The Evolving Homemaker

I just got done watching The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs, there is something about food I seem to not be able to get away from.  Maybe it is the fact that we need to eat to live.  But it is more than that I think.

I started watching Food Network for some reason when I was pregnant with my son.  I was SO sick, I could barely eat a thing.  A bagel.  That is what I could eat.  For like 7 months.  After those first seven months I was still nauseous a lot, but I could eat a bit more than a bagel.  So instead of eating I watched others make food.

Strange but true.

Fast forward a year, and I was sick again.  This time pregnant with my daughter and oh so ill that the emergency room doctor said it was the worst case of dehydration he had ever seen, after they tried drawing blood but what they got was more like sludge.  After my return home from spending three months at my sisters house because I could not take care of myself or my son, we spent a lot of time in the house alone, with Food Network.

In fact every afternoon we both fell asleep together on the couch to Giada, Ina, and the lady with all the butter Paula Dean.  By age two my son had his favorite food network shows of his own; Jamie At Home and now Guy Fieri.  I don’t have as much time to watch T.V. these days, and really the only reason we have Dish Network is so we can keep Food Network for me when one of those days comes along in which I actually have a moment to enjoy a show about food.

I am religious about watching The Next Food Network Star and The Next Iron Chef  though.  Others like Chopped and Cupcake Wars I catch when I am sick and in bed all day on a Saturday and they are doing a marathon.

Maybe, just maybe, I watch because I cannot cook like that.  Because I am a mess in the kitchen with a few hits here and there and a whole bunch of misses everywhere.  Some part of me would love to go to culinary school right now at this moment. But what is a stay at home Mom going to do with that except cook for her family, which would be great for them, but not really realistic for financial reasons?

Maybe as a philosopher and an artist, I am inspired when the two come together in such a magnificent way you feel blessed somehow watching it.  That is how I felt about Chef Zakarian and his battle to become the Next Iron Chef this season.  I know, I know it sounds ridiculously cheesy.  But somehow watching the finale yesterday I got the sense of an artist putting his passion for food and life together with his values and philosophical leanings in a way that screams “This is what I was meant to do”, and not in a prideful, egotistical way, but in a way in which only magic comes forth.

Maybe I am even a little jealous because I still don’t know ‘what I am supposed to do’, and with that knowledge I will probably not hit a moment in my life where it all comes together in such a way that I sit back and say to myself, “Of course, of course this is where I would be right now at this moment.”  I sorta feel lucky enough if the kids eat in a given day and don’t kill each other.  I am grateful for the time spent with them, with a bit of time to read, a bit of time to indulge my respect for food well prepared, a teeny bit of time to write, and a slew of moments to ponder my spiritual growth thrown in as icing on the cake.

Will that a pinnacle in my life create?  Probably not.  But that is O.K. too.

Of course, one should never say never…

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*Wow, my computer has been uber wonkey this morning and has given me fits to try to get this post up.  It is late, like WAY late, but nevertheless, it is now up.*

Joining Ginny for the weekly yarn along again this week, motivation is oh so helpful this time of year!

Do you ever get the feeling you just can’t finish anything?  Like the laundry?  The dishes?  Or you can’t finish cleaning the house because you don’t know where to even start?  You can’t finish a book cause your eyeballs won’t stay open any longer at the end of the day?  You can’t finish a sewing project you might have started a year ago because like, there just isn’t time for that?  You don’t seem to have any time to work on your writing because for some reason little people need to eat?  And often?  You can’t handle making dinner from scratch again…cause the mess in the kitchen behind you is just one more thing to add to the list of to-do’s?

Sometimes I just get the nagging sense that I cannot finish anything.  It leaves me with a sense of being completely out of control of all aspects of my life, which leaves me crazy.  This of course, doesn’t bode well for the rest of the family cause how Mama feels…Mama does…crazy is never good.  With this in mind, yesterday I was a mad woman at gymnastics in the morning, in the afternoon at Irish dance class, and after I got home from my beekeeping class just so I could claim victory today.

I. Finished. Something.

In fact, two things!  My daughter’s pink shawl for Christmas is officially done, fringe and all.  The birthday shawl for a little girl who’s birthday is this Saturday, is officially done too!  That is a miracle.  Usually I would be up late the night before the party scrambling trying to finish.  This time, I am done with three days to spare.

I thought after I had finished this one, that I would maybe use bigger needles on the one for my niece for Christmas.  I am a bit sick of looking at the same pattern for two months at a time, but…I like it when it is finished.  I am not sure I want to make the holes any bigger seeing as she is so little, that seems like just more opportunity to snag on something.

Three out of four of the same books as last week.  Left Neglected is OK so far.  I am not raving about it and telling all my friends they have to read it.  I am about halfway through and parts of it seem really ‘forced’.   It irks me when authors who are writing fiction add so much of themselves into a book, i.e. ‘two Harvard coffee cups on the table at breakfast’.  And it seems really unbelievable that the character would be in SO much denial at the moment where I am at.  I mean, not telling your kids for two weeks that you have been in a massive car accident, might die, and have significant brain damage…that doesn’t fly with me.

Yes, I am fiction picky…that is why I gave it up.  BUT, this book may redeem itself in a gazillion of ways since I am only halfway through.  I will let you know!

I also got It Is All Too Much from the library.  Already out of the gate in the introduction I am in love with Peter Walsh and he just might be my hero by the time I have finished the book.  I am heading right now to renew it from the library since changing my life, starting with the house, in three weeks is probably not completely possible.

So that is it, computer problems, house disasters, children who need to eat…but I actually finished SOMETHING…

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This was simply so delicious, I had to pass it along.  I have made this recipe three times since reading it, and love it all the same each time!

This Summer Corn And Avocado Salad recipe was posted a few weeks back by Emily Malone at Daily Garnish.  You can see the recipe here, and I encourage you to try it.  This was so tasty I ate it in a myriad of ways for three days.  Finally I just scooped the rest into a bowl and ate it with a fork.  I skipped the avocado each time, as avocado doesn’t keep so well and I wanted to make sure I still was enticed to eat the leftovers.

I had no idea you could eat corn raw.  Really.  I didn’t grow up in Iowa, I grew up outside Washington D.C.  There wasn’t many corn fields in the area, or corn experts to relay such information.

Last night was women’s circle, and since I had been a slacker the last few months buying hummus and carrots and the like to bring to share, I really wanted to make some wholesome loveliness for the ladies.  I headed out to the backyard first to grab some corn off our stalks.  Except there wasn’t any there.  Not one corn cob.  My husband and I are a little stunned as to what happened, whether squirrels, neighbors, or a corn thief drive by as you can see we are growing corn from the street. Whatever it was, I was BUMMED.  I made the kids get in the car and race to the local organic farm stand down the street in their pajamas!  Oh my goodness, the corn from this farm is the best I have ever had, and for this recipe, it tasted like sugar.  A sweet, sweet, end of season treat that you don’t have to feel guilty about!

