Hopefully everyone is enjoying their long weekend!  We had a wonderful Saturday.  I recently re-connected with my best friend from school on Facebook.  We went our separate ways at University and drifted apart.  We saw each other in passing, but had different lives.  She lives in a different city now, but was in town visiting her parents, who I have not seen since I was 18.  I always loved her parents and was super excited to see her and them again.

We went to her parent’s house for a BBQ and I had the BEST time!  It was so much fun and we all caught up and relived old memories and I laughed harder than I have in ages.

My friend and her husband have been hit with downsizing from the economy and I so wish they would find jobs back here.  My oldest son had a wonderful time playing with her son and it would be so great to have her back here.

I love new friends, but there is definitely something special about old friends you grew up with.

On Sunday, it was pretty rainy, so I caught up on some blog reading in the morning.  Here are some of my faves.

How to Organize A Working Party at The Simple Dollar – I would love to do this for when we buy a wooden swingset for our backyard and need to put it together.  I’ve read they are pretty time consuming, so it would be great to have some extra hands!

Whole Foods Deals 5/20 – 5/26 at Bargain Briana – I just started following this blog since I’m a big fan of Whole Foods and even bigger fan of saving money!  I LOVE that a blog has finally started posting ways to save at Whole Foods!

An Experiment in Cheap Living (from 1872) at Get Rich Slowly – this article was just so fascinating.  It’s an excerpt from a book from 1872 about how he spends 54 1/4 cents a week on food.  It read very similarly to a modern day frugal living/personal finance blog, which I found quite funny.

Happy News from the Recession:  5 Good Things About Hard Times at Gimundo – Here it is…the silver lining!  If you’ve never read this blog, you should.  It’s all GOOD NEWS!  And who doesn’t love to hear something positive nowadays!

Enjoy the last day of your long weekend!

I’ve decided not to post on the weekends.  I love writing for this blog as it gives me an outlet.  I have needed a creative outlet for years now and I feel like this blog is serving that purpose right now.

I used to make earrings.  I made them for myself and friends.  One of my friends still wears the ones I gave her.  They look better on her than they ever did on me anyway.  I love seeing her wearing them.

It’s much like with this blog.  I love to get comments and see that people are enjoying what I write or relating to it on some level.  It’s very satisfying.

But, it started to consume me, so I needed to take a step back.  So, I decided not to post on the weekends.  I still read blogs and do some writing on the weekends, but I don’t stress over getting a post written every day.  I knew that if I kept that up that I would get burnt out before I really even got started, since my blog is pretty new.  It’s really addicting though and hard to just ‘leave it’.

I did read some great stuff over the weekend and yesterday though.  I usually like to post my link love on Mondays, but since yesterday I posted about my husband’s accident, I’m posting it today instead.

Here is a few of what I have enjoyed recently:

Fiscal Fizzle presented a question about whether it’s better for one or both parents to work.  I had made a few comments on this and he featured my comments.

Zen Habits yesterday listed 55 Ways To Get More Energy.  I think there are a few on this list I could definately use, although getting to bed earlier would be a great start!  Think I’ll have a blueberry-banana smoothie for lunch to keep me going.

I have to mow the lawn today since hubby is out of commission.  Gag.  I detest mowing the lawn.

Someday Syndrome says to Take On More Projects and Get More Done.  I mean, I can get what he’s saying, and it’s a very interesting concept, but my ‘To Do” list is so overwhelming long right now that I just can’t imagine.

I can barely stay above water as it is and have crap all over my dining room table (again) and laundry piled up waiting to be washed, folded, and put away (again).  You name it, it’s probably on my list.  And yes, I am a procrastinator.  I big one.  But I am not so sure that adding to my list is going to help any.

Speaking of, I need to finish doing this so I can go and mow the lawn, and do laundry, and clean the kitchen, and follow up on life insurance, and complete my refinance paperwork, and make a hair cutting appointment, and a dentist appointment, and water my plants….oh Lord…maybe I will just have one more coffee….

What do you think?  Do you think adding to your to do list will help you to complete it?

I’ll be honest, I didn’t do much online this weekend…and it was great.

To kick off the Mother’s Day Weekend, on Friday night, I drank margaritas with a couple of girlfriends on the front porch.  We chatted and laughed and had a great time.  My head hurt on Saturday morning.  I don’t do hangovers well any more.  Damn sneaky tequila.

Saturday, the kids went to my parents and I spent the day with my husband.  We saw Wolverine (loved it) and ate delicious Thai food for lunch and spent too much money at Target.

It was a good day though.  I long and long for a break from the kids, then spend the whole time, wondering how they are and what they are doing and missing them.  Breaks are good.  Helps you to realize how much the little time suckers mean to you.

