the versatile blogger award: we got it!

After looking longingly at others' Versatile Blogger Award badges, I was awarded one for my recent ThunderShirt posts, so kindly, by We Live in a Flat, one of my favorite dog blogs! We Live in a Flat follows the adventures of Donna, a rescued pup who lives in Singapore. Great writing and wonderful images...thank you, We Live in a Flat! I would like to nominate the following blogs for their excellency and appeal to, well, ME! Love and the Versatile Blogger Award, in no particular order and with no obligation, lest I irritate you, go to:

veggie 4 a year for luscious vegan recipes and activism, helping me though my own transition

No Dog About it Blog for insightful tips and sentiment

Adventures at Run a Muck Ranch for making me feel like my dog chaos could be worse with sweet, candid stories

The War in My Brain for bravery

Love and a Six-Foot Leash for gorgeous photos of gorgeous dogs and a wonderful parenting philosophy

Brie Brie Blooms for creativity

Pawsitively Pets for being so dedicated to all things animal

101 Books for being intelligent and keeping it real in a single bound

Oz the Terrier for informative cuteness

My Brown Newfies & Me for writing with true versatility about a seemingly narrow topic...I'm always coming back for more

Why We Love Green for great tips on how to go green while saving green

Sugar the Golden Retriever for awesome tips and insight...and who doesn't love a golden?

Jen Hatmaker for making me laugh harder than I can remember laughing in a long, long time. If you haven't read her viral post Worst End of School Year Mom Ever, you must. NOW.

Nature Moms Blog for great green mama info that I actually use

my.blind.world. for unflinching honesty

Should you accept your award (you are under NO obligation to do so), you're in for a bit of work, but it's not painful. Versatile Blogger award rules:

•  Thank the person who gave you this award.
•  Include a link to their blog.
•  Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)
•  Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.
•  Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

Seven things about me...

• We have a sulcata tortoise. I just haven't blogged about him, yet.

• I have three tattoos. One for each of my kids.

• One of the main reasons I love being a pet sitter is that it keeps me from having too many animals, myself.

• Our dog, Kermit, who passed away almost two years ago, had Addison's Disease and seizures. I haven't blogged about him, yet, either.

• I have a scar on my right hand from a overly-boisterous game of fetch with a dog client. My hand went up and her fang came down. Accidental puncture all the way to the root of the tooth. This happened exactly on the one-year anniversary of breaking three fingers on my other hand.

• I kiss all animals on the lips.

• I don't really like listing "things" about myself.

Congratulations to the newest recipients of The Versatile Blogger award! I can't wait to read your posts.

big tipper: my haul from Farmyard

Aren't big tips just the greatest? As the owner of Well Minded, I don't always get a gratuity, but I sure appreciate it when I do. Today I got an awesome tip from a client who is also a friend. She is away for a while, and I'm caring for her dogs, so she was unable to pick up her CSA basket from Farmyard today. Instead, she gave it to me as a tip, and I couldn't be happier about it! I've had the pleasure of testing out some of the gorgeous produce from Farmyard before, as my client friend can't always consume all she receives, but I've never had a whole basket, so I'm quite excited, and already planning what to make with it for the next few days.

I was provided an address and a Farmyard tote to return when picking up this week's haul.

Although I needed my navigation system to find the neighborhood, once I got there, the house was unmistakable. The front yard presented rows of tomatoes, lettuce, squash, and the like. When I pulled up, it was something out of a Norman Rockwell Painting, only modern. Rebecca waived and greeted me warmly. She knew who I was, even though we'd never met. She was collecting some small yellow tomatoes from the garden, and her bucket was overflowing, literally, so I followed behind, picking up the dropped tomatoes that trailed behind her.

She invited me into her home, where her big yellow lab lumbered a welcome just as warm. Rebecca took my tote and handed me a fresh one full of her garden's bounty. It included a bunch of sorrel, some giant zucchini, cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, a variety of small tomatoes, two jalapeños, some garlic, a bunch of apples, and a dozen eggs. Gorgeous! Rebecca explained what I was receiving and even provided a recipe for using the sorrel, something I've honestly never cooked with. I'm excited to try it!

I am especially impressed with the eggs. As a verging-upon vegan individual who loves her eggs, it makes me feel better about falling off the wagon when I know they come from happy, healthy, pampered chickens, which is the case with Farmyard. We've considered getting our own chickens because they make great pets and provide eggs, but haven't taken the plunge quite, yet. I love caring for my clients' chickens, and often get tipped in eggs, Little House on the Prairie-style.

The kids just loved the jewel-toned eggs and couldn't keep their hands off of them. They are beautiful.

As I started the car, Porter chomped into a freshly picked apple, which was satisfying to us both.

What a wonderful first experience we had at Farmyard. We've been considering signing up for a CSA for quite some time, and this might be just the thing to send us over the edge!

keeping it small: size matters to me

When I started pet sitting full time, I initially tried any advertising I could think of. In order to build an initial client base, I threw lots of time and money down every conceivable avenue, only to receive very little in return. I learned quickly that networking and building relationships in the community was the fastest and best way to build my client base. Though we're always accepting new clients, we're now a manageable size, considering it's basically just myself and one other sitter. I prefer to keep it small because, well, let's be real: I'm a control freak. That, and I love the fact that I know each of my clients very well. They are almost like family. We partner with our clients to make sure their pets get the best care. Many of our clients have been with us since the beginning in 2005, and we're so grateful to have these relationships that often last through multiple "generations" of pets.

We now build our business primarily from client and community referrals, which is the best way to go for us. Just as our clients want to have the best pet sitter in all the land, we want to have the most awesome clients. By gaining new clients through referrals and spending time in the community, we can more readily trust that this will be the case, and they usually feel very comfortable knowing that a trusted source has said we're the best.

