P's new "slippers"

So a friend of mine has taken up a new hobby of sewing mama pads. She may or may not be starting up a new business. Either way she wanted some testers to determine best design, washability, etc. She she dropped some by in a cute little bag. H decided since it was a cute little bag it must be a present for him. He crawls over and digs right in. First he tried to tear them apart; anything he's associated with must have maximum durability rating. They passed. Then after flipping them around a few times, settled on hats. He piled them on his head and moved around with them flopping around his ears. P thought all of this was hilarious! She laughed at all the silly things he was doing with them. She must have thought he was ridiculous. Finally she announced that he obviously didn't know what they were for and snatched them away. P promptly snapped one to each foot. She performed her world famous model walk while declaring her love for her new slippers! That was a couple of months ago... this morning I noticed that a few are missing. I absolutely MUST check the show and tell bag prior to school starting!

Toy Store Day!

Hope everyone had an amazing holiday! We are doing our routine toy store day to clear out tthe toy clutter. Every toy in our home is moved to our family room. I set up a toy store. The wee ones use our toy shopping carts to buy their favorites. They can continue shopping until the toy shelves are full. The remaining toys are donated to charity. I'm always surprised by a few choices. I'm thrilled that the handmade dolls were among the treasures that found a scarce piece of shelf real estate. But I'm also a bit sad to see others go. We have a potty training doll that served as a great tool during that transition. That doll spent plenty of time roll playing the fine details of when, how and why. My little princess is long removed from potty training but always treated the doll with the fondness of an old friend. P has decided she is ready to let the doll move on... so I guess I have to be a grown up about it. I'll just snuggle a bit more before she packs it away.

Entitlement

Ok, I wanted to come back with a bunch of info on Walmart but my family is personally struggling with this topic... and this is my blog about us becoming better people, not fixing Walmart so I'm shifting gears today. The last few months we've struggled with entitlement with our dc. Particularly the oldest who seems to expect "surprises" from us often. I blame it on my addiction to thrift stores. For instance, I found a wooden toy cube at a thrift. It's about 2 foot tall with activities like mazes, magnets and wooden beads all over it. I've seen it in catalogs for anywhere between $65 to $100! I got it for $4. SCORE! Right? I got a rush just like a junky! I scoured thrift stores daily following, looking for my next big deal... Like a gambler at a slot machine. So I have this thrift/garage sale addiction... and it's leading to entitlement to my kids. They get new (to them) stuff all the time. If I find wooden or good quality toys at a great price I just can't seem to not buy. I'm just so disappointed in myself and lack of self control. Before having children we agreed new toys only at birthday & Christmas. Books, art supplies and necessities anytime. I have veered terribly off course. It's not just me though! Dh travels often and likes to bring home a momento for the wee ones. Mostly he brings found natural items such as shells, pine cones, anything to represent where he's been. An occasional small toy treasure. Or maybe a package of cookies from his lunch. Either way, when she greets him at the door with "Where's my surprise?", it just breaks my heart! My new mantra is simplify, simplify, simplify. Less stuff will set us free! Now how to get the wee ones on board?

Walmart doesn't kill small bus. people do

We try to abstain from this retailer. For the last few years dh and I have waged a verbal attack on Walmart. We rant about how their employees are mistreated, American businesses are being shut down and small businesses are folding. I really started thinking of Walmart as the gun we are using to kill our economy. As a conservative, I feel it's important to point out that guns don't kill people, people do... Thus Walmart doesn't kill small business, the people that shop there do. I promise this is not a rant with the purpose of dredging Wallies through the mud... I am only going to take issue with a few of the methods of business of not just Walmart but basically any large corporate store.

First I think of companies like Mr. Coffee or Rubbermaid. Rubbermaid worked hard to secure a Walmart contract. Once they did they were ecstatic. They built new factories and increased labor to meet this new demand. Then Walmart required that they almost half their price on containers so that they could offer it at the cheapest possible price. Rubbermaid couldn't afford to do that here in the states. Here they have to offer benefits like health insurance, safe working environment, and a real living wage. They contracted outside of the US, with China, I believe. They could then lower their prices to an acceptable level to continue the high demand. It seems Walmart isn't satisfied treating just their own workers poorly, they would prefer that all of their suppliers do so as well.

So why do folks shop there? Well mainly to get more stuff. I think people would like to believe that they shop there because they have to do so. I have people tell me they have to shop at Walmart because it's all they can afford. By all they can afford means stuffing their homes with tons of clutter and misc comfort items. Sure I can afford to go to Walmart and drop a hundred dollars on Christmas toys to fill our rec room... Or I could go to a small toy store and support an actual person and give my child one or two high quality items that will last a lifetime. It's my opinion that the second option is the better of the two. I guess the point is less really is more... Or even better but much more uncomfortable thought is that when shopping at Walmart take a look in the cart... all of the items made in questionable labor locales.. ask yourself is this $2.00 savings worth my aiding in the exploitation of a person, possibly a child? Your finger is on the trigger...

Ok so this turned a little ranty... and has gotten a bit long. I'll stop while I'm ahead but will return later with more info, less rant. Happy Holidays!

Welcome to my journey! I hope to inspire you to start one of your own. I currently reside just on the fringe on mainstream America. I've always been concerned with the environment, global poverty, and the breakdown of the family unit. However it just always seemed out of my control and too big for me to impact. But I've learned that every journey starts with a step, followed by another and another. Pretty soon you are so far down the road you can't even see where you started. I know I can get at least that far and bring a few with me. If we can join those already there, we can literally change the world! I know that many are well ahead of me on this journey to the good life and look forward to your comments and insights. So what are my shamelessly optimistic objectives?

• A cure to local if not global poverty
  
• The real food as God intended for all
  
• Eliminate our dependence on foreign oil
  
• Reunited family units

So will it all be boring research on why fair trade is important to your local economy? Surely not, I face the challenge of an amazing dh who's biggest fear is that I will end up disabling the electricity. He's attempting to research hooking up a tv to a bike so he can pedal power Monday Night Football... I'm not sure if that's where this path leads? But if so, stay tuned for detailed instructions!