Life By Lindsey Rae

It's really, really cold today. And, it's gonna be really, really cold tomorrow. Tonight's low is supposed to be 0 degrees and that's the coldest it's been in 6 years. I guess that's why I don't remember it ever being this cold before. They've had a severe weather warning out for the past few days. (Although it seems like in Tennessee there is always a severe weather warning for something). I guess 0 degrees is really only about -18 Celsius. Having lived many years where we got down to -30 or below on a regular basis, -18 shouldn't seem so bad. Maybe it's the humidity making it so cold. Either that or I am loosing my Canadianess!

This past October, I took some plant cuttings for the first time.

I very much wanted to try to propagate some new plants and did a lot of research and reading about it before I started. I just wanted one to grow! Even just one I would have been happy.

I started with 27. Yesterday I was fixing to compost the last three of them that seemed to have not made it. These three had dropped their leaves so they didn't have much to keep them going. I threw out two of them and then was about to get rid of the last when I noticed that it had suddenly started to grow again! Can you see the little leaves starting to come out?


I was so surprised to see it and thought it was pretty neat that this little stick would stay alive.

So, it seems that out of those 27 I started, a total nine seem to have made it. I'm very happy with that result. Now, I just need to keep them alive and hope they will be able to survive after they are eventually transplanted outside.

First post of the new year.

Not much to say really. Just the usual going on around here. J has had a few days off for New Year's, which is nice. I get my days really mixed up when he is off, because I think it's the weekend when it's not. We had almost forgot about preparing our lessons for church because time just seems different when schedules aren't the same.

Church starts at 1:00 PM tomorrow for the rest of the year! Thank goodness! That early morning stuff is just not the way to go.

I think that I am going to start keeping track of all my savings from my new found couponing skills. I need to find figure out or find the best method for in a spread sheet. I know, I really hate shopping, but I love getting good deals.(Especially the free stuff). And I'm getting good at it!
I might blog it on a separate page.
I'm not as good at it as some at it, but I think you'd still be amazed at what a coupon can do when used correctly. Yesterday I got around $182 worth of stuff and paid about $5 after my savings. I think I could have got it down even a couple dollars more, but I forgot to used 2 coupons I had. That's always disappointing. (It's hard to keep it all straight sometimes). But, if I get enough good deals anyway, I might let it go.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. We did. It was pretty uneventful, however, as it was just the two of us at home all day. When you don't have any one else around, that's kind of how it goes; much like a normal day, I guess.
Christmas is a bit disappointing to me now that I am older, because, I feel like the commercialism of it is so terrible and discouraging. I almost wish we could just do it a different day and not have to participate with the rest of the world with all the ridiculousness that goes on. If we could keep it about what it is supposed to be about, that would be much more enjoyable. It almost feels like just another obligation when all you see is media saying we need to buy and buy and buy. This year, I thought it may have been extra bad, because on one hand I would hear the ads proclaiming all the things we "need" to buy and on the next, I kept hearing these stories on the news about people not being able to afford gifts because of the economy and then even that they were not able to get as much credit to buy gifts because of the economy! Crazy! I don't want to hear about it anymore. It would be much more enjoyable to turn on the TV and hear a story about Christmas and Jesus and not just Christmas and spending money.

But, speaking of presents and all that, I did get some good stuff. haha. I was excited. One thing I got (and just tried out today) was this compost tumbler. It has the ability, when used properly, to make compost in 14 days. That's not going to happen in this current climate, but, in the summer, it will be fun to get some compost for my yard. I like the idea of being able to reuse things (because I'm cheap). Plus, I've been doing lots of reading on composting recently and so I am ambitious about it. It would be exciting to get some benefits from it. I really enjoy watching the plants grow and it will be great to give them a little extra something so they can do better.

I would also like to try a small vegetable garden this year, so this will come in handy for that. Although, at this point, I don't have any idea where we would...or could...possibly put it. It may have to be more of a container garden for this first year, until we get the whole backyard completely figured out. The soil is so terrible and nothing but clay and gravel (and even some boulder sized rocks hiding under the first inch or so of dirt); I'll have to at least make a raised bed somewhere. I do have the one I've been working on recently, but I originally planned on making it a flower bed. So, I'm not sure. Anyway, whatever gets planted will now have compost to help it out!

Due to recent medical emergency in our household I have not had too much of a chance to post anything for awhile. I have been pretty busy lately with extra things. But, we are here and still alive and relatively well, all things considering.

And, I have recovered my missing diamond earing, which I thought I lost forever at the hospital. Not as important as just being here and alive, but, still good since it is always better to have two earings instead of one. :)

For Thanksgiving, Jerrod got me Cracker Barrel, which was pretty nice, because it's my favorite! hehe. Really. We brought it home, which was even better, because we didn't have to deal with all the people and could just hang out together and wear pajamas for dinner...or at least I could, since I didn't even have to go pick it up!

The weekend is over and I made out like a bandit with the sales. Nothing big and great; I mostly went to the drugstores and grocery stores and got a lot of free items with the sales. Actually, I profited on a lot of the things I bought, after I used coupons....In total, probably around $50-60. I mostly got a lot of hair and cosmetic products, soap, lotion, razors, chocolate bars, toothpaste, nail polish, cake mixes...those sorts of random things. I think in total, I got over $300.00 worth of free items and then got back nearly $130.00 in store reward dollars that are kind of like store coupons that can be used to buy any merchandise within the store....but expire...the unfortunate part. (The goal is to then take the store dollars and roll them into something else...by purchasing another item that will give you more rewards dollars. Only certain items do this that are special sales for the week or month. So, if they expire within 2 weeks to a month, and there is nothing that come up in that time, you end up not being able to roll them very well and not profit as much.) Anyway, anything I had to pay out of pocket (to cover tax on the free items or on the remaining balance on the nearly free items) I was able to pay with my gift cards that I had from store rewards for filling prescriptions at the pharmacy or by using previous rewards dollars that I'd saved up to use during the Thanksgiving/Black Friday sales.

