Regardless of the limited availability, we still believe investing our food money locally is the best option. Actually, I stubbornly refuse to hand over our hard-earned money (whenever possible) to companies that truck in, mass-produced fruits and vegetables. You can read more about why here.

The 1st chapter of this book shares the story of an individual whose mission is to make locally produced foods a viable buying option for community members. He does this by filling an old school bus with produce and other local food items, essentially he is operating a rolling–school–bus–farmers–market in his area.

How cool is that? It actually reminds me a lot of the types of people you would find living at The Farm in Summertown Tennessee since many arrived at The Farm on a school bus caravan of sorts when the community was established.

Heck, I would even be willing to buy and operate a rolling–school-bus–farmers-market of my own here in the area.

The lost art of local food is a total shame. And I wish more people would understand why and get on board to support their local farmers.

Not only is it good business to support local food growers but it also protects the community from suffering the consequences of any unforeseen fallout or production issues or contamination that may occur at one point or another on the few large-scale farms that basically monopolize the agriculture business and provide us with all our food.

If you are curious about eating locally or if you are jaded about the state of our country’s local food affairs this book is a must read.

I really had no idea investing in a company could be done in much of the same way we invested in our home.

Some of you may remember how we did a lease/ purchase arrangement to buy our home. It was nice because it gave us time to save up for a bigger down payment while also saving money on rent costs and enjoying a nicer home. It also offered a nice “try before you buy” grace period for us.

Buying our home the way we did added security, peace of mind and also extra time that we needed. Apparently with stocks you can also do the same thing and this is great news!

I’ve always been reluctant to invest in stocks. I am well aware of the importance of investing/ saving for retirement and from an early age understood why an IRA was something I needed to have.

We actually have investment accounts that aren’t currently invested in anything [hold the wet noodles] because we have lacked the confidence and opportunity to grow the money. We’ve been wanting to get that money invested somewhere for years but the risk of losing it just keeps us sitting on it.

Turns out you can buy stock contracts much in the way we entered in to our lease to purchase agreement on our home. With stock options your potential investment return is much greater and you also wont lose more than your initial investment (unlike buying actual stocks). I really had no idea and now I am sold on investing ASAP.

Now that I’ve learned how to invest without so much risk I am excited to find the perfect investment opportunity. I learned all this thanks to the book Laughing at Wall Street and would highly recommend the book to all of you because it declares us as the insider information gate keepers because we are witnessing and experiencing the worlds trends first hand.

The idea is that we have access to insider info we can use to drive our investment that Wall Street will take weeks or months to catch up to. If well timed, researched and executed we to can easily achieve investment success like the author, Chris Camillo, has.

Laughing at Wall Street easily explains complex investing information thus empowering us regular folks. And apparently us regular folks are the ones holding all the information that makes for successful investing.

I received an advanced copy of this book and loved it some much I decided to write about it. I wasn’t paid for this review.

It is true, we’ve been slackers on many fronts. Holiday cards was about to be one of them.
If you normally get a holiday card from us and want to preserve the surprise don’t view the photo in this post

We certainly didn’t dress up, load everyone up in the car and seek out a perfect holiday photo location like in past years. Of course we want to share our girls photos with everyone, especially since all our family and our very close friends are all back in Arizona. Not having loved ones near while your kiddos grow up sure does put added importance on holiday cards and sharing photos.

But seriously, with a newborn and a toddler in the house EVERYTHING is an ordeal. Holiday cards don’t have to be though. Especially if you already make an effort to take photos of the littles each day.

For our Christmas cards this year we just grabbed a compilation of notable photo memories and threw them together. Since almost nobody on our holiday card list has been around us this year the photo memories will be something they haven’t already seen. Plus, it is sort of a “highlights of the year” sort of greeting cards that our family and friends should enjoy. Here is a preview of what I made here:

Big Peace Love Holiday Card

Turn your family photos into holiday cards this season.

View the entire collection of cards.

Of course, after going through all the trouble of getting the girls Christmas outfits we will be taking a posed holiday photo eventually. It just wont be on our holiday card. Maybe we will just send that photo to everyone as a gift or something.

In past years I’ve always tried to get the holiday cards in the mail around Thanksgiving time. This is because we have people we send to that celebrate various holidays besides just Christmas and we want to get them their greeting before their holiday has come and gone.

