Happy Birthday to You!

(“You” being my blog.)

I didn’t realize until yesterday (as I was tweeting a reader) that my blog’s birthday had come and gone. July 4th is the day, and somehow, I totally missed it this year.

My little ole blog is now five years old.

That’s so crazy.

Somehow, five years in, I still have not run out of things to say. This must be a sign that I’m in the right niche. 😉

Thanks for hanging around and reading and commenting and all that jazz. You guys are awesome.

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And now, here’s some blog-birthday mish-mash:

Remember my, um, very flat loaves of French bread?

Well, as it turns out, that sort of bread makes veddy decent croutons.

Also? Garlic bread is a good way to disguise overly yeasty, collapsed bread.

Just so you know.

I went and picked up a quarter of a cow yesterday. It was good timing because I was almost completely out of beef.

This beef isn’t necessarily cheaper than what you can get in the store (it’s a little difficult to compare, given that you get a bunch of different cuts).But even if it is a little more expensive, that’s ok with me. I buy it because:

• I like to support small, local farms.
• I like to know where my food is coming from and how it was produced.
• I like that the cows get to live in a grassy field, not in a feedlot.
• I like that it tastes better than what you can buy in the grocery store.

It might not be textbook frugal, but for me, it’s mindful spending (spending where it matters, saving where it doesn’t). And I am more about mindful spending than I am about saving every last possible penny.

Speaking of mindful spending (or, uh, not.)……..I’ve occasionally bought some sale items for my girls from the Pottery Barn Kids catalog, so I’m on their mailing list.

When the spring/summer catalog arrived and I saw these towels, I died from the cute.

They’re just perfect…a turtle for Sonia and a whale for Zoe. And the stripes are so classy.

Mmm-hmm.

BUT.

Sonia and Zoe already owned beach towels.Darn.Sonia’s was a princess towel, but princesses are so two years ago in her mind, and she’d been asking for a non-princess-y towel.

Zoe had a towel too, and hers had sea creatures on it, so buying her a whale towel was a very silly idea.

But you know, sometimes, you just decide to do silly, impractical things.

To be fair, we did have plenty of money in the clothing budget, so it’s not like I spent our grocery money on unnecessary towels.

And I got them on sale.

And we did give Sonia and Zoe’s towels to some young cousins who didn’t happen to own beach towels yet, so nothing went to waste.

Plus, the girls love their towels (and I’d be lying if I said the towels’ stylishly adorable good looks didn’t blow my hair back too.)

Every now and then, it’s pretty fun to throw practicality to the wind. You just can’t do it all the time. 😉

In fact, I think I enjoy it more because I don’t do it all the time.