Did I Tell You About the Car?

A couple of months ago, we said goodbye to our white Fiat 500L. It had been mal- or non-functioning for months, and in the shop for several weeks prior to that. We decided at the time to see how we'd do with just one car, since James is still able to work from home and D doesn't have a job yet.

So far, it hasn't been too bad.

James has had to carpool with us on Sunday mornings, adding a little complication to his formerly carefree Sunday brunches. He just drops us off at the McDonald's where Mal meets his friend to play every week, then picks us up. Mal's friend went to California for a few weeks last month, so James got to relive his carefree dual car days. 

We've taken a Lyft at least once (Mal hates it; he says he doesn't trust the drivers). D has needed to get somewhere last-minute when James was out buying groceries. Besides that, though, it hasn't been bad.

Plus, when we added D to our insurance, the premium doubled! I thought it might not be as bad since D was 21 instead of 16. However, when we took the second car off, the price halved, so we're back to our "normal" premium.

A few weeks ago, I had the idea to try to get to my parents' house using public transit to get to the Amtrak station. We'd need my folks to get us the last few miles, but it seemed like fun to try.

When I mentioned this plan to others, two different friends offered to drive us to the Austin train station. That was nice, but would the purpose of testing out our local transit.

So Thursday morning we left our house pretty early to be at the local bus stop by 7:05 AM to catch the commuter bus out of our neighborhood.

We got to the Lakeline Park and Ride in plenty of time to catch the 7:50 bus that would deposit us downtown at 5th and Bowie, which is only a few blocks from the train station.

We took a detour into Whole Foods to get train snacks. Mal picked some gorgeous fruit from their prepared food bar, and I got a multi-pack of chocolate bars.

We were at the train station by 8:50, which was 10 minutes before the station itself opens. When we could get in and sit in the air conditioning, Mal ate a bunch of strawberries, we used the restroom, and the bus pulled in at about 9:20.

We boarded and were on the final let of our trip just a little late, but made the time up at the only stop between here and Temple.

Door to door, this trip was almost 4 hours longer than it would have been if we'd just driven. However, we had lots of walking and breaks built in, and I got to really visit with Mal without having to focus on the act of driving.

Plus, the $30ish I spent on train and bus tickets (Mal was free as a companion to my fares) was more than gas one way would have cost me, but a lot less than the insurance and other amortized costs of owning a vehicle for the past two months would have been (several hundred dollars).

We'll eventually have two cars again, most likely. A lot depends on if D goes to the community college (which is easily accessible by the first bus Mal and I took; that bus is actually an express bus to the school), if/where they get a job, and if James ends up with a different job that requires him to commute.

For now, we're skipping along just fine. When it's so cost-effective to do so, we can deal with a little inconvenience, for sure.

PS I asked James about this and he says he vacillates on whether or not it's worth it, mostly on Sunday mornings when his custom is to go alone to brunch. I guess he doesn't love being tied to the fact that we're out and dependent on him. How rude. 

The EnvironmentTM

Can I be grumpy for a moment? 

There are times when I'm throwing away some shipping filler and feel very very guilty about how much trash we generate. We try. We have made a bunch of small and also some huge life changes to try to adjust downwardly our family's affect on the environment. We try to minimize our consumption of products that have a high carbon footprint, or are non-renewable resources.

And I feel guilty and overwhelmed about it. A lot.

We have already committed not to flying or cruising until they figure out a more environmentally-friendly way to do that. We buy lots of cleaning and soap products that are concentrated so we refill glass or metal containers instead of buying plastic cartons of detergent, all-purpose cleaners, and other household items. Now that electric cars are old enough to be in the $15,000 range, we plan to buy those next time we need vehicles (but we'll drive ours into the ground, first; environmentally-friendly, yes... but also cheapskate). We try to run bulk errands and stay home as much as possible. I try only to buy clothes second-hand, for myself and for the kids. We keep our a/c at 76 (we'd leave it at 78 but the house is drafty) and our heater at 67. We are trying to build a smaller, more well-insulated home using recycled or low-impact materials, like the 18 cypress beams James bought from a 200-year-old home that was dismantled; or cob that is made from straw, dirt, and water...

