PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES

Having raised a large number of very average children, I used to hate going to Parent Teacher Conferences.  Not because I dreaded meeting with the teachers, but because I simply did not have the extra time.  I knew what my children did at school.  I knew what they were capable of doing at school.  And I was pleased with all of them as they grew up.  None of them were of the Straight A variety, but I really didn’t care.  They were all well rounded, happy children who knew what was going on in their world, had nice friends, and were blessed with a good sense of humor.  I was a good Mom.  My husband was a good Dad.  And we had a very happy family.  No problems to speak of, ever, except the normal teaching of discipline and manners over the years.  And that usually depended  upon the personality of each individual child.  

But here come the Parent Teacher Conferences once again. Time to go sit in the hall outside the various doors and wait to be called.  

My only problem was that in each and every room with each and every teacher, I was usually told the same line – ‘If your child would just try, he could do a lot better.’  I thought to myself by the time I was through with Parent Teacher Conferences that if one more teacher said that to me I was going to go over the top of that desk.  Instead, I always smiled and acted like a lady  the way  my mother  had taught me to do. 

Maybe I am wrong in my thinking, but it would seem to me that it is the teacher’s job to make my child want to try and want to do better in her class and want to be interested in her subject.   That is what she is there for; to  teach my child her particular subject, whatever it might be.  If she does not stimulate his interest, he will not try in her class.  Period.  That is why different people have different jobs in life.  They are interested in different and various fields.  That is also true of children.  They all have different interests.  May not be science or reading, but then it is the teacher’s job to make them interested in that particular science project or that book to read.  

Sure am glad I am through with Parent Teacher’s Conferences.    I might have become dangerous. 

SPENDING

I read in the paper last week about a lady who was having her eyelashes glued on.  It was going to cost almost $200 to do this, plus another $65 periodically to make sure they still look good.  Now, I know I am  old fashioned, but I think that is probably the silliest spending of good hard earned money that I ever heard of.  Hope she didn’t also charge it to her credit card and then have to pay interest on the bill.  

I still remember when $200 was a big house payment or a car payment or a month’s groceries.  Maybe this explains some of the credit problems in this country today.  I know the housing problems were caused because people bought houses  they could not afford and the banks and credit companies were encouraging this.  

First house we bought cost $10,000. We could have bought one nearby for $10,500 but we had our limit and $10,000 was it.  Period.  We had an FHA loan and that required $1,500 down.  My husband was a salesman and he had worked his heart out to save up that $1500.  There was no way we were ever going to lose that house.  Our payments were $66 a month.  I remember that years later,  we were required to pay a dollar more a month.  It was almost devastating to us.  A whole dollar month more!  But we managed and had a very good life there.  In fact, we lived there for several years.  Until we outgrew the house because we now had three children and were afraid we might all get stuck in the hall.  

We sold the house for $11,500 so we didn’t come out too bad.

Years later, we had another house, much larger  and more expensive.  The phone rang one afternoon and a real estate agent wanted to know if we wanted to sell it for $195,000.  I turned and asked my husband.  His answer was ‘No, because then we would just have to find another one for ourselves.’  End of subject.

A little common sense goes a long ways.  Wish more people would try using some of it.  And not be spending so much on false eyelashes.  Oh My!!!

TOO HOT HERE!

I guess today you were sitting in your deck chair, iced tea in hand, reading a good novel and enjoying the tremendous amount of sunshine.  Right?  Of course you were.  And I’m sure you were wearing your bikini in order to get a head start on that beautiful tan for the summer.  And after reading for awhile, you will work in the flower bed while still getting even more sunshine.  Be sure and wear your sunglasses so the bright sun won’t hurt your eyes.

That is the scenario from The Global Warming Gurus.  Whoever they are.  I think I heard on the TV that Greenland just floated down the Mississippi, too.  You know it was melting in a hurry a couple of years ago and was going to come this way soon.  Probably because of the car I drive.  I have driven big cars for most of my life, ever since I finally learned how to drive.  I drove Suburbans for many years, hauling all those kids around in carpools here, there and everywhere.  That was a way of life for me.  Probably had about 5 different Suburbans.  Then I went to the smaller  SUV’s and still drive them and am proud to do so.  I love the big car feel in case of an accident.  And I enjoy sitting up high where I can see better and dare those other drivers to get in front of me.  That is due to that feeling of superiority in that big car.  Suits me fine.

When the snow melts down enough, find your deck chair and your bikini and get on with that tan.  Meanwhile, we’ll watch to see what those Global Warming Gurus have to say about this winter.  I’ll bet they don’t have much to tell the people in south Texas and Dallas and Mississippi and Alabama who normally see a few flakes every year.  Dallas was stopped cold on Monday because of the ice and snow.  And only 23 degrees today.  Even Kansas City was stopped cold with 12″ on Monday. 

