Great Deal

The last two weeks, CVS has had a Nivea deal that I am excited about.  Winter is hard on everyone’s lips, with the cold, dry air chapping them until they crack, if you aren’t careful.  Some lip balms are more effective than others, moisturizing as well as blocking harmful winds.  Nivea is one of the best lip balms I have used.

 

The deal at CVS is this: buy $10 of Nivea, get $3 Extra Bucks.  The Lip balm is 2/$5.  Here is how the deal works out.

4 – lip balms = $10

2- $3/2 lip care Nivea coupons

OOP= $4

EB earned =$3

Net cost – $.25 each

 

The best part about this deal is that you can do it at least twice this week (I will find out if it is more than that tomorrow when I go to CVS).  Better yet, the deal will be on next week, too, if you need some time to find those Nivea coupons!  Now is a great time to stock up on lip balm for all this cold weather!

 

By the way, you can do the Nivea deal at least three times this week! 2/15

One of Those

This week has been one of those… I was having computer problems on my new laptop earlier this week, and then all of a sudden, I had nothing.  It wouldn’t even turn on.  Wouldn’t you know, it was the week I chose to do my lesson plans early?  I had to call tech support, and after about fifteen minutes of holding, I was able to decipher the instructions that the foreign tech squad gave me.  Zilch.  Nada.  No change whatsoever.

 

After another thirty minutes on the phone, they determined that my motherboard was bad.  A tech representative will be coming out to fix it some time next week.  In the meantime, I have to  redo a week’s worth of lesson plans for three kids before Monday.  Why didn’t I print those lesson plans out right away?

 

Due to a meltdown in the electric box, we had no power most of the day on Tuesday.  It was raining, so we sat in the dark, cold trailer all afternoon while the electric box was being rewired.  Interesting.  I found myself wishing I had picked up a few more candles at the Bath and Body Works sale a few months ago. :)

 

All of my piano students had to reschedule for various reasons, too.  My week is all messed up!  I am very grateful, however, that the week is nearly over.  I am hoping to be back on board with my normal blog post schedule next week, but at this point, I am not holding my breath!  Life can be so interesting!

 

Well, the good news is that today is Mega Swagbucks Day again!  Some of you may have seen a few of the collector bills for Valentine’s Day while searching.  I finally got the last of the set, earning a special 14 Swagbuck bonus!  Yay!  There is still time to snag those bills – you have until Tuesday!  Happy Swagging…

Challenge

Well, after a lot of thought and some financial maneuvering, I decided to challenge myself.  Yesterday, I signed up for Curves – you know the workout for women.  I’ve seen the franchise literally all over the USA, and since we travel a lot, it seemed like a good option for me.  I can go  for 30 minutes three times a week, and lose those extra pounds that I’m always griping about.  It was hard to admit that I can’t really do this on my own – I’m too weak.  I need some accountability. 

 

I’ve tried having a accountability partner before with weight loss, but none of my friends are mean enough.  They all say things like, “Well, it won’t hurt to have a little cake and ice cream.  Besides you deserve it.” What?  I deserve to look like a blimp on two legs?  Ok… on second thought, maybe my friends aren’t so nice after all! :)  I guess they don’t really want to say, “You stupid girl – don’t you know that triple death chocolate brownie you are eating is going to haunt you for the rest of your life?”  Yeah, I know, but they won’t say it, and I don’t really want to admit it.   So to console myself, I have another triple death chocolate brownie with a little ice cream to wash it down.

 

I have to break the cycle.  I have begun what I pray will be a breakthrough in my diet and way of life.  I could use the exercise – really who doesn’t need a little more exercise?  I am also hoping to meet some ladies in the area and use this as an opportunity to share the gospel.  This whole struggle with weight is a very personal, painful, and candid confession.  Please pray that I will stick with the challenge, and that there will be positive benefits in my life as a result of this step. 

 

I am asking you to keep me accountable.  I could use some encouragement, and I will try to update on any positive progress that I make during the next several months.  Those of you who need to step up and take the challenge to get fit, I am encouraging you now.  There’s no time like the present!  If you click here, you can sign up for a free week at Curves!

For the Cure?

