On Houses

The 4 houses I’ve owned (sequentially) over the past 40 years reflect the change in my needs over the years and lessons learned from owning previous houses.

The first house was purchased in an area where we’d lived in an apartment for several years. It was convenient to my work and my husband’s grad school location. We chose the particular house because it had 4 bedrooms rather than 3 and it had a country kitchen. Two lessons learned: painting the outside of a house is hard work even if it is half brick and insulation matters (that house was hard to keep cool in summer and warm in the winter).

The second house was selected in a week-long trip halfway across the country. We triangulated work locations and bought in a neighborhood that made our commutes about equal (but in opposite directions). We liked the house because it had a country in kitchen, big trees in the yard, and extra insulation has been added by the previous owners. Some lessons learned: miles and commute time often don’t correlate, older houses tend to have problems (the air conditioner compressor quit two weeks after we moved in), and maintenance (sometimes expensive) is required (we only lived there for 3 years but had to have the outside painted and the roof replaced).

The third house was selected to resolve the too-long commute problem. Again we triangulated and this time it worked better. We chose the house because it had 4 bedrooms - 3 quite large - and large closets. The house had a dining room which we never used because the kitchen included a breakfast area….and it was a newer house. The lessons learned: triangulating does not work as well as having one parent with almost no commute when there is a young child, low ceilings make a house seem claustrophobic no matter how good its layout is, and steep driveways are treacherous in bad weather (my car turned sideways in the icy driveway).

The fourth house, where we are now, was chosen because it was so full of light and it had a covered/screened deck. The neighborhood was nestled across from farms and was full of children close to my daughter’s age. And we found that the public schools were excellent once we settled in (lesson learned - we should have checked that before we moved…we were lucky).  The lessons I have learned/am learning from this house: don’t wait around to make small renovations and the way sound carries in a house may be important for a multi-generational household. This house has lots of room but creaks in the floor boards and noise carrying through ductwork is significant; we aren’t a multi-generational household yet but I find myself glad that it won’t happen in this house! In addition - while I like high ceilings overall, I have come to realize how much space is wasted by a two story foyer and den.  Long term I want to minimize stairs too.

All those lessons will be applied to the selection of the fifth house….sometime in the next few years.

Memories of my Mother-in-Law

Even with the passage of over 20 years since her death - I still think of my mother-in-law frequently. She would have been 79 years old today. The things she left behind when she died suddenly in her mid-50s are still some of the handiest things in my kitchen - reminders of her best wishes for me from the beginning of my relationship with her son.

When I use one of her wooden spoons or the mini-food processor or the flower shaped plastic for opening too-tight lids, I often think of the years she missed….events I would have enjoyed sharing with her: the activities of my daughter’s growing up…the career highs and lows….the experience of becoming post-career.

One of the knives she bought - serrated and perfect for slicing tomatoes - broke recently and I felt like it was a small part of her that was gone rather than a tool. The wooden handle on her breadknife cracked but I still keep it in the drawer.

In retrospect, there was so much about her that I did not know; there were some discoveries after she died. Not knowing doesn’t matter now.

The memories evoked by the items I use so often in the kitchen are fond ones.

The Grand Cleanout - May

It is hard to get motivated to reduce the ‘stuff’ in the house without some forcing function. Moving - downsizing into a house that fits the change in our needs (down to two people) - would be the ultimate forcing function but we are not quite to that point. It’s clear that it would take a lot of work because we have been expanding to the available space in this house for almost 20 years. So - I am going to create my own forcing function my starting a monthly ‘grand cleanout’ post. This is a strategy that worked very well in my work life: establish a goal, create a plan to accomplish it, and then monitor progress.

The goal in this case is:

To be ‘move ready’ by June 2015 (i.e. a year from now).

By the time the grand cleanout post for June comes, I’ll:

• Develop some month by month objectives
• Donate the ‘stuff’ I’ve already got piled in the unused dining room (what a mess!) - clearing the area so that I can stage new items that will exit the house in similar fashion. 

