Not So SAHM

Friday 13: Regularly Scheduled Maintenance

There are several blogs I read that have lists throughout the week of varying lengths. So, I thought I’d play along and start my own list. Mine will be The Friday 13. Get it?

For my first time I decided to make a list of some things we should be doing regularly but may forget to do. These aren’t in any particular order.

THE FRIDAY 13: REGULARLY SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE

Check the batteries in your smoke detectors. This should be done about every 30 days. Du has this scheduled in his Outlook calendar for each month. He also has a stick that will easily reach the detectors. Make it as easy for you to do as possible so you’ll do it.

Flip your mattress. If yours is one that can be flipped then here’s the schedule as per the Queen of Clean: Every three months as follows: Spring and Summer — Flip side-to-side. Fall and Winter — Flip from end to end.

Update your will.First of all, if you don’t have a will go schedule an appointment and get one drawn up as soon as possible. You want to have control of where your assets go, especially children, when you die. You don’t want your loved ones to have to deal with that heartache while they’re suffering over your loss. Your will should be reviewed every couple of years. If a major, life-changing event has occured then it needs to be updated. Life-changing events: marriage, divorce, death (of someone named in your will), children, buying property, etc. We even have who should get our cats if we both go at the same time. I have never done one of those online will programs. Do that at your own risk. I would suggest finding a lawyer and drawing one up legally for your state.

Check the expiration dates on your medicine.We do this about once a year but should probably do it more often. You want to keep your medicine up to date just in case it’s late one night, your stomach is all gnarly and you’d really like to take some Pepto to ease the suffering but you check the expiration of the stuff you have and it’s gone…really gone and you have to suffer through the night with a gnarly stomach. I’m just saying it could happen. It’s been said to flush your meds down the toilet, but after I received an article from a good friend about how public water systems have all kinds of trace meds in them (and only one reason is from medicine being flushed) I don’t think we’ll be flushing ours any more.

Throw out old makeup. Along the same lines as the above. It’s hard to remember when I purchased some of my lipsticks. I’m sure some of them are older than Reagan. That’s so gross as I type it out, I’m going to take a break now and go throw them away. And really I don’t even use them any more. They’re sitting pretty in my “lipstick bin” waiting for that one night where I need that exact color. But old makeup can lose its effectiveness and even grow bacteria. Pimples…infections, not something you’re wanting from something that’s supposed to make you look better. Here are general guidelines:

*When Should I Throw My Old Cosmetics Out?*

Now, along with makeup comes the applicators. If you use a sponge it should be replaced each week. Brushes? Wash them often. Different sources advise various lengths between cleanings: from washing them between every use to once a month. It needs to be done though ladies.

6. Get your car serviced. There’s lots of oil, liquids, computer parts, and mechanical thingies in cars. Don’t wait until yours is sputtering, overheating and every light on the dashboard is lit until it’s seen by a professional or by someone who claims to know what they’re doing. I’m no expert at this (who am I kidding, I’m not even a person of limited knowledge) but I do know that every car comes with a manual. That manual will tell you how often you should have maintenance done.

7. Go through your filing cabinet. Oh. I forgot. You’re not married to Du. You should have some sort of system for filing, organizing and maintaining bills, documents and other important papers. We go through these once a year, usually right after we do taxes. Or whenever we can schedule it in. But you can’t wait too many years or you’ll be busting at the seams. We keep anything that’s tax related (investments, accounts, business stuff, etc) for seven years. Regular credit card bills, utility bills, etc we keep for a year. If we close out an account we keep the last bill or statement with a zero balance to prove it was closed out. Once you’re done with paperwork shred it. I didn’t really have to tell you that right?

8. Run a credit check. Or better yet, subscribe to a service like LifeLock. If you choose to protect yourself You can get a free copy of your credit report once a year from each of the three major agencies. Make sure everything in each is correct and that there’s nothing fishy.

9. Monthly Breast Self Exam. Once a month. The Mayo Clinic recommends performing them a week after your period begins. Here’s a great how-to explanation.

10. Check your children’s play equipment. Do this regularly to make sure there are no missing parts, broken pieces, eye-impaling hazards. Test their playground equipment outside to make sure it’s still sturdy and that there aren’t any huge splintered pieces of wood…or spiders crawling around in corners. Know which toys have been recalled. Here’s a link to recalls. Here’s a link if you’re interested in buying things Not China Made.

11. Review your budget. Once again, I realize you’re not married to Du so I don’t expect you to have the extensive and all-encompassing budget that we do (btw, if you want a blank copy to use I’m sure he wouldn’t mind emailing you one). BUT YOU SHOULD HAVE ONE. That being said your budget should be reviewed at least annually, and definitely with any change in income, expense or investment. If you’re just getting your budget up and running a monthly review would be helpful to get everything hashed out.

