Greener by the Dozen?

Someone asked me the other day how someone as environmentally conscious as me ends up with eight kids.

In my defense, I married into four of them. I didn't actually plan the other four; in fact, I planned against them with the most foolproof methods offered by modern science. I have several friends who have very large and very green families, so I don't have a ready answer as to how I ended up with one or whether I feel it is some sort of hypocrisy.

Consider the following two families, one based on mine and the other on a good friend of mine's:

Family A is a Green Party-voting family that contributes to excellent social causes and has just one child--they are NPG advocates.

Family B is all over the place in political ideology and favored causes. They have a blended family of eight children, three grown and five in the home.

Family A is the obvious winner of the Green Award, unless you look deeper.

Family A has a larger home than Family B. They keep it colder in the summer, and warmer in the winter. They don't economize as much--they don't have to. They eat more meat, more packaged foods, drive a larger car. As a group, they use more electric in their home and more fuel in their vehicle.

Family B is stringent when it comes to conserving everything from gas to ziplocs. They buy everything used except food. They might be tempted to be more wasteful if they could afford it, but they can't. They earn the same amount as Family A and have to make it work.

I think Family B wins.

For a visual example: say the average American family uses ten resource tokens a year. Large families get the same as small families--simple economic reality is that we do not earn more for every baby we have, not in a private economy at least. So the family of three is using 3.3 tokens per capita, while the family of seven is using 1.43. Family B is not using more resources; they are simply more conservative in the use of their tokens. They are a more efficient child raising unit.

I'm not saying that there are no other options. There could be a Family C--a couple with one child sharing a 700 sq. ft home, living on beans and the products of their garden, hanging out laundry and fitting comfortably into their Prius. They get the Green Award over Families A and B. But the reality is that most American and Western European families use most of the resource tokens we are allotted.

Meal Planning Part One: Dinner

Whether you are interested in making your life healthier, greener, or just saner, meal planning is a good organizational tool to add to your "toolbox". It saves money, saves time, and saves extra trips to the store and drives through the drive-thru. It ensures that my family is eating healthy, balanced meals and a wide array of foods. In some cases, meal planning makes delegating easier, as my 12 year old can check the menu on my white board and get dinner started. Meal planning is done at my house every Tuesday, when the sale papers for that week come around. I plan for the week ahead starting that Sunday, leaving me several days to pick up what we need when I pass the stores in question. I plan based on that week's sales and on what I happen to have on hand at that time, which keeps us within budget.

To prevent monotony and keep my focus on frugal, healthy meals, I use the following rotation:

1 large, meat-based meal with starch on the side--think steak and potatoes. We usually have this meal on Sunday. It makes my meat eaters happy and gives them something to look forward to on lentil soup night.

1 pasta based meal. This could be something as easy as spaghetti with red sauce, or something more complicated like gnocchi or homemade ravioli.

1 egg or cheese based meal. Egg-based would be omelets, souffle, frittata, quiche. Cheese-based could be quesadillas, homemade pizza, grilled cheese with tomato soup, etc. Vegetarian-but-not-vegan.

1 bean or legume meal. Great for keeping costs (and weights) down. When I'm being cheap we might have two of these and skip wild card night.

2 chicken based meals. One "family pack" of chicken lasts us two meals if at least one of them is a stirfry, soup, casserole, or other meat-stretching type meal.

1 international dinner OR recipe experiment OR what-the-hell-it's-on-sale meal. Basically, wild card night. If you are seafood lovers, you could have seafood this night. I'm allergic to most seafoods, not enough to die but enough that even residue on dishes could make me sick, so we eat seafood in the summer when my dear husband can grill and save me from the washing dishes/vomitting/washing/vomitting rotation that indoor seafood cooking can cause.

Okay, so you have a few ideas, hopefully seven. Now you have to look at your calendar. Mondays and Fridays here are busy from dawn to bedtime, so I might do crockpot chili or something super easy like omelets or spaghetti. Sundays are family night, and Saturdays we often have people over. Wednesdays are not always busy, but generally tiring, so I will need something easy. Every family has their own rhythm. In our house, our meal schedule roughly looks like the following:

Sunday: Meat and starch
Monday:Pasta
Tuesday: Egg/cheese
Wednesday: Chicken 1
Thursday: Chicken 2
Friday: Bean or legume
Saturday: wild card night

Be flexible and move things around as needed. The goal is to do what works for your family, not what what works for my family.

I plugged in the meals I chose until I had this:

Sunday: Planned: grilled steak and potatoes. Actual: Pizza (I hate to confess this... A friend and I were working on a newsletter we co-edit and before I knew it, the clock chimed five and I had an hour to stop at the store, make the twenty minute drive home, and get dinner on the table.)

Monday: Whole-wheat spaghetti with marinara sauce and meatballs, garlic bread, salad

Tuesday: Vegetable frittata, salad

Wednesday: Oven-fried chicken, roasted red potatoes, peas

Thursday: Sagemommy's Thai chicken: Remaining 3 pieces of chicken chopped and stirfried with vegetables, served with brown rice with a sauce I make from mixing half peanut butter and half teriyaki sauce over medium low heat and adding small amounts of chopped fresh ginger, sesame oil, and cayenne pepper.

Friday: Curried lenttils, homemade flat bread, fruit

Saturday: Planned: Homemade falafel. Actual: Grilled steak, baked potato, steamed broccoli. Because Sunday ended up being wild card night and I know everyone will be clamoring for red meat.

Now isn't that easy? I'll do a separate entry for breakfast, lunch, and snack.

Get Organized!

It's what I'm doing! Want to join me?

First, a confession. I'm already a very organized person. How can I not be, with a large family, homeschooling, and this insane need to do everything myself? We're good at getting everyday chores done, but every home needs an occasional going-through, and there's no time like now.

Last week the boys and I tore apart and re-arranged their bedroom. This week I'm hitting the girls' room. Children's bedrooms tend to be organizational disasters, and it's easy to convince myself that what we really need is more rubbermaid bins and not less stuff. So my mantra is LESS STUFF. Less to clean, less to store, and less to move when the time comes.

Next will be my room. My husband does not share my love of order, so it can get pretty cluttered in here. If you have any cool, cheap, and earth-friendly organization and/or decoration ideas, let me know.

The Image of Homeschooling

I began homeschooling as a temporary solution to a temporary problem. I continued because it works. This seems rational to me, and yet I get the feeling people make some extreme judgments about my family based on this one choice.

For the record, I do not view society as evil. I do not want my children to reject the world. I do not wear long skirts every day. I am not a religious or political extremist. I believe in evolution and teach it as scientific truth. Nor were my children necessarily unsuccessful at school. My children have attended both public and private schools and were in all cases at the top of their classes in academics, sports, and popularity. I did notice a few flaws in the system, however.

My children *did* learn basic math, reading, and a wide variety of other topics, like how baby birds grow in their eggs and name of the capital of Maryland.

They also learned that a child's clothing is more important than any other trait, that bullying is to be tolerated, that learning is a job and not something to be done for its own merit, and that working faster than the rest of the class (or slower, although this was never our issue) makes you a "challenge" and not in a good way. And I was okay with this. I think good parenting can undo most of the wrongs children are exposed to in school and in the general world.

Here is what the school never taught my children, and never could:

to love reading
to love learning
to love life
to enjoy being different and unique
to avoid people who treat them poorly
to include people who may not be their favorites
that a person's parents' socioeconomic status has no effect on their ability to be a good friend or a good person
to interact and work cooperatively with a mixed-age and mixed-ability group
to plan, research, and execute their own projects
to have strong opinions and learn to back them up with fact

Most of us reach adulthood before we learn any of the above. That's why I homeschool--because there is nothing the schools can teach my child that I can't, but there is so much I can teach them that the schools never could. I've done the school thing and I know what I'm not missing. And yet when we tell the librarian that No-it's-not-a-school-holiday-we-just-don't-go-to-school, she looks at me like I live in a cabin with an arsenal of White Pride Bibles and semi-automatic hunting rifles. And she doesn't look at the books she is checking out for us--the medieval history, Pythagorus, and Shakespeare that my 12-year-old chose because those are his interests right now, the first and second grade readers that my five-year-old reads by herself.

SAGE MOMMY SAYS DISCLOSURE

DISCLOSURE

This blog is a personal blog written and edited exclusively by the author. For questions about this blog, please contact the author by using the comment section or email to shastamarshalls@sbcglobal.net .This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may or may not be explicitly identified as paid or sponsored content, although it will be pretty freaking obvious.The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

Hanging out clothes in winter?

I know people who do it! And they don't live near the equator. I am intrigued...

I air dry a few things in my laundry room, but I would love to find a way to line-dry in winter. No fair hanging clothes all over the house; even if my husband didn't throw a tantrum, the kids and cats would get them dirty before they could even be worn.

The garage is out, too. I took a can of peaches out of there this weekend and they were frozen.

We have seven people in my house right now, which is a good excuse NOT to hang clothes out (or in) and a great reason TO do it as well.

Is that what I think it is?

Is that a butt?

Mrs. Hannigan gave me this award for my post on freebies.

If you get a chance to stop by her blog, you will find out that she has six girls and is into the same stuff I am (homeschooling, eating healthy, crafting, making fun of Yakima people). Life with so many little girls must be interesting... naked Barbies and boyfriend drama as far as the eye can see. She seems to encourage free expression in her children, something I try to stifle as much as possible in my household.

If I seem to know her better than one generally knows their blog buddies, it's because we're in the same Attachment Parenting playgroup and several other activities.

You can check out her antics at http://mrshannigan.blogspot.com/

Just for Fun... the many names of Emily

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car):
Brittany-Spaniel Chrysler-Town-and-Country-Minivan--I hope it gets better. Although Brittany Chrysler does kinda sound like a country singer.

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie):
Phish Food Tollhouse.

