when I ride with my mother now!)

I called my mother to tell her how I'm having to ride with Jillian. The woman laughed at me. As if this is some universal payback or something.

As bad as it is for me to see Jillian starting to drive, drifting further and further into independence and becoming her own person....it is absolutely shattering to me to discover that I'm turning into MY MOTHER.

Teenage Milestone - The Learner's Permit

Jillian passed the California Department of Motor Vehicles written driver's test.

My response: "OH CRAP!!!"

"Grant, pop the top off one of those wine coolers for me please!"

Summer Knits and Crochet

I have been staying busy starting and finishing some knitting projects, no surprise to those that know me. Right now I'm staying pretty busy with outfitting the girls, but I have a long list of projects in the works at the moment. I feel a push to finish some of these projects before starting new ones, so in the next few weeks I'll be posting updates on those projects and starting planning some new ones to start during the summer.

I finished the tank top I started for Janeva, from "Knitting loves Crochet" by Candi Jensen.....good thing too because I think the kid grew about 3 inches from the time I casted on, to the time I finished the bottom border!

The tank fits Janeva nicely and will look great with a pair of jeans.

The next project I am working on is The Hourglass Jacket from Stitch Diva Studios. I am using Silk Purse yarn with a variegated black and blue color way. It is turning out great thus far and I'm excited that Jillian is already loving it. This will be one of her Graduation presents. Unfortunately I needed to have her try it on to check the fit. This gave Jillian ammo to tease me over the fact that I can't keep a secret to save my life.



So far, the fit is good and this jacket is working up real quickly.

I can't believe both girls have graduations this June, with both their birthdays in between. I didn't plan for this 18 years ago, that's for sure!