Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Wearing of The Grey

 *Get ready to hit the Unfollow Button*

I've been immersed the last couple of days in my genealogy stuff.

Genealogy is like a big jigsaw puzzle of history, but on a personal level.
You find clues to people by finding someone and leapfrogging around and back to another person.

Like yesterday.
I spent 5 hours, tracing the movement of 4 generations of a family, both moving physically in the world and moving through the changes in the family structure that is brought on by time.

All this tracing and cross referencing of 8 decades of a family's members to try to find where someone in that grouping would cross over into the path of the particular person I wanted to find.
Sometimes if you can't find a person directly, you can locate them in this way.

But it was not to be in this case.

I could look at it as a waste of 5 hours but since I am fascinated by people's lives from the past
and I thoroughly enjoyed myself poking around in their closets, I am ok with it.

Currently I am noodling around in my mother's side of the family.  Her side is the one that has deep roots in America.
By deep I mean pre-Revolutionary times.  Not all but quite a few branches...or should that be roots.lol
And most, if not all are in Virginia.

My roots are country roots, not city roots.  Many of them were planted in south central VA, in the Campbell and Charlotte Counties of the state.  The land of farms and rural life.

Here's a bridge over the Falling River(a branch of the Roanoke River)....

And here's an old mill on the Falling River, called Harper's Mill....
My grandfather was born a Harper.  That grist mill belonged to someone in our Harper family.  Many of the Harpers I am descended from were millers by trade.

I found myself out of one of the limbs on that side of my tree yesterday and I had progressed back to the 1860's era.
1860's as in Civil War.....in the South.
And I have begun to unearth(bad pun)Confederate soldiers in the family.

Due to my ancestors involvement in the Civil War and also how I find myself connected to and how I feel about that whole time in history I have been exploring that era of our nation's history anew.

And I want to say that the teaching of American history to our children is sorely lacking in this country.
The amount of time the school's spent on teaching history was a lot longer during my generation than it is in today's schools.
What my 2 college student kids were taught up to Grade 12 was barely anything compared to what my generation was expected to know.
And I am finding what the last kid I have in high school is being taught is so dumbed down, it's ridiculous.  And he goes to one of the best(credentials of teachers/test scores) public schools in this region!

History is NOT considered important in the schools anymore since knowing/learning it doesn't directly help you find a job when you graduate.  And that's what they concentrate on nowadays in high school.....on teaching to the test and vocational learning.

But it IS still important if you want to be an informed member of society.
You need to know what happened in the past so as to know who you are and how to NOT repeat the mistakes your ancestors made.

And though my generation did indeed spend more time on history as a subject in school, we were focused on all the wrong things.
We were drilled on knowing dates, events, names....the WHOs, WHATs, WHEREs.  Not enough time was spent learning about the WHYs of history.

Why things happened.....like Why the Civil War happened.

The textbooks of my youth were very general in their whys, and some whys where ignored or downright incorrect or just missing.
And as a Southerner I am going to tell you something about all those pages in your history textbooks won't.

That the North, being the victor in That War Between the States, they got to decide on how this era would be recorded and how the history would be written and passed down to future generations.
The names, dates and facts may be correct but the whys are colored and skewed toward the victor's side.  Or pieces of the Whys are totally missing if the 'powers that be' thought those parts would make them look bad to posterity.  While the South had better generals, the North had better SPIN DOCTORS when the war was over. ;-)

The WHYS of history is not so simplistic.
There isn't good or evil.....no black or white.
History is shades of grey at best.

As a Southerner I was/am always made to feel less than, especially when the Civil War came up.
Not just personally by folks I've met from "Up North" when I was a kid, but from the textbooks in my school down to films, songs, books and other aspects of our national culture.
Being a Northerner was good, being a Southerner was bad.  The South had slavery so that made us evil.
I guess it's easier just to label us the bad guys and ignore the complicity of the North in that whole economic system.  It's easier to think yourself superior to someone else and look down upon them.

Not to start a new war here but there are many folks out there who harbor many misguided notions about the South.
About who we are/were.....about our history.
And just because "we" like a certain flag and song, it doesn't make "us" racists.
It's been almost 147 years since the war ended and I still find myself having to fight the battle some days when I hear some ignorant opinion fly out of someone's mouth up here in Yankeeland.

Being from the South is complicated.

Events going back to the Tariff Act of 1828(bonus points if you even know what this was)have changed the course of our nation's history.
And until this country can have an intelligent dialogue about how the South was treated since before the founding of the first colonies through today, we are doomed to relive and repeat the past.





Sluggy-Proud daughter of Virginia

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Food Shopping Trip.....Don't Look SonyaAnn!

This will upset reader SonyaAnn....not because I got some ok deals but because of what I got the deal on.
Fortunately for her, she doesn't live near the store I got this deal from so it's all good. ;-)

I thought I'd be boring today and show you what I just bought at the grocery store.