Then I drive around and see these 5000-square-foot houses being built just up the road from us. They pull down every tree and pave everything. (Click here if you want to read an alarming article about concrete. We're going to try to do a rock foundation, or a combination of rocks and bags filled with road base.) Then they build houses using stick-framing, and make them much larger than most people actually need. Why do 4 people need hundreds of square feet each? Even if you entertain occasionally? I don't get it.

Why do businesses continue to pack things in plastic? We try to separate for recycling, but only 9% of it actually is recycled. 

Why do I, personally, feel such a strong responsibility to care for the environment in the face of increased catastrophic weather events, knowing that the poorest of our fellow earth-dwellers are losing their homes and dying while the rest of us are temporarily spared the greatest impact... but people in our government still yell, "But jobs!" when faced with our imploring to DO SOMETHING? Who cares about the jobs you save if everyone drowns in 30 years?

It is tempting just to keep going as per usual and not worry about it, since I can't affect real change. It's tempting to decide not to think or worry about it. But I know that's not the answer either. I'm not sure what else we should be doing to encourage big polluters to stop. I HATE that people are demanding remote workers go back into overly-cooled offices, driving more and adding more carbon to the atmosphere. It's all just so... overwhelming. And it feels hopeless when over-consumption is still de rigueur.

Then there's the whole thing where housing is too expensive, but no one wants to change building codes to allow for higher-density affordable housing. And some people own two or three or more homes, just for vacations... It's just such a callous treatment of the limited resources we have available to us. And I'm pissed about it, but I also feel impotent. Anyone else??

Treading the Pandemic

For posterity's sake, I'm going to note that two different vaccines have been announced within the past week as having been 90-95% effective, and that it's entirely possible that, by this time next year, we'll be back to "normal." Then again, an asteroid that's hiding behind the sun could also hit Earth, so who really knows.

Mal's stomach stuff continues to be a thing we have to stay on top of. It's looking like about 1 generous tablespoon of Miralax is a good dose for him, and we still have to wrangle him to the restroom or he just... doesn't go. Hopefully the maturity/behavioral part of this will be on his plate soon enough. Between the hour a day James and/or I spend with him camped out in the bathroom, the twice a day we have to cajole him to let us brush his teeth (actually, he does okay at night; it's the early daytime brushing that he resists, for some reason), and keeping track of time to remind him to get a snack around 9 PM so that we're not dealing with making macaroni and cheese at 10:15 at night... it's a lot. But he's happy and pretty healthy, so that's a good thing.

We've been spending a lot of time outside lately. It's one of the two really beautiful times of the year in Austin, so we're trying to take advantage of it.

Construction on the houses in our immediate area is finally wrapping up, and I think we'll get a break in the heavy machinery and its assorted noise pollution soon. We can't actually see any of the building from the house right now, but there's one house going up behind our back lot that seemed to have a lot of trouble breaking up rock to put in the septic tank last week.

I've been really thinking about environmental waste and harm a lot lately. I'd decided somewhat recently to only buy sustainable/natural clothing, but then realized we were talking $70 for a casual shirt and $175 for a pair of shoes. So I instead committed to buying second-hand clothes whenever possible, then finding more environmentally-friendly alternatives where it's not possible. In fact, except for the Sonic underpants in that top picture, everything Mal has on in the photos above is either from Kid 2 Kid or a hand-me-down from one of his friends. And we'll pass them along when we're done. 

As countries move to zero-net carbon policies, I'm hoping our own nation will soon follow suit. Along with that, I hope builders (like the ones I mentioned above) will find better options than cement slabs. It's bad for drainage (even though our town has a maximum 40% impervious cover ordinance) and making it is bad for the environment. Plus, it traps heat.

James has been looking at building a work shed and found an alternative based on French drains and gravel fill, I believe. I'm on an alternative housing committee for our town and am hoping that eventually, we can move the whole city to zoning ordinances that would favor more environmentally-friendly alternatives in house-building. 

