Let's Talk About Laundry!

It doesn't seem like there would be a lot to discuss, but there must be because it is a universal activity. Wherever there are people, there is laundry. Wherever there is laundry, there are moms trying to get it done with as little fuss and energy as possible.

If you are looking to save time, this is the wrong post for you. This week, I decided to modify my laundry habits so they used the least amount of resources possible.

There are three key components to laundry's ecological impact. First, we use water, often hot water. While my mother (who has every nifty green gadget available) uses her gray water for laundry, we aren't set up for that. I did, however, decided to use cold water only instead of warm for pastels and hot for whites.

The second key expenditure is electricity. Using cold water cuts down this aspect, but I upped the ante by doing line-drying only. I usually depend on an electric dryer during cold, damp spring days.

The third component is laundry soap. Obviously we need some sort of cleanser for our clothing, but storebought laundry soap is full of fillers and noxious chemicals. There's also the packaging factor.

I hoped to find a great cold-water formula, but none surfaced. I made up a batch of my favorite homemade laundry soap. Here's the recipe:

1 cup grated bar soap (I used some we had saved from various hotels, but any soap would do)
½ cup washing soda. NOT baking soda, although it is also made by Arm and Hammer.
½ cup Borax. I already had a partial box.

Mix and use sparingly--keep in mind that unlike commercial detergents, there are no fillers. I've been told to use 1 Tbsp but I generally use two.

Here are a few general notes from my experiment:

1. If you are using cold water, the homemade detergent may take a while to dissolve. I mixed it with a tiny amount of hot water before adding to my washer.
2. A 1/4 cup of vinegar added to your rinse cycle makes your clothes softer and helps with stiffness. No, they won't smell like vinegar.
3. I could only get two loads dried every day TOPS, so I fell behind on laundry. If I decide to line dry exclusively in cold weather, I will have to evaluate my home for a good indoor drying area.

Other than that, it was problem free. Because laundry is a major user of electric, I should see about a $10 difference when I get my electric bill. Wow! That's a decent bottle of wine, which I desperately need with all of these kids. Plus, I did one thing, however small, to minimize my effect on our very small and very struggling planet.

If we all do one small thing, it will make a BIG difference. I recommend trying this for a week to see how it works for your family.

The Sounds of My Life

A cereal commerical on TV really bothers me because it is obviously dubbed. Why do that? My husband agreed that the voices sounded 'fake', but we couldn't figure out why. Finally, I realized: there is no background noise. The couple is walking around a presumably hard-floored kitchen, eating cheerios, and you hear nothing except their voices. Where are the footsteps, the breathing, the outside noise, the clink of spoons against cereal bowls?

Every life has its own unique background noise. Here is a sample of mine:

• click-clacking of hard toys as kids build with/play with/smack each other with them
• someone whining or crying--not a pained or afraid sound, just an annoyed (and annoying) one
• water running. For showers, handwashing, laundry, dishes, filling pots with liquid to boil pasta, etc.
• mumbled prayers. This will surprise people who know me because I tend to be quiet-ish about my religious beliefs, just because so many people I know are loud and pushy about theirs. I talk to God all the time. I mainly say Catholic novenas and Jewish daily prayers.
• electronic whirring, from computer, microwave, VCR/DVD, etc, or conversely, a car engine.
• the pitter-patter of little feet upstairs.

As you would expect from a mommy whose children literally never leave the house without her, my life is never silent. I exist with a constant soundtrack. Just an interesting thought.

Enough about Homeschooling... Let's Talk about Garage Sales

Because I'm having one in 1.4 weeks. Any tips? I am going to advertise in the paper, put up signs, and then just throw everything on tarps in our driveway. I'm thinking about selling everything but furniture for $1 each. Judging from the prices I have seen in my area, this would be a good deal even for the miscellaneous crap one sells at these affairs. I have piles of (too stained or worn to be passed down because the relatives I hand down to are picky) children's clothes, the usual baby paraphernalia, and a melange of unwanted household items. That's all worth about a buck, right?

I doubt I'll make a fortune, but I will finally get to be on the selling side of one of these fine events.

Here We Go A-WASL-ing

$%#^%$ the WASL. That's all I can say.

Okay, maybe I can say a little more. Because my 12 year old is in a virtual school, he has to take the WASL, which is Washington State's big, bad standardized test. This was news to me. This test, from what I'm told, tests for such a huge amount of unrelated information that teachers here teach only to the test. My kids are getting a thorough, well-rounded education and Tyler scored in the college freshman range on last year's Woodcock-Johnson (another test), so I wasn't too concerned. But just to be on the safe side I bought one of the Grade 7 books from the giganto WASL prep section at Borders.

Here's a sample math question:

Explain in short answer form why the area of a triangle is calculated differently from the area of a polygon.

My kid is doing Algebra and he was baffled. I earned an A in college trigonometry and I can see why they are calculated differently, but I don't think I could explain it coherently. Certainly not in the two-minutes-or-less that the book says should be given to this type of questions. This was not one hard question, but rather a good representative of the questions on the sample test.

I won't even get into the reading portion. I'll just say that a twelve year old can be well-educated and well-rounded without knowing what a précis is or how an author's schema (yeah, they used that exact word) affects his style of writing.

We've been too busy learning real math--you know, the kind with numbers and formulas?--and writing commentaries on some of the world's greatest literature to address these points. I'm glad we bought the book, so we at least know what kind of foolishness we are in for. We will spend the next two weeks memorizing what every other kid in the state has been drilling all year, and I'm sure he will do fine on the bugger because he's a smart kid.

But I'm a little concerned for an educational system with such an interesting set of learning priorities.

Extra, Extra! Homeschooled Children Not Antisocial Freaks After All, Says US Department of Education

Just kidding. They would never publicize that, or their whole anti-homeschooling position would be blown out of the water. But here are a few interesting notes from this large government study:

*Homeschooled students are generally white and from large families with at least one parent holding a bachelor's degree or higher. However, homeschooling is developing a growing base in minority communities. Which may be in part because...
*In public schools, there is a significant performance gap between white and black students. In homeschools, there is no difference.
*72% live in urban areas. Now that is a surprise. I would think that more choices in schools equals less homeschooling. Hmmm.

Now if they had found that we were antisocial freaks, or that the kids were suffering academically, that would have merited space on the website.

Hallelujah, It's Raining Handbags!

It's raining handbags over at An Island Life. I entered the drawing, and you should too. Wait, wouldn't that reduce my chance of winning?

Mmmkay. Don't enter.

My handbag obsession is legendary, but I gave a few to my mother so I have this sad, bare space in my closet. I bought a Coach signature bag at Value Village yesterday, but that only fills part of the void. These handbags are bright, sassy, and unlike most of my others, so I simply must win one.

What I'm doing to save the world this week...

I'm greenifying my laundry.

We do a lot of laundry around here, so this one choice can have a huge ecological and economical impact. How am I greenifying it?

1. I'm hanging out all of it. Even though it's cold and this will require doing laundry around the clock seven days a week. I already hang out my laundry, but only as much as weather permits.

2. I'm washing in cold water only. Normally I follow the standard 'cold for darks/warm for lights/hot for whites'.

3. I *may* be making my own laundry soap. I've done it before, and it saves plastic because all of the ingredients come in non-plastic containers, plus there are no additive/fillers/fragrances/frankenchemicals. It's VERY cheap. I'm hoping to find a special 'cold water' formula.

Use me as your guinea pig! I am open to suggestions for next week and the weeks thereafter. Remember the rules: not expensive, not worthy of a CPS report.

Fish Mobile

Here's a fun craft to make the next time you have a few minutes. It's made with garbage and stuff most mommies have laying around the house. Mom will have to do most of the cutting, but an older kid can definitely help and younger kids can paint. If you have a new baby on the way, this would be a great present from the older siblings.

Friday's Feast, On Friday This Time!

Appetizer
Invent a new flower; give it a name and describe it.
It would be fuzzy like an African violet but grow as rampantly as dandelions. It would smell vanilla-y/lavender-y and be some exquisite shade of purple. My favorite flower, Queen Anne's lace, has none of the above qualities.

Soup
Name someone whom you think has a wonderful voice.
Josh Groban. Sometimes I listen to his CDs and cry. No reason, not even sad. It's just a tear-inducing sound for me.

Salad
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how clean do you keep your car?
Oh, jeez, how about negative 5? It's not that it isn't important to me, just that it isn't nearly as important as keeping my house clean, my children educated, etc.

Main Course
How do you feel about poetry?
I like it, but I get bored with it. I think it encourages mulling in your emotions to a point where it can be unhealthy for the writer and alternately embarassing and tiring for the audience. I write poetry sometimes, and it is the most intensely personal of my work.

Dessert
What was the last person/place/thing you took a picture of?
I have kids and someone has to ask this? I took pictures of my daughters in their Easter dresses.

Naughty Children

I am raising a pack of unruly hyenas. Seriously, just getting my kids through a grocery store requires the skills of a drill sergeant and a logistics expert combined. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

I used to be all smug about my children. When other people's children had screaming tantrums in the shampoo aisle of Target, I could point to my sweet little cherubs with genius-level IQ's and good hair as proof that this parenting thing was not as difficult as people made it out to be. Just start with a loving relationship, use consistent discipline, keep expectations age appropriate, and be calm. There, now, isn't that simple?

Now I watch screaming brats on Super Nanny and think, "That's nothing. My kids act that way in church. With God watching."

And sometimes, they do.