On Sunday (aka Mother’s Day), I slept in.  I woke up feeling the best I had in I can’t remember when.  And, since it was sunny after nearly two weeks of straight rain, we finally got to work on our square foot garden and plant the stuff we bought 2 weeks ago.

We planted tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, capsicum, strawberries (hope it’s not too late, but it might be), carrots, and radishes (upon my son’s insistence though we don’t eat them…guess we will soon though).

I had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend.  My oldest son made me beautiful things both at pre-school and with my Mom on Saturday and my husband (and boys) brought me flowers.  It was wonderful.

As I’ve said before, I will spending a day in June on a garden tour with my Mom for Mother’s Day, so she had other things planned for Sunday.

All in all, a great weekend.  Relaxing and re-charging.

Some articles I did read, that I really liked were Treehugger’s about the largest Ikea in the southern hemisphere being built in Sydney, next to the largest Salvation Army in the southern hemisphere no less.

And, the link love article at Fiscal Fizzle about frugal Mother’s Day gift ideas, which could also translate into ideas for birthdays or Christmas.  Always great to have lots of ideas of how to shower Mama with love, I say!!

I love this video that Get Rich Slowly posted and although I’m a bit late to the party, I got lost on Marc and Angel Hack Life blog.  There are just so many great articles, but I did especially love the What Money Can’t Buy post…it hit a chord on this lovely Mother’s Day weekend.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

Over the weekend, since it was crappy and rainy here, I did a bit of reading (in between de-cluttering of course!).  Here are some great articles that I found.

60 Free Children’s Books at Suburban Dollar – this is a great program and one that we participate in for both of our boys.  I had no idea how far reaching it is though.  Definitely check to see if you are in an area that participates and get your kids some free books!

The 5 Million Frequent Flier Mile Challenge at The Art of Nonconformity – we’ve played the credit card for miles game before for free tickets and will again.  This is a great breakdown of what you can do (warning though, it’s definitely not for everyone).  I have noted three cards that he applied for that would work for us and get us a free flight to Australia.  Woot!   I love this guy’s blog.  His personal goal is to travel to every country in the world.  He’s on track to achieve this in the next four years…amazing.

Live in our Skinz at The Happy Housewife – May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month and after living in Australia where skin safety is a big time issue and people get skin checks every year, I’m very aware of what damage the sun can do.   My oldest is due for a new rash top, so I think I will order one from here.  In May they are giving a free baby rash top with every order  in the hopes it will be passed along to keep more and more babies protected.

The Secret Ingredient For A Better Marraige at Zen Habits – I really like the suggestions for switching up the ordinary, routine habits.  My husband and I are really guilty of this (she types sheepishly as her husband sits in the other room watching TV…think I will go join him).

Rothbury Rock Fest Raises Green Bar at Treehugger – back in the day when I wasn’t old, with kids (she says only slightly sarcastically) I used to actually go to music shows and festivals.  I still go to outdoor festivals occasionally and HATE all the waste that they generally produce.  The Rothbury Festival in Michigan has a commitment “to throw a party with a purpose” and does what all festivals should be doing!  Rock on!

Hope everyone had a lovely and relaxing weekend and is ready for a great first week of May!

While working on my 101 in 1001 (which I will post when it’s done), I ran across a few blogs that I added to my reader.

I am on a kick of dreaming and setting goals and figuring out some things about myself and The Buried Life is one of those blogs with the type of energy that makes you want to jump up off the couch and do something.

I like this post at The Happiness Project, talking about not trying to be something or someone that you are not.  Be who you are.  And this one about how money can buy happiness, provided it’s spent in the right vein.  Actually, this blog has so many wonderful posts, it’s hard to pick.  I heart this blog.

As I still struggle with the benefits of being on twitter, I stumbled across Zen Habits’s post on How To Get Things Done With Twitter….I guess opposed to it just being one more thing on my to do list, which is where I am with it right now.  Will have to delve into this a bit more maybe.

And for those of you who, like me, are going to participate in Simple Mom’s Spring Cleaning Party on May 4-15 (to finish what I started!), you might want to check out GuyNamedDave and his 100 Thing Challenge.

Maybe he will motivate you to get rid of some stuff before the cleaning begins!  He got rid of everything except 100 things and is living with only those things for a period of a year.  This blog tracks his progress and gives his list.

I also just found the Man Vs Debt blog, which is fun for me since they are moving to Australia in June.  I can’t wait to read how that adventure unfolds.  Admittedly, I’m more than a tiny bit jealous.  I get very itchy feet when I read about others starting new adventures.  I want to go too!!

If you’ve found any great blogs (or maybe you have one!), leave a comment so I can check it out.