A place for gloves

It had been quite the winter already. Because of gloves, it was quickly becoming the winter of my discontent. Gloves are a many splendored thing, and extremely useful in the frigid climes of northwest suburban Chicago. The problem we were having is that we could never find both gloves in a pair when it was time to leave the house. At the beginning of the winter, I went and bought replacement gloves for all our family members. But, by the end of one week, instead of having 10 pairs of gloves,we had2 or 3 pairs and 7 or 8 single gloves. I was right about to teach my kids the
answer to the Zen proverb: What is the sound of one hand freezing?, when I found something that works for me, a place for gloves.

The truth is, we had a place for gloves: in a laundry basket in our mud room/play room, where we keep the rest of our winter gear. The problem was that most of the gloves in the basket were missing partners. So, we would have to spend extra time looking for matches, or go out (gasp!) unmatched.









What I began to do is this: The next time the kids cleaned the playroom, I had them put only matched gloves in the basket. I got a cloth bag and filled it with the orphans and hung it up. As I cleaned out the car and rooms in our house I would find missing gloves. I checked to see if the gloves had a match in the orphan bag. If they did, the reunited pair went in the winter basket; if they didn't, they joined the orphans. Once a week I have the kids straighten up the playroom and put all the gloves in their right place.









Since implementing the system, the glove couples vastly outnumber Gloves without Partners. My discontent is at an all time low, and leaving the house is much less chaotic. If the Herculean winter proves mortal after all, (It's a line from a poem, I wrote, and allusions to my work had previously eluded me) I will put the matched gloves in a basket in the garage and keep the orphan bag through the warmer seasons, just in case the prodigals come wandering back into our lives. When we winterize the house next year, we will start anew with matched gloves only.









That's how I solved my glove/hate relationship with winter hand wear. To see what Works for others go to the Works for me Wednesday site at We are that Family by clicking here.

Next Time: Adoption

A Poem: They drive me crazy sometimes

I, like many people, am a closet poet. That is where my poems remain, in a drawer, next to the closet. From time to time I am going to pull one out of that drawer and share it here. This time to show I am not merely a former poet, I will present one I wrote only hours ago.

They Drive me Crazy Sometimes

She drives me crazy sometimes

Who can win an argument with an amnesiac?

But, no one gets me like she does

She makes our house a haven

And, only laughs when my jokes are funny.

She drives me crazy sometimes

Who made her the third parent, anyways?

But, beneath that bossy boiler

Lies an artist's soul

Skipping and humming. Playful and loving.

He drives me crazy sometimes.

Who can have that many questions about Star Wars?!?

But, he is as adventurous as a pirate.

As giving as Robin Hood.

And as resourceful as Macgyver.

She drives me crazy sometimes

Who wants to be a puppy every single day?

But, she makes cuteness an art form

She's a three year old thesaurus

And she loves to ask God to help people.

They drive me crazy sometimes

But, isn't it worth the trip?

Next Time: A Place for Gloves

The Oscars: Our Super Bowl

My wife loves sports. She really does. She loves to play sports. She likes to see sports played by others live. What she does not love, or even like, is watching sports on t.v., listening to sports talk on the radio, and tracking statistics, magic numbers, and trade deadlines. So, we don't share the same enthusiasm for sports events like the Super Bowl.

Amy and I are movie people. Oscar night is our Super Bowl. The day the nominations come out we always say we have to see all these movies before the award show. We never get to all of them. I didn't see any of the best pictures noms this year. Amy saw a couple. Hello, 3 small children. I did see all the best animated noms. I saw Bolt 3 times. Don't ask.

This year was not the most rewarding of shows. We didn't realize until yesterday, that the show was today. We had a long day with church and visiting relatives and when we did watch the show, it was online while I finished our tax refund on the same computer. Amy is already in bed, and there are at least 5 major awards, a life time achievement award and my favorite, the "hey, look who died montage."

Amy, let's plan ahead next year and go to a Academy Award party or something. Cause watching the Academy Awards without you is as pleasing as watching the Super Bowl without commercials.

Next Time: A Poem,They Drive me Crazy Sometimes

Crazy Dave's Give-a-ways: A final word about encouraging words.

We are midway through my first give-a-way at Crazy Dave's Give-a-ways. Click here to see my original post. Review the sidebar for "official" rules.

