New Leaf on Three Things Thursday

This is a weird week for me.  It's short because of the holiday but jam-packed with stuff because of the day off.  I love and hate long weekends.  The weekend part is great but the coming-back-to-work part stinks.

1.  This has probably been said a million times across a million blogs already but, WTF Florida??  Casey Anthony is not guilty?  Really?  I'm so disgusted with the court system.  If I believed in hell I would want them to all burn there.

2.  I have decided that I spend/waste way too much money on things.  All kinds of things.  Things we need, things we don't need, things I want, things my kids want, food we need, food we don't need, gas, whatever.  You name it, I waste/spend too much money on it.  I am going to try to turn over a new leaf and not spend money just because I can or want to.  However, this does not mean that I am not going to enter any new races!  Oh God no!  The horrors!  I will still enter at least two more races before the end of the year.  I hope to do one more sprint tri and the-race-that-we-do-not-speak-of-lest-we-chicken-out-and-don't-enter (1/2 marathon) race.   I just need to make myself more accountable for the money that I waste that could be going towards more productive things like savings (!!) or finally getting rid of that last little bit of credit card debt or paying down the truck sooner.  I am going to try to not buy myself anymore clothing of any kind for 3 months.  We are going to eat the food out of our freezers before buying anymore food to put in the freezer.  I am going to hang clothes out on the drying rack when I can and use the dryer less.  I will eat out less.   And I will, if it kills me and them, do my darndest to make sure my kids learn the value of things and the value of hard work and that we don't need to buy everything we want to be happy.   Which kinda brings me to my next thing...

3.  My 11 year old will NOT have a cell phone.  No she will not.  I do not care if the President himself buys one and hand delivers it to her, she will not.  She is getting to that age where it is common place for every child (yes! they are still children!!) to carry a cell phone around and act like they really need one.  How did we arrive at this place where 11 year old CHILDREN need to have a cell phone?  I don't even need to have a cell phone!!!  I like my cell phone, but I can also pay for my cell phone.  With my own money.  That I earned myself.  With my own job.  <very large sigh>

I will be THAT mother.  You know.  THAT one.  Because I think it's the right thing to do.  Because I think it's stupid and wastful and indulgent to provide a child with a phone, all the while sending the message that they can't possibly live their life without one.   I will also be that mother who is at every away game so she won't need to call me when she gets home, because I will already know because I was there.  I will also be that mother that knows where she is after school and what time her practices are and where they are so I can be right there to pick her up.  No need to call me, I'm already there!  And if it's not me, it will be my husband--her father. 

Any thoughts on the above things?  Any cell phones infecting your family?  Wasteful spending got you down?    Please share--maybe we can all benefit from sharing our woes and how we deal with them!  Oh--don't forget--last day to enter my giveaway for those awesome Nike sunglasses!  Stay tuned--tomorrow I'll post the winner!!