August Happenings!

I haven't written since the dramatic rooster incident!  As much trauma and tears as that caused, it led into a couple of really wonderful weeks!

Within  a few days, the chickens became a tightly
bound social unit again.  What a relief!

Soon after the pecking order was established, Scrambled started
laying eggs.  She seems to be on schedule to lay 5 or 6 eggs
a week!  Good little Scrambledsaurus!

I picked peaches as soon as the u-pick place opened.  YUM!

I canned 20 quarts of peaches this year, and I froze six gallons.
Not to mention all of the smooooothies with fresh peaches!

I turned 25!

Matthew took off a few days this week in observance of my
birthday and our anniversary.  We decided to take on the project
that was our unfinished hearth.

Here's Matthew removing the particle board that was in our way.

 Now we're down to the thinset from the tiles that used to be here when
it was a not-woodstove-fireplace. 

We definitely deliberated about what we'd do to finish the hearth.  To buy the resources needed to tile this, we anticipated that it would cost around $100, especially since this was such a small project with no economy for size.  If you've read much of this blog or if you know me well, you may realize that I take how we spend our money and how we use the earth's resources quite seriously.  I felt really uncomfortable spending that much money on the cosmetics of the hearth, so I encouraged all my creative brain-power to think of a different solution.  I asked myself, "What do people use to keep fire in its place?"  My brain answered, "Rocks and stone."

So that's what we did.

I remembered that we had a bunch of stones in the used-to-be dog run. We gathered some with the prettiest colors and designs, washed them off, and used grout/adhesive to finish our hearth.  Total cost?  Twelve dollars.  It would have been $9, but neither us nor our neighbors had anything to cut out the old torn up particle board, so we headed to the little local tool shop (go small businesses!!), and we bought a wood chisel.  

Here's the final result:

 We like it, and I'm really glad that we decided to rock the system and try to find an alternative to traditional tiling.

Anyway, back to our happenings...

For our anniversary we decided to go camping in our backyard the night beforehand.
We made dinner over the fire, and it was really fun.  The one caveat?
We didn't have any good padding under (or on!) us, so we found our bones
crushed into the ground at night.  I became wide-awake around 2:30am, and
by 3:30am it became apparent to both of us that we were needlessly getting a bad
night's sleep.  We crawled out of the tent and back inside... Oh well!  It was fun, and
we learned!

I made homemade marshmallows (seriously!) and graham crackers for s'mores.

Sooooo good!!!

The next day, on our actual anniversary, we made a bunch
of homemade pizza and watched a movie.  Yum yum yum!
And lots of leftovers to enjoy!

I also sported a skirt and running shoes while loading the dishwasher.

Four years together can make you happy!

Four years together can make you silly!

Yay for our fourth anniversary!!

Bathroom Before and After

Before

After

I really am not trying to have a home that people admire for its interior decoration.  My main considerations for what we do inside our home are: 

• Does it use resources (monetary and physical) wisely?  
• Does it bring simplicity and calm, or does it add clutter and stress?

That being said, it looks like it's time to sell the metal shelving that has served us well in the last three apartments.  In this bathroom, it just makes it unnecessarily sloppy and crowded.  We installed a white shelf that we had on hand because we used it in a couple of apartments, and we hung up some hooks (found in one of the bedroom closets!) for our towels.  Much tidier and no new resources used!

WORMS!

I've been thinking about worms for a long time...

Most of Matthew and my waste these days comes from the leftovers from our produce; rinds, cores, and the like.  I know it seems like this is innocuous stuff to send to the landfill because it's totally biodegradable, but unfortunately it's not.  In short, the conditions in a landfill are not those such that food waste can biodegrade.  (For more information about this, you can read about it here and here.)  What's worse is that because the waste is in an anaerobic environment, it ends up producing a lot of methane which is a major greenhouse gas that is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.  (Which is another reason to consider eating less beef, since cows are amazing methane producers, but I digress...)

In Corvallis, we did our best to keep our food waste from going to the landfill by hauling most of each week's scraps to church on Sunday and handing them off to a family who owns goats and chickens who eat said scraps.  If you happen to live in Corvallis, you might be interested in their municipal compost heap.  They have "green carts" that you can put in all kinds of plant and food matter along with paper towels and certain paper plates/cups.  (You have to verify that the plates/cups that you use do not have a plastic coating on them which many of them do... You may think it's wax, but it's probably plastic.  Look for plates that say they are compostable, or contact the manufacturer and ask them what the coating is.  Or, better yet, just use reusable plates.)    We were unable to participate in this awesome program, though, because we lived in an apartment that didn't have a bin.  I considered asking our manager to get one, but I realized that based on what I found in the recycling bins, I didn't think that the people in our apartment would use the green cart properly.  I digress yet again...

Now that we are in Aloha, we know no farmers, have no green cart, but still eat fruits and veggies!  We also have a little outdoor storage closet... Enter the worm bin.

