We're number 11! Huh?

Here's a post I'm sharing from Chuck Colson. I love listening to his spots on Family Life Network's radio station. I may not always agree 100% but I think this is a good reminder of why our country is so down and some motivation to help us get back up. I hope folks listen to what he is saying. There is a link to a NYT op-ed piece in Mr. Colson's article titled "We're No. 1(1)!"-good read! Have great day!

Here's the link to the letter from Chuck Colson:
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Report-from-Chuck-Colson.html?soid=1103374268266&aid=Zgswg3VPPa0

Progress, how to save a dime and a giveaway!

Progress is putting books away ON A SHELF!
Progress is actually filing papers IN A FOLDER!
Progress is RECYCLING recipes you will never make!
Progress is GETTING RID OF magazines you will never read again (or maybe even the first time)!
We are MAKING PROGRESS!

See? I promised to write about how I am doing with my paper purge week and I am! How cool is that?

Well, it's not like my house was totally overrun with papers, it's just that my dining room table always has piles of various sorts. Whenever we need to use the table, the piles get relocated, but never really dealt with. And sometimes those piles never make it back to the table but somehow new ones grow in their place. It's amazing how fast paper multiplies.
So, I'd say I have half of the stuff off of the table and into proper homes today. I have to confess, I didn't spend the whole day doing this. I was only half-hearted about it really. It was just too nice outside and I rarely have the energy to get out of the house with the twins so today we went to the park. It was a glorious day!
**********************************************************************************
Part 2:
Ok, so how to save a dime, or maybe 3160 of them to be exact. (That's 316 dollars in case you are taking your shoes off right now...)

If you have car insurance and own a home, you should look into contacting one of the online sites that compare insurance quotes for you. I did it through Swagbucks. They have an offers page where you can earn swagbucks for accepting an offer, which in this case, involved entering my information online for Einsurance. I earned a bunch of swagbucks and got A LOT of insurance quotes.

For me, Traveler's came in at the lowest rates, $300 less than my current auto insurance! I was all ready to convert my policy so I called my insurance company to cancel. Just for kicks I had them re-run my information to see if they could get my rate lowered. I didn't tell them what the Traveler's quote came in at. They BEAT IT by $16. That may not seem like much but it meant that I didn't have to switch carriers, fill out a bunch of paper work and set up automatic drafts again. The biggest benefit is that since I have been a customer for a while, I have accident forgiveness.

I don't think $316 is chump change so I am happy about this. It lowers my monthly payment about $30. And since I only "work" 2 days a week, every penny counts.

I actually did this last year and saved money again by calling my insurer and checking the policy rates. I didn't do it on purpose this time, thinking there was no way the rate would be so much lower than it currently is.

So, my question is, why wasn't my rate lower to begin with? Why do I have to shop around and then come back and ask for it to be lowered? My car certainly isn't getting younger or hotter and I haven't been in an accident or gotten a ticket. Shouldn't it go down every year, not up??? I don't get it.

Now I am getting a new policy on my home owners insurance also. The company I have been with for auto insurance came in with a quote that is about $150 less than our home owners inurance and we will also get a discount for having auto insurance with them. I am looking forward to saving around $500 a year total when all is said and done. Checking out Einsurance was certainly worth it for me! And now I have enough swagbucks to get a few Amazon gift certificates!

*************************************************************************************
Part 3:
The giveaway!

Ok, so it's not MY giveaway. (You really don't want what I have any how:)
I am really NOT savy about inserting a link into a blog so try this: Nutrition Class. Did it work? If not, copy and paste www.kitchenstewardship.com and look for the Real Food nutrition ecourse giveaway.

All this week, Katie at Kitchen Stewardship is giving away back-to-school items. Today's giveaway is a Real Food nutrition ecourse produced by the Food Renegade. You can find them both on Facebook also. Great places to find information about REAL FOOD. Like butter. MMMMmmm butter. And bacon. MMMMmmmmm bacon. I am SO into this right now.

If you homeschool or if you just want to learn more about nutition, this course looks like it would be great. You can read a sample chapter of the book it is based on first. There is also a link to a detailed course description. Enter to win a FREE course! Then again, I want to win, which is part of the reason I am posting this. So if YOU win, you have to fill me in on all of the gory details, ok?? Good luck!

So for tonight, I am signing off. God bless you and goodnight!

The worst blogger on earth...