Speaking of which, the meeting has just started (still waiting for everyone to join the Zoom), so I'm out. Have a good week!

Rethinking Paradise

Two weeks from yesterday, we were supposed to have gone on our first family vacation to a place neither James nor I had ever been before, doing stuff that would have been new to both of us, as well as Mal. Obviously, like many other people, our plans have been canceled. We've been very fortunate: Everything we've pre-paid, even the "non-refundable" stuff, has been refunded (except for about $200 we spent on LEGOLAND tickets, but I think we'll get that back... I'm not pressing it because I know how busy everyone in hospitality is right now).

Previously, I'd mentioned needing maybe to rethink how we vacation, based on environmental concerns as well as the reality of the family I have right now. At some point, we'll no doubt travel again, but I'm starting to see that what we will do is likely different in several ways.

The first is that I don't think we'll be flying for a while. It gives Mal a LOT of anxiety and, frankly, the past few times we've flown, I've been unreasonably nervous. Maybe by the time he's grown up, someone will have figured out how to reach the thrust one needs to fly without burning through tons of fossil fuel.

Seth Meyers was giving an interview on another late night show a few weeks ago, and describing a trip he took with his family. His wife had organized a trip to Uruguay, and they'd planned to take a red-eye flight so that the kids would sleep for most of the 10 PM - 8 AM flight. As they were about to get onto the flight to Miami, they found out that their connecting flight had been "delayed" by twelve hours, and they were actually leaving at 10 AM the following day.

They got an airport hotel room in Miami, and his older kid remarked, as they stepped in, "Daddy, this is beautiful!" There was some drama involved in this, but eventually they got two cribs in the room so each of the kids would have his own.

Meyers said that the ten-hour flight with both kids awake was every bit as miserable as you might imagine, but then they got to Uruguay, and it was every bit as gorgeous and wonderful as his wife had promised him it would be.

After the vacation, he took his older son back to his first day of post-trip school, and the child ran up to friends bragging, "We stayed in this hotel that had TWO CRIBS!" He realized aloud that they could have stayed at the Miami airport and his kids would have had an amazing vacation.

Anyone who's ever planned an elaborate vacation with a kid, only to have them want to hang out at the pool, knows this to be true.

Mal talks about several things a lot: Great Wolf Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge (the hotel at Disney World... but never about the theme parks), Royal Caribbean, World of Peppa Pig, Space Center Houston, and the Crayola Experience. He loves hotels. He loves interacting with things for a little while. Then he loves to relax at the hotel.

James and I could easily plan an amazing vacation that involves hiking, but our son would make it miserable. I could plan a trip that involved roller coasters and thrill rides, but Mal would hate it. James could plan a long, leisurely road trip, but I'd get antsy after a few hours. So what do we do?

I think, for now, we work with what we have. For one, we drive to places we want to see. Do I want to be where the weather is different than it is in Texas (most of the time)? Yep. It is worth it right now? Not really. Second, our forays with nature will mostly involve gardens and parks, and a stroller as long as Mal can fit in one. Could he walk for an hour and a half? Of course. Is it worth it to us to deal with that? Big "no" on that one. Third, I have to know that for James and Mal to enjoy time away from home, I have to build in a LOT of down time. More than I'd like. And maybe I excuse myself to get some pictures or see something offbeat that I'm the only one who cares about. It's a good balance.

Basically, I need to remember that a modest few days of relaxation and some minor amusements is really all we need for the time being. In a couple of weeks, I'll walk you through the vacation that will never be, because I'd planned what I think is some pretty cool stuff. But it will be the picture of a vacation I don't think we'll be attempting to take again for quite some time. And that's okay.

Second Chances on Used Clothes

I decided to give Poshmark another chance. This time, I needed jeans. I mean needed. One of our stupid cats (the stupidest) had managed to snag a hole in my old jeans, which means it's just a matter of time until an unsightly run would start and... oh, what? I could just darn the hole? No. Because these were actually Pajama Jeans, and once they're compromised, it's all over.

Anyhoo. Jeans.

