Money money money

So I had a plan- spend 90% of my food money from local shops.

Why?

I love the idea of buying local

of supporting a small business

not corporate America

Yeah I know my grocery bill isn't as small as it could be

But I feel good about my money going to support the teenagers who stock my produce.

So hows it going?

January

Evil Corporate America:

Giant Eagle $30 -

$24 -

Krogers $30 -

total: $84

The Less Evil:

Trader Joes $125

$40

total: $165

The Good:

Huffmans $25

Weilands $20

Andersons $11

$32

total: $88 out of 337 25% bummer

So 50/50 on good vs evil, with most in that wonderful middle ground of still corporate America, but a corporate America I feel less hostile about. Why do I feel less hostile about Trader Joes? Cant really put it into words, just a feeling I get when I walk in the store. Oh and they cook up products for staff to taste so they can talk with me about it- I like that they feed their employees

February

Evil Corporate America:

Krogers $7

the Less Evil:

none

The Good:

Andersons $141

$30

$8

$14

$32

the Co-op $34

Weilands $42

$45

Huffmans $70

total: $416 out of 423 98% wahoo!

Clearly I'm much prouder of February than January. Total for the year? 67%

I'm glad it's only March...gives me more time to get this number up

the State of the Garden

hoping to move this summer

not wanting to invest a lot of

time, money, energy into our garden

The plan this year:

I bought 4 seed packets

then decided to try and regrow celery

(did you know it was possible?!?!)

Also we have an itty bitty little thing coming up called vacation

5 more days how excited am I!!!!!!

Starting seeds inside won't work cause we won't be here

And it will be 80* this week

so we're doing a Darwin Experiment

throwing the seeds out (and covering with a bit of dirt)

Survival of the Fittest in action

I'm fully anticipating coming back from vaca to a full garden of sprouts!

oh and 2 hours after I planted these lil guys...torrential downpours

like hiding in the basement stalking weather.com torrential downpours

Fabulous Fridays

A coworker of mine has renamed the days of the week- it usually runs pretty closely with how the day goes in any given classroom...

Manic Monday

Tricky Tuesday

Wackey Wednesday

Something that I can't remember Thursday

and Fabulous Friday

also known as bleach day

also known as the best day of the week

We have a wonderful set of bugs floating around my classroom right now: sniffly, sneezy, fever spiking, hacking coughing, its been a pleasure to work with a group that doesn't have the sense to not sneeze/cough in my face

But this led to a low, low Friday. As in I was down to 5 kiddos by 3 pm- wahoo! 5 kids, I can do anything with 5 kids!

This also means that for 2 hours it was just me and the kids- in order to not lose my mind due to lack of adult interaction we must do something fun

Glitter? Glue? Paint? Oh yes, painting it is!

Confession:

I did not tell the kiddos what we were doing until the last minute. It's important to control the situation. Not to let the excitement get them all riled up so they start running a muck in the room.

Instead we began with- Let's take off our socks and shoes, oh and go ahead and take off your shirt, and you know what- let's just take our pants off too

And then I gave them paint. With a serious talk about how this was a special idea and we do not normally paint on our feet right? right? right?

One little kiddo was very confused and kept looking for paper

We painted careful polkadots beginning at our toes all the way up to our waist

even after a good scrubbing, it did faintly resemble chicken pox

We painted big long lines covering our entire lower half in paint

We laughed and giggled and make footprints all over the floor

We were SO responsible, only painting ourselves, not our friends

We all worked together cleaning up said footprints from the floor

We took pictures and made sure to show our parents what we made

and to point out that even though most of the paint was scrubbed off,

the faint marks left are not a gnarly rash, just the reminders of a

Fabulous Friday afternoon

My first big project

Ravelry Inspired Me

I stared at the pattern for weeks- a planning and a plotting

Then I bought it and promptly grew terrified

I can't read a pattern?

What the heck does K2tog and Ssk mean?

What was I thinking?

Thanks to google, and my dear pattern reading Aunt

and several false starts

I have a sweater!!!