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name): E-Mars

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal):
Ivory Hamster. I had to take a break and laugh there.

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born):
Ethel Redding. Clearly we are talking about a 30's radio soap opera.

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first):
Marem. Not bad. I wanted my youngest's middle name to be Maryam, which is similar.

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink):The Violet Diet Pepsi. This would look like chemotherapy drugs.

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers): Ivan Frank. Hey, that actually does sound like a Nascar driver!

9. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names): Anne Wayne. John's ugly sister.

10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Koeppel Kennewick. Had to take another giggle break.

11. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower). Autumn Queen-Anne's-Lace. Could be shortened to Autumn Lace.

12. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”):
Peach Hoodie

13. HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Grapenut Aspen
I grew up in California's Humboldt County, so this could in fact have been my name.

14. YOUR ROCK STAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour” and the year): The Embroidery Rainshower 2008.

If you decide to do this, put a link in my comments so I can laugh at you... fair is fair.

Extreme Recipe Makeover

Every week I receive an email from Kraft Food and Family full of recipes and meal tips. The recipes are all simple enough for a middle schooler and look like they taste good in a 50's food kind of way, but they are full of unhealthy frankenfood ingredients. Honestly, who feeds their kids processed cheese or white bread anymore?

Lest someone think you cannot make a kid-friendly meal without opening several boxes, I decided to makeover a few of this week's recommended meals.

1. "America's Favorite Grilled Cheese Sandwich"

Before I go on, does anyone actually need a recipe for grilled cheese? C'mon. But I'll print it anyway:

2 slices white bread
2 KRAFT Singles
2 tsp. butter or margarine, softened
TOP 1 of the bread slices with Singles; cover with remaining bread slice.
SPREAD outside of sandwich with butter.
COOK in skillet on medium heat 3 min. on each side or until golden brown on both sides.

Healthy Makeover:
2 slices whole grain bread
2 slices organic mozzarrella
2 tsp olive oil
3 slices organic tomato
TOP 1 of the bread slices with tomato, then cheese; cover with remaining bread slice.
POUR 2 tsp olive oil in skillet and COOK sandwich on medium heat 3 min. on each side.

Sometimes I put fresh basil in mine.

2. Cheesy Pepperoni Pulls
4 oz. OSCAR MAYER Pepperoni slices
1 green pepper, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1 pkg. (13.4 oz.) refrigerated pizza dough
PREHEAT oven to 400ºF. Combine pepperoni, peppers, onions, tomatoes and dressing in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Sprinkle with cheese.
UNROLL pizza dough; cut into 2-inch pieces with sharp knife or kitchen shears. Place evenly over cheese.
BAKE 30 min.; cool 10 min. Invert onto platter; carefully remove dish.

Healthy Makeover:
1/2 pound grilled chicken breast, sliced into strips
2 cups organic chopped veggies of your choice
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 Tbsp finely chopped fresh Italian herbs--basil, oregano, whatever you grow on your sill
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup shredded organic mozzarella
1/2 batch whole wheat bread dough

PREHEAT oven to 400ºF. Combine chicken, veggies, garlic, herbs, and olive oil in 13x9-inch oiled baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese.
ROLL Dough out into pizza sized circle; cut into 2-inch pieces with sharp knife or kitchen shears. Place evenly over cheese.
BAKE 30 min.; cool 10 min. Invert onto platter; carefully remove dish.

3. Cheesy Beef and Veggie Pasta
3 cups farfalle (bow-tie pasta), uncooked
1 lb. lean ground beef
2 carrots, sliced
4 green onions, chopped
2 cups milk
1 cup frozen peas
1/4 lb. (4 oz.) VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Cheddar & Monterey Jack Cheese
COOK pasta as directed on package. Meanwhile, brown meat in large deep skillet on medium-high heat; drain.
ADD carrots and onions to skillet; cook 5 min., stirring occasionally. Drain pasta. Add to meat mixture in skillet along with the milk, peas and VELVEETA; stir. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 5 min. or until VELVEETA is melted and mixture is heated through, stirring occasionally.
SPRINKLE with the shredded cheese.

Healthy Makeover:
3 cups whole grain pasta
1 lb. lean ground beef
2 organic carrots, sliced
4 organic green onions, chopped
2 cups organic milk
1 cup organic frozen peas
3 cups shredded organic cheddar cheese, separated

COOK pasta as directed on package. Meanwhile, brown meat in large deep skillet on medium-high heat; drain.
ADD carrots and onions to skillet; cook 5 min., stirring occasionally. Drain pasta. Add to meat mixture in skillet along with the milk, peas and two cups of cheese; stir. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 2 min. or until cheese is melted and mixture is heated through, stirring occasionally.
SPRINKLE with the remaining cup of shredded cheese.

Adding to the retch factor, one of the reviewers of the third recipe suggested using canned peas and carrots to save time and adding a packet of Lipton onion soup powder for flavor. If you want flavor, you should start with flavorful ingredients, not freakin Velveeta.

It doesn't seem to take much more money or effort to make the healthier versions of these recipes, so why bother with the originals? I guess that's why they deliver the nutritionally void versions... they're hoping I'll throw my hands up and decided that processed cheese product and white flour pasta are good enough for my family.

The Tao of Garage Sales

Or, I-'m-So-Cheap Part Two

Every year I spend my spring weekends picking through a pile of garden gnomes and Hollie Hobbitt bath towels on someone's front lawn looking for that elusive item that I truly need. One year it was a microwave; last year it was baby gear; I'm always looking for snow stuff and sports equipment. Given my love of garage sale-ing--I would probably do it as a hobby even if there were no financial benefit--it's surprising that I've never had my own garage sale.

That is about to change.

I went through my boys' bedroom yesterday and pulled out three Target bags of garbage, four bags of perfectly good toys that are needed by no one in our home, and about three-hundred outgrown books. I personally prefer libraries over buying books, but my 12yo son spends most of his allowance and holiday gift money at Borders. He didn't want to give them away, and selling them via Craiglist or Ebay would be a pain in the @ss. Why not have a garage sale? I asked him. His eyes lit up.

It just so happens that we have a considerable collection of miscellaneous stuff that we like too much to give away but not enough to actually use--just enough to fill a suburban driveway, in fact. So a garage sale it is! The kids plan to spend their portion of the proceeds on more of those wooden planks they are into. These little planks are so expensive we have only a 200 piece set that I found on clearance, creating ample opportunity for practicing the skills of negotiating and outright stealing. Divided three ways, there's never enough to make a complete structure. I was thinking we should put it toward a big wooden swing set/fort type deal when we buy a house, but this will leave more money for the grown-ups. And we *are* the ones who have to expend most of the effort.

Here's the plan:

One month before: amass merchandise in one place, finalize date, begin collecting bags
Two weeks before: put ads in paper, make signs
One week before: buy price tags, borrow tables, get change.
Two days before: tag items, politely(?) ask neighbor if they can keep their @^%&ing yapping, snapping poodles away from my property for one flipping day
Day before: hang signs, allow friends and homeschoolers to "pre-sale" while I set up
Day of: Keep kids in basement play room watching whatever pay-per-view cartoon they have been coveting while husband, stepson, and I man the sale. Yikes, I'm really nervous about having people milling around while my kids are downstairs. Now I'm re-thinking this.

We could make some serious money here! Which brings me to the issue of pricing... What are fair garage sale prices? I was just talking to a real estate appraiser who was commenting on people's tendency to over-value their stuff. He's in the business of disappointing people, he says, because his appraisals always come in at 20% or more less than home owners expect. I've seen this same phenomena at garage sales... I paid forty bucks for these jeans brand new, so thirty is a fair price. Except that the jeans are now faded and two years old and this is a GARAGE SALE, HELLO?

I'm thinking:
books 50 cents each or $5 for a large paper sack
older children's clothing, same
movies, CDs, and dvds $2
Adult clothing in good condition--10% of new price
baby gear 20% of new price
Toys-$1 each for average run of the mill toy, $3-5 for nicer newer one or a complete set
miscellaneous stuff, under a dollar or $5 a sack

At these prices we would make at least a hundred dollars, which isn't that much when I add up my effort and time. Maybe we'll sell cookies and treats as well. What would be a fair price for my super-yummy organic oatmeal/peanut butter cookies?

Me and Freebies

I think--I hope--that I come across as a fairly normal person. Sure, I have this weird thing about buying local, but that's so common it's almost a fad. I homeschool, but even that is becoming commonplace.

I harbor this deep, dark secret: I am incredibly cheap.

Because I am of Jewish ethnic origin, I feel like I should hide this to avoid jokes. Also, it's nice having everyone think we are upper-middle-class when in fact we hang on to middle-middle-class with white knuckles and dug-in fingernails. People just assume you are smarter, funner, more stylish if you make a lot of money. You're one of them. You're good people. They're entirely wrong to think this way and I should be doing everything in my power to dissuade them.

Consider:

--Last weekend my Huggies Wet Wipes were free after coupon/sale combination at Target and it made my day. Actually, it made my weekend.

--When I walk into a clothing store, I head immediately for the clearance racks. I don't even see the aisle displays. They could have cashmere twin sets for a penny and I wouldn't notice.

--My kids don't know what is in the middle aisles of our local grocery store, the one we shop at every week. We buy the great deals on produce, meat, and dairy that skirt the perimeter and we visit the little organic bulk section, but I couldn't tell you where the Froot Loops are. We buy cereals and snacks at Costco where the organic versions are cheap.

--I have a Kate Spade handbag collection. None of them cost more than 4.99. I have even given designer handbags as gifts to family members who covet them. They think I spent too much... if only they knew.

--I told my daughter that Value Village is called Nordstrom. She likes to tell people where we buy everything and it was getting embarrassing. I hurry her past the sign too fast for her to sound it out, and when she noticed it began with a different letter, I told her the V is silent.

