I think the first thing to do as I try to figure out what direction I'm taking with this is to haul out my list of long term goals and take a good, hard look at them. Right now they just sit there in that sidebar, mocking me. Am I still interested in them? Am I still working towards them? Is there something else that should be on that list? In other words, is this still a goal, or not?
So that leaves me with 4 out of my 10 goals that I can use or rework. I'm going to add one more now that will take me up to 5 goals and then I'll rework all my microgoals.
1. Become fluent in Hebrew.
2. Grow lavender.
3. Find a way to partner with others to develop a kosher wine business, including the possibility of fruit wines.
4. Get totally out of debt and stay there!
5. Develop at least two alternative income streams (in addition to my current employment) and use the money I make to accomplish my other goals, starting with getting out of debt.
So, my microgoals are the small steps I will be taking *now* in order to move ahead with each goal.
1. Go back to Rosetta Stone and figure out how to log in again.
My Dear Child and I wanted to get ahead in Hebrew, so I bought the Rosetta Stone course a few months ago when it was on sale. We tried it a few times and then got really busy. Now I don't remember our log in. If I can't figure it out, I'm sure there's a way to reset it.
2. Go to a few gardening centres (like Home Depot, Art Knapp's, etc.) and look at lavender plants. Only buy if I find the types of lavender I'm looking for.
3. Get together with someone who expressed interest in this project.
Maybe meet for coffee and discuss the project? This person suggested another mutual friend and perhaps that would be the first thing for us to follow up on.
4. Stay current on the regular bills, paying things every payday.
5. Go to the start up meeting for 31 Canada in BC on April 7 and enroll that night. Do as much pre-planning as possible ahead of time so I can start strong.
Not bad. I think I can live with these goals for now. The underlying theme behind these goals is happiness, something I would like to expand upon soon. For now, I think I'll just finish getting this post up and editing the sidebar. It is after 2 am, after all.
Showing posts with label wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wine. Show all posts
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Racing to the Next Holiday
Yom Kippur is over and Sukkot is on the way! Okay, a fast day isn't generally very expensive but Rosh Hashana was and Sukkot will be too.
At least we have our very own top quality 8 x 10 foot sukkah. It cost us about $800 three years ago and should last us for at least 20 years. We've had at least 4 or 5 sukkahs over the years and none has lasted more than 5 years (some less, or had to have major parts replaced within a year or 2). This is the first nylon body on a metal frame kind though. The others have been wood based with plywood, 2 x 4s, lattice, clear tarps, etc. I'm sure I've spent more than $800 total on all the previous incarnations.
So we have the sukkah (and it comes with a bamboo mat skach or roof covering). We do need to buy longer 2 x 4s this year to go across the top. The ones we bought in the Okanagan a couple of years ago were just a few inches too short to fit in the holders that go on top and we've had to lay them creatively (on the diagonal, etc.) in order for them to hold the skach up but we've also had them crash down in a wind or while unrolling the skach and have a couple of serious chunks out of our big table as a result. At least we didn't have chunks out of anybody's head! This year we'll get 10' ones to lay across the 8' sides, so they'll extend nicely.
What else do we need? More wine! I still have some of the wine I bought before Rosh Hashana, but I think we need a couple more bottles. And food. We want to have another family dinner, since we're staying in town this year, and that means feeding 14 people again. Even if I go for veggie lasagne, it'll probably cost at least $30. It's a lot cheaper than brisket though! And at least a bottle of Crown Royal. Plus there are 4 holiday days (8 meals), not just one big family one. I have to have what to serve for those other meals too. Plus the everyday food needs to be warm, stick to your ribs type stuff as the weather is getting colder and we only eat in the sukkah (yes, even when it rains!).
If the weather is decent tomorrow, we'll try to put the sukkah up except for the skach. I don't know though; it rained today. It has to be fully up by Friday at the latest because the holiday starts Friday at sundown. Oh yes, and we need a table too as our usual one is sitting in my dining room in the Okanagan! My Eldest Daughter said there was one at her work we could probably borrow. We have to check that out. And chairs. Damn, I should have brought the folding chairs when I brought the sukkah. Again, we have 6 of them at the other house! And the electric heater is there too along with the outdoor timer. Sigh. I brought the little LED light string though...
I've ordered our Lulav and Etrog and it will be in sometime this week. I don't know what else I need, but I'm sure I've forgotten some other things!
It's late and I have to get up early to get people to work and school, so I'm just going to go. If you don't know what a sukkah is or about the holiday of Sukkot, check the labels for all the previous posts about Sukkot. I know I had links there. I'm just too brain-dead post fast to look them all up again right now and I really should be trying to get to sleep.
At least we have our very own top quality 8 x 10 foot sukkah. It cost us about $800 three years ago and should last us for at least 20 years. We've had at least 4 or 5 sukkahs over the years and none has lasted more than 5 years (some less, or had to have major parts replaced within a year or 2). This is the first nylon body on a metal frame kind though. The others have been wood based with plywood, 2 x 4s, lattice, clear tarps, etc. I'm sure I've spent more than $800 total on all the previous incarnations.
So we have the sukkah (and it comes with a bamboo mat skach or roof covering). We do need to buy longer 2 x 4s this year to go across the top. The ones we bought in the Okanagan a couple of years ago were just a few inches too short to fit in the holders that go on top and we've had to lay them creatively (on the diagonal, etc.) in order for them to hold the skach up but we've also had them crash down in a wind or while unrolling the skach and have a couple of serious chunks out of our big table as a result. At least we didn't have chunks out of anybody's head! This year we'll get 10' ones to lay across the 8' sides, so they'll extend nicely.
What else do we need? More wine! I still have some of the wine I bought before Rosh Hashana, but I think we need a couple more bottles. And food. We want to have another family dinner, since we're staying in town this year, and that means feeding 14 people again. Even if I go for veggie lasagne, it'll probably cost at least $30. It's a lot cheaper than brisket though! And at least a bottle of Crown Royal. Plus there are 4 holiday days (8 meals), not just one big family one. I have to have what to serve for those other meals too. Plus the everyday food needs to be warm, stick to your ribs type stuff as the weather is getting colder and we only eat in the sukkah (yes, even when it rains!).
If the weather is decent tomorrow, we'll try to put the sukkah up except for the skach. I don't know though; it rained today. It has to be fully up by Friday at the latest because the holiday starts Friday at sundown. Oh yes, and we need a table too as our usual one is sitting in my dining room in the Okanagan! My Eldest Daughter said there was one at her work we could probably borrow. We have to check that out. And chairs. Damn, I should have brought the folding chairs when I brought the sukkah. Again, we have 6 of them at the other house! And the electric heater is there too along with the outdoor timer. Sigh. I brought the little LED light string though...
I've ordered our Lulav and Etrog and it will be in sometime this week. I don't know what else I need, but I'm sure I've forgotten some other things!
It's late and I have to get up early to get people to work and school, so I'm just going to go. If you don't know what a sukkah is or about the holiday of Sukkot, check the labels for all the previous posts about Sukkot. I know I had links there. I'm just too brain-dead post fast to look them all up again right now and I really should be trying to get to sleep.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Payday and Rosh Hashana are Coming
I should be in bed. It's technically Wednesday already because it's so late, but here I am reading blogs and writing a post.
I went to physio this morning and feel better now after all that physical work and driving on Sunday. I still haven't done the first thing about Rosh Hashana and the meal I'm supposed to be having for 13 or 14 family members. My paycheque will be in the bank in the morning and I'll have to do the shopping tomorrow afternoon, preferably after my Eldest Daughter gets off work and can have the little girls. I find grocery shopping with all of them traumatic enough at Safeway. The thought of having them running around the deli while I pick out salmon and a brisket is enough to give me an anxiety attack.
We're also kind of celebrating Hubby's birthday, which we would have done last weekend if a) I hadn't been away and b) it hadn't been a week before a big family dinner anyway. He said he'd like to have steak but realized it was unrealistic (at about $16 per steak, I'd say so!) and we settled on brisket instead. At least a small brisket shouldn't set me back more than $60 or $70. That's pretty insane but still better than $200 or more for steak for over a dozen people. We'll have the simanim too, of course, but I have to think about side dishes as well. At least I have the wine on hand, including 2 bottles of sparkling Moscato wine (all the better to toast the New Year and Hubby's milestone birthday with). And I have to bake a cake. And come up with a parve frosting, since all the readymade ones are dairy.
