So can I. HA!
I have to get my rear in gear and plant the rest of my herbs and greens (I'll post my list later) before CiBaby and I go off on a secret excursion tomorrow, leaving before the butt crack of dawn. More on that later, I don't want to spoil the surprise.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Earth Day 2008
Today is Earth Day 2008. It's a gorgeous day outside. I've opened the windows to let the light and fresh air in. Not only is it beautiful out, it's also a day to reflect on what more we can do to keep our planet healthy and make it even better.
Eat locally. Be it from a local farmer or your own garden. Seek out farmers markets and locally grown food in your co-op/grocery/major supermarket, find restaurants in your area who support local agriculture. This not only keeps money within your own community it also reduces the cost of food due to transportation costs and reduces emissions. If you garden plant just a little more for the winter. Canning is "in." Plant an extra row of produce for your neighbors or seek out a food shelf that will take produce and give to the needy. These are hard times for a lot of people and the number of food shelf visits is increasing tremendously.
Admission that there's more we can all do. It costs too much, you say? At least replace items as they need to be. Something I've wrestled with is getting rid of all of our regular light bulbs for compact fluorescent lights (CLFs), but that's expensive. Instead I've opted to replace our burned out standard incandescent bulbs with the CLFs. Using up our non-organic pantry items and buy organic the next time. It's a process, but little by little it can be done without wasting what you already have on hand.
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle/Rethink. Reduce your consumption. Do you really need it? Can you reuse an item? Repurpose it? Could someone else? If it can't be reused can you recycle it? Currently T-Daddy and I are having work done in our home which produced construction waste, which just made me cringe. I was sick at the thought of throwing away a whole lot of drywall. It really wasn't the money, it was the waste. Trashing it wasn't the answer. T-Daddy did a little research and found that we could bring our waste to a local site to be recycled into new drywall. Yes it did cost a bit more than just dumping it but it felt better in our souls. The next idea is to rethink your purchases and how you buy them. Does your grocer have bulk items? Our local grocer and co-ops have an extensive selection of bulk items. Now, the key is to bring your own reused container and not take a new bag/container! Weigh your container before going to the store and that should come off the total weight. Bring your own bag (I'm sure you've heard this one before!) to take your purchases home. If you don't have a supply of canvas/etc bags at least bring back the plastic or paper bags you've gotten from previous trips. Don't forget, once those items are shot they too can be recycled.
Turn it off and unplug it (if you can). Vampire electronic items still suck power while off and add to your electric bill. There are power strips out there that actually cut power off to these products when turned off. It's worth taking a look (Smart Strip and WattStopper)
Eat locally. Be it from a local farmer or your own garden. Seek out farmers markets and locally grown food in your co-op/grocery/major supermarket, find restaurants in your area who support local agriculture. This not only keeps money within your own community it also reduces the cost of food due to transportation costs and reduces emissions. If you garden plant just a little more for the winter. Canning is "in." Plant an extra row of produce for your neighbors or seek out a food shelf that will take produce and give to the needy. These are hard times for a lot of people and the number of food shelf visits is increasing tremendously.
Admission that there's more we can all do. It costs too much, you say? At least replace items as they need to be. Something I've wrestled with is getting rid of all of our regular light bulbs for compact fluorescent lights (CLFs), but that's expensive. Instead I've opted to replace our burned out standard incandescent bulbs with the CLFs. Using up our non-organic pantry items and buy organic the next time. It's a process, but little by little it can be done without wasting what you already have on hand.
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle/Rethink. Reduce your consumption. Do you really need it? Can you reuse an item? Repurpose it? Could someone else? If it can't be reused can you recycle it? Currently T-Daddy and I are having work done in our home which produced construction waste, which just made me cringe. I was sick at the thought of throwing away a whole lot of drywall. It really wasn't the money, it was the waste. Trashing it wasn't the answer. T-Daddy did a little research and found that we could bring our waste to a local site to be recycled into new drywall. Yes it did cost a bit more than just dumping it but it felt better in our souls. The next idea is to rethink your purchases and how you buy them. Does your grocer have bulk items? Our local grocer and co-ops have an extensive selection of bulk items. Now, the key is to bring your own reused container and not take a new bag/container! Weigh your container before going to the store and that should come off the total weight. Bring your own bag (I'm sure you've heard this one before!) to take your purchases home. If you don't have a supply of canvas/etc bags at least bring back the plastic or paper bags you've gotten from previous trips. Don't forget, once those items are shot they too can be recycled.
