No new shoes

I haven't bought any new shoes for a long time, but with our upcoming trip to Alaska and WA State, I decided I could use a good pair for walking. CB already has his pair from Zappos and is very happy with them.

I am delighted with Zappos, but disappointed that the pair and color I wanted do not fit. The story of getting TWO pairs of Tevas happened in the last three days. The day after I ordered a size 9, they arrived--too big. So I quickly printed out the USPS postage label and took the box to the post office. This was Thursday; I ordered a size 8, because the color I wanted (chocolate) was out of stock in size 8.5. Yesterday the next pair came and were almost all right, but my toes hit the front of the shoe when walking; I know that would end up hurting when walking a long way.
So vanity of vanities, I will not get the chocolate pair. (Is this to replace the chocolate candy I am not eating these days??) I will soon mail that box back to Zappos. Still wanting to try the middle size, I may opt for the light green.

BTW, Zappos was bought by Amazon last year, but is remaining its own business dedicated to service. I love Zappos service and selection!

And here are the Core Values of Zappos, which could guide many of us to a better life:
(Chart of values is from Rich's Blog)

Buy Nothing Christmas?

I love to give presents. I also love to receive presents. However, I know Christmas giving has gotten out-of-hand. I am investigating, pondering, and thinking about how my family will celebrate this year, or it may just be how I celebrate. . . .

So here's another site I have found about spending in this holiday season. It was started by Canadian Mennonites: Buy Nothing Christmas. I'm not ready to buy nothing, but I am interested in the alternative suggestions they list here. There are 50, so one idea or more may be relevant to a family that isn't ready to eliminate all spending.

Resources, like book suggestions and printable info, can be found here.

And on this page, Aiden Schlichting Enns writes:

PEOPLE CAN CHANGE

"How can we, as ordinary people, change society for the better? I'm not a politician, lobbyist, professor or big-time consultant (I'm currently a graduate student and a journalist). I'm tired of feeling like I can't do anything.

"So, even if it's insignificant, I've decided to participate in a Buy Nothing Christmas. It's an experiment - I'm curious to see what happens. I think it's a great way to challenge our own consumer mindset, to put our faith into action, to offer a prophetic "no" to unfettered free-market consumer capitalism, and an excellent way to generate some good dinner-table discussions on the topic of economics, politics, religion, and what we're not getting each other for Christmas."

I like Aiden's observations. . . .reminds me of Buy Nothing Day.

Black Friday

Black Friday is what the day after Thanksgiving is known as; a major shopping day in the USA. That is probably why I am staying an extra day in Austin with daughter MJ, but now I am re-thinking that reasoning because of learning about Buy Nothing Day. First I looked at this article by Eugene Cho here, on Jim Wallis' God's Politics blog.

So that sent me to the Buy Nothing Day site.

And now look at the short (1 1/2 minutes) video I found about it:



So what do YOU think?