My perfect man

I found this list on the internet and since I disagreed with much of it I thought I would share it with you.
Here's a full list of qualities the perfect man apparently possesses:

1. 6 feet tall-yes
2. Toned and athletic-who cares?
3. Brown eyes-does it really matter?
4. Short dark hair-I agree with short, Ram doesn't have dark
5. Smart dress sense-really? Can't the wife try to help him?
6. Beer drinker-yes, would he really be Lutheran if he didn't? I don't like beer but I don't have anything against drinking it.
7. Non-smoker-yes
8. Wears smart jeans, shirt and a V-neck jumper-I don't even know what a v-neck jumper is!
9. Gets ready in 17 minutes-where did 17 minutes come from?
10. Stylish-wasn't this covered in #5?
11. Wants a family-yes
12. Earns £48,000 ($77,000) a year-well if they don't then the wife better be frugal. Where does $77,000 come from?
13. Loves shopping-this is an odd trait to find in a man. I hate shopping so why would I want my man to like it?
14. Eats meat-yes
15. Clean shaven-yes
16. Smooth chest-no
17. Watches soaps-only if Downton Abbey counts, otherwise no. I can't stand soaps.
18. Enjoys watching football-who cares if he likes football? I only like the marching band.
19. Drives an Audi-no, I can think of much better cars for him to drive.
20. Educated to degree level-yes
21. Earns more than his other half-his other half should be a SAHM if possible
22. Jokes around and has a laugh-yes
23. Sensitive when his wife/girlfriend is upset-yes
24. Says 'I love you' only when he means it-I don't quite understand this, why would you be involved with a man that didn't?
25. Admits it when he looks at other women-yes
26. Has a driver's license-really? What age women did they poll for this?
27. Can swim-who cares if they can swim?
28. Can ride a bike-again, what age women did they poll for this?
29. Can change a tire-yes, by high school both boys and girls should know how to do this although I admit it has been a long time since I practiced changing one and I never needed to change one by myself
30. Calls mom regularly-yes

From Find the perfect man.

Frustration

I keep receiving phone calls at the worst times (usually while I'm doing the bedtime routine by myself while Ram is at church meetings) so I tried to resolve it today. Here is what happened. (Grammar is exactly as it was typed, but names were changed.)

Hello Ewe. Please wait while we find a CLEAR specialist to help you.

Your question is: I keep receiving phone calls for someone called Jason Lee who does not have this phone number. I thought I had it resolved yesterday when I talked to your representative. Today I received another phone call asking me to take a survey on how I would rate your representative. I have not chosen Clear service. I do not want Clear service. I do not want to be bothered with phone calls from your company. Please remove my phone number from your list and do not call me with any more surveys.

You have been connected to Abigail.

Abigail:  Thank you for contacting Clear, my name is Abby.

Abigail:  I am pleased to meet you here online, Ewe and I hope you are having a great day today!

Abigail:  I understand that you do not have a Clear service and you would like to remove your phone number from our list.

Ewe:  Yes

Abigail:  I am sorry to hear that you are having this problem. I can definitely assist you with your concern.

Ewe:  Do not call me with a survey.

Abigail:  Our records show that your number was already listed on the Do not Contact list.

Ewe:  I just received a phone call from you a few minutes ago regarding a survey because I asked you yesterday to remove me from your calling list.

Abigail:  Yes, we do random survey for those who were visited the Chat support.

Ewe:  If you are on a do not call list you should not be called for a survey.

Abigail:  Phone opt-outs will be updated within 10 business days.

Ewe:  I will be very upset if I receive any more phone calls from your company.

Abigail:  I do apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.

Abigail:  Please be assured that you will no longer receive any phone call.

Abigail:  Do you have any other concerns that I can assist you with at this time?

Thank you for chatting with Clearwire. We value your feedback. Please click here to answer a few questions about your chat experience.

What do you think, do you think I will receive another phone call? Would you chose this company to do business with? It started with their error for  Jason's phone number and has become a pain for me.

And this is not even related to when I first got the phone and for several months I kept receiving phone calls and texts for Megan, who I figured out lives in IL, so when I received a phone call for her at 5am our time I told the person off and amazingly I have not received any more calls or texts since then. 

Trying new recipes post 2

I read this blog post and decided to make almond flour scones. We now live in the city so I thought buying almond flour would be easy. Dh went to several stores and finally found it at one new grocery store but it was in the bulk section and it was on sale the week before so they were completely out. I went back later in the week and got it but it was Bob's Red Mill brand which is not recommended as the best for baked goods. I decided it wouldn't hurt to try it for the almond flour scones since I could get it locally and not pay shipping for it.

My first batch I made with no sweetener or sugar. I put chocolate chips and crushed walnuts in it. They were really good and maybe some day I will try it with another brand of almond flour and I plan to make it again with different add ins besides chocolate chips and walnuts.

These are not cheap to make-I paid over $6 lb for the almond flour and it took about a lb of almond flour. But I love having a treat without flour or sugar for my family. Adding in the dark chocolate chips (I don't buy Nestle!) and walnuts made it more healthy. I will definitely be making these again.

I still limited the Lambs to one scone each day-since they think they are dessert they don't need to know there is no sugar in them. Plus they will last a little longer at our house for financial reasons. Perhaps making a batch of these will be on my new weekly kitchen day list.

I am so glad that no one in our family is allergic to nuts so we can have this treat!