I had a strategy this time: I'd sort by cheapest first. Doing this, I purchased 2 pair of jeans at about $7 each, plus the $7ish shipping; so they were each around $15. That didn't seem too awful for a pair of gently used jeans that I kept from going into a landfill. Also, they weren't jeggings. They were jeans. I mean, they are jeans. I bought them in the past, but they still exist. Forgive my grammar.

Cut to today. Nope. Cut back to when the jeans arrived in the mail.

I took them out of the packaging to make sure I'd gotten what I ordered, and that they were in good shape. They were, so I put them in the closet. I kind of held them up to me, but they looked kind of small. They were in the size I think I wear, but Pajama Jeans only come in letter sizes and I don't trust the Woman Within sizes, as most of their stuff is super flowy and I'm on the small size of their "double-sized" sizes. That was a lot of the use of the word "size," but our lawn guy is weed-whacking and the washing machine is running and I can barely think, much less write.

SO.

I think I was nervous. What if I don't wear the size I think I wear? What if I've gained so much weight, I've moved up in sizes? That's not actually a problem (though it's likely something I should have sussed out before I purchased new trousers), but would be a thing I'd have to process. I've worn a size up before. I've worn a couple of sizes up.

And I left the jeans in the closet for a good week.

Last night, Mal and I went up to visit my parents and to spend the night. James is working from home right now (all of his company is #covid19) and started some training today, so I'm trying to keep Mal occupied for the next few days. We happened to get home right as James was finishing up a lab this evening.

When packing our overnight stuff, I decided to take one pair of those new jeans. Without trying them on. I figured that if they didn't fit... I'd just feel stupid and wear what I'd worn down there.

Guess what? They fit fine. They looked cute and were comfortable. And now it's too hot to wear jeans anymore. Hope they fit next season!

Lots and Lots of News

Looking back to reference the post I did about not coloring my hair anymore, I was a little shocked to find it was all the way back in June! Can one be "a little shocked"? Anyway, I was surprised. It's been six months! And my hair wasn't awful; the red had washed out and I was left with just some kind of inoffensive orange. It wasn't bad, but it was also noticeably darker than my new growth.

Typically, this wasn't a huge problem. But sometimes, mostly when I was with my parents and so one of them took a picture in which I was bent down talking to Mal, so that all of my hair fell forward... well, there was a lot of roots going on.

I LOVE THE ROOTS. It is this sable brown with the occasional silver strand. I did not love the contrast of the colors, which most people assured me was not grotesque. I think I've been helped by the fact that dark roots are in fashion right now (I even noticed that in the final Descendants movie, the kids with purple and blue hair also had... black roots. They did not in the first two films; it was all color all the way.)

Anyway, I was fortunate enough to get some input from my neighborhood on NextDoor and found Megan at Hair's to You.

A hair salon in an RV, you say? Perfect for me! Long story short, here's the final product. Hopefully the brown will stay with me for months to come. We just used a color-depositing dye, no stripping, and she didn't color ALL of the top layer, so my washed-out color kind of acts as highlights.

Here's a picture of me last week versus today. Again, not looking at the crown, it's not as dramatic as the reality; you'll just have to trust me.

Also, because I think the second picture, which has a noticeably-darker under-layer (which I dig), is still a little light, here's another angle. The one above was taken during daylight, and the other later at night. You get an idea of how much darker it is here.

Okay! Enough pictures of me!

In other news, our heater gave up the ghost last night.

That's not entirely true. It works-ish. What happened was that it got VERY cold (and snowed!) and after cycling nonstop between the heat pump and auxiliary heat, it froze up and shut down. When that happens, apparently our stupid Nest "smart" thermostat doesn't charge because its charging relies on the heater or a/c to be functional (??!!). SO we woke up in a cold house and with no thermostat. I quick-charged it a few minutes with a USB cable, checked the breakers (they were fine), and then plugged the thermostat back in.

