So I was telling my husband this morning

“I haven’t blogged in forever.”

“Good!”

“And I’m kind of okay with it. It might die, it might not. I’m just too busy!”

So here’s what’s up. I’ve been busy working between 24-36 hours a week in addition to being a full time mom and part time home school mom. Home school is suffering. SUFFERING. The eldest son gets up before the rest of us and gets his work done. The “threebies” as I like to call my stair-steps  are getting maybe three days a week. Maybe.

So what’s up with me? Well when I get two days off in a row (which my gracious boss does for me when she can) I try to get up to Virginia to see my dad and mom. We did this at Easter which happened to also be my nephew Thomas’s first birthday.

While there my mom mentioned that dad is writing letters to all of his grandchildren, a memoir of sorts for each child, and he needed a picture of he and Thomas together.

 

I took my “littles” with me for another trip to Virginia a few weeks ago. We spent time with mom while dad rested. We had fun at their big mall. (big by my little town’s standards anyway!)

 

One day Scott came running into the house yelling “where’s your camera?” “in my camera bag”  ” WHERE is your camera???”  ”IN MY CAMERA BAG!” (am I exasperating or what?!?)

This is the picture he took of his exciting find. Obviously hubby doesn’t know how to use the focus.

 

Here are the two shots I got. How fun to find these two creatures perched and napping on the side of our house.

 

Did you know we have a cat? She’s quite the huntress. Here was a “gift” she left us one morning.

 

Can you see the fleas? Yikes!

Let’s find something else to end this blog with. How about little baby Thomas’s rebel yell? Yes!!! My favorite picture from the post cake/in the sandbox/wearing a do rag day.

The End.

EBT, I can tell if you need it by what you buy

So let’s talk about EBT, known better as Food Stamps. It’s a plastic card with an American Flag image, and is used to buy your food. You have to apply for this card, but I’m not sure the standards and checks and balances are really in place to see if you NEED this service. Here’s why. I’ll give you a few examples and I’m not exaggerating or blaming, just letting you know what I see every day. All of the following examples are using EBT.

50 Year old black woman, buys pasta, sauce, soup, meat, frozen veggies, bottled water, fresh veggies, coffee, ice cream.  Does she need it or not? I say yes because she’s buying food with meals in mind.

Elderly white couple, soups, bananas, milk, yogurt, peanuts, chicken, pretzels. Do they need it? I think they do and I also think they must do most of their shopping elsewhere but get a few things at my store. This doesn’t seem like enough food to really make a meal but it is more than just snacks.

40something white couple, lots of steaks and pot roasts, lots of potatos and barbeque sauce, house brand cereal and sodas. Do they need it? I’m not sure. Seems like a lot of one kind of food, and likely a luxery shopping trip. When you’re on a budget (of your own money) you don’t spend 50$ on prime steaks. My vote is that they are on the edge of need and are abusing the system.

23 year old black girl. She buys bread and lunch meat, house brand cereal and milk, and lean cuisines that are on sale.She uses coupons and shops the sales. Does she need it? Yes. Her food seems like the exact thing a young single gal would eat every day.

30′something black couple. They buy name brand soda, name brand cereal cups (that’s a prepackaged cup of fruit loops, just add milk and a spoon), lunchables, name brand chips, lots of ice cream and about 10 assorted boxes of what I call sugar cakes. Things like hostess cupcakes, honey buns, brownie bars etc. They also buy crab legs and prime steak. None of what they get is on sale and they don’t use coupons. Do they need it? No. This is all junk food and luxury items. They clearly buy their real food elsewhere and use their EBT at my store to buy all their junk food.

40something white woman with her daughter. She buys ALL “sugar cakes” and chips, mountain dew and ice cream. Her bill is literally $200.00 of junk food and soda. I am disgusted. Obviously she does not NEED EBT she is just abusing it to feed her fat face and her fat daughters fat face. (fat much? wonder why….cupcakes!!!)

It has become so obvious to me now, that I  guess correctly if you’re going to use EBT about 90% of the time and am shocked the other 10% when you either A) use real money to buy your junk food binge, or B) use EBT to buy your real food. It is absolutely an issue. For every three people buying real food on EBT there are seven people buying junk food and luxury items on EBT.  It is shameful and abusive, selfish and sinful. If you are one of the folks using the system and abusing the system you should be ashamed of yourself. Just because you live in America you think it’s the governments job to take care of you? It’s not. It’s your own job. So get a job, get off disability, put yourself on a budget and act like a grown up and not like a kid in a candy store with a found $20 dollar bill.

Related articles

• Foodstamp Stigma (adventuresinlife2111.wordpress.com)

Awesome Sauce

Did you know your cashier is being timed? From the minute she swipes your first item, to the time she hands you your receipt and change, she’s being timed. It’s called “customer throughput” as in, get the customer and get them through the line as fast as possible. My speed has been 84% and more recently 94%. Last week however I was feeling a bit irritable and frustrated and I didn’t even TRY. I actually did the opposite of what I was told to do in order to get higher numbers. Do you see where this is going? 

My number for last week was 102%. In addition to that I had the second highest volume of customers. That is to say, if there were 100 customers, Zena had 14% of them and I had 12% of them, and the rest of the cashiers had 11,8,6,3,2 etc. 

I’ve dubbed myself “Awesome Sauce”. As in, II’m awesome, and saucy. Yeah baby. 

Next week I’ll probably be 94% again since that seems my average, but this week I’m enjoying the awesome sauce. 

little brother

My little brother David. What blue eyes you have!

 

He's always been a bit quieter than the rest of us, and able to go off and play alone. Fairly low maintenance but I'm afraid his view is that we just ignored him.

 

He quietly ponders and studies what it might be like to live at Appomattox.

 

Again away from the crowd and left to his thoughts. What are you thinking about little brother?

 

 

jack and max

jack and max, a photo by fionasflicks on Flickr.

I just came across this picture and wanted to share it. I love how the shallow dof captures Max’s face and leaves Jack’s drama to fend for itself.

give the kids a camera

You give the kids a camera and a hula hoop and you find gems like this on your drive. Awesome job guys! 

my annual walk around the yard

New Life

 

My younger years underfoot.

 

Lovely morning flowers.

 

My baby girl curious to my activities.

 

Such a variety of color.

 

All sizes. My yard is a color explosion!

 

Tiny purple flowers. These are Scott's favorites.

 

This is a flowering vine. Gorgeous!

 

Thanks for joining me on a walk around my yard! Up next is a walk around the neighborhood!

Grandmas kitchen

almost time for supper

 

 

Nana stays warm by the oven

 

boys go wash their hands

 

waiting patiently

 

Jack and Papa talking about life

 

 

Spring has sprung

 

 

 

sam

 

 

We’ve had a crazy winter here in Eastern N.C. So crazy in fact that the bulbs are blooming and the daffodils are daffodilling and the little white flowers in the grass are lovely and attracting the bees. We’ve been outside more, playing in the yard and riding bikes and enjoying oodles more of sunshine! I’m loving it!

What is YOUR favorite season of the year?

At the library/Pictures of pictures