There are times when my whole life gets sucked into a project like a snail in a vortex.
Right now, we're finishing our basement. All of my writing and most of my reading time has disappeared into the ether of the project. (I did manage to read Breaking Dawn, though, so I guess if the snail is determined enough...) :)
We hired a company to come in and do all the work, and the project is getting done in an amazing amount of time because we have big crews of people coming in and out of our house all day. So, why is it sucking all of my time away? I guess partly because the crews are getting things done so fast. It's made us have to make a lot of decisions fast, and that takes a lot of time.
But it's also sucking up a lot of mental and emotional energy. I'm constantly thinking about what phase of the project we're in and how much longer it's going to take and chewing over the decisions we have to make in the back of my head.
It's amazing how easily my energy gets sapped when other things are going on. It's not like I've been doing all that much stuff to get the basement done. Granted, up until the work started, we had to do a lot of work getting everything out of the basement. But for the last couple of weeks, that's been completely behind us, and I still feel drained all the time.
I need to practice some good meditation exercises or something - psych myself up and get back into a normal rhythm of life. I need to learn to let these kind of things take care of themselves and not let them suck my life up so easily.
#45 - Faith
We talked about faith in Relief Society yesterday and then later in the evening, I came across some of my old things my kids had pulled off the shelf. Among them were a series of poems I wrote years ago when I was in Young Women's. Each poem was on one of the Young Women values.
As I read through them, two things struck me. One is that they're not necessarily great poetry. But the other is that I like them still. So I thought, what the hey, why don't I post them on my blog? :D
So, over the next I-don't-know-how-long, I'll be posting my poems at random intervals. Watch for future installments. :)
Faith
I walk through a storm,
Blinded by rain.
Thunder rolls by,
Shaking the Earth.
Lightning strikes,
Coursing through air,
Sending brilliant light
For one split second.
Alone and lost
I stumble through
The blinding rain
And wonder -
Where do I turn?
I look around;
There's somewhere to go -
A way to my Home.
Prayerfully,
I fall to my knees.
Which way do I go?
Where do I turn?
No answer,
Only cold despair.
He must surely have
Deserted me.
Then I see a light
Far off in the East
Faintly, at first,
A candle.
It brightens
I cannot look upon it
As its brilliance
Grows stronger.
I move toward it.
Closer, closer.
The light surrounds me
Until I am overtaken
By a power
Much greater than any
I had ever felt
Before.
Love,
So strong I search
To find the source.
I feel his arms
Around me
And hear the comforting words
Welcome Home,
My daughter.
~Jennifer
One thing that strikes me about the poem on Faith is that it's written in a totally different style than the rest. All my other poems rhyme and are written in a pretty classic iambic pentameter style. They seem more childish, but also more normal. I'm not really sure why I wrote Faith differently. I wish I'd changed it up a little bit with the rest of the poems as well. Or that I'd written all of them the same. ;) Oh, well. It is what it is.
Maybe I'll write a new series of poems on the values and publish those on here someday as well. I'm still not a great poet, though, so I don't know if I could do any better. :) We'll see. If nothing else, it would be a good exercise in improving my poetry-writing abilities. If I write something I feel is significantly better, I'll post it.
As I read through them, two things struck me. One is that they're not necessarily great poetry. But the other is that I like them still. So I thought, what the hey, why don't I post them on my blog? :D
So, over the next I-don't-know-how-long, I'll be posting my poems at random intervals. Watch for future installments. :)
Faith
I walk through a storm,
Blinded by rain.
Thunder rolls by,
Shaking the Earth.
Lightning strikes,
Coursing through air,
Sending brilliant light
For one split second.
Alone and lost
I stumble through
The blinding rain
And wonder -
Where do I turn?
I look around;
There's somewhere to go -
A way to my Home.
Prayerfully,
I fall to my knees.
Which way do I go?
Where do I turn?
No answer,
Only cold despair.
He must surely have
Deserted me.
Then I see a light
Far off in the East
Faintly, at first,
A candle.
It brightens
I cannot look upon it
As its brilliance
Grows stronger.
I move toward it.
Closer, closer.
