Quick Challenge Update

I love challenges and there are a lot of them going on. I think I'm supposed to be updating so the organizers can put up recaps. Since I'll be MIA for 2 weeks, I thought I'd update here and label them, in case someone comes checking up on me.

One Local Summer: lots of local meals this week and I blanched and froze the excess for winter. Meals include:

• steamed greens (CSA) with tofu (local Boulder company),
  
• homemade (local flour) flour tortillas with eggs (Jay Hill Farms), greens (CSA), beans (CSA) and salsa (Rocky Mountain Farms),
  
• radish (Jay Hill) and marinated artichokes (Rocky Mountain Farms) salad (CSA spinach) and of course,
  
• the requisite almond butter (Justin's, local Boulder company) and jam (Rocky Mountain Farms) on homemade bread (local flour).
  
• We've been enjoying Jay Hill eggs and (local flour) pancakes with (Rocky Mountain Farm) strawberry syrup for breakfast all week too.
  
• And loads of strawberries and sugar snap peas from Jay Hill! A delicious week.

Keep Yer Cool
This one is easy so far. It is pleasant in the morning and evening. Mid-afternoon is pretty hot, in the low 90s all week. I've brought back the nap (I read this on a blog yesterday and thought it was ingenious!) Napping from 1-3 helps get through that time of day and lets me stay up later at night enjoying the cool night air. We have the AC set to go on when temps hit 86, although with Paul working at home we'll have to see if that's too hot for him. So far, he chose the hottest week to go to Iowa. I'm doing just fine being hot. It's tough in the car but luckily 2 out of 3 kids enjoy the wind in their face (can you guess who hates it?) so we are doing OK there. So far, so good.

5 Minute Shower Challenge
No problem! Having short hair and shaving infrequently make this easy for me. I think my showers average about 2-3 minutes, a bit less than 5 when I'm counting my warm up water time (caught in a bucket to water the garden, of course!) This one is a no-brainer and I'm mad at myself for not doing this earlier.

The One Can a Month and I'm a Bookworm are starting up on July 1, so I'll jump on those when I get back! Going from half a 32 gallon trash bin to essentially a quarter is the challenge. Try and put the trash out just once a month. I'm eager to learn even more tips on reducing our garbage output. It seems like it should be easier but we are still at 2 full kitchen sizes bags per week. Reading one eco book a month will be the push I need to plow through the Michael Pollan books, so looking forward to getting back into The Omnivore's Dilemma when I finish up Ahab's Wife for bookclub.

The Addiction challenge comes to an end in June. Mine was not eating out unless it was planned and I did great until the boys left. We ate out for girls night on Monday (planned, AOK and was my first time in a month and it was delicious!!) but then Wendy and I took the kids to Noodles after swimming on Thursday, and then I brought home some sushi (from a local restaurant in Superior) for lunch today. And now we're off for 2 weeks of probably eating out a lot. Still, it showed me the value of planning my special occasions and I do plan to pick it back up when we return in July.

The Don't Buy It - Put Your Rebate to Work rebate check is slotted to be deposited into our "Boulder House Down Payment" account. We think it will be mailed sometime after July 4, according to the site. We'll see!

I think that's it for challenges! As a general note, previous challenge buttons are moved to the bottom of the list but are on-going. So many of these are great enough (and easy enough!) to do full time.

Organizing

Today was an organizing type of day. I cleared out the linen closet and restocked it with what we actually USE rather than things left over from, I kid you not, Ted's baby shower. Oh the lotions we had! It feels very good to have that done!

After finding Crunchy Chicken, I think I just may have met my match in crunchiness. She would fit in perfectly in Boulder. This may be TMI for some of you, so feel free to stop reading now. Stop now. Gone? OK. So, for the rest of you, most of you know I cloth diapered all 3 of my kids. It was no big deal. Maybe two extra loads a week? I am by no means an OCD type of cleaner, and none of my kids, or anyone in my family for that matter, came down with any diseases. So, after reading about making the move to cloth wipes instead of toilet paper, I thought, why didn't I think of that?! Duh! We already use cloth napkins (when we use them, that is), cloth towels and rags in the kitchen. My dad still carries a hanky (or at least, he did in my last memory of him and hankies...) so why not? Without TP, paper towels and kleenex, I wouldn't need to shop at Costco AT ALL. This goes nicely with the Buy Nothing Challenge. I spent some time this afternoon cutting an old flannel sheet into squares for this very purpose. I even remember my recipe for wipe solution! (You can put it in a squirt bottle and squirt the cloth first.) My recipe is from Diaper Pin, where I bought all my cloth diaper supplies back in 2002. Wow. That seems like such a long time ago. Anyway, the recipe is: 3 drops tea tree oil + 1 TBSP Dr. Bronner's soap + water. The boys are TOTALLY on board with this. Ted said "That's a GREAT idea Mama! We can save lots of trees that way!" I love how environmental kids are naturally.

If you want to jump on board with any of these challenges, c'mon on! I am finding them quite enjoyable so far. And I LOVE the Crunchy Chicken Website! I love finding new cool sites. Happy Friday! Tomorrow Ted and I test for our Camo Belts! Woo hoo!