Pencil Thin

We have a ton of plans this year for the holidays. There are so many dinners and parties on our calendar for the next 3 weeks I don’t know when we will have a meal at home again. I also see my waistline suffering as a result of rich meals and tasty desserts. I was going to start a new diet this week but don’t see the point. It seems like putting this off until the New Year is a better idea. Maybe, will a little luck Santa will bring me a bottle of my favorite diet pill to help take the edge off. Santa, are you listening?

This year is the first year I have yet to get a flu shot. I am wondering how this will all work out. I would love to just not get the flu at all but I always have despite getting the shot. It would be great to bypass the entire process and not spend a weekend glazing upward at my bathroom light fixtures in a fevered state. Why is it the flu makes the floor of the bathroom so appealing anyways? I even read a book today where the character described spending the day sleeping on the bathroom floor because it just felt good. I think I have convinced myself that by homeschooling this year we will be exposed to less viruses. This theory so far isn’t holding water because as I type I am sitting here hacking up a lung from a serious cold. This cold began with my toddler and has progressed to my husband and now myself. So much for less exposure leading to less illness. Maybe I should discuss the flu shot in January when we go in for checkups?

This is the time of year when I hit an exercise slump. I don’t know what it is but I just feel like I am headed nowhere no matter how much I strive to fit in more exercise. Does this sound familiar? If you are dealing with an impossible schedule your know that orregular work hours and holidays can interfere with a regular fitness schedule. You may have trouble thinking of ways to fit in a workout.

This a suggested strategy:
Keep it simple
“If you need to change your routine around completely, do it,” says Tom Holland, exercise physiologist and author of The 12-Week Triathlete: How to Train For a Triathlon in Just 3 Months [8]. He says “If you’re in a slump, just get on a treadmill or go to the gym, regardless of how long you exercise. “Just get out the door,” .
Also suggested are that those in a slump:
* Ease into fitness, stay motivated
and avoid common mistakes.
* Find your ideal workout, and
try our exercise tracking tools .
* Learn how to avoid and
repair exercise injuries.

Our two year old has white spots on his teeth. I was all worked up about what they could be and sought a professional opinion. Our doctor said it comes from when a childs teeth are developing and they get a cold or sinus infection that disrupts the tooth somekind of trauma like that to it.But it is nothing to worry about. I was worried that we weren’t taking good care of his teeth.

In every town I have ever lived in there has been a decent place to get coffee. I don’t mean one of those overpriced yuppy places but rather just a reasonably priced cup of coffee. In our new town there is not a single place and I am in a state. Tim Horton’s was my stop in the last town but apparently there are not any franchise opportunities for people to build on here. Maybe that is what I need to look into. Surely there are other people out there who yearn for something a little better than Burger King coffee in the morning.

For the last week I have been getting outside several times a week to do yard work. I know that this exercise in no way compares to the workout I would get doing ellipticals but it is at least a start. If you have ever moved around piles of wet leaves and gravel then you can appreciate how my arms and body are feeling right now. I at least feel like I am somewhat getting back into exercising even if it isn’t a plan per say. Now if I can just walk away from the frozen cookie dough that is tempting me I will be in good shape.

There are so many people I know who are carrying around 20,50, or 100 pounds and are convinced they are healthy. There have even been reports in the media insisting that obese people can be just as healthy or in better health than average weight people. This has led many people into a false sense of security. Many people walk around believing that despite their extra weight they are in good health because they don’t have high cholesterol or diabetes might think they’re healthy – despite the extra pounds.

But new Ohio University research suggests that obesity raises levels of the hormone leptin, which can be as big a threat to the cardiovascular system as cholesterol.

Tadeusz Malinski and colleagues have published the first study to directly observe how high levels of leptin can create a cascade of harmful biochemical changes in the body. Leptin, a peptide hormone produced by fat cells, helps regulate body weight by acting on the hypothalamus to suppress appetite and burn stored fat.

For a number of years I would walk by the treadmills in our local department store and secretly drool. I just wanted one so bad. Then one fell into my lap and I used it constantly without fail for a long time. My problem came when we decided to try to sell our house and put the treadmill in storage. This meant giving up my exercise routine and I have yet to get back at it. In our new house the treadmill is all set up and we have a finished basement that makes a perfect workout area. I just can’t seem to get myself down there and my pants are begging for some relief. I need to just start with 20 minutes and I am sure in a week or so I will feel that same urge to workout again.