My children have good hearts. It's just that being naughty is, well, fun. It has great shock value with adults and wins instant respect from peers. It requires no effort whatsoever. It's hard to stay by Mommy in the grocery store. It's fun to run in circles knocking peoples' grocery carts into each other and clearing entire shelves. Rice-a-Roni makes a fun sound when it hits the floor. And once one kid figures this out, another is sure to join them.

There is no naughty chair in Target. That's why you never see Super Nanny taking four kids on a shopping trip. She knows her limits.

If you've been through this, please PLEASE tell me how to dig my way out. And if you haven't, well, get off your high horse. This could be you, as soon as tomorrow.

Where Is Our Society Headed?

Perhaps this is my incurable optimism speaking, but I really believe human existence has improved throughout history and shows every sign it will continue to do so.

Consider crime: sure, it has increased--reported crime, that is. There was a time when child abuse was not even against the law. The first child abuse case was prosecuted as an animal cruelty case.

Consider the environment. Historically, we have leeched the Earth of all of her resources to the best of our ability without restraint. The only difference between developed and undeveloped societies was the ability, not the intention. I think mankind has learned its lesson. The world is so much cleaner than it was 100 years ago, and people have only begun to truly care. Green is not just the new black; it's a massive revolution in the way we operate our daily lives, in our values and priorities. I see a bright future for our planet, with technology's biggest gift to us being the convenience of modern life with no geo-impact.

Even teenagers. Sure, they suck. They always have--people were complaining about them in ancient Greek times ,and it was the exact same bad attitude, lack of respect for others, and lack of manners we whine about now. No change. I'm sure they had teenaged pregnancy and drug abuse then, too. These are timeless issues that plague the leisure classes of every society and era. Except--oops--now we are all leisure class, at least in the United States.

We are the most comfortable, safest, and best educated generation on Earth. There is no reason to think this upward trend, which has continued for several centuries now, will not continue. Our biggest problems will be managing the accoutrements of modern life and dealing with economic and health problems that plague those final decades we didn't use to have. Waah.

Clean House

Does anyone else watch this show?

Where do people get so much stuff? How do they afford it? How do they navigate their lives in such a mess?

I am a reformed neat freak, reformed not so much by a change of heart as by the fact that my life will no longer accommodate the amount of time needed to maintain a sterile house. I LOVE clean. I LOVE order. I feel physically ill when my house is messy. So I just don't get it.

I grew up in a messy house and one day I just snapped. No more. Not ever. So I have a hard time understanding how people live in clutter and why dispersing the clutter would not be #1 on the list of things to do.

I mainly watch the show to assure myself that, messy kids rooms and piles of clean laundry aside, my house is actually quite clean. You couldn't eat off the inside of my toilet bowl, but would you really want to?

My PageRank

It used to be a 3. Now it's a 0. When I checked backlinks, quite a few weren't listed. Hello, Google?

I guess it doesn't matter. This blog is not a commercial venture, and there's no reason that I should care how I'm ranked. It's probably leftover junior high angst, wanting to be popular.

:-(

Cool Green Site

Blog reader adrian2514 recommended Earth Lab, so I thought I'd swing by. It is a great site with resources for living green and links to other relevant sites. I plan to check it out in more detail when I get time (lol... I can hope...). But I really enjoyed the 2008 Earth Day Challenge. It calculates an Earth Conservation Plan score, and this is one test where the lower scores are better. The average ECP for the US is 325, so I was a little proud of my 222. Obviously it leaves plenty of room for improvement. My carbon impact has been drastically lowered in the past year, mostly by general common sense and being aware of my usage of resources, so I can say with confidence that this year will bring more... err, less... of the same. Here's to another year!

What I Did to Save the Earth... Giving Up Paper

Last week, I gave up paper products. Well, kinda. Read on.

We already use cloth instead of things like paper towels, paper napkins, and swiffer-type things. Most American families use these items on a daily basis, adding considerable expense to their grocery budgets and sucking up valuable resources. If they just tried a week without them, I think they'd find that they can live quite comfortably. To prove this, I decided to go a week without the few paper products we use, which are diapers, wet wipes, toilet paper, and note paper.

Giving up diapers was an issue. Disposable diapers are ultra-absorbent, so I let my baby fill'em up before I change them. I couldn't find plastic pants in my area, so our cloth diapers were leaky and soggy after a half hour. I only have four, so I would use them in the morning, wash and dry while baby napped (in a disposable), then use them again in the afternoon. I also used dispsables on evenings, nights, and excursions. Altogether we saved two diapers and thirty cents a day, but used that thirty cents and more in electricity, water, and soap.

If you, like me, don't think cloth diapering is necessarily the answer, you can find earth-friendlier disposable diapers at Amazon. Bought by the case, they are just pennies per diaper more than other namebrands.

Wet wipes were easy. I used baby washclothes, which I already had on hand. I just held them under warm water for a second. It is so easy, and so comfy on the baby's skin, that this is a habit I will keep.

Then there's toilet paper. Ahhhh, where do I begin? I cut up old t-shirts into TP sized squares and put them in a pretty gift bag. The used ones went in a covered garbage can. I decided to use the cloth just for number one, so this was a female only project. I also decided to leave regular TP out for non-family members--there are some things my friends and I don't need to share. And ya know what? It was not as bad as I expected. We had the normal flow of guests throughout the week and they didn't seem to notice. There was no noticeable increase in laundry and we saved a roll or two over the week.

For notes, to-do lists, and rough drafts, we use recycled paper from my dh's office. I originally intended to give that up because I figured most families don't have access to this. But then I realized, they do! Every office goes through tons of paper. Ask your boss, lawyer, doctor, or friend to give you the leftovers.

Someone asked me about feminine products. This wasn't my week for experimenting with that, but if it had been... well, I would consider it.

Why do this? Unfortunately, many of our everyday paper products come from 100 to 150 year old virgin forests in Northern Canada. When virgin forests are cut down to supply our paper needs, they can no longer help process the gases which are warming our planet. It's worth a try.

Friday's Feast, on Saturday

Does that make this leftovers?

Appetizer
What does the color dark green make you think of?
Forests, algae, and other chorophyll-ed things.

Soup
How many cousins do you have?
This shouldn't be a trick question... let me see...at least 15. It's a large and complicated family.

Salad
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how honest are you?
9.5. I know everyone says that, but honestly, I can't even lie to telemarketers. I have trouble lying when it would be morally correct to lie.

Main Course
Name something that is truly free.
This is harder than it sounds because even the obvious answers like love and peace have some price. I would say: a relationship with God. Unless you're a Scientologist.

Dessert
Using the letters in the word SPRING, write a sentence.
Do you mean:
Somehow Pensive,
Rain In Naked Gardens

Or:
Sprigs spin in rings.
?? Whichever

I Don't Like Mondays

Me neither!

Especially Mondays after weekends. I have shreds of paper Easter grass hiding in every corner (it could be worse ... remember the plastic stuff?). Candy wrappers under the table, pastel dresses with stains to be removed, and I'm sure there is one more egg hiding in my yard festering into a stinky time bomb.

This is a pretty song, but now that I'm listening to the words, it's a little twisted. I don't dislike Mondays that much, for the record. lol.

What I'm Giving Up to Save the Planet This Week

This week, as suggested by steviesmama, I am giving up paper. Here is a list of the paper products we use in our house and how I plan to replace them.

Diapers--I only have a few cloth diapers, so this should be interesting. No plastic pants, either. I've looked at a few stores and will explore this further tomorrow. Until then, I'll just be throwing the diapers in with other laundry and trying to stay on top of it.

Toilet paper--I cut two old t-shirts into toilet paper sized squares and put an old gift bag full of them in the bathroom. I am using a covered trash can for the used ones. They will be washed if they are umm, salvageable. I think I'll do a load per day and wash them with the cloth diapers. DH and oldest stepson are refusing to cooperate with this one, so it will be mom and kids only.

Wet wipes--I'm using baby washclothes, but you could use more cut up t-shirts if you didn't already have them.

Notepaper--I usually use leftover paper from my husband's work, but I am going to use our dry erase board instead. Although, I don't see any cost or carbon savings because we were already using pre-used products.

Paper products we already don't use:

Paper towels/napkins--I clean my house with old rags that I keep folded in a kitchen drawer. We use nice cream-colored linen napkins at meals. I buy paper towels and napkins, but we use them so rarely that one package lasts us more than a year. They are generally for cat vomit and things that so thoroughly gross me out that I don't want them in my washer.

Swiffer/disposible cleaning miscellanea--They're just too pricey for me and I am suspicious of the chemical cocktails involved. It seems like the more conveniences people use, the messier their houses are, so I don't think we're missing out on anything.

I guess I am showing how out of touch we are, because it doesn't seem like we use that much paper but I know it makes up a substantial part of most household waste. What am I missing here?

Friday's Feast

I love reading other bloggers' Fridat Feast posts, so I am going to join them:

Appetizer
Given the choice, would you prefer to live in the country or in the city?
The city! I love cities, especially San Francisco. You can smell the free thought! I am amazed at how condensed everything is... I can find everything from authentic Chinese food to a French briche within a five block radius.

Soup
Who is the cutest kid you know?
I am assuming they mean BESIDES my own adorable little ones. Mrs. Hannigan has a daughter with the sweetest, squeakiest voice. It's not quite like Minnie Mouse, but close. She is a tiny little thing, which just adds to the general cuteness of it all.

