Meditation Stool, and other life changes

Hello world,

It's Tax Time, and like Liz Lemon, this year we have really made some changes. We are a new woman! We have also started eating the lettuce under our onion rings!

Ok, so I did my taxes in January, and I'm trying to cut out onion rings, but I am eating lettuce. Lots and lots of delicious lettuce. The herby mix, please, with lots of dill and basil. Here are some other good habits that have hung around long enough to Officially Endorse and share with you for the testing out:

1. Track your spending and budget with Mint.com
I started this in late December/January when Josh made a comment about wanting to get square financially with his budget. Yes, you have to turn over all your account info and passwords, but once it's all uploaded to the secure site you have access to all your accounts in one place. I have a much greater understanding of where my money goes now than before, and I've had a lot of fun with the budgeting features. Additionally, I see every charge on my credit cards in near-real-time as opposed to once a month (maybe) when I log on to pay the bill.

2. Sodastream!
Santa brought me this fantastic gadget and I've used it regularly and with ease since then. When I stopped drinking alcohol, I immediately saved a ton of money and put it toward fancy sparkling waters instead. With this machine, I make my own sparkling water and can mix it with lemon, mint, a few drops of bitters, or anything else to liven things up. The key here is that it is EASY. It takes 30 seconds, there's no clean-up, and I do not even have to plug it in. That is more than I can say for the French Press coffee maker, which requires not only set up but also extensive clean up and consequently gets used a lot less often. Now that the Sodastream replaces Perrier, the only beverage I'm purchasing regularly is milk and...

3. Unsweetened 100% cranberry juice
Here's a tip: This juice sells for $7-$9 from the usual "natural juice" brand suspects, but there's a $3 version from "L&A" that is exactly the same stuff. Those of you with Trader Joe's probably have a generic awesome version to choose from as well. These's some debate these days about whether or not cranberry juice actually helps prevent UTIs, but I don't care, I think you should drink it anyway and you should add a splash of apple cider vinegar to 4 oz of juice and then add the juice of 1/2 a lemon and feeeeelll theeeee buuuuuuurrrrrn as it races down your throat and does all sorts of healthful things to your insides. Also, you should drink it first thing in the morning and you can add some water to dilute it, but that defeats the burning, and the burning is my favorite part! GOOD MORNING to you! This cranberry cocktail is not my invention, but I'm a convert. Also, I'M AWAKE NOW.

4. Unfug Your Habitat
I go through stages with this one and I'm currently in an "on" phase where everything is clean and tidy and all surfaces well-bleached. This site offers up basic nighttime steps to unfug (warning: that is not the word they use) your morning:

• Wash the dishes in your sink
• Get your outfit for tomorrow together, including accessories
• Set up coffee/tea/breakfast
• Make your lunch
• Put your keys somewhere obvious
• Wash your face and brush your teeth
• Charge your electronics
• Pour a little cleaner in the toilet bowl (if you don’t have pets or children or sleepwalking adults)
• Set your alarm
• Go to bed at a reasonable hour

Beyond that, they suggest tackling things in 20 minute increments, and offer up such wisdom as, "Doing the dishes is not difficult. It’s often tedious, and sometimes overwhelming, but it’s not hard. Suck it up and do them." They also present a very reasonable treaty about how to unfug your home without alienating everyone you live with. Mmmmmmhmmmmmmmmm.

For other householdy tips that will blow your mind, like how to put your phone in a drinking glass to amplify music to fill the whole room, you might want to get on:

5. Pinterest and
6. Google Reader <--you can get a "subscribe" button for your toolbar so when you stumble on a blog you like, you can add it to one central follow list housed here instead of having to check a zillion webpages for updates.

But you're probably using those already. It just took me a minute to catch on.

Cranberry cheers to a whole new you!