It was 58 degrees in the house, and the heater came on when the thermostat was back in working order. It stayed on so long, though, that it drained the battery of the thermostat very quickly, and so I started doing a little routine. I'd set the heater to one degree above whatever it was. When it caught up, I'd take the thermostat off and plug it in a few minutes. Then I'd put the thermostat back on and raise the temperature another degree.

Doing that, I got it back up to 68 in a few hours. I could tell, too, that the heater had gone out at about 2:00 AM, so it did work part of the night.

We've known that we needed to replace the unit. It's had an inordinate amount of problems since we bought the house (like the a/c guy shouldn't need to come out twice a year... something I learned after we replaced the inside unit of our heater in Sherman, too... we'd sunk SO MUCH money into repairs), so last December, we'd gotten an estimate to replace it and had budgeted to do it in November.

However, I did not want to repair what happened last night, because I don't think it's fixable long-term. Additionally, the unit is old enough that the refrigerant can no longer be sold as of January, so if we got a leak, we'd be at the mercy of hoping someone had some left over in their inventory. Also, there's some questionable repairs already done, like someone installed some kind of jumper that is only supposed to be there temporarily, but since it works, the serviceman hasn't wanted to mess with it. I'm pretty sure it's original to the house, which was built in 2007.

So, on Monday we're getting a new heat pump. Hey, did I mention spending a ton of money recently? Oh, and the company has a 12-months-same-as-cash finance deal going, so we can actually pay for it in November and that will be cool. I know a lot of people caution against "same-as-cash" offers (and the interest rate is 18% after that!) but we WILL pay it off within a year.

Finally, I've been thinking a lot about a vacation we're taking later this year in which we'll be flying. We don't fly often; I think we've averaged once a year since we've been married, and I had only flown once in five years or so before that. I understand the environmental impact of flying is high, even though I've never seen a breakdown of how it differs from driving if you have to top two nights and stay in a hotel where linens have to be washed, etc. I always just see a gas comparison.

Anyway, when I was trying unsuccessfully to find a comparison of ALL of the associated factors, I came across an article on how to lower your impact if you do "have" to fly. One tip was to take a nonstop flight, which we are doing. I basically will not take a trip, especially with a kiddo, if I have to layover. I realize that if we ever want to go to Montreal, we'll probably have to (or we could drive, but that seems like torture). But, anyway. So we're good on that front.

The person who wrote the article also mentioned that you can go online and calculate the carbon footprint of your flight (ours is just under 2.5 cubic tons -- YIKES). I found a couple of reputable places where you can buy carbon offsets for different projects, and I did that. They have a lot of them that recapture methane from landfills, but a lot of those were fully funded. We did one that helps clean up boreholes in Rwanda so that water doesn't have to be boiled before people can drink it.

I heard on the radio today, specifically regarding airlines, that they're going to have to change how they operate. The lady said, "They can't just buy carbon offsets and continue to do business as usual..." And I realize this about our lives, too. It maddens me beyond belief when politicians point to the economic impact of things like the Green New Deal as a reason not to support it. Reversing the climate impacts we've wrought on the earth will take sacrifice from people like myself who are imminently accustomed to being comfortable. I get that. I'm willing to do it. Our economy is not more important than the poorest of people who cannot deal with increasing temperatures. They don't deserve to die so our GDP stays high.

All of THAT to say that we will be looking more seriously at future trips and might forego flying at all (though we did put a deposit down on a vacation in 2022 that requires a flight... and we might just forfeit the deposit? We'll have to see), but the carbon offset is a way to mitigate it a bit for the time being.

Also, the new heat pump is more efficient, so even though we're on all green energy at the moment (even with the stuff we buy from PEC), in case the next owners aren't, that'll be something, too.

#workinprogress

A Couple of Things I Forgot Yesterday (and I'll probably forget more today)

First of all, the initial estimate we got for replacing 20 windows (with 16 windows, 'cause... reasons) was: $38,999!!! And that's WITH a discount! It was more than $54,000 without any promotions. So. No.