This week we went as a family to the grocery store. This is always a stressful time for me because the bill ends up being twice as much as if I went alone. The other thing that drives me crazy is my kids begging for stuff. It doesn’t matter what they see they want it and my husband is just about as bad. For some reason he decided we should try new fruits. I am all for trying new things but my children are a little harder to get on board. The only way my older son would consent to trying the “new fruit of the week” his dad chose was to give him the brochure I happened to grab in the produce isle. Once he read all about Pomegranate trees he was convinced trying them was a good idea. Now why can’t they come up with brochures for kids for all the fruits and veggies?

Here is the scenario:
I live in the middle of nowhere. The nearest Sam’s Club or Costco is 50 miles away. My mom lives about 50 miles away on the way to the town that has the Sam’s Club. There are 5 of us and two of them (Mom & Dad).

We were contemplating getting a Sam’s Club membership and sharing the shopping and costs.

Our other choices are Walmart and a family owned private grocery for me and only a private grocery store for Mom. We are just trying to figure out if this would be beneficial to either of us considering travel, time, and probably a meal out during our shopping day.

I just don’t know if it would at all be worth it in the long run.

Where we used to live going to the library was a weekly event for my kids. Our new town has a much smaller library and VERY tough rules. They have actually had people thrown in jail for overdue library books and fines. I know this sound absurd but it is completely true. My husband had to bail one of the clients on his caseload out of jail for this very thing when he was working his old job. I was going to take my older son to the library to borrow our usual weekly allotment of videos, free audio books, and regular books but to my surprise the videos and audio books are not free! The library expects borrowers to pay to “borrow” these particular items. How is this considered borrowing? I might as well drive back to the town we moved from and get these items there since they are free and offer a better collection.

Tonight I went to activate a reward credit card we earned for booking a trip online. I never thought to look at the expiration date on the card and assume it was good for a few months. Well the card has already expired and we have only had it a month. I find this ridiculous! We would have had to use the card almost immediately after receiving it for it to be any good. I guess I should be glad it was only for a little bit of money and not a high limit credit card or I would really be disappointed in myself for not reading the small print better!

For a while I wouldn’t tell anyone that I was taking diet pills but at this point I don’t care anymore. That is one of the nice things about starting fresh. When you move you can make changes to who you are or what people conceive you to be about. Maybe that is why I secretly like moving. You might think that odd but there are sometimes things about how you carry yourself that need adjusting. Often these adjustments are behaviors that go against who you are deep inside. One thing I found myself doing before we moved was molding myself to fit in certain groups. If this meant not saying I was using diet pills then so be it. If it meant pretending my kids don’t trick-or-treat I would that as well. I believe a certain amount of conformity is a good and necessary thing but if you loose yourself in the process and your ability to laugh then it isn’t and needs to be changed.

For the most part I care about what happens in our country. This election however has just gotten to be too much. With the country falling apart and both candidates saying whatever they think voters will want to hear I admit I just want it all to be over. Neither candidate seems to have a real plan and honest promises for turning our country around. People love the sound bites and all these promises but so few look deeper to see if these promises have any real chance of becoming a reality. Our nation needs stability and a government focused on making right what is so wrong not on playing political games.

There is something about the cold weather that makes me feel like I work for some sort of movers New York type business. That really doesn’t make a great deal of sense but by this time of night my brain starts working in phone book mode. What I mean to say is I feel like I have been moving furniture across the state of New York on my back. The only thing I can figure is causing it is the new work station my husband built in our kitchen. It really looks nice but it is just a bit too high for me to use comfortably. Don’t tell him! I love that he built and will just have to figure out a way to sit at it without straining my neck.

The last couple of mornings I seem to be operating in robot mode. For some reason I automatically make two big cups of coffee even though it is just me drinking it. I have one of those Senseo coffee makers which makes making two cups of coffee a bit of a process. I use refillable pods so you have to clean the filter pack each time you make a single cup of coffee. The coffee made from this maker just tastes so good I have convinced myself it is worth the hassle. The thing is you have to use expresso grind coffee in the filter pods. This sometimes makes a really strong cup of coffee depending on what type of coffee you are using. Today, I seem to have made really strong coffee and am sitting here with the jitters as a results. I am guessing I need to ease back just a bit on my coffee drinking or else invest in a blood pressure monitor! What I should do is go an burn off all this energy on the tread mill while I can.

