The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

The 4th has come and gone and it seems like summer is flying by already. I’ve been extremely busy running errands and working around the yard but man… I LOVE MY SUMMER LIFE!!  It’s the simple things that really make me happy:

• Getting up early with my dogs and listening to the birds
• Walking every day
• Being with family
• Having a clean house
• Weeding a bit each day and staying on top of it
• Hanging a load or two on the line every morning
• Doing the daily crossword and sudoku puzzles
• Reading as much as I can
• Wearing my “summer uniform” (bike shorts, tee, sandals)
• Composting and living green
• Getting in bed early with my dogs, books, and laptop
• Rolling over and turning out the light any time I want

Of course, once Patriots Training Camp starts on July 24th, my life will change considerably as I’ll be “on duty” and my free time will be cut way back.  However,  I do hope to keep up with as much as I can.  For now, I’m planning on enjoying each and every moment of being home.

As you know, I’m a garden nut and in addition to my new compost bins, I purchased a couple of rainbarrels to use to collect water for my organic vegetable garden and potted plants.  I’m attaching a soaker hose to the one near the garden which I’ll snake among the vegetable plants and will open as needed. The other one is on the other side of the house and I plan on using it to fill my watering can for my hangers and pots.

I ordered them back in May and got them last weekend when they became available for pickup. I finally borrowed a hacksaw to cut my downspouts and just missed a huge downpour today by about 15 minutes.  I’m sure there will be plenty more and I’m glad that my lawn, garden,  and flowers got a good soaking  but it would have been nice to grab that run-off from the roof  as well to use on a dry day.

I recently did a quickie Muse with Me Podcast about being green.. You can listen (and watch) the enhanced show #7  here:

Muse007: On Being Green

I’ve been super busy offline but hope to get another one done this month at some point.

Meanwhile.. I’m waiting for a nice rainy day to fill those barrels and maybe  catch up on my reading.  (Actually, I’ll even take a sunny day with no commitments to just sit by the pool!) As a friend mentioned to me today, I never seem to have as much free time in the summer as I think I will.  Hopefully, that day will come soon!

…but I’m ok with that!  I’m still in catch-up mode but the relaxing is coming soon, I can see it!  I took the girls for another early morning walk at Lincoln Woods which was a great way to start today. When I got home, they napped and I set to work in the yard. My flower beds and garden are fully weeded and are looking fiiiine!

Later, I put together the two compost bins and moved my compost heap back. I’ve got a nice blister as the result of my efforts but tis ok with me. It’ll be nice to have the compost contained and easily accessible from the bottom when it’s ready rather than having to dig up entire piles to get to the good stuff.

Then I ran some errands: library, school to feed my fish, Jacob drop-off(s) and pick-up(s), etc.  We got some rain tonight which nixxed my evening walk at the Monastery with the girls but was welcome just the same. I love the green look of spring and early summer.  It totally puts me at peace and makes me smile.

This evening, I finally did a quick PatriotWorld Podcast. I’ll do another as soon as the Training Camp schedule is released and there’s more going on. Now that Pats news is focused on the future, I’ll be tuning in once again.  I haven’t turned on the NFL Network or listened to any sports talk radio all offseason. I like to focus on the positive so I steered clear of the Monday morning quarterbacking and debacle news.

Tomorrow, I plan on walking the girls, staking some plants, getting my laundry on the line early and hopefully spend a bit of time relaxing and reading by the pool.  It hasn’t happened yet, but getting things accomplished makes me very happy.

I started my day off a bit later today thanks to my girls sleeping in until 7:00.  We went for an early morning walk at Lincoln Woods and did the 2.5 mile loop. It’s the perfect way to start the day; I love to be in the woods and close to the water. The birds were singing and the squirrels and chipmunks were out in full force. It’s no wonder that my favorite color is green.  I’m always at a sense of peace in the woods enjoying nature.

Later, we took a ride to the Resource Recovery Center to pick up my two compost bins. I always have a compost pile going but I wanted to use actual bins.  With them selling for such a good price, I got two; one for my current pile and one for a new one.

The rest of the day and evening was spent running errands galore. I didn’t get to do any of the yardwork that  I planned to do so hopefully it’ll get done tomorrow. I have to run back out for a couple more errands tomorrow (library, school, Verizon, gym) but thankfully it won’t be the marathon trek of today.

I’m looking forward to some quieter days ahead where I can get some reading done and maybe even take a dip.  I sooo love my summer life!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted but it’s because I’ve been so busy and was sick over the weekend. I’ve been able to get lots of reading done though which makes me happy. This past weekend, we had Carissa’s First Communion, Jake’s Confirmation and Ernie was in town for his son’s graduation so he stayed at Casa de Cardoza as usual.

My garden and flowers are coming along and I’ve only got a few more annual pots to plant and some pole beans seeds to purchase and get in the ground. I’m going to try diligently to stay on top of the weeds and do a bit each day but we can’t mulch until the neighbor’s HUGE tree drops all of it’s noses because if not, I’ll be pulling little trees out of my mulch for a good long time.

I’m very glad to report that I’ve been walking to work as much as I can. It usually depends upon the weather and whatever meetings or appointments that I may happen to have before or after school. While I haven’t lost any weight per se I know that I’m firming up and gaining muscle. Besides, I’m not only doing it for weight loss reasons, it’s mostly for health reasons. I need to go for my annual bloodwork soon and I’m determined not to have to take any medication, including cholesterol meds. It was borderline the last time I went and he knows that I don’t take anything unless I absolutely have no choice.