12. Review child safety. Check to see if any sexual predators live in your area. These folks move around. So your safe neighborhood of a year ago may have changed. Family Watchdog is a good site. Have the latest info of your child easily accessible: latest picture, fingerprints, DNA swab…Check here and here for info on doing this. Review with your children the safety procedures they should know.

13. Review your fire escape plan. Ok, we have never done this. We’re bad. Maybe I’ll make it a priority to do this weekend. You never know when it will happen to you. This isn’t the time of year for lots of house fires, but you always want to be prepared. Here’s some good info on home fires and escape plans. While you’re at it watch this video about what NOT to do with a kitchen fire:

Come back next week for my next “Friday 13”.

Blog Settings and Feed Readers

Otherwise entitled: Should You Have Your Setting Set To Show Only A “Teaser” Amount Of Your Post In An Aggregator So People Will Be Forced To Go To Your Blog To Read The Rest? (But that was way too long for the real title).

Open letter to all you bloggers out there. Especially to the bloggers that I read:

To my wonderful co-bloggers,

I love the blogosphere. I like both writing my own posts and reading yours. Your posts (whether funny or serious; short and to the point or long and detailed) give me new insights to…well, whatever it is you’re writing about. I want to ready everything you have to say on whatever you’re saying. BUT (there’s always a but isn’t there), I have so many blogs to read, and other real chores to do in life, that I do not always have time to actually venture over to your blog to read the whole post.

This is where your blog settings become very important–to you and to me. If you set your blog to only show a snippet of your post in my feed reader it is highly unlikely that I’m going to continue reading the whole thing over at your blog. Unless your catch line is absolutely catchy (offering me a million dollars or guaranteed free shoes) I just don’t have the time to click over.

As I write this I am subscribed to about 75 feeds. I read my subscriptions in Outlook 2007. Being able to read posts in my email program is pretty darn convenient. I don’t even have to open up my internet and then go to my feed reader to read my subscriptions. The posts come directly to me in my email. So, do you understand why it’s frustrating for me to have to go through several more steps to get to a complete post?

Don’t get me wrong. I do want to visit your blog. But I want to visit it on my own time. I know that most of you care about what your blog page looks like. I feel the same way and am wondering how to get people to visit my actual blog on occasion instead of just reading my posts in a reader. And I want to get an accurate count of readers. I’m not going to make my readers jump through hoops though. They’d stop reading. Maybe once I’m famous and a household name I’ll provide only teaser intros and force everyone to visit my actual blog.

I know I’m not the only one out there that feels this way. Are you losing readers because you don’t allow your whole post to show? Please reconsider your blog settings and make me and a lot of other readers happy!

Signed,

Your faithful reader (when it’s complete in my inbox)

Look at you, you have a baby…in a bar…

Sweet Home Alabama – Look At You

Yes, going back to my southern roots I did play out that scene from Sweet Home Alabama last Friday. As Lurlynn. Not Melanie. Truth be told. There were several differences though:

I was dressed snappier than Lurlynn
It wasn’t really a bar bar
It was during the day. It started out during the day.
We don’t regularly take our children to drinking establishments and just hang out. Wait, we don’t regularly go to drinking establishments.

Now here’s the whole truth:

We were at the “Club” for Du’s farewell ceremony. This began at a respectable 3pm. It did however take place in the bar area of the “Club” because of a double booking of the “Club”. Fortunately at 3pm our farewell party was the only party wanting to use that part of the “Club”, but it didn’t stay that way for long.

Du’s boss, we’ll call him “The Colonel”, had ordered the hors d’oeuvres, a massive cake and had opened a tab for everyone there at the moment. People must have smelled the free food and drink because they kept popping their heads in during the whole ceremony. Like there still isn’t work to be done on a Friday afternoon before quittin’ time (if you know what profession Du’s in you know both answers…email me, I’ll tell you). His speeches about each departee were eloquent, motivating, honoring, and best of all, short. This was good for various reasons.

One–people did keep popping their heads in wondering when we’d be done so they could use the room for what it was intended. Two–kids were actually invited to this event, which means Ashlyn was there. Is that enough said? No? Let’s make it a little bit clearer. Ashlyn is the girl that is either really happy or really upset. She is the girl that I thought would take a nap on the 13 minute drive to the “Club” so she’d be refreshed and at her best, but instead decided to miraculously stay awake on that 13 minute drive. She is the girl that tends to get spastic right before she crashes when she’s tired in public. Need we revisit the plane episode? So spastic Ashlyn was garnering some of the attention “The Colonel” should have been getting during his speeches. I hope he doesn’t remember that when it comes time to write Du’s promotion recommendation…

So, the official ceremony ends and we’re free to mingle. In rush the multitude of bar goers who begin chowing down on the free food and cake. I think The Colonel closed his tab before any damage could be done.

