Burning

Utilizing apple cider vinegar for its antibiotic treatment qualities, even at half strength, is not always pleasant. It burns like fire in the eyes!

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The kids had burning questions to ask me this evening.  It's definitely more information than I wish they had knowledge to ask about for at least another few years.  I did answer, but there are just some things you can't fully explain to an 8 and 9 year old no matter what they've actually seen or heard.

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Woe is me.  I took on another tax return this year and they are going to OWE MONEY.  It's not my fault, but now I'm trying to wrack my brain for all kinds of remote possibilities for other deductions before I end up breaking the bad news to them.  They are so not going to be happy.  I am so not going to enjoy saying it to them!!!

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I have a collection of abandoned pen and pencils.  A new pen, pencil, crayon, or marker makes me very happy.  If I'm having a bad day, or I just want a change, I sometimes will run out and grab some new office supplies and that makes me encouraged as I use them.  But then, it turns out that I am very picky about writing utensils, and I abandon the ones I don't like.  It doesn't take much of an excuse.  Either the ink globs and smears, or the ink doesn't flow smoothly and skips and suddenly half my word is missing, or the point size it off, or the color is weird, or I just want to throw this one at somebody because of the memory it brings.  And this speaks nothing of the reality that different types of paper call for different types of ink or point size of ink pen.  The problem is, I don't always know or remember which point size I like, so I invariably end up buying the wrong one and then have to buy the other one, and thus end up with 10 ink pens instead of the ONE I wanted to begin with.  But, whatever the case may be, I rarely ever get rid of the things totally. After all, I spent money for them, or got them free and someone else paid for the expense, or I think that perhaps I'll want to use it for some reason someday (who knows, I might need a horrible scratchy black ink pen during the zombie apocalypse).  The truth is though, that I have felt guilty about throwing "good" pens away just because I was a snob who hated them.  No longer!  I have found the perfect solution, the perfect "dumping" grounds so to speak.  My local youth group always needs new ink pens.  Right?  See? Perfect for both of us, and I don't have to feel guilty about anything except the amount of money I spend trying out new ink pens.  :D

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And before you ask, Pentel Energel 0.5 or 0.7, or pretty much any Pilot Precise Pen 0.5, or Sharpie fine point colors (they have some new colors this spring that I haven't tried yet) will do just fine for work and most other things.  A larger point blue or black ink pen that flows well is necessary for signatures on cards and documents.  However, for creative writing, I like to use the scratchy RSVP 0.7 fine point pens (blue is my favorite), or an old roller ball ink pen, so that when you've covered the page in your own handwriting, the pages curl up and you can feel the letters have embossed the paper by your pressing emotions onto them. And journaling, well that used to be done only in brown calligraphy in a leather bound book.  When I couldn't find the replacement cartridges in the right shade, I switched to burgundy for a bit, but that didn't fit the bill quite as nicely, so I ended up not using that pen.  Now it's just sporadic jots and thoughts in different notebooks and places, and someone will have a fit piecing together the timeline if ever I die and they decide they want to read it.

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Shopping sites should let you mark off the things you DON'T want, instead of only allowing you to check boxes for things that you might want.