Last week, I had a rather rude awakening while reading the news.  Apparently, The Susan Komen foundation has been playing a double game.  They decided to withdraw their funding of Planned Parenthood.  Did anyone else know about this alliance?  For the record, their funding was strictly to help provide mammograms and breast screenings through the PP clinics. 

For whatever reason, the Komen Foundation announced their decision to withdraw this funding from PP.  Planned Parenthood turned around and raised a firestorm of political pressure, asking all their supporters to donate (their estimated donations were $400,000) to help them fight this terrible crime of leaving low-income and minority women without health care.  They had a form letter on their website that you could print, sign and send to Komen.  Apparently, the response was so overwhelming that Komen caved under the pressure and agreed to eave the funding in place. 

I have several issues with this whole situation.  First of all, Planned Parenthood is a for-profit business.  They receive millions of dollars of donations each year from Bill Gates alone.  They are funded by government grants.  They conduct business and charge for procedures done.  They do not need Komen’s money.  However, Komen is trapped into this alliance because they have been accused of not caring about the health of women.  It was a dirty tactic, but we have come to expect that from the Planned Parenthood crowd.  Numerous Komen top officials have resigned over the whole matter, from the reports I have read. 

I was very angry when I found out about this whole fiasco.  Especially that Komen does not have the option of spending their money where they please without being strong-armed by a huge political force such as Planned Parenthood.  It just isn’t right.

While I appreciate Komen’s work to help women, I really wish they had not partnered themselves with a business whose main occupation is destroying life in the guise of giving women a choice.  Their money would better have been spent in giving mammogram screenings to women through private clinics or crisis pregnancy clinics.  However, there is nothing to be done about that decision now. 

I have in the past tried to buy “pink” in order to help cancer research through Komen.  I have friends who have raced “for the cure,” I have survivor friends, I have friends who are undergoing treatment for cancer right now.  At the risk of sounding heartless, I will not be buying any more “pink” products as long as Komen is badgered into supporting an industry that takes the life of unborn children while pretending to care about women.  It is the ultimate hypocrisy.  I cannot support Komen while they are politically blackmailed into this alliance.  I sent an e-mail to the foundation expressing my disappointment in their decision, and telling them that they would no longer have my support as long as they partner with Planned Parenthood.  While this may not be your decision, I ask you to think about making a phone call, sending a letter or email regarding this situation.  If Komen gets enough response from people like us, they may just go ahead and take the plunge next time, no matter what threats Planned Parenthood makes. 

Fight back for the cure…

Hand-me-downs

I have always been fortunate to be the recipient of hand-me-downs over the years.  I love passing things on to other people in turn.  My kids live in hand-me downs, and frankly, I’m glad that they can appreciate gently used clothing, shoes, and other things.  I love going to Goodwill and finding high quality clothes (although they do not technically count as hand-me-downs, since I have to buy them) for a very low price.

The other day, a friend passed along a bag of hand-me-downs that someone had passed on to her.   I had a lovely time trying on several articles of clothing that I would never buy, for various reasons (okay, leopard print just isn’t quite my thing!).  It was like a one-woman fashion show.  My ever-patient husband just watched, never voicing the thought that I knew was running through his mind: where are you going to store these clothes—your closet is already full!

Guilty!  I guess I am going to have to pass along a few of my own hand-me-downs in order to make room for the newest ones!  Anybody up for a few gently used clothes?  :)

By the way, don’t forget that today is Mega Swagbucks Day!  This month is Swagbucks’ fourth birthday and there are all kinds of special things going on over there.  If you have not signed up for Swagbucks yet, get started now!  You might want to check out the Braggable Bargains section – each day this month they are having a great sale on a different gift card in the Swag Store.  These gift cards are great birthday, anniversary, and even “me time” presents.  I love Swagbucks! Check it out here!

Political Hype

I am going to open a huge can of worms, here, I think, but what better to do with my time? :)  The other night, I was asked to participate in a short political survey.  I happily complied, for once able to give my opinion in a way that might matter.  The survey consisted of some general questions about my political leanings and which lousy candidate I was most likely to support.  Oops!  Did I say lousy?  Must have slipped out. 

