Coupons

I'm not awesome enough to be one of those extreme couponers.

I kind of wish I was.  I have some friends and family who are.

But I'm not. 

Nonetheless, I do appreciate coupons and doing as much as I can do to use them to save some money!  Lately, whenever I go shopping at most of the grocery stores I frequent, I manage to save 40 to 50%.  I consider that pretty darn good.

And right now, I'm also racking up the gas points with the Safeway grocery chain.  I got gas the other day for $3.08, and that was pretty darn awesome.

It's actually pretty fun for me to plan my shopping trips and see what coupons I have, trying to match up manufacturer's coupons with store coupons and special deals. 

And maybe that makes me a nerd...  But I'm okay with that.

Because coupons just make me happy :).

What are you grateful for today?

That I Can Drive a Stick-Shift

All my growing-up life, until 1997, my family only owned standard transmission vehicles. 

So when, at the age of 12, I convinced my mom I was old enough (and in my mind mature enough) to get behind the wheel of our van and practice driving in the empty church parking lot...  It was in a stick-shift.  So I guess you could say I got in my first car accident in a stick-shift (by not turning the steering wheel soon enough, and then -- in a fit of panic -- punching the gas instead of the brake, propelling the vehicle over the curb, nearly down a hill (with boulders at the bottom), and nearly into a tree.  And then my mom remembered the emergency brake.

My mom HATES this story.  I think we both learned the same lesson that day:  I was not old enough -- or mature enough.

But the time did eventually come when I was.  And my dad felt strongly that, though by that point we did have a vehicle with an automatic transmission, I needed to learn how to drive a stick-shift.  His theory was -- and still is:  If you can drive a stick-shift, you can drive anything.  And it's pretty true.

Because I could drive a stick-shift, I could drive the very first car my dad bought me:  a 1980 Ford Pinto.  He bought it cheap and then fixed it up inside so it looked really nice inside -- new seat covers, new carpet, new dashboard cover...  Because I could drive a stick-shift, I could drive a truck home from Georgia in the middle of the night on random back roads when the other driver was having a hard time staying awake.  Because I could drive a stick-shift, when my Buick died a couple years ago, I could drive my husband's 1988 Honda Civic to get myself to work every day until we found the vehicle we wanted (the van).  And because I can drive a stick-shift, I could go to my morning meeting at church today in the Civic and leave the van for my husband to bring our munchkin later on, rather than all of us being super early for church.  Plus, the Civic gets way better gas mileage. 

Of course, I'm not such a fan of a stick-shift in these Western Washington hills...  I mean, they are everywhere.  We live at the very top of a particularly steep one.  And since I don't drive a stick-shift very often, my skills are a bit rusty and I get nervous starting on a hill in the upward position...  I'm bound to kill the car at least once. 

But I'm still quite grateful that I can drive a stick-shift -- even in Western Washington.  Because, in a pinch, or even for convenience, it sure does come in handy!

What are you grateful for today?

My Memory and Memories

One of my (many) projects this year is completing the Monday Meals cookbooks.  I've been talking about them for 3 years now.

To accomplish this goal, I spent time this last week trying to order all the pictures I hadn't ordered up to that point.  And then I discovered I was missing almost a year of my life in pictures.  I checked all my picture discs...  I checked my computer...  And nowhere.  Nowhere could I find the pictures from June 2011 to April 2012. 

I was horrified.  Distraught.  Frustrated.  And, quite frankly, upset with myself.  How could I be so careless as to erase pictures from my memory card without making sure I'd backed them up to disc???

True, I could piece together some stuff from facebook (like all the food pictures).  But what about all of the other pictures I'd never posted anywhere else? 

Here's the thing:  pictures are something I horde.  Because they help me remember moments of my past.  They jog my memory. 

Many people have told me I have a pretty good memory.  A freakish one is how it's been described at times.  And I'm so grateful for it.

No, I can't tell you the exact date World War II ended.  And I can't tell you the major exports of a given country I probably had to learn about in 7th grade.

But I can tell you when you may have owned a particular vehicle or gotten in a car accident... Or what movies we saw the summer of 1999... if I happened to know you then.

It kind of reminds me of this poem I memorized for an assignment (in 5th grade for Mrs. Sprague's class, if you really wanted to know).  It is called Memory, and I loved it.  (I don't know who wrote it, or if that person is anonymous.  I think it was anonymous.)

My mind lets go a thousand things
Like dates of wars, and deaths of kings.
And yet recalls the very hour -
'Twas noon by yonder village tower.
And on that last blue moon in May,
The wind came briskly up this way,
Crisping the book beside the road
Then, pausing here, set down its load
Of pine scents and shook listlessly
Two petals from that wild rose tree.

That's kind of how my memory is.  If it was significant to my life -- or yours -- I can generally remember it, and roughly when it happened.

And sometimes, I rely on pictures to help jog those memories.  To help me pinpoint a moment in time. 

True, there are memories I have which will never require a picture to help me remember.  Like the day my daughter was born.  Or the day I got married.

But there are still those memories I fear would fade without pictures or something to spark that memory.  (I used to also horde memorabilia.  Like a questionnaire I took in 4th or 5th grade in which I claimed that, if I could have someone famous visit my class, my top 3 choices would be Debbie Gibson, Rod Stewart, and -- no joke -- Jane Fonda.  My number one choice.)

I'm not saying I live in the past.  But I do like to remember it.  The happy moments that make me smile.  I'm grateful for my memories.  And my memory.  One of the things that seems horrible to me about aging -- and it happens more with some than with others -- is the loss of those memories, especially through Alzheimer's.  It seems a horrible thing to me to lose my memories.  Where even a picture won't help me remember.  I've been promised that my mind and intellect will always be healthy and bright.  And I hope I live worthy of receiving that promise.

