Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Hazard
ROAD WORK NEXT 30 MILES
Lovely.
This is the 'local' freeway that I take, not only to visit Wally-world, but also to visit my parent's house and the mall (both roughly about 15-miles away). Plus, it's an alternate route to church that I normally take for my Tuesday-insanely-early-morning Bible Study gathering.
Stellar.
Speaking of Bible Study--our lesson this week was on patience. Endurance. Tolerance. Long-suffering.
Me thinks the Lord is speaking to me through my Bible Study lesson this week and that highway sign.
But, a sign like this seems almost more appropriate.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Some perspective
So, some random things that are on my mind lately...
1) I'm trying to find more 'joy on the job'--I have a good position, a great boss, a comfortable work environment--sounds like it should be enough to keep me joyful and content, right? Right. But, some days I really have to work at the joyful and contentment part. And some days I'm not very good at it and I have this internal dialogue with myself that goes something like this: "Girl--get it TOGETHER! You are where God wants you to be, right here, right now, and He has a plan and purpose for your life! Stop being so selfish!"
2) I'm getting tired of freeway/rush hour driving. Let me amend that--I'm getting tired of freeway/rush hour driving when my destination is church (45 miles from home round trip - a route I take 3x/week), or work (20 miles from home round trip - a route I take 5x/week ). It seems that I don't mind the driving at all when my destinations are say, the mall, or homes of friends and family. I miss the days, back in South Dakota, when I lived across the street from my office, and within walking distance of my church. (I do not however, miss the snow/ice/cold of living in a northern state!) I don't have an ipod, or a CD player in my car, so it could be that I'm getting tired of listening to the radio (NPR and the classical music station are my go-tos now--everything else just sounds the same). I think a run to the library for some books on tape is in order (do they even make books on tape anymore?!?).
3) I attended a lecture a few weeks ago featuring a presentation by the provost of the institution where I work. The presentation was on food and the research the provost is doing in food psychology--the title of her lecture was "Why we like the foods we do: the Good, the Bad & the Fattening." Though I originally went, basically to see the provost in person, the lecture was actually really interesting and informative. Some of my take-aways: the more you eat something, the more you'll like it; candy is basically sugar and butter; kids will eat vegetables if you flavor them with something sweet/fatty like cream cheese and sugar--eventually faze out the sweet/fat and they'll still eat the veggies because their body has been conditioned to like them; giving rewards for food consumption is not a good way to train kids to eat their green beans (ie, if you eat your green beans, you can have dessert, etc.). At one point the presenter made a comment that she rarely, if ever, goes out to eat--that she loves to cook and prefers to cook with fresh/natural ingredients (she also mentioned she's currently working on a cookbook). I was fascinated by this comment, mostly because I eat out a lot--sometimes at least 5 days/week (take-out, etc.), and even those days when I do eat at home, it's usually one of four things: cereal, frozen pizza (or some other type of frozen meal), crepes, or salad. Boring--yes. Easy to clean up and plan for--yes. I know some people just love to cook, but cooking for one, and then being left with all the clean-up is, for the most part, just not worth the effort to me. I do try, on occasion, to whip out a new recipe (with sometimes mixed results)--on the one hand, I wish I cooked more, but on the other hand, cooking exhausts me and I'd rather expend my energies elsewhere!
I've read lots of blogs where the author goes through a dry-spell, has writer's block, or is busy with other things in life. I suppose I don't really believe that my life is boring but maybe I'm just going through my own drought season...waiting for spring! Which makes me think of the lyrics to the song 'Make Our Garden Grow', from Candide (an operetta composed by Leonard Bernstein in the 1950s).
MAKE OUR GARDEN GROW - from Candide
You've been a fool, and so have I,
But come and by my wife.
And let us try, before we die,
To make some sense of life.
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good;
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow,
And make our garden grow...
I thought the world was sugar cake,
For so our master said.
But now I'll teach my hands to bake
Our loaf of daily bread.
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good;
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow,
And make our garden grow...
Let dreamers dream what worlds they please,
Those Edens can't be found.
The sweetest flowers, the fairest trees
Are grown in solid ground.
