Tax Return!
Kid Foodie
Economics of Happiness
Diary of a Worm a Spider and a Fly
Happy weekend!
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Sustainable Family Finances
The story of a family creating an abundant and sustainable life.
I’m so excited to be going on a field trip with Big Guy’s older preschool class to watch the Oregon Children Theater’s production of a
Diary of a Worm, a Spider, and a Fly
.
The Oregonian’s theater review raved about the set, and how it’s built from 90% recycled materials. Another parent review said that most jokes went over her 3 year old’s head, but I think that’s partly why they recommend it for the 4+ crowd. The environmental and social moral of the play may be deep, but it’s never too early to start teaching green family values.
The class also checked Doreen Cronin’s book series from the library, and they are really beautiful and fun books. They were really captivated by them:
Diary of a Worm
Diary of a Spider
Diary of a Fly
One of my first memories is seeing Peter Pan while visiting my Grandmother in L.A., and I hope this will be a special memory for us.
The play only runs until February 20th, so make your plans soon.
Also, Big Guy’s school managed to get a weekday group discount for $7.50 per ticket!
Have you seen the play or read the books?
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Sustainable Family Finances
The story of a family creating an abundant and sustainable life.
The Economics of Happiness is a new documentary film with virtually all of my favorite social/environmental/economic revolutionaries (…minus Paul Hawken;-)
While we haven’t seen a total about face, I truly think that the lasting impact of the economic crisis will be a cultural shift away from materialism and toward sustainability. It may not happen over night, but the pendulum is shifting.
The film isn’t on Netflix yet, but I’ll post a comment when it’s available.
Here’s quick blog post on the film from a parents perspective.
Here’s the trailer to The Economics of Happiness:
What do you think of the Economics of Happiness?
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Sustainable Family Finances
The story of a family creating an abundant and sustainable life.
Today’s post is a shameless plug:
My adorable niece is making a name for herself as “Kid Foodie.” She does live interviews with farmers at the Chappaqua Farmer’s Market, and writes a column about her experience of learning about where her food comes from. Our family is so proud of her, and it’s exciting to see a new generation that cares about where their food comes from and how it’s produced.
While specialty food can get expensive, I agree with Amanda about how important it is to support local farmers. We buy as much
organic and local food
as possible.
Spud really makes it easy
. Even during the winter our food related carbon footprint is much less than the average household, and I love how Spud tracks it for you.
A co-worker of mine is very passionate about food, and has a “hobby farm” where she raises and butchers her own animals, and naturally has an organic garden and puts away much of her produce for the winter. Although she not as extreme as the Portlandia couple, she does ask which farm they got the meat from and if they don’t know she’ll go veggie. If you are a foodie/farmer, you should definitely check out her Hobby Farm blog.
Here’s Kid Foodie’s interview with Big Girl Bakery:
Can’t you just see her as the next Katie Couric?!
Do you try to buy local?
Do your kids care where their food comes from?
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Sustainable Family Finances
The story of a family creating an abundant and sustainable life.
I know April 15th still seems a ways out, but we always do our taxes early since we typically get a refund. Last year I wrote about how we prefer to get a bonus tax return, rather than getting too little taken out and having to pay extra in a lump sum.
Hubby was again on top of things, and TurboTax made the process easy.
This year our return is $3545, and we’re stoked to replenish our savings after dipping into it for our
home refinance
. Apparently the average refund is now $3,036, so we’re pretty much average. Perhaps it’s our child care or student loans that push us up a little.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m ready for some green tax reform. Read more about “Pay as you burn, not as you earn” in The Ecologist.
Have you done your taxes yet?
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Sustainable Family Finances
The story of a family creating an abundant and sustainable life.