Expressions of Perceptions

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I went to the store today to pick up a few things, but while I was there, I saw that the fall and winter clothing was on clearance, so I picked up a jacket for my youngest child and a jacket for my oldest.  After all, they were only $3 each… or so I thought.

The sign on the clothing rack said $3.  Another sign stated that blue dot and gray dot apparel was only $3.  The jackets were both on $3 racks and had gray dots on their tags.  Unfortunately, at the register, they rang up for full-price.

Usually I pay very close attention at check-out, but today the cashier had me quite distracted with some wonderful news, like prodigal son type news, and it affected both me and her.  So, when she told me the total, I paid and left, not really thinking about prices very much.  Since I’m on a budget though, I had to review my receipt at home to record my purchases, and I was surprised to see that I was charged full price for both jackets.

So, what do you do if you’re overcharged?  Had I been paying attention when the cashier was ringing up the jackets, I could’ve questioned the price right away.  Then, either the cashier would have adjusted the price for me, or I would’ve had to decide whether to pay full price or put the jackets back.  Now that I’m home, my options are to either keep the jackets that I paid full price for, or return them to the store. 

Although my budget does allow for my occasional impulse shopping, it lets me know how much money I can afford to spend on impulse purchases.  That helps me to not feel guilty if I sometimes overpay or buy something unnecessary.

So, what do you do if you’re overcharged?  That’s up to you.  Whatever you do though, use your budget!

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Winner will be drawn on Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, February 14th!

I received an extra sewage bill in my mailbox last week.  I didn’t stress over it much because I figured that surely it had to be a mistake.  A couple days later, I called about it, sure that I would be told to just throw it away, but to my surprise, I was told that I had to pay it – even though the account wasn’t in my name, nor had I ever co-signed for it!

It turns out that the previous tenants at my other house had NEVER paid their sewage bill.  It was in their name.  They lived at the residence.  They agreed to bear the responsibility for it in the lease that they signed.  But they never paid it, ever, the entire time they lived there.

Apparently, if a tenant doesn’t pay their water and/or sewage bills, the property owner is responsible for those bills, no matter what the lease says.  The owner legally has to pay them, though the owner can sue the tenants for reimbursement.

I did not know that.  I wish I had.  I also wish that the township had notified me much sooner about the outstanding sewage bill instead of letting the balance continue to grow each month for the entire time the tenants lived there and then presenting it to me 6 months after I had evicted them.

Nonetheless, this is a word of caution to you (and me):  Be careful who you let rent from you.  Remember, if they don’t pay their bills, you might have to!

I received a letter from my children’s pediatrician informing us that she was moving out of state.  I remember a time when she was on vacation and I had to take my oldest daughter to my doctor instead.  That visit wasn’t covered by our HMO insurance plan for my daughter, so I had to pay out of pocket.  I didn’t want that to happen again, so I needed to find a new pediatrician as soon as possible.

After asking around, I called the office of the man who will be our new pediatrician.  I was quite satisfied with the answers to all of the questions I asked and decided on him right away, but I couldn’t just start taking my children there immediately.  I’d have to call our insurance company first.

Since we have an HMO, our PCP (primary care physician) is listed right on our insurance cards.  We get to choose the PCP, but whoever is listed is who the insurance company pays for us to see.  Since we’re changing our PCP, we need to inform the insurance company of our newly-chosen doctor.  They will enter it into their system and send out new insurance cards promptly.

Such a simple phone call can be financially costly if it’s forgotten.  It’s best to get it done right away instead of scrambling to do it, and possibly forgetting, when your child gets sick.

Nearly every parent feels very strongly about vaccines, whether they’re pro-vax or anti-vax.  Of course everyone’s entitled to his or her own opinion, but the problem arises when they try to force their behavior onto others.

You vaccinate, so you’re going to try to force me to vaccinate, too.  I’m ant-vax, so I’m going to try to keep you from vaccinating.  Wrong!  As with everything in life, it should be a choice, but not a decision entered into lightly.  It should be an INFORMED choice.  Research the vaccines and diseases.  Read the vaccine insert.  Find out what you’re choosing and why.

This may stop many people from reading any further, but I’m telling you anyway:  I’m opposed to vaccines.  I’ve done countless hours of online research, read numerous books, and read vaccine inserts.  Therefore, I have made an INFORMED decision.  I do not believe that the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks. 

That should be the end of it.  That’s my decision (well, mine and my husband’s for our family), and no one should try to force me to go against it.  But I said “should”.

