Earth Day 2009

It's Earth Day.

I love it. I love that I work for a company that allows me to be a member of our Green Team. I love that my home is based around conservation and reduce/reuse/recycle. I love that we are doing our part and make the small changes to do better.

I wish we could do more. But I know with each decision and change we make in our life and home...it will be based on knowing the impact it will have around the world.

What are you all doing for Earth Day?

giving so that others can live

Today is Blood Drive Day at the office. Sorta like Rex Manning Day, but without the silk shirt cladden has-been. So I guess it's not actually like it at all. But I can pretend, cause the office would be a waaay cooler place if we ran like a record store (minus the weird gambling/money loss situation...that would suck.)

All the same...it's a big day. One that has me emotional. Which isn't anything new, but has me thinking about the fact that what we are doing...as simple as it is...is SAVING LIVES.

I wish I could hug all the people who donated the blood that has kept our Lola with us. Who spent an hour sitting in a chair with a needle stuck in them in them of helping another. And they'll never know us or what they did...and we'll never know them.

So instead I am gonna hug each person in my office today. I bet they'll really like that. Cause I give good hugs.

Now go find a local blood drive and SAVE A LIFE. I'll hug you too...if you want.

I need your input!!!

It's still got me mixed up...this whole question of what I should buy for the kids on holidays. It's hard for me. For many reasons. Do you fill their easter baskets with ipods and gameboys? Or do you spend good quality time with them?

I can't keep up with Jones'. There is no way we could even attempt to do that right now. But even if we could...would I WANT to?

And like all mommies and daddies....I want to give my kids everything. the world. more than the world. But is giving them STUFF, is that giving them what they should have? Is it teaching them what they should be taught? Or am I trying to justify not buying them things by saying it's cause I want to instill good values?

I'd love your thoughts...what do you do for your kids on holidays? And why?

garden boxes in our homestead

I'm sitting here at the kitchen table with more than enough thoughts to fill a page of single spaced documentation. I love sitting here, at the kitchen table. If I tilt my head slightly to the left or right, I can see the menfolk snuggled in for the night...and if I sorta lean to the left or right, I can see a toddler wreaking havoc on our dear family room. It's a good feeling.

Normally, I would be confined to share my thoughts and insanities confined in our "bonus room"..."spare room"..."office"..."place where all that has no home ends up". It's a pleasant room that directs your attention to the picture wall...a conjogulation of photos that I have gathered or found since moving in. There are gaps, not only in position, but in those faces represented. Many people who are very important in my life, currently fail to show on this wall. That my friends....is due to spontaneity and poor planning.

I get to sit here tonite, enjoy the last light of the day, listening to the sounds of a family enjoying their show, simply due to bringing my work computer home. There is a hope, soon, I'll be able to make this event a common event. And one day when I have a computer that isn't as old as Jesus and has a battery that is able to run while not plugged in...I'll be able to actually sit on the couch and annoy my Handy Man (aka Jason) with my quick typing abilities. PS...I pride myself in my typing abilities...Jason loathes them. It's an issue we are working on to help us grow stronger as a couple. In the meantime...we keep our distance as I try to increase my Words Per Minute abilities.

It was a good day.

We got the garden boxes built. And then they were driven into the ground. And I wasn't ready to stop then. I drove my pretty little toosh (or widening toosh, take your pick) to Home Depot, where I purchased all I needed to fill our boxes with the goodness that is compost and peat moss and soil. An investment...and so far...one of the best I've ever made. So then...we filled the boxes. Me and Handy Man. And the help of our good friend Fingers. It was accompanied by the joyful sounds of boys hammering nails into a tree house.

Like I said...It was a good day.

I came into the house smelling of dirt and compost and God knows what...and all I could think about, was the fact this was the best I have felt in months. My blood was rushing and my heart was racing. It was like I had just gone running...without the, you know...RUNNING. It was awesome.

I have a great amount of excitement in knowing we will be eating our own labours sometime this summer. And for the many years to come. And by putting in those pretty boxes out there, full of foul smelling soil...we are doing what we can...to make our house...a HOME.