Archive for January, 2009

Pet Therapy

January 28, 2009 · Filed under community, parenting, pets

When thinking about how I want my daughter to be raise. And what memories I want her to have of her childhood. I began thinking that I wanted her to remember growing up doing something for the community around her that was outside of the church. I think that will be a good foundation for her. I searched everywhere trying to find volunteer organizations that allow you to take your child with you. It finally came to me, pet therapy. We have a dog now and nursing home patients respond well to visits from children and pets.

I began by calling the nursing home closest to our home. The receptionist answered and when I told her what I was interested in doing she said, well we have pets here and our patients all have visitors so I don’t think you’re needed. Honestly, that was not what I was expecting. I called the second closest nursing home to us and the receptionist transferred me to the Activities Director. Once I explained to her that I was interested in doing pet therapy with my 2 year old daughter, the woman began getting very excited. They really want pet therapy for one of their wings that has patients that are unable to leave their rooms and need one-on-one attention and intergenerational pet therapy (child, parent and dog) would be great for them. The lady said that most of them do not get the attention they really deserve.

We ran by the nursing home to fill out paperwork for them to do a background check on me (so far, it’s just like volunteering at a school), to turn in Maggie’s shot records (slightly like enrolling at a school), and let them meet Maggie to make sure she wouldn’t scare the patients (somewhat like getting into a school). Once the background check was approved I was given a list of patients that aren’t able to leave their rooms. These are patients that should be my top priority, although I am allowed to visit anyone in the facility.

The background check just came back and the city was on ice today, so I haven’t had my first pet therapy experience yet, although we did visit a church member when we went to turn in our paperwork for volunteering. Call that a practice round. My goal is to try making it the nursing home once a week. That way it will become routine and something Taylor will anticipate doing each week. Once we start I’m sure I will have some feedback whether it is stories or meeting friendly faces. I’m looking forward to it.

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Lipstick is my 3 in 1.

January 28, 2009 · Filed under going green

I still haven’t found environmentally friendly makeup that I like. I don’t think the mineral makeup is for me. But I have reduced the number of makeup items in my cosmetic bag. I know have three items in my cosmetics bag. I have a compact foundation, lipstick and mascara. That’s all I need. Why is that all I need? Because my lipstick is a 3 in 1. I use my lipstick as eye shadow, blush and lipstick. It’s great, and extremely quick and easy to apply. So even though I’m using regular makeup at least I’m cutting back on how many products I’m using. Every little bit helps.

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Local Sorbet and Compost Education?

January 28, 2009 · Filed under going green

A couple Saturday’s ago I was at the Dallas Farmer’s Market and I began talking to a lady who was selling local homemade sorbet. All of the flavors were from herbs in her garden. They were delicious! During our talk I discovered that this lady teaches the city classes on composting in Irving where we live. Who’d a thought!

And yes, I am checking into those composting classes. The April classes are all filled up but there are some spots available in the May classes.

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Playdates

January 28, 2009 · Filed under parenting

I love playdates! A mother that attends story time at our local library stood up at the end of class one day and announced that she would love to get together for playdates at a local park on Friday. If anyone was interested they could talk to her after class. I am always looking for ways my kid can interact with other kids so this was great. I exchanged email addresses and later that day she emailed everyone who was interested directions to the park and a designated time. I was also excited about going to a new park. Since we have a park in our neighborhood (which I love), I don’t venture out to other parks much. I have to say, I had a great time chatting with the mothers and grandmothers that came. And Taylor loved playing with all the kids. PLUS, I now know these mothers a lot better so story time is even more enjoyable (for me).

When the weather is too cold to go to a park then we meet in someone’s home. I have loved this. I am going again this Friday and can’t wait. I just wish I had thought about doing something like this sooner. And I wish I had the nerve to invite others I run into to our group. I met the sweetest mother and son at the park last week and I wanted so badly to invite her to the group but having just met her I was afraid she’d think I was weird. I did invite her to story time at the library, I figured that was a save invite. Let’s hope that if I meet them again I will have the nerve to invite them into our group. It’s good stress release for the mothers and fun play for the kids.