Somehow I have managed to get a bit of a stomach virus. Usually my entire family gets these types of illnesses at the same time. Fortunately for them they have not. I seem to be on the upswing from whatever it is and am feeling better today. Getting sick does have benefits because I lost 3 pounds in the last 2 days. I wanted to loose some weight and at this point I guess this is the way it is going to happen. That is kind of sad I suppose?

So I am back on a kick to loose a few pounds. It isn’t that I have gained tons of weight but I just don’t want to feel crummy anymore . This summer was such a stressful time that I don’t think my body knows how to behave. I started taking Alli again because it worked really well for me last year when I used it. The thing about Alli is it makes you think about what you are putting in your mouth. If you eat a bunch of crap you pay for it point blank. That is pretty good incentive to keep your act together.

As a 30 something I have parents who are in their early 60’s. The thing is that my parents have been preparing for being old for countless years. As a child all I heard was talk about how things will be when they get old. It got to be something that went in one ear and out the other. Now that I am living near my folks I am seeing them on a much more frequent basis that ever before. What is killing me is that when I am alone with my dad he like to complain how my mother seems to be loosing her memory in his opinion. Then I spend some time with my mother and she is complaining how difficult it is to live with my dad because his memory is slipping. Personally, I think that they both are just looking for thing to get mad at the other one about.

I’ve always struggled this time of year! From Oct. to Dec. is when my favorite flavors are out in full force. I LOVE pumpkin! Those Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights are the bomb! Oh and Eddy’s Pumpkin Ice Cream. Mmmmm….But of course good old pumkin pie is the best! Then the Egg Nog comes out! mmmm…I can taste it now. And all of the cute decorated cookies and cakes! I don’t even like cookies and cake that much, but they’re so darn well decorated I can’t help but pick one up now and then! Anyone else suffer from Pumpkin Crave Syndrome?

Our world today is just crazy. Every where you turn prices are skyrocketing. Not only do we have to worry about trimming the fat on our waistlines because of all our indulgences but now we need to trim the fat in our daily lives. I don’t have many vices aside from coffee and gum so I have been looking for ways to cut my bills in anyway I can. If this means rethinking our car insurance needs or switching to energy efficient light bulbs then I am game. What I really wonder about is how people who can’t pay their heating bills will trim the fat? It will be interesting to see how those who smoke heavily or drink a great deal choose to trim the fat in their lives. Will they put on an extra sweater or make a choice that will not only help them live a healthier life but be able to afford the real basics in life.

For the first time in our almost 18 years of marriage I heard the word “diet” come out of my husband’s mouth. In all our years together he has never expressed a concern about his weight. It seems though that his summer of living in a hotel and eating all his meals out has caught up with him. His weight is at a high point I never thought I would see. Hopefully, he takes that as a cue to start watching what he eats instead of sitting in front of the television watching commercials for the best diet pills in the world and eating cookies while he sits there.

Christmas is just around the corner and it seems like this year everyone will be spending a bit less. I am really trying to plan carefully and thoughtfully to give the best gifts that we can realistically afford and people will appreciate. My family is pretty low key when it comes to this type of stuff. I am really thinking that green gifts are the way to go given the current state of our world. There are so many things we can’t change about what is going on right now but we can do small things like thinking more globally when it comes to daily activities. I know my brothers will appreciate this line of thinking I just need to find the right gift.

If you are looking for a good workout I have just the plan for you. What you need to do is buy a house with many different levels to it that require you to lug items up and down several sets of steps to reach their ultimate destination. There is nothing quite like carrying boxes filled with stuff like an hard drive, cordless phones, cable wires, and other assorted oddities up several sets of steps to get you sweating. To make it an even better work out add four baby gates and a number of other child safety devices that you have to navigate over and around while making the trip.

The cool thing about our new house is actually being able to have all my workout equipment in an area I can actually reach. Our house before this was simply too small to keep more than one piece of workout equipment out at a time. In fact right now my back porch looks remarkably like a gym. The only thing missing is digital signage offering 24 hour fitness services. Now what I need to do is get myself motivated to start some sort of daily workout routine. It is so hard after being off track for this long to get back in the swing of things.

It is wonderful being in our new house. Although we have some painting to do it is so good to be in this house. What I really love is having a backyard bigger than a postage stamp. We will now be able to let the kids outside to play with rc helicopters, balls, and to ride bikes. This is something they could never do before because the yard was so small and the neighbors so creepy. I say a little prayer of thanks each day when I look out the window over our backyard.

