Emotions and Ice Cream

I keep eating ice cream. I think it has become my comfort food, sometimes I have it before lunch on the weekend.

It is driving me a little crazy that we are finally getting all the odds 'n' ends done around the house, making it all nice only in hopes to have someone else fall in love with it. I must remind myself it is only a house, simply a structure providing shelter. Home on the other hand is where ever your loved ones are and it doesn't have to be one place, just places you simply love being. Living on a boat will let us have many homes over the course of a year.

I like to think that everyone who says they will come visit us actually will. Albany is a very lively city, a city I have very much enjoyed for the last 9 years and there will be a lot to miss, but most of all it will be our friends. We have great friends.

One thing I remember from when I was a kid in the Daisy's Troop- being a Daisy means your working your way up to become a Girl Scout. The sequence is; Daisy, Brownie, Girl Scout. I only made it to a Brownie, then bailed b/c it was way to girly-we weren't learning to camp or survive we were learning songs, arts and crafts (which at the time really bothered me). Even back then I was smart enough to know that singing "kum-by-ya" when I'm lost in the woods is not going to save me from a grizzly. But I did take away one valuable lesson- "Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver, and the other is gold" Albany will always be my gold, they simply rock!

We met our friend Maude and her daughter at the ice cream parlor the other night. Alana is 3 and watching her walk up to the ice cream parlor and upon seeing us her eyes light up, my heart just melts. This little girl may be one of the coolest kids/people I have ever met. Alana lights up a room. At her age the world is kind, people are friendly, laughter is often, and life is good. As Alana and Maude approached the door I couldn't help but think how much I would miss nights like this. What I love about Maude is that though she thinks we are a little crazy she supports our decision. K Family...you MUST come visit!

Ok so on the right here is the Daisy uniform...really do I need an apron, since when did anyone put on an apron before hiking into the woods? Even the girl in the sketch appears to be saying "Really, I have to wear-THIS?

Updates

Worms- doing great!
I recently started to harvest the nutrient soil they are producing. You simply move the soil and the worms to one side of the bin, and start to put the bedding (newspaper) and new fresh food on the other side of the bin. The worms will make their way over to the fresher food over a period of about a month and then I will be able to take the soil they produced and put it in my flower pots!

I don't like to let my exterior plants die off in the winter so my house is full of them and they could all use some healthy soil. I jumped the gun a little and sifted out about two cups of soil.

When researching composting I had learned that the worms lay eggs and they look like little yellow seeds, and guess what MY WORMS HAD BABIES!!! I carefully sorted throw my two cups of soil looking for the eggs as I did not want to harm any of them. Check out how small they are; it is the little yellow blob in the center of the spoon.

4 Hours of TV/Week- well it didn't go so well at first, b/c when I would feel bored and couldn't think of other things to do I would give up and click into TV land. However in the last week I don't think we even maxed out our 4 hours. What I had to realize was that I wasn't bored and it wasn't that there was nothing to do. I was simply so use to zoning out and forgetting all the other things I wanted to do. Now we spend our time reading more, cooking, going to the library, blogging, listening to music, eating dinner at the dining room table again! We have been going for more walks and spending more time working on our house as we prepare to sell it. Good bye TV, hello Life!

Purging

They crushed my couch, but I looked away. We are emotionally attached to so many objects, but why? I have been following other blogs about donating, recycling, and selling items, and what I have learned is it takes time to emotionally remove items from your life.

In the past I never could have thrown out pictures, but how many candid photos do you need? I have discovered that if I sort through some photos, make a pile of keeps and check back in a week or two I can eliminate a few more. I am now done eliminating. I have narrowed my photos down to three thin albums (not including my wedding photos, which have there own album). I think that three albums for 26 years of life is pretty good!

I saved photos from all stages of life, all different experiences, and ones that triggered strong meaningful memories and emotions. Quality vs. Quantity...now I have an outstanding collection of moments in my life!

Good Bye Couch, Hello Future

So this weekend was productive! We put my favorite couch to the curb in order to paint our front porch. I have had the couch since high school and it traveled with me through the years, but it is mustard yellow crushed velvet so it is obviously from the 70's and I feel 30 years is a long lifetime for a couch. It is missing a leg and really I don't know who else would love it other than me. It was crazy comfy and I had many enjoyable naps in the sun on it, but it is time to go. I'm not gonna lie; I did keep the cushions in hopes that I could find a use for them. Today we painted all the radiators in the house, the banister, and Bill made a radiator cover for one of the radiators that is even to ugly for paint to save it. The cushions served a purpose today; I sat on one while drinking some celebratory beer on our front porch! Hard work deserves cold beer, oh how I greatly enjoyed Blue Moon, Pandora, the sunset and the company of Bill and Riley! Today was a good day!