Also, I hate getting holiday cards from people in January because I like to display and enjoy them leading up to Chirstmas. The one year I was a huge slacker with sending cards I had a stack of January greeting cards that didn’t get to be displayed for long before we tore down all the Christmas decor and madness.

Have you completed your holiday cards yet? What are (or will they) be like this year?

We are quite the well a versed on the go family these days, as many of you already know. With prenatal visits two states away we’ve done our share of travel with our toddler over the last few years. Plus, we are about to be on the go when we head out in a month to await Baby Sister’s arrival at The Farm.

I am just learning, by trial and error right now and the learning curve is sure steep when it comes to efficiency as busy parents. I have lots of experience to speak of, fresh in my mind right now. Here are the top 10 tips that I’d share with any busy parents looking to be more efficient while maintaining the busy lifestyle:

1. Plan ahead: Looking at the calendar and having a “game plan” or general idea of the day’s priorities makes life easier for us because it insures nothing surprises us the day of. Those surprise realizations and panic moments just make us flustered, rushed and then our toddler picks up on it and responds in attitude by also becoming chaotic. This is especially crucial when, say, your family is heading out for a day of errands or a road trip of some kind. Getting out the door all in one piece and NOT forgetting something major is the biggest hurdle right?
2. Do what you can in advance: Now that our toddler is waking on her own in the mornings and coming in to our room to wake us up, a major life saver has been simply making her sippy cup of water and a bowl of snacks the night before. That way it is already in our room and ready for her to enjoy. This gives me the time to lay in bed and wake up a bit before I am off to the races fulfilling her every need.
3. Make meals in advance: When your family is on the go there is often no time for preparing wholesome meals and snacks. If you are like us, eating convenience foods or fast foods isn’t something we are willing to sacrifice for the sake of time and scheduling. Instead, families can prepare weekly menus and cook/ prepare the meals in advance. That way when you arrive home late from a hectic day of errands all you need to do is heat up that casserole in the oven, sit down to eat and relax as a family. It makes a world of difference, trust me.
   
4. Anticipate bumps in the road: Things that come up frequently are definitely ones you can anticipate and sort of plan ahead for. In doing so I have saved many headaches and flustered-running-around moments. For instance, we cloth diaper. So on road trips E is prone to compression leaks with her diapers. Anticipating this, planning for frequent diaper change stops and also packing along a few extra outfits has saved us much stress. Another way I anticipate needs as a mother is with the diaper bag packing and stocking. Do you have a first aid kit in your diaper bag? What about a travel size sun screen and bug spray? We do! Here in Indiana the sun a bugs are always out for battle.
5. Use electronic lists and calendars: Having your plans, calendars, lists and planning easily accessible from the road can make a world of difference. I use a program called http://www.cozi.com/ to keep calendars, schedules, lists and milestone stuff all online where I can easily access it from a mobile device if I need to. Like if we are unexpectedly at the grocery store and I can’t remember all the things that have been accumulating on my growing grocery list or something. Also, when the kids climb in the car after school spewing their upcoming field trips and other school events you’ll be able to immediately plug those in to your electronic calendar and save yourself the trouble later.
   
6. Prioritize your events: Some things are non-negotiable and some things are. Having the priorities clearly defined and listed will make for a nice visual representation when the time comes to pick and choose between priorities in the middle of your hectic day. This will also make reshuffling those back-burnered priorities back in to the mix easier.
   