Turn it off and unplug it (if you can). Vampire electronic items still suck power while off and add to your electric bill. There are power strips out there that actually cut power off to these products when turned off. It's worth taking a look (Smart Strip and WattStopper)
Hoof it! You don't need your gas guzzling car for everything. Consider just 1 day not using your car for starters. Take a walk. Grab your bike. I'm currently in the market for a bike seat for CiBaby so we can go farther than our stroller (her patience is only so great) will take us without having to get into the car.
I'd love to hear ideas from everyone else. I'm always looking for ways to improve and live cleaner lives.
*Note: My Leader of the Hutch friend posted a great article worth reading, which lead me to another great one with awesome sites and statistics.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Baby Baby
One of my sisters is having a baby soon! In honor of the occasion G-Mama and I threw her a baby shower on Saturday. It turned out so nicely. The food was awesome, thanks to G-Mama, and it seemed like everyone had a good time.
I broke down and put together some games. I'm not a game player, but they ended up being fun and some of it was for KT to keep as a memento as well. We did the match the Celebrity babies and their parents game. Just Ask Mama where you write a question that a new mother would have on the front of one card, trade cards and write the answer to the question...some of the combos were quite wacky. The other we did was I Predict, kind of like a Mad-Libs. (If anyone wants any of these let me know and I'll get them to you)
I was scrambling until the last minute, like usual. First I printed up the invitations and advice cards, then then games. Then of course I needed to make something (see #1 on the previous post) to go along with my other gifts. I made a memory box which then held part of the gift (onesies with really cute iron-ons!). The project turned out really cute, but I'm surprised I have any hair left on my head! Things kept going wrong with the box and the onesies and I had to keep fixing them. I almost threw in the towel at one point.
It was looking great, all I needed was ribbon to wrap it up and the gifts for the guests. Because our basement is in the middle of being dry-walled everything has been shoved into the garage, including a large box of ribbon. After about 30 minutes of trying to locate the box I gave up and ran back to the scrap booking store for some cute ribbon.
I grabbed my box so I could find some matching ribbon and off I went. This is the same store I got the paper to go on the outside of the box. Thank goodness they stay open until 1AM on Friday night/Saturday mornings! I started talking to the owner once again, she loved the box and had "just the thing to add to the top!" A cute amber knob! Oh yeah! Did I mention it had to be screwed in, thus I needed to drill in the cover? Did I also mention I had already glued in the little "Memory Box" saying with this really good glue the owner had also recommended? She was right! That 3M Quick-Dry Adhesive is awesome! But a bugger to remove without ruining something. You guessed it, I ripped one of the corners. Hence the reason for the "photo corners" I fashioned out of some of the paper I used around the rim.
I'm so happy she really liked it, it almost brought me to tears.
I broke down and put together some games. I'm not a game player, but they ended up being fun and some of it was for KT to keep as a memento as well. We did the match the Celebrity babies and their parents game. Just Ask Mama where you write a question that a new mother would have on the front of one card, trade cards and write the answer to the question...some of the combos were quite wacky. The other we did was I Predict, kind of like a Mad-Libs. (If anyone wants any of these let me know and I'll get them to you)
I was scrambling until the last minute, like usual. First I printed up the invitations and advice cards, then then games. Then of course I needed to make something (see #1 on the previous post) to go along with my other gifts. I made a memory box which then held part of the gift (onesies with really cute iron-ons!). The project turned out really cute, but I'm surprised I have any hair left on my head! Things kept going wrong with the box and the onesies and I had to keep fixing them. I almost threw in the towel at one point.
It was looking great, all I needed was ribbon to wrap it up and the gifts for the guests. Because our basement is in the middle of being dry-walled everything has been shoved into the garage, including a large box of ribbon. After about 30 minutes of trying to locate the box I gave up and ran back to the scrap booking store for some cute ribbon.
I grabbed my box so I could find some matching ribbon and off I went. This is the same store I got the paper to go on the outside of the box. Thank goodness they stay open until 1AM on Friday night/Saturday mornings! I started talking to the owner once again, she loved the box and had "just the thing to add to the top!" A cute amber knob! Oh yeah! Did I mention it had to be screwed in, thus I needed to drill in the cover? Did I also mention I had already glued in the little "Memory Box" saying with this really good glue the owner had also recommended? She was right! That 3M Quick-Dry Adhesive is awesome! But a bugger to remove without ruining something. You guessed it, I ripped one of the corners. Hence the reason for the "photo corners" I fashioned out of some of the paper I used around the rim.
I'm so happy she really liked it, it almost brought me to tears.
7 Random Things About Me
The other day the Leader of the Hutch tagged me with a "meme." Don't know what a meme is? Don't feel bad, I didn't either!
