I’ve been doing a lot of traveling lately and I also know that I can be frugal to a fault. So what do these 2 things have to do with each other? TIPPING: It started with a decision about whether to tip a guy in Chicago who I thought was a cab driver but who I […]
Living Lightly
Susan Vogt on living more simply but abundantlyBrowsing Posts in Beyond Stuff
PART 2 (2 years after my Oh, My Aching Back post): Perhaps the hardest thing for me to let go of recently has been the expectation that I would have basic good health for at least another decade. My mother is 90 and I’ve watched her health and memory decline but I figured that was […]
About a year ago our electric lawnmower died. I agreed to find a fitting home for its final resting place. We bought a new mower and I procrastinated about researching how to recycle old lawnmowers. Well, it’s grass mowing season again and Jim reminded me of my promise. Spurred on by the recent grim reports […]
12 Pet Peeves and What I’m Doing About Them Before I get back into continuing Round 2 of pruning more household items, I’m ready to let go of some intangible stuff – Pet Peeves. Over a year ago I blogged about my pet peeves including: 1. Radio interviewees who end with “Thank you” instead of […]
I’m not sure if I made much progress this week. I finished Bedroom #1 but one of the drawers took me a couple hours to go through. I had forgotten that this was where I stashed old diaries and calendars dating back to my college graduation in 1969. Eventually I decided to keep them since […]
I’m still in my bedroom because we have two extra dressers that serve as storage for gifts, mementos, and children’s clothes that we still have visions of someday passing on to grandchildren. It’s a little embarrassing to admit that I have two dressers worth of extra stuff and a bedroom big enough to hold them. […]
Christmas Eve wasn’t a silent night for me but December 3 was. That was the day I chose to keep silent. It wasn’t 100% silence. That wasn’t the goal; but rather to become more conscious of the words I do speak and their impact on others. I wanted to reduce the times that my speech […]
I’ve finished my “news fast” – week without newspapers, e-news, radio*, or TV (well, not no news but only indirect news gained from other’s comments). When I reconnected with the world I learned that I missed the birth of the royal baby, that Edward Snowden was still holed up in the Moscow airport, and that […]
We get 3 daily newspapers (Cincinnati Enquirer, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal), at least 7 magazines, and I’m an NPR junkie. This doesn’t include countless email messages from causes I support. You’d think this would make me an informed citizen. Lately, it has mostly made me discouraged and depressed about the state […]
I still have plenty of things to give away in our home but I’m feeling more burdened by my “To Do List” than my stuff these days. So this blog is focused on TIME. How we use it and how we can be a slave to it like the proverbial wheel running hamster. I go […]
(Make sure you read my PS at the end.) It’s the Christmas shopping season. Today I went into a store. Maybe it’s been too long. I was astounded by the prices for stuff I considered junk – clothes that didn’t look flattering or stylish, toys that were mostly modeled after cartoon characters or required batteries […]
Yesterday, I sent out my periodic email Blog Alert to friends. I do this every 2 or 3 months so as not to pester people. (Not everyone checks my blog compulsively every day 😕 ) Since I’ve recently changed my email to a Gmail address, I decided to use Gmail for this bulk mailing for the […]
Cincinnati, Ohio recently hosted The World Choir Games. The city put on its best face, cleaning up the streets, bringing out new “flying pigs,” and extending our beautiful riverfront park system. The only thing that outperformed civic pride was the fabulous singers from all over the world. It was wonderful, but even more wonderful was […]
Saving money vs. Saving Time
A few of my pet peeves are: Unnecessary use of bottled water Over packaging Radio interviewees who respond to the host’s “Thank you” with “Thank you” instead of “You’re welcome.” Dragged music at church Singing Happy Birthday to an individual in a large random group of people. (Although this probably sounds petty of me, I […]
Sometimes the best part of giving something away is finding the right person to give it to. My husband and I have been hosting two Korean teenage girls for the summer. They are delightful, polite, and always helpful. They arrived shortly after my watch broke. Wait, there’s a connection. I assumed that my watch simply […]
For a variety of reasons, I recently decided to change my email address from a local carrier to Gmail. Mostly it was to simplify my life when I travel. With Gmail I have access to all my archived emails which I used to keep neatly categorized with Outlook. My secondary reason, however, was that I […]
That is – too many people for one person to take care of. Our planet has about 7 billion people – all of them valuable human beings who deserve a decent life. I don’t have to listen to the news for long or simply look around my neighborhood to realize that many people need help. […]
PART 1: Periodically my back gives me trouble. It happened recently when I spent a day preparing the garden for spring planting. This zealous gardener over did it. Not to worry. Usually one trip to my friendly chiropractor fixes me up just fine. Oh oh, time to worry. It didn’t work this time and my […]
I go to lots of meetings. Maybe you do too. One of the things that continues to amaze me is how some people seem to have little concept of how long they talk. At a recent meeting I witnessed co-presenters, who both had valuable things to say, but one talked so long that the other’s […]