Plus, did I ever mention that one of my upper kitchen cabinets fell apart some time ago? Hubby opened the cupboard door and the door and side of the cabinet as well as the bottom fell apart in his hands! As a result, my kitchen is more cluttered than usual. I have cans and packages stacked on the already too-small meat counter and more items in a box on the kitchen floor. Given the timeline we've had for our bathroom reno, I'm not holding my breath for getting the kitchen done any time soon. For one thing, if I put in one cabinet (I'm going for IKEA) then I have to replace the other 2 cabinets beside the ruined one that are still holding together but are that super-ugly 1980's almond melamine with an oak strip at the top. All in all, it will be about $500 for 4 cupboards (adding one over the fridge to hold all the cereal and other breakfast treats) and about $80 for a new range hood.
No, that's not happening before Rosh Hashana. But that means I have a mess out that I can't really put away. We'll have to see how it all works out. I could stay up all night, figuring out what to buy but I should probably just post this now and go to bed.
I went to physio this morning and feel better now after all that physical work and driving on Sunday. I still haven't done the first thing about Rosh Hashana and the meal I'm supposed to be having for 13 or 14 family members. My paycheque will be in the bank in the morning and I'll have to do the shopping tomorrow afternoon, preferably after my Eldest Daughter gets off work and can have the little girls. I find grocery shopping with all of them traumatic enough at Safeway. The thought of having them running around the deli while I pick out salmon and a brisket is enough to give me an anxiety attack.
We're also kind of celebrating Hubby's birthday, which we would have done last weekend if a) I hadn't been away and b) it hadn't been a week before a big family dinner anyway. He said he'd like to have steak but realized it was unrealistic (at about $16 per steak, I'd say so!) and we settled on brisket instead. At least a small brisket shouldn't set me back more than $60 or $70. That's pretty insane but still better than $200 or more for steak for over a dozen people. We'll have the simanim too, of course, but I have to think about side dishes as well. At least I have the wine on hand, including 2 bottles of sparkling Moscato wine (all the better to toast the New Year and Hubby's milestone birthday with). And I have to bake a cake. And come up with a parve frosting, since all the readymade ones are dairy.
Plus, did I ever mention that one of my upper kitchen cabinets fell apart some time ago? Hubby opened the cupboard door and the door and side of the cabinet as well as the bottom fell apart in his hands! As a result, my kitchen is more cluttered than usual. I have cans and packages stacked on the already too-small meat counter and more items in a box on the kitchen floor. Given the timeline we've had for our bathroom reno, I'm not holding my breath for getting the kitchen done any time soon. For one thing, if I put in one cabinet (I'm going for IKEA) then I have to replace the other 2 cabinets beside the ruined one that are still holding together but are that super-ugly 1980's almond melamine with an oak strip at the top. All in all, it will be about $500 for 4 cupboards (adding one over the fridge to hold all the cereal and other breakfast treats) and about $80 for a new range hood.
No, that's not happening before Rosh Hashana. But that means I have a mess out that I can't really put away. We'll have to see how it all works out. I could stay up all night, figuring out what to buy but I should probably just post this now and go to bed.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Slowly Getting Back to Normal
Well, Pesach is over. I'm not turning the kitchen back until after Shabbos though. It's just too much work. Especially when we have to go to our paid employment tomorrow morning. Dear Child is still off school and could stay home with her brother-in-law and the girls but has voted to go to work with Abba [Daddy] for the day instead. I'm going to leave work an hour early and pick her up on the way to go get Dog!
It has been a very expensive time, as it is every year, and I'm going to have to sit down and figure it all out sooner or later. Last year was the first time I put my notes, menus, shopping lists, etc. onto the computer and I'm planning to update all of this year's stuff with how it went very soon (before I forget). What got wasted? What went over like a lead balloon? What was finished off way too early? What did DC like last year but not this year or vice versa?
Right off the top, we did much better this year with getting the right amount of matzo. I've got about 1 lb. left, mostly broken up pieces. We have 4 bottles of grape juice out of six but that's not a problem because they were a couple of bucks per bottle cheaper than the ones I usually buy. Not a different brand, a different place. We'll use them over the next couple of months and that will help lower the weekly grocery bills over that time period.
I also have 4 or possibly 5 bottles of wine left. Now, one bottle is because my son brought 2 bottles to the seder when I thought he was just bringing one. But I'm surprised that I have so much wine left when I think I had more people drinking wine this year than usual. I know Eldest Son normally has 1 glass of wine and the other 3 grape juice when he has to drive home. This year they all slept over so he had wine. Hubby had less wine the second night, after having a headache the first day, but I don't think anybody else did. And there were no pregnant or nursing mothers this year. Again, it's not a problem per se. Shabbos comes around every week and it will be lovely to make kiddush on wine. We've been using grape juice for quite a while because we couldn't afford wine. But I paid a lot of money for the wine. The bottles I bought ranged in price from $9 to $25 and that's all money I actually spent up front because BC Liquor Control doesn't allow you to run a tab (for obvious reasons)! That's $69 (or $78, if there's still a bottle of Manischewitz left) that could have been put to other things.
Like my tab at 2 kosher food stores. Yes, I tabbed most of the food (the meat, dairy and a bunch of grocery items, plus candles) and will be paying it off over time. So it makes me a little sick to my stomach to realize that one $21 roasting chicken has been sitting thawed out in the back of my fridge on the bottom shelf for the past 8 days, behind a bunch of other stuff. I don't think it can be safe to eat any more but it's going to hurt to have to throw it out.
As I mentioned previously, I bought a new kind of Shabbos warming tray and never used it (partly because it's too big for my counter space and partly because it only has one heat all over). I'm going to try to take it back but I don't know if they'll refund my money or not. We'll see. It was $95 though, so it's really worth trying.
It's getting late though, and I have to get up in the morning so I'm going to go to bed now. I doubt that I'll have time to write tomorrow before Shabbos, what with the 2 hours it will take to bring Dog home and all, but I'll be back soon. Maybe Motzai Shabbos [Saturday night, after dark] or on Sunday.
It has been a very expensive time, as it is every year, and I'm going to have to sit down and figure it all out sooner or later. Last year was the first time I put my notes, menus, shopping lists, etc. onto the computer and I'm planning to update all of this year's stuff with how it went very soon (before I forget). What got wasted? What went over like a lead balloon? What was finished off way too early? What did DC like last year but not this year or vice versa?
Right off the top, we did much better this year with getting the right amount of matzo. I've got about 1 lb. left, mostly broken up pieces. We have 4 bottles of grape juice out of six but that's not a problem because they were a couple of bucks per bottle cheaper than the ones I usually buy. Not a different brand, a different place. We'll use them over the next couple of months and that will help lower the weekly grocery bills over that time period.
I also have 4 or possibly 5 bottles of wine left. Now, one bottle is because my son brought 2 bottles to the seder when I thought he was just bringing one. But I'm surprised that I have so much wine left when I think I had more people drinking wine this year than usual. I know Eldest Son normally has 1 glass of wine and the other 3 grape juice when he has to drive home. This year they all slept over so he had wine. Hubby had less wine the second night, after having a headache the first day, but I don't think anybody else did. And there were no pregnant or nursing mothers this year. Again, it's not a problem per se. Shabbos comes around every week and it will be lovely to make kiddush on wine. We've been using grape juice for quite a while because we couldn't afford wine. But I paid a lot of money for the wine. The bottles I bought ranged in price from $9 to $25 and that's all money I actually spent up front because BC Liquor Control doesn't allow you to run a tab (for obvious reasons)! That's $69 (or $78, if there's still a bottle of Manischewitz left) that could have been put to other things.
Like my tab at 2 kosher food stores. Yes, I tabbed most of the food (the meat, dairy and a bunch of grocery items, plus candles) and will be paying it off over time. So it makes me a little sick to my stomach to realize that one $21 roasting chicken has been sitting thawed out in the back of my fridge on the bottom shelf for the past 8 days, behind a bunch of other stuff. I don't think it can be safe to eat any more but it's going to hurt to have to throw it out.
As I mentioned previously, I bought a new kind of Shabbos warming tray and never used it (partly because it's too big for my counter space and partly because it only has one heat all over). I'm going to try to take it back but I don't know if they'll refund my money or not. We'll see. It was $95 though, so it's really worth trying.
It's getting late though, and I have to get up in the morning so I'm going to go to bed now. I doubt that I'll have time to write tomorrow before Shabbos, what with the 2 hours it will take to bring Dog home and all, but I'll be back soon. Maybe Motzai Shabbos [Saturday night, after dark] or on Sunday.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Still Having Posting Issues and I'm FRUSTRATED
Okay, every day it seems to get more and more difficult to get in here to write a post. I don't have time to spend a half hour just trying to get into a new post. Even the trick I used last time wasn't working and I've signed in and out several times. This time I got here eventually using "Edit Posts" on the dashboard.
I know Dolly has been having problems too but is it just us or is anybody else on Blogger having a hard time?