And now I've created my own 'forcing function' for the Grand Cleanout!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - May 2014

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations;’ here are my top 10 for May 2014.

Daughter’s visit. What’s not to like about having a daughter around! It was a very short visit - every part was a celebration of family.

Jack-in-the-Pulpits. This was the first year I found them blooming at the forest’s edge in our yard. These plants always seem special to me because I saw them only in pictures until I moved to the east coast.

Getting seedlings planted. I got all the seedlings planted and celebrated they were all thriving (until the hail battered a couple to oblivion last week. Still - enough are growing rapidly in there pots on the deck that I am pleased with the results of my efforts to get them started early.

Wall of green. Every my I celebrate the return of the wall of green view from my office window. The tulip poplar and maple trees are through the spring greens and looking as lush always get in summer. The sycamore that I see from my kitchen window is a little later unfurling; it’s leaves will continue getting larger and larger all during the summer.

Blueberries and yogurt. It is my favorite mini-meal in May and June….a way to celebration almost every day.

Driving neighbors. I thoroughly enjoy volunteering to drive senior citizens to their appointments in my community. What a joy it is to have them stay in the community where they have lived for years!

Hiking in the forest. Spring is one of my favorite times to hike: wildflowers, not a lot of biting insects, water gurgling. It was wonderful to be outdoors after the cold and wet!

Phone conversations. I find myself celebrating the normal ebb and flow of conversation with people far away. Sometimes it is the ordinary that turns out to be a treasure.

Birdbath and iris. Every time I go by the front door of my house (either outside or inside) I glance and the view and celebrate!

Chives. Here’s to celebrating plants that just come up every year on their own….and taste wonderful in salads!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 24, 2014

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Ten Fabulous Facts about Butterflies: A Wildlife Garden’s Best Friend - Now that the weather in our area is getting warmer…..we’ll be seeing more butterflies. They’re one of my signposts of summer!

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2014 - The list is from the editors of MIT’s Technology Review (and they include a pointer to past lists too).

Diatoms on Display - Fan shaped - they reminded me of stylized papyrus images.

Why Do Americans Hate Lives of Leisure? - The article went a different direction than I anticipated. It really was not about ‘lives of leisure’ but about why we tend to feel we have too little or none at all.

Blocking pain receptors extends lifespan, boosts metabolism in mice - It is appealing to find that something done to improve the quality of life (like blocking pain) might also extend lifespan. Of course - it may not work the same in humans as it does in mice.

Super-power Chia Bread - My routine breakfast is a tablespoon of chia seeds in almond milk - but I have been noticing more recipes that include chia recently and this is one I plan to try. It would be a lot easier to eat ‘on the go.’

London’s Greatest Scientific Experiments - An interactive tour.

On the shoulder of a giant: Precursor volcano to the island of O'ahu discovered - My daughter is in Hawaii on a geology field trip right now so this article captured my attention.

A Map of National Landmarks That Are Most Vulnerable to Climate Change - Time to plan a vacation to see some of these? We were at the NASA Kennedy Space Center and Canaveral National Seashore last fall.

Visualizing the Ocular Microbiome - The surface of our eyes is yet another complex ecosystem and it has some unique properties. Modern molecular diagnostic tools are increasing our understanding of what it takes to sustain ‘health.’

Filigree Floral Sculpture Produced with Innovative 3D Printing - This one is added to my list for the week because of beauty and the use of technology.

On Work

What does it ‘work’ mean in our culture? Looking in the Thesaurus - there is quite a range of synonyms: from the fairly benign “effort, endeavor, task, attempt” to significantly negative “grind, servitude, slogging, toil.”

It seems that over the past few decades ‘work’ in the popular media has become rather narrowly focused on activity associated with earning money. There is a lot of discussion of ‘work-life balance’ as if work and life are two distinct things.  Does that phrase imply that work is the same as servitude or non-discretionary activity?  Our work time belongs to someone else (our employer) rather than ourselves?  Perhaps we have some discretion when we choose a job or career…but that does not mean that we like every aspect of the ‘work’ even though some career counseling seems to imply that young people should strive to steer themselves into occupations that they can enjoy 100% of the time.