So here goes, 7 random things you may or may not know about me:
1. I have a need to be crafty...always. I think it's an illness, I've admitted it but I don't think I want to change it. ;-)
2. I hate journaling, but blogging seems to be okay (so far).
3. I hate scrap booking. No, I don't hate other people's scrapbooks, I just don't like doing it myself.
4. I don't like being dirty. I swear I'm one of the cleanest DIYers you'll ever meet. I'm even a clean gardener. It's not like I go out of my way to stay clean and yes I know you can wash it all off, it just happens and it makes me happy.
5. Blood makes me queasy...the sight of it or even talking about it. However, in an emergency I don't get sick until after the crisis is over.
6. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, so I just keep trying new things.
7. I took Spanish in Jr. High and High School and came out knowing a little. Then switched to Italian in college because I thought it would be a cool language to know. I learned a ton but now I can actually speak more Spanish than Italian. Go figure.
I was suppose to tag someone else, but everyone that I know that blogs has already been tagged and I don't want to be redundant. :-)
**4/22/08**
A couple more random things about me that I forgot I was going to say...
8. I love salt. I don't like things salty but I love actual salt. I currently have 9 different types of salt in my spice cupboard (red salt from Hawaii, Fleur de Sel, Kosher, sea, regular iodized, rosemary salt, lavender salt, Sel de Soliel and Caribbean salt...but I'm not including canning salt, not the same thing)
9. I love to cook, I love to make candy...I'm not a baker. Mind you I can bake and everything turns out just lovely but I don't care for the actual act of baking...with the exception of bread. I know, I'm odd.
So here goes, 7 random things you may or may not know about me:
1. I have a need to be crafty...always. I think it's an illness, I've admitted it but I don't think I want to change it. ;-)
2. I hate journaling, but blogging seems to be okay (so far).
3. I hate scrap booking. No, I don't hate other people's scrapbooks, I just don't like doing it myself.
4. I don't like being dirty. I swear I'm one of the cleanest DIYers you'll ever meet. I'm even a clean gardener. It's not like I go out of my way to stay clean and yes I know you can wash it all off, it just happens and it makes me happy.
5. Blood makes me queasy...the sight of it or even talking about it. However, in an emergency I don't get sick until after the crisis is over.
6. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, so I just keep trying new things.
7. I took Spanish in Jr. High and High School and came out knowing a little. Then switched to Italian in college because I thought it would be a cool language to know. I learned a ton but now I can actually speak more Spanish than Italian. Go figure.
I was suppose to tag someone else, but everyone that I know that blogs has already been tagged and I don't want to be redundant. :-)
**4/22/08**
A couple more random things about me that I forgot I was going to say...
8. I love salt. I don't like things salty but I love actual salt. I currently have 9 different types of salt in my spice cupboard (red salt from Hawaii, Fleur de Sel, Kosher, sea, regular iodized, rosemary salt, lavender salt, Sel de Soliel and Caribbean salt...but I'm not including canning salt, not the same thing)
9. I love to cook, I love to make candy...I'm not a baker. Mind you I can bake and everything turns out just lovely but I don't care for the actual act of baking...with the exception of bread. I know, I'm odd.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
The Growing Challenge - 2 flats down
a million more to go
(one of the very lonely flats in my dishevelled growing room)
Okay not a million but at the rate I'm going it sure feels like it! Thankfully CiBaby has been exhausted after lunch the past couple of days, giving me a wee bit of time to throw some seeds into the soil.
The Growing Challenge, started by Melinda at Elements in Time: Creating Edible Landscaping, has taken over my growing room and has pushed my rear in gear to get back into starting the vast majority of my veggie and herb garden from seed. The challenge is to grow at least one new thing from seed than I did last year (which won't be hard since I copped out and bought most things last year). But if I follow the "rules" I need to grow something I've never grown before, which is a challenge for this gardener as I've grown a lot, and a lot of it from seed. And remember, I live in the city, with a typical city lot.
My garden usually starts out neat and tidy, but doesn't end that way.
beginning:
end:
(I work to eek out every last possible inch by using inter-planting methods. I've even started encroaching on the flowerbeds in the front!)
This years list includes: (* denotes a new item or variety)
Tomatoes (which CiBaby loves - just like her Mama!):
Black from Tula*
Big Rainbow
Long Tom*
Bloody Butcher
Mortgage Lifter
Green Zebra
Mexico Midgets
Christmas Grapes
Green Grapes
Peppers:
King of the North*
Jimmy Nardello's
Holy Mole
Eggplant:
Listada de Gandia
Bambino
The rest of my planting list is to come, as I plant it!