--I make my own BBQ sauce because I can't find an organic one locally, and when I do I probably won't be able to afford it.

--I have not bought shampoo, conditioner, or any kind of hair product in almost a year. Ditto for lotions, moisturizers, anti-perspirants, and a huge chunk of my feminine products. Whoa... how do I manage that?

Oh yeah, I get it for free.

The big indicator of my cheapness is my love of freebies. I find and order free stuff off the internet every day. I have a freebie page on my website, and it's the most often updated page. Freebies have become a major part of my morning routine. I make it into a challenge; how long can I have clean, moisturized hair from one tiny foil packet?

I worry about the environmental friendliness, but the post man comes here every day regardless of what he brings. I recycle all the tiny bottles and the paper envelopes in which they arrived. Gettig so many things for free leaves a huge empty space in on the miscellaneous line of our budget for things like buying more organic, giving to charities, and other green pursuits.

What attracts me to the freebies, more even than the financial savings, is the feeling that I am sticking it to the man. Freebie dispersion is a major part of marketing for the major health and beauty companies. Corporate America is trying to lure me into loyal customerhood, and it ain't gonna happen. I will use their Dove shampoo, love how shiny it makes my locks, and move on to Sunsilk when the bottle is empty. Proctor and Gamble is not getting a dime from me or my household even though I enjoy their products on a daily basis and even have them delivered to my door.

I think (barring theft of course) that NOT paying is the greener way. If we have to be part of this evil economy that is sinking its tentacles into the deepest recesses of our lives, leeching the third world of resources, and hypnotizing small children, let's at least not pay the beast for its services.

I'm off now, to find some more freebies. I'm running low on razors.

This Week's Menu

We're still cleaning out the freezer. Here is what I plan to dig out/defrost/throw together:

Monday: Turkey burgers with chipotle aioli, roasted red potatoes and steamed cauliflower

(Okay, I have to take a break and congratulate myself on that one because it's not bad for a thrown together meal, on a Monday at that.)

Tuesday: Cheeseburger pie and roasted miscellaneous veggies. My 12 yo son saw the recipe on a Bisquick box and wants to make it. Ooookkkkkaaaayyyy. I think we'll do half TVP/half burger.

Wednesday: Spaghetti and green salad. Maybe garlic bread or foccaccia if I'm ambitious.

Thursday: Vegan lentil stew, 12-grain bread, and, gosh, more salad. I need to find a few veggies recipes.

Friday: Chicken and mozzarrella tortellini, salad.

Saturday: Some kind of marinated chicken skewers, pasta salad, cut up fruit. It's my wish-it-was-summer-already dinner

Sunday: Ribs from the freezer, baked potatoes, some kind of vegetable

A note: last week I made tacos and stretched the meat to about twice its original volume with oatmeal and lentils. I just added the about a cup of plain uncooked oatmeal and a little over a cup of cooked plain lentils to the cooked meat while I was adding the spices and sauce. I ended up needing more liquid because the oatmeal absorbs as it cooks. The kids didn't notice.

The Breakfast of Champions

I'm a big fan of breakfast. I eat it; I make my kids eat it; I try to make my husband eat it. It's like coffee--I know people do without it quite happily, but I don't quite comprehend how.

When my kids were in traditional school, a teacher told me that they were the only ones who regularly ate breakfast. This was in a high-scoring school in an upper middle class community in Northern California. I still don't understand how the parents managed this. First, if I don't feed my kids (and quickly), they start serving themselves--digging through cabinets and drawers, leaving trails of Cheerio dust and messes that will require more cleaning time than I would have spent cooking myself. Second, they dissolve into whiney, tantrum-throwing monsters if they are low on protein, so I would have to spend time dealing with less-than-ideal behavior, again more time than I would have spent cooking.

Are there any parents out there willing to admit to not feeding the kidlets breakfast? How do you deal with the messes and behavior? Is it really a timesaver for your family?

I doubt anyone will answer that call.

In my home, breakfast is usually something with protein and whole grains. I try to make it fun to prevent arguments and standoffs, but health definitely comes first. I have an advantage in that my children still haven't realized that many of their peers successfully demand expensive and unhealthy foods. It helps that we homeschool... obviously parents willing to spend eight hours a day or more making sure Junior gets a quality education aren't going to skimp on meals. So far our only food conflict was when my 12yo son discovered one of his friends gets (drum roll...) Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. As opposed to Annie's organic, which I think tastes better anyway.

Today we had french toast made with 12-grain bread... yummy!

Hi Lisa!

House Part Two or Three Or Whatever

The wiring is legal and as safe as electric current in your living areas ever is! WAHOO!

We're in the middle of applying for mortgages. An interesting experience because:

a. Banks don't want to talk to me because I'm not a wage earner. Correction, I told them. I *am* a wage earner. My husband pays me (X amount of money, equal to 100% of his take-home pay) for housekeeping and childcare. If you don't believe me, ask him whether he was consulted the last time I went shopping.

They still want him to be the go-to guy for mortgages. But...

b. They don't work weekends or evenings. Of course not! It's a freakin' bank! Hello, Emily?

And I am puzzled because they do prefer giving mortgages to people with jobs, right? If so, why create a system in which aforementioned people with jobs can't have the job AND the mortgage? I suppose he can take time off work (stifling laughter because he balked at taking time off for our daughter's birth last spring).

Supposedly you can apply over the phone and they fax you the papers to sign. Maybe I'll call and talk in a really deep voice, then have them fax the papers to my husband's office. And if he's out, like he usually is, his secretary can sign for him and fax them back.

Isn't that easy now?

A Day in the Life of Sage Family

I thought I would share this because I love to see how other people live. So here is what I do every day. Because it varies every day, I chose to highlight last Monday.

6:30 AM: Husband leaves for work; I get up. I get myself ready, make my bed, pick up in my room, begin packing whatever bags we are needing that day, plan meals, and start laundry.

7:00 AM: I wake up kids. They get dressed and make beds. I make breakfast--on this day, it's Bob's Red Mill multigrain hot cereal with maple syrup and sliced bananas.

7:30 AM: The baby wakes up. I get her ready and feed her breakfast while 12yo son reads and the younger two destroy the house.

8:00 AM: Studies begin. The oldest is attending college, so we don't see a lot of him and I (YAY) don't have to manage his studies and social life. 12 yo usually does algebra and religion first, then spelling, composition, biology, and handwriting throughout the day. On Tuesday, he does a exercise called "Editor-in-Chief" which teaches language arts through having the kids edit different articles. On Wednesday, he writes an essay. On Thursday, he studies Latin.

While oldest is working, I show 5yo daughter her lessons for the day. She's doing first grade work but flying through it. I show her today's work in math, handwriting, phonics, and social studies, and she blazes through it.

3 yo son and 7 mo daughter play with Brio trains on the dining room floor while older kids work at the table. I start a lamb and root vegetable stew in the crockpot and switch over laundry.

9:30 AM: Time to go! We pile in the (new, impressively fuel-efficient) minivan and head for karate. 12 yo takes lessons while I sit in the hall and help 5 yo with a new phonics reader. When she is finished, she joins 3 yo son and a few other preschoolers in the block corner. Baby sits on my lap and shows off her two new teeth.

11:00 AM: We are back in the car and dashing home. Once there, we grab lunch (Horizon organic yogurt tubes, organic baby carrots, whole wheat crackers) and our swim bags. The kids put swimsuits under their street clothes. I change baby and reboot laundry, then we dash out the door.

11:30 AM: We eat lunch in the car on our way to archery. Technically our family (that is, my husband) has a strict rule against eating in the car, and when my family (again, my husband) comes up with a way to manage my day so this is possible, I will be happy to oblige. 5 yo and 12 yo learn how to hit targets. I'm not really sure how this skill will benefit my children as adults unless they are contemplating a career as a medieval outlaw, but they love it and their friends are there. I have several consecutive heart attacks as I chase 3 yo around a weapon-filled room for an hour.

12:50 PM: Archery is from 12-1 PM, but we leave ten minutes early because swim lessons start at one. We jet across town.

1:05 PM: We dash into swim lessons. 3 yo and 5 yo peel off outer clothing and hop into water. Baby nurses under a blanket and 12 yo plays in the deep end.

Swimming on Mondays and Wednesdays is the definitive social event for homeschoolers around here. By 1:45, swim lessons are over and about 40 children get to play in the Olympic sized indoor pool until 3. Moms talk, knit, and plan group activities with other families. My baby naps in her carrier.

3:30 PM: Kids are showered, dried, dressed, and in the car. While we drive home, I review the day's work with my 12 yo. While we drove from event to event, he somehow finished all of his schoolwork. I ask him sample questions and quiz him aloud until I am satisfied that he has mastered today's work.

3:45 PM: Home again! The stew smells divine. We unpack bags and pick up around the house. I switch over laundry (again!) and 5 yo gets into ballet clothes. You didn't think our day ended this early, did you?

4:15 PM: The oldest is home, so 12 yo stays with older brother and studies his lines (he has the lead part in a local production of Shakepeare's The Merchant of Venice) while the three youngest and I head for dance lessons.

4:30-5:30 PM: Have you ever seen ten little girls in tutus try to do plies in time to the Cinderella Suite? It's worth the rush to get there!

5:45 PM: I pick up whole wheat rolls and organic spring salad mix at the store on my way home. We arrive at the same time as Daddy! The kids mob him while I get everything on the table.

6:00 PM: We eat. So soon? In case you haven't noticed, I don't have a lot of time to waste!

My day isn't over yet. After dinner, we clear plates and load them into the dishwasher while 12 yo puts on his Boy Scout uniform. Then it's off to the minivan again! I drop him off and come back home. I fold laundry and get the younger kids ready for bed. At 8:15, my husband takes over the bedtime rituals while I pick up the Boy Scout.

