Sherry Morris's Blog, page 11

Cutting Back on Tea

My first memories of drinking tea are with my father in the kitchen late at night or before dawn in our family kitchen. I was a very little girl, around five or six. He would buy tins of tea bags. Mint and Constant Comment, which was and is a cinnamony-orange flavor. Lots of sugar of course.

I've tried many many many times over the years to drink coffee. I just don't have the taste buds for it. Coffee ice cream, sure. But not coffee nor any of it's addictive expensive treats from the barrista. I've felt socially excluded, because I just can't drink it. Lots of meetings or gatherings will have a big pot of hot coffee. No hot water and tea bags.

We have a Keurig beverage brewer which we adore. But the tea K-cups are more expensive than coffee. Nobody sells plain old black or orange and black pekoe tea by the case. The best deal I can get is 50 cents a serving for Twinings Irish or English Breakfast Tea at Amazon.

Wegman,s, a grocery store, does have a generic English Breakfast Tea that will work with my brewer. It's 33 cents per cup, which is fantastic. But they are nearly always sold out. Just of that flavor. You'd think they'd get the hint and stock more. Cases of it.

I've been having a terrible time sleeping. Waking constantly from 11 PM through 3 AM. So I have elimitated tea after noon. And I don't use my phone or read my Kindle in the hour before bedtime. I am sleeping slightly better. I'll give it some time.

I had been drinking five to ten cups of tea a day. That was getting very expensive at 50 cents per cup. I think my budget will be happy. I'm considering buying Twinings English and Irish Breakfast tea bags to treat myself. I am using Lipton tea bags now. I used to exclusively love Lipton tea before all the new hullabaloo of the instant K-Cup brewer. Now it tastes weak to me.

So, what am I replacing my cuppa tea with? Water, skim milk and an occaisional diet soda. I really like the taste of some of the diet drinks, but have a nagging voice in my head telling me the chemicals are detrimental and I should drink real Coke if I am going to drink soda at all. But I also have a nagging voice telling me not to drink the calories.

What is your beverage of choice? Is it expensive?

Washing Machine and Dryer Settings

My son is living in his first apartment and has purchased this washer and dryer. He was confused by the settings, they aren't like the ones he's used to at our family home. He asked me to make him a chart using the above settings, so I thought I'd share it.

Jeans and Jackets:Wash using the NORMAL Light setting unless they are really dirty, then use NORMAL Extra Heavy. If you have a very full load of jeans and jackets, use the NORMAL Regular setting so they get some extra wash time.Dry using the Automatic Dry Low Heat Energy Preferred setting.  It’s okay if they aren’t quite dry, hang them up.Whites and Kitchen Towels and Sponges:Wash using the NORMAL Extra Heavy setting and bleach or color safe bleach on Whites. Only use color safe bleach on the Kitchen Towels  or they will get discolored.Dry using the Automatic Dry High Heat Energy Preferred.  If they aren’t dry then use the More Dry setting. Sheets, Colored Shirts, Pants, Shorts, Pajamas, Underwear and Socks:Wash using the CASUAL Medium setting unless they are really dirty or a huge load, then use CASUAL  Regular.Dry them using the Automatic Dry Low Heat Energy Preferred setting. If they aren’t dry, use the More dry setting or do a timed dry for 10 minutes and check on them.Towels:Wash using the NORMAL Light setting unless it’s a big load then use NORMAL Heavy.Dry using the Automatic Dry High Heat Energy Preferred. If they aren’t dry then use the More Dry setting. Comforters:Wash using the NORMAL Regular setting.Dry using Time Dry High Heat 40 minutes. It won’t be completely dry. You’ll have to drape it over something and let it finish air drying.Mattress Pad Cover:Wash using the Delicate cycle.Dry using the Automatic Dry Low Heat Energy Preferred setting.  If it’s not dry, hang it over the shower curtain rod.

