Worth Sharing This Week: November 30 - December 6

Well technically it's the tail end of November and December's head but mostly it shall be December this week, so I'll say "It's December!" with all the joy a child must have when it knows that Christmas is nearer than ever.

I've begun my decorating.  I'll likely share in a separate post early next week as my goal is to get it all done this week since we're having Family Holiday this weekend.  John is working Christmas Eve, which means he's coming in from a long shift on Christmas Day and while I expect we'll have a small family day it won't be the big long weekend holiday we enjoy.  So we're having our children and grandchildren here this weekend.

As early as Thursday night (Thanksgiving) I was finding things I thought would be nice to share this week and I'm excited to get this post sent out.

This Week In My Home: December 1

Hello all,
Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to start enjoying December.  This year, I was ready to decorate for Christmas earlier than usual...but John, who likes Christmas right well these days unlike the long ago days when he groused and groused, reminded me that Santa always comes at the END of the Thanksgiving parade, not at the front of it, lol.

This Week In My Home: Time to Get Back On Track

I've enjoyed doing the 'Worth Sharing This Week' posts a great deal and likely will continue to send those at the end of each week, but for the beginning of this week I'm ready to get back into routines.  I've felt the urging all the last week as I've noted the neglect of  the past months has caught up with the house and yard and shed.

Worth Sharing This Week: November 23 - 29

Frugal Girl's post "Stop Saying Things Are Easy" really resonated with me this weekend.  A great deal of what we must learn to do is difficult, but it does have it's rewards.  However, I do believe that many people get very discouraged when they realize that their first attempts are not as easy as it appeared nor does their end result look as perfect as they expected.  Truth: It's called a learning curve for good reason!



On the back page of the Country Living December 2019 issue, I found this quote:
"Kindness is like snow--it beautifies everything it covers."

Worth Sharing: November 16 - 22

Merry Go Round thoughts I call them, and there's too often not anything merry about them at all.  What do I mean?  You know how when you ride the merry go round you watch to see the familiar face in the crowd and then you've gone back around again before you can blink?   Well sometimes the most pernicious negative thinking can be the same way.  I think I've set these worries aside and there they are again, right before me and it goes on and on and on.  I found myself increasingly tense  the other day because of thoughts that kept coming back around again and I finally set myself down to write them out in my journal...along with exactly why these thoughts were NOT true ones.  Fears they were and worries and what ifs that haven't come to pass.  Ugh.  I was so glad to get down off that merry go round!

And just to show how foolish those worries can be, I've found at least three of the four  were not even fact, just my own fears spinning around and around!  Glad I sorted them out at the time through my journal and then discovered the 'real' stories just a couple days later.

Coffee Chat: Lovely Autumn Days

Hello dears!  Do come in and have a cup of coffee with me.  It's a little cool here in the house but it's a bit nicer outdoors.  We can sit on the back porch where the evening sun will warm us slightly and watch the sunset.  For cookies today we have old fashioned Nabisco Sugar Wafers.

Worth Sharing November 9-15

It's November when Fall truly makes her presence known here in the South.  The town criers, those trees that change early in the season,  have come and announced her coming and then disappeared and we wait about, tapping our foot, impatient for autumn's actual arrival.  And then one day we notice a tinge coming to the trees across the forest in the river valley...and the next day when we top the hill, there she is dressed in her golden, crimson, magenta, and flame colored glory.  Never late, always right on time.  My heart swells, and at least inwardly, I cry out a welcome.  "There you are!  I've missed you.  I'm so glad to see you once again!"  I throw open the curtains at the windows and try to watch the daily progression on our bit of land, but even so, it changes each time I blink.   It's impossible to drink it all in, but I want to be aware as much as is humanly possible, to enjoy and embrace this third season of the year.

A Week of Wardrobe: Capsule Style

Week one of a Capsule Wardrobe is easy enough.  I mean, it's just one week of wearing the same pieces over again...I'm curious to see how it goes on from here!

The photos are poor ones and I apologize.  I had a hard time getting the camera to focus properly and at the same time to show you the full outfit.   The camera often blocked details I wanted you to see.   I don't have a proper full length mirror in the house, so am relegated to using the long mirror above the tub (which is a rather stupid place for a mirror if you ask me...).

Worth Sharing November 2 - 8: Boys!

Did any of you receive the Amazon toy catalog?  My grandsons were over the moon about it! Isaac's face had a look of pure wonderment.  He oohed and ahhed.  It was magical for him.

November 2019 Goals

My goals for this month are not big hard goals ...However, after spending October with no goals and the second half of the month with John on vacation I am a bit antsy to DO something and goals are the best way to motivate myself.

First, I want to start with our grocery budget.

I often overspend or add in extras, etc. when I'm in the grocery and so my spending is often above my budget.  Sometimes sales are really good, sometimes John wants extras that I haven't bought in a while, but mostly I buy because when it comes to groceries,  I'm in the habit of buying.   Ouch!  That hurts to admit but it's truth.  Every two weeks, regular as clock work we go shopping and I spend.  And that's all fine and well if I really do need things or I'm concentrating on stocking up an area of my pantry or freezer that has fallen behind,  but mostly that is not what I'm doing and I shop anyway.  When we're on a retirement income there will be less budget and less wiggle room in my budget.  And that means making sure what I spend fits what we have chosen to set as our budget.

Worth Sharing This Week: October 26 - November 1

Thefrugalgirl had an interesting article this past week in which she asked the question: Would you rather be good at saving or good at earning a lot of money?   I know what my answer would be and wasn't surprised to find she had a similar opinion.  Her reasoning was: If you are good at saving, then even a little can become enough.

Now John is always saying to me, "You can't earn $100 and spend $101..." and he's soooo right.  This year we've experienced a season where we've consistently spent a little more than he's earned most pay periods.  This was true mostly because I insisted upon continuing to put money into savings despite having a higher pay out each payday.  My reasoning was that once money goes into savings I am so loathe to spend it for any purpose except why it was set aside that I knew it was truly SAVED.