Lightening the Load

I missed getting a blog post in the past couple of days, but with good reason.  We have been turning our apartment upside-down- cleaning, organizing, gifting items, sorting other items for sale, separating items to donate to good will, and bagging items for the trash and recycling.  It has been go-go-go from rising in the morning to my head hitting the pillow at night.  And... we're not even close to being done.

I've been itching to reorganize, and here's why:

• What if there were an emergency and we had to leave our home in a hurry? 
• Can we access our important papers and belongings quickly? 
• What if there were a flood and our basement storage unit turned into an indoor pond?  
• When we move, do we really want to wait until the last minute to shed our extra stuff? 
• We could use the cash from selling some of our things to make an extra payment to get rid of the last remaining credit card faster. 

We cleaned and organized all of the closets, moved some furniture, repacked the clothes we had in storage in water-proof, vacuum sealed bags.  The clothes were originally stored in boxes, which have now been broken down and stored flat, and can be used to pack our belongings when we move.  Between the change to the storage bags, and flattening the boxes, we gained a ton of space.  And when you live in an apartment, space is always at a premium.

After we attend a Memorial Day remembrance tomorrow morning, we still have more work to do.  We have many more plants to get in the ground, which will give all of us a chance to get outdoors.  That still leaves me the task of purging old documents and revamping the filing system.  At least, we have access to a commercial shredder.

We will do a purging like this once a month from now on.  This will help us raise funds and get us ready to move.  Moving can be a real pain in the neck.  There's no need to make it more of a pain by having to purge items at the last minute.

Live better, a little every day.

Small Amounts Add Up

Today was a long, dull day, full of chores and chasing kids around.  I'm not even sure how many sinkfulls of dishes I did today.  Every muscle in my body is sore, but in a good way.  Spent the evening planning out projects for the weekend.  It's going to be a busy weekend.

I did a couple hours of bookkeeping for some extra money, deposited it, and sent it immediately to our last remaining credit card.  It was only $20, but it was little amounts like this, chipping away at the principal balance paid off our other credit cards quickly.  Never underestimate the single, small, extra payment!

The day has taken it's toll, and we needed a moment to unwind and reprogram our minds with something more positive and inspiring.  We watched the documentary, Alone In The Wilderness which follows a 51 year old man who moves out to a remote part of Alaska, builds a log cabin and furniture by himself and with just hand tools. Just the kind of movie to feed the spirit.

Much more to post tomorrow.

Live better, a little every day

Garden Report 5/25/2010

Here is the first official Garden Report of 2010.  We are a little late getting some plants in the ground.  That was dictated, like so many things this year, by our daughter's birth in early April. Certain plants really should have been replants outdoors before now, and we will just have to wait and see how things pan out.

So far this season, we have:

• dug an additional garden bed
• expanded the size of the existing garden bed from last year
• 8 rows of 10 plants each of onions, carrots, and beets in the ground

We have the following plants ready to go in the ground:

• 15 plants each of green beans (bush), summer squash, and cucumbers
• 20 swiss chard plants
• 5 melon plants

The following are ready to be repotted into larger pots

• 15 slicing tomato plants
• 15 paste tomato plants
• 5 mini pie pumpking plants (variety specific for container gardening)

We are still waiting for 15 bell pepper plants and 15 sweet pepper plants to germinate

Live better, a little every day.

Blog Updates and Companion Podcast

We are approaching the Better Living Daily blog's first birthday! 

Some of you may have noticed that I've made a few changes to the description of my blog.  I'm trying out a few things to improve the blog's look and clarity.  The purpose of the blog, however, is still the same: to record those things we do on a daily basis to improve our independence, level of self-sufficiency, and quality of life. 

Last autumn, I had started a companion podcast to this blog.  This was to help keep blog posts focused on documenting our daily actions towards living a more independent life, while leaving the longer and more opinionated topics for the podcast.  Sadly, the podcast was left fallow for many months mostly due to medical problems.  For the same reasons, I have not made daily entries here to my blog consistently.  It has also meant that some of these longer, opinionated, and politically charged topics have ended up here on this blog again. 

The podcast will be relaunched in the next couple of weeks.  I have some updating to do to the podcast site, but will announce the official relaunch here within the next few days.

Thanks to everyone for reading my blog and listening to the podcast. 

Live better, a little every day.

Scouting Meets Homeland Security

In keeping with both our family's pledge to do something every day to better our family's circumstances and independence, and my midwife's orders to take things easy for an extra two weeks, my project today was to research a few homeschooling links and topics online.  Our biggest hurdle with homeschooling is likely to come from family, and their fear that our kids won't have opportunities to socialize, I figured I'd explore a few organizanations that would provide both skills and socialization.  First stop, the Boy and Girl Scouts of America.

I was surprised to learn there was a co-ed program in the Boy Scouts, the Explorer Program.  It has also been called Learning for Life, the Exploring Program, and the Venturing Program.  I had never heard about the program  before, so I did a search and found the New York Times article, "Explorer- Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More".

The article details how Homeland Security has partnered with the Explorer Program to teach children how to take down terrorists.  According to the director for Learning for Life, John Anthony, "Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many posts (in the Explorer Program) have taken on an emphasis of fighting terrorism and other less conventional threats."

Less conventional threats?  That line in the article brought me back up to the very first paragraph where teenagers were being trained to take down a gun-toting, murderous, disgruntled, Iraq War Veteran.  I have to ask the question, is Homeland Security expecting so many of our Iraq War vets to come home mentally unstable that even our children need to be recruited to subdue them?  And if so, why?  (Ok, conspiracy theory moment over.)

We should not be teaching our kids that veterans are a "less conventional threat." We should be honoring them for their service and sacrifice, regardless of the policies that send them to war.

Do I think these kids will be called in if there is a disgruntled Iraq War veteran emergency?  No.  Professionals would be called in to deal with such a situation.  I am, however, concerned that these drills of American children battling American Veterans even exist.  It has the potential to predispose these young adults into thinking of Veterans as unstable, violent, and a threat. I think it is a dangerous message to send to our impressionable youth.  I also find it a slick bit of spin that the "disgruntled veteran" stereotype is being pushed along side of criminals, such as illegal border crossings and drug traffickers in this training. 


What we have here is a battle for our childrens' minds being played out through Homeland Security sanctioned role playing.  And, I find that disturbing.
 
While this is just one program associated with Boy Scouts of America, I think we'll just keep looking for other socialization opportunities.
 
Live better, a little every day.