Archive for November, 2006

November 28th, 2006 - A problem with toilet training

Anti-consumerist parents such as myself who, for instance, don’t allow their toddler to watch TV (and other media), own toys with characters, eat at mass fast food chains, etc., might have a problem with toilet training.

What’s the connection?

The advice I’ve been reading often suggests powerful motivators that depend upon the child having favorite characters! For instance, buying underwear: Having the child choose her own new underwear can be great, especially when she gets to choose one with her favorite character such as Dora or Disney Princesses. Or “those who will be proud of you for going in the potty”: Tell your child that Santa/Superman/Big Bird is proud of him when he finally has a success. (Dr. Phil even recommends that you have a friend call and pretend to be that character!)

I’m stumped. My daughter hasn’t the faintest clue who any of the above are. I’m trying to decide if we can get by with saying that her two dogs are oh so proud of her. (Since family lives so far away and we have no close friends here, the only people whose praise she recognizes are Daddy and Mommy.)

Not that I have a problem with this “problem.” Not at all!

We made it to age 2. Can we make it to age 3?

Posted in Kids | 1 Comment »

November 27th, 2006 - Maggie the ninja

I promised a month ago to put up the picture of Maggie the ninja. Well, I finally did so over the weekend over in her blog. Look for the October ones.

And Eric found the perfect toy for her. I think I can easily make one however. I made some dolls this summer just like this, except in colorful fabrics (and skinnier with longer legs).

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November 27th, 2006 - Been busy…

Well, not exactly, but away from the computer at least. Last week, Eric was sick so I stayed home for three days. At home, I rarely touch the computer! Instead, I cooked and baked and cleaned and played with Maggie and unpacked boxes. Have I mentioned how much I love being at home with my daughter?????

And started in on my taxes. Can’t do a whole lot yet since I don’t have year-end totals on anything yet. But an initial go-through indicates that we underpaid by about $700. Darn! It’s hard to estimate properly during these years–staring/ending mortgages, new kids, differing donations, etc. I prefer to be spot on, of course. Luckily, we have about that much in the house fund still.

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

November 17th, 2006 - Living in Poverty

Living in Poverty is an account of the author’s experience with a poverty simulation. As a credit counselor, she thought she’d be able to handle the “month” easily…until realities kicked in. For example, her advice has always been “pay the mortgage first.” And then she found out that they couldn’t pay it first since they didn’t have enough money for an entire payment. By the time they had enough money saved from their paychecks, they had lost their home.

It’s a very interesting take that I wish more people in the world had a chance to participate in.

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November 17th, 2006 - Too much Junk Mail?

Just heard about a very interesting company idea from IdealBite: Too much Junk Mail? | How Do I Stop It | Stop Junk Mail Now with greendimes. For $36/year, they will do a lot to keep your name off junk mail lists–not contacting DMA once a year or so like most of us do, but actually sending repeated requests to all sorts of companies to keep your name off. [The link tracks me as referrer, but it’s just tracking. I get no benefit from it.]

I really like this idea. A lot. And they plant a tree for each member each month, too!

But it’s fairly new (opened Sept 18) and I wonder how long they’ll be around and just how well it work in the long run. I’m very tempted to try it. At least for a month ($3 + fees) to see if it seems to work. Nope–minimum 3 month committment. And I’ll bet it’s per person, not per family which is too bad. :( And it’s per name–I still get junk mail in my maiden name.

No, no, no!!! It’s a yes–They allow you to add up to FOUR other members at the same address. WOOHOO!!!!!!

Even better, although it means I’ll have to reenter my info–you can get a refund if you cancel. If you get the year-long membership (which doesn’t have the $0.35 monthly fee), you will get your money back, pro-rated for the months you haven’t used (after 3 months). I’m going to go back and sign up for that. If I cancel after 3 months, I’m not out anything more! It even includes promo blocks on credit reports. Woohoo!

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November 14th, 2006 - Tracking utility use I electric

About a year ago, I pulled out all the utility bills I could find and started tracking our usage of electricity, gass, and water in Excel. Here are some graphs to share. I am happy to see that in general, our usage has been decreasing. In my spreadsheet, I’m tracking monthly usage (3-months for water), daily average, cost, change in cost from a year ago, and change in usage from a year ago. (Let me know with a comment if you’d like to see additional data! Remember, the comment box does exist, the box border just doesn’t show up.)

