Living-Deliberately.com

I’ve seen these done several places…a few newspapers and People magazine…comparisons of various reusable bags available on the market. None of them included the BEST bag though so I’m writing my own about my favorite bag and why I think it’s better than the others. If a week’s groceries takes 10 bags (and that’s modest, because they usually double bag), that is 40-50 a month, or between 520 and 600 bags a year FOR ONE FAMILY. It’s nigh impossible to find enough recycling sources for that many bags and a sickening use of energy and waste production. So bring on the reusable bags!!!!

Chico Bags:

I saw these little cuties in the store the other night…seemed like a good option for throwing in my purse so I’d always have on hand, not unlike the Bummi Bag I used to carry for cloth diapers and wet spills when I had babies. They are cheap (5/each) and lightweight. The website says they make sure the China-production is fair labor/fair wage. They are nylon and can hold 20 lbs. Favorite selling point? Their small size when balled up. I think I’d use these in place of a baggie…but not a grocery bag.

Ecobags, offering The Green Bag: The Ecobags site offers several kinds of bags but for grocery bag purposes, I’ll focus on The Green Bag. It’s made from polypropylene and has a flat bottom. At just a couple of bucks a piece, they are cheap. I actually don’t trust the price….the adage, “you get what you pay for” comes to mind. I need durability!! This bag may be great for a jam… just getting a few things at the store and one’s available for an impulse buy at the check out stand; I may buy one knowing I’d use it at least a few more times. But given time to think about it, I think I’d rule this out as potential clutter, not being strong enough to go the distance.

Envirosax: Oooo!!! What a pretty site! And pretty bags too! My first reaction to these bags is that I wish the straps were longer! They’d make cute messenger bags (what I use for a side-carry purse)! They cost 8.50/bag and there are a few styles currently out of stock. I do wish it were a bit more obvious on the site what the product construction is, where it’s made, and how much they can carry. That bottom seam-design seems like it would strain. But these bags are going to speak to a certain kind of customer and more power to them!

Earth Totes:

Australian site offering organic cotton and hemp bags. Oy! Pretty cool….but alas, they are Australian and that intimidates me about ordering overseas. I would definitely look for their cool designs while in my health food store. And they DO have long enough handles to be side-carry. One thing….I think I’d use this as a typical tote and not as a grocery bag because they are too hippy-cool to gunk up weekly shopping.

The Use-Again Bag: So…full disclosure…my mom owns this venture. But I LOVE these bags and bein’ her kid doesn’t keep me from getting to talk about them! The are 100% American made. Come in great colors. Nylon…so they can be balled up, folded up, washed, dried, and they’ll still be great looking and lightweight. The handles are super strong (can hold up to 60lbs for those one-trippers out there!) and have hooks on the insides so they fit into the brackets that the store baggers use.

They are pretty, durable, compact, strong…they are the total package in reusable grocery bag design. And they aren’t expensive either…10/apiece and with durability that exceeds expectations. A supply of these bags will last and go the distance with families who buy a lot of groceries. We’ve used them for overnight travel totes, quick trips to the store (they fold small and fit in a purse easily), trips to bulk warehouses, and the get used every week for the regular grocery runs.

But whatever bag you use, make the switch away from plastic!! This is one way, we ALL can have an immediate impact on our environment…for the better!

In early May! So

• set a goal.
• Articulate it.
• Make a plan for meeting it.
• If you can, blog it (or use my comment section if you don’t have a blog).
• Make sure you link back here so I can find you and/or leave me a comment directing me to your site.

At the end of the month we’ll post progress and then I’ll choose a winner.  The prize is a free Use Again Bag!!

And pssst!!! Coming in June, the biggest contest I could possibly think of, designed to deliberately impact the world for good! Be watching for my post after Memorial Day!

“Today one small thing I will do move towards a more deliberate life is…..”

My answer: not drink more than one cup of coffee today. It’s been a “food replacement” this week, which I know is not healthy, and I’ve weaned back a bit each day. Today it’s time to be firm about only having one cup, or at least one *caffinated* cup ;-).

Being nearly the sole breadwinner for my family now, “diligently applying myself” to work hours has become a necesity.  Not just a ’second income’ or ‘hobby’ but I’ve got to do what Dave Ramsey says and “kill it and drag it home”.  It takes deliberatness for certain.