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Homemade Deodorizer

January 28, 2009 · Filed under going green

I love using Tea Tree Oil to deodorize my home. I only use it when it’s needed, but it really does a great job. First off, you can find TTO in your local Wal-Mart on the vitamin aisle. It’s in a small container like Vitamin E Oil. Here are my favorite uses for it:

  • Trash Can Odor? Put 3-5 drops of TTO on a cotton ball and put it in the bottom of the trash can.
  • Need a way to freshen up the room? Put 3-5 drops of TTO in a 2 ounce spray bottle and you’re ready to go. It’s a very light fragrance that works wonderfully.
  • Have a blemish? Put a touch of TTO on it and it works as a natural antiseptic.
  • If you are cloth diapering you can add a few drops to your wash water to deodorize and rid the diapers of yeast if your child is infected.

These are just a few uses that I have tried. I love it. I use it on our dog’s bed all the time. And if Taylor has any spills and I think any odor might be left behind after I clean the spill up with vinegar, then I spray a little of the TTO spray over the area. I love it, natural, easy, and cheap!

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My Birthday

January 28, 2009 · Filed under myself

On December 29th, I turned 29. For my birthday I received a card with some cash in it from the in-laws. They knew I needed a pair of everyday black shoes. The pair I was currently using I got when Travis and I were engaged and even though they are a great pair of quality shoes, they had a few holes in the bottom of them and the holes were starting to hurt my feet. I did need to buy a new pair of shoes. But at the same time I wasn’t sure that I wanted to purchase a pair of leather shoes. I am not vegan, but a part of me wasn’t OK with purchasing leather shoes. I held on to the card and the money and decided to sit on it for a while.

After Christmas was over I heard a friend of mine in TN talking about how her parents had given her a family zoo membership for Christmas. What a great idea I thought! And our membership to the zoo just expired. I considered purchasing the zoo membership with my birthday money, but I really didn’t want to disappoint the in-laws by not getting the shoes I desperately needed. So I decided to sit on it a little longer.

I remembered reading somewhere that Payless was a good place to find non-leather shoes. I decided to look online and I found an everyday pair of black shoes with all man made materials for only $16.99!!! I was so excited I had to run to our Payless and try them on. (They were also available in wide width too, snazzy!)

To make a long story short, I was able to purchase a family zoo pass and a pair of everyday black shoes with my birthday money. What a fantastic way to spend the money! And the in-laws couldn’t be upset that their money funded the shoes needed and all the trips to the zoo for the next year. Their grandkid LOVES the zoo!

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Hair Donation

January 28, 2009 · Filed under community

I enjoy having long hair. I do NOT look good in short hair so I really like having long hair. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I can easily pull it back in a ponytail or that men tend to find longer hair sexier. (Yes, I do attempt to be sexy for my hubby.) I just like long hair. Now my hair has some natural curl to it and is extremely dry so when it gets to a certain length it’s time to cut it. If I don’t then I am not able to even brush it without my arms feeling like they are about to fall off. BUT I started reading more about hair donation (especially for kiddos) and decided to put up with the fuss a little bit longer so I would have enough length to donate and enough hair left to still make me feel good about myself.

First I had to find an organization that would take my hair. My hair had been colored (well, parts of it) and I have some gray hair. These are both issues to consider when selecting an organization. Not all organizations will accept colored hair and/or gray hair. I found this website on donating hair to be the best and it has a list of six different organizations to donate to. I looked at the various organization websites and what they offered to their patients. I had donated once before in high school to Locks of Love so I was familiar with the basic concept.

This time I decided to donate to Children with Hairloss. This organization accepts children who suffer from hair loss for a variety of reasons and doesn’t just give them one wig. Once they are accepted to receive help, the organization gives them one wig a year through their 18th birthday. I thought that was something special. Think about it, kids heads surely grow a little bit as they grow. And hair styles change, trends change, and everyone else around them probably get a new hair style, why not them?

After selecting an organization and reading their rules for donating. And after my hair got long enough to donate, I went to our local mall (a place that has adult cuts for $11) and simply told them I needed to cut my hair for donation first. It was as simple as that. I brought along my own Ziploc bag and ponytail holder. When I got home I laid the hair out on top of our armoire (so the 2 year old wouldn’t get it) to make sure the hair was fully dry. Once I knew it was, I put it in the envelope as directed and mailed it to the organization. That’s it, viola! Hair donation is simple and helps those who need it.

