It’s the end of the week, and every Friday I leave you  with words of wisdom, anecdotes, interesting and inspiring, even some thought provoking things I might have read or come across, to ponder.  If only to shine a light on simple, natural living, mothering, mamavism, crafting, gardening, sisterhood, children and any other area which might fall into the world of an evolving homemaker.  Which we all are doing.  All of the time.  Evolving, that is…

“Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in.”

~Leonard Cohen Anthem

Simple Pleasures.

Sometimes I think we are reminded that these exist by our children more often than not.

This morning I was reminded of life’s simple joys by my four year old daughter.  She slept late, probably due to all of the activities we have partaken in this week, from picnics to berry picking, bike riding and school.  As soon as she woke, OK I nudged her along with a few kisses too after I finished my latest book, I took her to the toilet to potty.

She had wanted to get kisses from one of our dogs on the way, she reached out to grab a passing pet, but I couldn’t lean over enough for her to actually get close enough to Koda’s nose for licks.  So as she was on the potty, I put my face really close to hers and called the dog over with kissing like, embarrassing, noises.

The dog obliged, as dogs always do, and took to cleaning any possible remnants of last nights dinner off my daughter’s face. The smile of sheer delight was the perfect reminder for a less easily delighted Mom.

Many people would be completely grossed out by this.  Endless kisses from an animal who licks its own ass AND eats other dogs poop.

But heaven is in a little girls smile.  And it is still early, chances are the dog hasn’t gotten any fresh brown nuggets just yet.  My daughter often says “Aww, Koda loves me” as she smiles after we are awash in the dogs loves and tongue first thing in the morning; you see she likes to jump up on the edge of the bed to wake us with such.

Every morning.

Who am I to say, “That is disgusting don’t let the dog lick you like that”?  My daughter has seen the dog eat the other dogs turds.  She is privy to the same information I am.

I still let the dog lick my face too.

Life’s simple pleasures come from dog licks.  Ask my daughter, she knows.

And in all reality, my daughter has gotten far sicker from playdates with her human compatriots than from snuggling with her puppy companion.

Spill it: Do you let your dirty, gross, household creatures lick you?  Or does it completely disgust you beyond belief?

Can I just say, that local, organic, pick-ur-own farms should be at the top of your list of places to support?!  I enjoyed myself profusely last night putting together the salsa verde, storing what strawberries we didn’t eat into the fridge to await their time of devouring, and making some muffins with this ruby ingredient!

Ode to garlic mouth all night long, and yes, I did brush my teeth before bedtime:

But I think it was worth it!

Strawberry Almond Muffins

2 3/4 C Flour

3/4 C Sugar

1 Tbs.  Baking Powder

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 C Milk

3 Tbs.  Melted butter

1 tsp. almond extract

1 1/4 C Fresh strawberries diced

~Pre-heat oven to 350

~Grease or line muffin tins

~Combine all ingredients and bake for 35 minutes.

Two little helping hands!

We had these Strawberry Almond Muffins for breakfast!  Good morning!

Spill it: What was your favorite muffin you ever had?

If you are wondering why today’s post is so late in getting up, here is your answer:

We were a little preoccupied this morning, filling our bellies with berries, our hair with the breeze, and our hearts with the joy of abundance.

It is the first day we have been able to visit our favorite Pick-Ur-Own organic farm in ages.  I imagine you will find us their every chance we get from now until the end of September!

Can’t wait to make my bag of Salsa Verde fresh from the farm!  They bag it for you with a recipe attached, all you have to do is pick a bunch of cilantro and a few Serrano chili’s and you are off to the races!  I think I will get the kit for the red bag of salsa next week!  Delicious!

We could smell this gentleman’s work all the way out in the strawberry fields, wafting on the breeze, making us hungry!

This pig is HUGE.  I thought her name was Miss Piggy, but then I heard someone call her Bacon Bits.  I am not sure any name with ‘bit’ in it is very fitting!

As you can see, we will be busy eating fresh berries for the rest of the day, and yes, I often get a tummy ache the first few hours after we return…but it is SO worth it!

