FINALLY!!!!

Those of you who have been with me since the beginning know what an epiphany this is.  Anyone else, just play along.

Remember how I am a tea hoarder?  You know I have whittled and whittled down my tea stash only to create a tea tin stash?  I can NOT bring myself to throw away perfectly good tins.  I have looked and searched and thought and thought of ways to recycle, reuse those tins and not much has come to mind.

And then I found this  Please, go check out this fabulous recycling blog.  Beautiful, creative and innovative ways to use found objects.

Here are a couple pictures of the tea tin lights

Before:

And after:

Very clever.

Evil Husbands and sundry things to discuss

1. I have been gone (not just from the blog world) but gone from my home and out of town. I am not at liberty to discuss the particulars of this impromptu trip.  Suffice it to say, it was necessary and not a pleasure  cruise.

2. Evil husbands.  Mr. Big Ed is going to find a big boot in his ass if he doesn't keep his grubby hands off my gorgeous computer.  I realize he gave it to me as a gift for my birthday.  But that does not give him any more license to fuck with it than it would for him to go wear the jewelry he has given me.  Right?

He did something and I don't really know what it was, but something that has caused my computer and iPhoto in particular to not recognize my camera and I can't get pictures from my camera onto the computer and here.  So now you can't see the photos of the little tiny rescue mama kitty and the two precious little babie kittens.

And it is all Mr. Big Ed's fault.  He was supposed to use the time that I was gone to try and rectify that situation but that didn't happen.  No baby kitten pics for you.  Courtesy of Mr. Big Ed.

Hmmmpphh.

3. BIG BROTHER!!  First off, Evel Dick is back!

And then he is gone.

WTF???

He has posted a long-winded video on his website about how he loves BB, and CBS and even Danielle and how all the rumors are wrong.

So Evel Dick is out.  Who do we like out of this cast?  Certainly not that loud obnoxious Rachel or her idiot boyfriend.  I do like Jeff and Jordan, but good Lord, if those two had a brain they would take it out and play with it.  Probably lose it after that.

But the new herd?  I can't tell if I like any of them or not.  Do you have any favorites?

4. Celebrity Rehab - Oh my.

What is up with Amy Fisher?  There is more than one screw loose with that girl.

5. I haven't read the obits to share with you in several weeks now.  I promise to do that after this Sunday's edition of the paper.

6. Remember that I was doing some new diet plan with my friend Judy?  Well, I did the Phase 1 for 5 or 6 days, and then moved on to Phase 2, and Phase 3.  Then I found a different diet that is a 3 day plan and did that for a while.  I just did the 3 days and repeated.  Like lather, rinse, repeat, you know.

Then when I was gone on my little trip it was impossible to keep up with it so I just went with the rest of the group and didn't make a fuss.  I got right back on the diet today so I am hoping some of these healthier choices I have been making will become second nature and can quit worrying, planning and working so hard at this.

I had lost 10 lbs when I last checked.  The weight loss is important but I am not going to obsess over the scale and the numbers.  I am trying to reduce my craving for sugar and carbs and get healthy, increase my metabolism and these things are all just as important as the weight loss.

7. My s-i-l was recently on a fabulous European vacation and I got a gift from her trip!!  Yay!!  What do you think she brought me?

Did you guess tea?

Did you guess tea that comes in fabulously colored tins?

How about FIVE OF THEM??  Woot!!

They are all exquisite, each one more intriguing-sounding than the last.

Such a pity that Mr. Big Ed has made it impossible for me to show you the lovely teas.  Dastardly dog.

8. We still have the rescue mama kitty and the two babies.  They are 10 days old today.  The babies have already got homes promised to them when they are six weeks old or so.  But the poor little mama kitty doesn't have a home to go after that.  If any of you want her and can provide her a loving warm home, please let me know.  She has a very calm and loving nature and deserves to have a home of her own.

9. I made a new recipe of Baked Tofu Bites tonight and tossed some of them on a bed of spinach and poured a bit of the marinade on it as a dressing.  They were really good.  I am one of the few people I know who really like tofu.

10. Breaking Bad starts back on Sunday.  Don't miss it!  I can't wait to see what Walter and Jesse get up to this season.  I wonder if the brother-in-law DEA guy will make it through this season?

Wish me luck in figuring out what to do about my camera/computer relationship and getting it fixed.

The Reading of the Obits, yet again

Before I jump right into this past week's obituaries, I have to tell you the funniest story.  I was reading the local news online, since I only take the Sunday paper (for the obits) and there was an article about weird and interesting funerals.  So you know I clicked on THAT one first thing!  Anyhoo, in this article the owner of one of the large funeral homes was quoted several times.  This made me think he must be a big-wig in the local funeral parlor game.  Never in a million years would you ever guess this dude's name.  Never!  I kept going over and over the article because there is no way I thought this was real.

Picture this, me and Mr. Big Ed are bereaved and for some reason (knocking on all kinds of wood) are at the funeral home and having to make arrangements.  We are sad, we are overcome with grief, yet still having to make mundane decisions.  Then the director comes in and introduces himself.   "Hello, so very sorry for your loss.  My name is Dick Tipps and I will be here to serve you".

Yeppers.  Dick. Tipps.  They call me Mr. Tipps!

Did his parents wake up and say to themselves "Selves, we must toughen up this tiny little 6' 7" baby boy. I know!  Let's name him Dick!  Then he can get the crap beaten out of him every single day of his school career!!"  Not to mention he won't have a girlfriend to cramp his focus on his academics.

Mr. Big Ed and I were so bad, we giggled about this for quite some time and could not picture ourselves doing this and keeping straight faces.  I had to call my friend Patty Cakes and tell her all about it too.  I sure hope we aren't going to hell for our interest in obituaries and wanting to correct all the grammar in them.

On to the obits!!

Under the category of bad names, like the afore-mentioned Mr. Tipps:

We find Harold Rocco DeBona.  Was he known as Harry?  Harry DeBona?  His two sons were Rocco and Bruce.  Rocco Jr. was married to Sugar.  Sugar and Rocco DeBona.  You can totally picture this cast on the Sopranos, can't you?

Then we have Mae Gee who lived to the age of 95. (Yea Mae!!) She was born to Woo Gee and Shee Gee.  And yet her only 2 surviving brothers were named Paul and William.

New and interesting ways to say "died":

Linda Rose got her angel wings and was reunited with our Lord in her new mansion on Friday, Feb. 11.

Our dear sweet mother, Mary Louise, went to her heavenly home on Feb. 3 after a lenghy battle with dementia.

Jack Paul Leon died peacefully of pancreatic cancer at home on Wednesday, in the arms of his loving family.
**I have been with too many people in my family dying of cancer and I find it almost impossible to believe that was truly peaceful.  I sincerely hope that it was.

This next one also gets an award for longest run-on sentence. "Jenny Fleming, who was born in China and came of age in Shanghai during WWII and who married John T. Fleming Jr. in 1949, lost her valiant struggle with the complications of pneumonia and passed away peacefully on Feb. 7.
**I am sorry for poor Jenny Fleming, but seriously?  Who is born, came of age, got married, fights pneumonia and passes peacefully all in one sentence?  Give Jenny some dignity and use a period or two.

