Have a Wonderful Weekend.

We’re making an effort to replace plastic single-use items too! Honestly it’s been much easier than I expected, once we got the supplies we needed (extra jars/stainless steel tins and some net and cloth bags for produce and flour). Even better has been the warm fuzzy side-effect of helping me to get to know my food suppliers–from the butcher to the fishmonger to our greengrocers and ice cream parlour, everyone has been really supportive. Some will even take my bags to the supply room to fill for me, if the produce on display is in plastic. My kids feel proud, too. Net bags for plastic produce bags is probably the easiest first swap.

I recently watched all episodes of Friends, again! I loved it like the first time but I got a it disappointed how it ended. Everyone seems to have reached some points or success but not Joey! xx

I made an end-of-winter jollifer to post on Instagram inspired by the Winter Pick-me-up post from a couple weeks back. Find it here: instagram.com/p/BgKMrjFjqi2/?taken-by=laurazdesign

I too have been the recipient of Trader Joe’s kindness flowers! I had to stop in while I was in tears over something completely unrelated to my shopping trip and the employee at the register went and brought me flowers to cheer me up. I will always remember that thoughtful gesture. How wonderful that their company facilitates actions like this!

that’s my sunscreen too. i have since also bought the body spray version and have a travel size too! it’s the best.

Bannana flowers! That story is everything! In a world of school shootings, crazy politics, racism and chaos why can’t more people just celebrate the word bannana?

Well that Trader Joe’s moment was lovely. thank you for sharing.

The banana flowers story really resonated with me. We are regulars at our local TJ’s, and my now 2 year old son has grown up walking the aisles and befriending the employees there. We’ve all become friends. One day, apropos of nothing, an employee found me at the check-out and handed me yellow roses “just because.” Little did she know that it was my late grandfather’s birthday, and he always presented each of us grandkids with yellow roses for all special occasions. I called my mom immediately, and I caught her on her way to Arlington National Cemetery to visit his grave. It was one of those synchronous moments that will forever stick with me (and keep me going back to TJ’s!).

I also just finished reading The Power of Moments and I am reading it again and making notes this time! Such a great book full of really wonderful insights.

Umm.. anyone else tearing up from that Trader Joe’s comment?

Yay for TJ’s! I once got in a car accident and was grocery shopping there the next day. Noticing me wince when I picked up my tote, the cashier asked if I was ok and when I told him about the accident, he gave me a wheelie cart to take my groceries home in and keep — for free! I still have the cart and every time I use it I am reminded of that kindness.

Thank you for the links! You are such an inspiration! Have a wonderful weekend!

Wow, Trader Joe’s man. I’m honestly so unashamed when declaring my love for the store. My brother calls me Trader Joe’s queen and we joke about me camping outside so I’m the first customer in the store. The employees are generally so friendly and pleasant.

Johanna,

I also wanted to mention that I moved to TX this year and we’re two hours ahead of y’all. When I first moved, I kept checking back in the morning/evening but your posts were never updated. I thought something was off. And then I later realized it’s because of the time difference. Life felt a little weird and it took time to adjust, but I’m now adjusted to the new schedule. Just wanted to share that little piece of information to demonstrate how big of a role your blog plays in my life :-)

I am loving that you posted a link about plastic! I have two boys (your same ages!) and am always considering the condition that we are leaving the earth for them. Plastic takes 500 + years to break down, so we haven’t even seen the toll that plastic has taken on our planet. This past year I have eliminated the following: paper towels, plastic bags, plastic water bottles, plastic bags for bagging produce (why, oh why, do people put bananas into plastic produce bags!?). I’ve been making simple swaps ( buying in bulk, making our own soap/ body wash, laundry detergent) and have seen the reduction of waste in our household. I wish more bloggers would recognize what a platform they have to spread the word about reducing our plastic waste for ourselves and future generations.

It would be great if one of your upcoming challenges was to reduce the amount of plastic we use. It’s so hard to do, but I think a fun challenge would motivate me to try and perhaps form a few good habits. I’m thinking small things that each of us can do – like pass on the straw or unnecessary plastic fork, or take our own bags to the grocery or our own reusable cup for coffee. Just a thought! ?

I agree Trader Joe’s has yummy food and the nicest folks working there. My 6 yr old daughter was in an arm cast for the summer which she wasn’t thrilled about. The employee who was checking us out was making small talk with her. He was telling her a story of his daughter who also was in a cast. To make her feel better said she could pick out anything in the store-his treat! My daughter ended up picking up some chocolate peanut butter cups. It was really sweet for him to do. She loves reminiscing about this story all the time!! Kindness is Everything!

Crazy timing about the Friends rant!! I SO AGREE. My husband and I are re-watching Friends right now and last night we got to the Joey has a crush on Rachel episode! I turned and looked at my husband and said, “this is my least favorite story line because it’s just so sad that it doesn’t work out”

I think when I was in high school I was all about Ross&Rachel. Now watching it in my 30s and married, I CANNOT STAND ROSS.

Back in college, I was on my way to Trader Joe”s and got in a fender bender on the way. I was shaken up, but decided to continue on to the store anyway because I love it so much. When I got there, the store was out of almond milk, a key item for me. A staff member named Allison even checked in the back, but no luck. I must have looked unusually distraught, because she asked if I was okay. “I’m fine, I just got in a car accident and am still calming down,” I told her.

And then I started to cry! I could never have explained this at the time, but my dad had passed away several months earlier and I was so sad I’d physically been unable to cry since it happened. So there I was, sobbing in the almond milk aisle in a packed Trader Joe’s on a Sunday afternoon, releasing months of grief and fear and sorrow, when Allison came back. She handed me a bouquet of flowers, and told me how sorry they all were about my car and that they hoped I could get it fixed soon. I’ve never forgotten that gesture, and I wish I could tell Allison all these years later that I remember her name and her kindness like it was yesterday.

This post, with the story about Trader Joe’s and the link to the guardian story about plastic use, brought up a really important pain point for me…I, like many, love me some TJ’s (the unexpected cheddar, amirite?) but I am SO DISTURBED by the amount of plastic waste that a single trip to Trader Joe’s yields. I recently read a story in the Washington Post about a grocery story in Amsterdam that wraps food in biodegradable plastic (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2018/02/28/a-supermarket-in-amsterdam-has-an-aisle-with-more-than-700-grocery-items-and-no-plastic/) and I thought, “How I wish Trader Joe’s would do this!” Could you imagine the impact? I’m one of those crazy people who rinsed out all the plastic baggies that my salad and nuts come in and then bring them to target or their grocery stores to recycle. I wish, at the very least, they would take the recycling! After a cursory google search, there are a few online petitions to get TJ’s to reduce plastic packaging, but they have only a few signatures. I’ve thought about writing letters myself because I really feel like TJ’s could be such a leader in this area if they wanted to invest the money, but I don’t know how powerful it would be. Anyway, I write all this to say that you clearly have a love for TJ’s as well, and a much bigger platform than I (a stay at home mom), so perhaps you could use your influence to raise the issue in some way to your followers?

What a sweet Trader Joe’s story. I loved it!