8:45 PM: Home... for at least twelve hours. I do some computer work and plan the next day's lessons and menu of events. 12 yo practices kata (karate stuff) and then goes to bed.

I am trying to map out how we could manage our schedule using public transportation at least part of the time. I have a homeschooling mommy friend who does it with great success and uses that time to interact with her kids and run tele-errands on her cell phone (paying bills, making calls, etc). I keep our fuel usage down to ten gallons a week by planning things in circuits, but I would love to get under half of that.

9:30 PM I fall asleep... accidentally. I always mean to stay up late and get more housework done, but it never seems to happen. But laundry is done, dishes are done, and so nothing is pressing enough to keep me awake.

Is it this busy every day? Consider:

Tuesday: Sparring class, housekeeping, basketball, playdates.
Wednesday: Karate and swimming.
Thursday: Library, shopping and errand day, sparring class, attachment parenting mom's group, basketball.
Friday: End-of-week testing, Latin lessons, art lessons, various monthly co-ops, Little Flowers (a girl scout type group)

Thus goes a normal day in the life of a trying-to-be-green, homeschooling mommy. People often ask me how my children deal with the monotony and isolation of homeschooling. I don't know how to answer. The kids seem to thrive on this manic style of education and are all testing several grade levels above their age.

I would love to read your "Day in the Life". Post a link to your blog in my comments if you want to share.

House Update

My husband looked up *the* house on our local assessor's website. It's listed as having two bedrooms.

Which means the other three have been added without permits. Without inspections.

Okay, it's not a deal-breaker, but...

When we go to add on or further improve the house, IF we do, they might make us tear out the un-permitted work and redo it to the house gestapo's spec's.

When we go to sell, IF we decided to sell, we would be selling a two bedroom house with three not-quite-legal bonus rooms.

Who knows what's under those walls? my husband asks.

What do you mean? I ask, answering a question with a question just to be annoying.

Wiring is tricky (he knows this because electrical engineering was his major in college). It could be hunky-dory, or the whole house could go up in flame at any time.

Fear of fire is one of my more rational phobias, which include fish, small airplanes, and suspension bridges.

It's probably fine, he says.

He knows he's won... this round.

This Week's Menus

...are nonexistent.

I realized it was time to clean out my freezer when I could not read the labels on the packages for all the frost. So, every morning I take a package out of the freezer, and that's what we eat for dinner. I'm still buying dairy and produce, but that's all. If I were to make a menu, it would look something like this:

Today: Nondescript red meat roast in rosemary sauce, roasted potatoes, sad-looking veggies from our garden this year or someone else's garden the year before.

Tomorrow: Is-that-chicken-or-just-something-that-tastes-like-it? stew, salad with freezer-burned-bread-turned-croutons.

This is a good way to salvage your grocery budget on weeks like this one, when the sale papers seem to think 5.99/lb hamburger is worth a full-color front page.

Our freezer is huge, so they had better dazzle me next week or it'll be supper roulette, round two.

Saving lots of money for Disneyland!

The House Negotiations

Okay, you probably read my old House/New House post last week and thus know that we are in the market... kind of.

A friend is moving and wants to sell her house. We want to buy a house similar to hers in a neighborhood similar to hers. Easy, right?

Consider the following:

CON: We just bought a new minivan and are about to embark on a very expensive vacation that has been planned for months. No, we cannot cancel; every morning, my five year old daughter checks the calendar and tells the breakfast table and everyone at it how many days until Disneyland.

There is literally $30 in my savings account. Do you think they'll take that as a down payment?

PRO: One CAN buy without a down payment, even in today's edgy mortgage climate, when "one" is (like us) a couple with a more-than-decent income and excellent credit. As for closing costs, this would take about a month, which gives us ample time to beg wealthier relatives for a short term loan. We could also put them on a credit card or add them into the mortgage. Or we could cancel Disneyland (just kidding).

CON: The house is about half-remodeled. I know nothing about remodeling except what I have learned from HGTV and I wonder whether necessary permits were obtained and whether everything was done to code. I have no idea when one needs a permit, or how to get one... do the owners? Also, we would be moving into a house that needs work, immediate work. Did I mention we have five kids in our home and we homeschool?

PRO: It's a lovely house with almost infinite potential and they have done great things with it. I see where they are going and I approve. They have six kids and homeschool as well, by the way.

CON: My husband isn't feeling it. I see potential; he sees work. I see an adequate house in an awesome neighborhood; he thinks we could get more house for the money given the stagnant real estate market. In fact, a customer who is a realtor told him so in those exact words. The family are friends, so hard core negotiation and all of the included techniques are out of the question. We think they are over-valuing the house because they love it (as do I).

PRO: A simple appraisal could clear that up. I happen to have the name of a great appraiser, one who works for my bank, who is known for being a stickler about these things.

CON: An appraisal costs $600. That's a lot of money to pay for a house we may opt not to buy.

But we have to start somewhere.

ANOTHER CON: A house a few blocks away of similar size is for sale... for less... and it doesn't need work unless you have something against country blue (I do). My husband says, let's just buy that house... we don't know them... we could offer 50K less than asking and probably still get it. Everyone knows houses aren't selling right now.

I don't like that house. I mean, I would like it if I didn't know about and want this other house. I say, shouldn't we be willing to pay more for a house that has the potential to be our dream home? Even if it is a tad more than we would have to pay for a similar home without dream potential?

It has a book nook, goshdarnit. A freaking book nook. And a tree house.

What do you think? I'm up for opinions and advice. I think the person who owns the house in question reads this blog, and that's okay. I don't mind having everything out on the table. I think if she and I sat at a table with no husbands, we'd have it worked out in no time. Husbands tend to resent these type of deals. At least mine does.

Right now we are applying for a mortgage. Then comes the appraisal. A house will be bought and bought soon, money or no money, this house or that one or another. I feel so out of control with all of these mitigating factors and pros-and-cons and feelings to consider. I console myself that I only feel this way during times of huge growth, and that I always seem to come through it unscathed. It's an exercise in dealing with power issues, and I just need to do yoga and keep my emergency inhaler near at all times.

Do You Know the Story of Stuff?

If not, look here http://www.storyofstuff.com/

It's a twenty minute sermon, but a relevant and mostly factual one. I disagree a little with her take on the role of government. I think there is little a government can or should do to regulate the economy. Americans see corporations as iconic and godlike and offer them the majority of our income as tribute. There is nothing the government can do to dissuade such eager victims--and each ideological side has had eight of the last sixteen years to try.

We have to stop. So, stop, please? Just don't buy stuff. And when you must, buy used items. When buying used is impossible (as with food), buy minimally processed items that you know have been produced in a sustainable manner with fairness toward all people involved. Think about how people worked around a given challenge before it could be fixed by a trip to Stuff Mart. My mop broke, and now I use a floor rag. It's just as fast, just as easy, just as clean, and cheaper. Why did ever think I needed a mop?

Got kids? Rent Madame Blueberry and watch it with them. Talk about it. We can't afford another generation of this--our ecological account is already overdrawn.

There is nothing wrong with this country that can't be cured by self-deprivation and tolerance.

New or Old?

Which is more eco-conscious, a new house or an older one? The experts seem to be divided, which can be confusing to those of us who are in the market for a home.

My initial choice would be an older home. Older homes obviously do not need new materials to be built. They tend to be made with natural ingredients (wood!), which are favored by the green community. Also, they don't require as much new furniture. Old stuff looks good in old houses! You just wipe it with linseed oil and call it an antique.

They also tend to be smaller. There is a vast gap in perceived space needs now and fifty or more years ago. A small three bedroom/one bath home of 1000 square feet was considered more than enough for a large family until recently. A smaller home means less electric, less climate control, and less space used per family, all conscientious choices.

On the other hand, newer homes can be more energy conscious if they have features such as geo-thermal heating, double paned windows, and some of the better types of insulation. They don't need remodeling (does any home truly need remodeling? Or is that another perceived need?). There are no worries about lead and asbestos. You know exactly what you getting.

It's a tie... almost. The clincher for me is quality of materials and workmanship. I don't think most new homes are made for the long haul. I once spoke to a builder of luxury homes in California who bragged that he could read a newspaper through the carpet he had installed in his two-million-dollar-plus McMansions. Every aspect of construction was farmed out to the lowest bidder. The result was huge, sparkling, impressive houses that would need to be torn down and completely replaced in just a few decades. The stick-built Victorians and Craftsman style homes may be small and shabby compared to new ones, but they'll be their small, shabby selves when the others are piles of rubble in your local landfill.

Tomorrow I am going to check out a small older home. Wish me luck!

Monday Menus... er, almost

I know, I know, I've been neglecting you all. I can only plead a bad case of the holiday crazies. So here is my weekly menu, a day late.

Monday: Beef stroganoff and green salad
Tuesday: Chicken and apple sausages with caramelized onions on whole wheat rolls, winter fruit salad (this is what I call bananas, apples, and pears cut into chunks and drizzled with honey, because they are the only cheap local fruit this time of year)
Wednesday: Aloo Gobi
Thursday: Lasagna bolognese from my new Italian cookbook and green salad--my recipe is different from the one in the link because it uses only a pound of ground meat and no pancetta
Friday: Lentil stew, whole wheat rolls, spinach salad
Saturday: Chicken and winter vegetable kabobs--using chicken breast, potatoes, onions, carrots, green peppers, and sweet potatoes marinated in garlic and balsamic vinegar--and brown rice
Sunday: Not sure. We usually do a big Sunday dinner... any suggestions? Maybe whole wheat fettuccini with a homemade Alfredo sauce?

Oatmeal-Honey Mask--my new favorite indulgence

My skin has been dry and flaky from the cold winter weather. I visited an Origins store this weekend hoping to find a solution, but their face cream burned a little and the ginger fragrance they are putting in everything right now makes me want to puke. Apparently I was going to have to take matters into my own hands.