Prior to planting these 2 flats, I had the gardening itch really bad and I'm trying my hand at growing a few items (and possibly adding more) in the growing room only.
from bottom left: looseleaf lettuce, cress*, mache*, watermelon radish*
(one of the very lonely flats in my dishevelled growing room)
Okay not a million but at the rate I'm going it sure feels like it! Thankfully CiBaby has been exhausted after lunch the past couple of days, giving me a wee bit of time to throw some seeds into the soil.
The Growing Challenge, started by Melinda at Elements in Time: Creating Edible Landscaping, has taken over my growing room and has pushed my rear in gear to get back into starting the vast majority of my veggie and herb garden from seed. The challenge is to grow at least one new thing from seed than I did last year (which won't be hard since I copped out and bought most things last year). But if I follow the "rules" I need to grow something I've never grown before, which is a challenge for this gardener as I've grown a lot, and a lot of it from seed. And remember, I live in the city, with a typical city lot.
My garden usually starts out neat and tidy, but doesn't end that way.
beginning:
end:
(I work to eek out every last possible inch by using inter-planting methods. I've even started encroaching on the flowerbeds in the front!)
This years list includes: (* denotes a new item or variety)
Tomatoes (which CiBaby loves - just like her Mama!):
Black from Tula*
Big Rainbow
Long Tom*
Bloody Butcher
Mortgage Lifter
Green Zebra
Mexico Midgets
Christmas Grapes
Green Grapes
Peppers:
King of the North*
Jimmy Nardello's
Holy Mole
Eggplant:
Listada de Gandia
Bambino
The rest of my planting list is to come, as I plant it!
Prior to planting these 2 flats, I had the gardening itch really bad and I'm trying my hand at growing a few items (and possibly adding more) in the growing room only.
from bottom left: looseleaf lettuce, cress*, mache*, watermelon radish*
Monday, April 14, 2008
Vote for CHSFS!
The agency that brought CiBaby into our lives needs our votes today! CHSFS (Children's Home Society and Family Services) is in the running for a $10,000 grant from the MN Timberwolves' Fastbreak Foundation. Should CHSFS win they plan on using the money on outreach programs to help prevent abuse and neglect in the Twin Cities, and also to help older children successfully transition out of foster care and into permanent families.
VOTE HERE (it's on the right hand side of the page under "Online Poll." You can only vote once...per computer. So go use you're neighbor's, friend's, kid's, parent's computers...pass the message along and get even more votes!!!)
Thanks for your votes!
VOTE HERE (it's on the right hand side of the page under "Online Poll." You can only vote once...per computer. So go use you're neighbor's, friend's, kid's, parent's computers...pass the message along and get even more votes!!!)
Thanks for your votes!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Familyisms
My family cracks me up with some of the things that come out of their mouths. So much so that I need to write them down before they completely vanish from my very good memory. I also plan on updating this particular post as more come along, which I'm sure they will.
G-Mama - Summer 2007, Volcanoes National Park - there were almost continuous, small earthquakes and the volcano basically stopped, thus the majority of the part was closed due to unpredictability and safety of the visitors. It had been T-Daddy's dream to stay in the park and go on a night viewing of the lava flows. Instead of staying the in the lodge, we stayed in a quaint building with other lovely guest from around the globe. Well, G-Mama was about to have a heart attack over the idea of staying at all (she's a wee bit fearful of volcanoes) and this about threw her over the edge. There was a possibility of having to be evacuated but we really wanted to stay. G-Mama with deer-in-headlight eyes says to the young woman at the registration desk "You'll come and get us if we need to evacuate, right???" T-Daddy, G-Papa and I just about busted a gut...ah no, they're going to let us parish!
T-Daddy - April 2008 - we were taking about the foot he broke and which it was. I was recalling some things that made me remember why it was the left foot. I went on to tell him something interesting that I'd read about memory recently...
Me: Do you know why women generally have a better memory than men?
T-Daddy: Because they listen?
LOL! could be!
T-Daddy - 1/14/09 - I was in the shower and had an audience. I heard T-Daddy talking to CiBaby...she was obviously going into things on the vanity.
T-Daddy: CiBaby, put mama's eyebrow crimper back!
Me: Ummm, that would be an eyelash curler. I don't have crazy eyebrows like someone else in this bathroom!