Almost a year ago I purchase a home study course for medical transcription. The truth is life has been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to look at it very much. It is really foolish of me not to be working on it because I spent a fair amount of money on it. Transcription is one of those jobs you can work at from anywhere. You can quite literally find jobs in Las Vegas or anywhere in the world and not only work right from the comfort of your home but have the reassurance of long term employment. It looks like sometime in October my schedule will free up to where I can sit down and focus on my studies.

The leaves have already started to fall here. It doesn’t seem like summer should be over but it appears to be true. Soon my walks in the great outdoors will be replaced with strolls on the treadmill because the ground will be covered with snow. I would be willing to bet our mailboxes start to fill up with Black Friday ads in the very near future. I desperately need to get back on track caring about myself health and activity level! There have been so many distractions here in the last few months that really working out has been at the bottom of my “to do” list. I had better take advantage of the beautiful colors of fall and walking outside while I can.

Seriously, if anyone has a free ticket for one of those Disney cruises they don’t want please send it my way.There isn’t a part of my body that isn’t aching. Between packing and moving and sitting at the computer all day I am one sore lady. Besides that the stress of all of this has me on edge. I have moved so many times I should be used to it but with two kids, two cats, and a puppy on the way things are just a bit more stressful. Our prior moves were pretty cut and dry but this one is more complex. Anyways, I have complained enough but just remember I would be glad to share a room with you on your next trip if you need a traveling companion.

It has been so many day since I have slept well that I have lost count. Every night it seems like I am going to nod off and then my mind starts racing. The things that come into my mind aren’t even things I need to be staying awake thinking about. One night it could be a television show I watched and the next a advertisement for Orovo that I can’t seem to get out of my head. It doesn’t even seem to matter if I take something like Tylenol PM because I still can’t sleep. Considering I have very little caffeine each day I really can’t imagine what is wrong with me…

Some little person in my house woke up on the wrong side of the bed. He has been screaming at the top of his lungs for no reason for the last hour. He isn’t crying but rather just screaming every single thought that comes to his mind. Top that off with the fact that he isn’t listening to anything I say and it is just good times here today. So, he is sitting in his high chair having a time out in the only way that works for this little boy. Now he is hitting the high chair and screaming. If I had a collection of trophies to hand out he would surely get one for the most theatrical performance of the morning. I might give myself one for the most patient Mommy of the day.

There seems to be a preponderance of people living around me who were either raised in a barn or by wolves. These people don’t have an ounce of pride in themselves or where they live. Not only are their yards are unkempt and overgrown but they throw trash everywhere. Somehow their trash makes its way into my yard. Today, I picked out of my roses 6 Slim Jim wrappers and a half dozen Dymo labels. I don’t use Dymo and haven’t eaten a Slim Jim since 3rd grade. I don’t have to wonder where these items came from for a minute.

For the last 3 weeks we have been traveling. This has meant that my family has eaten about 5 times the normal amount of take out food than we usually do. Despite bringing our own microwave and toaster to the hotel there is a limit to how much cooking you can do in a hotel room. At least one meal a day has ended up coming from some restaurant or another. I am actually quite scared to see what the scale shows when we get back in the next couple of days. Maybe I should just start taking some type of diet pill now and not weigh myself for at least another week. This might be the best thing for my self-image rather than to see those scary numbers that I am expecting and feel like garbage because of them.

You know one of the sure signs you have been married a really long time is when you hardly need words to communicate. I can’t tell you the number of times my husband and I have communicated fairly complex information using a minimum of words. This is especially useful when you have kids like mine who think that everything that comes out of your mouth is their business. This isn’t to say we have a gesture or head nod for everything. I am quite sure we would have to actually say “Zero Halliburton” if for some reason that is what we were talking about. For now though we have gotten pretty good at keeping life’s true secrets like finances or up coming surprises under the radar of our snoopy little men.

In the last 6 weeks I haven’t had a minute to myself. Convinced that somehow I would find some time for me I purchased a couple of books that I had been wanting to read. These books were bought 3 weeks ago and they are still sitting in the bag I brought them home in. Somewhere and somehow I am swearing here and now that I am going to plop myself down on the couch and read until I fall asleep. Whether that takes an hour or all night it is going to happen. It just may have to wait until we get a blizzard before I actually get to do it. A girl can dream can’t she?

