Day 1 of purchasing products produced or made in the U.S.A.

Hallmark and China:(

Where to begin? I have heard about how hard it is to buy a product that is produced or made here, and I am floored at what I have found.

Today I went to purchase birthday cards. I picked up two Hallmark cards assuming they would be fine. I had checked every single thing in my cart and I thought I was OK until I got to the register and my husband said, "Did you check the cards?". I laughed and said "Honey, they are from Hallmark." Sure enough, he was right. I left my husband at the register and put the cards back from where I got them. I asked him how he knew they were not from here and he said, "They are shiny sparkly things." Great, I've always loved shiny sparkly things. What's a girl going to do?

I am committing for 365 days to purchase everything humanly possible that is made in the U.S.A. Now I admit I am as guilty as most folks and looked for the better deal, but I'm putting my foot down today! I'm hoping where the cost difference comes sure is because of quality. . .I can't change what I've done but as I need things replaced they will be made from here.

Here is a little sidebar. We stopped at the store for a few things. I bought Ice Cream made in IA. Various fruits from here but when I got to pineapples and bananas what the heck was I supposed to do. My husband set me straight and said, "Honey, we don't grow bananas  here so you don't need to feel guilty!"   This morning he reminded me we have pineapples in Hawaii.  Great...has anyone actually in Michigan ever seen Hawaiian Pineapples.

Here are my daily rules:

1. Let you know what I've purchased and if it was hard to find, write about it.

2. Make sure to do a cost comparison, and if I can't find what I'm looking for I will write the company that sells the most of them and ask them why they are not made here.  Wonder how many answers I will get back?

I will save my overall thoughts of the week for Sunday. I really am not doing this to bore you. I'm trying to get and education and share the experience.

I saw a sign outside of a church today it said, "Live within your harvest." Wow I took it personal at first and really started to think about what that meant to me and then when I started this I thought, "Hold on the whole country needs to see this. . . .we need to live within our harvest."