I found directions about how to set one up here and found fairly local worms here.  I bought my plastic tub at Goodwill for $2.99, and I used our drill to put holes in it for ventilation and draining.  As I was walking home with my container (seriously... who walks 1.7 miles hauling one of these things?  I do.), I remembered that worms don't like light, but I had just bought a clear plastic container.  I remedied this by using some random spray paint that we have.  (For the record, I hate spray paint.  It is full of nasties, as your lungs will attest as you spray it.  From here on out, I'm only buying canned paint and use a brush when we need to paint... preferably the low-VOC variety.)  I happened to have pink, so I painted on a worm.  Or a "W".  Or whatever your imagination says it is.  My wormies arrived in a little box in the mail today, and they were still wriggling, so they're alive.  I prepared their bedding, and I placed them in it, and then I tossed in the few scraps that I managed to save today.

Make worm poop, young pinkish wrigglers!  Then make more worms!  Then I will steal your lovely worm poop and throw it at plants!  It shall be MARVELOUS!

Weddings!

I've been thinking about weddings recently!  I went to one last weekend, and I sold my own wedding gown today, so it's just been on my mind.  Part of what I have been thinking about is how much I have changed in the last three years and how different our wedding would look as a result.  I'm not saying that I am not happy with our wedding, I really am.  My family and friends were there, and it was a really beautiful and happy day for us. However, it's kind of fun to consider what would have been the same and what I would have changed.

I did pretty much all of the planning myself which I didn't mind doing being it was a welcome study break throughout that year!  I figured out the food, attire, decorations, photos, and other details, and I made sure they all came together.  It's not that I didn't have help; I did, but I was pretty much "the planner".  I would do a lot of it the same.  I baked my own wedding cake, and I frosted it with some help from my now sister-in-law.  I also baked some of the food for the reception; some Amish friendship bread and some chocolate chip cookies.  The rest of the food my mom, my bridesmaids, and I prepared the day before the wedding.  I think that it was really fun to do this, and I remember the excitement of the day as my friends and I made my plans come to fruition.  I ordered flowers wholesale, and a lovely lady from the church volunteered to arrange them for me.  I used a fair amount from the church, too, like vases, pedestals, tablecloths, etc.  My friend from high school did our photography, and I had a couple family members with video cameras catch the footage.

I think that the biggest things that I would change are the attire and the flowers.  My wedding gown cost $600.  Because our wedding was put together by ourselves and our family and friends, it was not a terribly expensive wedding by the end of things, so I decided to splurge on the dress.  Mind you, I realize that $600 isn't even that much compared to many dresses, but it was a LOT to me.

It is pretty though, no?  However, I think that if I was getting married now instead of then, I would have either rented, found a gown used, or ditched the "gown" idea altogether and found a nice white dress that I could wear for more than just the wedding.  I did decide to sell my dress, and I finally sold it today for $40 to a friend-of-the-bride who wanted to buy a dress for someone who couldn't afford one herself.  I'm happy that it sounds like it will be put to good use, but it took me 2-3 years to sell it, and it didn't sell until I listed it as $150 or best offer.  Tux rentals were also fairly expensive, and that could have been saved by going with a more casual feel for the attire.  Additionally, my bridesmaids bought their own dresses.  While they weren't particularly expensive for bridesmaids dresses (I think they were about $70) and I let them wear any black shoes that they wanted, I doubt that any of them ever wore the dresses again.  Hopefully they sold them, too!  I think that I would be less picky about the dresses now.  Perhaps they'd wear something they already had?  Or we'd find something they'd wear again?

The other thing I'd change is the flowers.  I learned only recently that so many of the cut flowers that we get are actually grown a) in another country..., b) often in a poor country, and c) on land that probably should be used to supply food to people in said poor country.  With this new knowledge, if I got married now, I would feel like I should use locally sourced flowers and greenery that was in season.  This might have involved me being less picky again, but I would be happy to feel like I was doing something good for the earth and not supporting big farmers that are making it hard for people to grow food in their own countries!

I'm sure that other decisions would have been made slightly differently along the way, but these are just things that come to mind.  I'm not exactly itching to get married again soon, so if you are ever interested in talking about what you can do to make your wedding fun, friendly for the earth and the people on it, inexpensive but beautiful, etc., let me know! :)

How to make vegetable broth...

... because it's really ridiculously simple.

1) Save vegetable scraps.  Freeze them if you need to!  (I did...)  I used bits of potato, carrot tops, onion skins, zucchini tops, bits of brocolli stalks, garlic tops and skins, and probably some other things that I'm not remembering.  I also tossed in some fresh oregano that I have growing, and I added some pepper and a couple of bay leaves.  You can look up other vegetables to see if they go in broth if you are uncertain.  The only thing that I know you don't want to add is leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, and kale.

2) When your bag is full, get ready for broth time!  Defrost your veggies and throw them in a stock pot then add some cold water.  (Apparently, it's somehow better if you start with cold water.  Vegetable magic, I'm sure.)  Theoretically you are supposed to have about one parts water to one part vegetable matter.  I'm pretty sure you'll be OK as long as you have a decent amount of vegetable matter.

