Economic Endeavors

I'm back!

Sorry for the short absence the last few days. We were experiencing some crazy computer problems. Out of nowhere, Windows crashed on our laptop, and we were hoping to recover it without losing everything we had saved on our hard drive.

After consulting several people we know who are much more computer-savvy than ourselves, we came to the conclusion that it just wasn't possible.

Using a disc that came with our laptop, we finally resorted to restoring the computer to it's factory settings, which means that it now only has the software on it that was on it when we bought it, and we lost all the files that we had stored on it in the past 2 years.

On the positive side, it feels like we got a new computer. It is super fast now, and our wireless internet works again (it hasn't connected to our wireless router in over a year, or anyone else's, for that matter, and no one we asked could figure out why).

Anyways, I have a lot of downloading and updating to do today, and some blogging to catch up on as well!

Expect at least 3 CVS posts today, including my Heads Up post of upcoming deals for the next 2 weeks, and hopefully some deals as well if time allows!

Thanks for hanging in there and not giving up on my blog. As always, I'm committed to keeping you up to date on the best ways to save and earn money online, and I should be back on top of things very soon!

Yay! It came on last night, so now we're back home and settled in. Kind of. Somehow we have bags of things that need to be unpacked and put away (you'd think we had been gone for weeks!) and laundry that needs to be washed. But I thought I'd get some blogging in first.
It's good to be home! And it's good to be back online and posting.
Thanks for hanging in there while I was away! :)

Due to the storms that we've been having the past few days, there are a lot of homes in our area without power. I thought we had dodged the bullet, but no such luck. This morning around 9am, much to my 2 year old's distress, the Backyardigans shut off suddenly, along with everything else in the house.
The electric company said that our estimated date for it to be turned back on is Friday. Friday?!?
So until then, we're staying with my inlaws and I may not have the opportunity to post often, if at all. They do have a computer, but I probably won't have the chance to sit down and really research some deals.
I will try, though. We'll see how it goes.
Until then, bear with me. :) I really appreciate your patience!

Yesterday, I did the most dreaded and put-off task of all: I helped my 10 year old daughter clean her room.
To be clear, it's not a common occurrence for me to clean her room with her. Usually it's Autumn's responsibility, and the rule is that she can't make any allowance for doing other chores around the house unless her room is clean. Truth be told, though, it hasn't been clean in a LONG while.
Our newest daughter, Callie, turned a month old this week. With her birth, and the end of a long, painful pregnancy before that, our normal routine around the house kind of fell by the wayside. And Autumn's room became ever increasingly more and more messy. In defense of her laziness (ever the enabler, I am), a lot of the mess was due to her having too much stuff in too small a space. So Tim agreed to watch the younger girls while I spent a little while helping Autumn clean her room and purge it of toys, books, and things that she no longer needed or wanted.
A little while turned into 2 1/2 hours, but the final result was a sight almost long forgotten - a clean, vacuumed carpet, an empty clothes hamper, and dresser and nightstand tops that were cleared and dusted.
Autumn worked very hard right alongside me, and was actually more willing to give up her unwanted things than I was. She kept saying things like, "What would they say on Clean House?" and putting things in the piles to throw and give away. I think I was more attached to some of the things than she was! I could remember her sitting there as a younger child, playing with her ponies or reading her Disney Princess books. Nostalgia just flooded over me, but I was sensible with what I decided to keep for the younger girls and what I decided should go.
My two year old, Zoe, already has more toys that she needs or plays with, and will most likely keep accumulating them from family and friends in the future. And Zoe's toys will be passed down to Callie later, on top of the new things she'll accumulate, also. So it just isn't reasonable or practical to hand down too many things from their much older sister. And our home is not very large, so there's only so much storage space.
As dreaded as the job was, it actually turned into some good bonding time for Autumn and I. We talked, and laughed, and sang and danced to her new favorite CD, Michael Jackson, Number Ones. She got the CD for Christmas, because as silly as it sounds, in the past year or so, she's become a huge fan on Michael Jackson's old stuff. And since I grew up listening to those songs, it was fun to sing them together while we cleaned.
I'm glad to have her room cleaned, and so is she. And so is Tim, who was growing more and more irritated with tripping over her things on his way to adjust the thermostat, which is in her room.
Now I just need to get the mound of this week's clean clothes folded and put away, and the house will be back to it's normal clean and organized state!