This one almost got the award for longest sentence, but they actually used two sentences for this. "Frances Marie "CISCA" Maestes, "Keka"; devoted daughter, inspiring sister, loving partner, loyal and generous friend, age 43, passed away quietly Saturday, Feb 5, at her home, surrounded by her family, into the waiting arms of her Heavenly Father. After a long and valiant battle with cancer; her spirit was just too big and too beautiful for her broken body to contain".
**The pain just leaps off the page in that particular one, doesn't it?  So sad to see these really young people who are truly in the prime of their lives dying of that no good bitch cancer.




Wonderful old names that we don't see anymore:

Eva Edna.  Love it!

Under the category of really interesting info:

"Curtis Wayne Lamb Hayes was born Sept. 13, 1937 in Long Beach, CA. Curt died from cardio/pulmonary failure. He also suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Curt was the only son of George Samuel Lamb and Almeda Marie Hill Lamb. In 1941, George was killed aboard the U.S.S. Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor."  Curt's mom remarried and he went on to live a great life and did loads of fun things.  It was a really nice, and interesting obituary.  A life well lived!

Then we come to Tara Nancy, who was way too young to die at 42.  Here is what they said about Tara. "Tara had an exciting career as a helicopter pilot, private and commercial, for 15 years and was a member of Whirly-Girls, International Women Helicopter Pilots."

"James Lee Oaks, age 70 went to be with the Lord on Feb 8. His death was unexpected. James was born in Coldwater Miss. August 3, 1940. He was from a family of 10 children and he lost his father in a fire when he was only 10 years old. He helped raise his siblings before he joined the Air Force."
**I can only imagine that losing his dad in such a horrible way was a defining moment in his life. Especially if he was only 10 years old.  I was curious as to where Mr. James Lee was in the birth order of those 10 kids.  My first thought was that he was the oldest, but that would mean there were 10 kids in as many years and can you imagine what his poor mama went through?  She would have been completely worn out with 10 kids under 10 and losing her husband.  So let's hope that James Lee was in the bottom of the pack and there were some teen-aged kids to help her out after this ordeal.


And one of the obits had a great little bit of info about the deceased that sounded a lot like me.  I read it to Patty Cakes and she said we should save it to work into my own obit.  "Mary was a life long homemaker, devoted wife and mother and an excellent seamstress, who could also crochet up a storm. She loved to work in the yard, watch the birds, do crossword puzzles and do for others. She also enjoyed many wonderful travels with Morris and friends over the years. But what she loved most was spending time with her family."

Now other than "an excellent seamstress", that sounds a whole lot like me.  And I would be traveling with Mr. Big Ed, not Morris.

Over all, it was some good reading this week.  Sadly, there were too many young people, and the worst of all was a little 15 month old named Madelynn.  The sweetest little picture of her accompanied her obituary.  So sad, just heart-breaking for this to happen.

I wasn't going to tell you this, but I will.  One of the obituaries was of someone I knew.  He was a very close friend of one of my friends.  I went to his funeral yesterday and it was so sad.  I barely knew this man and I cried like a baby when he got his military honors.  When they do the playing taps while also doing the whole folding of the flag and presenting it to the mama, you just can't keep it together.  No one should ever have to receive a flag for their child.  I am crying again just thinking about it.  We get lots of military funerals here since our Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetary is second largest behind Arlington.  And they keep those old veterans busy out there most every day doing the 21 gun salute and playing taps.  The ritual of the service must be hard for them to do day in and day out.  But that ritual is what is so meaningful to the mourners.  It was a beautiful service and I hope it was some comfort to his family.

And now, to completely change gears!!

Queen B!  would you prefer black, green or white tea?

February Free Tea Winner!

and drum roll . . . . . . . . . .



This month's winner of FREE TEA is . . . . . .


QueenB!!!

My first and long-time follower, QueenB!  Come On Down!!!

Yes, my friend, the price is right.  Free!

What could be better than Free?  Not much.

*Full disclosure here:  QueenB is my s-i-l and really is my first and long-time follower.  And I really did draw her name out of the hat.  But that does not mean YOU can't be the winner next month!  So be sure to come back and play along.

I am off to go do some post-partum work and then go to the Vagina Monologues (proceeds to benefit the Rape Crisis Center).  It's a great day, is what it is!

Come back soon and see the latest and greatest obits and other goings-on here at Chez Lisa Pie.

Here's what I forgot to show you earlier this week

Look at that!  It "snowed".  It snowed enought to cover the steps, sidewalk, street and other really cold stuff, but not fully cover the grass.  We must have really warm dirt.  See where there was another car that left early?

I wish we had real snow, real winters.  I loved it so much when we were in Minnesota, the land of 4 distinct seasons.  I loved how things changed so much from month to month.  Come spring, every single month there were totally new things blooming.  There was not a single season I didn't love there. Funny how it is not on my short list of places to retire.  I might have to think on that.

Then when the huge drifts of snow cleared, Mr. Big Ed and I went mattress shopping!  Yea!!  We have needed a new bed for forever it seems.  I got a fabulous coupon deal in the mail from Sears and we spent a lot of time online scoping out what was available and getting Mr. Big Ed over his sticker shock before we ventured out to brave the cold, snow and ice.  And listen, it can be downright painful shopping with Mr. Big Ed.  He shops with both hands tightly over his wallet and his eyeballs glued to the price section of all the signs.  "Mr. Big Ed, which bed is most comfy and the one you think you can sleep on for the next 10 years?"  His answer?  "The cheapest".  Really?  Low prices make you that relaxed, do they?  Me, I need a little more from a bed than just cheapness.

Anyhoo, we headed out to go to Sears and take advantage of the great deal they mailed to me.  But we stopped off at JC Penney first.  We tried out every mattress there.  Now, if you are like me and have not shopped for mattresses in the last 10 years, here's a little head's up. They have store models that have a "Firm" side and a "Plush" side.  This is good because they can show off twice as many beds in half as much space.  It is BAD because there is no possible way for you and another person to both try out the same bed at the same time.  But since Mr. Big Ed thought he wanted a Firm, Hard as a Brick, Really Cheap bed, and I wanted the softest, Princess and the Pea Plushy model, it would have been perfect serendipity if they would just sell us one of those floor models.  Right?

Not a snowball's chance in Texas.

I started taking pics of the beds to document which ones we liked but it turned out to be more informative to take pics of the signs on the beds to remember the names of that model, since they all pretty much look the same.  So we narrowed down the Penney's beds to 4 that we liked.  The Sealy Oak Grove, the Serta Gentle Haven, the Simmons Danvers and the Simmons Marlowe.

Then we drove down to Mattress Firm, which threw me off my game in trying out beds because they had the word FIRM on all the beds and I didn't want to try them out.  And can I just say here that you know you are getting old when you fall in love with the bed with the electric controls to raise and lower the head and the knee sections?  Loved that bed.  Loved that bed.  Mr. Big Ed?  Not so much.  He saw the price and went in to a complete sticker shock and refused to get in it.  Dick.

FINALLY, we made our way to Sears and tried out all their beds and narrowed it down to 4 as well.  Then I pulled out my lovely letter from them entitling me to not only the 50% off, but the store was having another 10% on top of that and my letter gave me an ADDITIONAL 10%, PLUS free delivery and hauling off of Old Lumpy AND a free bed frame.  Turns out only 1 of the 4 we had selected was eligible for all this free stuff.  So we were between 1 bed at Sears and the 4 at Penney's.