7. Aim for goals but be okay with falling short: We only have one day a week to get all the family errands taken care of, my husband works 6 days a week so the rest of the time I am on my own with the munchkin. When I set out to get the to do list tackled I get the most important stuff done first knowing that the stuff near the end of that task list will likely be left unfinished. Doing this leaves us more relaxed and having the “everything doesn’t have to be done” mindset makes the one day of errands somewhat enjoyable. It is also my sly way of saving time & energy because those things at the bottom of the list will inevitably NOT get done and chances are they weren’t worth the stress anyway so now they just get skipped or saved for a different day. Some families do this by setting clocks ahead 10-15 min to remedy always getting out the door late and starting the day behind. There are a number of ways this can apply to life.
8. Make chore charts: Delegate tasks and schedule them. Again visual representations of what needs to be done and what is already taken care of saves you time and can be a major stress buster. Plus, having things in visual format will also really allow for spreading the tasks and chores evenly.
9. Get the family involved: My two year old helps to get us out the door on errand days. She can do things like round up her sippy cup, turn off the TV, find her shoes and so on… Heaping all the responsibility on yourself makes you less efficient, more flustered (and likely to forget things) and it sets a bad precedent for when the kiddos get older. Before bed have everyone help to clean the house up before bed. Families all SHARE, even when it comes to chores and duties. The more you incorporate this idea now the better!
10. Leave free time for fun/ Don’t over book: There is a fine line between booking every moment of every day and just lounging around lazily. When setting out for a trip or when planning a specifically hectic day around town leave some extra time for spontaneous fun or detours in the game plan. If we are out running errands it is always nice to have some wiggle room for a unexpected sit-down meal or a ice cream break. If we are on the road we never want to pass up those one of a kind road side attractions along the way, planning that extra time between stuff makes this all possible.

Right now I am personally applying all these tips as we pack up our birth kit and baby gear in preparation for the birth of Baby Sister next month. Scheduling and planning as much as we can also gives us some sense of control and preparedness during this time of uncertainty and transition.

Please do chime in in the comments section with your own tips and advice for an easier and more efficient life while on the go… The more tips and advice the better right?

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Seattle’s Best Coffee blogging program for a gift card worth $30. I’d sure love to enjoy a Seattle’s Best Iced Latte to cool after Baby Sister is born. Going without my coffee this pregnancy has sure been rough. For more information on how you can participate and earn your own gift card, click here.

We enjoyed this recipe last week after a long chicken pot pie hiatus. For some reason it fell out of recipe rotation but I resurrected it and am so glad I did!

This recipe can either be done with a whole chicken or with cut chicken portions depending on what you have on hand an prefer. We typically do ours with a whole chicken that was previously roasted and eaten off of (an almost chicken carcass if you will), when we have one on hand.

For added convenience and less cooking prep time you can get boneless chicken breasts or any kind of boneless chicken to cut up. You can also substitute convenience ingredients (like frozen corn & peas, etc) instead of having to cut up and cook fresh ones. I’ve added a Knorr Homestyle Stock Variation for those of you lacking the chicken carcass and the time to cook up your own stock and chicken. Enjoy!

Talina’s Home Chicken Pot Pie

This will feed a family of 4. We make one for just the 2.5 of us and have half left over after 2nds. Very filling with all the comforts of home cooking. Yum!

Pot Pie Ingredients/ Preparation

• 1 lb chicken chunks (or the meat you’ve plucked from the bones of your cooked down chicken carcass)
• 2-3 large carrots, chopped & steamed (or frozen and unsteamed)
• 2-3 large celery stalks, chopped
• 1-1 1/2 cups of peas, steamed (or canned peas work, unsteamed)
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion

When using a chicken carcass:

To heat chicken and make stock: Throw the carcass in a large stock pot and fill with water (enough to almost completely submerge the whole chicken). Cover the stock pot, heat on low for about 3-7 hours. Heating time is very forgiving, the longer I cook mine for the easier the meat falls off the bones ans the better my resulting stock. The idea is 1st: to recook the meat and 2nd: to make a chicken stock for the recipe.

When using Knorr Homestyle Stock instead of making your own stock: Cooking time can be adjusted to an hour. Turn heat up to high, cover and boiling water for about 30-40 min so the chicken reaches safe handling temperature.

When using boneless chicken portions and Knorr Homestyle Stock:

Mix 2 tsp Knorr Homestyle Stock with 1 3/4 cups of boiling water to make stock for pot pie. Use remaining concentrate and enough water to submerge chicken portions, poach until chicken is fully cooked.

Pie Crust Recipe

Makes one pie crust and pie top for a 8-9 in diameter pie plate or casserole dish.

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt softened, not melted
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/4 cup lard or shortening
• 1/3 cup water

Mix the flour and the salt in a large bowl. Add the butter or margarine and lard; mix with hands until crumb like texture is achieved. Mix in the water. If your dough looks to sticky and isn’t balling up in the mixer add in one tablespoon of flour at a time until it balls up in the mixer and looked like dough again. Then you pat it into a ball, and wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

The pot pie instructions:

Once your chicken and vegetables are prepared and your pie crust is chilling, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)

In a saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Add flour, salt and pepper to saucepan and cook until dissolved and and lump free. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.

