Looking Back

I started out 2008 with four goals that I shared here on the blog.  I did well with my goals.  Here is a brief update.

1.  Waste Less

We definitely wasted less food this year.  I am much better at meal planning and using up what we have.  It is so nice not throwing food out, better for the environment and our bank account.  We improved our water usage slightly, not a huge drop in water used per day compared to the previous year, about 14 gallons a day or 7 gallons a day per person (adding two little people this year will likely drive up our overall gallons per day usage, but lower our per person use).  Leaving room for more improvement this year.

2.  Eat 2-3 vegetarian meals a week

This was by far my easiest goal.  In fact, we only eat 1 or 2 meals with meat a week.  I think I can officially call myself a flexitarian.  I do consider at some point in time going totally vegetarian, but I am not there quite yet.

3.  Take the dogs for a minimum of 4 walks a week

The only time I struggled with this was in the summer!  It was too hot, but I still walked them often.  Now I am walking or running them 5 or 6 days a week.

4.  Eat fast food less than once a month

This one I totally didn’t do well on, oh well, plenty of room for improvement.  I don’t know if I will try this one in 2009, sometimes when you are stuck running errands a quick bite is convenient.

Tomorrow I will share some of my 2009 goals.

Lovely Saturday

Matt and I had a very relaxing, fun day yesterday.  We woke up semi-early to go to downtown Phoenix to pick up my grapevines and peach tree from the Phoenix Permaculture Guild.  They were less than half the price I would have paid at a nursery!  Considering my last two peach trees have died, I need to be more frugal with my purchases, plus the guild gave out some great tips which will hopefully help this peach tree be the one that makes it.  Then we went to the downtown farmers market.  There was plenty of fresh local produce, great crafts, local cheese, and local free-range eggs.  We had a great time supporting local businesses and made some yummy purchases.  

We then spent a good portion of our afternoon in the garden.  Thanks to my wonderful husband for digging for me!  The one thing I can’t stand is attempting to dig a hole in our backyard, that is some tough dirt back there!  We planted my. grapevines and peach tree and did some basic maintenance in the garden and yard.

Matt doing the hard work

 

Grapevines

Peach Tree

Garden Bed

We then went over to the neighbors’ for a birthday barbeque (Happy Birthday Aubrey!) where we enjoyed some good food and company. 

Then it was home to watch the Cardinals game.  I will confess to being a closet Cardinals’ fan.  I am a professed Cowboys fan, but I do cheer for the home team on most occasions (even occasionally against the Cowboys, shh don’t tell them).  In the past there hasn’t been much to cheer for but there has always been the secret hope that one of these years would be their year.  Well last night I did not expect them to win (anyone who watched the last half of their season can understand why no one expected them to win), but I wanted them to win so bad just to prove everyone wrong and as a reward for their loyal fans.  Well they won!  I am still in shock.  The Arizona Cardinals are going to the NFC Championship game.  I didn’t think I would ever see this day.  Congratulations to the Cardinals!  Today I will be cheering for the Eagles, if they when the Cardinals will get to host the big game.

Friday Update – 01.09.09

Adoption Update:  We have now been waiting 44 weeks or just over 10 months.  There have been no referrals for the last three weeks, things should pick up again here soon.

Running:  I am happy to say I have been running very consistently and it is going very well.  I also started cycling for exercise again, I was just cycling around town to do errands which wasn’t ever that far.

Gardening:  My winter garden is growing like crazy right now.  I harvested some radishes, a turnip, and lettuce this week for a salad.  They were all delicious!  I should have some snow peas and carrots soon.  Onions and garlic are growing but those won’t be harvested for a couple more months.

I just received my seeds for my spring garden.  I am actually happy that it appears we will be here and not traveling when I first plant the spring garden, it should be nice and established by the time we travel.  We are picking up the peach tree and grape vines I ordered tomorrow, hopefully this is the peach tree that lives!

Life:  We have been very busy just doing day to day stuff.  The beginning of the year is always extra busy with the business so that is our main focus right now.  Abby is doing well, her parents are very tired though!  Being an Aunt so far is easy, looking forward to more quality time with her.

Here is Matt’s favorite picture of Abby so far:

Snow Day with Dad

On Monday and Tuesday my dad and I went up to my parents’ cabin to see some snow.  When we arrived at the cabin we were disappointed to see the snow was already melted.  Not to worry a quick 20 minute drive up the mountain and there was plenty.  It was the super hard well packed kind, so no snowmen or snowball fights, but we did get to try out sledding.  It was my first time (yes I know this is something you should probably try in your life before you turn 30 and yes I have seen snow before), so we stuck to the small hills, which was a good thing, because it was some fast snow!

Here are a couple of pics, I put the rest of them in the photo gallery:

Abby's Big Arrival

Abby finally made her appearance this morning at 10:35 after a very long night.  She weighed in at 7 pounds 3.5 ounces and 21 inches long.  She is an absolute doll and already keeping Jason busy with the diaper changes!

