For those of us who have kids…

The Price of Children

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140.00 for a middle income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn’t even touch college tuition.

But $160,140.00 isn’t so bad if you break it down. It translates into:

* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month,
* $171.08 a week.
* A mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is; don’t have children if you want to be ‘rich.’ Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your $160,140.00?

* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140.00, you never have to grow up. You get to:

* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs,
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:

* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watch Saturday morning cartoons,
* go to Disney movies, and
* wish on stars.

You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother’s Day, and cards with backward letters for Father’s Day.

For a mere $24.24 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:

* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat in history to witness the:

* First step,
* First word,
* First bra,
* First date,
* First time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you’re lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!

Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren & great-grandchildren! It’s the best investment you’ll ever make!

A priceless and so true email that was forwarded to me by Marlene. I hold hands with an applesauce or yogurt covered hand though. LOL Thank you for sharing.

Amber giving me a kiss! Taken at CB Smith park in Broward county!

TO: God.com
Dear Lord,

Every single evening
As I’m lying here in bed,
This tiny little Prayer
Keeps running through my head:

God bless all my family
Wherever they may be,
Keep them warm and safe from harm
For they’re so close to me.
And God, there is one more thing
I wish that you could do;
Hope you don’t mind me asking,
Please bless my computer too.
Now I know that it’s unusual
To Bless a motherboard,
But listen just a second
While I explain it to you, Lord.
You see, that little metal box
Holds more than odds and ends;
Inside those small compartments
Rest so many of my friends.
I know so much about them
By the kindness that they give,
And this little scrap of metal
Takes me in to where they live.

By faith is how I know them
Much the same as you.
We share in what life brings us
And from that our friendships grew.
Please take an extra minute
From your duties up above,
To bless those in my address book
That’s filled with so much love.
Wherever else this prayer may reach
To each and every friend,
Bless each e-mail inbox
And each person who hits “send”.
When you update your Heavenly list
On your own Great CD-ROM,
Bless everyone who says this prayer
Sent up to GOD.com

Amen

It is 10 years today. It feels like yesterday. I still feel your loss in my heart. As your grandkids grow it seems like I miss you even more. I know you wanted to see them grow and I am sorry you they never got to meet you MOM. I love you and miss you ever so much! Be at peace always.

This is my favorite hero!!! My father. This picture was taken November 17, 1963.

Thank you to all the Veterans out there for supporting my right to freedom then and now.

I am happy to know it is almost over. No more phone calls all hours of the day and night to vote for XYZ or going to the mail box to find it overflowing with 3 of every campaign flyer that made our box that day. One day I had 15 flyers. I hope that some friendships I know of have a chance to heal after this very high pressure election now.

Yesterday being a good employee I notified my boss my plans to vote in the morning and may cause me to be late. He gave me a look that I never want to see again. He told me that we cannot have the whole office coming in around 11. That I should go after work and as long as I am in line before 7 o’clock in the evening I could vote. He told me I should have taken advantage of the early voting like he did. He stopped on his way home one night. It took him about an hour. Well not everyone was going in the morning. In fact out of six women in my department only two of us where voting. MP, who was planning to go after work, you guessed it ME! I looked at him and wanted to scream. I did stop a couple of times by the early voting offices and the lines where so long. The people in the middle of one of the lines had been waiting for over an hour when I had asked. I cannot do the evening because I have to get my school age children ready for bed. Standing in line to vote all night just won’t get it done.

With my right to vote I took the chance of being docked pay along with a possible write up in my file. I was up at 5:15 am. Made it to our clubhouse just after 6 o’clock where voting would begin at 7 am like everywhere else. Being a responsible person (along with not wanting to be late) I counted the people in line. Found I was fiftieth in line. So I did some math to get an idea how long it may take me. Praying it took an average of less than 10 minutes per person. I might get out of here around 8 o’clock. That would give me time to get to work and not be late.

What I did not except was the next set of lines I was directed to. We had to line up alphabetical of sorts (A-G, H-O, & P-Z). I laughed and grabbed hubby’s hand heading to our line thinking this should be a piece of cake. I thought we have a white name, not a Hispanic name like Perez or Rodriguez (remember I live in Miami, FL). Boy was I wrong. We were not only in the longest it was the slowest. As the other two lines emptied and filled again we patiently waited our turn. Watching people who arrive walk right in and we did not even move.

Finally it became A-G turns. They came to take the next ten. Would you know I was 10 and hubby was 11. Thank GOD. They let us go together. When we walked thru the door we saw even more lines.

I still stand by the slowest line. We had two sweet older women processing this line. The one looking up names could not see. The one verifying the addresses could not hear. DUH!! The reason our line was so long and slow. Wait they cannot find my name but my husbands. “Ok, do his now. Since you found his name take care of him”. It was almost too much for them to handle. While there were two other lines with one young efficient person processing quickly.
Mine name was as I thought under my maiden name. I swear I had fixed that the last two major elections. I pray the third time is the charm. At least now I know why so much mail came in that name. I was fearful of identity fraud.

It turns out we had to stand in six lines to complete our voting procedure. Plus a bonus for me to address the name issue.

Two and a half hours. I was a bearly 15 minutes late. In my department that might be thought of as on time if I had been anyone but me.

Today is a very important day in our history. I made my mark in it. I hope you took the chance to enjoy your freedom of choice. What will tomorrow and the future bring only GOD knows. I pray it is a safe and free county, not at war and growing in wealth for everyone. Especially the families like yours and mine.

My step mom recently lost her little Dachshund Zoe, a.k.a. ‘Button’, and not too long afterwards put together a scrapbook using Creative Memories PicFolio Quick Pet Kit.

It turned out really nice and not only kept her busy immediately after her girl’s passing, but she now has something solid left to take comfort from…

If you’re inclined, click on the picture of the first page below to go to the gallery and see the entire book; it really is precious.

We all miss little Button; she was only 9 years old when she developed heart disease.

This is a picture of my two oldest munchkins with Button in 2002:

She didn’t look too sure of K, though T was the one who had just measured her… WITH a tape measure!

A couple of people have emailed asking about instructions for testing your creative muscles with a simple project, so I’ve included instructions for something like the House of Love.

First pick a project piece. Anything made of wood or paper mache will be good. You will also need paint in your color choices. Note: You don’t need much unless your project is really big.

For the House of Love I used: 3 oz bottles of Apple Barrel paint and sealer [also a 3 oz bottle] and a bottle of stuff called crackle. My project required the use of two brushes; one was like a sponge on a stick about ¾ inch wide and an inch long. The other was a small fine bristle brush about ½ inches in size.

You will need a place to pour out your paints. My favorite tool for this is a small paper plate like the left over cake plates from a birthday party.
Something to hold water in to clean the brushes between color changes.
And for me lots of paper towels. I am very clumsy. If you are I would recommend getting newspaper or something to place on the work area to keep the paint from staining it.

Once you have everything you need you are ready to begin.

First give your project a base coat. I use white paint for mine; I find it works better that the topcoat sealers. Let it dry until it’s not tacky and then give it a second coat. Let it sit for at least an hour before you start to paint with the colors of your choice. Always use a second coat and remember to let the paint dry well before you put the next coat.

With the sponge brush follow the directions on the back of the bottle of crackle. Each brand is different. Let dry over night and your project is complete. If you run into any problems or have questions let me know!

This is a candle grouping I made for a surprise 60th birthday.
Included are:
Two candle bases with micro beads
Beaded Butterflies to add life
Three votive candles each beaded a different color
Twelve tea lights, four of each color
Two taper candles to go in the candle bases
Basket

She loved the gift so much she used it for her spring table setting.