Salad
Fill in the blank: I couldn’t believe it when I heard ___________.
...about 9/11. When I was on the way to work, they were talking about it on the radio and I thought they were talking about some bombing in London. When I got to work, my office mate was like, "you didn't hear???" She dragged me to a TV and we watched live as the second plane few into the second building. Lesha liked to pick on me for not watching TV--she considered staying in constant touch with the world a necessary thing, while I prefer reading--and this just proved her point.

Still reading, though.

I don't think it's a hoax, but I can see why people do. It's a shocking event, even almost a decade later. It's hard for me to understand people who hurt others, no matter what the reason. I don't know what the answer is, but I know that's not it.

Main Course
If you could star in a commercial for one of your favorite products, which one would you want to advertise?
I think we'd be a great family for Annie's Bunnies mac and cheese or any of the other organic children's foods we eat. We're a cute and normal looking family, so it would dispel some of the myths about the crunchy hippies that people think make up the green/organic movement.

Dessert
What type(s) of vitamins and/or supplements do you take on a regular basis?
I don't. I drink various herbal teas, does that count? I dutifully pass out organic children's vitamins every morning and sometimes I take one while I'm at it, but in general I eat a balanced diet full of leafy greens and such. A daily vitamin would be overkill.

Extreme Easter Fun

Here are a few of the wacky things my family and I have done to celebrate Easter.

1. Dyed eggs. Okay, that's a standard, but we get bored easily and start pulling out the crayons and mixing dyes together. We end up with something resembling the batiked sarongs found in little Hawaiian shops.
2. Mouth painting. No, not painting ON your mouth, but painting WITH a paintbrush held in your mouth. We paint on bunnies and eggs cut from paper. You can string the eggs on a long length of yarn and make Easter garlands to decorate the house.
3. Do the bunny hop. How many times can you hop around your yard? Who can hop for the longest time?
4. Baked easter cupcakes. Make your favorite cupcakes and top with white frosting and shredded coconut dyed green with food coloring. Nestle a few jelly beans in the coconut "grass".
5. Cut flowers out of tissue paper or coffee filters and paint with watercolors. These are pretty taped to windows.

Purim started last night, but we're skipping it this year. The Jewish and Catholic holidays line up in a weird way this year. Usually Passover happens during Holy Week (it "matches" well because Christ was celebrating Passover just before his death) and Purim is way before. If I were a better planner I might be able to do all. Or maybe not--the drinking and sweet cookies and costumes of Purim would contradict the solemn fasting of Good Friday.

The joys of being bi-religious...

Emmie Hates Her House

I hate my house.

Okay, let me rephrase that. I appreciate having shelter and all of the accoutrements that come with modern shelter. Therefore, I merely feel ambivalent toward my house.

In Washington, people think Home Depot is top-of-the-line, so even though this house was totally remodeled just a few years ago, we have breakage drama after breakage drama.

When you walk through the front door, you are in the kitchen. Where is the sense in that? I don't need the Jehovah Witnesses smugly noting that although it is 11 AM, I still have not washed the waffle iron from breakfast.

The carpet is light colored and stains if you breath on it. I have lived with light colored carpet before and never have I had trouble keeping it pristine. Until now.

There are teapots stencils all over the kitchen. TEAPOTS. With pink flowers on them. Speechless. The landlady was so proud. If I owned this house, those would have been gone the day we moved in, even if I had to do it myself a magic marker.

There is a large and shabby pool table that takes up half of our family room. The owners couldn't move it. My husband told them it was fine. We don't play pool, and I can think of eight thousand better things to do with that space.

Supposedly we are going to buy a house of our own. Note "supposedly". DH says he is on board with this plan, but he has spent three months ignoring mortgage papers that require only his signature. I thought maybe he just didn't like the particular house I wanted to buy, so we toured a few others. We found one he LOVED. Okay, so let's make an offer. At this point I'll live almost anywhere with a consistently working hot water heater and no tea pots. He smirked and said it can wait. That was about two months ago.

I'm not sure what's going on, but I think I'd better make my peace with this house.

10 Frugal Things I Have Done Today

Obviously I missed most of NaBloPoMo (ko-so-sho-to-jo or whatever) this month, but I'll post a list anyway.

1. Dressed in the clothes I wore yesterday.
2. Drank organic, free trade coffee in my home instead of buying it at a coffee shop.
3. Cooked homemade whole wheat waffles for breakfast.
4. Applied for about five house parties at www.houseparty.com. If you're chosen, you get a big box of free stuff, which is like Christmas without the credit card bills.
5. Left the heat off until a few minutes ago when the house temperatire dropped to a frigid 55 degrees. Um, hello Mother Nature? It's supposed to get warmer during the day, not colder. Now we'll heat our house to a toasty 62.
6. Decided to skip a few activities today, saving gas and time as well as eliminating the need for a shower.
7. Dug out scratch paper for my kids' daily art expo.
8. Cleaned the stove and counters with vinegar and an old rag instead of storebought spray and a sponge.
9. Hung out a load of laundry.
10. Evaluated my cloth diapering options for next week, when I will give up all paper products, forcing me to try cloth diapers for a week. I have three cloth diapers, no pins, no plastic covers. That should be enough, right? ;-) I've heard you can use bread bags. We'll see how that goes.

Most of these fall into that sweet spot where frugality and ecology intersect. What everyday habits have you incorporated to keep costs down?

We Green, We're Clean, We're... Something Else That Rhymes

Someone told me that I should use my dryer instead of my clothesline because dryers kill MRSA.

A few thoughts:

1. Bacteria usually can't live on dry, light surfaces. Like, um, the air on a sunny day.
2. Dryers don't actually get that warm. At least mine doesn't. Gosh, I hate my dryer. Freecyclers can't be choosers, ya know?
3. No one in my home has MRSA. Believe me, we'd know after the last few weeks. After a decade of perfect health, we have explored every possible facet of illness...
4. ...and if we are exposed to it at the grocery store or something, the dryer won't help us because we will have practically bathed in the germies by the time our clothes make it to the dryer. We wear our clothes more than once.

At this point, I think we're safe with our line-drying/dryer-drying combo. I'll let you know if anyone dies of MRSA.

I know this is not a joking matter, but it just seemed like a ridiculous worry. I mean, maybe I shouldn't line dry because I might be attacked by a rogue band of South American killer bees.

What I'm Giving Up to Save the Planet Next Week

We all know what we can and should be doing to lower our carbon load, so why are we still wasteful beasts? Because we are afraid to make changes that may be uncomfortable without knowing in advance how they will impact our daily lives. If you've ever wondered whether buying without packaging or going auto-free for a week are feasible options, here's your chance to try them out without actually trying them. This is a priceless opportunity to use a fellow blogger as a guinea pig.

Remember how I was doing that cool thing where I was trying new ecofriendly habits by giving up something every week? One week it was showers, another week it was meat... there were a few others, but the whole project got left by the wayside in the medical drama miniseries that has become my life. However I am restarting it! So email me or leave a message here.

The Rules: Nothing requiring a large financial investment or anything that will compromise health or get my children taken away. Etc. Sage Mommy reserves the right to reject ideas.

Monday Web Awards

The Cleaning Junkie Award goes to Mom Advice for their awesome spring cleaning lists.

The printable lists are handy, and they are thorough enough that this obsessive list maker doesn't have to add to them. It's like a curriculum with a really great teacher's manual--homeschoolers will feel me on this--sparing me from having to spend more time planning than doing the intended task.

The Just What I Needed At This Precise Moment in My Life Award goes to Freelance Parent. I am focusing more and more on writing, more for a sense of fulfillment than for the (lousy) money. Although, even low pay buys Easter baskets and Hanna Andersson clogs!

The Needlessly Creating Public Panic Because It's a Slow News Day Award goes to The New York Times for their article on rising grocery costs. I have the same grocery budget for my household of seven as I did ten years ago for a household of two. Granted, I have made some budget-friendly changes to my shopping and eating habits, but I think we can call off the alarm for a while. My food prices are downright stagnant compared to my taxes.

Book Review: The Ten-Year-Nap

I am waiting eagerly for Meg Wolitzer's The Ten Year Nap to pop up on my library's New Books shelf. The author addresses what is now called "The Opt-Out Generation," educated female Gen-X overachievers who give up promising careers for a life in snot-stained capri pants.

It's an angst that is close to my heart. I think we can all agree that my children are better cared for and better educated than they would be by a team of preschool teachers and nannies, but at what expense? I have given up more than the average mommy, including a scholarship to an Ivy League college and the career that surely would have ensued. I know that I am doing the right thing by maintaining a constant presence in my children's lives, but at what expense? When I die, will my loved ones have anything to put in my obituary besides: amateur gourmet cook, fabulous accessorizer, planner of amazing vacations, keeper of an immaculate house? None of these issues compel me back to work, but I can't ignore the pervasive emptiness of a hausfrau's existence.

I have talents, damn it. Underneath my hoodie and boot cut jeans lies a woman with a genius-level IQ who can write poetry and play piano, who would be more comfortable having two martini lunches with sparkling conversation than hanging out at a playdate. This guilt compels me to over-do things a little--do the mouldings really need scrubbed once a week, after all?--as I struggle to fill the days with tangible results: tasks, however small and mundane, that I can point to as proof that Emily Was Here.

So I'm not the only woman who feels this way, apparently. I haven't read the book yet, but thank you, Mrs. Wolitzer, for letting me know I'm not alone.

My Favorite Songs As Of Today

These are the songs I just can't stop singing.

