Cleaning Up & Greening Up

Happy Earth Day!! 

<- a picture of this week’s eggs from Poppy, Mayzie & Lavender, the Schell family hens. 

My mind is totally buzzing today… well lately in general.  I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and planning and work around the house, and it’s been a challenge to sort through it all in order to write some sort of cohesive post.  You’re in for another long one…

Saturday we started tackling the “junk room” down in the basement.  We gave two huge trash bags and two boxes full of stuff to the Goodwill.  I also painstakingly documented every item, complete with pictures so we can get the write off for our 2009 taxes.  We filled a bin and a half of recycling (much of that was old magazines I’d been holding on to, who knows the reason?).  As well as another bag of trash.  The room is almost done.  Everything is pretty much cleaned up and sorted through.  I want to put some paint and pictures on the wall, a rug on the floor, and turn it into some kind of work/craft room.  Something with a purpose so the junk doesn’t take over again. 

Easter was a lot of fun.  Henry helped dye eggs, and was really into hunting for the eggs the easter Bunny hid for him the next morning.  So fun & cute!!!

And this soap was in our basket… maybe the Easter Bunny is trying to tell us to clean up something besides the junk room:

Doing the Food Budget Challenge  this month has really helped us “green up” the shopping cart.  But this week’s trip to Sunflower Market was more drastically changed by my most recent reading material: Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  I got it from the library Monday and I’m only about half way through it, but it’s amazing.  I am loving every page.  It’s not coming off my Amazon.com wishlist anytime soon… I will definitely want to own a copy.  There are quite a few items that did NOT make it into my cart today after reading the first nine chapters last night.  It has reinforced my desire to hit the Farmer’s Market this weekend, to continue to green up our menus, and it has sparked an interest in making cheese.    More on this book as I finish it.

Speaking of “greening up,” Rick also got a couple of books from the library recently.  One had been on his reading list for quite a long while, and we both really enjoyed it: Rich Dad, Poor Dad.  This book, along with The Richest Man in Babylon, are now two of my favorite financial books (get it, finance, green – ha ha).  Rich Dad, Poor Dad was a real eye-opener for us, and the way we think about money and finances.  It seems to have inspired Rick to really make some changes. 

We were already (and are constantly, it seems) working on ways to improve the finances, but since finishing the book, Rick has been researching classes, and checking out even more books from the library.  I’m impressed.  We recently instituted a weekly finance meeting between the two of us to discuss bills, etc., but I have a feeling this week’s meeting will be bursting with ideas and creativity, now that we’ve both read the book.  We may not need the soap the Easter Bunny brought after all.