Can I just say a great big "ditto" for the past three posts? It seems that I've run out of new and whitty things to say lately; the kids are about the same, the chores are still at the same point of undoneness, and the laundry continues to never quite be all done.

Today the clothesline broke under the weight of our laundry. My fault, likely, for overloading a slightly wobbly line. So now I have to bite the bullet and go out for a new drying rack- because we're seriously cutting back on the electric costs here this summer in an effort to reduce the bills. Because the AC is a necessity in this family, and I'm just now recovering from the shock of last summer's bills, and today the temperature is breaking the triple-digit mark for the first time (with no plans on cooling back to 99 until a few days into next week). Viva la desert. Who knew that a desert could experience drought? I certainly never really understood that concept until last year, when everything turned brown and crunchy and we went under a very tight water rationing type of system. Not that it affected us much- our lawn still died because we didn't water it, because there was just so much else going on.

Cutting back electric means cutting back on a lot of conveniences that one takes for granted after a while. Dishes by hand. Hanging out laundry instead of using the dryer. Turning off appliances. Conserving. It's nothing that a lot of people are doing all over the place this year. It's going to be good for us, good for the community, good for my kids to grow up knowing that this sort of lifestyle is fully possible. That we don't have to live totally plugged in to the grid with every appliance running 24/7.