I used Emily’s suggested method of getting the corn off of the cob in an efficient manner, it seemed to work great, but I don’t have any experience any other way!

My son took this photo.  Lovely.

Yes, these little gems came from the backyard, nothing stole them! Super Sweet 100′s and Sun Sugar.  Sun Sugar cherries are by far my favorite!

And here she is, corn salad ready to be scooped onto chips!  Or shoveled in with a fork…either way it is simple to make and scrumptious!

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So you are probably hoping that I would come home from my retreat and share with you everything I learned, garnered, and experienced.

Except I can’t.

I am still digesting it myself.  I am not exactly sure what happened.  And I am also trying to adjust to life in chaos, and loudness, and responsibility again.  Going from noble silence, meditation practices, mindfulness bells, and walking meditation to screaming and fighting children, dog vomit, house visitors, and two weeks full of calendar activities is a bit overwhelming.  Especially the fighting children part.

I feel sort of immobile.  Anxious.  Like it is a bit hard to breathe even.  I would prefer to be laying in bed with my eyes closed for the next few days, just to rest.  And it isn’t possible.

So if you ask, “How was the retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh?”  All I can say is it was life changing, amazing, peaceful, hard, and yes, more than I could have imagined.  And there is not much more to say than that…

Last week I attempted a cleanse.  I failed miserably in the second day.  I couldn’t take the crankiness I was approaching my life with, the yelling at the kids, and the sheer frustration I was feeling from a lack of sugar.   It was also a very stressful week and I was PMS-ing, which I wasn’t really aware of at the time.

Regardless of my failed attempt, I found a really yummy vegan recipe that I have made multiple times since!  A vegan quesadilla piled high with fresh veggies.

Vegan Quesadilla

~Whole wheat flour tortilla

~Daiya vegan shredded cheese

~Spinach julliened

~Red bell pepper

~Tomatoes diced

~Fresh avocado

~Fresh cilantro

~Top with another whole wheat tortilla

~Bake at 350 until cheese is melted, fyi it takes a bit longer than regular cheese to melt.

It was delicious, and totally worth trying the vegan cheese for.  Yes, I said it is WORTH trying the vegan cheese for…

This cheese is fantastic melted.  It has a kind of tart flavor that adds actually to the taste of the quesadilla.  On the other hand, it does not taste as good just grabbing a little bit from the bag and eating it that way, you know, the way you always grab a few pieces of extra cheese when you are shredding it and toss some in your mouth.  Yeah, this doesn’t taste good like that.

Try a little vegan once in awhile, this was really good!

I know.  You are all wondering what to do with all that zucchini in your garden.  Or you are wondering what to do with all that zucchini from your lovely neighbors garden who keeps bringing you some with a big, pleading, smile on her face.  I have your solution.  Well, at least one recipes worth of solution!

These muffins turned out so good that my son called them, “Deeeeeeee-licious.”  And my husband actually came in and said, “Those are good.  Really good.”  These two reviews mean something.

Zucchini Muffins

~One large zucchini

~2/3 C. melter butter

~1  1/3 C. sugar

~2 eggs

~2 tsp. vanilla

~2 tsp. baking soda

~pinch of salt

~1 C. of whole wheat flour

~2 C. of all purpose flour

~1/2 tsp. nutmeg

~1 C. dark chocolate chips

Bake in oven at 350 degrees.  for 25-30 minutes. If you add in the ingredients in the order they are listed, you are good to go.  Enjoy!

*HEY!  I have a guest post today on Becoming  SuperMommy’s blog!  Check it out on The Evolution Of A Mother Activist and add her blog to your RSS feed!*

I am in heaven.  Literally.

My kitchen counter now sports an Omega juicer on it!  Move over coffee maker, there is a new kitchen tool in town.  It is official, I will begin the 21 day Adventure Cleanse by Kris Carr and her book Crazy, Sexy, Diet, on Monday.  I ain’t getting any younger, and as I approach 39, I understand it is time for me to get my health in gear and live life with the energy that healthy foods can provide, not the sugar laden foods I choose so often as quiet ‘rewards’ for my own perceived hard work, which just make me tired and in need of more sugar.

I had a Juiceman Jr., which my husband got me like 13 years ago when I first started working in a natural food market.  Not to be ungrateful, but it stunk.  Drinking the juice that came out of that thing often needed a spoon and it was hard for me not to gag on it.  I certainly was never excited for the next concoction.  It also left a pile of wet organic fruit and veggies in the catcher, there was so much juice still left in the remnants.  So it sat under the counter for most of those 13 years.

Isn’t she a beauty?  We can use the pulp for soups and muffins and the compost bin, so there is really no waste!  And she makes frozen fruit sorbets, we have yet to try it out, but am sure that will happen in the next few days!

My breakfast today!  Usually I would keep the skin on the cucumber, but it was lookin’ a little old and sad.  There is celery, beet, broccoli stems, cucumber, carrot, and watermelon.

A glass full of nutrients and antioxidants.  Considering I forgot to eat dinner last night and had a late afternoon bowl of vanilla ice cream with organic dark chocolate chips, this is the kind of breakfast I needed.

Another great side effect of getting the juicer is that my kids love to use it.  This was the concoction my son picked out to make this morning:  apples, carrots, honeydew melon, watermelon, and grapes.

Here he goes!

And there you have it, a mostly fruity delicious juice that was certainly better for my little boy than the chocolate milk delivery!

Our first two big enough tomatoes were finally picked on Saturday, and I quickly slathered mayonnaise on a piece of bread, sliced the tomatoes, and topped them with a dash of salt.  The seasons first tomato sandwich had arrived, and I ate every single stinkin’ bite, loving every minute of it.

I made this with an early girl and a mystery tomato whose name tag never made it home from the nursery.  It was good, I can say that much about it!

The tomatoes are going absolutely crazy.  Phenomenal performance so far this year on their part!  I have no ready ones on the plants at the moment.  I have been hovering around the sun gold cherries and taking them off and popping them in my mouth as they are ready, not to let a single one go to waste.  But the plants have already outgrown my stakes!

So yes, I am doing the happy dance.  The fresh produce season is fully on and I intend to take advantage of it with lots and lots of delicious treats!

Yum.

Cupcake Wars have officially started in our house!  Since the kids and I LOVE the Food Network program, we have taken it upon ourselves to try and make fantabulous cupcakes every Tuesday over the summer!  So often I am in too much of a hurry to actually cook WITH the kids, this is giving us an excuse to take it slow and let the kids help as much as they want.

We had a solstice potluck to go to last week and I didn’t want to run to the store just for something to bring.  I sorta winged it with these recipes, as I hadn’t gone to the grocery store with recipe in hand or anything, and actually I had to find recipes that most closely resembled what I had in my house.  With that said, they still turned out quite delicious!

For the cupcake, I used this recipe here already adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe, and made a minor adjustment of my own.  Which makes me think I need a book titled How To Be A Domestic Goddess, which is evidently the book this blogger got the recipe from. Hmmm…40% coupon from Borders in my inbox this weekend might be put to use.  Who doesn’t need a book with THAT title?

