It's that good

I have in my possession, almost 19 pounds of pure gold.
That's right, pure gold. Beautiful golden butternut squash.

It all went down like an illicit deal. My friend "B" whispered to me, "Hey, I'm going to the farm tomorrow, I'll get ya some squash". Me.. "hmm, really, that's the good stuff!". "Yeah, it's going for a super price. ""Cool, I haven't seen it that low before..." "Ok, I'll deliver it tomorrow evening."
I slid the cash to her hand, and she passed over the goods. She bought out the farm for me, actually. I peeked in the bag and saw squash like I've only seen on display at a farm. No piddly little 2 pounders in this lot, no sir. These are big, fat, golden, just picked beauties. They don't fall to the bottom of a stale lot of skinny stringy squash. Not these ones. They boast their heftiness, they shout, look at me. Their vibe is less "please buy me" it's more "hmm, I don't know, maaaybe... what do you want me for".

Well, my hubby just happens to make a butternut squash recipe that rocks. He makes HUGE batches and freezes enough to give away and to keep us going until the next Fall. We have used it for special occasions, for rushed "let's order takeout, oh wait there is soup in the freezer" nights, and even as part of a normal menu plan. But the fun part is when we use it for payment, actually the soup is part of the deal to get the squash :) I've "bought" a pair of winter boots for my daughter with it, and bribed our little nephew to eat when he was sick. We've also given it away as a comfort to friends who needed a little something sweet and special to brighten their day.

This squash cost us roughly $0.26 a lb.

It's that good.

Air Conditioning

Well, it's now officially Fall. Outside it is a chilly 15 degrees, with blustery winds and a dark overcast day all around. So now may seem like an odd time to write about air conditioners.

However, since I did not write this summer, I feel compelled to write about it now!

This year, I am very happy to report, we never even turned on the a/c in the house once. Not even to see if it still works. This has been one of the hottest, driest summers in recent memory. Sure there were days when we were uncomfortable. But we did it. Last summer we turned it on just once to check to make sure it still worked (it did). But last summer wasn't as hard because it rained like 8 weeks out of 10 or something like that. This summer we had heat waves, hot sticky days for 3 or 4 days at a time.

All it took really was some planning and determination. Here's how we did it:

1. FANS! First of all, we have enough fans in the house for every person to grab their own and reposition it around the house as needed. The kids have cool glow in the dark fans for their rooms. All the bedrooms have ceiling fans, as well as the kitchen. When sleeping with a fan on either side, and one overhead, it's not that bad!
2. Curtains. We pulled our heavy dark curtains across during the day.
3. Windows. Opening the windows at any time when it's cooler outside than in, then shutting them when the opposite arrives.
4. Basement! When all else failed to provide enough relief, we slept in the basement. The kids loved it! On one of the hottest days this summer, our living room upstairs was 34 degrees at 8:30 in the evening. Our basement was 21 degrees.

We have some great friends who did the same this year,so it really helped to have that support. Most people look at you like you have two heads, and occasionally I will have somebody rudely remark on how difficult it must be for the kids, how cruel we are to them. Let me just say... is it really cruel to provide them with some knowledge that our world is not a comfy 21 degrees all the time? That it's cool to care about the environment,especially when it's not convenient; even if you feel like you (and a handful of other friends) are the only ones who care? I structured my days so that we did something fun outside before the heat got too bad, then we would come in and hang out and play in the always cool basement. I don't think that's very cruel at all.

One of my biggest pet peeves are people that try to poke at your "good deeds" like when you choose not to use a/c. I used it occasionally in the car.. I have 2 kids and a big panting dog. We made several long trips in the car, with lots of traffic jams, so yes, I am going to use A/C. It's just funny how many people would point that out to me like it was a sin. Meanwhile, they are at work, in their overly airconditioned offices and their a/c's are humming that mind numbing ugly groan. I think it just makes people feel better about themselves. I am not trying to make people feel bad about their own choices, like using a/c all summer. I just want respect about my choice. It's not like I point out that they are using theirs, I would just mention that I haven't used mine, and that was only occasionally, because I didn't want to deal with the 'oh that must be soo hard on the kids' speech. If you feel justified in your reasons to use or not use air conditioning, then that is your personal choice. I applaud anybody who tries to make good choices for the environment, but I don't outwardly try to make others feel bad about their choice to use it... it's simply a matter of "being the change you want to see in the world".

In any event, in terms of Money not Spent... I am really not sure how much we save on our electricity bill. My guess would be around $250-$300 for the summer. I don't know because it's been at least 3 years since we've run it for more than a day or two, and in the 8 summers we have spent in this house, we've never run it full time, all summer.

Here's to the beginning of Fall. Time to crank up the furnace.. just kidding ;)

I'm back

Hello world... do you remember me?

It's been so very long since I posted, I took the whole summer off and then some!

I've been busy busy busy. First of all, I spent the summer dedicated wholly to my family. Every day was designed for the kids. We did so much this year, and I am so thankful for the great weather! Then with the start of school, came the start of a brand new adventure for me, a real paying job!!! It's been so long since anybody gave me money for work that I was practically doing hand stands (while somehow managing to be reserved in front of the giver). I am now the proud owner of a whole stack of $20 bills! I'm collecting them. Of course, over half of them are spoken for, I need to pay our family budget back. With all my capital expenses, and all, isn't that always the way? But I've finally passed the "break even" point and am earning an income! Woo hoo!!!

I can't believe the number of people, who say to me "it so nice for you to have your own money" I'll tell ya now, if it worked that way, for my husband and I to have our "own money" I would be sorely hurting and on the street! From paycheck number one we have considered our money to be "ours". The bitter truth for me is that I will never be worth as much money working 3 jobs as he is working 1. Nobody will ever pay me that much. But that's okay... Luckily for me, in our family, we don't assign a monetary value to each other. I may not have been drawing much of an income since leaving the outside world of work 6 years ago to have my son, (heck, who am I kidding, I didn't draw much income then either!) but I have saved us child care costs. It hasn't been a sacrifice in the least. Yeah, maybe we eat tomato soup and grilled cheese more than we'd care to admit, but we're happy.

In any event, I am now "working" again. Happily self-employed. I care for 3 children after school plus my own 2. Of course 3 of those kids are in kindergarten, so it's only 2-3 days a week that I have 5 children. I meet the kids at the bus stop, they come to my house for a snack, and we do homework. On the light homework days, we have an extra "lesson" where I reach into my old hat and pull out my tricks from tutoring days gone by. We speak French during this time, as they are in a French Immersion school. I love my work. I love that I still get to be home during the days (which also means quality 1-1 time with my daughter on her days off) and most importantly, I am there at the end of the day to meet my kids. Being home during the day means I can afford the time to cook from scratch, which means no last minute fast food... I get most of the housework done during that time which means more quality time in the evenings for everybody. I love this work so much I can't see myself doing anything else, which I think is the true measure of success.

It's good to be back, and I hope to be a daily writer again.