I have been out of town for the last few days. I will resume blogging tomorrow after I get a good night's sleep. Happy Friday!

Not feeling so frugal

We are spending, spending, spending these days. Our spending is almost exclusively on home improvements.

I hired the neighbor (a college student) to paint all the bedrooms. Okay, so that is frugal, he is not as expensive as a professional painter would be. Yes, we could do it ourselves for free, but I am the world's worst painter (my husband will confirm that) and my husband is busy beyond belief. He has been busy at work as well as remodeling the basement, on his own. Which brings us to another thing we spent a lot on, carpet in the basement. We did cheap out on the baseboards in the basement. I think they are made out of foamy, plasticy, synthetic material that will probably prove to be toxic. But, it cost us $69, total, versus a few hundred dollars. I guess we were frugal in that area.

Next thing we did, we turned an area of the basement into a workout room. So, my husband bought some flooring that we need to make it comfortable, I guess. He said he will save money when he paints the room by using all the leftover paint from the bedrooms. That could be an interesting look. I will have to take pictures of the final results in that room.

We are also looking at new windows. Which in all honesty we really need. They are the originals from 1967. On some of the windows the caulk has finally given out and the glass can actually be pushed off the frame. The window in my son's room is a guillotine, he will lose a hand if he ever tries to open the existing window. My daughter's window has a crack right down the middle of it, and she does not have a storm window in it, oops! We are determined to have the windows installed by April 22nd so that we don't have to pay extra for disposal of the windows. A new law goes into effect that day with stricter disposal guidelines in regards to lead paint. We don't have lead paint, so I do not want to pay extra for something that is not an issue in this house.

Finally, we need a retaining wall in our back yard. This to is mandatory, that is if we wish to stop our yard from eroding. I don't even want to know what that unexciting little improvement will cost us.

Sometimes I wish that we would have bought a new house. One that did not require all the improvements that this house requires. But, than I look around at this house that we have made a home and I wouldn't have it any other way. We have made this house our own. We have never been a couple to feel like we need to keep up with "The Joneses" to feel adequate, so why start now? Our house with all it faults has kept us warm, made us happy, created lasting memories and given our children a place to call theirs. So, I think I will happily continue with these crazy improvements and consider myself lucky. Lucky to be able to give them this home. Lucky to be able to afford the home we have.

Using rancid fruit for dessert

Catchy title, huh? Okay, so I didn't use rancid fruit. But, I did use fruit a bit past it's expiration date for tonight's dessert. We had a pear and apple fruit crisp (the apples were the stragglers from our fall trip to the orchard, when was that?). Sounds gross, I know. But, I peeled them, cut off the yucky parts, sliced them and baked them with a yummy oatmeal crisp topping. We topped it off with some ice cream and VOILA, dessert was served. If I wouldn't have baked the fruit, I would have had to throw it away, because, well it was really bad. But, I figure baking it to makes it all okay. I would say I completed a frugal deed today:)

French

I recently watched the movie Julie and Julia. I loved it! I am a foodie at heart. It is very surprising in all honesty because as a child I was a very picky eater. My parents can confirm that I am sure. The only vegetable I would eat was raw carrots. I would not touch anything with an onion, celery or anything crunchy for that matter. Peas, well, if my dad reads this post, I am sure he will chuckle when remembering my fierce stubbornness when refusing to eat peas. To this day I remember standing over a toilet getting ready to drop the one brussels sprout I was given at dinner, only to have my dad walk into the bathroom and stop me. As I grew up I started to taste the foods I feared and found I loved them. Cheeses, vegetables (brussels sprouts, peas and kale excluded), exotic fruits and whole grains became a part of my diet. I can in all honesty say I will eat almost anything given to me, heck, I ate black pudding in Scotland. For those who know what that is, you will know it is not a picky eaters dream food. I love to eat!

