Live Every Moment

I just watched Nik Wallenda cross the Grand Canyon on Live television, on a wire. What an amazing sight.

Seeing him complete that walk has made me think about my life and what I do. I've always had things I do that I scold myself for later. I turn down events with friends because I'm so scared to go out somewhere I've never been. When I do go, once I'm there, things usually get better and I calm down a bit.

I think about the home projects that I put off because there is a movie out that I would rather go see. I go see the movie with friends and family but it's just sitting, sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to be doing something together.

After seeing this event, knowing that Nik could have died today doing what he loves, being reminded that life is short and could end at any moment; makes me want to re-evaluate what I do and makes me think more about why I do what I do.

If you take a few minutes to ponder, why do you do what you do? If your life were to be cut short, and you didn't wake up tomorrow, what would you most regret not doing? Go do whatever it is you would most regret not doing.

Plants Planted, Catching Water

So, if you recall, my fiance and I went to the local Farmer's Market and picked up 2 tomato plants and a green pepper. My parents also gave us 2 tomato plants. They are not all potted. I went up to my local Meijer and chose 2 more pots since I don't know what we are doing for a vegetable garden just yet. I also grabbed some potting soil to fill the pots and add to my existing pots just to add some fresh dirt. 2 of the tomato plants were falling over a little so I grabbed some small sticks from our kindling box and tied the tomato plants to the sticks to help them stand up. One of our dogs already went for one of the sticks and pulled out the plant with it so tomorrow my parents are going to pass off some actual stakes so neither dog will mistake them for a stick they can chew, and pull the plant out.

We haven't been able to fix our leaking spigot, at least not yet. It's been dripping a lot lately so I stuck my watering can under it to catch the drips. We've already saved over 2 gallons of water in just a few days. This has me seriously considering a rain barrel, even on the short runs we have for our downspouts. I'm also looking into starting a compost bin of our own. Even if it's not all the compost and we still put some out for the city to collect, having a little will help a lot in the long run. I realize we won't be able to keep it all, as our leaves from Fall alone would fill any compost container. It takes us about 20 yard bags if I recall correctly to bag our leaves each Fall.

Stay tuned to see what we do this week.

Have you been to your local Farmer's Market?

I finally went to my local Farmer's Market. It was quite an experience. There were activities for the kids, such as washing clothes the old fashioned way, with a wash board and everything. My fiance and I were surprised to see kids actually washing clothes as a form of play! We joked that this was apparently the secret to get kids to do the laundry.

Of course there were several people there all selling different items. There were a few vendors selling jewelry, which surprised me again because it's not something I picture when I hear Farmer's Market. I usually picture a farm - which my Farmer's Market is held at a historical farm - and organic produce, plants, maybe some seeds for people to start their own plants from scratch so to speak. So when we got there and saw 2 or 3 booths for jewelry, I was pleasantly surprised.

They had a few vendors selling plants. We purchased 2 tomato plants for $10 and got a pepper plant for free! I can't wait for the plants to produce tomatoes and peppers. The pepper plant does have a pepper already starting so we may get a pepper or 2 before a tomato.

We also got some organic strawberries. They are very delicious. I thought about cutting some and putting them on some ice cream earlier tonight, but decided to wait since my fiance is working right now and I'd like to make sure he gets some before I down all the strawberries. The strawberries were $4.

There was also several different cheeses, meats, and sauces. Kettle corn, honey, and even eggs were also available. I'm considering going back next week to see what is new, or to pick up some things I thought about getting this time like a goat cheese I tried that wasn't bad, which is something coming from me because I usually can't do cheese by itself; it just doesn't taste right. I just couldn't decide if it would be worth getting these items or if they would spoil in our fridge because we can't eat them fast enough like some of our food does now. (On a side note, I'm looking into different methods of preserving food like canning or getting one of those food vacuums that eliminate the air in a bag to store the food longer.)

I recommend for anyone to check out their local Farmer's Market, it's quite interesting to see what you find and a great way to support local growers and other businesses.

Making Room for More Coupons

The hardest part for me about couponing, is cleaning out my coupon binder. Here it is, Sunday all over again and a new newspaper received in my driveway, with new coupons. My coupon binder is full though, so I must go through and toss all the coupons I haven't used that are expired in the recycling box. Seeing all those savings I missed out on, it's hard.

But then I get to go through the coupons that came in the newspaper and fill those spots up again. Of course I know the cycle will just start all over again next Sunday.