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happy halloween!

hope yours was as fruitful as ours.  and by "fruitful" i mean sweet.  and by "sweet" i mean full of candy.

you get the idea. ;)

happy halloween!

becky's noticed...

clearly i'm in a blog funk.  clearly i need a little kick in the seat to post.  clearly i'm not the only one who thinks so...  i've been tagged.  thanks becky. ;) 

Instructions:
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself (on your blog, we all want to know them).
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

here we go:

7 random or weird facts about little 'ol me:

1) i love scrabble -- so much that when we were dating, mike and i would play all the time!  we even payed on a ferry ride to the san juan islands.  we're geeky like that.   it's been years since i've played, however.  hmm... now to find that board around somewhere.

2) if i were a dog, i would be a golden retriever.  i am loyal.  like, super loyal.  and i shed lots of hair in the winter.  but i'm a clean eater. ;)  so i'm not exactly like a golden retriever.

3) mike's parents get us a new pair of cozy socks every christmas.  it's the highlight of my christmas.  i don't wear socks often, except for the gym and hiking and working in the yard... but i do love my cozy socks.

4) i never carry cash.  this is a terribly bad habit that i really must change.  but so true.  i think i may have a dollar and some coins in my wallet at this moment.

5) i don't wash my hair everyday.  there!  i've said it.  i have really thick hair and washing it daily just dries it out.  a part of me thinks it's kind of gross... but i do like NOT having to take the time to dry it every other day.  it takes something like 20 minutes!  sheesh -- i'm gross.  i know it. ;)

6) i don't do scary movies.  even a little. 

7) in 6th grade i called my teacher a "goody two shoes."  i don't know what i was thinking.  don't get me wrong -- she was wrong (i won't go in to the details), but i seriously don't know what i was thinking bad-mouthing a teacher.  needless to say, i was sent to the principal's office.  it's  flub on my conscience that has taken years to get over.  i'm over it now. ;)

i'm tagging:

karly

desiree

melissa

rita

ranjini

lisa

and keisha.

happy tuesday!

good morning!

gosh, folks!  i'm sorry it's been so long since my last post.  we haven't disappeared or anything.  just enjoying the sudden onslaught of fall, and the many fall-ish activities that young families do in october.

want to see some pictures?  :)

(if you're wondering... is that a worm?!... the answer is yes.) 

fun times.  two pumpkin patch visits down (one at the local csa where we get our veggies and one for noah's preschool) and one more to go -- anna's class goes next week.

as for the grown ups in our house, we're finishing up yardwork and gearing up for the windy weather that comes our way this time of year.

i think i need this super warm coat. looks warm, hmm!

happy fall.  happy friday!

two for tuesday

1) anyone else remember this sketch?  i was having an internal debate about whether it was from sesame street or the electric company.  sesame street it was!

2) last night, on the way home from a meeting, i was listening to *this* on npr.  if you haven't read some of the essays, i encourage you to sit down and click away.

happy tuesday! 

low-impact living

... or "green living."  it's got me thinking. 

i remember when we got our first recycle bins.  i was a kid.  still in middle school, i believe.  it was just the beginning.  i remember sorting - soda cans in one bin, newspaper in another...  and it made me realize just how much times have changed.  not only is recycling easier (at least in our county, all recycle goes directly into one large bin in the garage, and is picked up by our waste management people once a week), but most weeks, our recycle bin is fuller than our garbage bin.  something, i'm sure, is also true for many of you.

so last night, after mike put the trash/recycle/yard waste out for pick up today, it got me thinking...  is it enough?  of course, this has crossed my mind many many times in past years.  how can we move beyond recycling?  how can i reduce and reuse more, making recycling less of a dependency?

this morning when i woke up, it was still on my mind, so i googled "low impact living."  and one of the first pages i found was this:

- cutting your use of plastic -

it got me thinking even more about the ways that we help reduce.

- packing the kids lunches in tupperware instead of plastic baggies when possible

- sending "hearty" kid utensils in their lunchboxes for use applesauce and yogurt instead of disposable plastic utensils

- reusing plastic grocery bags rather than recycling them

and then it got me thinking about how we need to change in our household:

- buying grocery items with less packaging

- buying fewer disposable water bottles and using reusable ones instead (these ones are cute & eco-friendly -- siig -- but a little pricey)

** by the way, mike and i watched something the other night.  it was a photographic artist who created artwork to show how many water bottles were consumed in a short number of hours.  anyone happen to see that?  i cannot remember his name, or where i saw it on tv, but if any of you happen to know, i'd love to hear more.

*** and have any of you seen this?  more about water bottles here.

it's just a start, isn't it?  any thoughts?  i'm all ears!

happy friday, everyone!

a little sharing...

it's been awhile.  thought i'd take the opportunity this morning -- coffee in hand, pouring rain outside my window, kids still sleeping -- to post a few pages i've worked on over the past month or so.  there aren't a ton.  nope, that whole getting-back-to-school thing had me wiped!  but i survived, my kids survived, and now life is beginning to look a little more routine around here (thankful for that!).

(layout images property of fontwerks)

(instructions and complete supply lists for the above pages can be found HERE, along with the work of the other very talented, very lovely fontwerks team.)

in other news:

i tried a new recipe last night from p-dub's blog.  you can see the recipe and drool HERE.  even my kids ate it, without the shrimp (crazy kids -- that's the best part!).  yum!

did you know the most recent us first class stamp is worth 41 cents?  i didn't.  nope, those new "forever" stamps we've got around here don't have a value on the front, so when we ran out and i had to use an old 39 cent stamp, i actually had to look up postage rates to determine the current value.  isn't that a testament that our postal system has rate changes far too often?  i mean really!  i'm not saying we shouldn't have rate increases, just maybe not every other week, ya know?

oh, and take a look at a link that my good friend karly sent me. www.jill-e.com  these are camera bags -- can you believe it?  now truth be told, bags are my weakness, so these really speak to me.  however, i'm a practical woman, so the thought of shelling out some serious $$ for a camera bag  brings me back to earth (and my lowepro camera bag = cheap but solid).

that's it from me this morning.  happy tuesday, all!