What a way to start our official home school year!  I feel really, really blessed and peaceful.  The smell of dill and roasted chili’s is still in my nose, and the memory of the incredible teamwork the kids and I had going will hopefully last until next week when we do it all over again for just raspberries!

Spill it: What do you make with fresh strawberries that is a MUST with this kind of overflow?  Share your ideas so I can make some!

Every Monday I will have information to share about events coming up, groups and non-profits you might be interested in, green ideas to implement, people that are amazing me in their efforts; basically any actions I think will show off  the true range and magnificence of MAMAVISM! It is so important for us to remember small changes make a big difference when done collectively.  Our wallets, our choices, companies we support, ways we reduce at home, all make an impact in the future world our children will inherit from us.

So giddy up!  Let’s take mamavism on the road!

MAMAVISM MONDAY:  YOGA FOR CONGO WOMEN

Ann Richmond.  The first time I met her, was as I was handing her a basket of goodies for being the highest personal fundraiser at the 2009 Colorado Run for Congo Women.  But I had noticed her all morning, even before our prizes were handed out.  I noticed because her kids were there, as were mine, and her husband was there too, as was mine.  To show his support for his wife, who was achieving a personal goal and supporting women so far removed from her life.  I was really touched by the camaraderie they seemed to show as a family, a united front, and I was inspired by that.

The day after the run, someone forwarded me her blog in which she had posted a video of her experience that day, which you can read here.  I was moved.  My husband was moved.  That, my friends, is saying something!

She has now become a dear friend and inspiration to me, and she is planning a Yoga for Congo Women event on September 18, 2010 and I want you all to be there!  If you can’t be there in person, she will be adding it online so you can participate from home after the actual event happens!  Lucky you!

Here she talks about what has catapulted her into action on behalf of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo!

What led you to become a yoga instructor?

When I first tried yoga, it was perfect for me.  It changed my whole outlook on my life and on my body.  I began to love my body and respect it more.  I finally treated myself kindly.  Later, as I dealt with other, more challenging issues in my life, yoga was an invaluable asset to me, and helped me to get through those things.  I wanted to become an instructor so that I could give that gift to others.

It’s the end of the week, and every Friday I leave you  with words of wisdom, anecdotes, interesting and inspiring, even some thought provoking things I might have read or come across, to ponder.  If only to shine a light on simple, natural living, mothering, mamavism, crafting, gardening, sisterhood, children and any other area which might fall into the world of an evolving homemaker.  Which we all are doing.  All of the time.  Evolving, that is…

“The monk in this story is like the rest of us, seeking

wisdom through intellectual inquiry.  If we’re not

careful, this is how we approach mindfulness:  as

an idea, one we rather like, to elevate our lives with

special contemplative consideration, a method for

making smarter choices and thereby assuring better

outcomes.  The problem is that the life before us is the

only life we have.  The search for meaning robs our life

of meaning, sending us back to our discursive minds

while right in front of us the laundry piles up.”

~Karen Maezen Miller

(Shambhala Sun March 2010)

As always when one goes on vacation, one comes home to rotting and expired food in the fridge.  Gross.

When I got to work yesterday on getting us back into our lives, I started there.  I dumped everything that had expired and actually cleaned the fridge out.  Yes you heard right, I wiped the grime and garlic shavings and mystery sauces off my shelves and the walls.

Doesn’t happen very often.

Then we proceeded to the garden center and grocery store to get a handle on our current house situation.

Before:

After:

Wow.  And yes, that bottom shelf is 99% from the garden harvesting the kids and I did yesterday after we picked up our tomatoes off the ground and re-staked them.

Before:

After:

Ahh…all the fresh, organic Colorado Peaches one could want to eat in a day…which we will do today!

And our garden harvest:

I ate every one of those cherry tomatoes standing in the kitchen.  I gave not one away to my husband.  Not one away to my children.  Nope.  I have been waiting all summer for those little orange beauties.  They can eat what they find themselves…if they are ever lucky enough to find one….hooohooohaaahaaahaaa…..