Our American, and certainly an entrepreneural, work ethic can easily translate into massive work hours, where sleep diminishes and creative pursuits vanish as the focus narrows into work, and work only, production. I was raised by entreprenuers and I know the “feast or famine” lifestyle well.  I know “yagottawanna” is one of my earliest memories. I played hard as a kid and I work hard as an adult because, “if you don’t work, you don’t eat”.

But I’m thankful God rested on the 7th day. And as I built my company last year, one thing I insisted on early was that on Sundays, my computer gets to STAY OFF.

As 2007 became rockier and it’s routine vanished, leaving chaos in it’s wake, our sense of “what day is it” vanished too. Thinking beyond the day we were currently living got tougher and projection became impossible. So for a few months we had no structured time off. One “got while the gettin’ was good”. Rest when you can. Work when you can. Eat when you can.

It is a grace, from my point of view, to see a restoration of structure and routine. To work hard Monday through Friday and see the accomplishement of an entire “to do” list was a blessing of large proportion. And on Friday night, after I posted about the movie I’d seen, I shut the computer down.

On Saturday I painted with the kids. They’d been wanting to do some canvas stuff, like I’d been working on recently, so I got them each one and we got to “work”. I baked a Banana Cream pie. The early spring days are  bliss and we spent some time outside. On Sunday I went to church, spoke with new friends, and got a fresh idea. I drove with the windows down and my hair blowing in the breeze. I picked up the sunday New York Times.

Ironically, the Sunday Style section featured an article by Mark Brittman called, “I Need A Virtual Break” which tells the tale of his own journey towards a sabbath rest. He calls it his “secular sabbath” because he has no particular religious motivation…his was a quest for quiet and rest. The transition wasn’t easy as he went through the very real “withdrawl” from near-constant email checks, text messaging, and phone calls. It is all replaced with walks, thoughts, books, and fresh air.

It felt good to have the tactile refreshment of a real newspaper in my hands again. To read viewpoints and perspectives that are new to me. To sit in the sun for hours and feel the breeze on my face. I worked on my painting and baked a new variety of cupcake.

I went to sleep after an hour of guitar joy and dreamed happy dreams. Making sure I keep my “worry appointment” during my first lap of running has meant depression doesn’t ease it’s way into my night thoughts. It’s been a very successful, deliberate strategy for coping with extreme stress. And so are days of intentional rest.

I find myself in a weird position: politically I adore Ron paul. I love his positions on almost every point, agree with him, and wanted him to be president. He awakened a spirit among those who heard him…I’m far from the only one who felt spurred beyond the apathy of apoliticism back into *caring*  and *hoping*.  And while I believe most all of the tales of media bias, poll manipulation, and results tampering…the sum of it all will be that Ron does not become the Republican candidate, will not run as an Independant, and won’t become our next president.

And so, I guess oddly but maybe not so much, I’ve moved into the Obama excitement. I was thrilled by him the first time I saw him, way back before running began. I won’t go into why I’ve moved away from the far-right. Somewhere along the way I stopped looking at candidates only within their “party box” and look more towards them as individuals. Maybe that’s because I think the real work of government is done mostly by others and that the job of president is different all together.

But I haven’t changed my affiliation officially. So the bumper sticker I created for my cafe press store is a clear statement of where I am and how I’ll vote, if given the chance.

What’s great about this country is that we can do this….this changing of minds, this choosing, this vocalizing about our one vote. We can do it and speak for ourselves and let others decide for themselves. We can break even our own boxes and well-worn ruts, when upon examination we see plainly what hasn’t been working doesn’t need to be repeated.

That is freedom: I am not bound to repeat the mistakes of the past. 

While there is no guarantee of any future outcome, we at least can decide to change what hasn’t worked.

Thanks to those who participated in my first contest! All “two” of you LOL! My hope is that many others of you mentally compared your progress so far to your goals considered. And, I’ll be doing this contest again the first week of May so if you want to participate, go ahead and blog your goals now so you can check in then!

As far as this contest goes, I really liked reading the progress of both women! You Go!!

Adventures in Simple Living & Daily Ethnography….you both have great blogs; thanks for sharing them! You had a 50/50 chance of winning girls!

Today we did the drawing…I made a slip with each name and Andrew pulled the winner out of the hat.