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good;
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow,
And make our garden grow.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Trip-a-month club
Thursday, February 3, 2011
A penny saved... (#8)
Back in those days I was working long hours, long weeks, and had very few things to laugh about--so pirate ducks were about as good as it got.
I mention this story now, because although I'm excellent at managing my financial ducks at the office (and yes, they're all in a row), I'm not so great at managing my financial ducks at home. Well, let me clarify--I make enough to pay all of my bills, set aside funds for saving and retirement, and have some fun money for travel and entertainment, but I don't operate on any sort of specific budget. And from time to time, my personal non-budgeting ways make me feel a little uncomfortable--because I'd really like to know how much I'm spending on random, discretionary things like coffee, and movies, and of course, cards and postage! (If only I could buy stock in Hallmark.)
A few years ago I used Excel to track my spending, establishing line item categories and logging all my receipts. That proved cumbersome (I like to shop, and buy coffee, and be precise about things I'm tracking) and soon became obsolete.
Then last year, my brother told me about a free site, Mint.com, that would track your spending for you, as long as you gave it access to all your spending accounts (so it can auto-update). He said it hadn't really worked out for him (something about his bank having high security), but that he'd used it for awhile and saw the potential for the general user.
I admit, I was a little leary of any 'free' online site that requests access to sensitive data such as bank and credit card information. And although I created a Mint account over a year ago, I never really engaged in using it. Because I was suspicious, or lazy, or busy (or all three). Until last month. I figured if I've been 'on it' for a year, and no one's hacked into my accounts or stolen my identity, then it must be fairly safe. That, and now, without classes, I have a bit more time on my hands to focus on outstanding projects such as this.
A few days ago I decided to go into my Mint account and figure out if I could use it for budgeting purposes. Turns out Mint has a pretty sweet budgeting function--where you can set aside money in different categories, and then as data flows in (from your actual spending accounts--bank, credit cards, etc.), it receives a label that corresponds with one of the budget line items (or becomes 'uncategorized' and you can assign it to one of the categories).
So far the budgeting system is working great for me...I even created categories for my spending on coffee and cards (separate line items). Some of the budget totals I created arbitrarily--I know about how much I spend on rent, utilities, and gas, but am not as sure about categories such as restaurants, groceries, movies, etc.--so it's interesting to see, in the first month, how my budgeting aligned with my spending. (I made a major purchase at one of my favorite stores, Restoration Hardware, and that really killed my 'home furnishings' budget category.)
I especially like the graphical interface (pie charts, bar graphs, etc.), but haven't quite figured out how to track cash transactions (there's a function, I just need to sit down and learn how to use it). To be honest, I don't spend cash on much these days (it's never convenient to stop at the bank to actually GET some cash!). I'm pretty sure I spend my cash on two items: the pay parking lot near my office (when I'm too lazy to walk the 5 blocks from where I park on the street), and coffee (no explanation needed). Maybe it's better if I hold off on tracking those transactions for now--I may be appalled when I learn how much I spend on those non-essential items.
You can also split transactions--so, for example, when my purchase at Costco auto-defaults to the 'shopping' category, I can split it into 'gas' (I buy a Costco cash card to use for when I want to buy gas there--long story, but my debit card doesn't work at the pump), 'groceries,' 'books,' etc. The same is true for purchases at Wal-mart or Target.
I have some slight concerns about housing all my financial data in one place--every time I log into the Mint system it downloads and updates recent transactions from my bank account and my two most-used credit cards--but this online software system is managed by Intuit, and they're a legitimate company (makers of Quicken and TurboTax), so I feel some protection. I know some banks that have several levels of security do not play well with Mint--I originally had some issues with one of my savings accounts that kept blocking Mint, but was recently able to create a special access code and now everything works fine. I think financial institutions are wising up to the fact that folks want to be able to utilize tools like Mint to streamline their lives--and it's better to get with the program, or be left in the dust.
I'm still figuring out all the functionalities of the system--but have become almost addicted to it. If you're in the market for a financial/budget management software, give Mint a try. It's fairly easy to use and completely free.
My little pirate ducks give the system two thumbs up, and I consider #8 on my 101 list, complete!