Nom nom nom... Looks delish!

3) Now turn up the heat, and get this pot of goodness simmering!  You don't really want it to boil, but you do want it to simmer.  Once it's simmering, put it on a heat that will keep it simmering, and let it go for at least an hour!  I stirred mine every once in awhile, but that might not be totally necessary... I might have just wanted to admire my broth.

4) After around an hour, your kitchen probably smells great, and your broth is also probably done.  It's time to strain out the squishy plant matter and save the broth.  Remember, this isn't pasta... you want to save the liquid and get rid of the solid stuff!  (I only say this because this part of the process felt incredibly backward to the pasta-eater in me.)  Set your strainer in a bowl or another pot, and pour your liquid in.

It looks delicious and nutritious!

5) Let your broth cool off, and then store it in containers to freeze or use.  I used some cottage cheese containers that I've collected over the year.

My almost full gallon bag of veggies gave me about 12 cups of broth, I think.  I already used two cups when making rice yesterday, and it added a nice flavor (and probably some nutrients!).

So there you have it!  A very inexpensive, resourceful way to have some broth around.  Enjoy!

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!

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!

Call me a hippie...

... because I've got me some Birkenstocks!

About these shoes... My black sandals that I've worn the last few years are about to fall apart any minute.  I wanted to buy good quality shoes that I can wear with jeans, shorts, skirts and dresses.  I'm trying to do better about the excess in my wardrobe and collection of shoes.  While these shoes aren't the standard "dress sandals", they will work for me.  Also, I have only heard good things about the quality of Birkenstocks which makes me really happy.  From what I've read about the company, they also tend to be fairly conscious of the environment and minimizing waste.  Yay!

That all being said, let's return to the title, "Call me a hippie..."  A few times in the last year we've had people incredulously asking us, "You're not becoming a hippie, are you?"  Golly gee!  If caring about our planet, rejecting materialism, becoming passionate about social issues, and changing your lifestyle to reflect these values makes you a hippie, then yes, we will happily be hippies!  Reusable-bag-toting, tofu-eating, co-op-owning, waste-avoiding, tree-hugging, birkies-wearing hippies!

There.  It's off my chest. :)

Peace.

Living More with Less

I just finished the book Living More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre.  Truly, it was really a book compiled by Longacre because most of the text was actually written by people across the U.S. and even across the world.    I believe that the purpose of the book was to motivate reconsideration of the way we live and do things and then provide practical options for change.  Although this book was written 30 years ago, I found it entirely thought-provoking and relevant.  One attraction to me was the it was written by Christians (Mennonites!); I so rarely find another Christian with an interest in simple living, so it's nice to have two of my passions shared by a group of people.

Although the book was filled with wonderful suggestions, I want to talk a little bit about how a different part of the book affected me.  There were themes tied in throughout the book that included "Do Justice" and "Learn from the World Community."  These two themes really stirred me.

The following is one of the verses in the Bible that always inspires me:

And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

Quoting Longacre, "Do justice must become the first standard for living by which Christians make choices.  Our knowledge of others' needs and our guilt must resolve itself into a lasting attentiveness.  This means being mindful, conscious, aware, so that never again can one make a decision about buying and using without thinking of the poor."  While I think that ultimately it is love that is the first standard for living by which Christians should make choices, doing justice certainly is part of love.  

Certainly part of doing justice is the way that we spend our money.  Throughout the book, there were beautiful examples of churches choosing to do without large buildings, remodels, new equipment, etc and instead giving money to others.  I think this also connects with the idea that we should be buying less so that we can spend money on ethically made products, save some money instead of going into debt, and give some money away.

Beyond personal choices, Longacre also addresses the fact that our political and economic system are an important part of creating justice.  In fact, our system is currently broken in the sense that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer despite working hard.  We are turning into a society of the "haves" and "have nots", and our lawmakers are being paid by corporations to make decisions that are bad for people and good for corporate profit.  Even people in our rich nation are struggling to get health care, food for their children, and other basic needs.  Of course, there are many others struggling even more than this around the world.

As we vote, and as we have civil conversations with others where we express our opinions, we should be considering who is benefiting from the policies being considered.  Who will benefit from tax cuts?  Who will get hurt?  Who will benefit from deregulation?  Who will get hurt?  I understand that some people believe in allowing the free market to do what it does without government intervention, but is our market really free?  Will the free market really benefit people in need and/or is the free market more important than fighting against unfair labor practices?

