Soon after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the comments started. I read local news stories about volunteers who were leaving their families and businesses here for a few days to help the desperate earthquake victims, and I saw the comments there. I read news stories about the death and pain, and about how people could donate and help, and I saw the comments there. I was shocked at first, then realized that there were a lot of people with the same sentiment: “Why should we help people in Haiti? We have people here who are homeless and hungry and don’t have medical care, so we should spend our money and time helping them! Keep our money here at home.”

I have been going back and forth between just ignoring the comments and going on a full blown rant. So let’s just have a happy medium here.

First of all, if I follow the logic I’ve seen some people use, I could have said this a few years ago: “Why should I try to help the people hurt by Hurricane Katrina when we have people right here in West Virginia who are homeless and hungry and don’t have medical care.” Since when do we only help people from our own country, or from our own state?

Secondly, have you seen the pictures and video footage from Haiti? Have you read about people who are having limbs amputated because there is more infection than there is medicine? Did you see the woman giving birth on the ground–not because it happened so fast, but because there was nowhere else to go? Have you seen the rubble piles? Where in this country do the conditions of poverty and squalor and pain and devastation equal those in Haiti?

In our area, the only people who are hungry are those who are too drunk or too lazy to walk to the local mission. People in Haiti would be grateful to be living at what the United States calls the “poverty level.”

Finally, helping people in another country does not negate helping people here. In fact, that is why there is shelter and food available to people who need it. There are doctors who volunteer time at free clinics. There are charities that give away food and clothing, and even pay for medical care. Our government gives out food, clothes, housing, medical care, and even firewood! People do help people here, and they help people in Haiti, and they help whoever needs help. Just because those who help in the USA aren’t making the news for doing it doesn’t mean it isn’t getting done.

I would suggest that if you are not happy with the care of the homeless in your city, get up and go help them.

Americans are a generous people. We come to the aid of our family, neighbors, fellow citizens, and fellow human beings whether we know them or not.

If you choose to help, great. If you choose not to help, that’s fine. It’s called freedom. But ranting about how Americans should only help Americans is ignorant and naive at best, and hateful and prejudiced at worst.

Yes, this is the short version. I could say more.

May God bless the earthquake victims and the kind people who are helping them. And may God help the cynical and selfish who need to understand that Americans are not the chosen ones, but all humans are equal in His eyes.

Yesterday I printed chore charts for Jacob and Skylar.  I made them at DLTK’s Growing Together, which has an easy way to print custom chore charts. You just choose a picture for the top, then fill in what you want the title, columns, and rows to say. I made one for daily chores and one for weekly chores for each of them, placed them in clear sheet protectors, and hung them on the side of the pantry. The kids can just check off each chore with a dry erase marker (you could also laminate and use the dry erase marker). Then they can just wipe them clean and start over. I will mention that the pictures are big, so there is only room to list 3 or 4 chores on the page with the picture. It will continue it onto another page if you need more rows than that.

On the daily charts, I made a column for each day of the week, and a row for each chore. On the weekly charts, I just put Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4 as the column headings. The chores on the charts are not necessarily everything they ever have to do, but they are the jobs that we want the kids to routinely be responsible for and remember to do on their own. We’ll see how it works!

I wrote in my previous post about getting serious about couponing. Today I went to CVS and got a box of Mucinex and a bottle of Lubriderm lotion and paid no cash at all! Both of these are fairly expensive items, but ones that I felt like we needed. The Mucinex is for my cough that won’t go away, and it was on sale for $11.79. The Lubriderm is for Jacob who has dry, sensitive skin, which is a mess right now after having an allergic reaction to some laundry detergent. I had a $2.00 off Lubriderm coupon, which made it $5.49. Then I had $10 in CVS Extra Bucks that I earned earlier in the week with their Pepsico deal (buy $20 worth and get $10 ECB). Finally, I had a $10 CVS gift card that I earned from My Points. I got both products, paid no cash, and still have over a dollar left on my gift card. Very cool.