Of course I do believe that we'll have it all restored to us in the eternities.  And for that, I'm also grateful.

Because my memories are a part of me.  The events of my past have shaped me.  And I'm grateful my memory is a good one -- to help me remember the moments of life that make life grand.

P.S...  With the help of my husband... We found the pictures.  And I am ever so grateful for that too.

What are you grateful for today?

The Walker/Push-Behind

We received this walker at Christmas-time for our little munchkin from a wonderful family at church.

And Baby Girl loves it!

She wasn't so fond of it as a walker...  Even after she figured out she could walk in it, it wasn't her favorite.  I think it was being contained that bothered her.

But now that she's more stable and can walk with it -- pushing it...  Well, she is entertained for a long time. 

Initially, she kept running it in to everything -- the curio cabinet, the couch, the wall...  And we'd constantly be going over to fix her (she hasn't totally grasped backing up).  Then my husband had the genius idea of locking one of the wheels.  And now she goes in circles.  And everyone is happy. 

She laughs and has a great time, because she's walking.

We don't have to stop what we're doing to unstick her as often (though she has gotten quite good at managing to get it moving in other directions, not just circles, even with the one locked wheel!).

And on days like yesterday when I feel really yucky...  Well, she's content to go around and around and around...  And I can chill on the couch.

It's pretty much a win-win-win!  And it's helping her develop her walking skills.  So watch out world!  It won't be long now!

Yeah, we're really grateful for this walker, really grateful to the kind people who gave it to us.

What are you grateful for today?

Prune Juice

This week brought another Mommy-first for me:  constipation. 

From one extreme to the other! 

And I came to understand how painful it is to watch my child suffer through pain, knowing there is very little I can do about it.  Sure, she's fallen and bonked her head and cried.  And that's sad.  But the pain has already been inflicted and is past.  With Baby Girl's experience on Tuesday, I watched her struggle through the pain... 3 times.  And then 2 more times yesterday.

And I actually started crying that first time.

Of course, I don't play around with this...  I went and bought prune juice on Tuesday afternoon.  After all, it was one of the very few things I could do.  I think it's slightly sad that prune juice is the first juice my sweet girl has gotten to experience, even if it was seriously diluted with water...  But I'm incredibly grateful that it exists and that someone in the past figured out that it's a great laxative-type thing. 

Because I'm happy to report things are back to regular...  And that there were no tears twice today :).

Prune juice, I salute you!  Even if I would never drink you by choice.

What are you grateful for today?

Eyes to See

The other day, as our little family drove to church, I noticed again the beauties of the blooming and flowering trees. 

At a stop-light at the bottom of our hill, there are many such trees, and I have always enjoyed driving that stretch in the Spring. 

Sunday happened to be a particularly beautiful day.  The sky was a lovely shade of blue, and those pale pink flowers just stood out against the sky.  And I told my husband I wished I had brought my camera with me.

Apparently he'd recently had a conversation about exposures and such with a friend of ours who is a professional videographer.  And apparently, for pictures such as I was thinking of, a photographer will often take two pictures to change the exposure and then blend them together as one.  By so doing, the sky and the flowers will both pop, whereas under normal circumstances, one would lose the awesomeness in the picture. 

Don't know if that makes sense -- and I'm certainly not using real photographer terminology, because I"m not a real photographer!  But I understood what my husband was saying, and so I told him, "It's amazing what our eyes can do...  We can capture all the beauty at once, but a camera -- no matter how sophisticated -- really can't.  It takes a little doctoring.

And I've seen that many times.  Many times I've tried to capture a beautiful rainbow or a lovely sunset.  My eyes marvel at the sight of what I'm seeing, and yet I can never get a picture which does the view justice.  Not that I am some spectacular picture-taker... I'm not.  I'm more of the point-and-shoot variety.  But nonetheless, I have been amazed at the detail and beauty my eye can take in, but my camera simply can't seem to capture.

What a miracle.  What a marvel!

My eyes aren't perfect.  I have worn glasses and/or contacts since 3rd grade.  But I can see, even if not clearly sans assistance.  I know there are many who either have not been blessed with the opportunity to see in this life -- and many others who once had the ability and lost it for some reason or another.  It is hard to imagine not being able to see. 

Of course, I know those who cannot see have amazing abilities in their other sense.  We had a blind cat who was born without eyes (they never developed).  And that cat was amazing in her ability to do lots of things -- like walk unobstructed through the house... or let you know when there was a gnat or something flitting about.  I can only assume the same is true for humans -- that their other senses become magnified that much more. 

But I am grateful I do have eyes that see.  Whether it's for enjoying the beauties of the outdoors, reading a book, watching a movie, marveling at my baby girl, driving a car, or writing this blog...  My eyes serve me immensely on a daily basis.  They have helped me store away images in my mind that make me smile.  And I'm grateful for this blessing of eyes that see.

What are you grateful for today?

Re-Usable Grocery Bags

I seriously love them!  I used to balk at the possibility that we would be forced to have those bags. 

And honestly, I still don't agree with being forced. 

But once I realized how sturdy they are -- and how they pack more items inside of them, making fewer bags to lug into the house -- I can't understand why everyone doesn't want to use them!

True, I sometimes forget them in the van when I go into the store (making me wonder what the point of having them is...).  But I'm getting better at remembering :). 

Of course, it's even worse when I remember to take them in and then forget to hand them to the cashier, resulting in plastic anyway.

Anyway, they make my life easier when I go to the grocery store.  So I'm definitely grateful for them, even if they are a small thing!

And they're good for the environment ;).

What are you grateful for today?