World Water Day 2011

If you watch an old movie and take notice of the little things that happen in each scene... you will notice one huge difference between pre-1980 movies and movies of today. Water bottles + plastic bottles of other drinks "on the go." It seems that people can't go too long without taking a drink of something, so they carry plastic bottles around everywhere they go.

Since today is World Water Day i am focusing on water.

How often do you grab a bottle of water? How often do you see people walking around with a bottle of water {park, gym, mall, sporting events, etc.}? If you answer never, you are either blind to the world around you, or you live in a place that doesn't have bottled water available {an Earth friendly utopia of sorts}. Everywhere i look, someone has a bottle of water in hand. It seems that the human body has "evolved" into something that can't go even an hour without hydration. We cling to our bottles of water like a baby to their favorite blanket. We rarely use a re-usable bottle or glass/plastic cup when we are on the go {how many starbucks cups do you use and toss each week?}. Most people that i know drink bottled water even in their own home, instead of using a cup. This baffles me a lot about the human psyche. What is it about a bottle? Why can't people grab a cup/glass and sit down at their desk?

I do not remember having a drink on the go when i was a really little kid. Our soda came in glass bottles, so we didn't take them out of the kitchen. Instead, we poured ourself a cup. If we wanted water, we turned on the sink, filled up our cup, and got our drink on. If we were out and about and thirsty, we drank out of a water fountain, or on rare occasion we would buy a drink that came in a paper cup {still not the best option}. There were many times when we would just wait until we got home or wherever we were going to grab a drink. We might be really thirsty by the time we got somewhere, but we learned to deal with it. When playing sports we had a plastic cup with our name written on it and the coaches brought giant water containers and we would get a drink in our cup when needed. If you look around at a sporting event today, every kid on the field has their own bottle of water to drink. I can't remember the last time i saw the giant water container in youth sports. Instead you see the individual bottles; even the parents in the stands have their own bottle of water.

I admit that the ease of water bottles keeps people more hydrated. There are probably less incidents of heat stroke and dehydration due to sports or over heating while being outside. But for the most part, the bottles of water aren't truly needed. Just as they were not needed back when we were kids. If you are not being over-worked, grab a drink before you go to keep you pre-hydrated and then refuel your hydration once you get back home. If you MUST take water on the go with you, invest in a reusable bottle {they come in BPA Free plastic, metal, and/or a mixture of the two}. They aren't that expensive. If you do the math... they are actually cheaper than the continued buying of bottled water.

If you are at home... use a cup! Drink from the sink or a filtration system if you aren't comfortable drinking unfiltered water. Nothing has changed since you were a kid. The use of a cup has not changed at all. They still hold liquids. It isn't as if cups have changed to no longer have bottoms or sides; trust me, they work the same as they have for thousands of years. You can still walk around the house with them and not spill it everywhere. If you are worried about spilling, invest in a "coffee" mug with a lid to take from room to room in your house. Clean water is available in all of our homes in America. We are blessed, super lucky, amazingly well off, and we should be humbled by the thought that we are lucky enough to have CLEAN drinking water at our fingertips.

* Fact: 8.8 BILLION gallons of bottled water were consumed in the USA in 2007.

* Fact only 12% of the plastic bottles from that water used were recycled.

* 63.4 BILLION plastic bottles are dumped into landfills and oceans each year, and growing to more and more being dumped each year.

Two quick things i want to add:

1. Charity: Water Water Day 2011. I've talked about this amazing charity before. They bring CLEAN water and education to other countries around the world. If you are able to donate to a charity, i urge you to check out Chairty: Water's website and give what you can, when you can.

2. The trash in our world due to water bottle use.

          a. MSNBC Article on Plastic Trash in America.

          b. Mother Nature Network: 5 Reason not to drink bottled water.

          c. Youtube Video about plastic in our Oceans.

          d. Youtube Video {commercial} for water filtration {brita}

          e. Youtube Video {commercial} "if you could see the real impact" of bottles {brita}

          f. Youtube Video {ethical Water} "Confessions of a plastic water bottle"

Now, go and get yourself a BIG cup/glass of water from your sink. Go on. You'll feel much better about yourself and the way you are treating the planet.

