one man's trash...

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A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. {amanda blake soule}

Wishing you a lovely weekend!
alison

Spick + Span

So here is the fun little book I came accross the weekend before last. Published circa 1939, the binding reads Safe and Healthy Living and at first I thought it may have been part of a series of books. This is actually one of two books, the second being The Health Parade {I would love to get my hands on that book!} Upon further investigation, I saw that the book is actually broken into Units, each of them addressing various aspects of a child's life, such as school, keeping well, taking care of eyes, nose, ears + teeth, and careful children at home.

The illustrations are simple + sweet. It is telling of the time that in the illustrations where the children appear to be in school or are asking an adult some question, they are always speaking to a woman figure. I particularly like the list: Happy + Healthy Children Eat + Drink Good Things,which includes things like drinking 4 glasses of milk a day and that happy +healthy children like brown cereals, eat their meat and potatoes for dinner + take cod liver oil! Ugh. I used to do the liquid flax seed oil...it was not exactly easy, but I was a committed vegan back when!

Just a fun little something I thought you might enjoy!
a.

father's day gifts...

I know it is a bit after the fact, but I had not wanted the wonderful gifts I found for my mister for father's day to be out done by our outing to Medieval Times!

Sooo...here they are!

I had been wanting to pick up this book for a while...and this mug is my best find yet this summer! I know there are many like this one, however, I was quite partial to the saying thatis somewhat lopsidedly placed on the back.

This mug may have been intended as a shaving mug, however since there is not an inner ledge {a distinguishing characteristic of many shaving mugs}, I'm sure it will be used for drinking. I can't think of a better gift for a coffee fanatic...and father of THREE!

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But in the end, I think the cast iron pan my mother gave him won as the favourite purchased gift this holiday. {The gifts the kiddos make are always his most favourite.}

It is my rule {one of very few}, to only give gifts that I would like to receive. This works out particularly well for me when the recipient of the gift lives in this house!

xo

coupon bandit

It always seems that it is during the change of seasons {from summer to autumn and from winter to spring} that my family is most in need of new clothing. Pants are too short, tee shirts are too worn and boots and sandals need to be purchased. So amidst the bbq's, get togethers with friends and yard work that made up this weekend, I began my quest to fill these clothing needs.

While the mail man's wife {that would be me} may rarely have a book of stamps, at times I do find myself in the possession of certain department store coupons that may have been misaddressed and would otherwise be headed for the trash. I must admitt, although this seems completely absurd to me now, at another time in my life {pre kiddos} I derived great pleasure from carrying a designer bag, or rocking a $100 pair of jeans. Today, with a family of five, there is nothing that makes me happier that getting a great deal; leaving a store with a huge bag while having spent very little money.

One coupon per customer, per purchase. Blah, blah...

In some ways I may appear quite the rebel, but having gone to Catholic schools all of my life, I think my internal moral barometer has been permanently tweeked. I felt kind of ridiculous dragging my husband and then the next day my mother to TWO of this certain store where I was planning to use my coupons. Even worse was my pathetic attempt to be all stealth in handing off the coupon cards, so that it wouldn't seem like we were breaking the rules in any way. God, this is an embarrassing post!

But in the end, I did exactly what I set out to do and have made a signifcant dent in my clothing purchases {and isn't that an adorable dress the Fif is wearing?}. And while guilt is another trait that seems to rub off on us Catholic school survivors, I am pleased to say that I feel none {...or very little, anyway}, since I didn't actually break the rules. I did only use one coupon on each purchase, after all...

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has ever done this!

~a.