The light surrounds me
Until I am overtaken
By a power
Much greater than any
I had ever felt
Before.
Love,
So strong I search
To find the source.
I feel his arms
Around me
And hear the comforting words
Welcome Home,
My daughter.
~Jennifer
One thing that strikes me about the poem on Faith is that it's written in a totally different style than the rest. All my other poems rhyme and are written in a pretty classic iambic pentameter style. They seem more childish, but also more normal. I'm not really sure why I wrote Faith differently. I wish I'd changed it up a little bit with the rest of the poems as well. Or that I'd written all of them the same. ;) Oh, well. It is what it is.
Maybe I'll write a new series of poems on the values and publish those on here someday as well. I'm still not a great poet, though, so I don't know if I could do any better. :) We'll see. If nothing else, it would be a good exercise in improving my poetry-writing abilities. If I write something I feel is significantly better, I'll post it.
#44 - I have regrets
I didn't want to have any regrets when I looked back on raising my kids. I've heard people refer to their oldest child as their "practice baby" or something like that, and it made me so sad! I wanted to be a great mom to all my kids.
So I read tons of books and talked to people and prepared myself in every way I could. But I look back now and I have so many regrets! I tried to do my best with what I knew at the time, but the truth is, I didn't do as well as I could have, even after taking the fact that I didn't know as much as I do now into consideration.
My oldest child is so afraid of the water. She's also afraid of a lot of other things, like sliding down slides, and forget about ever getting her to go on a roller-coaster. Yeah, that'll never happen. Maybe when she's fully grown, but I even have my doubts about that.
Okay, so I have my baby in the mommy-baby swimming class at the local rec center. The first few days, she was so scared to go under water. She's only 2 1/2 and when my oldest was that age, I never in a million years would have pushed her to do something she was scared to do. But the teacher seemed confident that it would be good for them to practice going under even if they were scared about it. So I tried a couple of times, and she came up sputtering and crying, and I was so sad. But then she would wipe her face off and be okay. She clung to me and said she didn't want to do it again, but when her older siblings asked her if she had fun at swimming lessons, she said yes.
On the fourth day, she actually said yes when I asked if she was ready to dive under water. So I did it and she cried and sputtered a little and didn't want to do it again, but a minute later when I asked if she would do it one more time, she said okay.
Fast-forward to today (which was only the 5th day, by the way) and she was jumping into the water off the side of the pool over and over, begging to do it again "just one more time" every time she jumped in. We would practice kicking our feet and she'd do it for one minute and then beg to jump off the side again. Every time she jumped in, I caught her, but I'd let her face go under. And she kept begging to do it again.
So now I feel terrible about my oldest child. If I'd pushed her just a little bit and told her she was okay instead of acting just as scared as she was, would she be scared of the water now? I did take her to the pool a lot when she was 2 and 3, etc. so I thought I'd done everything I could. I thought if I let her go at her own pace, she'd get better at it as time went on.
But, I'm a logical person and I like to look at things from all sides. So I have to ask myself, if I had done what I'm doing with my baby and she was still afraid now, would I regret pushing her just as I regret not pushing her now? Would I think her fears were my fault?
Maybe there's no way to get out of regretting our parenting and second-guessing our methods. There are probably some people whose kids are just awesome and they don't really have any problems, and those people probably think it was all because of their awesome parenting, instead of thinking it was just dumb luck, which is what it probably was. :D
I just look at my sweet big girl, who's still more afraid of the water than my baby after only 5 days of swimming lessons, and I feel so terrible. I don't want her to be so fearful. But it's easy to see things differently in retrospect. There are probably things I'm doing even now that "seem like a good idea at the time" but that I'll look back on with regrets in the future.
How do you get around regrets? How do you deal with knowing that you could have done better? How do you look at any problems and challenges your kids are going through, knowing that you could have helped if you'd only done things differently?
So I read tons of books and talked to people and prepared myself in every way I could. But I look back now and I have so many regrets! I tried to do my best with what I knew at the time, but the truth is, I didn't do as well as I could have, even after taking the fact that I didn't know as much as I do now into consideration.