Mr. Big Ed came out of his high price-induced coma and told me that the one feature that impressed him above all the others was the ones that had completely separate coils that worked independently from each other rather than as one big connected wire bouncy thing.  That narrowed the list down to 2 of the Penney's beds.  The beds that have this are the Simmons Beautyrest, in case you care.  So back to Mr. J. C. Penney's store we went.

And here is the winner!  The Simmons Beautyrest Danvers in the Plush, cushy, comfy version.  It is due to be delivered on either the 16th or the 18th.  Then Old Lumpy will be carted off by the Penney's people to get a Viking funeral or some such thing.  Normally, I really care about what happens to things, where they go and keeping things out of the landfill that don't necessarily need to be there, but I don't know of anything I can do with this poor, tired old bed.  So if you are in the market for a really old, sad, lumpy, saggy bed you have until either the 16th or the 18th to come get it.

Meanwhile, please feast your eyes on the soon-to-be new bed!  Aaaaah, can't you just feel the relaxation?  I sure can!

And for the last time this month, please do let me know if you want to be in the drawing for some FREE tea!  I will be choosing someone next week.  Maybe I will get organized and do it Monday for Valentine's Day?  Let me hear from you!

T.V. shows 2011 Part 1. Oh and FREE TEA

It is that time again.  February is sweeps month or some such thing and that is when all the shows pull out all the stops to make some great t.v. and hopefully revenue.  You would think that they would want this high quality programming all the time on their networks, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

First up:  Glee!  Did you see last night?  This new chubby chick they brought in who has always been such a grump was a hoot and a half.  She was just precious.  I kept thinking to myself "Self, I wish you had that kind of confidence and balls back in high school. Hell, I wish I had that NOW!!"  Love her attitude.  And Kurt and his almost-boyfriend were featured.  I miss him when he isn't on all the time, but I am happy that he is in the other school and thriving. ('Cause you know, he's real, and the school is real and the situation is real!)  I know, I am a dork.

Top Shot 2 started up last night.  I could not have been more excited!  Joann, I know you don't watch much t.v., but please tell your husband to look for this show on the History Channel.  It is really interesting and fun to watch all these marksmen learn new weapons and new challenges.  And as a bonus, it stars Colby Donaldson.

Yes, THAT Colby.  From Survivor.  He is such a doll.  So, Tuesday nights on History Channel, be there or be square!

Mr. Sunshine - new series for Matthew Perry starts up tonight.  I don't know anything about it, but I love Matthew Perry and I am willing to give it a shot.

DWTS - No word yet on who the so-called "celebrities" will be, but it is reported that Derek Hough won't be back for this season.  That's too bad, he is really, really good.  But maybe it is better for the others to try and rise up and fill that spot.  Cross your fingers we don't have a bunch of losers and has-beens and wanna-be's this time.

Shameless - If you haven't been watching this new series on Showtime, why the hell not?  William H. Macy has found the role of his life playing this sad, hilarious, unfortunate, drunk, single dad of six kids. It is set in Chicago and each week it seems to surpass itself in what all they can cram in to an hour long show.  Fabulous.  I can guarantee there will be nominations for this show.  Watch it, you won't regret the time invested in it.

Episodes - This is another new Showtime series that comes on right after or before Shameless.  It is one of those things that is so silly and far-fetched it has to be based on truth!  Matt Le Blanc is so good in this.  I know, you don't believe me, but he really is.  Just sit through the first 2 episodes of Episodes and you will be hooked.

Big Love - This is the last, final season for this HBO hit.  What will happen to the Henrichsons?  Will Bill get to keep his state representative seat?  Will all 3 sister wives stay with the family? Will the oldest daughter Sara ever show up?  How about Barb's 3 child, Teeny?  Where is she?  Will anyone finally put Albie out of his misery?  He is one evil dastardly dog, he is!  What's up with Nicki's daughter?  They all seem to be going off the deep end.  But not together.  They each have their own secret hell and misery to contend with.  I like this show.  I like how much I have learned about the off-shoot of Mormon polygamists.  It sure made a lot more sense of the mis-guided raid on the polygamist compound here in Texas from a couple years ago.  What a complete cluster-f*uck that was!

And to wind things up today, just a reminder to let me know if you want your name in the hat for the FREE TEA!!  Yes, I am trying to whittle down my tea stash by any means possible and I am now resorting to pawning it off on you.  : )

I promise any teas I send out will be fabulous and I hope you will love them.  Let me hear from you if you want to be one of the lucky winners.

Mish Mash, Super Bowl, Obits, and what-not

I have sooooo many things to talk about today!  Firstly, let's just talk about the Super Bowl and get it over with, shall we?

I gave up watching NFL games with any regularity years ago.  Mostly because we lived out of the country and they weren't available. But a Super Bowl is usually a guaranteed good afternoon of t.v., food, half-time  music, commercials, etc.  The game itself was pretty good.  I was glad to see the Packers win.  Let's just re-cap this.

1. The game was good.  The team without an alleged sex offender won.

2. The half-time show?  Not so much.  I didn't get it.  What was the point of bringing out Usher?  What was the point of Slash standing there and Fergie gyrating all around him?  While ruining a perfectly fine song.  It was a low point in half-time shows, is what I am saying.

3. The commercials.  What a sad state of affairs.  Very very few good ones.  And even the good ones couldn't hold their own against any of the previous good ones.

Here is one of the good ones.

But the best one was from the local grocery store chain H.E.B.  For those of you who are not in Texas, you most likely didn't get to see this ad.  It is Jack Ingram singing at Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas, and probably the most famous.  This is the same dance hall they used in filming that movie Michael with John Travolta playing an angel.  Remember this?

That was in Gruene Hall.  Anyhoo, back to the awesome ad for H.E.B.  This is the full length 3 minute long one.  The one on t.v. was only 1 minute.

Now, on to the obits!!  There were some fabulous old-school names listed!  Love the old antique-y names.

Sadly, Mrs. Elora J. Bump passed away at the age of 88.  She was married to Delmar E. Bump.

Louis Lorelli Guido, Jr. was married to Agnes known as "Tootsie".

Ronald G. Kruithof a.k.a. "Ron/Ray"

Nellie Knopp's family included Ben Mikolajczyk, Victoria Sczodrok, Bruno Knopp, Jimmie and Gladys Zigmond, Alphons Zigmond known as "Rusty", and Cheyenne, Chaely and Colton Zigmond, and Alex and Clara Mikolajczyk. When is the last time you met a Bruno, Gladys or a Clara?  Much less all of them in one family!  Love it.

Hiram Abiff Cockrell died peacefully.  He had 2 brothers by the names of Hansel and John Ross.

We had some unusual euphemisms for dead this week too:

"left this life peacefully"

"passed with her daughter by her side on Saturday evening, after an arduous battle with alzheimer's. The Lord released her of her suffering and took her into His arms."
**Isn't that the saddest and sweetest thing?  It just breaks my heart.


"after 83 years of laughter, love and joy, Janie was granted eternal life after 59 years of marriage to her loving husband, Leonard G."
**Okay, I was seriously confused by this sentence.  Way too many thoughts going on in there. 


"went to eternal rest with the Lord"

"F. Todd Spann, a loving gracious son given by the Lord to Delores A. Busher Spann and F. Rudy Spann, was born on Nov. 11, 1964. Todd was reunited with our Mother Christmas morning when he was welcomed into his eternal home. We rejoice in the knowledge that he passed the barrier of time as we know it and is forever at home with the Savior he faithfully served and his Mom whom he loved dearly."
**Whew.  I am beginning to think they don't charge by the word or the column inch, but rather by how many periods you use.  Why else would people all try to cram as much into each sentence as they do?