All in all it was a fun and uneventful afternoon/evening (unlike the movie). Reagan enjoyed playing crud with another child who was “in the bar” too. And Ashlynactually spent most of the time passed out in her stroller. I think it actually was better that she stayed awake on the drive over. It didn’t look as red-neckish to have her sleeping in the stroller off in a corner instead of writhing in my arms knocking peoples’ drinks out of their hands.

We did manage to leave a sippie cup and a pink Barbie cell phone on one of the tables in the bar. Having to go claim a sippie and a Barbie cell phone from the “Club” was less embarrassing than expected. Seeing that it was the lunch hour there was no one in there to give us a hard time and make us buy a round for breaking “Club” etiquette.

Well, if that’s the only time my life will play out like a movie then I’m lucky. Right?

Social Networking Should be an Extreme Sport

EDITED TO ADD MORE NETWORKS I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT…

Y’all, I’m tired. I’m trying to keep up with all these different social networking sites and it’s draining me of all my energy. There’s nothing relaxing about trying to keep up with yourself and everyone else on a dozen different websites. What info should I divulge? Who should I let be my friend? Should I actually list my real city and age and gender? I have two major motivations and several minor ones for trying to keep up with every single social networking site I can find.

MAJOR MOTIVATIONS

I’d love to promote Sew Petit for free as much as I can. I’m hoping that when readers come to this blog they’ll not only get a healthy dose of my neuroses life experiences, but also will click on that cute little button on the top right over there in the side column and check out all that cute little merchandise I have for sale there. What?!?! You haven’t done that yet? Go ahead…the rest can wait…
I’m desperate to keep up with technology so I’ll be up to date when my girls start becoming technologically savvy. I don’t want to be left out and left behind when it comes to knowing what they’re into and what they’re up against.

MINOR MOTIVATIONS

I enjoy blogging, especially (and I really should put this one as a major motivation), and all the other voyeuristic mechanisms out there that allow me to be up to speed with about a million people yet responsible to none of them (more about that later).
It’s fun.
uh, when I think of more I’ll add them.

BUT I FEEL LIKE I’M SWIMMING UPSTREAM!

I can’t keep up! Here’s what involved with right now:

MySpace
Facebook
MyChurch
YouTube
My own blog
Family Website
Business Website
Twitter
Netvibes
Flickr
Digg
HubPages
Blogher
I was on Nowheremen until I went on vacation and totally lost touch
StumpleUpon
Team Sugar
Cafe Mom

I’m sure there’s more that I’m forgetting and have probably forgotten my user id and password. And I’m sure there are thousands that I’m missing out on. But I can’t get enough! For some reason I feel the need to set up an account with any and every website that has a social aspect to it.

HERE’S THE PROBLEM

I am losing touch with the people I should be networking with the most: my neighbors. My next door neighbor’s wife passed away on 17 December. Know when I found out? 4 months later… That’s pathetic. I hadn’t seen them since the summer probably. They’re my next door neighbors!! And I’m worried about keeping up with you folks. What is wrong with this picture!?!? We do take part in many of the social outings that our neighborhood puts together. But there are some people on my street that don’t participate in those. I cannot tell you their names, their jobs, their kids’ or their dogs’ names.

In my opinion internet social networking is allowing us to do what we want to do–become more social (i.e. be more liked)–without having to do much actual feet-to-the-ground work. It’s much easier to post cute posts and random sayings on the internet. It’s much harder to actually talk to someone and try to be their friend in person.

THE SOLUTION

The obvious solution would be for me to get off my sorry butt, bake some brownies and go introduce myself to some neighbors. But I won’t do that here. We’re leaving in two months and that would be a little weird…”Hi, I’m Vicki. I’m moving shortly but can we be friends before I move?”. This will be my goal for our new neighborhood. To make real-live friends that have real-live lives that I can interact in. And if I stick my foot in my mouth then I can always come back here and lament to my million friends that I’ve never seen before.

Do you feel the same as I do? What social networking sites are you involved in that I haven’t listed? (See how I sneakily add that in so I can fall deeper into my habit?).

A Relaxing Saturday

Last week Reagan announced that she wanted to have a tea party. Not totally paying attention (because she talks a lot) I’m sure I gave my approval. She proceeded to write two invitations and get Grandma Dee to help her address and mail them.

So today she had her tea party. To get ready she “helped” Mommy make sugar cookies and sweet tea. Let me explain “helping”. She dumps all the ingredients in the bowl; she stirs for all of 10 seconds and then begins to complain that it’s too hard to stir. So I finish stirring and show her how far apart the little dough balls should be because she’s going to scoop them all onto the cookie sheet. She scoops and dumps for about two minutes and then starts to complain about how hard that is. I, wanting to have the kitchen all to myself, allow her to leave to “get ready”…even though the “party” isn’t until 2pm. The sweet tea is left for me to prepare as well.

