Last Winter, Last Breath, Final Goodbye

It was Friday, March 10th, when we got a call about my  father-in-law.  I was  attending a school mass at church where the bishop was the officiating priest and my son was reading at the mass so he wanted me there.  For some reason, I was uneasy inside the church while the mass is going on.  The  unexplained feeling lasted until the mass  was over.   After giving my kids a hug, I went out the door and I was surprised to see my husband waiting for me at the side of the church.  I thought he wasn't feeling well so he came home from work. 

 I learned  from him that his sister have called our home phone and his niece texted her that Dad  had turned for the worse.  I was surprised to learned about it because  he was getting better  when they last told us  about him although he was still in the hospital and recovering.

 So we went to the hospital where all of the  family were there   already and saying their goodbyes.  The doctor talked to all of us and advised us that he will be  transferred  to the hospice  and that they would do everything to  make him comfortable.  The doctor told us that his  internal organ is  starting to shut down that's why he is having a hard time  breathing.

 It was hard seeing my father-in-law in such condition.  It might  seem harsh  but I prayed  to God to end his suffering and let him rest in peace.  He took his last breath  the next day.

 My FIL took his last breath at Trinity  hospital surrounded by his family.  It was his  last winter here on earth.  I was  thankful that he is no longer in pain.  He can be with his sweetheart and two sons on the other side.

 We said our final goodbyes to him on March 15th  at Chapel Hill Memorial, it was a very cold day.   The freezing weather  did not hinder from people in attending his funeral.  We were surprised to see a lot have attended even his former neighbors.

 This was my second time attending a funeral on a very cold day.  My first was my husband's  oldest brother who died of cancer.   I take cold weather as a sign from up there  that  memories  will be forever cherished.

 As a world war 2 veteran, my FIL was honored by a 21-gun salute.  We thank  the honor guard who came and  did the ceremony.

 The young guy who   folded the   flag was crying even and he doesn't even know my FIL.  The flag is  normally given to the  female  member of the family but my sister-in-law  decided to give it to my husband.  She said that it would be fitting for my husband to receive it since he  is a veteran as well,

 I would like to share this  poem written and published by a conservative poet Tom Zart, the most published poet  on the web.  It's title bravery.

Many brave souls lived before now, 

Unwept and unknown by their face. 

Lost somewhere in the distant night, 

'Till a poet chronicles their grace.  

True bravery is shown by performing, 

Without witness, what one might be 

Capable of before the world, 

Without any or all to see.

How great the brave who rest in peace, 

All blessings from heaven to earth. 

They gave our country but their best, 

Those destined to be brave from birth.

 I also would like to share this beautiful poem written by Jamey Wysocki entitled "I Am Learning How To Live by"

I am learning how to live

In a new way

Since that day

You were taken away.

I am learning how to live

With the things left unsaid

Knowing I got to say them

With every tear that I shed.

I am learning how to live

By embracing the pain

Knowing that you live on

Through the memories that remain.

I am learning how to live

Knowing I will never again see your face

And I have peace knowing

You’re in a better place.

I am learning how to live

Knowing you’re in God’s care

It gives me the strength to move on

And makes the pain much easier to bear.

 I am so glad that  winter is over and that my FIL is now in peace and no longer suffering.  It gives us peace as well knowing that he is now  with the love of his life.

On another note, let's talk about weather, shall we?  The first week of Spring was still freezing.  All the   plants that started to bud have wilted  since that last snow fall.  I was suppose to get this heater/fan  in early February but the shipment got lost so I am just now  given the chance to test it.

 This dual zone oscillating heater with remote will be perfect  for my laundry room as it stays  cold  down there.  I always  shiver when I am doing laundry.  This would  have been a perfect thing that we could have used when we were working at our detached garage last winter.  We built some  storage  area  there  so we could arrange all of our stuff that we usually use  outdoors and for maintaining the vehicles.

 This dual zone oscillating ceramic heater and tower fan is  engineered to provide rapid heat on a wintry night, and non-heated airflow for relief on a hot summer day, with a programmable 12-hour timer.  So we could use this during summer time as well when we are working at the garage.  We still have to built storage on the other side of it since we couldn't finish doing it last winter, it was too cold and our portable  heater wasn't enough to warm us all up.

