Awesome breakfast

Pear-berry crisp.  It's quick, it's easy, it's healthy, and it's delicious.  Therefore, it's an awesome breakfast in my book.  I have been using pears and marionberries since we have a lot frozen from last summer and they aren't Matthew's favorites.  I think it would be delicious with any mixture of berries, pears, peaches, or apples that sound appealing at the time.

How to make Pear-berry Crisp
1) Fill some sort of bakeware mostly full with fruit.  Stir in some cinnamon and/or ginger to taste.  If you have super juicy fruit, you might want to toss a bit of cornstarch in to keep it from being too runny.

2) In a bowl, mix together about a cup of quick oats, around 1/4-1/3 of a cup of oat flour, and about 1/2 tsp of cinnamon.  Use your fingers to combine with 1 Tbsp of butter until the butter has been combined fairly evenly.  Pour the mixture on top of the fruit in the bakeware.

3) Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until nice and hot.  This will depend on your choice of bakeware!  A bread pan will probably take 30-40 minutes.

My New Rest of the Year Resolution

New Years' Resolutions?  Overrated!  January 21st is a great day to make a resolution. Haha!

Today I decided that I want to read more.  My "Books I Want to Read" pins on Pinterest are just growing at an unsustainable rate with my current reading habits!  The books all look so amazing, though... 

MUST READ ALL THE BOOKS!

Therefore, my New Rest of the Year Resolution of today is to read books for half an hour a day.

And if a nap occurs directly after reading... so be it.

Some Chocolate Love

 Do you think that chocolate is one of God's gifts to humankind?  I can't argue with you there.  It's delicious and apparently is even considered good for you when you eat it in the form of dark chocolate!

Unfortunately, the way that cocoa is grown and sourced is currently not one of God's gifts.  There is a huge problem with child labor and even slavery in the industry.  Beyond retaining people against their will, the form of slavery used includes physical violence including whipping.

These people are real people.  I quote from Food Is Power:

"Drissa, a recently freed cocoa slave who had never even tasted chocolate, experienced similar circumstances and when asked what he would tell the people who eat chocolate made from slave labor, he replied that the people enjoyed something that he suffered to make, adding: 'When people eat chocolate they are eating my flesh.'"

There is a lot more information about the conditions and reality of cocoa farming at the same page on Food Is Power.

The good news is that there are things that you can do to try to avoid this chocolate!  Perhaps the best way would be to look for Fair Trade certified chocolate.  (While there are imperfections in any certification, it does provide accountability.)
There is a more comprehensive description about how to find slave-free chocolate at this site, and it even includes a list of Slave-Free chocolates to choose from!  If you find you really get into the issue, you can let your favorite chocolate companies know that you do not approve of slave labor in the acquisition of cocoa products.  If you can honestly say that you will avoid buying their chocolate until they change their policies, that provides a good consumer pressure on the company.

As you buy some chocolate to say "I love you" to people this year at Valentine's Day, you can also say "I love you" to some people in Africa by getting slave-free chocolate.  How cool is that?!

Daily Decisions: Some CSA action

Recently Matthew and I bought a share in a local CSA.  The acronym CSA, in case you are unaware, stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  Generally, you will purchase a share from a farm before the harvest season, and they will provide you boxes of fruits and veggies (or possibly honey, eggs, etc. depending on the type of share you are buying) during the harvest season.  The benefit to this approach is that it supplies farmers with the money that they need when they need it.  The risk to the buyer is that crops aren't guaranteed; however, while one crop might not come in, others almost definitely will because our farmers know what they are doing!  Regardless, the money goes to a local family to support them while they do a hugely important job: Providing good, healthy food to people!

One thing that could be good or bad depending on how you see things is that you don't control what produce comes into your home any given week.  I personally try to cook with the seasons anyway, and I like figuring out what to cook based on what's available, so to me it is an exciting challenge!

The farm that we picked is Sun Gold Farm which is in Forest Grove, OR (just two suburbs west of us... a hop skip away!).  One reason that we picked this farm is the growing practices that they use (sustainable, people-friendly, earth-friendly), and another is the fact that we can pick up the food box at the Farmer's Market that is just half a mile away from Matthew's work (about 1.2 miles from our apartment).  If I'm teaching Wednesday nights during the season, Matthew can pick it up right after work.  Otherwise, I can go up to pick it up and meet up with Matthew on his way home.  Plus, if we want any specific produce that doesn't come with the food box, we can pick it up while at the Farmers' Market.  Perfect!