So, one of these days I will learn to be consistent! Maybe when the babies are older and my laundry is caught up and I don't have to cook breakfast/lunch/dinner and the dishes do themselves and I catch up on the gazillion emails in my inbox... Wow! How do these women make time to blog every day? And do all of the things they are apparently doing???
I bought a "MomAgenda" planner to help me pull myself together. But I still lug around a big black "Miche" bag along with my purse for all of the books and notebooks and music I seem to be incapable of being without. I bought two blue plastic boxes in order to organize my bill paying "system" (I call it that lightly these days) and there they sit on my table next to the box that they were supposed to replace. I need to put "write to do list" on my "to do list!"
It is painfully obvious that there is no product/system/gadget/book, etc., that is going to get me organized or purge my clutter or fix my diet and my waistline. I was reading tonight on the "Small Notebook" site about purging papers and getting rid of things that seem impossible to get rid of, like every card your grandmother gave you. Seems reasonable. And prudent. Expecially given that the paper clutter is my husband's biggest complaint.
I refuse to believe that I am the only paper "addict" out there. In fact, having been a homecare nurse for 14 years, I know for a fact that I am not. In fact, compared to some folks, I am immaculately clutter free! (kind of like "relative morality?" -but we won't go there now....) But that is no excuse. I really must put on my big girl panties and get to work!
First things first-this week is officially paper purge week! I will have three days to do this. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday will be my paper purging days. AND I WILL BLOG ABOUT IT EACH DAY. To prove that I am serious, I just entered it in my "MomAgenda" planner, ha! It's the first thing on the page. If I knew where my camera was and could get the darn thing to upload photos, I'd show you. Maybe that will be on the agenda next week. You'll just have to "listen" to me for now. Use your imagination. Engage your brain!
Anyone else addicted to paper? Want to start a support group?
My first project will be the dining room table. And I promise to take a picture before and after like she did on Small Notebook. Eventually I will post it. Pinky swear.

Delaware County Fair

Today we ventured to Walton, NY for the Delaware County Fair. Having been to the Harford Fair earlier this week in Harford, PA, I figured it would just be another version of that. I was, however, very pleasantly surprised!
If you have never been to the Delaware County Fair and you live in or near the Catskill region of Upstate NY, you are missing out. For a county fair, this was not only a big fair, but well organized, very clean, super friendly, and there was a lot to see and do besides the midway. The areas which house the animals being shown are extremely clean, similar to my experience at the NYS Fair in Syracuse. We visited the petting area where there were the usual goats and sheep but also some very tame mama pigs with their piglets, a couple of Clydesdales that were just the biggest, sweetest lovers, a mama donkey and her foal, chicks, ducklings, bunnies and more. I had more fun in the petting zoo than the babies did!
In the dairy barn we met Sunshine, a big beautiful black and white dairy cow (a Holstein?- I didn't ask). She is due in about 10 days but she was sweet enough to allow the babies to sit in the hay next to her ENORMOUS pregnant belly and have her picture taken with the babies. She was beautiful. That's really a big compliment from me as I am not a dairy cow fan, having lived down the road from them for a bit in Greene, NY. My husband actually turned to me and said, "We have to get a cow!" Well, as long as we also get a goat because I actually prefer fresh goat's milk!
At the "Wandering Cowboy" I finally got my cowgirl hat. The proprietor of the business helped me pick out a hat and a hat band. We commiserated over not being able to see Lady Antebellum tonight. Me, because I didn't get tickets in time and my husband's band is playing tonight, and he, because he is working at the booth. I did clue him in to the fact that they will be at Chevy Court at the State Fair on September1st. If you haven't been to the State Fair I will clue You in too-no tickets are needed for Chevy Court! It's free seating. You just have to get there early to get a seat. So if you see me there-say hi! And jsut to make my day, the "Wandering Cowboy" threw in my hat band for free as long as I promised to wear my hat onstage when I am out singing. So if you see me with my hat next time James and I play, now you'll know why! I feel more like a cowgirl everyday. Now if I could only find my horse....
Lunch was at the New Hope Church pancake tent! At 3pm we were eating biscuits and gravy with homefries (hashbrowns really) with coffee. Yum! I gotta learn to make homemade buiscuits and gravy. Maybe in my free time.
And the icing on the cake was finding a handmade quilt for our new log bed that we bought in Lake George on vacation this year. It's a beautiful king size "Yo-Yo" quilt with a blue plaid background and yo-yo's in every color imaginable so it will really go with anything and everything that I might like to put on the bed with it. If you are not a quilter (neither am I) and you don't know what yo-yo's are, they kind of look like a gathered button made of fabric that is then tacked onto the quilt. On my quilt they are about 2-3 inches in diameter and spaced about 2 inches apart. On a king size quilt there are A LOT of yo-yo's! I can't imagine how long it took to make and she did it by hand! We will have this quilt forever. My children will have to fight over it when I die. Perhaps I will give it to the child who treats me the best in my fragile old age... It's already on my bed completing my log cabin look! I love it! (Oh yeah, we actually DO live in a log cabin, duh...)
The day was rounded out by a pretzel dog on a stick, a gigunda fruit smoothie and, of course, deep fried Oreo's! I intended on getting my fried Oreo fix at the Harford Fair but none of us spotted them until we were walking out. The stand I bought my Oreo's at also had deep fried Snickers, Pop Tart's and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! I would have given in to my deep fried obsession if I hadn't been reading "The Maker's Diet" on the way to the fair! So I settled for the Oreo's since that's what's been on my mind all week. And now I am good until next year. Or at least until the NYS Fair at the end of the month! Then it'll be fried scallops and oysters (which aren't on the "Maker's Diet" either, but hey, a girl's gotta live!)...
So the Delaware County Fair is a keeper in my book. We will certainly be back next year. And then I will once again have to choose between the Snickers, the PB&J, the Pop Tarts, and the Oreo's. Decisions, decisions...
Maybe we'll be showing our new cow...
P.S. check back again in a day or so as I may have figured out how to upload my photos by then. I am about ready to throw the computer out the window right now...