Vintage has never lost it's style in Americana

You know how they say, "everything comes back into style..." well, that is very true. Check out the fashion magazines each year and your mom and/or grandmother will say that they wore that when they were younger. The world of Vintage has been very much alive for many years now. Some people are new to the trend, others have been doing it their entire lives, and some are just going with what they think is popular at the moment.

There are many amazing blogs and articles out there that help you figure out vintage and how to buy it, but the truth is, most of the people who buy vintage and sell it online... they do not truly want you knowing their secrets because they want you to buy items from their shops online {and some have real actual shops too}. And it makes sense to hide their secrets to a point; you don't expect people who run shops to tell you the wholesale shop they purchase their items from to give you such amazing prices. If they did that, it might put them out of business. Luckily for us regular people who do not run our own vintage stores, we do not need an "in" or any "secret codes" to shop for Vintage. It really is as simple as going out there and doing it! If you are shopping for yourself, and not to sell online, then there is no trick. If you see it and you like it, buy it! It is pretty much the same thing you would do when you went shopping in a regular store. You wouldn't need any major tips or tricks to shop at Target. The same is true for Vintage shopping. If your town has a Goodwill, a Salvation Army, a Flea Market, or any store that sells "gently used items" then you are on your way to shopping for Vintage items!

There are no set rules unless you are a hard core Vintage shopper. Anything over 10 years old can be considered "one of a kind" because chances are there are not too many of its kind around. the older the item, the less chance you have to walk down the street and bump into someone wearing the same thing you are, which is a huge draw for people to shop Vintage. Same thing with furniture... the older the item, the more rare it is that you will have the same thing in your house as your neighbor.

Do not forget about the Eco Friendliness of buying Vintage. If you buy something pre-owned and pre-loved, you will not need to buy something brand new. Reducing the need to produce more waste in the world by making new items.

I've put together a list of a few websites that give some tips on Vintage shopping that might help those who enjoy shopping and want to branch out into the Vintage shopping world, but are not sure how to do it.

1. A Beautiful Mess is a wonderful blog to follow even if you are not a fan of buying Vintage items. The blog owner runs her own shop selling Vintage items online and in another store in the real world. A while back they described how to shop for Vintage clothing.

2. Frecklewonder is another great blogger. She has listed out some tips on how to thrift while you have little ones with you.

3. Bleubird {aka Miss James} did a guest blog spot on Candimandi's blog giving some wonderful vintage tips.

4. A big concern of mine is cleaning Vintage clothing. someone who wore it before could have just been a nasty person, not to mention the item was probably sitting in a box or attic for awhile, then it was hung amongst other clothes in a thrift shop before you purchased it. Here is a nice article explaining cleaning Vintage clothes.

5. Maybe you aren't hip to buying used clothes, but you would love to get your hands on some Vintage pyrex dishes that you loved when you were a kid? You need to know how to clean it properly! Most recommend that you DO NOT put vintage pyrex into the dishwasher for fear of removing the pretty details on the outside of the dish. Here is an article explaining how to clean up your pyrex before you use it.

6. Maybe the thought of using old dishes is beyond your thought process, as is wearing old clothes. fear not, there are still many things you can buy at a Thrift store that you won't use in a personal way. Like vases, old jars to hold beautiful items to display, art sculptures/statues, and etc. But you'll still want to clean up your newly purchased item. Here is an article explaining how to clean vintage glassware's.

7. And lastly there is purchasing furniture. Thrift stores, as my kid puts it, "smell like old attics that are dusty and stinky..." so you will want to clean up your items. Unless you enjoy that vintage smell... then you are welcome to skip cleaning it for the smell part, but you might want to consider it just for sanitary reasons. Here are a couple of articles that explain how to clean thrifted furniture items: article 1, article 2, article 3 {articles 3 & 4 help explain the bed bug effect that took over NY, and still takes over areas every year!}, article 4.

