The Pragmatic Perspective

Yesterday - heard about Heath Ledger. So sad! He was a favorite of ours. Now we may never watch every film he made-it's too sad to think there will be nothing else with his boyish grin and heart-felt performance. I feel for his family, especially his little girl who won't know where Daddy went. Peace to them all! I had an easier, personal goodbye yesterday. All of Zoe's baby, toddler clothes were given to a family with 6 children, 2 being twin newborn girls. They will definitely use it all, and we don't need it anymore since we don't plan for more kids. That may be why it was difficult for me. It really sunk in that the baby times have past, and we are off at full speed into childhood, teens, and beyond. Pictured below is a portion of the stuff. A new phase, and hopefully a new challenge and fresh joy.

She has the best colors and the coolest designs! I will try to share more of her work here.

A few weeks back Just when you think he couldn't get any cuter......my nephew Julian!

There are so many people is this life, who have so little to get them through the day. Little or no food, shelter, and basic necessities. I have it all and more- even internet access and cable tv ! What do I have to complain about? Nothing, really. I worry about getting sick because we adults have no health coverage, but we are generally healthy. Except for my constant allergy/sinus thing and a few minor complaints, we don't need a doctor. But I worry. Then I think- "I could cancel the cable and internet and save the money for a few years, and then get my sinus thing fixed." A little silly considering that in the mean time, I'd go nuts from lack of communication with the outside world; and nothing to watch to distract me from the awful state of humankind! There it is- humanity suffers while I blog and watch TLC! I am discontent with my life and blue, very nearly black, from missing the sunshine this winter. But what is that compared to famine, war and squalor? I can...

I live in rural America. It may be the last place on earth to mobilize for the purpose of reusing and recycling. We are usually too busy trying to keep warm/cool, make a living, and survive the unending boredom to care. ( Did you know that it gets over 100 degrees in the summer? Of course you know it gets below 0 in the winter. Just not daily.) I can recycle newspapers and heavy metal in my community, but that's about it. If you could see all the plastic containers stashed in every corner of the house! I try to use them for cookie exchanges, etc.but what else can I do with them? And they are the large yogurt containers-not a bunch of little ones. Individual water bottles are a no-no most of the time for us. We have some Nalgenes and Sigg bottles to reuse. Our drinking water comes in 5 gallon bottles which are reused. Around here, bulk is descriptive of extra winter layers, not food stuffs. I do order from Amazon to get bulk organic items SOMETIMES ( see "make a living" ...