Day 56: The GFC joins a gym

                                                    Check out your closest location!

We learned recently that we get an excellent deal through both work and insurance to get a family membership at the YMCA.

Cue song playing on repeat in your brain for 18 hours straight. You're welcome.

Anyway, before we commit, we got a three day free pass. In anticipation of this, I went to the store and stocked up on the latest in workout clothes. Stay-dry, wicking, what-have-you, I bought it.

Oh wait, that wasn't me. Yeah...I was the one faced with the awesome choice between a Menards shirt and swimming shorts or my painting clothes.

To clear up the suspense, I went with the Menards sponsored ensemble but threw in the paint splattered sneakers just for fun.

In retrospect, I chose wisely. I think my paint clothes might have been a little too conspicuous. But I can guarantee I won't be consuming the latest in gym wear just to get in shape. Even if people stare at my painting shirt circa 2003.

Day 55: How Pinterest saved my morning

I'm having a gaggle of kids over tonight.

Gaggle=five

I'm making chicken strips and macaroni and cheese and a vegetable for dinner. Admittedly, I'm not much of a fan of cheddar cheese sauces. They tend to harden or be so watered down with milk that they lack flavor.

But being the slowly-getting-there healthy cook that I am apsire to be, I don't have Velveeta in the house.

I was planning on admitting defeat and running to the store to pick some up (can't disappoint the gaggle, after all) when I happened to remember a recipe I pinned to Pinterest lo these many months ago.

It's not half bad, especially when made with sharp cheddar. I read the reviews and one stated it needed salt. After a perfunctory taste (yes, at 8 a.m.) I didn't find that to be true at all.

Thanks Pinterest, for saving me not only untold sodium but also my reputation with macaroni loving kids and a trip to the store.

Day 54: Six degrees of bacon

I like it when each meals provides a stepping stone to the next.

This week, it all started with a package of bacon.

I cooked some up and put it into a pie plate filled with the remains of a bag of frozen hashbrowns. I added two half blocks of cheese left over from other recipes, leftover broccoli, and eggs and milk. Ta-da: quiche!

Tonight I threw some dried beans into the crockpot with the rest of the bacon. After cooking on low for 10 hours, I added some seasoned salt and served them with homemade cornbread muffins and sweet potatoes. 

Three days from now, those leftover beans (sans the largest pieces of bacon) will get mashed to become burrito filling. 

This week there was also a secondary story line involving stir fry made from leftover rice, leftover cooked veggies, and a minuscule amount of chicken left in the freezer after making BBQ crockpot chicken for sandwiches.

I'm sensing a theme: if you want to use up your leftovers, make lots of stir fry and quiche. And be willing to have a lot of non-recipe meals.

If you're not bringing home the figurative bacon, it helps when you can stretch the literal bacon.

Day 53: Bread of life

At the risk of sounding sacrilegious, I have a confession: Whenever I read the Bible sometimes, my mind automatically fills in qualifiers that aren't there.

"Land of (soy) milk and (sugar free) honey."

"I am the (gluten free) bread of life."

I didn't realize I was doing it until I was reading out loud and almost gave myself away. It has become such a habit when reading recipes that I guess I applied it to other areas of my life.

Then I started thinking this isn't so irrelevant (or irreverent) as I thought.

Mean thoughts, hateful attitudes, and selfishness have inflamed my brain and left behind a torn up, painful mess. Sounds an awful lot like celiac-of-the-mind. The good news is, we don't have to wait until we heal ourselves to find Jesus. We can find healing even for spiritual celiac disease.

John 6:35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Days 50-52: How green were our ancestors anyway?

I just took a couple of "highly scientific" quizzes online to find out how "crunchy" I am.

Word Origin & History

crunchy 

1892, from crunch. Student slang sense of "annoyingly intense abouthealth or environmental issues" is 1980s, short for crunchy granola;not entirely pejorative at first.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

It seems there is some question as to whether or not this is a demeaning title. I would hope that I am not annoyingly intense.

The quizzes agreed with me: not only am I not annoyingly intense, I'm apparently not all that crunchy. One quiz said "you are basically normal but keep trying and you'll get crunchier." This is open to debate, as I checked the boxes yes for cloth diapers and washable rags/napkins. Apparently, not having a homebirth cancels it out. Oh well, win some, lose some.

So I started thinking about our ancestors and if you could really call them "environmentalists." Sure, they grew most of their own food, built their houses without power tools, and had the (highly esteemed in online quizzes) home births but what would their other options have been?

I'll admit I'm a little short on personal acquaintances who traveled west behind a team of oxen, but I wonder what would be said if I got a chance to talk to one of my fore-mothers.

