Taproot

Last March, my friend, Brandy, mentioned getting an issue of Taproot magazine in the mail and since then, she's mentioned it a few times and has really enjoyed it.  I've ordered a few toys for Christmas from Nova Natural in the past week or so and I decided I'd give Taproot a try.  I chose Issue #2: Paths simply because I liked the cover and I've been through it several times this weekend and I'm still reading it.  
I love it!  They're on Issue #7 now so I have some catching up to do!  And there's a 2014 calendar, too!

From the magazine's About page, Taproot is a quarterly, seasonal, subtly-themed collection of stories, poems, photography, recipes, arts and crafts that entertain, educate and inspire its readers to spend more time connected to themselves, the earth and each other.  I just love that!

The Paths issue has so much to absorb and consider!  I'll be reading it a month, I'm sure.  From having a family cow and sometimes school not being the best place for a child to get the best education to sweet little canning labels and birthing babies the natural way.  I've always been enamored with The Farm, the caravan that brought them all there, the peaceful, self-sufficient way they've lived there for over forty years and the gentle way they bring babies into the world.  I'm really studying that story, Brandy!  ;)

I think my favorite thing about the whole magazine experience has been Phoebe Wahl's Wandering Through The Seasons watercolor prints.  I'm going to find a pretty frame and display them in our home with the changing of the seasons.  They are so beautiful!  And the sweet little rosy-cheeked family looks a lot like Brandy, Mike, Willow and Roan.  Phoebe needs to paint some more and add a wee baby girl to the family since Laurel Mae is here now.  :)

Taproot is not a traditional magazine.  It has no advertising, it's beautiful cover to cover and there's no silly filler content.  Every word is deep, thought-provoking and inspiring.

Paths are one part free will, one part fate.  (Meredith Winn)

A little catch up...

Only one blog post so far this month?  And the month's nearly gone, too.  

It absolutely can't go too fast for me, though!  Larry will be HOME in 27 days!!  I am so ready.  This house is so ready.  I finished my to-do list months ago and these last days seem to be dragging for me.  Believe it or not, I don't do well with waiting.  I never once considered the last 25 years as "waiting".  I have always looked at it as it was, we just lived our life a little differently than most.  But these past few weeks have been brutal.  I'm ready for it to be ovah.  For good and forever. 

So, the list is done and most of my Christmas shopping is done, too.  I've had packages arriving all week and it's been exciting to see them every day!  I'm planning on spending next Friday (called Black Friday by millions, SLACK Friday by me) in my yoga pants surrounded by Christmas decorations and tufts of kitty hair.  Larry and I are going to get a tree when he gets home but everything else will be out and sparkly.  

I have never shopped on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  I think I may have gone with Mama and Aunt Gloria to the Macon Mall once in 1980 but since I was 13 at the time, that don't count.  I just hate the thought of it.  And, to be honest, the older I get, the more I hate shopping in general.  I didn't used to be that way, though.  I was a compulsive shopper when I was younger and I bought things for the sake of buying things, trying to fill a void in my life.  A void that will finally be filled for good and forever on December 21st!  I racked up quite the credit card debt, too.  Thank God that is all behind me, the compulsion and the debt.  Now what makes me happy is figuring out a way I can reuse this or make do with that.  Ami just did that very same thing this week, using the Christmas tree from her and Brian's first married Christmas together.  That little tree had been in storage, nearly forgotten, for years and now this year, it has new life and new lights!  I was so impressed and proud of her and I can't wait to see it all gussied up.

For several years now, I've bought the majority of my Christmas presents from local businesses or at least hardworking Americans.  I try very hard these days not to buy anything that was made in China.  If you don't think that's difficult, just try it sometime.  We are so dependent on China that it's disgusting and scary at the same time.  They and their cheap plastic crap pretty much own us and that makes me sad.

I've gotten most of my gifts for my family from Etsy shops this year, along with a few things from eBay sellers and some toys from Nova Natural and Magic Cabin.  

One of my very favorite Etsy shops is AuntSistersPicks, from Springfield, Tennessee.  They have so many cool vintage things (Pyrex and Fisher Price, squeee!) and their prices are very reasonable, too!  And if you want to sell me your vintage sheets and pillowcases, just take a picture of 'em hanging on a clothesline in the sunshine.  Yep.  Works every time.

They have some really ugly Christmas sweaters for sale right now, too.  :)

Threaded From Heaven made Lizzie a baby Butterbean doll last year for Christmas.  Courtenay Christian makes all kinds of handmade cloth dolls and sweet little girl dresses, too.  And she's right here in Georgia, in Suwanee.  I swannee.

I discovered go dotty go today while searching for felt Christmas tree garland.  I ordered several feet of this one.  I just love it!

 

Before you go spend all day next Friday at the mall or Walmart or Target or wherever, just sit down for an hour and give Etsy a look.  I promise you, you will find the most perfect gifts!  It'll make you feel good, too, knowing you're buying American, your money is staying right here in your country, you are helping to feed and clothe an American family and you're also buying gifts that are unique, some even one-of-a-kind, and are not cookie-cutter cut over there in China.

Figgy Jelly

Looky what I made!  Fig preserves!!

