The Local Christmas Rundown

We spent the beautiful, sunny, almost-70-degree day scouting apartments around Raleigh, and I just kept thinking "We'll have proper internet soon! Hooray!". But for now, we're sipping tea at a Starbucks and ganking wi-fi.

Moving to Raleigh was a massive green trade-off. We have given up the low CO2 emission commute (by estimates in a recent National Geographic article, the #1 eco-benefit of living in a city is the walking/public transport lifestyle), but hope to earn at least some offset by committing to REALLY shopping local, which is much easier to do in a place where fresh fruit and veg are growable almost all year round. Not only that, but other cool things that we use regularly are produced right here in the Carolinas. So Christmas shopping was a fun treasure hunt of locally made treats. Here's what I snagged:

Cold Mountain Winter Ale for Les, made in NC

Chapel Hill Toffee for the Christmas Eve party with my fam, and one for Les's fam.

Local Chocolatier

Woot! Burts Bees is made in Durham! I gave my fave new lip balms to my best girls.

Home-made local jam from the Farmers Market for my siblings

Tippy's Treats, made a few towns away, for my Dogs-in-law (Aug got some in his Stocking)

Aug wanted to open his early.

My elf.

Yes, I know, the ingredients for all these lovely finds were probably not native of NC (like cacao for example), but they were all made by local companies and didn't have to be shipped across God's Green Earth to get to me. Which is a start. I was planning to buy everything from the local farmers market, but didn't think my family and friends would appreciate hearty kale or a bunch of turnips as much as I appreciated that they were still plugging away this late in the season.

The New Year is almost here, and my Green Gray and Grace year is about to wrap up. But I feel like I'm just getting started, so I'm not going to quit now. I just need to get some real internet so I can blog all the new ideas I have for the next Year of Awesome.

Random Green

Les and I were perusing the Whole Foods here in Raleigh, and he pointed to this tea in a reusable glass and said "Hey! Why don't you try that! If you like it, we could replace all our glassware and have some tasty tea with the same $2!".

I love my hubs. And I love that he's on the lookout for reusable, double-duty materials. We've also started making pasta sauce selections based in part on the shape of the jar and lid. Which is awesome, because we recycled all of our repurposed jars before we moved. Too much of a pain to pack, especially considering how often we make pasta.

But hopefully, we'll be able to cut down on the jarred stuff all together and start cooking more and more from scratch. We're still on the lookout for our permanent housing situation, but it will DEFINITELY have a bigger kitchen than our last place. And with a year-round farmers market that still had fluffy green kale, root veggies, nuts, eggs, and cheese for sale in December, I'm hopeful that we'll really dig into Local in a new way here. I'm pumped.

PS - the tea WAS very good, and while the glass itself is a little "ladies who lunch"-style for my taste, it does the job and has a handy lid that doubles as a coaster. Win win win. Oh my gosh, I'm such a dork.

Gray Hair Update and December Christmas Shopping Mission

I know, I know, I really need to get Les to take a proper photo of me and my gray hair. I'm remarkably bad at self portraits, especially with the built-in laptop camera. BUT, I really wanted to update the blog, and we don't have internet at our little house yet, and we're currently ganking internet from a lovely, bustling little Starbucks in downtown Raleigh so I decided to just go for it. I don't foresee myself having a lot of blog time at work in the near future.

But there it is; full-out gray. That light color streak you see is really a shock of white-gray hair. And it is not alone. I'm 10 months into the gray experiment and I think it is safe to say I no longer have gray roots. I have gray hair. Not really even salt-and-pepper in a traditional sense. I have wide slabs of gray that lay thick across my head and hide nestled under my part. Those slabs, plus about 1,000 individual gray rogues sprinkled throughout the rest of my head. And I kind of like it. I don't love the way the gray hair is coarse and wiry, but I like the look of it overall. I just wish I didn't feel like it makes me look like I'm creeping up 64 rather than 34.

Anyway. It is what it is, and I generally like what it is.

Shifting gears here, I also wanted to go on record with my Christmas gift plan. This year, with a few very select exceptions, I will challenge myself to buy only Christmas gifts that meet one of the following 3 criteria:

1. Handmade/crafted AND I HAVE MET or CORRESPONDED with the maker - i.e. - Etsy is OK, but random department store "hand crafted" does not
2. Produced within 100 miles of either Chicago or Raleigh and I BOUGHT IT in one of those two locations (bonus, there are some really awesome things made around here, and around Chicago)
3. Somehow directly supports or promotes an organization that I trust and whose social practices I would endorse

I've already found some lovely gems that meet these rules, so I'm encouraged. And I don't have kids (or a hubby) pining after any particular gifts, so I've lucked out in that regard. I confess that last month I did buy Les a couple of things from a Big Store, but they were from a store that stores pretty well on the Good Guide, so I felt OK about it at the time. From now on, I'll be a stickler. Even if it means hours of agony over what to get my in-laws...

