Favors, Going out of the way for The EX

Something it may have taken me longer to realize than it should have. I have to deal with my ex because we have children. We have to attempt to play nice. That doesn't mean I have to do any favors for him. They come unappreciated and they are thankless. So I do what I must, but I'm never going out of my way for the ex, my advice is no one should ever go out of thier way for thier ex.

There is a reason they are an ex (how many times have I heard that?). But that is my 2 cents on that.

Ripped Jeans

Have kids that manage to tear holes in thier jeans?

Well I found a solution- at least temporary. When the hole is starting I get my CLEAR nail polish and went over the threads (on the inside if possible). It seems to have enough bonding to keep the threads from naturally ripping apart- at least for a while. This keeps the jeans "nice" because as a working mom I can't afford to buy new jeans every time they rip a hole in their good ones...

Now- if I can only get them to remember to change out of thier school jeans and into thier play (i.e. the jeans with holes already) after school. That would help, too.

Make Someone's Day

Want to make someone's day, but don't have time/money/creativity? My husband and I are constantly hiding sweet notes to each other.

Write a quick note and put it where you know they will see it (like in thier sock drawer, or their car seat). It can be for anyone, not just a lovey dovey note (though they are the best). I'm sitting here looking at a note my daughter wrote me and it just makes me smile.

It says:
Dear mom,
I love you (and that repeats about 23 times)

How to make the Koolaid last

I hope Koolaid isn't copyrighted or anything crazy that I need to change my title.

Anyway we had less than half a quart and 3 thirsty kids that ALL wanted the same thing to drink... Normally I'm stingy with ice. Well tonight was one of those "special" dinners where the kids got ice with thier drinks and we were able to stretch the last of that container of drink out amongst all the kids.

Pretty clever... and no one asked for more. *shew* We covered that by telling them it was gone and if they were still thirsty they would have to settle for water.

stretching

When you are stretching be sure to not to have anything restrict your body. I have found that 85% of my "pulled" neck musces or "slept wrongs" are from bad morning stretches.

I royally screwed up my back muscle this morning because I was propped up on an elbow when I stretched and my back didn't get to stretch right and my back muscle has been sore all day. I know it was because I didn't get it stretched right.

Bad Weather

Something we experienced recently with the coming of spring and winter leaving... bad storms. We had a tornado warning. After the alarm sounded for 15 seconds and I checked the t.v. to see what it was I THEN herded the children to a closet.

My advice is to act first- check it out later. The old saying better safe than sorry...

In your home you should always have a plan of what to do and where to do in case of an emergency. This one was poorly executed, at least at first. We plan to talk to the children on other things as well- such as fire emergency, poison control (the number is on our fridge), and other things. It's important they know what to do in case something happens to the adult.

My children are older, but I know they can still panic and get scared and forget. They have drills at school, why not some kind of drill at home? Sounds dorky- but it could save a life! I never thought about it before.

Saving Money

That's right, I have a small solution to help little people save money- and it works! Keep in mind it is a slow process but it WORKS. I promise. It worked for me.

I was living from paycheck to paycheck and many of my checks were spoken for before I even worked the hours! I had no savings what so ever. If something went wrong (say- I needed to fix the breaks on my car) I was in HUGE trouble because I simply did not have any extra money! Life was a financial nightmare.

I wanted a savings, like when I was a teenager, but I was too stingy about it because most banks have a minimum of $200 or $300 and if you don't have that balance you have to pay a small fee. I was not about to let them have my hard earned money!

Well here is my solution- get over it (I will explain in a monent). I tried and tried, and could never save that much money on my own to bring into the bank, because face it- $20 is a lot of stinkin money- much less $200! No amount of money lasted in my house, even if I hid it from myself!

So I sucked it up and went to my bank and opened up a savings. I tried to scrape up a little bit of cash, I couldn't even set it up with even an amount of $20. I just coudn't part with it. I had mouths to feed!

**these days a lot of banks even have those "open an account with us and we'll deposite $50 (or $100) coupons"

So I started direct depositing (it is easier if you direct deposit, if not then you MUST remember to automatically do it when you cash your check)- no joke $5 into my savings. I communicated to my bank and they waived the fee for being under the minimum (you could also put the account in a child's name to get past this fee if you choose- I didn't want to I wanted MY account). Turns out they didn't waive the minmum some "error" but I just sucked it up and took it. I NEEDED the savings.

The $5 dollars was easy to part with per check. I didn't miss it at all. Yeah it would take FOREVER to build up your savings (and it did), but hey- that is an extra $5 you are NOT spending. It DOES build up. After a few weeks I bumped it up to $10, then another few weeks I bumped my amount to $15, and so on. I made a goal to reach $50 per check to put into my savings.

It really did work. It took a long time for the amount of money in my savings to really feel like I had a coushin- but when I saw my first $100 I was so proud of myself! When my car DID need some work and I took the $300 out of my savings to pay for it- that felt WONDERFUL.

Stick to it. Remember you can't save $1000 overnight! if $1000 is your goal, then set a reasonable goal and work at it. You will get there. Be patient. Don't be discouraged if you have to 'dip into the savings' for something. That is what it is there for!