Balance again

It has been a busy week around here.  We got the rest of our tree taken down and despite the whole dynamic of our backyard changing in June when we started, having the last "branch" gone has changed the whole neighborhood.  Our tree used to tower over everything and now it is wide open spaces.

Yesterday was super nice and we spent the morning playing outside.  I didn't go to work and funnily enough, I wasn't the only one.  We wrapped up tax season basically on Friday morning and had our party last night.  Dinner was fun, though over priced.

Chatty Cathy continues her word explosion and it is so fun to wonder what the next word will be.  My favorites at the moment are sssnack and stink!  AND she is asking please on a more consistent basis!  I couldn't be more excited about that.

Sadly our bright, shiny day brought snow today and the sad realization that I lost one of my diamond earrings.  Of course, it was on the day we vacuumed and played outside so it could be anywhere.  I feel so naked without them.  I hope it turns up, otherwise I will be investigating the cost of one earring to match.

Besides getting some balance back in the home/work ratio, I am still working on the green/frugal balance.  I have been having fun learning the register rewards at Walgreens and have started thinking out my standards of when I want to do a deal.  Obviously if it is something we use I want to get the best price that I can.  If I can get something under $2 and we could use it or at least donate it, I will probably get it.  We now have nice little stockpile of health & beauty products and toothpaste, so I really only want to keep buying if it's a great price.  But one of the rules of couponing is to buy the smallest size usually to get a good deal.  This goes against being green of buying the biggest size or least amount of packaging.

I really wish it was easier to recycle around here and that we had a little more space in our house to have a good recycling "center" for us.  I have been trying to make small changes around here and one of my favorite little switches has been to cloth napkins.  I am hooked and on the look out for more fun ones.  My biggest internal struggle right now is procuring more shopping bags.  I have a few and my favorites are my Neela bags.  The debate is....do I order more or just buy the ones in the stores around here?  I was going to use the Walgreens BOGO coupon today, but found out they had been recalled due to having lead in them!  I haven't started using them to get groceries but I have been making the concerted effort to use them for all my other shopping expeditions.  So far, it's been easy and I get a lot of compliments on my bags.  I just have to make sure I unload them and put them right back in my purse.

So I am sure I will be blogging more about it, and I would love to hear your thoughts and/or ideas of what you are doing. AND I am totally jealous of the family back in Kansas with their green thumb gardens.