Tag Archives: eco-fashionable

The Wall Street Journal

16 Saturday Jan 2010

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                                                                                                                                                          makedomondays

Our friends, the Adams, in Tucson (fellow frugalista’s) delivered their WSJ to Todd’s office faithfully for four years, a true blessing for our limited budget. When we moved I was unable to find any fellow readers who would save their recycled copies for me.  I asked around, but  no Austin version of the Adam’s family surfaced, so for Christmas this year I asked for a subscription to the WSJ.  I put it on the list, and low and behold the week of Christmas my own copies of WSJ began  arriving to my great surprise and enjoyment, a true gift from my in-laws who understood how strongly I wanted that specific gift.  

The Adam’s were selfless, generous in fact, giving of their time by saving and carrying copies faithfully each week they were in town.  They saved our family hundreds of dollars over the 4 1/2 years we lived in Arizona by sharing what they no longer needed.  All family members lugged the Journal in their Sunday best as a gift to our family.

How does one overcome selfish desires?

Sometimes watching others give selflessly of themselves or something they enjoy like television is helpful.  The Adams, Rod, Mary and there three children are a living  example to our family.  In addition to sharing their news papers, all of them serve the needs of the poor, especially folks who have somehow been marginalized medically, and do so in all the corners of the earth, especially in Kenya.

Thankful for living examples of Christ’s selfless love,

Trish

 

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The Smaller Footprint

06 Tuesday Oct 2009

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During our years in Tucson our small group read a book by Randy Frazee “Making Room fo Life”.  The Navigator staff couple leading the group asked us to read and implement the changes in every area of our life.  Our first change was to purchase a home in an area walking distance to school, a market, and would allow us to ride our bikes to and from work in good weather.  Freeing ourselves from the additional expense of one car, and ultimately allowing ourselves more time as a family.  We recently moved to a Texas and our home we selected had to fall into all the categories to be a “go”. 

Walking home from work today took exactly 16 minutes. 

These hidden blessings to our family have been the sunshine in the occasional cloud of inconvenience.

First off, our windshield time has been reduced dramatically. We stopped going in all different directions and started moving in the same direction as a family laughing, exercising and simply enjoying each others company as we are physically in each others presence.

Our school, tennis courts, restaurants, market and work are in close proximity to our neighborhood.

Walking to anywhere or riding your bike is not only is refreshing 

During our years in Tucson our small group read a book by Randy Frazee “Making Room of Life”.  The Navigator staff couple leading the group asked us to read and implement the changes in every area of our life.  Our first change was to purchase a home in an area walking distance to school, a market and would allow us to ride our bikes to and from work in good weather.  We are now free from the additional expense of one car.  We recently moved to a Texas and our home we selected had to fall into all the categories to be a “go”. 

Walking home from work today took exactly 16 minutes. 

These hidden blessings to our family have been the sunshine in the occasional cloud of inconvenience.

First off, our windshield time has been reduced dramatically. We stopped going in all different directions and started moving in the same direction as a family laughing, exercising and simply enjoying physically being in each other’s presence.

Our school, tennis courts, restaurants, market and work are in close proximity to our neighborhood.

Walking to anywhere or riding your bike is not only is refreshing as you enjoy fresh air, we are together more often laughing  while doing these things  and modeling a smarter, simpler lifestyle for our teen. 

Our daughter had a flat tire recently and undeterred rode her skateboard beside me as I rode my bike to the new breakfast spot that opened near our home.  We ride our bikes to the orthodontist, our family doctor, the post office and the library.  I rode my bike to pay my recent speeding ticket at the local police station.

My husband keeps our one car in tip-top shape, keeping up with repairs.  We rent a car when taking long trips out-of-town, and when attending a women’s retreat in Dallas I was able to rent from Enterprise a nice sedan for the weekend.

We communicate each day about our various errands, talking through our day instead of living out our lives separately.

Park a car for a day, a weekend, and work up to a month and perhaps permanently.  Methodically move towards a slower and healthier life creating a tight-knit family in today’s jam-packed lifestyle.

I advise something which frees you of additional financial pressures, your family leaves a visible smaller carbon footprint, and all relationships in your life especially the one with God have the space they need to flourish.

Resting in Him,

Trish

The Case of the Missing “Southern Lady”

07 Monday Sep 2009

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makedomondays

Struggling to find a dessert appropriate for the Park Place

Literary Society (neighborhood Book Club), the above magazine title captured my attention from inside my neighbor’s bin. 

 Wednesday is recycling day in our neighborhood, a magazine “Southern Lady” peaked out at me as I was walking Daisy.

  I was Eve and this was my apple.  If I chose to pick this up, am I recycling, repurposing or stealing?

Do not steal.  Deuteronomy 5 v. 19 HSB

A wee bit gauche,  the question was placed on my Facebook wall in hopes friends would prevent an errant deed on my part, and waited.  Letting on I had it in my possession,  I simply asked “would it be stealing if I was sitting here reading it now?”

Here are the responses I recieved:

Noelle- I would say no.  BUT (lol) if you walk away with it, maybe.Book club

Sharilyn- No way. You are actually recycling it.