Then again - years ago my daughter’s Montessori pre-school called the activities in their school ‘work’ which associates the word with effort or endeavor or attempt.  This is a more appealing way to think about ‘work’ and one that could apply to anyone. It does not conceptualize ‘work’ as separate from the rest of what the individual is about.

I like to integrate all aspects of my life rather than try to balance particular categorizations of what I do.  I still like to have variety in my days, weeks, and months but it is not about work-life balance; it is more about having an enjoyable mix of things I am doing. I’ve come to realize that if I take earning money out of the equation, I am hard pressed to identify what activities I would categorize as ‘work.’ 

On Time

One of the changes between the rhythm of career and post-career life is the perception of time. Even before I entered the post-career phase of my life, I was aware that I was using the clock to control too much of the way I was living; on the weekend I would intentionally not wear a watch - seeking to loosen the rigor of waking to an alarm, eating when it was the right time rather than when I was hungry, and using the time to decide I was taking too much doing what I was doing.

Now - I go to sleep when I am tired and wake up 7-8 hours later - usually to bird song; it is refreshing to wake up in sync with the day beginning for the world outdoors and at the point of lightest sleep; what a joy to slid gently from sleep to wakefulness. It happens about the same time every day; the little bit of variation is very comfortable. It is so much better without a jarring sound that happened too frequently at the wrong part of my sleep cycle.

These days when I have an appointment at a certain time, I often set a timer rather than rely on my keeping track of what time it is. That is quite a change from the attention to time I had during my career when there were so many elements that were linked to a time synchronized with actions of other people. I wore a watch and often had a clock in my office too. Reminders came up on the computer. I even had a clock in my home office; I didn’t hang it again after we had the house painted.

There are times that I have to check the date and time because I lose track. A lot of what I enjoy doing now has more of a daily or weekly rhythm rather than being pegged to a more exact time. For example - I do grocery shopping once a week and a blog post daily. Now that I have my garden started, there are some daily garden chores as well.

Historically, life 300 years ago was a lot like this for everyone. There were church bells that caused some synchronization of activity….but otherwise the rhythm of days (rather than hours) was dominant. It was important to predict the seasonal changes so that crops could be planted at the right time. The implication is that the attention to time in modern culture has increased the frequency that we think in short time (hourly) frames. We start training early in our lives with bells and topic changes happening quite frequently throughout our school years.

By creating habits that are not so focused on the exact time, I am now teaching myself the older rhythm….savoring the rhythms of the planet.

Clothes for Warmer Days

It’s the time of year to put away heavy sweaters and pants. It isn’t quite warm enough for summer clothes yet but the winter clothes are always too warm by the afternoon. So - it is time to go with lighter layers for warmer days: T- shirts, lightweight slacks, long sleeved cottons, lightweight cardigans. I have an extra closet for the out of season clothes and yesterday was my ‘stage 1’ change for warmer days. I’ll have a ‘stage 2’ when the days get really hot (summer) and I put away slacks altogether.

As I move clothes around - the items I haven’t worn at all during the past season are put in a bag to donate. The clothes that are for the upcoming season are evaluated. Since I have become more rigorous during the end of season move, the clothes I am getting out are usually all worth keeping. But is there a hole in the wardrobe that I need to fill via shopping or repurposing? I don’t think so at this point. If anything, I have too many clothes!

About 10 years ago, I decided that black (rather than black or brown or navy blue) would be my ‘neutral’ color. It turned out to be a great strategy. Almost all my pants are black and they go with all my tops.  Most of the tops are pastel or bright colors although I have a few black tops because I like bright jackets too (in every season except summer). I will need to make a trip to the dry cleaners for a few winter jackets as soon as I am sure I will not be wearing them again this year.