Place the chicken & vegetable mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Early May brings us the first tastes of our garden handiwork. This year was not exception.

Last night I found myself with several radish, some turnips we got at the store a while back, salad greens and a desire to make something wholesome for Nathan’s overlooked birthday. Well, it wasn’t really overlooked… Just had to be rescheduled since our schedule is basically jam-packed right now.

After pawing through the available locally raised meat in the freezer I choose two packages of chicken breasts for grilling. Meat is the easy part, it is being creative with the side dishes and garden vegetables that take real brain power. Especially when you are faced with a radish or turnip.

I raked my brain for the distinction between a radish and a turnip (what? I blame pregnancy brain). Last season a blogger friend turned us on to a dish of mashed root crop called “Neeps and Tatties” (a similar recipe variation can be found here) that will now be a regular sidedish offering in our home.

The problem was… did it use radish or turnips…

After some intense google searching and a quick note to said blogger friend I arrived at the conclusion that it used turnips and potatos.

Virgin Neeps & Tatties (Talina’s way)

• 2 large turnips, peeled and cut in chunks
• 3 large potatoes, cut in chunks skin on
• Generous helping of butter (2-4 tbs)
• Garlic, salt and pepper to taste

You just boil the turnips until soft and mashable, in a separate pot boil the potatoes. I boil the turnips for longer than the potatoes by and hour or so (on low). When both items are soft to the touch drain them and transfer to a food processor, bowl or blender. Mash to desired consistency adding seasonings and butter as you go. I usually transfer my mash back to a pot to keep warm on the stove before serving.

With the turnips taken care of I turn my focus to the pinkish/ red radish that also need to be consumed. I don’t like radish very much, like many people. I seem to recall giving Nathan a hard time for once again planting these foods that would be such a challenge to consume… but I was seriously doubting why that was (remember the pregnancy brain?).

I resolved to wash and taste a slice of one to decide if they would go in the salad or if they needed to be cooked somehow, I needed my memory jogged about this dislike of radish. Let the torturous experimentation begin. You know kind of like sticking your tongue on a battery just to check.

Bleah! The spicy bite of a radish after the hard, crunchy texture just wasn’t my idea of a good time. In my mind crunchy should be followed by a crisp, fresh and even sweet aftertaste. Not a spicy one.

It was decided, I would cook the radish as a side dish. Rumor has it cooked radish lose the bite they are so well known for. I’d put this to the test.

Grilled Radish and Garlic

• about 12-15 radishes, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 cube ice
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the grill for high heat. Place all ingredients on a double layer of aluminum foil large enough to wrap contents. Season with salt and pepper. Tightly seal foil around contents. Place foil packet on the grill, and cook 20 minutes or until radishes are tender.

Stop being a slave to mass produced foods that come from all over the country!

Why does it matter? Well, here is my thought process:

Those out of season bananas, they come from outside the country. The oranges, the strawberries, potatoes, corn… Your store bought meat that was inhumanely raised on feed lots or worse… Chances are they all traveled more than 100 miles to get to your dinner table.

Just think of where they were raised, then they needed to be taken somewhere for packaging or processing, then they are shipped off to your grocery store where you buy and then drive them home. How much oil/ fuel was used just in the process of transporting those food times?

Don’t you think the fuel to transport groceries comes from the same “pool” we consumers tap to gas up our cars? And in buying foods that come from so far aren’t we encouraging more and more usage of fuel that in turn drives up the fuel prices?

If we stopped buying this stuff from afar they would eventually stop shipping and trucking it in, they would lose money without us fronting the expense. Then our local farmers would have their communities to feed and the bigger corporations wouldn’t be squeezing them out and so on…

Each choice we consumers make is like a vote for those companies and their business practices. Money speaks and I am afraid we are sending the wrong messages… and we are suffering the consequences. Those companies aren’t suffering, we are!

If you do some research and really commit you can either produce or support local farmers that are producing what you need without relying on fossil fuels to get food to your table.

Furthermore, eating locally tastes better and it helps your community by keeping those grocery dollars reinvested in the area and not in the large, faraway corporations that could care less about your community and your neighbors.

