Bill Paying and VBS Prep Day on The Homestead

You know, I'd like to be able to just plunk down a trip to town once a month to pay bills. Everything due the same time, paycheck timed with the bills for the month.

Of course, I'd have to be a bit more on top of my organization for that...and honestly, I don't think I'd really like being paid once a month. I don't like the thought of Dewey working all month and them holding pay for one check. Too many things happen in situations like that these days.

So, weekly, usually Thursdays, we hit town. Today I need a Sam's run also, and I have a very small list of last minute VBS needs...mainly the snack goodies. We have no books waiting for us at the library, but may stop in just to see if anything jumps off the shelves and grabs our attention.

I ordered some books from Amazon -- I love checking out the new 'used' selection for some wanted titles. Today's order netted quite a few goodies...Christian Crafts for Christmas, Ency. of Bible Crafts, The Big Book of Bible Crafts, a Year of Crafts, 175 Easy Christmas Projects and The big Book of Christian Crafts. I paid more for the shipping ($3.99 per book) than I paid for most the books outright. That part is usually a bummer -- but I got a couple of those books for less than a dollar today. Can't pass that up. And, lately, my creative juices have been running a bit on the sour side. I just have no ideas when it comes to quick crafts for my own children's needs, let alone for Sunday School. I'm in a craft rut, I guess.

I still need to figure out the menu plan for the week, including Dewey's lunches, then off we go. Bills, stocking up more feed, and then home for some serious special project work today.

We set up the start of VBS decor last night. Carpet roll trees still needing their tree tops, lots of green streamers dripping down the walls, frogs and lizards and assorted bugs hanging from the ceiling, a couple parrots and some dangling goofy palm trees. I need to crochet around 24 more hangers...for weaving looms. We have to finish drilling the holes in the Lay's Stackables cans and gluing in the skewers, but they are painted and ready to go. I did get the 25 fun foam picture frames cut out, though. Yeah, goofy me...I thought I picked up the frames already done. I didn't. I grabbed a pack of fun foam sticky back sheets...fully intact and needing the photo place traced and cut ;o( My hands were killing me after cutting them with that craft knife, let me tell you. We also laminated all the 10 Commandment tablets and various animals for the wall borders.

I still have to get some ink and start printing off booklets and what-not, but essentially, we are as ready as we will be (lacking those couple projects yet to get prepped). I'm not totally happy with the plan, but it's my plan, so I can't complain too much. It's that crafting rut. I do need to get some games lined up. I set the teens to thinking along those lines for me. I need to find my youth night game book here and see if something strikes my fancy.

Well, off to pay Caesar his dues...in the form of water and electric.

Oh -- to brighten your day (sorry, no YouTube today...I don't have time for bunny trailing...), but I did get hit with this upon opening my emails:

A new study on rats finds that 10 days of eating a high-fat diet caused short-term memory loss and made exercise difficult. While the finding may not seem a big surprise, the researcher say it might suggest that high-fat diets make humans lazy and stupid.
Now we know what the problem is in this country, heh? Congress eats too much fat it seems

And, if that isn't newsy enough for you, how about this bonus...Heart attack survivors who eat chocolate two or more times per week cut their risk of dying from heart disease about threefold compared to those who never touch the stuff, scientists have reported.
I love news that brings such smiles to our hum-drum daily lives. We can eat chocolate and truly shout its health benefits from the roof-tops. Of course, eating it will make you stupid, but this has got to be where the phrase ignorance is bliss comes from, right?

Oh wait...I'm connecting the dots now.
Fat makes you stupid.
Chocolate makes you live longer.
Chocolate is fattening. Yes, dark chocolate is good for you, and there are non-fattening chocolates out there too, but that is just not the same thing.
You can eat chocolate and live longer...but that just means you'll carry your stupidity longer.
Or...you can skip the chocolate and stay smarter...but incredibly sad from the lack of chocolate comfort food in your life.

It's not a great trade-off. What do you want more...stupidity or a short, sad life? The government did this, didn't they? It's always their fault. They have dumbed-down educational standards to bare literacy...and now this...they are tempting us with chocolate to keep us living in a state of stupor.

Man...decisions, decisions...