Here is my biggest gripe.   I am a very conservative person, politically, and for the most part, I have been totally disenfranchised.  In the last election, none of the highly touted “conservative” candidates were even close to my political leanings.  In fact, my personal opinion is that our current President was put into office, because there was no significant political difference between him and the other candidate.  The lack of defining political poles caused people to vote for the more charismatic person, and sadly, McCain just didn’t cut the muster.  No surprise there—he’s been sitting on the political fence so long he couldn’t identify with the conservatives.  He was lagging so far behind in the preliminary polls that the higher-ups decided to pair him with Sarah Palin.  Then the ratings soared, but that was a total sham- even if they had won the election, the VP is nothing but a figure head, and has no real bearing on political matters, unless the President becomes incapacitated.  It irked me that so many conservatives wildly ran after the Republican bandwagon when they had been totally betrayed by the same Grand Old Party.

Does no one stand for anything anymore?  Are people afraid to take a stand and instead put up with whatever the GOP dishes out as the latest conservative candidate?  There are other options!  I personally decided to take my stand in the 2008 elections and vote for a third party candidate who had a firm grasp on the conservative principles that I hold dear.  Some who knew of this decision criticized me and told me that I was throwing away my vote, dividing the strong foundation of the GOP candidate, and so on.  If I had it to do over again, I would change nothing.  I would rather vote for someone who stood for what I believe and lose, than choose one of the “lesser of two, three, or even four evils” just to stay on good terms with “evangelical Christians” who are yellow-dog Republicans. 

Am I anti-Republican?  No.  I am however, strongly against those who proclaim themselves to be the next political Superman, and then disappoint us by being no different than the next guy.  So I am issuing a challenge.  Don’t swallow the party rhetoric—get out there, do some research of your own and form your own conclusions about each candidate.  Then get out there and vote!  Our freedoms are falling by the wayside while power-hungry wolves vie for political office. 

The reality is, the media controls the elections.  We all saw how they attacked McCain and Palin, while glorifying Obama.  More recently, they caused the withdrawal of another true conservative candidate. It worked.  It continues to work because people are largely uninformed about the candidates.  It is time that we stand up to the media and vote for what we really believe!  Now, it is unlikely that you will ever be in total agreement with any candidate, but there are several really good, conservative candidates that could be in the running for this year’s upcoming election.
I won’t continue – this blog is not a political one.  However, it is one of my great concerns, and I wanted to voice my opinion.  Don’t be afraid to step out and fight the current.  If enough people fight the current, we can turn the tide!

Step on the Scale

Okay – I admit it.  One of my eternal resolutions, at least for the last several years, is to shed a few (well, probably more than a few) pounds.  I have tried several diets, some with more success than others, but all to no avail in the end.  It can be really discouraging to struggle with weight for extended periods of time—especially when you know that if you really applied yourself, you could actually lose that unwanted flab. 

 

I have recently begun to chip away at the excess poundage by eating smaller portions and a bit of daily exercise – walking, a few squats and crunches – you know.  As I was thinking about the process of how I got to where I am physically, I could break it down into little choices every day.  Snacking between meals, eating a little too much here and there, eating late at night.  It all adds up over time, and as the body stores the fat, it becomes harder to eliminate it.

 

There is a verse that has always made me smile.  It says, “The liberal soul shall be made fat.”   As I thought about that, it occurred to me that God was putting that in a positive light.  How does one get a fat soul?  It doesn’t happen overnight.  It comes from feeding on the Word of God regularly, from “snacking” between those meals, from taking an extra bite here and there, eating a little bit from my husband’s plate, feasting on rich things late at night, etc.  I think you get the point.  All those little extra bites of God’s Word turn into nourishment for the soul.  It stores up in your heart and, during the lean times of your life, your soul can still feed on those stored up riches.

 

While I am determined to rid myself of the excess pounds I have put on over the last several years, I also want to become fat spiritually.  As I hope to see my bathroom scale moving down, I want to see my spiritual scale going up.  How are you?  Are you starving yourself spiritually, or are you on your way to being truly fat?  Take a little time to have some extra spiritual nourishment this week, and let it enrich your life!