I am suffering from a stomach bug this weekend, but I have managed to work on the Busy Book for Ally. I have 3 days left to finish since we are traveling to San Francisco Wednesday for their flight to Savannah on Thursday. Actually I am not sure if I am going yet. Anyway here are some updated pictures:



This is to learn to braid.


This is to count.


Matching colors on the right, hanging clothes on the left?

Matching shapes.

My daughter did Toodee and Foofah's faces (Yo Gabba Gabba), but I forgot to take pictures of those. More velcro type stick-on face parts. Just something to keep her busy.

This was in Reno with the gingerbread house she and YD decorated.

Okay bedtime.

I love looking at blogs of women who actually accomplish things…. here is my new favorite:

http://terryatkinson.typepad.com/atkinsondesigns/how_to/

In thinking about Ally and YD on a long plane ride, I thought her Airpline Art Binder would be perfect to send with Ally to keep her occupied (which is nearly impossible these days, she is so busy, busy, busy).

I knew I had some stiff interfacing because 31+ years ago I had the same sort of idea, but an entire book, the directions I found at some Humboldt County fabric store. I had even started the little activity book, but never finished it for my firstborn.

I started digging this morning and found this:

and this

and this

All the fabric is horribly ugly so I am going to recut everything out with cute fabric from my stash, but I have one week! This is a test.....can I do it?

On the money front using coupons and careful planning, I bought a crapload of food last night from Safeway. I used to totally avoid Safeway except for some random ingredient we forgot at Winco, but with the new programs they have, and my careful coupon search, I was able to get some great buys.

My favorite was I had a rain check for Precious string cheese for $2.49 for 16. I had a $1.00 coupon from Sunday's paper, making it $1.49. Our favorite salad croutons were 10/10 at Safeway and they had a $.55 coupon for real California cheese. I picked up 3 grated bags for $1.76 a piece (my personal price until 1/11/11), making them $1.21 for 8 oz.

In Sunday's paper were coupons for Athenos Greek yogurt, which was on sale for 99 cents, I bought 2 and got $1.00 off making them 49 cents. I have never tried it, but like greek yogurt, so what the heck. Activa 4 pack was $1.88 and I had a 50 cent off coupon... anyway you get the picture. It was really fun!

Now I know some women and Jeffrey can do much better, but I am very satisfied.

So off to work on Ally's Busy Book, since they are going with the neighbors to the Discovery Museum's weekly play group in Eureka, and it will give me pretty much all day since they go out to lunch, and then it is nap time. I hope I get lots done!

Happy New Years to Everyone!!

In no particular order:
1. Read 26 books. Finished my first this morning, DH woke me up at 4:00 a.m. going to work early. Finished at 6:30 a.m.
2. Take this time off to organize my home and life like I have always wished that I could (this would be a long list on its own).
3. Squeeze every penny until it screams since who knows when and if I will ever work again.
4. Be nicer to DH and myself, one word....menopause.
5. Quit procrastinating (lifelong problem).
6. Make at least 5 quilts, one for each of my girls and myself. Bonus: Make my two sisters a quilt.
7. Exercise and diet (of course). Lose 15 pounds by July 3rd since I do not want to be the fat sister in photographs.
8. Plan more, do less (a variation of work smarter, not harder).
9. Do another activity as much as possible while watching TV (knitting, sewing, exercising, catching up on blogs/web sites, planning). What can I say, we watch at least 2 hours a night. We love TV.
10. Call my mother more often. In fact I am calling her now.

I have very vague financial goals this year since I am not working and do not know what to expect. My main goal is to live within DH's income only as this may be a permanent way of life for us. I have worked full-time for almost our entire marriage(part-time after each pregnancy for an average of 6 months), so this is a huge change for us. We do have a large e-fund so I know we will be okay a long while, but I also need to continue to save for retirement on top of that.

My daughter and granddaughter have flights home to South Carolina scheduled on January 13th, so the next 10 days are devoted to spending as much time as possible with them, so I won't really get to work on things until they are gone.