Author: darcee

Just one more Catholic wife and mother on the internet, blogging about homeschooling, living the faith and all that sort of thing.
Mary Mary and Martha · My world · Simplicity

Frugal in the News

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Being a frugal homemaker is news worthy.

 If you are anything like me the article isn’t ground breaking and is hardly even news.  Though it is kind of neat to see something positive about not spending money in the news.  One quote from the article “It really doesn’t matter what you make. It matters what you spend.”  So very true.  The illustrations of the family spending less than half the average American family on groceries and cruising yard sales for toys is fun, typical among my friends, but fun to read.

It brings to mind an article I read a while back about “green-moms” and how mind-boggling they make the old adage “use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”.  Thrifty living is essentially very “green” because it is based on the idea that less is more.    Or as I quoted in the above article, “You want to save the earth? Here’s a little hint. Don’t. Buy. Shit.”

I will make a little online confession here.  I love money.  I love to play with it, make budgets, see how far I can stretch some amount.  I really do enjoy money management and budgeting.  Yes, I know that makes me a part of a tiny minority, but I it isn’t something I apologize for because it serves my family so well.   I haven’t always been this way.  When I was younger I couldn’t spend my money fast enough.  But I have learned a lot since then and the skills I learned I am trying to pass on to my children.

Blogs I Know

Prayer Works

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One thing that has been on my prayer list for a while now has been Tricia and Gwyneth.  Gwyneth was born very premature and her mother, Tricia, has Cystic Fibrosis.  Yesterday Tricia received a desperately needed double lung transplant.  She is doing well so far.  But I know much of the blogging world is praying for her, for the donor’s loved ones and for baby Gwyneth and her daddy Nathan.

You can read about their journey here.

Autism · My world

Autism and CNN part two

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Since we don’t have cable we didn’t catch any of the spots that CNN did on autism yesterday.  Rachel had an appointment with her psychiatrist this morning and I spoke with one of her case workers.  We talked about autism in the media.  I am mostly annoyed at the way the media reports on autism in that what I see reported doesn’t reflect what I see in severely autistic young people, including my daughter.  Rachel’s caseworker is more annoy about how treatments are always “over promised”  leaving parents without the means  to try every new thing feeling as though they have failed their child.

CNN’s videos can be seen here.  It is  hard sometimes to watch parents talk about their autistic children.  All our situations are so different and yet there is this string that runs through so many of the stories.  Of course I identify with the parents who’s children are teens.   I wish though there could be a  few more stories about how very, very difficult it can be to deal with autism in the more sever forms.   Oddly enough Law and Order once had a show about abuse at a treatment center for autistic youth with self injurious behaviors.   I think this is the only time I have seen that end of the spectrum represented, and it wasn’t even represented that well.

40 bags of stuff. · Blogs I Know

40 bags of stuff

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40trashbags.jpg 

I was hit by a bit of inspiration last week over at  “In the Heart of My Home“.    That empty box says so much: Elizabeth has been busy getting rid of stuff.  I can’t help but want to follow her lead being that I am overwhelmed with stuff.  So I am issuing a challenge to myself (and anyone else who might care to join in) 40 bags of stuff out the door in 8 weeks.  It can be donated, tossed, handed down, recycled or otherwise disposed of, but it can’t stay here.  It can be clothing, papers, toys, things of any sort, but not the usual trash.

While I was thinking on this I figured that the size of the bag is up to you (I will be using the big kitchen size).  Some people have less stuff to de-junk and others have more so if you want to play along you might opt for a different size trash bag.   That sounds perfectly reasonable. 

I hope you join me and have fun.  As often as I can I will be posting updates here on my progress.

Autism · My world

Autism on CNN

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It appears this week that CNN is going to do the miraculous and pull down “The wall of silence around autism”. 

Now I will give you that my experience with autism has made autism very much “on the radar” for me, and I suppose there are some people out there who really haven’t heard about it all that much, but, despite the fact that raising the general awareness of autism is a good, I can’t help but be leery.   The media love to showcase autism cases where the autistic individual is relatively high functioning.  Now I could be wrong and we might see the whole spectrum represented, but I am not holding my breath.

My world

Getting back into the swing of things

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Kyle got a job.  It is a contract postion that should last through the summer, then — who knows?  But for now we have returned to life with me as the homemaker and he as the breadwinner and it has been a transition.  I hate not having him around all day, but I find that I get a great deal more done without him here.  More because I have to keep myself busy or I get a bit stir-crazy. 

The weather has been insane.  Hail, sleet, snow, sun, rain… all within a few hours.  This has made the outdoor playtime with the children all but impossible.