A lot of green living is based on community and cultural norms. Sure, ditching the car sounds nice, but in the absence of a horse (or a reliable bus line) how feasible is it?

Although I don't have friends in the 150 year old age bracket, I have come across one or two individuals in their 60's who question my cloth diaper choice. Having grown up with only that option, it's curious to them why I would choose that, given the modern convenience also available. It's harder to convince an entire generation to do something radically different once they've tasted the easier way (and have the backing of those who have been there, done that with a lot less).

All this to say that we look back on the "good old days" with a kind of nostalgia and the feeling that we should somehow aspire to be like our ancestors. But I wonder if those ancestors had the choice, what would they have chosen?

Should we consider ourselves blessed to have the options, even if we sometimes feel like we have to choose between the lesser of two evils?

I know I'm grateful for modern medicine that would have saved many of those pioneers. Likewise, I'm grateful to have an option other than home birth. With any step forward, there are bound to be detriments. Isn't that one of the laws of motion?

No answers, just a lot of questions today.

Day 49: Raising a baby the cheapskate way

I was at the pediatrician today getting a weight check done for Little Girl. She had fallen off her curve for awhile and this was a follow up to make sure she was back on track. As suspected, she is perfectly fine. Hooray!

Anyway, this caught my eye for many reasons: first, it's free. It should be. It's a catalog selling Babies R Us items. Second, I wanted to find out what was essential to have for a baby, albeit in retrospect.

I think as a new mom to be, I would have been overwhelmed by this 40 page tome. As an experienced mom, I was frustrated by it.

In the first place, there's no objectivity. Step two in preparing for baby (after analyzing how much space you have available--a step I had completed six months prior to pregnancy) is to register (guess where?).

After a quick flip through, I realized I had done basically none of the required steps to prepare for either of my children.

On buying nursery furniture: "After selecting the crib, purchase matching furniture." Matching what? The crib? Or the mother to be's haphazard personality? I was lucky enough to get a quality hand-me-down dresser from my grandma when she moved to a nursing home. It only needed new hardware. The shelves were built in to the house. The rocking chair was Early-2000's-Resale-Shop style (ugly cushions replaced by yours truly).

On monitors: "Even if you live in a small space, it's nice to have a monitor to know what's going on in the nursery." Whoever wrote the ad copy already sensed the objections from minimalists and tried his or her hardest to convince us to second guess ourselves. Though they were born in different houses, both our babies have slept one wall and within two to twelve feet from us at any given time. Believe me, I knew what was going on in the nursery at all times. This was especially evident during Big Girl's "put herself to sleep by kicking the wall" phase. In full disclosure, though, I did eventually buy a dirt cheap one secondhand when I was doing a lot of gardening during naptime. I expect to be able to re-sell it for basically what I paid.

I think it's fine for moms to be to want to be prepared and to make a list of what they consider essentials. But like parenting advice, some help is best when it comes from friends and family, not a company trying to sell stuff.

And when it comes down to it, there are only a handful of necessities when it comes to raising a baby:

That's right, a pack and play, designer bibs, and twelve microscopically different styles of bottle.

Oh yeah, and food. Something to wear. Some arms to hold it. And love.

Days 47-48: Today I am...

Shamelessly reading the Little Golden Book "Frozen" (from the library of course) so I can finally get up to speed on this movie. Big Girl saw it with a friend and was unable to effectively describe the plot. Thus, my reading of the Cliff's Notes version.

Using my Goodwill's 10% off a certain amount coupon to buy some Christmas presents. Yes, folks, it's that time already.

Making arrangements to sell several items I cleared out of my kitchen cabinets last week. Hello, extra $8 and goodbye, clutter.

Enjoying 45 degrees. Time to get to shoveling!

Day 46: So many ways to be a good compactor

I mentioned yesterday that I had been reading a book called No Impact Man. There are a lot of concepts that ring true with me in this book (and some I take with a grain of salt).

One quote from the book as follows really summed up my feelings on trying to be a good neighbor, a good steward of the earth, a good parent, a good-whatever-else:

"I went into this project wondering if I could make a difference. But the question isn't whether or not I make a difference. The question is whether I want to be the type of person who tries. We can all make a difference. We all have the responsibility to make a difference. You might think the responsibility part is oppressive, but I began this experiment, in part, as an expression of my victimhood and powerlessness. To understand that I can make a difference is so freeing."

The project he refers to is a year-long experiment to make no impact (carbon footprint) on the earth while living in the middle of New York City. Some components were eating locally, buying items without packaging, walking everywhere, and turning out the electricity and using solar power.

