Giving thanks

A grateful heart is a happy heart. I’m counting my blessings today…

• Clean drinking water
• Warm and dry home
• Amply stocked kitchen
• Cup of coffee in hand
• Plenty of books to read
• 4 days off from work
• Hot breakfast prepared by my daughter

There’s so much to be thankful for!

I need nothing.

Black Friday deals have no luster, when you take into account what you already have.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Quatchi likes pancakes

Blog your way to change

One of the coolest things about having a blog is how it reframes your life. I started a blog about frugality and suddenly I saw a zillion ways to spend less, save more, and minimize my footprint (yeah, I’m talkin’ carbon).

Lately (as in for years now), I’ve wanted to take more pictures. My mind would say ’you should really take more pictures,’ but my body did nothing. So to motivate myself into action, I started a photo blog. Surprise!

Kate’s 365 Photo Blog -  a picture a day!

Some days might be a little challenging. Seattle’s rain is persistent and work is, well ah, time consuming. However, so far I haven’t missed a beat. I find myself framing pictures in my head, whether I have a camera in my hand or not. So cool.

I highly recommend blogging.

Is there something you want to do? 

Get in shape?

Cook more?

Blog about it and see how your life is reframed.

Already got a blog or two? Drop the URL in a comment. I’d love to see what you’re up to. Now, blog on!

Setbacks happen

Setbacks are inevitable. For example, you might…

• Buy something silly when you’re trying to save.
• Eat junk when you’re trying to eat healthy.
• Have an emergency that wipes out your emergency fund.
• Get injured when you’re trying to get in shape.

Things happen, but they don’t have to stop you.

I sprained my ankle horribly this week, but I’m not done moving. It would be easy for me to give up my triathlon training and sit on the couch. However, I’d rather adjust my mindset to fit my new physical state. Soccer is OUT, but running in the pool is IN. 

Yep, it’s time to switch tracks.

Setbacks happen, but they don’t have to stop you in your tracks. Instead, you might just need to make some adjustments.

Set a mark

After doing triathlons for five years, I didn’t sign up for a triathlon last summer. The result? I didn’t work out much and gained a few pounds around the middle (the muffin top). Without a workout goal my excuses ran rampant, but I did not.

Last week I decided to change things. I signed up for a triathlon in August. Nothing crazy. Just a simple Sprint triathlon with a hilly bike section.

The result? I’ve been swimming and running. No excuses. Now that I have a goal, it’s easy to stay focused. 

Normally, I’m not a huge fan of goals (and organization). I like the flexibility of no goals. But while swimming today, I thought about how specific goals bring results.

Once my nebulous goal of ‘working out’ changed to something concrete, I took action. 

S.M.A.R.T. goals makes things happen: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.

So why not set a mark and go for it!

What specific goals do you have? Spending less? Saving more? Make your goals specific and you’ll get results.

Move more, eat less, document progress

New Years is a great time to press CTRL+ALT+DELETE and start anew. It doesn’t matter if you’ve crashed in the past, just reboot and start fresh. Millions of Americans are starting new diet and exercise plans today, including me.

Here’s my plan:

1. Move more  Nothing big or especially crazy at first, just movement every day. And no Kate, typing doesn’t count. My movement plan is yoga, swimming, or walking each day. I picked these activities because they’re joint friendly (I’m saving myself for my once a week indoor soccer game followed by Aleve).    
2. Eat less  The secret to losing weight isn’t really a secret. To lose weight you need to burn more calories than you consume. Simple. So why is it so difficult? <insert excuses here>. My plan is to drink more water, enjoy smaller portions, and eat whole foods as much as possible.
3. Document progress  Accountability is king. An exercise and eating log will help me stay on track and see my progress.

I’m steering clear of goals like must lose five pounds. Instead, success for me is exercising each day and eating whole foods.

Kaizen is the Japanese principle that focuses on continuous improvement. It doesn’t matter where you’re at, it’s the improvement that matters. Ah good! I will embrace my winter muffin top and begin my Muffin Top Reduction Program (MTRP) – aka “move more, eat less, document progress.”

How about you? What are your strategies for eating less and moving more?

Leo Babauta has created a new Web site to help people create new habits – check out 6changes.com.

Look at the Big Picture

I’ve been a busy little worker bee this week, writing all kinds of procedures and bulleted lists for my writing gig.

• I’ve had my nose to the grindstone
• I’ve worked my socks off
• I’ve worked my fingers to the bone

All this work and no play has definitely made me a dull girl. Time for a new perspective.

Time to look at the big picture. The Big Picture photo blog that is.

Inspired by MSNBC.com’s Picture Stories galleries and Brian Storm’s MediaStorm, The Big Picture showcases high-quality images that are simply amazing.

Photo collections I’ve enjoyed:

• Human landscapes from above
• Typhoon Morakot
• The longest solar eclipse of the century

You can see interesting, beautiful, and inspiring images, without leaving your home or buying anything (other than Internet access).

The Internet rocks!

What do you love about the Internet?

Stupid plastic products: The Cooler Dry

There are zillions of plastic products swirling around in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as our North Pacific Ocean. 

