Little Green House in the Town on the Prairie

I had this idea in my head that after our massive garage sale, the clutter would magically be cut down and our house would be much more manageable. WRONG!!!

First off all, though we sold off a huge quantity of - to put it delicately - crap, there’s still so much left. And I can’t figure out how to get rid of it! We can’t find anyone in town right now that is currently accepting donations. We could have another sale, but it’s sooo much work. I could put it on Craig’s List, but that seems like a lot of bother, too. I’m seriously baffled that we can’t give our junk away for free. And really, some of it is really nice junk.

But even so, there’s still so much stuff left in my house and it’s making me crazy. Seriously, what family of four needs forty-seven bath towels? Why do we have two dozen baby blankets? And what the heck is with all of the cups and glasses?

Of course, you don’t even want to get me started on the number of toys we have left. On the second day of the garage sale we made all of the toys free. (Which really, since everything was a quarter the day before wasn’t that much of a mark-down.) But there are still so many toys in the house.

I want to pare down our stuff even more to only the things that we truly love, or really need. I also want to try really hard to buy only used things from now on, for the most part. I’ve seen some of the neatest vintage or gently used items at flea markets and antique stores, at super affordable prices. (And of course on Etsy!) And they just don’t make stuff like they used to. I’m still kicking myself for not picking up a set of seven HAND EMBROIDERED tea towels at a flea market for $20. Stupid, stupid, stupid! In fact, I might stop by today and see if they still happen to be there. My few meager dishtowels have definitely seen better days, and this is one of those things that I could actually use.

So here I am, wanting to get rid of all my stuff, and I want to buy more stuff. Go figure.

“Oh, Pa, let’s go on west!”
“I know, little Half-Pint,” said Pa, and his voice was very kind. “You and I want to fly like the birds. “

I think one of the main reasons I’ve always felt so connected to Laura Ingalls Wilder is because we both have itchy feet. She was always longing to keep going west, never to settle down in one place for too long. I feel the same way. I can’t leave my family, so instead of going west, I move to different houses.

After about two years, I get this claustrophobic feeling and I get the urge to move. I’m one of those strange people who actually LIKE moving. I like the whole process, from going to all the local grocery stores to scavenge for free cardboard boxes to packing away all the knick-knacks to settling in the new home. I adore house hunting, and even when I’m happy in a house I spend a great deal of time searching the real estate ads in the paper and on-line.

But this time, I’m going to have to stifle my desire to move, because it just isn’t gonna happen. My small house dreams are just going to have to keep waiting.

So instead of getting a new house, I’ve decided to change the way my current house looks. I think changing things up a bit might give me an extra year or so before I smother under this feeling.

I have big plans for painting all the rooms in the house. To keep it green, I need to find low VOC paints. I’m happy with this, because I hate the smell of paint fumes. And especially since I have kids in the house, I don’t want to have to worry about what chemicals they are breathing in.

I’ve decided to do a ’50s retro inspired theme, that will be super fun and cheerful. Maybe a little too cheerful…

Yesterday I spray painted these two things this crazy aqua color. This is going to be one of the colors in my new overly cheerful house. One of the other colors will be green - like a Granny Smith apple green.

And this is the fabric I ordered for some kitchen curtains:

Yes, it will be bright. It will be cheerful. So if you come to visit, wear your shades.

I’ve been spending a lot of time hanging out over on Etsy.

I’ve always thought it was a neat site, with all the handmade items. I even bought Alice a necklace (from this Etsy seller) that will go in her time capsule on her first birthday, to be opened when she turns sixteen. (In 2024!!!!!! Holy cow, I’ll be forty years old!)

Anyway, I love the idea of supporting crafters and artists, most of whom are right here in America, working from their own homes. I love buying stuff that isn’t mass produced crap.

But as soon as I found out that they had an entire section of vintage and antique items, it was all over. I became an Etsy addict.

Look at all the awesome old stuff I’ve found:

I don’t need a breadbox, because there is one built-in to my cabinets, but if I did, I would buy this one.

I actually found a Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox, like this one, at a flea market in town, except the one at the flea market comes with the thermos and it’s a bit cheaper. Yup, I’m heading back to the flea market tomorrow to buy it. Hey, Alice will need a lunchbox in five or six years, right?

Computer-shmuter. I need a teal typewriter, darn it!

Can you tell I’m really digging the color teal lately? This Fiestaware plate really grabs me. Lucky for me, I spotted several just like it at a different flea market in town. They are a  few dollars higher, but no shipping charges, so I’m all set.

Ha! It’s not teal. It is totally groovy though. However, my mom has an enormous turquoise suitcase, and I have such fond memories of traveling with it. When I was 17, I flew to California all by myself to visit family. That suitcase was such a breeze to spot on the baggage claim belt amongst all of the black and tan luggage.  Interestingly enough, this suitcase is sold by a seller called FuzzyMemories.

