Money and Stimulus

I had one of those moments this week that showed me how much I have strayed from the American 'norm'. A well meaning guest on a morning news show was giving advise on how to save money. Fairly helpful and informative, right? She was showing us plebeians how to save on cell phones, groceries, etc. Then came clothing. There is a new trend nowadays (not really new, but I'll let that be) that's called swapping. You bring an armload of clothing to either a set location or a friends house, and you all trade clothing so that you can add some 'fresh new look' to your wardrobe. She estimated that you could save a boat load of $$$. Wanna know why? According to a national survey, the average American spends over $1700 in clothes per person a year. That stopped me dead in my tracks on my way to get cereal. Seventeen HUNDRED dollars??? Holy cow, I don't even spend that much TOTAL on my family of five. AND I have two teenagers. Granted, I'm definitely not a fashion plate. Give me sturdy, well made comfortable clothes, two pair of shoes, and a warm jacket, and I'm happy and don't give it a second thought. Clothes are such a disposable item, why would you want to pay good money for something you're going to throw out or give away anyway?
So that got me thinking about the American financial situation in regards to your average Joe, and how I differ. I realized that all those years living under a very strict financial thumb, first at home, then with the Navy, taught me needs vs. wants. I need a house. So I never never rented or bought something I couldn't afford. It put me in some less than perfect neighborhoods, but I had a place to rest my head. And gave me some really interesting neighbors. I need food. So I learned how to cook, old school. Take your less than choice cuts of meat, do what you can to spruce them up, tender them up, and get more than one serving out of a package. Do what you could with what you can afford. And really TRY. Put your best effort into it.Made my own bread for years, not because I liked to, but because it was cheaper to buy flour and yeast. Made the children's baby food from scratch. Turned out it was actually better for them, and cost almost nothing. You see, I spent so much time yanking on the ends to make them meet, I forgot to care about what everyone thought of me. So now all the accouterments that many people think are 'needs', are so far down on the list of 'wants' for me I forget about them. I can afford so much now, but I still don't buy. Because I dont really want them anymore. I've found the beauty of simplicity on the outside, complexity within.
So here are my thoughts on stimulus. Instead of trying to throw money at a problem, hoping it will go away, how about we start learning how to be still with ourselves. I'm not spouting a New Age mantera, but more of a sit down and shut up idea. Why do so many Americans think that shopping is an integral part of being happy? Why has it become a pastime? Shopping is for the aquisition of goods, not for the soothing of the soul.
How about every family, every day, come home from work/school, and STAY THERE. Eat at home. Talk to each other about how your day was. Share silly things. I tell my kids that friends are mutable, family is forever. If you can't get along with the people you share a house with, then maybe you ought to rethink your living arrangements.
And here's a novel idea. Use what you have. We have so much stuff that there is an entire industry centered around the storage of the stuff we cant' find a place for in our homes. Ridiculous. Absolutely mind blowing.
Stimulus. To me, it would be better if we as a country were given a reason to live and love beyond buying things. There are more things in heaven and on earth than we know. Go find some of them. And guess what--you cant buy the most precious things out there. Diamonds might make you happy, but they don't hold you when you cry.
Oh, and before I lose the thought completely, how about the prices on the necessities come down a bit? That's somewhat out of a regular persons realm, but maybe if we're loud enough for long enough, they stop telling us to EAT CAKE.

Dating Angst

Since when have my two oldest children, and I use the word loosely, been allowed to take notice of the opposite sex? I don't remember giving them permission to do so! I demand a recount!

*sigh*

They must grow up, I know. And part of getting a set of wings to fly is wading naked into the bloody pool of dating and significant others. So far, I've been lucky. I didn't have to lay down the law and say 'no dating till you're 16 (15,21 35), young lady/man'. So my luck, such as it is, seems to have run out. Both my oldest daughter and middle boy have expressed the desire to make connections beyond friendship with others. I vacillate between serious angst and excitement at this point. There will come the day when I find out about things such as:

*First Kiss (pretty cool)
*First Breakup (sad, but this too shall pass)
*Other girls/boys making cow eyes and passes at significant other (silly, but I'll try not to laugh)

and the dreaded one

*My First TIME

I wasn't a very good girl once I started down that road. Granted, I started down it fairly late, as far as my contemporaries went. But I sure tried to make up for lost time. And I was EXTREMELY paranoid about pregnancy and viruses. There's only so many talks a parent can have, slide shows included (thank you internet!) before you have to let go of the apron strings and trust that they have enough good sense to do the same. Oh please oh please let that be the case!! But talk about your giant can of worms. Not to mention on top of all of this, my oldest is thiiisss close to getting her drivers license for real. A whole set of new and terrifying experiences await me there. I don't know which one I'm dreading/looking forward to more. Quite a divided mind I have here! Yes/no, stop/go, do/don't, fly/crawl. I had no idea what I was getting into with this whole 'kid' thing. They never told me that they would grow up to be people, with wants and *gasp* DESIRES that went beyond Pokemon and stuffed animals!!!!

