Time to Cash In?

Image by Madbuster75 via Flickr

Years ago, before I married Jeffrey, I worked at a grocery store.  One day a lady came in and paid for her groceries with change.  It wasn't just any change, though.  She paid with real silver dimes and quarters.  Those of us who were working on the registers quickly checked to see how much cash we had with us and 'bought' as many of the silver coins as we could from the register drawer.   I've held onto mine ever since.

I'm wondering if it might be time to cash those silver coins in.  I hadn't thought much about it.  We keep hearing about the rising cost of gold bullion, and how people are cashing in on all their old gold jewelry, but the rising price of silver isn't stressed quite as much.  Or maybe I just haven't been paying attention.  Last week Beth said that someone she knows had sold some silver coins - which made her remember mine - and made quite a bit from them.  She said maybe I'd want to sell mine.

Maybe I should.  They've just been stashed away somewhere all these years, and I'm not doing anything with them.  Silver may not be worth as much as gold bullion, but my coins are definitely worth more than face value.  The current price of silver is getting close to $50/oz.  I'm not sure how many ounces of silver are in my coins, but it might be worth at least taking them to someone who's willing to buy gold bullion and silver, just to see how much I could get from them.

I may or may not decide to sell them, but it would be fun to find out how much I might get.  I could find out, hold onto my coins, and consider them an investment!

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2)

Coming on Cory's birthday:




Can't wait to see this. I would really love to re-read all the books or at least re-watch all the movies before this comes out, but it's probably not going to happen. We will probably at least watch Part 1 before going to see the last one.  The Last One - yeah, that's kinda sad...

Review: Walgreens Brand Oil-Free Acne Wash

This is a compensated post written by me on behalf of Walgreens. All opinions are 100% mine.
 
Having a teenage son, I was happy to have him try the Walgreens Brand Oil-Free Acne Wash.  We've used some of the other Walgreens Brand Health & Wellness Products but hadn't tried this yet.
 
Here's what he had to say about it when I asked him how he liked it:  "It dries my face out a bit, but I haven't had any huge zits pop up.  It is very mild though so it's nice to use on my face, but it isn't really clearing up the areas on my face that get the most zits."
 
When I asked him if it was as good, better, or not so good as things he's used in the past, he said, "about the same, better than the Neutrogena stuff I got once."
 
It sounds like he feels like the Walgreens Brand Oil-Free Acne Wash works just as well, if not better than some of the name-brand products he's tried.  That is exactly what Walgreens is trying to accomplish with their Walgreens Brand Health & Wellness Products - helping their shoppers meet their health and beauty needs and manage costs at the same time, because most of the time buying the Walgreens brand can save you money. Walgreens Brand Health & Wellness Products are Walgreens pharmacist recommended, 100% guaranteed, and usually contain the same active ingredients as the national brands. If you can get a product that works just as well while spending less, why wouldn't you?
 
Purchase of every Walgreens Brand Health & Wellness Product supports bringing preventive wellness services to local communities through the Walgreens Way to Well Fund™.  This fund will provide free preventive health tests as well as other health and wellness services and education to local communities.  So, not only will you be saving money, you'll be helping Walgreens help others, too.
 

You Really Need to Buy a Mirror

I think every bedroom absolutely must have a full length floor mirror. I've stayed places that had either no mirror in the bedroom or just the mirror on the dresser. Do you know how hard it is to tell if the entire outfit looks good when you can't see the entire outfit? I mean shoes and all.  It just doesn't look the same when you have to stand on one foot and hold the other up to try and get a glimpse of it in the mirror.

For those of you who know me and the fact that we do not wear shoes in the house, I'm really only talking about dressing up and putting on dressy shoes that haven't been worn outside for ages and, therefore, will not track dirt through the house if I slip them on in the bedroom to see how they look with the dress.  If I'm just putting on jeans and a top to go out to the store or something, I still like to see myself head to toe, but I'm not too worried about the shoes.  I do want to look presentable, though.  Unlike some people.

Have you seen how some people dress when they go out in public?  I would be too embarrassed to leave the house!  I don't know if they just don't care, don't have anything better to wear, or just don't have a Decorative wall mirror, let alone a full-length mirror, so they just don't know how they look.  Is there a good way to go up to someone and suggest she start looking for some mirrors for her house? If this is you, consider this a gentle nudge to start looking for some mirrors.  You can thank me later.  Then you can go out in public without embarrassing your friends and family.  The mirrors will look nice in your house, too.

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Snapily Deals

Remember that cool greeting card I got with the two pictures of Cory?  Well, if you're thinking of ordering some of your own, today is the day.  Get Mom the best Mother's Day card ever.

Coupon code MOM3OFF gives you $3 off ANY order and SHIPFREE gives you FREE SHIPPING on any order. They CAN be combined! ONLY UNTIL THE END OF TODAY!! Get those Mother's Day photo gifts for almost free at Snapily!!

You can also save up to 50% by purchasing a savings coupon - click the image.  Coupons can be purchased through May 8, and can be used any time in the next 6 months.