Less Impact

There is a book out called "No Impact Man" (also a documentary film on the same topic} however the book has many more interesting details. The short synopsis-for one year a family of 3 attempts to have no negative impact on the environment, they go to extremes; no food in packaging, cloth diapers, no mode of transportation other than bikes or their own two feet.

After reading it I was extremely motivated to take action in my own life, to have less of a negative impact on the environment and to be more involved and aware of my daily choices. Simple things like- grabbing a free bottled water from the fridge at work, grabbing a snack from the vending machine, taking a long shower just because I knew I would feel cold getting out; these were things I was starting to examine rather than simply go through the motions. I have always enjoyed testing my self control and will power, I figured if I can raise the bar for myself and help save the earth why not?

These thoughts didn't start with this book the book simply helped me take a leap of faith that I could not only change my personal decisions, we as a family could try to do it together and grow together in very positive ways while doing so.

As of today these are just some of the changes we have made:
1)put our selves on the "no crap mail list"
2)canceled all but one of our magazine subscriptions (our library does not carry Latitudes & Attitudes- our sailing magazine that helps keep our dream alive!)
3)stopped using paper napkins- only use cloth
4)reuse and recycle anything and everything rather than throwing it out
5)purchase clothes at goodwill (we are very lucky to have great thrift stores in our area)
6)simplify our life-de-clutter, donate, regift(everyone does it, its ok as long as its something good!)
7)compost
8)no paper towels-we use rags from old clothes and cloth napkins
9)eat local, I would say we are an 80/20 household
10)car pool more

I thought it would be a lot harder to change our lifestyle then it actually is. Car pooling and my compost are probably my two favorite items on the list. I love that Bill drives us to work-I am not a morning person so it is nice not to have to experience road rage on my way in any more and on the way home I drive. By the time we get home we have both discussed our work days and we leave it at the door. As for my compost I ordered 1,000 worms from this worm farm on Long Island (as local as I could find this time of year) and built them a home in an extra plastic container we had. So now I can compost year round! The worms are like my new pets, they hang out in their home which is in our dining room. It's kinda of a conversation piece when we have people over. I like keeping them in the center of the house rather then the basement, I figured if they were in the basement I could forget to check on them. They are pretty awesome they eat about 1/3 a pound of food a day, not that I can really tell, but they are producing soil!

Ok I guess I must admit I also love not using paper towels. I thought I would never be able to not use them. Bill was totally against giving them up, he didn't know how we could go with out. One day I just removed them from the counter, filled a bowl with cloth pieces and told him these were our new "paper towels". He was willing to give it a shot once he realized I had something to fill the void. Tonight I realized it has been 2 weeks without paper towels!!! Well other than when Riley got sick on the carpet...yes I broke into the old stash to clean that up...the thought of laundering a cloth with his vomit was too much to handle.

Bill suggest we only watch 4 hours of TV per week-I'm game, lets just hope it lasts. It is winter in Upstate NY, this is my time for hibernation, I hope I don't cave :)

Day One of sharing my Adventure!

So today is day one of me sharing my thoughts and ideas about the future, about my plans. I'm 26, I have lived in upstate NY for about 10 years now. It is beautiful, New York is definitely special. I have a home with my adorably amazing husband (don't hate me already for being cheese...I will try my best not to be) and my dog Riley...he is crazy. We have a nice home, good jobs, great friends, great family, and generally a great life...however it is time for an adventure! See we are at the point where every time I'm on the phone with someone and I say "I have something great to tell you"...they say..."YOUR HAVING A BABY!!!". No. Actually we are selling the house, moving to Florida, buying a boat, fixing it up, and sailing away.

It is going to be the story of our lives...the journey to success or failure will be amazing either way. Why Florida? We are ready for warmer weather, beautiful beach, and to spend some time with our already uprooted NY cousins! On a more practical note living closer to the shore makes it a lot easier to sail and shop around for boats, plus we will have more sunny days out of the year to work on our "fixer upper" of a boat.

Bill (my husband) and I come from homes of entrepreneurs. Luck for us after all of our crazy ideas we both continue to come back to the same dream...live on a boat, work for ourselves, and minimize our eco-footprint :)

Ok and I might feel the need to stick it to the man and make a statement about how certain things in this world simply need to change. It is going to be amazing and I'm gonna wear a smile a lot more often, laugh harder, and not take things so seriously...I only have one shot at this life...I'm gonna go my own way...my story begins...