This has been a day for motivation all the way round! This morning I watched a Dr. Mullen DVD and was motivated to do some work on emotional baggage.

In the afternoon I and some friends helped another friend settle into her new apartment. She is downsizing and has way too much stuff! I am motivated to downsize my stuff now...before I try and move to a smaller place!

Then, because I was tired, Paul and I were motivated to try a new restaurant for supper. It was supposed to have moderate serving sizes and be relatively cheap. We found it neither. Oh well...live and learn.

I heard about a ministry the church is involved in currently. We are knitting squares to sew together to make afghans to give to a street people ministry supported by our church. So I pulled out some yarn and started knitting my 8" square. I'm hoping to knit through some odd balls of yarn by the time we're finished.

And I was motivated to do something different with Bible study tonight. Last week's study was not stellar. The reading sections are just too long. Tonight we split them up so no one read more than one paragraph at a time. It worked great because we could stop at the end of each paragraph and discuss what we'd read. Much better!

I've also been motivated to sew these the past few weeks.


They are a leftover border from the experimental quilt I'm working on. I cut them into squares, bound the edges and voila! I've tested them in the kitchen on a hot cast iron fry pan. They work, even though they're only filled with cotton quilt batting. I also used them on our wood dining room table as hot pads under hot dishes. Worked fine. I'm thinking I may be able to sell them for a few bucks...or use them as gifts.

I've also been knitting dishcloths to use or sell. I have a huge ball of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton I'm working my way through.

I also was motivated to do spinning today. My assignment last week was to produce yarn less than 8 wraps per inch (wpi), 18-24 wpi, and then some 36+ wpi. Well I already had the 36+ wpi. My beginning yarn was 8 wpi, but the instructor wanted us to go back and try it again...to get used to controlling the drop spindle to achieve different weights of yarn. It was hard! Today I had to start the 18-24 wpi. I need it for class Wednesday. So call me motivated!

There's been some wild negotiations going on this weekend.  It's garage sale season!  I haven't been going to garage sales, but the remains are being posted on the Internet every day.  And I'm taking advantage of them.

Today I'm negotiating for a free quilt rack for the guest room we're going to have in the basement.

Saturday we bought an oak curio cabinet and two dressers off of Lisa (she was selling the dressers as a pair).  A friend wanted one of the dressers, so I took it to her place and exchanged it for a mountain bike for Paul.  Now he has a decent bike to ride in spring and fall!

I'm collecting up boxes from all over town to pack away Meghan's stuff to take down east to her later this year.

And I took the opportunity today to sort through some of our own bookcases to sell some stuff to the local used bookstore and on-line. 

I picked up the necessary supplies to refinish the dresser I kept from Lisa.

I'm busy trying to figure out how to arrange things in my house.  What rooms to use for what.  Paul has been helping me sort it out and is amazed at the functions I get a room to serve.  He determined my studio area actually serves seven different functions.  He was impressed.  I was left thinking "No wonder it's a mess!". 

So I'm off to look at various studio layouts on-line.  Have you guys seen this lady's website?  Lots of eye candy for me for awhile!  I may even get an ironing table/cutting table out of this...

Well I helped Meghan go through part of her Student Loans application form.  She was lamenting how she'd get no money, but it actually doesn't look bad.  She also found out she has a pension plan from a previous job that she can cash in on for money for university.  Hopefully Student Loans will give her enough to cover the rest.

I managed to set up my investment account on-line so I can view my portfolio whenever I want.  Had a good chat with my financial planner too. 

Figuring out Costa Rica trip.  We need to save $670/mth. for the trip between now and the end of January, if family finances pay all of it.  This isn't going to be as hard as it looks.  The Emergency Fund will be full by the end of August.  Then we can plow the $600/mth. going into that into the Costa Rica trip.  Plus, once we finished paying the credit cards, we'll have an extra $500 per month over that that could go towards the trip.  Paul is talking about a trip in the fall to visit parents.  Good idea.  It will probably cost us about $500. 

So really, not too bad.  Some of that money will be saved for Meghan's university costs too. So while it will be very tight, it is doable.  I'm still keeping in mind my offer to pay airfare out of the inheritance though.  It would really take a weight off our shoulders financially.  And it would free up money for Meghan's second semester at university.

Talked to the lady in charge of 'THE' craft show we were going to try and sell Meghan's cross-stitch at.  It is possible, but it would be very convoluted and not community building to negotiate the avenue for doing so.  So I've decided to not support that sale this year.  Instead we will be focusing on other sales.  I want something with less pressure and a broader scope.  That particular sale takes stitched items only.  I would like to be able to sell my knitting as well.  It would be nice to sell my quilting and rug hooking too.  And maybe some general sewing.

I decided to try and set the Celtic quilt up for machine quilting myself.  I have some machine quilting DVDs and started watching one today.  I've also had a class in this and completed several quilt tops in the past.  Just not one this big.  The process is the same as my other projects, it's just bigger.  One of the DVDs went on at length about quilting big quilts like this on a domestic machine.  So I'm going to try it. Now all I need to do is decide on quilting patterns.