I took a small handful of Bob's Red Mill oatmeal and added enough organic honey to make a paste. Then, I added an egg white. I smoothed it on my face and left it for ten minutes. When I washed it off, my skin was smooth and pretty, and I used probably half the moisturizer I've needed since it started snowing a few weeks ago.

If I added flour and baking powder, this facial mask could probably make some super yummy cookies, too!

Sharing the Harvest

Enough about Christmas. Consider the following:

"...most of the fruit that makes it into our grocery stores is transported great distances (1,000+ miles on average). All this energy, while a large percentage of fruit in people’s backyard simply goes to waste because most homeowners lack the time and interest to properly share or store this food."

I read this at a website dedicated to promoting urban harvesting at http://environmentalsurvival.com/ .

In my own backyard, about a hundred apples of the almost extinct Winesap variety perished in an early freeze. I picked them as we used them, but I wasn't fast enough. One morning I woke up and the frost was half an inch thick on my porch, the tree full of brown and mushy apples. I'm not the only perpetrator; fruit trees are ubiquitous in my area, and yards full of rotten, fallen fruit just as common.

I don't buy fruit that is grown outside of a 50- mile radius. There's no need to. This severely limits our citrus intake, but we can gorge on plums, pears, and apples without leaving my yard. The wasted apples are not contributing to emissions, but I know someone out there would have been happy to pick some free fruit.

Here is my idea to remedy this: I want to form a "fruit ring" among friends in my area. As fruits ripen, we can have "picking parties", allowing families to socialize and take home a crate of free, organic fruit. Because various species and types of fruit trees ripen at different times, this could lead to a summer of free fruit while eliminating waste. Harvests were traditionally a social occasion, so this would preserve a dying aspect of our agrarian past.

If you don't feel like making harvest into a summer-long party, you can always offer the fruit on freecycle. I saw many offers for "you pick it" fruit, and there was always such a long list of willing takers that I didn't get any.

Hamming It Up!

What's the perfect gift for a pork-hating family member and his Jewish wife? A ham!

Following this logic, a family member who hopefully does not read this blog bought my family a ham for Christmas. And it's HUGE. It's all natural/no preservative/etc so we'll be eating it anyway. Here are my plans for gnawing our way through the monster.

Sunday: Homemade pizza, salad
Monday: Baked ham, mashed potatoes, peas (organic frozen peas at Costco are $1 a pound!)
Tuesday: Macaroni and cheese with-you guessed it-ham, salad
Wednesday: Omelets with-yup-ham, cut up fruit and yogurt
Thursday: Hot ham (of course) and cheese sandwiches, carrot sticks
Friday: Split pea soup with what's left of the ham, which hopefully won't be too much
Saturday: Something light and blessedly ham free. I have a feeling we'll be off the ham for a year or so after this week, until next Christmas when the next ham appears in the mailbox.

Clearly, ham is the gift that keeps on giving, because we'll be thinking of this gift all week! The family should be happy because they are always clamoring for more meat in their dinners. Here it is, kids--all meat, all week. Not the healthiest, but I just can't bear to waste food.

btw.... except for wrapping and mailing, I am almost DONE with Christmas. A week early! Go me!

Election... ugh

(Rant Warning)

Election year is almost here. I hate election year.

I'm a moderate... kind of. I'm fiscally one way, socially another, and I have yet to meet a politician I would trust to hold my purse, much less control the multi-billion dollar US treasury. There are so many choices this time around, which should be promising, but they are each worse than the next. A downward spiral of corruption, self-interest, and wonkiness. Even when they take up the banners I want them to take, it feels transparent and superficial.

It's obvious that the only thing they care about is getting elected. And then it will be back to the same old crap: bickering and finger-pointing and never actually accomplishing anything.

4-H... it's not just for farmers

Not anymore at least. A few homeschooling mommies and I have decided to start our own 4-H club!

My first thought was, I am way too cool for 4-H. WAY too cool. Too cool to attend, too cool to let my kids attend, and certainly too cool to lead the darn thing. But then I looked through their catalog and saw what a variety of learning opportunities they offer. We can get materials to teach sewing, ecology, engineering, cooking, archery, computer design, government... and CHEAP! Just a few dollars for each curriculum set. Homeschoolers are used to 3 or 4 figure curriculum orders, so paying $2 for a learning experience almost makes me feel guilty. I regularly spend more on a lousy cup of green tea.

We had to attend a numbingly boring evening meeting peopled mostly by the horse-y/cow-y/farm-y set, but that, so far, has been the only drawback.

You don't have to be a homeschooler, or a farmer, or an animal lover, to be in 4-H. If you have children between the ages of 5 and 17, I would check it out. You can find your local group here.

Just the dinners, ma'am

You are probably bored with hearing about what I eat for breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is usually the same rotation of whole grain muffins/pancakes/french toast/waffles/hot cereal/cold cereal with fruit, and lunch is not a lot more interesting. It really doesn’t vary from week to week, so I’m going to start listing just the dinners.

I was a vegetarian when I married my carnivore husband. Since then, I have whittled our red meat intake from every night to once a week. We also eat chicken or other white meat about twice a week. My family knows they’ll get their caveman style supper every Sunday, which makes them a lot more open to the bean dishes that are staples in our household.

Sunday: Grilled steak, pesto pasta salad, green salad
Monday: Refried Beans, Spanish rice, corn tortillas
Tuesday: Chicken vegetable stirfry with yakisoba noodles
Wednesday: Lemon Rosemary Chicken, linguini, salad
Thursday: Pasta e fagiole soup, homemade whole wheat ciabatta, veggie sticks
Friday: Fettuccini with Creamy Blue Cheese Sauce, salad
Saturday: Vegetable Quiche with Rice Crust, fruit

I'm really looking forward to the creamy blue cheese sauce. I deserve an indulgence tomorrow because I have to juggle our big monthly co-op meeting (about 200 people), a doctor's appointment for my youngest, and a cookie exchange for which I must produce 5 dozen cookies. It's looking to be a busy day, and that creamy, tangy cheese will taste a dream when it's finally over.

All I Want for Christmas

"All I want for Christmas is a flat-panel television, a digital camera, $50 running shoes, and a pile of toys."

It sounds like an adult wish list, and a rather ambitious one at that, but this, increasingly, is what kids are asking Santa for. And Santa is obliging.

On a message board I frequent, a woman mentioned that she is buying her young children, among other pricey gifts, their own flat-panel HD television sets. Someone mentioned that this seemed excessive, and she responded that this was the first Christmas her family could afford more extravagant gifts, so they are hopping feet first on the spend-spend-spend train with one way tickets to Debtville.

She didn't put it in those exact words, but shockingly close.

My problems with this are many. Here's a few:

• She obviously feels guilty that her young children enjoyed simpler holidays in the past when 'simple' should be one of the major goals. Thank you, Corporate America. Your work here is done.
• Electronics are not appropriate gifts for children. Children have no business watching TV often enough to have use for their own set. Even if they are using them for video games--no, especially if they are using them for video games! If parents decides to overdo presents one year, more power to them. They could buy one of those nifty wooden swing sets, or a Brio train set, or any of the thousands of really nice educational and earth-savvy toys.
• As soon as her family has extra money, it goes to consumer electronics. As opposed to: savings, college funds, charities, investments, or wiser purchases that will be useful and useable in five years.
• Her children will not be thinking about religion, goodwill toward men, or giving to others this season. They will be too busy watching TV. Their parents have left them no alternative.
• What will happen if they are back to forced frugality next year? The kids will feel deprived.
• They are probably convinced they can't afford organic produce.
• If too many people do this, it will become expected, and then children from more responsible families will feel unloved and left-out. Oh, wait, that's already happened.

In essence, they have ruined Christmas, both this year and possibly the next, for their family and every family they know.

Many of us could afford to buy expensive gadgets for each of our children, but know better. Here is a good rule of thumb for buying children's holiday gifts: Buy them something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. For example, a four-year-old girl could receive the Barbie she's asking for, a bike to replace one she is outgrowing, a cute pair of flannel pajamas, and a big stack of books, plus a stocking full of miscellanea. Nowhere does a television fit in.

If you make a pie graph of a child's life, TV should be a marginal, barely visible sliver. The rest could be eating, sleeping, playing, learning, socializing. The bigger that television section gets, the smaller everything else gets. So even if a parent thought (despite scientific evidence to the contrary) that their children's minds and bodies would not be adversely affected by sitting in front of a flickering screen, they would have to consider that they are taking valuable hours away from the things that really matter.

Eco-Play

Lest we start thinking video games and lead-infused plastic are our only options for playthings, here are a few cheap and eco-sensible ideas.

Babies/toddlers:
Peekaboo, how-big-is-baby (etc) with a parent or sibling
Wooden spoons and pots
My little ones are usually happiest on my hip or toddling after their older siblings!

Preschoolers/Younger kids:
Painting, especially finger painting
Homemade playdough
"Circle time" games like I'm a little teapot and ring-around-the-roses
Plain cloth dolls
Wooden blocks
Tea parties
Lacing toys
Water play--Fill a basin of water and give them measuring spoons, straws, etc. When it is too cold to be wet outdoors, we do this in the bathtub.
Small musical instruments, including homemade ones. Remember making a guitar froma shoe box and rubber bands?
Imaginative play! When you take away a small child's toys, they make up the most amazing stories and narratives. "Spoiled" children are actually being robbed of their imagination.

Older kids:
All of the above, plus:
Reading library books
Playing with/training pets
This is a great age to learn productive work, like crocheting, weaving, basket-making, carpentry, and cooking--with supervision of course.

