I is for Invest Locally

When we lived in Oklahoma, I had over 20 pots that I loaded up with flowers every year. This was what Rick bought me for Mother's Day and I usually spent around $300 or more. It was a lot of work, and cost a lot, but I loved how pretty it made our porches and driveway. I did the majority of my shopping at Lowe's.

This year, now that we have moved, we have scaled down quite a bit, but I still have a lot of pots to fill. Yesterday my mom and I headed out to one of the Amish greenhouses. We live in the middle of a thriving Amish community. I was blown away with all the Amish had to offer, and the prices were fantastic! I came out with enough flowers to fill several of my pots, and even got some pepper plants, jalapeno plants, and red onions for my garden. I only spent $35! Now, I still have ferns to purchase, and will replace my pansies with other annuals in the next several weeks. But, I got a great start for a fraction of the cost!

And, they also have lots of other landscaping perennials for when Rick and I get ready to do our landscaping. They have crepe myrtles, hydrangeas, peonies, phlox, knock out roses, strawberries, blueberries and many other things, all of which are on my list. And, they are CHEAP! You can bet I will be getting my tomato plants from there in the next week or so when I finally get them planted.

This year I decided to try to invest in our local businesses as much as possible. Although the prices at the mom and pop grocery store are higher, there is much less variety and no real impulse purchases, so I have found that I spend TONS less than when I meticulously made my list to go to Aldi and Walmart every two weeks. I buy as many of my baking goods, apples, applesauce, peaches, pickles, grains, peanut butter, essential oils and soaps, and eggs at the other Amish store.

At the end of the day, I feel so GOOD about investing in the businesses of those who are local because, frankly, they need the business! Without customers, our grocery store would close (as have many of our local businesses) and the Amish community would need to move away.

I challenge you to look around and see what you can find at your local businesses and invest in them!

As always, linking up with Marcy at Ben and Me.

Cells ~ It's What's for Dinner

Dawson made edible cells on Friday. He made an animal cell pizza ... and a plant cell chocolate chip cookie ... He reviewed what he's learned about cells the past two weeks, and I had dinner made by someone else. Win, win!! I am linking up at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

A New Year, the Same Me

Happy 2019! It is that day of the year where everybody is up extra early starting their new exercise routine, eating only healthy foods, cracking open the pages of a new planner and Bible study, and debuting their Word for the year. You chuckle or roll your eyes, but you are doing at least three of these things. By the way, so am I. So let's start with the Word of the Year. Mine this year is Lagom. It's the Swedish word for "not too little, not too much, just right". It's a concept of being, doing or having just enough. So let's rewind to last New Year's Day. My Word was Might. And that's how I planned to tackle my year. And, I did. I worked out hard, I mommed hard, I traveled hard, I worked hard. And it was a good season. It prepared the way for this year. I accepted the Challenge I set for myself and succeeded. But, I don't need to keep up that pace. I am at a place in my life where I can kind of sit back and enjoy my life without f...

Science Sunday ~ Hmmm ... Let Me Think About It!

This week in our study of the Human Body , Brynne moved on to the Nervous System . Our first stop was a Pamela Hill Nettleton book called, Think, Think, Think: Learning About Your Brain . As part of our discussions about the brain , and the fact that it's the BOSS of the body, we discussed the importance of the spinal cord . We did a hands on spinal cord project by alternating gummy Life Savers and wagon wheel pasta on a pipe cleaner. We talked about why there was the "squishy" stuff in between the vertebra and how the back can bend and sway because of it. We completed "The Brynne" by adding the stomach, small intestine and large intestine, from our study last week of the Digestive System (although I just realized I have the large intestine coming out of the stomach, when the small intestine should be) and the brain and spinal cord. We are now done talking about the parts of the body and will conclude our study of the Human Body with a two-day unit ...

LaurieMay 15, 2013 at 10:58 AM
We are working on this too- our local farmers markets are one place we do this and when we eat out we try to frequent locally owned restaurants. I'd hate to see more small businesses go down- so many have.

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