I finished knitting a hat and continued working on the sock.  Finished the gusset and am knitting down the length of the foot now.  Almost done!

A couple books arrived for the church library.  I'm browsing them.  Some good ideas.  Randy Alcorn's "Money, Possessions and Eternity".  Also a book on combining your faith with your workday world..."The Monday Connection" by W. E. Diehl.  The latter is 15 years old, but still seems applicable. I'd like to run it past someone who works in the workforce though, not just little ol' stay-at-home me!

Meghan and I went for a walk to do errands today.  It was a good 2 hour long walk.  We accomplished a lot, and we had a good mother/daughter time as well.

Meghan and her boyfriend provided supper tonight.  We had leftovers for lunch.

So not a bad day frugally.  Some interesting twists and turns, but what's new?  I'm always learning...

Today I'm motivated to do a few things.  I actually slept till 7 a.m., when Paul woke me up with his rambling around the house.  The first time in ages I haven't woken up in the middle of the night.  

I have loads of free time between now and tonight, when I have a knitting group to attend.  I'm thinking I might do a little puttering around the house to pick up from the weekend.  I've already been for my massage.  I nailed a new area that was a problem.  Had a good chat with the massage therapist about my pain level seeming to be high these days compared to normal.  She is chalking it up to stress too.  She worked my lower back and arm, so I am feeling much better.  Though I was sternly told no more cleaning the church pews! Oh dear...

Meghan wants to go shopping today.  I notice she is up already.  We might start our errands this morning.  Will see what she feels like.  We both badly need some clothes.  I'm going to take some of my Christmas gift cards with us, so we can stop someplace for tea/coffee/snack.  Maybe a trip to a nearby cafe for lunch.  She might appreciate that.  She's been complaining about the food here recently. LOL  Gotta love the discriminating tastes of adult children living at home.

Other than that, I'm planning to work on her boyfriend's quilt.  Possibly some rug hooking.  We'll see.  The massage therapist thinks the computer, knitting and rug hooking might be aggravating my tendonitis.  Well really.  What am I supposed to do?  Sit here and do nothing?  On the other hand, I'll take it as a sign that perhaps I need to spend more time in prayer.  I don't think that's bad for tendonitis or my lower back!  Might fit in some baking today too.  Depends on the time crunch and Meghan.

So here's to a successful Monday!

Update:

Meghan decided to go shopping by herself.  I made a list of expensive stores to go pant shopping at, but, after prayer, decided to just check the clearance center and secondhand stores in town.  I just can't justify the amount of money I'm paying for things.  I know in some cases I'm getting good value, but let's face it...this is clothes shopping.  It will all be out of fashion this fall.  Why pay full price?

God is good!  I found a pair of linen pants at the clearance centre for $15 that I want to remake into capris using my "Copying Ready-to-wear" DVD I ordered the other day.  I just love this striped linen. 

I also found it was 50% off day at Value Village!  I picked up 3 pairs of pants: a lined linen pair, a lined lightweight woolen pair, and a light coloured pair of jeans.  I also picked up 4 tops: a silk blouse, 2 fine cotton blouses, and a nice green cardigan with short sleeves and a v-neck.  It will go well with my white t-shirts to wear with the brown linen pants.  Everything cost $24.

I brought everything home and measured and cut the pants off right away.  Tomorrow I'll serge edges and pin them up for hemming.

I also knit on my sweater while listening to some teaching CDs a friend loaned me.

I carpooled to knitting and worked on a dishcloth for charity.

I had leftovers for lunch, and made pork stir fry for supper.  I'm making white cake right now for snack with chocolate sauce for Paul.

Pork stir fry:  Slice 2 boneless pork chops (for enough stir fry for 3 people) and cut in small pieces.  Saute in peanut oil.  Julienne carrots, broccoli stalk and celery.  Add carrots to stir fry and cook about 5 minutes.  Also cut wedges of onion.  Then add celery and onions and broccoli stalks.  I also add some cabbage if I have it kicking around.  Add a can of pineapple tidbits (including juice), 1 tbsp. fish sauce, and some grated frozen gingerroot (I freeze the fresh root and then just grate what I need when I need it) - about 1 tbsp.  Finally add the broccoli spears just at the end.  Cook for 2-3 minutes and serve hot over freshly cooked rice.

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All in all a successful day.  I think I finally have a grip on myself about spending money.  It was good while it lasted, but I just can't spend my inheritance like that.  It goes against everything I've learned about frugality and getting along in life.  I guess I'll save it for 'a rainy day'.  I'm tired of shopping.  I really dislike it.  I prefer the creative end of things.  So rather than shop to buy a summer nightee, I think I'll sew one up from my stash of fabric.

Our printer's been acting up, so today I finally got motivated to fix it.  We had just replaced some ink cartridges.  But every time we tried to print, we got a dialog box saying we had two cartridges the same colour in the printer.  We didn't.  We've been struggling with this for days now...well, try weeks.  I just gave up printing anything.  Paul sometimes could figure a way around it, but other times the printer just wouldn't work. 

