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Had a wonderful three hour visit with my Mom on Sunday. I loved seeing the surprise on her face when I walked in...I realize it might not be too long before nothing will register when she sees me, but I hope that can be a long time from now. She was calmer and more coherent than she's been in months (at least when I've been around) and it was a joy to show her my needlework and look through hundreds of Facebook photos with her.
I've just ordered and received my copy of The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, on the recommendation of Ann Voskamp from A Holy Experience. When I get home I'm going to work my way through it in 13 weeks per her suggestion.
Rick Perry looks closer to running every day, and it appears that Mitt Romney will be the loser. Ah well...
I believe I've mentioned YNAB budget software before, but if you're not familiar with it, here's a nice review by Tim Challies. If I swore, I'd swear by it.
My conversion to Apple gets more complete all the time. I'm now running a MacBook Pro, an iPhone4, and an iPad2. As soon as life slows down, I'll finish the conversion by getting a Windows platform on the Mac so that I can run all the programs I use that aren't compatible with Mac or that Mac just hasn't mastered yet. Like Office 2010.
For you natural history and biology buffs, this is simply astounding.
And despite the references to evolution, here's another fascinating study:
Researchers from Oxford University studied the eye sockets and brain capacity of 55 human skulls from 12 different populations across the world and found that the further human populations live from the equator, the bigger their brains.
It's not because they are smarter, however, but because they need bigger vision areas in the brain to cope with the low light levels at high latitudes, the scientists said in a report of their findings in the journal Biology Letters.My summer is flying by, and it's time to start getting serious about the school year. With just two students left, my workload is not what it used to be, but I am determined to finish well. This year I will be teaching geometry to my boys and assisting in their history (still Tapestry of Grace). The rest they'll be taking at co-op or, in the case of John Caleb, the community college. I think I'll be driving more than teaching. 26 years ago I could hardly have imagined where this journey would lead!
And now, it's time for me to cool off with (another) Diet Coke. Have a great weekend, y'all!
Labels: Decorating, Devotional, Homeschooling, Money, Political Observation, Science, Technology, Texas, Weather
So...what snippets do I have this week? Let's see. A lot of folks are going to work tomorrow who wondered for several days if they would. Glad to see that we averted a government shutdown for the sakes of those who would suffer (including, as it turns out, this family). But I can't say I'm jumping up and down at the meager concessions toward spending reductions. As Karl Rove said in the wee hours of Saturday morning, this only matters if it's the first step in a long road. Otherwise, it was a waste.Labels: Books, Devotional, Food, Kids, Money, Movies, Political Observation, Technology, Theater of the Absurd
Labels: Money, Political Observation, Social Observation, Theater of the Absurd
Labels: Money
Labels: Money, ObamaNation, Political Observation
So...do the taxpayers get their money back?WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration's flagship effort to help people in danger of losing their homes is falling flat.
More than a third of the 1.24 million borrowers who have enrolled in the $75 billion mortgage modification program have dropped out. That's more than the 27 percent who have managed to have their loan payments reduced to help them keep their homes.
Last month alone, 150,000 borrowers left the program -- bringing the total to 436,000 who have exited since it began in March 2009.
Administration officials say borrowers will get help in other ways. But analysts fear the majority will still wind up in foreclosure.
Borrowers exit troubled Obama mortgage program
Labels: Money, ObamaNation, Theater of the Absurd
It's a story of an industry that may sound familiar.
The buyers think what they're buying will appreciate in value, making them rich in the future. The product grows more and more elaborate, and more and more expensive, but the expense is offset by cheap credit provided by sellers eager to encourage buyers to buy.
Buyers see that everyone else is taking on mounds of debt, and so are more comfortable when they do so themselves; besides, for a generation, the value of what they're buying has gone up steadily. What could go wrong? Everything continues smoothly until, at some point, it doesn't.
Yes, this sounds like the housing bubble, but...
