Olio

1 Commentcrafting, etc., home schooling


I have a various things to say. The first thing to say is that I used my knitted shopping bag for the first time this evening at Walgreens. I have been frustrated by shopping bags for years. I re-use paper bags at the grocery store, but when I don’t bring enough to sack all the things I buy, I end up with plastic bags. We use a few plastic bags for our trash cans every week. The surplus bags go in a nifty dispenser tube sewn from a kitchen towel and eyelet trim that Mr. GAIN‘s dad commissioned Mr. GAIN’s aunt to make.

The check out gal was surprised at how “expandable” (her word) my bag is. I am happy that I didn’t have to take multiple plastic shopping bags home. And my bag didn’t rip from the corners of the many cardboard boxes that I bought. My bag has a big advantage over a plastic bag.

Throwing empty plastic shopping bags out in the trash seems like a waste of a bag. Maybe twice a year we’ll take surplus bags down to a food pantry run by Catholic Charities. I cannot imagine taking food home without a bag. Despite our “donation,” I think the plastic bags multiply in their dispenser tube in my closet! We always get more from someplace — argh! I may have to go deeper into this issue. I really liked not having the plastic around. My house felt beautifully free of extra junk when I unloaded from my shopping tonight.

The second thing I have to say is:
We had over 6″ of rain in the gauge at 10:30 a.m. !!! It rained after that, too. We have water in the basement for the second time in our nine years here, so that tells you how saturated the ground is.

The third thing I have to say is that I finally took time to reflect on the death of an acquaintance today. She was a home school mom that I met soon after moving to Des Moines. A car hit her and she died instantly. She is survived by three daughters, a husband, and her parents and siblings. I haven’t been to park day in so long that I don’t know if she would even remember my name. But I certainly remember her. After the sadness kind of went away, I concluded that I should strive to be more like she was. The world could be awesome if we could all be more selfless, giving, friendly, caring, and positive.

1 Comments

  1. zamozo

    Three topics = a three part comment. Bags — I’ve bought up several of the 99cent reuseable bags that the various grocery stores are selling and have been using those pretty well. The Dahl’s close to my home has a barrel for recycling the plastic ones but now that we’re bringing fewer home we’re using them up, in our trash cans like you.

    The rain — Since Thursday, I’ve collected 9.75″ of rain in my rain gauge that sits under the canopy of my huge American Elm tree. This is the first time in 14 years that we’ve lived here, that we’ve had water in our basement – streams, fortunately, all running for the drain.

    Jeanne S. – a lovely woman, mother, friend who’s absence from this world makes it less of a nice place to be. It is amazing how many people’s lives she touched.

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