America Recycles Day - November 15, 2009

Now here is truly a day of interest! I had no idea this day existed! Now for the real shocker to me.. today we are celebrating it's 12th year! America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to encouraging Americans to recycle and to buy recycled products. That's a pretty lofty mission.. and one I can get behind!

How will you celebrate today?

Want to learn more? Check out the America Recycles Day organization's website.

Happy National Clean Out Your Fridge Day!

Happy what?!! Yup.. I found this obscure holiday listing over at about.com looking into what excitement November held other than birthdays and Thanksgiving. I thought it would spark some interest in things outside of ourselves. It seems that we have been focused inward for a bit of time, and I think it is time to open back up again... It turns out that today, November 14, 2009, is National Clean Out Your Fridge Day.

What does that mean for you? Hmm.. well, we could assume that it is an ideal day to clean out your fridge. Does that mean that this is the only suitable day for cleaning out one's fridge each year? Oh my.. please don't think that! You should clean out your fridge at least once each month, and of course clean up spills as they happen. Personally, I clean out my fridge when I am making my grocery list each 7-14 days. This way I know exactly what is fresh, or has gone bad and needs to be replaced. In addition, it creates the ideal empty and clean space to bring my food home to.

Other events sharing today with your fridge include Prince Charles' birthday. I sure hope he doesn't mind sharing his birthday with my fridge.. 

Happy 61st birthday Prince Charles!

Moving and Christmas in Chicago

It's official! We are moving out of this non insulated, leaky, drafty sardine can we have been calling home for the last couple of years. We found a cute place with lovely covered porches to sit out on, a large yard to run around in, and working electricity for a price that fits in our budget. Yeah! The neighbors have kids and horses. And the weather is ten to fifteen degrees (Fahrenheit) cooler year round even though it is only about an hour from where we are now. We hear there are even a few nights that see snow over the winter, although it is gone by mid day again. We also have a fantastic lady that we will be renting from that used to work in homeopathic medicine, and does energy work. We finally found someone in the area who knows about all the strange things we do!

We have just over a week now to pack everything up.. ummmm.. I'm keeping busy!

In between boxes, we are planning our trip to Chicago for Christmas. The kids and I are so excited to be able to spend Christmas with family this year. It has been over six years since we have seen my mother and grandmother, and the idea of family dinner, Santa, snow and city lights has our hearts beating faster with excitement! I'm planning to take the kids to see the Shedd Aquarium and Brookfield Zoo while we are there.. and Ber will be celebrating her 17th birthday there as well. It is shaping up to be a fantastic trip! And just to make it even better, Rawle is joining us in Chicago. My family is so excited to meet him.

There's more.. but I'll save some for later. So much to do, so much to do..

A Wagon, Cats, and a Skunk.. Oh My!

Several years ago, I had found the perfect wagon for the kids.. not your traditional Radio Flyer type wagon, mind you, but an actual heavy duty, run around and use it wagon. A few years back, it was stolen. We were heart broken at the time, but did not replace it for various reasons. As the kids have grown older, I keep thinking back to that wagon and how much fun we had with it. I even went searching for it, just to price it.. and then put it on the wish list of things we will have someday.

Well someday came yesterday. The kids have been wishing that we had a wagon lately, and with our move coming up, and the thought of carrying all those boxes, I was wishing we had THAT wagon. I found it at the local Home Depot, and we went and picked it up just as they were closing. Rawle and the kids had a fantastic time racing through the parking lot at high speed pulling each other around. We must have spent close to an hour in the parking lot! I'm thinking buying the wagon was a really good idea.. we have video of some of the madness that I will get up later.

As we were getting ready to put the wagon in the car and finally leave, I spotted a skunk ambling across the parking lot and into the plants they always keep in front of the garden center. I yelled for everyone to come look. We were quite a distance away from it, but close enough that to get a fairly good look at it. It was larger than the kids had expected a skunk to be. It was the size of a very large cat, or a smaller dog. It was quite furry, and had a very wide stripe down the back of it's black body. And it seriously ambled.. it wasn't quite a walk, and it wasn't a run.. We decided that it was quite cute.. that being said at a distance, of course.

As we were driving away, we saw it in the plants, and circled around to get a closer look. We thought we would try to get a picture.. with the windows closed. When we drove past the plants again, we were amused to start seeing cats among the big pots holding trees. First it was just one sitting next to a pot, and then we spotted a second one lying in a different pot, and two pots behind that, there was a third cat looking quite cozy in yet another pot. We attempted to get pictures in the dark, from the car, with the windows rolled up, with the camera in the cell phone.. not sure if you can actually make anything out from the pictures, but I'll post what I can later.

Wait.. we were talking about a SKUNK.. the skunk didn't seem to bother the cats at all. They turned their heads to look at it with idle curiosity when it made noise, scratching at things, but didn't bother moving in the least. WE must have made quite a picture though.. sitting in the car, driving forwards and backwards repeatedly looking for and following the skunk! After a bit, two of the cats moved. They started chasing bugs at the edge of other pots.. we wondered if that was what the skunk was doing there too..

The skunk was quite adept at hiding between pots, and we didn't see much of it, until one of the kids saw it ambling back across the parking lot in front of us towards the drainage ditch. I slowly pulled the car forward to see if we could get closer for a better picture. All of a sudden, the skunk put its big tail up and the tail seemed to spread out flat.. I took that for the warning it was, and did not get any closer. In the car or not, I didn't want to get sprayed! We watched it disappear into the ditch, and then left ourselves.

We had wonderful conversations about skunks and cats, and how animals would rather be left alone than come after a person, or hurt them. After all the vicious dogs in our neighborhood, the kids needed to see that for themselves again.

Did I mention it is the first live skunk we have ever seen? Very cool..

The Kittens Are Here

Miss Nora, our momma kitty, had her kittens on October 15th. It was a fantastic experience for the boys to watch over Nora all day as she went through labor and gave birth to one kitten at a time. @Cam_Anju has seen it all before, several times in her life, but the boys were finally old enough to be fascinated by the experience.

By the end of the day, Nora gave birth to a total of five kittens. We have learned over the years that some just don't make it. We lost two over the first two days. As said as it was, we took the opportunity to really see the kittens up close, and talk a bit about death.

After 17 days of life, the three remaining kittens are quite strong and healthy. Their eyes have just opened fully as of Thursday, and they are starting to push themselves up on their wobbly little legs and look like cats. They are only beginning to pull themselves around the box, but I'm sure it will be no time at all until we are seeing them running around all over. It is really cute to see Little A hold a kitten on his shoulder, like he is burping a baby, and watch it climb up and settle comfortably there.


The three kittens are each individuals, from the way they look to how they act, just like every baby on Earth. One of them is a solid dark chocolate brown in color, and pees every time we pick it up.. jokes are flying about what we should temporarily name this kitten! The next one is black with white markings.. it looks like a black mask was pulled over it's white face. This made us think of Zorro and earned the kitten the temporary name of El Gato. El Gato is very quiet and calm. The last one is our favorite.. it is almost completely white with gray tips to it's ears and it's nose. This one is quite loud when it is picked up, and the most active in the box. We have given it the temporary name of Bunny.

Did I mention?.. One thing they have in common is that none of them have tails.. Daddy must have been at least part Manx. Muffin is adjusting well to her new siblings, and has decided to be their second mother now. Every time one of them cries, she comes running and stays with them until they are put back in their box and Nora is with them.

I love kittens.. I think we may end up keeping the white one, but it is never too early to start looking for good homes for the other two to go to when they are old enough..

Any takers?!