I love the way that Longacre introduces the idea of learning from the world community:

"If you as a North American travel to an economically poor country such as Haiti or Bangladesh, your first reaction is likely to be shock... After a time, shock gives way to ideas for development projects typically conducted by church agencies...These reactions are certainly warranted.  God help us when poverty no longer shakes us into action.  But how rarely we realize that person from other countries often go through a similar thought process when living with us!... For we, of course, have problems too.  No one wants to hear the whole sordid list again, but it begins with materialism, violence in streets and homes, family breakdown, drug and alcohol abuse, automobile accidencts, poor diet and degenerative diseases, waste of material resources, pollution, and nuclear proliferation.  What if we became as concerned with our overdevelopment or maldevelopment as we are with the underdevelopment of poor nations?"

Throughout the book there are stories involving Mennonites in others nations, and I appreciated hearing new points-of-view.  I think that it is a great idea to learn from those who have the wisdom and knowledge to live well and find joy with few possessions.  Our society is not perfect, and I believe that the imperfections have slipped into the church in ways that are ignored.

So indeed, as I live, I wish to do justice by be thoughtful about my actions and consumer purchases and by giving to those in need.  I also wish to learn to view our country in an even more humble manner.  Just because we have a high GDP does not make us wealthy in worthwhile manners, nor does it mean we have God's favor.

Technology... in particular, electronics

In opening my discussion of electronics, I can't do anything better than ask you to watch The Story of Electronics which is a terrific video that Annie Leonard created.  She has done the research and made a short video that compiles her concerns and suggested improvements to our current system.  In case you do not care to watch the video, I will list a few of the concerns that Annie gives:

• Electronics are often made with toxic chemicals that harm primarily the factory workers building the product and then the workers tearing apart the product to "recycle" it.
• The manufacturers are not bearing the responsibility of the pollution and waste caused by production and disposal.  Because of this, electronics are designed to become obsolete quickly because this is what creates maximum profit.
• The products are cheap because the costs come to foreign workers getting ill, the rivers where the pollution shows up, the air getting polluted, etc.
• It is more expensive to repair products than to buy new ones.

She has ideas about how to prevent a lot of these problems.  The biggest would be to hold companies accountable for the problems their product causes including workers' health, pollution, and product waste.  If this was the case, she believes that companies would work to produce products with greater longevity because this would be cheaper than cleaning up all of the current problems.  I think that this seems reasonable.

I'm not against technology or electronics, but, like Annie, I do not like the current system that we have.  I agree that companies should be held accountable, but I also would love to see individuals' attitudes change as well.  The companies only make money by creating newer versions of products because people buy them!  It seems to me like any time a new big product is released, people are ready to buy it even if they already own a comparable functioning device.  Why is this?

I think that people like new things, especially if it's the latest and greatest.  The status that comes with these products certainly might be tempting as well.  However, this attitude is a great way to never feel satisfied and to spend more money than one should.

The electronics in our lives are a 6-year old laptop, a 3-year old refurbished desktop with dual-screen monitors, a 5-year old digital camera, our cellphones that we will only replace if they manage to break, and Matthew's 3-year old MP3 player, and the printer that we bought used.  There are some accompanying devices as well, of course.  We have chargers, cords, cables, speakers, etc.  What we try to do is remain satisfied with what we have.  When we do buy electronics (or anything, really), we make it a top priority to buy used or refurbished.  If we buy something new, we look into buying a long-lasting product from a responsible company.  I also promise that we do not feel like we are in want!

Now that I have talked about the costs of technology at large-scale, I also want to recommend that people consider the time they spend using these devices.  I've heard from many sources that when technology began to have a role in our society, people predicted that it would free our time so that we could work less and spend more time bonding with family and friends, pursuing our interests, reflecting, and being involved in our communities.  While certainly technology has made some things faster and better, we actually are working more, and when we're not working, I would argue that we spend a lot of time doing activities that are not terribly fulfilling.  In my opinion (and it is just that, not fact), video games, television, Facebook, MP3 players, online games, and even blogging have their times and places, but we just don't know when to shut these things off and just live the life we have in the real world with real people! 

Also, maybe I'm old and out-of-touch, but it truly bothers me when I am having a conversation with someone and he/she tries to stay in the conversation with me while simultaneously carry on a texting conversation with someone else.  I just want to shout, "Helloooo!  I'm right here trying to have a conversation with yooouuu!"  I just feel like technology ends up fragmenting our lives and disconnecting us sometimes even more than it helps connect us.

Throughout college, I became addicted to constantly checking email, Facebook, and other sites.  Sometimes I found myself clicking through my set of tabs in Firefox (and later Chrome) just watching them and seeing if something new happened.  Gah!  How unfulfilling, and what a waste of time!!  This year I finally figured out a way to stop this vicious cycle that was eating my time and sanity.  I learned that hibernating my laptop throughout the day makes it so that I will only have the laptop going when I'm truly using it.  I am so happy with this new system because I feel free from this silly thing.

The laptop was my addiction, but I think that similar ideas can help you too if you find that you are leashed to your technology!  Perhaps you can shut off your phone during times spent with family and friends so that you can give them your full attention?  Maybe only use your MP3 player or I-pod when you are running alone and not with your friends?  Maybe limit your time playing online games to a certain amount per day?  Maybe have a time of day where you shut off all of the devices and enjoy other activities in life?