My addition to the recipe was a half a bag of Cascadian Farms organic raspberries defrosted and added to the batter. For our first foray into from scratch cupcakes AND cupcake war pressure, plain vanilla wasn’t an option, not enough risk.  I wasn’t sure what would happen, but the batter was barely enough for 12 cupcakes WITH the raspberries added.  The cupcakes turned more of a purple color than red/pink, but they were pretty yummy nonetheless.

For the frosting, I used this recipe here from the Food Network.  I didn’t have any bakers chocolate, which I know I DID have, which has me wondering which little kid ate the Green & Blacks baking chocolate thinking it was a dark chocolate bar.  Eww.

So I substituted Dagoba organic unsweetened drinking chocolate powder instead.  It worked OK, there were a few tiny specks of powder spots left in the frosting, which was still super delicious.  So it wasn’t a failure, and next time hopefully I will have my baking chocolate bar when I need it!

Here they are ready to go to the party, and yes only eleven, we had to taste one to maker sure they were edible!  Lots of compliments from the party goers, and not a one was left to take home!

Enjoy and share any cupcake recipes you LOVE so we can try them in our adventures to cupcake-dom!

Last weekend I got a few fleeting hours at the coffee shop.  One of the things that had been plaguing my to-do list was searching the web and brainstorming my heart out to create a list of fun things to do with the kids this summer.  We still have to do some school, but since my son will be getting a tonsillectomy at the end of the summer, I am highly motivated to make the beginning as fun as I can!

I thought I would share my list for those who may just be looking for something to do on any given random day!

THINGS TO DO WITH KIDS IN THE SUMMER (Or at least things I will be doing with my kiddos this summer!)

1- Turn the sprinklers on (Add some shaving cream for extra fun!)

2- Bike ride together

3- Each of them will make a scrapbook at the end of the summer of all the fun stuff we did! (Gives me a reason to take lots of photos too!)

4- Picnics

5- Art/Crafts (I went to the craft store and loaded up on a bag full of stuff we can pull out randomly, including REAL canvases for the kids to paint on!)

6- Photography outings (The kids taking their own pictures and making a collage out of them and/or framing for their walls)

7- Field trips (to local sites of interest and of businesses like the post office, ice cream shop, farms etc.)

8- Baking (cookie surprises at random especially cranky days, cakes for no reason, AND we are having our own ‘cupcake war’ day on Tuesdays, trying out yummy recipes cause we ALL love that show! Look for yesterdays cupcake recipe tomorrow)

9- Reading classic chapter books (starting with Wizard of Oz inspired by The Reading Promise)

10- Visits to the Pick-Ur-Own berry patch

11- Start a hiking club (once a week we have scheduled a bunch of hikes/walks for our friends to join when they can)

12- Camp (Outside in the wild AND in the backyard when we need an adventure!)

13- Build a teepee  (From Soulemama’s book Handmade Home)

14- Make our own documentary

15- Museum days with Imax thrown in

16- Zoo (duh)

17- Build a time capsule (I remember doing this in elementary school, but never remember opening them…)

18- Have our own real art show (this idea came from a friend of mine who is ready to hostess with appetizers and all!)

19- Community dinner nights (Inspired by The Family Dinner)

20- Tie-dye some clothes (cheap t’s at the craft store)

21- Water balloon party

22- Movie afternoons with friends (and popcorn)

23- Homemade ice cream (duh)

24- Ice cream social with our friends

25- Swim

26- Practice astronomy late at night by our fire pit in the backyard

27- Make up our own holiday, invite our friends to celebrate

28- Yoga (I have had enough classes to lead the kids through a salutation)

29- Decorate our dinner table for different days (inspired by The Family Dinner)

30- At home ‘spa’ day

31- Add 1 hour of reading/quiet time into our day

32- Make popsicles (we did this one yesterday with just juice, so easy!)

33- Dollar movies

34- Activities at the local library

35- Make a BUNCH of homemade play-doh and let em’ at it

36- Bowling

37- Board games, card games, etc.

38- Pajama day (we stay in p.j’s all day and eat pancakes and watch movies, great for winter too!)

39- Publish our own books

40- Playground

41- Create clay creatures

42- Make gak (you know, the stuff like play-doh except made with glue)

43- Learn to juggle

44- Giving day (we pick a group/organization/or individual to do something nice for)

45- Take the dogs to the dog park

46- Make our own chalk and chalk on the sidewalk.

47- Paint some rocks (they have kits for this at the craft store, but if you have paint already, go find some rocks!)

48- Host a tea party

49- Puzzle hour (pull out all the puzzles and let the kids try them OR get one to do as a family)

50- Make cards and send them to people

51- Work in our sketch pads/nature books

52- A day at a local lake

53- Their own activities to pursue their own interests! (swim class, tennis, t-ball)

So there you have it, 53 things to keep your summer days busy, and hopefully the kids not fighting!  I am sure we will not get to them all and will do some of these in the winter too, but we are having fun so far since I made the list, it makes it way easy when things start to go downhill to just head to the list and pick one.

Enjoy and share your summer activities for inspiration!

Ummm…breakfast.

My kids have taken lately to not liking cereal.  I buy some.  I pour it in a bowl.  I pour our delivered to the doorstep milk into it, only to have it sitting there three hours later with two spoonfuls taken out of it.  I tell you what, this new ‘we don’t like cereal’ stance is a pain in the booty.

Even on the busy mornings when we need to get out the door by 8 AM, I am needing to make toast or hard boiled eggs the day before.  Breakfast is supposed to be the easy meal of the day isn’t it?

So today, we had some muffins.  Thursday’s we actually have nothing on our schedule which is so lovely, and which means the kids can help make breakfast and Mom doesn’t want to hurry them along.

Enjoy!

Raspberry Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 C. flour

3 t. baking powder

4 T. sugar

4 T. melted and cooled butter

1 egg

1 C. milk

2/3 of a bag of Cascadian Farms frozen organic raspberries

handful of mini dark chocolate chips

~Mix first 6 ingredients in a bowl, at the thawed or warmed raspberries, sprinkle with the dark chocolate chips.

~Bake for 15 minutes or so on 350.

~Eat and get your face all messy with melted chocolate first thing in the morning…make sure you have a handy cloth napkin to wipe your chocolaty hands and face!

Headed into the oven!  I added the chocolate at the last minute, it was a worthy addition.

Ready to eat and SO delicious!  I love the tart of the raspberries with the sweet of the tiny bit of chocolate on top, they went over rather well in the family too.  My pickiest eater ate TWO!

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Remember not so long ago, I dyed playsilks for the first time with a friend of mine? You can read that post here. Well, this weekend I took to task playing catch up with so many of the projects that had been cluttering up our living space.  First on the list?  Finishing up those playsilks I had yet to finish.

This time? Some tie-dye!

We got a pretty groovy system going that was very efficient.  First, two big pots on the back of the stove.  One for the hottest of tap water, and one for simmering water.  After I had soaked the plain silks, I would dump that water into the simmering pot in which I had just taken hot water from.  It worked great to keep the train moving.

