Seven S Things About Me

I was tagged about a month ago by Carin and then recently by Kristi, so I thought I'd share a few more things about me. If you didn't see my answers in October when Amber tagged me, you can find them here.

I really did start to write a post in February when Carin tagged me, but sometimes it is hard to think up things about yourself and I ended up scrapping the post. But yesterday while I was subbing in the 5th grade, I jotted a few notes down. I quickly saw a theme emerging and so here you have it:

1. Sorority- I belong to Xi Beta Lambda, which is part of Beta Sigma Phi. I joined when I in my 30's not, during college. Basically we get together once a month during the school year and have lessons(the last one was on identity theft) and conduct business. We currently run a concession stand for local baseball and softball games. This earns the money we need for donating to local organizations and for providing scholarships to Sorority member's children. We also get together to scrapbook, shop and have a few socials a year.

2. Searching- one of my latest whims is dreaming about buying an acreage. We'd have some chickens, maybe a few goats and room for a huge garden.So it's been fun to search the papers and real estate ads for local acreages for sale. We drove out to see this one a few days ago...


it is on 5 acres and has a chicken house, a large pole shed and a detached garage. From the listing, it seems to need a lot of work, which I am definitely scared of. So for now, it is just fun to dream. Plus, I just saw that it has a contract pending.

3. Sprouting, along with starting my seeds, I started some alfalfa sprouts the other day. I am a little scared of sprouts too, but I have been craving something alive. I haven't bought lettuce in a while because I felt like so much of it always went to waste. Most of that could be fixed by better planning on my part, but until then, I'm looking forward to some fresh sprouts on my sandwiches.


4. Swaying in the wind. Right after I posted about it being cold here, it warmed up into the 50's and 60's. So, I took advantage of it and hung a few things to dry outside. I love linens dried on the line. We have a lot of allergies at our house and no clothes line, so it won't be an regular occurrence, but I love getting that line dried smell when I can.


5. Sans Cable. We gave up our cable last month and so far the kids are surviving. They don't really like it, but I really am optimistic that they'll adjust even better once they can get out to play outside more often. We did break down and buy an antenna, so we can still get our American Idol fix, but besides that, we leave it off. It's not fun to watch a snowy picture. It really isn't a huge monthly savings, we only had basic cable, but I really think the other benefits are worth it.

6. Slow Year. I read about this concept on Riana's blog. Here is her description from the flickr group she has set up to showcase pictures from this lifestyle:

A year of non-consumerism. Refurbish, recreate, restyle your wardrobe and life. Slowly. Can, jar, forage and wildcraft foods, grow a garden, bake bread, recycle everything last thing, barter & trade, simplify!

She also had 2 slow months where she didn't buy any groceries and they ate out of her pantry and freezer. It is all very intriguing and while am not really committing myself to it as a lifestyle, I really am trying to incorporate a lot of the same ideals to my life. I need to think out of the box more often- especially when it comes to feeding my family. Less packaging, less trips to the store, and a lot more creativity. My poor children aren't always keen on the idea, but generally speaking our meals have been more hearty and definitely more nutritious.

7. Sunrises- one of the things I love about living where I do is the awesome view we have each morning as we eat breakfast and read scriptures together. I can't help but pause in awe, at the brilliant colors lighting the sky, as the dawn is breaking.


Haven't done this tag yet? Go for it! Or you can do it again, it's always fun to learn more about people!

Hot and Cold

It's still pretty darn cold here in Nebraska. We woke up to several inches of snow last Friday and 10 below zero windchills. It is supposed to warm up this week and be in the 50's, so I'm sure that means my kids will have their shorts out and be begging to wear them outside.


Despite the freezing temperatures last week I started a kitchen compost pile and got tomtatoes, broccoli and a couple varieties of lettuce going. I can't wait to get out and get working in my soil.



I know warm weather will be welcome around here too, because for the past month, for the first time in my married life, I've started turning down the thermostat. I'm not sure why I never did this before, but it started with turning the heat down at night. Since we got used to that with the help of our flannel sheets, I've been slowly inching our daytime temperatures down more as well. My kids all love their stocking hats and we've learned that sweatshirts, robes and a good pair of warm socks really make a difference.

Our favorite new thing is the rice bag that I made last week. My friend Kathy was telling me she uses one every night to warm up her feet when she goes to bed and then I saw Blair's tutorial and knew I had to make one. It has been a huge hit! It was so easy to make, I made 2 in about 30 minutes. Now at night we heat it up for about 3 minutes in the microwave and our feet stay toasty warm.


My only recommendation is that mung beans are not a good filler- because they are really stinky when heated up. The second bag I made with just rice and I think it is much better. Connor doesn't like the smell of either one of them and wants me to make one all of his own so he can spray Axe on his, heaven help us! I'm thinking some crushed lavendar might be a better addition to the rice.

It did get up to the mid 40's yesterday. Perfect ice cream weather, no? Josh didn't think so, but it was still delicious and the company was wonderful!

Conserving instead of Consuming

So yesterday, in a comatose stupor, Troy remembered that Jameson's rock tumbler needed to be checked. He proceeded to do this in a strainer over the garbage disposal. We're not sure what happened, but all of the sudden our disposal was sounding very broken. He messed with it a bit, but was feeling so yucky, he just advised me to not use that side of the sink until he could get a better look at it.

I've been trying to cook everything from scratch lately and that means a lot of dishes. And it wasn't fun just using one side of the sink. So tonight, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I did a search on the internet and found a couple of videos showing me exactly what to do to fix it. So I got out my allen wrench, turned off the breaker and went to work. It was so empowering to be able to fix it myself. Normally, I leave all that handiwork stuff up to Troy. Best of all, we didn't have to go out and buy a new disposal.

I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking lately about trying to be more of a conserver instead of a consoumer. We've become to so used to disposable everything, that when something breaks we just get a new one, and trash the old one. The Story of Stuff is one of the things that really has made me stop and think. It is a very thought provoking video- it takes about 20 minutes, but I think you'll be glad you took the time to watch it.