Today's produce is brought to you by the color GREEN!

We went to the Farmer's Market this morning, but we didn't have a ton to get since we just went on Wednesday.  However, what we did get was so pretty that I thought you might want to see it!  See?  Pretty greens!

If you are thinking that that is a lot of zucchini, then you are right!  Those are ten large organic zucchinis that we got for 75 cents each.  After a little bit of time in the kitchen, I have 24 cups of grated zucchini stored in a bunch of cottage cheese containers that we are reusing.  I will use two in a pasta salad, and the rest will go into the freezer to be made into zucchini bread and zucchini brownies this winter when local produce is not as abundant.  YUM!

Spirituality, Peace, and Our Relationship with the World

Here is a blog post from the Christian Simple Living Blog that I think is well-written, speaks to my soul, and is something I think is worth reading.  Enjoy!

More on Food

This year I have read a few books  about the agricultural and food system in our country including Fast Food Nation, Food Inc., and Recipe for America.  With every book I read, I become more passionate about our country's food system.  Here are some of the ideas in my head after absorbing all of this information:

• The food people eat is causing them to be sick instead of healthy.
• The method that food is grown and produced is harmful to people, animals and the planet in general.
• The chemicals used as fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides are not good for human consumption.
• Conventional (as opposed to traditional/organic) farming methods deplete the soil of nutrients which causes food to have fewer nutrients.
• Cow are not being fed the right types of food for their digestive system which makes them live their whole lives in pain and battling sickness.
• Animals are generally kept in small cages that literally drives them insane.  Chickens are debeaked to keep them from attacking themselves or other chickens.
• Animals are slaughtered in a brutal method.  Many cows are skinned alive.  Many chickens are scalded while still alive.  This also endangers the humans who are skinning a cow that is kicking at them.  Plus, it seems like this would be a mentally damaging incident as well.
• Factory and farm safety conditions are not well-regulated, and if they are regulated, there is often little accountability.
• Animal waste from factory farms is not managed, and it winds up in the water supply which can cause issues.
• All of the dangerous chemicals used on plants can (and do) end up in the waterways.
• The methods used to grow food (like chemicals), raise animals (like feeding cattle corn-based diets which increases E. coli risks greatly), and prepare food (like in the slaughter house where workers work at a feverish pace which increases the chances of contaminating meat with fecal matter and therefore E. coli) are creating health risks and problems.
• Not the fisherman's fault, but many fish are high in bad stuff like mercury.  I used to think that this was just normal for fish composition, but I just recently learned that it is because of human waste that has caused mercury to end up in the waterways and thus the water animals.  Additionally, though, we are overfishing which is kind of bad news.
• Many farms and meat packers hire illegal immigrants which makes for cheap, abusive labor situations sometimes to the point of slavery.  
• Our system is not making is easier for people to eat well.
• Subsidies are poorly distributed, and so there is overproduction of many grains.
• The most cost-effective thing for people to eat is generally processed corn or wheat.
• Fresh foods are not available in many neighborhoods... especially in non-wealthy neighborhoods.
• Our system is making it difficult for small farms to remain viable.
• Big business (*cough* Monsanto *cough*) is making it hard for some small, local farmers to continue to exist.  Monsanto has been known to sue the bejeebers out of a farm that has Monsanto GMOs (genetically modified organisms) on their farm without buying the seeds from Monsanto.  The problem is that the farmers don't even want the GMOs.  Rather, the seeds are blowing onto their land from nearby farms.
• Certain laws can make it challenging for a small farm to afford to exist.  For example, if tracking cows becomes required (to be able to trace E. coli outbreaks), some small farms will not be able to afford to satisfy this requirement.  Unfortunately, it is not generally the small farms that cause E. coli outbreaks.

I described last September how Matthew and I have changed our eating habits for our health, the health, safety and fair treatment of workers, the planet's health, and many other reasons.  We have continued on a $300 per month budget throughout the year, and we've had success.  We've also made some positive changes, I think.  We no longer buy any produce from Fred Meyer, and we now buy all of our produce from the co-op and the Farmer's Market or directly from the farm!  Our meat consumption has dwindled down to next to nothing since we buy maybe a pound of meat every 3 months.  We did this in part because good meat  is fairly expensive but also because we found that we were enjoying the vegetarian meals greatly.  I have made yogurt all year which is less expensive and uses less plastic.  As an added benefit to all of these changes (plus biking/walking more and driving less), I, without even trying, lost about ten pounds and got down to the weight that I was when I graduated from high school six years ago.  Not too bad for an almost 24-year-old woman! ;)