Book Suggestions from an Eclectic Reader

These are some of my favorite books from very special authors:

Cover Reveal: Sandra Cox's LOVE, LATTES AND MUTANTS

LOVE, LATTES, AND MUTANTS
Sandra CoxCover Reveal

Blurb: Finding love is hard, even when you aren’t a mutant.Like most seventeen-year-olds, Piper Dunn wants to blend in with the crowd. Having a blowhole is a definite handicap. A product of a lab-engineered mother with dolphin DNA, Piper spends her school days hiding her brilliant ocean-colored eyes and sea siren voice behind baggy clothing and ugly glasses. When Tyler, the new boy in school, zeroes in on her, ignoring every other girl vying for his attention, no one, including Piper, understands why...Then Piper is captured on one of her secret missions rescuing endangered sea creatures and ends up in the same test center where her mother was engineered. There she discovers she isn’t the only one of her kind. Joel is someone she doesn’t have to hide from, and she finds herself drawn to the dolph-boy who shares her secrets. Talking to him is almost as easy as escaping from the lab. Deciding which boy has captured her heart is another story...Bio:Multi-published author Sandra Cox writes YA Fantasy, Paranormal and Historical Romance, and Metaphysical Nonfiction. She lives in sunny North Carolina with her husband, a brood of critters and an occasional foster cat. Although shopping is high on the list, her greatest pleasure is sitting on her screened in porch, listening to the birds, sipping coffee and enjoying a good book. She's a vegetarian and a Muay Thai enthusiast.
Links:EKensington: http://www.ekensingtonbooks.com/author.aspx/31643Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Love-Lattes-Mutants-Sandra-Cox-ebook/dp/B00PP2ZXBE/ref=sr_1_7?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1420399004&sr=1-7&keywords=sandra+coxBarnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-lattes-and-mutants-sandra-cox/1120791624?ean=9781616506063Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/love-lattes-and-mutantsBlog: www.sandracox.blogspot.comTwitter:  http://twitter.com/sandra_coxFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SandraCox.AuthorGiveaways:First prize:A Piper-approved necklace and $10 Starbuck Card

Second Prize:A Piper-approved braceletHost Prize:

To enter:http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/927e5e0011/?
To enter for Hostess Only Giveaway: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/927e5e0012/?

Positive Progress on the New Budget

Hundred Dollar Bill With my online spending problem at Amazon and QVC under control, and my husband's spur of the moment travel jaunts pared back, I'm very happy to report that we have stopped the budget bleeding. We are no longer spending more than we're taking in. I have put everything back into our emergency savings that I had ridiculously borrowed from. With that fully funded, and a new budget in place, we are on track to live satisfactorily within our means on his firefighter pension. We still have one child in the nest, but she's through college and employed.

My goal is to put all of dear husband's modest second career salary toward paying down the principal on our mortgage. On paper it works out that we could be debt free in three years. One of my few regrets in life is that we were serial home buyers and refinancers. We should have had our home paid off before he retired from his first career.

Anyhow, I did talk him into disconnecting the home phone. We all have cell phones and the home phone was nothing but a loud ringing, loud messaging megaphone for telemarketers, surveys and once in awhile an irate mistaken identity caller to interrupt our day. Mostly mine, because I'm a stay at home mom.

Anyhow, the phone is disconnected. It was a joy to unplug and pack up the phones and answering machine. We'll save on electricity. By cancelling the telephone service, we are saving over $400 per year. Cox long ago stopped working with us on bill spikes. Only new customers get deals. They stick it to long time loyal customers with rate increases. Our TV alone is over $100 a month for one old DVR box and no premium channels!

We met with the DirectTV guy at Costco and he's sending a technician out Friday to see if we can get a signal. If so, we're switching. To both save money over Cox, and enjoy more state of the art services.

Once the TV is connected, I'll try to find a smart alternative to Cox's cable internet service. We're at the end of the line, the last house, and the speed has never been what we wish for.

I'm debating on what to do with the money saved from the phone and TV. It's not enough to make a noticeable acceleration in the time before our mortgage is paid off. I might use it toward enjoying ourselves within the monthly budget.