And our carrots:

I can’t believe it!  My son wanted to plant carrots in a raised bed we made exclusively for them.  I planted them diligently and then it rained.  And rained.  And rained.  So all of the carrot seeds I had painstakingly planted in rows with little signs for each column denoting the type planted, washed to the outside halves of the bed.  They began to sprout more in clumps than in rows.  A mishmash of carrot blends.

We picked one every so often just to see, and they were all puny so I figured it was because they were growing so close together that we were out of luck.

Boy was I wrong!

The kids brought them in and washed them by themselves while I was still in the garden.  Of course they washed them in the bathroom sink, which I am not sure I am actually thrilled about, cause eww I didn’t clean that yesterday, but they were so excited I couldn’t tell them to stop!

The mess was huge, but well worth the joy on their faces as they walked around their court munching on the freshly harvested carrots they grew!

Spill it: Tell me about your biggest joy from the garden so far!  What have you watched grow that you had no idea it did that (for us corn) or that you picked that tasted oh so heavenly? (for us the orange cherries and the purple tomatoes)

We arrived home late last night to find this lovely basket sitting on our table from our neighbor who had been watching one of our doggies and peeking in on the garden progress:

And the size of the zucchini…I am not sure I have ever seen such a large squash…

But boy, when I turned the corner into the garden, which of course I did at 11 PM last night just to see, I got this sight that met me…a ray of sunshine for sure…

You can see we are doing what we can to support the bee population!  This wall of sunflowers looks exactly how I imagined it three months ago.

And then there is the work I will be doing today…a lot of it evidently…cause every last one of my tomato plants is on its side crying out for help desperately!

Oh my goodness what a disaster!  I am thinking farmers, I mean gardeners, cannot go on vacation in August for three weeks!

The Beefstake Tomatoes in my Earth Boxes did not survive.  So sad.  Every year I lose them in these things, I think I give up on the Earth Box.  Maybe for herbs…

So you know what I will be doing today.  After breakfast somewhere like Starbucks I imagine, and a stop at the grocery store to get any sort of food put back in the house, and a trip to the garden center to get stronger stakes, I will be out there wrangling the overgrown, weedy, crazy beast of a garden!

And I will love every minute of it.

Spill it: What is the worst situation you have come home to after a vacation?  (For me it was my cat that peed in middle of my bed after a ski vacation for a week)

Probably not a politically correct way of titling a blog post, but it is my reality at the moment.

For the past two days I have been living on the edge of a life that I spent three or four months living amongst over a year ago.  A constant state of panic.

My body feels like it has been physically hit by a Mack truck.  My mind is spinning, in a kind of haze of course since I have taken a bit of my generic Xanax to get ahead of this thing.

My shrink, or ex-shrink, would have my head right now.  On a platter.  With roasted veggies and potatoes around it, if she new how I had been pushing myself the last month or so.  She would say I asked for it probably.  Or that I know better.  Or that I had ignored everything I had learned in the last year about myself.

I went too hard.  I acted as if I was normal.  I ate like shit.  I lived in the ice cream and cookie jar.  I slept like shit too.  I didn’t meditate or go to any church services.  I didn’t read boatloads of inspiring words.  I was immersed in loud, fast, constant noise, that was busy, busy, busy.

I took not a moment to myself unless it was on a treadmill.  I didn’t rest.  I didn’t eat high protein.  I didn’t spend time on spiritual endeavors.  I didn’t write.

And now I have to pay.

And hate that my life ever has to be like this.

And cry because it is.

It started on Friday morning when I went out for a run with my sisters Garmin.  I don’t really know how to pace myself yet.  I am a sucky treadmill runner who paces herself by machine.  I guess I ran too fast.  I did a 3 mile run 7 1/2 minutes faster than I normally do.  Which is still slow for most people, but I guess not for me.  I thought I might die or vomit a few times, but assumed it was because I wasn’t enough in shape yet, not because I was actually running too fast for me.  I am not smart enough to figure that out I suppose. And it was too humid, and friggin’ hot to boot.

I felt like crudolla afterward.  My heart was racing, my body was sweating in places like my hands, that don’t usually sweat.  I couldn’t breathe very well.  And I still have cotton mouth two days later.

Dehydrated?  Maybe.  Out to fast?  Definitely.