My oldest child is so afraid of the water. She's also afraid of a lot of other things, like sliding down slides, and forget about ever getting her to go on a roller-coaster. Yeah, that'll never happen. Maybe when she's fully grown, but I even have my doubts about that.
Okay, so I have my baby in the mommy-baby swimming class at the local rec center. The first few days, she was so scared to go under water. She's only 2 1/2 and when my oldest was that age, I never in a million years would have pushed her to do something she was scared to do. But the teacher seemed confident that it would be good for them to practice going under even if they were scared about it. So I tried a couple of times, and she came up sputtering and crying, and I was so sad. But then she would wipe her face off and be okay. She clung to me and said she didn't want to do it again, but when her older siblings asked her if she had fun at swimming lessons, she said yes.
On the fourth day, she actually said yes when I asked if she was ready to dive under water. So I did it and she cried and sputtered a little and didn't want to do it again, but a minute later when I asked if she would do it one more time, she said okay.
Fast-forward to today (which was only the 5th day, by the way) and she was jumping into the water off the side of the pool over and over, begging to do it again "just one more time" every time she jumped in. We would practice kicking our feet and she'd do it for one minute and then beg to jump off the side again. Every time she jumped in, I caught her, but I'd let her face go under. And she kept begging to do it again.
So now I feel terrible about my oldest child. If I'd pushed her just a little bit and told her she was okay instead of acting just as scared as she was, would she be scared of the water now? I did take her to the pool a lot when she was 2 and 3, etc. so I thought I'd done everything I could. I thought if I let her go at her own pace, she'd get better at it as time went on.
But, I'm a logical person and I like to look at things from all sides. So I have to ask myself, if I had done what I'm doing with my baby and she was still afraid now, would I regret pushing her just as I regret not pushing her now? Would I think her fears were my fault?
Maybe there's no way to get out of regretting our parenting and second-guessing our methods. There are probably some people whose kids are just awesome and they don't really have any problems, and those people probably think it was all because of their awesome parenting, instead of thinking it was just dumb luck, which is what it probably was. :D
I just look at my sweet big girl, who's still more afraid of the water than my baby after only 5 days of swimming lessons, and I feel so terrible. I don't want her to be so fearful. But it's easy to see things differently in retrospect. There are probably things I'm doing even now that "seem like a good idea at the time" but that I'll look back on with regrets in the future.
How do you get around regrets? How do you deal with knowing that you could have done better? How do you look at any problems and challenges your kids are going through, knowing that you could have helped if you'd only done things differently?
# 43 - The Cause of Colic
I've discovered the cause of colic.
The bad news is, there is no cure. But, if one understands the cause, it can make the problem a little better, at least.
See, the thing that causes colic is homesickness. A baby is born, and they're filled with hope for their new life on earth. They're excited about having a body. And then, after a few weeks goes by and the reality of how long and hard this life is actually going to be sinks in, they get homesick.
I wrote a poem the other day about that homesickness and I'm going to share it here.
Homesick
I'm not crying because I'm hungry
Or cold or wet or overstimulated.
No, right now I'm just crying
Because I miss heaven.
Don't get me wrong -
I love you and daddy and my home here.
But I miss my old friends
Who I just said good-bye to.
You see, I lived in heaven
For a very long time
And it was beautiful and lovely
And there was no pain.
I knew this life
Would be hard.
I knew there would be pain
And sadness and fear.
But now that I'm here,
I'm a little scared.
Pain is more painful
Than I expected.
They told me this life would be
Like the blink of an eye
Compared to my life in heaven
And all of the eternities.
But so far, I've been stuck for weeks
In this infant body
And the end
Is nowhere in sight.
So if I'm crying
And you can't seem to fix it
No matter how hard you try,
No matter how hard I cry,
Just hold me in your arms
And tell me it'll all be okay
And let me cry and mourn
For my home back in heaven.
~Jennifer
The bad news is, there is no cure. But, if one understands the cause, it can make the problem a little better, at least.
See, the thing that causes colic is homesickness. A baby is born, and they're filled with hope for their new life on earth. They're excited about having a body. And then, after a few weeks goes by and the reality of how long and hard this life is actually going to be sinks in, they get homesick.
