Take Five

I was tagged for the Five Things meme by my friend Ruth

The Rules

• The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
• Each player answers each question with five things about themselves.
• At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
• Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

The Questions

1. What were you doing five years ago?

• Wondering if Adam liked me the same way I liked him
• Working part time for a small not-for-profit organization
• Driving the same car (with a lot fewer miles on it)
• Writing my thoughts in a spiral-bound notebook
  
• Starting a brand-new prayer group with two girlfriends
  

2. What is on your to-do list for today?

• Take car to mechanic
• Figure out how to confront a friend
  
• Write a blog post
• Purchase gas-powered lawn mower
• Afternoon nap
  

3. What snacks do you enjoy?

• Beef jerky
• Graham crackers
• Pears and Cheese
• Candy
• Black olives
  

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire?

• Stop working for a living
• Hire someone else to manage my money
• Fund some really amazing charities
• Buy a house
• Travel the world
  

5. What are your bad habits?

• Not cleaning up right away
• Negative interpretation
• Interrupting
• Needing to be right
• Impulse buying
  

6. Where you have lived?

• Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Chappaqua, New York
• Chicago, Illinois
• Asheville, North Carolina
• Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  

7. What jobs you’ve had?

• Library page
  
• Teaching assistant
• Mystery shopper
• Copy editor
• Website designer
  

The Tags

Okay, I'm cheating on this part--I hate having to tag people, so if you enjoyed this meme, consider yourself tagged!

Thanks, Ruth! This was fun.

Still Got It?

Apparently, I do.

This afternoon we were at a party to celebrate my friends' daughter's baptism. Sitting across the table was a couple I didn't know. The conversation turned to babies and the wife of the couple told us her baby was 20. I'm guessing that puts her in her mid-40s.

This woman asked about my daughter, who was happily lap-hopping. When I said she was indeed mine, the woman shook her head and told me I was too young to have a child. She went on to explain that I didn't look any older than a teenager. (!!!)

I told her I was 32, and I wish I could have gotten a picture of the look of shock that crossed her face.

Happy Mother's Day to me!

Oh, and to the rest of you, too. :)

Didn't Work for Me: Gift Card Budgeting

In theory, budgeting with gift cards was great. In reality, we didn't even make it one month.

What didn't work:

• My spending at various stores is somewhat inconsistent
  There is one store where I spend the majority of my grocery money, and another where I buy the majority of my specialty items. However, I don't spend the same proportion of the total at each store regularly. Depending on what I'm planning to cook in the upcoming week or two, I may need more items from the specialty store. Additionally, sometimes my local grocer has a great sale on a few items that I want to purchase. Because store fliers usually are only published weekly, I wouldn't know at the beginning of a given month whether or not I'd be buying 18 pounds of butter three weeks later.
• Two words: cheap(er) gas
  While no gas is cheap these days (we're up over $3.75 a gallon here), I do generally look to buy gas at the lowest price available. Often that's at one of two local stations, but sometimes there will be a better deal somewhere else. I really didn't like the idea that I'd have to pay more for gas, just because I didn't have the right card.
• Generic gift cards come with fees
  I had considered purchasing a portion of my budget in basic Visa or American Express gift cards to deal with some of the issues above. Unfortunately, for a $50 card, I'd have to pay a $3-$5 activation fee. I wasn't willing to spend up to 10% of my budget for the privilege of using my own money.

So, there you have it. What sounded like such a good idea at the time, in actual practice really didn't work for me.

Check out more cautionary tales at this week's special WFMW: What DOESN'T Work For Me.

Always and Sometimes

Isn't it wonderful how God is always right? No matter what, I know I can trust His way, because He's planned it perfectly for me. What greater comfort can there be than knowing His will is exactly what I need?

Sometimes, though, it's really annoying. Because, no matter what, if God and I are arguing, He's going to win. And, while I'm mostly okay with that, Him being God and all, sometimes I just want to be the one who is right.

Worth Her Weight

Butter was on sale at the grocery superstore the other night. We bought a case.

This evening, Adam was in the kitchen. I can only guess that he was pruning the fridge and freezer of ripe snackfoods so they might produce a more robust harvest in the future. As he headed off to bed, he stuck his head into the living room and asked me if I was aware we had as much butter in our freezer (by weight) as our daughter.

Nothing like 36 pounds of butter to make you feel well stocked.