Tweaking

I am adding a link to http://everytingirey.blogspot.com/ on my blog. A friend who is a young mother covers a wide range of topics in her recently started blog, but currently is focused on focusing doctor’s orders that her toddler wear a helmet. Check it out.

I have been getting an email newsletter “Keep Your Marriage” for several years. Can’t say I always heed its advice, but it has some good tips this week about how to let your spouse know you love him. http://www.keepyourmarriage.com/KYM_Ezine/Ezine_Volume_6/Ezine_V6_38.htm

Check it out. It covers little things you can do to make your spouse feel special. Don’t forget you reap what you sow.

I also received an email today that talks about how some people are taking out divorce insurance. I’ve done a little wedding photography on the side and as someone with a small house I think I could just about chuck the majority of the wedding negatives and pics. The honeymoons (and weddings) are over.

For those on the iffy side when tying the knot, they may want to check out the marriage insurance plan at http://www.wedlockdivorceinsurance.com/(X(1)S(iw0iv1evduz3yum1rytkbtko))/index.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

It costs about $16 a month for every $1,250 of coverage.

It’s time for the cash registers to ring as college students buy their books. I found a website that I used a lot in finding textbooks for my stepdaughter’s classes. www.abebooks.com offers a great chance for price checks. I’ve also used to to find bargain basement prices on books that I’ve loved and lost or ones that have been recommended to me. Recently, I used it to replace a “Yoga in 30 Days” book I lost and also to find a book about hospice that I found very helpful during my mom’s illness. I probably paid more for shipping than I did the books.

For anyone who hasn’t discovered it, Plato’s Closet is a great way to quickly clean out the teenager’s closet and pocket some cash. Located at 2220 Nicholasville Road in Lexington, it takes namebrand clothing and turns over the cash. The store is floor to ceiling with jeans, so your teenager probably will quickly spend any cash they receive, but at least they will pay $20 for a pair of shorts or jeans as opposed to the $40 price tag  in the mall.

I also was pleased to discover that the store is located between a store catering to elementary school children and one for career clothing for women. I didn’t find any career clothing I wanted, but I did score a $7.50 pair of khakis for my middle-school age son.

Just because Plato’s Closet is for a younger clientele doesn’t mean it doesn’t offer some misses sizes. I was in need the day I went there because the cheap plastic zipper in my pants broke. I found an $8 pair of Old Navy khakis that I’ve worn a lot.

I shopped while they determined the price I would receive for the bag of my daughter’s clothing I had brought. When I received $32 for the jeans that had just been sitting in the closet, I thought it beat sitting at a yard sale for hours on end.

As you head out looking for some new school duds, it’s worth checking out this store. I just received an email that the store is having a grab bag sale Sept. 4 You stuff as many clearance items as possible in a bag for $20. Sounds interesting.

For more info, visit, http://www.platoscloset.com/

I’ve been at the hospital a lot lately because my mom had a heart attack. She was on a ventilator and my vocabulary now includes words like exacerbate. I don’t even want to guess what the bill for the hospital stay will be. Even though we never wanted my mom to live in a nursing home, we’re looking into it. Prices range from $4,000 to $6,000 a month. That’s some heavy duty rent. Just thought I’d put that on the table for people who have never had to venture into this territory.

As far as getting through the sorrow of seeing my mom living with the help of machines, I’ve relied a lot of on the advice of a friend of mine who worked with hospice. She told me about a book, “The Final Gift,” and I have ordered it from one of my favorite online book places, abebooks. I am expecting it at the bargain price of $1 for the book and $3 for shipping. If you’re coping with the last stages of your parents’ or loved ones’ lives, I will share my thoughts with you about this book.

I just returned from a trip for a friend’s wedding in Louisiana. Some of you may know Liz Maples, who used to work as a reporter at The Advocate. My husband prefers the backroads, so with our trusty atlas aboard, we set out on the 900-mile journey.

We wound up in Natchez, Miss., for the night and LOVED it. I’ve not been to Charleston, S. C., but I think the two cities are similar in their antebellum homes and trees dripping with moss. Except Natchez sits on the mighty

Mississippi River and Charleston borders the Atlantic. I highly recommend a visit here. Don’t skip a visit to Fat Mama’s for tamales.