If you find that you are also upset by the food most stores have to offer, you are welcome to do something too!  I've worked my way up to being fairly "extreme", and I understand that.  There are a lot of different things you can do to change what you eat and help build a healthy food system.  Here are some ideas, if you are interested:

• Make one change at a time as you feel moved to do so.
• Create a food budget, and budget some of that money specifically to organic food, a co-op, or a farmer's market.
• Consider going to a farm and u-picking and preserving (freezing, canning, drying...) food!
• Consider eating less or no meat and buying any meat from a local provider or a provider that you know uses good methods.
• Know what you are eating.  Where did it come from?  What state?  What farm?  What practices are they using?  Is a big business involved?  (Sorry, Big Business, but you are often unethical...)
• Consider preparing more of your own food instead of buying convenience foods.  It will save money so that you can afford to buy better foods.  Plus, you are more likely to know what's going into your meal which is always a good thing.
• Buy BULK!  It's so much cheaper than buying packaged food!  Spices are phenomenally cheaper, and most other food prices can't be beat either.  This will again save you money for some good quality food!
• Don't be tricked by cheap food prices.... Remember that there is a reason that it is cheap.  It's either probably not really healthy and/or someone or something was damaged or abused to make your food cheap.
• Really, make one change at a time as you feel moved to do so.  This process was really enjoyable for us, and it can be for you too.  It has been a relief to finally react to the facts that I had tucked in the darkest corners of my mind.  Let yourself be moved by the facts that you find, and just do the best that you can! :)

There are places to go to get involved politically like the Organic Consumer's Association, Food and Water Watch, Consumers Union, and Food Democracy Now.  Also, some food blogs include La Vida Locavore, Food Politics, and U.S. Food Policy.  These are some of the resources given by Jill Richardson in Recipe for America, and I have not had a chance to look through all of them yet, so I am not quite sure what they all involve!

Thanks for letting me ramble a little bit more about food!  Feel free to leave comments if you have something to say or any questions!

Silly Sun Hat

 It's summer.  It's Corvallis.  Thus, the sun occasionally makes an appearance!  Last year I learned that most sunscreens on the market contain ingredients that scientists believe cause melanoma (!!!).  This made me not want to put on sunscreen so often anymore.  I try not to spend too much time in direct sunlight, but it does happen on occasion.  This summer we gave away our collection of old sunscreens on Craigslist (if they're going to buy the same stuff anyway...), and we got a tube of Badger sunscreen which uses zinc oxide (but NOT nano-particle!) as the active ingredient.  This stuff seems to work well, and non-nano zinc oxide is believed to be safe, from what I've read.  Plus, the sunscreen has some cocoa in it, so it has the added benefit of smelling kind of chocolate-y.

Despite finding a decent sunscreen, it's still fairly expensive and it comes in a plastic tube.  Clearly I needed a HAT!  Not just any hat, but a slightly silly looking sun hat!  I found instructions here, and I made this super simple hat using leftover fabric from an apron and from a dress that I made.

The hat is reversible, which is kind of cool.

You can add a bow for ornament...

And there's nothing like making silly faces while wearing a silly hat!

Wants, Needs, and "Poor People"

I'd like to think that a number of my blog posts have defended the idea of helping "the poor."  However, in a recent conversation that I had with my family, I realized that I have never defined what I mean when I talk about "the poor."  Let's try to remedy that.

In some ways, we can probably all agree what it mean to be poor.  Being poor means that one is unable to supply the needs for the self or the family.  However, I'd say that many people that we consider poor are not.  The first instance of this are people in other countries that we consider poor because they do not have access to the same technology, amenities, and "stuff" that we have.  While sometimes this lack of access might come along with being poor, I do not think that being unable to access all the "stuff" of the western world is a prerequisite for being well-off.  I'm pretty sure that there are families that have basic needs met, are healthy and enjoy themselves without having extra things.  I do not consider any of these people poor, and, in fact, I think that they might perhaps be richer than many people in the US.

I also do not consider people "poor" if they have the resources to subsist but waste their resources.  This comes to the ideas of wants and needs.  I think that our country has these ideas very confused.  For example, people that we consider poor often have cable television, use air conditioning, and have expensive cell phone plans.  When it comes down to it, I can understand why even the wealthiest taxpayers might not want to pay for these luxuries for all people.