It only takes one step at a time to influence a huge change. Just commit to swapping one non-locally produced item a week or month for one that is local. Think of the local farmer’s family you’ll be helping to support, the amount of gas your food wont be guzzling to get to your table, the amazing taste of fresh food…

What one item can you obtain locally that you aren’t already?

There are plenty of freebies to celebrate Earth Day!  Since the list is every growing, I will keep adding the freebies as I come across them.

• Free Target Reusable Bag for Earth Day
• Get Free Starbucks Coffee on Earth Day! Just bring your reusable mug in to Starbucks on April 22nd to get your free cup.
• Free Entrance into National Parks
• Free EVOS Organic Milk Shake
• Head to Lowes on 4/23 and get a Free Tree to celebrate Earth Day.
• Head over to an Origins Retail store or department store counter on Earth day, April 22, and “trade in” any of your existing skin care products (regardless of brand) for a FREE Origins cleanser.  You will have the choice between two full size products – Checks and Balances Frothy face wash and A Perfect World Antioxidant cleanser with White Tea.  While supplies last.  All traded in packaging will be recycled or responsibly converted to energy through the Return to Origins Recycling Program.
• 4/22/11 Pottery Barn Kids Event – “Join us at 11am or 2pm for story time featuring tales about caring for the planet, as well as other earth-friendly activities. Throughout the day, we’ll be giving kids a special gift that they can plant at home!
• 4/22/11 Free Disney Youth Baseball Caps - Bring in SIX empty plastic bottles or soda cans to the Disney Store on Thursday, 4/22. Each Guest that successfully tosses the bottles into the globe bin will receive a FREE Friends for Change and Disney Store youth sized baseball cap, while supplies last! Baseball caps are made out of 100% recycled materials. Limit one baseball cap per Guest when they bring in 6 bottles/cans, while supplies last.
• 4/22/11 FREE Disney Reusable Shopping Bag – Bring in and recycle 5 plastic shopping bags.*Limit one bag per Guest, while supplies last. Event subject to change or cancellation without notice. Excludes Outlet locations. Call store for more details. ****They will also have an event for Canada on April 23rd!
• Kellogg’s is offering up a free reusable shopping bag for earth day. Just send in 2 UPC’s from any Kellogg’s cereal along with earth day bag order form and $1.75 for shipping & handling. I know it’s not totally free but it’s pretty cheap for some cute bags!!
• Earth Day is coming near, April 22, and you can get ready with these free printable RECYCLE bumper stickers or trash can labels!!
• Stonyfield Farm is offering free MP3 downloads. Folks who make Earth Day resolutions and share them online get a free MP3 download of an unreleased song by Jack Johnson.
• Wegmans. On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the grocery chain will hand out free Wegmans reusable bags to folks who bring in bags filled with Wegmans plastic bags to be recycled.
• Walgreens. It will refill printer cartridges, typically a $12.99 service, for $1 with a coupon. The deal “is to keep empty ink cartridges out of our landfills,” spokesman Robert Elfinger says.
• Burt’s Bees. In New York’s Times Square, the natural personal-care products maker will hand out smoothies made with natural ingredients and fake beards for folks to dress like the bearded Burt seen on its packaging.
• Earthbound Farms
  Get a free shopping tote from Earthbound Farms, America’s largest grower of organic produce, by answering nine out of 10 answers correctly on their quiz. Tip: Find all the answers here.
• Amazon has tons of free MP3 downloads to choose from here.
• Get a free milkshake and/or reusable bag on Earth Day at Elevation Burger restaurants in Falls Church, VA, Potomac, MD, Austin, TX, Dallas, TX and Wennewood, NJ. Customers who arrive to the restaurants on Earth day by bicycle will get a free milkshake. Additionally, the restaurants will be giving away reusable shopping bags to guests who purchase a burger, fries and drink.
• Starting Sunday, April 17th, 2011, anyone who clicks on the orange “Post Free” button at the top of the DiggersList homepage, then follows directions, will get a free packet of wildflowers in the mail. Note: you have to post something on the Diggerslist to qualify for this freebie.
  