I want to end by saying that I think that technology can be used to enrich lives, but I know that it's tempting for me to use it in a way that ends up absorbing my life.  By limiting my purchases and time spent with my electronics, I feel like I am honestly improving my quality of life rather than just keeping myself from indulging.  

Good drying rack vs. Bad drying rack

 Recently, I wrote about our flimsy plastic drying rack that finally cracked in a way that made it unusable.  We went through a process of deciding what time of drying rack would be best.  We considered chrome because we thought it would be sturdy and long lasting, but from reviews that we read, the ones on the market seem to be fairly cheaply made, and they tend to rust. Instead, we decided to look for a sturdy wood drying rack.  Instead of relying on Amazon.com for one of these, I  found this website and liked what I saw.  We got the small size rack, and it holds about the same amount of clothing as my old one.  At the bottom of this post you can see the old drying rack and the new drying rack.

I like the fact that the rack is lightweight but feels like it won't break.  It is fairly narrow and probably could blow over if it's pretty windy, but I think that in general it seems like it will stand up well to regular use.  It was pretty expensive, but I think that it was a good investment that will last far longer than the three years the old $15 plastic drying rack lasted.  Additionally, from what I could tell, the money was going to a small business instead of a large company, which I find appealing.

My only "complaints" about the ordering process was that the man we ordered from did not notify us when our order shipped, even after we emailed him asking if it had been.  However, it came a week after we ordered it, so it really was not a big deal.  The other unfortunate part was the fact that it was shipped with a styrofoam wrapper around it and a fair amount of additional plastic.  Fortunately, you can always find someone on Craiglist looking for free packaging materials, so I know that we won't have to throw it all away, but it was a downside worth mentioning.

All in all, I'm pleased with our purchase, and I feel like I can recommend this product!

Less is More

I just read the book Less is More by Cecile Andrews and Wanda Urbanska.  The book really is a collection of short essays and stories written by various people of all different backgrounds, and I really thought it was inspiring and worth reading.  The book was primarily written with the idea of exposing how unsatisfying our frantic, high-speed, clamoring, always-wanting-more lifestyle is, and how there is a solution to this problem: Simplicity.  There are a lot of great facts and specific examples given by the essay writers, but instead of relaying those facts, I'm going to explain general ideas that are left in my head after reading the book.

Aiming for simplicity is not aiming for a lesser life.  Rather, it is aiming for a more full and happy life.  Studies show that accumulating excessive wealth and possessions does not make us happy.  In fact, it can make us stressed as we spend more time working and consuming and less time on all of the other activities that humans are supposed to do including socializing, praying/meditating, resting, spending time in nature, spending time with family, etc.

Living simply would help solve multiple issues at once.  It would help people feel better and be healthier.  It would help lessen the gap between the rich and the poor.  It would help us to stop demanding more from the planet than it can give.

As I was reading, I was reminded of a particular middle-class couple that I know that my heart ached for because I wanted simplicity for them.  They are very nice, generous, lovely people, but for years now they have been constantly rushing around.  They have so many things that they don't know where to put all of them even though their house is large.  Yet, they are still dreaming of buying more and spending more money.  They both work full-time, so they struggle to find the time and energy to put good, healthy, wholesome food on the table each day.  They also struggle to have the time to spend with friends and family without feeling stressed.  Whenever I talk to them, I get the sense that they are not satisfied with what they have and where they are.  Although this couple was the one that came to my mind most clearly, I feel like many adults that I know could probably relate to this story.  It just is a sad way to live.

Two things stick with me that I want to practice immediately, the first is making time and space to live.  I had already started doing this some this school year, but I have realized that there is one thing that I really need to do to give myself this space:  Put the computer on hibernate more of the day.  It is too tempting to be able to just wiggle the mouse to see all my friends' status changes on Facebook, check my email, or Google anything.  Mind you, these are all great things, but I have been letting them take too much time, and they haven't been adding enough to my life.

The second thing that I am immediately putting into practice was the idea of appreciating what you have.  In the book, the example was a coffee cup.  Each time the person had coffee, she took in her coffee mug and admired its beauty and purpose.  I feel blessed because I have enough.  In fact, more than enough.  (Although I'm working on that, too!)  I want to remember my blessings daily and feel gratitude for them.  I will admire the color and pattern of a shirt.  I will admire the versatility of a glass jar.  I will admire the beauty of the fruit in the fruit bowl.

I feel like I have not fully captured the picture of beauty that I see in my head as I imagine Simplicity, but as I work it into my life, I feel the beauty.  I wish the same peace and fulfillment for each of you!

I taped this to the wall by my desk last year, and I will allow you to appreciate its message as well:

Wasting Food

According to the Discovery Channel, in 2004, "At home, the average American family throws away 14 percent of their food... In terms of money, that's almost $600 every year in meats, fruit, vegetables and grain products."  This is after we consume enough calories to have about 74% of our population overweight with over 25% obese according to Wikipedia.

