Sandra Tayler

Hope of America

By / May 3, 2006

Ushering four children who are over excited and up past their bedtimes through a crowd of 20,000 people is not my idea of a good time. And yet I got to do this last night. I also got to coax Gleek and Patches up and down several sets of bleacher stairs in quest for a place to sit. Then I got to entertain Gleek and Patches during the moments that they got bored. It did not help that Patches has definitely entered a “pushing the limits” phase of development.

Why did I do all of this? Because our school district puts on an annual patriotic program and broadcasts it to troops in Iraq. Kiki and Link have been practicing songs for this program for months. Kiki even brought home a CD of the songs so she could practice at home. Gleek is a sponge for anything musical and so she’s learned the songs too. Even Patches knew that “hope of america” was a big deal and something to be excited about. I believe it is good for kids to learn the ideals our country is founded on. I think it is good for kids to learn to love our country. Then as they get older and learn how our country so often fails to meet it’s ideals, they may feel inspired to make this country into the place we all wish it could be.

I’ve known for months that I’d be attending this program with Gleek and Patches and sans Howard who had a conflicting event. So yesterday I packed appropriately with a backpack full of stuff. We had water bottles and sandwiches and snack food and blankets and a couple of stuffed animals and binoculars and a camera and wallet and keys. It was wise of me to pack as if for a backpack trip because the event started with a hike uphill from our parking place to the event center. Then we dropped Link and Kiki off to their separate rendezvous and went in quest for three seats. Usually the “harried mother with two small kids” persona nets me some help, but not in a crowd this size where everyone else is as harried as me.

Gleek and Patches loved the experience. They loved watching the dances and songs. Gleek loved singing along. True they did get bored at times, but mostly they loved it all. Kiki and Link loved participating. Gleek wished she could have been down there dancing and singing. So I definitely put this in the “Things I wouldn’t choose to do if left to myself, but definitely worth doing for the kids” category.

Spot the Tayler Child

By / May 3, 2006 / 2 Comments

Hope of America Hope of America
Our local school district sponsors a yearly patriotic event at an indoor stadium. 7000 children, 15,000 adults all in the same place. As you can see, our seats were about as far up as it was possible to go. Here is your chance to play “spot the Tayler child.” Link is on the floor in front of the letter ‘Q.’ Kiki is up next to the flag wearing a yellow shirt.

Why you should save

By / May 2, 2006 / 14 Comments

I recently heard a radio program which was lamenting the negative savings rate in America. The guest was an author of a book about saving for retirement and naturally had lots of opinions on the subject. As usual she was touting her book and was giving tips on how listeners could improve their financial situation and save money. Among the tips were: Setting up an automatic debit from paycheck into savings account. Only having one credit card. Using cash to purchase whenever possible. Impose a waiting period on purchases to avoid impulse spending. and doing the math on a purchase to figure out the final price with interest.

All of these tips are good, but I’ve heard them all before in many different iterations. Every book or expose or report I hear, watch, or read, gives tips such as these and emphasizes how important it is for people to save money. What none of these reports, or books, or exposes make clear is why people should save money. Well okay, they say “for retirement,” but what is “retirement” to the average 30 year old? It is forever away. People need to stop saving for “retirement” and instead save for something specific.

So ask yourself, what is your dream? Do you dream of owning a farm in the countryside? Figure out how much it will cost to buy and to run, then save money hand over fist to make it happen. Set a goal that by age 60 you’ll be able to afford that farm and have enough money to keep it running for the rest of your life. Do you dream of taking a trip around the world? Do some research. Figure how much it will cost and set a goal for when you’ll have that money saved. Do you dream of never having to work again? Figure out how much money you need to have saved so that you can live on the interest. Do you dream of making pottery and selling it? Figure out how much money you need to have saved so that you can live on it for two years while your pottery business gets off the ground. Do you dream of owning a fancy car? Figure how much it will cost to buy it and maintain it, then save for that.

The key here is to plan ahead. When Howard and I got married we had several goals. We wanted Howard to be able to earn his living creatively. We wanted to own a house. We wanted to have several children. We structured all of our spending to accomodate those goals. When Howard got a pay raise we wouldn’t raise our standard of living much, mostly we’d save it against a planned goal. Even when we had the house and the kids, we still spent carefully because we had the dream of Howard being able to make a living as a cartoonist. We did spend some money on luxuries like nice furniture and new cars, but each of these purchases was balanced against the larger goal. Each time we carefully considered whether the expense added more value to our lives than having Howard work from home would. Eventually we reached the day when Howard quit Novell. That was scary and I confess I did some second guessing about some of the things we’d chosen to spend money on. But we’ve scraped by and it looks like we’ll get to keep on going.