I wrote a poem the other day about that homesickness and I'm going to share it here.
Homesick
I'm not crying because I'm hungry
Or cold or wet or overstimulated.
No, right now I'm just crying
Because I miss heaven.
Don't get me wrong -
I love you and daddy and my home here.
But I miss my old friends
Who I just said good-bye to.
You see, I lived in heaven
For a very long time
And it was beautiful and lovely
And there was no pain.
I knew this life
Would be hard.
I knew there would be pain
And sadness and fear.
But now that I'm here,
I'm a little scared.
Pain is more painful
Than I expected.
They told me this life would be
Like the blink of an eye
Compared to my life in heaven
And all of the eternities.
But so far, I've been stuck for weeks
In this infant body
And the end
Is nowhere in sight.
So if I'm crying
And you can't seem to fix it
No matter how hard you try,
No matter how hard I cry,
Just hold me in your arms
And tell me it'll all be okay
And let me cry and mourn
For my home back in heaven.
~Jennifer
#42 - The Power of the Mind
The mind is an amazingly powerful thing.
Last night, I had a lot of things on my mind and I kept going over and over them. Several times, I got up, turned the light on, and wrote some things down to try and get them off my mind so I could sleep, but my brain just wouldn't turn off.
After a while, I had an idea. I decided to imagine that I was inside a bubble and all the thoughts I was having were outside. When they would try to come into my mind, they would bounce off the bubble. In other words, I wouldn't let any thoughts linger in my mind or dwell on them. This was just a way to visualize it. Then I started to realize that my thoughts about keeping thoughts out of the bubble were distracting me, so I tried to banish them outside the bubble, too, which was a little more difficult, but it worked. Soon, I was asleep.
This idea came from a similar idea I got from someone during a conversation years ago. We were talking about how negative images would replay over and over in our minds, such as a person falling into a manhole. No matter how hard we tried to get the person to step over the manhole, they would keep falling inside. I don't know if anyone out there has had this problem or if I'm just weird, but I find myself getting these repetitive kinds of thoughts a lot.
The person I was talking to told me that they would imagine that image floating away off to the edges of their mind, and finally it would go away and their mind was free to imagine something else.
I was thinking about that this morning after my sleep method last night, and I think it can be applied to just about everything in life.
I've suffered from depression all my life, and I've always heard about how you have to have positive self-talk and all that. It's not that I didn't believe in it, I just didn't know how to DO it. But over the years, I've come to realize that the thing that makes me the most depressed is when I go over and over the thing that is depressing me. If I start thinking about something else, the depression will lift - at least for the time being, as short as that may be.
So, the experiment I'm going to try is banishing those thoughts outside my "bubble". There is an element of wanting to hold onto the hurt to prove just how much the person or situation has hurt me. Not consciously, of course, but it does happen. So I don't know how easily banishing those thoughts will be. But I'm going to try it. If I find myself not being able to reflect those negative thoughts, I'll have to think of what kind of ways I can visualize the act of letting go of that need to justify my pain by holding onto it.
I also want to apply these ideas to my writing. When I think what I'm writing is no good, I can just put that thought outside the bubble or send it flying off in a balloon.
This whole idea is bringing a quote to mind that I just love. I think it applies beautifully and demonstrates just how important our thoughts are in shaping our lives.
Sow a thought and you reap an action;
sow an act and you reap a habit;
sow a habit and you reap a character;
sow a character and you reap a destiny.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Last night, I had a lot of things on my mind and I kept going over and over them. Several times, I got up, turned the light on, and wrote some things down to try and get them off my mind so I could sleep, but my brain just wouldn't turn off.
After a while, I had an idea. I decided to imagine that I was inside a bubble and all the thoughts I was having were outside. When they would try to come into my mind, they would bounce off the bubble. In other words, I wouldn't let any thoughts linger in my mind or dwell on them. This was just a way to visualize it. Then I started to realize that my thoughts about keeping thoughts out of the bubble were distracting me, so I tried to banish them outside the bubble, too, which was a little more difficult, but it worked. Soon, I was asleep.
