The Browns are still going green

Wow, so my "I need a few days off from blogging" turned into a month off from blogging. (And didn'tcha miss me? No? Whaaaaat??) So here's a little run down of the past month.

The best news of the month came on December 11th, when we unexpectedly got "the call". Yes, our adoption referral! We are now (almost) the proud parents of two new babes - a little girl who is almost 5 and her brother who is just over one year old. We expect to travel to Ethiopia some time in late March / early April to bring them home.

So it was a lovely holiday indeed!

No matter how much I tried to prepare though, it was still sheer madness. How does that always happen? The good news is that we did, as promised, cut back a lot on gifts. We spent time with friends and family and gave many handmade gifts that came from the heart. And they were very well-received (or they're all good fakers I suppose). This is the first January in a long time when I haven't had that post-holiday "what-the-heck-happened???" feeling of impending doom when opening my credit card bill. In fact, it was just like any other month.

I also made pretty good on my promise to Beth of Fake Plastic Fish and Amy of Crunchy Domestic Goddess to not buy plastic this year. The handmade gifts helped a lot in that area, almost all of the others were quite eco-friendly. We did somehow end up with a Big Wheel for our 3 year old. I know, I know. We tried to offset the insanity of that ginormous piece of plastic with several puzzles and toys from the thrift store.

So now here we are, beginning a new year already. I'm busy still doing recruiting part time and working for iVillage part time as well. In addition to my job there, I also am still volunteering to lead some of their green boards. It's a busy life these days, only to get busier with the addition of two new kids in the near future. But I will try to get back here on a more regular basis to bore you all with my ramblings.

Cheers & Happy New Year!