Toilet Paper, Target, and New Shoes

I haven't been to Target in months. (Read 3-6 months probably)

I love Target. Target shoes, target clearance, target is great. However, I find myself wanting things I don't need and feeling disappointed. So I decided not to go there if possible. And I hadn't for months. Most other necessities I got at the grocery store and the rest I 'magically' did without.

Last week I had not been paying attention and we were on our last roll of toilet paper. Eeek! This desperate time crunch is exactly what the frugal shopper doesn't want. I wanted to look at ads for a few weeks and wait until the tp was on sale. Instead, I just looked at a grocery ad and Target ad and Target had the better price.

I found a few other coupons for some free trial size items to get and went off to the big red Target.

Wow. I had forgotten or never noticed how much...junk is at a store like Target, Kmart, or Walmart. Aisles of things I don't need and couldn't dream of spending money on. I looked in a few of my favorite spots like the clearance rack and realized even these items were not something I would need, at any price! I was tempted by the shoe clearance but reasoned myself away since I had just gotten an awesome pair of Puma shoes at a garage sale for fifty cents earlier in the week.

So I left paying for toilet paper, 3 free after coupon travel size items, and a new sense of pride in realizing how little I really do need to live. I know I'm not swearing off Target, and they have great deals. Yet knowing how many more productive places that money could go is a real motivating factor.

Here's the proof that the Target shoe selection lost v.s. garage sales last week:

Learning at the Hospital

I had family in the hospital for the last 10 days for some major surgery and recovery. It's been a learning experience.

1. Being surrounded with positive people is so important. One negative person sticks out and can ruin the day. In education experts say students need at least a 5:1 ratio of positive to negative talk. In the hospital one...less than encouraging...employee ups that ratio to maybe 20:1.

2. Life is more flexible than we think. With this unexpected hosptial event it was amazing how free my schedule suddenly became. The dishes, laundry, garden, shopping, reading, and cooking all have managed to wait. I didn't see my garden in day light for about 5 days and it is doing fine. It did get watered, but even missing some weeding was ok. I'm so thankful I could have so much time free, but wonder how much more free time I could have on occassion if I felt like it was really necessary.

3. Make time to let people know how your feel. This lesson is two fold. One, you never know when circumstances could change and there is no time like the present. Second, people that take the time to let you know that they care for you, your family, and that you are important to them make such a big impact every time. Five minute visits, phone calls, get well cards all are so easy to do, yet so easy to overlook. The reward for time spent letting someone know you care is worth it.

4. Real growth can hurt. Growing doesn't always have to hurt, but pruning and refining our bodies, minds, attitudes and relationships often does. Recovery in the hospital (though I've never experienced it) is painful, exhausting, and frustruating both mentally and physically. One can go from hiking and biking without any work have to fight to breathe and take steps. If nothing is hurting right now that might be a blessing. However, ask yourself, is there something that you shoud be growing in. It might hurt and it will definatly be hard work, but it is always worth it.

5. Faith reigns. It is easy to have a relaxed faith and float through our daily lives. When life throws a curve ball having a strong faith in God helps because nothing is out of His control. Those moments and hours on your knees are precious to Him. Our family got an email just before the surgery from a friend that said either way, today will be a great day. Surgery might not go as planned and a loved one might be ushered into God's presence. Surgery could go well and we'll be able to spend more time with a loved one. As sobering as those possibilities are, he was right. Both would be ok. I would dearly miss time if things hadn't gone so well, but in the eternal realm it wouldn't be goodbye, just see you later!

I know my God saved the day

I know his word never fails

I know my God made a way for me

We're going to be alright.

~Lincoln Brewster (got to love Pandora playing those perfect songs at the right time!)

Agricola

My sister and her husband introduced us to the game Agricola. It is a strategy game that has lots of pieces, rules, possibilities, and fun!

We were able to borrow the game for a week from a friend of a friend and played it every chance possible.

Now the game has been added to the game cabinet. Wahoo! In combination with a birthday celebration there has been a lot of farming, herding, building, and game playing.

And cake. That was more for the birthday but was really fun to make because of the pieces that I had to figure out how to form into fences, stables, little cubes for animals, etc.

Book: Prodigal Summer

Recommended by a friend. Kingsolver, author of the popular Poisonwood Bible, writes about life in a small Appalachian farming community. A farmers widow left with a family she doesn't feel welcome in, an elderly man who preferred the "good ol' days", and a Forest Ranger who lives by herself up in the mountains taking care of the mountain. These stories all interact with the environment and how farming, agriculture, natural resources, and modern "progress" can give some surprising results.

Kingsolver points out some of the debates in agriculture about using "modern" techniques like pesticides, genetic crops, and how these can create more problems whereas some of the old techniques really are more successful and productive.

Defiantly a great book to read during the summer, (or spring if you need motivation for summer gardening).

The characters are impeccably described and are deep, flawed, and very human. Their grief is real, joy authentic, and frustration visible. Great characters help to make great books.

The land is just as alive in this book as some of the characters, and I enjoyed it more than the Poisonwood Bible.

Game for Games

The whole purpose of this cabinet is to hold games. A lot of them.

Games are a great way to stretch your brain, interact with others, and a fairly inexpensive way to pass the time. I always tell students that if they want to try to work and have fun playing games is a big help. There is so much to be learned and practiced while playing games. Fairness, taking turns, basic math, budgeting, probability, word sets, word families, spelling, geometry, strategy, following rules, idioms, common phrases, figures of speech, and time with other people that are THINKING.

*Soapbox warning* So many activities that families or groups participate in are really no different than if it was done alone. Movies, video games, even some families doing athletic activities can be done silently and with little to no interaction. Games don't let that happen.

Games in the cabinet:

Othello

Chutes and Ladders

Monopoly

Clue

Risk

Uno

Phase 10

Canasta Caliente

Double 12 dominoes

Pictionary

Scrabble

Carcassone (this box was huge so we repackaged it)

Stratego

Racko

Yahtzee

Battleship

Boggle

Guess Who

Connect Four

Waterworks

Twister

Apples to Apples

Taboo

Catch Phrase

Puzzles

Poker Chips

Ute (Korean Game)

Not Pictured...aka won't fit:

Full Set of Poker Chips

Blokus

A few other helpful tools:

draw /discard basket

card shuffler

white boards

set of 5-10 dice

2-4 decks of cards for hundreds of additional games

Growth in the Garden

Yea! I have one of those fabulous little pollinating creatures!

cucumber

basil seeds that all fell at the same time out of the packet...

Bibb Lettuce

June Reading

First I was very intrigued by The Elegance of a Hedgehog, which I already posted about.

I decided to read Snow falling on Cedars second. It seemed tragic, and took place in winter so somehow that helped me decide to read it second. The imagery was great, and I really enjoyed some of the techniques Guterson used to mirror the stories between generations. The story is about a man of Japanese ancestry on trial for murder in the 1950s on a fishing island off of Seattle. He and his family had been taken to Manazar (Japanese internment camp) during the war and he had then enlisted as a US soldier. Other Caucasian men on the island had a very difficult time coming back from the war where they had fought the Japanese to an island where there were many Japanese families.

I just started Balazac and the Little Chinese Princess. Interesting topic, so I'm sure I'll finish it soon too!