Today I stumbled upon a plastic product called Cooler Dry. Cooler Dry is a piece of plastic you can use to prop open your cooler so that it can dry. The TV spot for Cooler Dry includes marketing drivel like:

“Don’t flip your cooler over, cluttering up your driveway, sidewalk or deck. It’s hard on the hinges. And shortens the life of your cooler.”

Marketing attempts to sell products by solving customer’s problems, even problems that don’t exist. I’ve never been bothered by a cooler drying on my driveway. Should I be? My cooler is completely plastic; no metal hinges that could possibly wear out.

How much for Cooler Dry?

I’m glad you asked! $7.45 for 1 or $14.95 for 3. What a deal!

Well, I’m not buying Cooler Dry and many other plastic products.

There is so much plastic in our world. You could write a blog about our overconsumption of plastic. Oh wait, that’s already being done nicely by Fake Plastic Fish, Life Less Plastic, and many others. But I must say, the more the merrier. Otherwise, I’m afraid all of our oceans will become swirling plastic garbage patches. 

Just say no to plastic. What plastic product can you eliminate from your life?

Award winning blogs

What a terrific surprise to get a Superior Scribbler award from Kristen at The Frugal Girl! Thank you Kristen.

Superior Scribbler is the brainchild of Melissa at The Scholastic Scribe. To commemorate her 200th blog post and share the bloggy love, Melissa nominated five bloggers and then they nominated five… and now I’m blessed to be #793. You can check out blogs #1-792 and beyond. 

Fun idea Melissa, thanks for dreaming it up.

Now I’d like to award Superior Scribbler awards for the following fantastic blogs:

Becoming Minimalist by a family of four in Essex, Vermont. This blog inspires me to simply simplify my life and examine my attachment to stuff. This blog is entertaining, inspirational and incredibly motivational.

The Greenest Dollar by Heather Levin.  The Greenest Dollar is the perfect blend of frugality and green. Well researched and well written, I love reading Heather’s blog. 

Diamond Cut Life by Alison Wiley. This blog is a delight. In Alison’s words: Diamond-Cut Life is about chiseling our consumption down to the core of happiness. How great is that? 

Kath Eats Real Food by Kath. I recently stumbled upon this gem. It’s a simple idea. Kath posts about the food she eats. Why is this interesting? You have to see Kath’s blog to understand. Each post is packed with beautiful food pictures. And yes, she shares the recipes. 

Crunchy Domestic Goddess by Amy Gates. Amy writes about crunchy, tree-hugging topics like sustainable living, saving our environment, organic food, recycling… all the good stuff. I enjoy Amy’s writing style; personal and informative. 

Now the boring bit (I mean the rules):

With every Bloggy Award, there are A Few Rules. They are, forthwith:

• Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
• Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
• Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to this post, which explains The Award.
• Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List.
• Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

Share some bloggy love. Which blogs do you like?

Lightly effervescent Vinho Verde

My blogging friend Angela Barton over at My Year Without Spending has a great series called Wine Finds; delicious wines for under $10. Her series inspired me to share this inexpensive white wine with you.

I’m not a wine expert, but I found Fâmega Vinho Verde White to be the perfect wine for a hot summer day (a 106 degree day to be exact).

This nearly colorless white wine is crisp, refreshing, slightly sparkly and a bit fruity. But which fruit? It seems that the critics have different opinions. Is it…

apple tartness
lemony
grapefruit
peach and citrus

Unfortunately my taste buds cannot discern the delicate fruit flavor, except to say that it’s yummy.

Vinho Verde (Veen-yo Vehrd) is a Portuguese white wine. The name Vinho Verde means “Green Wine”, in reference not to its color but its youthful freshness. If you can’t find Fâmega Vinho Verde White, don’t despair. Try a different Vinho Verde wine. Many brands of Vinho Verde are inexpensive; typically less than $10, sometimes as low as $5.

What’s your favorite summer wine?

Sidenote: What do you call the diacritic over the a in Fâmega? A wedge, a triangle, a hat? It’s officially called a caron or hacek, but I like hat. There, that should improve your Jeopardy prowess.

Free rice anyone?

 

Test your knowledge and help fight hunger! Sound to cool to be true? Check out FreeRice, a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program. Test your knowledge on a variety of subjects such as English vocabulary.

 

nadir means:
1. snake
2. lowest point
3. omission
4. impartiality

For each correct answer, FreeRice donates 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. Quiz yourself or have your kids try answering questions on the following subjects:

famous paintings
math
chemical symbols
English grammar or vocabulary
geography
world capitals
French
German
Italian
Spanish

The rice is paid for by the sponsors whose ads appear on the site when you enter a correct answer. Too easy for you? Pump up the difficulty level. Try a different subject. How are you on famous paintings or chemical symbols?

FreeRice donated 43,942,622,700 grains of rice in 2008. So click away – learn something and help fight hunger.

“A simple way to bring kids to the Internet for a good reason, a way to feed their minds and . . . to feed a whole lot of people . . . helping fight world hunger, one grain of rice at a time.” -NBC Evening News

“FreeRice is a triumph of converting passivity into engagement.” – New York Times Magazine

“The Web site offers a greater gift, the gift of awareness about world hunger.” – NPR National Public Radio