So I was very excited about how solar energy was going to actually be a reality in my lifetime, and not just some fantastic imagineering project from the imagineers at the DisneyWorld complex! And I’ve been glad to hear that tax credits have been made available to help the homeowners recover some of the expenses of installing solar powered devices and equipment. However I have been discouraged over the harsh financial reality that in this economy, retrofitting existing buildings with solar panels is probably not going to be high on the priority list of most households. I’d like to see the economy improve as more and more people and companies get behind solar energy.

I’ve been told that in the next few years I am going to need to replace my roof. I’m wondering if that would be a good time to look into installing some type of solar energy system. What do you think?

Those type of programs make  me really nervous.  I’d like to Make Money Online.  Who wouldn’t?  I’d love to just stay in my pajamas most of the day, work at my own pace at my own convenience and Make Money from home,  And I know that those types of opportunities DO exist.  But I’ve also seen a lot of television news articles about how a lot of those advertised opportunities are scams, so I am really cautious about signing up with any kind of program that sounds “too good to be true.”  I’d really like to hear from someone that I know personally and trust that they have done it themselves and then they prove to me that it works for them.

As we were shopping I kept finding things that I thought we should buy and she kept saying “not today, not today, hurry up.” We were actually at the grocery store for two hours shopping, and spent around $400.00. All of the coupons we used saved us over $40, but I was still in shock that we spent as much money as we did. Of course we DID have two shopping carts full of food, so I suppose that I should not have been THAT shocked! But it did give me a greater understanding of just how much money we spend on groceries!

I was really surprised when she called me to talk to me about that because the last time I had heard any mention of her putting in an in-ground swimming pool no one else in the family wanted her to put one in. She said that she is putting it in for her own health, but she is putting in a very large 20′ by 40′ in-ground pool! Seems to me that if she was doing it for her health then just putting in a lap pool would be all she would need. But she has got a stubborn side to her and she has insisted that she wants the whole thing and since she is paying for it out of her own pocket then nobody but her has any say in it at all!

She has also mentioned that she wants me to take care of the landscape lighting installation around the swimming pool. I think that for lighting I will suggest some solar powered lamps, on both sides of the privacy fence that she will need to have installed. She sure is going to be spending a lot of money! I hope that she gets her money’s worth of excitement out of it! I just cannot imagine putting in a full-sized swimming pool after the kids have grown up and left home.

One of the things that I’ve tried to do in regards to holidays like Easter is to reuse and recycle a lot of the “trimmings.” For example, the plastic grass, the plastic eggs, and the baskets themselves can be reused over the years. Just the thought of buying one of those cellophane-wrapped baskets that are intended to be thrown away a week later, filling up the landfills makes me cringe.

That is one of the things that I really admire about my mother, and about my wife; they are so creative and thrifty with their talents to be able to reuse and re-purpose items in such a way that it never looks like they are being “cheap.” In fact, some of the things that they re-purpose have turned into well-loved family heirlooms that will be in the family for-ever. For example, several years ago my wife took an empty plastic cool-whip tub and covered it with batting and fabric and turned it into a beautiful basket that was an Easter Basket one year, but now holds our remote controls in the living room.

Her dogs were terrified, and she put leashes on all of them and tried to keep them together near the front door of the house. She said that was in case they had to vacate the house in a hurry. I was rather surprised to hear her say that because I thought that the advice for tornadoes is to try to stay as close to the center of the house as possible, like in a closet or bathroom.

But thankfully her house was not damaged, and her cars survived too. I am really grateful for that. I don’t know if I could have handled the situation any better than she did.

Amazon Prime account, things ship in two days for free! I decided to get on-line when I got home and just check to see if the prices were any better than they were at the store. I was really surprised by how much less expensive things were. You also don’t have to pay sales tax, which saves you a ton on its own. They even have a cool feature where you can put items on auto-ship. That means they will ship you whatever you need on a time schedule with out you having to do anything. It sure saves me a lot of time and a lot of trips to the store!