If you have credit cards, and sadly most people do, you've probably noticed changes in your monthly statements. Now, they have this very helpful section that shows you how long it will take to pay your balance off, providing no additional charges are made, if you just pay the minimum each month - and then how long it will take to pay it off, as well as how much you will save, if you pay just a bit more.
To quote the Minimum Payment Warning:
If you make only the minimum payment each period, you will pay more in interest and it will take you longer to pay off your balance.
Which, of course, we all should know already, but the table makes it extremely clear:
Our balance on this particular card is only $505. If I'm reading this correctly, this is saying that it would take 18 years, and we'd end up paying 8 times what we owe, if we just paid the minimum ($10) every month. That is absolutely ridiculous!!
Of course, this doesn't completely apply, because we got 3 years/no interest - so as long as I pay the balance off before the promotion expiration date, we pay no finance charges. Of course, if I fail to pay it off before the expiration, they sock us with the deferred interest - which is more than the remaining balance at this point. I'm definitely paying this one off before that date!
I'm making some Taco Dip for tomorrow. I really hope everybody likes it a little spicy. I browned my hamburger and added the taco seasoning. And then I added some more taco seasoning. I guess I was thinking about other things, like how to include a random keyword I know nothing about in a blog post, or wondering why people are so resistant to eating healthy - I'm watching Oprah; she asked.
By the time I realized I had twice as much seasoning as I needed, it was too late to fix things - so we're just going to have extra-spicy taco dip. Without olives, because I don't have any of those. Good thing my recipes are flexible, huh?
I’m so glad there’s a meme like Looking at the Sky on Friday, because it means all the time I spend looking at the sky, and taking pictures of it, has a purpose! Click the badge for more info.
I know I usually get my Looking at the Sky post up a lot earlier, but it is still Friday, right? I’ve just been busy doing other things – posting something about the book I just finished (see last post), picking Cory up from school, running by the library to pick up a letter of recommendation (for Cory for scholarship applications), washing dishes, cooking… I haven’t had time to look into Outer Banks vacation rentals or figure out which photo(s) I want to post this week. Oh, who am I fooling? No sense in looking into vacation rentals – who has time for a vacation, anyway?
Luckily, I can look at the sky wherever I am, and it’s just as gorgeous here as anywhere else in the world!!
…though some people are flying off to those other places:
A timeless story of love and betrayal, loss and redemption, flickering against the vivid backdrop of eighteenth-century Scotland, Here Burns My Candle illumines the dark side of human nature, even as hope, the brightest of tapers, lights the way home.
I like reading historical novels and getting a feel for how people lived in different times and different places. I found myself immediately sympathizing with Bess, the younger and less favored daughter-in-law. She may not have been the wife her mother-in-law, the Dowager Lady Kerr, would have chosen for her son, but she tried her best to fit in with the family. Then, bonny Prince Charlie and his rebel army ride into Edinburgh, and the family dynamic becomes even more strained. Betrayals are discovered. Forgiveness is extended. Hard choices are made, and the consequences sometimes seem insurmountable.
I found myself caring about what happened to this family and really enjoyed watching the relationships between them grow and change. I especially enjoyed watching the Dowager we met at the beginning of the book seeming to gradually disappear, 'and a real woman - with flesh and bone and heart - was slowly taking her place.' As everything else was stripped away, mother-in-law and daughters-in-law learned a few things about one another and what was really important. Overall, a really good book that kept me interested to the end and left me wanting more.
Cory brought home his cap and gown today. Tomorrow is the last day of the 3rd quarter, of his last year of high school. That means he has one more quarter of high school. And then he graduates. My baby is going to graduate from high school, and it's not very far off at all.
He gave me the cap and gown and said to put them somewhere safe, so he wouldn't lose them. Do you think if I put them somewhere so safe that I can't find them again, his graduation day will never come?
I've got this very useful Firefox add-on called Read it Later. When I find an interesting site, but I don't have time to read it now, I just right-click and choose "Read it Later", and it saves it for me. It's kind of like bookmarking things, I guess, though it doesn't feel so permanent. It's for the stuff I want to read, but since I haven't yet, I don't know if it's something I want to keep forever, like my bookmarks.
Except that this very useful add-on is also very dangerous. All day long I open new tabs. If something says "click here to learn more about protein powder" or "1000 free Custom Shapes for Photoshop" I click - and then I go doing whatever else I'm doing. Then, at the end of the day, when it's time to head off to bed, like now, I start closing tabs. That's when I realize I never read all the interesting things I found today, and I start saving them for later - so I don't lose them.
The problem is - later never comes, because the next day I find more interesting things that I really, really want to read. Someday. Later. And the list continues to grow...
