myjournallifeinthesticks: Please Donate $25, $50 or Whatever You Can Afford....

myjournallifeinthesticks: Please Donate $25, $50 or Whatever You Can Afford....: Seems you could spend a hefty $100 and never leave your email box, doesn’t it? We all get these emails from potential senators, represe...

Please Donate $25, $50 or Whatever You Can Afford...Huh?

Seems you could spend a hefty $100 and never leave your email box, doesn’t it? We all get these emails from potential senators, representatives, governors, or from people and organizations we would dearly love to help. It’s just not possible in today’s economy.

It really isn’t that people don’t want to help. Most of us would donate if we had an extra $25 lying around that we don’t need. In fact, some would donate that $5 they had left out of their paycheck, if it wasn’t needed. The problem is that no person, affiliate, organization, or charity is asking for $0.10 from you. Yea, change is all that is left and even that gets spent when a really short week comes along.

At the end of 2008, we had approximately $200 to $300 saved back in the drawer but that didn’t last long. By the end of 2009, we had maybe $100 left over after paying bills, and by the time Obamacare was passed, we had nothing. We had to let our health insurance go because the premium had skyrocketed. This year, due to the inflation the media refuses to report, groceries are getting to be an option. When we sit down to figure out what we can pay and what we can scrimp on, its groceries. This is Obama’s economy.

Most of the please donate emails have no-reply attached. You can only donate. You cannot say…

Dear Sir/Madame/Organization,

I would love to help you out but $25 is unreasonable. Unless and until you can take change, I have nothing leftover to donate. If you come to me on the wrong day of the month, I won’t be able to donate change. It’s that simple. Yes—depending upon the organization or person—I would love to help you, but I’m sorry. It’s impossible.

Yesterday, while checking my emails, I realized that if we had the money to donate to these causes, we could afford a decent cut of meat. We don’t even eat out anymore. We stand at the pork or steak counter in the grocery store drooling over the piece of meat we would love to have for dinner, and then we buy ground chuck. Tacos are cheap. Ramen is cheap. Chicken salad sandwiches are cheap, and when I’m behind an EBT card user and see them buying things we only dream of eating, I’m reminded of Obama’s income inequality speech and wondering how we can give anything more to people who are eating much better than we are…

If you sent me an email for donations, know this. I would love to donate to some of your causes. It would be great to send a check for $25 to help you win that seat in congress, or support the soldiers who have given so much, but we just don’t have it.  

Lake Texoma: First Official Vacation

My husband and I have been married 7 years and just this past week, took our first official vacation. We've gone to bowling tournaments, but those don't really count as vacation and we went to Horseshoe Bend for an awards ceremony...that doesn't count either. This past week, we went to Lake Texoma for a four-day, no-frills vacation. It's the first time since 2009 that we've actually been able to take a trip during his vacation and for good reason, money is tight.

We had a really good time with our youngest daughter, her significant other, and their three children. Robert is a good guy and he has been as responsible for us being able to go as anyone. He's worked on our New-Old RV since we made the purchase. The RV is a 1980 Winnebago Brave, which has been the source for a blog that I've been writing on my tiny house site. We named her Tess and she is the second used camper we purchased. The first is a 1986 Citation that was originally bought to make over into a tiny house. When we got the RV, we changed things up a bit. The Citation will become a mobile print shop...or a tiny print shop.

After 4 solid weeks of working on the RV and giving her a much needed makeover, we decided to take a trip to the lake. Lake Texoma has several different camping areas from which to choose, and we chose West Burns Run. The largest RV the area will accommodate is 60-feet in length. Ours was a shoe-in at just 26-feet. Until Saturday, Tess was the oldest "self-propelled" RV in that area. On Saturday, however, the flower power mobile arrived...it was a tad older, maybe ten years or so.

Here are the photos from that trip. Hope you enjoy. The people in them are my family and I enjoyed their company immensely.

A view to the north of our campsite

Yea, she has to have a new spare tire cover...that's on the agenda

She also needs one window and that's a portion of ongoing discussions

Old as she is, her canopy is still in good shape

The Hubby doing something

Hubby just enjoying the cool of the wind

She gets really good reception with the antennae. In fact better than our home antennae

One of several sailboats that are moored on the lake.

At one point, we saw five or six sailboats that appeared to be sailing in line

I know this is west, because I honestly thought--due to the haze--that it was the moon. Joke was on me.

We did see the moon later that evening and it was almost as large as the sun appears to be

My daughter Wendy and bless her heart, she never tans. She just gets sunburned

My granddaughter Alyssa making funny faces. She's 7 going on 8

My granddaughter Marissa who is 5 going 6 and tans like nobody's business

Our son-in-law Robert and the RV mechanic mastermind.

Got a picture of him anyway. He hates having his picture taken.

The girls showing off daddy's striper catch. He was the only one to catch a fish.

Wendy not too happy to have her photo taken and Alyssa scoping out a big bug.

Marissa lake gazing in the background, and my awesome well-seasoned coffee cup.

Alyssa giving me the poo-poo face and Wendy had something on her foot?

Alyssa demonstrating how not to use a knee board. LOL A lot she cares, right?

Well, she got closer to what the board was used for, but still not quite right.

In the meantime, Marissa was deciding what uses a cooler could have

Actually, she was watching her mommy and papa leave to go to the store.

The sunsets were beautiful...and that's no joke.

If you go to the lake, take your own grill. Theirs are not so good.

The nights were incredible and so were some of the photos I got, some others not so much

You could see more toward the lake than toward the campground.

Wendy was really tired...bless her heart. She works too much.

The torches were a good purchase.

Jeffrey got some sun, but he didn't want to be outside as much as his sisters.