Then what does a person need to be lacking (and unable to attain) to be poor?  In my opinion, I think that ideally all people should have access to clean water, healthy food, shelter at a location from which they can get to work or subsist off of the land, clothing, some amount of health care, education (in our culture, that would include access to the Internet so that a person could stay up-to-date), the ability to save for rainy day/"retirement", and the ability to raise children in an appropriate manner (I'd like parents to have a chance to raise a family on one income).  Additionally, in our culture access to a phone line is also probably necessary, but it doesn't necessarily need to be a cell phone, and it certainly does not need to have texting/data plans.  That would mean a family should be able to afford a small apartment, but they might not be able to afford a house, and that's alright.  A family should be able to have enough clothes to maybe last a week, but they do not need a closet full of clothing.

I think that some families in the US make themselves poor by striving to have all of the comforts and conveniences that the middle and upper classes enjoy, and I honestly do not think that that is the fault of the middle and upper classes.  I don't think that the values of our society are helping these people out, but ultimately it is the responsibility of each of us to use our resources as wisely as possible to provide for our families and, ideally, to reach out to those with legitimate need.

That all being said, I do not want to sound like I think it's alright to pay the low wages that are paid for certain jobs while CEOs and others are raking in profits at the expense of their workers.  If nothing else, this is a matter of justice.  I am mostly making the point that I believe that we should think about what we want everybody to be able to access.  However, I don't know how well this will all work while our society is constantly shouting messages about how inferior a person is if he/she doesn't have the right "stuff."  Nothing is simple, but I think that it's worth thinking about these things!

Please leave a comment if you have more ideas about needs, wants, and what it means to be poor!  Also please let me know if I forgot any of the basic physical needs that people should have!

Family Life Update - Jobs?

About a month ago, Matthew and I graduated!  (Yet again!)  We went to commencement this time, and it was nice to be able to attend a final celebration as we moved on in life.

Move on indeed!  In May, Matthew found a job opening at a company in Corvallis that was looking for a mechanical engineer.  Not only was the company in our beloved town of Corvallis, but it was also dealing with energy sources in a variety of settings which is one area that really interests Matthew.  Matthew had a phone interview in May and an in-person interview June 6th.  Seven weeks into the process, we finally get an email saying that the company chose to only hire an electrical engineer now.  They are trying to strategically hire to avoid lay-offs later, and they hope to hire a mechanical engineer in the "very near future."  They said that they'd contact Matthew when they are able to hire a mechanical engineer, so we still have a sliver of hope.

However, life doesn't always work out how you dream it any given moment, so we are remaining open to other paths.

The problem is that paths do not seem to be appearing!  As such, we exist in a perpetual state of "summer vacation."  While I am happy, especially for Matthew, that this can be a time of reading, rest, and fun, it leaves us in a very odd position in our lives.  At any moment, Matthew could be called in for an interview (to the one position that he has found to apply to...), and within a matter of weeks, we could move to far-off, foreign places like Eugene, Salem or Portland!  It makes commitments challenging whether it be to commit to work with people on something or to commit to growing some food on the balcony.

I did decide to tutor for the family that I've worked with the last two years.  If I have to leave in the middle of summer, I have a replacement lined up, so I felt like this commitment is alright.  I like seeing the kids grow up, and it's fun to work with them now that they are going into the murky waters of adolescence.  (They are going into 7th grade this next year.)  They ready to learn, and I'm doing my best to help them have a solid understanding of math while maintaining a fun, pressure-free environment.  I say ridiculous things and they laugh at me, so I think we're OK.

Another thing that I did was apply to an online tutoring service.  Matthew's uncle suggested considering it since he knew someone that seemed to really enjoy it as a job.  As I started the process, I went in calm and collected, and as I come near the end, I emerge frantic and frazzled.  I have easily spent 12-24 hours filling out forms, taking subject tests, writing essays, reading procedure manuals, and watching videos.  As each of those hours went by, my anxiety increased.  When I did my "mock session" where an employee pretended to be a student and I played the role of the tutor, my heart almost leaped out of my chest onto the keyboard when the problem was something I had never seen before.  (Seriously.  Who learns how to find the equation of a parabola using the vertex and the focus?  Anybody???)  I looked it up online quickly, and I figured out how to do it once I calmed my heart down to a mere 150 bpm, but it was a panicked 30 seconds.  For the record, I think I did OK in the mock session.  If they don't choose to take me on as a tutor, I think that their main reason would be that I maybe go at a slower pace than they want in an online environment.  I tend to try to get to a hard-core understanding when I tutor so that people learn math and not a process, so if that's what they want, that's what they'll get.  If not, I totally understand.