'Love Song' by Sara Bareilles. I think everyone is singing this one along with me.
'Happy Ending' by Mika. Everything by Mika in fact.
'Flashing Lights' by Kanye West. I start dancing whenever I hear it, even if I'm only hearing it in my head.
'Girl Disappearing' by Tori Amos. I'm a longtime fan of Tori and this new album was a delightful surprise. It's reminiscent of the emotional early work that made me fall in love with her back in 90. It reminds me of the Beatles' 'She's Leaving Home'.

What are you singing this week?

Green Pets

Is there a green pet?

By green, I don't mean a lizard or a toad. I mean, what are the environmental ramifications of owning animals? Here are a few general notes on sharing the green life with your furry household members.

1. The hardcore PETA people are against it and call it animal slavery. But aren't they against just about everything? These people have clearly never witnessed the royalty-like treatment that the average housecat is given. Yet I feel bad for rats and birds and other little wild things that we trap in cages. At least a cat can go outside and stretch out in the sun.
2. There are organic foods, but they are quite unreasonably priced, making them out of reach for the average family.
3. Most responsible humans get their pets from rescue organizations because there are enough unwanted animals to make breeding a generally irresponsible idea.

My five year old daughter wants a bird, specifically a parrot. I am confident that I can talk her down to a parakeet. But do we really want to have a sweet little bird trapped in an itty-bitty cage? To have to cut back feathers so it can't fly away, because it will want to fly away so badly? Oh, and let's not mention the torturous amount of sticky affection it will have to endure from its young, grabby owner.

I am committed to physically caring for this hypothetical bird, so we know it at least won't be dependent on a fickle and forgetful kindergartener for food and water. Even so, is it morally responsible for me to buy my daughter a bird? It seems not, but I remember having a parakeet as a child that seemed chirpingly happy and incredibly bonded to me. Perhaps having an empathetic relationship with animals is the first step to becoming an advocate for them, the way camping teaches children to love nature.

What do you all think? Yes or no on the birdie? Is there a "greener" pet you can recommend?

Homeschooling in California

The official attitude toward homeschooling in California can be summed up by the following quote, left on an education website.

"I am a Californa teacher in a public school, and do not support homeschooling, private schools, or charter schools. They all damage public education, and they do not provide an unbiased education for their students."

Note that she cannot correctly spell the state in which she teaches. I know, it could be a typing error, but still.

Yes, homeschooling is dead in California. The governator hopes to resuscitate it, but until he does, families who refuse to send their small children on a one-hour bus ride to a failed and even dangerous school system are committing felony child neglect.

Unfortunately, California tends to a trend setter among states. With a progressive socialist heritage going back to the Great Depression, the state motto should be "Why isn't there a program to address that?"

I am not going to pick on progressives because I am one. But this is taking things in the wrong direction. With homeschoolers scoring on average in the 85th percentile, a state that boasts the poorest public schooling system in the industrialized world should be looking at how homeschoolers manage this remarkable success without certified teachers and a barrage of tests, not making it illegal.

As the child of a public school administrator and a former teacher, I don't think the educator quoted above is an exception. Her attitude is representative of most educational groups--if you don't believe me, just check out the NEA's website. Public schools are failing, and the only way to guarantee their continued existence is to remove all alternatives. The alternatives make them look bad, PLUS they give people a place to go. If they are allowed to end homeschooling, you can bet they will be turning on private schools and charter schools next. It's their stated goal.

Apparently I have been unknowingly lying to my children...

Lie #8017: You don't get your way from crying.

Unless you are a distressed mother trying to make a doctor's appointment.

My ruptured appendix kid had a follow-up appointment yesterday. Now, first, let me give you the back story on our doctor. We have a great doctor who for some reason works at a crappy family practice. CWFM, you suck! You suck because:

1. It takes an act of God to get an appointment with my doctor. When I call, you say, "He's busy for next week. We only make appointments a week ahead, so call back next Monday." But when I call on Monday at 8:05 AM, he's are already full, so clearly someone can make an appointment more than a week ahead. Several hundred someones, in fact.

2. You keep (oops!) switching my primary physician, so I have to beg my way back onto his caseload. And sometimes you say I can't see my doctor because he's not the primary doctor assigned by my HMO, even though my HMO swears he is and his name is printed in bold black letters on my insurance card. And then I can't see him until you get your freaking act together, which is how medical issues needing routine treatment become medical emergencies.

3. You make me wait about three years on the phone and entire decades in the waiting room.

4. When my son was in the hospital fighting for his life, the nurses called you and yet my doctor didn't know anything about it because apparently no one passed on that unimportant little tidbit of information.

5. Your nurse practitioner is incapable of diagnosing pink eye and eczema. She won't even entertain the possibility because I am just a hysterical mom who doesn't know anything. So my kids have to wait another week until we can see someone else and get the diagnosis and treatment I came in for in the first place.. A week is long time to have your newborn's eyes oozing and crusted shut.

These are only the top five... Blogger does not have enough bandwidth to store all of my complaints after just a year of seeing this doctor. We only rarely need to see the doctor, so it's not as big of an issue as it sounds, but I think we can all agree that MY DOCTOR"S OFFICE SUCKS. Anyway:

We waited for 45 minutes while the waiting room emptied and refilled three times. I had the recovering 12 year old plus my 5yo, 3yo, and 9 mo. They were starting to get wild, and then miraculously we were called back.

The nurse didn't know which boy was the patient. Hello? Read your chart?

Then, she starts asking me about Tyler's pneumonia. "What pneumonia?" I ask. She says, "Isn't that why he was hospitalized?" Umm, no. So we clear up why he's there. Meanwhile, the baby is working up to a wail and the two others are dissecting the examination room.

They don't have his medical history despite the fact that I filled it out less than an hour before, so I have to fill out another.

Then the doctor comes in. Not MY doctor. Oh, no no no. My doctor is so busy not even the nurses at the hospital can swing an appointment. We're seeing a very sweet little boy who looks just like my little brother Evan. Which is odd because our real doctor looks just like my brother Alex. But I digress.

The doctor has to leave several times throughout the appointment to fetch medical records that for some reason are not in the chart. He tells me that the antibiotic my son is taking is not the one indicated for a ruptured appendix, and he's all "no biggie" about it. The baby is screaming because she wants to crawl around and find nasty things to put in her mouth. My five year old is egging on my three year old, who I have to keeping pulling off her and putting back in his seat. It's chaos.

When the appointment is over, I go to make the next appointment. "Dr. C. is busy that day," the scheduling girl says.

"Why do we have to see Dr. C.? Why can't we see Dr. D.?" A rhetorical question, because our doctor is always too busy to see his patients (ironic) so we usually see someone else.

"Because Dr. C. is your family doctor."

Please, not this again... "No, Dr. D. is our family doctor." As I tell her this, I am trying to separate my two fighting children. The baby is still screaming, and the 12yo is pale and leaning against the wall falling asleep because he is worn out.

"According to this, Dr. C. is your doctor."

I was trying so hard not to cry, because I hate when women use that to manipulate others. But I was very tired and VERY frustrated. So I started crying. And the lady decided she miraculously could switch us back (they have always insisted that it's not that simple) and that we could see Dr. D. for our follow-up visit on Friday (who last Thursday was supposedly booked for this entire week).

As I'm walking out to the car, Grace starts crying because she wants to go back in and get a drink from the drinking fountain. "You don't get your way for crying," I tell her.

Oh, wait, maybe you do.

More on Freeganism

The freegans have inspired me to come up with a few ways we can apply their philosophies to our daily lives. For people with families, "squatting" in abandoned buildings, living without electricity, and eating from dumpsters is not a feasible lifestyle. Most of us want the best for our kids, and this includes stable housing maintained at a reasonable temperature, indoor plumbing, and at least the appearance of middle class normality. Even if you could make a Freegan family lifestyle work, someone is bound to call Child Protective Services. But here are a few major expenses and a few ways to make them free or a whole lot cheaper.

Housing:
1. Shared, communal housing means less money, less waste, and (!!!) less housework. I think it goes without saying that you should be careful if you have kids.
2. Buy a small house far below your means and pay it off quickly. It's not free, but it WILL be in 5 to 10 years if you are vigilant about diverting extra funds to the house payment.
3. Barter. There was a point in my life when I was a single mother and even a tiny apartment would have been a financial strain. I traded services for rent on a two bedroom home in the country. The family owned several rental houses and a farm, plus they had a retarded son. I babysat the boy, fed the animals, and generally did whatever they need in exchange for that house. In California at the time, the house could easily have fetched $500-$750 a month, while minimum wage paid $4 an hour, so we all came out way ahead. Plus, I could have my own son with me while I did most of it.

Transportation:
1. Well, with gas prices as crazy as they are, my family is going to be doing a lot more bus riding. We have the worst public transit ever in Yakima, so if I can do it with all these little kids, I know you can.
2. Routine maintenance makes older vehicles more reliable and economical than a poorly maintained new one.
3. Get an old Volvo or VW and learn how to fix it yourself. The seventies models in particular are easy to tinker with.
4. Drive less through carpooling and good old-fashioned bumming a ride.

Electric:
1. Do without temperature control unless it would endanger your health. You can put on slippers and a sweater instead of cranking up the heat. Unless you can see your breath, a cold nose won't hurt you, and even then...
2. Hang out laundry. Let the sun do the drying for you. Why is that so hard? Everyone acts like I am an extremist hippie for doing it.
3. Turn off those lights. I know everyone says this, but still we have lights on everywhere we go, even during bright summer days. Your eyes will adjust, I promise.
4. Make a one-appliance-at-a-time rule. I know what you're thinking--if I'm going to use it anyway, what difference does it make? But I have found that the one-appliance-at-a-time policy saves more electric than any other rule. So if one kid is watching TV, no computer for the other. If mom is using the dryer, no microwave. You get it.