My mom taught me not to waste food.  I remember how upset she was whenever something went bad in the fridge or if any bread went moldy, and now I'm the same way.  However, it doesn't happen very often, so I don't spend much time getting upset.  I'm really grateful that my mom taught me to care about things, though.

I think we all need to care about food because this amount of food waste is draining our wallets, our environment, our landfill space, and it's downright upsetting when so many people in our own country (let alone around the world) are going hungry.  It is wonderful that so many of us have plenty, but I hope that we can appreciate it and be grateful for it without feeling entitlement to do whatever is most convenient for us regarding food.

If you are on board and you want to stop throwing away so much food, here are some ideas that might help.

1)  Make up your mind to minimize food waste and know why it is important to you.  It will be easier to change if you change your mentality first.  You will start being able to use your creativity to solve problems if you are sufficiently motivated to do so.

2)  Menu plan, menu plan, menu plan!!!  Before you go grocery shopping, make a plan for what you will be eating until you go shopping next.  Plan to buy the right amount of food for you and your family.  If there is a sale, feel free to take advantage of it but only if you have a plan to use the food!  Don't just buy things (like fruits and vegetables) because you "should",  instead buy them because you are actually going to eat them.

3) Get your fridge and cabinets organized and regularly take inventory.  If needed, make notes on a white board or sheet of paper on the fridge of things that need to be eaten soon.  Learn to appreciate leftovers.  After all, they are rather convenient!

4)  If you aren't going to be able to finish something in the fridge on time, use your freezer!  It will stay good for a long time there.  Many things can be frozen.  If you aren't sure if what you have can be, look it up online.  Use your frozen food as snacks, or make plans to eat it at a later date.  Don't just let it sit there forever.

5)  Only serve yourself what you plan to eat.  Only serve your children what they can eat.   You can always get seconds!  I think that it is important to teach this to our children because it teaches them portion control  while also teaching the value of not wasting food.  It is OK to tear apart a tortilla to serve your child part of a burrito instead of giving a 4-year-old the whole thing.  If for some reason somebody can't finish what's on his or her plate, instead of throwing it away, stick it in a container for the individual to eat later.

6)  If you eat out, take home the leftovers instead of leaving them on the plate.  I worked in a restaurant as a busser one summer, and I was appalled by how much food I had to scrape into the garbage can.  If you do eat out and tend to have leftovers, I encourage you to bring your own containers to the restaurant.  I stick mine in a bag, and when we're done, I bring them out.  This way you avoid throwing away take-out containers.  It also makes the busy servers and bussers have one less thing to fetch for you.

7)  Eat well, make plans for meals, and enjoy your food.  If you find you are spending less due to wasting less, consider using the money to support local organic farmers and/or to help feed the hungry in your area.  These are wonderful things to teach kids about through example, too!

Food - It's what's for dinner

It's also what's for breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  I'm kind of enthusiastic about eating well.  I like putting good stuff into our bodies, and I try to do it in a way that has the least amount of impact on the planet.  In this post, I want to describe what we eat.

In General...
We buy almost all of our food at our local co-op.  Most of it is certified organic, and we try to eat in season and as locally as possible.  We spend about $300 a month total on food and household items for both of us.  Usually we spend less.  This is about $5 a day per person.  We eat out about six times a year, so we really do not spend much more than this.  I try to buy every bulk item that I can to reduce the amount packaging used to get our food to us.  Bulk is also almost always a cheaper route monetarily, which is a nice bonus.  For example, to avoid canned food, I buy bulk dried beans and make batches of beans in my crockpot when I need them.  Extras can be frozen for later.  I also try to make my own foods (like yogurt) to avoid packaging.

Breakfast
We don't always have a lot of time in the morning, so it is generally cereal or oatmeal with milk.  We buy oats in bulk.  We always eat a banana at breakfast.  I make enough oatmeal on Saturday to reheat a few days during the week.  It is easy to make oatmeal exciting by adding one or more of these ingredients: frozen or fresh berries, bananas, peanut or other nut butter, spiced apples, applesauce, raisins, cinnamon, sliced fruit, maple syrup, nuts, etc.  The cold cereal is an off-brand cheerios that is not organic and comes in a large plastic bag.  I'm not thrilled with this.  I'm working on alternatives.  I'm thinking about breakfast bars or a quick bread, perhaps.

Lunch
Each week I bake either bagels or bread from scratch.  I bake enough for two weeks, so I freeze something each week.  From these, we generally eat peanut butter (ground in the bulk section) and jelly (homemade freezer jam) on bread or cream cheese and sprouts on a bagel.  I'm working on getting us to use yogurt cheese instead of cream cheese since it will be cheaper and will keep us from bringing plastic containers in the house since I make my own yogurt.  Sometimes we eat leftovers from dinner at lunch.  Additionally, we always have a fruit and vegetable (usually cut up carrot sticks).  The fruit depends on the season.  Finally, yogurt and granola or a bit of cottage cheese is often also on the menu.  I want to eventually make my own cottage cheese, too.

