When that happens, all of the friends of the original poster jump on the case of the older, wiser family member and call that older person a “hater.” Sometimes friends of the older family member will interject a post that is an attempt to calm the waters, but instead it turns into a feeding frenzy of the younger people becoming argumentative and the older people not being heard. That is so sad. Makes me want to stop reading the posts on Facebook.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m thrilled that he has finally decided to go to work dressed like a serious businessman. I’m just wondering what in the world changed his mind about how to dress for success! For years now he was perfectly happy to wear cargo pants and T-shirts, but now he spends hours picking out the best looking tie to wear with his gray pin stripe suit.

I do have a nice kitchen pantry closet that I keep my spices in, but there are several different spice rack set-ups in there. One of them is a double-decked lazy susan. Another one is a newer kind that I cannot remember what it is called but it is ingenious in the design – it has four shelves that flip and twist and slide around. To be honest, I’d like something like that on a larger scale because this particular one only holds small cans and bottles, and many of the cans, jars and bottles that spices are sold in just do not fit. That is the most aggravating part of storing spices, don’t you agree?

Much to my surprise, a couple of weeks later one of the intended recipients told me that she was thinking about buying one of those Himalayan salt lamps online. She showed me the picture of what she wanted, and it was exactly the same one that I had already bought for her! I told her that I had bought one for her for her Christmas present, and not to buy one herself. She asked me to give it to her now because she wanted to start “enjoying the benefits” immediately. Well, I agreed and I gave it to her. She was happy and took it home with her.

Less than a week later she told me that her daughter told her that she hated it, that it made her feel depressed instead of happy, and she gave the lamp back to me and asked me to give her something different for Christmas. I agreed to do that, and now I am using it in one of my bathrooms. I like how it deodorizes and helps to dehumidify the room. As for the original recipient, well, I ended up giving her a gift card to Wal-Mart. I know she buys things there, and I think that maybe I’ll just keep giving her gift cards in the future.

But this was moist and delicious! The addition of the cream cheese was just the perfect touch! I thought I had never had anything so yummy in my life! But THEN I bit into the Savannah bar! I felt like I had died and gone to heaven! Towards the end of the meeting I saw that there were a few pieces left, so I went ahead and helped myself to another one.

After the meeting I found myself driving into old town and going into the Great Harvest Bakery. It smelled so good in there! All of the employees greeted me with great big smiles (Love it already!) and they offered me a slice of bread to sample. One of the bread choices had strawberries in it, and I said I’d like to sample that. It was still warm and oh my goodness yummy! If I wasn’t already going to buy some of the Savannah bars and scones I would have bought a loaf of that bread too! I will definitely have to go back there and buy some of that in the near future!

I immediately started reading an article about how to save money on tools, and enjoyed reading his little story about when he was a little boy his grandfather gave him his first set of tools, and how he and his grandfather worked together on a variety of projects that needed tools. The story brought back memories of my own relationship with my own grandfather and it brought a smile to my face. You see, even though I am female, I was a tomboy, and my grandfather treated me like the son he never had of his own. It was great fun visiting him on his farm and helping him plant seeds in the garden and follow him around in the barn and watch him slop the hogs and feed the cows.

Realizing that I enjoyed his writing style, I decided to click around on his website, and found that the author of the website is offering college scholarships! I found that very interesting that he would do that, and decided to read more about that. Apparently he is going to award two $5,000 college scholarships a year! His requirements for winning the scholarship do not seem to be unreasonable, based on academic history, extra curricular activities, and ingenuity of essays.

That particular article brought back the memory of how my youngest son was able to go to college on a full grant/scholarship to Princeton due to the generosity of one of Princeton’s alumni. A friend came over to visit a few days ago and she was talking about how her son had thrown away his chances to go to college on a full scholarship and how upset she was that he was not taking advantage of the opportunity. Her concerns made me so grateful that my son was fortunate enough to get the financial grants he needed to go to Princeton, and how that college degree will be opening doors for his career for the rest of his life.

I’ve bookmarked this frugaldad.com website; I think I’ll be going back to read it again and again.

Unfortunately this seems to be the story of my life. Whenever I am put on a team project, there is someone who does not do their part. When that happens and I complain about it I often am told “well, that’s part of life.” I find myself asking myself what is the life lesson that I am supposed to learn here? Am I supposed to avoid being on teams? Am I supposed to just be a loner? Should I just assume that I am the only one that will do the work and just do it all myself? Or should I just expect failure?

Lately I find that when I am asked to do something that is a group effort, I find myself reluctant to participate. I’m tired of being the work horse.

By the time that my own children were in elementary school, however, there was a lot more safety awareness going on and people were starting to use a rubber mulch on the playgrounds to make the playgrounds a safer place for the kids. Companies like Rubberrecycle came into the picture and helped to promote the awareness of the need for extra safety precautions on the children’s playgrounds.

When I go to a playground now with my young niece, I am always amazed at how different the playgrounds are from when I was a child. When I was a child, the slides were made of metal and you would climb a ladder to the top of the slide and once you sat down you went straight down. The sides of the slide were only about two or three inches high – not really enough to keep someone from falling off of the side if they leaned too far to one side. Sometimes the metal surface was so hot that it would burn our legs when we sat down on the slide. Now the slides are made of brightly colored material that reminds me of PVC pipes. The slides are twisty and have sides that are so high that you can barely see the head of the child that is using it! The chances of falling off of that slide are much slimmer! I’m glad to see such advances in safety on the children’s playgrounds. I prefer the sounds of cheers to the sounds of tears!

So I decided that I would ask for a small bowl with a scoop of cheesecake, and a scoop of strawberry ice cream. He took out a scoop of each and asked me if I wanted them mixed together. That thought had never occurred to me, thinking that the ice cream would be too hard in its frozen state to do that, but he managed to mix it nicely, and he added some fresh strawberries to the mixture as well. That concoction was extremely delicious, and I am certain to be on the look-out for coupons for the Cold Stone Creamery again!

A large number of women tend to find one type of bra that fits them well and then they may fill their lingerie drawer with that one type of bra. That is understandable; finding a bra that fits well and is comfortable can be a challenge. Once a woman finds an undergarment that fits well and feels comfortable the woman tends to stick with it. If the undergarment makes the woman more attractive as well, then that is a valuable bonus!  In some ways women shopping for a bra can be compared to the way many women shop for shoes; if they find a pair that fits and feels good they try to buy a pair in every possible color available.

Just as an improperly sized bra can make any woman look terrible, a properly sized push-up balconey bra can make women of any size feel sexier in their clothes. The bra is comfortable enough to wear the entire day, easily makes the transition from a business suit to a slinky evening romantic date dress.

In addition to a strapless bra, a sports bra, and a bra with convertible straps, a shelf bra or two have earned a valuable spot in the every woman’s lingerie drawer.