Archive for November, 2005

November 30th, 2005 - The elephants are coming home!!!

Rescue of Hawthorn Elephants–At the end of December, the Hawthorn elephants, except Joy the one I’d really wanted to help sponsor, will be coming home to The Elephant Sanctuary. I can’t believe it took so long! (TES is my favorite animal charity. I wish I could work there!)

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November 28th, 2005 - One more reason to love Antarctica

CNN.com - Iceberg ’sings under pressure’ - Nov 24, 2005

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November 25th, 2005 - Hiking the American Discover Trail

I just finished reading the 7-month trip across America on the American Discovery Trail by Ken and Marcia. I love tails of travels, especially hiking. I think it harkens back to the summer I was 10 or so and we were on the Appalachian Trail for a short time while on vacation. Our family’s long been walkers, but not backpackers. But the idea of a multi-state trail across the mountains just thrilled me.

Another part of it is that you have to live more simply when backpacking. You don’t have a choice! Although Ken and Marcia did not spend the entire time just on the trail. They stayed in motels, at at McD’s, had Starbuck’s coffee, and had many rides back and forth to pitstops. It’s still a great tale of their hiking adventure.

I don’t know how I found this hike anymore; it was about a month ago–the trip just ended on Oct 15.

Maybe Maggie will love to walk and we’ll become hikers together.

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November 25th, 2005 - Quiet Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was absolutely lovely. We had only two things planned: I was going to let Eric sleep in and he was going to watch football. In addition, I baked 2 loaves of bread, cooked lentils for Maggie, made yogurt, made olive spread, and mostly caught up with the finances. I still had plenty of time to do a lot of reading and playing with Maggie. It was so different from typical weekends, but I’m not sure why. I felt much more relaxed and felt like I got everything done that I’d wanted. The only difference I can think is that we went nowhere and often on the weekends we have errands. Doesn’t seem like that would make that much of a difference, but I guess so. I’ll have to compare it to this weekend when I will have errands!

And yes, we really didn’t have turkey, fixings, big meals, deocrations, or any of the other typical trappings of an American holiday. whoohoo!!!

Oh, yes, happy Buy Nothing Day! (Unfortunately, Eric and Maggie do have to buy something today–they both ran out of milk yesterday and Maggie can’t be without it. So they are also buying bananas.)

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November 23rd, 2005 - CHEC How To Clean Carpets without Dangerous Chemicals

CHEC How To Clean Carpets without Dangerous Chemicals For my future use. Although I particularly like the hint that you can clean just with water! I wonder if the steam cleaner would have any problems if nothing was in the cleaning solution bin (like creating a vacuum or something). I haven’t wanted to use it for the last year because I didn’t want Maggie crawling in the chemicals. Not sure what’s worse–the accumulated dirt or chemicals!

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November 23rd, 2005 - But Nothing Day

Even if you can’t participate in Buy Nothing Christmas, don’t forget to observe Buy Nothing Day the day after Thanksgiving.

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November 22nd, 2005 - Crossing Over book review

I always gravitate to books about the Amish and other such sects because they appear to embody the simple life. So recently, I picked up Crossing Over: One Woman’s Exodus from Amish Life (Amazon link) by Ruth Irene Garrett with Rick Farrant. This book, however, reveals a different side of the Old Order Amish community in which Irene grew up, and eventually left. There are certainly plenty of images of the simple life, but it’s a very inflexible, harsh life as well. What I found most interesting, I think, is the degree to which she left behind some of the simplicity when she left. For example, her garden is dependent upon Miracle Gro!

Could be an interesting read, but it doesn’t fit into the Simple Living category.

She has written a couple other books as well….all but the most recent of which I’ve now requested via ILL. (The latest was just published, and sounds like it will be the most likely to fit the Simple Living category. It’s the first in a series of books about a young Amish girl and her life.)

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November 22nd, 2005 - Skipping Christmas book review

If you enjoy reading this blog and ever considered buying into BuyNothingChristmas, do NOT read Skipping Christmas by John Grisham. In case you don’t head my warning and do plan to read it, please be forewarned that this post reveals the entire storyline.

The premise of the story: Luther and Nora’s only daughter has just left for the Peace Corps and this will be their first Christmas without her. They’ve always done it big, and had big bills to show for it ($6100 the prior year). They decide to skip Christmas completely, spend half the money taking a cruise after Christmas, and save the rest. They find it pretty difficult to explain to others, but slowly but surely they realize how wonderful their idea is. No long lines or crowds. No regretted spending. No angry conversations between them. No last minute gotta-haves. No uncomfortable parties or dinners. No hassle.

Unfortunately, the people around them are merciless when it comes to trying to change their minds. They even get hate mail! Their neighbors get carolers to stand on their sidewalk for hours. A neighbor blasts Christmas music from his driveway. Civic groups seeking donations/selling Christmas items don’t get his “no, thanks, not this year,” even when he says “Come back in spring for X, and I’ll give you $100.” No one gets it and everyone thinks Nora and Luther are stupid. Well, except for one coworker who tells Luther he’s his hero and wishes he could do the same.