Dinner
Our plate at dinner is generally half to two-thirds covered in fruits and vegetables.  The fruit again depends on the season.  We have salad every day with mostly lettuce during the summer and mostly kale during the winter.  Brocolli is a favorite side vegetable of ours, but other veggies make appearances.  We eat only about one pound of meat each month between the two of us, so our meals are mostly vegetarian.  We menu plan each month, so here's a list of some of the things we've eaten in the last two to three months:

• Homemade pizza
• Potato cheddar soup
• Taco lasagna  (made with beans, corn tortillas, etc.)
• Quinoa with sweet potatoes and mushrooms
• Black bean and rice enchiladas
• Stir fry (with tofu)
• Tofu stroganoff
• Chicken pot pie
• Homemade macaroni and cheese (with brocolli added in)
• Fettucine alfredo (homemade sauce, with brocolli added in)
• Black bean vegetable burgers
• Spaghetti with tofu balls
• Crockpot chili
• Vegetarian lasagna

Snacks
We both munch throughout the day to keep our energy up.  I bake granola bars, crackers, and a quick bread (like banana bread) from scratch each week.  I also make granola in the crockpot, and we eat this with milk or homemade yogurt.  I like frozen berries on top.  We froze a bunch of berries last summer.  Sometimes leftover bagels or portions of dinners make it into the freezer, and these are available for snacking.  I also bake a big batch of English muffins once every few months, and we eat these occasionally as snacks.

Desserts
On baking day, I generally make a batch of cookies, so we eat a few homemade cookies just about every day.  I cut down the butter and sugar in my recipe, and I added more flour and oats.

What we aim for...
We try to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.  We try mostly use whole grain flour, and we eat a lot of oats.  We try not to overload with wheat but rather eat other grains and legumes.  I make recipes healthier by cutting down on excess oils and sugars.  I generally use butter in cookies, but most other recipes I substitute in  vegetable oil for butter.  If we dislike a recipe, we avoid it because there are so many that we like!  By making so much of our own food, I have a sense of appreciation for my food that I didn't have before.  I enjoy my food.  In the future, I really would like to grow a lot of my own produce.  I want to can, freeze, dry and store food to eat throughout the winter.  I'd also like to make more of my own dairy products directly from milk.  I'm excited to try some new things and see where things go!

Tortilla Recipe

It turns out that making tortillas is actually really easy.  They taste better, and they are less expensive.  Plus, it's one less plastic bag brought into the house.  I found this recipe here and only changed it a smidge.

Ingredients
4 cups flour (whole wheat and/or white)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp butter
1 to 1 1/2 cups water

Instructions
1) Thoroughly mix together the flour, salt and baking powder.
2) With your fingers, work in the butter until there are no more lumps.  (Until it resemble cornmeal.)
3) Add enough water to make your dough come together but not become too wet and sticky.  Then pour the dough onto a floured surface and knead for a few minutes until smooth and elastic.
4) For medium to large sized tortillas, divide the dough into 10-12 balls.  Use your rolling pin to roll each ball into a circle as flat as you can.  If you have a pastry cloth, it would be good to use here.  I don't, so I rolled my dough on top of a cut-open ziploc bag that had developed holes and become useless for holding food.  If you do this, you don't have to struggle with peeling the dough off the counter.
5) Cook each tortilla in a skillet on medium heat.  Cook each side until it is lightly browned.  I found that I could roll a tortilla out while another tortilla cooked, so the process went pretty quickly and efficiently.

Yum!

How to eat less meat

Matthew and I started eating less meat for a few reasons.  First, the life animals live on factory farms is torturous, so we are trying to avoid supporting this practice.  (Please read books like Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser or Food, Inc. edited by Karl Weber for more information about this and other food issues worth knowing about.)  Second, even animals that are raised in a more healthful, kind way are still expensive both to the consumer monetarily and to the environment.  Our response to all of these issues is to each eat less than a half of a pound of meat per month.

Whatever your reason is for wanting to cut some or all meat out of your diet, here's what has worked for us!

Attitudes
1) Know why you are doing what you are doing.  Whether it is for health, for the animals, or for the environment, know your rationale so that you can stay motivated.  Additionally, decide exactly how much and what type of meat you are willing to purchase and/or eat.
2) Learn about how you will make up for the nutrients that you once got from meat.  The American Heart Association has a nice page about nutrients that a vegetarian (or near vegetarian) should watch out for.
3) Recognize that "meat substitutes" (tofu, tempeh, etc.) will not taste or feel like meat.  Your experiences eating food will change!

