The recession has hit my house

If you know me well enough then you know that I can't stand when people blame the recession for everything that has gone wrong in their life. I have dealt with the rising prices of food, gas and well EVERYTHING else in the best way I can. I use coupons, shop sales, cut back on non-essentials and even re-purpose some items. Now I am totally offended that when I do laundry (usually 4 loads at a time, twice a week) that I can't find even a nickel! Man, back about 2 years ago I always got a minimum of $5 and sometimes $10. It was nice little lunch money or pocket change. Now I feel cheated. I get empty gum wrappers and lint. Like I said, the recession has hit my house, not cool :(

The Green moms are gonna get me!

Seriously, real talk...I have been trying to get down with the being "green" thing. While I am already a big recycler and reuser of a lot of things, there are just some things I can't get down with. First off I went and purchased one of those organic and natural kitchen sponges. I got a great price for it so I figured it was worth a shot. Um, WRONG! I could not get the darn thing to make my dish soap lather so this made me waste detergent. After the first use it felt icky and slimy. I thought maybe because it was the first use that it just had to get broken in. Nope. Stayed that way for 2 weeks and made it into the trash can in a hurry! Also I tried to use recycled aluminum foil. Seriously, you get charged more for a cheap product? I was so disappointed in the quality.

One great thing though is my paper plates and bowls. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them and will not trade them EVER. Sorry greenies, maybe one of the big brands will come out with a green version. Until then I will stick to most of my traditional methods that work!

What ever happened to bar soap?

My father-in-law sent me shopping the other day for bar soap. His one request is he did not want common, everyday Irish Spring or Lever 2000 (aka Man Soap as Dwayne calls it). The FIL prefers his soap to come from Bath & Bodyworks or a boutique type shoppe. He used to buy his soap through Avon and they discontinued it about 2 years ago. I went to Bath & Bodyworks and they only had the "high dollar" variety and they too discontinued the glycerin soaps bars. I searched a few more stores and it was the same story. No bar soap. I finally found some at World Market. I did not realize that specialty soap would be that hard to find! I think we will stick with the normal, affordable and easy-to-find stuff in our home! Personally I think bodywash is way better.

Getting things together

This is going to be one of those very random posts so here I go... First of all I have made a decision to deactivate my Facebook account for at least a week. Most people are in shock and wonder why. It's simply for me to take a little more time to focus on everyday tasks as well as work on some things that I have neglected. I am assisting Dwayne with his business and I need to get a good sense of organization and planning. My office is in shambles so obviously I need to get cracking on that ASAP.

My toddler son is curious and very fast. I can't take my eye off of him for even a minute. He found a glass that way left out that contained a little bit of leftover adult beverage and thankfully it spilled before he could take a sip. That was a bit of an eye opener that once again organization is needed.

With Christmas on it's way I have all these lavish plans to bake bake bake. I plan to do just that. I had to come up with a good teacher gift idea for over 12 teachers that would not break the bank account. I decided on making some mini lemon pound cakes and presenting them nicely wrapped in cellophane and fancy tissue paper. I might even go the extra step of printing out homemade gift tags with the recipe attached. I will post photos once I complete them so you can see how they turned out. I might just post the recipe as well.

The biggest thing I want to do is take time daily to stop and smell the roses. Life is not as complicated as we make it. Simple is good :)

Ismail Family Tree

Here is our tree! I honestly think it looks a lot better in person. We went with blue, gold and chocolate.

I even made little gift packages as decorations.

We put together a very simple garland for the fireplace.

If you celebrate the holiday season have you put your tree up yet?

House projects suck

Well I was hoping to have something nice to post but unfortunately it's not going to work out that way. We were planning to have a very relaxing and uncomplicated weekend. The biggest task we planned was to replace the threshold of our front door. When Dwayne removed the old one we found that we had rotten wood in a variety of places. This has made a 30 minute project turn into an all day event and will be continued tomorrow. I have been into the hardware store (I dare not say the name before I get reprimanded by the husband) three times today already. Looks like some pain relief meds will be in order for us tonight. This is one of those days I wished I lived in a fully maintained apartment! I chose not to post pictures cause it's just too ugly to show anyone. Hope everyone else is having a great weekend!

Need advice

Hello all, today I am pondering the idea of joining a wholesale club for household items and groceries. We are looking at stretching our dollars more in 2009 and my hubby complains that I make too many trips to the grocery store and yet we still run out of things. I guess my part of the discussion is I am afraid of wasting by purchasing in bulk and also is it really cheaper?? It seems like I can go to the grocery store and spend over $100 and within a couple days you wonder where the hell it all went. I am still not convinced about paying a membership fee to purchase larger quantities. This is where you all come in. I need help to decide if it is wise to do this. Since we live in a smaller city, the only wholesale club we have is Sams Club. If you are a member with them would you recommend a membership? I need any input I can get to make the final decision. Thanks in advance :)

It's Monday and I got ....NOTHING!

**Apologies ahead of time to you good parents that are big into saving the earth. I do care about the earth, I'm just human.**

I know this is an odd subject but I was wondering this: Do you use the kind of paper towels that are regular full-sized sheets or the select-a-size type sheets? I did a little test at home to see which ones would last longer. I have found that if I use a standard size roll it lasts about 3-4 days. The select-a-size roll lasts about 7-8 days. Most people don't like the select-a-size rolls but I LOVE them in my house. If we have the full-sized sheets I make the family rip it in half to begin with so they are used to the size (I know, cheap..oh well). I mean, why waste and entire sheet on something so tiny?



Which paper towels do you prefer full-size or select-a-size?



*I told you it was Monday and I had nothing!