What is character?

The other day my 8-year old son threw candy wrappers on the floor of our van. I looked at him, tilted my head and said, "Lucas, what are you doing? Come on, throw your garbage away. It's important to do the right thing even when nobody is looking." He picked it up, shook his head in agreement and said "Yeah."

He knew what I was talking about because then he repeated a quote that I absolutely love. He said, "Yeah, mom, character is who you are and what you're doing, even when nobody else is looking." I looked at him curiously and asked him to repeat what he'd just said. He did and then told me he saw it on a poster in his school gymnasium.

LOVE IT!

"Character is who you are and what you're doing even when nobody else is looking."

It's something to live by.

Don't you think?

Have a happy day.

Magazine Mayhem

I am a sucker for a good deal .. especially when it comes to magazines. Currently, here are the magazines I recieve every month in the mail :

Good Housekeeping
Everyday With Rachael Ray
Cooking Light
Wonder
Taste of Home
O
Redbook
Better Homes and Gardens
Ladies Home Journal
Reader's Digest

I think that's it.

I know. It's crazy, isn't it? You probably think I pay hundreds of dollars for these subscribtions but I don't. Nope, I'm on a list somewhere. Next to my name it probably says, "SUCKER. She will buy any magazine subsciption you offer as long as you offer a great deal." That's not completely true. Just this week, I was offered a year subscription to "Woman's Day" for about $6. I didn't bite. Yet. :)

Have a wonderful spring break. Be safe and be happy.

By the way, I do recycle, passing my old magazines to friends and family or throwing them in our recyle bin at home.

How Wasteful Are You?

"Let's simplify our lives!"

That's what came out of my husband's mouth the other day as we were attempting to clean out our garage. We have so much crap in there. Stuff we do need and stuff we definitely DON'T need. So we threw out a few things but the garage is still crammed with bikes, a kiddie pool, slip and slides, camping gear, a rototiller that's never worked etc., etc. etc.

I have to admit,looking at all that stuff made me feel a little guilty. Wasteful, if you will. Did we really need all this stuff? Or course not. We wanted it so we bought it.

This very concept is what the "freegans" are all about: buy less and use only what you need. The "freegans" are part of a grassroots subculture that was featured on Oprah this past week. It involves people who want to live outside consumer society. They don't want to work, just to buy the next BIG thing. They feel the emphasis on buying the newest product and throwing away perfectly good "older" things is a waste of the world's resources. I can understand that concept, and am conscious about our environment, but I don't think I'd be willing to go to the extreme.

These people go garbage picking for food, all the time. It fascinated me that people were not embarrassed. I would be. I will say that the food they picked came from grocery stores and, besides being in the garbage seemed okay to eat. Much of it was boxed, canned or packaged food. But there was also fruit and veggies, tons of it, in fact. It truly showed me how much this country wastes. Astounding.

After watching the segment, I wasn't so grossed out, but I'm also not willing to change my ways and head over to Walmart or Kroger and start dumpster diving.

It was an interesting segment and made be think a bit more about how consumer driven this society is. Maybe it'll make you think, too. Check out Oprah.com and search for "freegan" and you can get more information.

Have a great day.

Definitely, Maybe is definitely a chick flick!!

My girlfriends and I are starting a new tradition, one that will allow me to finally start enjoying movies. Every few weeks (or every time a new chick flick comes out) we're going to get everyone together for a movie at the theater. It's the only way I actually get to watch a movie. Usually, at home, we watch a kids movie or I'm too tired and end of falling asleep on the couch.

Last night, my friend Patty and I went to see Definitely, Maybe. It starred Ryan Reynolds, Isla Fischer, Elizabeth Banks among others. I LOVED IT and realized how much I missed going to the movies. It was a romantic comedy but the story was told in a unique way, through the man's perspective. When I got to the theatre, I was bothered by something that had happened earlier in the day. By the time I walked out, I was smiling and had a totally different perspective. It was a nice break from reality.

I can't wait til the next one.

Have you seen any great movies? I'd love to hear about them.

"The best proof of love is trust." - Joyce Brothers

Skyrocketing Grocery Prices

My grocery bill is much bigger these days. Have you noticed how much prices at the store have gone up? Even at Walmart, where they brag about their rock-bottom prices, I've noticed that my favorite bread has gone up about 80 cents a loaf. YIKES!
Milk is still below three bucks a gallon but I'm wondering how long it will be before that changes. I'm trying to come up with ways to cut back.

Maybe I'll start clipping coupons. Yeah, I've tried that before but I always forget them at home.

Maybe I should stop buying so many potato chips. Nah.

Stock up. I do when there's a product on sale that I always use. (I have 10 jars of Ragu spaghetti sauce in my pantry. Hey! It was a $1 and I grew up on Ragu.)

I'm making a real effort to not waste leftovers and produce, which can go bad quite quickly.

Maybe I'll just stop eating so much. No, I like food too much .

There's no doubt the prices are crunching my budget so I'll come up with something.

Any ideas? Let me know.

Be healthy and happy.

Nancy