{ Git 'er Done Days }

This weekend is an enforced weekend off for me. I have promised the household that I would only work a half day tomorrow having taken yesterday afternoon and all of today off (which is why I'm blogging at 5:57 a.m.). It was a good thing though...my right arm has been very sore from a couple of 10 and 12 hour days to finalize files for CPA tax prep. But today will be one of my most favorite types of days. We will spend the early morning getting recycling and donation items into the car and off to their respective destinations, clearing out the laundry room of all kinds of "we don't know where to put this". Those final holiday trimmings will also make it up to the attic. This afternoon we will be busy rearranging cables and wires and adding vertical storage in my very small office in an effort to give me more functional space. Old files will also move into the attic and I will no longer have to pretend I'm playing hop scotch to get to my desk. Maybe, if we're on a roll, I'll even get the two paintings hung that I bought LAST YEAR and perhaps somewhere in our travels today will be able to stop by the nursery to pick up a new climbing rose to adorn my new garden trellis. In our world we call these days "Git 'er done" days and they feel so good! All those little check marks on the eternal to do list! I'm even going right now to defrost something for dinner and maybe I'll even soak some beans for soup.

{ Local and Organic Doesn't Need to Cost More }

Local food living is a test of wills come February. All the fruits from foreign lands arrive at the grocery store, flaunting their colors of faraway summers in the depths of winter...but no bother, I have canned cherries, peaches and frozen berries. Local apples and some variety of pears are still plentiful thanks to cold storage and as I wandered into the back garden the other day the strawberry shoots are poking their way up through the soil! I caged them to protect them from marauding bunnies!

As I study the numbers from last year (I am a bookkeeper by trade and have our personal finances set up just like a client's), I am encouraged by our food bills. We were able to eat local food (trust me, we don't starve and are not particularly healthy, although we try) and most was organic for about the same price as 2007's groceries. We spent a little more on meat but then again, I have enough in the freezer to make it through until April or May so that's a wash. We also had more invested in food production supplies...things like extra canning jars and storage bins for bulk organic flours and sugars. With good planning, it's been OK and for the most part, food prep doesn't take that much more time living this way then with fast, processed foods. The biggest changes are these:
We have to think ahead about food because "grab and go" in winter is more difficult since things are canned or frozen. We find it's easier to "cheat" and eat out once a week and not once a month as intended (but our local bistro and coffee house feature local organics, so no compromise there). On good weeks we do food prep all at once on Sundays and it takes just a couple of hours. On regular weeks it's more like we prep two meals and make bread dough on Sundays and plot out the rest of the week. The biggest bonuses have been that we aren't breaking the bank, we aren't suffering or feel like we are sacrificing and the last blood draw I did, my sugars and triglycerides were way way down. (Now if only getting on the treadmill were easy!)
It's been an interesting change in lifestyle but from a fiscal standpoint, no harder on the pocket book.

{ A Hard Call For This Season }

We had to make a hard call for the upcoming grow season...we have decided to grow only a small amount of "specialty" items and lean heavily on our local farmers this year for our bounty. Soul searching and reality checks played a large role in our weekend as we recognized that our time is short this year, our demands are many. The garden would not be the pleasure it usually is and so we acquiesce to our limitations. We are blessed to live in a community where CSA is common turn of phrase, three farmer's markets happen weekly and with just a short morning's drive, fields lay before our feet. So don't feel too sorry for us...we won't starve but my pretty seed catalog will be a little less dog eared for now.

{ What Doesn't Kill Us... }

I have survived yet another January. I was having those "forgot to go to my final exam" dreams but no matter, it is done. The last 1099 and W2 were dropped in the mail early Saturday and my clients knew they would be arriving a day or two late. So all is well. I do not emerge from my crazy month unscathed, however. A cold has settled deep in my chest. I put in a full day today but now, after checking emails and voice mails, I will make soup and go to bed very early. There will be no rest for the wicked or the weary this week as I have a full slate of clients and work awaiting my attention. Oh! How I dream of an assistant or at least 10 key fairies!
Thanks for all the kind emails.