Red State Green

(note: this is from yesterday, as this wouldn’t post yesterday and I thought this was lost…)

In spite of the recent turmoil, I’m still with the 90% reduction (aka Riot for Austerity) program. One meme we’re doing is showing each other what a typical day is like. Not tremendously interesting, but here goes:

I normally get up at 6 am, to the sound of NPR. But I don’t listen to that long; my morning routine is to the local news, as weather is a pretty big deal in Tornado Alley. By 6:15 I’ve learned that we’re having a freeze tonight.

After that I usually make breakfast for my three kids, wake up the boys at 6:30, then start the dishes (using my One Basin Method) then I put a load of laundry in the washer. My daughter gets up around 7 or so, and we all head out the door at 7:30.

I’ve always taken the kids to and from school, and to get much lower in my gasoline usage (currently at 54% of the national average) I’ll probably need to stop doing that. I do it because it’s a time to talk with them, especially on the way home, and for teenagers talking time is pretty important.

Once I get home, I check email, hang what laundry I can, do some housework, and pick salad for dinner from the garden out back. Often I work in the yard, if I don’t have to go anywhere.

Most days I don’t go out unless someone has an appointment (three kids in orthodontia), or I have to go shopping. I don’t care much for shopping, so the Oklahoma Food Cooperative has been a lifesaver. Since I only pick up the majority of my food once a month, food shopping trips have been reduced to a bare minimum — once every other month to the health food store in OKC for regional organic bread (I’d like to learn to make my own) and occasional trips to the farmers’ market for other things I don’t grow, like eggs and honey.

I get the kids from school in the afternoon (2:30 and 3). Then it’s time listening to them share their days, then making dinner. Since we have a freeze coming, I had go outside to water everything and cover the seedlings I planted a few weeks ago. With twenty mile an hour winds, it was just a bit chilly.

Tonight we had local hamburgers and polish sausage (odds and ends that needed to be eaten), french fries (some of the last of my non-local stuff in the freezer), and salad from the garden. The persimmons on my tree are turning ripe, and they make a nice sweet dessert just eating them plain.

Now I’m on here writing this and catching up with what’s going on in the world. Most evenings I either do research on the computer or read one of the many books I have in my house. I’ll be in bed by 10, as I’m pretty useless after that.

So that’s it. Not terribly exciting, but that’s life.