This weekend I took T-Rex to my family's lake house (don't get excited - it's pretty grundgy) because we have two pear trees that my grandfather planted years ago. He used to sit on the porch and get all riled up about the squirrels that would steal the one or two pears he had on those trees - so he would get out the bb gun, and say lots of great words that parents don't let children say. Today, the trees are quite large, and most years prolific. T-Rex wanted to "can" the pears like they used to do "back in the day." She has a real fascination with the Great Depression, and loves American Girl books, so I indulged her. We drove all the way down there and found that OOPS an uncle had given most of the pears to the next door neighbor who did what we wanted to do. Undaunted, we (I mean I) climbed the trees and picked the remaining 40 pears or so to experiment with canning. We also picked muscadines and scuppernogs (big southern grape things) off the back vine, and a friend I brought with me showed T-Rex how to make grape vine wreaths from the vines we cut down (they were attacking a tree).
Meanwhile my washing machine (that I never really liked) decided to leak all over the hallway, so Brian (and the remaining 3 kids - husbands do YOU shop for appliances with 3 kids?) went and looked at washers and dryers. I received a phone call on Saturday that sort of went like this:
Brian: Hey! There is a sale here. If I buy two things (expensive) I get 15% off, but if I buy three things (more expensive) I get 20% off.
Me: What are you looking at?
Brian: A great refrigerator. It will only cost about 1500 dollars more
(Gulp! did I mention that I'm a teacher and we have 4 kids)
The differenc in logic between men and women is vast. He is thinking he gets a better sales price, I'm thinking 1500 DOLLARS. As a math teacher I recognize the amount being spent is still more, as a business analyst he is thinking that the savings is great and can't be passed up.
So then my secret passion (one I keep close to the vest) comes out. I'm secretly trying to be green. I want to be Ed Begley without the solar oven (not practical for 4 kids) but I want the hybrid (okay, the total electic car), I want to go into debt putting solar panels on my house (the pine trees have to be taken down) and the personal wind turbine and I would love to have 40 (I mean 100) acres to grow my own food organically like in Animal Vegetable Mineral (except they killed turkeys, and I don't want to slaughter my meat). If I can't be Ed Begley, I want to know this lady in Australia http://crazy-mumma.blogspot.com/ She apparently has time to do some of those things I might want to do one day... maybe.
I lecture him about getting the biggest capacity washer (since I do the laundry I want to do it as little as possible) and the dryer that actually dries in one cycle (even if I'm doing all of the blue jeans in my house) and I want it to use as close to 0 electricty and a tiny bit of water. (Weirdo --- I hear you thinking it) I cross my fingers that he is choosing correctly and let him make whatever large purchase he decides to make.
I came home to find these:
and this:
complete with magnets, and artwork already
Do I love them? YES! Are they "green"? YES! Have we canned the pears? Um, no, not yet. I haven't canned anything in about 10 years - gotta find the pot thingie. Am I a weirdo? Maybe - I did afterall take pictures of my appliances.
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