We are expecting snow showers this evening and all day tomorrow.  And you know what that means – means the weather man doesn’t know what in the heck to expect next.  If we want to know more about what to expect in the weather this winter, maybe there should be a national number to contact the Global Warming Gurus.  Then we could all have an accurate update, hour by hour.  Sounds good to me.  We will have to promote that one.

Have a fun day playing in the snow.  Can’t do much else anyway.

QUICK SCRATCH COOKING

I’m sure everyone has heard that if you cook from scratch you will save money.  This  is definitely true.  I cooked for years without ever using much in the way of mixes or shortcut ingredients.  It is easy, quick, and usually very good.  And certainly healthier.   

Recently, I was in a hurry  to get dinner on the table, so I literally threw together a good meal.  I had ground beef in the freezer, brought that out and thawed it in the microwave.  Then I  made  meatballs out of the meat, mixing it with  an egg, a small handful of oatmeal, and  salt, pepper, and garlic.  I browned the meatballs in a skillet and then poured in one can of golden mushroom soup.  I turned off the heat and mixed in a half can water, stirring until all lumps were gone.  

Meanwhile, I had retrieved from the freezer a package of frozen noodles that were cooked earlier.  I placed noodles in a casserole dish and microwaved until partially thawed.  Then I poured the meatball mixture over noodles.  I slid the covered casserole in the oven, turned it to 350 degrees and left the room.  

By the time the meatball and noodle dish was done in about 30 to 45 minutes,  I had changed from my working clothes, started a load of clothes in the washer, and picked up the den area.  

I set the table for dinner, opened and heated a can of green beans and prepared mixed frozen vegetables from the freezer.  By this time, everyone was ready to eat and I was ready to serve.

Quick, easy, filing meal costing very little.  Only real expense was the meat.   

Want to know how to prepare more quick dinners like this?    Buy  BET’S COOKBOOK, only $10.95 direct from Amazon under booksbybet.  Lots of tips in the book telling how to save time and money.  For instance, always cook up a big amount of pasta, freezing what you are not going to use at that time.  Then you have frozen cooked pasta at your fingertips to use later.  This works for all pasta as well as rice.  

Hope you enjoy the cookbook!

CHINA

Well, I noticed in the newspaper and on all the TV stations that Obama welcomed the Chinese to our country.  Is he now going to move them into the spare bedroom?  Just wrote a blog a few days ago about how I won’t buy Chinese products anymore because they ain’t no good.  So here they come.  Advertising in Times Square, pushing for everything they can.  Making you want their art and their music and their way of life.  Don’t think so.  

Watch out!  They have already taken over a lot of our production.  Used to be, we Americans made our own stuff and were proud of what we made.  Then Japan came along and everything for sale said ‘made in Japan’ for years and years.  Now, everything says ‘made in China’.  Watch your back!  Soon, they will have moved into that spare bedroom and nothing will be ours anymore.  

Just read an email that told about how the light bulbs currently being made in China and sold in lots of stores here, will catch on fire, spitting actual fire out of the bottom.  The email recommended that no one ever buy a light bulb from China again.  Is the cheaper price of the light bulb worth burning your house down?  Not mine.  I will make a point of never buying light bulbs manufactured in China again.  In fact, I have already said I will not buy products manufactured in China again. 

I’m sure they are nice people but I don’t want them living in my spare bedroom.  Do you?

ECONOMY

Every time I turn on the TV or look in the newspaper, I see another story about  how things have turned around and are much better now.   Not So!!  Those comments are put out for your benefit to make you want to spend money and thus get this economy moving.  But the problem nowadays is that people are smarter than they used to be.  So they are not spending much of their money – anywhere.

Until the present administration wakes up and smells the bacon, nothing is going to happen.  A salesman once said – nothing happens until someone sells something.  That is absolutely true.  No money moves.  No products move.  Nothing improves until someone sells something.  Then the economy and all its parts slowly start turning once again.  No money though, equals no sales of any products. 

This administration thinks that if they take everything away from the individual and give it to the government, then people  will turn to the government for their every need.  Not in this country.  Americans appreciate their individuality and protect it in their lives.  Obviously, there are certain classes of people nowadays who sit stoically with their hand out, waiting for their government dole.  But for the most part, Americans prefer to make their own way.  They don’t want that government dole.  They want to run their own lives, including how and when they spend their money.  