If you are interested in supporting a local farm through a CSA program, you can visit the Local Harvest site to find one in your area!

God Grew Tired of Us

If you are into watching documentaries, God Grew Tired of Us is a really moving one that is worth watching.  It is a bit old (released in 2006), and the genocidal conflict between the north and the south of Sudan was declared finished with a treaty in 2005.  However, tension remains in Sudan (you may have heard of the recent war/genocide in Darfur).  In fact, according to a New York Times article linked from Genocide Watch, early in 2012 there was a massacre in South Sudan that left 3,000 killed.  To make a connection in our US minds, this is just about the exact same number as the count given for the death toll from the 9-11 attacks (2,996 including the 19 hijackers according to Wikipedia).  And this is just the most recent attack in Sudan in a conflict that dates back to at least the 1980s!

In addition to gaining some information about the conflict and the consequences for the people, it is amazing to watch pastoral Sudanese be introduced to what we take for granted: electricity, abundant food, and showers.  It also gave me a glimpse into how different our cultures are, and it made me feel like we could learn a lot from each other!

The story is not for the faint-of-heart: The images of refugees are heartbreaking.  However, I cried out of happiness, too, as there were happy endings for some of the individuals' stories.

Not just relevant to the past: Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On this day, many people in our nation get a day off from school or work in honor of someone that our nation has decided is a hero worth honoring.  We know that Dr. King was a huge force that pushed the civil rights movement to a new level.  However, I think that if he visited our nation today, he would probably not think that he could rest.  I believe that he would continue to fight for the underdogs in the system since the civil rights movement did not immediately create balance, and I learned today that he was a activist for the poor as well.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."  -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Indeed, there was more to Dr. King than we commemorate!  While he was probably speaking out against spending our resources in Vietnam (a war which he opposed) when he said this, would he feel much different about the endless wars that we have been in since his untimely passing?  How would he feel about how we treat those in poverty today?  Would he think that we are sufficiently lifting them up?

I don't believe that Dr. King's goals for the US must be your goals.  I don't believe that he was a perfect man with all the right ideas.  However, from what I have heard, I do believe that he was a hero, and I respect him.  As such, I think that it is worth considering his ideas outside of the realm of civil rights.  So, as you go about your day, perhaps you can take a few moments to honor our hero by asking yourself what you are called to do to uplift those who need uplifting.

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."  -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

May we live unselfish lives filled with love.  I leave you with a favorite quotation of mine:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."  --Martin Luther King, Jr.

Because things are complicated...

... I write this post.  I reposted this meme on Facebook yesterday:

I do not know where this image originally came from!  I found it here,
but they do not state where they got it from.

I then explained what I thought when I saw it:

"I suppose that some explanation would be good, too. I'm not positive what was intended by these photos, but what I see is the irony of people thanking God for food that was provided to them (so cheaply!) at the expense of the underpaid, overworked workers. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it though, and perhaps it's just making the point that we should be grateful for our farmworkers (especially since they don't get paid much... and they are part of the reason food is so cheap...)

I stand by the point of irony, though."

I think that some people may have interpreted my words as saying that the family was conscious at the time of thanking God that their food was likely provided by workers that were, in some peoples' opinions, unfairly treated.  That honestly wasn't what was happening in my mind.  I was just noticing that in our system, we end up regularly thanking God for His provision, and to me something is wrong with this because it is hard for me to say that "God's provision" is food provided by workers in horrible conditions.  Minus the provision of the sun, the rain, and the beauty of growing plants, I do not see a lot of God in our food system.  This is where I find unfortunate irony.

Before I continue, I want people to realize that I am not suggesting that families starve before buying unfairly provided food.  Life is not black and white.  We all have our own decisions to make and battles to fight.

