Doing our part for the planet

My friend Beth over at Coming Up For Air is having a contest for a free book from ECOBRAIN - go check it out! Meanwhile, here is what we are doing as a family to help mother earth.

REUSE
I was green before it was cool, you can ask my husband. I was dragging reusable bags to the stores a long time before the stores started selling them. Drove him crazy. Still does, but we have learned to compromise over the years.

RECYCLE
We are fortunate to have curbside pickup for our recycling. But I have noticed a huge reduction in our garbage since we can almost recycle everything now. Mainly because if it can't be recycled, I try not to buy it.

REDUCE
We buy less. We buy less harmful cleaning products. Less packaging, less chemicals = easy choice. We buy more concentrated earth friendly cleaners or make our own. But overall, we buy less and we buy more natural things when we do buy. Everything from our clothing to our bedding and furniture have consequences on the environment.

At the office we are printing less and recycling more. Additionally, we have minimized our use of paper towels by placing towel hooks near the sinks and bringing in our own towels.

I have also cancelled my magazine subscriptions and try (IN VAIN) to get off the mailing lists for catalogs.

What to do with all of those pre-school projects

I used 8 nails, food twine and $1.00 worth of clothespins from the dollar tree. We let Jet choose which one comes down and every so often we send one to a relative that doesn't live nearby. We have a minimum of 4 projects a week from school, 1 project from sunday school. This was my answer for taming the pile of projects on my kitchen table.

It's just hair!!

Can you mourn hair? I had my son's hair cut and now I'm sad, five months later. I miss it. Will it still be curly if he grows it out again?

Earlier this year, shortly after this photo was taken we had his hair cut. We were pressured, bullied even, to cut my son's hair. Why the delayed reaction? What took me so long to miss his hair?

PRIDE...wanting to think I hadn't bowed down to the wishes of other people who think little boys shouldn't sport long hair. Well mine did and I MISS IT!! All because other people think little boys should have crew cuts.



Not that short hair is bad or that it looks funny, it is still cute. I just miss his curls. His father has short hair and is the most beautiful guy I've ever laid eyes on.



The bottom two photos are now a year old. Now Jet's hair is short and Nick's hair is long.

My hair is almost EXACTLY the same as it was a year ago. But I am growing it out, which is code for really too busy (lazy) to keep it any certain style right now. I can't possibly get my hair cut every two to three weeks, I'm just not that frilly!

It's just hair!

TAG! I'm it...

Thanks to my twitter buddy @feelslikehome I've been tagged!

I am supposed to write about six or seven things you wouldn't know about me from reading my blog.

1. I raced BMX Bikes when I was little. I was pretty good at it. I got more than 20 stitches when I was 4 from doing it.
2. I own an insurance agency with my best friend.
3. My husband is a musician (a darned good one!)
4. I had a rooster for a babysitter when I was a youngster, it kept me at bay on top of my swingset for hours. SERIOUSLY.
5. I LOVE HOT YOGA.
6. I have trouble reading text that has been highlighted or text that is in bold or italicized print, I will probably just skip it altogether.

Then, you're supposed to tag six or seven people to do the same on their blogs. I tag
@DarlaF
@LorelieBrown
@Astrogirl426
@vshant805
@thedomesticdiva
@sundaycosmetics

{{Waving & Smiling}} experiment

In an effort to pass the time while volunteering at the Chamber Ambassador parking lot fundraiser at the fall festival earlier today I decided to make it interesting by conducting a study. A study whereby I enthusiastically smiled and waved at each vehicle that passed by. It actually evoked laughter - mostly because it was so ridiculous but also because smiling actually does make you happy!

Who smiled and waved back:
Teenage girls (sarcastically, of course)
Clowns
Motorcyclists
Truck Drivers
People in company cars/trucks
Hippies
Men alone in cars/Trucks
Happy people
Middle-aged couples

Who absolutely wouldn't budge, these people are whole-heartedly committed to their grumpiness:
Young couples
Women alone in cars
People on the phone (I was going to count but it turned out to be easier to count those who weren't on the phone, either way I was too busy smiling and waving at people)
Mean People

It was a great way to spend three hours, and at least no one called me a name this time.

Thank God for Great Teachers

If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

I learned the poem "IF" by Rudyard Kiping in the 4th GRADE - remarkable what some "goldfish motivation" will do! I had the best teacher of all time. She also had us reading the C.S. Lewis Series - The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Wow - what a great time!

Thank you Mrs. (Shelton) Theiring!

Sincerely,
Your 1986 Fourth Grade Class

soul food

Cathedral Basilica - a must see while in St. Louis regardless of denomination.


Just returned from annual trek to Joyce Meyer Ministries "Relentless" Women's Conference - 40,000 sisters = POWERFUL!