My fashion season leans classical which means that I buy clothes that will be part of my wardroom until they wear out completely rather than for a single year.  I do enjoy the occasional splurge toward the trendy even though I wear them long after the season they were ‘in’ - sparkles on a top, lattice at the neckline, palazzo pants.

At one time I decided that I would get rid of my scarves but now I am glad I didn’t. They are a warming addition to a winter outfit (that I enjoyed a lot this past season) and I like them during other seasons as belts, to add color to a straw hat, or tied around an otherwise dull purse.

Over the years - I’ve come to the conclusion that in the spectrum between extreme comfort and extreme fashion, I always be on the comfort end of the spectrum. The only area I am still challenged is shoes. I know that the longer one wears shoes with pointy toes and high heels, the more deformed (and painful) the foot becomes. The problem is to find shoes that are comfortable and look good with certain types of clothes, particularly dresses. I’ll have to deal with the shoe issue more during the summer when dresses are by far the coolest choice for the hot days; stay tuned for my upcoming post on summer clothes!

Community Supported Agriculture

I’ve joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) for this summer. I purchased a half share. I had thought about it last year but didn’t get around to doing it. This year taking courses on the US Food System and How to Change the World provided a little extra push.

The CSA idea appeals to my sense of taking individual action to make the world a better place. The local farm avoids the transportation costs for its crops, the community gets locally grown produce, the family farm remains a viable business…..the whole is a more sustainable model.

Being a member of a CSA will encourage me to eat a larger variety of veggies - an even healthier diet than I have already. Somehow my vegetable purchases at the grocery store settle into a pattern: carrots, tomatoes, romaine, peppers, celery, andcucumbers. It’s not that I don’t like almost all vegetables --- the familiar is just too luring. So - having the CSA provide veggies that are at their best that particular week will coax me to try some new foods.

I supposed I could do almost the equivalent by going to the local Farmers Market but I am sure I’d have the same problem I have the past few summers: the one afternoon a week that the one nearest to me is open goes by….and then I remember! The requirement of prepaying for the CSA share is a good way to motivate myself to pick up the veggies every week at my allotted time.

Here are some links for more information about CSAs:

http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

Valentines: Celebrating Long Term Relationships

Valentines is a day to savor….the power of the team of two!

Memories of my Maternal Grandmother

My maternal grandmother would have been 107 today….and I am celebrating the part of her life I shared. The picture of her I am including with this post is from the mid-1980s when she traveled to visit me after I moved from Texas to Virginia. We sat on the patio - eating lunch and talking - while dogwood petals drifted down around us. The picture appeals to me because she was focused on the conversation rather than my husband taking her picture!

By the time I remember her, she was running a grain mill and storage. It was a career added after more than 20 years as a wife and mother - starting rather abruptly when her husband became ill and simply continuing on for over 20 years after he eventually recovered.  She had settled into the job by the time I remember going to the mill with her when my family visited during the summer. It was a special time when she and I could be together without the rest of the family crowd. There were tall stools to sit on behind the counter. Trucks filled with grain would come to be weighed….and then return after they had been emptied so that the weight of the grain could be calculated. People would come in to buy garden seeds; the drawers of seeds with their colorful picture labels were one of my favorite features of the office. Beside the back door was a large catalpa tree; I remember the long seed pods of the summer time tree.

She had never had formal training for her second career. I’m sure she applied everything she had learned in her 20 plus years of managing a household with 9 children before she started. Children and employees apparently accepted her authority without question.

My grandmother was a small person - not much over 5 feet - with white hair that appeared early on (I only know that she originally had black hair from old pictures and a portrait done in her late teens. She was always the smallest adult at the mill - and most of the time the only woman. She spoke calmly and softly. She was decisive and firm. Her style of management and leadership was effective….and ladylike…even in a business dominated by men.

I didn’t realize until years later how rare she was in the business world of the 1960s….or how much she influenced the way I wanted to be in my career relationships...and, now, the type of matriarch I have become.