Anyway, I wanted to post an update about my bathroom renovation and my progress (or lack thereof) in getting ready for Passover.
The bathroom is definitely "in progress". I have a new tub and surround. The faucet for the tub is in but not the showerhead or the tap that controls the water and the silicone seal around the tub still needs to be done. The vanity is out and primed (except for the doors and drawers). Once it's painted the new ceramic top and fixtures can be attached and it can go back into the room. The drywall is done, mudded and sanded 3 times and is now ready to be primed. The light fixture is out and there's a worklight plugged into the GFI plug. There is a fine layer of drywall dust over everything. The old toilet is still in and the floor needs to be done once that comes out.
My son-in-law's dad goes back home tomorrow and won't be back for 2 or 3 weeks as I understand it. I guess we'll see how much we can get through without him. Washing in the kitchen sink and using the mirror over the fireplace is a hassle and I really don't want to be doing it from now until Pesach. I need a full day to lay floor tile though, so that probably won't happen until next Sunday at the earliest. Besides, I want the room fully painted first so I don't have to kill the first person who drips paint all over the new floor tiles!
I'm still way behind on the Passover cleaning and having the reno incomplete means I'm even further behind. Sigh. Tomorrow is the Fast of Esther, followed by Purim tomorrow night and all day Tuesday. I'll be really busy until it's over but then I really have to get it in gear or I'll be pulling the dreaded all-nighters before the end!
Pesach food is starting to appear in the stores and I've bought a couple of things, knowing that they wouldn't be around if I wait. I still have to order the special matzo that we use though and all our dairy products. And the meat. And figure out how to get wine this year. It used to be much easier but the BC Liquor Control Board is a giant pain and has made our lives much more difficult for the past year or so. I bought stuff from their very limited selection last year and it really wasn't good for drinking at the seder when you're having 4 cups each within a period of a couple of hours. Plus it's incredibly expensive and I need about a case. At $19 to $25 per bottle, that's painful. I used to be able to get exactly what I needed for about half the price or a little less.
But that's a whole other rant and one I probably shouldn't start at all, since I'm eventually going to want to be on their good side in order to get my longed-for winery up and running at some point a few years from now. There are enough hoops to jump through in the licensing process (and a whole other set of hoops for kosher certification) that I don't need to borrow trouble.
This is just a busy, busy time of the year and probably wasn't the best time to do the bathroom but I've been waiting a long time for this and this was when the guys were available to do it. Of course, if this wasn't the day of the Purim Carnival at the JCC and the big birthday party for my granddaughters we might have actually gotten a bunch of work done today. As we say in Hebrew, gam zu le tova [this too will be for the good].
The party was fun and wasn't nearly as hectic as some I've been to recently, although I was baking cupcakes for the party about an hour before it started. I think the girls all had a good time and my oldest granddaughter (now 6, just like Dear Child) got to stay for a bit extra while her folks went to look at apartments (to rent, not buy). They have to move in the next month or so and are having a hard time finding anything decent that works for her school, their work and will take both a child and a cat. Oh, and doesn't cost a couple of thousand dollars per month. Gotta love that Vancouver housing market.
Happy Purim everybody! I'll be back as long as Blogger lets me in!
I know Dolly has been having problems too but is it just us or is anybody else on Blogger having a hard time?
Anyway, I wanted to post an update about my bathroom renovation and my progress (or lack thereof) in getting ready for Passover.
The bathroom is definitely "in progress". I have a new tub and surround. The faucet for the tub is in but not the showerhead or the tap that controls the water and the silicone seal around the tub still needs to be done. The vanity is out and primed (except for the doors and drawers). Once it's painted the new ceramic top and fixtures can be attached and it can go back into the room. The drywall is done, mudded and sanded 3 times and is now ready to be primed. The light fixture is out and there's a worklight plugged into the GFI plug. There is a fine layer of drywall dust over everything. The old toilet is still in and the floor needs to be done once that comes out.
My son-in-law's dad goes back home tomorrow and won't be back for 2 or 3 weeks as I understand it. I guess we'll see how much we can get through without him. Washing in the kitchen sink and using the mirror over the fireplace is a hassle and I really don't want to be doing it from now until Pesach. I need a full day to lay floor tile though, so that probably won't happen until next Sunday at the earliest. Besides, I want the room fully painted first so I don't have to kill the first person who drips paint all over the new floor tiles!
I'm still way behind on the Passover cleaning and having the reno incomplete means I'm even further behind. Sigh. Tomorrow is the Fast of Esther, followed by Purim tomorrow night and all day Tuesday. I'll be really busy until it's over but then I really have to get it in gear or I'll be pulling the dreaded all-nighters before the end!
Pesach food is starting to appear in the stores and I've bought a couple of things, knowing that they wouldn't be around if I wait. I still have to order the special matzo that we use though and all our dairy products. And the meat. And figure out how to get wine this year. It used to be much easier but the BC Liquor Control Board is a giant pain and has made our lives much more difficult for the past year or so. I bought stuff from their very limited selection last year and it really wasn't good for drinking at the seder when you're having 4 cups each within a period of a couple of hours. Plus it's incredibly expensive and I need about a case. At $19 to $25 per bottle, that's painful. I used to be able to get exactly what I needed for about half the price or a little less.
But that's a whole other rant and one I probably shouldn't start at all, since I'm eventually going to want to be on their good side in order to get my longed-for winery up and running at some point a few years from now. There are enough hoops to jump through in the licensing process (and a whole other set of hoops for kosher certification) that I don't need to borrow trouble.
This is just a busy, busy time of the year and probably wasn't the best time to do the bathroom but I've been waiting a long time for this and this was when the guys were available to do it. Of course, if this wasn't the day of the Purim Carnival at the JCC and the big birthday party for my granddaughters we might have actually gotten a bunch of work done today. As we say in Hebrew, gam zu le tova [this too will be for the good].
The party was fun and wasn't nearly as hectic as some I've been to recently, although I was baking cupcakes for the party about an hour before it started. I think the girls all had a good time and my oldest granddaughter (now 6, just like Dear Child) got to stay for a bit extra while her folks went to look at apartments (to rent, not buy). They have to move in the next month or so and are having a hard time finding anything decent that works for her school, their work and will take both a child and a cat. Oh, and doesn't cost a couple of thousand dollars per month. Gotta love that Vancouver housing market.
Happy Purim everybody! I'll be back as long as Blogger lets me in!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The 3 P's Part 2
As I was saying before I fell asleep a couple of nights ago, Purim is a lot of fun. And it can be done fairly inexpensively, but it often ends up costing at least somewhat more.
Costumes are easy. Keep a bin for costume type clothes, whether you hit the stores for leftover costumes on November 1st, check out Value Village (I once got a Pakistani silk suit for $7 that I wore a 2 or 3 times for Purim), or just toss in bits and pieces of adult clothes that would make a jazzy kid costume. Of course you could go all out and rent a really fancy costume from a costume supply place, but there's no need.
Giving charity to 2 people isn't optional, but you don't have to give a fortune. I usually give $18 each these days because the numerical equivalent of "chai" (life) is 18, but when I was a single parent with 3 school-age kids I sometimes gave $10 apiece.
Then there's mishloach manot, the gifts of food. At it's most basic the mitzvah is fulfilled with 2 types of food given to one person. But you also usually want to reciprocate and give a basket or bag to everyone who gives to you. And 2 items of food looks pretty skimpy, so you toss in a few nuts and a couple of candies to go with the cookies and the cake and pretty soon you've spent at least $20 on food. Plus most people try to package the food attractively and that also costs money. I've often bought brown lunch bags and drawn on them with coloured scented markers as an inexpensive packaging alternative.
This year I'm faced with the school fundraiser. For $5 per household you can send to as many people as you like. The school (read: a group of mothers) puts together boxes and baskets and volunteer drivers deliver them for you on Purim day. If up to x many people send to one family they get a small box, if more people send to them they get something bigger, and so on up to a few really big baskets that usually go to the rabbis. I'm sure each small box costs the school less than $5 to put together, so it's a great fundraiser for the school.
I went online and made a tentative list, totalled it up and found it would cost $75. Plus I'm already committed to buying a dozen cookies from another organization for $20 (also a fundraiser, and one I've supported for several years). Now, $75 is more than I would spend on the bags and contents if I packed them myself. I use the cookies in the bags, but would probably spend about another $30 on everything else I'd need (including a few extra cookies because a dozen isn't enough). So the convenience cost of doing it through the school is about $45. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do.
A month after Purim comes Passover, the 8 day festival that commemorates the story of the Exodus from Egypt. We eat matzo (kind of like a large flat cracker, made of flour and water and baked very quickly in a very hot oven) to remember how we left Egypt in a hurry and didn't have time for our bread to rise. That, in and of itself, wouldn't be too difficult.