Many parents of vaccinated children believe that unvaccinated children should be made to get vaccinated to keep up the herd immunity.  For some odd reason, they are afraid that their vaccinated children may get sick, with the disease that they were vaccinated against, from the unvaccinated children.  You’d think they’d have more confidence in the vaccines they’re so supportive of.

One argument is that some children can’t receive certain vaccines because of various health issues, so my children should be vaccinated to protect those children.  My question is: Then who is going to protect MY child from the poisons of the vaccines?

Why should I expose MY children to the risks of vaccines in order to protect YOUR child?  Why is YOUR child’s life more important than MY child’s life?

The diseases do come with risks, but so do the vaccines.  They both carry the risk of death.  If my child receives a vaccine, it is certain that he or she may die from the guaranteed exposure to the vaccine.  If your child is not vaccinated, there is no guarantee that he or she will ever even be exposed to the disease (like with polio).

Both diseases and vaccines carry risks.  So, if it’s all about protection, how do you decide which child to throw under the bus?  Should I potentially damage my child with vaccines for your child’s sake?  Should your child risk possibly, at some point in life, being exposed to an illness that may or may not make him or her very sick and possibly have potential complications?

Most of the risks of diseases are known.  The risks of vaccines are not only not known, but are also often disputed, inconclusive, and/or not found out until many years later (like with the SV40 contamination in polio vaccines and pig-wasting virus contamination in the rotavirus vaccines), which is admitted in the vaccine inserts that state that the vaccine “has not been tested for carcinogenic or mutagenic effect”.  Yes, years ago before humans had the medical technology, such as intravenous fluids and antibiotics, most diseases were a death sentence.  That’s not the case now though.  There are many treatment options available nowadays.

So, to return to my earlier question, which child do you decide to throw under the bus?  Well, YOU decide for YOUR family, and I’ll decide for MINE, but if you think I should throw MY kid under the bus with vaccination for the sake of YOUR child, I’ll tell you right now, you’d better have a back-up plan!

We eat a healthy non-gmo diet, mostly organic, so I don’t expect our food to be cheap.  I’d really like to lower my food budget, but I’m not sure how to.  I recently read a food article buy a woman who feeds her family of 6 (5 of whom are boys with double-digit ages!) on $600 a month.  Sadly, that woman puts me to shame, and we’re only a family of 5.  Her family eats mostly organic, and they do have a huge garden and fruit tress that they preserve the harvest from, but they don’t eat much meat, and they do eat alot of noodles.  Unfortunately, that wouldn’t fly at my house.  Not to mention, food in her area of the country is much cheaper than it is here.  (One example, my eggs cost over double the amount that she pays for her eggs.  Don’t even get me started on the price comparison for fruits and meat.)

My kids are still young, but they sure do eat alot.  And they’re not only picky, but one of them also has food allergies.  I have to try to cook food that both tastes good and is safe for my family to eat, and that’s quite a challenge.

My oldest child detests cheese, noodles, anything pickled, and anything spicy.  My middle child refuses meat, but loves her cheese and carbohydrates.  My youngest child is wonderful because he likes most things.  And my husband hates vegetables and will rarely eat fruit, and he’s pretty much opposed to anything that may even be remotely construed as healthy.

I think one of the reasons I spend so much money on food is because in trying to please everyone, every meal turns out to be a feast in which I prepare a main dish with multiple side dishes so that there’s sure to be something that everyone will eat.

Yes, it’s most likely my fault for letting my kids get so picky instead of just telling them to eat what’s on the table (although my mother-in-law bears the responsibility for my husband’s pickiness), but I swear they’d go on a week-long hunger strike, my husband included, if I did that.  Trust me, I’ve tried, but I worried they would starve if I didn’t cave.

Getting back on subject, my goal is to find some healthy, inexpensive, kid-friendly, husband-friendly recipes to make for the month of February.  I know I’ll experience some resistance at first, but I’ve got to try.  I’m hoping that making a meal calendar in advance will help me to plan my meals and shopping list, and perhaps swap out some more expensive meals for less expensive ones.  So, I’ve got my meal calendar made.  Now I’m going to see what I can change on it to make it less expensive yet equally nutritious.  I know I won’t be able to cut my food budget in half in a single month, but by planning ahead with my meal calendar, I’m hoping to whittle it down a little bit every month until it’s at least close to what I want it to be.

