The Sewing Mom

My husband has always wanted to learn how to play the piano, unfortunately he’s never taken the time to do something about it. I considered giving him piano lessons as a gift, but I was afraid he wouldn’t go, or that he would be too busy to fit it into his schedule. I think we all need something outside of work and music is such a great distraction from the daily stresses of life and work.As an option to the piano lessons, I decided to buy my husband an electronic keyboard for Christmas. It’s really pretty cool, it has an onboard computer and can even connect to the internet through a USB connection. The keyboard also came with tutorial lessons installed, but for some reason, my husband can’t figure out how that works. I can tell he’d like to use the keyboard because he put it on its stand and set it in his office where he can just swivel around in his chair to play, very convenient.

I was searching the web and found a free e-mail newsletter covering piano lessons & piano chords as well as progressions that may help him get started. It’s a free newsletter, plus, I can purchase a DVD for him that goes along with the newsletter. I think he’d like it and it would help him to be able to learn the keyboard.

With my daughter all ready playing guitar and baritone, we’ll have a regular orchestra in the house before long!

Technorati Tags: piano, piano lessons, keyboard, keyboard

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Sorry, I just can’t help myself.  This dog is so photogenic, I really enjoy taking and sharing pictures of her.  This one was taken a couple of days ago with my new HP digital camera.  I’ll talk more about that later, but I think it takes really nice photos.  I’m still figuring out how to download the pictures onto my computer, but this is from the first batch that I completed. 

 Plinko received a new rawhide chew that was shaped like a candy cane.  She was the happiest little puppy and managed to chew it into oblivion in a matter of a day or two. 

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I’ve never been much of a dieter, but I should lose a few pounds. I also don’t really make New Year’s resolutions and losing weight as a resolution is just so cliche’ to me. However, I know many people that do make those resolutions and, like I said, I could certainly stand to lose a few pounds, so when I hear of a healthy dieting plan, I feel it’s worth checking into. I’d like to share this one with you.

One of the most difficult aspects of dieting for me is the fact that I have to fix meals that our family will eat, not just me. I believe I do cook fairly healthy meals, but they’re not necessarily the types of foods that will allow you to lose weight. My husband also cooks occasionally and his meals tend to be heavy on sauces and creams, also not overly conducive to losing weight. It would be too time consuming for me to cook a family meal and then turn around and fix something different just for me.

I discovered Chefs Diet Delivery, a company that delivers meals and snacks in healthy proportions. All of their meals are fresh or frozen, nothing powdered or freeze dried. This would be an excellent way for me to be able to satisfy my hunger eating a variety of meals and still get proper nutrition. If I was having my own meals delivered, I would be able to continue cooking meals for my family, it would work out for all of us!

I’m certainly looking into this company as an option to lose a few pounds and still be able to eat healthy.

Technorati Tags: losing weight, resolution, dieting plan, Chefs Diet Delivery

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I haven’t posted for a while about our little puggle puppy Plinko so thought I’d show what she got for Christmas.  She had one gift under the tree that was wrapped, it was so much fun watching her with that package.  She also had her very own stocking hanging over the mantel and it had several new toys for her, to her surprise.  Once she got everything out of the wrappers, she created her own little treasure pile and was very content to lay down with her new stash.  Needless to say, she had a very good Christmas!

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I grew up relocating with my family about every two years. My dad was in the Air Force and so that’s what we did, as an Air Force family, we went where we were told to go. I think my mom became an expert on packing the house and the kids and everything else, because of how often we did it. I think a lot of what she learned rubbed off onto me.

As an adult, I moved myself from one place to another several times during my college years. Of course, that’s not too bad, I didn’t have much back then. After getting married, my husband’s job has required us to do 4 interstate relocations, and the older we get, the more stuff we collect, the more there is to contend with in a move.

The various employers have all had different relocation packages, some have done everything for us, selling our home, packing us up, hiring the moving companies , etc. Others have just given us a lump dollar amount and then I am in charge of it all. It falls to me to hire the real estate agent, the moving company, and everything that goes with it. This is much more stressful.

Our most recent relocation occurred back in April when we moved from Illinois to Texas. The company used a relocation service as the contact for us. We told them what we needed and the sent out the right people. I have to say though, I was certainly glad that I had experience with moving because I felt more confident in dealing with all of these people.

The initial moving company that came out to give us an estimate was so high on both our estimated household goods weight as well as the estimated cost, I insisted that the relocation center send out a second company to do an estimate. Sure enough, the original estimate was several thousand pounds higher than it should have been and the cost was close to $10K higher. If I had not had experience and had some idea of the weight and cost (I keep all my old documentation), I would have overpaid.

Moving is stressful anyway, but if you don’t know what to expect, or the questions to ask, it can be even more stressful. If you’ve never moved, there are resources out there to help, including homebulletin.net which is useful for finding moving companies for both local and interstate moves. Whatever you do, don’t try to do it alone, look for reputable advice and use reputable companies. Get everything in writing!

Technorati Tags: relocation packages, relocation, Moving, homebulletin.net, moving companies

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