Kid free weekend

So this past weekend, my parents took little monkey for the weekend. It was nice to have a break and I know they enjoyed their time with him. I, of course, had a HUGE list of things I was planning to get done while he was gone. Shopping (much easier alone), cleaning, laundry, hanging out with little monkey’s Dad, working on my crafts….you get the idea. Well I did get some shopping done and a little bit of laundry….and hung out with little monkey’s Dad…at the fall festival we had to volunteer for. Great..just my idea of a fun weekend without little monkey…..go work the beer tent at the festival…all day…..and most of the night…..So much for that good quality time with little monkey’s Dad. Oh well….maybe next time. So now another week begins….today a trip to the doctor and watching football tonight (Go Pack!)….Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I have to babysit….and Wednesday of course is Halloween. We probably won’t do much. I might take little monkey, dressed thir year as a little dragon out in the neighborhood but I don’t know that he’ll actually go trick or treating. He can’t eat any of the snacks anyhow. Well that looks like it for around here. I really should get up and moving before my doctor’s appointment but I doubt it will happen.  

Plastic Bag Madness

Recently I just got fed up with how many plastic bags we were bringing home from shopping. We can only use so many in other ways before we still have a crazy abundance of bags. I had been looking at various sites online thinking about buying some reusable bags. Most places, especially after shipping costs, weren’t all that cheap. Granted the bags look to be quite sturdy and strong, but I don’t have tons of extra money floating around for things like this(Do you?). So about two weeks ago I took a look at the bags our local Publix was selling. They are Green Bags. The company website can be found here: www.greenbag.info  I bought two at $1.49 a piece. This was quite inexpensive to the ones I was seeing online. They are not as sturdy as others but I have filled them up and not had any problems. Today I went and had a bunch of canned goods in one bag and the bag preformed well. Each bag will easily hold what you might normally put in 3-5 plastic bags. We have seen a real difference in the amount of plastic bags coming in the house. I think there has only been 1 or 2 since purchasing these bags. The key here of course is that you have to remember to put them back in your car (I try to do this soon after emptying them.) and remember to take them into the store. Most places I have not had an issue using my own bags, in fact, most cashiers comment on how its a great idea. For my $3 investment, I am quite happy. I know that I am not changing the world by using my two green bags, but every little bit does count for something. And it keeps the plastic bags from ever getting into my house to create clutter.

When I was younger and there was a big recycling push, my mom would use canvas bags as the grocery store. So, sometimes things happen and then repeat later down the road. We just want the repeating items to be good things! I am not saying that everyone should run out today and buy green bags or other reusable bags, but I do think you should just think about the impact it could have, not just on the world, but also in your own home.(By the way-little monkey’s wonderful Dad thinks I’m crazy and I doubt I’ll ever get him to take his own bags to the store, but maybe one day.) Also I’ve read that some grocery stores (Of course none by me) will give you a discount if you bring your own bags. Maybe the stores in our area will catch on to this idea too!

Someone really came to my site!

After having my blog for about two weeks and having no one reading it besides me, you can imagine my shock when someone did visit yesterday. I haven’t been writing because nothing has come to mind to write about. The fact that someone did come to my page and maybe others will continue to do so makes me want to write more. So today I will be trying to figure out new things to write about and hopefully there will be a new post much more often.    Thanks for stopping by!

Time for me to be productive with my day before I have to babysit this afternoon. I’ve got a list probably a mile long of things to accomplish. I think I’ll be happy with a few being done!

Cardboard costs what?!?!

Yesterday I was flipping through my October 2007 Domino magazine when I found some fun furniture. Most everything in this magazine is often way out of my price range, but it is fun to look at. And you might be able to figure out a way to recreate something for a bit cheaper. Well I stumbled upon this really fun chair.

It is called “Wiggle” and made by designer Frank Gehry. Now the problem with this chair is that it is made of cardboard. Well you say, that’s no problem, in fact it’s probably great for the environment. I’ll agree there and it’s creative. The problem is that is costs $875!!!!  How on earth does cardboard cost that much????? I guess my house won’t be cool cardboard chair world, which is okay with me, but the chair is pretty cool.

Naps.

Do you ever wish that you could just go take a nap whenever you want?  Being in college I LOVED taking naps, but now that I’m an adult it seldom happens. Everyone tells me that I should always take a nap when my son does if I feel I need one. The likelihood of that ever happening though is slim to none. Usually little monkey does nap for about two hours so it would be possible to nap too. The problem with that is that there are usually 100 things that need to get done and the best time to get them done is while he is napping. During his nap is usually the only option I have for taking a shower, unless I get up before him (which doesn’t happen!). So nap-time for me generally means something, usually multiple somethings from the following list: shower, laundry, dishes, meal planning, straightening up the house, computer time, organizing, coupon cutting, sewing, reading, I could go on and on with things. So you see why I rarely take a nap. I do think naps can be beneficial for kids and adults, it’s just rare that it happens for adults. A short down time can recharge you for the rest of what needs to be done for the day. Even if you can’t take a nap, just taking a break would be good too. By break I mean a time of actually doing nothing or you could take a walk. It just gives you the chance to clear your mind a bit and refocus on what is important and what you need to do for the rest of the day. So, take a break or go take a nap and make the rest of your day better!