1-Fill one about half way with the tap water and pour a bit of vinegar in, I did about 1/4 C.

2-Get the next one simmering on the stove full.  I started with super hot tap water to speed things along. No vinegar.

3-Soak the playsilks you are getting ready to dye for about 15 minutes in the tap hot water.

4-Place the simmering water into a bowl for one color projects, or ball jars, or Bhakti Chai jars as we did, for each color desired.

5-Add a 1/4 C vinegar to a bowl project, a dash to a ball jar tie-dye project.

6-Dump in your Kool-Aid packets.  Three for a bowl, one or two for a jar.  Lemonade isn’t that dark, so you will need more.

7-Drop in your project to a main color and continue to move it around.  OR, for tie-dye, rubber band clusters of fabric together, I did two or three bands per cluster and dip them into the ball jars one at a time, using different colors.

8-Wring them out, and dry them out on a clothesline or in your bathroom and you are done!

I have to admit, I LOVED the tie-dye ones WAY better.  They turned out beautifully and the kids went crazy over them.  Not to mention they looked lovely blowing in the wind on Saturday!

Our reflection in the grape Kool-Aid!

Putting the playsilk in the grape dye.  I wanted to show you how the water looks from beginning to end.

This is the water after just a couple minutes!  The silk absorbed all of the grape Kool-Aid!

A ready to go silk with seven jars of colors behind! Here we go…

I was so nervous, but there was really no reason to be!  It was super easy and they turned out so cool. It is an amazing thing when intention and reality actually meet.

My sons tie day silk!

This color turned out to be our favorite!  Black Cherry.  I suggest you get some because the color was so stupendously vibrant and beautiful!

Isn’t it striking?  Who new this about Kool-Aid?

Ahh…our efforts blowing in the wind as if calling us to slow down and take it all in.  An invitation back to the moment.

My favorite photo of the day.

Try some of these at home!  It was really fun, and they tuck away nicely in the living room in a basket with a lid found at the thrift store with a pile of clothespins added for creativity sake!

Wow.

That is harder than it sounds, mindful investing.

As we begin to explore our financial options as the years wain on, I am pretty disgusted with what I find.  Everyone says, invest in mutual funds right?

How many people are giving thought to the companies and their practices in those said mutual funds?  I was appalled when I looked at the brochure of the funds a small, very, very small, amount of our money is in.  It was incredibly discouraging.  With a call into our adviser, who I have never spoken to before, I could tell if she was closer than 10 states away I would have been able to hear her laughing and snickering from there.

I am crazy, right?

I don’t want to make money off things I have ethical problems with.  I can’t close my eyes and pretend it isn’t there, it is in my heart, and that matters.

So I read Start Late, Finish Rich by David Bach, and to be honest, I skimmed the last few chapters.  It was published in 2005 and a lot has changed since then.  First, it isn’t so easy to get loans on your equity anymore to invest in real estate.  And he was a huge fan of the stock market and compound interests galore.

So where does that leave me?  This crazy lady who wants my husband and I to retire one day, but not if it means suffering of my fellow human beings and the environment I need to breathe, is at a loss.

My adviser is looking into green funds and socially more responsible ones to see what she can find.  I am sure she is still laughing a few hours after my call.  I asked her if other people looked for better funds or not, and her response was, “Well, no, not really.”

So depressing.

If we are going to be mindful about what we eat, where we spend our money, how we exercise, meditate, and live, we have to be mindful about how we invest in our future.  I will keep you posted on this one.  It is breaking my heart, but at the same time I am willing to put in the hours to figure out a better way to plan a retirement.

The ‘inside the box’ way is just not going to work for me.

Ha. As if anything inside the box ever did.

Spill it: How much thought do you give to investing?  How mindful are you about how to secure a future that isn’t working up until the day you die, unless by choice?  Do you have any ideas/connections for someone who is looking for advice and information?

Not to disappoint, I am passing on a few of the activities my son has been partaking in to get those reading juices flowing without him having to follow an arbitrary workbook or force himself to read a book he has no interest in reading.  It seems to be working quite well, while I didn’t have him read a book for a month, last week I pushed one of the ones that came in our curriculum at him and he read the first story with no problem at all!

Today I will take him to the bookstore and let him pick out level 1 readers that HE wants, not that MOM wants him to read, but that HE wants to read.  After talking to his enrichment teacher, she said he is reading great in class!  Now just to find his inner motivation to do it!

Anyway, yes I am excited over his progress, here is one game we have been doing:

He finds two words that rhyme and put them together.  He is reading without really knowing he is reading, and he thinks it is a fun activity, I will change the words out next week to new and a few longer rhyming words.

Yes, that is coffee spilled all over the cards.  They still work.  They just taste better now!

This is a site word activity in which I make two card of each site word and lay one stack out on the table, and keep one in a pile.  My son reads the one in the pile and finds the match on the table.  As they get too easy, we take them out of the pile and move them to our window as a friend suggested!

My son is very proud of his 23, which he counted, words that he considers “too easy”.

Mix up your day and try some of these!  They seem to be working for him!  I am finding that I can’t keep doing the same ‘games’ everyday.  He becomes less motivated with them on the third day, so I am mixing them up now.  A little site word bingo today, a little rhyming matching tomorrow, a little site word matching the next day.

Be flexible!  That is becoming my motto, happily.

Spill it: What ideas do you find useful in keeping your kids engaged in the learning you are presenting?  If you are not homeschooling, what are some tips you have found helpful in working with your kids on reading/phonics at home?

“When you walk through a storm,
Hold your head up high,
And don’t be afraid of the dark,
At the end of a storm, there’s a golden sky,
And the sweet silver song of a lark.”

~You’ll Never Walk Alone

…in the last few weeks.

My life has become a lot more enjoyable just by taking moments to decide what I actually want IN my life.

Before and during my hiatus I had read a ton of books on simplicity.  Circle of Simplicity, The Joy of Less, and Choosing Simplicity.  Practically back to back.  And while I initially had a huge urge to make it all happen at once, I have slowly come to the realization that nothing good happens overnight, ever.

This lifestyle of simplicity, hopefully leading to a life more enjoyable, was going to take a lot of work.  And it was alright to let it take it’s time.  Funny how at the beginning of each year I think if I clean and organize my house, happiness is sure to follow.

Last year I cleaned cause I didn’t know what else to do, my family was sick for easily a month straight.  The kids?  It was like December through mid-February.  I cleaned.  And then life got messy again and I wasn’t any happier, I had somehow fooled myself into thinking that a clean house would make everything alright that wasn’t.  God how we can fool ourselves.

This year, I cleaned the kitchen.

And life happened.

My son needed new methods of schooling.  I was researching and creating fun alternatives.  My efforts at happiness this year seem to have stopped at the kitchen.  Which if you entered at this precise moment, you never would have known it was spotless two weeks ago.  Lasagna completely from scratch, including sauce, is a messy ordeal.

