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I’m on this kick lately where I’m just seeing the waste in our lives very clearly. We don’t spend a lot of extra money, so it’s not stuff we’re buying that’s the problem, but just the “trash” from the everyday things we use.br /br /Baby food containers, yogurt containers, soda bottles, magazines, newspapers, cereal boxes…the list goes on and on. First, anyone who knows me knows that I am NOT a pack rat by the furthest stretch of the imagination. I LOVE to purge and I do it often (the housecleaning kind, just so the record’s straight). I’m not sentimental about anything other than pictures, and for the most part I’d prefer to repurchase something than keep it lying around the house for a decade or two “just in case”.br /br /That said, I am finding myself saving a growing pile of, well, trash because even just taking it to be recycled the old-fashioned way doesn’t seem good enough for me. I’m waiting for inspiration to strike, and in the meantime, I’m keenly aware of just how much we contribute to the landfills because of this new obsession.br /br /I hope to share a lot of these ideas with you over the next few weeks, starting with this very un-spectacular one:br /br /We were dealing with power outages earlier this week and looking for something fun to do instead of our regularly scheduled after-nap TV show. I happened to have saved the boxes from the two boxes of Trix cereal I snagged at Food Lion on BOGO and with coupons (note: we don’t often have sugary cereal in the house, so this is a HUGE deal around here), and I decided to make the girls their own Trix puzzles.br /br /They turned out pretty cute, but the girls were a little frustrated that their puzzles wouldn’t stay stationary or fit together perfectly. I think for an older child and with a lot more pieces, this could be even more fun, though!br /br /Simply cut off the front of the box. Then turn it over and draw your lines on the back. Cut along the lines and, voila!, you have a puzzle.br /br /img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213775306441929090″ style=”DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center” alt=”" src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PoXHVGzLUGI/SFsNBHcssYI/AAAAAAAAASk/02RA-DmEpVs/s320/Cereal+Box+Puzzle.JPG” border=”0″ /br /img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213775381826980946″ style=”DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center” alt=”" src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PoXHVGzLUGI/SFsNFgR5TFI/AAAAAAAAASs/rUyggohrV28/s320/Cereal+Box+Puzzle+3.JPG” border=”0″ /br /img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213775382852935234″ style=”DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center” alt=”" src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PoXHVGzLUGI/SFsNFkGgHkI/AAAAAAAAAS0/uzV9CMUYfis/s320/Putting+the+Puzzle+Together+3+blog.JPG” border=”0″ /br /br /a href=”http://www.mylivesignature.com/” target=”_blank”img style=”BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none” src=”http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54486/128/0E4A8EA9D2A4A002FC32D3D163051882.png” //abr /br /––––-–––––-––––––––-–––––––-––––-––––––-–-––––––-–––-–-–––br /span style=”font-size:85%;”Check out /spana href=”http://mythreedoodles.blogspot.com/2008/06/and-this-weeks-favorite-things.html”span style=”font-size:85%;”this week’s giveaway/span/aspan style=”font-size:85%;”: A $25 gift certificate to /spana href=”http://scripts.affiliatefuture.com/AFClick.asp?affiliateID=129253amp;merchantID=2533amp;programmeID=6755amp;mediaID=0amp;tracking=amp;url=http://www.duckduckgooseboutique.com/”span style=”font-size:85%;”Duck Duck Goose Boutique/span/aspan style=”font-size:85%;”!/span