Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!

Tonight is the second most important holiday to a child, first of course going to Christmas. My kids have been waiting for this day since November 1, 2008. Sadly, my oldest will not be participating in tonight's festivities. The flu is firmly holding on to him for dear life. In fact, the ear infection I was dreading did in fact infect him last night. Because of this, he doesn't seem nearly as bummed about missing out Halloween as I had feared. I am assuming that once he feels better and realizes that he really did miss out, he will be angry.

In preparation for tonight, I think I am going to take my daughters to Macy's to have their makeup applied. Macy's is doing that for FREE all day today. I am always on the look out for a really good deal, it is even better when it is free. Given that I went over budget on the costumes, it is seems smart to cheap out on the make up my daughter keeps insisting that she needs to make her costume perfect.

This afternoon we will help the kids (those who are healthy) carve their pumpkins. Now, I have to be perfectly honest here. I do not like carving pumpkins, and neither does my husband. It is not our thing. We do it every year, with a smile. I don't think the kids are aware of our dislike of this particular activity. But, we do look forward to the year when it has become a thing of the past. I think that we have several more years though. My 11 year old still loves, and our youngest 7. Based on those ages, my math tells me we have a minimum of 4 more Halloweens of carving pumpkins.

The rest of our weekend will be devoted to our yard. Too many trees on our property. I love it in the summer, but always find that I am reminded of the cons of having trees in our yard come the first week of November.

A change in plans

So, this morning my son was suppose to get tubes in his ears and his adenoids removed. But, yet again, parenting proves to be full of surprises. Last night, upon returning home from a friend's house, Alec announced that he did not feel good. I assumed that it was a con because I had called him home to mow the lawn. A quick reading of his temperature told me that he was in fact sick. A fever of 100.7, a cough, dizziness, headache and sore throat led me to conclude the obvious. H1N1 has returned. A call to the nurse confirmed my suspicions, leading to only one safe outcome. The surgery has been postponed. His ears already hurt! The surgery that was going to end his chronic health problems has been derailed by a virus that is going to cause his chronic health problem to return. UGHHHH!!!! I feel so bad for him, he is miserable. With Halloween being tomorrow, I know he is worried that he will have to miss out on the festivities. It makes me sad to know that he is sad.

Autumn

I love this time of year! I look forward to Autumn every year, anxious for all it has to bring us.

Last weekend we took the kids to a pumpkin patch and apple orchard, to do the obvious, pick apples and pumpkins. It was a perfect Wisconsin Fall day. The air was crisp, the sun was shining. We were able to wear sweaters without coats, and remain comfortable. The farm we visited provided a hay ride to the orchard and patch. My kids had a great time, so did Eric and I. I was able to take some priceless photos, even turned one of them into a Halloween card for family. We purchased some apples and a world famous Apple Pie in a Brown Bag. It was delicious, although not very frugal, one of those treats in life that prove to be worth the extra money. When we got home I made a roast chicken with roasted root vegetables. The day ended with the perfect Autumnal meal. This is the best time of year for our CSA vegetables. I love the summer bounty of tomatoes and peppers, but nothing tastes better on cold nights than squash or parsnips.

Today, my kids are off of school, so I decided to take advantage of another fall activity. The corn maze. We went with another family, split the kids up into teams of boys and girls and then let them loose. Thankfully the maze had a lookout with flags so that if the kids got lost they could see the flags and go to that location without being scared. My friend and I parked ourselves on that lookout and let the kids find their way out. It took them one hour and they had blast! Worth every penny. I will be the first person to say that I do not like the little petting zoos at the road side corn mazes. First of all, I think it is wrong to have goats and peacocks caged up to be over fed and tortured by small children. Second, they are little germ factories. Every time I see one of my kids touch one of those animals I pull out the antibacterial gel. The animals are very cute, but what purpose does it serve to have them at these locations?

Tomorrow my son will have tubes put into his ears and his adenoids removed. He has a habit of getting killer ear infections every winter. Now that he is in middle school, we felt that it is time to end the infections so that he does not miss a lot of school. I am worried that he will not feel up to trick or treating on Saturday night. I know that soon, he will announce to us that he is past the age of Halloween. I am not sure I am ready for that proclamation quite yet.

This year I ordered my kids costumes online. I just did not have the time to go out and search the stores for the costumes they had their hearts set on. So, I found a coupon code for an online store, they found what they wanted and I did not have to waste gas and time searching. Because I spent more than I had planned on, I told them they will wear the same thing next year. Surprisingly, they were all fine with that. Sometimes I don't give my kids enough credit for being reasonable in these situations.

As I write this, I am looking forward to a quiet fall evening. I am hoping my husband will light a fire and we can watch a movie. My youngest is a sleepover for a birthday party, my middle child is tired from a sleepover last night and my oldest needs to turn in early in preparation of tomorrow's surgery. It seems likely that it will be a quiet night in this house. Perfect for a date night with my hubby and a glass of wine.

We finally meet, H1N1 that is.

Life has been so hectic the last couple of weeks. I had to go to Atlanta for a funeral, my work hours have increased (I am NOT complaining about that one), my kids seem busier (okay a little complaint on that one) and H1N1 has paid my home a visit. My middle child, Hannah, has brought this beast into our home, uninvited, I might add.