I am giving away a copy of Ken Sutterfield's book, The Power of an Encouraging Word. I wanted to post today mainly to remind everyone that my give away ends next Saturday. But also to share another story of when I felt the power of encouraging words.

July 2008. Amy and I were in our first months of attending our new church home in Lake Zurich, Illinois. I had just lost my job days before that. This was the second job I had lost in two years time. Amy and I were contemplating the move which would give me my moniker (aka, "Home School Dad.") She had applied for a job as a School Psychologist, and we were considering, if she was offered the job, her accepting, and me home schooling the kids.

The elders of our church are available to talk to/pray with at the end of each service. We planned to pray with one of the elders once the service was concluded. During worship we are often given a minute or two to greet those around us. We still did not know very many people at the church at the time, so Iwas surprised to turn around and see someone I knew very well.

It was Liz, someone I had worked with at the job I had lost two years prior. She had moved out of state while I still worked there, but was visiting her mother for the weekend, and her mother and I "just happened" to attend the same church.

After service we spent a few minutes catching up. I told her how we were going to pray with the elders about the job situation. Liz then spent the next few minutes telling Amy what a fantastic job I had done when I worked with her. About how I always had a good attitude and I would do the things that no one else would do. As a guy just out of work, I was planning on taking Liz to my next interview. I knew that in all the jobs I have been given, that I have always attempted to do my best for the Lord. The praise of others was not what motivated me. But on that day in July, God saw fit to use those words of encouragement to sustain me and to motivate me for the new job ahead of me: educating my children.

So, my encouragement to you today is twofold: 1) Always look for an opportunity to encourage others. You never know how much additional meaning it will have on their lives. 2) If anyone is ever giving away a book about encouragement, enter for an opportunity to win it.

If you comment on this post you will receive another chance to win the book. All entries are due by 11:00 P.M CST February 28th.

Click here to see other give-a-ways at Around the Blogosphere.

Next Time: The Oscars, our Super Bowl

Eliminate Recurring Charges

It's been a fortnight since my first Friday of frugality (Say that with a cookie in your mouth. To follow the frequency of F's make it a fig bar.)

Last time I was here, I said that a key to frugality is to know when to spend and when not to. Today's post is all about when not to. First, I must say that none that follows is meant to be judgemental or prideful. If you came into my house, and followed how we spend our money, you would see many ways that we either spend or money unwisely, or spend money in a way that you never would. What I am talking about today is about the major ways we save money. These tips are certainly not for everyone.

The main way we save money at my house is on what we have decided to do without, not with what we spend less on. We really only have 5 monthly recurring bills. electricity, gas, home phone (which is bundled with our Internet connection) our mortgage, and our credit card bill. We are on a budget right now that would put us down to 4 monthly recurring bills by the beginning of 2010 when we hope to have our credit card paid off for good.

Now, of course, we fill our tanks and are cars tanks to keep us and them moving. Those are basically pay as you go. We don't have cable. We don't have a monthly cellular bill. We also have a bare bones phone package. We have been married nearly 11 years and in all that time we have not had call waiting, or caller i.d.. I was just at my phone company's website and the cost of those two features is 13.22 per month. That's almost $160.00 for 1 year. And what's the downside? We don't know who's calling us and sometimes people get a busy signal. We are actually not on the phone all that much, and I am pretty good at guessing who's calling by the time of day and other contextual clues. The problem with that is no one is impressed when I guess it's them, they just assume that I have caller i.d.

The one that gets most people, is the no cable. Truth be told we moved our T.V. away from the antenna about a year ago and no one in our family has complained. We watch plenty of television, it's either on DVD, videocassette or watching on the Internet. Many of the DVDs and videos are borrowed from our library at no cost to us. Don't get me wrong we love cable in moderation. Amy and I stayed in a hotel last weekend and there is nothing like watching 4 episodes of Law and Order in a 12 hour period. We just don't like paying for it.

My wife and I do not use our cell phones much. We text each other grocery lists and that sort of thing and when we compare notes with those with monthly plans what we pay averages out to never more than 1/2 of what they pay.

Again, I don't write this to be judgmental, critical, or prideful. I share it because I think, that eliminating or trimming down even one of your monthly recurring charges could make quite an impact on your personal finances. I know it has on ours. Even if we can't watch Law and Order four times a day.

Click here to see other good ideas for saving money at Frugal Friday part of Biblical Womanhood.

Next Time: A final word about encouraging words