First I have to show you this.....
This is a sheet of store coupons that was wrapped around my local independent ShurSave grocery flyer at the beginning of March.  It's a bunch of store coupons for items they carry and they are good for the entire month of March.
Now, always thinking moi realized that I should KEEP this flyer wrap of coupons and not throw them out when I threw out the sales flyer into the recycling pile.
And always thinking moi realized that I should grab about 12 sales flyers that week with this wrapper of coupons, so I would have 12 more copies of these coupons to hang onto and wait for these items to go on sale during the month, because only a couple of them were on sale the week the coupons were on the flyer.
I figured the store wouldn't keep printing the same coupons each sales week and wrap each week's flyer with them.....and I was correct!

So I clipped those coupons and set off to the store today.

Let's begin with this.....

I LOVE Blue Bunny ice cream.
The Cherry Bordeaux with dark chocolate chips is orgasmic!

But the grocery store hasn't had it on sale all month and it wasn't in the ad for this week either.
But there was a $3 WYB3 cartons coupon on that sheet.
And guess who saw a big old sign hanging on the ice cream case door--Blue Bunny on sale 3 for $10.
So after my $3 coupon I paid $7 for 3 cartons-that's $2.33 each?

I just may have to buy that second freezer this week..... ;-)

I also bought this.....
Instant Catalina Deal--Buy 7 select Heinz products, Get $5 off your order.

The Classico sauce was $2 ea. on sale.
The Bagel Bites were $2 ea. on sale. (For #2 Son)
The Ore-Ida onion rings were $3 on sale. (For #2 Son)
Subtotal of $15.
One of my store coupons was for Ore-Ida products, $1/1.
Grand total after coupon and instant discount......$9.00 for all 7 items.

Again, #2 Son has put in a request for more Bagel Bites and Sweet Potato Fries and you never can have too much pasta sauce so we'll seriously be needing that 2nd freezer.

I also bought this.....
2 x Salad Kits on sale $1.99 ea.(My lunch for the next couple days.)
1 x On-Cor Meat thing on sale $3.(I don't feel like cooking from scratch today.lol)
1 x block of Provolone Cheese on sale $2 (I never see Provolone cheese outside of the deli here and it's much higher than this price.)
2 x Gala apples on sale .99¢ lb.(I need these for a pie I am baking this week.)

I have a $1/1 store coupon from that sheet for the On-Cor as well, so that was $2 in the end.

All together, it was $51.43 worth of stuff for $24.85 OOP.  51.70% savings rate with just sale prices, store coupons and that instant cat deal.

I am just turning into a food spender, aren't I?
What good deals have you gotten lately?

Sluggy

Sluggy's Boring Blog Giveaway Box......Enter Now!

Here's a NEW POST for Sluggy's Boring Blog Giveaway Box......Enter Now!

Just to recap, I put things in the box(mostly what I have gotten for free or almost free)each week and when the box is filled we draw a winner from all the entries received.

This lot of goodies FILLED THE BOX, so this is your last chance/week to enter to win this stuff!

Here is what went into the Box today.....
1. Got 2B Hair Gel
2. Mentos Lemonade Gum
3. StayFree thin pads
4. Aveeno Lotion
5. Nivea Lip Balm(cherry flavor)

This makes a total of 18 high quality items you win if I pick your name! (Except if you live in Canada, see the rules about that.)

If this is your first time, please go read all the rules for these Giveaways HERE.

Time to enter.....You can enter on this Giveaway post only.

1 entry per person per day on THIS POST.  Leave your name/email addy and a COMMENT on any topic you wish for a valid entry on THIS POST, not on any of the previous weeks' posts. There will be a link on the top of the side bar to the current Giveaway Post so you can find it easily.


Please NOTE--You MUST be a follower to enter the Giveaway.  If you aren't one, just click on the "Follow" button on the right hand side of my blog to become a follower.

There are 2 ways to get extra entries and  you can do these 2 each this week!....

1. Put my blog on your blog's Blogroll.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with the URL of your blog so I can make go check it out. If I'm already on your Blogroll, say so in this extra comment/entry.
2.  Blog about this Giveaway on your blog or on a Message Board.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with a link to your blog post or the message on the board.
So you get your basic entry, you can get another entry for having/putting me on your blog's roll and/or for blogging about the giveaway PLUS you can leave 1 comment per day additional on this post for a daily bonus entry.

That's 1 basic entry each day for the next 8 days, 2 additional entries if you blog about or put me on your blogroll and 8 bonus daily entries for the next 8 days=a possible 18 entries for everyone this week.
 
I will close this post to comments at 11:59 pm on Wednesday, April 4th 2012.
The winner will be announced the next day or two when I get time to count all the entries, draw a name randomly and post it to the blog.

Any questions?  Just email me.

Happy Entering!! 

Sluggy

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Word From Judy.....She Lives!

I just heard from Judy of "Finally Frugal and Happy".

She is fine so stop worrying!

She wanted me to tell y'all that she needed to take a break but she'll be back, up and running when she deals with some stuff in real life.

Stay tuned to this blog channel for updates as they come in.....we are the official Judy Watch Channel.   ;-)

Sluggy

March Food Spending Week 3, Meal Plan March Week 4 + More!

Onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)

Last week's meal plan is in the books. Here is what actually happened....

