Thankful Sunday--January 27,2013

I am thankful for the insulation in my house.

Blown insulation in our attic

When I was growing up, I lived in a house that had no insulation. In the wintertime, we didn't spend much time in our living room because it was so cold that there was often frost on the inside of the windows as well as the electrical outlets. We had to wait for warmer weather to spend time in there again.

Now I live in a house with good insulation, and I really appreciate that during these cold, single digit days. I am warm and toasty no matter what room I am in. What a luxury.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Jan. 25, 2013

 It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

No waste this week! Over the weekend, I made a list of things to use up from the fridge. We cooked and ate from this list all week, and avoided any waste. Now, was I coordinated or what? :)

This Week's True Food Confessions

One of these things is not like the others,

One of these things just doesn't belong,

Can you tell which thing is not like the other,

 By the time I finish my song?*

If you guessed the pizza, you'd be right. We cooked everything else at home this week. A definite success.

*Does everyone recognize this song from Sesame Street?

A Second Look--January 24, 2013

We had no snow this week, but the temperatures were appropriate for January with the thermometer reading in the single digits. Add wind to this, and it was quite cold outside. Nevertheless, I didn't see much difference in the yard. If something was going to die in the cold, it was already gone. And if something was going to be evergreen, it stayed green.

I am continuing to find bone fragments in the yard. (Maybe if I collected them all, I could eventually build an interesting creature.) This week, I found a leg bone, among several large black feathers. The first story I made up was that a fox and a big bird had an encounter and the bird won. However, when I saw a chicken leg bone later from a piece of chicken that Ward was eating, I had second thoughts. The bones were of a similar size and weight. Maybe, it was the bird (I vote for crow because we have so many around) that had the unfortunate demise. Definitely, there's not enough evidence with my limited knowledge to really know what happened.

Here's what I saw this week during a Second Look.

Moss

 

Rhododendron bud waiting out the winter.

This squirrel and cardinal are scavenging for seeds that have dropped below the feeder.

This is a newly broken branch from a sweet gum tree.

Azalea bud also waiting out winter.

Wasp nest that fell down from the eave above.

Several large black feathers were found near this bone. Notice that this group of feathers still has the quills attached to each other.

Left-Bone found in yard near feathers.                   Right--Rotisserie chicken leg bone

Making Change

or My Two Cents

Long ago and far, far away in another time and place, people knew how to give you change. You gave them money (bills and coins) to pay for something and they gave you back change in a very organized and easy to hold way. That doesn't happen today. Today, you get change in a disorganized, easy to drop way.

Used to be that there weren't cash registers that automatically calculated the change that was due back and the clerk had to actually count it out. They started with the amount that was due and counted the rest into your hand starting with the smallest domination until they reached the amount that you gave them. What you ended up with was an assurance that you were getting the right amount back and a tidy pile of coins in your hand with any bills on top of them. It was easy to grip the coins while you were putting any bills away. It all made perfect sense.

Today, the amount of change that is do back is calculated by the register and the clerk puts the whole pile in your hand at once with bills on the bottom and coins on the top. If you stop to count it, others in line behind you get annoyed that you're holding things up, and then you're lucky if the coins don't slide off the bills before you get them put away.

I don't know why we've gone to new this method, when the other way was so easy and so much more user friendly. I long for yesteryear.

Clara Barton House

Ward exploring around the Clara Barton House. Notice both the American and Red Cross Flags.

 

Ward and I recently visited the Clara Barton House in Glen Echo, Maryland. The weather was sunny, but breezy for our outing and while Ward found this invigorating, I found it cold. However, as we were walking outside around the grounds before the house tour, we found some peonies blooming and a lone purple blossom on a vine . The find of those flowers made the cold wind worth it for me. The house tour was free because this site is part of the National Park Service. We had a very good tour guide and learned a lot during our hour long tour.

A welcome sign of spring outside the house.

I have tried several times to summarize what we learned about Clara Barton. However, she was too complex of a person to do justice with on this blog. I'll just tell you a few of things that I found interesting.

--In 1881, Clara Barton started the American Red Cross after gaining fame by taking supplies to the front lines during the Civil War. 

--Clara was the one that first established the Red Cross as an organization that brought relief to areas during times of natural disaster. Before this, it was only focused on soldiers.

--Clara thrived under dangerous and risky situations. War zones invigorated her and she did some of her best work there.She also liked being in charge and didn't deal well with criticism or transition.

--Clara had to be very determined because she lived during a time that women were not allowed much responsibility. For example, she was not welcomed by the military to take supplies to the soldiers on the battlefields during the Civil War. She had to do a lot of lobbying to be able to do it, and Senator Henry Wilson, chairman of the Military Affairs committee, finally gave her permission.

--When she was in her 80's, some said she was too old to sit all day to do the work that needed to be done to run the Red Cross. To prove them wrong, she cut the back off of her chair to show that not only could she sit for long periods, she could do it with no chair back.

--The house we toured was modeled after warehouses that were built for the aftermath of the Jonestown flood.

--The house ceilings were lined with muslin instead of plaster—the same material used for bandages.

--It was good to get and do something different for a change.