But we also get rid of all our bread, pasta, cereals, cookies, etc. that contain flour made of any of the 5 grains (wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt). The pots and pans and dishes that we use throughout the year get put away and out come new sets of everything that get used just over 1 week per year. The whole house is cleaned to get rid of every crumb that may be hiding in a pocket, under a sofa cushion or on the floor. The kitchen gets very special treatment. It's intense.
We have 2 seders, special meals where we read the story of the Exodus and discuss it. I host the seders for our family because we're the only ones that really keep kosher and we normally have 14 people before we even get around to inviting any guests (and usually we have a few of those as well). The food bills at Pesach are horrendous. We only use very special dairy products, supervised from the time of milking. We eat a lot of meat during 4 full festival days plus Shabbat and a couple of semi-festival days. Normally we only eat meat on Shabbat. We go through a lot of wine and grape juice because you each have to have 4 cups at each seder, plus there's kiddush on all the other festive meals, which you say over a cup of wine. We have a lot more people over than we do the rest of the year. It all adds up.
I figure I usually spend about $1,000 on Pesach food and related products plus about another $400 to board Dog for 10 days. He can't eat his usual food if he stays home and I don't think his tummy would do too well on matzo and tunafish (some of the human tummies have issues after a few days of matzo). Besides he loves where he goes. The dogs aren't crated or in a kennel. They have the run of the house, dog beds in the family's bedroom, go hiking through the woods for a couple of hours a day, can eat a gourmet raw food diet, play outside with the other boarding dogs and the 3 family dogs on their fenced acreage and just generally have a riot. I'm surprised he ever wants to come home. And I know there are places that charge as much or more but keep the dogs in wire and concrete kennels and runs and feed them Dog Chow. At best, I might save $5 per day. Believe me, it's not worth it.
But how do we pay for it all? That will be the subject of Part 3, Parnassah.
Costumes are easy. Keep a bin for costume type clothes, whether you hit the stores for leftover costumes on November 1st, check out Value Village (I once got a Pakistani silk suit for $7 that I wore a 2 or 3 times for Purim), or just toss in bits and pieces of adult clothes that would make a jazzy kid costume. Of course you could go all out and rent a really fancy costume from a costume supply place, but there's no need.
Giving charity to 2 people isn't optional, but you don't have to give a fortune. I usually give $18 each these days because the numerical equivalent of "chai" (life) is 18, but when I was a single parent with 3 school-age kids I sometimes gave $10 apiece.
Then there's mishloach manot, the gifts of food. At it's most basic the mitzvah is fulfilled with 2 types of food given to one person. But you also usually want to reciprocate and give a basket or bag to everyone who gives to you. And 2 items of food looks pretty skimpy, so you toss in a few nuts and a couple of candies to go with the cookies and the cake and pretty soon you've spent at least $20 on food. Plus most people try to package the food attractively and that also costs money. I've often bought brown lunch bags and drawn on them with coloured scented markers as an inexpensive packaging alternative.
This year I'm faced with the school fundraiser. For $5 per household you can send to as many people as you like. The school (read: a group of mothers) puts together boxes and baskets and volunteer drivers deliver them for you on Purim day. If up to x many people send to one family they get a small box, if more people send to them they get something bigger, and so on up to a few really big baskets that usually go to the rabbis. I'm sure each small box costs the school less than $5 to put together, so it's a great fundraiser for the school.
I went online and made a tentative list, totalled it up and found it would cost $75. Plus I'm already committed to buying a dozen cookies from another organization for $20 (also a fundraiser, and one I've supported for several years). Now, $75 is more than I would spend on the bags and contents if I packed them myself. I use the cookies in the bags, but would probably spend about another $30 on everything else I'd need (including a few extra cookies because a dozen isn't enough). So the convenience cost of doing it through the school is about $45. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do.
A month after Purim comes Passover, the 8 day festival that commemorates the story of the Exodus from Egypt. We eat matzo (kind of like a large flat cracker, made of flour and water and baked very quickly in a very hot oven) to remember how we left Egypt in a hurry and didn't have time for our bread to rise. That, in and of itself, wouldn't be too difficult.
But we also get rid of all our bread, pasta, cereals, cookies, etc. that contain flour made of any of the 5 grains (wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt). The pots and pans and dishes that we use throughout the year get put away and out come new sets of everything that get used just over 1 week per year. The whole house is cleaned to get rid of every crumb that may be hiding in a pocket, under a sofa cushion or on the floor. The kitchen gets very special treatment. It's intense.
We have 2 seders, special meals where we read the story of the Exodus and discuss it. I host the seders for our family because we're the only ones that really keep kosher and we normally have 14 people before we even get around to inviting any guests (and usually we have a few of those as well). The food bills at Pesach are horrendous. We only use very special dairy products, supervised from the time of milking. We eat a lot of meat during 4 full festival days plus Shabbat and a couple of semi-festival days. Normally we only eat meat on Shabbat. We go through a lot of wine and grape juice because you each have to have 4 cups at each seder, plus there's kiddush on all the other festive meals, which you say over a cup of wine. We have a lot more people over than we do the rest of the year. It all adds up.
I figure I usually spend about $1,000 on Pesach food and related products plus about another $400 to board Dog for 10 days. He can't eat his usual food if he stays home and I don't think his tummy would do too well on matzo and tunafish (some of the human tummies have issues after a few days of matzo). Besides he loves where he goes. The dogs aren't crated or in a kennel. They have the run of the house, dog beds in the family's bedroom, go hiking through the woods for a couple of hours a day, can eat a gourmet raw food diet, play outside with the other boarding dogs and the 3 family dogs on their fenced acreage and just generally have a riot. I'm surprised he ever wants to come home. And I know there are places that charge as much or more but keep the dogs in wire and concrete kennels and runs and feed them Dog Chow. At best, I might save $5 per day. Believe me, it's not worth it.
But how do we pay for it all? That will be the subject of Part 3, Parnassah.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
$33 Million?
Krystal over at Give Me Back My Five Bucks brought up the fact that the 6/49 is estimated at $33 million tomorrow. I asked what she'd do if she won and she posted about it. Then she turned the question back to her readers.
What would I do with $33 million?
What would I do with $33 million?
- Although most people seem to think they'd jump up and down (just like in the commercials) I think I'd sit down fast and stay there until I was sure I wasn't going to faint because, you know, starting my new life as a multi-millionaire with a concussion wouldn't be very much fun.
- I'd obsessively check and recheck the numbers.
- I'd arrange to collect my money from the BCLC office in Richmond and, ideally, I'd work an elaborate scam to get all my family members to the BCLC office all dressed up without knowing what was going on, by saying that I'd won a family photo that had to be done at a specific time and just giving them the address. Hey, it wouldn't be a lie, they do a free photo of your family as you collect that giant mockup of a cheque!
- I'd deposit the cheque and take 20% off the top that would go to charities I've already picked out. Many of them are religious but some of the top secular ones are Children's Hospital, the Rick Hansen and Chris & Dana Reeve Foundations and Habitat for Humanity.
- Pay off every penny of debt right away.
- I'd pay for new cars for hubby and all the adult kids, including the annual ICBC premium and pay for Young Drivers for an adult child who still only has a learner's permit.
- Buy each of the adult kids a home, which would be specific to their individual situations and preferences. This would include paying out the mortgage on Eldest Daughter's home (where we also live).
- Finish renovations both at this house and at our rural home (even though I would ultimately be selling it).
- Buy the land I want in the Okanagan, with a lake view. Plant lavender and grapes. Build my "dream house" (about 2,000 to 3,000 square feet in a country style with extensive gardens, including lots of fruit and vegetables).
- Build a kosher winery.
- Plan to travel, whether immediately or when school is out. I have a long list of countries I visited as a child and want to return to with my own kids. I'd also like to travel by RV around the US and Canada and see a lot of historical sites. We've also talked about doing a family trip (all the kids and grandkids) to Disneyland at some point in the next couple of years but are waiting for the baby to be at least 3. I wanted to be able to pay cash for the trip and we could certainly do that!
- Go on a very non-frugal spending spree that would include furniture I've been wanting or needing for more than a year, lots more books, some clothes and accessories and a laptop for my hubby (so we don't have to share).
- Get new glasses and have a considerable amount of family dental work done.
- Go back to school (easier to do if I stopped working).
- Spread out my money at different banks and credit unions and invest most of it very conservatively. Then live off of the interest and dividends.
Things I'm not sure I'd do:
- Quit my job. I kind of enjoy it and I only work a little more than half time. It also wouldn't be fair to quit unless I'd hired and trained a replacement. So I certainly wouldn't be one of the folks who go in and tell the boss they quit on the spot. I might take a Leave of Absence or two though and then retire a little later.
