The not so green pumpkin = #5

#5. We inherited two pumpkins this year from the generous woman across the apartment complex who moved out.

Green things we did while sort of homeless #4

We collected the compost and froze it in the freezer.

Green things we did while sort of homeless #3

3. Without the proper dishes to make food, we used what we had. My favorite thing to do.

Green things we did while sort of homeless #2

2. While between houses, we lived in a furnished apartment for 3 months, so okay, we weren’t really anywhere near homeless. But it did feel like it. Since, well, we didn’t have a home and our real home was now up for sale. They didn’t recycle at the apartment, but guess who did?

#1 Moving boxes

1. Daily my mother traveled up the street to the Dollar Store or I trudged to the elementary school behind her home to pull out empty boxes from their trash and recycling bins.

Life in transition and greening a military move

Since June, we’ve been involved with two different moves. Downsizing my mom’s and moving from Wisconsin to the south, yet again. It has been non-stop packing, unpacking and dealing with a nightmare moving company, purchasing a home, fighting to get insurance, home repairs, and trying to sell our house in Wisconsin, one thing after another. But landing in a home and shuffling through boxes does a holiday make.

Oh what a mess!

Living in a hotel and zero waste

Yeah, not so easy.

While we wait for the closing of the house, we reside in a hotel and tomorrow we’ll be nearing a month in this room. No furnished place to rent existed and in a town with a population of 5,000, we simply didn’t have much choice. And that’s okay. I thought I could do zero waste without much of a problem here, but it’s been the biggest challenge yet.

The sink used to wash dishes, bibs full of spit up, face, hands and the baby.

Hello Wisconsin!

(That would be said in Ashton Kutcher’s voice from That 70’s Show. He says it at the end of the song. I hear it every time I look out the window.)

Last military move

As we transition into civilian life, there are things I’ll miss and things that I won’t.
But the moves…..those darn moves.

Collectables

My husband has collected shot glasses for years from every place he’s ever been. They are great conversation pieces, made of glass, lovely, small decor, easily transported with us in constant moves. But each time we move, the movers pack each one separately in paper. Yes, really. It makes my stomach knot. What right do I have to tell my husband he needs to get rid of them? They are his memories, his collectables.

But do we need to continue collecting them? When is enough? When does a collector get to the end? When does he/she decide to stop?