SUNDAY--Chicken Fajitas
 MONDAY--Taco Bell
TUESDAY--Burritos, Corn
WEDNESDAY--Leftovers Fajitas
THURSDAY--Chinese Take-Out
FRIDAY--Fish, Stuffed Clams, Mixed Veggies, Kraft Mac&Cheese(aka crack)
SATURDAY--homemade Pizza
Things I used last week that I had bought the previous week.....colored bell peppers, onions, stuffed clams, Kraft mac&cheese(got for free at Rite-Aid).  This is to show you that I do use all those things I buy each week that I don't use the week I necessarily buy them. ;-)

The weekly food spending was $55.01 this past week.

I again, went to Weis "PoundYouInTheAss" Markets for groceries as I had another week of Grand Re-Opening Qs.  I got free 2ltr. soda(#2 son is happy), free bag of potato chips(hub's is happy), 1/2 price muffins(#2 son ditto), and $5 off when I spent $50(Momma is happy!lol).

There was an Instant Catalina Deal on certain Heinz products-5 off instantly WYB $20 in products(which was based on the reg. shelf price, not the sale price).  I bought 6 bottle of Log Cabin syrup-the NO HFCS kind.  On sale for $2.99 a bottle but after Instant Cat, each bottle cost me $2.16.
I also bought produce(cabbage, celery), 2 bags of cheese, rolled pie crust, whipped cream in a can, 3 boxes of pasta($1 per) and a 12-pack of soda--all store brand.  Then a big pack of ground beef with a $3 store sticker on it and a key lime pie, well, just because it was on sale and it looked good and we wanted crap.
***************
Not-So Brief  Deal Hunting Interlude
 
And from the Annals of "PAY ATTENTION TO STUFF WHEN YOU SHOP".......here is my deal of last week--
6 boxes of Angus Burgers.
We were perusing the frozen chicken/meats case and I spied these babies in the top corner of the case with $3 Instant Discount Qs stuck to them.
They are 2 lbs. of Angus Beef Burgers from Hormone-free, vegetarian-fed steer.
Reg. price at Weis?
$9.99 per box, each box has 6 burgers.
So $3 off makes then $6.99, which is a much better price.
I had Hubs get me 2 down to stick in my cart.
Not the sort of thing I buy(per-formed burgers), but at that price this would be a good thing to have in my freezer for #2 son, for those nights he doesn't want what I am fixing for dinner or for a weekend meal or after school snack.  It is something he can/will make for himself and I am ALL ABOUT getting teens to cook for themselves one way or another.  This would be the one way.  ;-)

So we get to the register and I notice that the 2nd box of burgers rings up as a BOGO....yes!
I paid $9.99 for 2 boxes instead of 1.
Evidently there was also a BOGO on this product but there was NO SHELF TAG.
Either that or it HAD BEEN a BOGO but whoever programs the computer, didn't change the price back after the sale.   Either way, as a customer at Weis PMITA Markets, I am entitled to the price it rings up for per their own policy.

So with 2 x $3 instant Q deducted, I got 4 lbs. of burgers for the wonderful price of $3.99.
That's $1 a pound for hoity-toity meat!!!
KA-ching Baby!!

So you KNOW what I did, don't you?
I sent Hubs back to the frozen meat case to buy 4 more boxes of this stuff.
So that's why I have 12 lbs. of pre-made burgers sitting in my freezer.

Moral of Story....you never know WHERE you will find a Deal and you won't find them unless you keep open to what is around you.
Burgers were not something I went into the store to buy, but by paying attention to what was in the store & what I was charged at the register(and a little luck) I found something I can use and that was practically free.

It's the 26th day of the month and I've already spent $400.64  my food budget for the month!   I do have $476.80 in the kitty with the $300 for this month and the leftover from Jan. and Feb.'s kitties.

I had to feed some leftover turkey to the dogs this past week, as nobody here would finish it and I'll be damned if I'll throw perfectly good food away!
So that is the end of me roasting turkeys.....well, except for 1 at Thanksgiving.  The rest of the year?....the people here are shitoutofluck. ;-)
************************

Going into March Week 4+ I have leftovers--a little bit of corned beef, a little more cabbage from the week before.  As of Monday, everything that was cooked this past week is gone.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Leftovers
MONDAY--Rigatoni w/meat sauce, Salad
TUESDAY--Breakfast for Dinner
WEDNESDAY--Tuna Noodle Casserole
THURSDAY--Shrimp, Cornbread, Coleslaw
FRIDAY--Leftovers
SATURDAY--?

This menu gives us 4 new meals, 2 nights of leftovers and 1 ? meal.  "? meal"= might go out to Bob Evans, might get take-out, who knows!lol
 Items needed to buy for this menu are....nothing.  I've got everything here already in the freezer or the pantry, except for the unknown meal, if we don't go out to eat that night.
We'll be buying milk as usual.

So far I don't see any stocking up opportunities, but then again, I haven't looked yet.  I do have another set of Grand Re-Opening Qs for "you know where".  Don't know yet if I'll use them.

So what is everyone else eating this week?

Sluggy