Food:
1. It literally grows on trees. So plant a few.
2. Buy raw ingredients and make your own everything. It's not free, but so much cheaper it can revolutionize your grocery budget.

Here are a few reasons to be a part-time freegan:
1. The less you participate in a cash economy, the less you will be affected by the natural cycles of inflation and recession.
2. Buying less means less waste. Always. Without exception.
3. The less cash you need, the less you need to work. This means less transportation and more time for other carbon-saving activities. Or, you could work and earn at the same rate and use the money to save, improve your life, pay off debt, or donate to a good cause.

I know our Calvinist American heritage urges us to keep busy even when there is no need, but how many Calvinists are left? It's a dying religion, so let's let go of their neuroses.

A Freegan Awesome Idea

Also known as not putting your money where your mouth is.

Freeganism (def): dumpster diving as a conscious lifestyle choice. It's pretty self-explanatory, so I won't go into details. You can get a comprehensive view of the movement at www.freegan.info.

Freegans are not bums or street people. They are seemingly normal Americans who choose to boycott the waste and materialism of modern life by completely removing themselves from the economy.

Obviously we couldn't all do this, because there would be no waste to forage through. But--what a concept! what a world that would be! I look forward to the day when empty dumpsters and landfills are our largest problem.

My only issue with www.freegan.info is a political one. I think that when environmental and activist groups ally themselves with one or another of the two major parties, they effectively alienate half the country. There should be no political or religious slant to conservation. It's about doing what's right. And the left has done nothing for the green movement except talk. Al Gore had eight years of office to DO something about this impending global crisis and instead he did... ummm... well, I'm sure he did something, but it wasn't anything green. As I recall, he and Clinton were too busy kissing Monsanto's big backside and loading their pockets with polluted cash. Also,our friends at www.freegan.info are union supporters, and I've never heard of a union using their considerable clout to encourage environmentalist changes in the numerous companies they control. My point is that the political issues divide us on a topic more important than economics and foreign policy.

You probably won't see me in a dumpster any time soon, but I wholeheartedly support this lifestyle. If there are any would-be dumpster divers in Yakima who want to take me on a tour, I'm willing to try it for a test run and report back to the internet community.

A Very Sick Little Boy...

So here's what I've been doing instead of blogging over the past ten days:

• Waiting in the aptly-named waiting room while my son has emergency surgery
• Dealing with 8,000 doctors and specialists, none of them nice and only one of them in any way accommodating. Apparently the golden standard in the medical industry for dealing with distraught, sleep-deprived mothers is dismissiveness and sarcasm. I am starting to suspect that there is an entire section of medical textbooks entitled Blaming the Caregiver: An Easy Out When Examination and Diagnosis is Too Time-Consuming.
• Contemplating how patients heal while being fed nutritionally void foods in an environment filled with toxic chemicals.

Yes, it has been an exciting two weeks. Remember that stomache flu roaring through the house? It ends up three kids had the flu and one had appendicitis. Appendicitis acts just like a stomache flu, so when I took my 12 year old into the ER with what I thought was dehydration, I was shocked when people started talking about CT scans and then emergency surgeries. An ER doctor was screaming at me: How long has your son been this sick? And if I wasn't speechless, I would have told him, not long at all. He was skateboarding on Monday, less than a day and a half before.

He didn't technically have appendicitis by the time I brought him to the hospital. It was then officially peritonitis caused by a ruptured appendix. There was a massive infection followed by respiratory problems from the anesthesia. I am so grateful to all of these doctors for saving my child's life, but would it really have killed them to be a little kinder? And to actually talk to each other before spouting off their theories? At one point, I had three different doctors in our hospital room at the same time, all saying contradictory things and not even registering what the other two were saying. I know they don't listen when I talk, but don't they listen to each other? These people are in charge of making decisions that may save someone's life (or remove it) and they don't know how to turn on their listening ears. Creepy.

The nurses, on the other hand, were angels. And considering that everyone has survived the experience, I'm going to chalk this up as one of those traumatic life experiences that I just have to learn from and then try to forget. And I will, once again, be blogging actively about my crazy little life here in Central Washington.

Flummoxed by the Flu

I've been busy over the last few days! The flu winding its way through my family has finally made it to my poor 12 year old. On Saturday, he was a little tired; on Sunday he was still tired. Monday, he started vomiting, and now he's a weak, dehydrated mess. I'm confident he will pull through it... but that does't stop me from checking on him every ten minutes throughout the night.

When this nasty virus hit my household, I was in the middle of decluttering. My intention was to get a head start on spring cleaning and get things cleared out for the inevitable move. My linens closet, once a solid wall of material, is now neatly organized and rid of about 75% of its former volume. I gave my tupperware cupboard the same treatment. Now I'm moving onto the small basement room where I stores children's clothing. This room is wall-to-wall hand-me-downs, so call in a rescue team if you don't hear for me in several days!

Although caring for sick children and watching them struggle through the pain of illness is exhausting, it has given me an excuse to skip the endless round of activities that takes up such a huge chunk of my life. I feel lazy, but I'm enjoying the rest while I have it. With spring around the corner, this lull is definitely temporary.

Yummy Veg Meal #1

Last night, we had Tagliatelle with Tomato and Walnut Sauce I'll give you the recipe and then my comments.

Ingredients:
4 ripe tomatoes
2 Tbsp oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 celeery stick, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, grated
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup white wine
salt and pepper
3/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1 lb tagliatelle
4 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Using a sharp knife, mark a small cross on the base of each tomato. Place in a bowl and cover with boiling water for about 2 minutes. Drain and allow to cool. Peel the skin and discard. Remove seeds. Roughly chop the flesh.
2. Heat half the oil in a large, heavy based pan. Cook the onion and celery for 5 minutes over low heat, stirring regularly. Add the tomatoes, carrot, parsley, vinegar, and wine.Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Five minutes before the sauce is done, heat the remaining oil in a medium frying pan. Add the walnuts and stir over low heat for 5 minutes.
4. While the sauce is cooking, add the pasta to a large pan of rapidly boiling water and cook until just tender. Drain and return to pan. Add the sauce to the pasta and toss to combine. Serve the pasta and sauce topped with walnuts and Parmesan cheese.

My modifications: I couldn't find tagliatelle, so I used whole wheat fettucini. I also used balsamic vinegar instead of red wine vinegar, and I cooked the sauce a little longer because I like more "mature" sauces. I also added a little chopped garlic at the add tomato phase. Italian without garlic? Not in this house.

Reception:
My kids liked it, except for the onions. Instead of finely chopping next time, I will liquidify them in a food processor. My husband couldn't taste anything because of a cold, but he enjoyed the texture of the walnuts in the pasta and sauce. I thought it was like a bolognese sauce with walnuts instead of meat. Same base elements. It will AWESOME with a capital everything twith riper, fresher tomatoes this summer.

This recipe, and all of our recipes this week, are from The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook, which I found at the Goodwill last week.

Extreme Ways to Save, and Why

Here is a great way to save money: don't buy anything.

It sound oversimplistic, but it's really the next step in my life, one I have been working up to and even practicing on and off for a few years now. I already buy local, buy organic, buy used, as do most of my blog friends. But I'm still consuming. There was a parent swap show a year or so ago in which one of the families got almost everything free. They dumpster-dived, bartered, and collected leftovers from restaurants. America was appalled; I was inspired.

Buying absolutely nothing may be next to impossible in a modern economy, but having it as a goal leads you to buy very, very little. It's also led me to a few great resources. One is freecycle. If you don't belong to a freecycle group, you should. My dryer, microwave, and an embarrassing proportion of my furniture came from freecycle. Another buy-nothing strategy is bartering. I have a deal with a family member right now: I give her hand-me-downs for one child, and she gives me hand-me-downs for another.

I have reached a point in my life where all of the standard tips on saving money seem like child's play. Buy with coupons? That would mean doubling my grocery bill. Reuse baggies? I do, but only rarely because, instead of baggies, I usually store stuff either in permanent containers or in produce bags and whatever leftover packaging happens to be around. What I'm looking for are a few great tips. How do you slash the bottom out of your already low budget? How do you take your small carbon footprint and erase it altogether?

Here are a few extreme ways to save money:

• Get all movies from the library. Make these movies one of the staples of your family entertainment.
• Everything can be cleaned with diluted vinegar. I mean, EVERYTHING.
• Put off grocery shopping as long as possible. This will inspire you to come up with interesting and highly frugal meals in the interim. Things like whole wheat carrot spice pancakes, and cornmeal empanadas filled with black bean and corn salsa.
• Find a friend with similarly aged children and trade babysitting.
• Instead of buying yarn, buy old sweaters at thrift stores and unravel them. I actually know someone who does this.
• If you know someone who gardens or raised animals, offer to trade services for goods. I have housesat in exchange for vegetables and eggs.
• You can crochet interesting things from cut-up strips of cloth, like from unwanted linens or outgrown clothing that even the Goodwill refuses.

WHY DO THIS, EVERYONE WONDERS...

The interesting thing about being an extreme environmentalist/tightwad/whatever-your-motivation-might-be is that you usually maintain what seems on the surface to be an upper middle class lifestyle. If you have an income, even one small income, and you spend almost nothing, there's bound to be leftover cash. If you maintain this balance, there will be a point in the near future when you have saved and invested an adequate amount and have money leftover for things like solar panels and hybrid cars, or private schools, or whatever your family feels is a worthwhile luxury. And everyone around you will whisper about why someone with so much money won't buy a lousy box of ziplocs. But you'll know.

