I'm beginning to think that I am a bit strange when it comes to friendships. I wonder if there are other people like me in the world. I don't have friendships that go beyond a phone call or an email here or there. I don't have close friends that I do things with or enjoy "ladies night out" with. I don't feel the desire to go out and do things with people. The older I get, the more I just want to stay home with my family. Oh, each member of the family is usually doing their own thing, so it's not like we are doing things together when we are all home. It's just so much effort anymore to go out! The thing is - it doesn't bother me to not have close friendships. Is that weird?

We are not "spendy" people, so only go shopping when we need something. No weekend trips to the stores or mall here. So, I am basically home most of the week. But I don't mind it! It used to bug me, but the more I am home, the more I want to stay home. I've been thinking about what I want to do when the kids are both in college and I was really considering going back to school and getting training in something. However, my husband reminded me that I need to balance future pay with all of the expenses that often come with working. Plus, increased salary means more taxes. It just seems so easy to keep doing what I am doing, and that is being a homemaker.

I think that I've become really lazy in the past couple of years. My husband doesn't agree with me - he thinks that my physical/medical situation has caused me to change the things that I do. I DO try to avoid things that will add a lot of stress to my life. Just this year, I cut back on my hours working from home. Some weeks, I barely work at all. Another week may have me working 10 hours. I used to work as much as 30 hours/week. I'm missing the extra money, but I am a lot less stressed and believe that it is beneficial to my health right now to exchange a bigger paycheck for better health.

I just find myself not wanting to put much effort into anything beyond doing the minimum to get by. I keep the house clean and straightened up, the groceries bought and food on the table, the bills paid and I work on watching sales and other ways to save us money. But when given 2-4 free hours during the day, I find myself reading a book or surfing the net - instead of scrapbooking, crafting, spending time with a friend, etc. I know that if I HAD TO put time towards something, I would, but I am not putting any effort into going out and doing things.

I am not depressed - trust me. I went through a big depression in the fall and I've dealt with depression for almost 15 years. I know when I'm depressed. This is very different. Is this laziness or self-preservation? I just don't know . . .

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No snow in our area, but a cold, windy, rainy day today. So, my husband and I packed up a bunch of our books to trade at a nearby used bookstore. We actually took more than we could get in the 3 bins allowed each day, but ended up with $364 in trade!! That's our best haul yet! As an affiliate with Book CloseOuts, a lot of my books come to me free, so it's like turning free books into money! My husband likes audio books and so he stocked up on a bunch, I found some movies for our home collection and also a bunch of books by Philippa Gregory and a new release by Debbie Macomber for me. We still have almost $200 in trade and some more books to take back next time.

I always love the trip to the used bookstore. It is about an hour drive each way and my husband and I enjoy spending the afternoon together like this every other month or so. We took the long way home as he wanted to stop at a Bass Pro Shop in our area. It was a really cool store - HUGE with a small waterfall inside and a Starbucks, too! I had enough money left on a gift card to buy one last coffee. My husband does not fish, but we are thinking of buying a canoe someday and so we looked at what they had for sale their. I didn't realize canoes were fairly inexpensive! We live about 5 minutes from a boat drop area and have gone on a couple of free canoe trips offered by the state park. We really enjoyed it plus it was good exercise! Our 20th wedding anniversary is this June and we were talking about taking a long weekend away. However, I'd rather put that money towards a canoe that my husband and I could use many times over. So, we are looking into buying a canoe and all that goes with it for our anniversary. I'm excited!

I hope you are having a good weekend!

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Where to begin? So many thoughts in my head today. First, had a check-up with the FNP at the rheumatologist's office and she turned out to be someone that I know! I felt like she really listened to me. My whole body bone scan and wrist MRI were totally normal and she seemed a bit puzzled with that since I've been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in December. She and I talked about my joint discomfort, some treatments and such and I'm to see her again in 3 months. She suggested that I take up swimming again for exercise since it is so easy on the joints, even if all I do is walk back and forth through the water for an hour. Since I used to be a competitive swimmer, this is not a huge thing to ask of me and I'm thinking about "getting my feet wet" once again. It's just more inconvenient compared to popping in an exercise DVD downstairs. However, the upside is that it's a big calorie burner so I may just have to "dive into" this . . . oh my, I better quit with all of the puns! tee-hee

I've been enjoying learning more about Henry VIII and his wives. The Tudors on Showtime turned me on to this topic and I decided that this is going to be a subject that I tackle learning more about this year. I haven't been doing very well tackling my 41 things to do in 2010, but this takes care of #36! I am enjoying learning about this period in history - it's actually quite fascinating!