 Real progress cannot start at the bottom and work its way to the top.  Economic progress must start at the top and work its way down to the bottom.  This country runs on investments.  This is the crux of capitalism.  We must have investment from the top in order to put the people  to work at the bottom. Investments must be made at the  city, county, and state levels.  Then those wheels start to turn.  This means that if  any government wants real progress, they must start paying some decent interest on the investment of money.

 For instance, if your town wants to build a new school, they must instigate a bond issue.  The bonds are put out for sale.  The investor will then buy the bonds, risking his money up front for the building of the new school.  Without this investor’s money, no school can be built.  Investors are not going to invest their money until and unless they can make a decent return of interest on the lending of their money.   This is a simple economic fact.  They must have a decent return in order to risk lending their money.  Thus, the economy has come to a stop because of the lack of decent interest on investments. 

This administration has a theory that the lower the interest, the more the economy will bounce back.  That is erroneous and devastating to the economy. An investor cannot succeed on an interest rate of 1% or even 2% if he then has to pay half of that in taxes to the government. Some relief should be forthcoming for the investor.  It may be in the form of a ceiling on a higher interest rate, or  more tax free investments.

Even your local bank cannot pay a decent interest on their Certificates of Deposit until the government starts paying a higher interest on investments. Thus, everything sits at a standstill until sometime, somewhere, someone gets it in their head that nothing moves until somebody sells something.   This means nothing will move until someone somewhere starts paying a higher interest rate and gets these wheels turning again.  Then selling will begin again, too. 

Think about all this and write your congressman.  Tell him what you think about the economy.  Remember the vote of 2010 and continue to remain interested and vocal about your concerns.    

I’m planning on a great year with an end to this economic downturn.  Tell your congressman that you are, too.

Abortion Is Not Healthcare

When Roe vs Wade became law, the feminists and other liberals were overjoyed to think they had won one of their most important battles. They identified the murdering of those still in the womb as freedom for women, freedom from being chained to their reproductive systems. I never quite understood any of this. To me, with all the means available to avoid pregnancy, why in the world would someone become pregnant if they didn’t want to. It was so easy to avoid becoming pregnant. Just simply take the birth control pill or use condoms or make sure the male partner had a vasectomy. Simple answers. But those in charge, those feminists and other liberals, were determined to destroy human life. They wanted to run everything from their perspective, their viewpoint. And so they won that important battle. Of course since that time, it has been documented many times over just how many millions of innocent lives have been destroyed in the wombs of their mothers. And, at the time of the ruling of Roe vs Wade, it was said of those pro-lifers – ‘they will go away’. After time, they will just disappear. They will give up their battle.

So now we have come down to that all important issue regarding the paying for abortions by the government run health care system that is being debated in the congress today. And, again, one of the feminist spokespersons recently said that she could not believe that the feminists are still having to fight the same battle over abortion that they had successfully fought so many years ago.

Wonder why they thought we pro-lifers would go away. Wonder why they thought we would just disappear into the woodwork. We will never go away. We will fight until we win this battle for those millions of innocent lives that have been snuffed out in their mother’s wombs. And when we are gone, our children will continue to fight that same battle over and over again. And we will win.

Signs of Change

Pay attention to what all God is doing in this world.  Remember when those liberals were chanting about population explosion? Well, they convinced all kinds of people to kill their unborn children. And so now, God has turned that around and most of the people in this country are against abortions. And the total is climbing every day. Those liberals are still spinning around and insisting that they know best, but they don’t.

And then there were those who hollered loud and clear about how global warming is going to kill us all.  Why the Arctic is going to turn in a big sloshy mess any day now. And instead, Antarctica is now experiencing the coldest weather that has ever happened there. Isn’t that interesting though? Remember it’s God’s world. He is going to take care of it just fine.

And now we are inundated with rain, rain, and more rain. I  believe I have been hearing for years how the farmers are most concerned because the water table has fallen so low all over the country. So guess what! God is now taking care of that one. The drought in Texas has been very serious for several years. It has already been taken care of with the recent rains. The farmers won’t have to worry about the water table for quite some time. In our state, we have had more rain this year than has fallen since the late 1800′s. Isn’t that amazing though.

And how about those snows out west. Could it be that the weather is being straightened out there too? And in the process, it will also help their economy as they depend on that snowfall each year. Again, isn’t that amazing. God seems to know what everyone needs and provides just fine. Without a bit of help from those liberals either. They can just keep right on spinning around and whining about all these terrible things that are going to  happen to us. And it’s not going to happen anyway. God will take care of everything in His own time.

