Meet Max

Don't ask me how, but this sweet little 100 pound baby became ours yesterday. No, we weren't in the market for a full grown bullmastif, or a dog at all for that matter, but we are happy to have Max join our household. Three dogs, three kids..... and for those wondering, Max is a birthday gift to my husband. Not that I would call him a dog lover, or even a dog liker, but the girls and I thought he needed another boy around the house. Happy Birthday Michael!

Junk Mail

I just can't get over the volume of catalogs we receive. Karen's article inspired me to go back through and cancel all of the junk I currently get. Here's what was in the recycle bin for the last two weeks:

Tiffany & Co.
L.L Bean
Bed Bath and Beyond
Wine Country Gift Baskets
Sears
Vista Print
Oriental Trading Company
Eastbay
Pottery Barn
Anthropologie
Red Envelope
Pottery barn Baby
Company Kids
Expressionery
Arhaus Furniture

I was able to cancel them all using the website www.catalogchoice.org except for the last two which will get a phone call. I will continue to keep track over the holidays and will let you know if it's really working. It all just seems too easy!

Point to note, they need your name as it appears on the catalog, so hang onto them, until you delete them. Oddly enough, I was listed 11 different ways, had 15 different catalogs for the last two weeks (recycling didn't make it to the curb last week). Great website Karen.

Magic

From Zen, meditations on being a mother, Roni Jay
Sourcebooks, Inc., Naperville, IL:

MAGIC

Henry Ford said, “Whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can’t, you’re absolutely right.”

The ability to believe in the improbable is a talent for life. If we don’t believe in magic when we are children, we have no hope of believing in it as adults. One of the greatest gifts a mother (or father) can give her children is a sense of magic and wonder, so that their imagination can blossom. Any opportunity to create magic for a child is an opportunity to give that child a truly valuable gift.

Catalog Choice

I was talking to my mail man yesterday and congratulating him on getting through all the political mailers that had been adding to his load (something we had discussed a few days prior). He said that the political mailers were nothing compared to the rise in catalogs that he expected would continue through this holiday season. I mentioned that I had signed up for Catalog Choice, an amazing Internet service that lets you opt out of any unwanted catalogs that come to your door, and he was so pleased! So, for mailmen everywhere (oh yeah, and the environment too, I suppose), I am sharing this info....

Just keep track of the name to whom any unwanted catalog you receive is addressed and/or the customer number, and create an account at www.catalogchoice.org. You will create a running tally of every catalog that you enter and its status. You can change the status at any time.

In our conversation, my mailman also painted an interesting picture of the effects of our consumer choices. He shared with me that each day he brings about 3 1/2 crates of mail to half his route (the Clifton Gaslight district, which is the section my house is in) and 1 crate to the other half (a stretch of Vine Street). The two halves he was describing represent two very different demographics. And the difference in mail volume, he said, is made up in catalogs. So, basically, most of the folks up in the Clifton Gaslight are shopping away to their hearts' content, and with each purchase generating a new slew of catalogs, while the folks down on Vine are not. The mailman also noted that my house probably received the lowest mail volume on my half of his route. I was surprised that he would have even noticed. It was a great reminder to me of how often people are noticing our actions and their effects even when we aren't even aware that they're noticing.