Now, here is where I confess that I draw these conclusions on my own.  There is nothing in the Bible saying that the US food system is broken.  There is nothing stating how much farm workers should make.  There is nothing stating how often farm workers should get breaks.  There is nothing stating how much compensation they should get when they get injured doing their jobs.  It is not even a church teaching that leads me to my conclusions.  I have not yet found a church who openly speaks about these things.  It is my own personal convictions that lead me to want others to know more about our system so that they can make their decisions based on knowledge.  I do not claim to be God's voice although I believe that He is the root of my passion for these issues.  If you disagree with me, that is certainly your right.  I'm human.  It's a humble position.  I could be wrong.

If I am honest, though, I do personally believe that Christians are sorely lacking when it comes to responding to issues of social justice.  I think that this happens partially because the issues are very complicated and not very self-apparent.  When you buy green beans at the store, you probably don't even think about where it came from or who picked it.  This isn't because you are a bad person, but it is because it is not how our culture works.  However, I also believe this happens because Christians do not separate themselves from the rest of culture when it comes to consumer habits.  While we say that "whatever we do, whether in word or deed, we do it for the glory of God" (or at least make it our goal), I think that somehow our consumer decisions are often made based off of the black and white ethical guide of, "Can I afford it or not?"  While certainly it is good to avoid debt if possible, I believe that a lot more should go into the decision to purchase almost any sort of item.  Food is certainly one example.  Another example that has gone painfully ignored is the use of sweatshops around the world to create almost all of the consumer goods that we buy: clothing, toys, electronics, etc.  Unlike our food system, I do believe that it is widespread knowledge that sweatshops are a problem, but I do not observe that Christians have, in my opinion, reacted accordingly.

I know I am not perfect.  I do try to buy food from farmers making fair wages.  I do this by trying to buy most things from local farms and looking for the fair trade certification.  I buy what I can from the co-op in Corvallis since I know they research the origins of products as much as they can.  However, there is a chance that some of my food still comes from poorly treated workers.  I also try to avoid sweatshop labor by buying almost everything used.  However, even in the last year I couldn't find a used soap dispenser (which I wanted to buy to use for homemade tooth soap so that we could stop buying toothpaste), so I ended up buying a new one.  I looked, and it had the typical "Made in China" sticker, and I felt the pang of guilt, praying that the workers who made it were treated well and apologizing if they weren't.  I know I am not perfect.


It is with humbleness that I ask you to weigh my words in your heart and decide for yourself whether or not these are problems that you are called to address in your life.  I don't expect anybody will be perfect, but I think that with God we can change the world just by trying to do right!  I personally believe that our government can be used to effect positive change as well, and I encourage you to use your voice in our democracy.  However, I think it would be huge and beautiful if we all work to put our money in positive places.

Because things are complicated... I ask you to consider my words and ideas.
Because things are complicated... I come to you humbly.  I could be wrong.
Because things are complicated... I hope to give and receive grace if and when we disagree.

Thank you for all of you who take the time to read my words on this blog.  I hope that I generally come across as informative and maybe occasionally inspiring rather than judgmental and critical.  I love you all!

Animals: The feathered and the furry

Recently some friends posted a picture of an abused dog on Facebook.  In my opinion, animal abuse is horrible.  To me, it seems bizarre to needlessly, purposely inflict trauma and pain upon a living creature.  I think that most people probably agree with that.  This always stirs in me a question: Then why are so many people not disturbed by how the animals that provide them food are treated?  The same people furrowing their brows about a dog in pain may easily have eaten eggs from chickens that were debeaked or beef from a cow skinned alive during slaughter.  There is a disconnect in my mind, so I wanted to present some information to hopefully help bridge the gap.  First, here are some pictures:

From Alliance for Natural Health USA.

Here are some of your cage-free laying hens.  From Powered by Produce.

Chickens aren't meant to live like this, and it stresses them out.  To keep them
from attacking each other, they debeak them.  From  Powered by Produce.

It's not just chickens...
Picture from eutrophication&amphypoxia.

Cows too...
Picture from Kitchen Stewardship

After living a stressful life, these animals don't always even get to enter death peacefully.  In a book that I read (I apologize, I don't remember which one although it was likely Fast Food Nation or Food Inc.), I learned that animals are sometimes skinned alive and, if things don't go quite right, they can even be skinned while conscious.  Talk about torturous.  This is also incredibly dangerous for the worker skinning the animal for obvious emotional reasons but also because the heavy, flailing animals can hurt the human.