There's a whole book on this:

Even if being a millionaire isn't one of your goals, there is no goal that cannot be helped along by financial security or completely derailed by the lack of it.

What I'm Giving Up to Save the World, Part Two

I can hear the critics: Wow, she already gave up SHOWERING. What's next, clean underwear?

This week, we are going to become vegetarians. I am going to keep dairy to a minimum, but it would be mutiny on board the HMS Marshall if that little carton of Organic Valley disappeared. My kids love soy milk, so I'll buy that for everyday drinking and try to steer them away from the moo juice.

We already eat mostly vegetarian meals. Breakfast and lunch are generally whole grain and fruit/veggie based with a little dairy on the side. Dinner is vegetarian about half the time. So I am hoping to remove meat from our diet (here's the kicker....) without my family realizing it or missing it. There may be some complaining tonight because Sunday dinner is the big meat meal of the week, but I'm hoping to dazzle them with something so sophisticated and fancy that the absence of meat is not so obvious. Menus will be forthcoming, once I have finished them. And I'll let you know next Sunday how this all went over.

How going veg can save the world.

What I Gave Up to Save the World, Part One

Last week, if you recall, I decided to give up my steamy showers for a life of dampness and shivering. Okay, it hasn't been that dramatic, but it sure felt this way on a very cold Sunday morning last week.

We keep our house very chilly in the winter because I feel a sweater is just as effective and much cheaper than even our eco-friendly geothermal heat. If people needed to live in a rainforest every winter, we would never have ventured out of the tropics. And the same people who need a 75 degree home in the winter seem to need a 68 degree one once warm weather kicks in. Hmmm.

So anyway, I decided to take what I call a Santa Cruz shower. That means getting wet, turning off the water while I lather and shampoo, rinsing, turning off the water while I condition and shave, and then rinsing again. Altogether, this takes about 4 minutes, with hot water running about half of that time. Considering that I used to take 10-15 minute showers, this means that I save 8-13 minutes worth of hot water, plus I add 6-11 minutes to my morning. With hot water taking up the majority of most electric bills, this one change in habit could make a huge difference in my electric bill, especially if I enlisted other family members to join my effort. I love that I am saving time, too. Every minute counts when you need to get four children off to co-op or karate lessons.

Is it worth it? Like so many changes in habit, one has to view this through the lens of values. Which do I value more: a lower electric bill, conserving water and fuel to heat it, and a little more time every day, or a hot, relaxing shower. When put that way, it isn't difficult to decide whether I will continue giving up long showers to save the world.

If you are still relaxing under an endless flow of hot water, try this for just one week. I think you'll find it isn't as spartan as it sounds.

Apparently the folks at Kraft make a lot more than we do...

For all of us budgeteers, Kraft has put a page of frugal meals on their site. Yes, that's right folks--you can make a nowhere near organic, overprocessed meal with little-to-no nutritional value for under $15! As a free bonus, you get a huge bag of packaging, too!

Who spends $15 on an everyday dinner for four people? Am I that cheap? The family of four on Kraft's cheap-o plan would spend $450 a month just on dinners. They would also need breakfasts, lunches, snacks, desserts, and beverages. If you figure these take up half the food budget at least, we're looking at $900 a month for a small family's meals--that's without other grocery items like ziplocs and laundry soap. With food from home taking up 7.7% of the ideal budget, this means that our friends at Kraft think an American family brings home more than $11,500 a month. A cheap American family.

Is corporate America a little out of touch? or am I?

Repurposing

It's the three R's all in one!

You REUSE old items by RECYCLING them into something useful, REDUCING the amount you have to buy as well as the amount you have to throw away.

I am making a striped rag rug for my daughter's room out of old linens that I have no use for. I'm crocheting it and it looks really cool. Plus, I'm saving serious money because the cheapest area rugs I could find for her room were $100. The hook I'm using is huge, so it's going faster than I expected. I'll post a picture when it's finished.

Other great repurposing ideas:

*you can make a super sturdy and quite presentable crazy quilt from your children's outgrown jeans. Use a ratty old blanket as the lining and an old flannel sheet as backing.
*spaghetti jars make awesome glasses and shabby-chic type vases
*old skirts and dresses can be use to re-cover throw pillows, the seats of chairs, table skirts, etc
*old bread makes great stuffing, croutons, and bread crumbs
*old cake/muffins/cookies/etc can be layered with fruit and yogurt or pudding to make dessert parfaits
*I throw my leftover meats and veggies into a tupperware container in my freezer. When the container is full, I boil the whole mess and voila! soup. It's sounds gross, but it always comes out really good and it's a free meal. I've even had people ask for the recipe and I'm too embarrassed to confess.
*do not throw away even the rattiest baby blanket or newborn outfit. If you don't have a little girl, surely you know someone who does. They'll appreciate your contribution when said little girl goes through the naked-baby-dolls-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see phase.

I use my stuff until it's too shabby to be put on Freecycle... now what does that tell you?

The American Dream Lives...

Is it possible to go from being homeless with $25 in your pocket to economic self-sufficiency and even comfort in one year? This young man did it.
Granted, he is young, white, and educated. But so are a lot of us.

My Wacked Out Views on Modern Medicine

Disclaimer: these are just my opinions, NOT medical advice, nor am I criticizing other points of view.

Okay, with that out of the way, let me tell you about the last week and a half in my house. My generally healthy family has been struggling with a flu/cold package that has kept me very busy and even tempted me to call the doctor. But I don't, and why? Because I am not a doctor-caller. Except in extreme situations, such as pregnancy (yes, that IS extreme for me) or life-threatening illness, I am not a medical-system-utilizer.

My kids get their well-child visits, usually, but we are freakishly healthy. I believe we may be freakishly healthy because of our lack of medical system utilization. I believe that the greatest miracle in modern medicine is how very well we do without it. Consider the following facts:

1. Healthy children do not die from the flu. When they DO, as they commonly did a hundred years ago, they actually died from fever and accompanying dehydration, which is now treated by Tylenol or Motrin and, um, water.

2. I know when my kids are sick, thank you. I do not need a doctor to say, "Yep, it's a flu. Keep them hydrated and call if the fever doesn't break." The fact that so many people want medicine to be a reassurance and not a last resort is what has driven up insurance rates to their current atrocious levels. I prefer to skip Step A and just call the doctor if the fever doesn't break.

3. Doctor's offices are filthy, germy places. Your child WILL get a secondary infection if you go. You would be exposing them to less bacteria if you let them lick the bathroom floor at a truck stop.

4. Medicine isn't the panacea it claims to be, at least not for healthy, normal children. Antibiotics will not help a child with a flu or cold, unless they picked up a secondary infection at your doctor's office. Even then, a healthy immune system works at about the same rate. There are flu medicines, but they don't help unless you take the child in at the first symptom. And if you take them in everytime they sniffle, you are going to have huge problems because you will spend your life in the doctor's office wallowing in those bacteria-laden burlap chairs and your kid's immune system will be as robust as Nicole Ritchie.

5. People, and viruses, build up a resistance to medication. Everytime you medicate, you allow your child's immune system to get lazier. You might as well buy it an X-Box. And every time you medicate, those germs mutate just a little. If influenza were not a highly adaptive organism, it would have gone the way of polio long ago. That is, it would have been eradicated by vaccination and aggressive treatment.

So, no, we haven't been to the doctor, nor do I foresee a visit in the near future. I know someone whose kids went to the doctor at the first sign and were given Tamiflu. Their illness seems to be following roughly the same curve as ours and lingering just as long.

My youngest three children have never been on antibiotics or anti-viral medication. Amazing, huh? The youngest two have never even had cough syrup. My oldest, on the other hand, received "the best in medical care" because I was an insecure young mother who believed his doctor grandmother that he needed this constant intervention. He was a sickly child with asthma, allergies, recurring flus, and a skin condition that required visits with a pediatric dermatological specialist... UNTIL I had his younger sister and no longer had time to deal with it. Then he miraculously recovered.

I still have done my time in doctor's office, for routine check-ups and broken bones and mysterious rashes that freak me out because I have no idea what that could be. I'm not saying to NEVER see a doctor, just to use your head. You don't need seven years of college to know a runny nose when you see it.

Politics as Usual

With the election approaching, I'm amassing my personal list of relatively unbiased sources of information. Traditional media venues have proven repeatedly that they do not deserve a place on that list. A new place I found is http://politicalsocial.com/. They are simply a search site for other organization's articles, but I like that I can search blogs and videos as well as the less trustworthy traditional venues.

On the front page of the site right now is a link to an article titled, "When Penny Pinching Becomes Unethical". (You know what's unethical? Spending money on non-necessities when you are in debt. I don't care if you're an individual or a first world nation with the highest GDP in the planet--it's just wrong. But I digress.) The forums are dead right now, but me and one good friend could change that, and even without our intervention, I expect things will pick up as November looms larger on the horizon. Right now we're all paused wondering whether Clinton can overtake Obama (no, I am not watching tonight's debate, because Hillary makes me nauseous and I get really ticked off when she suggests that only "experienced" career politicians can run a government that was founded by farmers to be BY THE PEOPLE.... oops, I digress again) and how it can possibly be that John McCain is the best the Republicans could scrape up. Once we have two clear candidates, it will be ON and I predict this site will be swamped with posters.

btw, to set a few ground rules for upcoming eight months. I do not consider a person's political persuasion to be a statement of their character. The modern parties are so similar to each other in how they actually govern that it's like hating someone because they are a Raiders fan. So if you don't hold my particular breed of political insanity against me, I'll be sure to smile and nod politely when you display your own lunacy. Handshake? Pinky swear?

