Posted by Rachel on Jul 30, 2010 in
Nature This little dude came to visit me today at work. On a Friday, no less! That’s dedication.
I don’t know if it’s sparrow season or what, but these guys have popped on by almost every day this week. What’s fun is that my windows are tinted, so I think they think they’re looking at themselves. Or somebird just like them. So I get get really close to them. And, well, I’ve decided that sparrows look pretty raggedly up close.
Posted by Rachel on May 16, 2010 in
Family,
Nature Ever risked your life for the perfect spot to have lunch?
Ha! That’s crazy! Who would do such a thing….? Okay, fine, we didn’t either. But when Becky and I took off for a few hours of hiking at Salmonie Lake, we did want to find a good lunch spot with a view of the water. Totally reasonable. We decided to scale the downhill to a sandy beach, and enjoyed a nice picnic.
Just about 15-20 minutes from Marion, it’s a surprisingly pretty place. After lunch, we strolled along the shoreline. I even skipped a stone! So stoked. And thanks to my iPhone, I kept track of our position, and when I thought it would be a good place to head inland towards our car, we started back up the cliff. Well, it had been raining for a few days, and it was kind of slippery. We made it though, clawing our way through the bushes, but when we got the top, gasping for breath, Becky said, “Um, I think I might have prematurely ended a few young tree lives!”
Then, my iPhone got us lost. Yeah, it was the iPhone’s fault. Definitely not in any way the fault of me who misread where we were. At any rate, we had to off-road it again. Which lead us here:
We had to cross a ravine, and we decided the best way to do that was to cross on a tree that had fallen across it. Beck decided to scoot it. I crossed it hanging on to various branches for dear life.
We learned that it’s good to stay on the path. Yeah, it’s better to do that. My legs wouldn’t be criss-crossed with various scratches otherwise. But then we wouldn’t have found the perfect lunch spot!
Posted by Rachel on Sep 21, 2009 in
Nature I’ve been smitten.
By a lip balm.
I know that sounds weird. But kindly allow me a moment of mostly shallowness. The fact is, I have discovered a very cool product, and because I care about you and yours, I want to show it to you.
Without a doubt, Eos Smooth Sphere Lip Balm is the coolest lip balm product to hit the market since sparkley chapstick. And it’s gender-neutral. Here’s some of the pluses to Eos Smooth Sphere:
1. It’s organic. Well, 95% organic, whatever that means. But there’s no petroleum-based products in it.
2. It comes in the most awesome container. It’s kind of like an egg, and it screws open, and the lip balm part is a rounded knob, perfect for application to lips.
3. It’s clear and not-shiny, full of shea butter and vitamin E.
4. Comes in three flavors and two different containers – Smooth Sphere and Smooth Stick. I personally think the Sphere shape is awesome. Almost ethereal. But see, there I go, waxing eloquent about some stuff you smear on your lips.
Costs $3.29 (plus $2.75 S&H) online. You can also buy it in bulk on Amazon. I got mine free through a promotional deal Eos had going on a while back. But I would definitely pay to get another one. According to the Eos website, they are also available at Walgreens.
Get your Smooth Spheres! (random shout-out to a skit from Snow Camp years ago. The orginal skit involved a bunch of MKs from Latin America and about 100 pairs of shoelaces, remarketed as “Love Ties.” And one of them kept saying in the skit – in a ridiculous accent – “Hey! Get your Love Ties!” I know, random.)
Posted by Rachel on May 25, 2009 in
Nature This weekend, we had our first pile o’ goodies from our local CSA – Community Support Agriculture, Victory Acres. It’s a really cool place that grows organic produce and free-range hens for shareholders, lucky people like us. We can volunteer on the farm and learn about organic farming.
This week’s amount was a little on the slim side – once we get into July or August, you get more tomatoes and peppers than you know what to do with! But it’s so cool – you really learn about cooking with the seasons. And you feel close to the land. And all kinds of good things. If you have a CSA near you, I HIGHLY recommend joining!
Posted by Rachel on Apr 9, 2009 in
Nature Just like salvation, being frugal and environmentally conscious is a process. Okay, maybe not EXACTLY like salvation. But I do try very hard to do what I can to take care of the earth, and it’s always a good thing when that saves you a few bucks. My main philosophy with all this is to be creative with what I have, wanting to waste less, save more, and not buy things when something I already have will work. So, with that in mind, I’ve listed a few maybe a little off-beat things I do to that end.
1. I use every freaking last ATOM of shampoo or conditioner, adding water to get it out of the bottle until it’s all completely gone. Savings: a few more uses means you get to put off buying another one for a little while.
2. Heels of dried-out-but-not-yet moldy French bread go in the freezer to be later processed into bread crumbs for schnitzel, casseroles, etc. Savings: you don’t have to buy bread crumbs, plus these taste way better than the stuff that comes in a can.
3. I turn off the water when I brush my teeth or wash my face. This requires some small amount of manual dexterity as you turn on the water to wet your face, squirt facial cleanser in your hand, get a little water to foam it up, turn off the water with your hands full of cleanser, soap up your face, squint one eye open to find the faucet, and turn the water on to rinse. Whew! Savings: I’m sure someone has done studies on the water savings. Go Google it.
4. Super ripe bananas go into the freezer to be later used in muffins or bread. Once frozen, they turn a disgusting shade of green-black, and then in order to use them, you have to let them thaw enough to squeeze the banana out of the skins, which frankly also looks disgusting. But the muffins or bread always turn out! And I’m a girl who loves her banana-themed baked goods. Savings: no more wasted bananas.
5. If I bring home my nalgene at the end of the day that still has water in it, rather than tossing it down the drain (where you’d have to pay for it), I give the water to my plants. I also do this when people don’t drink all the water in their glasses at dinner. Savings: pennies, but it makes me feel better about conserving water, and the plants get much-needed drinks, which they sadly don’t get very much.
Hope this sparks something in your gray matter to use what YOU have!