Live an economically, socially, spiritually and environmentally responsible life for 2009

of our house left behind a closet full of clothes she could no longer wear. They were a couple of years old but she had recently had a baby and hadn’t “gotten her figure back” yet, and didn’t want to haul the clothes to her new home. Maybe we could use them, she suggested. She’s 5’8”, my wife is 5’ and won’t even buy a magazine from the front of the rack where others have touched it.

I boxed up the clothes and took them by City of Refuge and donated them. Later in the day I met one of my coworkers who had worked a volunteer event there with me a few days ago. I told her what I had done and she told me that she had changed clothes and left her street clothes in a gym bag there by mistake after the event. Of course it was gone when she went back, but we laughed at the idea of a homeless person or an abused woman with practically nothing finding her $400 jacket and designer slacks and $200 shoes. I may have laughed a little harder because she’s not a particulaly nice person and that may not have been very spiritually responsible, but what the fuck ever, maybe it taught her detatchment.

1. Viernes solo en espanol: Our mostly latino staff has to communicate in english all week. I am trying to speak only Spanish on Fridays to improve my skills and give them a break. It means, of course, I don’t talk too much on Fridays, but I try, and they are very good about not laughing.

2. Discovering Acro-yoga, a physical practice which blends elements of Yoga, Acrobatics, and Thai Massage. Very beginner level but an incredibly interesting practice.

3. Took numerous books, magazines and DVD’s to Hope Lodge, clothes and furniture to Goodwill, and canned goods to Atlanta Flood Relief.

I’m really excited about this food thing. We really are down to bare bones so it’s not like I can just use existing stuff. I’m happy though because we had developed such bad habits in feeding the kids processed and fast food. We ate way too much sugar and almost no veggies.
One silly discovery was about making bread. I’ve been waiting to get a breadmaker. A friend said, “why don’t you just bake it in the oven?”
how goofy was that!? I used to make all our bread but I forgot I cooked it in the oven. My brain sucks.
There is an organic farm near here that does a box of veggies a week for $40 so I’ll check to see if that is a value.
Costco is also a good choice.
I’m also remembering things my mom taught me. She was the oldest of 9 on a farm in Missouri during the depression. No farm animals here but at least I can bake.
There seem to be other resources online too. I’ll make a list as I find good ones.

I was watching the news this morning and one of the guests was talking about her new book “how to feed a family of 4 for $25 per week” Syncronistically my daughter gave me $100 to go buy groceries, so the challenge is on. I’m adding $25 because there are 5 people with me plus my daughters boyfriends son gets school snacks, breakfast and after school snack here.
The kids eat school lunch so we don’t have to pack it. I’m also going to exclude pet food, cleaning and grooming supplies. Food is super expensive here. We currently spend about $25-40 per day so this will be a change.

Without a good plan today I spent $33
this included dish soap and coffee($3 $7)I also splurged on cookie dough. Need a plan. These kids are not vegetable eaters.

I made chicken and rice, mac and cheese and fried apples. We shall have to work on the veggie adventure.

We have saved a pretty big chunk of cash that will now go towards our downpayment and closing costs and some refurbishing for our house. In the process of scrimping we have learned to do with less, find bargins, seek alternatives, rediscover bartering.

There is a bartering meetup group I joined to trade services with other members of the community.

For the first time in several years, our credit history, tax records, and financial allocations are clean and organized. We know where our money is and where it is going.

We are on track to buy a house in 2009 and take advantage of the $8,000 tax refund for next year.

Got an email from a local nonprofit asking for votes at the Toms of Maine grant site. http://www.tomsofmaine.com/community-involvement/project-sponsorships.aspx One was for the Fi-Do program to increase the number of service dogs here and the other was for a community garden on Molokai. I was so touched by all the grant applications. Just look at how many people want to impact their communities in positive ways. So inspiring.

Went to a peace event at my daughters church and had an inspiring yet surreal experience. The Nobel prize winner Betty Williams was there to speak about peace for children. Here is a link about the work she did in Northern Ireland http://www.peacejam.org/laureates.aspx?laurID=7
She was very human and spoke about the importance of creating peace for children. One of the most moving things she told about was food assistance in Africa and how we really need to solve these problems that are well within our capability as humans. She talked about the number of children that die each day and we do nothing really to help. Other speakers talked about a program called Victory over violence and how we need to teach kids about the root causes of violence and passive violence. The local Domestic Violence assistance progrAm received an award.
Last nights news was about a 5yr old, and an 18 yr old both murdered and raped in the last few weeks.
The bizzare thing was thAt at the end of the evening a group of girls from the church did a dance presentation to “Smooth Criminal” and a rap song. It was very “hoochie” and totally inappropriate. I had to wonder if anyone had told them this. In light of the evening discussion I realized how far we have to go with kids to creat a caring compassionate world.
Then

1. Install an inline water filter in the kitchen. Replace all the commercial cleaners in the kitchen with home made, 100% natural and biodegradable substitutes. Draft a plan to use our “gray water” more effectively.

2. Replace all the lightbulbs with low energy florescents. Intall a hepa filter in the HAVC unit.

3. Have Linda come over and perform a blessing on the house and each of the rooms. Plant some tulips and other bulb flowers along the sidewalk so they are ready to burst up and greet S. every day in the spring.

Just read an interesting take on the law of 3’s; give 3 tomes for each thing you receive. Ok I’ll give this a shot.

1. Socially: Spend more time volunteering at the Hope Lodge. I want to dedicate some time on the weekends or the weekday evenings to coming in and offer to cook meals for the residents there, including donating foods.

2. Spiritually: Sponsor a buddhist monk in Tibet or the neighboring region. In reality I would be sponsoring a community of monks, but by doing so I would help enable them to spend more time studying and practicing, and also to preserve their native cultures. And I feel I would be forging a spiritual link with them.

3. Socially/Environmentally: Find 5 items to buy regularly that support Fair Trade and sustainable farming practices, and make it a point to know what I am supporting.