I’ve also been busy this week getting things ready for the primitive Rendezvous which we’ll be heading to this weekend in Sanbornton, NH. I’ve been busy sewing and packing and getting the clothes ready. I’m making a few wool shawls which may be needed at night or on cold days. Everything is completely period correct so there won’t be any parkas allowed that’s for sure. We’ll be huddling around the campfire in comfort!

We went last year for the first time with friends who are veterans of the vous. They go for the whole week and bring furniture and everything! This is our second time and while we now have our own lodge and clothing, we still don’t have much else but we’ll be setting up all together anyway so we’ll want for nothing. I’ll be posting pictures but it’s a completely unplugged weekend so no technology allowed (other than a camera, discreetly hidden.) Needless to say, there will be no Tweeting from the Vous!

Here’s a link to last year’s pictures. I can’t wait for this weekend!!

My girls are resting comfortably in their crates recovering from their surgeries today so I’ve got a few minutes before leaving to pick up Jake after practice.

Today is April 22nd, the day known as Earth Day. We talked a lot about the earth today at school with the kids but they’re pretty savvy about recycling and are proud to be responsible for collection of the green bins on our floor each day and promoting recycling in their homes. We visited the landfill and recycling center last month and had a very informative and enjoyable tour.

Next month we’re taking a riverboat tour on the Blackstone River to test the water and check out all of the wild life. Our class is full of animal lovers as well and they are very caring, sensitive kids. So, brainstorming with them today about all of the things that we can do to take care of our earth was not an exercise in futility, rather something that they embraced whole heartedly.

While there are many ways that I can improve and I’m striving to always get better at reducing, reusing and recycling, there are some habits that are just part of my every day life that come so automatically, that I didn’t even think of them until we had our discussion today.

If you click on the picture, you can read the notes on the original on the Flickr site.

Some simple things that I do that not only help the planet but save me some cash along the way:

• Always keep reusable shopping bags in my car and either use them or say “No bag, please.” if I only buy a few things.
• Bring my own coffee to work each day in my stainless steel mug.
• Use a Brita water filter pitcher and use my Sigg aluminum water bottle.
• Bring breakfast, lunch, and snacks from home which I carry in my washable canvas bag. I usually end up bringing leftovers as I hate to throw food away.
• Cart everything back and forth in reusable tote bags.
• Dry my clothes on the line as soon as the weather permits; usually April-October.
• Diligently recycle and encourage family members to do so as well.
• Grow my own vegetables and compost as much as I can.
• Try to combine errands so that I can do them in as few trips as possible.
• Buy organic whenever it’s available.
• Limit the use of paper goods as much as I can.
• Avoid purchasing single serving size portions and make as much as I can from scratch.
• Whip up a weekly batch of soup to use up what I have in the crisper.
• Use the public library to borrow books that I know I’ll read only once. (They also have movies, cds, software, games, puzzles, and passes to zoos and local attractions, etc.)

Some of the things that I’m pledging to work harder on and focus on this year:

• Ramp up my composting.
• Try to eliminate the remaining plastic bags that I may end up with while shopping.
• Increase my garden size and keep on top of it to eliminate waste of vegetables rotting on the vine.
• Switch to as many eco-friendly cleaning products as possible, making as many as I can from common household ingredients.
• Try to be diligent about conserving electricity by reducing use and remembering to shut everything off when not in use.
• Freecycle my unwanted items.
• Reduce my purchases all the way around!

I know that I’m not even close to being where I want to be but each little thing that I do consistently will bring me one step closer.

Some great podcasts to listen to for ideas are:

More Hip than Hippie My fave!

Living Green: Effortless Ecology for Everyday people

Green Living Ideas

The Victory Garden

Whole Foods Podcast

What do you do and what can you do better?

Technorati Tags earthday greenliving organic ecology reduce reuse recycle morehipthanhippie

After some bumps along the road such as a blown up wordpress theme and link issues, I’m finally back up and running. So, the new home of my Book Nook is live. Very special thanks to Natasha of Maw Books for all of her help with the Now Reading plug in! I’m on Spring vacation so I’m hoping to get lots of reading done (in addition to everything else I want to do over the course of this week.)

To follow up, access to the Assessment website from work came up on Friday so I was able to work on it a lot that day. I’m setting aside 1 hour each day this week to work on it so that I can still have a vacation but put a dent in it as well.

I got a postcard yesterday informing me that my gym is opening tomorrow morning so the timing couldn’t be better for me. I’m still planning on taking the girls to the walking trail but will be able to get my own workout in at the gym too.

The weather has finally changed so today’s game plan is to get out in the yard for most of the afternoon. And of course, I’m sure I’ll be giving Jake rides so he can go fishing. Other than that, I’ll be working hard today then hitting the couch for John Adams and The Tudors tonight.

Huge change of plans for me today as I intended on going the Special Olympics Bowling Tournament with my students during the day and to a church dinner at night. However, my body had other ideas as I was hit with a migraine for the second time this week… I’m sure that the state of overdrive that I’ve been in has been the root of it all.

So, instead, I spent the afternoon sleeping on the couch snuggling with my two furry girls and succumbing to the demands of my body rather than living by my To Do List.

I’m still hazy now, but just brought some of nature’s wonder inside to put a smile on my face. These are my first flowers of the season and I look forward to many, many more gifts from my garden very soon.