Our Sunflower finally bloomed. It is probably about 7 or 8 feet tall. I didn’t think it was going to make it, but I gave it a kiss for good luck last week, and it bloomed! Super pumped about that!

I am starting to think about Christmas presents… and feeling a little overwhelmed. It is silly that even when we are not buying, I am thinking about what I HAVE to make and then it kinda takes the joy out of making. I guess I really don’t have to make anything. But, I will. I finished a cape today for a little one. I can’t show you though, cause it is a suprise for Christmas. It is a princess superhero cape. The first of it’s kind in the Mulhern house. I am hoping the recipient enjoys it as much as Noah loves his not-so-princess, very manly superhero cape that he happens to be wearing at this moment.

As a youth pastor I am often in charge of running silly and ridiculous games that are a lot of fun. Last night our youth group played a game called Bigger and Better where you start with a paper clip and trade up from that. You walk around the neighborhood seeing what people can trade that is bigger or better then the item you are offering.

Here is how the trading went: paper clip –> magazine –> banana and newspaper –>  brand new 2 person tent –> fairly new color printer –> 15×15 section of brand new carpet

We kept the carpet because we have been looking to find some carpet to cover our bare concrete floors. We continued the trading and ended up trading a pair of skis and a broken chair for another printer and a desk. One team got offered a dog and a motor-home, but ended up with a mattress at the end. It was a lot of fun and a great way to meet some of our neighbors.

I stuffed the carpet into my car and drove home after a fun night of games. The carpet took up the entire car so every bump I hit turned off the radio or made the windshield wipers run. We unloaded the carpet this morning and put it down on the floor and it is amazing carpet. It is so nice and soft on our feet. Noah is laying on it reading books as I type. Definitely some high quality free carpet. Another amazing free item that we have received during this experiencement. It will be nice to not freeze our little toes off this winter - hurray for new carpet.

We also have a news crew coming to film us on Monday about ourcompactlife. They read our article in the newspaper and were intrigued by what we were doing and want to feature us on a new news program they are producing. We will blog about it after and give details how you can watch us on tv. I am sure that I will say nothing profound in it because I often utter the most ridiculous things when I am being interviewed by the media (not that it happens all the time). I will post the “amazing” things that slip out next week!

I am pretty happy with the way things turned out in our little painting renovation. It was a lot of work and we are still recovering from the long process! We are not sure what to do about the floors. Winter is coming and cement floors may just freeze our feet off… you never know. I am wondering what happens to all the perfectly good carpet that gets ripped out of homes to be replaced by hard wood, and also wondering how I could get my hands on some of that.

In other news, while we were painting and everything was unplugged on our computer, magically our computer destroyed itself. It would not turn on and that was that. This, very unexpected loss made me think that a LOT of things have broken in the Mulhern house this year. So I thought I would make a list (because that is what I do) of all the things that have broken so far on our year of the compact and what we have done (if anything) to replace it.

Computer Monitor- Our good friends gave us one from their basement. We recycled our old one

Blender- bought a new one from MCC thrift store for $8 - and it works better than my other one ever did! We recycled the old one.

Mix master- still use it with just one beater.

Computer tower- bought a refurbished laptop. We recycled all the parts.

TV antenna- got another one for free and are using that one in addition to our broken one (I don’t understand why either)

Iron-have somewhat mastered the art of filling it up with enough water so that it sprays but does not leak all over the clothing I am attempting to press.

electric tooth brush charger- it is a bit finicky. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I should be using my non-electric one anyway.

Mattress cover zipper- I tried to just drape the cover over the mattress for a while, but I gave up and now there is no cover on the memory foam and it piles all over the place.

many many glass cups, dishes and bowls in my quest to get rid of plastic dishware for a three year old- I have been able to find more at the thrift store. I got some little Corelle dishes and they are fabulous and do not break! I recycled the glass bits.

bread maker- yes, it is not working properly anymore. So I have been making bread in the oven. I am going to recycle it at our depot in Cochrane. We have a fabulous recycling place that accepts appliances and such.

I personally think that is a ridiculous amount of broken items. It is not like we are careless with our things either. Most of these things just conked out. I was really reminded of the concept of planned obsolescence discussed in The Story of Stuff. They just don’t make things like they used to. The amount of waste that is produced from these appliances makes me really grumpy.