G-Mama - Summer 2007, Volcanoes National Park - there were almost continuous, small earthquakes and the volcano basically stopped, thus the majority of the part was closed due to unpredictability and safety of the visitors. It had been T-Daddy's dream to stay in the park and go on a night viewing of the lava flows. Instead of staying the in the lodge, we stayed in a quaint building with other lovely guest from around the globe. Well, G-Mama was about to have a heart attack over the idea of staying at all (she's a wee bit fearful of volcanoes) and this about threw her over the edge. There was a possibility of having to be evacuated but we really wanted to stay. G-Mama with deer-in-headlight eyes says to the young woman at the registration desk "You'll come and get us if we need to evacuate, right???" T-Daddy, G-Papa and I just about busted a gut...ah no, they're going to let us parish!
T-Daddy - April 2008 - we were taking about the foot he broke and which it was. I was recalling some things that made me remember why it was the left foot. I went on to tell him something interesting that I'd read about memory recently...
Me: Do you know why women generally have a better memory than men?
T-Daddy: Because they listen?
LOL! could be!
T-Daddy - 1/14/09 - I was in the shower and had an audience. I heard T-Daddy talking to CiBaby...she was obviously going into things on the vanity.
T-Daddy: CiBaby, put mama's eyebrow crimper back!
Me: Ummm, that would be an eyelash curler. I don't have crazy eyebrows like someone else in this bathroom!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Ladies who Lunch
CiBaby and I were ladies who lunch this week. Tuesday we had lunch with Auntie, Wednesday we lunched with two of my former co-workers and Thursday we lunched with T-Daddy.
Our fun came to a screeching halt on Thursday when CiBaby took a swan-dive off of her chair and hit her head, on what, we're not sure. It resulted in quite the gash. Needless to say there was a lot of blood, not good while eating lunch. The collateral damage occurred when I decided I needed to know what we were dealing with and removed the pile of bloodied napkins to encounter the 1 inch and very deep wound. I instantly felt ill. Another woman sitting across the way ended up fainting and falling off her bar-height chair...at least ours was only a regular chair.
I composed myself and we got CiBaby's bleeding under control and off to the doc we went where they glued her up and we ran into someone we met while lunching on Tuesday (weird, eh?).
Moral of the story - brown bagging it is a good thing.
Our fun came to a screeching halt on Thursday when CiBaby took a swan-dive off of her chair and hit her head, on what, we're not sure. It resulted in quite the gash. Needless to say there was a lot of blood, not good while eating lunch. The collateral damage occurred when I decided I needed to know what we were dealing with and removed the pile of bloodied napkins to encounter the 1 inch and very deep wound. I instantly felt ill. Another woman sitting across the way ended up fainting and falling off her bar-height chair...at least ours was only a regular chair.
I composed myself and we got CiBaby's bleeding under control and off to the doc we went where they glued her up and we ran into someone we met while lunching on Tuesday (weird, eh?).
Moral of the story - brown bagging it is a good thing.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
For the Love of Ketchup
Ketchup as a condiment is just fine. As an additive to a t-shirt, not so good.
Today CiBaby, Auntie and I went to the mall for Toddler Tuesday (which is really for older toddlers, not CiBaby's age). One bennie is they have free meals for toddlers/kids with purchase of an adult meal. During our lovely lunch a server walking by with empty plates accidentally dropped a condiment cup of ketchup, splattering all over Auntie's shirt and jeans (and one spot on mine that I'm not sure where it came from, CiBaby was a tad active during lunch). The young man (boy, do I sound old) ran over with a rag and soda water and was completely embarrased. Then the manager rushed over and said he'd pay for any dry cleaning. Nice, but who dry cleans a t-shirt and jeans? Then we found out our lunch was paid for. Wahooooooo! Then we wished we'd have ordered wine with our lunch. lol
CiBaby preMall
And no, it's not her birthday anytime soon...we were modeling a "twin" photo for a friend, and her belly. lol
Thursday, April 3, 2008
When did this happen?
Not 6 months ago my girl was a baby. Today when we were on one of our adventures I looked into the back seat to see a little girl, sitting upright (I recently discovered the thing can actually sit upright...duh!) in her rocket chair singing and doing the hand gestures to Itsy Bitsy Spider, the Wheels on the Bus and If You're Happy and You Know It. It put a big smile on my face, but at the same time it made me a bit weepy to know they really do grow up too fast.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Hugh Mackay
I recently stumbled upon the author, social researcher and Australian psychologist Hugh Mackay and found a couple quotes that resonated with me.
"Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational."
"Although we love the idea of choice - our culture almost worships it - we seek refuge in the familiar and the comfortable."
"Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational."
"Although we love the idea of choice - our culture almost worships it - we seek refuge in the familiar and the comfortable."
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
What a difference a day makes
Saturday
Monday
This was Saturday. Sunday was just as beautiful, until Monday. Oh sure, it's pretty, but it's also APRIL!
Monday
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