Memories of my Paternal Grandmother

Year before last on February 6, I wrote about my paternal Grandmother and the things that remind me of her. She would have been 102 today. Because she was the grandparent I knew the longest (over 50 years), she is the one that taught me the most about growing old with purpose and grace. I hope that I can do as well as she did with

• Health
• Independence
• Relationships
• Interests

(picture from late 1920s)

I’m eating more…..

Today I am thinking about foods that I am eating more frequently now that I was 5 years ago. Some are foods that are new to me within this time period. Some of the foods are ones that I’ve always eaten but I just each more of them now….or I buy different forms. My success in getting down to the ‘normal’ weight range for my height has a lot to do with the transformations I made in my diet. So - here is my list of the food I’m eating more this winter:

Pomegranates. The pomegranate season is something I look forward to. I eat 1/4 at a time….and managed to eat one a week for almost the entire season. But they’ve only been available from regular grocery stores in recent years. The first one I ate was on a visit to my mother; it is an easy fruit to like immediately.

Kale. Did you know that 1/4 cup of kale provides 131% of the Vitamin K daily requirement, 27% of Vitamin C, 28% of Copper and 12% of Vitamin A? It is a powerhouse leafy green. I use it in the winter time in soups and stir fries. I’d seen it in winter gardens long before I found it in the grocery and decided to try it in food. I prefer it cooked so I eat it more frequently in winter.

Mushrooms. I’ve purchased and eaten mushroom for a long time but have only recently started eating them more often. They are rich sources of Riboflavin, Niacin, and Pantothenic Acid as well as minerals like Copper and Selenium….and they contain protein too. I like them better in stir fries than I do raw….and I buy another package virtually every time I go to the grocery store.

Bell peppers. Until recently, I’ve generally eaten the green bell peppers but the packages of yellow, orange, red, and green peppers are what I have been buying recently. They all add color to stir fries - and the strips can be used to dip hummus during the summer.

Almond milk. I switched from cow’s milk to fortified almond milk a few years ago…and like it well enough to no longer need to take a calcium supplement!

Soy nuts. I like dry roast soy nuts. They are high in protein as well as good quality fats. They've replaced dry roasted peanuts almost entirely in my diet over the past year.

Quinoa. A grain that is a complete protein (i.e. includes all the essential amino acids)! And it cooks quickly too. I use it instead of rice under stir fry, in salads instead of pasta, and for breakfast instead of oatmeal or packaged cereals. It is my favorite grain. Quinoa has only recently become available in the grocery store.

Chia seeds. I tend to have a tablespoon of chia seeds with my almond milk almost every morning. It is quite a nutritional boost: Omega 3 fats, protein, and minerals like calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, selenium, and zinc. When I first tried chia seeds back in early 2012, I had to order them. Now they are available in my grocery store.

Butternut squash. For some reason, I tended to buy acorn squash if I bought winter squash at all. Then several years ago, I discovered butternut squash and now I buy it exclusively. I helps that the grocery store has packages of the squash already cut into chunks - perfect for roasting in the oven or cooking in broth to make a soup.

Plain yogurt. I used to always buy flavored yogurt….until I discovered how easy it was to make smoothies with plain yogurt and fruit. This winter I have been heating up frozen blueberries in the microwave and then putting a dollop of plain yogurt on top. Yummy….and I like the pretty purple it becomes when it is stirred into the blueberries.

Organic celery, oranges, beef, poultry, eggs. I seem to be buying more and more organic items over the past few years….but for different reasons. Celery was the first item I started buying organic after I read about it containing so many pesticides; I eat more of it during the summer than I do in the winter. I buy organic oranges because I want to make zest from the skin…where most of the pesticides would reside in the regular oranges. The organic beef was recommended by my husband’s nutritionist and tastes better too; I really don’t want the antibiotics and hormones that are part of the regular beef. The same comment about antibiotics goes for poultry and eggs as well….plus organically raised chickens are not raised entirely in a cage. I’m sure that over time I’ll be buying more organic produce - particularly when the price difference is not very significant.

What about you? Has your food consumption changed in the past 5 years?