- Disappear for 3 to 6 months. That's okay if you're single or just have a spouse but it's pretty complex if you have kids in school.
- Allow myself to be talked into business deals. I have some specific business ideas of my own but I don't need to help my high school buddies open a restaurant or a long-lost relative open a sports bar, or whatever.
As I pointed out in my comment on Krystal's blog, the really nice thing about lotteries in Canada is that What You See Is What You Get. You get the full amount of the win right away and there are no income taxes due on that! Lotteries are a form of voluntary taxation and people pay for lottery tickets with after-tax dollars.
But, if I won, I'm afraid I'd have to stop blogging because it's pretty impossible to stay even semi-anonymous when you win an amount like that. And that would make me sad.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
We Now Return to Everyday Life
The holidays are over. Simchat Torah was great. We finished reading the last verses of Devarim (Deuteronomy) and start the annual cycle over again with Bereshit (Genesis). We danced with the Torah Scrolls and all the men took turns carrying one around while reciting from the prayer book. The really big partying took place last night, with a somewhat more subdued version taking place today in the shul proper.
In our shul (synagogue) the nighttime dancing always spills out into the street and the procession of Torahs and dancing, singing men wends its way from corner to corner until they make it back to where they started. Dear Child had a wonderful time, carried on her father's back. I stood just outside the shul, waving her stuffed Torah, as cars honked cheerfully at everybody.
But now life returns to normal. No more 2 day holidays in the middle of the week. In fact, no more holidays until Hanukkah, which will be late in December this year. In some ways this is good. It's hard to get much work done when you're only in the office for one or 2 days, then off again for a couple of days over and over. Meals can go back to being more simple. In our house we generally don't eat meat or drink wine except on the Sabbath and on festivals, so that will reduce our food expenses. My Dear Child will finally go back to school (next week) and learning can really commence seriously for the year.
But I have to say I'll miss the increased spiritual focus of the past few weeks. Yes, now that we start reading Torah from the beginning again, I'll begin again studying the parsha (portion) of the week with DC. This year she's starting to read and I think that will be exciting. I'll get back to doing my daily learning, Chitas (a portion daily from the Tanya, the Book of Psalms and the weekly portion with commentary). I've tried to keep up but the parsha part of it has suffered the most. Perhaps not surprisingly, I know the opening chapters of Bereshit (Genesis) the best. I'm always on my best behavior, the most motivated, etc. as we start the cycle. And there are no holidays for a while to break my concentration.
The other thing is that, with all these holidays on Wednesdays, I haven't had the opportunity to do my It Won't Wait Wednesday projects over the past month or so. And I've been way too busy to get around to a lot of the things that I've been meaning to do. I've got to get back to that.
And the exercise. What can I say about it? We walk a lot during the High Holy Days. Three weeks out of four we have a 2 day holiday when we have to walk to and from services at least once a day, sometimes twice. Plus the Sabbath keeps rolling around where we do the same. If you live close to your synagogue it's not too big a deal. But we walk an hour and 20 minutes each way! The exercise has probably been good for me, although I don't think I've lost any weight (the walking is counteracted by all the holiday food). But, boy, am I tired!
What happens next? I get up bright and early tomorrow morning and go to work for the whole day. I have to deposit my BC Benefit cheque into the bank and update my passbook, then do a bit of grocery shopping. Welcome back to my (everyday) miscellaneous life.
In our shul (synagogue) the nighttime dancing always spills out into the street and the procession of Torahs and dancing, singing men wends its way from corner to corner until they make it back to where they started. Dear Child had a wonderful time, carried on her father's back. I stood just outside the shul, waving her stuffed Torah, as cars honked cheerfully at everybody.
But now life returns to normal. No more 2 day holidays in the middle of the week. In fact, no more holidays until Hanukkah, which will be late in December this year. In some ways this is good. It's hard to get much work done when you're only in the office for one or 2 days, then off again for a couple of days over and over. Meals can go back to being more simple. In our house we generally don't eat meat or drink wine except on the Sabbath and on festivals, so that will reduce our food expenses. My Dear Child will finally go back to school (next week) and learning can really commence seriously for the year.
But I have to say I'll miss the increased spiritual focus of the past few weeks. Yes, now that we start reading Torah from the beginning again, I'll begin again studying the parsha (portion) of the week with DC. This year she's starting to read and I think that will be exciting. I'll get back to doing my daily learning, Chitas (a portion daily from the Tanya, the Book of Psalms and the weekly portion with commentary). I've tried to keep up but the parsha part of it has suffered the most. Perhaps not surprisingly, I know the opening chapters of Bereshit (Genesis) the best. I'm always on my best behavior, the most motivated, etc. as we start the cycle. And there are no holidays for a while to break my concentration.
The other thing is that, with all these holidays on Wednesdays, I haven't had the opportunity to do my It Won't Wait Wednesday projects over the past month or so. And I've been way too busy to get around to a lot of the things that I've been meaning to do. I've got to get back to that.
And the exercise. What can I say about it? We walk a lot during the High Holy Days. Three weeks out of four we have a 2 day holiday when we have to walk to and from services at least once a day, sometimes twice. Plus the Sabbath keeps rolling around where we do the same. If you live close to your synagogue it's not too big a deal. But we walk an hour and 20 minutes each way! The exercise has probably been good for me, although I don't think I've lost any weight (the walking is counteracted by all the holiday food). But, boy, am I tired!
What happens next? I get up bright and early tomorrow morning and go to work for the whole day. I have to deposit my BC Benefit cheque into the bank and update my passbook, then do a bit of grocery shopping. Welcome back to my (everyday) miscellaneous life.
Monday, September 29, 2008
What's for Dinner?
Well, I got most of the things necessary for tomorrow night's dinner today but I didn't do any cooking yet. That's possibly a mistake, but we'll see. I didn't get a raw turkey after all, so that simplifies things considerably.
For dinner we'll be having:
Wine for kiddush (I have one bottle each of Dalton White and Dalton Red. They're both quite nice, so long as you drink them in one sitting.)
Special round challahs (an egg bread, usually braided the rest of the year)
Apples and honey
Other symbolic foods that we make special blessings over including pomegranate, dates, carrots, fish and gourd/squash. We eat small quantities of all these.
The first course will be salmon with mayo and dill and I hope to serve it with a green salad and coleslaw as well as lemon hummus. I say "I hope" because I couldn't find prepackaged salads with kosher supervision at Safeway yesterday and the car was acting up so I didn't get to Superstore to check them out. Soaking the leaves in salted water and checking lettuce and cabbage leaf by leaf for bugs is tedious, time consuming and very hard on my eyes, so I prefer to buy it ready-to-eat.
The main course will be smoked turkey with cranberry sauce (I bought half a turkey, already smoked), mashed potatoes and white corn. If I can manage to make gravy from a smoked turkey, I will.
Dessert will be honey cake and coffee or tea, either black or with Almond Breeze instead of cream.
It's all pretty easy to get ready a bit ahead and then keep warm in the oven and/or on a Salton hot tray that stays plugged in for the whole holiday.
Everyone won't be coming after all. Number One Son and his family can't make it because they've been working on putting their 5 year old to bed early (starting the routine at 7:30 pm) and it would really disrupt the process. She's also in all day kindergarten (at a different school from my 5 year old) and seems to really need the new routine to cope with the long day. I understand, because we're having some of the same types of issues with DC (who was awake this morning just before 7 am and asleep tonight before 8:30 pm). She used to stay up late and get up about 8:30 am or later and kindergarten has been a big adjustment for her schedule too. Oh yes, and my sister-in-law is away. So there should be 7 adults and 3 children.
And it won't be a marathon meal like the Passover seder. Candlelighting is at 6:37 pm and we'll start very shortly after that and finish within an hour or two at most. I hope. After all, we have to get up to walk to synagogue on Tuesday morning.
Again, Shana Tova to all! I'll be back to posting late Wednesday night at the earliest.
For dinner we'll be having:
Wine for kiddush (I have one bottle each of Dalton White and Dalton Red. They're both quite nice, so long as you drink them in one sitting.)
Special round challahs (an egg bread, usually braided the rest of the year)
Apples and honey
Other symbolic foods that we make special blessings over including pomegranate, dates, carrots, fish and gourd/squash. We eat small quantities of all these.
The first course will be salmon with mayo and dill and I hope to serve it with a green salad and coleslaw as well as lemon hummus. I say "I hope" because I couldn't find prepackaged salads with kosher supervision at Safeway yesterday and the car was acting up so I didn't get to Superstore to check them out. Soaking the leaves in salted water and checking lettuce and cabbage leaf by leaf for bugs is tedious, time consuming and very hard on my eyes, so I prefer to buy it ready-to-eat.