Wesley’s third birthday is tomorrow, and we had his party on Saturday. Like is the custom, the rain threatened to wash the whole town away, but the sun came out so we had a lovely humid afternoon for the party. We held it at the park, and the kids had a blast getting muddy.

We (er, I guess I should say I) decided to make his party a green party. I borrowed tin and enamelware plates from my aunt, my mom helped me to make napkins from red and white checkered fabric, and everyone drank from tin cups or Mason jars. We served lemonade and tea, hamburgers and hot dogs, and chips. I’m pretty happy with how little waste and paper we left in the trashcans when we left. The entertainment was rides in my step dad’s buggy, and we didn’t do goody bags or anything like that.

We had asked everyone not to bring any gifts, but everyone broke the rules. Oh, well, Wesley really enjoys his new gifts, and everyone was awesome about not bringing battery powered junk. (Thanks guys, I appreciate it!) He still hasn’t gotten his present from Ryan and I yet, because we want to give it to him on his actual birthday. His gift from us is a backhoe for a sand box. I can’t wait to see his reaction!

Yesterday I rode my bike to the grocery store and filled up my new baskets for the first time. It worked MUCH better than the backpack on my back! I actually made it home with a loaf of bread that was still shaped like a loaf of bread this time. We were all getting a little tired of eating sandwiches on bread that had been squished to the size of a credit card.

While I was loading the groceries into the baskets in front of the store, a guy in his pickup truck was watching me. I don’t know if he was checking out my butt or waiting for me to fall on said butt once my bike was loaded, but either way it made me nervous. It was a little wobbly on the first pedal, and I bonked my heels against the baskets on the first rotation, but before I’d even made it out of the parking lot I figured it out. Whew! It would have been sooo embarrassing to tip over and lose my groceries. Visions of chasing oranges across the parking lot left my head, and I made it home just fine.

Yesterday, I was informed that I’m not updating the blog often enough. I guess now that I’m done spending time with Sully watching the Dr. Quinn DVDs, I need to get back to work. I was also informed that people like it when I’m funny, so I need to be writing more funny blogs. I’m not sure that I was ever funny, per se, but I’ll give it a go.

So in the spirit of being funny, I’ll tell you a joke that my little brother told me the other day.

A blonde walks into a library and goes up to the librarian at the counter.

Blonde: I’d like a hotdog.

Librarian: Ma’am, this is the library.

Blonde: (whispers)  I’d like a hotdog.

My mother-in-law, that is.

Alice has had this horrible cold for the past three or four days. Actually, we’ve all had it, but Alice lets us know louder than anyone else because her nose is all stuffed up. Combine that with a need to use the pacifier at bedtime, and it makes for an unhappy baby.

So there she is, lying in bed, snorting and snotting and crying because she can’t breathe unless she spits the pacifier out and she can’t sleep without the pacifier. It’s a conundrum, I tell you.

Anyway, my mother-in-law was over yesterday and mentioned that if you rub Vicks on their feet and then put socks on them, it clears their nose. I’m not afraid to say it. It sounded a little nutty. But desperate moms call for desperate measures, so I tried it last night. We’d already tried everything else: a humidifier, elevating her mattress, using the blue booger sucker…nothing else helped. So I gooped up her feet and put some socks on her.

And it worked! Hurrah! If the baby hadn’t been sleeping, I’d have called in the brass band to celebrate. Instead I went to bed. Next time I have a stuffy nose, I’ll try it out on myself, too.

Now, please. Nobody write in to tell me that Vicks is toxic and going to cause my baby to sprout an eleventh toe or flippers or something. And if you are going to tell me that Vicks is single-handedly causing the polar ice caps to melt, you’d better have a damn good alternative to the Vicksy-Sock cure.

I feel like I should explain why I’ve not posted very often lately. You see, I’ve been doing something very important: watching “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”

Yes, you read that right. I ordered season three through inter-library loan, and they gave me one week to watch all eight discs. That is twenty-nine hours of “Dr. Quinn” in seven days. Thirty-one hours if you count that I’ll have to watch one of the two-hour episodes twice so that I can listen to the commentary, too.

So far, I’m right on track for finishing it up exactly one day late. Hey, I can only watch so much television each day.

I love this show. I was ten years old when it first came out, and I can still remember watching it for the first time. My dad, who was also the one who introduced me to the “Little House on the Prairie” television series, insisted that I sit and watch “Dr. Quinn.” I was instantly hooked. It was canceled in 1998, and I’m still ticked off about it. I still haven’t even gotten over when they replacing old Colleen with new Colleen in the middle of season three. Sorry, Jessica Bowman, I got nothing against you. But you just aren’t Colleen.

