The Papa is in Hawaii again, re-re-readjusting to the time difference. This trip and one more to Las Vegas before Christmas is going to have his body clock so messed up it'll take him until Valentine's Day to get straight!

Finally, finally fall has arrived in our world. Last night we had a near-freeze so some of the plants went in the garage and the heat came on several times. This should mean a nice crispness for our annual Thanksgiving football game in the yard...

This week I picked up some pretty new tablecloths for Thanksgiving/Christmas, getting them at pennies on the dollar through the website of the soon-to-be-defunct Linen's 'n Things. Boy, do I hate to see that store go.

I've made yet another middle-of-the-course correction in our math curriculum this year. Math is something I've never messed with too much, but for several reasons our old Saxon standby isn't a good fit any more and I've had at least one false start this year trying to replace it. This week we'll start in on Teaching Textbooks...I'm pretty excited about it but trying to reserve judgment because I was excited about the last change, too. Stay tuned.

When brand new suitcases have the wheels knocked off by the airlines, they won't pay. Trust me.

Planting myself firmly between those of you who will sneer, "What? I'm already finished!" and those of you who will snarl, "What? I haven't bought a thing yet!" I will tell you that I'm about halfway finished with my Christmas shopping. The UPS man, though he comes here nearly every day anyway, is carrying larger armfuls of Amazon boxes and will soon have earned a plate of cookies on his stop. He's very amused by us--the full house, the homeschooling, even the Friday co-op which he finally asked me about a couple of weeks ago. I think with most of the world at work on weekdays he's happy for something of interest to punctuate his day.

In addition to the Spam surge I posted about last night, it seems that a lot of other old-fashioned (processed) budget foods are flying off the shelves as well: Velveeta cheese, Jell-O, instant mashed potatoes, etc. I'm laughing at people's ideas of "budget," though...here in SA we're paying well over $2 for a 12-oz can of Spam, and though I happen to love the stuff, I'm not thinkin' that's really cheap. After all, our little informal meat co-op yesterday got ground beef for $1.83 a pound, which even after cooking will leave you with 12 ounces of meat with no salt, preservatives, etc. Okay, you do have to open the 10 pound chub and divide it up, but maybe we're all going to be re-learning how to do stuff like that in the next couple of years. And Velveeta cheese, budget? It seems to me that a lot of folks are confusing "budget foods" with "comfort foods." And maybe we need some of both. I don't know...my favorite budget food is still a 6 ounce can of HEB tuna for $.60. And ramen. And whole chickens. And dried pintos :-)

Speaking of tough economic times, here's an interesting look about what we could be in for, and this author thinks it could look very different than the last Great Depression.
Depression 2009: What Would It Look Like?

From our glorious Sunday morning service today...


Hope you're having a worshipful, restful Lord's Day!

Labels: Food, Holidays, Homeschooling, Money, Music, Sundays, The Papa, Weather