This idea came from a similar idea I got from someone during a conversation years ago. We were talking about how negative images would replay over and over in our minds, such as a person falling into a manhole. No matter how hard we tried to get the person to step over the manhole, they would keep falling inside. I don't know if anyone out there has had this problem or if I'm just weird, but I find myself getting these repetitive kinds of thoughts a lot.
The person I was talking to told me that they would imagine that image floating away off to the edges of their mind, and finally it would go away and their mind was free to imagine something else.
I was thinking about that this morning after my sleep method last night, and I think it can be applied to just about everything in life.
I've suffered from depression all my life, and I've always heard about how you have to have positive self-talk and all that. It's not that I didn't believe in it, I just didn't know how to DO it. But over the years, I've come to realize that the thing that makes me the most depressed is when I go over and over the thing that is depressing me. If I start thinking about something else, the depression will lift - at least for the time being, as short as that may be.
So, the experiment I'm going to try is banishing those thoughts outside my "bubble". There is an element of wanting to hold onto the hurt to prove just how much the person or situation has hurt me. Not consciously, of course, but it does happen. So I don't know how easily banishing those thoughts will be. But I'm going to try it. If I find myself not being able to reflect those negative thoughts, I'll have to think of what kind of ways I can visualize the act of letting go of that need to justify my pain by holding onto it.
I also want to apply these ideas to my writing. When I think what I'm writing is no good, I can just put that thought outside the bubble or send it flying off in a balloon.
This whole idea is bringing a quote to mind that I just love. I think it applies beautifully and demonstrates just how important our thoughts are in shaping our lives.
Sow a thought and you reap an action;
sow an act and you reap a habit;
sow a habit and you reap a character;
sow a character and you reap a destiny.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
#41 - Book Review
I want to write a book review, but I'm only on page 27.
The book is The Holy Secret by James L. Ferrell
First of all, I have to out myself as an Arbinger Institute junkie. I've been trying to process their writings since Bonds That Make Us Free was just a bound manuscript called, "Bonds of Anger, Bonds of Love." They've also written another book called The Anatomy of Peace, which is also great.
James L. Ferrell is the managing director of the Institute, and is also the author of The Peacegiver, one of my all-time favorite books. I actually have two copies on the shelf - one to lend out to friends and family, and the other to keep in case I don't get the extra back. :)
So, when I saw "The Holy Secret" in the bookstore, I bought it without a second thought. Now, only 27 pages into the book, insights are opening up all over the place. For instance, does anybody not know the scriptures, "I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents..." or "My father dwelt in a tent"? I've had those two pretty much memorized since I was a teenager. But just now, I saw them in whole new ways.
The very beginning of the book didn't draw me right in, and I kept going, just holding on to hope that Ferrell wouldn't let me down. So when you start reading, don't put it down if the story doesn't immediately grab you.
Of course, coming from a person who's only read 27 pages, you can take all of this with a grain of salt. But you can't ignore my advice to read "The Peacegiver," "The Anatomy of Peace," and "Bonds That Make Us Free". Those are all excellent books and I hope all of you go out and get them today. And I'll be back here soon to write a proper review of The Holy Secret.
Happy reading. :)
Post Edited to Add:
Sorry, I never did do a full book review of this book. I did end up really loving the book and I felt like I learned a lot of things about how to study the scriptures, worship on the Sabbath day, and learn from the temple ceremony.
But, having said that, I felt that the book turned to a different focus throughout the book. Instead of teaching us how to learn from those things, I felt that he started teaching us what we should be learning from them. It has been a while since I finished the book and I'm sorry I neglected to come right back here and write my impressions. I just didn't do it because I wasn't sure at that point what to write. But now, I can't remember what I wanted to write! I guess either way, I lose. :D
I did still really like the book and I learned a lot from it. I just wasn't quite as excited about it by the end, and the above thoughts are the only real reason I can think of as to why that was the case.
The book is The Holy Secret by James L. Ferrell
First of all, I have to out myself as an Arbinger Institute junkie. I've been trying to process their writings since Bonds That Make Us Free was just a bound manuscript called, "Bonds of Anger, Bonds of Love." They've also written another book called The Anatomy of Peace, which is also great.
