Some small steps in the right direction

A couple small steps in the right direction... Hello all!  Wow.. I really didn't intend on it taking so long between posts, but life goes on.  My mom seems to be doing much better as of late.  She seems more herself that she had been in quite a while.  That at least takes a bit off of my mind.  We go and fix dinner every Sunday afternoon at their house, generally meat of some sort, potatoes fixed either creamed or stewed, homemade biscuits, and most of the time gravy.  My dads favorite and almost the extent of what he'll eat.  LOL.  He'll be a little adventurous occasionally and eat "shake n bake" style pork chops, but that's about as adventurous as he gets.  His favorite is regular ole' fried chicken.  But, I digress, I'm getting away from what I was going to say.  I've tried my hand at baking biscuits and I'm getting better at it every time I try.  My biscuits are at least passable now.  This week, I mentioned to mom and dad about keeping their recyclables and then I'd take them with me on Sundays and put them in my bin.  They seemed agreeable to the idea, so YAY!  I'm going to start small, and just tell them to put cardboard, and milk jugs (rinsed, and if they aren't keeping them for some reason) and tin cans in the bin.  Then I'll just simply add that to my recyclables for pickup on Monday.  I've gotten myself in the habit of rising cans out, breaking down cardboard, etc. and when I cook down there, I still do it, but then find myself having to put it in the trash.  I've tried keeping it out, but mom and dad give me strange looks and still throw it away when I leave it. LOL.   But this is going to be a small step to help get others recycling too.

One thing I've also been doing and it's for a combination of reasons is I've almost cut out all soda.  The only time I've been drinking any pop is when I eat out and the place has lousy iced tea, or I'm out and just really need some caffeine.  :)   One reason why I've cut it out is because I've been trying to trim back on our spending since Phillip left his job.  Another, I just hate the idea of putting all of those chemicals into my body.  On our iced tea, we are still averaging about a gallon of tea a day, but that's for all meals, for all of us.  And, I might add, we only put about half the sugar in it that a lot of people do.  We've also been trying to buy stuff in bulk as much as possible, and thank goodness for Sams club.  Come spring/summer when the farmer's market opens, I hope to buy most of my veggies there, but the Yadkinville market is still pretty small, so everything we normally eat isn't always there, but it's a start.

Phillip and I've also been starting to plan some things for outside, for landscaping and gardening.  We're going to try to have a decent sized garden this year, as well as doing a few things around the house, so we can HOPEFULLY start inviting friends over.   So far, I want to make some mini raised beds for individual herbs along the sunny side of the house, beside the house, and I hope to get about at least a 10 X 20 area for a traditional garden in the back of the property.  This is dependant on finding someone that will charge a reasonable fee to bushhog and turn under the area in the back for the garden.   I also want to put up a small clothesline, and I really would love to have more flowers in the front this year, but that will involve of getting rid of 3 stumps.   Part of me hates putting all of this work into a rental property, but I want to pretty up the place a bit.  Almost all of my plans are either removable or we can easily restore any changes we may make.    Wow, if we're going to get all of this done, we're going to be busy bees this spring and summer.  LOL.  And speaking of bees, if we can, I'm going to try to take a beekeeping class this spring with the local bee group.  Phillip's hive seems to be doing well, but I'd love to get a hive of my own eventually.

Well, I need to run.  We got a seed catalog today in the mail, and I want to go see whats in it.
K@