After watching Julie and Julia I went to the bookstore the next day and bought the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Tonight I made Boeuf Bourguignon for dinner. It was a hit, time consuming but relatively easy. We had a salad, french bread and red wine with it. It felt like a perfect French dinner. I of course picked out every pearl onion that landed on my plate, I still HATE onions. It felt like a perfect meal tonight. Late this afternoon we were interviewed and accepted to host a French foreign exchange student for the summer. We are very excited about it.

Hosting the exchange student was my son's idea. He gets so excited about opportunities like these. He will put his heart and soul into it and will make it such a fun experience for the boy we host. My list of summer fun ideas is a mile long. My husband pointed out that I will have to shorten it a bit. The representative that we talked to tonight even told me that I need to give him some down time. I will. I just want to show this boy all the fun things that are available while he is in our country. So far my list includes:

Brewers Game

Chicago (Field Museum, Planetarium, etc)

Twin Cities (Mall of America)

Swimming Lake Michigan

Great America

Door County Wisconsin

Wisconsin Dells

Bowling (a requirement if visiting Wisconsin) and a brat

Museums in Milwaukee (art, public and Harley Davidson Museum)

As one can see, my list is long, and it is only partial. I fear that child will need a vacation from his vacation when he gets home. It is only February and I am so looking forward to summer. We will have family adventure and it will be warm.

Bad Customer Service

Today I am going to use my blog as a means of telling other consumers about terrible customer service I recently received.

Friday night, my husband and I went to Office Max (for those in the Milwaukee area wondering which one, let me know I will be happy to divulge the location). We were in need of a chair for our computer desk. My husband picked out the chair, grabbed the little slip that was needed to buy the chair and proceeded to check out. When we got to the check out, one lone teenager was in charge. My husband handed her the slip, she than asked another associate who was passing by to get the chair. This associate said NO! and walked off. No? Is that really an option when a customer wants to buy something? The check out girl then stared at us, blankly. We stared back, a bit shocked, but still hopeful that the chair would appear. About a minute later, the manager shows up with a couple buying 2 reams of paper and paper shredder, pushes us out of line and proceeds to help the couple. Meanwhile, the Einstein that was not helping us continues to stare. Then, she moves over to where her fearless leader was ringing up the invaluable to reams of paper to help him bag! Really? This is like a joke right? How many incompetent Office Max workers does it take to bag a ream of paper? To make matters worse, the guy with the paper was unhappy with his discount, so they started over! I was at my wits end. Finally, my husband agreed to just leave. As we left, Einstein, stared at us with the same blank look that she had been staring at us all along.

When I got home, I emailed customer service at Office Max. We shall see what their response is.

Happy Valentine's Day

I am going to post something very short tonight. Happy Valentine's Day!

My husband is making me Coq au Vin for dinner to celebrate. What a guy!! We normally go out on Saturday nights. But, we did not feel compelled to pay a premium for a Valentine's dinner out. Not to mention, our free babysitter, Alec, is babysitting for another family. Needless to say, they are paying him. I did not feel right telling him that he had to watch his siblings for free when another family was willing to pay him. I guess this may be the end of our weekly date night. We will go out when he is able to babysit, but, I am not going squash his entrepreneurial drive to make his own money. Given that his favorite hobby is snowboarding, he will need to make some money to fund what is becoming a normal thing for him.

Well, I am off for now. Happy Valentine's Day.

Bookclub

I am starting a mother/daughter book club with my 11 year old daughter. This is a venture that I have been wanting to do for a long time. It never seemed like the right time, but now that she is 11, it seems perfect.

Our first book is Anne of Green Gables. I checked out the one and only copy from our local library and told her to start reading so that I can have it. It was Hannah who suggested that I read it to her. At first I was apprehensive. I read faster in my head, I always get a dry throat, blah, blah, blah. But, I decided that this is her book club to and we will give it a try. So tonight on this cold Wisconsin night, we curled up under a warm blanket on my bed and read the first 2 chapters together. It was wonderful! It was 45 minutes of alone time with my daughter. Uninterrupted and quiet. Thank you Hannah for such a wonderful idea.