Reading…

Recently I have taken up an interest in reading. I’ve pretty much disliked reading for a long time. I’m thinking it may have begun in 5^th grade. I remember having to read a book for a book report. I don’t know what it was called but I think it had something to do with a pig, the cover, I think, was green and it was something of a fantasy book. I had a hard time following the book and didn’t want to read it. Of course, my mom made me finish and do the book report. I recall later in middle school that once a week, during homeroom, I had to go to my English class for tutoring. It was decided that I had a difficult time with reading comprehension. Funny, here I was taking all “gifted” classes, but yet still had to go to remedial tutoring for comprehension.

Back to 2007-I have always liked the show Clean Sweep on TLC. On this show, people who have WAY too much stuff go on the show and have to get rid of a lot of things while decorators redo their rooms. The clutter expert is Peter Walsh. He is very direct about dealing with the crazy amounts of things people have and the reasons they hold on to it. I definitely don’t have as much junk as the people in the show, but I still would not want Peter Walsh to show up at my house.

Peter wrote a book called “It’s All Too Much!”   I had been waiting to get the book from the library (read-I’m cheap!) but it didn’t happen. One day I had gone to the mall and wouldn’t you know the book was on clearance for $5.99. I figured I could handle that price and then if need be, I would have the book on hand later. I read the book and did enjoy it. Did it inspire me to go start emptying every closet, cabinet and drawer? Well, not exactly. I did start doing things slowly and managed to throw away and give away quite a bit of stuff. I am by no means done with this process, but it takes some time to get things done with an 18month old in the house! (Anyone need some kitchen items or VHS movies?)

After reading that book and actually enjoying something that wasn’t written for a two year old, I decided I should pick up some other books. I saw a post on a website I frequent (www.fishingfordeals.com) for books at the Dollar Tree store. The Dollar Tree is an actual dollar store where every item is a dollar or less. Someone had mentioned how the Dollar Tree had books, and not just books that you don’t want to read or cheesy romance novels. These are books that were sold in regular bookstores, but apparently didn’t sell out (so maybe they aren’t that great)! I decided to go look. I ended up spending $3.21 (after taxes) on three books that originally would have cost over $60. I picked up Down Came the Rain by Brooke Shields, Absolut, Biography of a Bottle by Carl Hamilton and The Martha Rules by Martha Stewart. I also found someone online who was selling a bunch of books, 3 for $1 plus media mail shipping. I bought seven books from her for less than $1 a book shipped. This may have been a bit ambitious to think that I will actually get through all of these books, but one can only have a goal.

Of these books I have only finished Down Came the Rain by Brooke Shields. It was an okay read. I don’t know that I would be passing it all my friends but if someone wanted to read it, I would let them have my copy. I was able to at least understand what she was talking about since I had some experience with the subject. It wasn’t, however, a full upbeat happy go lucky book. This is okay but what else can you do with the topic!

Today I started reading Naked Fruit by Elisa Morgan. The tagline to the book is “getting honest about the fruit of the spirit.” Morgan writes about nine ‘fruits’ that we all want to possess. The fruits can be found in Galatians 5:22-23, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Morgan points out that simply being “nice” does not mean that we really have the fruits of the Spirit figured out. The concept is to be like Jesus, like God, not just nice. Morgan points out that while Jesus always possessed all the fruits of the Spirit, he wasn’t always nice. Sometimes his love, kindness or peace may not have been nice, but they were fruit-filled and what needed to be done. She also writes “fruits of the Spirit are God-like qualities that make us look like him.” The idea is that we want to be ourselves to other people but we want to do so through God and have him been seen through us.

The whole reason this post came to be was what Morgan wrote in the second chapter.

We want our days to be about more than the next meal, the next deadline completed, the next errand to the grocery store, the next sale, or even the next girl-time-get-together with our friends. And while it’s totally thrilling to watch our child move through each developmental stage—sitting, crawling, walking, talking!—we long for the days when she reads, when she makes her first real friend, when she uncovers her desire to learn, and when she falls in love. We look past today and want to know that what we’ve invested our time in now will matter tomorrow. We want to leave a legacy with who we are and what we do. We want to grow a life that matters.

This made me immediately think of Heritage Community Church. The following line is from the first blog post at www.theheritagecommunity.org: Heritage Community Church —”Living a Legacy of Faith”— birthed out of a common passion, bathed in prayer and built on Faith. We want to leave a Legacy, but we also want to LIVE a Legacy of Faith. But then I ask, what does it mean to live a legacy of faith? Legacy is defined as a gift of property or anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor (dictionary.com). With this definition, I think of “Living a Legacy of Faith” as being a person of faith showing others God’s love in such a way to teach what it means through their example of life. While reading this I also thought of Mike Tucker’s interview at church on Sunday. He made it clear that his family is important to him and that he wants to be able to look at his children one day and say, “I did that.” He wants to say that in such a way that he is proud of how they have grown into the people they have become. He wants to know that his investment in them has helped to shape them into the people that God wants them to be.

Isn’t this true for most people? Wanting something more? The problem with wanting something more is that many people don’t know what that more should be. They will try to have “more” through many different avenues and it often equates to stuff or relationships that aren’t what they really need or want. We have to show God’s love to people who want something more. Our spiritual fruits will bring others to us to discover God. For this to happen, we need to develop the fruits God wants us to possess and live a life that matters. It is not going to be easy, but it will be worth it in the end.