Timelines

One of the side benefits of taking courses is learning about ways to depict information…and tools to assist with that depiction…in ways that enhance both perception/thinking and communication. I couldn’t resist looking more closely at two timeline tools. One was Tiki-Toki which a student in The Modern and the Postmodern Coursera course (being offered again starting Jan. 27) had used to make a timeline of the topics in the course. The other was a simpler timeline tool from readwritethink - a site I learned about via the K-12 education courses I’ve been taking on Coursera.

I used the simpler tool to make a quick graphic of the major events of my life. It was thought provoking to decide what events were really important to me. The last ones I added were the deaths of my grandparents; I haven’t had many people that I was close to die except for those four and it occurred to me that I still think of them relatively frequently….that their influence on me persists and is somewhat dependent on when they died.

Timelines are good ways to succinctly display time related items. The timeline above is the simplest form! I’ve wanted to create timelines before but they took a lot of effort to produce. Now I am celebrating that there are actually two tools that are easily available! The tool I used for the timeline above has the capability to have dates and images - features I will use next time. I have visions of including a timeline when I return from my next vacation….in the first blog post of the series! What about summarizing a whole year of travels? Maybe I’ll use the Tiki-Toki tool to create a timeline for all my Coursera courses too.

Wedding Anniversary

My 41st wedding anniversary is coming up soon so I picked up on this quote Carolyn G. Heilbrun’s book Writing a Woman’s Life that I read recently:

The sign of a good marriage is that everything is debatable and challenged; nothing is turned into law or policy. The rules, if any, are known only to the two players, who seek no public trophies.

It sounds very close to reality for the long term marriages I’ve observed. There is always flexibility in the roles over the years that build in resilience to the changes life brings. Life is not static so a marriage cannot be either.

There are still some things that have not changed too much over the years. My husband usually takes out the trash; I generally plan meals, put most of the items on the grocery list, and buy the groceries. He usually vacuums; I usually mop. We started out discussing larger purchases before making them; the dollar value of what we consider large has changed but the commitment to share financial decisions has been there from the beginning.

There were a lot of debates subsequent shared decisions along the way. One of the funniest ones happened early on: he was buying dress shoes and asked me which ones I thought looked the best. I told him and he bought that pair. A few weeks later he asked me why I told him to buy that particular pair of shoes because they hurt his feet! Fortunately we could both laugh about it.

And maybe being able to laugh with each other is an indicator of ‘a good marriage’ too. 

Reducing Trash

Periodically, I take an inventory of what is still ending up in our trash and think about what changes I can make to reduce it. I buy in to the notion that sending things to the landfill is ‘bad’ from the perspective of right now and for the future. No one wants to live on or near a landfill now and yet they are ever growing; how will our children and grandchildren avoid living on our trash heap if we continue as we have in the past? And who wants to be wasteful? It isn’t about being rich or poor. It is about being good stewards of our home.

The inventory was a great project for a cold winter day when the best plan-for-the-day was to stay indoors. Here’s what I found (grouped by the action I am taking…or plan to take)

Tissues and paper towels - The only way I can imagine to reduce this trash is to avoid creating it. In the past I have considered using handkerchiefs….but only for a few seconds; the tissues are just too convenient. Using a dish cloth or towel rather than a paper towel reduces our paper towel consumption but I still keep a roll on the counter for extra messy or contaminating jobs like wiping up chicken juice or cleaning the inside of the microwave of oily residue (from microwave popcorn). So the amount of tissues and paper towels in our trash will stay about the same. We have very few napkins because I switched to washcloth napkins after a previous inventory.

Small pieces of paper - There were all kinds of small pieces of paper in our trash until recently:  stevia packets, wrappers from tea bags, paper used in other packaging that is not recyclable, and Post-it notes. I’ve made it a point to collect it in a small box (like the box the stevia packets came in originally) and then put it in the recycling. It does not reduce the trash by very much - but every little bit that does not go to the landfill is a good thing. I’ve even started emptying tea bags into the gold mesh basket of my tea maker (a coffee maker that has never seen coffee) so that the tab and tea paper goes into the small paper box too!

