The Eyes Have It!

With the wonderful downward spiral trend in our world economy, comes the time to tighten the proverbial belt and trim costs. Alas, this has never been a new thing for me. All my life I've learned to do with less than others. Partly because I came from a lower-middle-class family with a hard-working-drinking dad, stay-at-home mom and several kids. Partly due to the fact that I always had to share or learn to divvy things in half with my twin sister. Throw in other factors, such as moving lots so Dad could keep a decent job; later joining a full-time, non-profit group; later marrying a guy who did carpentry and then having a few children to provide for. Now that half the kids are gone you'd think it would be easier, but add the fact that I am unable to work now and depending solely on hubby's income. You get the picture yet? Here are some recent ideas I've had for dealing with the changes: I used to get my hair done every six weeks. My hairdresser friend originally wanted...

I have been reading various blogs, entering for give-aways and clicking random links of interest. I'm thinking of updating here what ones currently interest me, for the sake of helping anyone else who might be interested in similar things. Win a Lands’ End backpack for back to school The Income Snowball & Funding Your Freedom: A Four-Part Guide DietBlog - Eat right, get healthy One Past Fallbrook annual-cranky-fitness-garage-sale Snatch-sl 5 minutes for mom Port City Digital Martha_Stewart_Floor_Designs

"There is this insane myth in our culture that if you do what you love, the money will naturally follow. It’s one of those deceptive half truths that often leads to humiliation . Most people’s passions make them feel good about themselves. If you’re good at painting, for example, then it’s likely that you receive lots of social validation from others regarding your painting. Your job might suck, but at least you feel fulfilled as a painter. So what happens if you try to become a professional painter and fail at that? What happens if you have to make more paintings just to make ends meet and the quality of your paintings suffer? What happens if you fail as a professional artist? If you fail at job-ifying your passion then it’s likely that you’ve lost a large (in some cases, the largest) source of your self-esteem. And most people don’t want to risk that. If you try and fail at job-ifying your passion, then one of the greatest sources of your energy and self worth may start makin...