There is a woman in my homeschool co-op who just gave birth to her sixth child. I am always amazed by her children's projects. They are the most accomplished kids, always dissecting owl pellets or weaving Egyptian-style belts. She finds the time with six children between teen and newborn, plus running a very successful business, homeschooling, remodeling a home, and all of the little things that take up a mommy's time, so I know that I can do better!

Pull out your yarmulke!

Here comes Hanukkah! The only eight nights a year when I can fry potatoes, open a jar of (homemade, organic, of course) apple sauce, and call it dinner. You'd love our menorah--we just gather eight candles from around the house.

Somewhere I have a real menorah, but I can never find it. It's in the Christmas stuff and I don't start digging through that until Hanukkah is over.

Someday...

Seven Weird Things...

about me!

1. I borrow over $30,000 worth of books and movies from the library every year. I have a little help from the kids. That still seems excessive. How do I read so much when I have so little time? It puts the occasional fine in perspective.

2. When I was in high school, my favorite snack was cheez-it crackers and ranch dressing. It gets weirder--I would put the crackers in a bowl, crunch them up with my spoon, and pour the dressing over, kind of like breakfast cereal and milk.

3. I'm allergic to fish, but not shellfish.

4. Cheap soap/cosmetics/etc give me a weird rash. I have had so many people try to convince me the cheap ones are exactly the same. Tell it to my epidermis, people!

5. I wish I had more children. This is only weird because I have (drumroll...) 8. We're talking about adopting because I think this factory is permanently closed.

6. I was accepted to Stanford and I DIDN'T GO. By choice. It's a long story.

7. I harbor a secret love of hip-hop, the really egregious stuff like 50 Cent and Eminem. It has a great beat.

Aren't I weird?

This Week's Menu, plus a few simple goals

Sunday
Breakfast: Pancakes
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Miscellaneous Mexican food. Our company ended up staying another day due to airport difficulties—YAY—so we were caught without enough food for a another big "company" meal and ended up getting take-out from a local Mexican restaurant. At least it was local. :-) They gave us so much food; we’ll be eating rice and beans for days. No complaints here.

Monday
Breakfast: Blueberry muffins
Lunch: Fruit and yogurt smoothies, whole wheat crackers and cheese
Dinner: Leftover Mexican rice and beans, tortillas, leftover Mexican food

Tuesday
Breakfast: Hot cereal, bananas
Lunch: PBJ, pears
Dinner: Hanukkah Latkes, apple sauce, salad

Wednesday
Breakfast: Homemade apple crisp, milk
Lunch: Salad and cheese wraps
Dinner: Lemon-rosemary chicken, brown rice, salad

Thursday
Breakfast: Hot cereal, bananas
Lunch: Loukoumades, fruit
Dinner: Chicken and whole wheat pasta soup

Friday
Breakfast: Cold cereal, milk, fruit
Lunch: Homemade granola, yogurt, fruit
Dinner: Vegetable quiche, homemade wheat bread

Saturday
Breakfast: Oatmeal pancakes, apricot-pineapple chutney
Lunch: Hanukkah pretzels, baby carrots
Dinner: Linguine all’Amatriciana, salad, homemade bread

This week’s goals:

• Baby proof without going crazy at Target—on her six month birthday exactly, little Rachael decided to show off for our guests by crawling. Now she’s everywhere. What a difference a week makes! But I have no inclination to fill my healthy home with plastic, or to patronize a toy industry that seems hell-bent on poisoning our children with lead, so this will be a challenge! I also have to find a safe napping spot for her. We’re co-sleepers, but the ring of pillows isn’t even a challenge anymore.
• Experiment with whole wheat sourdough starter
• Visit my friend and her newly home-birthed baby, just one day old as I write.
• Finish one Christmas gift project and get at least halfway through another.
  

Healthy and Cheap Dinners

A complaint arises often at many of the forums I frequent: healthy food is too expensive. This, according to too many people, is why they are obese.

I know this is mean, but it needs to be said: you get obese from eating too much and exercising too little. Period. You could be a thin (and very unhealthy) person who lives on Cheetos, as long as you are eating less than 1500 calories a day of the orange poison and going for regular walks.

I always argue that it is far cheaper to eat healthy, but no one will engage. Perhaps because they know I'm right?

Here are a few super cheap, super healthy main dishes that cost less than 25 cents a serving to make:

Homemade vegetarian chili with homemade cornbread
Homemade falafel on homemade pita bread
Cajun red beans and rice
Black bean tacos
Omelets
Chinese fried rice (with egg in it for protein)
Homemade minestrone
Lentil and rice casserole

This is just offhand--I'm sure I can think of more if you need more. You would need a veggie with these, but I hope the family in question is eating vegetables with their meals already. Produce is generally cheap because there's always something on sale. Plus, you can grow your own, which is more than I can say for Cheetos.

Menu Monday

You will have to forgive me for this week’s menu, at least the second half of it. We are expecting houseguests Thursday through Sunday, so the meals are going to be more… everything. More complicated, more expensive, and, yes, more wasteful. To make up for it, we are eating very simply for the first half of the week.

Sunday
Breakfast: Whole wheat popovers, fruit and yogurt smoothies
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Homemade cheese pizza

Monday
Breakfast: Cold cereal, bananas
Lunch: Homemade mac’n’cheese, carrots, cherry tomatoes
Dinner: Chili, homemade bread, salad

Tuesday
Breakfast: Raspberry muffins
Lunch: Homemade soup from broth, noodles, and veggies
Dinner: Omelets, salad, biscuits

Wednesday
Breakfast: Hot multi-grain cereal with bananas
Lunch: Chicken salad and spinach wraps
Dinner: Vegetable quesadillas, refried beans, fruit

Thursday
Breakfast: Cold cereal, bananas
Lunch: PBJ, baby carrots
(guests arrive here)
Dinner: Steak gorgonzola, baked potato, artichokes

Friday
Breakfast: Blueberry muffins, bacon
Lunch: Out
Dinner: Chicken picata, homemade fettuccini with garlic butter, green salad, fresh bread

Saturday
Breakfast: Whole grain crepes with strawberries and cream
Lunch: Out
Dinner: Butter herb turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli with asiago, rolls

I'll only say it this once...

...I don't like Christmas.

I am not against Christmas itself. As a Christian/Jew/Buddhist, I am more than happy to have these extra days of celebration in our winter holiday repertoire. I believe in Christ both literally—as a wise man, a Messiah, a savior—and figuratively—as a symbol of peace, forgiveness, and unconditional love. Our world is a disheartening place to live right now, so why begrudge the masses a day to make merry?

First, the insane expectations. At no other time of year do family dysfunctions seem so glaring. High expectations and less-than-perfect realities clash. Long healed scars are torn into fresh wounds. At best, we get through it. Second, the waste. My kids don’t need more plastic—what kid does? How many cars are on the road as drivers search for a perfect gift? How many extra calories do we ingest while people in other countries starve? This is as American as we get: clueless in our wisdom, selfish in our giving, secular in our observance of the most religious day in our majority religion’s year.

But the real reason I dread Christmas? The materialism. It borders on extortion. Why does that Xbox game say ‘I love you’ so much louder than a handwritten letter? Because Corporate America can’t live on love alone. What is the true emotional value of a gift given because I have to? Apparently high enough, because no one on my Christmas list would happily relinquish their spot.

If I, who can financially and emotionally afford this insanity, can’t wait for the next month to be over, I can only imagine the strain felt by those who are truly disenfranchised. People without families that look like those on black-and-white movies. People who can’t afford the display of generosity, who may not have stockings even on their feet and don’t have a roof, much less a mantel. People who can’t say “It’s a Wonderful Life” without a heavy dose of irony. I’m praying as much for them as for peace on earth.

So now I am going to stop being a party pooper and try to jump wholeheartedly in the holiday fervor. Really. I'm going to ignore all of the above, caring only about how my organic vegan walnut fudge turns out and whether I find the perfect gift for my stepson's girlfriend. Really.

Really.

A Turkeyless Turkey Day

I hope all of my friends in the internet universe had a wonderful Thanksgiving. At my home, we decided to have a brunch instead of a dinner to allow our family and guests to double up on holiday visits. The original plan was to visit a restaurant later that evening for a real turkey dinner, but as evening fell we were still too full from brunch. So it was a happy but turkey-less turkey day for the Marshall family.

How can we do without a turkey? I figure Thanksgiving Day as we celebrate it in the United States is based more upon propaganda than historical fact. Much of the story we learn in school, from the 'traditional foods' we eat to the clothing worn by the fictional pilgrims and natives on our greeting cards, is a cranberry-coated mistruth.

Racial harmony, sharing, thankfulness--this is the legacy I would like to give my children. This is the history I would like to be able to teach. So, for today at least, I will. Without the turkey.

Staying warm

Yetserday morning we woke up to a fluffy white surprise--snow! The kids rushed to finish breakfast and get snow gear on so they could play in it before it melted. Today there was no snow, but everything was covered with ice and frost and the thermometer read below 20 degrees F. Official dates aside, winter has arrived in Washington.

So how are we keeping warm without polluting and spending?

1. We have geothermal heat. If you ever have a chance to install this or buy a house with it, I highly recommend it! It uses so little energy that we could keep the house at 80 degrees all winter without killing our budget. But...

2. We keep the house at 62 during the day and turn it down to 45 at night. BRRRR! Wear flannel jammies and pile on the blankets. During the day we move enough to avoid becoming human popsicles, but a sweater is still necessary. I've actually had people tell me that it costs less to keep a house warmer or to keep a steady temperature. I always wonder if these people use the same logic and leave their cars idling while they grocery shop, or keep the dryer tumbling while empty. Simply put, it takes fuel to warm a home, so the less you run the engine, the less fuel you use.

3. Eliminate all sources of drafts. Close blinds and curtains, put rolled up towels at the bottom of doors. You may want to caulk around windows or even have new insulation blown into your walls. Most repairs will pay for themselves (and then some) in one season.

