Arielle’s Adventures in Capetown
with Global L.E.A.D.
Reading List
From USA Today, a write-up on the book, The Heart of Simple Living. Former journalist/ Harvard alum Wanda Urbanska fled NYC and LA 20+ years ago to take over the family orchard in Virginia. “That was the defining moment,” she says. “I embraced the simple lifestyle.”
More at http://bit.ly/bJJLQh
Here are Ms. Urbanska’s 12 tips for a simpler life. (#3, 8, 9 and 12 are my favs…what are yours?)
1. Pay bills immediately. As long as a bill is hanging out there in the unpaid category, it occupies mental space.
2. Bring a mug to work. Instead of going through stacks of single-use disposable cups at work, bring your own ceramic mug. Same goes for a water bottle, plate, silverware and any other frequently used items.
3. Spend time outdoors. Whether it’s sunny or overcast, step outside every day to reconnect with nature.
4. Celebrate your victories. In the rush of our lives, too often we allow our “mountaintop moments” to pass unnoticed.
5. Pay in cash. Identify a personal spending trouble spot and shift to a cash-only policy.
6. Save your “petty” change. If you buy a bottle of wine for $9.19, pay with a $10 bill, then put the 81 cents change directly into your piggy bank or an old glass jar.
7. Empty your trash. Staring into an overflowing waste basket makes you feel bloated, while an empty receptacle signals that your slate has been cleared, and you’re ready to move forward.
8. Turn on the ceiling fan. They provide a soothing, low-level whir (the white noise can help you sleep) and reduce cooling bills in the summer and heating bills in the winter.
9. Hang clothes outside. I was overjoyed to rediscover in middle age that my childhood chore of hanging clothes on the line was actually pleasurable.
10. Buy used. It costs less and cuts down on packaging waste, thus reducing your carbon footprint. Second-hand or consignment shops are great places to find clothes, kitchen equipment and even furniture.
11. Disconnect and reconnect. Take time every day to disconnect from electronics. This will open the way for eye-to-eye contact and genuine engagement.
12. Stop and chat. When you’re out for a walk in the neighborhood, or in a supermarket line, make small talk. You will find that “small talk” isn’t small, but big and meaningful.
Renovation Update
Life Told Through a Grocery List
Friend Nancy Zintak has five children, all girls. Her oldest, Sally, grew up with our Arielle. Nancy describes the different phases of their life with five kids through the family grocery list. Here’s her funny account from the AJC.
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
May 23, 2010
(Nancy Zintak is vice president of marketing and communications at Georgia Public Broadcasting. She and her husband, John Zintak, vice president of Daniel Corp., have five daughters: Sally, 21; Polly, 18; Lily, 16; Daphne, 12, and Annie, 10. )
You can tell a lot about people by what’s on their grocery lists. In the ’80s, before kids, the list was short: ramen noodles, cheap vodka, dog food and coffee. These were the salad days of early marriage when I cut my nurturing teeth on our Lab retriever pound puppy. Many women get their first taste of motherhood when they get a puppy. It’s a sweet way to ease into the rigors of being a mom.
I actually cut my “mom” teeth on radio talk show hosts. You haven’t seen colic until you’ve heard Neal Boortz rant about tax dollars going to performance artists — there isn’t enough chamomile to calm those nerves. When I started down the road to motherhood, my “mom” skills were already honed from my career as a talk show producer.
I knew about sleepless nights from booking shows for the next day; I learned patience from watching talk show hosts saunter into the studio as their opening music hits the air. I learned about spills from the talk show hosts, who daily spilled their coffee on the soundboard. I was ready for kids after this job.
Juggling work and kids was challenging. This was during the annoying “super mom” era. Every magazine cover featured a snappy working-mom type with perfect hair and makeup, bragging about her Excel carpool spread sheets along with chore charts and business-trip packing tips. I was lucky if I brushed my teeth. Then I found out I was pregnant with baby number three.
The grocery list grew in size and cost: Similac, Pampers, Cheerios, chicken nuggets, sippy-cups, grapes, back to cheap vodka and now store-brand dog food. Three kids ages 4, 2 and 3 months presented new challenges. Sleep was the first thing to go: 4:30 a.m. wake-up call to read three newspapers and prepare the topics for work. Make coffee, highlight news articles, arrange ballet carpool, call and wake up Senator [Sam] Nunn’s wife in hopes of booking the senator, pack lunches, warm the bottle, throw the load of pink laundry in the dryer (red shirt ran), wave to the baby sitter, run the pantyhose, spill the coffee, change clothes, off to work.
Baby number four arrives, grocery list: Clearasil, microwave grits, Lucky Charms, Absolut vodka (gravy years in real estate for my husband) and Boca burgers. (One embraces a vegetarian lifestyle.) The new century brought the same old story: baby number five. We’re well out of bedrooms, we’re up to three dogs, and the grocery list has gone from $27 to $270: Similac, Pampers (still), Clearasil, Lucky Charms and Special K, birth control pills, vodka, Lean Cuisine, Boca burgers (it wasn’t a phase . . . she’s still a vegetarian) and cat food (bought by accident for the dogs — believe me, they’ll eat it). In case you haven’t guessed, I go to the grocery store every day. I am acutely aware of the 10 for 10 and Buy-One-Get-One-Free deals. I can be found at the grocery store at any hour: midnight trips for poster boards; 5 a.m. runs for cupcakes never baked; breakfast trips for milk and juice, and 2 a.m. runs for the Rent-A-Wet-Vac (don’t ask).
They all know me at the grocery store — they have held my babies while I wrote the check, held my groceries when I forgot to bring the check, and they have held my children at the front office when I lost them on aisle three. I know the store by heart, I even write my lists in aisle order. There’s a lot you can learn about me from my grocery lists. With two girls in college now, and the little ones getting older, the list has changed somewhat . . . the Pampers and Similac have been exchanged for designer hair products and free-range chicken. We’ve traded in our sippy-cups for six-packs of Vitaminwater and our vegetarian child has remained committed, but has switched from Boca burgers to actual food, like broccoli and salad.
The grocery store is really an allegory for my life — it is always open, it never sleeps, and where else can you get corn syrup and cash, sympathy cards and lice treatment 24 hours a day? And thank goodness, they’re open on Thanksgiving and Easter, just in case I forget to put something important on the list, like the turkey or the eggs.
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