And the Most Interesting Obit this week goes to the writer of Cindy Cox's obituary.  Here is a snippet:

"Cindy Cox, born Sept. 27, 1923 in Valdosta, GA, died Feb. 1, 2011.  She was a farm girl during the "Great Depression". When a child, her family fed and provided toys for children and buried the kin of families who could not afford it. Her father, Morris Franklin Hobby (Dice) donated his own farmland for a school. Her mother, Kate Furney was a crack shot who could shoot a screech owl at midnight from 100 yards in the dead of night."
**Now, how could you NOT want to know these people?  Not only does Miss Cindy Cox sound like a wonderful person, her parents were awesome!  And whomever was left to write this tribute knew enough family history to bring their stories to life.  Good job, family of Cindy Cox!!


And since today is the 7th of the month it is time for another drawing of someone to receive a FREE BAG OF TEA!!  Straight from the tea stash of Lisa Pie's pantry.  Yea!!

Last month's winner was Sarah with an H.  I sure hope she received her lovely bag of tea alright and has been enjoying it.

So if you too would love to be chosen to get some FREE TEA, please leave a comment and keep checking back this week to see if you were chosen.  Woo Hoo!!

Mid-week stuff

It's the first Wednesday of the new year.  I haven't listed my resolutions yet.  Pretty much it's going to be the same ones as last year, only this year I will try to remember all of them!

1. I will still be shooting for $20,000 in my savings acct.
2. I will make all my Christmas gifts and I WILL start much earlier this year.
3. I will take charge of my health and doing what I can to get this arthritis thing under control.
4. I will increase my activities of lightening my global footprint. Which is at 3.5 right now.  I can't believe it is so high!  Most all of that is due to living in a hot climate and having to use a/c all the time and what isn't attributed to that, goes to driving a car.  I just do not live in the right place.

I didn't do the obits last week or this past Sunday either.  So I will just give you the highlights of this week:

"Maria Elena found peace with the Lord on Dec. 24"

"In memory of our late father, Pledger Bracket, please help save minds by donating to the Alzheimer's Assoc."

"Katheryn Gaynelle age 89, fell asleep in death due to complications of Alzheimer's disease".

"Howard E. (Bubba), age 67, passed away"

One guy "passed into God's hands" while another man "slipped into the Lord's hands".

But my favorite was this:

"George Eugene lived joyfully with his beloved wife of 67 years."

Living joyfully with your beloved sounds like just the kind of legacy I would like to leave behind.

 . . . . . . . .  and without further ado . . . . . . . . . . .

The very first winner of a free bag of tea is . . . . . .

Sarah!

Sarah with an H, as opposed to other Sara's without H's, please shoot me an email with a mailing address and I will send you a lovely bag of tea.

Next month we will do the same thing.  So make sure you are here during the first week of the month if you want to get in on this excitement.  'Cause what is more exciting than free stuff?!!

On to other news, did any of you watch the first episode of the new season of Biggest Loser last night? I did not understand this at all.  But if I were Bob or Jillian I would be dusting off my resume'.  This does not bode well for either of them.  Yes, I have seen the gossip reports that Jillian will be leaving after this season.  But Bob?  What about Bob?  And still after the 2 hour long opener we have not seen the faces or names of the "Unknowns" as they are calling the new trainers.  Very strange.

Have a great day!

And Sarah, let me hear from you.

New idea and possible free stuff

Ok, hear me out.  I have an idea that may just work to keep me on task with de-cluttering my life (and my tea pantry).  I am thinking of doing a Give-Away each month to one of you lovely readers.

What would I be giving away, you ask?  I will start with the overflowing teas (only sealed and brand new teas of course.  No half-used old crappy teas for you!) and then move on to whatever else needs to be cleared.  Trust me, we have tea to give out for six months before it is time to look in other cabinets.

I was thinking of the first week of each month for this exciting event.  And guess what?  It IS the first of the month already!

So shoot me a comment here on why you want to be the very first recipient of my tea largesse and I will find a way to randomly pick one of the three of you and then will mail you a lovely package of tea.

Year in Review or the Rear-view mirror

It has been many days since I last posted, and while thinking about what scintillating topic to ramble on about, I thought to myself "Self, remember last year when you made all those resolutions for this year? How did that go?"

So, I went back to the beginning of this year and scoped out the post on what all I was going to accomplish.  (See, the reason I started blogging was to hold myself accountable.  If it is all typed out in black and pink then I need to follow through)

What follows is my list of six items that I thought I could accomplish in 2010 and then I will update with what really happened.

1. My savings account will increase by $20,000. I don't know how do-able this really is, but I am using Sluggy as my motivator. She shot for 60K last year and landed in the 20's, which I think is great work. Now last year I moaned and ranted and bitched about how every time I save $250 for example, I then get a bill for $250, so I am REALLY hoping this is not going to be the case with my $20,000 goal. Please wish me luck and cross something for me.

What happened here is lots and lots of car maintenance.  Sparky's car, Rachel Pie's car and my own car all needed new brakes, tires, I think there were batteries and rotors and heaven only knows what other parts involved.  Also, I took July and August off of birthing since we had the big family cruise and the wedding, so that was loss of income.  Then my Grandma (r.i.p.) got so sick and I had to give away clients for Sept. and Oct. when I went to be with her, so that was more loss of income.  I will end the year with $5,000 in my savings account.  That is a far cry from $20,000.  But at least it is still something to the positive, right?

2. Continue on my Compact goals of lightening my footprint on the Mother Earth. I am going to step up all of my activities to another level and see how that goes. You know the drill, less packaging in the house, less things in the garbage, more in the compost, more things gone to Goodwill, less things brought in to the house in the first place.

This went well.  I really did buy way less.  I did choose things with less packaging.  Our compost heaps over-runneth!  And our garbage cans are hardly ever full.  There is still way too much going into the recycling though.  I would love to find a way to get even that reduced by more than half.  

3. Get started WAAAAAAYY earlier on Christmas and birthday gifts. I did not allow near enough time this year and Harry and David came to the rescue for several gifts. Not good planning on my part. I think lots of gifts this year will be through Heifer and Kiva. But the homemade gifts will be started on in April, I think.

Yeah, not so much.  Again, with the poor planning.  Thank the stars above for Harry and for David.  April would have been a good place to start on gifts, but that didn't happen.  Big fat failure on item number 3.

4. Start walking and find a way to get in much better health and better shape this year. 2 of my high school friends dropped dead this year unexpectedly and I am not only deeply saddened by this, but shocked that 50 year old people who should be in their prime are not. I would really like to be around for a little longer. I have more to accomplish, more to see, and I am not even remotely ready to kick said bucket.

You would think that I would remember this particular item.  But no, I had no recollection of this.  As a matter of fact, a little germ of an idea has been sprouting in my brain that says 2011 will be the year of me. The year that I will take care of me.  The year that I will make myself a priority.  Nay, not A priority, but rather THE priority!  Not even a glimmer that I had thought this very thing a year ago. 

5. Toward the end of better health, I will be doing more of my meal planning and shopping through Greenling our local online green grocer and at the farmers markets. Keeping it local and organic can only be good for all of us.

I did do this.  Not as consistently as I would have liked.  But it was an a-typical year with me being gone for extended lengths of time.  I will plan on doing even better on this in the coming year.  And this goes back to item number 2, all the local green grocer shopping and farmers market shopping have NO plastic involved.

