To Garage Sale or Not?

That is the question.

I didn't make a whole lot of $ on last year's sale, but in the end, I was up a couple hundred bucks, and down a whole bunch of crap in my house. That's a pretty good deal.

But now I don't have as much left to sell. No more furniture, for example. I do have a lot of toys, but many of them are things that Lauren still plays with occasionally (a Cozy Coupe car, tons o' Fisher-Price Little People). I could probably make a real killing if I waited until next year. But I'd like to get rid of the treadmill ASAP (I'd rather just go for walks, and I have other things I'd like to put in that space in the bedroom).

Another drawback to a garage sale is our neighbor. He apparently has Alzheimer's, and is constantly over, asking the same questions, telling the same "jokes." I feel sorry for him, but he actually walked into my house unannounced last year. He thought he was helping (by bringing some stuff in), but it doesn't change that it was over the line.

Hmm . . . maybe Craigslist.com is a better solution for the treadmill . . .

Renewed Enthusiasm

Last week was the end of my morning class, and although I know that the cutback in income with hurt, I am so happy to have my mornings again! Well, most of my morning. I do have my ESL student this Friday, but that's only a couple hours.

Yesterday and today, I've had a big upswing in enthusiasm for getting things done. I'm making inroads on the laundry, which really got out of hand, and I've got a budget in place for next month. I want us to eat more fish and vegetarian meals. If anyone complains, I'm going to blame it on the doctor. "Dr. Singhi told me to make salmon for dinner." It's kind of true; she told Jeff he had to get his cholesterol down . . .

We just got back from the library (19 books checked out, including two heart-healthy cookbooks), and the produce market, where--for $18, I got:

• a quarter of a watermelon
• 1 pound of strawberries
• a head of garlic
• some roasted peanuts in the shells*
• parsley
• red leaf lettuce
• two containers of yogurt*
• 3 pounds of Golden Delicious apples
• an Asian pear (this is our new thing to try)
• 2 Honey Tangarines
• 3 navel oranges
• an avocado
• a loaf of wheat bread
• a loaf of Calabrese bread (think of a big oval loaf, sliced--good for sandwiches or toast)
• a package of Greek pita bread* (no pockets)
• a package of bow tie pasta (dinner tonight, along with some shrimp from the freezer, some broccoli, and a whole bunch of lemon, garlic, & parsley)
• a red pepper
• a bag of lemons
• a pound of carrots*
  

I passed on the coconut, because I just didn't want to deal with it. I love going there, because I can get so much for relatively little. I wish I could find the same situation with a butcher.

*Indicates currently being consumed by children for lunch.

Even More Reason to Go for a Walk

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17662246/site/newsweek/

Exercise does more than build muscles and help prevent heart disease. New science shows that it also boosts brainpower—and may offer hope in the battle against Alzheimer's.

Toward the end of the article, it also mentions the link between exercise for kids and greater learning potential. So why are so many schools cutting PE and recess?

Anyway, I've been planning to start getting out for more walks. Like, half hour walks with the kids every day before lunch, and whole family walks after dinner, if I'm not working. It's good for Jeff's cholesterol, good for my weight and stress levels, and good for all of us in general.

One of the past impediments is that a "half hour walk" frequently turns into an hour and a half production. Finding shoes takes forever. We meet someone and chat once we're out and about. I give in to pleas that we stop at the playground. That eats up a big chunk of the day, and on days that I work or that we have other stuff going on (dance, library, etc.), I don't always want to take up that time. In spite of all that, I need to make it happen.

Now, if it would just stop snowing . . .

Fangirl Happiness

A few days ago, I heard that George RR Martin's fantasy series, A Song of Fire and Ice, is being developed as a series for HBO. I really like those books so far, and think HBO will do the best job of it. They plan to for each book to be one season, which is awesome. It gives them plenty of time to develop the story lines, and room in the budget for kick-ass production values. I was worried that Sci-Fi would get its mitts on it, and butcher it like they did A Wizard of Earthsea. So I'm optimistic. It's enough to make me think about getting HBO, because waiting for DVDs would probably kill me.

Then today I heard that The Talisman is going to be a miniseries on TNT or TBS in the summer of 2008, and might become a full-fledged series after that. That's one of my favorite Stephen King books, although the follow up, Black House, didn't do much for me.

Let the fantasy casting begin!

Incompatible

Most of my cooking and grocery shopping lately has been geared toward

• saving money
• food that can go in the freezer or be finished easily by Jeff while I'm at work

This equates to lots of ground beef, but not a lot of particularly healthy stuff.

But.

We just got Jeff's latest cholesterol numbers. As soon as he got off the phone with the doc, I yelled from the other room, "Someone's going to start eating oatmeal for breakfast!" He agrees that he's going to work on a healthier plan (good for all of us), and we're going to walk in the evenings after dinner whenever we can.

I canceled the holds I had on the Barefoot Contessa & Freezer Cooking cookbooks, and instead have holds for "Low Cholesterol Cooking for Dummies" and and a couple cookbooks from the American Heart Association. Salmon, tuna, and vegetarian, here we come!

Thoughts in a Whirl

(I almost titled this "Brain in a Blender," because that's more how I feel, and isn't alliteration pretty? But also, sometimes, nauseating.)

I feel like I'm on the Til-A-Whirl. Gawd, I loved that ride as a kid. The spinning, wheeeee!