Doing this has led me to feeling some overwhelming negative emotions that I've dealt with since I was a teenager (if not before... I just know that I dealt with them as a teenager because I've been reading through my old diaries with Matthew):

• Pride.  I haven't even told more than a few people that I am applying to tutor online.  Why?  Because I don't want to be embarrassed if they decline me.  I'm a licensed teacher for goodness sake! This is supposed to be what I'm good at!  If I fail at things that I care about, I feel horrible and embarrassed.   This is why I avoided working with kids for years.  I really want to be good with kids, and I was horrified that people would think that I wasn't adequate.  
• Feelings of complete inadequacy.  I always feel like I'm going to fail at things.  That's why I always work so hard.  (That and I'm prideful.  See the above bullet.)  Yes, dear Christian Friends, I know that God makes me strong and brings me through everything I do in life.  However, that doesn't change my gut emotions.  I'm not proud of how I feel.  (Though I am proud of plenty of other things!  Really, see the above bullet.)  I'm just getting it out there.
• Fear of new things/commitments.  Unless things/commitments seem like they are clearly right/fun/happiness-causing, they often horrify me.  Some of them I get used to like when I transitioned from middle school to high school.  Some of them continue to horrify me the entire duration like my busing job one summer.  However, in general, they all horrify me at the beginning.  I feel like I will fail (see bullet two), or that I will be miserable doing whatever it is that I'm considering doing.  Often I find that I am just fine or even very happy when I push myself to do things, but sometimes I'm not.  Online tutoring frightens me because it feels very sanitized and lacks the emotion, laughter, personal connection, and relationship that I enjoy when tutoring students in person.  Perhaps I will find other things to enjoy about online tutoring, but it's scary until I adjust.  I also am afraid that people will find me to be lacking at online tutoring skills (see bullet two.)

So, this process has left me in a funk where I have to snuggle Matthew to fall asleep because when I'm nervous I need to snuggle.  This can only continue so long because Matthew likes to roll over at night, and it's challenging when the wife never left his side of the bed like she usually does before settling in to sleep.

Speaking of Matthew, I guess this was supposed to be a family update.  He's his usual self.  He's a great reader of books whose only vice is playing too much DDO.  Alright, alright.  You win.  He has other quirks and issues!  He's very stable though, and he's not easily ruffled.  While it takes me a page to vomit my emotions, he answers, "Not much?" when I spontaneously ask him, "Do you have anxiety?"  Well, good for him.

Anyway, I haven't quite hit on everything that is happening in our world, but I did talk about jobs as promised in the title!

History

Usually I avoid waxing philosophical and stuff, and I leave all of that to my brother at his blog, but I've had a couple thoughts about history rattling around in my head for a couple of weeks, so I decided to toss it onto e-paper with some e-ink.  Kenny might also be able to inform me that this post is, in fact, not philosophy.  Feel free to do so, Brother! 


I was thinking a couple of weeks ago, and I came up with the startling realization that history and religion are not too different.  My inspiration for these thoughts comes from this video here where Hank talks about beliefs and religion.  (A response from Hank's brother, John, is here, and I found it well worth watching.)  Hank's video made me think about the difference between faith and knowledge.  A good definition for faith for us today is "firm belief in something for which there is no proof."  As for knowledge, I'll be talking about "information and skills acquired through experience or education."

I would think that most would agree that religion is generally based on faith.  Those who believe in God generally have their reasons to do so as do those who don't believe in God.  In the Bible (Hebrews 11:6, for those who care), it says "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."  To me, this sounds like God understands that sometimes humans won't "know" but will instead "believe."

What does this have to do with history?  I think that history may be more like religion in regards to being faith-filled.  It seems to me that much of our historical knowledge is hardly knowledge.  Certainly, there is probably not too much false about birth records, death records, and other official records.  But all of us who dutifully went through K-12 education are grateful that our history books were not simply filled with records.  There was an awful lot of humanity in those books which must have come from more than official recorded documents!  (Correct me if I'm wrong.  I majored in math, not history, but from what I've looked up online, and it looks to me like many primary and secondary resources are used to shape our understanding of history.)  What we receive from peoples' writings is hardly an impartial, complete view of what has happened in our past.  People tend to leave out details and exaggerate.  We write through a filter of our own understandings and beliefs.  Even as we read the newspapers today, we don't believe what's coming out of them.  Yet perhaps in 500 years, people will be flipping through yellowed papers from today to decide what is and is not true about the people of 2011.