Here are some pics, I also uploaded a few more in the photo gallery (I will upload more when I get them, hint hint dad):

Yawning must be hard work being born

Happy new family

Proud new dad

Grandpa and Abby

Grandma and Abby

Friday Update – 12.19.08

Adoption Update:  We made it through week 41, how many more?  There were 10 referrals this week, seven boys and three girls.  Congratulations to all the happy families!  Our agency is closed until January 5, so no more referrals until after the new year.  We did not know about this closure until this month, so if anyone picked a referral date in that time period, please feel free to pick a new date.  We were re-fingerprinted last Saturday and USCIS is not very busy right now.  We were taken right back for our fingerprints, so much nicer than the last time.  Everyone say a prayer that my prints don’t get kicked back by the FBI, I had really dry fingers and she had a difficult time getting a good print.  I was obsessively putting on lotion last week to remedy the problem but to no avail and this week I didn’t obsess and no dry fingers.

Running Update:  I finally started running again!  I have to say it is so much nicer taking up running this time of year.  I can already run further and longer than I could when I stopped.  The temps being well below 90 sure make a difference!  Now I just need to start doing those push-ups again.

Gardening:  My garden is doing really well.  The snow peas have finally started to bloom and I have plenty of lettuce for salads.  I haven’t had to worry about a frost yet and Matt is helping me build a cover for the garden this weekend for that rare occasion we get below 32°.

Life:  We made lots of cookies on Sunday with my family and have been busy handing them out to neighbors ever since.  Michelle and I also made cookies on Tuesday.  She did a great job decorating them:

 

I also was able to meet Paul B. today!  He is a wonderful baby!  I had a very nice time chatting with Sandi and Bill about Ethiopia and their trip.  I cannot wait to travel!

Help Save Handmade

Okay I must admit, I am addicted to Etsy.com.  I love browsing the handmade crafts, especially the stuff for children.  I dream about the stuff I can buy for Tom and Jerry when I find out ages and genders.  The sad thing is there is a new law that is about to go into effect that could end handmade stuff for kids.  The Hand Made Toy Alliance has this on their website:

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008.  Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number. 

For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.

  • A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
  • A work at home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
  • A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
  • And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.
What can you do?  Well the Hand Made Toy Alliance has provided a sample letter.  Please write your Representative and your Senators.  It is easy and takes less than a minute.  They are not asking for the law to go away completely, but rather for changes to be made, so small toy makers can stay in business and crafts can still be sold.

Friday Update – 12.12.08

Adoption Update:  Two referrals this week, both were sibling groups.  One set of four year old identical twin girls and a boy/girl sibling group ages 1.5 and 2.5.  Congratulations to the happy families!  We reached 40 weeks today!  Hopefully our referral will be here soon.  We are going to USCIS to get fingerprinted again tomorrow, hopefully this is our last set of fingerprints.  

Life:  I did not get much done this week as I was very sick for a couple of days, so no exercising and no gardening and if you hadn’t noticed, no blogging.  I did check in on the garden this morning and it did survive the week without me.  🙂  We are doing some holiday baking on Sunday, I will be sure to take lots of pictures.

Friday Update – 12/05/08

Adoption Update:

Well we have made it to 39 weeks of waiting! I am getting to the point where I just really want to see their faces and know them. Most days I am fine, but today not so much. 🙁 Please pray for some more referrals, and for court dates to start going more smoothly. A lot of court days have been rescheduled lately and my heart breaks for the families who didn’t pass recently.

Gardening:

My little garden is really starting to take off. The turnips and snow peas look great and I have some lettuce ready for eating.

Life:

Matt and I have been keeping busy decorating for Christmas and I have been cleaning out closets and cabinets like a mad woman! Business is staying strong which is an answer to prayers during the current economic situation. We are truly happy and thankful for all that we have.

Mocha Club

I started a Mocha Club team in Tom and Jerry’s names today to support education in Uganda and Kenya. Please join our team and provide education for only $7 a month.

Baby Names

I’ll be honest Matt and I have no idea what we are doing with the kids’ names and I don’t see us making up our minds until we see them. We do try to think of names from time to time, but never really settle on anything. I came across this fun baby name site today. You can search for names by disposition!

What to buy

What do you buy for the person that has everything, is impossible to buy for, is an eco-dork, or the consummate philanthropist? How about buying them gifts that keep on giving?

The World Wildlife Fund has tons of animals you can adopt and your recipient will receive a gift also. Some adorable examples are the frogs, giraffe, or penguins.

Sustainable Harvest has gift options that improves the standard of living for families and preserves the environment.

Heifer International has gifts to help families become more self-reliant. You can give goats, bees, ducks, and trees and many other items.

You could buy them shoes:

Or you can give the simple gift of water for Christmas.

Shopping for Fair Trade items is always a possibility. Check out Global Exchange or Serrv International.

Those are just a few of the gift ideas I have to share. Please feel free to share any you have.

Tom and Jerry have a room!

Matt finished up the painting this weekend. I am very pleased with how everything turned out and so glad I married such a talented man!

Here is a quick video showing a panorama of the room:

He even added flowers and butterflies just for me.  🙂