But right now, my brain keeps running in circles, and I can't get it to slow down or focus very well. So here, for your confusion and entertainment, is some of the stream of consciousness that's been rolling around lately . . .

my student didn't show up for her makeup session, again, but she's out of luck now; we'll have a big review when we do the next part of the lesson; it's an extra $20 for me, but I'd rather have stayed home for the extra hour

Lauren's sick, but not much; "out of sorts," my Dad said, and she took a nap; I put it down to the time change and all the extra exercise & fresh air lately, but she had a little fever this afternoon; I don't like being gone if I don't have to

my morning class is done next week, and I'm sorry to see the $ go, but glad to have my mornings back

if I want to get an 8-week German session to finish by Memorial Day, I have to advertise for students yesterday; do I need just business cards, or a flyer? is it unethical to list myself as a certified teacher? I was certified, but it was in '92, and not in this state; I need to get my lessons ALL planned out NOW; flashcards; make audio CDs for practice; wish I could put more stuff on hold through the library, just to see if I like it; I wonder if Germany's Amazon.de will ship to me? I'd love to have Toy Story or Finding Nemo in German.

As it turns out, my student did show up for her make up, just late. Teaching pulls my head around and focuses me like nothing else--now I can't even remember all the stuff that was jumbling around while I was in the car. I am still spending a lot of time thinking about trying to get German classes rolling, like now, on top of everything else.

A Tale of Two (Potential) Businesses

My current teaching jobs are very sporadic. I'm working a lot right now, but when these classes are done, there's no way to predict if I'll have any more. It drives me crazy that I don't have a reliable income. I've looked at other jobs, but they either A) pay half of what I'm used to B) want full time work C) want someone with a Master's Degree.

I really like doing my digital photo albums, and I've had people tell me I should turn it into a business. I love teaching, and I've done that as a side business before (reading tutor). This time, I'm thinking about German, geared to home schoolers (I think I kicked this idea around a few years ago, too, but never went anywhere with it). Both ideas have pros and cons.

Photo Album Business Pros/Cons

• Pros: Fun, creative, potentially lucrative, most of the work could be done at home on my own.
• Cons: higher start up costs (a lap top and flatbed scanner would be nice, but at the very least, I'd need sample books, brochures, advertising), dealing with picky clients who have a different "style" than I do (Bridezillas, eek!), finding those clients in first place and selling them on my product. I'm not so much a salesman. Also, creating those images can be very time consuming, which cuts into the profit margin.

German Tutoring Pros/Cons

• Pros: Fun, creative (in totally different ways from above), potentially lucrative, most of the work done at home, much lower start up costs (business cards & flyers but mostly word of mouth advertising), I already have lots of materials created.
• Cons: If I had classes here at the house, the house would have to be immaculate all the time (Jeff would say that's a pro, heh). I don't know if I could get enough students on a consistent basis. Dealing with groups of kids can sometimes be frustrating. Also, do the parents drop off and come back later or what? I'd want to get a babysitter to watch my kids while I had classes (although I'd pay a bit less per hour, since I'd still be home).
  

Both ventures would require me to keep very good records. I can do that. I'm not good at keeping the house tidy, but if it's part of a job, I can be very anal.

One of our neighbors is a homeschooling mom who teaches music--in fact, Sarah's probably going to start taking recorder lessons from her, because I can't do much more with her. I could get some input from her on how she sets her stuff up, if she worries about liability insurance, etc.

Right now, I'm spending more time thinking about how to make the German classes work than the photo albums. I think I'd still do albums for spare cash if I knew someone that wanted them, but I think I'm going with what I know, and what I know I can do, at this point. Wish me luck!

The Lottery Game

You've all played this, right? The "What would I do if I won a million dollars" fantasy? No, I don't play the lottery, but that has no effect on playing the game. Jeff & I especially like the game when we're on long car rides. What charity would we give to, where would our second house be, etc.

Sometimes I play an abbreviated version--what would I do if I won $5K, for example. This generally involved the more prosaic things, like getting the car & shower fixed, having a professional do some landscaping, putting a swing set in the backyard, etc.

I've also been thinking about how much $ it would take to start a small business (more about that in another post). I was thinking that a spare $5K would be plenty to get me rolling. Then I realized that even if I had a spare $5K, it would go to the home things before anything else.

So apparently, I need to win $10K in the lottery that I never play instead of $5K.

Bandwagon

If Pez and Katie do it, then so will I. (What's that you say about jumping off a bridge if everyone else does it too?)

I can't deal with a physical calendar, because we're constantly changing and updating things. I keep meaning to add when bills are due, as well, because I'm so good at looking at Outlook, that if it isn't there, it isn't in my brain at all. Sometimes I think I should print it, at least weekly, but it eats ink, and I don't think we really need to. Sometimes we do forget things, but that's pretty rare.

Here is our March calendar. Light blue are my computer classes, green are ESL classes, dark blue is Lauren, purple is Sarah, red is birthday reminders, orange is church stuff and there are some other miscellaneous things without color.
It's a pretty typical month, at least lately. I don't know if my morning class will continue after next week; it depends on whether my student wants more training, or if she thinks the Basic package is enough. I like the class, and hope she does continue, although it would be nice to not have to teach during the day. On the other hand, I don't think there are any more classes coming up, so I need to get all I can while I can.

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?