So today I phoned the place we bought the ink cartridges from.  Sure enough, they had a bum batch of cartridges awhile ago and thought they were all returned to the manufacturer...or so they said.  They missed one at least.  So Paul and I exchanged it for a new one when we were on errands on that side of town today.  Not bad.  No charge to fix it.  Means I'll be able to update my EAC course journal this week.  Great stuff!

I looked at Beth Dargis' de-clutter calendar and found I had already done most of the past week already.

 

~ Monday “Clear out old cosmetics”. Tuesday “Organize cosmetics”. I do not use cosmetics, so I did not have anything to toss or organize there.

 

~ Wednesday “Discard old medications”. I discard old medications every fall, so nothing to do there.

 

~ Thursday “Get rid of shampoos and products you aren't using”. I just changed my shampoo. We never have leftovers of this stuff hanging around. We finish the bottle and then bring in the new. We don't use other hair products, other than conditioner. Anything else people left here was tossed last summer when Meghan helped me de-clutter the bathroom.

 

~ Friday “De-clutter one bookshelf”. I've been de-cluttering books all summer and fall. I've de-cluttered over 20 boxes of books. And I just de-cluttered a shelf of Mom's psychology books and my cookbooks earlier this month. I'm begging off the de-cluttering of one shelf of books. I just need to stop and catch my breath in that department and see exactly what I have. I'm opting for looking at them and determining a reading plan.

 

~ Saturday “Do one closet shelf of a closet that doesn't shut.” All my closets shut, except the front entry closet, which has no doors. So I went through it and organized it. Tossed a few hats I no longer use. Wish Paul would get rid of some of his baseball caps. Some things are hard for men. Sigh. Found a bag of stuff from Paul's staff Christmas party cluttering up the entryway. Pulled out a windsock/banner that reads “welcome”. I think it's supposed to hang outdoors. For now it hangs inside the entryway, and the bag is gone! Picked up all the shoes. Paul is promising to vacuum the main floor today or Tuesday, when he's off work.

 

Because I felt like I was copping out on a lot of Beth's challenges this week, I devised a few of my own. I went to the Frugal Village Home Organization board and found their “New Year; New Home Challenge #2”. It was to clear up all the horizontal surfaces in the master bedroom. So I spent time doing that, and was glad I did. I found something I'd been looking for – Meghan's transcript and course descriptions for her university application! I have not ventured inside the drawers to de-clutter them yet. I'm somewhat afraid...

 

So while I work up the courage to go into the drawers, I also decided to sort through four boxes of cassette tapes. I pulled the ones I want to keep for sure. Now to get Paul to go through them. Then I'll take them out of the Rubbermaid boxes, which I want to keep, and then pass the cassettes onto a friend who has expressed an interest.

 

The one chore I'm stymied on is Sunday's “Try something new”. I decided the new thing I was going to do is work with Paul to create a picture file of things we want to do before we die.  In the end we made lists of things we'd like to do before we die and discussed them.  It was a very fruitful exercise.

Paul and I have been watching "Till Debt Us Do Part" together.  As a result we've had some good chats about finances right now.  We're re-evaluating everything.  I am setting up a series of financial goals or challenges for us for the New Year.  Basically, I'm pretending we're the lucky couple on "Till Debt Us Do Part", and I can just hear what Gail would have to say to us when we behave a certain way!!! 

Paul is laughing.  I am so thankful God gave me a husband with a good sense of humour.   This morning he took me up and showed me how to enter money spent into Quicken.  So far, so good...  I also want to learn to set up accounts in Quicken.  I have an older version on my computer.  Hopefully today he can show me how to set up accounts for a business...another January challenge.

Other than finances, we are finally prepared for the Christmas season.  Meghan helped with the Christmas baking.  We ended up baking 3 times!  The first batch went as gifts. The second batch we ate. The third batch went as gifts and the leftovers are sitting untouched for the next week.

I had a friend pray for healing for me over my cold.  I could feel the sore throat reverse and come up my throat and out my mouth when I thanked her afterwards.  I just couldn't believe it!  I so believe prayer works.  But, just to be sure (!!!), I made sure to have some decaffeinated green tea with honey and echinacaea.  But, ever since she prayed over me, I've had no recurrence of symptoms.  I am so happy.  I sang just fine yesterday morning.

With feeling better, I was able to do some prep work for Christmas yesterday.  I made our Christmas Eve tortiere and put it in the fridge.  Put together a saskatoon pie for Christmas Day and popped it in the freezer.  I'm all set!  All the presents are wrapped and under the tree...except the Santa ones. 

I phoned my older lady friends and made sure all of them were taken care of before settling our Christmas plans.  We had Meghan's boyfriend over last night for supper.  He's a good kid.  He finally let us know his plans.  We'll have an extra body for Christmas Day dinner.  That will be fine.

I had a wonderful Christmas card sent to me via email.  Check out Andies Isle and scroll down to "The First Christmas Gift".  It's really beautiful.  One thing about Jesus as a gift...he doesn't wear out and he doesn't need batteries!

I will not be posting the rest of today or tomorrow, so Merry Christmas everyone!