I'm offically a musician!

So, one of my dreams has been to start playing as a duo with my husband, Jim. He's been in a band "Old Friends" in one way shape or form for over 20 years. They are pretty successful locally and have a good following from Syracuse, NY to Scranton,PA. They've even played at a beach house in the Hamptons which was kind of cool (except that it was really sad to see the way they have ruined the beach with rows of mini-mansions...it actually made me cry to see it).
After meeting my hubby and hearing him play for the first time, I kind of got the bug to start playing my guitar again. Except that I didn't have one anymore. So he bought me a really sweet Taylor and I started practicing and taking lessons again. Turns out that the same guy I took lessons with as a teenager plays with my husband and his band. Huh. Did I mention that my husband is 14 years older than I am ?
Then my husband (then boyfriend-that sounds funny now) let me get up and sing a song with the band. And what did I do? Pulled the mic right out of the stand, disconnecting it right in the middle of the song! Oh yeah, they're not all cordless like on karaoke night...Oops!
Over the past 4 years my desire to go out and play music has grown and my husband and I got our feet wet playing at the local nursing home where I was working. My mom "hired" us to play for one of her church-lady meetings for St Patrick's Day (we do some Irish music since that's his band's specialty). And then I got to sit in as a member of the band last year for a gig when the other guitar player couldn't be there. That was nerve-wracking!
So now Jim and I are officially up and running as a duo. Last night we played our second gig at McGirk's Irish Pub in Chenango Bridge, NY. I have to admit that I have kind of forced my husband to do this. Not that he didn't want to but he and his ex-wife used to have a country band that broke up when they did and I think he kind of had a sense of "here we go again." Except that I'm not her and he's not the man he used to be (in a REALLY good way!). I was "threatening" ( I say that only half jesting-when I want something-I WANT IT!) to go out and find my own band if he didn't do this so I guess he figured what the heck. I wouldn't want to do this without him anyway. He's the one who created this beast. The least he can do is help feed the darn thing!!
Thankfully, Jim is an excellent guitar player because my skills leave much to be desired. I tend to get lost because I like listening to him play and then I lose my place or forget to come in singing! I guess it's good that I like to listen to him but when you're the show, paying attention is helpful... Needless to say, we are a work in progress.
Naming our duo is maybe the biggest challenge we have. Well, that and the fact that I am terrible at harmonizing-I mean, come on, I want to sing the MELODY! Seriously I have thrown out dozens of names, even going so far as to hold a "Name the Band" contest with our friends on Facebook and still no luck. Jim is calling us "The Hull's" and we're listed as just Jim & Liz Hull on the ad's. I like "James & Elizabeth." I also like "North Creek" -it's actually the name of the town we just vacationed in in the Adirondak's-but he thinks it's too close to his ex-country band's name "North Country." I say, whatever! (lol) That band had been defunct for something like 10+ years. It may actually be more like 14. So then I came up with Crazy Creek. Saw that on a sign also! We are certainly crazy! I am just calling us "The Whatever's" for now. Maybe someone can come up with a great name and send it to me in a comment. That is, if anyone actually reads my posts!

