Christmas Spirit: Advent

I LOVE December 1st.
At our house, it is now the official first day of the Christmas season and we enter in full speed and whole heart.

I've blogged in the past about what really matters to me at Christmas time, but in the four years since that time, that message has been driven, quite literally, home. 
You see, two years ago, on December 16th, in the midst of shopping, baking, wrapping, appies and Christmas do's, we found out my Mum was dying.
It changed everything about that Christmas. Every carol we sang was sacred. Every lit up house was magical. Christmas Eve, that most sacred of family times for us, was spent stunned, aching and somehow still grateful. We ate, and laughed and cried through our last holiday together.
So you can imagine, last year Christmas came as an ungraceful herald of all we had lost. Part of me wanted to skip the whole shebang. And then this other voice inside of me just sang her heart out and said we should celebrate. And celebrate, we did. It was our best Christmas ever.

Homemade goodies, a veritable cornucopia of gifts under the tree, train rides and parties, turkey, potatoes and peanut butter balls dipped in dark chocolate. I threw myself into it with delight and new family traditions sprang up!
My favorite "new" tradition is a very old one. An advent calendar.
I made it, of course, and spent hours planning it out. Instead of a daily chocolate or gift, I alternated a combination of family activities, crafts and small presents. It was such a success! We loved it!
Each day is represented by a white mitten on a red string. I held each date marker on with a clothes pin. And in the mitten is either a little gift or a paper saying what the advent activity or craft will be.
It was such an inexpensive way to make the Christmas season even more magical for my children, but I have to say my husband and I were caught up in it, too!
Here, in no particular order, are just a few of the things we'll be doing this year for our advent:

-The Minter's Mini Train
-Homemade Peanut-butter Balls
-Family Candle Light Dinner
-Spiced Dough Ornaments
-Christmas movie night (this year it'll be "White Christmas")

But today, December first, is one of my favourites. Today we bust it all out and decorate the house and tree. Christmas CD's! Twinkle Lights! Garlands! Home made ornaments! The Nativity!

Speaking of decorating, I must run - IT'S ALMOST TIME!!!!!

Love,
Victoria

Pinching Pennies: While Cleaning The Kitchen

I've been thinking about all the corners I cut to save money in the kitchen. Our budget has relaxed a bit these days, so we are eating better quality food, thank God - but we still need to keep our purse strings tight.

Here are some of the ways we Pinch Pennies while cleaning in the kitchen:

1) I only fill the dishwasher soap dispenser 1/3 up. Most manufacturers grossly overstate the amounts needed to clean dishes, and I think we can all guess why: it makes them more money! If you use a third of what you've been using in your dishwasher, your soap will last 3 times as long! I was going to make my own dishwasher soap to save even more money, but all of the reviews I read said that it just doesn't clean like the commercial stuff. I think there's a line there I'm not willing to cross - I mean, the dishes need to get clean...

2) I use Norwex cloths to clean my kitchen, which saves on cleaning supplies - and is GREENER!

3) My friend, Na, cuts up holey old sweatpants and t-shirts to use as cloths and dishrags. You are giving unusable clothes a second life, and there's no guilt when you throw them out when they get nasty because you already saved them from the garbage once!

4) As already posted, I use a Swiffer to mop my kitchen floors, but with Norwex cloths (or a micro-fiber cloth if you don't Norwex) and hot water instead of the disposable, chemical soaked wipes. It's free (if you already have a swifter) and GREEN!

5) If I am only doing the kitchen, I don't bust out my hoover - I just grab my broom. It's easier, but it saves a few kilojoules of energy too (did I even use kilojoule in the correct context?), and that saves a few pennies.

6) If I need a new scrubby dishrag, I knit one out of cotton from my stash. This wouldn't work for everyone (as I am a "highly skilled" knitter [there was mockery there in case you missed it]) but if you knit, it's a fun little project that even a beginner can do.

7) Instead of using fabric bibs, which need to be laundered after each wearing, I use a plastic moulded bib with a big pocket on it. It catches way more than a conventional bib, and it wipes clean with the dishrag when I am wiping the counters.

8) If you use a table cloth, consider putting a clear pvc cover over it - it wipes clean with a rag, saving regular laundering.

What are some of the ways you Pinch Pennies while cleaning in the kitchen?

SPUD - Organic Local Produce Delivered to Your Front Door

Last week I saw this Social Shopper add in the local news paper for "SPUD." 

Basically, I paid Social Shopper $20 for a $40 gift certificate at SPUD, a sustainable produce company. I've often wanted to buy more organic, but with the prices being so high, I've stuck to organic apples and spinach (two of the top "Deadly Dozen" offenders for chemicals and pesticides).

Don't I wish I was getting paid for this. Anyways.

I purchased the Social Shopper Gift Certificate and went immediately to the SPUD website.

Basically, it's a company where you get local organic groceries delivered to your front door, a wonderful company if you're into sustainable living.

I checked out their website for a while, then I ordered a box of assorted organic local produce, to be delivered the following Wednesday (today).