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Maggie

January 28, 2009 · Filed under going green, pets

Two summers ago we decided as a family that we wanted a dog. We went to our local animal shelter and found a beautiful white (yellow) lab. Taylor and I asked to meet her and she was very good with Taylor. The next day, we adopted her. During that first night she began continually coughing up mucus. I panicked since I know nothing about dogs and decided to take her to the vet first thing the next morning. She had a few problems: kennel cough, worms, and a skin condition. I babied her and nursed her back to health. We called her Zoe. Then after being on the medication for a full week, she was herself again, only much more hyper than she was at the shelter. That was fine, we were expecting hyper from a one year old lab and I thought that was fun UNTIL she began to get aggressive. This dog would not allow me to hold my daughter without growling and snarling at me. (Not a typical lab quality.) Since at the time, I had a new 14 month old, I decided it was best to remove the dog from our home. I called the local lab rescue but they would not take her since she was showing signs of aggressive behavior. I called the Humane Society, but they never returned my call. I began being afraid of the dog and decided to take her back to the animal shelter. I didn’t know what else to do.

After taking her back I told myself I just wasn’t a dog person. Truth is I really still wanted a dog but was afraid the previous experience was too much for my hubby and daughter to handle. So I pushed that urge aside and secretly visited websites about adopting dogs, caring for dogs, learning about various breeds, etc. And then the time came….my daughter began asking us if we could have a dog in our house. BINGO! I began finding local pet mobiles from organizations that fostered the pets. (I figured that these people would know the dog since they lived in their house, right? No more surprises.) We would go and meet the dogs but none of them were dogs that Taylor wanted to take to her house and none of them were dogs that my husband liked. I was afraid we would never get a dog.

Then one Saturday while at a PetSmart pet mobile, we walked through looking at each dog as it lay in its cage. None of them seemed to be what we were looking for, until we reached the very last one. In a cage sitting on top of a really big cage with a really big dog in it named Tiger was a tiny little lady who was simply precious. We immediately began reading her profile and decided that we wanted to meet her. We took her over to the side and began to love on her. She immediately crawled into my lap and Travis looked at me and said, this is the one. Taylor then said, he’s so cute. (We corrected her that she was so cute.) And then came the true test, I asked Taylor if she wanted her to live at her house. She said, yeah! We went back to the lady and informed her that we wanted this dog. Travis filled out all the paperwork while I found her a harness and lead.

We walked out of the store as proud owners of a 7 pound, 3 year old Shih Tzu. The organization Lost Paws had rescued her from a puppy mill where she had been bread a few times. They had docked her tail and she was found heartworm positive. Lost Paws treated her for heart worms and had her spayed before she went up for adoption. She was very shy at first. She wouldn’t even walk on a leash. I had to carry her everywhere. We were told that she lacked human interaction and hadn’t really figured out what we were there for yet. She needed a loving home and that’s what we planned to give her.

Well that was on Dec. 13th. We’ve had her for a month and a half now. She is still a perfect angel. We had her for 8 days before we heard her bark. She doesn’t shed, which is great. Biggest issue has been finding her food that she would eat. Shih Tzu’s are very picky eaters. I can’t even find treats (other than her one greenie a day) that she will eat. She won’t eat cheese or meat (yes, the vegetarians purchased boiled chicken to feed their starving dog). Fortunately a friend told me about Wellness dog food. Our vet said Wellness is known for their quality and our picky eater loves it, two pluses in my book. She is almost up 9 pounds which is where the vet would like to see her. Last time we checked she was 8 pounds, 11 ounces. We’re almost there.

Overall we are in love. She is apart of the family. I find myself trying to find things for the family to do, all of us including Maggie. She’s a cute little thing and loves rawhide sticks and stuffed dog toys. She will also chew on wooden puzzle pieces, but only if a two year old gives them to her. But she hasn’t chewed on anything she’s not supposed to chew on and we’ve only had minor accidents. She has been very easy to train and she really aims to please. An ideal day for her is to lie in my arms all day long. She’s a total lap dog, but LOVES going outside. I don’t think she was able to spend much time outside before living here. She loves it. She’s fitting in very well and we’re very glad to welcome her into our home and to have had a better adoption experience this time.

And I must add that we are still working on teaching Taylor how to treat a dog. There are times I still catch her trying to pick Maggie up to carry her somewhere. And I sometimes catch her hugging Maggie a little too tight. She’s not trying to hurt her, she just doesn’t understand that dogs don’t care for lots of hugs, they’d rather be petted.