James L. Ferrell is the managing director of the Institute, and is also the author of The Peacegiver, one of my all-time favorite books. I actually have two copies on the shelf - one to lend out to friends and family, and the other to keep in case I don't get the extra back. :)
So, when I saw "The Holy Secret" in the bookstore, I bought it without a second thought. Now, only 27 pages into the book, insights are opening up all over the place. For instance, does anybody not know the scriptures, "I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents..." or "My father dwelt in a tent"? I've had those two pretty much memorized since I was a teenager. But just now, I saw them in whole new ways.
The very beginning of the book didn't draw me right in, and I kept going, just holding on to hope that Ferrell wouldn't let me down. So when you start reading, don't put it down if the story doesn't immediately grab you.
Of course, coming from a person who's only read 27 pages, you can take all of this with a grain of salt. But you can't ignore my advice to read "The Peacegiver," "The Anatomy of Peace," and "Bonds That Make Us Free". Those are all excellent books and I hope all of you go out and get them today. And I'll be back here soon to write a proper review of The Holy Secret.
Happy reading. :)
Post Edited to Add:
Sorry, I never did do a full book review of this book. I did end up really loving the book and I felt like I learned a lot of things about how to study the scriptures, worship on the Sabbath day, and learn from the temple ceremony.
But, having said that, I felt that the book turned to a different focus throughout the book. Instead of teaching us how to learn from those things, I felt that he started teaching us what we should be learning from them. It has been a while since I finished the book and I'm sorry I neglected to come right back here and write my impressions. I just didn't do it because I wasn't sure at that point what to write. But now, I can't remember what I wanted to write! I guess either way, I lose. :D
I did still really like the book and I learned a lot from it. I just wasn't quite as excited about it by the end, and the above thoughts are the only real reason I can think of as to why that was the case.
#40 - Gas Prices
I haven't always been concerned about rising gas prices.
I was about to explain all our budgeting highs and lows, but I'll spare you the details. Basically, I've recently decided I really need to watch my gas output, because there's no reason not to try and save money on gas.
So, here are my tips on saving gas. And, before you think they won't make very much of a difference, I went from getting 350 miles out of a tank to getting 450. Does that get your attention? :)
Edited to say: I'm not actually getting 100 extra miles out of every tank of gas. I just happened to come out of a tank that only gave me 350 miles, and then got a tank that got me 450. But the averages are a lot closer to the middle. Still, you should do all this stuff! You save money; just not as much as I thought.
1) Turn your car off at the drive-through! I can't stand to hear people's cars running while they wait ten minutes for their food, or at the pharmacy drive-through. I used to be one of them, thinking that if I turned the car off and then back on, I'd use more gas than just keeping it running. Wrong! That used to be true, back in the days of carburetors, but with fuel injection, it's not true anymore. When I'm waiting for the train, I turn my car off, too. And I can't stand to hear someone's car running when they pull into someone's driveway to drop something off at their house, and they end up talking for 10 minutes. Turn your car off!! :)
2) Watch the tachometer! You know, that little thing that shows rpm's. If you don't have one, pay attention to the sound of the engine. Accelerate gently, shifting up whenever the engine starts revving up very much. If you do have a tachometer, keep the rpm's below 2000. I try to keep it around 1500 when I can, but no higher than 2000. Sometimes, you have to accelerate faster than that to get out into traffic, or going up the on-ramp of the freeway, but whenever possible, keep it down. If you accelerate gently, the car will shift up a lot sooner. Sometimes, I even let off the gas around 25, 35, and 45 mph, just enough to get it to shift up, before speeding up more.
3) Drive slower! Seriously, it makes a big difference! Going down from 75 to 65 saves a lot of money at the pump. My husband's boss did an experiment with one of those fancy cars that actually shows how many miles to the gallon you're getting on a display on the dashboard. Going 55, he got something like 25 miles to the gallon, and going 45, he got 40. The faster you drive, the more wind resistance you get, and the more gas it takes to get that big hunk of iron moving down the road.