6. Remove 1 full shelf of cookbooks from my collection. There are plenty of them that I have never used. There are plenty more that I only have made 1 single item from. These books need to be set free.

This was a complete success.  I got rid of about 75 books and my shelves have breathing room in them now.  I have not purchased (or been gifted) a single cookbook this year.  I did buy the November Bon Apetit with the new Thanksgiving day recipes to add to my collection.  But that is as close as I came to buying a new cookbook.

If I were grading myself I would give myself:

1. C

2. A

3. F

4. F

5. B

6. A

Horrible.  Now I have to decide what I am going to do for this coming year and how to hold myself accountable in a manner that will really work!  Any ideas?  Do I need to do a monthly or quarterly check-in?

This time of year between Christmas and New Year's is typically a time that I get really introspective and even a little sad, melancholy or sometimes depressed.  And it seemed like the right time to look back and see how I was doing with my goals.  Not very well, it would appear.

Oh, remember the Tea Hoarding Challenge of 2009?  I didn't buy a single tea for the whole calendar year in order to force myself to use up the stockpile of teas already ensconced in my pantry.  Lots of people in my family knew of this and throughout the year of 2010 gifted me teas, like I needed them or something!  And those no good sorry asses at Whole Paycheck Foods stopped having my very favorite morning tea in stock. I bet I went in there 5 or 6 times and spoke to the tea ordering person and gave her my card and asked her to please call me whenever they got re-stocked.  I get really irritated at this store because they carry items and you try them and like them and get used to them and the next thing you know, BAM!  they don't have it anymore.  It's rather like shopping at Costco in that regard!

So I started worrying that maybe Taylor's of Harrogate had quit making the awesome Scottish Breakfast Tea and it wasn't Whole Paycheck Foods' fault that they no longer carried the best tea ever.  And I went online and scoped it out.  

Of course they still make it!  Of course they were perfectly willing to sell it to me and ship it over here from Merry Ole England!  Even with the shipping it would still be comparable to WF price.  So I quit panicking and decided that I would order some as soon as my current tea stash went down. 

Meanwhile, my sister went on the hunt and sent me a box for Christmas.  (She had previously sent me a different tea, 2 gorgeous tea cups and a tea towel for my birthday) And my husband, Mr. Big Ed, got me a package of SIX BOXES of the famous Scottish Breakfast Tea for Christmas!!!  So I currently have 7 boxes of my favorite morning tea.  

Have I mentioned that each of these boxes contains 50 bags?  By anyone's estimations this is a year's supply of tea.  So!  No more tea buying for me.  I have yet to make my list of resolutions, but suffice it to say there will be no tea shopping for me in 2011.  : )

Next week I will post my list of 2011 resolutions and maybe motivation and memory-boosting need to be at the top of that list?

75%

Since the year is 3/4 done and over with I thought I might recap some of the things (cough, resolutions, cough) that I promised I was going to fulfill.  So an update on what is happening here in Chez Lisa Pie is in order!

1. Remember those silly one room a month getting cleaned out, organized, repairs made, etc.?  Didn't make it past month 3 or 4.  That engine lost its steam.  Turns out it takes waaaaay longer than a month to do the stuff I want to do.  It takes a month just to find people who will come over and give you a bid, and then even longer to schedule you in, and finally come over and actually do things.  Maybe if I was just doing general pick up and organize, rather than repaint, remodel, etc?  I don't know.  Anyhoo, this never materialized into what I wanted.  I need a better plan of attack for next year.

2. Do you further remember that my goal was to put $20,000 in my savings acct. this year?  I am sorry to say this is not happening either!  3 cars worth of repairs, new parts of various kinds all got billed to my savings account.  And then there was the whole Fergus going to 2 different emergency vets and transfusions and 4 days of intensive care.  This was quickly followed up by the Pet Resort bill while we were on the cruise and then by Maxwell Banks and his bladder stone debaucle.  All of these things have added up to more than $11,000.  So, no dice on the extra $20,000.  This one really pisses me off.  I really was trying to achieve this goal.  And if I hadn't been, where would the $11,000 have come from?

3. Tea Hoarding.  I said it again.  It has been 18 months that I have been talking about the stupid tea hoarding in this house.  2009 was the year that I bought no tea.  None.  There was plenty of tea already, and it was my challenge to bring that shelf space down.  A year later, there was not a great change visually. I think the tea canisters, boxes and such spread out to fill the space.  Plus, my son's girl friend moved in with us this year and she works at a very famous coffee establishment and brings home tea.  And if I am being truthful, I will tell you that I have only bought teas that I consider medicinal this year.  The regular other teas?  There are still too damn many of them.

4. As long as I am confessing all, I am going to tell you that the Tea Hoarding doesn't seem to limit itself to teas.  There are coffees, spiced tea mixes, juices, hot chocolate mixes and various other beverages that never seem to dwindle.  It's depressing in the pantry, is what it is.

5. By now I should have already made my Christmas gift list and completed a lot if not all of the gift making.  And guess what?  I haven't done that!  Other than taking the summer off and galavanting all over creation for the month of August, I can't recall why I have been so busy that I haven't taken care of all these things.  I guess it is now going to be Plan B for Christmas.  (No, I don't really have a Plan B, but I am thinking as fast as I can!)  Suggestions welcome.

6. I am leaving in a day or so to go stay with my Grandma and see how things are going for her.  Our hope is that she will be able to continue living on her own and maintain her health.  If it is obvious that we have passed that stage, it will mean that we have to find a nursing home type facility that she will agree to and then get her moved out of her current place and into the new one.  And you know that will mean cleaning, sorting and selling off a bunch of things.  It won't be pretty.  Let's all say a prayer that Grandma's situation is such that she can keep her independence a while longer.  She really wants this.

I will be taking a laptop with me to check in and to send updates to my sisters on how things are going. But I would be surprised if there is a wireless connection in her building so my postings may be sporadic.  Don't give up and leave me!  I will be here when I can.

Also, I have a great idea for what I am posting tomorrow, so hurry back to scope it out!

De-cluttering

Our city management has on-going brush and large item pick-ups. Every neighborhood has 2 scheduled times a year that you can throw out anything your little heart desires to be rid of, and this is ours!  Yea!!!

When we bought this house it was from the original homeowner who drew up the plans and had it built. It was in 1977 according to all the custom made cornice boards that were atop each and every window in this house.  For those of you who don't know this, 1977 was a big year for gold and avocado green.  Guess what color all those cornice boards were?  Different shades of gold and avocado green, that's what!!

So back 5 years ago when we bought this house and we were re-doing things, painting, re-texturing walls, ripping up the 30 year old avocado green shag carpet, etc. I had the crew put all the cornice boards into the garage thinking that I would have them recovered and put up with the new draperies.  Five years later I still haven't put them up!  I am leaning another way on the whole window treatment thing and the cornice boards were just not part of the new plan.  So, out they went!

We cleaned and organized, and purged, and even mopped the garage floor.  We organized what was leaving, what is going to a thrift store as donations, and what is moving to one room from another.  We worked hard, is what I am sayin'.

I found things that I thought were gone forever.  I found projects that I hope I will finish in my lifetime.  Otherwise my kids will be stuck having to toss them and feeling guilty about tossing some of my treasures.

