Family

Hello everyone, I am new to this site and looking for as much advice and help I can get. I have four children.

Lots of things have happened lately, keeping us busy. We blessed the baby this week, which meant lots of house cleaning.

I started blogging a month ago about our family's attempt to live on $2,000 or less a month without feeling deprived.

Hello everyone,

I cant believe its been over a year that Ive been on here. I remember the support I got from here and I miss it!

So, there was a sprinkling of snow last night, thus, naturally, the greater Portland Metro Area is having fits. "ICE on the ROAD!--Save yourselves!" And DD's school is on a two hour delay.

Hi!

It's my mama's birthday today. Happy birthday, Grandma Arlene! We love you!!!

hi my name is ashley im 24 years old and a mother of 2 my daughter will be 4 in july and my son will be 6 months in july i have decided to stay at home and raise my kids and be a homemaker not relizin

Hey kids! It's another MotherTalk blog tour!*

There's a ringing in my ears after reading Bruce Littlefield's Garage Sale America: Garage sales. Tag sales. Barn sales. Yard sales. Rummage sales. Estate sales. Sales, sales, sales. Yep, not much that's more American than buying and selling.
Oh--one more thing more American. Accumulating crap. Which we then turn around and garage sale to others.

We are a nation of bingers, hoarders and purgers, aren't we? I'd feel vaguely ill about it, except that we manage to have a pretty good time at it, and the evidence is in Littlefield's book. "Garage Sale America" is a relentlessly cheerful romp through the back yards, barns and garages of the heartland, collecting treasures, junk and stories as it progressses.

The stories are what make Littlefield's book so much fun (it's a great bathroom book--the kind you can open up casually to any page for a quick read). Listen to the World's Oldest Garage Saler, 90-year-old Wini, talk about melting her boots in the Depression stomping out a dump fire to save an old Pennsylvania Dutch pie safe. (She sold the safe for $600 and still wears the boots: "They're just a little flattened out.")

And then there's what is for me the best part, a tour round Littlefield's house to show how he uses all this stuff he buys at garage sales. My favorite: He has a pair of old classroom roll-up maps he uses as window shades. Coincidentally, they fit his bedroom windows as if they were made for the purpose.

For serious garage salers, there's a guide in the back, by month, of some of the regular can't-miss giant sales out there. We're talking several "World's Largests" and "100-Milers" here, all over the country.

Confession: I myself have never managed to host a garage sale, and God knows I have the stock for one. I feel so un-American. Maybe this summer.

*What that means is, I got a free copy of the book and a $20 Amazon gift certificate for reviewing it, in full disclosure.

One year ago today, Lynn died.

Literally.

Oh, she was brought back within about 15 seconds, but she was a goner

Change is in the wind. After roughly five years as the primary breadwinner (and a little over a year as the sole breadwinner) my hubby's about to start his own business.

I've written here before about how inspirational I have found the Dervaes family of Pasadena, CA, which homesteads on a large city lot. Well, meet a new inspiration, No Impact Man, who is trying to live in extreme simplicity in New York City:

My wife Michelle and I decided, before jumping in at the deep end of this year-long project, to try no impact living as an experiment for a week. No garbage. No greenhouse gasses. No toxins. No water pollution. No air pollution. No electricity. No produce shipped from distant lands. No impact. Or so we naively hoped. ...

The fact is that if city dwellers can’t learn to live without reducing their ecological footprint then we’re in deep trouble because most of the world’s population now lives in cities. Saving the world can’t be left to the country bumpkins. It’s an urban problem. ...

In specific terms, the challenge is to take a year to develop and live a no impact lifestyle. Our approach will be to research our ecological options and run down our damage in one area at a time—solid waste, transportation, energy, for example. Our aim, over the course of the year, is to do no net harm to the environment. We’ll wind down in stages.

A brave experiment and engagingly written. I'll be watching them to see how they do.

Talking with an online friend today, who is having some serious family trouble with her daughter. Perhaps, she says, life would be better if she gave up the job and stayed home.

Where have I been?!

I can't wait to take some time to check out this site more. It looks really intersting. I already have a personal blog but may start one of a different nature here. www.ourpreciousones.blogspot.com

Our final episode: The North Pole

I hope you've enjoyed this as much as we have! If you've missed any of the episodes, they're all in the archives.

Merry Christmas!

Captain Tintop

This is the penultimate installment; tomorrow is the last! See the other episodes in the archives.

PS! A reader informs me that #23 wasn't a complete episode; I've fixed that so that you can hear the entire story of "The Bad Dolls." Sorry!

I have presents to wrap and an absolutely monstrously huge pork roast to get in the oven ASAP, and I'm sitting here eating pfeffernuse and staring vapidly into the middle distance. Cardiac rehab is kicking my hinder.

The Parade

We're almost to the end--only two more episodes to go! If you're just getting started, get all of the episodes you missed in the archives.

Corrected: Someone wrote to tell me this file wasn't complete. I've got the whole file loaded now and I'm sorry for the trouble!

The Bad Dolls

(sorry, this episode name just sounds like a goth band name...)

If you missed any episodes, look through the archives. Only 3 more episodes to go!

Santa Claus!

If you have missed any of the past episodes, please look at the archives.

I think we may be going to see Santa in a bit. Pray for me. *gulp* I hate malls.

• Stressed? Hold your husband's hand. Seriously. Neural scans show it literally lowers women's stress levels to hold their husband's hand, if they have a happy marriage. All together now: Awwwww!

• Daryl says why should an American care what happened in 1066? I say, because it's the year the English language changed forever, if nothing else.

• James Kim might still be alive, had the search for him been better coordinated. The take-away: Don't expect help if you get stuck in an emergency situation in southern Oregon. If you'd like to contribute to the fund for Kati and the girls, a bunch of crafters (including a lot of Portland gals) have contributed to an auction for the family, and there are instructions there for donations without bidding as well.

• Speaking of emergencies, for crying out loud, don't run generators in the house! If you don't have emergency preps in place, please, please, take these latest situations to heart and get moving. I think John and I may be doing a series on this soon. People, you just cannot depend on the authorities to help you. That's not libertarian cant; that's the truth.

• Libya has decided to lynch six health care workers, blaming them for a deliberate AIDS outbreak. Shameful.

• Over-the-counter probiotics are mostly dead by the time they reach you, says a new study. Big surprise. You don't have to buy probiotics; you're much better off making your own. Much, much, MUCH cheaper, too.

• And finally, Google has released the 2006 Zeitgeist, a list of the most popular searches of the year. What the hell is bebo?! How out of it am I? For that matter, how out of it are people who need to search for MySpace?!

The Snowman

We're almost to the end! Look through the archives to find the episodes you missed.