Riot 4 Austerity

Riot for Austerity: 90% Reduction Project

Author Archive

Library book sale!

By Barbara • Apr 30th, 2010

Took a little money and spent a little time at the Better Books Sale at our local library, and came home happy. I’m the new owner of:- Angie Debo’s Prairie City: The Story of an American Community- Bill Bryson’s Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States- The Library of America’s The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence- Margaret



Summertime realities

By Barbara • Jun 17th, 2009

I’m not telling the kids our summer break has two-thirds left; I don’t want to face the crushed reactions. For all of us, the first month flew by. Now I need to buckle down before the rest of the summer gets away from me.An essential: a wish list of activities brainstormed by the boys and me (we’ll reap the benefit for many months, actually).Also, we must get back to the morning structure so the



Taming the Inbox Paper

By Barbara • Jan 2nd, 2009

Info I’m gonna use to set up my incoming paperwork system, and tweak for my homeschooling paper handling.

Look down the page at
Maintaining Your Filing System

Way down the page, past all the sales pitch, see Here’s How ‘My Oh-So-Organized filing System’ helps keep you organized

Halfway down the page, see the No-Fail Paper Solution

Visual organization idea — so cool! Stay Organized with



Garlands, who’d a thunk it?

By Barbara • Dec 28th, 2008

Who would’ve thought that I’d be captivated, charmed by these?! Somehow I stumbled across a Flickr group focused on photos of handcrafted garlands. ALL KINDS of garlands. Love it!

Flickr: The Ga-ga for Garlands Pool

(Tip: browse with the full-screen slideshow — very nice)



Freeze Yer Buns 2008 challenge

By Barbara • Dec 18th, 2008

As soon as I realized Crunchy Chicken had launched the Freeze Yer Buns 2008 challenge, I knew I had to join! (Ask my husband and kids!)



Copenhagen Cycle Chic

By Barbara • Nov 8th, 2008

How very fun! Dressing normally, nay, with style! and bicycling wherever you need to go. Yay Copenhagen and contributors from elsewhere!

Copenhagen Cycle Chic - Streetstyle and Bike Advocacy in High Heels



Pad Thai and jasmine rice

By Barbara • Nov 8th, 2008

Last night, thanks to some clearance’d items I picked up at the grocery store a while back, we learned that the whole family likes Pad Thai and jasmine rice. Yay! No need for a Pad Thai boxed kit next time; I’ll pick up some rice noodles and either buy or make the sauce.

Yet again, I am reminded that all of us like various Asian dishes. Yum!

By the way, thanks to my now-daily habit of stopping



Meal plans for late summer

By Barbara • Aug 28th, 2008

So… I’ve lost 10 pounds since April 1 and joining SparkPeople.com and tracking what I eat (as well as continuing to walk for fitness). Now that summer weather has started to break a bit, and we’re back to school and fall family routines, I Need To Plan Good Meals! Here’s what I have so far for the next two weeks or so. (I’m SURE we’ll grill out over the Labor Day weekend, too.)

On hand for



Random thoughts on a Friday night

By Barbara • Feb 8th, 2008

Feet up. On couch. My legs and feet are soooo tired. Went on a good walk this morning, but really what did it was working a funeral reception at church all afternoon (from set up to cleanup). Groan. It was a lovely reception; maybe I can find all-black sport sandals to wear?

Love taking walks. Love, love, love taking walks. Last fall I was going on 30-minute walks two or three times a day. Loved



I flew into & out of Minnesota

By Barbara • Dec 14th, 2007

Create your own personalized map of the USA

That was kind of fun :)
Waiting for the rain to turn over to snow. Maybe before sunrise? I’ll be in bed, then.