Something is happening after all that reading though.  I am trying lots of new things, AND simplifying as much as I can my TIME.  My kids and I are settling into our Spring schedule, I am making more food from scratch, bread, getting MORE done with school, enjoying our much quieter and slower pace.  A miracle?  We are getting to things ON TIME.  Which seemed impossible to me a month ago.

So while my house isn’t a minimalists heaven YET, I am making strides everyday to simplify.  I haven’t ADDED anything unnecessary to the house or our schedule.  I haven’t bought 100 new books, and have steered away from Starbucks MORE often, I still ain’t perfect by the hubby’s standards yet, but get between me and my coffee and war is imminent.  Last time I was at Target was right after Christmas to get batteries, mixing bowls, and a new cutting board. (I used to make any excuse to go there just so I could sneak a coffee)  I feel calmer.  More peaceful.  More thoughtful about what I want my life to look like, realizing it can’t all happen today, but also realizing I can step toward it today, in a million little ways.

So go out there and get yourself some simplicity reading!  I promise it doesn’t mean you have to give up whatever addiction it is you have, shoes, clothes, books, coffee…yet.  But you may start to really evaluate what you want your life to look like, and realize it isn’t much what your life actually looks like today.

Spill it: What are your thoughts on simplicity?  Do you assume, like I did, that it means you should live in a studio with a chair and a table?  Or are you way ahead  of the curve and realize it means different things to different people?  Is there anything you would change about your life today if all you had to do was wave a wand?

Hmmm….

How to start decoding my feelings over the last few weeks, months?  A sense of melancholy has a death grip on me right now.  I can’t seem to shake it one little bit.  No matter how hard I try to get this monkey off my back, it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere at all.

My life feels like dead weight around my shoulders so much of the time.

I don’t mean my kids, or my friends, or daily experiences, but I have a rising in my being that reminds me of the senses I felt as a child and a teen.  It is a sense that life is so much MORE than what we have created as a society.  Life should be MORE than the 9-5 slog, the shopping at Target cog, the heading to Starbucks cause I am bored or checking email, Facebook, the news reports online, etc, etc.  It is as if so many of us have given up the true experiences of life to experience it virtually through how other people are living.  Blogs, podcasts, reality TV; where is the room for me to live my own life amongst all of the living vicariously through others?

On some levels, I see that I am not alone in my feelings so often.  But I would much rather realize that over a cup of cocoa at the local coffee house in all reality.  I want to see your face, your expressions, your joy and your pain, not just read it.  I want to feel a strong sense of community, and as I have created one virtually, it still has a way of leaving me feeling very lonely and checked out of the life inside my house.

I listened to an awesome podcast just now as recommended by a friend on Facebook, how ironic, about techie devices and how they are affecting our lives.  You can listen to The Price of Putting Your Brain On Computer here, it is incredibly humbling to realize ones obsessive checking of email is no more than a reaction to slight rewards. Like mice.  Or Pavlov’s dogs, as one friend reminded.  Oh God.  So true and so humiliating.  Are we evolving as a species ahead?  Or are we actually becoming dumber and more easily trainable?  I am not sure.

I guess I feel as if I am not living the life I new was possible at my much younger and naive age, but the stirrings that it is possible have yet been resurrected as I approach another year, another birthday, another year past spent on the cog of a wheel that society dictates.  Is it possible we are completely wrong?  The there are more than a million ways to live a life?  That working so you can buy more shit doesn’t actually constitute a life at all?  Maybe the minimalists are on to something?  That taking your spending back means getting your life actually back?  That having less actually means having MORE?  More time with your kids, more time to explore ones self, the world, books?

Argh.  I am itchy.  I am not sure if I will be continuing this blog at all.  But I am not sure enough to take it down yet either.  The reality is my goals for this year include making a little bit of extra money, and this blog makes exactly zero.  I could use the time I blog to be writing an article to send to paying entities.  I could use the time to work on a book I have started that needs attention, badly. I want to create some new curriculum for the kids, like, less curriculum more un-schooling.  But that takes more time.  I never have time to get to any of the projects, knitting, sewing, cooking healthy less expensive food, etc that I started this blog to stay accountable to.  Cause, you know, my few moments are spent here.

I am not a niche.

There are a gazillion mommy type blogs and a gazillion more about simplifying ones life.   And I am not sure I want to remain so tied to this lifeless screen.

Am I crazy?  Gone of the deep end this time?  Going to need serious medication soon?

I am not sure.  What I do know, is that I am unsettled about something, everything, enough to be questioning the direction of my life currently.

“A life that is not reflected upon isn’t worth living . . . Reflection is essential for growth, development, and change.  It is the unique power of the human person.”

Henri Nouwen

I have been crazy slammed trying to get ready for the holidays, visitors, parties, educating my little people, etc. etc. etc. I am taking this week and next week for Christmas off from the blog!  I hope you and your family have a joyous, fabulous, celebratory, holiday season whatever holiday you are celebrating!  For me the most important thing about the season is spending it with my children, which amidst the chaos and list of to-do’s, I still intend on doing as best I can!

See you in a week and a half!  Thanks for all those that read and continue to read!

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…

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let’s stop all the fight
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
War is over over
If you want it
War is over
Now…

~John Lennon Happy Christmas (War is Over)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope you are all able to celebrate the holiday in gratitude with those you love the most!  Thank you ALL for reading that which is the inside of me and supporting The Evolving Homemaker throughout the year!  I have so much gratitude.

MAY THIS NEXT YEAR BE JOYFUL AND MAGICAL AND ALL YOU WOULD WISH FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

Ugh.  I have been the worst lately at preparing whole nutritious food.  As I said yesterday, I am re-working my schedule as I go with homeschooling, where our time gets devoted, and adjusting from what isn’t working and what is.

One of the things that has dropped of the radar and time map is healthy, simple, from scratch food.  I can’t tell you how many times in the last couple of months the kids have had cereal for breakfast, and some cruddy ‘all natural’ sugar laden one.  So often they won’t eat the healthier ‘bran-ier’ ones.  Then we get to an activity and they fuss about how hungry they are…

I also would not like to admit how many times in the last few months we have eaten restaurant food like pizza and Noodles.  Or, how many times I have prepared from a box of Amy’s pizza or Annie’s mac and cheese.  OR, for goodness sake, how many afternoons their whines for snacks have garnered them a bag of pretzels or veggie booty.

OR, as my face blushes a crimson hue, the dreaded vanilla bean scone from Starbucks.

I could stammer over how we got here, or I could just move on.

In a commitment to not beating myself up, I will just move on.

What I have begun to do, is try really hard at finding nutritious alternatives to the food I have been relying on.  With that, I am going to start a new blog category titled Dishes for Kids.  I am not going to claim the recipes healthful merits.  I am not a nutritionist.  But I will hope they are better than what I have been giving them as of late!

Here is the first, you can make it up for breakfast or snacks, or anything in between I suppose!