{aaarrgghhhpp}
=strangling on conflicting thoughts=

And to make it worse, like I said before, it all comes down to who they are NOW, and what I've taught them in the past. Nothing to do now but keep a weather eye on the horizon, checking for storm clouds and waterspouts. Avast ye mateys, here there be monsters!

Banana Bread and Snow

If I wish really hard, and hold my mouth just the right way, I think we'll finally get snow today. I know, I can hear the grumbling from here, but you gotta understand-it's kind of like having an itch and being not quite able to reach it. Then a friend of yours says they're coming over to scratch it for you, and they either never show up, or come with a feather. Anticipation of itch relief, then no satisfaction. I used to live in Florida, where winter means nothing but fewer flying cockroaches and going outside without bursting into a heavy sweat. I found myself missing the change of seasons. The year seemed to drag from one monotonous weather day to another. I like change, couldn't live without it. And if you're going to change seasons, do it with a sense of purpose, for goodness sake! NorVa winters seem fickle-one year snow, the next rain, then the next nothing but brown deadness all around. This year is a brown dead year, the most we have gotten was a thin coating of ice, then a dusting of snow. Everyone still freaked out (traffic reports=entertainment), but it wasn't what I would call a 3 loafer. So I'm trying to tempt the god of crystal formation, and am baking a loaf of banana bread. Its smell is wafting softly from the oven, up into the clouds when I open the door, and hopefully tempting the snow to come down and see what all the goodness is about.

Controversy

For the life of me, I can't understand why we just all can't get along with each other. For the goddesses sake, we're all in this life together whether we want to be or not. I guess it's a matter of perspective. From my perspective, a whole lot of people never see what life is like on the other side. What other side? Well, it depends on where you start. Young woman in college on dad's dime? Work behind the counter at a greasy spoon. Middle aged man with a 20 year white collar job? Stock the back room at midnight in a home improvement store. White middle class stay at home mom? Stand on a street corner with a hooker and talk to her about her kids. Warm house in the winter? Cut that heat off for a day or three. Bored teenager from the 'burbs? Dodge bullets downtown while you go pay bills with loose change. Trust me, you'll never be the same. Been there, done that, couldn't afford the t-shirt, so I got perspective like some people get religion.

That New President Smell

Ah, I can smell the festivities even this far away. The king is dead, long live the king. While I would, deep down, like to be hopeful and upbeat about our new leader, I find myself hesitating on the brink of positive thinking, then pulling back with a scowl. I was once an unquestioning and emotional patriot. Circumstances private and political have made me come to an abrupt clarity of vision. Unless you are content to be made use of, or are willing to live out your days with blinders, a sentient human is unable to maintain a high level of ignorance for long. I was blind. Now I see. And what I see outside of my family unit is ugly. I have seen the man behind the curtain. He's not my friend, nor yours. In these strange sad days I cannot afford to put my faith in anyone beyond my immediate family. I know these people. I don't know anyone else that well at all. So in essence they're wild cards, and i don't gamble anymore with my heart or soul. Maybe our new leader will bring about 'change' and spread some 'hope'. We all need some of both. My best wishes to him, but I still breathe deeply in my meditation, for I'm not holding my breath.

Wooo hooo!! Regardless of the fact that my hubby worked from home today, and we had a 2 hour delay for school, I officially passed the 14,000 word count mark today. I'm writing my first novel, and boy, what a different experience it has turned out to be than what I thought. I knew that it wasn't going to be a matter of 'sit down and write what's in your head and there's your book', but I had no clue as to how a simple problem with a story line can result in a five page rewrite. And I have found my muse (eep! I have a real live muse of my very own!!) taking me in directions I wouldn't have ever thought of deliberately. I have found myself writing myself into situations that make me literally sit back in the chair and go "whoa. where did THAT come from?". Reading back over the material is strange, too. I find myself amazed it was me that wrote it. Tonight I'm going to have the hubby look at it for the first time ever. That's extending the trust a bit more than I thought I'd have the nerve to. It's cool, I'm going to need feed back soon anyhow, and he can be pretty critical when needs be. He tries to make all of it constructive, bless him.

Cosmic Patterns

Although not a new concept to me, cosmic patterns are something that have been jumping out in front of me recently with more frequency than I have ever seen before. I love the concept of an orderly chaotic universe. It makes more sense to me, and gives me somewhat of a comforting sensation to know that there is a rhyme, and a reason. The fun part is finding the rhymes and matching them to the reasons. There is a lag in knowledge there, though. Most of the times, I can find the rhyming part, but am hard put to reason it out. For instance, I noticed that the patterns around the knots in plywood look just like the images of the sun's corona. Now how cool is that? The problem is that I can't find the reason why it would be so.The cells that grew the wood around the knot never knew the sun's rays, never saw the light of day. So what are the mathematics, the string theory, the REASON why those cells grow in the same pattern that a hydrogen fueled fusion reactor throws off excess energy? See, knowledge gap. I'll find more examples later, now I have to tuck in the youngest into bed, and hear about the Warrior Cat Clans. Most excellent series by Erin Hunter. 'Night.