http://talkswithmom.com Let's Talk About...Health, Home, Children, God,... Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:41:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I get a bit "teched" when someone looks at me in my comfy clothes and offers to take me shopping for "better" clothes.  My corporate Vice President grandfather wore polyester slacks, camp shirt and loafers when he wasn't dressed for the office.  He didn't look a millionaire.  His car was ... http://talkswithmom.com/frugal-isnt-poor/ I love where we live!  We get 300 days of sunshine a year.  Now that doesn't mean we get 300 FULL days of sun but the sun does shine for a good part of the time.  But Here it is in December and it is COLD and yet sunny.  My ... http://talkswithmom.com/frugal-living-journal-another-day-in-paradise/ OK - I get lots of folks asking me how we stay healthy without taking flu shots and not having doctor visits.  Some think we are nuts for taking our chances with the flu and other moderately serious  sickness.  I frankly think that they are taking their chances with the ... http://talkswithmom.com/beating-the-flu/ OK.  You know we are severely recycling when it takes a family of 9 two weeks to fill a 60 gallon garbage can!!  Last week we started having our trash hauled - reasoning: to save us gas and time.  All things being equal, it cost us the same to have ... http://talkswithmom.com/frugal-journal-expanding-our-recycling-and-garbage-routine/ One of the advantages of having a large family and a wide range of ages is that you have the opportunity to explore lots of methods and options in how to teach the subjects.  Just for math I have used Saxon Math, Making Math Meaningful, Professor B's, Mott, and those ... http://talkswithmom.com/homeschooling-discovering-freedom-finally/ I think it is worth discussing attitude as it pertains to being frugal.  First, that one must never judge an0ther person whether they practice being careful with their money or resources or not.  Frugality is an individual thing.  Some will save all aluminum foil to reuse over and over (I ... http://talkswithmom.com/how-to-think-like-a-tightwad/ Well, I am happy to say we are really seeing a difference in our budget due to the changes we decided to make in our lifestyle last April. We cut kilowatts using less hot water in the kitchen and with shorter showers.  So while the per kilowatt charges went up, the ... http://talkswithmom.com/frugal-living-journal/ B is on the Fentanyl "patch" desperately hoping to find something to ease the horrible pain in her back. But to no avail so far. She has tried everything that the pain doctor was willing to prescribe without going to do more scans and MRIs which so far ... http://talkswithmom.com/chronic-pain-how-much-is-real-and-how-much-is-imagined/ Just when I thought we were already tight, we need to get even tighter.  What an adventure!  Learning to do with less and being more thoughtful about what we do with our small income. I am so thankful we don't have a mortgage - just one of those blessings of caring ... http://talkswithmom.com/tightening-of-the-belt/ I occasionally get comments on my article on Beginners guide to MMS so I thought I might update my own experience with it. My family and I use MMS to brush our teeth.  We apply it to bug bites with great success.  Perhaps it would be helpful to take more often, ... http://talkswithmom.com/update-on-mms/