Apple Peanut Butter Toast

1 Slice per kid of 100%  whole wheat bread

All Natural peanut butter (conventional is full of sugar)

Organic apples, sliced

You could even sprinkle nutritious cinnamon on top or put it on a rice cake!

The kids LOVED this.  They ate every single bite, and when I handed it to my son he declared, “Ohh!  This is something creative!”

I guess that goes to show you how boring his snacks of pretzels have gotten!

Spill it: Do you find feeding your kids healthful food is time sensitive?  Like it takes more time than you have?  Do you have more nights of macaroni and cheese than you would like to admit?  Or are you much more on the ball than the rest of us?  OK, than me?

Oh my goodness can I share how much I love, love, loved this book!  Every second of every moment of time I had in the last week, I was peeking through these amazing stories.

The author, Katherine Leiner, travels around the United States interviewing all kinds of folks involved in the current food movement.  From chefs, to farmers, to activists, to business owners, she brings us into their world.  Each piece highlights the journey of each individual in becoming whatever it is that involves food and sustainability practices.

You’ll remember, she highlighted Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, documentary filmmakers of King Corn.  But that was way back on page 67!  There are 300 pages of astute and passionate people sharing with us their dreams of quality, environmentally aware, conscientious food.

And did I mention it is loaded with recipes?  All that I will copy before I bring it back to the library!

From restaurant owners like Chris Jackson of Ted and Honey in Brooklyn, Tod Murphy of The Farmers Diner, highlighted in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, to Katrina Blair of Turtle Lake Refuge in Durango, Colorado, and Blake Spalding and Jennifer Castle of award winning Hell’s Backbone Grill in Boulder, Utah.

From farmers like Daniel Salatin, highlighted in Omnivore’s Dilemma, Amy and Jamie Ager of Hickory Nut Gap Farm, to Benina Marie Burroughs, an almond farmer.

From young entrepreneurs like Jamie Peterson of Peterson Winery and Vineyards, Alison Baily Vercruysse of 18 Rabbits granola, Neil Gottlieb of Three Twins Organic Ice Cream in Napa, to Joslyn Erica of Hummingbird Herbals.

There are food activist and oystermen, almond growers and vegetable oil vehicle converters!  This book is chock full for anyone who is interested in sustainable farming, homesteading, urban homesteading, organic food, health, natural remedies, living simply, or my goodness anyone who needs renewed hope in our collective future.

I think the story that stood out the most, although they were ALL beautiful and inspiring, was that of Matthew Moore.  A family of farmers, Matthew went off to study art in college then returned home to work his family farm.   As it slowly was getting encroached by suburbia, he started to take his art to the fields.  From his website:

“Welcome to urbanplough.com, my name is Matthew Moore and I am the last of four generations to farm my family’s land outside of Phoenix, AZ. Within five years, my home (this land) will transform into suburbia. In this site you can explore how I have documented and translated this development using art, in the form of earthworks, video and installation. While the loss of my family’s land is not the sole focus of my work, it certainly has initiated my greater exploration of using art to address environmental and economic sustainability issues.”

I think the most fascinating part of his story, is his art.  That is what hung in my memory.  His art.

In Growing Roots, there are two photos of his work on opposing pages and they are striking.  Check em’ out:

In this photo, he had cut into a 20 acre barley field the building plan for a house that was built in his area:

Here, he planted one years crops in the shape of the new neighborhood that would be built on top of that land:

O.K., enough already!  Go check this book out, whether you get it from the bookstore, or the library, just get it.

Spill it: What stories inspire YOU?  Are they those of the sustainability movement?  A CEO?  An activist?  Do share so we can be inspired by their stories too!

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Yes, it is that time of year again.

Oh my God.

Deep breath in, it only has to be as complicated as I make it to be.

I wanted to pass this link on this week though.  Everyone is beginning to get their ducks lined up in a row, or mistletoe hung in the right places, or chestnuts roasting on their open fires…you get the picture.  And that means the holiday cheer will begin to be spread through the mailbox.

Before you race out to Target to get your stash, check out the Holiday Card Project fundraiser for Children’s Hospital Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.  These cards are simply adorable, and all made by children receiving treatment at the center.

“Each year, patients from Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders craft holiday designs that are transformed into holiday cards and sold between October and January. Proceeds from the sale of greeting cards help to fund a range of services and research at the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.”

Yes, they are a tad more expensive than the pack of cards you can pick up with your groceries, but, it is a fundraiser and a fundraiser for a fabulous cause.  I happen to personally know a super-hero going through treatment there, and I can tell you, that they do a fantabulous job at Children’s of making the kids comfortable and feeling safe.  They also take what they do tremendously seriously.

So, if you haven’t gotten your cards yet, get them today!  And help support children who are fighting for their lives this holiday season!

Spill it: Do you try to help others with your purchases around Christmas time?  What are ideas you have in regards to the environment, social justice, and fair trade for the holidays?

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If you noticed, I wasn’t posting yesterday…and won’t be for the rest of the week I think.  While I thought maybe I was having an allergic reaction to our new cat…it might be strep throat instead!  So see you Monday, this Mama is headed to the doctor.

I can’t believe it.

The fact that I have not shared with you yet, my absolute FAVORITE recipe EVER.  Did I mention it was also a macaroni n’ cheese recipe?  How can you go wrong?

My Mom made this recipe first, followed by my sister, followed by me after the first time I put the delectable goodness into my mouth for a taste.

And oh!  It melted on my tongue, begged for me to eat more, and it was that moment in which I decided I would start cooking.  Cause heck, if something I could actually make was going to taste that actually good, I could get the kitchen tools out and dust them off and give it a whirl.

It is Ina Garten’s Mac and Cheese, and in the interest of not getting in any copyright infringement trouble, you can find the recipe here.

I tell you, it is the best mac and cheese I have ever had.  And it is so good for you, we only make it a few times a year, otherwise my entire family would be vying for a spot on the Biggest Loser or in the hospital with coronary trouble.  It is my go to recipe for all people in need, Mom’s who have just given birth, people who are dealing with a loss, potluck’s in which I know no one and want to make a yummy impression.  One could really find any occasion to make it, and after you try it, you probably will.

I made it last night, and reminded myself again why it is I heart this recipe so…the secret?  Gruyere AND nutmeg. I don’t ever do the bread crumbs, call me lazy, but I don’t actually like bread crumbs on anything usually.  The tomatoes are a must if you are a lover of them, and the Gruyere is a requirement too, the first time you  make it.  After that, when needed, you can switch to Asiago or some other rich hard cheese.  Gruyere is expensive, and sometimes not easy to find, you decide, but I usually try to splurge for it and the only time I substitute is if the store doesn’t have it.

So give it a try and tell me what you think!  Your family, including kids, will LOVE you for it!

Spill it: What is your go to recipe…and where can we get our hands on the recipe?

Bruschetta.

It might be the simplest thing in the word to make, next to a bowl of cereal, but I tell you what…I can’t stop.