But then I got to spend the next two days bordering panic.  Taking Xanax plus my daily anxiety meds trying to give my body and brain a break.  I begin to panic, when I think I might have a panic attack.

Nice huh.

Am I aloud to cry? To yell and scream and kick things and be SO angry and resentful and cuss like a fucking sailor and  be pissed and cranky and just SO sad?  Because this is my life?  Because I don’t know if it will ever end?  Because who wants to live like this?  Because who wants to live a life not full of fun and interesting new experiences cause they might have a panic attack if they try something new?

Because I have to play it safe.  Because I need to plan ahead.  Because I need to have meds on hand just in case.  Because I need to eat healthy all the time.  I can’t take breaks.  I will need to remain in my comfort zone.  I will need to take it easy.  I will need to be diligent.

And people who don’t experience this ever, won’t understand.

And I will wonder, “Why me?”

And I will wish it was different.

And I get it.  There are lots of people around the world wondering everyday, “Why me?” about a gazillion different scenarios in their lives.

But today this is what I feel.

Today this is what I fear.

Today this sucks.

Spill it: Are there any things in your life you deal with on a daily basis that people around you don’t understand?  Is there anything you wish were different in your life right now?

Every Monday I will have information to share about events coming up, groups and non-profits you might be interested in, green ideas to implement, people that are amazing me in their efforts; basically any actions I think will show off  the true range and magnificence of MAMAVISM! It is so important for us to remember small changes make a big difference when done collectively.  Our wallets, our choices, companies we support, ways we reduce at home, all make an impact in the future world our children will inherit from us.

So giddy up!  Let’s take mamavism on the road!

MAMAVISM MONDAY: FERTILIZER

I am taking you on the same journey I am going on this morning. A couple weeks ago we talked about sewage sludge and industrial waste being used in fertilizer and wondered what has happened since the days of Fateful Harvest and the Seattle Times series on such.  You can read that post here.  But today I am surfing the web and sharing with you the findings…

First stop:  here to read a lovely EPA 1997 Environemental Fact Sheet that includes:

“EPA’s longstanding policy encourages the beneficial reuse and recycling of
industrial wastes, including hazardous wastes, when such wastes can be used
as safe and effective substitutes for virgin raw materials. Although EPA is
examining whether some fertilizers or soil conditioners may contain potentially
harmful levels of contaminants, the Agency believes that some wastes can be
used beneficially in fertilizers when properly manufactured and applied.”

Delicious!  Here you can read a 2000 report from King 5 out of Seattle.

“But even “very high quality” biosolids contain heavy metals and millions of pathogens, like human viruses, bacteria and parasites.”

Some of the dates on these seemed a little far away, not always, but sometimes some huge thing has happened to change a practice within the years.  Then I found this article from the Washington Post dated December, 2009.  Read it here, of course a sneak peek:

“With wastes piling up around the coal-fired plants that produce half the nation’s power, the EPA and U.S. Department of Agriculture began promoting what they call the wastes’ “beneficial uses” during the Bush administration.

Part of that push is to expand the use of synthetic gypsum — a whitish, calcium-rich material known as flue gas desulfurization gypsum, or FGD gypsum. The Obama administration has continued promoting FGD gypsum’s use in farming.”

Of course I find all of this completely offensive.  I am grossed out by the thought of the quality of food that go into the mouths of my children.  I am not surprised by the incidences of cancer in people that eat and lead a healthful lifestyle.  Evidently even when you try to eat a healthy way, with lots of fruits and vegetables, you can still be eating nastiness.

A professor in one of my classes in college, I think an Environmental History class, once called all of this-the chemicals in the air, water, food supply, clothes, toys, etc-the great human experiment.  We have no idea what it is doing to us, our health, the genetics of humans, it will be years before we do.

Anyone else with him?

I know I am.  I am watching the great human experiment and adjusting my lifestyle accordingly as I learn to adapt.  My garden will only be bigger next year, I promise and my grocery bill will continue to be high due to my organics and all natural obsession!

Spill it: Do you deem it worth it to spend the money on organic food?  Why or why not?  Are you surprised by the above articles or not at all? Are you slightly grossed out or happy with the level of protection the government offers?