Steps to Take
1) Decide what you will actually eat that will keep the right nutrients in your diet.  It is certainly possible to do, but you should be careful to make sure that you are eating foods that give you the nutrients that you need.  As mentioned above, the American Heart Association has a page about these nutrients.  After seeing the key nutrients listed, do a search for foods that contain them and make sure that you will eat some of them!
2)  Figure out a list of go-to breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas.  Many of your old meals can be made vegetarian.  For example, make tacos out of pinto beans instead of ground turkey or beef.  Make a veggie lasagna.  Make burgers out of black beans.  I think I will be posting in the near future about the food that we currently eat...
3) Make your food, and enjoy it!  It's really not so difficult, and you can still eat a lot of delicious food.

I do want to add a note about eating socially because the issue pops up with us since we eat with others regularly.  When eating with others, I avoid eating meat when there is an option.  However, I don't ever make a fuss because, in my opinion, my eating meat one day will not be as harmful as my being insensitive to the hospitality of whoever is offering me the kindness of a meal.  How you handle the situation is your decision, but I think it is worth mentioning that if you act judgmentally, you have a good chance of scaring people away from seeing your point-of-view in a positive light.

Eat well!

More finished projects...

Not the greatest picture, but here are the three potholders I made.  The one on the right is a deep red.  I posted the directions for this project here.  I had to scale things for each one though because I had three different types of yarn.

It's almost finals week here, and I don't have a lot that I need to do for it this term.  Yay!  However, those of you who know me remotely well know that I tend to do more than I need to when studying... To prevent that, I gave myself a project last night.  I had a used sheet that I bought at Goodwill, and I decided to turn part of it into a dress.  I used a pattern to give me a rough idea of how to do the top, but I'm pretty proud of myself because most of this I did by just making guesses and decisions as I went.  Matthew even helped on this project because he held the back up each time I tried things on, and he pinned things in the the back as I went.  I feel like I should be wearing this sundress in a field of flowers, but it's pretty gray and sprinkly today, so here I am in front of our door.

Tutorial: How to make a simple drawstring bag

In order to reduce waste, Matthew and I have reused plastic bags for bulk and produce goods at the store.  However, plastic bags get holes, are difficult to clean, and end up in the garbage quicker than they need to.  I felt like we should just go ahead and have fabric bags.  Buying bags is an option, but it costs a fair amount of money per bag, and they are so easy to sew...

I almost had a dilemma when buying fabric.  I didn't have enough scraps to make bags, but I wanted to avoid buying new fabric.  (Organic fabric is fairly expensive, and growing non-organic cotton involves a lot of chemicals... but that's another story.)  I had a light bulb moment - Used sheets!  We didn't have time to wear out our sheets, but I found some old sheets at Goodwill.  Upcycling!

Without further ado, here is how to sew a drawstring bag for your produce and bulk needs!

Materials:
1) Enough fabric to make whatever size bag that you want.  Remember that you will lose a few inches to seams.
2) Thread that goes with your fabric.
3) Scissors or rotary cutter and board.
4) Pins
5) A safety pin
6) Enough yarn or cord to make a drawstring.
7) A sewing machine unless you prefer to hand sew!

Steps:
1) Cutting out your fabric

The main goal here is to end up with a rectangular piece of fabric that, when folded in half, is just a bit bigger than the bag you want to result.  The piece that I am cutting here was 19"x28".  If you can't cut that big of a piece, you can cut two equal sized pieces.  Just remember that if you do this, you will lose a little extra to a second side seam.






2) Sewing the bottom seam
First fold your bag in half with the printed side on the inside of the bag as seen below in the picture on the left.  Next fold up and turn in the raw edge of the bottom of the bag.  Pin it as you go.  You can see this in the picture below and to the right.

 This is what you should see when you are finished pinning.  Now you are ready to sew your first seam.

 As you can see here, I am sewing a seam very close to the tucked under edge.  When this seam is complete, you are finished with the sewing the bottom of your bag.














3) The side(s) of the bag
The pinning process will be generally the same as with the bottom of the bag.  If you need to sew both sides, first sew one side completely as you did the bottom seam.  One side seam will need to stop about 3 inches from the top of the bag as seen below.  (The top three inches are needed to create the case for the drawstring.)  Pin and sew this side making sure to leave the 3 inches on top.

 4) The drawstring casing
First make a small cut just above your side seam so that the top three inches of fabric are not being twisted by the side seam.

 Next baste the flaps onto the bag as seen below.

 Next you are ready to fold over the fabric for the drawstring casing.  Make sure that you tuck under the raw edge so that it is not left out.  First pin both of side of the casing at the side seam, then continue pinning in a circle until the entire top is pinned.  This process can be seen in these two pictures. (Sorry that the first one is a bit blurry!) After pinning, sew your seam.

5) The drawstring

Take your yarn or cord and lay it folded across your bag so that you can cut the appropriate amount.  Make sure to leave a little to make a knot.  I actually use a double strand of yarn to make it a little thicker.









Loosely tie your yarn to the safety pin and use the safety pin to help push the yarn through the casing.

 When you reach the other side of the casing, tie a knot, and you're done!

Yay for cute little drawstring bags!