Staying in a really nice hotel for more than a night or two has been a real treat for our family. There is just something refreshing about a great hotel when you are used to staying in lesser accommodations. Our beds are super comfy with plush linens and the room always smells fresh and clean. The breakfast buffet has really not been friendly to my waistline. It always smells like fresh baked cookies throughout the hotel at night and we make sure to stock up on these fresh baked goodies before turning in for the night. I am sure that when this is all said and done I am going to need to look into taking weight loss pills if I am every going to fit in my jeans again. For now I am just thankful to be here and away from the stress of running my own household. Reality will set back in tomorrow when we head home for a few days.

On Thursday I met with my doctor to discuss having an outpatient surgical procedure. In advance of the surgery she wanted me to have some routine testing done. One thing she commented on a couple of time was just how low my cholesterol levels were. She asked if I “had a really good diet”? For the most part my diet is pretty low in fat. Another factor I think may be helping is the fact that for quite a long time I have been taking the diet drug Alli. I haven’t taken it consistently but rather I tend to take it for a couple months and then I stop. Most of the time when I have stopped it isn’t because I don’t like the results but simply because I run out and the pills are so expensive. After doing some research I was able to get the best buy on these pills online and typically save $10-$15 or more per bottle. With summer just around the corner I would love to knock another 10 pounds off what the scale reads and Alli is what works for me. It also seems to be doing the trick for my cholesterol.

It is really sad to say but I feel pretty strongly I can see the future. This isn’t to say I have suddenly decided I am psychic but in this case the future is all to clear. The teenage girls who live next door are very much on a path of self-destruction. In the past few weeks the truant officer has been frequenting our neighborhood and lurking up or down the street waiting to find them. Based on the interactions we have had with them anyone can guess their lives are headed nowhere. It is pretty pitiful that at 15 and 17 it wouldn’t really surprise anyone in the neighborhood if they ended up in jail or drug rehab.

There have been so many things going on in my life that staying fit has not been a priority. Between getting ready to move, starting a new business, and preparing to home school our son I haven’t had a minute to myself. When I am not reading up on what exactly a “Business valuation” involves I am trying to decide on a curriculum to use next year. My life should start settling down in the next few months but that doesn’t help me right now. I haven’t gained weight but I certainly feel less fit.

Our house stinks. I mean it absolutely stinks of vanish. There are few smells I hate worse than the smell of vanish. It seems to hang on for days if not months. I am sure that these fumes are eating away at my brain cells. Tomorrow there is no doubt I will wake up dumber than today. This is all because I wanted pretty floors that might makes someone think this was the place they would love to call home. Now my brain is sitting here rotting away like a nasty virus chewing up all the ram on my computer. Did that make sense? I can’t really tell at this point because the fumes are making me light headed. If point in the previous post was not clear it should be now. Laminate is your friend and vanish is the work of the devil.

If you have ever thought of refinishing hardwood floors take my advice and think again. We had the smart idea to refinish our floors prior to listing our home for sale. What seemed like an easy project from first glance turned into a nightmare of uncontrollable sanding equipment, dust, and fumes. This doesn’t even begin to cover the expense of this project. As I sit here aching from head -to- toe and wishing I owned a memory foam mattress there is but one thought in my head. That thought is best summed up in one word- laminate. Do yourself a favor and don’t trust Bob Vila head straight for the laminate section of your hardware store and never look back.

My healthful intentions have been put on the back burner lately and it shows. I stepped on the scale this morning and gasped at what I saw. A small weight gain can set me into a tizzy. I have had good luck with diet aids in the past and might give them a try again. I am wondering about this product called “eca stack“. Has anyone tried it? What I really need is to stop eating my meals on the run and sit down and think about what I am going to put in my mouth before I put it there.

I am already counting the days until summer vacation. It is just about three months until I can pull out my Delsey luggage and begin packing. The sun is finally shining here and it just feels wonderful to be able to go outside and work in the yard. All the sunshine has me dreaming of lazy days by the pool and not having to pick up after myself. Vacations are truly a gift everyone should give themselves every year if not every couple of years!

Whenever I go to the gym there is one thought that I can’t get out of my head. Call me crazy but the only thing I find myself always thinking about is just how grimy the equipment must be. When you consider all the people who are sweating and touching each and every piece of equipment it really is kind of disgusting. If I could I would just carry a big old box of antibacterial wipes with me. This way I could disinfect each thing before I sat on it or touched it. They have these wipes at my local grocery store now for people to use to wipe off the shopping cart handles. Why not just leave them lying around next to each station? Of course I can’t really see some of those serious body building macho types taking the time to wipe things off but at least I could have the option.