• Texas residents attending Earth Day events in Dallas, Houston and McAllen can get a free tree on Earth Day, courtesy of Green Mountain Energy.
• In celebration of Earth Day, The James hotels in New York and Chicago are offering guests staying with them April 17-23 free public transportation. That is, The James properties are giving away complimentary MTA and CTA transportation cards for guests upon request.

• Reuse gift bags, garment boxes, tissue paper and bows/ ribbon
It is true! After I open a gift I will fold and flatten the tissue paper so it is saved for future uses. I also fold and save gift bags and garment boxes. We have this one garment box with a creepy take on the Virgin Mary and Jesus that we wrote on and made more humorous about five or six years ago. It’s still in our gift wrapping rotation. Gift boxes last forever!

Tissue paper doesn’t last all that long when it is crinkled and balled up but you can get a few future uses out of it by simply flattening and folding it after you open that gift.

I know people that save wrapping paper, we don’t really do that (unless the paper is unbelievably awesome) because going to the effort of not ripping is takes so much time and we think the tearing of paper is part of the holiday fun. We do save scraps of the paper for gift tags and such, you’ll read about that below.

• Reuse shipping boxes, over and over
Just today I found an old box that we’ve used to move on several occasions, it was the perfect size for shipping some holiday packages to Arizona so I carefully tore the boxes seam and then hot glued it back together so it was now inside out (because over the years it was written on many times). It’s now good as new and packed with holiday gifts.

Not every box needs to be turned inside out to be reused. If your box has limited writing or labels you can easily peel off or scribble over you can skip turning the box inside out.

• Make own gift tags or bows with used wrapping paper, store catalogs, last year’s holiday cards, etc.
This is also a fun and cheap holiday craft idea for those of you with kids! I recommend just collecting wrapping paper scraps, pages from store catalogs that are pretty, old holiday cards, scraps of ribbon, loose beads, buttons, fortune cookies, sequins, pennies, hair pins, safety pins and whatever else that you have loose and homeless around you home.

When you have all these things together in a box you’ll be amazed what creative ideas strike you when you sit down to brainstorm and begin making the gift tags. The more odd-ball the trinkets the more unique the gift tag will be, plus kids can really have fun exploring the box and coming up with ideas.

• Reuse flat mailing envelopes
This one is an easy, no-brainer. If you are a member of PaperBackSwap like me or if you have other mailing needs that require the use of those yellow/ orange flat envelopes, don’t toss the used ones you get in the trash.

Same principal applies, you can peel off or simply tape a new sheet of paper over the existing address label and the envelope is reusable. I also will fold the envelopes in half (if the book or DVD fits in half of it) and hide the old address portion that way.

• Don’t toss those unneeded, windowed, letter envelopes that come with your bills
I use letter envelopes that come with bills for sending other mail! Here most of our bills are paid online so I save the envelopes and just slip a sheet of paper inside so I can write the destination address on the paper and have it show through the window. Haven’t bought envelopes in ages thanks to this trick.

If you are thinking, “well Talina tissue paper and envelops really aren’t that expensive why go to the trouble of saving and trying to reuse them?” I assure you, the monetary gains aren’t the only motivating factor here. I feel like the more our family reuses and repurposes the less crap we send to the landfill, plus if you have it and can reuse it why would you want to toss it and then put yourself out the money when later you need to buy new?

Plus, it’s not just the issue of overstuffed landfills. think about all the resources and energy that are used to transport those boxes and other things to the landfill, then there is all the resources and energy used to manage the landfill, plus the amount of needless waste we create is a obviously a burdon on our planet. Why not reused and repurpose? I am sure most of you reuse or repurpose anyway, whether you mean to or not.

Now I am curious about what things do you reuse or re-purpose in your home for or during the holidays? Share them in the comments so we can all learn some new tips from each other.

Since our roadtrip vacation kind of went to the back burner in light of the job, car and financial stuff we decided to have a bunch of mini “staycations” (vacations close to home and on the cheap) while enjoying N’s extended break from working.

Last weekend we took Everly to her first cave and had a so much fun. N has blogged about the cave and our restaurant fun here. All our adventures out and about have allowed us to really put our new baby carrier to the test!

You see, Infantino has included me in a test drive program and am getting to try out one of their brand new carriers this month, the BALANCE- Ergonomic Carrier by Infantino. It is perfect because she’s getting too heavy for our other carriers.