In the spring when this flu hit, Hannah was so worried about getting sick. She was convinced that if she got it, she would be one of it's casualties. Luck would have it that she was the first in our family to get it and so far the only victim. While she has been miserable, it has been no worse nor better than the regular seasonal flu. To be honest, I am shocked! With all the media coverage focused on this particular illness, I was expecting so much more fear and drama from Hannah and myself. Instead, she sleeps a lot, watches a lot of TV, has read 5 books (she is bookworm) and refrains from participating in sibling rivalry. Last night after 4 days and 4 nights of lethargy, she perked up and suggested we all play charades. We declined, we are not really a charades kind of family. Especially when we are watching our recorded episode of Top Chef, the only show we watch every week, as a family. So, I sit here and write my blog, wondering if I can send her to school today. She still has a cough, it is a bad one. Her fever has only been "broken" for 12 hours. But she wants to go back to school. This is one of those decisions that I feel will be wrong either way. If I send her to school, I am not following the "guidelines" put into place by our district on H1N1. If I have her stay home, I run the risk of having to play charades on my day off from work. Decisions, decisions. Stay tuned, she is not up yet.

Off the track a little bit now. Last week I received an email from Ticketmaster offering tickets to the Kelly Clarkson concert for $25 per ticket. Let me start our by stating, I do not like Kelly Clarkson as an entertainer, she seems very sweet, but not my type of music. I do not watch American Idol, it bores me. But, I have a 10 year old daughter who is part of the Kelly Clarkson demographic. Tween, female, girly girl, dreams of being a singer/actress, the list goes on and on. I happened to receive this email during a generous mood. So, during my break at work I walked to the Ticketmaster outlet at our mall to find out if this is in fact an accurate price, turns out that it is. Of course, the $25 did not include the convenience fee, I always for get about that charge. So, this Friday, my daughter and I will be attending the Kelly Clarkson concert. I look forward to the time with my little girl, alone. It will be great bonding time. While we are at the concert, my 11 year old is having a "Halloween" party with some friends. My husband is in charge of that. Little Maeghan will probably have her choice of Barbie movies that evening, sadly, she has not been included either activity.

Today, I need to go to the grocery store. We are running low on fruit and dairy. I am going to attempt to keep my purchases limited to those two departments, attempting to skip the middle of the grocery store. No mans land, the area of processed junk food.

Have a great day!

I apologize for not posting for 2 weeks. Things have been crazy in my house. Some personal things have come up. Not the type of things that would keep me from the computer. But, the kind of things that have my mind else where. To be honest, I have completely forgotten about my blog for the last couple of weeks. But, as of this week, things seem to be better, I am more optimistic, ready to get back to blogging.

This weekend I need to fly to Atlanta for the weekend. An unexpected death in the family finds me taking an unexpected trip out of town. For this trip, I got back to my frugal roots. I found the cheapest flight I could, grand total with insurance is $175 for a round trip ticket. I will be sharing a hotel room with family and renting a car with the same family members when we get there. I have decided to dig out an old outfit from the depths of my closet to wear to the funeral. It is times like these that I hate being frugal. But, this weekend we have to have a tree removed from our yard. To remove the 100 year old tree from our yard, we have to pay $2200. That's right over $2000!!!! Not frugal is it?

Because of these unexpected expenses, I am clipping more coupons, staying in more, driving less and buying gifts for the upcoming holiday season on sale. I feel like we can't seem to get totally ahead, no matter how much we save. So, I will write the check out for the tree removal and focus my attention on replenishing our savings as fast as possible, knowing that in all likelihood we will have another emergency come up that requires us to dip into our emergency fund.

Tomorrow I have to go to the grocery store. I am going to walk into the store with a $100 budget, I will stick with that budget no matter what!

I need ideas from people. How do I get back on track? I need ideas, tips and motivation. Help this Frugal Midwest Mom get back to normal.

Friday

Tonight is a big deal in this house. It is my son's first school dance. I can't believe it! Of course, it is a middle school dance. It is 2 hours long and the cost of the ticket was $5.00. We were not required to buy him a new outfit, instead he will be wearing shorts to ward off the heat of an overflowing middle school cafeteria. Alec is very excited, he is going with his group of friends after having pizza at one of their homes.

My daughter, Hannah, will be at a birthday party tonight. It is not a sleepover, but will keep her busy during the active hours of a Friday evening. So, I find myself a bit excited at the prospect of having one child at home on a Friday while my others are out, socializing and having fun with their friends. I am excited, until I realize that I will have to leave my cozy home at 9:00 to pick up a group of sweaty, excited middle school boys at the same time the rest of our communities parents will be picking their own children up. Should be fun:)

Happy Friday!

Increased work hours

I have started to work more hours. I am grateful for the extra hours and time away from home. I have been a stay at home mom for 12 years. I started to work part time 2 years ago, working about 10 hours a week. I am now working 20 hours a week. This increased work schedule, thankfully, gets me out of the house from 10-4:30 three days a week.

I am so grateful for the extra hours. I am getting to the point of being completely bored at home. My kids do not need as much from me and a toilet can only be cleaned so much before it has been cleaned too much. For the most part, my household chores are caught up daily. My children are helping more and volunteering at the school now bores me. Work is good. I like the adult conversation. I like the extra money. Finally, I like having a reason to get out of my house every day. I am happy.