Anyhoo, what I neglected to mention in the whole "we're gonna save the earth!" stuff from yestiddy is that I made a 5-gallon batch of homemade laundry detergent a few weeks ago. The recipes I'd seen before always seemed too involved, but this one was easy (except that I accidentally brought in a 5-gallon bucket that had holes drilled in it, so as soon as we'd poured the boiling hot liquid into it and realized we were losing detergent, I had to plug the openings with my index fingers while James went out and found a suitable replacement in our storage shed, and then washed the dried potting soil from inside and out of it... adventure!). It looks like egg-drop soup, and it smells like nothing. I might put essential oil in it at some point, but my kiddos both have super-sensitive sniffers, so this might be the best way to do it. It's cleaned every bit as well as store-bought, and in addition to being cheaper (maybe $2 for the whole bucketful -- we already had the bucket), there's less waste. I have to throw away the paper box from the laundry bar each time I make it, but will get a dozen or so batches from the Borax and laundry soda before I have to throw out THOSE paper boxes. Cool!

I also read that a dishwashing hack is to put this into the detergent hole: 3 drops dish soap, 2/3 of the rest of the space with baking soda, and top it off with salt. We've used it several times, and it's worked great! Again, no smell. And maybe a couple of cents per use instead of $.15-.50, depending on whether we'd used powder or pods, etc.

Pretty stoked about all of that.

Also, I'm saving my onion and carrot ends and any other tough veggies I might cut up in the freezer until I have a few cups full. Then I'm going to make my own vegetable broth. Store-bought isn't super expensive, but this is basically free. I mean, we have to pay a bit for the water, but that's negligible. And I'd just throw the veggie ends away, anyway.

I'm not normally a DIY person. I'm fully willing to pay for someone else to do things I either cannot or do not have the patience to try. For instance, I just had an Instacart delivery today. I'm perfectly capable of buying groceries, but for the effort it takes (ya know, I have a kid who thinks HEB is a toy store), I'm cool with helping another person make a living. But I'm working on being a little more thoughtful about the products we use and the things we do out of habit.

Now I have to go outside and take down our wind chime. It's noisy as heck and has been for over an hour, then tomorrow morning, the temperature is going to drop 20 degrees in 5 hours, so it's bound to get worse. Payce!

Some More Changes (We're Trying!), and Spring Cleaning?

This morning, I was trying to find the Ball jar seal toppers that I knew we had in our kitchen. This resulted in not only eventually finding the lids, but also in cleaning out one drawer and two cabinets, doing a load of laundry, and doing a load of dishes. I'm a little post-workout-sore from the bending and reaching and moving and whatnot.

I think I'm in... fall cleaning mode? Is that a thing? During the past week or so, I've cleaned out my side of the closet, donating 6 bags of clothes that I didn't ABSOLUTELY love (and, yeah, I know I don't need that many clothes, let alone that many excess clothes); moved a bunch of stuff from James's office under the house and straightened and cleaned in there (it's pretty tidy for what it is, but you're not allowed to judge my house-keeping by it please); I want to get to the storage shed (again); and then today, I got a lot of stuff done!

It seems like it's finally "cooled down" (highs in the 80s instead of 90s or low 100s) enough that I have energy to do more than the normal "sweep, wipe, wash" routine that I can't avoid regardless of temperature.

So... this morning I was looking for the jar lids because it occurred to me the other day that I could make split pea soup, which is one of D's staples, for significantly cheaper than the Progresso I've been buying. Those cans are typically between $1.80 and $3.00, depending on the store. Meanwhile, a bag of dried split peas is $.80 at the most expensive local store; I used 2 onions that probably cost around $3, and then I already had spices, salt, and a bit of oil. In the end, I only had 4 servings, so it was only about 1/3 the cost of buying from the store. But I'll be able to make 6 servings, probably, when we have an immersion blender. I lost a bit from transferring the mixture to a blender, then to a bowl, then back to the pot... and then when I realized it was a little "crunchy," I moved it to the Instant Pot. But it was after I'd added milk, so some solidified at the bottom of the pot, and I didn't try to mix it into the soup in case it tasted burnt. Lesson learned: Get an immersion blender, do the whole thing in the Instant Pot, and... that'll make it a lot cheaper.

