Quotables: On Living

We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living.

--Thuch Nhat Hanh

So very true!  So very sad.....

This is one of my personal weakness, and it just sucks the joy out of life when it gets out of hand.  It's a big pitfall for all of us uber-frugal folk.

Garden 2015 Begins!

Yesterday we started seeds indoors--leeks and lavender!

Weekly Round-Up

Since my last weekly round up I....

.... saw my darling baby sister Rachel star as Wild Cat Katie Brown in a melodrama.

... finished up a little-known Agatha Christie novel that I really enjoyed called Crooked House.

... enjoyed hosting the John and Susan for munchies and Ticket To Ride - Europe, even though we lost mighty!

... made a Shutterfly coupon book with Mom.

... did some crafting with the lovely Elizabeth--I'm still working on that book for Alex!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Cost of Contacts for a Year

I was curious how much contact solution I go through in a year, so I wrote the date on the bottle when I started using it:

I finished it off this week.

So since it lasted 7.5 weeks, that means I need to buy a bottle roughly 7 times a year.  At $9.27 a bottle and 52 weeks in a year, that means I spent about $64.89 a year on solution.  That's really not that much.  But if I spend the same amount on the cleaner, I might want to see how much it would cost to get an updated prescription for my glasses.

This obviously isn't a solution to all of your financial problems.  But it would be an easy way to figure out how much you spend a year on everything from cereal to toothpaste.  If you are trying to decide if you want to make your own _________, this might be a useful exercise.

New Beard Oil Video

Here's what my Handsome Husband has been up to:

(Psst!  If you watch all the way to the end, it moves him up in the search results for YouTube!  A happy thought!)

So there's your bit of Entrepreneurial Eye Candy for the day :)

Sunday Thoughts: Lent

My favorite insight about Lent came from a total stranger.

Someone had offered him cookies, and he said, "No thank you--I gave up sweets for Lent.  So I'll just say, 'Thank you, Jesus.'"

Lent is also, of course, about disciplining the will.  But in addition, if every time I do my Lenten penance, I remember and am grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, then it will be a fruitful Lent.

Saturday Cleaning

I've taken so many BEFORE photos of chaos lately that it's starting to bug me that I don't have any AFTER photos to post!

So today, I'm cleaning/organizing.  I can't take it any more!  Wish me luck..... :)

(If you never see me again, you know that the dust bunnies ganged up on me and finished me off.)