(I edited this post to correct my mistake - I was calling it down shifting, when really the car is shifting up to the next gear. Speaking of down shifting, though, I was thinking about the issue of cruise control. That's another way to save mileage. But use it wisely. If your car is revving way up on the rpm's to keep the car at the same speed, turn it off and go on manual mode for a while until the road is more even. It's not just going uphill that makes the rpm's go up, either. Going down a hill, the car will shift down to slow the car down. It's better to turn cruise control off and use your brakes to slow down. You'll save a lot of gas that way.)
I used to get frustrated with people who took forever to accelerate, and now I'm bugging the rest of the world. I don't care, if it gets me 30% more bang for my buck at the gas pump!
So, that's my thought for the day. Drive slower, turn your car off when you're waiting, accelerate gently. You'll save a LOT of money.
(One last thought. We know people who are converting to natural gas, and in Utah, you can get it for $.65 per gallon. We're thinking about it, but it costs quite a bit to convert the car and we haven't taken the plunge yet. Something to look into if you're serious about saving money. Also, if you have a long commute, you could get your money back on the conversion in a matter of months)
I was about to explain all our budgeting highs and lows, but I'll spare you the details. Basically, I've recently decided I really need to watch my gas output, because there's no reason not to try and save money on gas.
So, here are my tips on saving gas. And, before you think they won't make very much of a difference, I went from getting 350 miles out of a tank to getting 450. Does that get your attention? :)
Edited to say: I'm not actually getting 100 extra miles out of every tank of gas. I just happened to come out of a tank that only gave me 350 miles, and then got a tank that got me 450. But the averages are a lot closer to the middle. Still, you should do all this stuff! You save money; just not as much as I thought.
1) Turn your car off at the drive-through! I can't stand to hear people's cars running while they wait ten minutes for their food, or at the pharmacy drive-through. I used to be one of them, thinking that if I turned the car off and then back on, I'd use more gas than just keeping it running. Wrong! That used to be true, back in the days of carburetors, but with fuel injection, it's not true anymore. When I'm waiting for the train, I turn my car off, too. And I can't stand to hear someone's car running when they pull into someone's driveway to drop something off at their house, and they end up talking for 10 minutes. Turn your car off!! :)
2) Watch the tachometer! You know, that little thing that shows rpm's. If you don't have one, pay attention to the sound of the engine. Accelerate gently, shifting up whenever the engine starts revving up very much. If you do have a tachometer, keep the rpm's below 2000. I try to keep it around 1500 when I can, but no higher than 2000. Sometimes, you have to accelerate faster than that to get out into traffic, or going up the on-ramp of the freeway, but whenever possible, keep it down. If you accelerate gently, the car will shift up a lot sooner. Sometimes, I even let off the gas around 25, 35, and 45 mph, just enough to get it to shift up, before speeding up more.
3) Drive slower! Seriously, it makes a big difference! Going down from 75 to 65 saves a lot of money at the pump. My husband's boss did an experiment with one of those fancy cars that actually shows how many miles to the gallon you're getting on a display on the dashboard. Going 55, he got something like 25 miles to the gallon, and going 45, he got 40. The faster you drive, the more wind resistance you get, and the more gas it takes to get that big hunk of iron moving down the road.
(I edited this post to correct my mistake - I was calling it down shifting, when really the car is shifting up to the next gear. Speaking of down shifting, though, I was thinking about the issue of cruise control. That's another way to save mileage. But use it wisely. If your car is revving way up on the rpm's to keep the car at the same speed, turn it off and go on manual mode for a while until the road is more even. It's not just going uphill that makes the rpm's go up, either. Going down a hill, the car will shift down to slow the car down. It's better to turn cruise control off and use your brakes to slow down. You'll save a lot of gas that way.)
I used to get frustrated with people who took forever to accelerate, and now I'm bugging the rest of the world. I don't care, if it gets me 30% more bang for my buck at the gas pump!
So, that's my thought for the day. Drive slower, turn your car off when you're waiting, accelerate gently. You'll save a LOT of money.
(One last thought. We know people who are converting to natural gas, and in Utah, you can get it for $.65 per gallon. We're thinking about it, but it costs quite a bit to convert the car and we haven't taken the plunge yet. Something to look into if you're serious about saving money. Also, if you have a long commute, you could get your money back on the conversion in a matter of months)
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