Master of the Shop, Dah-duh-dah-duh-dah...

I really want to start up an e-store. I'm not sure what I would sell, but I have that entrepreneurial spirit thing where I feel like I should be running something. My best friend says it's because I'm a Jew, which sounds anti-semitic and yet maybe true at the same time.

I must confess, I have no idea how to run a retail business. In addition to the obvious considerations like space, products, and manpower, the e- in e-store presents its own e-challenges. Like e-ordering, e-shopping carts, and (hopefully) e-payment. You can buy ecommerce software packages from Ashop that sound pretty comprehensive. This shopping cart software allows me to sell online, accept credit cards, and customize my e-shop to fit my unique needs. Which are...? This is a service I didn't actually know I needed until I stumbled upon it, and that makes me wonder: what else am I missing?

Watching my friend Mrs. Hannigan's adventures in business ownership should be enough to scare me away, but the idea just keeps hanging on. So with software squared away, the next question is, what should I sell?

Debate of the Week

Cell phones for teens and tweens--yes or no?

Mine all have them. The 12 yo even has one, although I cut off service because he was spending so much time on the phone/internet and a small fortune downloading games. You can call 911 without minutes or a plan, although the 12yo just uses my old school no games/no net phone now.

To me, it seems like a basic safety feature of modern life, one of the few ways that technology has enhanced our lives without taking more than it gives. I love being connected all the time. And I love knowing my kids can always reach me, no matter where they or I happen to be. I'm a little perplexed that people are offended by that, but I'm starting to meet more and more people who are.

What do you think? I am especially interested in hearing from the 'hatas'.

and now a moment of silent contemplation...

"Nature is not human-hearted."
--Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism

The Things We Deserve

I've come to the conclusion that Americans are derailing the economy and trashing the planet to feed our own overblown egos.

I realized this yesterday, when talking to someone about some deals I found at a local thrift store. They told me that they feel they "deserve new clothes".

My first thought was that I would never dream of stepping into my yard, much less a public place, in what she was wearing. Her entitlement to new clothing forces her to wear poor quality clothes, which need replaced more often and never look as good as the better quality clothes my unentitled family wears. But that's mean. And it's a matter of values... She values "new". I value quality, economy, and ecology because I have found that they last longer than "new".

Later, I reflected that perhaps she was forced to wear unstylish hand-me-downs as a child, or maybe she has self-esteem issues and needs this boost. Would looking really, really good feel better than that second of tearing off a store tag? She probably doesn't look at it that way. But she's not alone in using material goods to make herself feel better. It's a cultural malaise here in these United States.

Consider, for example, cars. Would you drive an old, dented sparkly-brown Nova without being forced by economic necessity? Of course not. We buy cars that say something about us--whether it is a Prius, a Lexus, a Hummer, or a minivan. We "deserve" a nice vehicle. We want that daily affirmation. Same with houses. Our houses are simply too large, but I personally love having all the space. I love it when people come over for the first time and tell me how nice my house is. I spend half my life keeping it clean because we "deserve" a clean and organized space.

Or, take food. A friend tells me her husband "deserves" meat at every meal because he works so hard. It doesn't matter how expensive it is, how devastating cattle are on the environment, or how he will die of atherosclerosis at the age of fifty. He deserves meat, darn it. Because he is apparently the only man on the planet who puts in a long day.

I'm guilty too. Here are a few things I "deserve":
a glass of wine in the evening
high quality coffee beans
designer handbags
long showers (yeah, I'm working on it)
higher-end haircuts and highlights

I could write all day, but you get the point. Would I be another, lesser person if I carried a Target handbag? Does that glass of wine negate a long day caregiving and homeschooling? Of course not.

Here is what we truly deserve:

our minute share of a small and fragile planet--and no more
breathable air, clean soil, and fresh water
balanced budgets and lives free of the stress of debt
health, happiness, and aesthetic beauty to the point that we are willing to work for them

Coach purses, whether new or used, bought full price or at a killer deal, pale in comparison. So do meat dinners, the new clothing smell, and the privilege of owning an automobile. Join me in reevaluating your entitlements, not so much to criticize the love of possessions as to understand their very marginal place in our lives.

What I'm Giving Up to Save the World, Part One

Last year I did a "Frugal Habit of the Week" for several months, during which I tried a new frugal habit every week. Some habits stuck (like making homemade, completely unpackaged lunches for my husband) while others seemed to last about a week too long. At the end I calculated my savings and the difficulty of practicing the habit.

This year I want to give up bad, carbon-producing habits. As I have said before, I believe that most American families are wasteful in the small habits of their lives than in the larger areas. So here's what I'm giving up this week: long showers.

My showers are not actually that long, about 10-15 minutes. I justify them by claiming that they are my only time to think and I use a low-flow shower head. This week I am going to give up the long showers (and possibly also thinking, but, realistically, how much is that thought really worth?). I am going to get wet, turn off the faucet, lather up, turn on the faucet, rinse, and turn it off again. End of shower.

It's freaking freezing in my house, by the way.

But I don't have a lot of truly wasteful habits. In fact, I am going to have a hard time thinking of another thing to give up next week, so I welcome suggestions. I could give up all animal foods and products. Driving. Indeed, I, a normal mommy, am going to be taking many short forays out of the mainstream and trying on la vida crunchy. Because I think our planet is worth it, and my electric bill was insane last month.

I plan to write about each week's habit the Sunday after it is finished and introduce the new habit in that same post. So be sure to check back then... and during the week as well.

(If any companies want me to try their green stuff for a week, email me because I am so about the freebies and this is your company's chance to reach out to the bazillions of mommies in Yakima and worldwide who read me.)

Dealing with Unwanted Parental Advice

Like most homeschoolers, I belong to several co-ops, where our children get together with other children for classes that are not practical to teach in a home. You know, like Irish step dance, latin, etc. Anyway, a mommy at one of our co-ops stood up last Friday and publicly asked that parents use more discretion on what material their children use for book reports. She was appalled by some of the poor literature choices she observed at the last meeting and felt this needed addressed. She also talked specifically to several parents whose chldren she felt were particularly egregious offenders. Again, in public.

I was not there due to a family-wide flu, but here are a few samples of what could have been my response.

A. "Thank you, X, for your input. Why don't you give me a list of acceptable literature so I know what to allow my children to read and what to bring to the next community book-burning."

B. "When I find someone who wants unsolicited parenting advice, I'll give them your number."

C. "What my children read is, frankly, none of your concern."

How would you have responded?

Keep in mind that this is a Christian co-op that said woman helps run, but also that it is nondenominational and nondogmatic--just generally Christian in values. Also, apparently the offensive books were Star Wars novels, Dragon Rider, etc, not the Satanist Bible or the Penthouse Guide to Bartending.

Apparently you need a prescription or something...

I was reading about oxytocin at another blog. Apparently your body releases its very own form of crack after natural childbirth and during breastfeeding. Which is a great idea, one I would love to have partaken of. Does anyone get this high I keep hearing about? I get postpartum weepies and everyone else is floating around in hormonal euphoria... that's disturbing.

At Placenta Benefits, they have an answer: ingesting capsules of placenta. It's an ancient, global practice that is believed to allieve post-partum hormonal let-down because placentas are chock-full of the very hormones a new mother is in need of.

In theory, this makes sense, but in practice, no thank you.

Sage Mommy Quote of the Day

Why do people give each other flowers? To celebrate various important occasions, they're killing living creatures? Why restrict it to plants? "Sweetheart, let's make up. Have this deceased squirrel." ~The Washington Post

Ugghhh, Valentine's Day

How did my dinner go? It was okay. Just okay. Could have been better.

I dropped by Rosauer's (local grocery store) to pick up some of the organic lamb they had advertised, and found that it was all frozen solid. Which did me no good, because I was starting dinner as soon as I returned home. As I walked by their fresh meat case, I saw a lovely display of stuffed salmon. Perfect! and not too expensive, so I asked for some. I also asked how to prepare it, what wines would go with it, etc. The lady behind the counter gave me a butcher-paper package and I went home.

At home, I unraveled the butcher paper and it contained these shrink-wrapped, solid-as-an-icy-rock bricks of stuffed salmon. Not fresh, not lovely, not even thawed. I was as far from dinner as I had been when I walked into the grocery store. My husband called the store because I was so distraught, and they saw no problem. The manager was actually a little testy about it. Like I should assume that meat and seafood from their fresh-meat, butcher counter is frozen.

So one of my courses was ruined before I even started. A four-course meal lacks the oomph of a five course one, you know? It isn't even worth it to bring them out at different times. We ate our scampi and our salad and nibbled at the cheese and drank the wine. It wasn't a special dinner, just any old dinner.

The worst thing is that Rosauer's is the best source of organic meat and produce in my town, so I can't stop shopping there, however much they piss me off. What this town needs is some COMPETITION. Like a Trader Joe's.

This is NOT a paid message

No, I just love this store.

Vegan Essentials is an online department store that has ALL vegan stuff.

Am I vegan? Nope.

Then why do I like vegan stuff? First, because animals create wear and tear on the environment, and I want to minimize wear and tear as much as possible. Second, because animals raised for "products" are treated even worse than animals raised for food. Betcha didn't know that was even possible. Until I can buy cage free feathers or cruelty free leather, I feel morally obligated to seek substitutes wherever possible.