How do you avoid all of this?  That's a great question.  While "organic", "free range", and "cage free" labels may sound like the animals producing your eggs, dairy and meat lived happy lives, that's not necessarily so.  I would look up the farm, talk to the store that you are buying the products from, and/or buy directly from a farmer that you trust.  For more on eggs, here is a good source (there is a great table on Pages 14 and 15 that show you how tricky certifications can be!).  It is helpful to look up certifications so that you know what each one guarantees.

It is likely that a good source of animal products will be more expensive, so you might find that you need to cut back on these products to stay within your food budget.  I've mentioned before that Matthew and I eat an almost exclusively vegetarian diet, and this is why.  For us, meat was the easiest animal product to cut back on because there are a bunch of amazing vegetarian recipes out there!  You can eat a bean and cheese burrito, enchiladas, various soups, vegetarian chili, lasagna, etc.  A lot of the meals that you eat can be turned into vegetarian meals.  If you consider eating more vegetarian foods or vegan foods, just make sure that you look up some information about how to make sure you are getting the nutrients you need.  It's totally doable though, and a vegetarian/vegan diet can lend to a super healthy life as long as you are grabbing whole foods instead of processed stuff.  If you need any more motivation:  I gained a bit of weight near the end of my undergrad career, but I have lost fifteen to twenty pounds in the last year and a half to two years.  I'm smaller than I was in high school, and I feel good, too.  I also tend to move a lot (partially because I avoid our car like the plague, but that's a different story), but I'm pretty sure that diet plays a large part in my weight and health.

Any thoughts about why people are not concerned about animal welfare when it comes to animals providing our food?  Do you think people don't know about it?  Are we just so used to seeing animals crammed together that it seems normal now instead of cruel?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

And then POOF I was gone!

I actually didn't go anywhere.  I just feel like I have been gone from the blogging world for awhile.  The last couple weeks I prepared to begin teaching and then began teaching two classes at Portland Community College.  I tend to obsess and freak out about new things.  Part of the reason that I gave up the idea of being a high school teacher is because there just wasn't enough time in the day for me to do enough that I felt like I had done my job and done it well while I was student teaching.  I would work 12 to 14 hours a day and still feel like I was barely hanging in there.  I also cried a lot.  However, part-time teaching is TERRIFIC because it leaves me with plenty of time to prepare and still have time to live the rest of my life!  I probably am working about half-time right now based on the number of hours that I put in, but I can see how the time will decrease if I reteach any of these courses.  For now, I figure that the extra time that I put in is just part of my contribution to society.

Here are my thoughts so far:

1) Everybody I have worked with so far has been super nice.  I have talked to and emailed a fair number of people during the new hire process, and I have really appreciated how genuinely friendly people have been!

2) Getting put into a bureaucratic system isn't particularly fun.  It takes a lot of time to fix a few mistakes made along the way.  At least everybody is nice while calling and emailing people, though!

3) I hate lesson planning.  It gives me the biggest feelings of inadequacy.  I feel incapable of making the best lesson plan.  I want to plan time for group work, but I can't seem to lecture for a short enough time to get that to happen.  I want to give them more time to work problems on their own during class, too, but that hasn't happened... yet.  The first week is crazy though.  We'll see.

4) Teaching is fun.  As soon as I get over the initial shock of having 30 people I don't know staring at me, I start to really enjoy doing my job.  I don't know how or why, but when I'm teaching I feel casual, relaxed, and in a groove of mathiness.  I occasionally make stupid jokes, and the students laugh at my ridiculousness.  I love watching peoples' faces to see that they are understanding what's going on.  (Although, it's a bit painful to see panic on faces occasionally... I think some of my students probably have my personality!)

5) Students are generally great.  I have students from all over the board from straight out of high school to coming back to college after having dropped out with a 7th grade education level.  So far, they have all been friendly to me.  Some have been so kind as to take the time to let me know that they are happy with how things are going so far.  I also have students who are honest enough to tell me that they are horrified about the speed of the class.  It's really nice to have students who are willing to honestly communicate.

As a student teacher and then as a TA, my strengths and weaknesses became clear to me.  I feel like I am really good at creating a good classroom atmosphere.  My students (in the past and this term) have told me that they like that I am enthusiastic, relaxed, not arrogant, not intimidating, and laid-back.  It makes me happy to know that my class is probably not one that they dread.  I also appreciate that I have a chance for ten weeks to let people know that someone cares about them and believes in their ability to be successful.