I used to think things were all or nothing and I found that I was discouraged at my perceived "failures."

I forgot my reusable bags and had to use two paper bags to carry home my groceries. Guess I should just give up on being a good steward of the earth because I stink at it anyway. No, how about remembering all the times I did bring my bags and focusing on that instead?

I eventually bought two area rugs brand new. Guess I should just quit The Compact now. No, I made a thoughtful purchase of a quality product which will now hopefully enable me to use certain rooms that were just too cold before.

We all have the ability to make a difference and we all have the ability to "fail" at making a difference. Will we focus on the attempts or the failures?

To paraphrase a quote on parenting: "There are no ways to be a perfect Compactor but many ways to be a good one."

Day 45: My neighbor's oxen

I've been reading this really interesting book lately called No Impact Man.

I don't share all his political views but much of the content is food for thought. I'll post more about this book later but at one point he brings up the idea of having a system for sharing items between neighbors. He used the example of one person owning a lawnmower and renting it out to various people.

I had this idea myself last fall when we were raking mountains of leaves out of the backyard. We have a leaf scooper thing that attaches to the lawnmower and drags leaves into piles. We also have a leaf mulcher. Our neighbors do not have one. They have a snowblower. We do not.

Hmmm. While I may not need everything my next door neighbor owns and he may not need everything I own, who's to say that someone a street over might not need a leaf mulcher. They in turn might have a turkey roaster that I might need only once every other year.

I wish there was a way to formally set up a system of bartering and borrowing.

My concern is that people wouldn't be on board with it. I recently saw a request for a special occasion outfit on a Facebook page. I offered the loan of a dress in the right size, with the stipulation that I wanted it back. The other person thanked me but said she was looking to buy instead. Personally, I would have jumped at the chance to rent (for just the pick up/return trip). I could get use out of it and then not have the job of disposing of it later. To each their own, though, and that's why I'm a little concerned this idea might not catch on.

However, I'm really inspired by the concept, and think I might be the person to give it a push and see where it goes. Maybe we wouldn't have to covet our neighbor's oxen if we could borrow them every now and then.

Day 44: Pacing myself

Big Girl is into Magic School Bus lately. And by "into" I mean, really, really crazy about it. She got an audio book from the library and has pretty much worn it out.

My first inclination was to check half.com or amazon to try and score used copies of the whole series. I used to love Magic School Bus! It's something we can share together! Hey look: there's a copy for a penny!

Wait a minute. Don't we have this thing called a library? (Obviously that's a rhetorical question since I know we have a library. That's where I checked it out in the first place.)

There will be so many interests that come and go. I love the fact that she loves reading. I love that she loves reading books I used to love reading. (Apparently I also love to use the word "love" as many times as possible.) But there's no need to own these things--at least not right away. I'm pacing myself in watching her interests develop and supplementing as necessary by borrowing.

Day 43: Who's selling your product?

I fight against character licensing regularly. I don't care so much if my kids' clothes have pictures of Dora on them. In fact, I found a very nice Dora T-shirt at Goodwill when Big Girl was going through her phase. I had a Miss Piggy shirt when I was three. So it's not that I'm violently opposed to characters in all shapes and venues.

The blatant marketing to kids is what bothers me. I just want my kids to grow up knowing they can buy CVS brand toothpaste or Dollar Tree shampoo (or use baking soda/Dr. Bronner's!) without their quality of life suffering.

Besides, sometimes the marketing just doesn't make sense!

Is a character from a movie called "Tangled" really the best choice for marketing your no-snarl shampoo??

Day 42: Love

On this day of love, there wasn't much to go around.

In the morning, I got an angry message from a stranger who felt I was cheating on a transaction we were attempting to complete. (I wasn't). It was an apparent glitch in communication between our computers.

Side note: the internet is a strange place. The ironically named "Facebook" is filled not with faces but with random pictures of beaches and political views. Ever had a one inch square picture of someone's cat "yell" at you?

In the afternoon, I got a jury summons. This isn't actually a bad thing. All my life I have wanted to be on a jury. In fact, when I was working, I was disappointed when others got to go and I didn't. The getting paid double part might have been a factor in my jealousy, I'll admit. I'm glad to finally be called, though the timing is a little off at the moment.

What did we do for Valentine's Day? Had a nice conversation and watched a show on Netflix together. What did we get each other? Absolutely nothing. It was just a normal day (after smoothing feathers and figuring out my jury duty dilemma). I'm honestly glad, and this isn't passive aggressive wife-talk for "my husband didn't bother to get me anything so I'm just going to pretend like I don't care."