Basically when you thrift, you need to take into account many things. But if you are willing to put in the time and effort... you will find many amazing deals out there!

If you think you are just too freaked out by buying used items, not to worry... there are many, many, many places out there who specialize in selling throwback items that are made brand new, but I'll tell you all about those another time!

what we write today, our grandchildren might read tomorrow.

Left to right: Unknown relatives Dell, Larry and Susie.

My great-grandfather {holding unknown baby} my great grandmother & my great aunt Markita

what will be left of what we say online in 100 years? 1,000 years? will our great-great-great-grandchildren read our tweets on whatever hand held device is out there. will there be an app for that? will they download photos we took today and wonder what we were like?


I've spent the last 9 months {off and on} researching my heritage. it doesn't give me much. a photo here, and a photo there... but no stories on the people who i am looking at in the photo. there are no letters, no journals, no tweets, no blogs, no e-mails. just bits and pieces of information about people in my families past.

wouldn't it be great to know what they were really like. I have my grandfather's eyes, but do I share his sense of humor or his work ethic? was he an adventurous person with a love of travel? was he worried as a father, as a grandfather or even as a child? Did my grandmother regret leaving her kids behind to be raised by another woman? Did she wear her heart on her sleeve or have the world on her shoulders or perhaps she was just a gypsy like personality and brushed everything off and moved onto the next adventure without pause or regret.

there are so many questions that will go un-answered in my quest for knowing who my relatives of the past were in their life. but as I sit here wondering... I can't help but think that perhaps one day there will be someone looking at a photo of me wondering who I was in life. And perhaps that person will have something more to go on... like this blog or my flickr or some trace of my online life will be there for them to see.

so, as I always tell my daughter... do not say or post something online you wouldn't want your grandmother... or one day, your grandchildren to see!

Columbus Day.

Do you know who did what and when they did it back in 1492?

Can you say exactly at what moment in history they threw someone off the boat for mutiny, or if they even did it?
Do you know for certain that Columbus held a knife to an innocent person and then killed them in cold blood?

As a history lover, once again i am mystified by the way people trash history and either glorify or damn someone for something we have no proof of in the past. i keep seeing people tweeting things like, "why do we celebrate a person who slaughtered millions of natives? it's wrong!" Perhaps there was blood shed by Columbus himself, but do we have a bloody knife with his fingerprints on it saying, see here is our proof? No, there is no hard evidence. We know that his group did indeed kill natives on their journeys. But we do not know if it was done because of fighting (an attack brought on by either side), or killing of innocent people for no reason other than to just kill them.

Perhaps his crew was killing in his name or the name of the King or perhaps the name of someone else. But if you are going to damn someone in history for having blood spilled in his name, then your biggest person to look at for that would be Jesus. The crusades alone would have millions killed all in the name of Jesus and spreading his name, forcing people to believe that he was their savior and their God. We still have people killing in the name of God, but that doesn't stop us from celebrating the good that came from these beliefs. The past was full of murderous killings, all in the name of someone else.

It baffles me that people neglect to recognize the history of our world because of the violence. In 1492, the world was full of disease, murder and rape. Do you know for a fact that your ancestors were not among those killing and raping and stealing? Do you have a time machine and a mind reader to know each and every person in your past to prove that nothing bad was done in the history of your family? No, no one does. No one knows the facts of history. Even the written word was biased by the person writing it. Just like today. people write what they see and what they feel. Perhaps facts were misconstrued back in 1492 just as they are today in 2009. No one can be 100% sure who did what in history. None of us were there.