That's all that comes to mind for now. What is your family doing to stay warm?

Monday Menus

I've noticed a few other blogs doing this, so I thought I'd be a copycat. :-)

But, seriously, I am always hearing how expensive it is to eat healthy. I just don't buy it. Consider the cost per pound of carrots vs. cheetos, organic brown rice vs. rice-a-roni, an apple vs. Ben and Jerry's... and on and on. I have written several articles about shopping strategies and avoiding waste. But that's only part of the equation. Planning and preparing healthy, homemade meals is probably one of the biggest money-saving habits I have! And maybe this can help someone trying to add health and economy to their diet.

Monday
Breakfast: Fried egg sandwiches on whole wheat, orange juice
Lunch: PBJ on whole wheat, carrot sticks
Dinner: Chicken and autumn vegetable stew with whole wheat dumplings

Tuesday
Breakfast: Multi-grain hot cereal with maple syrup, red grapes
Lunch: Annie's mac and cheese, sliced apples
Dinner: Oven-BBQ Chicken with brown rice and green salad

Wednesday
Breakfast: Life cereal, milk, satsumas
Lunch: Homemade vegetarian pizza pockets
Dinner: Whole grain pasta with some sort of sauce--maybe pesto from the basil plants in my windowsill?--plus green salad and homemade foccaccia

Thursday
Thanksgiving! We'll be out pretty much all day.

Friday
Breakfast: Whole wheat waffles with apricot pineapple chutney
Lunch: Something with leftovers--hopefully we'll have some
Dinner: Vegetable stirfry with shrimp (I use very little shrimp, just enough that they feel like they had some), brown rice, green salad

Saturday
Breakfast: Multigrain hot cereal, grapes
Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread, tomato soup
Dinner: Black bean tacos, grilled bell peppers, spanish rice

Sunday
Breakfast: Life cereal with milk, satsumas
Lunch: Annie's mac and cheese, carrot sticks
Dinner: Pork roast, homemade cinnamon apple sauce, roasted potatoes and squash

For snacks we eat fruits, veggies with homemade yogurt dip, yogurt, and homemade whole grain goodies. Most of what we eat is organic, although there are exceptions.

Christmas Round One

Yesterday I inventoried the pile of bags shoved at the back of my closet. The good news is that I am farther along on my holiday shopping timeline than I thought. The bad news is that I still have a sleigh-load to buy, most of which will have to wait until December. After a trip to the local craft store-one that will not be repeated any time soon because the carts are too small to hold more than one child and the aisles so narrow that the only restrained child could still reach shelves on both sides)-I have newly high blood pressure as well as a few homemade gift ideas and a month-long date with my crochet hook. The present factory is understaffed and underfunded, but officially open for business.

Right now my five-year-old daughter and I are finishing an embroidered picture for one of my in-laws, after which I have to crochet five stuffed bunnies. They’re supposed to be from Santa, so I have to work on them when there are no watchful little ones. Night, maybe? But I *do* like to sleep every now and then. Add to this a steadily growing parade of houseguests, the observance of Jewish holidays, and my promise to make all-new ornaments for my Christmas tree—out of recycled and salvaged materials, of course—and I am nearing the insane stress level under which I seem to function best. Let the breakdown commence!

The goal is cheap! easy! fast! personal! But I'll settle for three out of four. If you have an idea, let me know; otherwise, I'll be publishing mine as they occur to me.

Green Delivery

How are you sending your gifts this year?

I’m sure merely asking this pegs me a micromanager and perhaps even OCD, but I have spent way too much time finding the perfect ecologically correct gift to bungle it in the last step. So far I consider the US Postal Service the least vile method of sending packages. For one thing, the postman is going to swing by my home, and every other home in America, regardless of whether there is a gift package or yet another credit card offer. Taking advantage of existing labor, resources, etc., is always greener than creating a need for new, right? Also, I’ve never been almost ran over on my own sidewalk by a USPS truck—which is more than I can say for FedEx and UPS.

There are other issues to consider… for instance maybe one of the major carriers uses an alternative fuel or makes massive contributions to green causes. I couldn’t find internet documentation of either, so I’ll be patronizing the old-fashioned wasteful-and-yet-best-of-all-possible-evils Postal System until someone gives me a good reason to switch.

Holiday Decluttering

I hate my ISP. I won't even tell you what I pay to NOT have internet half the time.

Complaints aside, we are gearing up for the holiday season! The first step (for me) is decluttering. We will soon have the first of several waves of houseguests crash onto our beach and I will no longer be able to hide our messes behind the guest room door. I also need to make room for the gifts that will begin trickling into our mailbox. So I am going to approach this the same way I do every challenge: make a list and schedule, then ignore both of them and run around like crazy woman at the last minute!

Did I mention I have about a trillion homemade gifts planned and I haven't even bought the supplies yet? Egad! Somehow November always sneaks up on me.

Poll Results, plus my adventures in NOT buying socks

The results are in!

Of the 10 people who responded to my poll, it is evenly split. Five were raised to conserve and five were spenders from the get-go. One reported that as a teen she was treated to $3000-4000 clothing shopping sprees regularly! I have a few teenagers around here that want to move to that household.

Americans love to "upgrade", either by buying more goods or buying increasingly expensive goods. It's hard to wean yourself from that mindset. Even the most frugal types are always trying to upgrade, although they have strategies to do so for less money. This week I am going to try to catch myself when I fall into that trap and stop the spending before it starts.

I've already been guilty once today! I was checking out my five-month-old daughter's dwindling sock supply this morning and thinking that perhaps I should buy more. She only has five pairs that I can find, although I suspect another two or three lurk in my unmatched sock basket. She could really use a few brighter pairs to match certain outfits. Plus, my Hanna Andersson catalog has been taunting me for weeks.

But how many pairs of socks does an infant need? I do laundry every day, so our five pairs are more than sufficient. Does she need to have a coordinating pair for every outfit? Probably not. If a true sock emergency arose, I could dig an unmatched pair out of the renegade sock basket. After all, the point of a sock is to keep tiny toes warm, not to advertise my ability to match or my love of organic Swedish cotton. At the rate Rachael grows, we'll need bigger socks in a month or two anyway, and then I can try to match her bright winter clothes. Until then, we'll make do with our summery whites and pastels.

See how easy that was?

The High Cost of Clean

According to American Demographics, the average Generation X household spends $85 dollars a month on housekeeping supplies. Eeeek! I can't even imagine. I suspected that we spend less than most families, but I had no idea how much less.

How much of that money is spent on paper goods that could be replaced with a few old rags? How much on caustic chemicals that will end up in our drinking water? It's really mind-boggling; the average American family spends more on cleaning than a third world family spends on all of their necessities put together.

(Shameless self-promotion alert: This is an issue I have addressed twice on my website, once as a frugal habit of the week and once as an article.) Okay, done now.

Seriously, how do you think people manage to spend so much? I'm really quite boggled by it.

And we call them role models...

Another example of celebrity excessiveness.

If you want a good example of how to ruin our planet in one lifetime, just look to American celebrities. Even those who are lauded for their social and ecological sensitivity, like Brangelina, Ted Turner, and Al Gore, utilize exponentially more resources than the average, appallingly wasteful US family to support their jet-setting, self-promoting lifestyles.

We are the heroes, my friends.

Poll!

A few weeks ago, a member of my favorite message board sent out an email asking for help. She was assigned an article on “going green” and needed ideas.

I didn’t respond. I find it slightly offensive that my lifestyle has been hijacked by the media and turned into an empty fashion statement, or worse, a way for obsolete politicians to get their name back in common use. At best, AT BEST, the piece would be in a sappy women’s magazine between “How to Tell If He’s Into You” and “Bigger Breasts in Just Nine Days!” Anyway, how does one fit an entire world view into a short article?

An afterthought: I should have sent her a polite and minimally detailed email with a few beginners’ tips, like hanging out laundry, eating vegan food, buying local, etc. I guess everyone has to start somewhere. I was raised by a pack of hippies, so my materialistic period was just a short hiatus from an eco-friendly lifestyle. Once the urge to rebel passed, I returned to my recycling, crocheting, soap-making roots.

Which brings me to a quandary. How many earth mamas and tree huggers out there are cradle conservers and how many converts? I’d guess about 40/60. What do you think? What is your eco background? Leave a message on my blog or email me at shastamarshalls@sbcglobal.net with “Blog Poll” in the message line. I’ll compile the statistics and give you a verdict on Monday.

Raising Animals, Or Not

Lately I have felt like I need my own cow. Maybe a few chickens, too.

Right now the main issue keeping me from rushing out to... wherever one buys livestock... is that my husband hates animals.

Okay, he doesn't *hate* animals. He hates OWNING animals. He used to raise Irish Setters, which will turn anyone off dogs. And our cats, our "cats are never really any work" cats, have been nothing but furry meowing headaches since we acquired them.

I'd say chickens are out of the question. Cows, WAY out of the question. But here is why I still pine for a herd of my own.

1. I could use a constant, low-cost source of milk and eggs. Livestock could also be low-cost meat if I was brave enough to stick a knife into a creature not already cooked medium rare.
2. Raising animals places you squarely in an agricultural lifestyle--early to rise, early to bed, in touch with the earth and its seasons, etc. This appeals to me, in theory at least.
3. It's good for the kids. 4-H is a great program! Also, despite my attempts to dissuade them, my children are convinced that farms are animal utopias where the cows and pigs cavort on green pastures and have cow parties with alfalfa tea. This is kinder than the truth, I suppose.

There are many good reasons not to raise animals--my grandparents had a farm when when I was growing up, so I am more than aware of about a hundred of them--but that doesn't stop me from feeling that longing when my friend complains of having no way to use up the eight gallons a day of organic, fresh milk that her cow produces.

