10 on Tuesdays - 1/27/09

1) Roman has been cracking us up lately. We have a waterfall at the entrance to our subdivision and currently it is frozen over and thus turned off. We drive by it every time we go anywhere and Roman always comments that it needs "battee's" {batteries.}

2) Since Roman has mastered learning & saying most of the basic body parts, I decided to start introducing the more advanced ones {get your mind out of the gutter} and started with the wrist. I showed him his wrist and then showed him mine. Roman ran over to his wet wipes and pulled one out quicker than I could catch him and tell him to stop. He started rubbing my wrist with his wet wipe and when I asked him what he was doing, he said "marker"... he was trying to rub off my veins because he thought it was blue marker! :)

3) Our church has been doing the most addicting sermon series: Generations. For 5 weeks, they're comparing each generation {from the '40's & '50's: post World War II through 1990's} and speaking about the contributions, inventions, music, politics, etc... of each era and tying them all into to how religion is always an underlying factor. It has been so interesting and I'm sad that it all comes to an end next Sunday. This past Sunday really spoke to me because they talked about the '80's and having spent the majority of my childhood in that era, I really could relate to everything mentioned in the sermon. The focal point was the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and being a German student from 1987-1995, having a mother who lived in Germany in the sixties and having a Russian son, I was extremely attentive. He discussed the significance of tearing down walls - both physically and mentally. It made me think about my own walls that I've put up and torn down in my own life. {Deep thoughts by Jack Handy...}

4) Roman is now in his big boy bed! We transitioned him from crib to toddler bed in September and we just converted it to the full-size bed this past weekend. For the last 4 months, Roman has been difficult to get down at night and then he gets up at least once in the middle of the night and comes into our room, {silently and softly} and settles in between Jason and I. I say "silently & softly" because we usually never hear or feel him climb in - he'll make the best ninja some day. Well we thought giving him his new bed and really playing it up may make him feel special. We'll see... so far, its been the same. At least now, Jason & I can be comfortable lying in bed next to him rather than on the floor when we accidentally fall asleep in his room.


5) In these tough economic times, we in the Lewis household are now strictly watching our spending. It's for the better because it has forced me to....

6) ...Stay home & Get Organized! I'm an organizational freak at heart, but I've been lax lately and have multiple messes in multiple rooms on multiple floors. I've cleaned, straightened and pitched stuff from at least one cabinet/drawer/closet a day this month. I'm channeling my inner-Monica and now I'm over-the-top organized and have probably gone too far.

7) ...Get creative! I love making cards and I certainly have all of the supplies to do it, however, I've been so busy lately that it was just so much easier to load up on cards during each Target trip. Now I'm back to making them and although I make a huge mess and I really don't have a lot of time to spend, I'm doing something I enjoy, I'm using my "inventory" and I'm not spending the $3 / card I was spending before. {Sorry to all my friends that work at Hallmark!} In addition to cards, I'm starting to make more gifts {see photo of the cross I made for my BFF's daughter for her baptism} and I'm even going to tackle making a bedskirt for Roman's new big-boy bed. More on that later.. {if it ever happens.}


8) ...Use my brain! Lately, I've been a robot plowing through the grocery store, getting the same old foods and brands week after week without looking at prices. I actually now enter the grocery store and get giddy just thinking about the challenge lying ahead as I figure out the costs per ounce between brands & unit sizes. {I just know that as my sis Leah reads this, she is getting giddy thinking about me checking cost per ounce...}

9) ...Cook up new recipes! While cleaning out the pantry, fridge & freezer, I had to pitch a lot of expired food and it forced me to re-think buying in bulk & excess. There was a lot of stuff I had bought that hadn't expired yet and now I'm vowing to find recipes to use it all up.

10) ...Take advantage of the resources around me. The phrase "taking advantage" is often used in negative context and I agree when it is used in reference to "taking advantage of someone"." However, I'm finding how rewarding it is to "take advantage" of systems and benefits that are free or are inadvertently paid for. For instance, we don't have excess money to spend on going out, much less getting a babysitter to watch Roman while we do it. But our church recently offered a "Couples Night Out" lecture series where for $5, they provided child-care while you listened to a half-hour long talk on a particular topic {ironically this past month's was on "Money & Marriage"} and then they will continue the child-care while you & your spouse spend 2 hours "out" talking about that topic. I will admit to going into this for the "cheap child-care", however I did get a lot out of the talk and Jason and I headed to a restaurant we had a gift-card for had a nice discussion as adults rather than mopping up spilled milk or debating with Roman whether or not it is OK to eat mud, bugs, poopies, etc... {he is such a boy}. Also as members of our golf course, we have a $30 per month food allowance. If the month goes by and we don't spend it, we still get charged. Typically we don't have a problem spending our $30 a month - usually "just Jason" quadruples it {or more!} However, it has been a frigid month and not only has Jason not played golf, but the casual grill we usually eat up there is closed for renovations. So we're headed to the fancy dining room for lunch this Friday! Ooh la la!!! I will also admit to "taking advantage" of the {free with membership} child-care at the Y. Their only policy is that you remain on the premises, so I often bring my book and let Roman play under their watchful eye while I spend some alone time reading. I'm also "taking advantage" of the free entertainment provided by the library, school district, church, etc...

And this doesn't really fit in a category, but I had to mention this... against my better judgment I've been shopping a lot at our Walmart Supercenter, because the prices are drastically cheaper than the other grocery stores. Well I was in need of some more hair products, but short on time and couldn't stop at Walmart AND the Beauty Brands across the street. Then I remembered that not only did the Walmart have a salon inside, but I remembered them selling my brand of hair products. So entering the salon, I assumed the products would be cheaper because it is Walmart, right? Well... it isn't technically Walmart because this salon just leases space from them and the prices were actually 5 cents more than Beauty Brands but I was thinking to myself... 5 cents is really no "big whoop", plus the time I'm saving not going to an additional store is so worth the 5 cents. So as I'm heading to check-out, I spy this little table set up with big neon clearance stickers. They had the same bottle I was just about to buy for 60% off only because it was missing it's cap! I even weighed it against the full-price bottle to make sure it wasn't half-used and I even gave it a test-spritz to make sure the sprayer worked! No problemo and I knew I had a cap at home {because I had just cleaned out our bathroom vanities!} So don't forget to check your local Walmart salon! They may have just what you're looking for on their little clearance table!