This is one of my main catalysts for purging; that my kids not hate me when they have to go through all this shit when I die.  Or pass away.  Or go to be with the Lord.  Or whatever euphemism they use in my obituary.  Have you seen the kids of the hoarders on those t.v. shows?  They are miserable.  They have real resentment for their parent and the fact that they chose piles o'crap over a quality relationship with their kids and grandkids.

My other reason is that I am finding that I feel lighter, free-er, and generally not as weighted down by all the possessions.  I find that instead of adding to the quality of my life, they are now just a burden, something I have to clean, something I have to keep on my inventory list.  Do y'all have inventory lists?  I started doing inventory when we were moving every couple of years to different countries.  They all require a complete inventory of your household goods that you are bringing in and out.  What a job that used to be!  Now there are programs that are soooooo helpful!  It will sort by room or by type of item or by $$ amounts, whatever you want.  Every few months I have to go in and update the inventory and it really keeps me aware of what we have.  What items are important enough to keep in your house, keep taking care of, and keep on your inventory lists?  What items can you let go of?  Better yet, how much better and unencumbered will you feel if you get rid of a bunch of junk?

When your possessions stop bringing joy to you and become just another thing to pick up and dust and hope the cats don't knock it off and break it, that for me is when they become "junk".  That is when they need to be set free and become a new treasure to someone else.  I have released all sorts of treasures this weekend!  Woot!!

Oh, and you know what's funny?  Everyone, including me, has always thought that 99.9% of the clutter, and junk in our possession is mine.  It is all me.  I am the one who can't let go.  No one else takes any blame for the piles o'crap.  And my son pointed out after we caught Mr. Big Ed going through the throw-away piles THREE DIFFERENT TIMES that it might not all be my fault!  Love it.  It is funny how my stuff is treasures and his stuff is crap.  And vice-versa.  : )

One more thing:  anyone remember the Tea Hoarding Challenge of 2009?  Well, I made it through and did really well and was well into the stash when 2010 rolled around.  And you know what happened? I started buying more tea, that's what happened.  And the shelves are just as full as they were beforehand. So I am issuing myself another Tea Hoarding Challenge.  NO NEW TEAS!

Here's the fine print on the Challenge:  If it is chamomile, sleepy time or joint comfort teas, things that are medicinal and for health and for others; they can come in the house.  If it is just a new and fabulous flavor of tea.  Nope.  I am going to work through the millions of teas here and that is that.

Wish me luck on my continual growth and releasing of items.  And most importantly the releasing of the need for items.

Out with the old, in with the new

This was my first year of blogging. I have no clue how I would be graded if there were grades being given. That wasn't really my intention behind this little venture. I wanted to put something down in black and white (and pink) to hold me accountable to my goals.

One of my big goals this year was my Tea Hoarding Challenge. And I would just love to stick some photos up of my now depleted tea shelves so you can all see the progress I made. But since I have this new fancy-schmancy computer I have no clue how to do this. One day I will sit down here and learn all about it and do just that, but for now let us all imagine how depleted my tea shelves have become.

They seriously are way down from a year ago. And because I was such a good girl all year long with not buying teas and using up old stock, Santa brought me two tins of new teas. Awwwwww! I also have a bunch of old used tea tins to be covered in some pretty paper and re-labeled for when I break open those vacuum-packed space-aged mylar-looking teas that I STILL HAVE NOT OPENED. It has been more than a freaking year! I know these teas were in there at the end of 2008 because I bought them when that cute little teapot store went under, and I stayed true to my word and did not purchase any new teas for me in 2009.

So, my plan for tomorrow is to re-organize the tea shelves and then cover, label and repurpose the old tins and fill them with the currently sealed teas and use them up. Enough with the teas already.

Another area of my life I will be looking at this year is my bookshelves and my closet. Now, I go through my closet every few months and toss things into a big box. When that box if full it is off to Goodwill. But I am talking about being brutal. If I haven't worn something in a really long time, I don't care how cute it is, it needs to go be cute in someone else's closet. Gone!

Same thing with the cookbooks. I do go through my other books every time I go to my aunt's house or my mom's and take them books. I like sharing and I like weeding them out. But I haven't thought of doing that with my cookbooks. How many frigging cookbooks does one woman need? This might be tough. I do love me some cookbooks. But I guarantee there are some on my shelves that I have never made one. single. thing. out. of. Not one. I am sure that I can back up that statement. So, I will be going through these and seeing what needs to happen to them. Maybe they need to be gifted to someone with less (or no) cookbooks? Maybe I need to be taking them to Half Price Books for some credit?

I wonder if I can get rid of a whole shelf's worth of cookbooks?

Which brings me to my next thought. What else should I be organizing and getting rid of? What things are not bringing beauty and joy to my life? What things are causing me more work as in dusting, polishing, etc.? A smart ass person might say something about dogs, cats, kids, husbands, but no, those things definitely bring beauty, joy, and loads of happiness along with their messes.

I am paring down, people! Paring down!

I have been thinking about those wish boards that people make. You know, the ones where you put pictures of things you want, things you see yourself doing, achieving or accomplishing. I don't recall what they are called. But anyhoo, that is not the point. The point is I have a board that would be perfect for that and think I might get busy doing one of those this year. If and when I do, I will be sure to photograph it and tell you about it and then see at the end of the year how many of them really do come to fruition.

2009, I will miss you. It was overall a pretty good year here in my house. I am thankful for the blessings and hopeful for the future.

2010, Welcome! High hopes for the coming year. Let's start with getting some good health care bills out of congress. Affordable health care for all in 2010!

Gifting from the Heart

It has been a really busy two weeks and I noticed I had not posted anything in about 10 days. Then I had a million thoughts running through my head about what I should say. You know they were all clever and witty, don't you? :)

First off, it has to be said: HOORAY FOR DONNY OSMOND!!! There will be nay-sayers out there who think one of the others should have won, but I am really happy to see him win this.

Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving has a bad place in the calendar. It gets overshadowed when you are young because of Halloween and then Christmas. It really takes some work to push the turkey day up to the forefront to get the recognition it deserves. Our Thanksgiving Day turned out beautifully. We have had bigger crowds before, but we have never had better food or better or more willing participants in the kitchen. I had the lists made and recipes handy and people just milled in and out making something and crossing it off the list. There was no fighting, no moaning or bitching, no one forgot the rolls, and every year someone in our family forgets the rolls and they burn. And guess what? As if remembering the bread wasn't enough, we also had a couple of hours of spare time in the middle where everything was ready to go in the oven but it wasn't quite time to put them in yet. So we all got to relax, watch some t.v. or take a quick nap, or a shower or whatever it was people did. My new rule regarding Thanksgiving: Everyone who was here this year, has to come back EVERY YEAR!! It was perfect. And I am so grateful and thankful for that.

One more thing before I get to the gifting portion of this post. My tea hoarding challenge update. Tomorrow is the 1st of December and that means for a full 11 months so far I have been working down my tea supply this year. The only new teas I have brought in are for Mr. Big Ed who is not participating in my challenge and herbal teas like chamomile that I consider to be medicinal. But everyday regular breakfast teas, green teas, etc. I am STILL winnowing down those tins. I am almost ready to crack open those hermetically sealed teas and re-label some of the saved tins to house the new teas. Can you believe I had this much tea in my pantry? I sure as hell can't!

