Apron Giveaway!

Hi!  The Undomestic Momma is giving away a Flirty Apron to one her readers.  I think they are super cute and wanted to share it with everyone!  Here's an example of one of the womens aprons.

They have womens, mens, and childrens aprons and they are all super cute!  Check them out here.  All you have to do to enter the giveaway is comment on the undomestic momma's post with which apron you would choose if you won.  There are additional things you can do to earn extra entries too.  Alright... good luck!  I wish we could all win! :)

Nicole

Are you crunchy???

When reading something online or otherwise about all things 'crunchy' or 'granola'.  I've always been in line with most of what they were talking about, so I thought I was probably crunchy.  Today, I had the idea to look it up on the urban dictionary. 

The urban dictionary defines crunchy as,

"to describe persons who have adjusted or altered their lifestyle for environmental reasons. Crunchy persons tend to be politically strongly left-leaning and may be additionally but not exclusively categorized as vegetarians, vegans, eco-tarians, conservationists, environmentalists, neo-hippies, tree huggers, nature enthusiasts, etc. Also used to describe establishments where alternative foods and products are sold, i.e. natural food stores. Modified derivative of granola."  Of course, since it gave me that last bit about it being a derivatave of granola, I had to look up granola!

Granola is defined as,

"An adjective used to describe people who are environmentally aware (flower child, tree-hugger), open-minded, left-winged, socially aware and active, queer or queer-positive, anti-oppressive/discriminatory (racial, sexual, gender, class, age, etc.) with an organic and natural emphasis on living, who will usually refrain from consuming or using anything containing animals and animal by-products (for health and/or environmental reasons), as well as limit consumption of what he or she does consume, as granola people are usually concerned about wasting resources. Usually buy only fair-trade goods and refrain from buying from large corporations, as most exploit the environment as well as their workers, which goes against granola core values. The choice of not removing body hair (see amazon) and drug use are not characteristics that define granola people, and people, regardless of granola status, may or may not partake in said activities. This definition is sometimes confused with hippy."

After reading both definitions, I've decided I'm neither crunchy or granola.  At least, not according to these definitions.   There are pieces of each definitions that are definitely in line with the way I think and live, but neither definition describes me completely.  Those of you that know me well, know which traits are not me.  One in particular is laughable.  Anyway... so, what am I?  I do have it figured out...  Ready?  I'm...

ME!

I always kind of thought that living a natural life, both in medical choices and nutritional choices is what being crunchy or granola was all about.  Listening to nature/innate/God.  We live a 'natural' life, but what does that mean?  It certainly does not encompass all of the above definitions of the words.  So, I've decided I live 'consciously'.  I try to think about everything I do and its impact on my body (and my family's body) and the environment.  How do I do that?  Here are a few ways:

• My kids have never had a twinkie... and I didn't have my first one until I was about 12 and I took one bite and was done!  Never had one since.  
• We don't drink soda/pop.  However, I have a serious addiction to sweet tea, which, I am sure is not crunchy/granola! ...And, I'm okay with that. 
• Most of our fruits/veggies are organic and hopefully from local farmers instead of the grocery store.  
• I had all my kids at home because.... well, that's a long post... so maybe later! :)  
• We didn't vaccinate our kids and my parents didn't have me vaccinated, because... hmmmm, that will be saved for a later post as well! :)
• We have lots of bins in our garage for recyclables and because of that, our trash can is rarely full.  (A true crunchy person would not need all the recycle bins because they would not use so many things that are not consumable)
• When I was in high school, I once stopped my car (in a parking lot) because my friend who was with me threw a straw wrapper out the window.  I made her pick it up.
• We do not buy bottled water, both for health reasons and environmental reasons.

That's all I can think of at the moment.  Not sure if any of this made sense, but I thought the definitions were interesting.  I have lots of health/environmental conscious people in my life and I can only think of one that might actually fit this definition perfectly.  Kind of funny how loosely these terms are thrown around.  I have never really like being called crunchy or granola, but never really knew why I had a distaste for those words.  After looking them up, now I know my distaste.  They just don't describe me.  I'm not sure there is a word that describes me.  I do like my own definition, though.  Conscious.  I like that one.  Yes, that is me.

What about you?  What one word could describe you and how you live?  After thinking about it and coming up with a word, do you like that word?  If not, you can do something about it to change the word!  Change the things in your life you don't like and change your word!

Have a great day!  Thanks for listening to me ramble.

Olivia and Putt Putt Golf

Do you think we have a shot at funniest home videos??  Or is it just funny cause I was there??  Check it out.  This is how Olivia plays mini golf.

A spoonful of peanut butter

Tonight, I had an urge to eat something.  I wasn't necessarily hungry, I just wanted to eat.

You know the kind of craving.

Of course, it was a sweet craving.

Well, I don't have anything sweet right now, so what's the next best thing?  Peanut butter!  May not make sense and believe me, I didn't think, "Hmmm, I'd like a chocolate chip cookie.  I don't have that... I know!  I'll have peanut butter!"

No.

It was more like, I was looking through the fridge and cupboards and saw the peanut butter and it called my name.  So, I grabbed a spoon and got a spoonful of peanut butter.  It was very satisfying.

I didn't think about it until later, but I credit my maternal grandma for my love affair with peanut butter.  My mom's parents moved in with us when I was 6 or 7.  I remember coming home from school, walking in the kitchen and grandma would already have a spoonful of peanut butter on the counter waiting for me.  Now, I know it didn't take a whole lot of physical effort for her to have that waiting for me.  It did take some emotional effort, though.  Emotional effort that I hope to repeat with my own children (and hopefully am already repeating, now).  First of all, she had to be aware.  Aware of what time it was and to watch out the window for when I was walking down the street from the bus stop.  Second, she had to know me.  Sounds simple right?  But, not all parents/grandparents know their kids/grandkids.  She knew me enough to know that that peanut butter would make me smile.  And lastly, she had to love me enough to make the effort to stop whatever she was doing and get the spoonful of peanut butter and place it on the counter to wait for me to walk through the door.

I wish she was still alive today for me to express to her how that effected me.  I'm sure she would be amazed and confused at the concept of blogging about it!  Ha!  Kind of funny to think about.

Isn't it amazing how something as simple as a late night craving can lead to such wonderful memories!?  I love it!  I hope you have some little things in life that remind you of beautiful things that happened in your life!

Love to all!

Here's a picture of Samantha and my grandma.  Samantha is about a month old here.  Look at the love!  Oh, and by the way, that is no gas smile!  Pure love and adoration.  Grandma was the only one that got that smile for awhile.  They had a special bond.  She passed when Samantha was 2 yrs and 3 months old and Samantha still remembers her and talks about how she misses her.

It's official... I've joined the blogging world!

This whole blogging thing is funny to me.  I mean, just the fact that I just said, 'blogging' is funny if you are over the age of, oh I don't know... 25!?  Really, how long has this blogging word been around?  Not long!  I will not even venture a guess, because I'm sure one of my friends with lots of useless knowledge will correct me.  I won't mention any names, but you know who you are...
Anyway, I don't have a lot to say tonight, except to just say that I now belong to this so-called 'blogging world' as I call it.  Very exciting, I know.  I can feel some of you all just squirming in your seats... what will Nicole say next?  Will it be life altering?  Will it be funny?  Will it be insightful?  Maybe I will learn something from one of her posts!!  Right???  Those are all things you guys were wondering...  well... I promise nothing!  I am doing this purely because I thought it might be fun. I like to write and don't do it often.  Don't get too excited... just because I like to write, doesn't mean I am any good at it! :)

See you soon!