One Hundred Dollars a Month

Confession time. I’m not perfect. Now I’ve known that for years, but sometimes this blog of mine glosses over that fact and all you see are colorful pictures of awesomeness. And I’m a little awesome too. But awesome people still make mistakes {lots of them, but who’s counting, right?}.

You see I had a site redesign many {many} months ago. During that redesign, my contact page was revamped making it easier to contact me. Or so you all thought. I guess the jokes on you, because I’m a technological idiot sometimes. All those hundreds of messages you’ve been sending me over the last many months were no longer delivered to me via email like they used to be. They were tucked safely inside a “comments” folder on the back end of the site, never to be seen by me until, well, now.

Yikes.

There were about 600 comments hidden in there that I never knew existed.

Double yikes.

Truth be told, it’s really a miracle I can even upload a photo, so this should come as no surprise. While Martha Stewart strives for perfection, I strive to simply brush my teeth and change out of pj’s before my kids get home from school every day. Perfection is not a language I speak.  So forgive me? Pretty please? I promise, now that I know where to find them, I’ll stop ignoring your comments and reply as soon as I am able. Like I’m going to do right now for a few of those more pressing comments I found trapped in the abyss:

Hi Mavis- Love your blog, and I just wanted to mention that the number of typos, or auto-correct mistakes, seems to have increased over the last few months. So much so that I have stopped following the blog. I came back today to check it out, and the typo in the first sentence I read inspired me to contact you to let you know. I can’t imagine all the hard work that goes into your blog, and it’s a shame when simple mistakes take away from that. Thanks so much for taking the time to read my message. Cindy

Amen, Cindy. Amen. I’m not a writer. I accidentally have a blog with thousands of followers. I didn’t set out to write for people other than my very forgiving family to read {although I’m totally glad you guys show up every day!}. I’m a one man show, so sometimes it’s way more important for me to spend my time getting the content out there for you guys and way less important to spend hours editing. I know occasionally my posts can be used as an example in a high school English class on “How Not to Punctuate,” but I’m not losing sleep over it. 😉

I get that that might be like nails on a chalkboard to all you Journalism majors, but it’s really the best I can do. Here’s hoping if you put some punctuation blinders on, you’ll still be able to get some helpful tips and useful info out of my site. I always welcome your corrections, so get out your red pens and feel free to be grammar Nazis for me. But if my shortcomings are too much for you to handle, the beauty about living in a free country is you can click on that little “x” at the top of your screen and make me go away!

ps. Cindy, the commas before and after “or auto-correct mistakes” in your email are technically unnecessary and would be removed by an editor. But luckily I’m a pretty forgiving person, so I overlooked that error and kept reading your response. 😉

Hi Mavis, I just wondered what camera you use for your great photos. Thanks!

Good question. I use a Canon EOS Rebel T3i and I love it. I’m not the best photographer, so it’s a pretty forgiving camera. It takes some great shots, makes me look way more talented in that department than I am, and is pretty easy to use. If you’re in the market for a camera, I’d totally recommend the one I have. I bought it because the reviews were great and said it was really user friendly and it totally is.

Hello- I have really enjoyed your blog! I was wondering if there are any special tricks to asking for the scrap boxes? Magic words? back flips? No but really do you just ask the manager? Thanks for the wonderful blog candy!  Jessie

Although I can do a mean back flip, I figured showing off my mad skillz down the aisles of the store would be messy and make Mr. Produce man hate me. Kinda defeats the purpose, so I reserve that talent for smaller audiences. Truth though? I just asked nicely. He voiced some concerns {in his case, taking time to set the scraps aside for me and worrying I’d never consistently show up}, so we began on a trial basis. Maybe suggest that with your produce manager and see what they say?

Mavis- I am Nick Butcher’s grandma and my husband and I are both gardeners. Thanks for your website, read it every day. I also want to thank you for being so nice to Nick at the marathon.  Joy

Joy, the pleasure was all ours. We had the best time surviving the Tacoma City Marathon with Nick.  Should have guessed a great young man like that came from great stock who aren’t afraid to get their hands a little dirty! Thanks for reading and tell Nick we said hi!

We were wondering if your husband works full time with you or if you have income that comes in to the household as well through him.

I’m planning on winning the lottery any day now {well as soon as I start playing!}, but until that happens, my husband will continue to work his full-time job outside our home to support our family!First off, I LOVE YOUR BLOG!! I wanted to tell you that everything I click at the top of your blog, it always takes me back to June 2, 2013. It doesn’t want to take me to your latest post. 🙁 Hope it’s fixable! [A] dedicated reader, Angie

First off, thanks so much for the praise! Second, I’ve looked back on the posts from June, 2nd and the only conclusion I can come to is that the universe is trying to tell you to make the Rhubarb Walnut Muffins I posted the recipe for that day. I get it. They were that good. Seriously though, try clearing your browser’s cache and it should fix the problem!

So, the question I have is… how do you define “groceries?” Are groceries just your food, or does it include toiletries, soap/shampoo/rinse/laundry soap, toilet paper, and pet food?

Technically, Webster says groceries are anything sold by a grocer, but Webster also says the word “amazeballs” doesn’t exist, so what does he know?! I just define groceries for budgeting purposes here on the site as any food item my family eats or drinks for nourishment. So milk counts but drinkable cough medicine wouldn’t. Got it?

Why are your Gnomes in [my] yard???????? A lady in a black van put them in my front yard this evening?????

What’s weird about a black van pulling up under the cover of darkness and randomly dumping gnomes in your yard? Okay, okay. It does require some explaining, but trust me when I say it was for a super good cause. The gnomes were a part of our Send in the Gnomes fundraiser where we raised over $5,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. We gnomed people across the country and had a blast doing it!

How do we send pictures to you of our garden? We tried potatoes this year, and I wanted to share our experience. Thanks!

Here’s everything you ever wanted to know {and a ton of stuff you didn’t} about how to submit your photos and stories to me. My Mavis mailbox needs a whole new crop of stories and reader submissions for 2014, so send ’em on in!

Whatever happened to Andy the Plant Whisperer?  

Andy was growing something he shouldn’t have in my garden so I gave him the boot. Nuf said.

So there you have it. All your burning questions answered 5+ months after you asked them. While I’m not always super duper punctual, I swear I’ll be faster about responding going forward! Unless technology changes again and then I totally can’t be held responsible!

Peace Out Girl Scouts,

Mavis