Another Good Day

Steadily making it down the to-do list.

Today I was dropped off by my mother at the grocery store on her way to run another errand, where I bought the missing ingredients needed in order to make my soup. I filled up my little tote bag, bundled up, and walked home for the return trip. In my jaunts around town, I get lots of strange looks, but I'm getting to the point where I really enjoy the strange looks just because I'm walking. I want to give strange looks just because they are driving. Especially to our neighbor who lives up the street, who I kid you not, we have seen get in his truck and back it out across the road in order to get his mail....

I spent a good portion of the afternoon looking into organizations to donate to for Christmas gifts for my remaining niece and nephews:

I chose a larger donation at Save-a-Manatee for two of my brother's kids. In exchange they will also get a quarterly newsletter throughout the year and a calendar. Something that is both environmentally supportive and educational for two of the boys. Since we used to live in Florida, I figure it makes a nice segway for my brother to also share some of what he knows with his kids.

My brother's other two children and my sister's eldest son sponsored donations via World Vision, which is a Christian organization focused on alleviating poverty and injustice throughout the world via a sustainable development model. My eldest nephew sponsored art & music instruction for kids (he's a musician), my youngest nephew sponsored two ducks for a family, and my niece (just entering that cheerleader/tween fashionable age) sponsored a contribution for clothing and other basic needs for kids in poverty stricken areas of the world.

I had looked into donating via Unicef USA which I feel is a very worthwhile organization, yet I was fairly unimpressed to see how much corporate America has infiltrated the donation process of that agency. I definitely think it's great to raise everyone's standard of living, but I don't know how much corporations need to be hawking their wares on those in poverty either.

Through all my research it appears that 8% of most organizations' expenses go toward fundraising. An annoyance for most of us that already give, yet other research is showing that it's one of the only ways to continue to get donations from individuals...by harping on us to continue to do so. However for World Vision, I specifically sent a follow-up communication asking that they do NOT contact me or my sponsored donors via mail and minimal email if they want to continue to receive donations....we'll see if they follow through. I don't need them spending my donation on postage and on wasting more paper. However an additional nice thing about World Vision and the Save a Manatee organizations was how readily accessible their financial information was in order to see exactly how much money goes where and to who.

While a donation might not be the same as having an actual gift under the tree, I hope my niece and nephews can truly understand the difference they are creating in the world. They are positively impacting other people and the planet, and that is the best gift of all.

In the midst of my donation research, I chatted with my sister online, who pointed out this posting on Down to Earth, which led me to this posting, which led me to this website for Handmade Toy Alliance, which led me to write to Representative Blumenauer, Senator Wyden, Senator-Elect Merkley, and to sign the petition...all to try to save a crafters right to construct healthy toys, clothing, and diapers for infants in the USA without hefty regulation costs. If you read this and live in the US, please look into this! It's really not that hard to send a form email to your elected officials, although I generally try to include a request at the bottom that if they choose to respond they should do so via email and not via a form letter that will just waste more trees and CO2.

After finishing my hemming and hawing and tailoring of donations, I finally got to chopping up vegetables for the soup. I like to think of my soup making as "everything but the kitchen sink." Tonight's soup included: red potatoes, broccoli, peas, celery, onions, garlic, carrots, a bit of white wine, two cans of vegetable broth, and some spices thrown in. Cooked all of the veggies down before adding the wine, seasonings, and then broth......then whirred it up in the blender. Served with some warmed french bread and waa-lah....a nutritious meal! I always make a large batch so I can freeze the rest for future meals.

Last evening I was able to get the hemming of my pants done and one of the shirts fixed. I had found the pants at Goodwill and just needed to re-hem them to the right length. The shirt was one I've had for years and wanted to take the arms off of to create a sleeveless black t for summer. Now tonight I hope to make some decent headway toward finishing up Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. So far a pretty decent read! Definitely makes me want to focus on buying local!

Hope everyone has a had a fabulous Hump Day!