A Hot Mess And Godless

     One of the major issues I have is not knowing when to get rid of things. I'm not a hoarder by any means, but I do have a really hard time tossing anything that can be "useful." The problem is when you grow up poor like I did, everything becomes useful because it's in your nature to stretch things out, make them last, make us of what you got, etc. I've gotten better in the last couple of years as I've lived with someone who is very minimalist in comparison. I remember when he moved in with me and we were cleaning out room for his clothes in my closet: "why do you have, like twenty notebooks?" Me: "well I bought them during back to school sales when they were really cheap." Him: "Okay. But why do you need so many?" And so we go back and forth about how my collection of empty, brand new notebooks came to be and how I kept meaning to donate them but just never got around to it and I certainly wasn't going to just throw th...

     Last week I posted a question in the Satanic Temple Arizona Chapter Forum on Facebook: "What kinds of questions/things would you want to see discussed in regard to parenting as a satanist?" One of the topics suggested was how to talk to your kids about death. Well as unfortunate luck would have it, this was a talk I had to have with one of my own children yesterday.      Yesterday my son came home from school and told me his cat at his dad's house passed away. "I'm really sad." "It's okay to be sad, I'm sorry honey."      Death is not something my children have had to directly face quiet yet. We've had no major deaths in the family, not lost any friends, no notable moments where we've had to talk about it beyond the basics of all things eventually die. So the loss of this pet was the first real experience for my youngest, who is seven, and he had a lot of questions; specifically concerned with her remains. "I think w...

     I've had a bad mental health week. I'm sure many of you have been there: pulling yourself out of bed and forcing yourself to shower and head to work so you can pay bills is hard enough, but the idea of standing in front of a stove and cooking seems completely impossible. Kids still gotta eat though.      So what do you do? Well I for one am a big fan of encouraging independence in children by giving them the occasional opportunity to feed themselves (at age appropriate levels of course) so "mom's feeling like a bowl of shit tonight meal" #2 was them making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with apple slices for dinner. The apple slices were impressively their idea. I'm very lucky to have kids that actually enjoy eating fruits and veggies; night #1 we ordered pizza. By night #3 I was feeling guilty about not cooking so I popped in the kitchen to make one of the easiest and quickest things in the pantry: ramen noodles.      Yes, ramen ...

Welcome to Frugal Fridays! Where I go over good deals I've spotted going on throughout the week!  First up is Fry's Food & Drug stores! Fry's recently started doing Digital Deals;  digital coupon sales that can be used up to 5x in one transaction. These sales typical last Friday - Sunday but this isn't always consistent and not every store is the same, so please check your local weekly ad before hopping in your car. I'll be stocking up this weekend and tossing a few packages in the freezer for later as these typically go for $4.49 each at regular price. If you want a good tip on how to rack up some extra fuel points while you're saving some cash at Fry's start at the register before you shop. Purchase a qualifying Visa gift card that  you can use on the groceries you're about to buy and you'll earn 4x the fuel point spent on that card purchase PLUS the fuel points you earn from the groceries. It requires two transactions through th...

         I know; I've ranted on about all kinds of things this week and by this point you're sitting there thinking  okay bitch now tell me how to save some money already! Alrighty Then! I don't "extreme coupon." I'm not going to make wild claims that I can help you lower your grocery bill from $300 dollars a week to a few bucks. 1) Nobody got time for that. 2) It's actually a huge pain in the ass to try, and as more people have been trying it, more stores have changed their sales and coupon policies to stop it. I can give you solid advice on knocking off a few bucks here and there though. I'm quite the frugal shopper, in a household of five (6 if you count the dog) I have to be, and some things you just pick up on after doing it for so long. So here's a few general (and realistic) tips and advice to get you started on your money saving way. * Focus on where you actually shop (or where you know you will realistically make the trip out to)...

     One thing I've struggled with as a practicing Satanist mother is how to still incorporate holidays and traditions that my children can enjoy and have fond memories of without wading through volumes of Christian or Pagan based rhetoric - There's nothing worse than finding an adorable bunny garden statue with "I Love Jesus" or "Blessed Be" plastered on it's butt! But hey that's what spray paint is for right?      Anyway, I think it's important for kids to be able to enjoy holidays, (life is hard enough, let them enjoy a damn chocolate rabbit once in awhile), and I want them to still be able to have memories and traditions with our extended families who don't share my views on religion. A huge part of this is compromise and setting boundaries. Some hard No's on my end: no church, no Jesus/God nonsense when it comes to gifts/Easter baskets etc, and the expectation that if you tell my kid about something that isn't real like the too...