Because we value referrals so highly, we offer our clients an ongoing, graduated referral reward that gets better each time the referred client uses our services. Our client who is kind enough to refer to us gets rewarded over and over! It's been a great success for us, and it's a good feeling to know that we can say thank you to those who spread the word about Well Minded.

Growing our business this way allows us to create a family bond with our clients. I love that when a client's name pops up on my phone, I know exactly who they are and who their pets are. Size does matter. And we prefer to keep it small.

companion animals at the Children's Museum of Phoenix

The littles and I were eagerly anticipating our recent visit to The Children's Museum of Phoenix because May is Companion Animal Month (sponsored by Banfield Pet Hospital) at the museum. Since we're all animal lovers and we love the museum, it couldn't get much better! Of course, we first had to dive into...er...climb into the Schuff-Perini Climber, quite possibly the coolest climbing apparatus ever created. The littles spent about 30 minutes exploring and trying to lose and find each other. I went up, too. Unlike the bacteria-laden hamster maze passed off as a play place by the dining establishment with the golden arches, this climber is clean and most spaces are large enough for adults, who are encouraged to climb with their little ones.

The littles really enjoyed the pet-themed art projects in the art studio.

They started by creating "Pet Crayon Rubbings," which Porter really took to. The museum provided all necessary supplies and instructions. It was pretty amazing how many different animals could be made with the simple rubbing outline.

Next, they moved on to make "Pet Stick Puppets," which was a lot of fun. They traced from templates, added details with markers and cut paper, and then glued their creature onto craft sticks. They did a show in the puppet theater with their finished products right there in the art studio.

We came away with some really special handmade treasures.

We set off to explore the museum some more, and in addition to the amazing regular exhibits, we discovered that the hallway leading to the reading nook was full of whimsical animal art by Carolyn Schmitz.

The paintings were hung low enough for the children to view comfortably, and my littles had a ball just spotting the different animals and intricate details in each painting. The juxtaposition of classic realism with a child-like subject matter would please art-goers of any age.

The highlight of our visit to the Children's Museum of Phoenix's Companion Animal Month was the "Ask the Vet" session. Banfield Veterinarian and Chief of Staff at the Tempe Marketplace office, Dr. Ryan Pearce, was on hand to chat with children and answer questions about pets and veterinary medicine.

Dr. Pearce was knowledgeable and great with kids. Not to mention, he brought tattoos and other giveaways so he was "in."

The kids asked about what kind of animals Banfield and Dr. Pearce take care of and learned that they see mostly cats and dogs, but also snakes, lizards, mice, birds, rabbits, hamsters, and other companion animals.

Porter asked, "How does it make you feel when you save an animal's life?"

Dr. Pearce got a big smile on his face and said, "it's really rewarding because we get to see the pets happy and healthy, and especially make the pet's parents happy because they are usually really worried and scared when something happens to their pet. It makes me feel really good to help someone, you know? You should take every opportunity to help someone when you can. It makes you feel really good–sometimes better than the person you helped."

What a great message.

Dr. Pearce and the staff at the Children's Museum of Phoenix also told us about their "Future Vet Camp" program held once every three months for one day. The program, geared for children of elementary school age is a "career discovery program that teaches children about veterinary medicine." Future vets get to interact and learn about procedures from a veterinarian and a therapy dog, and they even earn a stethoscope upon "graduation." I think I know two future vets.

In June, SRP is sponsoring "Safety Month," and the museum has some really fun activities planned, including programming on bike safety and safety around water and electricity.

The museum is celebrating its 5th Birthday with a "Big Birthday Bash" on Friday, June 14th. Marion Wiener, Director of Marketing & Communications, informed me that "general admission gets you all that you love about the more than 300 hands-on, learning experiences at the museum, plus face painting, magic, balloons, birthday crafts, cupcakes, giveaways, and more!"

Our Companion Animal Month experience at the Children's Museum of Phoenix was educational and lots of fun, and I didn't even touch on the regular exhibits, which make up the majority of the museum. It's a place worth coming back to again and again to discover new things, and even the old things become new experiences as the children grow and rediscover.

Disclaimer: I was provided admission to the museum in exchange for my honest opinion.

this weekend's paper towel

You might think me insane, but hear me out. I've mentioned it before. Our family has not purchased or used paper towels for nearly three years. Before making this change, I would watch my boys splash their hands with water, consider it a thorough wash job, then rip off half a dozen paper towels, delighting in how fast the roll pirouetted around the holder.

One day we ran out of paper towels, and I didn't feel like going to the store. We had to make do with cloth kitchen towels to dry our hands and clean-up rags to, well...clean up! Guess what happened. We survived!

I didn't buy paper towels on my next shopping trip, and I announced to the family that we were going to try a challenge: one month without paper towels. I got some grief. Fast forward three years later, and it's second nature to the whole family. We don't buy paper towels.

Can you imagine how many trees we've saved? I'll have to give my boys most of the credit, there. Can you imagine how much money we've saved? I'm not one for facts and figures, but I'm guessing enough for a few evenings of family entertainment.

During this busy holiday weekend, I'm caring for quite a few critters. I wash my hands frequently: two to three times per visit, I'd say, depending on when the dog was last bathed or how dirty the litter box is. I can usually find a kitchen towel with which to dry my hands, but when I can't, sometimes I'm forced to use paper towels (not being the type to snoop in drawers).

At one client's home, this is this weekend's paper towel:

I started caring for the pets on Friday afternoon, and at three visits per day... this baby has now been used at least a dozen times to dry my clean hands. When I'm finished with it, I just lay it out flat, like so, and it's all dry and ready to go again on my next visit.

It's the little changes that make a difference.