Penny Pinching Mom

Clearer Skin

I’ve fought with acne since I was a teenager. I tried almost all of the over the counter acne treatments in existence back then, and few of them helped at all. There was only one that helped at all, and it didn’t do much. I more or less gave up until I went to the doctor when my foot was run over (long story) and he brought it up.

Back then you didn’t hear much about prescription acne treatments, and most of what I had heard was negative. All of the prescription solutions I had heard of dried out the skin terribly, and I had no desire to replace one problem with another. But the doctor said he could give me treatments that wouldn’t do that, so I agreed to give it a try.

He put me on oral antibiotics and an antibiotic face cream. After a week or so, I saw a huge difference. Before long, I was acne free.

Unfortunately I had to quit the treatment because I got sick and had to take other medications that I couldn’t take with those. After that was over with, he quit the oral antibiotics and gave me the cream only. I broke out a little with that, but not nearly as much as before.

I eventually quit using the stuff altogether, and started having breakouts again. They’ve never been quite as bad as they were, but they are really annoying. I thought I would outgrow them, but so far I haven’t.

Given the fact that I don’t take care of my skin as well as I should, I guess I’m doing okay. Maybe if I start using something other than plain old antibacterial soap, it will get better. It’s probably worth a try, huh?

Sleeping Better

Hubby is still having trouble sleeping. Some nights he sleeps fairly well, others he’s lucky to get in a couple of hours. I’ve tried to get him to talk to the doctor about it, but to no avail. He says that sleeping pills make him too groggy the next day, even though he has only tried one kind.

I’ve tried to think of other things that might help him, but I’m no expert. One of those adjustable beds might make him more comfortable and allow him to sleep better, but that’s just not in the budget right now. Maybe one day it will be. We at least need a new mattress, because the one we’re sleeping on now is awful. I suppose I’ve slept on worse, but not very often.

Mommy’s Little Helper

Pumpkin is such a sweetheart when she wants to be. Lately she has been coming into my office while I’m working, just for hugs and to exchange a word or two. She often asks me what I’m writing about, and when I tell her, she gives me input on what I should write on the subject. Sometimes it’s nonsensical and hilarious, others it makes quite a bit of sense.

There have been a few times that she has given me ideas that helped me get through my writer’s block. Last week I was writing about various types of pets, doing descriptions and recommendations for pet supplies and such, and I ran out of words before I had enough for the article. Pumpkin suggested that I write about playing with the pets, and that just opened a floodgate of ideas.

She really amazes me sometimes. She’s such a smart girl. Pretty soon I’m going to have to start paying her as a consultant.

The Waiting Game

The closing on our house has been delayed. I think they are officially trying to drive me crazy. And by they, I mean everyone who is involved, even remotely so, in the whole ordeal.

I know there are some people on my side. I just get paranoid when things start going wrong, and I start cooking up conspiracy theories. In reality, I’m just driving myself crazy. But I have a hard time convincing myself of that sometimes. Does that make sense, or have I already succeeded in making myself insane?

I just hope that it’s not delayed more than a couple of days, because if it is, we will have nowhere to go. The loan officer I’m working with said she would get it through by then, but that doesn’t ease my mind much. The only thing that will ease my mind is closing and getting it over and done with.

Slacking on My Celeb Watching

I’m not obsessed with famous people or anything, but celebrity gossip is an occasional guilty pleasure for me. When I was younger I watched all of those tabloid shows on TV. I don’t watch them any more, but I do check out the magazine covers when I go grocery shopping. And if I catch wind of something that interests me, I try to find out more online.

But lately, I just haven’t paid much attention to it all. I couldn’t tell you which stars were seen on the red carpet in the most shocking threads, and I have no clue which ones are in drug rehabilitation clinics right now. Hubby was the one who told me that Patrick Swayze had cancer, and he could usually care less about famous people.

Maybe when things calm down for us, I’ll catch up on things. Until then, I guess I’ll just be in the dark.

Outdoor Furniture

It has been yet another windy day here in the mountains. We have a lot of those here. We don’t have any outdoor furniture, but if we did we would have to put it in storage or tie it down if we wanted to keep it.

It’s not uncommon to see lightweight outdoor furniture lying in the ditch around here. Sometimes it’s smashed to pieces from blowing into something. Whenever I do get some outdoor furniture, I plan on buying something durable. I’ve heard good things about teak outdoor furniture. Maybe it could handle the notoriously unpredictable weather in this area.

Wrestling and More Wrestling

Hubby is a die-hard pro wrestling fan. He watches it religiously twice a week, and sometimes up to four times a week. If it weren’t for that, I don’t think he would mind having the satellite cut off. But as long as wrestling is on, he will do anything in his power to get to watch it.

I have to admit that I kind of like it too. I know it’s silly, watching a bunch of guys on testosterone boosters romping around in a ring pretending to beat each other up, but it’s pretty entertaining at times. I’ve even gone so far as to check on tickets so we could go see it live. I actually went to events from one of the smaller federations when I was younger, but I’ve never been to a WWE event. I think it would be fun. One day we will go.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today was my mom’s birthday. I had planned to find a funny birthday song online and call her and play it when she answered, but I didn’t have much luck. Just about the only thing I could find was this goofy song that was in a zillion different YouTube videos. It was funny, but not quite what I had in mind. So I decided to just call and rag on her about her age.

Too bad she doesn’t have email. I could have sent her a hilarious ecard with an old man pole dancing. Maybe could have even included some wrinkle cream reviews for a finishing touch. Actually, she would have appreciated that, because she does her best to turn back the clock. I think she has one certain one that she uses and that’s it, though.

I didn’t get around to sending her a card. I had planned to print her one on the computer and send it to save money, but with all that’s been going on I just never got around to it. At least I did remember to call.

Getting Ready for the Yard Sale

I’ve spent a substantial amount of time today getting ready for the yard sale, but not enough. I’m going to be scrambling to get going in time to get started at the time I put in the paper. Oh well, I’ll be there when I get there.

I’m having it at Hubby’s grandpa’s, and his mom is supposed to be selling some stuff as well. I’ll probably get started long before her, though. She rarely rolls over before 9:00 unless it’s a dire emergency.

I’ve got several boxes of stuff to take, plus some stuff that won’t fit in boxes. I haven’t even gone through the stuff that I had priced already from back in the fall, I’m just hoping that everything I wanted to be there is there, and nothing that I don’t. But I haven’t seen my superty-dooper box cutter that I used to cut up labels with for those items. Hope it didn’t find its way in there, because I don’t want it to end up getting sold. I won’t sell it, but my mother-in-law might if I’m busy with someone else.

I hope all goes well and we make a decent amount of money tomorrow. We definitely need it.

Stay Tuned…

Well, things are looking better on the housing front. We’ve been approved for a loan on a home that is a fixer-upper, but liveable and in a near perfect location for us. I’m cautiously optimistic.

We still need to come up with a little more money, and I’m racking my brain trying to think of ways to do that. I even asked for donations on my other blog. So far I’ve gotten all of $20, but that’s $20 more than I had, right? If you can help, either by donating, signing up for a free mailing list, or purchasing some informative ebooks for moms, follow that link for more information. Spreading the word and giving advice on how else I can quickly and legitimately raise funds is also much appreciated.

I’ll be posting about how everything goes. And once this is all taken care of, I plan to do lots of posts here about the things I learned in the process. So subscribe to my feed, or check back every few days if you’re interested!