Find out what it is at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Sunday_Reflections
Labels: Education, Money, Social Observation
It's nice to know, via several email inquiries, that my presence has been missed, but I do have a really good excuse that doesn't involve a dog eating my blog posts. Three weeks ago in the Snippets I looked forward to having my hip replaced, and that seemed to go "without a hitch"--I had the surgery on the 7th and was home by the 12th, sitting here thinking about updating and thanking everyone for their prayers. But alas, before the next Sunday rolled around, I developed a fairly serious complication that provided me with yet another setback. My 72-hour wound check uncovered a "seroma" deep below the surface, and after it literally exploded in the exam room (I'm not kidding...we had to throw part of my clothes away right there!) I was taken upstairs to surgery once again. Another five hours in the OR and another five days in the hospital was added to my recent adventures, but I'm now home again, in the beginning stages of therapy and glad to be allowed out of my room!
This week, Dave's been working on the latest phase of our deck construction, a triangular pergola in one corner. It's been great to be able to walk out there (with my walker, of course) to check on progress. Hopefully, by next week I'll be able to post pictures!
As we approach the end of another academic year, one I've not had nearly the hand in that I've had in other years, I have been contemplating what our lives will be like in the fall. We could have three fewer kids in the house by then due to a variety of reasons, and only two students, both in high school. Of course there's a joyful procession of grandkids in and out, but even those will be fewer due to Dave and Kris' upcoming move to north Texas. This house, that has at times held 15 or more inhabitants, will be down to a mere five! Yes, there have been times when I've looked forward to not having so many shoes to pick up or dishes to load, but deep down I've always known that there would be a lot of melancholy to go along with the reduced workload and messiness. I thank God that I've had the privilege of "enduring" these for so long!
This week I read a fun and valuable book, The Little Book of Bulletproof Investing: Do's and Don'ts to Protect Your Financial Life by Ben Stein. Not only did I gain some insight into long-term finances, but I am always amused that the same man who can write a serious book on finances and economics is the same one who pretty much played himself in the 1986 teen coming-of-age comedy, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's a wild world.
It'll be interesting to watch what happens with the newly-signed legislation on illegal immigrants in Arizona. While I firmly believe states must have the right to address their own problems, I don't think that in the current "progressive" legal climate the legislation will stand. And it appears that it may also cause some violence in the state, further complicating the underlying issues. No good answers, at least not while so many Americans think that "illegal" just means "undocumented" or some other euphemism for being here in violation of our sovereign laws.
Looks like this will be the week we'll trade in one of our two gas-guzzling Suburbans for a more moderate used Pontiac Montana. We still need vehicles that hold several people, but we no longer have to have one that seats eight, and we REALLY don't need anything that has such a drinking problem! Gas prices, even before the $.15 (or more) a gallon tax that will probably be tacked on with the new energy bill, are downright scary!
One of my projects for this summer: use my new scanner to get 37 years' worth of old and fading photos stored in digital format. Then I will get rid of about 9/10 of the hard copies and just save the gems. Sometimes I wonder what I would have thought in 1973 if someone had told me how we'd be storing and editing and transmitting photos within the next thirty years. I'm sure I'd have given them a blank stare :-)
Enjoy your last week of April!
Labels: Books, Health, Homemaking, Money
Okay, it's very expensive. I admit it. But the benefits SOOO outweigh the cost. So I went ahead and signed a 120-month note on it (yep, ten years), thinking that would help me afford the payments. As it turns out, it's still way too expensive, so I need to tell you that I'm going to be collecting a check from each one of you every month and together we'll be able to pay for it. Sorry to pull that on you, but if you're here on my blog you'll be required to assist.
I'd invite you over to see it, but actually I'm going to have to pay on it for six years before I pick it up. When I finally get to drive my 2010 set of wheels in 2016, I know it'll be well worth it. And four years after that, it'll be paid for!
I do hear that during the time I (we, hehe) am making the payments, the finance company may actually jack up the cost and make me pay about double for it, but you know, I'm 55 and if I don't make it that long my kids will pick up the tab for me. Really, and they won't mind. It could still even be running by then.
The best thing? I get automatically signed up for another set of wheels for the ten years after that! Right now I don't know how I'll afford that one, even with your checks, because it'll be about quadruple what this one's going to be. But I've got lots of time to protest that later. And I'm ignoring all the negative voices that start those rumors, the ones about how the second car will have to be a clunker to make up for the fact that by then I really I won't be able to afford the nice ones. I mean, who would spread stuff like that?