I am a lover of the magazine Real Simple and for back roads lovers like my husband, here is a recommended route not too far from central Kentucky.

The Route: Columbus, Indiana, to New Harmony, Indiana, via mostly state highways, offers gorgeous scenery (national forest, the Wabash River), friendly and inviting small towns, numerous covered bridges, and attractions like Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home.

My husband likes motorcycle trips and this may be a new one to explore.

Oh, in packing, here is a tip: with shampoo, cover the top with plastic wrap to avoid spills.

That cute green truck is coming to this area. Just got this email from Windstream about the Windstream Lifetime Tour coming to Somerset and Campbellsville. Here is the scoop:

Windstream team will bring its iconic 1953 green pickup and a free barbeque to the Windstream Retail Store on North Main Street  in Somerset 11 am. to 2 p.m. Friday.  Then, Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m., they will be at the Taylor County Fair in Campbellsville. At the tour, families can play a giant Plinko game for the chance to win some amazing prizes. Windstream is also offering the opportunity to sign up for the Windstream Lifetime Price Guarantee, which guarantees a locked-in rate on high-speed Internet and unlimited nationwide calling for life.

Thursday, as a prelude to the Lifetime Tour, the Windstream team will be showering Somerset residents with random acts of kindness. Keep your eye out for our reps paying for people’s gas, running residents’ errands and more!

You can also visit www.lifetimetour.com.

We joke that we have a drive-in movie theater in our front yard. My husband build an 8-foot tall by 24-foot wide wall for our son to kick soccer against.

It’s painted white and we really need to test its usefulness as a screen. On the to-do list.

But in the meantime, I spent a little while tonight kicking it. While I’m still pretty humorous to watch, it feels pretty good to sock it to that wall a few times.

Stress reliever warmup before the movie.

I just wanted to give a heads up about a coupon swap event. Sharon Williams, who blogs about great ways to save money at www.reallifedeals.com is hosting this at 5:30 p.m. June 8 at The Advocate-Messenger.

Bring coupons to swap  even the expired ones to send to military families. She is a wealth of information about how to save money and she plans to share many tips. I’m think her offer of “basic coupon organization tips” might be useful as too many times I cart around piles of coupons.

My little red hen self surfaced the other night as I was picking strawberries. Every leaf I pulled up revealed a ripe, red berry. “All this from 10 plants,” I thought as I went to grab another container. These Little Shop of Horror wannabes reached out shoot after shoot of vines. Their beauty was just blinding. They glistened in the sun. I know that’s a little much, but I’m pretty proud. This is my first strawberry crop.
But why haven’t I been doing this all along? I’ve made weak attempts. Last year’s were met with a meager one berry per person each evening. Maybe an extra one to fuss over or tip the scales in politeness and offer it to the others.
A friend, co-worker and gardener extraordinare offered me the plants and now I am as they say enjoying the fruits of my labor. The only trouble is now the harvesting, cleaning and preserving of the berries is upon me. I will have to enlist the worker bees in my hive.
I guess I should be glad as I have so rarely had to worry about storing excess produce. (Do not forget last year was a one-berry-per-person yield.) I also must brag that I recently found it necessary to stir up a shortcake to use some of the excess.
Delight.
Not even the fact that the only whipped topping in the house had sat more than its due in the freezer. The faint taste of freezer burn could not overshadow those delicious berries and their juice soaked into that sponge cake. It is a recipe of my grandmother’s. She taught it to my mom and it can’t be beat.
I attempted to share it with a fourth generation, my daughter. To her credit, she did help harvest the berries and fix them and it was way more fun that the little red hen method.
I suggested she share our wealth in berries with friends at a cookout. She gave the smallish cake a second go around, but something flummixed to borrow one of my dad’s terms. It looked like an uncooked egg had landed in its center. She’s usually a great cook so I’m not sure how to chalk this up. My was pretty darn good and just like I remembered from my childhood days.

I don’t know if I’ll get any jam made, but I do know it was good to revive that cake recipe. Yum.

I’ll share it soon.