How to get a "free" gift card

Your blog post, Beth, brings to mind some advice my friend Rose Anne got when she went onto a site for hoarders.  Evidently the biggest hurdle is getting started, so the first task she was given was very simple  "Polish your kitchen sink".  She told us that she couldn't believe how that simple task was a catalyst for so many.  In order to polish the sink she had to wash dishes, but to do that she had to figure out which were clean and which were dirty, and then she had to decided whether she really wanted to wash all of that crap.  then she had to find space to put away all of the clean dishes, and so it goes.  Polishing her sink took a full day and resulted in several large green garbage bags going out the door.  Since then, it has taken her well over a year, and the offer of a larger apartment, but she did sort and move all of her stuff last fall.  I don't know if she has emptied all of the cardboard boxes yet, but she knows what's in them and they are neatly piled.

But, on the other hand, if you get rid of stuff, and there is an empty space, there is always the temptation to fill it.

So, what about the gift card.  The local Superstore sometimes will give you a $25 gift card if you spend more than $250 before tax.  Well I spent over $240, on Friday.  So, rush  back into the store to spend another $8.00.  Spent almost $18.00 to buy some steak I didn't need,  and taco seasoning.  What to do with the steak?  Put a Beef stew in the slow cooker this morning, and decided to make some Swiss Steak.  Not a favourite meal around here, but okay once in awhile.  David was in charge of portion control, and all of a sudden I had 4 meals of steak laid out.  Got it down to three, but it will take us months to eat it all, and it took a couple of hours labour.  Made me wonder if it was worth it, but then I remembered last month when money got a little tight toward the end of the month, and $25 worth of fresh fruit and veggies was quite welcome.

Yesterday, I received an invitation to teach my Free Motion and Machine Quilting workshop at Gwen Fox Gallery, in Selkirk.  I had left some preliminary information with them on Wednesday, knowing they had a Board meeting on Thursday.  Looks like it paid off.  This is for the expanded two day workshop and I will be teaching on two consecutive Saturdays, later this month.

Today's paper had a big spread on the town of Pointe du Bois, and the story that Manitoba Hydro is closing the town ( it's a "company" town, and they can do that)  All of the people have to be out within a few months, and the only store in town must close by the end of June.  Made me think about all of the summers when Dad had to work out there.  Wasn't it usually about 6 weeks at a stretch?  I remember that he used to spend his spare time picking fruit in the bush.  He would then bring it home, and Mom would just ignore it until it went bad.  So he then started to make his own wild plum jam, and, if I remember, kept making jam for many years, even after he and Phyllis moved to BC. That wasn't the only time she did that.  One summer I spent a week or more with Auntie Margaret out near Toulon, while she made some school clothes for me.  I spent time picking wild Cranberries and proudly brought them home to Mom.  She left them sitting by the door, until Dad threw them out.  I wonder if she was just annoyed about it, or, more likely, didn't know what to do with them.

Enough drivel.  David is doing well, I have some thing to look forward to over the next month, and so I am grateful