4 Days of Food in Pictures

Back after we got home from our trip to VA and before I got sick with something cold-like, I was taking pictures of everything I ate.
I thought it would be a good way for me to visually see(I am a visual learner)what I was putting into my mouth.(shut-up Sonya!)
That's why I am putting this up-not for people to comment on how balanced my diet is or not and whether they approve of what I eat.

1/23/15

Breakfast-Tea

Lunch-turkey sandwich w/tomato & lettuce...lot of lettuce it seems. lol

Dinner-1 barbecue brisket sandwich with coleslaw on pretzel roll

1/24/15

Breakfast-oatmeal & iced tea  Took this after I ate all the oatmeal. lol

Lunch-2 hot dogs on grilled rolls w/comdiments(mustard, salt-free ketchup, pepper relish)
I was very hungry.

Also Lunch-I ate half this bowl of broccoli later.

 

 Dinner-leftover lasagna(Hubs served me too much, I took half off my plate. Hubs goal is to fill a plate.lol)

 

1/25/15

 Breakfast-2 biscuits w/country ham, scrambled eggs w/some pepper. (Country ham--There goes my salt intake for the day.)

 Lunch-Bowl of broccoli/cauliflower cheese soup, 1 biscuit broiled in the oven

Dinner-Salad greens with balsamic vinaigrette dressing & breaded chicken pieces

1/26/15

 Breakfast-plain Greek yogurt with chia seeds, honey and granola on top

Dinner(didn't eat lunch that day, don't remember why not)-Chicken Risotto with mushrooms/wild rice/parmesan, Brussels sprouts

And then I got sick and stopped documenting the meals.
During this time all drinks were sugar-free,(water, G2, unsweetened iced tea, hot tea, lemon water) except for 1 bottled peach iced tea(100 calories).
I also ate 2 peanut butter cookies at some point that 4 days(probably the day I skipped lunch?)and a handful of Cheese Doodles(couldn't eat more than that due to sodium content and besides after that many they tasted nasty to me).

Short of measuring everything I eat I think I am getting a handle on this portion control deal.....except for when I sit down and eat 2 hot dogs(although nitrite-free/low sodium)with rolls at a time. 8-)

Sluggy

A Proper Genealogy Post Part 1

It's been awhile since I've done a genealogy post so let's rectify that now.

Late last year I decided to turn my attention away from my maternal lines of ancestors toward my paternal lines.

A few of these lines are well documented(not by me but by others)but not many.

One of these researched already lines is connected to my father's father's mother's mother's line(that would be a grandfather's maternal grandmother side).

My grandfather's parents were Frank Foster BOWMAN and Catherine O'BRIEN.
Catherine's parents were Maurice(pronounced Morris)O'BRIEN and Marion(or Mary A.)Ellen ROCHE.
Let's start with the ROCHE/O'BRIEN's, shall we?

 Maurice O'Brien photo shared on Ancestry by b1pilot1

Mary Roche O'Brien photo shared on Ancestry by b1pilot1

Both Maurice and Marion were born in County Limerick, Ireland.  Maurice in 1849 and Marion in 1854.  This was right in the midst of the Great Potato Famine in Ireland.

Map of Ireland with Limerick City pinpointed

Long story short on the Great Famine--Irish Catholics had few opportunities to advance themselves due to restrictive laws of the ruling minority Protestant English who owned most of the land(if not all)in Ireland at this time.  Due to English control of the land, most crops grown were exported out of the country to England for profit. Food source for most Irish commoners was 1 variety of potato and said variety caught the potato blight so the main food source for the Irish dried up.  Even so, the English who controlled the land and crops continued to export said crops to England and grew rich while the Irish who tended the farms and their families grew malnourished and a great number of them died. 

Graphic from Here.  Note that Limerick is in the 3rd worst area for poverty at the beginning of the famine.


The recognized start of the Potato Famine is 1845 and it stretched to 1852 and possibly beyond.  This particular famine(there had been an earlier Irish famine in 1740 which was bad but not as devastating)is thought to have been caused by a blight that originated in Mexico, spread up into the US and then inadvertently brought aboard ships to Ireland in potatoes used to feed ship passengers on the voyage to Ireland.  From these tainted potatoes it took root in Irish soil and in 1845 crop loss was reported to be 1/3 to 1/2 and by 1846 3/4 of the potato crop was lost to blight.

