Green. . . is good.

It really makes the title more fun and "punchy" if you say it with a quasi-french accent. Kinda like the little shrimp guy on the muppets. He cracks me up every time I see him.

I just "wikipedia'd" him (it's not a good a verb as 'googled,' but it may catch on). Here he is. . . .



Anyway. . . if you say my title with a french accent, you'll smile. And, somehow, I'll know you did it -- and I'll smile, too.

And no. . . .I've never seen the movie "Wall Street" I think Michael Douglas's character makes some monumental speech where he says, "Greed is good." I'm not quoting him, nor am I making some sort of tribute to him. So, if that's what you were thinking. . .stop it!

Actually I'm saying "Green." You know, it's not that easy being green. (My alternate title) But, it's kinda fun. Here's where I'm going. . . .stay with me. I think it will be worth it in the end.

Mother's Day is upon us. I've already gotten (and have been using) my mother's day gift from Mark (and the kids, I assume.) A couple weeks ago, he bought me a seven-knife set and knife block at the Smoky Mountain Knifeworks. Yes, we live very close to the world's premiere knife store -- kinda makes you want to come visit me even more, doesn't it?

It's a Henckel set of knives. We had one (1) Henckel paring knife which we got for a wedding present -- nothing says "Have a blessed & happy life" like a paring knife, does it? (of course, nothing says, "Happy Mother's Day" like knives, either)

Somewhere along the line, in the past 18 years, we lost the paring knife. NO clue where, obviously, because then it wouldn't be lost. But, I really liked that knife. Well, now I have that knife back -- along with a host of others -- including a Santoku (?) knife. (the fancy "scalloped" kind you see on all the cooking shows") Sadly, one of the things I can claim is that it really can cut through butter. . . . I had a 1-lb block that needed to be separated. It works. : ) So, I really love my Mother's Day gift -- and am using it all the time. Yay, Mark!

But, getting back to green. . .and Mother's Day. . . I went to get gifts for my mom and Mark's mom. And yes, it *is* the day before, and yes, Mark's parents *DO* live in Arizona. So, naturally, her gift *will* be a few days late. (If it winds up being just a few days late -- I'm doing better than most years)

I was going to go to Goody's . . .which is a locally owned company (Knoxville) and buy them each some sort of nice blouse, or summer sweater, or something. But to be honest, I didn't even want to venture that far. But, thinking I had very little choice, I drove through Seymour -- and then I remembered "Tieke" which is a privately owned store (by a former church member, actually) here in town.

I've been thinking a lot about supporting local "mom & pop" sort of stores, when I can. Nothing against the big guys (Kroger, Walmart, etc.) but supporting local artisans and business owners helps MY community.

So I went in.

Now, knowing that my mom will probably not read this until Monday, I could be safe in posting what I got her. My mother in law will most likely read this before I get her stuff in the mail -- so mum's the word (HA! So to speak) But, I was excited to spend (a little more) money with a local business rather than chuck money at some of the national chain stores.

So, I went a little green.

AND. . . . just this morning, I had to run to the grocery store---Food City/big chain (don't judge me!). While I was there, I saw the green eco-friendly reusable grocery bags and realized that the four of them I had bought two weeks ago were still at home. So, I bought two more.

. . .honestly, six bags of groceries is average for me. So, I will definitely use them. Again, don't judge me.

I used them. They're HUGE! They easily hold 50% more than the typical land-filling plastic bags -- and their handles don't rip. I felt so . . .ooh, I don't know. . . ."with it" by using my green bags.

While I was out this afternoon, supporting local industry, I realized that I'd forgotten two key ingredients for tomorrow's salad. (The apple/swiss cheese/cashew one -- YUM!) So, I hopped over to Kroger (it would've wasted gas to go all the way back to Food city) to get what I needed. I still had my FC "green" bags with me -- so I took 'em into Kroger (gasp!) with me. After I got my stuff, the girls checking my groceries out teased me for using the wrong bags -- but I used them anyway.

And, I have to say, it felt really good. It kinda felt good being rebellious, too. But, that's another blog post for another day.

Last green story, and then I promise I'll stop. . . .

Our new "Sonic" Drive-in has "Happy Hour" every day from 2-4 p.m. All fountain drinks & slushes are half-price. I love happy hour. And, since the day has this great green theme running through it, I drove through the drive through and got a GREEN APPLE slush.

Oh my gravy. . . green is good. It's really, really, really good.

. . .of course, it's served in a styrofoam cup. But I can't save the whole planet. Just a part of it!

Happy Saturday!!

p.s. I did a new layout yesterday afternoon. It's based on an earlier blog entry about Caroline's artwork. You may recognize the journaling -- I shortened (greatly) the couple of paragraphs I'd written about her uniqueness and her creativity. Here it is. . .