Archive for » February 28th, 2007«

Tax Season

28 Feb 2007 by

I have this not-so-secret love for tax season. A friend once told me that she drives manual cars to keep her mind sharp and thinking. My manual car is our taxes. I love math and love learning new “mathy” things. I love to sit and crunch the numbers, to take an inventory of our finances over the last year, to praise God for his generosity to us, and brainstorm at how we can use our gifts more prudently in the year to come.

Every tax season I learn a little more as I pray that we won’t owe the government anything. I also sit back and enjoy how our growing family lowers our taxable income! ;) And it’s like winning a math contest when I crunch the numbers to see us blessed with a lofty return (that will go straight into the “Save Adam’s Jaw Fund”).

With all that said, I hope you have as much fun doing your taxes, as I had doing ours. Also, don’t forget to get your credit for the Federal Telephone Excise Tax paid (line 71 on your 1040).

Category: Budgeting, Family  One Comment

Gardening?

28 Feb 2007 by

Well, unfortunately I’m no expert in gardening. But we’re going to grow a garden this year anyway! (So Mom and Dad Gretencord, feel free to throw all kinds of suggestions our way, PLEASE!)

It’s been something we’ve only talked about for the last couple of years, but never acted on because it seemed like it was one more thing to keep up with. And out neighborhood seems to be a recreational community for squirels. But now Therese is at an age where it could be fun and a learning experience for us all. Adam is going to try to make a fun interactive learning game out of it. While I’m just going to try not to kill the plants!

Phase one is digging up the area. After reading that our friends the Roses have already started, we figured we’d better get off our haunches and do something. So Therese and I started digging and weeding today. We disrupted the homes of some yucky grub worm and spiders.

Adam has a friend at work who’s into organic gardening (SCORE!). She gave us the following remedies for those pesky will grub worms.

“Soak a few (3-4) cigarettes in water, which will give you diluted nicotiene sulfate. That kills grubs. If you are finding more than 10 per square foot, it means your soil is stressed. You should top-dress with about a half-inch of good compost and dig it in. If the cigarette thing grosses you out (and why wouldn’t it) — you can also spray the soil with NEEM oil.”Thanks Anne!

So, if you have a green thumb, please feel free to let us know what to do! I’m open to all kinds of suggestions.

Category: Family, Fun, Garden  11 Comments