Over 3 Million Irish people were dependent on potatoes as their food staple.  This blight devastated the population.  People starved to death in great numbers.  When tenant Irish Catholic farmers couldn't pay their rent(due to the crop failures), they were thrown out of their homes, so not only were they starving but homeless too.  Faced with almost certain death, many Irish Catholics left the country between 1845 and 1850 and immigrated to England, Scotland, South Wales, the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Graphic from This Article
No records exist to tell us exactly how many people died or left in the Great Irish Migration caused by this famine but a Census taken in 1841 compared with a Census taken in 1851 shows there are 1.5 Million less people in Ireland.
It is said that the population in County Limerick declined by 70,000 during the Famine, though the population in Limerick city rose due to starving paupers fleeing into the workhouses.

Imagine being pregnant and bearing children into a world like this!  Not knowing if you can feed them and being malnourished and sick yourself and not knowing when/if the authorities will be at your door to throw your family into the streets.
This is the world my ancestors were born into.

Maurice and Mary A. Ellen wed in Ireland thought I don't know the date or in what church yet.
I do know they were Catholic however, as they were both buried in a Catholic Cemetery in Ansonia, CT at the end of their days.

Photo by F.A.G. member AlyciaK.


Their first child named Honora "Nora" was born about 1875 in Ireland and the second daughter named Mary about 1877.
I haven't nailed down which ship they took to America but I do know it sailed from Ireland in the Fall of 1879.

And how do I know this?
By June 1880 in that year's census the family is found living in Derby, Connecticut.   Derby is in New Haven County on the Housatonic River.

Derby on Connecticut map. Derby is West of New Haven, North of Bridgeport


The family consists of Maurice, Mary Ellen, children Honora, Mary and Maggie.  The first 4 members of the family are noted as being born in Ireland.
Look at where Maggie(or Margaret as was her given name)was reported as being born..............

Maurice-Ireland
Mary-Ireland
Honora-Ireland
Mary-Ireland
Maggie-Ocean

So Mary Ellen was "great with child" on the voyage and gave birth at sea.  I bet that was exciting, but not in a good way. ;-)

Maurice and Mary Ellen went on to have another 5 children that I can find---Bedina(who might have died in her teens), Catherine(my great grandmother), John, Annie and Josephine(who also died in her teens and is buried with her parents).

But there is a mystery revolving around Annie and/or Josephine and another child someone else has on their version of this family tree that is also a mystery to me.

We'll ponder all that next time.

Sluggy
 

Find A Grave Genealogy....A Rant

I've been a member of the "Find A Grave" website for over 2 years now.  (In a month and a half it will be 3 Years!)
I joined once I started getting into genealogy seriously as a hobby.

But I have a love/hate relationship with the F.A.G. site.

I have tired for years now to get a few of my family member's memorials on there transferred to me for upkeep.
Specifically my maternal grandparents and that grandmother's siblings and parents. 
Their memorials were created by a guy who lives in that county of Virginia where they lived whom I don't know personally nor is he related to my peoples.  He's just an avid genealogy freak.

Or WAS an avid genealogy freak.
This person NEVER responds to requests for transfers, nor does he respond to emails AT ALL.
And it's just not me as I've contacted others who have tried to correspond with him and he doesn't answer them either.

I find this very strange because on his member bio page he states, "If a family member contacts me I will gladly transfer their memorial over to them."
This is a down right LIE!

And this guy manages over 4 THOUSAND memorials!  Or rather "has ownership" of that many....he doesn't manage anything.
Clearly he is a memorial Hoarder.  He is standing in the way of correct memorials and loving family members who want them updated and accurate.

And I know he has not passed away himself because as late as last June 2014, he was still taking photos of headstones for other people's memorials!

Now it's not like I HAVE TO have all my dead relatives memorials.
I have written to him with information on these ancestors that needs to be updated and/or corrected on their memorials.
And he sees fit to not respond and/or fix any of the information either!