I made it with a mishmash of all of the tomatoes from our garden and a couple of yellow plum tomatoes from a friends garden, and fresh basil from our plot too.  I have all the supplies to make some more this weekend as we have a plethora of purple tomatoes, supersweet 100′s, and sunsugar gold’s.

I a made up the recipe, I have watched enough Food Network I think to handle a little bruschetta.  I may have made some huge mistake, but it tasted like heaven and I can’t wait to have it again, over and over, the next few days!

Bruschetta

Some bread (I used a mystery loaf from Whole Foods that looked delicious, I didn’t catch the name)

Garlic

A variety of tomatoes

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Fresh Basil

Fresh Mozzarella

~I cut a garlic clove in half and rubbed it on one side of each of the slices of bread.  Then I brushed some olive oil over the same side and browned them in the oven on a low broil.

~Dice all your tomatoes, pour a little bit of olive oil in the mix, add some salt and pepper and julienne some fresh basil adding it to your mix.

~Get your bread out of the oven, it will burn fast.

~Slice your fresh mozzarella thinly placing one slice on each piece of toast.

~Add your tomato toppings and ENJOY!

This is a delicious homage to summer, fresh, healthy, refreshing, and so yummy!  While I am storing a bunch of squash from the garden for winter, I can’t help but eat the tomatoes fresh.  They all have such a distinct flavor to be savored!

Spill it: Any other fresh tomato recipes you have that you love?  How have you been enjoying the bounties of summer?

For once, and I swear it must be the first time ever, I am actually looking forward to this winter.

I hate the cold.

I hate the snow.

I am usually stir crazy by the end of the winter and ready for days at the park, picnics with the kids, hikes in the mountains.

Oh wait.  I have two small kids.  I don’t get out for hikes anymore…

With all the work that went on this summer in our side yard garden, our backyard mess, and extensive time away, I am ready to snuggle up in bed on a few cold nights and re-learn how to knit.  And this year I vow to make a hat.  I have always wanted to knit myself a hat.

I also wanted to make that straw hat I was all excited about, from Mary Jane’s Farm Magazine out of raffia.

I really want to sew something for myself.  A cute farm dress like Farmama has made on her site, check it out here. Maybe something pieced together from a couple thrift store finds.  A long, flowy skirt. Just one of those things would be nice to get to.

I would really love to get to that knitted item out of old t-shirts, and really would like to get to that wool recycled purse I ogled over last winter in a green craft magazine.

I would like to cook more from scratch.

I took my first ever drumming lesson last night and LOVED it. Can’t wait to score one from Santa and learn even more.

The number of things I find on other blogs I want to try to do too is endless.  Really. Endless.

And last night as I was laying in bed thumbing through this months issue of Mary Jane’s Farm, which landed in my mailbox yesterday, I began to look forward to long dark nights.  Time hunkered down and inside due to snow; evenings spent catching up on all the dream projects I have collected in my mind all year.   Projects I want to share with you, so you can try em’ too!

Yes.

I am ready.

To come in from the outside.

To come back to soul time.

To enjoy some homemade hot cocoa.

To dabble.

Spill it: What are you most looking forward to about the upcoming winter? Are there any projects you have been dying to get snowed in to try?

Might as well continue with the song and berry theme!

To escape the smoky haze we are living in currently, the kids and I headed east to the Pick-Ur-Own organic farm again today and loaded up on fixin’s for red salsa and of course some more raspberries!

The pickins were a bit slim today, I am not going to lie.  They must have had some crazy weekend this past weekend!  It took us two hours to pick this many.  Usually, I can get a whole flat in less than a whole row.  In fact, I have never had to switch rows to finish.  Today we were switching rows like crazy for this amount!

I am not one to complain, especially since I just got off the phone with a friend who did go over the weekend and said it was a MADHOUSE.  Half hour wait to pay!

I will count my homeschooling, flexie schedule blessings.

Green chili’s and salsa here I come.  Of course I don’t have any good recipes for green chili’s, but they smelled so good I couldn’t resist!

I needed to go to the local flower shop on the way home to get two more plants for our construction site we refer to as a backyard.  A dust patch.  Death Valley in the middle of suburbia.  Yeah, that is us right now, but that is another story.

The flower shop has everything on sale right now, as I was leaving with my intended two plants I just happened to ask the gentleman if he had any raspberries.  He said, “Do we!”

He took me over and showed me all of their berries…hmmm…trouble.  They were 40% off.

Please don’t tell my husband what I have done…

SIX new raspberry plants to join the ranks in our backyard garden!

Two blackberry and two boysenberry plants too!

Hey, for the amount I just went to the berry patch, and twice in the last two weeks, we can have all the berries we need in just a couple years!  And I figured, not only did I get them on sale, but we got a jump start now on how many years it will take to get a full harvest!

Next summer…planting strawberries…another plant that takes a few years.  Which is really why I have waited to plant them, I know someone who doesn’t have that sorta patience.  And yes, that would be me.

Spill it: What do you do with green chili’s?  This Mama needs a yummy recipe!

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: 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?

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I am officially on vacation this week.  A week in a condo twenty feet from the beach should be enjoyed to the fullest, so I am signing off.

I am going to take an internet hiatus.  Also, an email break.  Don’t forget a Facebook fast. I will turn the computer off tonight, and not turn it back on until Sunday evening.

Wow.

And instead I will jump waves and dodge jellyfish with the kids.  I will get my hands dirty making sand and seashell turtles.  I will allow myself to eat anything and everything I want…well, mostly heaps and heaps of ice cream and of course Starbucks.  I will read my books.  I will sit on the porch and breathe.  I will run.  I will walk.  I will cruise the boardwalk and maybe even grab an actual date with my husband.

Mostly I will try to remain present and enjoy it.

It will be awhile before we do something like this again.

The Evolving Homemaker will be back on August 23rd.

Peace.

*I am MIA today…I have been working on a post, but the wireless internet connection at the house I am at is touch and go.  I go from two red bars to three yellow ones, never four green ones.  The yellow wire I was using to connect directly to the house internet got taken to work in the last few days.

The post today on FERTILIZER will be Monday’s next week!  Check back then, for the follow up to last weeks post!

I will have posts for the rest of the week!*

It isn’t enough to get oneself ready to travel.  Two kids ready to travel.  Do laundry, pack snacks, plan the plane ride for Frontier’s televisions, bathe them, make sure they stay well rested when away and not overstimulated, undernourished, sleep deprived, and cranky.

But now, as flourishing homesteaders, OK backyard somewhat successful gardeners, there is a plethora of plump green zucchini and delicate yellow crookneck squash.  These need to be taken care of too. (I am hoping my tomatoes don’t reach maximum ripeness while we are away…they were still green when we left…)

There is not a chance in hell that my husband will eat vegetables on his own accord while I am away.  It is more likely dinner will consist of Philly Cheese-steaks and Pizza, Burgers and other sorts of meats.  Ribs, salmon, Bratwurst, chicken wings, and possibly a small baby lamb.  A cute, sweet, innocent, furry, baby lamb.

