St Patrick's Day!

My sister and I had a St. Pattys Day party with our families today. Green or Irish food was the obvious theme! *pardon my crappy food photography*

A fruit rainbow (sorry no link, I found it through one of those annoying no-link Pinterest pins)

Irish Soda Bread

Guacamole

Pudding/Cookie Cake

Dyed Green Mashed Potatoes and Green Gravy

Cabbage Rolls

A Green or otherwise Irish plate :D

Five Question Friday

1. Where is your favorite vacation spot and why? We don't do fancy-fly-away vacation, but I loved when we went to Niagara Falls. It was a good 7 hr drive but so worth it!

2. What is your biggest guilty pleasure? Greasy, cheesy pizza. Mmmmm....

3. What is your favorite fashion trend right now? Or, in the past? Um... I'm supposed to have a favorite??? I am so not fashion caring lol Right now I'm pretty damn comfy, fleece pj pants, baggy tee and a sweater. Now granted I won't leave my property like this lol For going out... jeans and a longish shirt (not quite tunic) with a v-neck (I can't stand crew necks!) So yeah, none of that are really fashion trends lol

4. What are your spring break plans? I'm an evil homeschooling mom and we don't "do" spring break Bwahahaha

5. What baby names do you hate? Nevaeh - I used to think it was pretty but I swear to crap, every second person is naming their baby girl that! I get the cute backwards Heaven thing, but ugh! 

Linking up with My Little Life

"Best Meatloaf EVER!"

Supper, according to Brianna tonight. I agree, it was pretty damn good! So even though I'm a "little of this, little of that" type of cook, I figured I'd post a rough estimate of the recipe for next time! Pardon the crappy pic!

Mexican Pork Meatloaf

2-2 1/2lbs ground pork
1 cup salsa
2 cups shredded mozz
1-2 tbs onion soup mix
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 egg
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp dried chili pepper

Mix everything together (preferably by hand to combine the best). Form into a loaf pan. Bake at 375F for 1 hour.

Five Question Friday (on Sunday)

Linking up with My Little Life

1. What do you do when you are really upset to calm yourself down? Smoke. I know, I know, I'm a horrible person, blah, blah, blah. It's my vice. Plus, I smoke outside so I get to hide for a while while I calm down.

2. Do you go all out for V-day or is it just another day? Really, it's just another day. I mean, Feb 15th is more exciting cause that means a bunch of chocolate is half price!

3. Are you more or less productive when Hubs is away? Definitely MORE productive! He's distracting lol

4. What is your favorite time of day and why? I don't mean it like I hate my kids or something, but I love the late evening, after the kids go to bed. I can get stuff done without the kids interrupting me every 3 seconds. Also, Lee leaves for work right around when Brianna goes to bed so I have the house to myself :)

5. What is your go to karaoke song? I don't really have one. I don't typically "do" karaoke.

I Want to be on the "Poor" Side of Rich

This month, in my province of Ontario, a tax credit cheque called the Ontario Sales Tax credit comes out. This is one of the tax credit cheques that only low income families get (and yes I realize how other countries don't give the same credits and I think that totally sucks for the low income people in those countries).

I belong to several "mommy" groups on facebook. Each month that one of these credit cheques come out, someone usually asks what day they are to be expected, or something to that effect. And each month, there's various women (usually several of them on each thread) who start whining about not getting the cheque. Going on and on about how they could use the extra money too and it's not fair that some people get them and some don't.

So  looked it up on my government website.... In order to receive this particular credit, a family like mine (2 adults, 2 kids) must make less than $50,000. Seriously? I know one normally doesn't advertise online what their income is but - that's more than DOUBLE what my family's income was last year! So we'll use the estimated income of - family A made 25k last year, family B made 50k. Family A qualifies for various tax credits from the government. Family B is deemed to have "made too much money". So lets see how fair this works out....


Family A makes $25,000 every year.
                gets GST (Government Sales Tax) - $774 per year
                gets OST (Ontario Sales Tax) - $1060 per year
                gets Child Tax Credit - $8616 per year
                gets Universal Child Care Benefit - $1200 per year
Total Income - $36,650


Family B makes $50,000 every year.
               gets Child Tax Credit - $2436 per year
               gets Universal Child Care Benefit - $1200 per year per child under 6 (in this case we'll stick to the same as my family, 1 child under 6)
Total income - $53,636

Difference - almost $17,000

As you see, Family B still gets *some* tax credits from the government (the UCCB being the exact same amount as long as you make less than 160k a year, the rest of the credits are all on a sliding scale, the less you make, the more you receive)

Now I completely get that Family B works and makes a higher living due to education or whatever, but really? I'm perfectly happy at my income level. I don't wish for more money all the time, I happily make do with what we have. We don't get all the fancy new toys that come out every 10 minutes, but we have much more than we need. I'm not at all complaining about someone making more money than me. What I'm complaining about is the people who DO make more money than me, bitching that they want more! I propose (since they're so in NEED of my tax credits) that they give me the 25k that they make more than me and I've give them my tax credits.

Valentine's Day

Call me a Bah Humbug-er but I don't see the point in Valentines Day. I am perfectly happy in my marriage to Lee, but don't see why we need a special day to love. I thought that was out anniversary? Sure, yesterday the girls made Valentine goodies for school, but the only thing that made the Valentine-y was that they were pink and purple. Lee and I don't do gifts for V-day. Heck, my birthday is in 11 days anyways. We don't do cards either. Him and the girls brought me breakfast in bed this morning, but that's something they randomly do anyways. I love my hubby and kids everyday, and not especially on one day. Happy Hallmark Day!

Five Question Friday

Linking up with My Little Life

1. How often do you shave your legs in the winter? As little often as I can. Gross? I don't care. Heck, if I didn't think I'd get tarred and feathered, I wouldn't do it in the summer either until it irritated me. Shaving is a big pain in the ass.

2. Valentine's Day cards for your spouse: funny or romantic? Hubby and I are weird I guess. We don't really *do* cards. For any occasion. 

3. What are you most looking forward to about spring? Tearing up my front yard! My new house's yard is nasty due to lack of care before we moved in and we moved in too damn close to winter to bother starting anything before. As soon as the ground is thawed I'm ripping the place up with a giant tiller!

4. What's your favorite way to pamper yourself? Sadly, I don't really pamper myself... does giving myself a mani/pedi once in a blue moon count?

5. Does your tax return go into savings or do you spend it instantly? Spend! This year's return is going to the new house mostly