Mama and Daddy have a fig tree in their backyard and since I lovelovelove figs, they gave me a big bowl of them.  I decided I'd try to make preserves with them and my first attempt was soupy.  Guess why??  I didn't use pectin.  I thought I'd make it like I make my cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, boil the fruit with some sugar and it would thicken up on its own.  But it didn't.  Mama and Daddy were here Friday afternoon and I showed them my Mason jar of fig soup.  They had just made 20+ jars of fig preserves themselves and they told me I pretty much have to use pectin.

So I got some.  And I reboiled the fruit and sugar soup with about a tablespoon of pectin and look what happened!!  Who'dathunkit??  Mama and Daddy, that's who!

I am SO happy!!  It was SO easy!!!  And cheap!  Especially when you get free fruit!  And it is absolutely delicious.  I may never buy Smuckers again.  :)

On the banks of Boredom Creek

Day two, post-job, pre-job, however you want to look at it. I'm still no closer to getting a start date at the base and even though I know this is the procedure, not knowing is still a little unsettling. I'm ready to get to work! I told Larry last night that I hated this housewife crap and I DO.  He laughed and told me it's because I've never had to do it and he's right.  I know I'd never be able to do this long-term.

I've been sick with a cold so these days at home have been a blessing.  I've been able to rest and get better.  I cleaned blinds and washed curtains today and I dusted all my Pooh beanies who live on a shelf in our guest room.  I spent the better part of two years (1999 and 2000) collecting these things and as you can see, I have a few.  :)  I bought every single one The Disney Store at the Macon Mall had, usually the day they came out.  I was crazy.  This was back when I was really bad about money and bought stuff I didn't need.  I actually have more money now than I did then and I'm so much smarter now!!  Less is more!!  But Pooh and his friends are kinda cute, ain't they?  And look at Christopher Robin peeking up to say hey!

I was sick over the weekend so I stayed home, so that means I've been at home FOUR days!  Straight.  Ugh.  I have seen every single movie from the Love Comes Softly series twice and I've seen two of them three times.  I've watched endless episodes of The Waltons and Little House On The Prairie and OMG, I even watched a Little House movie where John-Boy played Charles Ingalls.  Oh, how THAT messed with my mind and even caused a nightmare.  Some things are just best left alone.  I've played a gazillion games of Words With Friends on Facebook and my house is spotless.  I gotta get out of here.  Sunday, I did venture out for a trip to the bookstore and ended up having to buy a new battery for my car.  All I wanted was a book and a cup of Joe Muggs!  Ugh.

I feel a road trip coming on!!

How long did I make it??

FOUR days!  Four days without spending money!!  :)  I thought I'd go longer than that but I used up my last little bit of hairspray this morning and I thought I had some more under the bathroom sink but I didn't and with this hot, windy humidity like it is, I have to have hairspray.  I'd be scaring them babies to death at work if I didn't.  :)  

BUT!  I used a coupon and got a can for $2.50.  I had to get a box to mail something in because I couldn't find a FREE one the right size but it was only 48 cents so that's almost like free.  

Frugality isn't so much not spending money, you have to sometimes, it's about spending your money wisely, looking for ways to spend less and get more.  Four days of me spending NO money is huge.  Especially from where I've come.  When I went to work in Macon in 1999, our office was right across the street from the mall and I would go to the mall EVERY SINGLE DAY at lunch.  If I wasn't buying Winnie the Pooh beanie babies at The Disney Store, I was buying stuff at Origins.  Or clothes or shoes or whatever.  Just as long as I was buying!  Talking about this makes me feel like I was a junkie or something!  But in a way, I guess I was.  And my drug was shopping.

I've been getting my groceries at Aldi lately.  I LOVE Aldi!!  I have loved everything I've gotten there except for the lowfat turkey hot dogs but lowfat turkey hot dogs are pretty gross no matter where you get 'em.  Some of my favorite things from there are the milk (I buy the skim and it is SO FRESH!  And it stays fresh a lonnnnnng time.  I don't know if they ultra-pasteurize it like Horizon but it tastes like organic milk to me.  And for $2.49 a gallon, it's a steal!), the blue cheese and gorgonzola cheese crumbles (they are huge!  And so creamy and tasty. That's the kind I'm using in my buffalo chicken dip now!), the canned soups (their minestrone and lentil are the best canned soups I've ever had), the veggie chips, crackers, cereals and ice cream are delicious, their frozen chicken breasts are right around $5 a bag and taste just as good as Tyson for way less and the marinara sauce ain't half bad either.  I've been happy with everything I've gotten there!  I've never spent more than $35 there and each time, I've gotten a ton of stuff, enough to feed me for at least two weeks.  I also love that you bring your own bags and don't leave there with a buggy full of plastic.  We have GOT to get more stores on that wagon!!

I was there today getting a few things, milk, wheat bread, oatmeal and granola and I noticed this.  I've been in there five or six times since they opened but I never paid much attention to this.  Aldi has brands we ain't never heard of (Happy Harvest, Friendly Farms, Edenvale, Millville) and this one just tickled me!

Their medicine/vitamin/pain reliever brand is WELBY.

As in Marcus Welby, M.D.  Ha!
I'm showing my age here but if you're over 40, 

you know who I'm talking about.

Dat's him!  :)