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Book Review: Sabbath by Dan B. Allender

Sabbath by Dan B. Allender with a foreward by Phyllis Tickle
part of the Ancient Practices Series

About this book:

Dan Allender asks the question, "What would you do for twenty-four hours if the only criteria were to pursue your deepest joy?" His book expels the myriad myths about this 'day of rest,' starting with the one that paints the Sabbath as a day of forced quiet, spiritual exercises, and religious devotion and attendance. This, he says, is at odds with the ancient tradition of Sabbath as a day of delight for both body and soul. Instead, the only way we can make use of the Sabbath is to see God's original intent for the day with new eyes. In Sabbath, Allender builds a case for delight by looking at this day as a festival that celebrates God's re-creative, redemptive love.

While I agree with the premise of this book, that God gave us the Sabbath and it is supposed to be a delight, I really did not delight in reading it.  I have been observing the weekly Sabbath my entire life, and while I love the Sabbath, I'm sure I could be getting more out of it, more of what God intended when He gave it to us.  So, Dan Allender did give me some things to think about in his enthusiasm for the Sabbath, but overall the book was really hard to read.  There were some gems in this book, but they were buried in so much other stuff.  This was one book that I almost didn't finish, and that doesn't happen often.  I wish I had thought to highlight the phrases and paragraphs that really struck me, but I didn't - and I just can't bring myself to go looking for them.

Overall, I felt that Dan Allender is very excited about the Sabbath and has some definite ideas about what it should be, but I felt that they were more his ideas about what works for him than actual Biblical teachings about how God wants us to celebrate the Sabbath.  I was just celebrating the fact that I finally made it to the end of this book!  I would not recommend reading it.  I would, however, recommend looking into the Bible to see what God has to say about the Sabbath, because, as Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."  So, the Sabbath is something God made for us and gave to us.  It's a good idea to find out more about what he wants us to get from it, and at least reading this book has me asking what more does God want to give me through the Sabbath? - even after all these years of keeping it!

I received this book free through the BookSneeze®.com bloggers book review program.  All opinions are mine.

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New Lamps for the House

After the house was painted and we started putting things back into place, we realized we needed some new lamps.  For years we've had several halogen torch lamps, but they've been gradually dying, and you just can't buy those anymore.  So, we went looking to find something else.

There are so many different styles of lamps - lamps to suit every taste.  We didn't think a Tiffany floor lamp would be right for our house, but we did find a very nice set.  It included a floor lamp, a table lamp, and a smaller table lamp - the first matched set of lamps we've ever had.  I really like the smaller one.  Well, I like all of them, but that small lamp has come in really handy.  When I get up in the mornings, while it's still dark, I don't like much light - but I still need to see.  I used to go around the living room, turning off all but one light, and then back to flip the switch to turn it on.  Now, I just go to this one lamp and turn the switch on it.  It puts out just enough light.  It's also a good lamp to leave on for a kid who's coming in after we go to bed, and we don't want to leave all the lights on.

We liked our new set of lamps so much that we went back and bought another set for the bedroom.  Not the exact same set, but another similar one.  It has a floor lamp, beside table lamp, and a smaller lamp we put on Jeffrey's dresser.  Our tastes are pretty simple, so the lamps we bought aren't real fancy - but we like them, and that's what matters.

For those who want fancy or specialty lamps there are lamps of all kinds available online.   Have you ever wondered where they get the bear lamps or deer or fishing lamps they put in those rental cabins?  I even found some of those online.  You can shop the largest selection of table lamps or floor lamps from the comfort of your own home and even get them shipped free to your door.  Sometimes I wonder how we ever found anything before we had the internet.  I guess we just didn't know how many things we could have to choose from.

Baby Giggles

I saw this on Good Morning America this morning. So cute! I just can't watch it without laughing.




There's nothing quite so wonderful as a baby's laugh.  Oh, I do wish I had videos of my kids when they were little and adorable like this.

Update on Beth

I met Beth at the doctor's office where she turned in the urine she'd been collecting and had some blood drawn at the lab.  Then she checked in at OB/GYN, got weighed and had her blood pressure checked.  Her blood pressure was perfectly normal today.  Also, the doctor said her urine tested fine, and he'd call her if anything unusual showed up in the blood test.  Otherwise she could just come back next week.

He said the ultrasound she had on Tuesday looked great.  He just felt it was better to be safe than sorry so he wanted to do the tests.  So, now we wait.  Only a couple more weeks...

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Doctor's Appointment with Beth

Beth had her regularly scheduled doctor's appointment on Tuesday.  Her blood pressure was a bit higher than they would like.  I don't know how high, just that the doctor ordered some extra tests, and she has to go back today for lab work.  He told her the high blood pressure could be caused by stress or some other normal things, but it's a bit elevated for that, and he wants to rule out Preeclampsia.  Either that, or if that's what she has, he'll probably want her to go ahead and deliver the baby.  She's at 37 weeks, so he will be fine.

She's not real thrilled about that because she did not want any kind of drugs - to induce labor or for pain - and this would mean that her labor would have to be induced, and then she might need something for pain because apparently this makes the contractions really bad.  I told her she needs to stop worrying about it because that's not going to help her blood pressure, and, however it has to happen, the most important thing is that she and the baby are healthy. 

Today she goes back for test results.  Tim can't take off work to go with her, so she called me last night and asked me to go with her.  Hopefully, she'll get good news, but if she doesn't, she doesn't want to be alone.  It's kind of nice to know that she still needs her mom sometimes.

Prayers that everything works out for the best and that we end up with a healthy mother and baby - whether now or in a few weeks - would be appreciated.  Thanks.