As a matter of fact, someone said that if people kept signing up for cars they have trouble paying for, someone at the finance company is going to start deciding who can even OWN a car! I think that spreading lies like that is just the worst kind of nastiness, ginned up by people who want to keep all the good stuff in the hands of rich people. And those voices and the cable channels they're on need to be silenced.
Anyway, I need to run. Gotta figure out some VERY cheap alternate transportation until the new car is delivered. I'll let ya know how that goes.
Labels: Money, Political Observation, Social Observation, Theater of the Absurd
Ayn Rand knew what caused our economic crisis; why don't we?The answer is rather simple.
Government and those that proclaim it can solve so many of our problems – regardless of their party.
In 1959, in an interview with Mike Wallace, Ayn Rand posited that:
“A free economy will not break down. All depressions are caused by government interference and the cure that is always offered . . . is more of the same poisons that caused the disasters.”
Read more here.
Labels: Money, ObamaNation, Political Observation
GREENSBORO — A month ago, Almeta Whitsett was on the waiting list for Mobile Meals.
With two hip replacements and a husband with Alzheimer’s, the 84-year-old Greensboro woman was finding it harder to cook. She already had someone who came in to clean her house every two weeks.
Now, she has help in the kitchen, too.
Senior Resources of Guilford learned over the summer that it would receive $80,000 in stimulus money from the state Department of Health and Human Services.
The money officially arrives today for Senior Resources.
But since the agency knew that the funds were coming, Whitsett started receiving two hot meals a day, five days a week, in late September for her and her 85-year-old husband, James.
“I don’t have to worry about preparing dinner each day,” Whitsett said. “I prepare a little breakfast for us, and maybe in the evening get us a little sandwich or something. We’ve enjoyed the meals tremendously.”
Okay, this is a good example of why we can't get this country back on track economically. Who's going to make a fuss and admit that they're against "feeding seniors"? Even many conservatives who are railing against wasteful spending aren't going to take this one on for fear of being called cruel and insensitive.
But even if I were willing to stipulate that it's okay for "government" money (read: the check I write to the IRS each year) to feed seniors, which I'm not, I would still be aghast that money the Congress and Obama specifically meant to be a stimulus to the ECONOMY would be used to provide lunch and dinner for my mother or your grandmother.
The program is funded by United Way, private donations, and federal "Title III" grants, which means that these seniors are already getting tax money to pay for their meals. And now we're pretending that giving them more tax money to feed them will stimulate the economy??
But again, what brave soul do you think is going to complain about this except Granny? That's why it can go on untouched. It may be illegal, dishonest, even unconstitutional, but our czars know that no one can get away with opposing it without inviting condemnation from the bleeding hearts.
Look, I'm all for making sure no senior goes hungry. I'm nearly a senior myself and I don't want to miss a meal either. But the way to do this is through United Way and churches and by my willing donations, not through forcing me on penalty of imprisonment to pay for this couple's lunch and dinner each day.
Think what a stimulus it would be if our tax bill were cut in half and we were allowed to SPEND the money that's now paying for senior meals!
Folks, no matter how old you are, there's no free lunch.
Stimulus money buys hot meals for seniorsLabels: Money, Political Observation, Social Observation
Wanna decide if brown-bagging it to work or school is a lot cheaper than grabbing a burger or a sub sandwich at the shop next door? Enter
The Sandwich Price Calculator
The Money Clock
Labels: Money
Let me get this straight. I loan you $250,000 so you can buy a house, and you put up the property as collateral and agree to make monthly payments. You end up not being able to make the payments, and I threaten to take the house back. BUT WAIT--Barney Frank says I can't? I have no right to be paid back? Where will the incentive be for the banks to loan to the rest of us??
Frank threatens banks to stop foreclosures
Labels: Money, Political Observation, Theater of the Absurd
How do we know? Well, if the guy who was smart enough to be the president of Harvard says it, must be true, right?
Of all the statistics pouring into the White House every day, top economic adviser Larry Summers highlighted one Friday to make his case that the economic free-fall has ended.