How are you doing? Are you living within your means? What are your financial goals?

Touched Again By Our Dog

We received a condolence letter in yesterday's mail from the Virginia Tech College of Veterinary Medicine. Our vet sent them a monetary contribution in our beloved late yellow Labrador retriever, Maurice's, name.

He passed December 30, 2014. I cried again.

God bless him.

Spending Spree Broken

Thousand Dollar Pharaoh
My holiday spending spree is successfully history. I am no longer happily shopping online and I have put into play an exciting new budget. My fondest wish is to accelerate the amount of extra principal we are applying to our home mortgage. I want it paid off in three years. On paper it is entirely doable. My husband isn't excited. He can't really see the enchanted forest at the end of the rainbow. I'm taking charge, telling him to have faith and just trust me.

When our mortgage is paid off, we'll have the amount of that payment every month as extra cash forever. Forever. He can then retire again. Forever. We can live on his firefighter's pension, and we will, putting his second career salary toward paying off the mortgage. He's not happy in his job, always complaining. But it can't be that bad because nearly every time we go out somewhere, we run into a co-worker who smiles and shakes his hand or hugs him.

Right now I'm trying to talk him into disconnecting the land line phone. We're paying $400 a year to be annoyed by telemarketers, surveys, wrong numbers and mistaken identity calls. The latest scam has someone masking our caller ID so that it says our home phone is calling our home phone. What is up with that?

I also would like to cut our TV charges at least in half by switching from our long time cable company who will not give us any breaks to satellite TV who will give us a deal for 2 years as a new subscriber.

Can't really find a good alternative for high speed internet, so I guess we're stuck with the cable company for now. Not that they are fast. We're at the end of the line, literally, so we've never had a fast speed.

How are you doing with your money? Do you have a budget? Do you know where your money is going? Are you living within your means?

Giddy About Budgeting

This is the new view from my kitchen door. It was all woods when we had the house built 13 years ago, with the understanding the county would someday build a reservoir. After many delays, the construction is done and Rappahannock River water is being pumped in. We pretty much have the only good view of this at our end of the neighborhood we raised our children in.

One kid finished six years of college and left the nest, flying to his destiny in Pennsylvania which includes a railroad job and a beautiful German-Catholic girlfriend. The other has her college degree, a fun job, friends and a hot cop boyfriend. She would like to live with us indefinitely.

My husband is a retired firefighter, now working in his second career in the railroad industry. We can live on his hard-earned pension. But we enjoy the extra income. I set aside my career in the heath insurance industry to be a full time mother. I do have enough years in for a small company pension and Social Security, both deferred until I age-in.

I have two regrets: Not completing my college degree and not having a mortgage paid off by the time he retired from the fire department.  We were serial home buyers during the 80's and 90's, moving up, moving out, and refinancing many times. We had never stayed in one home more than seven years. So three years ago, when our ten year ARM needed to be refinanced, and the home market was bad, instead of getting another 30 year mortgage, we got a great rate on a 15 year note instead. I had wanted a ten year mortgage but the bank didn't offer one for the same no-closing cost deal. The broker talked me into getting the 15 year mortgage, but paying extra principal each month like it was a 10 year deal. So I did. We have seven years left before it's paid off in this manner. I hope anyhow.

I'm 51. My mother passed at 85, father at 91, heart disease both. My beautiful sister passed from lung cancer at 57. She never smoked. My husband is 58. His mother passed at 64 from cirrhosis of the liver. His father at 82, his heart.

I'm a ten year melanoma survivor, very healthy, but 10 pounds overweight which I'm working on. My husband was recently diagnosed with colitis. He is an athlete, a bicyclist. His weight is on the low side of healthy. He got a call yesterday that his potassium level was high, so he needs to retest next week. This kind of made things real for me. What if he dies at his mother's age, and me my sister's? We may only have six years left.

We've always dreamed of moving to a condo in Florida. I love Disney and palm trees. He loves the Florida weather and all the shopping and outdoor activities. He's miserable right now in our Virginia winter.

