Was the Oscar Buzz Deserved?

It has been a BUSY couple of weeks at my house. My younger daughter got engaged, my husband, older daughter, and grandson took a long road trip together, younger daughter and fiance came for a visit over Oscar weekend, and things were hectic!

 All of this activity caused our Academy Awards party to end up being a bit slapdash but my youngest son and I still had a lot of fun. We decided to eliminate some of the voting categories from the ballot because there were areas with which we weren't familiar. At the end of the night, I had predicted 9 winners correctly and my son (an aspiring filmmaker) had predicted 11 winners! His prize was a bag of Skittles as he loves candy. If you don't know what I do each year for the Oscars, take a moment and read And the Oscar Goes To.

I bought this clapboard years ago for a
movie themed birthday party and have
definitely gotten my $5.00 from it!

Just prior to watching the Oscars, we rented Nebraska, Blue Jasmine, and All Is Lost. I found something enjoyable in each film, which especially surprised me with Blue Jasmine as I am not a Woody Allen fan at all.

Following the Oscars, we rented Dallas Buyers Club and went to see American Hustle. Let me just say that if you haven't seen either of these films, you owe it to yourself to see what all the Oscar buzz was about. Both films have a lot of profanity and sex scenes but they are true to the characters and not at all just thrown in gratuitously.

Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto turned in amazing performances in Dallas Buyers Club. They richly deserved their Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.

The two of us had such fun that I have decided next year to have a real Academy Awards night party and invite other movie loving folks to join us. I got some great decorating ideas from several television shows I watched prior to the Oscars that I can't wait to try. I think I may even start a new Pinterest board to help me in my preparations.

What did you think of the Academy Awards? Did you think that the best movies, actors, and other categories were fairly awarded? Who do you think should have gotten Best Picture, Actor, Actress, etc.?

Healthy, Inexpensive, & Fast Valentine's Day Ideas

So, Valentine's Day is Friday...of course you already know that because unless you haven't left your house in six weeks, you have seen Valentine's products EVERYWHERE you go.

My sweetie and I have each lost quite a bit of weight over the past few years. I lost 60 pounds and hubby lost 120 pounds. We both make much better eating choices than we used to in our nachos and pizza eating days. Boxes of chocolates aren't exactly on the gift giving list with the changes we have made!

With Valentine's Day approaching, I was wondering what to do for Joe this year. As I was walking through the grocery store today, a nice bunch of bananas caught my eye and I knew right away what I was going to put together for his gift!

I am going to make him a fruit basket with a funny little homemade card tucked into it. I am going to include bananas, a couple of pears, strawberries, oranges, and perhaps a pineapple. The card will say something like, "Hey baby, I hope you know that I am BANANAS about you. I think you are the BERRY best thing that ever happened to me. I try not to PINE(apple) away too much when you are gone. I think we are one of best PEARS I have ever known. Will you be my Valentine?"

If your sweetheart is an outdoorsy fitness buff, you could create a nice basket with bottles of vitamin water or Gatorade, a variety of protein bars, a cute towel for mopping a sweaty brow, and some sunscreen from the dollar store.

For a gardening spouse, a basket with some new gardening gloves, tools, and seeds would be appreciated! Or put all the gardening items in a new gardening hat! Your gift can be very thrifty (think Dollar Store or thrift store) or you can splurge on items you know your sweetie would not buy for himself or herself.

The point is that we can show our love and appreciation for our loved one without breaking the calorie bank! And if we can do it inexpensively, how much better is that? It really isn't the money you spend but the thought and effort that you put into a gift that makes it appreciated.

My honey REALLY loves tostadas as a meal and we do bean tostadas so they are pretty healthy, too. I think I will make tostadas and guacamole for dinner this Valentine's Day. I am still trying to decide on a dessert that is gluten-free, dairy-free, and healthy. Suggestions are appreciated!

What gifts are you giving this Valentine's Day? How will you celebrate the day of love? (keep it PG, people!)

And the Oscar Goes to...

Oscar season is upon us! My youngest son and I are starting our quest to watch as many of the Best Picture nominees as we can before the Academy Awards air on March 2.

Recently we watched Captain Phillips. May I just say that I don't understand why Tom Hanks wasn't nominated for his very superlative performance? His performance was gripping!

I bought some Alamo Drafthouse movie tickets through a wonderful Groupon offer so that we can go see the movies that are still showing in theaters. We are debating on what to go see: American Hustle and Wolf of Wall Street are at the top of my list but my son isn't sure he wants to see a movie that may have sex scenes in it with his mother...Twelve Years a Slave is still in theaters as is Frozen, and Dallas Buyers Club.