I'll let you know what treasures I find!

Gonna be Good

Blog friends, I'm sorry for the long gap since my last post. Life has been pretty nutty! The move has gone really smoothly so far (our stuff still has to arrive on Friday, so we'll see how the "move" part of the transition really went once that is all done), and we're starting to dig in to life in the south. We don't have internet hooked up yet in our new digs, and I've been pretty crazed at work so far this week, so the Gray Hair Update and December Mission are on my "To Blog" list!
But as a preview, I'll say that it *has* been fun to get random "I love your hair!" comments from people. It's the south, so of course everyone is too polite to say "I love your crazy gray hair!", but I still appreciate it.

We are definitely going to like living here, though. We'll just have a big GREEN ADJUSTMENT to make, what with all the "no sidewalks, only driving" predicament. I wonder if tons of green space, abundance of gardening opportunities, a long local food growing season, and a greater awareness of water conservation can possibly make up for the YOU MUST DRIVE EVERYWHERE sadness? I'll do some research and let you know.

Biggest Thanks of the Month Goes Too...

Yeah, this didn't start out as a competition, but sometimes there is just such a clear winner that it seems silly to go without making it official.

I am so super ridiculously thankful for Jackie Marchand.

And not just because she spent about 8 hours at our apartment today lending her truly remarkable organization talents to help us pack:

But also because she made sure I didn't trash anything that could be recycled or donated (and offered to make sure that happened), and loves AugDog and helped keep him calm and happy during the mayhem, and also because she is just generally an incredible rock star and I love her very much. She has been so so so helpful with this whole move business, so encouraging, and at the same time her sweet friendship makes leaving so damn hard.

I am thankful for all my dear friends, and for everyone who has helped or offerd to help, and for all of you who are still coming over or stopping by or have offered your spare room/couch during our transition. I'm thankful for Jessie, who will come over tomorrow and help with the last bits of exasperating packing. I'm thankful for Emily who stopped by to give me a farewell hug. I'm thankful for Katie and Ben and Roger who will bid us adieu tomorrow night. And for Torrey who offered to "switch cars for a day" if his SUV would help us in any way. Those of you who know Torrey know what a genuine sacrifice that would be ;)

Blast it, people, I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE YOU!

And still, I am thankful. For everything. To everything, there is a season, right?

And if I were naming "Runners Up" for this thankfulness roundup of a month, I would have to give a ribbon to dear old Rogers Park. Oh, Rogers Park, how I love you. I love that you have enabled me to be greener and healthier than I could ever have been in another neighborhood. How do you green me? Let me count the ways:

• In the RP, I can (And DO!) walk to the grocery store, including the option of a small biz local organic crunchygranola store.
• In the RP I can walk to both the Metra and the Red line, thus allowing me to leave my car all by its lonesome almost every day of the week.
• In the RP I can (and DO) walk to my dentist, the vet, a hardware store, my yoga class (when I go), my cell phone place, the bank, numerous food and drink options, a fro-yo place, a 7-11, a RedBox, a CVS pharmacy, and about a half dozen awesome friends.
• The RP farmers market was voted in the Top 10 small farmers markets in the US, and it convenes right outside our front door.
• In the RP I can WALK TO THE BEACH in under 10 minutes. That's right. The lake. I can walk to the lake with AugDog, or by myself for a moment of zen. The proximity to the lake makes me want to get out more and get some free and very green exercise.
• PLUS, the RP is pretty much an Urban Homesteader's dream 'hood. If I had been a little more motivated and/or had chosen to rent an apartment with even a teeny bit more natural light, I could have urban gardened up the wazoo. And there are all kinds of canning, crafting, and sprouting community groups I could have joined. I also happen to know that there are some backyard chickens up here, but I have never seen them with my own eyes.