Also, it's vegetarian, which the Progresso soup is not. I like the ham flavor, and I think D does, but this stuff is good, too. We're taking further steps to move our diet more toward plant-based. James and I both like vegetarian food and often eat vegetarian or vegan dishes when we eat out. D has been more resistant to this in the past, but with our having birds has stopped eating fowl (which is in SO MUCH STUFF... like even pepperoni Bagel Bites and Pizza Rolls!!). And I think I mentioned trying to eat less beef just because of how environmentally exhausting it is to raise cattle for meat. We'd been getting most of our meat from pigs, and even then, I was only cooking meat about 3 times a week. We've been having fish about once every couple of weeks. I know that needs to come up. And D mentioned that pork isn't a favorite, so...

We switched our eMeals from diabetic back to vegetarian. We tried it and 2/3 of us loved it a year or two ago. I've since honed in to the fact that D doesn't like peppers of any kind (like me! though I'm able to eat small bits of bell pepper cooked into dishes), tomatoes, or cucumber. Actually, D doesn't like lettuce, either. Basically salad stuff. Spinach cooked into dishes seems to be okay. I'll try to choose our meals wisely to avoid these things and cook dishes we'll all enjoy.

Meanwhile, Mal has narrowed down the pool of foods he will eat to: chicken nuggets, corn dogs, French fries, apples, ice cream, candy, mashed potatoes, watermelon, cheese pizza, cupcakes, ham and cheese sandwiches, boxed macaroni and cheese, butter noodles, and the white part of a boiled egg. How is he still alive? I don't know. He used to eat a wider variety of foods, though still not a whole lot. And he's committed to only eating foods he's eaten before, so dropping things like broccoli and grapes and scrambled eggs makes it very difficult to make sure he's getting the proper nutrition. We're back on vitamins after having stopped at some point in the past when I felt he was probably getting 'most everything he needed. Sigh.

On the upside with Mal, he has started letting us use toothpaste with fluoride! Given his sensitivities (which are FAR more extreme at his age than D's were at this age), that was a hard sell! But a couple of months ago, I noticed a grey spot on one of his non-capped molars. Double sigh. However, we've kept at it and after a while, it went back to white. Fingers crossed!

Tomorrow we have someone coming out to give me an estimate on replacing our windows. We do not have the money to do this, but we're also losing a lot of climate controlled air from our craptastic windows. Just to satisfy our curiosity and perhaps develop a savings strategy, we're going to see what we might be looking at. Man, trying to be energy-wise is super expensive!

Okay, idiots. That's it for today. Thanks for reading! And drop me an email if you'd like, since as far as I can tell, the comments still aren't working. My email address is firstname.lastname@hotmail.com, except, you know, with my name. Au revoir!

Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is

(I suppose we have a collective mouth? That sentence doesn't make sense, but I wrote it like a week ago, so I guess I'll keep it.)

We've been bandying this about for a while, and it seemed time to put up or shut up.

I'll admit that I dragged my feet on the global climate issue for quite some time. But now, we're at a point where it seems like a lot of action needs to be taken (ESPECIALLY by the something like 100 giant companies that produce 71% of our earth's greenhouse gases).

But, honestly, we can all act in small ways that might make a difference. You know, lots of people doing lots of small things can be a big thing.

Anyway, something I didn't even know existed and am, frankly, skeptical about, is that our electric co-op has a renewable energy rider. If you sign up for it, it costs less than $1 a month extra, and they provide your electricity strictly from renewable sources (water, wind, solar, bio fuel). I have a lot of questions about this: Is there an external source monitoring this? Do they guarantee it? Why, when it's so stupidly cheap, doesn't just everyone do it? Why didn't I know about it until I searched for it? Maybe they can't accommodate every single person choosing that? Anyway. Lots of questions. But we did sign up for it, anyway.

And now, we've decided, after ruminating for a bit, to take the plunge and get solar panels. We're aiming to produce about 90% of the electricity we use, so the financing should be about the same price as our electric bills would be during the summer. It'll be a little higher during the milder months, but also hopefully our net metering, wherein we earn credit for excess energy we produce that our electric company buys from us (at half what we pay them for their stuff, but that's business for you), will help make up for that at that time.