If you have not had the opportunity to watch movies at Alamo Drafthouse, I strongly urge you to give them a try. The cost of the movies is often less than at other theaters and the movie going experience is much better. If someone in an Alamo theater pops out a cell phone during a movie, the staff at Alamo Drafthouse will pop them out of the theater! Also, they have a strict no-children policy that I very much appreciate. I love children and have often felt very uncomfortable seeing young children at adult movies. This is not an issue at Alamo Drafthouse.

I also want to see Philomena as I adore Judy Dench in just about everything. I saw the actual Philomena on The View. I am a sucker for stories that are based on real people and events; it is the journalist in me. I think that true life is way more interesting than fiction. Unfortunately, Philomena doesn't seem to playing anywhere near me and the DVD doesn't come out until two days after the Oscars. So, I won't be able to see it before the show but I do plan to see it as soon as I can.

We are going to rent Gravity and Nebraska when they are available on February 25. Can you tell that we take this Oscar stuff very seriously?

We find this to be another way we can live large on a small budget- for more on how we roll at my house see my post Tighten Your Spending Not Your Living. We get our movie tickets as inexpensively as possible, rent movies from Redbox, print the ballots (Printable Oscar Ballot) to fill out before the show, decorate the dining room table creatively with movies and other things we have around the house, and serve special snacks for our own Oscar party. The person who does the best at choosing the winners gets a prize too. Last year I found an instrumental CD of Oscar nominated movie soundtracks at the Dollar Tree for our prize. So, even our prize was inexpensive AND it went with the Oscar theme!

Do you enjoy the Oscars? What movie do you think will win Best Picture? Let's discuss below in the comments.

Summer Daycation Plans

Nothing says summer more to me than a cold drink and sunshine!

Summer is about to begin and I am all aflutter with plans to have a fun summer. It doesn't matter that I have little to no money to throw at my summer plans! I have a philosophy that I can enjoy my life without spending a lot of my hard earned money I am very fortunate in that the area of the country where I live abounds with many opportunities for free or very little cost.


There are area lakes, rivers, and dams within an hour's drive from my home. Staying cool when our Texas temperatures rise above 100 degrees will be easy when lounging on an inner tube floating lazily down a spring fed river. There are also many tree covered 
parks where one can hike, lounge, picnic, or barbecue inexpensively. A park near my home is comfy even at 100 degrees. My husband and I enjoy walking there in the summer on the pink granite paths and enjoying the shade of large pecan trees. 

There are museums about a 20 minute drive from me that are either free or offer reduced price admission. I hope this will be the summer I finally take time to enjoy these resources and stimulate my mind. I have my choice of history, art, and science museums for my self-development activities. 

I plan to read many of the books I have downloaded for free on my Kindle. I love taking time during the summer to escape by delving into novels or a novel series. In 2011, I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series; it was the perfect distraction for what was an
otherwise bummer of a summer. So far this summer reading list has the following on it; The Chronicles of Amber, Anne of Green Gables, and perhaps some works by C. S. Lewis. 

I will be spending time working on my landscaping and seeing what I can scrounge for free to add beauty and interest to my yard. I need to finally fill in the garden area I carved out during spring break. It will be a restful spot to linger with those novels on a summer evening. 

Just recently we have been enjoying the light flickering from our fire pit and tiki torches in the seating area near the new garden bed. It is so relaxing having our dinner al fresco and following it with a dessert of roasted marshmallows or s'mores.We feel as if we are on vacation each time we get that fire pit going. 

What will you be doing this summer? How do you relax and entertain yourself on a budget?

Funday!

We were just a few feet away from the drivers at the start of this race!

I took a little trip with my hubby on Sunday to Lockhart, Texas. We went there to watch the Lone Start Grand Prix (www.lonestargrandprix.us).

When I got up on Sunday, I had no plans to go to watch super fast go-karts, but an idle comment by Joe that he wouldn't mind going had me saying, "Well, let's go!"

My husband loves watching Nascar and thanks to him I know more than I ever planned to about Jeff Gordon so I thought that if he wanted to go see these races, why not? The races were free so they were certainly within our price range! After a few moment's discussion we packed a cooler with drinks and snacks and off we went!

Lockhart is only twenty minutes from where we live and very familiar to us. We had a resale store there from 2003-2008. It is a charming small town well-known for their excellent barbecue. My favorite place there is Smitty's, but I digress (as I so often do).

Back to the races-some of these go-karts go up to 130 miles per hour! They are quite loud! Check out my very amateur video.

I met a seven-year-old boy who was racing in the Cadet division (ages 6-11 if I remember correctly). We saw a boy and girl in the next age division have a little wreck where they hit the plastic barrier so hard it moved a good 4-5 feet!

I was surprised how fast these go-karts went!

It was nice to get out of our rut and do something different for a change. I encourage you to find some free or inexpensive activities to do with your husband or family. It isn't the money you spend, it is the memories you make that your loved ones remember.