Thus, my knowledge of history becomes faith.  I'm not trying to challenge the ideas of the existence of The Boston Tea Party, the Civil War or Auschwitz.  However, I am acknowledging that my knowledge (Nay! Beliefs!) might not be spot on.

I have thought of a few interesting applications of this new view of a faith-filled history.  First of all, it explains part of why we romanticize.  Whether it be die-hard conservatives giving their all to return us to the splendor of the revolution (ignoring the existence of slavery), hopeless romantics who dream of the wonderful world of Jane Austen (despite the fact that during this time marriage was a business matter for the "haves" and do you really want to be a "have-not" during the early 1800s?), and people like me who perhaps dream of the days of Laura Ingalls Wilder when people had less and grew food (although they were riddled by illnesses curable today, and not all people lived in a small log cabin like the Wilders).  We take our "knowledge" and turn it into support for our firm beliefs that those days were "the good old days."  And perhaps it leaves us yearning for a nonexistent past instead of dealing with the reality of the future.

Another interesting application is of course the fact that we may gather only facts that we wish to believe from the past to form our historical repertoire.  No wonder there is such a fuss about who gets to write the textbooks for out K-12 schools!  It is so easy to take texts out of context or establish beliefs about history without any reliable source or reasoning.  It is also very easy to brush aside the ugly stuff about people or an era so that we can use those people or that era to support our ideas.  Politics these days, anybody?  I highly doubt that we'll make real ground on a some issues (like the optimal size of government) for awhile because we all just have different historical faiths.

Of course, faith in history can go to the extremes just like in religion.  How about the Birthers' beliefs that Obama was not born in the U.S.?  How about the idea that President George W. Bush was in on the plan to attack our country on 9/11?  Or how about Palin's recent recounting of Paul Revere's ride that strongly seems to indicate that the ride was, in fact, a lot about the second amendment (despite its nonexistence at the time)?  (I'm sorry to bring Sarah Palin into my blog.  I think she gets enough attention as it is, but her fantastic faith in our history struck me, and I couldn't imagine not fitting it into this post.)

Perhaps all of this was always obvious to you, but it really clicked with me in the past couple of weeks how history adds to the mess of humanity.  Mind you, I think that history is important and worthwhile.  (The mess of religion hasn't seemed to stop me from partaking, no?)  However, I can understand better why we fight so much politically.  History seems to be a lot of faith.  It seems that it is very easy to not get along when faith is involved.

The Virtuous Consumer

I just finished The Virtuous Consumer by Leslie Garrett, and I think that it is a book worth reading if you are interested in reconsidering some or all of your consumer decisions.  Garrett does a good job of laying out all sorts of options for dealing with decisions about clothing, kids, houses, decorating, celebrating holidays, food, beauty products, and more.  If you are looking for someone who offers fairly moderate ways to change, I'd highly recommend this book!

I don't blow my nose on trees anymore...

Why?  Maybe because I like hugging them.

Actually, that's not the reason.  Although, hugging that tree would have been a lot more gross if someone had blown their nose on it.

Honestly, I can't keep up with the politics of tissue making.  I know that Kimberly-Clark (the makers of Kleenex) has gotten a lot of flack about their practices.  I think they were chopping trees down in an unsustainable manner and in a way that was harming habitats and such.  Regardless, even if we find a good way to source the trees, there is still a water-wasting, energy-intensive, chemical-filled process that turns a chunk of brown wood into a fluffy, bright white cloud for your nose.

I avoid keeping up with the politics and the chemicals by avoiding tissues altogether.  I have been struck down by a ridiculous head cold these last few days (the kid who gave it to me might have gotten extra homework when I tutored him yesterday...), and I have been blowing my nose on cloth.  I have used a few handkerchiefs that I used to use to pull my hair back during middle school when it was still fashionable (I think?).  I also made a stack of handkerchiefs out of the scraps of the sheet that I used to make drawstring bags.  Finally, I have even been using a small stack of real, bona fide frilly hankies that I got my hands out.  Nothing is too good for my nose goo.  Except maybe trees.

To rinse them out, I leave them in the sink for a while and we wash our hands over them.  Then they are ready to go in the laundry, get cleaned, dry in the sun, and then be used again!

Hooray for being sick!  No...  I don't think I mean that.  I mean, hooray for avoiding disposables even when being sick!

Sunny Side Upcycle - June

Here is this month's Etsy creations.  All except for the whale and the bunny still remain for sale at sunnysideupcycle.etsy.com! :)