Valentine's Day

Everyone else is talking about it, so I'll join the bandwagon.

I generally resent holidays that are invented by corporations, but my dear, sweet husband comes from a family that owned a florist shop. He LOVES commercial holidays and feels hurt when I don't give them (him) the attention and enthusiasm they (he) deserve(s).

I am celebrating without giving Hallmark or their competitors any of my money, and here's how.

1. I am making him a card and giving with it a few bars of organic, fair trade chocolate.

2. I am making a huge five-course Italian dinner. Course one: cheese and fruit plate, course two: shrimp scampi pasta, course three: lamb with rosemary and garlic, course four: baby green salad with goat cheese and caramelized almonds, course five: napoleans and whipped cream.

Hopefully this will suffice. My homemade answers to commercial holidays have had mixed results.

Yahoo for Cheap, Organic Food

I just realized my readers will think that I am saying one can find cheap organic food on Yahoo when really I am just feeling awesome about grocery shopping last night.

I went to the Grocery Outlet, which is generally more entertainment than shopping, but they must have received a lot from Whole Foods or something. There was so much organic food, especially breakfast cereals. We bought breakfast cereal, kid-friendly flavored instant oatmeal, general pantry fillers like tomato sauce, various Kashi snack stuff, ice cream, cheese, and yogurt. All were organic and all cost less than their traditional counterparts would at a conventional store.

If you live in Yakima, it's time to trek over to 1st St and brave the Grocery Outlet. My kids call it the Used Food Store... not sure where they came up with that.

Vacationing for the Cheap and Eco-Sensible

Breaking up the long northwestern winter with a vacation in the sun sounds extravagant for a sensible, middle-class family, but I have a secret: our long week in SoCal was not actually that expensive. Here's how we kept it within budget:

1. Combine work and play. This particular conference included airfare for my husband and I, a large room at a resort hotel for five nights, and dinner on four nights at 'family banquets' that the sponsoring company held at local restaurants. This left us to buy airfare for three children (baby was on lap and oldest two couldn't miss work/school), a rental car, two nights in the hotel, entertainment, and meals (breakfasts and lunches, plus 3 dinners). Even if you don't have an employer or vendor willing to send you to a conference, you can write it off on your taxes.

2. Shop around. We couldn't shop around for fares because obviously we wanted the children on our same flight. Nor did we want to change hotels mid-trip. We did, however, shop around for car rentals, and we found out which days were cheaper at Disneyland.

3. BYOFood. We brought chocolate milk in shelf-stable boxes, boxed juice, organic fruit snacks, string cheese, homemade jerky, and those obnoxious little cracker and cheese things. Once there, we swung by a Costco and picked up Uncrustables, breakfast cereal, breakfast pastries, crackers, bananas, oranges, and milk. We kept the milk cold in the hotel ice buckets. We still bought food at the theme parks and on outings, but we bought things because they appealed to us and not because we were starving. This meant that we spent no more than $20 a day on breakfast and lunch for the six of us, even at Disneyland. This also means that we ate generally healthy and sane meals, as opposed to living on corndogs and french fries for days on end.

4. Keep souvenirs to a minimum. I know those little Mickey ear caps look adorable, but at home they will become just more crap to dust. Same goes for all the overpriced Disneyland apparel; it's a waste, especially if, like me, you would never dream of wearing a Tinkerbell sweatshirt in public.

My kids, on the other hand, do enjoy Disney brand merchandise, so I pulled a sneaky trick. I found like-new Disneyland sweatshirts and tees at thrift stores here in Yakima, then handed them out during lunch, just as the I-wants were setting in. They didn't ask me where I bought them, and I didn't offer the information.

5. Mix expensive outings with cheap ones. California doesn't just have theme parks; there are cute towns, fun playgrounds, and this huge mass of water called the ocean. Our funnest, most memorable days were spent doing free activities like building sand castles. We also found a thrift store in a wealthy suburb that had children's clothing on special for 50 cents an item, so we picked up a good portion of this summer's wardrobes for under twenty bucks, and the clothes were all trendy and like-new.

Adventures in Legoland

In case you didn't notice, I was gone last week. My family was on vacation in Southern California while my husband attended a job-related conference.

If you have ever vacationed with small children, you know that there are no afternoons laying in the sun or leisurely window-shopping walks. If you do not entertain those munchkins, they will entertain themselves--by chasing each other into busy streets, begging for brightly colored pieces of plastic, throwing sand at innocent passers-by, and throwing temper tantrums. I knew I would have to fill in the week with a variety of amusing and hopefully cheap activities. Legoland sounded like the perfect theme park for a family of adventurous, slightly nerdy homeschoolers. To make matters even better, our hotel/resort was located just one serendipitous mile away.

Before I start slamming Legoland, let me concede that it is the PERFECT vacation spot for an eight to eleven year old in families with an adult-child ratio of 1:1. Provided, of course, that you don't go there in winter, spring, or autumn, when they close everything for annual upkeep but charge the exact same admission price.

So we started off on a sunny Friday morning with backpacks full of organic snacks and high hopes. I was a little daunted when sidewlaks kept appearing and disappearing for no apparent reason, forcing my little troupe to cross busy Southern California streets with no crosswalk in site. But they can't control the traffic situation outside their gates, right?

As I lined up to buy tickets, I noticed a sign with a list of attractions currently closed. I paid $180 for myself and three children--the baby was free--and was a little staggered by the cost because it was almost as much as Disneyland had cost. But this will be better than Disneyland, right? All the fun, none of the commercialism...

Being unfamiliar with the park (as are most tourits), I did not realize that the list of closed attractions was also a comprehensive list of what my 12 year old would later call "all the good rides".

Unhappy children: 1

We wandered with our map for the next several hours, looking at ride after ride. My three year old was not tall enough for any of them. The few that my five year old daughter could ride on wanted one parent per child. None of them allowed a baby on the lap. Because I am unable to make my two youngest conveniently disappear, this meant no one could ride. When I complained to an employee, he sent me to the pirate section, where he claimed there were several preschooler-friendly rides.

Pirates? We love pirates! The pirate features had in fact been one of the reasons Legoland sounded so fun.

When we arrived at Pirate's Cove or whatever they call it, all of the rides were closed. Which is no big deal because according the signs, these rides also required that 1:1 parent/child ratio that I could not produce.

Unhappy children: 3

Who was the happy child? The baby, for about three hours. Then she was tired, hot, and bored. Normally I'd expect her to take one for the team, which is why large families produce such good citizens. Except that the team was just as bored.

Unhappy children: 4

They had these rooms full of Legos that sounded cool... but they were closed until early afternoon for school groups. So we ate our sandwiches and toured a fake Lego factory. My kids drove little Volvos in a circle to get Legoland driver's licenses and concluded that the only attraction they were allowed to participate in was coincidentally the most boring ride in our solar system.

We went back to the rooms of Legos, where we found the exact same products we have in our own bedrooms at home. The kids were amused for a half-hour.

Unhappy mommies: 1

Why? I realized that I had paid almost $200 dollars for them to play with toys we had available at home. How many new Legos could I have bought with that money??? Certainly enough for more than a half-hour of entertainment, and I wouldn't have had to drag the baby out into the sun.

Was there more to do? I'll never know because we had to leave after that. Legoland was closing. They close early on off-seasons (which are most seasons). So we braved the treacherous roads home to rest from a long, frustrating day.

Energy Offsets

What do you guys think?

One website I read compared it to eating rich food and then jogging the next day. It sounds to me like another way for rich people to insist they are environmentalists while continuing their insanely wasteful lifestyles.

Although the first comparison may be more accurate than it initially sounds... most people I know who overeat and then try to make up for it later end up overweight.

There is no way to undo an action once it has been taken.

Ricki Lake Does Something Useful

http://thebusinessofbeingborn.com/

I am torn between being a home birth advocate and a medical traditionalist.

On one hand, I have almost died in labor three of four times. Medical intervention saved me. Thank heaven.

On the other hand, I strongly believe that in a healthy, normal situation, medicine can only be bad for mothers and babies. I always feel weirded out in the hospital, disoriented and even manic. I have trouble eating, can't sleep, and go home weaker than I was moments after giving birth. Part of this is the normal hormonal insanity involved in going from pregnant to non-pregnant, but I can't help but wonder how much is the sterility and impersonality of the hospital experience. Mothers innately know that childbirth is one of the most magical and powerful moments in our lives, so to go through it in a sterile situation where we are stripped of power and the experience stripped of magic tears a big hole in humanity.

It isn't just childbirth, either. Every time I interact with my doctor, I go away feeling bad. It's not his fault. He's a nice enough guy. He tells me all the stuff he is required by law to tell me, and I keep doing what I am doing because I think twelve years of successful parenting leave his seven years of school in the dust. He thinks I'm foolish for not following the advice of the medical establishment to the very letter, and I think he's foolish for believing so completely in this dogma when they change positions every week or so. I'm tired of playing birth control method roulette and tired of having the talk about certain procedures and vaccinations I'm uncomfortable with. And, to be honest, I hate the way so many doctors see themselves as beacons of information in our pitiful little lives. I was a straight-A student, accepted to Ivy League colleges, and could go to medical school next fall if I applied. And while there I am certain they would teach me nothing of consequence that I don't already know about women, babies, and childbirth. Intellectually, doctors have nothing on me. I have doctors in my family, so I know that, outside of pretty killer wages, they are no different from anyone else.

Granted, they are experts in a complicated field. But so are auto mechanics, and I've never had the feeling my transmission guy was talking down to me.

I will see this film if it comes to Yakima and report back.