The cold hard truth is that American history is filled with brutal stories of some fact and some exaggeration. We learn from history. We can not damn each person in history without glorifying someone else. If you were to start to pick apart every person from history, no one's hands would be clean. Children even carried guns and fought in the American revolution (and the civil war!). But we've taken some people and created them as "heros" in our history... but not all of them have clean hands. Most of those who are believed to have been strong leaders and the creators of our current America have blood on their hands. Each person who can trace back their life in America comes from that spilled blood. It isn't pretty, but it is who we were and where we come from.

For without people in our history thinking outside of the box and doing things that no one else wanted to do... we would still think the world was flat. We would still be living in caves. We would still be in the dark ages. We would still be living by candle light. We would still be living with disease and famine (oh wait, some of us still are - which is just sad!). We would not have running water, and therefor would still be dumping our pee/poop bowl into the streets, rivers, and oceans. We would be savages still killing in the name of religion (gee, thanks America for breaking off from England so that people could FREELY say how they feel and believe in whatever religion they want to). We would still be the horrible people living on one continent if it were not for people risking their life back then so that we could live here today. Sure he didn't discover America exactly, but without him - NO ONE would have even sailed this way to begin with. FEAR of the unknown could have kept us in the dark far longer than it did... and without all of which those who came before us did - you would NOT be reading this on a computer. You might not be speaking English. You might not even be alive today. So, enjoy the day for what it is - full of HISTORY, the good and the bad.

Happy Columbus Day everyone!

December 21, 2012.

As a major history lover... one story (or truth) that has always haunted me since i was a little kid was that of the Mayan civilization and their prophecies. We recently finished up the chapter of World History in our homeschooling, Incas and Mayans. And now they have a movie coming out soon staring the actor John Cusack (Claire is quite the fan of his work!) if you have not seen the clips from this movie, please check it out by visiting the website here: 2012

here is a website that talks in detail about the theory around the belief in this date being so important. If you are not a scholar and a history lover, it might be hard to get through! fair warning ;-)

To sum up that website:
1. the Earth has several phases, or cycles. 5 cycles to be exact.
2. we are at the end of the last phase that has been written down in the past by the Mayans.
3. there is no set answer as to what will come on December 21, 2012, but the speculation is two things:
a. the Earth as we know it ends or has major issues (as shown in the movie link above)
b. the Earth enters a great time of peace and harmony

The major theory is that we came into this phase long ago and it brought about a great change in who we are as humans. The introduction of time being thought of and broken down into 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours a day. Then the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. The introduction of the clock with moving parts in 1600. And that advancement growing on up to every gadget that we now use having a clock and/or a calendar in it (computers, cars, phones, cameras, etc). We stopped relying on the human body as our clock and calendar and took the "power" of this knowledge away from nature.

We have been long since growing away from nature and moving into an age of technology. We do not sit down to paint or draw or read and explore that which is inside of us as much as we use to. We read books on kindles, we paint/draw on computers using photoshop and drawing programs, we create works of art on machines more than we do by hand. We can even get our church through the computer. We communicate more with a machine (be it a phone or a computer) than we do as just humans connecting with each other by being there for one another. This has become even more real to me recently than ever before in my life. I thought moving would connect me more with who i wanted to be, more laid back and out there in nature... what i didn't realize that human connections is a large part of HUMAN NATURE.... nature.

We have also lost connecting with the Earth, the place that was given to us to enjoy and live in peace with. We do not sit in awe of it's power like we use to. We have an overgrown plant, we cut it down. We tend to see nature as being in our way and not our friend. Let's tear down that mountain and build a road of convenience so people can get to the beach quicker (yes, this is being done here where we live, it is sad!)

I am not suggesting we all become hippies and live in a Tepee in the jungles of Africa... but the wonders of the world use to be just that, something to sit in awe and wonder about. Now people go, take their families to say they've seen it and move on. And i admit to being guilty of not being in the moment as much as i should. I live through my camera and then i live again on my computer when i get home to go through and edit my photos... but i tend to take myself OUT of the moments because i am behind the buffer of my camera lens. I have been trying to put the camera down more and just be in the moment... i admit it is a work in progress!

i think we all are a work in progress. i do not know many people that aren't tied to their phone, their computer, their ipod, their car, their self. I have no idea if the story (or truth) of the Mayans will prove as fact in the year 2012, on December 21, but there is something to be said for the way that people live their lives today... we all should be more aware and more in the moments of our own lives. It is in fact the moments of OUR life, one day we might just give anything to get these moments back to relive, so LIVE them while you are in them and not be unfocused.

the little lessons we learn...

