It’s that time of year.  Especially with my gleaning activities, I’ve really been dealing with fruit flies this spring. I thought I’d spend a minute passing on my tricks for ridding the house of the little beasties. Take a narrow-top bottle like a vinegar or oil bottle or a wine bottle. Pour a little fruit [...]

Just found this post set to post nearly a month ago. It was saved as a draft and never posted. So sorry about that! Hello there! I’m positively ashamed of how much I’ve neglected the blog lately, but be assured, it’s been for good reason. I’m going to try to get back to regular posting [...]

Have you ever noticed that change, even a little change, can get really expensive? I remember when we got our cat. We bought him from a shelter on “last day” sale for $20. Then we paid $30 for a license. Then we bought a $32 bag of cat food, and then some toys, and then [...]

I’m getting caught up. I took November off to work on my NaNoWriMo project (a one-month challenge to write a novel in 30 days). I had to stop at 12,000 words of my 50,000 because I added three new clients to my small business. Now I’m back up to a regular income and a comfortable [...]

I expect I’ll post a few times this month, but my progress is being seriously hampered by a grand project I’ve undertaken–National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo). Most of you know I’m a freelance writer, but until now, I’ve only written nonfiction. This month I’m joining hundereds of thousands of writers worldwide in an attempt [...]

Dear Readers:  I’d like to turn to you for some thoughts and advice on this. Here’s the situation.  We live in a lovely condo in a planned community alongside a river. We’ve been here without difficulty for six years.  Last year, a large rain storm  flooded the river, and damaged an earthen dam upriver from us critically. So [...]

I’d learned about using a Price Book first from The Tightwad Gazette, but also found this great post on the topic at another great blog, No Credit Needed.  I’m going to refer you to NCN’s template for this as I think it’s as good as you’ll find.  You may also consider keeping your price-book on [...]

Just got this coupon in my email today. I thought I’d pass it along in case any readers wear contacts.

Do you ever have a hard time finding babysitters? We needed a part time nanny for a couple of years and had a really hard time finding someone willing to work from 5:30 am until 9:30 am every day, but we found SitterCity and found a great part-time nanny who helped us for a really [...]