Oh, it is hard to leave Rogers Park. I am so thankful for this neighborhood, and its diversity and ridiculousness. It has stretched me and forced me to take a long hard look at my bias and prejudice. It has confronted me AND comforted me with sprawling arms of racial, lifestyle, economic, and religious diversity. It has shared its wacky and enthralling public art with me. It has given me the change to become a "regular" somewhere. It has gotten me out and exploring and engaging. It has entertained me with its weirdness and impressed me with its open-mindedness. I am thankful for Rogers Park, in all her gritty, gregarious glory.

And as November wraps up, I also want to say how thankful I am for you blog readers. Thanks for your comments, on and off the official "comments" section. Thanks for sticking with me in this journey, and for your suggestions and encouragement. Only 3 more months to go! And then we'll have to see what's next. And I'm also thankful for that.

A Day to Give Thanks

Holy Moley, do I have a lot to be thankful for. The list keeps getting longer and longer, the friends and the hugging and the food and the good-byes keep getting sweeter and dearer. It is a pretty intense year for Giving Thanks. Leaving so many incredible people and places and pizzas makes giving thanks for all the good gifts around us every day even more of a no-brainer.

Here are some photo highlights of just a few of what I am thanking God for:

Big lattes with mountains of foam

sweet friends who have known me a LONG time

Chocolate in all its glorious forms

No Shave November, my darling husband, and dear Hooney Husband Eric, who rocks a beard

Beautiful, inspiring, dear dear friends

Friends to do life with, laugh with, and give Thanks with

Besties

Cows. I am seriously obsessed. I want a pet cow SO badly. I am thankful that these cows look pretty happy.

Sunset in the farmland

I'm thankful for where I grew up

Mom's Frye boots

Cutest. Dog. Ever.

We had Thanksgiving Lunch at my aunt's today, and of course I ate until my stomach spilled over the top of my stretchy pants. We stopped by the family house to get the stuff that I would like to take with us to Raleigh (grandma's china set, some antique tablecloths, a set of awesome wooden folding chairs), and I stopped to take some pictures of the farmland at sunset. We have such a great family, and I know how rare it is to have a room full of 40 people who are related to each other and have them all love and even like each other. I am thankful. For our health, for adventures and new babies and new jobs and for getting by and smiling, for new gadgets and toddling kiddos and gifted treasures. I am SO thankful. My heart is going to burst.

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endure forever.

Give Thanks for More Than Plenty

Our "Eat Our Way Out of Chicago" tour is going gangbusters, and pants-busters. I'm thankful and humbled by all the brunch, lunch, dinner, coffee, and dessert dates we've been able to squeeze in over the past week or so, and the calendar reminds me that we have several more to go! Lunch and coffee treats today, dinner tonight, brunch tomorrow, lunch and/or dinner tomorrow... and on and on and OMG I AM GOING TO EXPLODE. With awesome.

Now, I'm all for the frugal and healthy decision to do "non-food" socializing with friends. And I do love to go for a walk or kayak or window shop or watch a movie or volunteer or any of those other fun activities that do not circle the plate. But there is something really great about sharing a meal with your friends. Or even just a coffee. Les and I had dinner last night with my two Rogers Park Besties, Michelle and Jackie. The food itself was pretty OK, but the talking and laughing and fry-stealing and what-is-this-terrible-open-mic-night-nonsense eye rolling were just so great. And I've been counting down the days to tonight's Jess and Andrea Annual Christmas Dinner with my sweet college girl friends. And it is good. I give thanks.

While I was driving to work this morning, I heard that one of the area's largest food pantries is not going to be able to give out any turkey dinner food boxes this Thanksgiving because their donations are so low and the demand is so high. And I thought about Les's suggestion that we volunteer somewhere for Thanksgiving this year. And then I gave more thanks. Maybe I'm just too busy with the move and everything, but I don't have any energy to feel guilty right now. I'm just trying to be mindful of THANKS. Over and over and over and over again. Remembering that God is good all the time, in plenty and in times when, as my grandma would say "you don't have two dimes to rub together". I think about this Scripture verse that we read at my mom's memorial service - Philippians 4:11-13.

¹¹ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Isn't this hard to remember, though, sometimes? My mom was an unusually thankful, gracious person; traits which I think were sharpened through years of hardship, sorrow, joy, friendship, and a keen eye for God's provision in all circumstances. She was the ultimate "Glass Half Full" girl. I am thankful for her example, and pray that I can cultivate her mindset and heart of abundance.

Anyway, this is kind of a rambling post. I'll sum it up by saying that Thanks Giving can feel like a discipline when times are tough and a Bonus Gift and privilege when blessings are pouring in. Hopefully the more we practice in the feast, the more natural and free-flowing it will be in the famine.