What have I learned from all of this? If you have a small child and don’t know much about dogs, it might be better to adopt from an organization that fosters the pets and knows the pets rather than a local shelter. (Not that all animals from shelters are bad or shouldn’t be considered. This just worked best for our family.)

If you are thinking about adopting a pet consider looking at Petfinder.com, a local shelters (including any no-kill shelters in your area), a rescue (some are for breed specific, others are not), or the Humane Society. And when it’s time to select a vet, the best advice is personal recommendation. Find someone who is happy with their vet and try it out.

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Living on a Budget

January 28, 2009 · Filed under saving green

As you may have read on here before, we are a family who, like many others, live on a budget. We have recently changed our budgeting ways mostly due to the fact that we wanted healthier food options on our menu. (We plan a weekly dinner menu.) Let’s just face it; it costs more to eat healthier food. That isn’t to say that the most expensive items or organic items are the healthiest, it just means that I can’t purchase healthy food for the same price as I can typical boxed dinners. So instead of allowing ourselves $400 a month to cover everything but gasoline and utilities, we now allow ourselves $700 a month to cover everything but utilities. That $700 covers gasoline, groceries, prescriptions, clothing, pet costs, household items, etc.

I know, $700 a month sounds like a lot, but when you start purchasing local fruits, veggies, honey and eggs. And then go to the store to purchase organic fair trade flour, sugar, corn meal, etc. your grocery expenses go up. To purchase a gallon of organic locally processed milk it’s $8. Four sticks of organic butter is $4. A 5-LB bag of fair trade flour is $4.59. And to purchase local pastured eggs its $4 per dozen. It just costs more. Making a loaf of bread from scratch or pizza from scratch can cost more than the ones you can easily purchase at the grocery store too. It just costs more to eat healthier. At the end of the month, usually the last week, depending on how “good” we’ve been, we might have to resort to purchasing regular milk at $2.50 a gallon and margarine at $.99, but that’s OK. At least we’re eating healthier most of the month and we’re sticking to the budget we’ve set for ourselves.

I want to add an insert here to say that this is a flexible budget for our family. This month for instance, we purchased our new digital converter boxes and had an unexpected vet visit with medication and still stayed within our budget. It’s flexible and if there’s extra money left over it can go into savings at the end of the month.

How did we come up with this budget plan? In planning our budget we first wrote down our monthly income in one column and all of our monthly expenses (utilities, student loan, car loan, car insurance, taxes, and cc/savings) in another column. *Since Travis is considered self-employed we pay self-employment taxes each month. And yes, we added a savings row so we could begin putting a little money into our savings account each month. Beside each utility I inserted what the average cost is for us. And beside the others I inserted the regular payment or (in the case of the cc/savings) what I want to put toward that each month. What we had left over was $700, which is enough to fund our “living expenses” for one month.

How we put this into practice: Before starting this we saved up the $700 estimated monthly living expense. At the beginning of the month we took out the $700 in cash that we had saved the month prior. Taking the money out and turning it into cash helps ensure that we don’t spend more than what we want to spend and are able to control the money inside our account better (so we don’t dive into the savings money). (It helps us ration the money if we get some larger bills like $50s, that way we are aware of when we have spent $50 at a time and don’t run out before the end of the month.) Then our paychecks are put in the bank to cover our utilities, loan payments, etc. and what is left over? $700 which would stay in the bank until the beginning of the next month and would be turned into cash to serve as our living expenses for the next month. (Hopefully that didn’t sound too confusing.) The amount left over at the end of the month will vary slightly as utilities vary from month to month, but it’s always something we CAN live off of.

For us this budget has helped ensure that we set aside money for what we really want to set aside money for. When we got into financial trouble last April we reacted quickly by putting our debt onto an interest free credit card and giving ourselves a very strict budget. It’s served us well, but was hard to keep. This is a more realistic goal for our family and it still allows us to pay off our debt before any interest begins to accrue. We will make our final payment in April on the cc and once it’s paid off we will add the money that we were putting toward that to our savings fund. (In case you weren’t a frequent reader last April when taxes were due, we were hit pretty hard. We assumed self-employment taxes were 7.1% (like employment tax), but it’s 15.35% and we had an unexpected out of network medical expense on top of that. We went from having no debt to being almost $9,000 in debt. So, as you can image, to be debt free again (other than Travis’ student loan and our car payment) is very exciting.)