My in-laws are what I would consider pretty savvy when it comes to finances. They did however surprise me, a few years back, when they informed us that should anything happen to them we would need to take care of the cost of burial. The reason for this was because they do not have any sort of life insurance policies in place. Fortunately, they have put money aside to cover these expenses which has really abated my fears about where we would get the money when the time comes that we must face this.

This discussion caused me to wonder just how many other people, like my husband and I, might find themselves in a very tough financial position should a loved one pass away without savings or life insurance to cover the expenses? options available to them. Obtaining this information is as simple as making a phone call to eQuote and offering a bit of information. eQuote then gets to work to find what no medical life insurance carriers offer policies to individuals based on the data a caller supplies. eQuote handles all types of life insurance quote requests including term life insurance, annuities, and long term care coverage.

I can’t begin to say how thankful I am that both our families have made adequate preparations for these type of future concerns. Were these preparations not in place I can only imagine the financial stress it would place on our family were something devastating to happen to any one of them. The last thing loved ones should be worry about in these moments is how to make ends meet.

What is it with children and marketing? Everything my son sees lately he thinks our family needs to have. Sometimes it is understandable why an 8 year old boy would want the stuff he asks for and other times it just leaves me bewildered. For example it makes perfect sense that a child this age would be asking for a dog or a new video game. On the other hand just because he sees an eye catching display or garden tractors or hears advertisement for HDMI switches does not mean that we need to jump in the car and go get one. Certainly, there are very good reasons to buy these things but it isn’t a top priority for a second grader to have a new John Deere lawn tractor when his yard is the size of a postage stamp! I suppose I can understand it slightly because I went through my own phase of purchasing every beauty product known to man that came in a pretty box.

Last year my neighbors decided to join a local gym. Before joining they didn’t really do any research to guarantee that they were getting the best buy possible for the needs of their family. They assumed that all gyms offer the same type of services and classes as for example our local YMCA does. After actually spending time at the gym they began to realize that this gym has sold many more memberships that they have staff or equipment to adequately handle. Many times they have arrived at the gym to find long lines to use equipment or classes that have extensive waiting lists. They paid for a year of membership at this gym in advance and really haven’t been able to use many of the services at all. It really makes me think twice of using those free trial memberships before I ever join another gym. I am just sorry they can’t get their money back.

It is funny when you loose weight how quickly you forget how big you once were. My body has slowly been shrinking over the last couple of years. This isn’t to say you need one of those magnifiers to see me by any stretch of the imagination but I am definitely thinner. I really can’t appreciate the difference most of the time simply because the change has been so gradual. The other day I decided to take a chance and try on a pair of my husband’s jeans. My husband is not a large or big man. In fact he is just about the same height as I am. The difference is that for many years I have always weighed more than him. Now, I am thrilled to report we weigh the same. I am also thrilled to report his jeans which are also the non-stretchy kind fit comfortably on my body. So, I guess these means we both wear the pants in the family huh?

I mentioned it a long time ago but by profession I am a Doctor of Audiology. Having left my formal career about two years ago I haven’t really had the opportunity to use many of my skills. A couple days ago my littlest son was pointing to his ears and making an “ouchy” face. I decided it was time to pull out my tool kit and see what was going on in those little ears. What I saw astounded me. He little ears were so clogged up it was as if they could use a good colon cleanse or something similar for ears. The short version of the story is that after 4 days of Debrox and a couple dozen time of flushing them the poor little guy now has clear ear canals. How on earth the nurse practitioner could have declared them “clear and healthy” a couple weeks ago is beyond me. I truly think this may be the first time he can really hear in a long time.

Working for yourself has so many benefits I can’t begin to list them. One downside I am experiencing is the toll that taxes can take on you. I really had no idea what I was getting into when I started working from home last year and failed to adequately prepare for tax time. This is a mistake I am not going to make next year. One thing I have decided to do is look into making more charitable donations. These are a great way to not only help other people but also help yourself come tax time.

One place that has caught my attention is Car Angel. Car Angel takes donated cars, boats, houses, and RVs are uses the proceeds from these donations to fund ministries that provide video and educational projects to improve the lives of people across the nation. Car Angel has distributed over 24 million educational videos financed by donated items to Car Angel. Examples of these videos can be viewed at http://youtube.com/user/boatangel.

Car Angel take the headache out of trying to get rid of your unwanted vehicles by making car donation a winning option for everyone. Not only does donating to Car Angel improve the lives of others in need but donations are tax deductible. Every little deduction helps when it comes to saving on your tax bill. Why not donate to a worthy cause like Car Angel today?