And the winner is……

ADVENTURES In Simple Living!!

The prize, as promised: A Free Use-Again Bag!!! (email me and we can do the color choice and shipping info: tia AT sixredheads DOT com)

So don’t forget: Contest repeats in early May. The best way to ACHIEVE goals is to write them down and check on the progress. Live Deliberately!

Just a note…I’ll do the drawing Monday, the 25th, so if there are any more entries waiting out there, get ‘em in!

“They” say the best strategy for goal attainment is to write them down, break them into baby steps, and revisit them. Here are some of my stated goals for this year:

Goals for 2008:

(obviously not a complete list):

• continue to learn and train as necessary for my first sprint-level Triathlon; I want to do my first in the spring of ‘09 so the bulk of my learning and prep should be within this year.
• obtain and learn to play the guitar (leftover goal from last year, completely untouched).
• read fiction again this summer.
• paint again.
• hit my buisiness goal.
• transition my children healthfully, teaching them to live honestly, loving them patiently.
• continue, and to some extent return to, eating whole, traditonal foods prepared at home, wherever home comes to be.

And here’s the update:

1. Triathlon efforts continue. I’ve increased my running to include a 3rd lap of my route. I’ve decided I LOVE the end result of running…the toning, the clear mind, the endurance built. I HATE the process of running! It’s boring as heck. I don’t listen to music because I’m concerned I need to be listening for traffic and safety threats. Lap one means I’m having my “worry appointment” and sorting out all the crud in my life that needs to be chewed. Lap 2 means I’m feeling like puking, wishing I could be in childbirth instead and cussing to the caedance of my footfalls. Lap 3 means the worst is over… some kind of stupid mental and physical hurtle has been crossed…I’m smiling because I’m working on a balinese meditation method and I feel strong. In honesty, I *could* run a fourth lap by that point I’m bored out of my gourd and always head in home. It’s time for a shake up in my routine!!! And, I should actually *measure* my distance because I still don’t really know how far I’m going.
2. Fortunatley, one is coming! I have a bike!!! It’s not a racing bike but will get me on two wheels and street riding. I’ve got to refurb it and clean it first. It’s impetus enough to get a helmet and a little variety in the work out. I don’t know what to look for in a helmet…any advice?
3. BWWWWAHAHHHAHAHHAHAAA!!!! Oh joy!!! My beautiful GUITAR!!! I LOVE IT. My fingers have unfamiliar callouses that still take getting used to. I can play enough chords to strum a few favorite songs and am learning to finger pick. I started working with a capo last week. Lots of fun with different keys now! Sitting with my guitar has been tremendously therpeutic and fun. What a happy spot!
4. AND I’m painting again! I’m painting what I dream and I’m working in oils, part of a goal from last year. I finished one painting this weekend and have another in progress. There’s a whole ‘nother post coming on how many times Art and creative expression has saved my life. It may never earn me a dime or hang in anyone’s home but my own but I never feel more honest with myself, more true to who I really am, than when I have my fingers in paint.
5. Fiction in the summer? Gee… I hope so! But I’m really not much of a TV watcher and I got ahold of some fiction recently and decided not to wait. The Kiterunner was first, followed by A Thousand Splendid Suns, and A Year of Wonders. All of them excellent reads. They were good breaks in the more vigorous line up of “recommended for therapy” titles also on my nightstand.
6. (it was somewhere in this past month that I realized painting, singing, and reading have always been a part of my life since early childhood…and if I ever go years at a time without doing any of them again, I ought to take a good hard look at what’s causing that).
7. Business is recovering from a rocky season of too-much travel and disruption. Hopefully that will continue.
8. The children are doing well, though this particular goal will be many years in the meeting and is only in it’s infancy. And it’s much too private to go into detail over.
9. Whole foods…could still improve quite a bit here. I did manage to quit the Buffalo Wings Dorito habit. And I’m nearly addicted to sushi, which is a pretty dang healthy food option. But my diet really does need more good yogurt, soaked beans and grains, and fruit. Coffee is not a food group and I need to work harder on remembering that. There is also WAY too much white sugar going on….though my cupcakes of late have been made with Turbinado. I should give sucanat a try……

Because I’m doing much better on my goals than I expected to, I’m going to add in a few more that I think are healthy and necessary and currently not present enough in my life:

• work on “greening” things up a bit more….compost the food scraps, contribute to the garden, be more diligent with power consumption (turn off this ‘puter at night!), use a reusable water bottle instead of buying them…etc.
• get my budget written. I am now “variable income” and Dave has sheets for that. It’s time to get very, very intentional with money, more than I ever have done so before; there’s no excuse not to because I certainly know better!
• kayak…another long time wish that I’ve done nothing to attain. Saying it in writing is a start.