Most of the knitting happened during late night tv watching

and tailgate Saturdays

and weekend trips to love on my nephew

It's not the flowey vision I had

But its cute and funky

Started with 119 stitches, ended up with way, way less than that

Channeled Tim Gunn and decided to make it work

Played up the crookedness by adding buttons and

pretending like the front was supposed to be on an angle

Most of all it's my first big project

and I love it, flaws and all

me pretending to be a model

the original inspiration/what it was supposed to look like

14 days and counting

At some point each day I google map our condo in Hawaii, then I zoom into street view and notice all the cute shops nearby, then I move up and down the street to see my Lanais (doesn't that sound fancy) from different angles.

Some might say this is obsessive.

I'm just so freaking excited.

I started thinking about this trip years and years ago.

Halfway through college I was inspired. I knew I wanted to see all 50 states. I knew some would be a lot easier to get to than others. I knew I wanted to save Hawaii for something special.

Next weekend will mark 5 years since I hit my 49th state

Two weeks after that will mark 5 years since a first date with an amazing man.

We've traveled a bunch together, and continue to dream about the adventures to come. I can't wait to take him out West- he will never want to come home. I can't wait to show him Alaska (although hopefully we'll try somewhere new, not ghetto Hyder Alaska)

But this is the first time we'll see somewhere new to both of us.

A trip I've thought about for a decade. Wondered who I would share it with. I couldn't have imagined it better. An adventure with my man. A chance to celebrate us.

I'm just so freaking excited!

for 2012 I will

Buy 90% of my groceries from local shops

love the idea of my money staying in town vs going to corporate

but this year I want to actually track this and see how I do

De-Stashifying

I've got too many piles of stuff, watch out goodwill here I come

Crafting Adventures

as part of my destashifying I need to actually do something about the piles

of clothes in my too be altered basket. Too many options, not enough

concentration

oh and knitting...my newest project

Be more spontaneous- Just say Yes!

so far this has gotten me tickets to the piano bar, brunch with friends and

a convertible car rental for vaca- woot! woot!

Bike to the Farmer's Market 4 times- twice as many as last year!

we shall see how Jesse's latest sport's injury impacts my motivation

Make an Album from our Hawaii Adventure

yay for groupon coupons

Buy a house

yikes

thats all i have to say for this one yikes

Plan Beach Vacas 2013

Casa di Mariposa and a Stout family vacation, how bout I just spend

the summer at the beach

2011 Goal Update

So what its the third month of the year, I still want to take a moment and reflect 2011...

Begin saving for my future- hello 403B!

I totally did this one! I mean my finance guy recommends 20% but who are we kidding. Off to a great start putting some in each month and there is a plan to get closer to that magic number.

Shop more locally

For the last few weeks I've been working hard at this, and I think I can do 90% of my grocery shopping local. My favorite places: Huffman's Market and Local Yokel. I want my money to stay in the local economy not corporate america.

I think I/we did really well with this, keeping it a goal for the next year, but want to do better at actually tracking this to be sure I'm staying on track

Waste Less

especially with food. I have a problem...When I cook, I make giant meals (due to Jesse's "parasite" that likes to consume large amounts) However, the leftovers get out of control. I either need to cook less or eat more leftovers.

Did awesome with this one- fully embraced the art of leftovers for lunch...wahoo!

Loving more on my out of town friends

Wow ummm pretty sure I failed at this one, well aside from fbook stalking of course. Need to pick up the phone more.

Going to the dentist- once

I did it, and it hurt, and they yelled at me. Boooo. Bought another coupon, therefore I will go at least once again this year.

be Produce-tastic!

A few years ago I half assed an attempt at growing my own seedlings. Well thanks

to a new

shelf for my front window, I am going to full ass an attempt to grow

seedlings.

Tomatoes,

Beans (cause their easy) and something else that we'll love.

Ummm yeah, seedlings still don't work for me

Love on my garden more, but be realistic about what we plant

Well done

Make and can enough salsa/sauce/tomatoes to last the long, cold winter months

done- still have several quarts of tomatoes waiting to be salsafied

Can fresh fruit in the summer, cause these peaches I'm eating right now are

amazing!

next year- applesauce and peaches!

Focus on the fun stuff in my job

I easily get caught up in the bad/exhausting/emotionally draining parts of my

profession,

but like Teacher Tom Says if it's not fun, I'm not doing it right.

Ohhhh we had a blast on Friday- details coming soon