I actually landed this job because I would send out emails ranting about the debt that Americans were in and how we were spending more money than we were making. 

The average American spends more money than they make. When will this stop? It is going to catch up with us at some time or another.

I wrote that statement three years ago.  Indeed, it has caught up with us.  We are in a mess right now, mostly due to overspending and people borrowing money.  Trust me, I’ve learned my lessons along the way too.

Blogging has been a great experience for me.  It helped me to rediscover how much I enjoy to write.  Along the way, I’ve met some pretty amazing bloggers and readers.  Some great friendships have been formed.  I normally don’t like to toot my own horn (it’s just awkward), but here are some pretty neat things that have happened:

• I was interviewed on the nationally syndicated Cooper Lawrence Show several times.
• For a few months, I had a weekly Thrifty Mommy segment on the Cooper Lawrence Show each Thursday night.  Cooper would read some of my money saving tips.
• I was invited to attend a Pampers Mommy Blogging Event.  Last year, I flew to Ohio to tour the Pampers headquarters and meet with Pamper executives. I met some pretty cool blogging chicks too and learned about the good that Unicef is doing.
• I interviewed Teri Gault, founder of The Grocery Game and Michael Smith, chef on The Food Network.
• I was part of the opening act for the Clark Howard Show in North Carolina.  I’m a big Clark Howard fan, so this was a real treat.  I met Clark and at the event I spoke about saving money with coupons.
• I recently had my first article published.  I hope it won’t be the last!

Thanks everyone for reading my tips and encouraging me along the way.   I hope you’ll stick around and have some cake and read more of Thrifty Mommy.  

image sxc.hu

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I am no longer the stay-at-home mom I used to be.  My days used to be full of cleaning, laundry, paying bills, playing with my little one, and managing the household.  Now I’m in a full-time ministry position where I’m helping troubled youth.  Thankfully, our children get to hang out with us while we’re working. 

The first week of work has been very hard, with us putting in 16-17 hour days.  I’m told that things will get better and I know that they will.  Transitions just take time. 

By the way, I haven’t lived in Eastern NC in about 13 years.  I have forgotten what hurricane season is like.  Geesh!  I woke up several times last night to banging, loud rain, and winds.  We’re all safe though.

I hope that in the next few weeks my schedule will calm and that I’ll be “seeing” you more.  

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

1. Save your egg cartons for sorting small things. Children, even the older kids, love to sort. Add a set of tongs. This is great for developing motor skills in young children.

2. Play-doh! Play-doh is a very cheap way to keep your children busy. My oldest all the way down to my youngest love to play with play-doh. I always hear parents say, “It is too messy.” But if you throw down a plastic shower curtain, the mess is contained. Throw in some cookie cutters and a rolling pin or two and you have at least 1 hour of fun. And if you don’t want to buy it, there are several sources on the internet for making your own. There is even a recipe for a fruity play-doh.

3. All kids love to play in shaving cream. You can get a bottle of shaving cream for under $1 at the dollar store and you can have loads of fun. Also it gets your table shiny and clean.

4. You need a good set of building blocks (initially they cost a little more but are well worth the cost) and a cheap set of plastic animals. This is another activity that will keep your children busy for hours.

5. Lastly, a sand table (any kind of sturdy, shallow, plastic box with a lid will do). This is a great rainy day activity. Again, throw your plastic shower curtain down on the floor and let the kids dig, dig, dig. We like to hide dinosaur bones (broken cotton swabs) or small treasures (coins, nuts, bolts, etc.) in ours and pretend to be treasure hunters.

Next time your kids are driving you crazy and you feel like you are losing your mind, pull out these few suggestions and enjoy a little peace and quiet.

Tami is a former teacher. She is now a stay-at-home mom and has four children. She enjoys writing about their everyday life and the adventures that motherhood brings. You can find her at Muddlin’ Thru Motherhood.

Each hour today, we are blogging for charity.  Please consider making a donation to The Children’s Hunger Fund. 

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Then MSN started freezing up on me.  Next thing I knew, I couldn’t check my emails.  If it occasionally let me check my emails, then it wouldn’t let me respond or delete them.  I had to start using Internet Explorer to check my email through hotmail.  Booooooo!!!!!  I hate IE!!!! 