I hate getting home from the store and realizing I forgot something. If it's something really important, I can usually have Jeffrey stop and pick it up on the way home. Rarely is it important enough for me to run back over to the store, and often I can just wait until the next time I go shopping. This isn't really all that important...
Today I was thinking about looking at hair rinses to see if I might want to buy one, but I forgot to look. I was thinking maybe it would be something I could use between colorings. I used to color my hair for fun, but now it's because of those gray pigment challenged hairs that keep showing up. You know they say gray hair is hereditary - you get it from your kids!
At some point in time, I suppose it will be time to forgo the hair color and just go gray gracefully. I'm not sure when that will be. When I'm old? Define old. When Jeffrey finally goes gray or needs hair loss treatment for men? After all, he is almost 4 years older than I am, so it wouldn't do for me to look older! When Beth finally grows up, gets married and has a kid of her own, making me a grandma?
Is there ever a good time to stop coloring and just go gray?
There's a special Spotlight Concert tomorrow night where the choir members and band members are going to be performing their pieces for Solo & Ensemble, which is this weekend. It gives parents and friends a chance to see them perform, and it gives them an extra chance to practice and the opportunity to perform their pieces in front of an audience.
The Band Booster Association is running a bake sale during the concert in an effort to raise some money to help our band students attend a performance festival in May - the High Note Festival in Gurnee, IL - where they will perform before an adjudicator and then get to spend the rest of the day at Six Flags. Sounds like fun, at least for those kids who like roller coasters and amusement parks. My kid isn't one of them. Sometimes I wonder how our kids can be ours, since neither one of them likes roller coasters, and Jeffrey and I love them.
Anyway, the cost for this festival is $50 per student, and we're hoping to help offset the cost to the families with a little fundraising. Now, if I can just decide what to bake tomorrow. I thought I'd make these Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownie Cups, but then I started scrolling down the dessert page on my recipe blog, and there are so many other things that look so good. Sometimes I forget all the good things I've made.
Help me out, will you? What do you think I should bake tomorrow for the bake sale? What would you most like to have? Pretend there's some kind of multivitamins you can take so that you can eat any dessert, and the calories don't count. In fact, while you're pretending, pretend that taking those vitamins and eating dessert means you lose weight and get in shape, too. Sorry, I got a little carried away there. I just need something for the bake sale.
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Alvin and the Chipmunks. All opinions are 100% mine.
I remember seeing the previews for the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, cleverly called 'the squeakquel' - well, I thought it was clever, didn't you? This wasn't a movie that I felt just had to be seen in the theater, but now it's coming out on DVD, so we'll most likely end up watching it. It's packed with action and nutty fun for the whole family - and cute little chipmunks, of course. There are even girl chipmunks in this one, the Chipettes, a beautiful talented trio discovered by Alvin, Simon, and Theodore's ex-manager Ian. I can just imagine the trouble the boys get into.
I've been having some fun with the 'Get Munked with Alvin and the Chipmunks' application at munkyourself.com. You get to create your own chipmunk - choosing clothes, accessories, etc, and then record your own sound or choose a clip from the movie. I'm not sure what this clip was about, but it's exactly how I feel sometimes.
Besides the 'munk' yourself thing, there's plenty More Munk Mayhem you can get into at foxfamilyflicks.com. There are games to play, downloads to download, and music to sing along with.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel will be available everywhere Tuesday, March 30 on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download. You can buy it now through pre-order. The Double DVD pack comes with "The Squeak Along" Bonus Disc, with more music, mayhem and all-new singalongs! TWICE THE FUN for the PRICE OF ONE! Check it out and see if this is one you want to add to your home movie collection - and have some fun with the chipmunks while you're at it.
I change the sheets on our beds every two weeks. One week (this week) I change our sheets, and the next week I have the kids strip their beds so I can wash their sheets. I guess I could do them all at once, but I like to alternate so I don't have too much extra laundry at a time. There always seem to be enough clothes - how do these kids wear so many clothes in one week, anyway? - without adding sheets from 3 beds.
I'm not asking just because I'm changing our sheets today, though. Changing the sheets reminded me of something Jeffrey heard on the radio a while back. Apparently, there are places in the world where people change their sheets 3 times a year. This must have been the article they were referencing.
3 times a year? Really? Who would actually admit that? And, say you only changed your sheets 3 times a year - how would you decide when it was time? I have a hard enough time keeping track of whether it's the week to change my sheets or the week to get the kids' sheets, but at least I know it's time to wash somebody's sheets every week.
Whether it's every week or 3 times a year, I'm sure there are as many opinions about how often you should change your sheets as there are about diets that work and diets that don't. So tell me - how often do you change your sheets?