I am able to get just enough done today (while adding in a good amount of relaxing) so I don’t feel totally lazy and slothful. One can’t be that slothful when there isn’t a tv to watch, really. Half the day is spent assuring Reagan that 2pm will indeed arrive soon, just be patient. Let’s see, I updated the Spouses’ Club website, finished up the bills, returned some videos, finished up the laundry, finished selling all of my baby items from the yard sale (God is good even in the little things), etc., etc. No sewing, only some prep on an apron I want to make.

Reagan’s friends came over and spent all of five minutes at the table having their “tea”. They spent the next four hours doing girly things both indoors and outside. Ashlyn was very well behaved today too so I had it pretty easy.

We broke in the grill for the first time this season! We had steaks, grilled veggies and twice baked potatoes. Here’s to many more nights of grilling and back deck dining.

I realized the Kentucky Derby was today and I spent a little bit of time trying to find a way to watch it live on the internet. No joy. I’m glad I didn’t see it too after finding out what happened after the race. I really enjoy watching the Derby each year. I can never remember when it’s going to be, somehow I manage to find out in the nick of time. I never know the horses’ names or their standings, and I will never understand the logic behind the “odds”. I’m glad I’m not a gambler. I love just picking a horse and watching the race and then calling it a day for another year. What upset me is what seems to be the easy attitude with how they euthanize a horse if it gets hurt. I understand a little bit about how hard some injuries can be on horses. But, if this horse was in her top condition, then why did her ankles break? Are they run that much harder on race day? Why treat an animal like this? I have no clue how the horse race world is run and how the horses are treated. I would imagine they would be treated like royalty since that’s what kind of money they bring for their owners. So to euthanize this horse immediately after her injury just breaks my heart. I’m more of a softy for animals than for humans (I must work on that, but we’re all desensitized to violence against humans because of the media). This horse was just doing her job. She was trying her hardest and somehow managed to break her ankles. Couldn’t they have sedated her and put her in some kind of sling until her ankles could heal? Didn’t they do something like that with Barbaro a couple of years ago? He lived for a little while longer. I’m frustrated at how easily they can get rid of her after she tried so hard. She had no more to give them, I guess. And did the revelry continue?

Here’s an article that explains it a little bit to me: Kentucky Derby runner-up Eight Belles is euthanized after race . At least they talk about her here like they’re upset.

Anyway, sorry about that. I didn’t even think I’d write about that. It bothers me.

I hope your Saturday was just as relaxing, without the sadness of animal murder though.

Weird Food Combinations

There are certain combinations of foods & foods and drink that just go together. Like a match made in heaven you almost can’t have one without the other.

Case in point: popcorn and Raisinettes (or M&Ms, preferably peanut). The sweet and salty mix is a combination that God Himself must sit down to enjoy every Sabbath.

Another example: anything grilled with a beer. That charbroiled flavor couldn’t be washed down by anything better than a nice cold one. There must be something about that wheat-ish flavor that smooths any harsh burnt taste from the grill.

Here’s where I get a little weird interesting though. One of my faves, that I can remember liking even as a kid, is cheese and. . .coke. I know! Really, don’t knock it before you try it though. I’m sitting here eating brie because I’m wanting to be all healthy and stuff (please don’t tell me brie isn’t healthy for me. It’s a lot better than cheese curlz) and I get this overwhelming urge to sip on some coke. I guess the intriguing mix here would be, what, culture and white trash? Both meeting up knowing it’s wrong but it tastes oh so right? I’m hoping it’s more like the smoothness and slight brininess of the cheese begs for a complement of carbonation and sweetness.

My love of cheese and coke began as a girl. I must have been snack hungry, searching through the fridge and saw the sliced cheese. Noting that there wasn’t anything more convenient at the moment I unwrapped a slice and began noshing. Then I must have taken a sip of the ever present coke and the weird interesting combination began. I can recall certain moments in my life when I’m grabbing for that sliced cheese and realize that the snack would not be complete without the coke. I can actually remember those times.

My tastes are changing slightly. I’ve upgraded from sliced cheese to brie, although in a pinch I know the slices are always there…never getting old or molding or anything like cheese really should. You can’t upgrade from Coke though. I’ve reached the pinnacle with that soft drink.

Anyway, I digress…So what are your weird food combinations that you secretly enjoy? And don’t tell me you don’t have any. Liar. Go ahead, spill your guts here. I may even try it and let you know what I think. Provided it’s not monkey brains boiled in milk or something like that. If it is I will require you to submit a video showing yourself eating it. And try my cheese and coke. I bet you’ll like it.