After the storm

Great color combination

January deals - Part 2

I really believe we should start saving our money and all go shopping together in January.  I found another great deal.  It was at Target, where there are many deals to be had, but this particular deal was a "big name designer" collaboration.

This dress is perfectly puffy and a beautiful color for my blondies.  And as a bonus, the designer is -

My daughter knew exactly who is behind the name Marchesa, because we watch Georgina Chapman judge Project Runway All-Stars every week.  The only problem was that when I first saw it, the dress was priced at $79.99.  A little much for a little girl.  Last week, it was 40% off.  Better price, but it's "dry clean only".  This week, I decided I was going to buy it anyway, because I knew my daughter would love it.  Bonus time - it was on clearance for $23.  Sold and sold.  Now, both of my girls will be wearing Marchesa for Target at their next fancy outing.

January deals

I have always found January to be the best time to shop.  Clothing stores have amazing after-Christmas sales.  Of course, I will miss out on that opportunity this year.  However, I just found another place for great deals in January - ebay!

I bought my youngest daughter a brand new ipod nano for Christmas.  After spending many frustrating hours working on it, I finally accepted the fact that it is not compatible with our computer.  I realized that I was going to have to find find an old ipod.  A friend suggested I try ebay. I went online. There are so many ipods for sale on ebay.  I don't know why I didn't go there in the first place.

It arrived today.  Looks like new.  And was MUCH cheaper than the one I originally bought at Target.  It's nice to get some money back after Christmas.

(By the way, if you are as frustrated with iTunes as I was, you can use Windows Media Player for your music by following the instructions on this website.)

One month left

I started my "year of not buying clothes" 11 months ago.  (I know a lot of you think it is over today, but I started on February 1.)  I didn't intend to make it a protest against consumerism, but I have learned a lot about my consumer tendencies during this process.  I thought that not buying clothes would make me feel like I didn't have a lot of clothes, but it has done the opposite.  It has magnified the amount of stuff I already have.  We all gasp at the "hoarders" they show on TV, but maybe all Americans are hoarders to some degree.  This just came out of our basement -

And this is only the broken stuff!  We have already given away two van loads full of the good stuff.  And we aren't finished yet!  How did we have this much stuff in our basement?  Our basement is not very big.

I think I rely too much on my stuff for comfort, for memories, and as a storehouse for the future.  "I might need that one day."  I am getting rid of everything that I say that about.  I can live with less resources and make it work.  I have a vision of a streamlined closet, house, and life!  (Well, maybe life can never be too streamlined, but at least I won't have so much stuff in the way.)

On a lighter note...

We graffitied our hallway.

At just the right time...

That is one of my favorite quotes from the Bible.  "...at just the right time..."  Because I am a very impatient person, I repeat this phrase to myself a lot.  I have learned that when events happen "at just the right time" they are much better than when they happen "at just the wrong time."  And speaking of timing, we have still not started construction on our kitchen.  I thought we would be finished by now.  I know two families that started their kitchens at the same time we did and have now completed theirs.  We are still tweaking our design.

I went to visit a countertop distributor this past week and was reminded by Melvin, the stone cutter, of another great phrase - "If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."   We started out by discussing the fact that the countertops I have selected are out of stock until June 2013.  He told me a story about recently buying a house and offering the seller a significantly lower price than he was asking.  Melvin said his realtor told him there was no way the seller would take the offer.  Melvin responded, "If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."  And do you know what happened?  The guy took the offer.  Melvin went on to tell me, "The God we serve is strong enough to bring to pass whatever he wants to happen."  I thought to myself, "We aren't talking about countertops anymore, are we?"

But we were.  I continue to run into glitches in our kitchen process, and in order to keep the right perspective, I have to say to myself, "If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."  God only knows if we will ever get past the design phase, but if we do, it will be "at just the right time."