I can’t get this to format properly, so will post each chart in a separate entry. Select the chart to see larger.

Electrical usage (kwh)

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November 14th, 2006 - Tracking utility use II gas

Gas usage

A nice side benefit of tracking is that I’ve seen that even though gas prices rose this year, our costs decreased compared to last year! Except last month. We turned the heat on earlier in the year (in October rather than in November). Our usage was 275% higher than the prior year. Our bill was only 60% higher however and I’m not sure why.

I can’t wait to track over the winter. Our new windows should be installed the first week of December. The difference should be detectable!

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November 14th, 2006 - Tracking utility use III water

Water usage. I would guess that the recent reduction is due to the installation of a new downstairs low-flush toilet. Makes me want to replace the upstairs one ASAP! (On the other hand, since it jumped up again on the last bill, maybe the readings were simply off. On the other hand, even if you averaged out the last three bills, they’d still be lower than prior years.)

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November 13th, 2006 - The Green Mommy: Deciphering Produce Codes

The Green Mommy: Deciphering Produce Codes is excellent info I need to memorize! She’ll tell you how to tell if produce is organic or genetically modified based on the little PLU# sticker they all have.

Posted in Food | No Comments »

November 9th, 2006 - The table saw for me

If we ever buy a table saw, the SawStop is the one for me.

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

November 8th, 2006 - Apple cider

This weekend, I made apple cider and sauce with my steam juicer. The results on Saturday were so delicious, I made more on Sunday! I canned the results on Saturday, which was also successful.

For about $16, I made
7 quarts apple cider
3 quarts cranberry-apple cider
14 pints applesauce (2 used to make apple butter)
7 pints cran-apple sauce

The costs:
$8 20# apple “seconds”. Mom said what I got is sold as firsts around them. They were slightly bruised or hail damaged. Honestly, they could have been easily eaten.
$2.40 cranberries (locally grown, WI is, after all, the largest cranberry producer in the US)
$4 or so Priscilla apples that were too sour and Winesaps that Eric didn’t like
$2 or so the other apples I snagged to fill out Sunday’s batch from my eating apples
FREE yellow Delicious apples from the neighbors’ tree

I’m going to check out the orchard on Saturday to see if they are still selling seconds. It’s the end of the season, so I have no idea. But I’d happily spend another Friday night and Saturday cooking and canning for more cider! ‘Round here, fresh cider is about $3/quart (or more?) so we rarely buy it. Far too expensive!

Posted in Food | No Comments »

November 8th, 2006 - Tulips redux

Pretty pictures of my tulip garden last spring may provide some color during a gray day of fall!

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November 7th, 2006 - White and Nerdy

This is mainly posted for my brother, because he knows me so well and introduced me to Weird Al when we were kids. But I guess for the rest of you it will help you get to know me better! Let’s just say that my husband pretty quickly knew it was all about me (well, and him)! White and Nerdy video by Weird Al.

This has absolutely *nothing* to do with the theme of this blog. But I had to share this song!

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

November 6th, 2006 - ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ author dead - CNN.com

‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ author dead. This book and it’s sequel are classic tale of living simply (and hilariously). With a family of 12 kids, you have to live simply! It’s also a wonderful tale of a woman at the turn of the century raising a family and having a job on her own (after her husband dies). If you haven’t read the original books, they are great!

(The remake of the movie based on the book with Steve Martin has nothing to do with the orignal real story except for having 12 kids. For heaven’s sake, in the real story, the Dad dies early on!)

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November 6th, 2006 - The Stars, The Snow, The Fire

The Stars, The Snow, The Fire by John Haines is another book I dropped before getting far. The first chapter revolved around hunting/trapping and it was just too much for me. I’m not interested in killing animals to any great degree and it wasn’t a good way to start a book.

Posted in Book reviews | 1 Comment »

November 6th, 2006 - Good-bye Boise…Hello Alaska and Dear Cora

Good-bye Boise…Hello Alaska and Dear Cora by Cora Holmes are a delightful pair of books about a single Mom with two boys who moved to Alaska to help on a remote ranch. The first book follows a year in their life a few years later after she married the ranch owner. The second was in response to all the letters they received to answer many questions readers had had. The ranch is located on Unalaska island in the Aleutian Island Chain. They are 80 miles from the nearest village, over a mountain range! Usually, they go by plane or boat which is much farther. They grocery shop once every two years. They get mail about 4 times a year. And less snow than Oshkosh.