I kept hoping that the moral of the story in the end would shine through and the angry friends and neighbors would realize that you don’t have to spend thousands to have a good time in December. Hah. I should have known (and did suspect) from the start when I learned Luther and Nora’s last name is Krank. Grisham starts out with them in the bad seat just with their last name.

On Christmas Eve morning, their daughter calls from Miami to say she’s coming home for Christmas with her fiance. She’s told him all about the big to-dos they have and they are both looking forward to a real Christmas. Luther and Nora are so shocked they can’t tell her the truth. The rush around for the next 8 hours preparing the Christmas they always had. Of course, it’s a mad rush; they yell at each other; the lines are horrid; nothing good is left on the shelves; etc.

No, they don’t realize at the end that they had the right idea and tell their daughter when she arrives, “Wonderful to see you dear and what a great guy you found. Enjoy the house; we’re off on a cruise!” Instead, their plans in disarray, the awful neighbors pull through to help pull off a party and gifts. Luther, realizing that his whole cruise idea had just been “selfish” gives it away to a neighbor. (This is the only good part of the book–the neighbor has just had cancer return and it’s probably their last Christmas together.)

I also have to note that Luther and Nora are terribly afraid of the skin color of their son-in-law to be and are relieved when he turns out to be fairly pale. Heaven’s! Why did he have to include that minor bit? It was completely unnecessary. I guess it was just one more way to make Luther and Nora look “petty.” I don’t believe their other actions in trying to skip Christmas were petty but commendable!

ARGH! And this book was recommended by the authors of the HomEconomiser budgetting newsletter I get. I was sure they wouldn’t recommend a book whose moral is “The more you spend and the worse you feel–that’s what Christmas is all about.” They also said it was laugh out loud hilarious. I didn’t find any of it funny, especially the cruel things people did to try to convince them of their waywardness, nor the agonizing preparations when they hear their daughter is coming back (Luther almost kills himself at one point).

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November 21st, 2005 - Speaking of Quicken

Speaking of Quicken in the last post reminded me of something I didn’t write about: I found a way to get TurboTax and It’s Deductible for free! Last summer or spring, someone at Quicken contacted me and interviewed me. I had completely forgotten about it until she contacted me a month ago saying that they’d like to record something I’d said for use on the radio. I would have done it for free, just ’cause it would be neato. But I’d get a copy of those two programs in exchange (or, if TT comes automatically, I’d get a copy of Quicken).

So, if you hear anyone talking about Quicken products and you a lady say that it helps keep track of her child’s tax credits, that’s me! (I said my name then three or four sentences.)

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November 21st, 2005 - Conflicted

Maggie has a savings account. As I went to put her birthday money in, I thought of the old passbook I had for my savings account as a child. It was so neat to see the listings up and down the pages as time went on. So I asked if they had such a thing anyway. As soon as I asked and Jenny went to get a register for me, I realized that this was *paper* and I do so love going digital and saving paper! So now I don’t know what to do–use the register since I got it anyway. Or recycle it and continuing using the digital resources. The register is also one more thing to find a home for, while the Quicken program is already used for other financial purposes.

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November 21st, 2005 - Wow!

Last week, I wrote about a book I’d really loved reading, The Gift Moves. And if you follow that link, you’ll see that the author read my post and replied. How absolutely cool. I’ve often thought about writing to an author, but never did. And now I simply wrote about a book and the author got to find out how much I enjoyed it.

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November 16th, 2005 - newmindspace

Imagine having a pillow fight with 100s of friends in your downtown square. Or a party on the subway train. Thses and other fun times can be had with lori kufner and kevin bracken of newmindspace…if only I lived in Toronto……

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November 16th, 2005 - Vinyl

I ran across the description “environmentally friendly vinyl” yesterday. Wish I could remember where. Quite the oxymoron.

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November 15th, 2005 - A Flock of Lawn Flamingos, by Pat Murphy

A Flock of Lawn Flamingos is a short, humorous story pointing out the need to occasionally make waves in our neck of the woods.

Serendipity: Someone posts a message about gift giving. Someone else posts that they bought a book with “flamingo” in the title for a relative. Someone else wonders if it’s a book by her friend (no, it was’t). Someone else posts their favorite flamingo story. Which I then share with all of you. Isn’t it strange sometimes how we find things we like?

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November 14th, 2005 - The Gift Moves

I read a wonderful book this weekend, The Gift Moves (amazon link). It’s set it a future America (takes a while to realize that, however), which is a gift-based society. Money does not change hands and trading is only vaguely allowed. But giving gifts is of primary import. It’s a fairly simple life, necessitated in part by the annual end-of-the-year bonfire in which most if not all consumable items are burned. Including the clothes on your back (well, they are off at that point). The bakery, for exmaple, uses up every single ingredient they have for food for the Midsummer. Whatever isn’t eaten that day is tossed in the fire. Then, people are hungry for a little bit until new ingredients are gifted to the bakery. I find it hard to describe this book, but had to write about it here as the culture seems perfectly suited to those wishing to live a more simple life.