I have even written to the Powers That Be at F.A.G. to let them know about the problems this guy is causing numerous members.
And their response is to NOT RESPOND to my inquiries.
I tell ya, I am about at the point of making duplicate memorials for these relatives so I can get the correct/proper information out there......even though making duplicate memorials is a no-no.

At least if I did make dups and this guy objected, he's have to actually email me, right? ;-)

I at least went ahead and got some information put onto my family's memorials that he "maintains"(ha!) last week.

There is a feature on F.A.G. where you can submit family links to the person's other relatives' memorials directly to F.A.G. and they will check them out and edit the memorial held by the non-responsive member themselves.  But they won't correct specific information(name, dates, places)just the links to their other family members.

I am just so frustrated I could chew steel!!

Sluggy

$28K Savings Challenge.....January Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
Our income is mainly the salary my Hubs draws from his job.  We have money taken off each paycheck from the top to put into savings, before we even get our hands on it.  This money that's taken goes into various pots....life insurance, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.

Once the automatic savings amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums are taken out, it leaves what we get to "live on".  From this amount we budget for bills, both monthly and irregular bills(semi-annual, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into an interest bearing Savings Challenge account. 

For 2015 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $28,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the January report.....

I have posted my January End of Month $28K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog for the specific numbers HERE.

I have 2 goals each month.....
The 1st is to actually finish each month in the black and not the red.
The 2nd is to hit the targeted savings amount of $2,333.33.

I have to report that we finished up January.
The extra amount we ended the month of  January with?.......$1,475.17.

Income

We had $2,152.77 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
But we promised to pay for our Daughter's wisdom teeth extraction so another $807 flew out the door, leaving us with $1,345.77.
 

Other monies received in January totaled $129.40.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts.

This brought us to our gain of $1,475.17.
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Outgo

As for the expenses this January, here are the good and the bad side of things....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The cable/internet was $39.95.  This is our new "normal" since ditching the cable component.  I am certainly enjoying NOT paying $70.81 that we were paying for basic cable last year.

*  Phone charges were approximately the same as last month.

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS
.
*  The electric bill was up $55.47 over December's bill due to heating.  This cost will continue to increase for the next month(Feb is typically our highest electric bill month) and then start decreasing again.

*  The water bill was up $3.04 from last month, mostly due to College Boy being home in Jan. and all those extra showers and laundry.

*  Cash spending decreased by $550 from last month. Yeah!
*  The credit card bill(paid off each month)was down $222.06.  If not for a $1K+ repair/maintenance car bill it would have been half as much. sigh
*  We had some irregular spending too in January--a few small store charge card bills from Christmas spending and the dental bill we paid for the Daughter.

 

The Food Budget costs for January are in another post, which is located HERE.
 

The 2015 TOTAL.....
With 1 month accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2015 is $1,475.17.

THOUGHTS going forward into February----

Along with the usual bills we have car insurance to pay in February.  The credit card bill should be under $1K(hopefully around $600 is possible at this time).  The electric bill may top $500(using Feb. 2014 as a guide) but we can cover that no problem.
We didn't make our $2,333.33 goal for Jan. but should be able to make it for February. 
Hopefully we can save more than the monthly $2,333.33 goal in Feb. as we have no travel plans no big expenses and car repairs.
But one never knows, do one?

With 1 month behind us we have $1,475.17 down and $26,524.83 left to save in 20015.
Let's just eat this elephant one bite(month)at a time and not worry about the whole pachyderm for the time being.  ;-)

 

So how was your January financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in January?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?
 

If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check out your progress too and celebrate with you or commiserate with you!

Sluggy

What Does a Year of Rite-Aid Purchases Cost?

Since it's snowing today I am sitting here doing book work.
I pulled out my spending receipts/calculations from 2014 for Rite-Aid.

I spent a total of $137.00 in 2014 at Rite-Aid.
That breaks down to an average of $11.42 a month.

For that $137.00(and with a whole lot of coupons and +Up Rewards)I brought home products totaling a regular retail cost of $3,276.52.

Thank goodness I am almost out of +Up Rewards.
I could probably not buy another toiletry for a year and not run out. lolz

Now I'm off to calculate how much we spent on each bill category we paid in 2014.

Sluggy