Just like Ozeri's  tower fans, this ultra thin space-saving design enhances room decor and features a touch button LED display.  It has an extended range remote control unit, and an elegant sturdy glass base that reduces accidental tip-over.  You can buy this on amazon.  It might not be the item you want to buy now that the winter is over but you can always use it for the next winter season.

Disclosure: The owner of this blog was NOT financially compensated to write this review.  I was provided with the product/s mentioned  to help me  facilitate this review but  opinions are my own.

It's Not Just about School Work, You Have to Teach Your Children about Life Too

A common problem in this day and age is that people feel as if their time at school didn’t prepare them enough for adulthood and adult-life, and that they were just thrust into it without really understanding what they were doing, and still don’t. The aspects of adulthood that this refers to is things like the value of money, the value of hard work and the value of spending time with family. Does school really prepare students for adult life? If you don’t think it does, then take matters into your own hands and make sure your kids are prepared for adulthood straight away once they grow into it.

You can start by making sure that they understand the value of money, and how they have to work hard to earn it and then subsequently earn what they wish to spend it on. You can entice your children to do things such as their homework, good work at school or even household chores by offering them a coin in return if they do it. This could simply be spare pieces of shrapnel that you have lying around in the bottom of your purse or wallet that means virtually nothing to you, but you could tell them that you will have it back off them in exchange for gifts such as extra time on their games console or being able to stay up a bit later on the weekend. This would mean that you are teaching them that they have to work hard, and sometimes do things that aren’t fun, in order to earn physical pieces of money as well as teaching them the fundamentals of basic earning and spending as they exchange their newfound fortune for gifts that they really want. You could even go one step further and offer them specialised and child-friendly coins or paper bills in order to help your children recognise that achievement, good performance and being a good person is met by rewards. If this interests you, then why not go the whole hog and and purchase a coin case that will be a form of inspiration for your children as it will be a constant reminder that it needs to be filled, and the only way they can fill it is by working hard and earning coins. The technique of offering such coins and coin cases is a great tactic for not only parents, but for teachers, coaches and those of you who are in charge of scout groups. The coins are affordable, but still cost more than using your spare cash; however, if you think it may not seem like a wise thing to spend your money on, if implemented correctly it can be.

Teach your children about money

You should also seek to teach your children the importance of spending time with family. You should do so trying to never cut contact with any member of family unless you really have to, because if your children grow up thinking that one family member can be ignored, they may think that all family can be ignored. You should also try to implement on them your family’s history in as fun a way as possible so that they don’t get bored. A way to do so is to blend talking about the history in with normal conversation as much as possible. You can find more family history activities for children here.

Family time with your children

So, if you don’t want your children to be hit by adulthood and not have the life lessons or tools to properly deal with it, then take the matter of preparing them for it into your own hands because the teachers at their school have enough on their hands in trying to teach them academically.

Tax Season: The Effect of Buying and Selling a House

I can't believe it's been a year since we bought  this home that we are now living in.  Time flies so fast that I can still remember  being so busy putting things away' or trying to find things in a pile of boxes.  We bought  this  home in March of 2016 but we didn't really  moved here until the end of June 2016.  We decided to do some   home improvement before we  moved in.  T

We bought our first home  in 2006, lived in it for ten years  then  it was no longer a good size for our growing family.  We bought it for $85k and sold it for $107k.  If you look at the price you would think that we  made money off the price that we sold it but we put around $40  on home improvement so it just work out to be  the same.  So based from our experience, there's not really an effect when you buy a  new house and sell the  old one you lived in for over ten years.

Hubby and I  thought that we would be  paying  taxes  since we sold the house but thank goodness that we did not.  We did our tax today and we did not anticipate of having a refund  because of the property that we sold but we still got a little bit back.  I was relieved!  I told my husband that if we ever have to pay taxes for the house that we sold, we are toast since the money  that we got  from the sell is already spent in improving this new home.  We  spent $16,726 for the new windows.  It was a  necessary  home improvement that we needed to do because  the existing windows were in pretty bad shape that it was  affecting our energy bills.  Owning a house consist of constant home improvement needs.  We already put in around  $25 thousand in this  home and we just owned this for a year.  With that expenses, the value of the home only raise  up to $2k, oh well.  I am just glad that we did not pay any additional tax for selling our former house.  The next big project that we have to  tackle next time is having  new kitchen but that would be  in the years to come, maybe if I win the lottery lol.