First Gen American.com

Author: Sandy L

  • Babci’s Enchanted Garden

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    Tweet Summer and Fall are my favorite times of year.  Each season has it’s own special something but I love when the bounty starts rolling in from the gardens this time of year.  Spring is full of new life after a cold winter but it is also full of work. You are weeding, mulching, transplanting,…

  • Is Your Big House Making You Fat?

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    Tweet In my last post, I was wrote an article about a very distinct absence of rich people at my local lake and it led to some very interesting comments from Kris and Jacq.  Basically they both said that the richer the neighborhood, the less people you see outside playing.  Kris notices it when she…

  • Poor vs Rich on the Lake

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    Tweet After a very long winter followed by a very very wet spring, we’ve finally had some nice weather over the last couple of days. It’s really been glorious.   My oldest is finishing up kindergarten this week and his teacher gave him a shovel and pail as his goodbye present.  Well, when I picked him…

  • Happiness takes effort and planning

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    Tweet This was my revelation today.   I have been trying to figure out what has made me so happy lately and in a nutshell, it’s because I’m making a little extra time to plan my life a little better.  Just over a year ago, I took a new sales job covering NY. Since I live in…

  • When Babci’s Frugalness Goes too Far

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    Tweet   I spent most of Sunday mudding my mom’s hallway and while I was there, it got me thinking nostalgically about all the hours I’ve spent doing this or that around here home.  Since our fixer is mostly fixed (knock on wood), the bulk of our home improvement efforts have been at Babci’s 120…

  • Trying to Buy local with Babci in Tow

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    Tweet Yesterday was my second visit of the season to the farmer’s market. Early on in New England, there is little local food to be had, so the farmer’s market is generally just a rainbow of annuals filling the parking lot that they occupy.  It’s very pretty but a dangerous place to be for a…

  • Buying Local, Vacation Recap and Favorites

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    Tweet The last few days have been the greatest. My family did a road trip to Baltimore and DC and it was just so much fun.  It was all good until my 2 year old got car sick 20 minutes into our 7 hour drive home and threw up all over the back seat and…

  • Karma – Posting Free Ads on Craigslist

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    Tweet So the other day I wrote how an old lady scammed me by overcharging me for some ratty old t-shirts. I was annoyed, but I vented on the blog and moved on.  I didn’t seek revenge or egg her house. I was over it but wouldn’t you know things have a way of working…

  • Frugal Knives: Babci Loves Shivs

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    Tweet Yesterday, my husband reminded me that I should write about one of his favorite topics, Babci’s Shiv collection.   Back when we were still dating, my husband and a few of our friends liked to make up stories about babci’s past based on their observations about her and her surroundings.  For example, they were convinced…

  • Wow..Debt Really is a Motivator

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    Tweet Have you ever noticed at a gym that there are three types of people?   There’s the person who is self motivated and can push themselves on their own. Second, there’s the person that needs constant positive reinforcement, ie “You’re doing a great job, awesome, keep it up!” Third, there’s the person who is…