Trying new recipes post 1

On Friday I tried Black Bean Brownies. A Looper had said they were too sweet so I put in less than half of the sugar the recipe called for. They were a little too crumbly so next time I think I would add another egg. I put crushed walnuts and chocolate chips on top and they were good. Lamb 1 saw me put the black beans in the food processor and had a fit, "I asked for brownies, not black bean dip!" But after they were made, everyone in the family ate them without complaining.
When we were in MN I learned everyone's definition of healthy eating is different, sometimes based on foods they are allergic to or can't tolerate. Some think replacing sugar with Splenda makes it healthy. Some need no dairy or no gluten etc. Some think replacing oil with applesauce makes it healthy. But most of the time these recipes still have way too much sugar. I think I would make these brownies again with the lesser amount of sugar, but we still need to remember there is sugar in them and treat them as dessert should be-an occasional treat.

Exercise Motivation

Our health insurance has a program where you can earn Amazon dollars and other rewards for doing healthy things like your annual physical and eating healthy and exercising. Last year Ram and I attended Doxology so we easily got our Be Well Serve Well dollars with just that and going to our regular doctor appointments. Ram went to Doxology this year without me for the final session.  We have made the decision after moving last year to not go this year together in the fall. In order to get the maximum numbers of dollars I will not have enough points without Doxology to make it as easy as last year.
We have bought many things especially for moving and the new house with our Amazon money from last year. I know that some of my friends have used their dollars for a big item like a Kindle. I was glad that we had those dollars for all the little things we needed last year. We also bought some homeschooling treats that weren't necessary but made our studies more interesting and fun. And Ram and I each got about $100 to spend however we wanted. But unfortunately we are down to the last about $10 of that money from last year.
In the move we lost our passwords and since we changed e-addresses we couldn't just have them e-mail a new password. Since we are low on Amazon dollars I was motivated to look for those passwords and get back in the program this year. After dropping an old typewriter on my foot and searching through several boxes yesterday we found my password but not Ram's. So Ram called them today and we are both back in. Ram will be able to register for a lot of his this week-he has eye doctor and dentist appointments this week and he went to Doxology in February. So we will again have some Amazon money once this is all processed.
I am either going to need to track my eating fruits and veggies or exercise or both in order to get my maximum points. Ram will need to do some of that to get his maximum points but not as much as me without Doxology points.
A new part this year is you can earn bonus points if you do exercise for 24 weeks. So Ram and I decided to try to do that in order to get the extra bonus dollars. If we begin next week we could be done in October, if we take breaks for busy/vacation weeks then we can still finish the 24 weeks before the end of the year.
Money for books is definitely the best way to motivate both Ram and me. The Lambs will encourage us to keep it up because they know they get treats with the Amazon dollars too. And I was slow learning that you can buy all kinds of things at Amazon, it doesn't need to just be books. Since we had that Amazon money I learned to look there first if I was buying something online. The Lambs are begging for a big Lego set but if I do all this exercising I am going to buy what I want, not Legos for them!
I'll try to keep you posted on how our 24 weeks of tracking exercise is going. We aren't beginning until next week due to the typewriter accident I had yesterday. I tore the skin back on my toe, but thankfully it wasn't worse.

Car insurance

When we moved to MN we had a terrible time getting car insurance because I had totaled my car backing out of the driveway about a year before we moved to MN. We finally found Progressive would take us as customers. Car insurance in MN was very expensive and we checked several times but Progressive was the best deal for us. Then when we got new cars it was even more important for us to be insured well.
We were hit by a cement mixer on the way to Doxology last August. When we moved to ID I thought that we should continue with Progressive at least until we were sure the entire cement mixer accident claim was done. So we found an agent here to sell us Progressive.
I was shocked how cheap insurance was here in ID. After we moved to the new house I made an appointment to sit down with the agent to discuss our insurance. I was thinking we didn't have the same coverage as we did in MN because it was so much cheaper. When he entered in our new address the rates dropped even more. We did have the same coverage as MN, but ID is cheaper. This is partly due to very little chance of natural disaster-no tornadoes here etc. Even the agent was shocked that our rate dropped more because we were moving within the same zip code. I think it is because we own our house instead of rent, but the agent didn't know the exact reason.
The agent checked and if we switch companies we can save even more money and have the same coverage. I was shocked because after checking in MN, Progressive was the best deal for us partly because we had been with them for so long. Every once and awhile I have received e-mails from friends about how liberal Progressive is and what kind of causes they support. I have not enjoyed spending my dollars at a company like that for the last 9 years. So I am thrilled that when it comes time to renew our car insurance this week we are switching companies.
After moving we have had tasks like this to complete on Ram's day off. It is frustrating to spend so much time checking on things like this. But to save dollars makes the time spent on his day off worth it.

Work for Days of the Week

Melrose posted about ordering her work by days of the week here. As we get settled into our new house I think this would be a great idea. My grandma gave me this set of embroidered dish towels. Here is what they say:
Monday: wash
Tuesday: iron
Wednesday: sew
Thursday: shop
Friday: cook
Saturday: clean

After looking at Melrose's plan and these dish towels, I came up with a plan that I think would work for our family.
Sunday: church
Monday: shop-Ram's day off/family time
Tuesday: wash
Wednesday: paperwork/pay bills-library day and shopping if it wasn't completed on Monday
Thursday: clean
Friday: cook
Saturday: yardwork/catchup

Since I have 3 bed wetters I am unable to do all my laundry in one day, but Tuesday will be the major laundry day. Since our laundry room is upstairs I can easily throw a load in first thing in the morning and put it to dry before I go to bed if there is no other time. The other thing I have added to my daily duties is sweeping the floor downstairs. I remember Martha Stewart saying this duty should be done every day. It has helped a lot to do this. I am also trying to get the Lambs to tidy up their toys and their areas of the house some time during the day before bedtime. As we get settled into our new house I am trying to also settle into routines that will make our life easier and more organized. It's great to have a fresh start on all of this. Thanks Melrose, for the idea!

Now I need to figure out how to frame and hang these cute dishtowels in my kitchen!