The main course will be smoked turkey with cranberry sauce (I bought half a turkey, already smoked), mashed potatoes and white corn. If I can manage to make gravy from a smoked turkey, I will.
Dessert will be honey cake and coffee or tea, either black or with Almond Breeze instead of cream.
It's all pretty easy to get ready a bit ahead and then keep warm in the oven and/or on a Salton hot tray that stays plugged in for the whole holiday.
Everyone won't be coming after all. Number One Son and his family can't make it because they've been working on putting their 5 year old to bed early (starting the routine at 7:30 pm) and it would really disrupt the process. She's also in all day kindergarten (at a different school from my 5 year old) and seems to really need the new routine to cope with the long day. I understand, because we're having some of the same types of issues with DC (who was awake this morning just before 7 am and asleep tonight before 8:30 pm). She used to stay up late and get up about 8:30 am or later and kindergarten has been a big adjustment for her schedule too. Oh yes, and my sister-in-law is away. So there should be 7 adults and 3 children.
And it won't be a marathon meal like the Passover seder. Candlelighting is at 6:37 pm and we'll start very shortly after that and finish within an hour or two at most. I hope. After all, we have to get up to walk to synagogue on Tuesday morning.
Again, Shana Tova to all! I'll be back to posting late Wednesday night at the earliest.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Look Ma, No Goals
I always make lists of goals. Right now I have a list of long term goals but I'm not keeping up with creating microgoals to lead me in the right direction. In fact, I can't name all my long term goals off without checking back to the post where I outlined them.
That is what is known as: Fail to plan; plan to fail. How can I have any success if I don't keep all those goals up front where I can see them all the time. So, I've come up with an idea. I've added both my long term goals and my current microgoals as sidebars.
Now, every time I open my blog, it's there in black and white. These are the things I want to do and here's my next step for getting there.
That is what is known as: Fail to plan; plan to fail. How can I have any success if I don't keep all those goals up front where I can see them all the time. So, I've come up with an idea. I've added both my long term goals and my current microgoals as sidebars.
Now, every time I open my blog, it's there in black and white. These are the things I want to do and here's my next step for getting there.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Let me tell you about my weekend.
There were some good parts, including some very good parts. We had my birthday dinner on Sunday night and it was great. I love lamb chops but we don't get lamb very often because it's so expensive and not always available. Grill the lamb on the cast iron grill plate over a fire in our fire pit and I'm in heaven. We had onions and mushrooms sauteed in olive oil with a splash of red wine and red potatoes with it. I meant to make green peas too, but somehow that never happened. To drink there was an Israeli Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a great meal and everybody liked it.
The next morning the little girls got up, DC signed the cards for herself and her nieces and they sang Happy Birthday to me before giving me the cards. Then I got my present from Hubby, a long black skirt with ruffles, eyelet and lace, and a black top with sequins at the neckline.
We went to the beach with the kids and I took pictures of them enjoing themselves (usually I forget and the camera just sits in my purse). The weather was nice. Sunny but not nearly as hot as normal for the Okanagan. Over the course of the weekend we got a lot of yard work done and seeded the side yard.
But there were bad things too. On Friday when I was walking from the office to the deli to pick up the meat and challah I slipped on a little mud in a depression in the sidewalk. I caught myself without doing a face plant but I jammed my big toe straight down into the bricks and I think I broke it. It's all bruised and for the first 2 or 3 days it ached all the time and sent sharp shooting pains when I moved my foot in certain ways. I've been wearing flip flops continuously and it has helped. The pain is mostly gone but I still can't clench all my toes on that foot. The big toe and the one beside it just don't bend when I try to tell them to.
The baby barfed on the drive to the house. I've discovered that you cannot mix her, a bottle of milk and a car trip with any kind of curves. She also had a screaming fit for about half an hour in the middle of the first night. Nothing was right, she wouldn't be comforted. Finally, she lay down like a newborn (on her tummy with her butt in the air) and fell asleep in about 2 seconds.
I spent all of Shabbos day suffering from serious stomach cramps that seemed to come out of nowhere, to the extent that I practically didn't eat.
We drove home fairly late on Monday (arriving back in the city at 11:30 pm) and when I woke up Tuesday morning my left arm was hurting and itching. I looked at it and was shocked. My arm is swollen and red from my armpit to my elbow. It appears to be a spider bite and I know we have black widows at the house because I've seen and killed them, so I'm kind of worried that it may be a black widow bite! My arm is warm to the touch, itches horribly and aches in a way that reminds me of when your leg falls asleep and you hesitate to move it because you know it's going to hurt in a sharp, aching way before the pins and needles sensation starts. It feels heavy and a little on the weak side, although I can still use it normally.
And then there was the ugly. We were driving merrily along on the freeway (on our way to the Okanagan) when everything came to a screaming halt. The highway was actually closed from Bridal Falls to Hope. I think it had something to do with the road flooding, but we never saw it. We had to take Highway 9 across the river and come at Hope the back way. You take a 3 lane freeway and put all that traffic on a single lane highway on a holiday weekend and it's ugly.
So, there it is. My weekend. Now I'm going to go to bed because my arm is killing me. (Yes, I'm planning to go to the doctor tomorrow.)
There were some good parts, including some very good parts. We had my birthday dinner on Sunday night and it was great. I love lamb chops but we don't get lamb very often because it's so expensive and not always available. Grill the lamb on the cast iron grill plate over a fire in our fire pit and I'm in heaven. We had onions and mushrooms sauteed in olive oil with a splash of red wine and red potatoes with it. I meant to make green peas too, but somehow that never happened. To drink there was an Israeli Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a great meal and everybody liked it.
The next morning the little girls got up, DC signed the cards for herself and her nieces and they sang Happy Birthday to me before giving me the cards. Then I got my present from Hubby, a long black skirt with ruffles, eyelet and lace, and a black top with sequins at the neckline.
We went to the beach with the kids and I took pictures of them enjoing themselves (usually I forget and the camera just sits in my purse). The weather was nice. Sunny but not nearly as hot as normal for the Okanagan. Over the course of the weekend we got a lot of yard work done and seeded the side yard.
But there were bad things too. On Friday when I was walking from the office to the deli to pick up the meat and challah I slipped on a little mud in a depression in the sidewalk. I caught myself without doing a face plant but I jammed my big toe straight down into the bricks and I think I broke it. It's all bruised and for the first 2 or 3 days it ached all the time and sent sharp shooting pains when I moved my foot in certain ways. I've been wearing flip flops continuously and it has helped. The pain is mostly gone but I still can't clench all my toes on that foot. The big toe and the one beside it just don't bend when I try to tell them to.
The baby barfed on the drive to the house. I've discovered that you cannot mix her, a bottle of milk and a car trip with any kind of curves. She also had a screaming fit for about half an hour in the middle of the first night. Nothing was right, she wouldn't be comforted. Finally, she lay down like a newborn (on her tummy with her butt in the air) and fell asleep in about 2 seconds.
I spent all of Shabbos day suffering from serious stomach cramps that seemed to come out of nowhere, to the extent that I practically didn't eat.
We drove home fairly late on Monday (arriving back in the city at 11:30 pm) and when I woke up Tuesday morning my left arm was hurting and itching. I looked at it and was shocked. My arm is swollen and red from my armpit to my elbow. It appears to be a spider bite and I know we have black widows at the house because I've seen and killed them, so I'm kind of worried that it may be a black widow bite! My arm is warm to the touch, itches horribly and aches in a way that reminds me of when your leg falls asleep and you hesitate to move it because you know it's going to hurt in a sharp, aching way before the pins and needles sensation starts. It feels heavy and a little on the weak side, although I can still use it normally.
And then there was the ugly. We were driving merrily along on the freeway (on our way to the Okanagan) when everything came to a screaming halt. The highway was actually closed from Bridal Falls to Hope. I think it had something to do with the road flooding, but we never saw it. We had to take Highway 9 across the river and come at Hope the back way. You take a 3 lane freeway and put all that traffic on a single lane highway on a holiday weekend and it's ugly.
So, there it is. My weekend. Now I'm going to go to bed because my arm is killing me. (Yes, I'm planning to go to the doctor tomorrow.)
Sunday, August 31, 2008
3 Kids, No Time
I wanted to write a post, but I can't. Taking 3 little kids to Safeway and expecting them to sit while I check blogs and write a post and while Hubby does some work-related email Does. Not. Work.
They were happy to log on to Webkinz but the baby kept trying to run off and nobody wants to watch me type. I can't imagine why. At least Hubby got his work done. I want to say my stuff is just as important but, until I'm pulling in the bucks blogging, it's just not true.