Don’t just save for “retirement” save for something specific. Know what your dreams are and take steps to make them reality.

worms and rocks

By / May 2, 2006 / 10 Comments

Today I began turning over the dirt in our soon-to-be vegetable garden. Gleek and Patches delightedly watched the process. Gleek declared “Oh! You are good at finding worms!”

I’m also good at finding large river rocks. Fortunately Gleek and Patches cheerfully carried these away for me and put them on a nearby rock pile. I had to stop for this morning, but later today I’ll be back out there digging up worms and rocks for the amusement of my children.

Playing truant

By / April 29, 2006 / 4 Comments

Kiki was highly amenable to the substitution of a Mother/Daughter date for the Mother’s Day luncheon. So today we went to see the movie Aquamarine together. Aquamarine is the perfect pre-teen girl movie. Kiki loved it. I found it light and pleasant. Then Kiki and I went out to eat at The Pizza Factory. That was probably a mistake for our budget, but Kiki was delighted to eat out with her mom and I was delighted to eat yummy food that I hadn’t had to prepare. In all it was a very pleasant bonding time with Kiki and a wonderful break from responsibility for me.

But I have to confess that the best part was coming home. Gleek and Patches were waiting on the front steps to greet us. Howard was obviously exhausted, frustrated that he hadn’t gotten more Schlock work done, in pain from his sore neck, and worn out from doing all the dishes I’d left behind. He had every right to be a buzzkill because I’d been gone almost twice as long as we had discussed and the kitchen was a horrible wreck when I left. BUT Howard did not kill my buzz. He did not complain even once. I went out for hours and came back to well tended children and a house that was cleaner than when I left. That was the best part of all.

Schedule Conflicts

By / April 28, 2006 / 6 Comments

Note to future self: May is not a good month to be releasing a book.

May is full of school activities and end of year concerts and other such kid stuff. This time it was just very important to get the book available asap, but for future books, I’ll aim to have the heavy duty mailing and party planning land in a less busy month.

Kiki’s Activity Day Girl’s group is having a mother’s day luncheon on the day we have scheduled for mailing. Gleek’s dance class is having her recital on the Friday that I’ll be at Conduit with Howard and Gleek will be staying at my brother’s house. Fortunately Gleek is so excited about the visit to my brother’s house that she doesn’t mind missing her recital. She has plans to perform her dance for her cousins. The mother’s day luncheon is trickier. Historically Kiki’s events have been most trampled upon by Novell and cartooning business concerns. I’ll probably have to take a break from frantic mail preparation and go to this luncheon. I’m worried about it though because I’m the one who really needs to be there to explain how the mailing works. Perhaps I can talk Kiki into having a different and special mommy/daughter date on a different day.

I really hope that the schools get their End Of Year calendars put out soon because I’m sure there are other conflicts that I’ll need to resolve.

Cell Phone Shopping

By / April 27, 2006 / 6 Comments

I have once again entered the ranks of cell phone ownership. When Howard quit Novell our family went from two phones to one, in an effort to cut expenses. Now with me much more heavily involved in business and both Howard and I running around much more, a second cell phone is again merited. Especially since it is tax deductable as a business expense.

The shopping itself was pretty painless. I knew I wanted a flip phone, but I wanted the cheapest one available. I also knew we wanted the cheapest plan available.

Note to anyone who intends to shop for a cell phone: they’ll shove a brochure at you, but the cheapest plan on the brochure is almost certainly not the cheapest plan available. I made a protesting noise about the price and suddenly the salesman was drawing on my brochure with a lower price. The same thing happened when the subject of accessories came up. I think I’m supposed to feel like the salesman was super nice and that I got a really good deal. Instead I’m left feeling like I might have gotten a better deal if only I’d known the magic haggling words to use.

Oh well, I have my cell phone now. I just wish it had ringtones that weren’t annoying. (Yes I know I can buy ringtones, but I’ve already spent too much money today.)

Fairy House Pictures

By / April 26, 2006 / 6 Comments

Gleek's Fairy House Gleek’s Fairy House
This is the fairy house I created for Gleek. The fence provided a useful back wall and a sturdy support. The side walls are sticks partly buried and shored up with rocks, then woven with honeysuckle vines. The carpeted interior is made of “lambs ear” leaves which grow as weeds in our yard. I’m told that the lone stick across the opening is a door and the grass on the inside was part of a nest. But it looks as though somone has stolen most of the nest.
Kiki's Fairy House Kiki’s Fairy House
Kiki’s Fairy House is constructed the same as Gleeks, but the addition of a peaked roof was a bit of a challenge. This house used to feature a “For Sale” sign, but it has disappeared. Perhaps the new tenants have already moved in.

Fairy House Pictures

By / April 26, 2006 / 8 Comments

I’ve had several requests for pictures of the fairy houses, so I opened up a flickr account to display them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/81703963@N00/

I’ve no idea how often I’ll be posting pictures. Maybe someday I’ll figure out how to put pictures in LJ rather than just pointing at them.