*On a side note I would like to say that we turned all our insurance/hospital/doctor correspondence over to our insurance agent last week and we got three reimbursement checks from the company in the mail this week. Our health insurance company did over charge us for the miscarriage. (Of course, it still cost us a lot more than it should have (IMO). It was almost the cost of birthing a baby in network!)

Well, that’s our budget. It allows us freedom yet accomplishes it’s task. What works for your family?

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Eating Locally

January 27, 2009 · Filed under community, going green

If any of you are still out there, I’m back! And I have SO much to write about that I have decided to break it into various posts. Here’s the first, enjoy!

Over the Christmas break we took a lengthy car trip to visit family and decided to check out a book on cd to entertain us along the way. Our first selection (Hot, Flat, and Crowded) wasn’t available so our substitute pick was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It’s a very enlightening look at a family who decided they would, for one year, eat only what they grew or raised themselves, or what they could find locally that others had grown or raised. I tell you what, that family was impressive. After listening to their story I was almost motivated to move to farm house and start a garden and build a chicken coop in the backyard and milk a cow! Now I didn’t really do any of those things, but it was very inspiring to hear what is possible. The only thing they were able to do that I am afraid I could not do is slaughter turkeys. I would rather someone else kill it or just go without the meat.

Eating locally (aka a locavore) is something we really wanted to do as much as possible after listening to the reasoning explained in the book. For us, this means we hit our farmer’s market and make sure to buy from the certified “local” tent. (The Dallas Farmer’s Market is huge and sometimes vendors get their produce from other states.) So, we are purchasing local fruits, veggies, honey and eggs. [It has come to our attention that the nice brown cartons of FREE RANGE eggs at the grocery store are not all they are cracked up to be. In order to farmer's to mark their eggs FREE RANGE all they have to do is have one door in a large chicken house that is open during certain hours so the chickens have the opportunity to go outside. Research shows that chickens will try the door once and if it's not open they won't try it again. So they don't even try going out of the door during the few hours it's unlocked.] At our farmer’s market we have found a couple booths that sell pasture raise chickens. The chickens range freely on a pasture and the eggs are collected daily. They sell here for $4 a dozen. We also have six booths dedicated to pasteurized meat. These animals (cows, pigs, chickens, lambs, rabbits) are not treated with hormones or antibiotics and are fed grass, alfalfa, clover, etc. They eat what is on that land and are also given hay rations. The animals are not killed until they have lived out their life and have reproduced and so on…. These animals live a different life than most of the animals that now lay in your grocers’ freezer. *We haven’t’ ventured out into the world of meat yet. We are still vegetarian. The thought actually makes me a little queasy now. (It’s weird, I know!)

Another resource you might have in your area is the local co-op or CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. In our local area, there is a 15 week CSA where you pay to the farmer a set amount of money up front (amount varies depending on the amount of food you need, i.e. individual or family). And for the next 15 weeks you receive fresh vegetables and breads from local farms and a local bakery. Directly from the farm to you. We haven’t tried this yet, but would love to give it a try.

Items we can’t find at our local farmer’s market we pick up at a local grocery store. If we had a true local grocery store then I would try shopping there, but we don’t (not that I know of at least), so I shop at our local neighborhood Kroger (plus, it’s in walking distance of the house). When purchasing dairy and produce items I now look at where the item came from. I now purchase milk based on which one was produced closest to our home. Hoping it is fresher and lacking extra preservatives, turns out that Borden’s is produced right here in Dallas.

We haven’t done this yet, but are considering making our own cheese. With a gallon of milk and two cheese making cultures we can make mozzarella in just 30 minutes. We weren’t able to find the cultures locally, but have found them online. There is a lady known as the Cheese Queen who has the 30 minute mozzarella recipe and sells the cultures along with other cheese making items. If we purchase this I will report back with our story, success or failure.

Some items we purchase are purchased simply because they are the only fair trade flour on the shelf or because they are the only organic option. When those options aren’t available and buying local isn’t an option, then best price usually wins. We’re still on a budget and counting every penny. But we have allowed ourselves more money for buying healthier food choices. We believe that eating healthier foods will serve our general health better and our attitudes better.

If you get the opportunity to read or listen to this book, it will make you think twice about what you are putting into your body and the effect it has on the world (especially the amount of American tax dollars spent to produce a cheaper product).

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