Grace in Small Things

So this is where you post something every day for a year. Not realistic for me but from now on every time I post there will be a grace. :)

today's grace~ A doggie who leapt in circles when I came downstairs this morning, so happy to see me...

ok another one~ see photo

Composty goodness

Hoooooray! Yay yay yay hooooooray! 2 days and my compost got HOT! It was around 40 degrees outside, raining, windy, so cold, and inside the compost, 124! Whee! I know sometimes they get hotter, but for a first go round I am thrilled.

Some Stuff

How fabulous is composting class? SO fabulous. I love learning about nitrogen and carbon, little mesophillic bacteria, so cute and tiny eating up garbage. Not really cute, but I have a cartoon image of them in my head that sort of cracks me up. Nom nom nom nom nom... I have changed the settings here so you can post anonymously should the urge so strike. Not a dang thing in mind to green my life this week. Everything I can think of to do seems overwhelming. Maybe I can convince my family to use our power strips to shut down our appliances totally when they are not in use. Maybe. I however, will be going to work on greening Mr. Husband's work by sending buckets with him next week to collect such things as coffee grounds and veg scraps. I am hoping to have compost to give away shortly. Ramblin on, ramblin on, not making sense, I'm ramblin ooooonnnnn...

Hi Dadoo!

Love you. Bunches!

Motivate Me...

I have many many things that would be helpful and beneficial if I would just get off my watoosie and do them. I have very little motivation a good portion of the time. Why am I so dang self defeating? Seriously, I haven't a clue about how to deal with this issue. I cooooould wash dishes/ go for a walk/turn the compost/bake bread/make cheese/dance with abandon but I don't. I sit. It seems like alot of the time I forget I am alive. Is anyone else frustrated by this? Does anyone else DO this? Or not do, as the case may be...

Compost!

I started the compost program last night! It is put on by the Spokane Waste Management outreach. I am so excited, I learned so much the first night! There is 15 of us in the class and the teachers are all very experienced gardeners/composters. Something I have never thought about is the lessening of the carbon footprint when you compost. There is less transportation, less greenhouse created. I was only thinking of the garden benefit, but there is so much more. Hooray! There is a bad smell in my laundry room, I am a little afraid. That is the big push now, we have room for a worm bin now and so the rest of it needs to be cleaned and organized. Isn't it funny how organizing can make a much larger mess than you had at first? My sister's baby shower is this weekend, yaaay!

This week's goals

I got an indoor laundry line! I am hoping my baby steps aren't pathetic. But I got an indoor laundry line! It is retractable and will be living over our tub. I even have clothespins. Tonight my laundry goes on the line, not the dryer. My composting class starts next week, I am very very excited. I get to learn all sorts of things, and when I am done, I will be a master composter!!! I will learn all about all sorts of composting and worm bin building. Part of the deal with getting this training is that I have to teach what I learn. I am excited and nervous about that as well. Poor family will get to listen to me more than once I am sure. :) I am going to order the last of my gardening stuff today, potato and strawberry starts. Then I get to "chit" my potato seeds! That cracks me up. Or I should say it cracks my chit up. HAHA. I am going to get a little wood together, this weekend I shall make potato condos to grow them vertically. I am growing fingerlings. Yum yum. I made more laundry soap on Sunday and changed up the recipe. Let's see if Mr. Husband notices.

The view from my kitchen window

This picture was taken in the fall, before the snow...

I have decided to let go. There is snow on the ground, the wind is freeeeezing, and it is not going to rise above the freezing mark for some days. When Spring comes, Spring comes. My spinach will have to wait. On Sunday I made butter out of cream, and then made bread out of the buttermilk. This is going to become a habit, I believe, as there is no comparison to the taste of fresh butter. 2 ingredients, cream and salt. Yum! Today there are pears and wine in the crockpot that will be the pear butter of delight by 8pm. Comice pears, sooooo good.

My hooray of the week- I have signed up for the master composter's class! I get to learn how to do all sorts of composty things, and then teach these things to other people! Hooray! <- See, there is the hooray. :) I love my lunch. I know that is random, as most things are with me, but I really love it when I have homemade bread and jam.

ACK!

Do you see the white stuff that is falling rather sideways??? This was taken a few moments ago looking out the window at my work. Uhhh, it is March, we should be done with this by now. Grrr.

In other, happy news, today is my short day here, and it is also friendship bread baking day. Tomorrow will be very lovely bread to bring to work and for Miss Sunshine to eat after school. I am going to start a batch of the 5 minute bread tonight as well. I am having lunch with a good friend and then we are going to look for grow lights and other sundry non-snow related things. I must try to remember that we have lovely hot sunny summers.

Recently I have noticed that I am avoiding some things I should deal with. I hate it when I realize I am being dumb. *sigh* Better to figure it out now though, before it is too late.

Hooray recycle!

I found a project that really interests me.
http://www.preserveproducts.com/recycling/
Excitingly, you can send them plastics that are not accepted locally. I am going to put myself in charge of sending in boxes of the plastic and the filters. Yay! Several of my friends have said they will save yogurt containers ect. and get them to me. I am very glad to be doing this as something concrete, something real, to make a difference. Yay! They also have some pretty keen products made out of recycled plastic that they collect.
I am happy to report the soap that I was worried about mellowed quite a bit overnight. No rebatching for me, thank all that is good and holy, I have no time right now. I am searching for used lights for my starts. AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I am pretty sure I am going back on weight watchers. *sigh*

Soap again, and Spring?

Hooray, snow is really on the way out! I am very happy to report with warming temperatures there is more mud than snow on the ground! I was sadly unable to get any planting done as I cannot locate glass I can afford for cold frames. Yet. I will continue to look and to tell everyone I know that I am looking on the off chance someone has some laying around.
Yesterday my friends and I made a HUGE batch of soap. It smells different than the smaller batches I have made but I have read up on rebatching if it doesn't work out.
Mr. Husband and I had a quick chat about some of the changes we are making and how empowered we feel. I know it sounds cheesy, but to take control of our lives was just something that we didn't know we could do. It also appeals to the rebel in both of us to shake our fist at "the man". He was actually interested in the seeds that I purchased and that made a happy for me to be sure.
Today it is raining raining raining in soft cold drops. SO much better than snow. Not to say it couldn't decide to dump on us tomorrow, but for now the mud is nice.
Happy for the weekend~ while going grocery shopping I remembered my reusable bags! And used them!
Second happy for the weekend~ I took out my pressure canner instruction book and looked at it! So this year, I will be pressure canning. I think. eek.