I’ve been packing Everly around the house and garden since the carrier arrived. Baby wearing is great for including baby in daily chores while freeing those arms! I love to wear Everly on my back because it gives more cooperation from gravity and allows her to be able to see what is happening all around her better. It lets me actually get stuff done too.

This carrier is way more comfortable for us than the other two carriers we already have (a Snugli and a Rockin Ring Sling). For me there is much less strain on the back and shoulders with the BALANCE carrier. Yay for a happy babywearing back! Back and shoulder pain was the main reason why I stopped babywearing these days.

When you’ve got a child weighing over a 5th of your body weight it tends to begin making the baby wearing process more of a strain, in my opinion.

So far my only complaints with this carrier, and this wont really apply to everyone, is that the adjustable waist strap doesn’t get small enough to comfortably rest on my “natural waistline” like it is supposed to. The strap rests over my hipbones and after using it for awhile it begins to really hurt the tops of my hipbones. Yeah, I know throw the rotten tomatoes at the girl with the tiny waste line…

Other than the waist strap it is great! It’s got great padding on the waist strap and shoulder straps and is super comfortable. My husband agreed that it is by far the most comfortable of all our carriers for him to wear. Being able to see him wearing Everly brought to light another complaint for me.

The carrier literally smashes Everly against us with regards to her neck and shoulders and she was visibly annoyed with not being able to see or move much. She would cram her one arm under her and pull the other arm out of the arm area. It seemed like she was trying to get leverage to push herself up and away from us a bit, so she had more space. See:

I’ve found this issue is easily remedied with the positioning and flapping of the natural bucket seat. It can be worn so baby is higher up and less face smashing happens. We figured this out later on our staycation fun.

The BALANCE carrier really is a great item for active families or parents looking for comfortable babywearing options. The main selling points for us were #1 the front to back versatility and #2 the ergonomic design. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a comfortable versatile carrier.

We’ve also had other staycation fun like almost daily playground visits, lots of backyard fun time and we even ventured across the Indiana/ Illinois border to check out Cave in Rock State Park.

Getting out and about really helps to bring enjoyment and distraction, which is much needed right now. The thing is, going far away and spending tons of money isn’t totally necessary for a good time.

Today was cool enough to open all the windows, doors and turn the AC off. We didn’t go out and about today. I actually never left the house but the fresh air in the house just breathed new life in to everything. My mood was much better, we all had fun doing simple stuff.

The simple stuff is the best. I would have never guessed how much easy enjoyment could be had just by a simple visit to a playground too. Every loves her playground time and we love that she’s happy and exploring.

Although those playgrounds and all their climbing have sure started us down a path we weren’t ready for, the climbing stage.

I am a participant in a Mom Central campaign for Infantino and have received various Infantino products as part of my participation.

I know so many young, non-grannyish gals who share my fellow coupon clipping and saving obsession. I know many of my readers (specifically those who spend $100+ on a pair of shoes *wink*, I still love ya girl!) think it’s nerdy to be a coupon clipper, mainly cause they don’t get it.

Seriously though, when you can get a load of stuff (that you already need) for way less than regular price it is an amazing feeling and it also totally helps out the budget (even if you aren’t living paycheck to paycheck). It’s not all that hard to do and the more serious you get about it the bigger your savings can be.

Today, despite my feeling under the weather (finally got my period after 55 days) I managed to drag my ass to the CVS near the house to snag some great deals before my coupons expired. Here is what I got:

Makes me pretty happy that I filled my cart with over $100 of stuff and my coupons saved me $32.69. I also had $13.00 in CVS extra bucks to use with my coupons which brought my total down to $66.62, then I earned $12.00 in more CVS extra bucks for my next trip and have $37.46 coming back to me in rebate checks from individual companies.

On some items I didn’t save anything because I didn’t have coupons or special offers for those but for others I made money (as you can see by the green numbers) so it all balances out nicely if you are smart about it. Essentially I got 25 products for $29.16. That averages out to about $1.16 spent on each product.

I saved us $83.15 on this shopping trip, that is money that can be spent elsewhere. Like on Everly. Yay!

What is even better is that this is only one store’s weekly deals, rebates and coupon matching. With the time and energy I can do that same thing at Walgreens, Walmart and so on. So, why aren’t you couponing yet?