Hmmm

Today I'm out of sorts. Nothing serious, just out of sorts. It was a busy day that started well, with PEPS at our house, then Tessa at preschool while I ran all kinds of errands....and then I just ran out of steam.

I'm trying very, very, very hard to be the environmental girl, and often struggling. Grocery shopping is becoming a new form of torture for me, balancing all of my desires (frugality, organic, local, healthy, not processed, simple preparations). I'm trying to avoid buying plastics so wanted to buy two half gallons of milk in paper instead of one gallon in plastic, but to do so would cost about $2 more per gallon. So I bought in glass, and spent even more. (Sigh) I will figure it out, and there are answers, they're just not easy all the time.

And I bought organic green onions....that came pre-sealed in a plastic sack. What's wrong with a tiny rubber band instead of all that plastic? And is it better to buy non-organic in that case, to avoid packaging? Why on earth would an organic producer package like that? And I ended up buying twice as many as I needed because they were pre-packaged.

Little struggles....I will learn.

I went to Costco (boneless, skinless, organic chicken thighs for $3.99/pound; I bought three pounds and came home and froze them in one pound sections) and found a deal worth sharing: Light bulbs. Seattle Public Utilities is offering an incentive to buy energy efficient bulbs, and so they have an instant rebate on a 10 pack of bulbs that retails for $17.89 and the rebate is for $13.50 - wow! Ten bulbs for less than $4 is an excellent, frugal deal. Thanks, SPU. (The offer is available at other stores, as well - check your local Fred Meyer, Home Depot, McLendon as well to see if they have a similar offer.) But I had to drive to Costco, and since I did it with Tessa at preschool I wasn't able to consolidate as many errands as I wanted to, and so I put some extra miles on the car today. Not many, but enough.

Tonight I made hamburgers for dinner - it felt decadent. Still, with Great Harvest's organic hamburger buns (whole grain) for $.50 each, and $4 worth of Misty Isle Farms organic ground beef (lean of course), and an avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, it was a pretty healthy meal. (We already had ketchup, mustard, and pickles, as well as some cheddar cheese.) I made a side of orzo pasta with parmesan (an old Rachel Ray recipe) to go with it. To feed the whole family dinner was about $10.50 even including condiments etc. and I'm pleased enough with that - if we'd had similar burgers at Jak's they'd be that much EACH.

And I did do something I'd been meaning to do "forever" today - I unplugged our second fridge. We'd been working on emptying the freezer, and I was able to consolidate the two fridges into one. In theory, this will save 7% of our electric bill. I think that the downstairs fridge is actually in better shape than the upstairs one, so I'd like to get rid of the upstairs one and switch out the downstairs one....but I have to get Ryan and some help to do that, as my body no longer moves things like refrigerators. (I still have a 10 pound weight restriction, but even when that's lifted - FRIDAY! - I won't be able to do fridges.)

I'm fighting allergies, or is it a cold? Now Tessa and I are both coughing. I'm out of sorts because of it, so perhaps this is the source of my angst today.

Whatever. Hopefully a good night's sleep will cure me.