We are planning on visiting Washington, DC during the spring with the kids and have already booked our hotel. That is actually the most expensive part of the trip and we aren't even staying in DC! The trip is a bit pricey, but we decided to take our tax refund and put it towards the trip (instead of on the car loans as originally planned). We haven't had a big vacation in about 3 years and we have 2 places left on our list of "places to go with the kids before they graduate." DC is one of those places. I worked on our taxes all day yesterday and it looks like we'll be getting enough of a refund to pay for BOTH the vacation and towards our car loan. Yea! There are some new deductions this year which really helped us. It's so exciting when things work our better than planned.

It's been a good week so far. I've had a fairly easy work week and so have had time to focus on exercising, taking care of the house and such. I have a little too much time on my hands, but have not been able to get into the scrapbooking just yet. Ugh - I don't know what is wrong with me! I'm just getting behinder and behinder - ha!

I hope your week is going well so far! We're supposed to have 6 more weeks of winter, but I'm ok with that. I just hope it brings a little more snow to our area!

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My sister has just opened up her new beading blog called "Gotta Have Bling!" and, to celebrate her grand opening, she is giving away an item of the winner's choice valued up to $75!! You can read all of the details by clicking here. So far, she is offering ways to earn 22 entries into the drawing and she's going to be adding even more ways to earn more entries all this week.

She makes many items with her beads (you really need to scroll down her entire front page to see all that she can do!) - necklaces, earrings, bookmarks, keyrings, scissor markers and more. The bracelet pictured above is one that she made for me with beautiful lampwork beads and Swarovski crystals. I love this bracelet and feel so special when I wear it.

So, if you'd like a chance to win a $75 item of YOUR choice, be sure to visit "Gotta Have Bling!"  today!!

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The kids are home again today - "snow day" - and we are taking it easy. I got out a couple of my books that have things to do each month. I thoroughly enjoy my copy of Sarah Ban Breathnach's Mrs. Sharp's Traditions. The book is subtitled, "Reviving Victorian Family Celebrations of Comfort & Joy." The first entry in February discusses Candlemas Day which takes place on February 2. Here is what it says:

"For Victorian families, the second of February, or Candlemas Day, was the traditional ending of the holiday season, calling for the removal of every last trace of Christmas decorations. As well on this day, midway through the winter, it was customary for the lady of the house to make an inventory of the family's supply of candles to see if there were enough to last through the remaining dark nights. It was hoped that by this time one need not still get up by candlelight in the morning. However, if a family's supply of candles had begun to run low, this, then, was the day to replenish it."

Here are some ways that a modern family could celebrate Candlemas:

- Gather as many candles as you can find and light them thoughout the house the evening of February 2nd and refrain from using electric lighting so that the children get an idea of what it would have been like to live during the Victorian era. We are reminded to place the candles in front of mirrors to reflect more light in each room.

- Eat a candlelit dinner together 

- Read a story before bed together by candlelight

- Make beeswax candles by rolling a sheet of beeswax around a wick.

Here is some more info on the Christian tradition of Candlemas for my Christian readers, as written in Mrs. Sharp's Traditions:

"Candlemas Day was the day that the Holy Family visited the Temple in Jerusalem with the newborn Christ Child. A prophet named Simeon saw Jesus there and declared the baby to be the "light of the world." Hence, it became traditional to bless the liturgical candles that would be used throughout the year."

I love candles and am going to light up my house tomorrow night in celebration of Candlemas! I'll be sure to light some vanilla and berry-scented candles to make the house smell good as well. How about you?

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Jan Brett is one of my favorite children's authors. I was lucky enough to meet and speak with her at a book signing several years ago. She's a most gracious lady! If you sign up for her newsletter, you get emails like the following - with links to activities on her website that coincide with an upcoming holiday or the current season.