Sandy- Nope!  You know what they say about one person’s trash…006

Tim- No.  because once they throw it out it’s no longer their property.

Noelle- Is any compensation paid to the homeowner for his recyclable items? ( in Seattle you get a small sum back)

Tim- Good point, put it back when you are done.

Margaret- I know you will do what is best dear sis, you have an honest and clean heart.

The winning recipe came from my own, BHG  Better Homes and Gardens (New Cook Book) page 81, Blueberry Buckle.

Hoping to hear your thoughts,

Trish

Crabby Crafts…Crabs for Christ

29 Monday Jun 2009

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Looking for a great family project?  The Southards are enjoying food, fun and funding the Chapel building fund!  Here is an example how we have noshed locally from the Currituck Sound supporting a local fisherman, who also attends the Corolla Chapel here on the Outer Banks.

Last night was our crab feast. 

Buddy, the local crabber caught one bushel of crabs for our traditional crab night at “Dolphins Watch II”.  Interesting fact about the feast; no females are consumed only “Jimmy” male crabs to be good stewards of  Currituck Sound conservancy and allowing the generations of families yet to visit the Outer Banks  sweet blue claw crabs.  While attending the “Moms Class” in Tuscon Arizona I learned the importance of  ” make do” eco-fashionable crafts for Christ (term from Barbara Tompkins).  We all had a desire to create gifts to  bring back to friends and family, but a large piece of our creative spur came from raising  money for the Corolla Chapel, the local church where we love to worship the Lord surrounded by families visiting from around the globe. Last Sunday our guests were visiting from Germany and England.

Uncle  Tom, the nieces and nephews fav Uncle,  has taught Sabrina and Chase the basics of boiling Blue Crabs and today we are using the shells to create art.   The Southard family is heavy with artistic talent, especially the visual arts.  Camille loves to paint and play piano, Tom and little Chef love the culinary arts and all are patiently working with the crab shells making Christmas ornaments to sell and make a little coin for our beloved Corolla Chapel.  The Chapel is currently feeding three families in the area, and the church asked the children if there was anything they would love to have in their food basket?  Mary Ellen quoted a very reticent  boy, who said “I always hope for something crunchy”.

The entire Southard clan of 15 on the front two rows of the Corolla Chapel were saddened when they heard the boy’s statement (except for baby Christian who is always smiling),  and hearts broke simultaneously…

At Uncle Tom’s suggestion, we cleaned the crab shells after eating them, spray painted them blue, white or gold and when dry, the children all painted pictures reminiscent of the past week.

The church can sell those creations of the crabby crafters to attendees of the Chapel as souvenirs of their vacation on the Outer Banks.

Painting crafts for Christ,

Trish

Traveling Pants…Make Do and Dye in Blue.

27 Monday Apr 2009

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 makedomondays

Lydia, the maker of fine purple cloth in the book of Acts,  closely resembles my life after college where I was privileged to sell exquisite, high-end women’s clothing, the purple cloth of our day.  Loving it so much, even after moving to a fancy desk job at the corporate office, I worked any weekend shift available at the retail store Mandels.  Their clothes were the staple of my business wardrobe.    God is molding me to be more like hospitable Lydia as I interface with my husband. Lydia was known as God-fearing, something I hope and pray comes to mind as you know me…something I aspire toward in my daily walk  

Meet Lydia:

“On the Sabbath, we left the city and went down along the river where we had heard there was to be a prayer meeting.  We took our place with the women who had gathered there and talked with them.  One woman, Lydia, was from Thyatira and a dealer in expensive textiles, known to be a God-fearing woman.  As she listened with intensity to what was being said, the master gave her a trusting heart and she believed!”

 After she was baptized, along with everyone in her household, she said in a surge of hospitality, “If you’re confident that I’m in this with you and believe in the Master truly, come home with me and be my guests.  “We hesitated, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.” (Acts 16:13-15, The Message)

 I wrote a study for women leaders on Acts, mostly to share all the incredible insights wise men and women had poured into me while in Chicago, and to freshen and cement the teachings into my brain. Fun note… I would sneak into D.A. Carson’s class whenever I could, and sit with all the scholars.   Sticking out like a sore thumb with my faux black fur vest and matching hat…complete with leather gloves trimmed in black fur, who was I kidding?  I’d sit in the back row and glean.  I could only glean from the words spoken in English…the class required both mastery of written and spoken Greek…ouch, that’s why I had to sneak. 

I love dyed cloth like Lydia.  Every 6 months I dye my jeans with Rit dye and they are a crisp, cool, blue indigo much like the water at Lake Travis.  The jeans have traveled east and west as much as my weight.  Just like the girls in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, each girl had a different figure, but the pants miraculously fit each one as the girls shipped the pants around to all the exotic locales the girls visit.  

Make do with blue, and dye your jeans to keep them fresh looking. On a note of interest, Thyatira, our new friend Lydia’s hometown,   was famous for its purple dye. A handful of kosher salt in the hottest water your machine will give you and dye away. Throw in a worn out white top and girlfriends, you’ve got a new look for the weekend…extra slimming when you where the same shade top and bottom. 

We learn so much from the prayerful women sitting riverside on the seventh day…2000 years later.

Rest in Him, Trish