Our gift giving tends to be long term. Four years ago for Christmas I got a vacation to New York City, where I'd always dreamed of going. Instead of getting knick knacks for every occasion, I like to think we are accumulating "points" toward some sort of big adventure.

Days 40-41: the spice of life

Or maybe the spice of blandness. After all, these have been in the spice rack since the day I opened them at my wedding shower...8 1/2 years ago.

As you might be able to surmise, I spent an afternoon cleaning out the kitchen, including the painstaking job of washing and re-labeling spice jars. I tossed a bunch of coriander that never got opened and refilled the jar with seasoned salt. A much better use of counter space, I must say.

I also pared down my kitchen utensils to what I actually use. I had a collection of vintage kitchen items, some of which I actually use. A lot of them, though, just took up space. My parents led the way by cleaning out their kitchen to the essentials. It's a joy to help cook at their house because what you need isn't buried under what you don't. I'm hoping for the same experience myself.

We were down to one car (again) for the last couple of days. I'm envious of those who can live with one car (or none!) Our area is just not walkable, though. The closest grocery store is about a mile and a half and there is no sidewalk. That grocery store is super expensive, too, so I'm not sure if it would even out in the end.

Days 36-39: 10 things I'm thankful for

1. Goodwill, just when I thought you couldn't get better, you go and introduce racks sorted by size!! You just saved me twenty minutes each visit plus untold frustration...when I find that perfect thing...in the wrong size...

2. Not one, but TWO friends who invited me to a get together and prepared a special gluten free dish. And I'm not talking about making something naturally gluten free. No, I'm talking about cherry cobbler...and pizza. Yum!

3. Our neighbor who plows three house lengths of street whenever the snow gets bad. Around here, that means pretty much twice a week. He's due for some homemade cookies ;-)

4. The library. Yesterday in a sermon, one of our ministers recommended a book by saying he "wasn't disappointed in the eight dollars he spent." I had already planned to look and see if the library offered the book. If not, maybe if enough of us want to read it, we could chip in a dollar each and buy it from half.com and share it.

5. Sell by date meat. I happened to be in the right place at the right time and scored ground beef for a fantastic deal. Some went into dinner that night and the rest got frozen.

6. My broken dishwasher. Yes, really. Because if it's not in the sink, it's in the cabinet. Nothing like knowing where all your dishes are, especially if you don't have a lot.

7. Cloth diapers. I've sung their praises before, but since I currently have a 19 month old fascinated with the toilet, it's time to invest in some trainers. Old diapers can be resold or passed along to someone in need with no waste.

8. Hand me downs. Let's face it, the United States is not facing a huge shortage of girls' clothes. Some of the clothes currently in my daughter's closet are on their third wearer (at least since I picked them up at the consignment shop or received them in a huge trash bag from someone cleaning out their closets). Who knows how many kids wore them previously.

9. The internet. I really admire the author of the Tightwad Gazette. She had to be frugal pre-Freecycle, pre-Craigslist, pre-Facebook garage sale pages. In some ways, I think the internet makes life harder by raising expectations, in many ways, it's an enabler for us cheapskates. Though some of the excitement goes out of it when I can search for "used brown rainboots size 10" and find seven pairs in ten seconds. Pre-internet, there was an element of surprise. Sure, those rainboots might turn up for cheap, but what would they look like?

10. My family, love, etc. All the traditional stuff. I had to put that in there somewhere.

Day 35: I thought this would be a piece of cake

Gluten free of course. And make that vanilla, not chocolate.

I figured sticking to The Compact would be no big deal. After all, I never thought of myself as much of a consumer/shopper.

Boy, how wrong I was.

Yesterday, I went to sort clothes for the thrift store and (as part of our volunteer "duty", felt compelled to shop). In two hours I considered purchasing (and ultimately rejected because I had no cash) the following items:

New with tags Colts jacket.

A set of Corelle dishware in a pattern that matches six cups I already own.

A rug designed for playing cars

A pure wool sweater that didn't make the cut and was therefore being "baled" (after reading Overdressed, I vaguely know what this means). I wanted to unravel it for wool yarn, by the way. Or wear it to an Ugly Christmas Sweater party (after mending the giant hole, that is.)

A couple pairs of shoes in the kids' sizes

At one point, I wondered if the friend I was with wondered "Doesn't she do anything but shop?"

Honestly, I do more than I realized. Although since I am not buying new, it does become more of a process to shop. Look at ten items before buying one. Reject most of it but always have your eyes open because Christmas comes sooner than you realize and Walmart and Amazon aren't there to bail you out (in my pretend world at least).

But I really do find it harder than I thought to give up the thrill of the hunt. Which probably explains why I am super excited about the fantastic deal I can score on toilet paper at CVS tomorrow.