I'm getting so sick of shopping! The problem is that I was sick of it before I started. But, what can I do? On top of the fact that there are things to get for Christmas, I also can't resist the fact that I now am aware of too many good deals and there is just too much things I know I can acquire for free or nearly free! I'd like to take advantage of that...it's nice to know you have extras of things you use so you don't have to buy it when you run out (and it's not on sale) and also, because I am hoping to donate some things to the food bank.
I read recently that the food bank is 80,000 lbs short on what they usually have or need to have or something like this. I don't know what it was exactly, but anyway, they need some donations.

But, I don't like going out in the traffic...and it's getting busy near my house, since we have the big retail area. And, I really don't like the customer service, or lack of it, that seems to be what you get at most places. I can only think of about 3 places that I actually feel they consistently have good service at. I feel like most places have more mean and grumpy people working there than usual right now! It's so frustrating to have to deal with that all the time. This makes a good argument for why a person should do their shopping online whenever possible.

Today at church, we sat beside someone who was a visitor, who seemed to be around the same age as myself. After sacrament meeting, we talked to him for a bit and asked him what had brought him to our church this morning. He said, he had found a copy of The Book of Mormon, laying there in a Goodwill store, and so he got it and brought it home.
He had never even spoke to the missionaries before or anything. He just found the Book of Mormon and had been reading it and decided to find the church and come! We introduced him to the missionaries after and I think they are going to be starting to teach him this week. We thought it was very neat. Jerrod and I talked after about how when these sort of things happen it shows us how the Lord truly does prepare people to hear the gospel and these things don't just happen by accident.
Jerrod joined our church when he was 18 because after reading The Book of Mormon, he gained a strong testimony of it's truthfulness. He felt that it, along with the Bible, really do testify of Christ. When he knew The Book of Mormon was true, he knew that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was also the true church. So, I think from his experiences, he really knows what a difference it can in peoples lives when they read it.

I would say I'm behind with keeping up with my postings, but I've already said it so many times before, I won't bother with that.

I am still sick...or more accurately, sick again.
I did start to get better and then my husband got whatever I had, gave it back, and now it seems I have it again. I did go to the doctor about a week ago, because I had to get a prescription refill and so I had her check me out then. However, this was when I was getting better and so there wasn't much for her to find. She gave me some antibiotics in case I did get worse, but said not to take them unless I needed to. I do think it's just a cold and I don't really want to fill it if it's not going to help. I'm just run down from it now. I have this cough and it's making me feel like there is a brick on my chest.

Anyway, in other, better news, I have been utilizing my money-saving skills recently. Although I've considered myself "cheap" for a long time, I am now figuring out how to really save money by combining sales with coupons in the right way at the right time. It's a lot of work, but boy, do I get a lot of free stuff! The last couple weeks there has been a good sale at Kroger, so I tried to stock up on some groceries. I went 3 times to the grocery store and the first time, I paid around $1.70 for almost $20 worth of groceries. The second time and third time combined, they ended up paying me a dollar to get over $150 worth of stuff. I have to say, I did a pretty good job with my shopping last week.
This week there is a good deal on Duracell batteries at CVS and I got $60 worth of them free. That's pretty useful. Who doesn't always need extra batteries?

Some things are hard to save on...fresh foods, like milk and bread and fruits and vegetables....the perishable stuff is more difficult, but, I think getting a stockpile of non-perishable things is really beneficial:
It's good to have extra stuff for food storage. Our church has recommended for a long time that we have extra things on hand, in case of emergency. Also, it's nice to have things for when they ask people to donate stuff, when our church does projects and that sort of thing. And also, I think, occasionally the library collects stuff for the food bank and in turn, for every item you bring in, you get a dollar towards your overdue fees. So, I have to stockpile for this. hahaha.

My husband thinks I am a bit crazy about my money saving ideas sometimes. I know I put more effort into it than the average person, but I can't help it!
I could be the richest person in the world and I think I would probably still be cheap. It's like, if I know there is a possibility that I could get something for less and I don't, then I'm being wasteful and throwing something good away. I'm starting to think being frugal is a talent...you have to have the desire to want to do it and then you have to have the skills! haha. It does get tricky with the sales and coupon combination things sometimes. But, the good thing is, there are a LOT of crazy coupon ladies out there who figure out the deals and post them online. So, for the most part, all the math is done. Now, math...is not my talent.

When we came home from our Arizona trip, we saw that one of our rose bushes had suddenly grown about 8 inches taller and was loaded up with lots more flowers. I took this picture about 2 weeks ago, but forgot to post it. But, most of the blossoms are still there, just not so vibrant as they were when they first opened.

Maybe it's just the Canadian coming out in me, but I'm so surprised to have so many roses still at this time of year! I had no idea that they could go so long.

This is a Kiss Kordana Miniature rose. (Although, it's not very small!) We have two of them that we bought this past year. They are really great! Such a nice color and since we planted them in May, they have grown into "monsters," as my husband says. I want some more for next year now!