Crazy Economic Times!

I watch the news each day for signs that the economy is returning to it's former days . Of course who do you believe on the news anymore? Every reporting or news cast is biased in some way. MSNBC makes no bones that it is leaning left. Fox News is leaning right. The others tend to be left leaning. Okay, so my original question, "who do I trust or believe when they report the news?"
There was a a guy named Peter Schiff who pretty much called it and yet the experts laughed at him and yet he was one of the few who got it right. Now, however there is talk of a turn around in the economy and yet there are some who predict a double dip recession especially in the commercial markets. Gold is up to nearly $1400 an ounce and Silver is up as well. Some of this rise in prices is due they say to demand for precious and rare earth metals. Perhaps, so what do we do now?
1st Get out of debt like so many have told us. (We have been warned!)
2nd have money set aside for a rainy day (Savings/Buy Gold/Silver whatever you can do)
3rd Have a years supply of food available if possible. Start small grow large.
4th Produce whatever you can to supplement your diet. (gardens/Rabbits/Honey etc.)
5th Stay out of debt, live frugally. It won't hurt you to do that for a few years.

Remember grocery stores don't always have food, look what happens at Walmarts on payday weekends. The store shevles are picked pretty clean. Now take that payday weekend add in a bad weekend for food prices (They go up for some unseen reason) and or add in a natural disaster (Like that never happens). People can get awfully hungry where there is no food to eat. Perhaps I should say food they are used to eating. How many can cook from scratch any more.

All I'm saying is be ready and do what you can. Stop eating out so much. See one less movie!

Caring for Mom

Since Grandma returned to Heavenly Father, mom moved in with us. It's great having her here. She adds another element that can be a challenge at times. Yet we love having her with us. When she is happy and feeling well, she adds alot of laughter to what we are doing. We fixed up a room for her, our cousin who always wanted to come out this way brought her bed, etc out to her. She is all settled in, new doctors selected, insurance (Medicare) finally resolved etc. Now the every day things.

We have to watch her medicine intake like a hawk. Last month she took more med's from her pill dispenser that she was supposed to. Of course she denies it and says she doesn't remember doing anything like that. So I took to setting out her evening med's so she knows which ones to take and then setting out her morning med's on her night stand so she could take those when she woke up each day. Last week she went out on a Girls Night out with our daughters and my sweetheart. They got back from the movie at 11:30 and I was already asleep (Go figure). Next morning (Saturday) Mom comes out of her room and says to me, "There's no medicine to take." I explained "I put it on your nightstand like I have been doing." She says it's not there. I ask "Mom, you didn't take your morning med's last night did you?" She replies "Well! I noticed there were more pills last night than I normally take!" "My stomach was upset all night too!!" Really! "Mom you took a double dose of pills! No wonder you don't feel good right now."

So begins a more diligent exercise of ensuring she has the right pills each day. We talked of adopting an older child at one point, but I see now what we just didn't do it. I think taking care of mom may turn into a bit of a job. Not sure how that will work when I start traveling again. She has been dizzy for and nearly fallen several times over the last two weeks. She has an appoint today to have a MRI done on her and she has an appointment for Wednesday for a neurologist. I hope we can find out why is is so unsteady on her feet at times. More to follow.