Regardless of if we end up paying a bit more out of pocket, James and I have both been trying to figure out ways to reduce our impact on the environment. Hopefully this will help.

Honestly, committing ourself to MORE debt (all we have otherwise is our house and car, but still...) and ANOTHER monthly payment has me all up in "buyer's remorse" territory, even though we still have three days to back out. But, again, the net is negligible. AND this is, for now, anyway, the last year the government will give us a tax credit for 30% of the cost to install. Next year, it goes down to 26%, then in 2021 to 22%... then it goes away. Also, existing and potential tariffs are affecting and threaten to affect pricing. So, again... we're kind of in a sweet spot.

In other notes, we placed one of our apple trees in a bad place, solar-wise, so we'll just have to be sure to top it in a few years, and every year after. James said that no one wants to climb 40 feet to get an apple, anyway, so this is probably just a super practical idea on its own merit.

That's it for now! Keep going, earth!

My New Green Deal

A few months ago, when we were preparing to leave McDonald's and come home, I took particular note of how much garbage was generated by one meal: the tray liner, the chicken nuggets box, the GoGurt tube, the ketchup packets (we try to use the ketchup dispenser, but it's more typically empty than not, and otherwise has a steady clientele of fruit flies), the French fry sleeve, plastic bag for the Happy Meal toy, the Happy Meal box, the juice box/milk bottle/soda cup, the box for whatever burger I get, and my cup, plus a lid and two straws. For 2 meals. They serve thousands of people per day, and we eat there a couple of times a week, at least.

When we first moved into our house, I almost ordered a second recycle bin because we were filling ours up within a couple of days after it was emptied (every two weeks instead of once per week, like regular trash). I realized that it slowed down somewhat after we stopped having so many deliveries for things like dining room chairs and other "new move-in" items like rugs and cabinets.

Still, we generate a lot of trash. We fill the recycle bin more often than the trash can, but have learned that only about 40% of our recycling is actually recycled; the rest ends up in landfills.

So I've been particularly struck by how often I run trash outside. Everything is in packaging, and when we order online, that packaging is usually in a shipping box. So it's a shipping box, usually some form of air-filled plastic shipping protector (bubble wrap, pillow things), the actual box, and then whatever the product is encased in inside. It's a lot. I think about which is better/worse for the environment: My driving into town to the store to buy things, or ordering it online where a truck that's going to be out here anyway brings it to me in an extra box that should, in a perfect system, be recycled. I don't know.

I did stop ordering from Walmart grocery when Instacart finally got out here, and one reason (which isn't price; Instacart is definitely more expensive) is that the way Walmart shops, almost every item is in a separate plastic bag. I save them and take them back to be recycled... but then, are they?

This is a very interesting video to watch, if you have the time:



One thing this doesn't address is that it DOES take some capital (money) on the front end to shop with almost no waste: glass and burlap containers aren't free; even if they pay for themselves in the long run, or it's just a principle you find important, you do have to have the cash up front to start the system. We could do it, but it would involve my driving... well, not only a lot further than our local grocery stores, but at all because I usually have our groceries delivered.

Still, I want to make some changes, so what can I do?

The first thing is straws. I drink a lot of soda, and Mal prefers straws over drinking directly out of a cup, so we've had silicone straws for a long time. I've recently stopped getting straws with drinks when we're out, and just use the ones in my purse.

Also, I stopped ordering soda cans (which I love because they're always fresh) and went to 2-liters. THEN, I bought another Soda Stream to make our own sodas in reusable bottles. I had a Soda Stream years ago, but when I was pregnant with Mal, I COULD NOT STAND the taste of the drinks. We ended up giving it to a homeschool group that was starting a co-op.

Beyond that and just being super aware of our waste and trying to pick products with minimal packaging and/or paper instead of plastic packaging, I'm not sure where to go from here. I'm freaked out seeing the piles of garbage everywhere, though. What is the next step? Any ideas?