The number of people searching for the term “economic depression” on Google is down to normal levels, Summers said.
Searches for the term were up four-fold when the recession deepened in the earlier part of the year, and the recent shift goes to show consumer confidence is higher, Summers told the Peterson Institute for International Economics. [Emphasis mine]
Yep, this is the kind of Bozo that's tinkering under the hood with the largest economy in the world. I'm comfortable, you?
Larry Summers cites Google search as progress
Labels: Money, Theater of the Absurd
I think I'm going to try this! And then, I'm going to teach it to my kids!
Joe Biden: ‘We Have to Go Spend Money to Keep From Going Bankrupt’
Labels: Money, Theater of the Absurd
Man Charged $23 Quadrillion for Smokes
Labels: Money, Theater of the Absurd
The White House, careening down the road to bankrupting an entire nation with more spending than can possibly be repaid in our great-grandchildren's lifetimes, is going to force YOU to save?
The central idea behind the Obama administration's effort to protect the personal finances of Americans boils down to this: put laziness to work.
Tell people to set aside part of their paychecks every month and they'll usually ignore the advice. But start the saving process for them -- automatically siphoning off a raise from a paycheck into a bank account -- and perhaps that will help them avoid the financial trauma that has affected millions of Americans in this recession.
As part of its financial-regulation overhaul, the Obama team is encouraging more responsible use of credit cards, savings and even mortgages. Using tactics ranging from a light nudge to a hard shove, officials are turning theories about behavioral economics into practice to reshape how Americans make personal-finance decisions.
Some of them may prove controversial as the government brings a heavier hand to personal finance. To help people who don't save, for instance, the government would create accounts -- unless they opt out -- to redirect part of their salary or tax refund into savings.
And I know you'll be shocked to hear this, but it will all come with a new agency! Yes, friends, to ensure that you make the decisions the government believes are in your best interest, we will now fund the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Don't worry..."behavioral economics" is very scientific, and it will save us all from the consequences being foisted on us by the very people who are teaching us what to do when it all collapses.
I'm feeling better already.
A Personal-Finance Workout
Labels: Money, ObamaNation, Social Observation, Theater of the Absurd
But NOW--we find out that what we really got when we THOUGHT we were just refinancing was a TAX CUT, courtesy of Barack Obama!
Obama said at his third press conference last month that the housing plan his administration has launched has "already contributed to a spike in the number of homeowners who are refinancing their mortgages, which is the equivalent of another tax cut." [emphasis mine]
Who knew??
Analysts, however, don't agree. The overall tax burden goes UP, even as interest costs go down, so any savings we get certainly can't be attributed to Mr. Obama's generosity or economic prowess:
Mark Steber, vice president of tax resources at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service said, "While generally there is no tax advantage to refinancing at a lower rate, an individual can save on the total out of pocket costs each year over the life of the loan.
"Though a tax bill will actually increase after refinancing, the increase in taxes may be less than half of the total difference in interest paid, so the taxpayer may save more money than their taxes increase, therefore resulting in net savings." [emphasis mine]
I guess we didn't reap the full advantage, though, as we could have:
Obama urged families to refinance at a photo-op in early April.
We missed the memo and didn't have a camera crew cover our signing.
(Misplaced modifier smile for you grammar junkies.)
Obama Equates Mortgage Refinancing With Tax Cut
(Oh, and for those of you in my area thinking about refinancing, please give Dan at Legacy Mutual a call and tell him we sent you. He is THE best.)
Labels: Money, ObamaNation, Theater of the Absurd
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer prices fell unexpectedly in March and recorded their first annual drop since 1955, government data showed on Wednesday, as slumping demand pushed down energy and food costs.
Of course, lower prices sound good, but the drop is really a symptom of the slowing economy and doesn't really mean anything hopeful. And don't worry...the trillions of dollars that Obama and Co. are printing and pouring into the economy will translate into Carter-like inflation within a short time. So hang onto those pennies you're saving on this month's peanut butter. You're gonna need 'em.
Consumer prices fall
Labels: Money, ObamaNation, Social Observation