Fruit and vegetable parings - In the summer time, I try to compost these directly into my garden but the only thing I compost in winter is tea leaves (which go into houseplant pots). On the plus side, the county is expanding the curbside compost program; hopefully it will come to my neighborhood within the next year.

Egg shells - Again - I manage to compost these in the summer. Should I save a few to use as mini-pots for sprouting garden veggies indoors before the last frost?

Microwave popcorn package - We are using up our last box of packaged microwave popcorn. I bought a bowl with a vented lid to pop the corn in the microwave (without oil or other harmful chemicals). It works with the least expensive popcorn in my grocery store (which comes in a recyclable plastic bag that makes many servings of popcorn).

Dryer sheets - I did a little research and am going to look to see if my store carries any that are recyclable.

Worn out underwear - Clothes that can still be worn are candidates for donation. Items with holes and rot still end up in the trash.

Used cat litter - There does not seem to be any other possibility….it stays in the trash.

Plastic wrap - If it’s clean it can go into the same recycle as the plastic bags! I just learned this from reading my county’s recycling list. If it has food on it, then it still is a trash item.

Clam shell type package - I try to avoid these because they cannot be recycled. It is better to use the plastic produce bags for tomatoes, for example. Unfortunately, some products (like small electronics, kitchen knives, etc.) tend to come in this kind of packaging and there often is no other packaging option.

Frozen food bags - These are not recyclable in my county. Even if they were it might be difficult since they often end up messy on the inside. I do try to buy the largest bag that I can us in a reasonable time.

Foil lined packages- I seem to have more of these that I realized from cat treats,Christmas chocolates, and tea bag wrappers. I’m going to look to see if there are any alternative forms of packaging. The tea bag wrappers are probably the easiest.

Pre-cut veggie containers - I have just recently noticed that the pre-cut salads and veggies come in clam shell packages or a material that is different than the plastic produce bags….and neither one can be recycled. Maybe grocery stores will help out by changing the package. I can buy bell peppers in a package of pulp paper with plastic wrap….which can be re-cycled.

Flip top lids of cat food - The recycler recommends putting sharp lids into the trash. Perhaps it is a safety issue?

Straws - The recycler does not like very small items in the stream they are processing…so straws are relegated to trash. Maybe I’ll use up the straws I’ve already purchased and simply stop using them.

Everything else I found in the trash was an infrequent item. Nothing stands out as an opportunity to reduce the trash volume dramatically so the main action I am taking from this inventory is a tweak to my grocery shopping:

Avoid clamshells and other non-recyclable containers. 

A New Year Begins - 2014

2014 begins today. It’s a human designation that it is today so whatever meaning it has is also ours.

I like to get up for the sunrise rather than stay up until midnight. This time of year it is very easy to get up well before the sun comes up and I was thrilled to find a dove in our oak tree when I went out to capture the event this morning. At first the dove was quiet, but then it started cooing at me. What a gentle sound to start the year!

The first light of the new day synchronized with the first day of the New Year reminds me of the potential there always is - to savor the moment and grow into a satisfying future.

In years past - I made list of things I wanted to make different. Sometimes I made a lasting change. One year I decided to learn to use my mouse with my left hand rather than my right; that was almost 10 years ago and I have made the change permanently. Last year I decided to have one last sprint of weight loss and get down to the weight I was at 25; I did it by September and have maintained it easily since then. I started gradually increasing my reading goals beginning in 1985 and now I’m combining reading with taking online courses since they are so freely available; learning this way is one of my favorite pastimes so I need nothing to push me onward at this point. Travel and visiting family/friends is another favorite pastime; no encouragement needed there either. The volunteer gigs I started in 2013 are still lots of fun and worthwhile…I won’t be making a change away from them in 2014.

So I am left with a generic goal of exhorting myself to live more in the present in 2014…to refrain from over-planning (which I sometimes have been known to do)!