When I came home from my errands this morning, there it was at the front door: my box of sustainably harvested local, organic produce. I got apples, beets, carrots, corn, fennel, romain, crimini mushrooms, pepper, nugget potatoes, and a pound of tomatoes. 

I am really pleased with this company - my only complaint is that the website is a bit complex (it needs to be with all the choices involved for online grocery shopping), but with a cup of tea and a few minutes, totally do-able.

If you want to try it out, they sent me a coupon for friends: 

Referral Code: CRVAN-BURVIC

If you use that code, we both get $20 of free SPUD groceries.

Love, Victoria

Just One Cuppa Joe: UPDATE

If I try to count how many times I have given up coffee, I end up somewhere around six. It's not that I can't do without the rush of caffeine coursing through my system - in fact, I adjust to missing that fairly quickly. It's the comforting ritual of it that I am truly addicted to. I make it to anywhere between three weeks and a few months, and my mornings start to feel so... spartan. Like a bedroom without any colour in it. I've tried herbal teas, hot water, juice - and nothing is quite as satisfying as a cup of coffee.

Right now I am nursing, and my son, an adorable little twenty pounder, suffers from Reflux. They tell me it's likely he'll grow out of it, but in the meantime no dairy, wheat or caffeine for me. Can we just all collectively gasp in horror at the self control I am having to exert (before I confess that I've been cheating with wheat. Just a little bit. Okay, I ate three hotdogs in their buns yesterday. [CRINGE]). Anyways, he responds very badly to caffeine. But he seems okay with decaf. So I am now a dairy-free decaf girl.

But no one else wants a cup of decaf at 2 in the afternoon.

I tried making smaller pots of coffee, but if you try to make anything less than six cups of coffee in my coffeemaker, you end up with something that tastes like dishwater with sugar in it. Not good. And then you are tempted to purchase coffee out, which is NOT FRUGAL at all.

But look what I got:

A one cup coffee filter. So I can make just one cup. 

I have NO idea how much money this saves, wether its pennies or quarters, but it certainly does the trick. 

(Well, I tried this. It works in a pinch, but the coffee tastes like dirt. So I tried a french press, which is slightly more palatable, but still not quite the same. So guess what? I bought instant decaf, and would you believe that it's the best tasting option? I was shocked! It costs $6.50 for approximately 80 cups, which works out to $0.08 a cup. Cheap, CHEEP!)

Inappropriate Pageviews

Okay, just a quick post in which I am wearing a wicked little smile. 

My last post got a whopping 22 views in one day (which is quite high for me), predominantly from viewers in north east Europe and the States. 

I couldn't figure out why - it was such a humble little post. 

On further reflection, and re-reading, I have come to the conclusion that I have attracted international perverts unintentionally with my title. I think they came looking for a different kind of sock agony (picture me laughing out loud and blushing right now). 

Just imagine - all this time, they key to high readership was accidentally inappropriate post titles. Ah- this will make me laugh for days to come!

Sock Agony Shpinkter Tightening

Today I went to Walmart to purchase both of my children socks. We are usually given everything we need second hand or as gifts - but I realized last week that my daughter only had about three or four pairs of socks that fit and my son a single mint green pair that were getting small.
Luckily, in the mail yesterday I received a belated birth gift of $20, so I knew exactly what to do with it. Socks. Thank you, O sender of cash. You can buy most anything second hand, but socks are a hard sell because they have no sizes written on them.
To Walmart we went, where I surprised myself by spending a half hour agonizing over which 'value pack' would fit longest-not wear through-be fashionable-and not cost the world. It was only later, as I drove home, that I started contemplating just how much I dislike being in the kind of financial place where the purchase of socks can make me sweat - can I get an AMEN?

So as you purchase your school supplies and lunch supplies and back to school clothes and start lessons and sports and activities and clubs, all under the looming expenses of a nearing Christmas, know that you are not alone. I bet if there was a study about such things, findings would indicate straight across the board that everyone's shpinkter is about 4mm tighter this time of year.

Detox Darling - Feindish Fruit

I was recently was reading "Psychology Today" as I waited for Aria to finish out her allotted half hour on the library computer and there was an article on pesticide contamination in produce. If I didn't already have curlies, I would now. Pretty much made me sick to my stomach. And it wasn't fear mongering. It is well documented that, "The fruits and vegetables on “The Dirty Dozen” list, when conventionally grown, tested positive for at least 47 different chemicals, with some testing positive for as many as 67." and those 47-67 chemicals have some NASTY side effects (cancer, for instance). Go on, google it for yourself if you doubt me. And they test for chemicals after they have washed the produce.

So, without further ado, here are the Dirty Dozen:
(the food you want to buy organic to avoid contamination)

Apples
Celery
Peaches
Nectarines
Domestic Blueberries
Strawberries
Sweet Bell Peppers
Spinach, Kale and Collard Greens
Cherries
Potatoes
Imported Grapes
Lettuce

I was displeased to note that these are the items I purchase most.

Anyways, Superstore seems to only have Organic Apples, Strawberries and Spinach. But I know that Pricemart has a much better selection of organic produce.

And to celebrate my new organic produce, I dried organic apple slices yesterday. Mmmmm, good.