It’s a book for teens, but I happen to love books for that age group. I’m hoping for a sequel. The world and the characters are richly developed and thoroughly enveloping.

There appear to be two other books by this author, both with F. Paul Wilson (who, if I recall correctly, used to be my husband’s family doctor until he quit to write full time). Both, unfortunately, appear to be in German and no info was available at Amazon. On the other hand, the book’s reviews indicate this is his first novel. I’d bet Amazon has the author linked to another author with the same name. aargh.

By the way, this is a book that I judged by its cover. There was no overleaf info to help me know what the book was about. The cover included one paragraph on the back that gave little insight into the book but was intriguing. The front cover—-a picture of a girls legs with small green footprints running down it–and title alone were enough to intrigue me. (The green footprints are a tatoo, but I shall let their secret await your reading of the book. It’s a quite delightful plot device!)

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November 14th, 2005 - The problem with wind

On Saturday, I spent a lovely hour raking leaves again. The weather was on the warm side and there was a bit of sun. But by the end of the hour, the wind had picked up a bit and I wasn’t able to finish the terrace (the part of our yard between the sidewalk and the street). I had gotten enough leaves to cover over 1/4 of the new garden quite nicely.

Until the wind lasted all night and blew almost all the leaves completely out of the garden to who knows where. I’m so disappointed! I think they are also being blown out of the back garden. This means hours of work for free compost is gone…..

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November 11th, 2005 - Christmas gifts

It occurred to me today that many parents give gifts to each other for their children until the kids are old enough to do so for themselves. So I shot a message off to Eric asking him if Maggie was going to buy gifts this year (it was before I was reading the Buy Nothing site, or else I would have remembered that to say give instead of buy!). His reply speaks for itself:

Ma’am, I have almost a years worth of presents already.

She can buy them when she is old enough to understand and desires to.

Until then lets just enjoy her.

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November 11th, 2005 - Buy Nothing Day : Adbusters

And don’t forget that the day after Thanksgiving is Buy Nothing Day. I usually don’t have a problem on this day because I go to work. It’s so nice and quiet because everyone else is out shopping (and being with family and whatever else people do on vacation days).

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November 11th, 2005 - buy nothing christmas ‘05

buynothingchristmas.org Sounds like a good idea to me. Unfortunately, I’ve already bought a few things. I can’t describe my plans, however, as my brother reads this and I don’t want him to know his gift(s)! But, no, I haven’t crocheted a sweater or a hard drive cozy out of dog hair. Yet. (I think the cat hair would work better anyway.)

The poster at buy nothing made me laugh out loud: a picture of Christ with the words “Where did I say that you should buy so much stuff to celebrate my birthday!?”

What would be a good buy nothing gift for my baby girl? (Although, by then, she’s officially a toddler girl. But she’s always be my baby girl!) Probably just a wrapped up box would give her the giggles for a while! She really doesn’t need anything. I sent a long list of stuff off to my parents and brother then my MIL asked what she needs…but the honest truth is that Maggie doesn’t need anything. She has plenty of clothes, plenty of toys. She’s not delighted by any particular foods (and can’t have any of the really fun ones yet anyway like chocolate). My one resolve is that we’ll give away toys/clothes in equal amounts to whatever she’s given. Makes it so much easier to pick up after her and to choose an outfit for the day, too!

I really hate the commercialization of Christmas (and most other holidays). I’m sure I can’t get my husband to buy nothing at all, but I sure can make sure I buy as little as possible. I’ve always preferred handmade gifts anyway. No clue, however, how to do this for my inlaws.

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November 10th, 2005 - I should have gone to U of MI instead

Not only does the U of Michigan in Ann Arbor now haveWorms go]ing] to college, turn[ing] dining hall scraps into fertilizer, food but they’ve been composting food waste for years! I wonder what Michigan State does.

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My Adventures in Simple Living

Archive for November, 2005

November 30th, 2005 - The elephants are coming home!!!

November 28th, 2005 - One more reason to love Antarctica

November 25th, 2005 - Hiking the American Discover Trail

November 25th, 2005 - Quiet Thanksgiving

November 23rd, 2005 - CHEC How To Clean Carpets without Dangerous Chemicals

November 23rd, 2005 - But Nothing Day

November 22nd, 2005 - Crossing Over book review

November 22nd, 2005 - Skipping Christmas book review

November 21st, 2005 - Speaking of Quicken

November 21st, 2005 - Conflicted

November 21st, 2005 - Wow!

November 16th, 2005 - newmindspace

November 16th, 2005 - Vinyl

November 15th, 2005 - A Flock of Lawn Flamingos, by Pat Murphy

November 14th, 2005 - The Gift Moves

November 14th, 2005 - The problem with wind

November 11th, 2005 - Christmas gifts

November 11th, 2005 - Buy Nothing Day : Adbusters

November 11th, 2005 - buy nothing christmas ‘05

November 10th, 2005 - I should have gone to U of MI instead

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