6 posts tagged “we've only got one world”
(May have to be abandoned depending on our living situation)
Same as No. 71, but for longer.
73/ Give only handmade gifts one holiday season
This will mean a lot of creativity, confidence, dedication, time and planning.
I'm down with the planning ...
This would be liberating. Maybe require some thinking and a little more time to get where I'm going, but I predict a deep sense of satisfaction knowing that I didn't contribute unnecessarily to the smoggy world we're building up around us.
There's just something not quite right about the large number of chickens, pigs, cows crammed into small spaces just so I can get a chicken nugget, sausage, hamburger easily and cheaply on my plate.
I'd rather spend more and eat less (which has to be healthier anyway), and know that the animal in front of me lived a relatively normal existence with other happy little animals.
Until, of course, it was killed.
... but during that time, at home have at least one restaurant-quality meal a week
I've always been fairly confident in my baking skills (I haven't met a cake I didn't feel like I could whip up), but the intricacies of stove-top cooking escape me.
I want this goal to help me carve out time to focus on rich dinner spreads. Homemade rolls, a main dish and two sides. A dessert. Maybe even appetizers!
No idea yet what kind of meals I'd like to lay out. That'll be fun, too -- going through cookbooks and magazines to get my ideas. Or maybe I can steal some ideas from our favorite dinner spots.
I've already started on this one -- I bought Patrick and I canvas lunch bags and "string bags" for our groceries. If I can remind myself to take those out every time I have to pick up groceries, we'll be able to eliminate those plastic bags. I even got some reusable sandwich wraps, too.
I'd love to reduce our use of paper towels (good clean rags are just as good, if not better); pay closer attention to the product:package ratio of the groceries we buy; and I'm sure there are countless other ways we could adapt our everyday life to make it free of that unnecessary *stuff*.
Perhaps I should establish a measure of success -- how often we empty the trash? Which means we should make a better effort to recycle. And make ourselves a little compost heap for scraps.
This No. 68 is already pushing beyond its expectations!
... (whether at home or out at a restaurant)
This is actually something I'd love to do for ... ever. But this can serve as my reconnaissance.
If I think about it hard enough, I can imagine a day that we've got a garden big and versatile enough to support a good number of our meals. Why not? It'd take work and time, but it would be satisfying, cost less money, and we'd know exactly where I food comes from.
