28 January 2014

Challenge

In January of 2013, a member of the bishopric asked each young woman in our ward to make a goal to read the Book of Mormon that year.  When he came back this January, only three or four girls had finished the book.  He gave them a three month extension.

That was the first I'd heard of it.  I thought, "What a great idea for the girls," and thought no more about it.

Until last week.

I'd been plodding my way through the Book of Mormon, in Spanish, for a couple of months and while reading one night, I decided I should finish before the deadline given to the Young Women. That leaves one month to read an intense book in another language. One month of taking twice as long to read something as it would in English. Think: reading the New Testament in Greek. Then add my level of intelligence and *ouch* that's math.

I spoke to my husband about it, so he could help me figure out how many chapters I'd need to read every day to pull this off (math again).  He looked at me across the darkened living room, "You could just read it in English."

I gaped at him.  "But then I wouldn't be an over-achiever!"

And over-achieving is sacrosanct.

21 January 2014

Venting Like a Frugal Furnace


I'm not intentionally advertising for a certain pharmacy, but I had to display my wares. I went to the pharmacy with certain expectations of how much my medications would cost.  I mean, I had just switched two of my medications from the ones I had used for two years, to ones my insurance company told me they would cover.  So, the price should lower a little.  (Side note: When an insurance company says they're going to cover something, shouldn't it mean they pay for it?  That makes sense, right?)

I picked up my three little baggies full of stuff that keeps me alive and the pharmacist said, "That'll be $500 please."

I nearly had a heart attack, but then I'd have to pay for even more medicine, so I held back.

Five hundred dollars!  And that's not even everything I have to take in a month!  No wonder so many diabetics don't manage their illness.  Who can afford to?

Later, I complained to my mother about it, and she mentioned my brother has to have a shot every month that is $1000, and that's not everything he needs to take either.  I felt a little ungrateful after that.

But in thinking about my brother and myself and our pricey dilemma, I got to thinking.  And here's my conclusion: Socialized medicine is awesome.

14 January 2014

Guilt Trip

"Mom!" my son yells to me from his bedroom.  It's after bedtime, so I walk down and open the door.  Tears stain his voice and face.  Ditto for my daughter.  They launch their attack. 

"Mom, will you please pull us out of school?  We hate it!  I can't even say the word butt without getting a card pulled!  I don't have any friends!  We only get 45 minutes for lunch and recess!"

I listen very nicely to their rant about how school is ruining their lives.  For a nano-second, I consider homeschooling again.  Then I come back to my senses.  I'm a slack teacher and they learn squat from me.  They're getting a much better education at school. 

I say, "We committed to going to school for a full year.  You made a commitment.  You will see it through."  Then I clinch it by using every mother's ultimate weapon.  "Tell you what.  Why don't you both pray about it.  When you get an answer, come talk to me."

But there's so much more potential on this one.  I need to infuse a little more guilt.  I need to say more things like, "When I'm tired of cleaning up your messes, do I get to quit cleaning?"  Cause I'm not going to lie, that would be great.  Or "Wow!  You get a whole 45 minutes just to eat and play?  Where do I sign up?" Or "I don't have any friends either.  I'm too busy taking care of you guys."  

Yeah.  I'm not done with this one.

02 January 2014

Happy New Year?

Anyone else have after-holiday blues?

I mean, I tried, really, really tried just to roll over and go back to sleep this morning, but I had a little voice in my ear asking me for breakfast and if she could paint and if she could watch a movie.

Good way to start off the new year: blow every last one of my resolutions on the second day.

I actually tried to exercise, but netflix said there was a problem with my account and I CANNOT exercise indoors without having something to watch.  So, there went that good intention down the drain.

It's now 11:00 in the morning.  I haven't eaten breakfast or showered or gotten dressed.  I've been avoiding the mirror all together.  I've grounded myself to my bedroom for the foreseeable future because I got after the kids for not cleaning up after themselves.  What kid DOES?  Good intentions 2-5 gone.

For my next failed good intention, I'm going to blow off writing a feel-good blog.