There are so many things that I love about this show. First of all, it’s set during my favorite time period of American history: post Civil War, pre 1900s. Second, I get to see all kinds of cabin-y goodness. And third, Joe Lando as Sully. Need I say more? How about a picture? (There you go, Mom. That’s for you. Wink, wink.) Oh, and let’s not forget Hank the bartender.

So, yeah. I’ve been parked in front of the television for twenty-five hours now. Only six more to go. I guess it’s a good thing (good thing?) that I’m up four or five times a night with Alice. Gives me plenty of “Dr. Quinn” time.

We did pretty good again this week! For the week of May 4-10, we spent $49 in gas. That is one tank of gas, which was used only to send Ryan to work and back.

We used the car twice this week. Once to make a large grocery trip (I haven’t gotten my rack and baskets yet for my bike, they are ordered from Amazon and on the way, though.) and once to go out to eat with my parents. (We don’t have seats or a trailer for the kids yet, so trips with the kids are still out of the question.)  These trips were both around one mile.

So that brings us to a grand total of $96.75 so far for the month of May, and it’s not even halfway over. Luckily, this tank of gas should hold out until next Saturday or Sunday. We’re still on track for making my $200 goal, but going to the zoo at the end of May for Wesley’s birthday may just push us over the limit.

I’m now seeing that spending only $150 a month just isn’t going to happen, especially with gas continually on the rise. Even if we go NOWHERE but to work, we’ll have to spend a minimum of $200. I’m kind of bummed about that. If I didn’t love our little town so much, I’d think maybe it was time to move closer to Ryan’s job. But ugh, I really hate the thought of that.

I think it’s time to get the car a tune up and see if we can’t get a bit better gas mileage. According to TreeHugger,if every American’s tires were properly inflated we could save around 2 billion gallons of gas each year! Holy moly!

I’ve been riding my bike all over town, running errands, and I’ve learned a few things.

1) There is no convenient way to get to the only grocery store in town. To get there, I have to ride three blocks in the opposite direction, backtrack back to the main road, cross the main road, drive through three parking lots and TA-DAH! I’m there. It’s really a pain. I’ve decided to go to the next city council meeting and ask about the possibility of putting a sidewalk on the main road through town.

2) Crossing the main road is a major pain in the patootie. And people are jerks. I wait. And wait. And wait. The cars come past at a steady pace, and no one slows down or stops to let me cross the road. No one speeds up, either, to give me a wider gap to cross. So I wait. And wait. Last time, I had to wait no less than five minutes each time I crossed the road. And this is not some big huge town with a traffic problem. In fact, we live in a town with only one stoplight in it.

3) It doesn’t matter if you are walking or on your bike, people are STILL inconsiderate. Today, the kids and I were out walking to a few garage sales, because it is citywide garage sale day. It started raining pretty good while we were out. So there I am, walking down the road with two kids, getting soaked, and people in their nice dry cars are forcing me off the road. Thanks a lot, jerks! 

4) I have no idea where to park my bike most places I go. We have a gorgeous town square, with wide brick-paved lanes and old buildings. Each sidewalk is painted with the words, “Do not ride bikes on sidewalk.” (a fact which Ryan didn’t notice until I told him…after he’d ridden on them three days in a row.) So when I go to pay bills at the city hall or our car insurance office, I’m stuck trying to figure out where to park. Do I haul it up the steps to the sidewalk, where I’m not supposed to be? Or do I park in a parking spot, and risk having some inattentive driver on a cell phone smash my bike? I’m still totally stumped on this one.

I’ve issued a personal gas challenge for this household.

Last month, we spent $300 on gasoline. Approximately $80 of that was to send Ryan to work, which is non-negotiable. However, the rest of it was largely unnecessary.

My goal is to cut our gas spending this month to $200. Next month, it will be only $150.

This month, we have some driving that will have to be done. We have our nephew’s first birthday party, Ryan’s sister is graduating from high school, and Wesley’s third birthday is at the end of the month. All of these things mean we will have to do some driving. I’m not willing to miss out on our family’s special days, or cut out our annual trip to the zoo for Wesley’s birthday.

So each week, I’m going to post on here how much we spent on gasoline so that I have some accountability for how much we are spending.

For week one of the challenge, April 27th to May 3rd, we have spent $47.75. That is one tank of gas. We have already spent 1/4 of our monthly budget for this month, and we have four more weeks to go! (Yeah, I’m counting a few days in April as part of the month.)

I invite you to try your own personal gas challenge! Figure out how much you are spending on gas each month, and try to shave a few bucks off of that amount. How will you accomplish this? Will you walk or ride a bike? Take public transportation? Stay at home all month? Let me know!

Hey, with gas prices rising every day, we can all use all the savings we can get!