I have decided to start couponing. Real, serious couponing. We recently made a trip to Alabama to visit family, and also went to Auburn to visit friends. My friend Lindsay, with whom we stayed, showed me how to do real couponing. She showed me her system, and I’ve already got mine going. There are several websites and blogs that provide so much information, it is pretty easy. These wonderful bloggers make databases of coupons, match them up with store sales and rewards (like CVS extra care bucks and Walgreens register rewards), and show you how to get some great deals. I’m saving entire coupon inserts, and the lists I check online tell which insert each coupon is in. I will have to build up my coupon collection before I can get the full benefits, but I’m already saving some money. This method does require some time and organization, but I think it is going to be worth it. Here are some of the sites I have started reading:

Deal Seeking Mom

SwagGrabber

My Frugal Adventures

Remember that coupons do vary by region, so not everything you find will necessarily be available to you. And you have to look through the options and work out your own best deals sometimes. Make sure to look at the e-coupon sites if you have store cards, such as a Kroger card, because you can “stack” e-coupons with printed manufacturer coupons. I just got five Healthy Choice frozen meals for 7 cents each by doing that. As I get more experienced, I will share more tips. You’re welcome to share tips too!

Yesterday I made stroganoff for supper, and I just thought I would share the recipe.

2 Tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1 1/2 lbs. venison or beef roast or steak

10 3/4 oz. can of cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup sour cream

1 Tablespoon parsley

Combine the flour, garlic powder, pepper, and paprika in the slow cooker. Cut meat into bite-sized strips. Add the meat strips to the flour mixture and toss until the meat is coated. Stir in the mushroom soup, water, and onion. Cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or on low for 6-7 hours. Stir in sour cream and parsley and cook on high about 15 more minutes. Serve with pasta or rice.

Fat free or light sour cream works just fine in this recipe. I make this with venison, and it is well liked by my family. Hope you can enjoy it, too!

For more WW, visit 5 Minutes For Mom!

Wow, it is already December! We had a very nice Thanksgiving, and hope all of you did, too! We took two weeks off from school work, and were away from home for about 1 1/2 weeks of that time. The break was filled with visiting family and friends, hunting, eating, and otherwise relaxing and having fun. Tomorrow we will get back to our school routine for a while, then it will be time for winter break!

Just before we left, we did celebrate JonDavid’s birthday. He turned 2! We just had a family party, and I made him a football cake out of cupcakes.

He had another birthday cake the next week at his grandparents’ house. His Aunt Suzy made him a bear cake. Can’t complain about 2 birthday parties!

JonDavid is truly a blessing to us. He is somber at times, but he also makes us laugh a lot! He is talking more and more, and has quite a personality! We love you, JonDavid!

We had a real treat on Columbus Day this year. Replicas of the Nina and Pinta were docked near where we live on the Ohio River for a week. We took a “field trip” on Columbus Day to tour the ships. I am doing a unit on explorers and the discovery of America with Jacob for his history lessons, so the timing was just wonderful.

There were some groups of school students there touring the ships, so even though we were on a “self-guided” tour, we heard some of the explanations of the crew members. At one point, Jacob was standing right with a group of school kids and he raised his hand and asked the crew member a question! Such a shy boy.

It was really interesting to see the ships, and amazing to think about those men venturing out into unknown waters on those little ships. They really had a lot of courage, and maybe some greed, to make them do it!

You can find more about the replicas here!

I ordered the Book It! program kit from Pizza Hut, and started it with Jacob yesterday. I set his goal to read 2 chapter books (Magic Tree House books) by the end of the month. I was thinking that he could read one chapter per day and finish by the end of October. He has not been reading his chapter books much lately, so I was trying to get him interested in them again. Yesterday I explained to him that if he read the two books by the end of the month, he would get a certificate for a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. I even told him he could read one chapter each day and he would get them finished. He immediately went and got the first book and started reading.

Today he finished the second one. Yes, the second one.

He read two chapter books in two days.

I think I underestimated him a bit (again). I knew he could read them that fast, but I didn’t think he actually would! Needless to say, his goal is going to be a little higher next month .

The kids and I just finished reading Pirates Past Noon, of the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. I remembered that someone had told me about something fun on the Magic Tree House website, so I looked it up. There is a Magic Tree House Passport that you can download and print. After reading a book, your child can answer a few questions about the book, then print out a stamp to put in the passport. If you are familiar with the series, you know that the books take Jack and Annie on adventures all over the world and throughout time. Jacob enjoys these books, and I think he will really like this little reward activity after each book. You can find the Magic Tree House passport here.