What has my tea hoarding challenge taught me? Well, first off it has taught me restraint in the tea aisle, that's what. Secondly, tea companies might want to offer their teas in 2 sizes. Some of us may want to try 2 or 3 varieties, but buying a tin with 50 bags of each flavor is just crazy. And that is where I seem to have gone wrong, thinking I could try all kinds of new teas 50 at a time. And the third and most important lesson for me has been that I don't need to have all the teas, just a select few that I seem to gravitate to on a daily basis anyway. My sister and I always bring a tin of tea when we visit each other, so I know at some point during the year she will come and bring an interesting tea for us to try.

Gifting through the years has morphed from being so much fun when I was a kid to becoming a chore and a huge task to make sure everyone got something and no one was left off the list, then adding in the neighbors, the co-workers, the husband's secretary, the postman, the paperboy, the yard guy, etc., etc. I have kept my Christmas lists for the last 10 or more years and I have been noticing the changes. I used to think I had to buy the best, the latest, the most cool up-to-date crap out there for my kids and nieces and nephews. If I had the $$ I have spent on expensive, non-useful gifts over the years, I would have a ton of money, that is for sure. None of this is to say that I wish I hadn't gifted at all. That's not it. I just wish I had gifted from my heart and not been led by the commercialism of it all.

The gift of time, the gift of an experience is certainly more memorable than one of 20 new games for the Nintendo, game boy, X-box, Wii. Who remembers that Aunt LisaPie gave them Super Mario Bros back in 2000? No one, that's who. So, I am completely changing my strategy for gifting. In the last few years I have gone to gift cards from http://www.heifer.org/ or from http://www.kiva.org/ for birthday gifts, but I still felt I needed to get something tangible for Christmas.

This year, whatever the gift will be, it will be well-thought out and truly given from the heart. It may be a hand-made gift, it may the gift of time and an experience together, it may be a store-bought item that I know will really bring a smile. And it may be more gifts from Heifer or Kiva.

And if you are reading this and thinking of getting me a gift, please know that my favorite thing is spending time with you. It's a gift that always fits, it's never the wrong color, and we both can enjoy it equally and together!

Rambling, yet again

It's been a whole week since I last posted anything. I got nothing. Nothing exciting, anyway. I thought I might just recap what has been going on for a whole 7 days.

1. Meeting with a client who was over her 40 week due date.

2. Meeting with a new client who is due next month. Woo Hoo!!

3. Neighborhood HOA 1st neighborhood wide garage sale. Of course, I managed to shop at most of the particapants on both days. I did get some treasures, too! I also got several practical items. Nothing overboard.

4. Overdue client went into labor and we had a medium-length birth. Not too long, and not too short. Mom and baby are doing really well and breastfeeding like professionals. I am so proud and honored to be of service. I would do this for free, but it sure is nice to get paid. :)

5. Enjoying the most beautiful and delicious weather for the past week for so. I tell you, it just does not get any better than this. Perfect temps, perfect amount of humidity, perfect breezes to sit outside and enjoy. I love it.

6. Helping with the plans for the upcoming doula training. This will be a great training, I am sooooo looking forward to it and meeting and welcoming new doulas into the group.

7. Working on plans for Rachel Pie's graduation celebration. My small, tiny, precious baby girl is actually graduating from a university on Dec. 12. It boggles my mind and leaves me all bumfuzzled, yes it does. Rachel Pie is the best!

8. Trying to learn to make better and healthier choices. Like taking the stairs vs. elevator at the hospital. Not parking at the closest spot to the door and walking a bit further each time. Trying to do a little less caffeine each day. Taking some vitamins and generally being more holistic in my approach to my health.

9. Watching all these damn tv shows I try to keep up with! One day I may give up my tv, but not now. Right now I am having a good time watching a good variety of shows.

10. Tea Hoarding Update: Alright I made it into the 10th month before I bought any tea. I bought some chamomile which for me is a medicinal herb, so I think it doesn't count in my challenge. My challenge has been all about reducing my over-stocked accumulation of teas. What do you want to bet that next year I can challenge myself regarding tea tins and canisters? Ha! I am doing really well with this and I like the results I am seeing in my pantry and also in my resolve to stay with it.

Ok, 10 is plenty of rambling things. Is anyone working on holiday gifts? Is anyone working on Thanksgiving menu preparations? Is anyone else quite as anal retentive and ocd about this crap as I am ? :)

7 Months in & the Tea Hoarding Challenge is going strong

I am still using up all my stash of hoarded teas. Since Jan. 1 I have not purchased any tea for my own pleasure. I have bought tea for Mr. Big Ed since he drinks one kind of tea and isn't involved in this, and I bought tea to take to my sister's house when I visited her. But I left it there for her, it's what we do when we visit each other's homes.

So it has been 7 complete months of using up the plethera of tea in my pantry and I am still going strong. And I have a suggestion to the tea companies out there. How about you consider making small 5 or 10 serving size boxes, tins or whatever you sell your tea in so that we can try multiple types of tea without buying 50 servings of each one? Hmmm???? I know that is why I have so damn many containers.

I promised new pics but since there doesn't seem to be much in the way of changes, I thought I would wait till it looked a bit more dramatic. So, no photos for now. I am trying to use up the tea in bags so that when I break the seal on the loose teas I have the tins available to pour the loose tea in and still keep it fresh.

Sorry to be boring but I am holding myself accountable by posting, just feel free to skip right over the posts about the stupid tea hoarding challenge until you see some new and pretty pictures.

Actual Tea Shelves Photos!!!

Can you believe it? I finally got me and my camera together in the pantry to show you the tea stash. The first photo is the left half of the bottom shelf. It contains all the herbal and medicinal type teas and has the boxes of non-sugar sweeteners. We have stevia, Splenda, and some other stuff. I don't use any of them. They are there for others who do.

The middle photo is the right half of the bottom shelf. It has a big basket with all sorts of loose teas and in the front is a bag of the beautiful blooming teas. The space-age hermetically sealed teas that I haven't opened yet are all in there. The plastic tub is some bee pollen of Rachel Pie's.

Then we have the top shelf. These are mostly all black, green, white and red teas. Some of these things like the Constant Comment box contain a mix match of random singles rather than what they say. See the black box that has a blue section on the front that says Scottish Breakfast? Well, that is the favorite morning tea. I just love that tea. And that box has 50 tea bags, one for each Sunday of the year.

Oh, and behind the bee pollen is a tin that contains a bunch of teas. Underneath it is a wooden box with all ginseng teas from Korea that was a gift. And underneath that is a blue gift box that contains a bunch of Bigelow teas.

Just a note to self: This is almost 6 months in to this challenge. And I still have lots of teas. I will use up a lot of them starting next week when I get my kombucha out of hibernation in the fridge. This will use up 5 bags each week. Sometimes I run two kombuchas at a time. One batch from black tea and one of green tea. So that would seriously deplete the tea stock in just a few months. This is what I intended a lot of the unopened tea for, but I put the kombucha away and started the Amish Fiendish bread. I didn't want to have competing yeasty, moldy, bacteria things going in the kitchen and end up screwing them both up. I decided Thursday that it will be my last Fiendish bread for a while. It is just too damn much baking for the summer. If I had finished my solar oven, well maybe. But now is the time for peaches and watermelon not baked goods. Now is also a really good time for the refreshing kombucha in the fridge.

So now you can see what I have been going on about with the teas. I have decided to stick with the challenge and see how I do. It has been a real learning experience for me to see what I had and to realize how mindlessly I was picking up things at the store. As the tea situation changes I will post some updated photos. Maybe do a before and after?