In the meantime, instead of shopping, maybe I'll bake a cake.

Day 34: Menards

The other day, I semi-cheated. I stopped at Menards to browse their selection of rugs. We are in need of a large one as our hardwood floors get super cold in the winter and this isn't something I come across frequently at Goodwill.

Plus, we have a large balance on a gift card.

Plus, I love-times-a-hundred Menards.

Apparently, I was meant to stay on the straight and narrow because I found nary an area rug in the size and pattern I needed. I did find, however, that there is truly nothing I need at the moment. Not even free-after-rebate managed to lure me in after all the work I've put into decluttering.

I've got gadgets and gizmos aplenty. I've got who-sits and what-sits galore.

So thanks, Menards, for your selection of random house renovating tidbits that I couldn't find used in a million years, such as a cap for the toilet drain pipe to prevent sewer gas from escaping. Not that I would necessarily want that used, come to think of it. But everything else will remain within your walls, and not mine.

Day 31-33: a little bit of everything

My entryway: before. Complete with classy "old towel rug" and boots scattered all over.

My homemade coat rack is doing a booming business these days.

Day 31: Sorting clothes for a charity giveaway makes me recommit myself to The Compact. All these clothes, many with tags still on or in excellent used condition. Who needs the mall?

While sorting, one of my friends discovers a birthday banner that got mixed in. Since it's not clothing, we aren't including it in the giveaway. She decides to keep it for an upcoming birthday party.

"Is so-and-so having a Spiderman themed party?" asks someone else.

"He is now!" declares my friend. Way to go, fellow make-do-er!

Day 32: Who needs expensive sports equipment? Bobsledding can, in fact, be performed on one's backside, as I learned en route to get the mail. The resulting stiff neck (and lawsuits?) might prevent this from becoming an Olympic event. Though if it ever catches on, this is my kind of sport. Nothing needed except a well padded coat and possibly a helmet.

I talk to my mom on the phone about possible spring break destinations. One of our locations is near an Ikea.

"I can only window shop," I remind my mom.

"That's okay," she says. "I might be flying, so I'll be window shopping too."

Day 33: Decide it's high time to paint my entry way. Unfortunately, the floors will be some of the last things to go, but maybe with a fresh paint job on the walls and a rug, it will be somewhat more welcoming.

Do a little shoveling of the sidewalks and am thankful for the good pair of boots my mom purchased when I was 15 years old. I didn't need them much in the south but they are getting a workout now. With shoes old enough to get a driver's license, for them to still be in excellent shape is a testament to good workmanship. I would rather have one pair of well made boots than 16 shoddily made pairs that end up in the landfill.

Day 30: Why I go to the grocery store more often

I've started doing something completely contradictory to most frugal advice: I go to the grocery store twice a week.

Here's what had been happening lately:

Make a list for the week
Attempt to shop for the entire week
Come home, fill the fridge to capacity, thereby accidentally hiding the highly perishable in the back and forgetting it (cilantro, I'm looking at you)
Start to make dinner one night and realize I forgot to buy something central to a recipe (say, beef for beef stroganoff)
Have to go back to the store anyway (often last minute)

So if you can't beat it, might as well work with it. For the next few weeks at least, I'm going to remind myself that I'm not traveling the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon and I do have several grocery options highly accessible. For the most part, I batch errands, but in these days where the endless cycle of wake up-breakfast-playtime-errands-naptime-playtime-dinner consumes my days, I just don't have the ability to shop only on one marathon day. So I'll combine one grocery run with a trip to the library and another with a trip to the bank/post office/playgroup.

Also, if I'm only thinking a few days out, I won't be as tempted to overbuy.

Bonus: no more slimy cilantro languishing in the back of the crisper piled under the green beans and grapefruit.

Day 29: Attention all parents of cloth diapered girls!

I have a tip for you! 

I've been having the hardest time finding pants that fit a cloth diaper bum that don't also drag the ground.

Note: Skinny jeans on cloth diapered toddlers=no good. It is never advisable to resemble the letter P when viewed sideways. That is, if you can even wrestle the things onto the kid in the first place. Little Girl is 18 months and I can't even find 2T pants that fit her right. I've been doing sweatpants for the most part.

I do have a random pair of corduroy pants that fit her fine, though. I was pondering why this is when suddenly it dawned on me. They are boys' pants! 

It makes sense that boys' pants would be cut bigger and maybe even have a larger waist. So I guess I will be searching the boys' section of Goodwill now, looking for pants that look even slightly feminine. Good thing she has a lot of ruffly shirts to wear with them.