Here are several fun projects for Valentine's Day,  

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My hubby drove me out to Walgreens, CVS and KMart today so that I could take advantage of some of their good sales this week.

WALGREENS

1st transaction: Spent $10, earned $20 in Register Rewards

Buy 1 Bayer Contour Meter at $14.99, Get $10 Register Rewards
Use Up to $30 off Bayer Breeze 2 or Contour Meter from the 10/25 RedPlum insert
Free plus $10 in Register Rewards

Buy 1 Joint Juice 30-count pack at $10, Get $10 Register Rewards
Use Buy One, Get One Free printable coupon
Cost is $10 but I earned $10 in Register Rewards, so essentially these are free!

** Total retail value $123, so this equals a savings of 92%! I'll donate the glucose meter to a free clinic in the area. **

2nd transaction: Spent $3.45 after redeeming coupons and $20 in RR earned from first transaction, earned $13 in Register Rewards

Big Roll bathroom tissue $5.99
Glad trash bags $5.99 w/$1 in-store coupon

Buy 2 Advil Pain Relief at $4.49 each, Get $5 Register Rewards
Use both coupons in today's paper, $2 and $1

Buy 1 Blink Tears at $7.99, Get $7.99 Register Rewards
Use $1.50/1 Blink printable coupon

** Total retail value is $39.75, so again I saved almost 92%.  **

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CVS

Spent $1.31 out-of-pocket, earned $8.49 in ECBs

I had a $20 Extra Care Buck from a transaction two weeks ago. Here's what I got today:

Dove Men's Body Wash $5.49
Used $1.25 coupon from today's paper, earned $5.49 ECB

Dandruff  shampoo $4.99 (on sale from $6.29)

Ragu spaghetti sauce 3/$5.00, used 60¢ coupon from today's paper
Lipton Green tea 2/$5.00, used $1.10 in coupons from today's paper
Earned $3 ECB for $10 purchase above

Fillers: $1.99 Lay's potato chips (my hubby's favorite!)
Gatorade in a special bottle my hubby needs for 1/2 Marathon race in 2 weeks $1.79

** Total retail value 35.41, so I saved over 96% with this purchase! **

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KMART

They have 4 different bags of Hershey's chocolate on sale 2/$5. If you spend $10, you get a rebate form for $10 towards a future Hershey's candy purchase. So, that essentially makes the candy FREE!! There was a $1 coupon in today's paper, too. I bought the Reese's Pieces bags.

** My out-of-pocket was $9 and I'll earn $10 back. ** The rebate form seems to say that 4 offers can be redeemed per household, but I'm going to call and check on that. If so, I think I'll take advantage of this and stock up on Reese's Pieces for my hubby to bring home when I'm having a sugar craving! I love half-price candy and if I can do this 4 times, then I won't mind my candy cravings so much. LOL!

==============================

I also went through my grocery circulars writing down what is on sale this week. Then I created a menu plan for Feb 7-13 based on those sale items. I pulled out my cookbooks and found a couple of new recipes to try as well. I spent about $25 of my grocery money today, so I have $75 to spend this week. That's pretty average for me, so I'm still good!

I hope you find some ways to S-T-R-E-T-C-H your budget this week!

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Since one of my goals for February is to count the calories that I eat each day, I loved the article that was in my March Woman's Day magazine that arrived in the mail yesterday. Starting on page 107 is a sample 5-day "stay-full" meal plan of about 1,550 calories daily - 3 meals and 2 snacks (150 calories each). The neatest thing about this plan is that it contains menus that I would actually consider eating! LOL!

So many of the plans offered in magazines have foods and recipes that are just a little "out there." However, the Woman's Day plan even includes some splurge-type foods/snacks - for example, 10 pretzel twists dipped in 2 tsp Nutella hazelnut spread. Ok, 2 teaspoons is not a lot, but I thought the idea was neat. Another snack is 1 oz. cinnamon-brown sugar roasted almonds. One oz. is about 25 almonds, so that is a really yummy snack.

The only negative thing, for me, is that I have to try to translate the menus into something gluten-free. Some of those substitutions will be easier than others. I hope to get to the point where I just know that I'm eating a certain # of calories daily without actually having to write anything down. Bon appetit!

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