Back to the weekend!! Enjoy yourselves whatever you are doing.

Rambling on the last week and such

I have *got* to get in the habit of carrying my camera around on my person so that I can post pictures here! I love blog photos, so what is wrong with me not doing it? If I had been photo journaling my tea stash each month end it would be a much better thing to follow. Plus anyone who looks at it will immediately notice what changes have been made from the previous photos. Yep, I need to be photographing what my posts are about. I am a HUGE visual learner anyway, it would probably make a bigger impact on my results if I had the photographic inducement (if that is even a word).

I do appreciate all the suggestions on how I could be handling this tea hoarding better. And I am almost thinking I should do Kristin's suggestion of donating tea and starting over fresh. But on the other hand it seems like I am learning something about myself by seeing the tea stash going down and even more, learning to resist the temptation of the Siren's Call of the Tea Aisle! And in case you are worried that I am drinking old, crappy tea that has lost it's flavor; fear not! I am still drinking tea that is in tins and not too old yet. The much newer tea is from a now-defunct teapot and tea store that is sealed in those heavy pouches like coffee beans come in. As soon as I get done with all the other tea I will open one pouch of this tea at a time and put it into the tins I am saving on the top shelf of my pantry. I think as long as those bags are still hermetically sealed that tea should last forever. The bags look like something that goes into the Space Station. I will do my best to get in there and photograph each shelf of the tea space in the pantry and I will also try to finish off one tin before moving on to the next rather than skipping around and never using the last bit of tea in any of them!

Last weekend Rachel Pie and I went on a retreat with lots of doulas and just spent the weekend either in swimsuits or in pajamas. It was so relaxing and exactly what I needed. Even if I couldn't get any of them to put their brains back in and play Mah Jongg with me! : ) Maybe another time . . . . . . Then we got back home and Rachel Pie started cleaning out her room and we have a huge donation stack for Goodwill. Two big thumbs up for that! Tuesday she left me and went back to school for a job interview. Summer jobs trump staying at home with Mom and playing cards all night for some reason. Sad, sad, sad has been my mood. Even if the small Rachel Pie girl wasn't my own daughter, my very own flesh and blood I would still want to know her and hang out with her all the time. She is just flat out one of the most awesome people on the planet. Yea Rachel!!! I say Hooray for Rachel Pie all the time and I have all her life. She really is the best.

Then I went to see my sister to help her prepare for her daughter (my niece Katie Pie) to graduate high school and all the festivities with family. The weather was beautiful, the company was the best, and the food turned out really good. I see great things ahead in little Katie Pie's future. She has a great head on her perfect shoulders! My sister has done an awesome job raising her kids.

And as much fun as it has been making all these little jaunts around the state to see people graduate and celebrate them and their accomplishments, it is so nice to come home and get back to a routine. Plus when I am gone I don't get to sleep with 15 cats and one fat dog! Don't get me wrong, I missed Mr. Big Ed too. But I missed my furry creatures! Niece and nephew dogs and cats are fun, but you don't have the intimate knowledge of which one likes scratching behind the ears vs. the one that wants it under the chin. You know what I mean.

Now I am back to my glamourous life of doing laundry and cleaning up furr balls. Oh. the. joy.

End of May Tea Hoarding Report

Doesn't that tea shelf unit thing look nice and organized? Mine is similar, but I have those stairstep things that sit on your shelves so that the back stuff is higher than the front stuff and you can actually see what is back there and use it! Can you tell that that is leading in to say that there is still oodles, gobs, pletheras and hosts of teas in my pantry? (By the by, those are all words used in the obits about how many friends and relatives the deceased has) You gotta love an obit that uses the word "oodles", don't you? :)

Back to the tea - yep, here we are at the end of month 5 and I STILL have not run low, run out or bought more tea. I have bought tea, just not for me. I bought tea for my husband to drink and I bought some to take to my sister's house. That's just something we do when we visit each other. As far as tea for me and my very own consumption, nope I am still using up the old stuff.

Not really much to report. I could just cut and paste the last couple of month's reports and used them. Maybe I won't bother doing this again until there is something to talk about?

Back to your regularly scheduled programming . . . .

Tea Hoarding Challenge - end of Month 4

Alright, this is ridiculous! Do normal people have pantries that contain SOOOOO much tea that 4 months of usage shows no dents in the total? Good Lord!

I know that I have finished off several boxes and tins of teas. But you couldn't tell it by looking at the pantry. There is still so much tea left. My sister was here last month and looked at it and pronounced it much depleted since December, however she also said she believes this will go on into 2010! More than one year! I feel like the biggest schmuck in the world. Who does this? Who hoards this much tea? I'll tell you who does . . . . . . My mother, that's who! Apparently the apple did not fall far from the hoarding tree.

All this begs the question, What else am I a hoarder of? I have extensive collections of many items. I am aware of that and I am really thankful that I signed up on the Compact group in Jan. 2007 to get a handle on shopping. I got the message loud and clear about shopping as a hobby, having too much stuff, landfills, disposable electronics, etc. I promise you that my whole sensibilities regarding this stuff is a complete about-face from what it was. We lived as ex-patriates for 12 years and over time I really developed the ex-pat philosophy of when you find something you really like, buy all you can because they will never carry it again. This is true, the stores do that to you. You should have seen what it was like when the grocery store in Santiago, Chile would accidentally get a few cases of root beer in! And get this, when we would ask the manager to get more, this was the response "No, we don't like to get more of (insert happily found product) because you will just buy it all, and I will have an empty shelf."

Do you need to re-read that? Honestly, this is where the dumb, wide-eyed "Huh???" look comes in and the first thing out of your mouth is wtf???? He doesn't want to stock things that we want, things that are so ridiculously over-priced it should be illegal, because we would buy it all and then they would have to re-stock the shelves. Now, maybe I am just a crazy American with too much time on my hands (and apparently too much root beer buying money) but this made no sense to me at all!

Now, my 2009 self would not buy into that mentality. I would be a completely different ex-pat wife than I was back then. Shopping was a sport for me. Now I would spend way more time at the orphanage or visiting the families that live at the garbage dumps. I did do these things, but I bet I spent way more time purchasing than I did helping. That is just wrong. I should be, and I am, ashamed.

So, back to my tea stash. I still have lots of tea. I will be mindful every time I look at my pantry. Every time I decide which tea to drink. Every time I empty another tin. By the by, I am saving all the tea tins to use for loose teas when I open those packages. I really was going to take pictures of my tea stash but I never got to it. I wonder if it is because I am ashamed and don't want to show you how much there really is?

How much of something is a good amount to have on hand? How much is too much? How do you know when you have crossed that line? When is it good financially to stock up on a sale item and when is it just ridiculous? These are the things I find myself thinking about when I am looking at my teas, or my cookbooks, or yarn, or body lotions. I got under the bathroom sink the other day and I have it well organized by cute little bins. There is a large bin in the back that is full of lotions. I know I filled it and put it back there when we moved into this house almost 4 years ago. In all this time I don't remember getting into that bin and pulling out a new tube or bottle of lotion. Does that stuff get old? Does it get out of date and un-usable? I don't know. I think I will pull a bunch of it out that I will never in my lifetime use and take it down to a women's shelter and let those girls have a crack at using it up.

I think this is all the taking a really good look at myself that I can do for one day. Please comment on your own standards of stocking up, using up, etc.