My newest experiment

So on top of my human experiment (which for some odd reason I haven't come across any stupid army wives lately. It is odd. They used to come out of the woodwork. HMM.) Anyways, what I am doing atm is learning to live without disposables. Not diapers, that is one luxury I won't give up (plus the Brits proved that cloth diapers are as hard on the environment as disposables due to the care needed to keep them sanitary). But other disposables. I now only buy 1 roll of paper towels per paycheck (so 2 rolls/mo), I don't buy freezer bags anymore, and so forth. (Toilet paper is another disposable that is staying. To be honest, I don't even know what else one would use, and I am not asking for suggestions either.) Also, I am phasing out all plastic in my house. I got rid of all my plastic plates, most of my plastic bowls, and all my plastic cups (except for sippy cups, but once I can afford the awesome stainless steel sippys, the plastic ones will go). I am working on getting rid of my plastic tupperware also, slowly replacing it with glass jars (I wont microwave in plastic anyways, so I end up moving my leftovers to glass bowls or whatnot anyways). Plastic toys are a bit harder to phase out, but I am not trying to go completely hippy-nut-job either. So there it is. My hubby is going to be thrilled with my new level of hippyness when he gets home (for those of you who don't know him very well, that is sarcasm. He doesn't mind some of my hippy ways, but he thinks I am too crunchy. Which makes this all that much more fun).

Not much else to report here. Heading to my hometown later this week to visit other family. Then I am home for a bit, unless I can save enough pennies to go see my bestest hyper-spastic ghetto friend at the beginning of Nov. We will see (I want to see her, plus I have the ulterior motive of wanting to go to the farmers market in her town and stock up on the cheapest organic meat ever - I am so in love with that farmers market. It is indoors, the size of a sams club or better, and their stuff is organic, but not certified, so it is uber-cheap.)

Wow. Just wow.

I am all for the right to believe what you want, but seriously...

http://dbhome.dk/carlo/cat.htm

It is long, but worth reading through. Esp the last half of the second to last paragraph.

(Stole this article from Mer's blog)

My current lack of posts is due to the fact that I am on vacation visiting family. I will be going home in a few days, so things should pick up then.

Some decisions

So, we are not going to re-up atm. We are going to ride this out for a bit. I would prefer to go with the options we were looking at previously (contractor, buying land, etc.).

If my brother does ask to move in with me, he will be welcome after Rozen gets home, but not before. We think that would be the best option, all past issues considered.

My dad is feeling better about things, and has applied for some jobs that would be better than what he had, in the long run. So we can just pray that the appropriate doors will open/shut as needed. But he is doing better in general and that is the big thing.

So, overall, I am much less stressed right now. I have stress about unknowns in the back of my mind, but at least it is more of a twitchy feeling instead of a drowning feeling. I can breathe again : ).

So tired

That's all I have in me to write tonight.

Stressed Stressed Stressed

When it rains, it hurricanes. At least in my life. So here is a list. Feel free to respond with suggestions, but don't be insulted if I ignore them lol. It isn't anything personal if I do, there are a lot of details to these things that I won't be putting in here, namely because I would be writing for the rest of my life. But here it is in a nutshell:

1. My dad got laid off today. In this economy, getting another job is not easy, or sometimes even possible. He will get unemployment, but that is not 100% of your former pay, it is 2/3 or 3/4, we are unsure. He will also lose his benefits, and he is on long-term meds, so even if he does manage to get another job, chances are a new insurance company will refuse to pay for his meds for a year. That isn't the worst of it. Enough of us can come pool our resources to take care of that, but he is really having a hard time with it. And none of us can fix that.

2. My brother is still having significant issues, and rumor is that he is going to be asking me if he can come and stay with me for a while. I hate the thought of turning away a sibling, but I am afraid if I don't, things will get bad quick and I will end up kicking him out, which would be worse than refusing him in the first place.

3. My hubby and I had made plans for our future after the Army, and now he is telling me the integral part of those plans may not happen, so we are back to square one with the re-up decision. Do we re-up, and if so, do we head to a training base so hubby can teach and therefore not deploy for 3 yrs, or do we go to Europe so we can expose the kids to world culture, and suck up another deployment. Or do we get out, take the risk that the contractor position will not come through, and possibly end up either A. taking a job that allows us to survive, but not actually accomplish our dreams, or B. re-upping at the last minute, probably not getting a bonus at all, and even if we do it gets taxed at 40% (if he re-ups before he comes home, the bonus is not taxed). And hubby has told me the choice is mine. So I hold in my hands our life from here out. I have to balance what will make hubby happy, how to provide for our children, how to accomplish our dreams, and how to ensure that at some point in our lives the kids actually get to have a father around. I am tired of being the grownup. It was easier when someone was telling me where to be and and when to be there. Oh, and did I mention that this decision needs to be made within 8 wks because if we decide to stay in, the contract has to be drawn up and signed before he leaves Iraq, so he has to have a bit of time before he is supposed to leave theater for them to do that.

4. Our economy has gone to shit, and I am trying to figure out how to take care of everything that needs to be taken care of. Even if I wanted to get a job, with my education and skill level, I would make just enough money to pay for daycare. Not that putting my kids in daycare is even the remotest option anyways.

I feel like I am drowning, and I have the feeling of impending doom like I am barely keeping my head above water but right behind me is a tidal wave about to break..........

I am feeding my obsession, so to speak. I am always on the hunt for recipes with 5 ingredients or less, that are healthy (or can be made healthy with simple changes), and that will make everyone in my family happy (sadly, the hubby is the pickiest eater I have, not in what he won't eat, but in what he wants to have, ie he is not to enthusiastic about vegetarian meals, I can usually only sneak in 2/wk before he starts to bitch). I am at my Nan's atm, and her roommate has TONS of cookbooks (all in the same series) that have very simple recipes, even one that is specifically a 5 - ingredient cookbook. Yay me. Simple is key when you have what seems like 300 kids under 4 and a hubby in Iraq. You can only feed them so many peanut butter sanwhiches or hardboiled eggs lol.

Has anyone else ever noticed how some people will put 10 times the effort into avoiding work than the actual work would take? Men are really bad about this; although I will admit to having done it myself at times. For example, I have seen my husband perform Cirque du Soleil - worthy acrobatics to get the remote off the floor when it would have taken 1/10 the time and effort to just stand up, take one step, reach down, and grab the damn thing!!! (He says it is a matter of principle; I say his principles are stupid. This conversation does not usually end well.)

Anyways, I have not posted in a while because things have been very busy, with the "impending" hurricanes and traveling and whatnot. The hurricanes have yet to come, but as soon as I assume we are in the clear or that the weather people are over-reacting, we will end up treading water in the living room. *sigh* Also, I haven't had alot of opportunites to tweak the brittle people, so there hasn't been much to blog about.