Let's try this again...

Once every 3 or 4 months isn't bad right? I have no idea how other folks post daily when they are caring for their children and other ventures. I am in awe.

That said....

We are now on the "Real Food" journey. Don't ask me where this started but somewhere along the line I started reading about real food and then I started reading Nourished Kitchen's blog, signed up for an online class (which I am taking the sllllloooowwww way...), picked up a copy of "Nourishing Traditions" and here we are. Gotta love eating fat again! Butter makes everything better, doesn't it? And cream top yogurt? Heaven!

My motivation for this is to provide the girls with the best start nutritionally that I can. They like egg yolks and even ate some of the liver I made for them. They eat the plain full fat yogurt that I buy (haven't gotten to making yogurt yet) and I have started buying raw goat's milk for them as well. They get butter on all their veggies and I have stopped giving them grain cereals except for soaked oats and whatever is in their little snack "puffs"-there are TWO of them you know, and sometimes a mom's gotta do...

I am still trying to figure out what keep s giving Annabeth diaper rash. She eats so many different things (like the stuff that Daddy and Grandma sneak to her and Molly). Annabeth definitely is prone to rashes and breaks out from seemingly phantom contact with things in her environment. This does seem to be somewhat improved with the elimination of "baby" cereal. But she has been this way since birth. I am praying to avoid full-blown eczema.

Molly is still a month or so behind Annabeth in development but she is doing more and more everyday. She is 3-4 pounds lighter but her head circumference and length are within a half inch of Annabeth. Her feet are literally half the size of her sister's. Sometimes it seems as if I have a 3 year old and an infant. They are so different! Having twins is such a joy!

So let's see if I can (finally) keep up with posts. Maybe someone will actually read this!

God bless you!

Picking myself up by the bootstraps...

So, it's been what? Five months since my last post? Life sort of gets away from you that way, doesn't it? So this will be brief.

Twins are 8 months old. They are hands down the cutest babies in the world. As James says, sorry to all the runnersup. Or is it runnerups? Either way, I love these little people that God gave me to raise. The fact that there are two of them blows me away everyday. He trusted me with A LOT! It's a cliche, I know, but it's a privilege to be the mom of twins.

Annabeth Grace has been pulling up to stand for three weeks+ and can now let go and stand for a few seconds. I predict he will be walking by 9 months. Molly just rolled over from her back to belly for James about 2 days ago but has yet to do it again. She did, however, pull up to stand tonight. She was sitting in my lap and pulled up on the plastic bin in front of us that I was putting their clothes in. She was so proud of herself, smiling. She did it at least 5 times. I feel like the only mama in the world! And here I am, the one who is always saying that everyone acts as if they are the first mom/dad to have a baby ever... And these aren't even my first babies! So pathetic...

I am working full time and hating it. How does anyone work full time with twins and get any semblance of sleep? Let alone get housework done or time alone with the hubs or anything other than work and babycare? I think I'd have to get up at 4 am in order to get out of the house on time in the morning. And then it would still be questionable. They always wake up just as I am getting ready to get out of bed. I am pretty sure they have mom-dar. They have baby walkie-talkies and they say stuff like, " ok, I just nursed. She's gonna get up in 3 minutes. Start crying now and she'll nurse you too..." It's baby sabotage every morning. I cannot get a shower, wash my hair AND remember everything I am supposed to bring with me that day. It's one or the other. The "other" days mean that I have to come back home during the day sometime to get my pump, my cell phone, my laptop, my purse, my bag, my calendar, or, Lord help me, put my underwear on the right way...

So it's 11:20pm, I am sitting at my bomb shelter/diningroom table, and James is sitting across from me on another laptop watching some crazy news shows. In fact, just took a break to watch the gay weatherman freak out over a cockroach on set. This is how we bond nowadays. That, and sending Facebook messages back and forth. Yes, also sitting across the table from each other on our laptops. Gotta love modern romance.

Perhaps we will bring the "real" computer downstairs and set it up by the next timeI post and I can add pics of the babies (let's be honest, no one really wants to see us). We've only been talking about it for 6 months...