Reduce, Reuse...

RECYCLE.

Good lord, there are so many bags of recyclables on our back porch, it's crazy.  Don't tell our landlord.

Jumbled as it may look, there IS a rhyme and reason to this mess - each recyclable is sorted by type - each number of plastic even has its own bag.

Our trash experiment went really well.  By simply sorting our waste into three basic categories: recyclable, biodegradable, and none of the above (a.k.a. trash), we were actually able to not take the trash out for three weeks.  Imagine that.

We stored our compost in a bucket between our back and screen door - out of the house so not to stink, and away from animals (as if any would even want to come up the three flights of stairs to eat anything in the first place).  It didn't even really smell, and the only nasty bit was emptying the bucket afterwards.

So many things are biodegradable!!

The largest pile by far was the recyclable one.  The compost was the heaviest (most of it was inedible things, like peels - don't be thrown off by the left-out squash sautee on top...) and the trash trash the least in volume and mass.

I challenge you to try this for a week and see what you come up with.  You may get a little more hands-on with your waste, but you dealt it, so smelt it.

This Week's Challenge - TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF

So I'm sick.

And not just "oh, sniffly nose" sick.  My body is out to let me know, it seems, that I need to lay back for a while.

It all started this summer with a surprise attack of appendicitis during a weekend camping trip in northern Wisconsin.  Thankfully, there was a hospital nearby.  Also thankfully, there was an extended family nearby, who was able to help with the girls - playing with the big girl and nursing the baby when she wouldn't take formula.

The result:  emergency appendectomy.

So I "took it easy" for about a week, and then was back to the run of the mill.  But I'm still tired from all this, and my tummy is not quite the same yet.

Then, right before my brother's wedding, I get sick.  A fever, a runny nose, and an annoying tight cough that doesn't go away.  Or produce anything, either.  It subsides in time for a four hour-long overnight trip to Ohio, a mad quick set-up for the *wonderful* wedding, and then the ceremony.  But right after the ceremony, when setting up for the reception, it comes again, this time with a ferocity.

I am dizzy, lightheaded, a bit delirious, and weak in the knees.  My left breast feels like someone jammed me with his/her elbow, only that hasn't happened, and I can't stand up.  We leave the reception early and I lay in the hotel bed, feeling like you could fry an egg on my body.

I turned out that I had developed (completely unannounced) mastitis, or, in layman's terms, a breast infection.

Now, under the influence of antibiotics, I'm feeling somewhat better, but am still woozy and a bit delirious (my husband may have his own explanation of that, something about "too much time on the computer").  I went yesterday to the chiropractor to get an adjustment and get my immune system working at its best.  And today, I'm in the bed, trying to cough and rest up.

So my mission this week:  TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.

This applies to all aspects.  My only rule is that I cannot overexert myself and that I must only do things that are GOOD for me.  This precludes things that I THINK are good for me (like eating sweets).

We shall see how it goes.

Packaging and Food

So, to finish what I started...

Food & packaging.  Gone are the days of 20-pound bags of flour and weekly trips to the general store.  There is of course quite a bit of nostalgia for "simpler" times, but then, I wouldn't be blogging now, would I?

Firstly, my question is - where did it all go?  The flour, I mean. Where would one put twenty pounds of flour or sugar or dried fruit or whatnot?  What about the apples one would certainly keep over the winter and hope the worms weren't too voracious?  Root cellars (which, by the way, one day I will have)?  I can't imagine buying food in the same way as folks did way back when...  But, then, I don't think I even could if I wanted to!

When I think about the "simplicity" of days of yore, I realise that it is really easy to get hung up on the idea that the "things" made the simplicity.  There is definitely a renaissance of sorts with crafty things - knitting and candle-making and the like - things which, as my mother pointed out, were once considered "chores" but are now considered "crafts."  But I don't think that it's really the things that make the difference - it's the attitude - the motive of the person in creating and using them.

Case in point:  this weekend we traveled to Ohio for my brother's wedding.  In our hotel room, they provided "Mini Moos" - a single-serve (or 1/4 serve, if you ask my husband) cream for coffee.  A thoughtful idea - no powdered cream, which Nathan detests - and there was no need to refrigerate.  Additionally, there were no health department infringements - so, essentially, it was a perfect package.  Nathan appreciated the thought and drank it with his morning coffee, courtesy of an in-room coffee-maker and single-serve, sealed ground coffee packet.  Yes, lots of packaging, but the convenience was second-to-none.

We brought all of the trash home from our trip, and, of course the Mini Moos were not labeled as recyclable.  I stuck them in the "?" bin anyway.

I suppose there must be a middle ground in all this.