Enjoyable, simple books. The only disappointment is that I was very frustrated by Cora–she’s scared of horses, scared her boys will drown, scared they’ll get hurt sledding, scared…. There was a lot of this and it was a bit tiring. Why did she move to remote Alaska if she was so scared of everything? But the rest of the stories are delightful. And what a simple life they have to live!

Posted in Book reviews | No Comments »

November 3rd, 2006 - Getting older

I had two realizations this week that scared me.

* One day, I won’t be able to walk to work anymore, at least not in the middle of winter. It simply won’t be safe anymore. Not that it’s all that safe now (3 sprained wrists in 4 years due to falls)! But what will I do when I can’t walk that far anymore? Will we have to have two cars? Or will I ride the bus? That would work fine I guess. Hadn’t thought of that at first. Of course, this is predicated on my not retiring by then. Since I have no idea when that will happen nor how I will physically age, who knows. But I did think about it.
* One day, I won’t be able to eat fresh vegetables from my garden since I won’t be able to garden. It might be due to my declining abilities or my husband’s. My grandfather moved out of his house and away from his beloved garden due to my grandmother’s dementia. Luckily, there will still be farmer’s markets….but it isn’t the same.

I’ve been noticing my age lately, something I haven’t really done since I hit adulthood. The years going by haven’t mattered too much. I don’t really feel like a 34 year old. I don’t think I look like one either. I feel much like I did in my early 20s and think I look the same, too. Not that I’ve compared photos, it’s just my self-perception.

Then I sprained my ankle. 3 months later, my left ankle still looks larger than my right. I still have trouble doing child’s pose in pilates/yoga in a way I never did before. I realized I don’t have the same body I did when I sprained my ankle in high school and in college. And it’s just generally weird and scary to me.

My grandmother has dementia and osteporosis (I think; I know her sister had the latter and Grandma sure looks like she could have it, too). I just learned my Mom is getting arthritis in her hands. I can’t imagine not being able to use my hands like I do now. I have had problems with sciatica for a few years now. I eat generally heathily, I walk a lot, I’ve been exercising with the program at work, while life has been stressful I’m pretty successful at keeping happy. So why is my body falling apart on me?

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

November 3rd, 2006 - Vinyl windows

We are going to have to, due to the cost of wood windows, install vinyl windows. This greatly saddens me, as vinyl is one of the biggest environmental scourages and I had my heart set on avoiding it. But the cost difference, when you are replacing 15 windows (12 of which are about 6′ tall) is in the vicinity of $7000. We just can’t afford to do it right now. This is part of the lead abatement work. We could abate the paint in the windows, and retain our old, ineffecient windows some of which can’t be opened anymore since the screens have been ripped and they were installed wrong so can’t be replaced, for about $1000. Or we could replace them for $3000, and get a $200/window tax credit.

Eric pointed out something that has abated my sadness to some degree: I really do a LOT that is environmentally friendly. This one decision doesn’t change the fact that I do a heck of a lot.

And maybe in 20 years, we can replace them with wood windows. When the mortgage is paid off, the kitchen is remodeled, the heat/ac is upgraded (so all 3 bedrooms have it), etc…..

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

My Adventures in Simple Living

Archive for November, 2006

November 28th, 2006 - A problem with toilet training

November 27th, 2006 - Maggie the ninja

November 27th, 2006 - Been busy…

November 17th, 2006 - Living in Poverty

November 17th, 2006 - Too much Junk Mail?

November 14th, 2006 - Tracking utility use I electric

November 14th, 2006 - Tracking utility use II gas

November 14th, 2006 - Tracking utility use III water

November 13th, 2006 - The Green Mommy: Deciphering Produce Codes

November 9th, 2006 - The table saw for me

November 8th, 2006 - Apple cider

November 8th, 2006 - Tulips redux

November 7th, 2006 - White and Nerdy

November 6th, 2006 - ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ author dead - CNN.com

November 6th, 2006 - The Stars, The Snow, The Fire

November 6th, 2006 - Good-bye Boise…Hello Alaska and Dear Cora

November 3rd, 2006 - Getting older

November 3rd, 2006 - Vinyl windows

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