Today another mom wrecked into the back of my car.  Today yet another mom was looking down as she drove through the school parking lot, and admitted it to me (again) that she was just not looking up while she was driving.  Today i wish i could stand out in front of the school with a sign and scream my frustration.... have a sit in.... have a protest... something to get these parents to wake up and pay attention as they drive.

My car was bumped into.  My bumper cracked in half.  My pride was hurt because hubby was in the car (again!) and (again) he says that my overly cautious driving is what caused yet another person to ram into me from behind.  My being at a complete stop, on a road, with a stop sign, and not going super fast and cutting people off who are on the other road... that i caused this wreck.  OK, so my pride was hurt (again).  But the parents drive like they are in the Indy 500 (if you are not originally from Indiana - look up Indianapolis 500 to get that reference).  These parents drive like crazy, pull up, drop off their children, and then speed off into the parking lot and then onto the main road.  My only hope is that they never hit a child.  My only hope is that they never cause such a wreck that any person is hurt.  My pride will heal. My car will be fixed.  My opinion of these parents, will not.

***

The Great Depression.  I keep hearing people on the news saying we are in a recession.  They say that if things do not turn around we will be in a DEpression.  So i keep thinking about how people acted during the Great Depression.  Sure there were some bad people, but on the whole neighbors looked after neighbors... family looked after family. And on the whole people just did all that they could do to help their fellow man through the hard times.  We now have BIG government, so we do not see "soup kitchens" like you would have back in the day.  People now go on welfare and get food stamps.  It is a much better "set up" than the 1920's.

Currently we are living off of our savings.  We have no income coming in.  We did not expect to be in this place in our life a year ago.  1 year ago... it seems like a lifetime away from where we are today!  Michael was working at SIA.  He was leaving on Sunday morning and he would then be gone all week and return the following Saturday late afternoon.  We only got to see him for a few hours before he left again.  WE made the choice.  WE put ourselves in our current position by making a family choice for him to branch out and go on his own with his company.  WE are not to blame for the economy going bad and making our grand plan turn from awesome to... not so awesome.  But we do not place the blame for us having our living conditions be what they are... WE made a choice and it turned out not to be such a good one.  So we are having a hard time even thinking of any kind of a "hand out" at the moment.

Where we go from here... we'll if you know me or if you follow me, you know we are heading West.  We are selling our house, picking up from the mid-west, and transporting ourselves to California. It is a BIG move and a HUGE change.  But we are hopeful for making this change happen for a better life for us all.

I have been thinking recently about this "recession" and wondering if in 5 years when we all look back if they will say it was greater than a recession and perhaps a "depression"... and will we all look back and say, "i lived through it... and it wasn't too bad..."  Or will things actually get worse and we end up looking back with a grateful attitude and be just so thankful that we made it through such a hard time.  My great-grandmother died a few years ago.  But i remember her one time saying that the Great Depression was something she "lived through" and that it was "impossible times" but that she was so grateful for all that she had in her life each day since then.  She lived to be 98 years old.  She lived a long life and the depression was something she never forgot.  Perhaps i am not seeing our situation in such a bad light because we prepared (as best as we could) for the situation we are in right now.  Others may have not been so lucky to have thought ahead or prepared for the worst and losing their job caught them off guard?  Perhaps one day when we are back to our very nice life style we will look back and think "wow... i can't believe we lived without so much!"

For now, i am humble... i am grateful for all of the things that i do have in my life.  i can only look to the future with an open mind and a feeling of optimism for having a better future.