We spent Shabbat quietly, if you can say that while 3 kids and one neighbour child run in circles from the living room through the kitchen, down the hall, through the master bedroom and back through the living room screaming at the top of their lungs. We were quiet; they weren't.
Today we did a ton of yard work. I can tell how unseasonably rainy it has been here because both front and back yards were green, actually greener than our front yard in Vancouver! But that also meant everything had grown really high.
We're going to drive back to the city some time tomorrow, but right now we're heading home to have my birthday dinner of lamb chops with mushrooms, potatoes and peas, with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
They were happy to log on to Webkinz but the baby kept trying to run off and nobody wants to watch me type. I can't imagine why. At least Hubby got his work done. I want to say my stuff is just as important but, until I'm pulling in the bucks blogging, it's just not true.
We spent Shabbat quietly, if you can say that while 3 kids and one neighbour child run in circles from the living room through the kitchen, down the hall, through the master bedroom and back through the living room screaming at the top of their lungs. We were quiet; they weren't.
Today we did a ton of yard work. I can tell how unseasonably rainy it has been here because both front and back yards were green, actually greener than our front yard in Vancouver! But that also meant everything had grown really high.
We're going to drive back to the city some time tomorrow, but right now we're heading home to have my birthday dinner of lamb chops with mushrooms, potatoes and peas, with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Friday, August 29, 2008
On the Road Again
We're only working a half day Friday. Then we're going to pack up the van and head for our rural home with our daughter, 2 granddaughters and Dog. The original plan was to come back Sunday night and celebrate my milestone birthday on the holiday Monday. I was also supposed to be doing the bathroom floor because the bathroom renovation was supposed to take place this weekend. And we weren't taking the granddaughters in the first version of the plan.
Things change. My Eldest Daughter is working the whole long weekend at the PNE and our son-in-law always works weekends so, if we want to go away, we have to take the girls. Son-in-Law's father isn't coming to town this weekend, so there's no bathroom renovation in sight. And the holiday weekend isn't convenient for my big kids to come and have a party with me.
So, I think we're going to come back sometime in the middle of the day on Monday. I'm really hoping for good weather, so we can take the girls to the lake and fill the little pool in the back yard. We have a bunch of work to do at the house but I'm not sure how much will get done seeing as we're going to have the baby. How much flooring do you suppose I'll be able to lay with her "help"?
Anyway I'm looking forward to a couple of days at the house. It's always relaxing, even when we end up doing lots of house and yard work. And this is the last weekend we'll probably have there for quite a while. We might go for Sukkot again, like we did last year, but it becomes impossible to get there before Shabbat starts when the days start to get significantly shorter (and especially once we change the clocks back). Then we can go after Shabbos is over, but we still have to leave to come back around dinner time on Sunday. Nine hours driving and over a tank of gas just to have the one day at home is tough. Add snow in the mountain passes and we really only go once every couple of months or so.
I can't believe I just started talking about snow. What I want for this weekend is blue sky, warm weather (not boiling hot, just nice), time to relax and some good food and wine.
Things change. My Eldest Daughter is working the whole long weekend at the PNE and our son-in-law always works weekends so, if we want to go away, we have to take the girls. Son-in-Law's father isn't coming to town this weekend, so there's no bathroom renovation in sight. And the holiday weekend isn't convenient for my big kids to come and have a party with me.
So, I think we're going to come back sometime in the middle of the day on Monday. I'm really hoping for good weather, so we can take the girls to the lake and fill the little pool in the back yard. We have a bunch of work to do at the house but I'm not sure how much will get done seeing as we're going to have the baby. How much flooring do you suppose I'll be able to lay with her "help"?
Anyway I'm looking forward to a couple of days at the house. It's always relaxing, even when we end up doing lots of house and yard work. And this is the last weekend we'll probably have there for quite a while. We might go for Sukkot again, like we did last year, but it becomes impossible to get there before Shabbat starts when the days start to get significantly shorter (and especially once we change the clocks back). Then we can go after Shabbos is over, but we still have to leave to come back around dinner time on Sunday. Nine hours driving and over a tank of gas just to have the one day at home is tough. Add snow in the mountain passes and we really only go once every couple of months or so.
I can't believe I just started talking about snow. What I want for this weekend is blue sky, warm weather (not boiling hot, just nice), time to relax and some good food and wine.
Friday, August 22, 2008
A Quiet Day
Today wasn't as exciting as yesterday, probably because nobody sent me money. I just went to work all day. I took my lunch for the 2nd day in a row and I'm going to buy my lunch tomorrow! Frugal is fine but, you know, it's Friday.
We had the girls all evening until after 11 pm. My DC and Boo Boo were asleep but my other granddaughter was still wide awake. She didn't even want to go upstairs when her folks got home. It's nice to be popular but I'm getting pretty tired, between working all day and then looking after little ones.
I didn't have the energy to do much for dinner, so it was 2 packages of Wacky Mac with cherries for dessert. I knew it would be popular with the girls but we practically had to restrain Dog. He was sneaking closer and closer to the girls, hoping for an unguarded instant when he could get at somebody's dish. We told him to take a hike, so he went to the kitchen and got a stick of butter off the counter! Dog is a miniature poodle for goodness sake. I have yet to figure out how he's getting things off the counter.
He's talented, Dog is. He's started to play football with my Hubby and DC. They throw it and he jumps up and grabs it with both front paws! He isn't always able to hold on, but he does manage it some of the time. And now he's started to "throw" it back by shoving it with his face when it's in his paws. Then it sort of shoots out from his paws back towards the person who just threw it to him.
Tomorrow I have to go pick up grape juice and challah, although I did the rest of the shopping earlier in the week. I'd rather have wine, but there's about an $8 difference between wine and grape juice and that will more than cover the cost of my lunch. If they had more choices I might have gone for wine and packed a lunch.
Or, if I had a brain, I could have bought some wine in the States last Sunday before I came back home. Even in the grocery store in Seattle they had kosher chardonnay and shiraz from Australia! In BC there's Manischewitz, a French wine and a few Israeli ones. Just wait until I start making wine in quantities big enough to sell it via BCLCB. It's going to be kosher, from BC and made with organic grapes! They'd better stock it!
We had the girls all evening until after 11 pm. My DC and Boo Boo were asleep but my other granddaughter was still wide awake. She didn't even want to go upstairs when her folks got home. It's nice to be popular but I'm getting pretty tired, between working all day and then looking after little ones.
I didn't have the energy to do much for dinner, so it was 2 packages of Wacky Mac with cherries for dessert. I knew it would be popular with the girls but we practically had to restrain Dog. He was sneaking closer and closer to the girls, hoping for an unguarded instant when he could get at somebody's dish. We told him to take a hike, so he went to the kitchen and got a stick of butter off the counter! Dog is a miniature poodle for goodness sake. I have yet to figure out how he's getting things off the counter.
He's talented, Dog is. He's started to play football with my Hubby and DC. They throw it and he jumps up and grabs it with both front paws! He isn't always able to hold on, but he does manage it some of the time. And now he's started to "throw" it back by shoving it with his face when it's in his paws. Then it sort of shoots out from his paws back towards the person who just threw it to him.
Tomorrow I have to go pick up grape juice and challah, although I did the rest of the shopping earlier in the week. I'd rather have wine, but there's about an $8 difference between wine and grape juice and that will more than cover the cost of my lunch. If they had more choices I might have gone for wine and packed a lunch.
Or, if I had a brain, I could have bought some wine in the States last Sunday before I came back home. Even in the grocery store in Seattle they had kosher chardonnay and shiraz from Australia! In BC there's Manischewitz, a French wine and a few Israeli ones. Just wait until I start making wine in quantities big enough to sell it via BCLCB. It's going to be kosher, from BC and made with organic grapes! They'd better stock it!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Another Kind of Snowflake
The topic of goals and microgoals came up the other day on The Simple Dollar and it’s pretty cool. Basically, you come up with 10 goals that you want to achieve over the next several years and then you choose a small action (the microgoal) to take towards each large goal every day.
This is a really good way to achieve your goals because as long as you’re taking regular steps (no matter how small) towards your goal you’re in good shape. The key is that you’re always moving and moving in the right direction. It’s really very much like the debt snowball and snowflaking.
With the debt snowball you list your debts, order them either by interest rate or size of debt and plug away at them. You pay the minimum on all but your target debt. That one gets hit with everything you can throw at it. When the target debt is eliminated you move on to the next one in line. This debt gets battered down even faster because now you’re paying the minimum on it plus all the money you were putting towards the original debt. Rinse and repeat until all the debt is gone.
