I Never Promised You an Organic Garden

Outfit for day one

Well it is official: I have lost my mind.  I am going to do the Six Items or Less (SIOL) Clothing Challenge again.  There is an official cycle starting today on the SIOL website, so I am joining the community and jumping in.  For those of you who don’t know or remember what SIOL is, here is a quick reminder. Each cycle of SIOL is 30 days and you choose six articles of clothing to wear for the full 30 days. That does not include: undergarments, socks, shoes, accessories, workout clothes, work issued uniforms, outerwear, or pajamas.

I am still picking out my six items of clothing, but as long as I don’t wear something I still have a few days to make a decision.  It is a lot harder this time to make a decision, because I don’t want to just usethe same clothes I did last time. I actually broke down and borrowed a few items from a wonderful friend so there would be some variety in my wardrobe.  Plus there is the added pressure of living up to my last experience.  I have decided on four main pieces, but I am struggling with the last two.  I am waffling between a purple dress and a pair of black dress pants for one item and a black sweater or something more colorful for the other.

I have selected the following itmes for sure (I’ll post photos once I get them all chosen):

• Dark-wash skinny jeans
• Purple v-neck sweater (One item from last round)
• Grey striped long-sleeve shirt (On loan from a friend)
• Grey button-up shirt (On loan from a friend)

As with last time, I will take a photo of my outfit every day and post it on Facebook. I will also be blogging here and as a part of the SIOL community.

I am a lot more nervous about this round than I was the last one.  Especially with the weather being so cold.  I am worried I’ll end up wearing the same combination all the time just because it is warmer than others.  Either way, it will be an adventure and I am looking forward to learning more about myself and my relationship to clothes.

I went to the eye doctor today for my checkup and to get new frames.  I have always had very unique frames, but I wanted to go with a little something different this time.  So, Matt, the very nice lady at the eye Dr’s office, and I spent quite a while whittling down the never ending selection.  I have come up with two options, and the eye Dr. was nice enough to let me take them home and get some opinions.

So here is where I need your help…  I will post photos of both options below ,and it would be very helpful if you could give me your honest opinion on which frame is the best.

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Matt and I completed a home improvement / decorating project this weekend that we have been planning to do for some time now.  We setup a  curtain system on in our dining room.  We have a sliding glass doors at the back of our house, and while it is beautiful to look out of, at dinner time the light coming in the door is blinding.  So to reduce the  light and create a decorative wall hanging, we put up a curtain system from Ikea.

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I am now the proud owner of a brand new chest freezer. Tuesday Matt and I finally purchased one.  We have been talking about doing it for a few years, but when chickens literally started falling out of our regular freezer, it became obvious it was time.

We purchased a Kenmore 5.0 cu. ft chest freezer from Sears, and it is now happily freezing away in our garage. Our plan is to put the backlog of chickens we have from our CSA, along with any vegetables we can’t eat, in the chest freezer for longer term storage.  We are also hoping to split a side of beef from a local farmer with some friends.

We are very excited about the possiblity of being able to get local meat and vegetables and have access to it in the winter and not just the summer when things are “in season”.

Recently some new people have stumbled across my poor neglected blog and commented that they enjoyed reading it, which has given me the urge to write again.  In the past, I blogged about my life, my work, family, technology, and posted humorous videos among other things.  However, I am not sure what form my writings will take this time around.

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I have been a complete slacker about writing blog posts the past few months, mostly due to Matt starting a new job and us moving into a new home.  So, much like my recent posts, I have a video to share.

Well, after a month-long self imposed hiatus, I am back to blogging. Life has been very crazy the past month and something had to give. Unfortunately it turned out to be my blog. If anyone is still paying attention, thanks for your patience.

So what has been going on all this time, you ask? Matt and I have been, and still are, buying a house. Yes that’s right, buying a house. Now I know we said we were going to do the responsible thing and wait a year so we could save up a substantial down payment and then buy a house, but the more we thought about it the more now felt like the right time. It is truly a buyers market, interest rates are they lowest they have been in years and are only going to go up, and we are tired of throwing our money away paying rent.

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This past Friday night (April 4, 2008) Matt had his pre-ordination interview and was approved for ordination in the Church of the Brethren pending completion of his degree at Bethany and a call (or job offer) from a church (You’ll be able to read more about his side of the story in his soon to be launched blog). In the Church of the Brethren, (I can’t speak for other denominations) the candidate’s spouse is also expected to attend this interview, along with any interviews at prospective churches. Therefore, as a good wife, I went with him to his interview. (more…)

Matt and I are trying a new experiment. We are starting “unplugged” Monday evenings. We are going to leave the computers, TV, and Wii turned off all evening. Instead, we are going to do things like read, knit, play racquetball, work in the garden, or go for walks. It should be interesting. Especially seeing as we are both quite addicted to our computers. Giving up the TV for one night a week, especially with Tivo, will be no hardship, but not checking our email, Facebook, RSS feeds, instant messengers, etc. is going to require quite a bit more self control.

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Bill Clinton came to Richmond today, and Matt and I decided to join everyone else from my office and attend his speech. I am personally not a big fan, but it was such an amazing opportunity that I couldn’t pass it up. It actually turned out to be quite interesting. Clinton came to one of the local fire stations, and they only let in 500 people. This left another 500 or so standing in the rain outside the fire station listening to his speech over the speaker system. There was quite a buzz in the air, and a lot of people were very excited to get a glimpse of our former president. A few of my friends were even able to shake his hand. (more…)