Slower Postings

The summer is a busy time for me. Many service trips and travels. I will probably have slower postings for the next few months. My plan is to post three times a week. Plus that Sunday quote.

Just wanted to give any of you readers a head's up!

My Obsession

I have a problem. I have a bit of an obsession with Mason jars and other fun glass jars.

At least my obsession has practical applications. I use large Mason jars to store dry goods in my teeny, tiny pantry cabinet. I use the other smaller sizes for the lotions I make. I have a jar of buttons with my sewing materials. When I make a bag of dry beans, I use jars to divide up the cooked beans and freeze for later use.

While I do worry about my clumsiness coming out to play and resulting in the breaking of jars, with more appearing to show that plastics can be harmful, I figure phasing out the plastic is a good bet.

While the branded Mason jars can be challenging to find outside of buying new at the store, I found a few tips for creating a collection of glass jars:

1. Put the word out to your friends, family, coworkers. Periodically a bag of jars appears in my office. I bring in baked goods or homemade pickles as thanks.
2. Save the ones you use - jelly, sauces, etc all come in jars - make use of 'em!
3. Watch rummage sales and estate sales. Our church has a rummage sale and periodically I can nab some there.

Fair Trade Chocolate

Yesterday was one of those days. Despite being a Friday and therefore sometimes a quieter day at work, I was swamped with meetings, special events to plan, and just the regular day to day tasks. On top of which, my lower back was bothering me for some reason. Then I came home to see the box containing new blinds was outside my door (yay). Oh, wait, that means I have to get them inside my condo. After hauling that, dealing with a new contact prescription that is wrong and seemingly a million other little things, it was safe to say I was in a no good, very bad, horrible sort of evening.

Enter my little happy thought - chocolate.

I wanted to keep it simple and not blow my good eating during the day. So I love the Equal Exchange mini dark chocolate bars (don't worry, they have milk chocolate too). They are my absolute favorite chocolate ever (and I've given much effort and taste tests the world over). Plus being small they won't blow your waist line.

Most importantly, they are fair trade. If you are unaware of the issues tying into the chocolate market, then take a moment to read what they talk about in the stories of their farmers or do a simple search online of the issue.

There would be a picture of the chocolate...but it didn't stick around long enough to be photographed. Sorry. Kind of.