Recipe: Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins

We had these for breakfast this morning. These muffins are a little too sweet for my taste, but my kids think they are perfect. Made with whole grains, eggs, and nutrient rich pumpkin, these are a balanced meal in themselves. Maybe next time I'll leave out the sugar and see if the honey alone is enough.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease large muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix 1 and 3/4 cups whole wheat flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 1/4 tsp cloves.
3. In another large bowl, mix 1/4 cup sugar, 2/3 cup honey, 1/2 oil (your choice--don't use olive though!), 1 cup mashed pumpkin, and 2 eggs.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
5. Spoon into muffin pan and bake 35 to 45 minutes.

This made 16 medium muffins.

Goodbye Farmer's Market, plus a recipe for whole wheat hot pockets

Yesterday my daughter and I headed for the last farmer's market of this year. Apparently we weren't the only ones! Despite an ever-shrinking number of vendors, there were more shoppers than I have ever seen at a Yakima farmer's market. We circled for almost a half hour looking for a parking space within half a mile (I was planning to buy pumpkins and squash, so proximity was important) before finally giving up. We'll have to make do with last week's vegetables, the dwindling fruits of our frost-bitten tomato plants and apple trees, and some pumpkins from a roadside stand in the neighboring town of Wapato. The culinary theme of this week will be pumpkins: pumpkin soup, pumpkin fettuccine, pumpkin muffins, and the ubiquitous jack-o-lantern.

The farmer's market has been a staple of our family life this year, a solid appointment to anchor the unformed summer week. Its end will leave a two-hour hole in our Sundays. Autumn erupts from pale, jaundiced summer in such a flurry of color that we forget that it is a time of goodbyes: goodbye to flowers and gardens, vacations and visits, long days in the sun. Winter is creeping in, inching ever closer like the high tide. Already I am greeted by frost and a heavy white cloud of breath every morning; soon the frost will turn to solid ice and the children will rush to their windows every morning hoping for snow.

If you aren't already baking, check back to see some of my recipes and ideas. If you are baking, well, check back anyway! Here is today's masterpiece, so simple that it requires not a recipe, but a short description.

Better Than Hot Pockets

1. Make one batch of your favorite biscuit dough--I made simple whole wheat dough from WW flour, salt, baking powder, and butter.
2. Instead of rolling and cutting, separate into balls about the size of your palm. Then, roll out as you would pizza dough, into circles
3. Top with your desired filling, then pull the edges together and seal. I formed mine so they were little squares and baked them with the ends underneath them. It really doesn't matter as long as the filling is contained.

Today I filled our pockets with ham and cheddar, plus a tiny amount of stoneground mustard, and my children made me promise to make another batch tomorrow. I think we'll try spinach, mozzarella, and tomato. These pockets are as frugal and healthy as you want to make them. I use organic and/or natural ingredients, making them a healthy choice for your child's diet.

Tomorrow is baking day, and I plan to make whole wheat pumpkin muffins and experiment with a whole wheat pie crust. I may even try a crust made an alternative grain to surprise a friend who has gluten issues. I'll let you know how these came out, plus print the recipes if they are worth sharing.

All Excuses Aside

The other day a mom confided to me that her children never see the inside of a McDonald's. I was about to commend her for cutting out fast food when she added that this is because she is too busy to go inside. They use the drive-through, usually several times a week.

Before I go further, I have a confession to make. Only a quarter of my family's diet is organic. Sometimes it goes up to around half. I've found that we eat a lot more organics when I am in a meatless meal phase. The percentage is steadily rising, but like most mommies, I have a finite grocery budget. This is not my only dietary compromise; we eat fast food about once a month. Last week I gave in to months of begging and purchased a box of cereal straws. I am not a perfect mom, especially not in the food arena.

With my faults on the table, I feel better about criticizing other parents. I am starting to think that everyone feeds their children junk. Starchy, sugary, over-processed junk. And the excuses are always that they have no time, and that healthy food is so expensive.

I'll address the time matter first. None of us have time. You're talking to a homeschooling, work-at-home mother/stepmother of eight. No time here. Anyway, the drive-through takes longer (and costs more, which I address next) than grabbing some apples and string cheese on your way out the door.

As for money, the only way healthy food is more expensive is if you compare the very cheapest of processed food with the most expensive natural foods. "Look, organic blueberries are eight dollars a pint. Oh well, just grab a bag of chips." Mom ignores the very economical organic carrots and bananas--even non-organic fruit beats chips--and buys chips, considering herself forced to feed her growing children junk.

Even on the rare occasion that healthy, natural snacks are more expensive than a bag of starch, they are still a better deal. We are paying for nourishment for growing bodies and minds. If a food doesn't do that, we're getting absolutely nothing for our money. You might as well put your paycheck in the compost bin.

The last time I visited my local drive-through, a fast food meal was around five dollars. You can easily feed one person a healthy, organic diet for a day with that! So let's stop feeding Nabisco's bank account and start feeding our kids.

The Mother of Invention

Sadie* has four children, a home business, and the sundry appointments and obligations of modern life. She also has no vehicle. This is not a temporary inconvenience for Sadie, but a voluntary lifestyle.

“I’m used to doing without one,” she says with a dismissive shrug. How does Sadie live a modern life without something that most modern people regard as essential? She plans ahead, combines errands, and relies on a mixture of public transportation and walking.

Sadie’s way of life is even more remarkable when one considers the inefficient and poorly planned public transportation system of the small town we share. Getting from Point A to Point B on a Yakima bus can take hours, even when Points A and B are mere blocks apart. Yet her choice is not without merit. Surprisingly, she spends less time in transit that most modern mothers, and that time is usually spent reading or interacting with her children. Sadie has chopped entire toes off her carbon footprint and has no trouble getting a healthy amount of exercise every day. She is also saving money; transportation, a sizeable chunk of the average household budget, costs her mere pocket change.

Globally, more people share Sadie’s transportation arrangement than the one-car-per-driver situation favored by most American families. Women had busy lives long before Ford perfected the internal combustion engine. Yet most American families would never consider giving up driving—or even cutting back—except as a desperate measure. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but that’s not her only offspring. Ecology, frugality, and simplicity are often discovered in dire situations.

Consider: entire populations make do without the necessities of American life. Two years ago, I found myself suddenly and quite unhappily without a working clothes dryer. In a seven member household, saving laundry for a weekly trip to the Laundromat was out of the question. My husband strung up a line outside so I could air-dry clothes until we bought a new dryer. In that short week I discovered that hanging out laundry takes little time; the next month I found that it also saves a wad of electricity dollars. Years later, our new dryer is used only when the weather demands it.

How many facets of American life could be simplified this easily if circumstances demanded it? Then why wait? Join me in taking a look at your home and your life, evaluating what is really necessary, and trimming the excess. Ask yourself what you would do if forced to be without some of the items we take for granted. Some things may be absolutely necessary (“What would I do without an asthma inhaler?”) but others seem almost ridiculous in their superfluousness (“What would I do if I couldn’t afford soft drinks?”).

As always, give thanks. If you are making these changes voluntarily, you are one of the lucky ones.


*name changed

A Day in the Life of a Crazy Woman

I apologize for yet another multi-week hiatus from blogging. I enjoy blogging and it takes just a few minutes at the computer, so why can't I seem to get a daily post written? Here might be the answer, or at least part of it.

Things I must do...

1. Care for five children between the ages of older teen and newborn. This is complicated by my preference for attachment parenting, which necessitates talking and explaining instead of spanking and yelling, and training my baby to be a sensitive and attached human being rather than a "self-soother" who internalizes rather than vocalizing her needs... a subject for another blog. The point is: I am not a low-interaction parent raising low-maintenance children. Quite the opposite.
2. Homeschool aforementioned children, which includes not just teaching, but all of the offal that goes with it... lesson planning, curriculum buying, copy making, field tripping, social life managing.
3. Maintain a large, but frugal and ecologically sensible home. This entails making and using homemade cleaners, hanging out laundry, gardening, foraging for good deals in nontraditional venues.
4. Cook. I'm a foodie, if you haven't guessed already. I like fresh/organic/healthy and I need cheap.
5. Write. I'm trying to break into freelance writing after a long career hiatus, and the first requirement of a writer is WRITING. I'm trying. But see above.
6. Be a member of my community. We go places, do things, talk to people and try to generally be a visible family.

Things I cut out to allow time for above:

1. Unnecessary lessons and errands. This saves gas and emissions as well!
2. Television. Not a huge loss.
3. Much of my social life, unfortunately.
4. Sometimes, blogging. But every day I get more organized and my baby grows more independent, so I promise to get better!

My new goal is to blog every morning, just a little. Check back to see if I make it! And don't forget to leave comments--I LOVE comments.

Sleepy after Seattle

We survived our family vacation in Seattle!

One of the best parts of taking a holiday is being so very glad to return home. The kids liked the museums and aquariums the best, but my favorite part was eating from the hole-in-the-wall stands surrounding Pike’s Place Market. Have you ever had french onion soup with fresh artisan cheese? It was so delicious even my preschoolers lapped it up. We saw the most beautiful autumn vegetables, shiny and huge and bright enough to make the neon signs seem pale, and of course watched the fishmongers throwing salmon at each other.

There is truly nothing as tiring as resting. After almost a week, we were irritable, flu-ey, and ready to return to our everyday lives.

This week I am going to be picking apples and experimenting with recipes to use them up. We have only a handful of Granny Smiths, but the Winesap tree is so full it looks ready to buckle. Ripe or not, we are going to begin the apple harvest.

I have missed the farmer’s market for the last two weeks, so next Sunday’s shopping list will be a surprise. Instead of the same old late summer veggies, I hope to find lots of interesting squashes and of course pumpkins. Pumpkin soup and pumpkin ravioli! Pies, cakes, breads, maybe even homemade pumpkin ice cream. Can you tell autumn is my favorite season?