My weaknesses, as hinted at above, are in figuring out exactly how to plan "the most effective" lesson plan.  I got better at this during my six terms as a TA, though, and I expect that I will gradually figure things out again in this situation.

There you have it.  Now you know where my mind has been the last couple of weeks.  I have other blog post ideas that occasionally pop to the surface of my head, so we'll see what comes of them.

I hope you all are enjoying January!  Isn't it nice that the sun now sets after 5pm again?  I'm loving the changes as we head toward spring!

Karen's Creed of 2012

As I consider the last year or two, I realize that I have learned a ridiculous amount about our world, and I have been madly working to change my life in light of my discoveries.  As we start a new year, I think I want to just write a post that summarizes where I am at this point in time.  Obligatory Note:  My goal isn't to convince you that my beliefs are right and yours are wrong.

I do believe that my primary purpose on this planet is my spirituality which first involves how I relate to God and second involves how I relate to other humans.  I believe that God loves all people and all creation, and I believe that He sent Jesus to our little planet to show how much He loves us.  I believe Jesus was a great man giving a wonderful example of how to treat people, and I also believe that Jesus was and is God with us.  I believe that God miraculously and mysteriously invites all of us into a fulfilling relationship with Him through Jesus.  (I also believe that I don't understand fully how this works or why it works this way!)  I believe that it is important for me to have this relationship with God so that we can use His infinite love and power to decrease world suck levels because it's just so hard to do it on my own.  I believe that the Kingdom of God is here, and I can bring it to people if I love them with God's love.

I believe that I am called to respect and love those around me when they don't agree with my opinionated self!  I am grateful that I am allowed to speak freely, but I believe that God makes me responsible to pour out love and grace generously on those in my life, not to generate a list of people that I make it my project to "save".

I believe that through God I am motivated to be a positive force in the world.  I believe that my life is not my own but God's and others', and as a result I work to decrease the amount of time I spend striving to bring about my own gain.  However, I believe that there is a lot of joy in decreasing the amount of time I spend focusing on myself.  There are also challenges, fun times, friendships, fulfilling moments, and painful moments along the road.

I regretfully believe that I live in an overly selfish, self-absorbed culture that focuses on current gains over future losses.  As such, I work to put my life in order so that the way I live does not harm future generations.  Sometimes I fail, but I find joy in the changes in my life.

I believe that I live in a fast-paced culture that is too busy to eat nourishing foods, spend time with family and friends, and relax.  As such, I work to put my life in order so that I have time to live fully.

I believe that I am called to fight for our wonderful planet.  I believe Earth was a gift from God that we are supposed to care for so that it can continue to provide for us and delight us.  I believe that we have gotten off-track and out-of-control.  I believe in promoting inner peace and gratitude instead of materialism.  I believe in promoting sustainable agriculture and consumerism practices.  I believe that humans are happier when there is balance.

I believe that I am called to fight for social justice.  I feel strongly about my actions matching my words, so I research products and do my best to buy products that were not made by underpaid, overworked workers in dangerous conditions.

I believe that my life, family, friends, job status, and finances are all gifts from God.  As such, I am humbled because I know that we are blessed.  Instead of searching for material wealth in my life, I hope that I can successfully invest my time and finances back into the world to bring good changes.

I believe that every decision I make affect others both now and in the future.  As such, I try to make wise decisions.

I believe in giving grace as we all stumble about on this confusing and often seemingly cold planet.

I believe in receiving grace from God even as I regularly fail to give it.

As I go into 2012, I pray for a year of positive change!

A winter dinner and a pile o' worms

Some dinners are just worth sharing.  This is a kale salad, sauteed crimini mushrooms
and sunchokes, an orange, and a homemade whole wheat roll with strawberry freezer
jam made last summer.  Simple and yummy!

I haven't said much about my worm bin since I got it.  In short, the worms seem to be
pretty happy and productive!  We produce too many plant scraps to throw all
 of them in the bin, but we do what we can.  Hopefully in the not-too-distant
future we'll have a home with a yard and a compost bin...  We'll see.