I admit, I am a MSN fan.  I can’t help it.  I love the way it organizes my emails, sorts my favorites, and especially the way it sends pictures.  They have a built-in picture editor with their email. I can size my pictures however I want them, take out the red eye, and crop them easily within an email.  I don’t have to use extra programs to do it.  I usually send myself pictures that I use for Thrifty Mommy so that I can size them down in my email and not have to fool with another program.  I even have friends that email their pictures to me so that I can edit them.  lol

You’d think I was getting some sort of kick back for writing this, but I’m not.  I actually have my internet service through a local cable provider.  We’ve had MSN for so long that I actually pay them a fee each year to keep their email services.

If all this wasn’t making me feel bad enough, this morning I get up to use IE and my Stumble Upon bar is gone!!!!  Something is not right in Karen’s Computer Land and it’s making me very sad!  I’m starting to feel thankful for my small cramped work space, just so long as my computer will work right.

A few weeks ago, my hubby uninstalled and reinstalled MSN on my computer because it was acting so weird.  Now, no Stumble Upon?  I have no idea what’s going on, but I don’t like it one bit.  I feel so out of sorts.  It’s like I’m in another state trying to get adjusted to their time zones.  The push to switch to Firefox may be what I need.

Does anyone out there have a clue what I should do?  I really want my computer back!

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

I don’t have a laptop and I don’t have room for a desk in my house. We have a small nook in the kitchen where the kitchen and living room meet, so we have put the computer on the floor, the monitor on top of a small filing cabinet, and the keyboard on a tv tray. There isn’t room for a comfortable roll around style office chair, so I use a dining table chair. I keep asking myself, ‘Why am I showing this?’.

Hopefully, one day I’ll be able to afford a laptop computer. I probably won’t be purchasing one anytime soon, because that would involve getting into debt. In the meantime, this unattractive system is working ok . . . well, other than the back pain from the chair. lol Now you see where I work from every day. I’m going to hide now.

images: Karen

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

This meme comes with the following requirements:

Give the meaning of your kids’ names, and write about what or how or why you gave the name to your kids. Tag five people to play along and leave a comment at their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

I’m not actually going to give you my kid’s names, but I’ll tell you some things about their names. First off, I’ll tell you that I’ve been a teacher for nearly 10 years. I’ve heard all sorts of names and unfortunately, some names are associated with certain children I’ve taught. Need I say more?  lol When naming my children I wanted something different.  I didn’t want a name from the top 50 most popular names.  When I was pregnant, my husband and I were having a hard time agreeing on names, so we decided that I would read the baby name book, make a list of names that I liked, and then he’d look through the names and circle the ones he liked. 

Alligator – This is my firstborn’s nickname. My dad gave her the nickname. He is the Crocodile.  Alligator’s real name was one of my favorites from the list of unusual names I had picked out.  It was also one of my mom’s favorites.  As a bonus, her name is a combination of my MIL’s first and middle name.  Her first name means “oath of God”.  Her middle name is also my middle name and it means “born again”.   I’ve received lots of compliments on her name.

Cuddlebug – When he was a baby, we would call him Tigger because he would sit in his exersaucer and Johnny Jumper and he would bounce up and down repeatedly.  He was so loud while jumping in the exersaucer.  lol  Well, since he doesn’t seem to do much jumping anymore, I’ve started calling him Cuddlebug because he has always been a very affectionate child.  He loves to cuddle.  His real name was chosen by my husband.  He is named after a friend that we met at summer youth camp.  Our friend was the worship leader at camp for several years.  Now he has his own band and record label.  Cuddlebug’s first name means “hunter” or “pursuer of truth”.  His middle name is my deceased grandpa’s first name and also a form of my mom’s first name.  His middle name means “small” or “humble”.   I’ll also let you know that we didn’t know what his name was going to be until right before we left the hospital. They were actually waiting on us so that they could fill out of the papers.  I wanted to name him Micah, but Micah didn’t sound all that great with our last name.  To make a decision, we started asking people their opinion on the two names.  The women picked Micah and the men picked the name we gave him.  I decided since he was a guy, we’d go with the name the men picked.  And that’s the long story of his name. 

I have to tag 5 people, so I tag Kelly, Robyn, Judy, Char, and Julie. 

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