And what those liberals do not understand, at least not yet, is that they are through, through, through. Permanently. We won’t have to listen to their extreme rhetoric anymore. I can hardly wait until the media finally tunes them out. They are a past that we don’t need to repeat. Just watch and see how God takes care of everything. Including all their agenda. Pay attention to what God is doing in this world. And then say your prayers of Thanksgiving for all blessings received.

Let’s Take Our Country Back

OK EVERYBODY!  THIS IS IT!

SOMEONE HAS FINALLY COME UP WITH AN ANSWER TO SAVE US ALL!

I received an email today. And the suggestions in this email are so simple that they are unbelievable. Just read on and see for yourself.

The email says the entire Congress of the United States is corrupt. And that means both Houses and both major parties. A few Members of each House are trustworthy, but as a group, they are absolutely the most corrupt bunch to ever disgrace our Nation.

In November of 2010, the entire House of Representatives will stand for re-election, all 435 of them. One third of the Senate, a total of 33 of them will also stand for re-election.

VOTE EVERY SINGLE INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!

THAT’S IT!!!!  THAT’S THE WHOLE PLAN!!!

AND SO SIMPLE AS TO BE UNBELIEVABLE.  HOORAY!!!!!!!!!

Let’s start over in the House of Representatives with 435 people who have absolutely no experience in running that body, with no political favors owed to anyone but their own constituents. Let’s make them understand that they work for US. They answer to US and they simply have to run that body with some common sense. Good Grief! They might even have to work.  And they will certainly have to please US, their constituents. Why, they might even start listening to what we have to say.

Two years later, in 2012, vote the next third of the incumbents in the Senate right out the door. Then, we can do the same thing in 2014 and by that time, we will have put in all new people to run OUR COUNTRY, the way it should be run.

We, the People, have got to take our Country back and we HAVE to do it peacefully.  That’s what our Forefathers envisioned when they wrote the Constitution for us all.

So remember when you vote in 2010, 2012 and 2014. VOTE THE INCUMBENTS OUT. PERIOD. THAT IS ALL YOU HAVE TO DO. JUST REMEMBER TO VOTE NEW PEOPLE IN AND TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK!!!!!!

TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, AND RELATIVES.

Moderation, Spending, and Plans

I see in the papers and on the television that Obama’s bunch is now going to fix the finances of this great country. Seems that Barney Frank has a plan. It is called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and would be set up as a branch of the government – as usual. It will be part of a broader effort to take over regulation of financial institutions. What in the world is going on with all this administration. First, they spend all the money they can get their hands on. Then they put banks out of business all over the country and now they want to fix everything with the financial world. Seems to me that they don’t know what in the heck they are doing, not now or ever. Of course this is their ultimate plan, to take over everything in this country including all the financial operations. They have their finger in the housing mortgages and now are investigating. What is wrong with that? They are what is wrong with that to begin with. Them and their no good loans made to people that they knew could not repay them. And  their heavy-handed ways of overseeing all the financial operations of the country. Take a look around you. Notice that the administration is beginning to run everything from loans, to the stock market, to everyday things such as your credit cards and your automobiles. And now Barney Frank states that this agency must be created because the Federal Reserve and bank regulators squandered their powers to police lending abuses. Oh my, just listen to that and to who is doing the talking. I did not know they were supposed to be policing the lending abuses in the first place. Who put all these people in charge. Lending abuses are caused by individual lenders to individuals who should not be approved for borrowing in the first place.

Obama states that individuals who have had mortgage problems are being abused by the financial sector. Not so. People who have suffered because of the mortgage crisis are those who did not have any business being in a mortgage they could not afford to begin with. Moderation in all things you know. Including your finances. So many people think they can have everything they see or desire.  But then when it comes time to pay their bills, they cannot do so. It is sad to see the people who buy the pretty shiny things they will never need and then say they cannot afford food for their families. A little personal responsibility would take care of that problem.

That is the same issue that we have with those who say they cannot afford health insurance. They can afford health insurance if they want to. That is their option. They do not have health insurance as a matter of choice. They think that if they do not buy it, it will be given to them. And this is what this Democratic liberal Congress is trying to do for everyone. Give everything to everyone, regardless of cost to everyone else. Won’t work and cannot be done. We already owe taxes through the next three generations. Enough!!! You have only to look at Canada and the many countries of Europe to see that we live far, far better than the people there have ever even thought of. Why jeopardize our way of life in order to satisfy a few individuals who – by choice- refuse to practice personal responsibility.

Vote Republican as soon as you get a chance. And pray, pray, pray every day for our wonderful Country and all our citizens rights. If this administration has their way, they will destroy all the rights we have so enjoyed for all our lives. It is happening right now every day. Pay attention!