When you snowflake you do all of that but you also take any windfall money (bottle refunds, eBay sales, tax refund, money for taking a survey, etc.) and also apply it towards your target debt. Snowflaking gets you where you’re going even faster. Why? Because you’re focused on your goal and you’re always moving towards it, even with teeny tiny steps.
So the goal and microgoal system is just snowflaking applied to goals other than debt reduction!
I mentioned yesterday that I like this idea a lot and now I’m ready to share my list of goals.
1. Take Religious Studies courses, potentially leading to an undergraduate degree.
2. Become fluent in Hebrew.
3. Study oenology and viticulture, potentially leading to a degree.
4. Grow lavender for sale.
5. Buy a minimum of 5 acres of land in our chosen retirement area.
6. Build a home on the land.
7. Plant grapes and open a kosher winery.
8. Get totally out of debt and stay there!
9. Lose 10 pounds.
10. Accumulate enough retirement funds to supplement our pensions and other income streams.
These goals are ones to be achieved between now and 15 years from now, when we’re due to retire.
Here are my current microgoals (not so much for today, as for this week).
1. Talk with my husband about taking a Biblical Hebrew course starting in September. It’s a weekly class from September to May. Done!
2. This course actually fits into both my first 2 goals. Done!
3. Bookmark information regarding the introductory course at Okanagan College, which can be taken online. Done!
4. Replant 5 lavender plants in larger pots.
5. Check mls.ca for interesting properties. Done!
6. Look online for information on rubber roof tiles that look like slate. Done!
7. Buy yeast and potassium metabisulphite. Done!
8. Pay our share of utility bills for city house. Done!
9. Go to the gym. Do 20 minutes on the treadmill, 10 minutes stretching.
10. Look for the form regarding the reinvestment of my maturing GIC. Well, I found one but I think there was another one too.
How about you? Are you interested in snowflaking towards non-financial goals?
This is a really good way to achieve your goals because as long as you’re taking regular steps (no matter how small) towards your goal you’re in good shape. The key is that you’re always moving and moving in the right direction. It’s really very much like the debt snowball and snowflaking.
With the debt snowball you list your debts, order them either by interest rate or size of debt and plug away at them. You pay the minimum on all but your target debt. That one gets hit with everything you can throw at it. When the target debt is eliminated you move on to the next one in line. This debt gets battered down even faster because now you’re paying the minimum on it plus all the money you were putting towards the original debt. Rinse and repeat until all the debt is gone.
When you snowflake you do all of that but you also take any windfall money (bottle refunds, eBay sales, tax refund, money for taking a survey, etc.) and also apply it towards your target debt. Snowflaking gets you where you’re going even faster. Why? Because you’re focused on your goal and you’re always moving towards it, even with teeny tiny steps.
So the goal and microgoal system is just snowflaking applied to goals other than debt reduction!
I mentioned yesterday that I like this idea a lot and now I’m ready to share my list of goals.
1. Take Religious Studies courses, potentially leading to an undergraduate degree.
2. Become fluent in Hebrew.
3. Study oenology and viticulture, potentially leading to a degree.
4. Grow lavender for sale.
5. Buy a minimum of 5 acres of land in our chosen retirement area.
6. Build a home on the land.
7. Plant grapes and open a kosher winery.
8. Get totally out of debt and stay there!
9. Lose 10 pounds.
10. Accumulate enough retirement funds to supplement our pensions and other income streams.
These goals are ones to be achieved between now and 15 years from now, when we’re due to retire.
Here are my current microgoals (not so much for today, as for this week).
1. Talk with my husband about taking a Biblical Hebrew course starting in September. It’s a weekly class from September to May. Done!
2. This course actually fits into both my first 2 goals. Done!
3. Bookmark information regarding the introductory course at Okanagan College, which can be taken online. Done!
4. Replant 5 lavender plants in larger pots.
5. Check mls.ca for interesting properties. Done!
6. Look online for information on rubber roof tiles that look like slate. Done!
7. Buy yeast and potassium metabisulphite. Done!
8. Pay our share of utility bills for city house. Done!
9. Go to the gym. Do 20 minutes on the treadmill, 10 minutes stretching.
10. Look for the form regarding the reinvestment of my maturing GIC. Well, I found one but I think there was another one too.
How about you? Are you interested in snowflaking towards non-financial goals?
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Things That Go Buzz in the Night
I’m sitting here in front of a blank screen. It’s not that I’m short of topics. The new carbon tax kicks in on Canada Day and our already high gas prices will jump by another 2.34 cents per litre. I had intended to write about that but whenever I start to type about gasoline it turns into mosquitoes!
Ah yes, this is the dark side of paradise. We have mosquitoes. Or more accurately, they have us. We are definitely losing this battle. I have 4 bites on my forehead. Hubby has more than 10 on just one leg. He’s definitely in worse shape than I am. I probably don’t have more than a dozen bites in total and I think he has at least twice that.
They’re holding us hostage in the house, which really makes me mad. It was pretty hot on Shabbat. I looked at the outdoor thermometer in the hottest part of the afternoon, but I’m sure it was wrong. It said it was 114 degrees Fahrenheit but I don’t think it was really more than 98 or so. Still that’s plenty warm. So, when the sun finally went behind the hill and it started to cool down about 3 hours before it got dark I took a chair and sat out on our back deck reading Psalms. It was really nice for about 10 minutes, until the mosquitoes found me and called all their friends.
I’d brush one away from my skirt and another would land on my arm. I’d shake my arm and 4 or 5 would congregate on my ankles. I retreated pretty quickly and finished my reading sitting on the window seat in the living room by the screened window.
Sunday we’re planning to have a fun day. We’re going into town (so I can post this) and we’ll see if there are any Elvis events still going on or if they all took place on Shabbat.
I want to take my hubby to a couple of wineries, even though we can’t taste non-kosher wines (not even to sip and spit) because the rules about grape products are among the strictest of all the kosher rules. But Tinhorn has a wonderful demonstration vineyard, with maybe a dozen different types of grapes, all the costing (admittedly a few years out of date, but still useful) and all kinds of other information. And I want to go to an all-organic fruit winery because the organic issue is another very important aspect of this for me. I need to meet people in the industry and there’s a lot for me to learn.
And maybe we’ll take Dear Child to the beach for a while. When I was a child I used to go every single day in the summer and I don’t think she’s ever really been in her 5 years. I actually learned to swim in the lake but she’s signed up for 2 weeks worth of lessons at the community centre pool in the city (along with her 3 year old niece) in July.
But first we’ll need to spend some time at Safeway, on their free wifi. I haven’t looked at any blogs since Thursday morning and my DC is suffering from withdrawal from Webkinz World. And the best thing is, there won’t be any mosquitoes there!
Ah yes, this is the dark side of paradise. We have mosquitoes. Or more accurately, they have us. We are definitely losing this battle. I have 4 bites on my forehead. Hubby has more than 10 on just one leg. He’s definitely in worse shape than I am. I probably don’t have more than a dozen bites in total and I think he has at least twice that.
They’re holding us hostage in the house, which really makes me mad. It was pretty hot on Shabbat. I looked at the outdoor thermometer in the hottest part of the afternoon, but I’m sure it was wrong. It said it was 114 degrees Fahrenheit but I don’t think it was really more than 98 or so. Still that’s plenty warm. So, when the sun finally went behind the hill and it started to cool down about 3 hours before it got dark I took a chair and sat out on our back deck reading Psalms. It was really nice for about 10 minutes, until the mosquitoes found me and called all their friends.
I’d brush one away from my skirt and another would land on my arm. I’d shake my arm and 4 or 5 would congregate on my ankles. I retreated pretty quickly and finished my reading sitting on the window seat in the living room by the screened window.
Sunday we’re planning to have a fun day. We’re going into town (so I can post this) and we’ll see if there are any Elvis events still going on or if they all took place on Shabbat.
I want to take my hubby to a couple of wineries, even though we can’t taste non-kosher wines (not even to sip and spit) because the rules about grape products are among the strictest of all the kosher rules. But Tinhorn has a wonderful demonstration vineyard, with maybe a dozen different types of grapes, all the costing (admittedly a few years out of date, but still useful) and all kinds of other information. And I want to go to an all-organic fruit winery because the organic issue is another very important aspect of this for me. I need to meet people in the industry and there’s a lot for me to learn.
And maybe we’ll take Dear Child to the beach for a while. When I was a child I used to go every single day in the summer and I don’t think she’s ever really been in her 5 years. I actually learned to swim in the lake but she’s signed up for 2 weeks worth of lessons at the community centre pool in the city (along with her 3 year old niece) in July.
But first we’ll need to spend some time at Safeway, on their free wifi. I haven’t looked at any blogs since Thursday morning and my DC is suffering from withdrawal from Webkinz World. And the best thing is, there won’t be any mosquitoes there!
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