Okay…so now it’s YOUR turn! Blog your own goal progress and leave me a link in the comments. Also, link to this post in your own post. I’ll take the names off all who participate and randomly draw one to receive a FREE UseAgainBag…a reusable grocery bag, completely made in America (fabric included), with super-strong handles, hooks for the baggers, and a deep capacity. This ain’t the cheapies they sell for a few bucks that look like they could fall apart in a few trips….made in China, of course! I promise you’ll love your bag! (And for those not in the contest or who just want to buy your own…there is currently free shipping all all orders!)

Wanna win a reusable grocery bag? The very strongest, deepest, groceriest-holding bag available? The only bag that we can find, so far, that is made completely in the USA (even the fabric)? Here’s how:

In a few days, I’m going to post an update on my goals for the year, as part of my Living Deliberately Strategy for reaching them. When I do, post a link in the comments to YOUR update on your own resolution progress so far this year, feelings about them, etc. Link back to this blog as well in the post.

Then, I’ll take the participants and pull a winner from the hat. Check out the prize here!! They come in a bunch of colors too…winner gets to pick.

BTW…the photo doesn’t show them, but the Use Again Bag has super-strong handles and even little loops inside so the bag can hook onto the bag-brackets in the store for easier bagging.

I hate labels. I really, truly do. Boxes are not places for people and labels box people in. I suppose a concession is needed now and then that labels do serve a purpose….we all like categories for instance, dewey decimal systems, alphabetical order, demographics, nutritional information, and for some, polaroid pictures of the shoe inside box number 359.

But for people, or at least this person, labels feel restrictive. As if, “that’s all you’ll ever be”, or “you’ll never get there because you have this ‘fill in the blank’. ” I tend to focus on moving ahead… “who do I want to be?” rather than, “who am I?”.

I don’t think I’ve ever spent much time on “who am I?” My earliest memories are of wanting to be a mother to 5 children. I knew the answer when asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” After all…who asks a child, “who are you today little girl?” So I wanted to be a mommy to five children. And I wanted to be an artist. And a writer. I wanted to keep house and garden and cook well. I became all that.

I also became some other stuff. It’s nothing any little girl says when she dreams. My therapist, after hearing a short run down of my recent months and what led into them said, “well, you have a lot of denial to work through.” She said it like that. So matter of fact. Then she recommended I read the book my lawyer had first recommend three months earlier. A book containing a label so loathsome to me that I couldn’t even order it. Ordering it would be, at some level, an admission of the truth.

I know denial is a useful tool. Sometimes we use it for protection. Sometimes we use it for comfort. Somtimes it’s a buffer, like a psycological aspirin with a smooth coating for easy swallowing. But it also seems to be a wall. “No entrance beyond this point” in big, bold letters, yes, denying, progress beyond that point. Which means, of course, there is no way to overcome without tearing down that wall first.

Or at least cutting in a door.

So for someone who wants to move ahead, it’s time to look for the saw. I bought the book. I read it. I saw in black and white what I’d tried to deny. I’m not so naive as to think I’m anywhere close to being done. Maybe there’s a window in the wall now. Maybe just an outline where the door will go. Ironically, there was freedom found in admitting to the label. Of climbing into the box so that I could beging to dismantle it from the inside out.

• today it occurred to me that we throw away too much compostable content around here…
• I could smell dirt when I stepped outside this morning…
• I had an urge to soak something….like beans….
• Sarah posted e.e cummings…
• I feel an itch to paint in tones of pale greens and yellows…

Maybe this is what the start of healing looks like?

It’s been a two year goal, recently restated in my 2008 Goal list.

I thought my only January progress was going to be that I asked two guitar-playing friends for buying advice. My budget for an instrument was pretty much non-existant. In December I’d bought a book on how to play that has sat on my nightstand; every day I whispered a little hope that I’d get to actually use it soon.