I had realized last year that if we lived solely on his pension, we could pay this mortgage off several years sooner, possibly be done in three. But we didn't do that. We proceeded to enjoy a few months of spending it all, including his salary and some savings. Now that we pretty much did and bought everything we wanted, there really is no reason not to reign things in and live within our means on the pension.

Now that our son moved out, we have one less mouth to feed, and one less vehicle to insure and maintain. I'm hoping I can talk my husband into an alternative to our $200 cable TV, land-line phone and internet bill with Cox. $102 of that is TV and we don't have any premium channels and only one DVR. They won't give us any deals because we are existing customers, so are not eligible for the new customer rates. I hate the land line phone, it's just telemarketers, surveys and wrong numbers. I'd like to cancel the phone and cable and just keep the internet (not that it's fast). So I'm looking into a satellite TV deal for a whole house DVR with basic TV $20 a month one year, $40 the second. If anyone gets the Amazon Fire TV stick in stock, I really want that since we are Amazon Prime members and have just loved their original series Alpha House. We would love to stream more.

The extra $180 a month the first year and extra $160 a month the second year will go toward paying off the mortgage, as will whatever we end up saving with our son out of the house. I would really like my husband's whole salary to go toward paying off the mortgage too. I think we'd pay it off within 3 years instead of 7. If my understanding and calculations are correct. Then he can retire from the railroad (it's unclear if he'll get any railroad retirement or the Social Security he now has all of his quarters paid up in because he is retired from a government job in which he didn't pay into Social Security and they have double dipping penalties.

Anyhow, I'll keep you updated on my new quest. Hooray, I have something I'm passionate about to blog again!

Partially Empty Nest Means I Should Write Again

I haven't completed writing a novel since before I studied to become an Emergency Medical Technician in 2009. I took the class and joined a volunteer rescue squad with my then 16 year old daughter. I subsequently got a part-time job in a hospital emergency room. My parents passed in 2010 and I reevaluated my time commitments and resigned from both the volunteers and the hospital. I realized being an Emergency Medical Technician was a bucket list item from childhood and I was glad I did it. But it wasn't my calling. I'm still waiting to decide what I want to be when I grow up. If I grow up.

Our yellow Labrador Retriever had a long slow decline over eighteen months. He could not walk and was incontinent. I can't tell you the amount of time, patience and love our family gave him round the clock. My husband finally consented to letting him go to heaven for the New Year. It's amazing how much time we now have, not constantly washing comforters, towels and rugs, or lifting him into his wheel chair every two hours.

My son graduated from college in 2013 and landed a part-time IT job for a small family business, while he was applying for full time jobs. He finally was hired as a conductor in the railroad industry he's loved since childhood, when he became enchanted with Thomas the Tank Engine. His job is hundreds of miles away, so he is officially out of the house.

Our daughter is a college graduate and has a job she loves, but doesn't make much money. She's saving for a down payment on a house. She'll probably be living with us until she marries someday.

My husband works shift work, so he is gone a few days at a time, then is home a couple days on a rotating schedule.

We have a puppy who will turn two in the spring.

I realize I need something to do besides running and going to yoga at the gym. I don't really want to get another job outside the home. But I do need something to do.

It's time to write again. I'm scared of the built-in rejection from friends, agents, publishers and readers. I want my muse to find a passion to disregard rejection and write the story I need to tell.

Historical Book Review: A Savage Exile: Vampires with Napoleon on St. Helena by Diane Scott Lewis

A SAVAGE EXILE: VAMPIRES WITH NAPOLEON ON ST. HELENA BY Diane Scott Lewis
Five Stars! Transport Yourself Into a New World
I was sucked into the heroine's world on the first page. Miss Scott Lewis always brings history to life with her breathtaking sensory details. Beautiful people, trapped on a South Atlantic volcanic island by law, occupation or enslavement. An incubus is rumored to prey in the dark nights. Mystery, circumstance and passion abound. If you're looking for a book to entertain your midnight, this is it