Entries from January 2010 ↓

Yep, you knew it. Taxes are one of them.

This year, I am not dreading them at all. For once. For the first time since becoming self-employed, we will be getting a refund rather than owing them. I could barely believe my eyes when I saw how much. Wow. I totally wasn’t expecting that amount. It will work out perfectly because we have been dreading this fall when my husband student teachers. Teaching requires one complete semester of student teaching. Student teaching = no pay check. Eek. With a family of 5 — double eek! With a family of 5 and a SAHM — triple  eek! While our plan has been to save every penny and for my dh to work his tail off this summer, we needed something more. This, to us, is a true God send.

I am using the Turbo Tax program again this year. We went to an accountant the first year and it was just so pricey. I love Turbo Tax. I sit at my kitchen table and do our taxes. It goes over every imaginable credit and deduction. It asks me all of the questions in a plain and simple way that even I can understand.

It took me about an hour the other day, and I am completely ready to file. I’m just waiting on one 1099 to arrive and I’ll be set. I’d definitely reccomend watching out for the program. Especially if you can get a sale on it!

For as long as we’ve been married, we’ve sponsored a child through Children International, a relief organization. We initially got a girl named Jessica, whom we sponsored for about 8 years. This past year she turned 18 and we were in our last year of sponsorship with her when we got a letter that she got married, thus being removed from the program. It made me feel rather melancholy to think that we would no longer have contact with her. We wrote her a nice letter and told her she would always been in our hearts and sent a few last photos and small tokens. A few weeks later, we got our next sponsored child, from the same community in Ecudor that Jessica was from. Her name is Elsa. Oh, how I wish that you could see Elsa! How I wish that I could meet Elsa! Just looking at her picture, you can see the sparkle that illuminates her dark brown eyes and the joy that dances over the smile with the missing front teeth. Elsa definitely rings a chord in my mother-heart. I was delighted that she was in our lives and our hearts were happy to take her in.

This time, the kids are old enough to understand more about Elsa than they did with Jessica. I decided to turn a new leaf and make her a family project. They reccomend that you don’t inundate your child with letters but write one every few months. So the first of every other month, we draw her some pictures, send her some stickers, etc. Of course we remember her in our prayers. And when we are feeling especially greedy, Elsa’s situation comes up. I wanted to go above and beyond though. Really involve the kids. So we decided that we wanted to send Elsa a special gift. Children International will use extra gifts sent to your child towards specific needs for their family. What they get depends on how much you donate. But they always get something that the family really, really needs. Such as a new cooking stove, a new roof, or new pots and pans. Those kinds of things. With Jessica, we always remembered her at Christmas, Birthdays, and others such holidays but we had never sent a (larger) special gift. Inspired, I decided that we were going to collect pennies for Elsa. The kids excitedly told their many grandparents and we also started collecting our own pennies in a glass jar. Cool-Whip containers, ziploc baggies, and coffee cans of coins (not just pennies) started pouring in. While I was very excited about the money, I have to admit that I was dreading the thought of wrapping it all. My mom let me borrow these handy little tubes that would fit exactly 50 pennies in, so you could wrap them without actually having to count the change, which saved us a lot of time. But she told us that she was in the market for once of these handy dandy coin sorters. (She sorts a lot of money seeing as how she is her church’s treasurer.) She said perhaps by next time, she would let us use one. I have to admit that I am hoping she does. While, it was a great learning lesson, wrapping all that money, it took us literally hours. OK, let’s be realistic here. It took ME hours. The kids gave up about 30 minutes into it. *heh* I told her that she should check out buy.com for a sale on the coin sorters. The one I found not only sorts coins from one another but it also keeps them in cool compartments that are the perfect amount for wrapping coins and it also keeps track of how much money is there! So handy!

So, here’s our gigantic pile of wrapped money:

$89….and counting!

Last week I found turkeys for .69 a pound. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I threw one of those suckers in the cart. Then later that night had second thoughts and went back for another! $9 for 13 pounds of meat!

 
 
I froze one of the turkeys and thawed the other in the fridge. Yesterday we had dinner. We rocked it like it was Thanksgiving but it was better because there was no stress! Turkey, potatoes, stuffing, peas…. We ate to our heart’s content. Then I packed up a container for my aunt, her son and his girlfriend. Then I proceeded to pick two more quart sized bags of meat off. This is my plan:

meal 1 - turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas

meal 2 - turkey gravy (with fresh chopped veggies in it) and biscuits. 
mpanadas (replacing the chicken with turkey as a bold move — we’ll see what happens).

So, anyway, I totally can’t believe that I was afraid of cooking turkeys just a few months ago. I had no idea what I was missing! Here’s the deal. I cook them in a roaster. My Grandmother-in-law told me it was one of the best ways. Plus you didn’t have to have your oven on for hours and hours. She is so right! About noon, I set the roaster to 350 and cooked that sucker until about 4:30 or so. It cooked evenly. It cooked nicely. It saved my oven to be free for the bread. It was delicious. And now I know what I want for Christmas (along with a GPS of course!). A Nesco Roaster, thank you very much.

I saw one on sale at the Super Store but my husband’s Grandma said “No way. They aren’t all created equally. You have to shop for a roaster.” Now I don’t know anything about roasters but I trust this woman. I’m saying she makes a mean Sunday dinner.

I am going to continue to watch buy.com’s sale page. They always offer such a wide array of items — who knows, maybe it will land there next!

Right before Christmas, we took the kids to a small hands-on Children’s Museum a couple of hours away from here. We actually were able to get in for free (score!). It was big enough to keep them entertained for a few hours and small enough that we were actually able to get all of the way through it. They had some really fun exhibits, like the construction zone one. Tons and tons of fun construction related stuff. A lot of was using real materials so the boys felt all important. Especially since they were using the things that Daddy uses everyday at work — conduit, plumbing pipes, clapboard siding, plastic knobs and screws, electrical wiring supplies, etc.

Fancy found what Fancy loves best: SHOES! Wooden shoes, even!

She donned a pair and then proceeded to wear them all over the museum for our entire visit. It was hilarious because wooden shoes do not bend, obviously, and they were too big for her. She had a heck of a time walking in them but would not give them up!

Here’s the truth: I’m addicted to The Bachelor. There have been seasons I skipped it but I’d wager to say I’ve watched the bulk of them. I watched Jillian on last year’s The Bachelorette and it was there I first laid eyes on him. Here’s the dirty truth: When I say I’m addicted to The Bachelor I mean it literally. Not the show, the Bachelor himself — Jake. He was so sweet, handsome and just plain nice that I hated to see him go. I could not get what Jillian was thinking! (Although it must have worked out since she is still with Ed.) So anyway, I was delighted to hear that Jake was coming back to be this year’s Bachelor and I knew I had to watch! I have been watching online, of course. And he would shoot me if he knew I was telling you this — my husband is watching with me! (He probably checks our windows to make sure none of the neighbors are peeking through their faux wood blinds at him before he sits down. Ha!) I think the only problem Jake might end up having is he is taking this so seriously. All of his eggs are in this basket. Maybe that’s how you have to approach this thing but I wouldn’t. I’m way too cynical for this type of show. I’m always happy to hear when it works out but I never really expect it to last. I hope I’m wrong this season though. Jake deserves to be happy.