On Saturday a friend and I ventured into a “big box” guitar store. It was smoky and filled with rockin’ teens looking for amps and electronics. No one spoke to us. We walked through the acoustic section and I stood under all those wooden dreams over my head. I figured the fruition was still a very long way off.

But yesterday, that happy-happiest of days, where the joy around was almost tangible, I stumbled onto a little new/used/trade guitar store. Joel of Guitars United spoke to me right away and gave me about a half hour lesson on the different kinds of guitars, what to look for, what would fit into my budget, and what kind of sound I could expect. I was pleased as punch with that and almost over the moon when he said he had a used case that I could get for about fifteen bucks. Hey… a book and a case is a start, right?

But then he had a buddy, and remembered a set-up that would be “perfect” for me and he gave him a call. I held my breath, not getting my hopes up too soon. There’s been enough hope-dashing around these parts lately! But lo-and-behold his friend Pete at Music Depot called him back, with indeed the perfect deal. Like I said, everyone was super helpful, happy, exhuberant. I drove across town after my counseling appointment and picked up my little beauty. And yes, I actually jumped up and down for joy, right there in the store. Pete played Blackbird and I almost cried.

The “deal” took my breath away yet again. You know those times when you are happy with a rock and God gives you a diamond? That’s what my guitar is to me. It fits my body just right, it has a great sound, and the wood is gorgeous. It is exactly the instrument of my dreams and when I play it, though it isn’t more than little buzzy plunks and strums right now, it is the music of my soul, of my dreams for more days and nights than I could count.

My goal is to learn to play the guitar, which I haven’t done yet. Last night I held one for the first time. And now I’m more on my way to realizing the fulfillment of the aspiration than ever before. It never ceases to amaze me how the deliberate and intentional striving towards a goal, no matter how realistic it may or may not seem in the beginning, can actually bring that goal to pass.

Cupcakes, dear and much-missed Smallworld. Cupcakes.

Yesterday I had the seredipitous experience of seeing happiness and happy people everywhere I went. It was almost surreal…like a “Happy” commercial, or like a platter of deliriously happy sweetness,  or the sweet optimism in Lilly Allen’s LDN video. The day was warm and balmy after a week of cold and drizzly rain. The sunshine was the kind one wants to sit and drink in, bathe in, wallow in. I had the windows down and the music up. Everyone I interacted with was smiling exhuberantly…the barista, the banker, the counselor, the salesmen, the cashier. When I came back over the river the sun was setting but the water was still baby, crystaline blue and it seemed traffic was going slower just to savor it. The sky was all pink and yellow. I had a “dream come true” (more on that later) in the back seat and my face was starting to hurt from smiling so big for so long.

I don’t know why it seemed an entire city seemed so blanketed in joy yesterday, only that one person’s happy translated to another’s happy with contagion I wish was only more common. My agenda yesterday was crammed of things that could have been blue and depressing and instead there was a bounce in my step and a sparkle in my eye. They, those beautiful people, had everything to do with that.

It was a “happy Tuesday”, a chance to celebrate living in the middle of the week, and I hope it spread and bled and somehow oozed into other regions. I dreamt of cupcakes and today, though it’s not Sunday, I will make more. Dreaming of cupcakes is a delicous way to wake.

Making the inside match the outside and vise versa is how real change occurs over time. One can not simply decide to wear size 6 clothing unless they’ve done the work to become a size 6 and likely have started to think like a size 6. And one will remain poor and in debt if their inner thoughts are that of a poor, self-defeatist thinker, which leads to making poor, self-defeating choices, which leads to a continuation of the cycle. John Assaraf’s latest post on the why new year’s resolutions often fail drives the point home this week and I thought it worth sharing.

My friend Richard is blogging again (so glad to see it!) and his post on coffee, soda, and energy drinks was a great testimonial today of how to take a habit and change it deliberately. I maintain that the world is better with Tia-slightly-caffinated than Tia-uncaffinated, so my morning cup of remains a ritual preserved, but I got a good dose of encouragment on the soda/energy drink front. Energy drinks are an especially large pet peeve of mine because they seem marketed to teens and kids, which makes me sick. Check his post out…anyone contemplating giving up soda and/or caffine for the new year may find it a little boost to get started.