I’m blessed to live in a country that has freedom of religion.  Although many countries around the world have freedom of religion, many do not.  This freedom exists not just for religious people, but also for athiests and agnostics. 

I recently read a quote that adresses that issue wonderfully, and I’m going to share it with you below.  It’s not trying to force religion on anyone, nor does it support taking religion away from anyone.  It’s a peaceful, rational thought that could help us all live together more peacefully.

“If you don’t believe in God, fine. I get it. You don’t have to. But why organize around disbelief? Why evangelize against something? I just don’t understand. Do people gather to share their dislike of music or art? Do people have meetings to talk about why they never started smoking? As Christians, we ought not be hostile. But in honest dialog, it is fair to turn the tables. When belittled for “gathering around our superstition”, it must be asked how gathering around lack of belief is inherently more reasonable or noble.” -Scott Smith (of TC Apologetics)

If you’ve ever read any of my writings, you know that I’m a huge advocate of budgeting.  I like to know where my money’s going and how much of it is going there.  Living in the northeastern part of the country though, some of my bills, especially gas and electric, can fluctuate quite a bit throughout the year.

Fortunately, most of my utilities are on the budget program.  Being on the budget program means that my bills are the same year-round, even though I use more heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.

For example, I may only use $30 worth of natural gas in June, but use $300 worth of natural gas in December.  That’s definitely a huge fluctuation.  On the budget program, the gas company would estimate my total yearly expected usage, based on my previous usage, and divide the total amount by 12 (for the 12 months of the year).  That would be my total monthly bill, no matter what the season.

It’s much easier to plan my monthly budget when I know what my bills will be.  I’m sure it would be helpful for you, too.  So, check with your utility companies to see if they offer a budget program that you could sign up for.  If they don’t you could always urge them to start one!

I’m trying to purge my house of “things”.  My oldest daughter was recently diagnosed with multiple allergies, the most severe of which is, according to her blood test, caused by dust.  Well, the fewer things we have, the fewer things for dust to cling to.  Apparently though, we aren’t the only ones getting rid of things.

My pastor’s wife, a wonderful friend of mine, called and asked me to come over to her house to get some clothes for myself and my children.  She said a woman in town had donated 18 big rubbermaid totes full of assorted clothing left over from a yard sale.  The woman didn’t want the clothing to go to Goodwill where it would be sold.  Instead, she wanted people to have it for free.

That really is a great idea.  I know that when I’m getting rid of things, I usually try to think of someone to offer them to.  If I can’t think of anyone, I take the items to Goodwill.  Sometimes I even just throw things away, but those are things I deem pretty useless, so hopefully that’s not too incredibly wasteful.

I never bother to get a donation receipt from Goodwill, but I know that some people do for tax purposes.  Donations to churches are tax-deductible, too.

I had never thought of donating my “things” to a church before, but this woman has definitely given me a different perspective.  How many families are there that the church could help with used clothing?  Could the church possibly use a slow cooker that I don’t have storage space for?  Would they know of families that can’t afford toys for their children that they could give my children’s old toys to?

I think donating to a church is a much better idea than just taking things to Goodwill.  It’s tax-deductible for you and free for the recipients of your “things”.  A church really is like a family, a community of people caring for each other.  They could give your unwanted “things” to others who aren’t even church members, possibly also giving them the opportunity to share the Gospel with others in the process.

Overall, I’d say donating to a church beats donating to Goodwill hands-down.

Santa never lived for me, Santa never died for me.

Never did a tear fall from Santa Claus’s eye for me.

Santa never paid the price no mortal man could pay.

Santa never tasted death but rose on the third day.

There is no redemption from his lists of naughty or nice,

Nor did he himself offer for my sins to pay the price.

Santa may bring magic on one December day,

But no lasting miracles are left with us to stay.

Santa is no Jesus, as anyone can see.

There is no Santamas and no Santa tree.

Jesus is forever, but Santa flies away,

And I simply cannot celebrate Santa on this day.

Christmas is a day to celebrate my Savior’s birth,

And I wouldn’t trade my Savior for anything on earth.

It was all for me that Jesus decided live and die,

And I can’t in good conscience celebrate the birth of Truth with a lie.

It’s Jesus that I celebrate on this Christmas day,

And when this life is over, it’s with Jesus that I’ll stay.

So I bid you a Merry Christmas, without Santa or his sleigh,

And pray that you’ll find Jesus, the Reason for this day.

- Randi Millward