It won’t include zucchini.

What was I to do?  I raced around the night before chopping, and grating, and baking.  Just to ensure that my squash would live on, regardless of my presence or not.

I grated a crookneck and two zucchini’s, placed them in a plastic bag and popped them in the freezer, for later lasagna.  I then sliced two zucchini’s to freeze too.  My step-father has a really delicious Lemon Chicken Zucchini recipe, which I have yet to get, that I hear calling to me for warming the belly during our winter months.

The last two zucchini’s I baked into some muffins.  Some went into the freezer and some got left for the husband.  See, now he has vegetables.  Laden with sugar yes, vegetables none the less. The recipe I used for the muffins is here from Simply Recipes.  I can attest to their deliciousness.

The first time I made them a few weeks ago, the kids were adamant they were not going to eat any muffins with zucchini in them.  No how.  No way.  Arms crossed and dirty looked, they vowed.

Except they did.  And they loved them.

I made them the second time with the raisins and they didn’t like them at all.

I liked them even better with the raisins.

Go figure.

Spill it: Any recipe ideas/links you have to share with zucchini in the ingredient column?   I know lots of gardeners who are looking for them 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:  WHAT’S ON YOUR FOOD

Last week, I was reading in a local free magazine, Natural Awakenings- found at every Natural Store from here to Maine- about sewage sludge being used as fertilizer. You heard it right:

“Eight million tons of sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants, euphemistically renamed biosolids, is annually marketed as fertilizer and applied to the American farms and gardens that grow our food, as well as the parks where we play.  No food crop aside from those labeled U.S. Department of Agriculture certified organic, is regulated to guard against it being grown on land treated with this sludge.”

~Natural Awakenings (July 2010 page 9)

This stood out to me due to the fact that a few years ago, I think when my son was in his first year, I read this book called Fateful Harvest.  I tried to get everyone I know to read it.  Evidently I got someone to read it because I can’t find it on the shelf any longer.  Which never happens, I usually make people who borrow books ‘check’ them out and I keep their name and the title of the book taped to the wall next to my bookshelf.

Yes, I am a nerd.

But I am really sad I don’t have the book any longer.  I would have quoted it up and down today.  But I will send you to read the synopsis here.  Then you can run out and find a copy of your own.  It is worth the read.

“A riveting expose, “Fateful Harvest” tells the story of Patty Martin — the mayor of a small Washington town called Quincy — who discovers American industries are dumping toxic waste into farmers’ fields and home gardens by labeling it “fertilizer.” She becomes outraged at the failed crops, sick horses, and rare diseases in her town, as well as the threats to her children’s health. Yet, when she blows the whistle on a nationwide problem, Patty Martin is nearly run out of town.”

With a bit of digging, I found his original articles in the Seattle Times, which led to the book Fateful Harvest.  The articles titled Fear in the Fields can still be read here.

I am not sure what has happened legally since the book came out, if this is a process that still happens, what the EPA or anyone else for that matter, changed after this was exposed.  I will research it a bit for next weeks Mamavism and let you know, but it seems that if sewage sludge is still being used, it is at least cause for concern.

For me at least.

You can find out more at www.usludgefree.org, here is an excerpt from their site:

“So, what happens to all that sludge? Since ocean dumping was stopped in the United States by environmental groups in the 1980′s, because of the dead zones the sludge created in our oceans, disposal options most often used in America include landfill, incineration, and “land application”. What is “land application”? Because of measurable amounts of elements like nitrogen and phosphorous, the sludge industry and government bodies overlook the toxins in sludge and market the sewage by-product as fertilizer. Class A sludge is spread in our parks, golf courses, playgrounds, and forests and sold to the gardening public as bagged fertilizer. The amount of sludge that is land applied varies from state to state depending on how strict the laws are.

Class A sludge is marketed, and delivered free of charge, to thousands of farmers in 26 states as a fertilizer option. As the price of fuel and petroleum based fertilizers squeeze farm budgets, and farmers are only told of the benefits of free sludge, the temptation to apply sludge to farmland increases. Food crops may be grown in fields treated with Class A sludge without testing the products for levels of pathogens, heavy metals, or pharmaceuticals in spite of the fact that plants uptake nutrients and toxins from the soil. Meat and dairy animals may graze in fields treated with Class A sludge without testing the product in spite of the fact that heavy metals, hormone mimickers and chemicals collect in muscle and fat tissue.”

~United Sludge-Free Alliance

Sounds delicious.

Spill it: Did you have any idea this was allowed in the U.S.?  Do you care, or are you OK with it for the most part?  Let’s hear it Mama’s!  What are your thoughts on this as you grab an apple to feed your children nutritious food?

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Do you remember a few weeks ago the heaven of the Lemon White Chocolate Chip Muffins?  Delicacy in a tin I tell you.

Well I adjusted the recipe a bit last week and HELLO.  I took them out of the oven, let them cool for a minute, and dug in.  Holy muffin Batman.  The first words out of my mouth to the hubby were, “I need to open a coffee shop.”  Muffins are my official new baking love.

I hope you love these too…

Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 C. Flour

1 tsp.  Baking powder

1 tsp. Baking soda

1/4 C. Sugar

2 T. Honey

2 Eggs

1  1/4 C. Plain yogurt

1/2 Stick melted and cooled unsalted butter

1 T. Orange zest

2/3 Bag of Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips

Orange Syrup

1/3 C. Fresh squeezed orange juice

1/3 C. Sugar

3 T. Water

~ Preheat oven to 350, mix everything together and bake for 20 minutes.

~ With 1 minute to go on the timer, boil your syrup for one minute.

~When you pull the muffins out of the oven, poke a hole in the middle of each one and pour the syrup over the tops.

ENJOY!

Spill it: What is the best muffin you ever had?  And where can I get it?

Last week I made those scrumptious Lemon White Chocolate Chip Muffins which lasted about 30 seconds in our house.  What got the lemon kick going, was a post on Facebook of a dear friend who had posted a link to a Martha Stewart recipe for Lemon Icebox Cookies.

I scolded her for tempting me so, and then I went to the store to get the supplies!

They were SO delicious and my husband even said they reminded him of his favorite lemon cookies we buy once in awhile at the natural grocery store!  The bigger miracle?  I made a Martha Stewart recipe that actually turned out good and I didn’t screw it up somehow.  (Of course I did screw them up on the second go around, I forgot to roll the frozen log in sugar before I cut it…it doesn’t take long…)

The post for the recipe originally appeared on Sleepy Time Gal’s site first, then my friend forwarded it on to the rest of us who hadn’t caught the recipe links the first time around.  I swear I am going to try all the frozen roll cookies on her post that day! Sleepy Time Gal is so right on, having them in the freezer ready to go at any time, for guests, for the kids, just for fun, is a great way to celebrate and enjoy the simple moments in life!

Here is the direct link to the Martha Stewart Lemon Icebox Cookie recipe!  Enjoy them, if i hadn’t made them the first time at 9 PM while the kids and I were watching The Black Stallion for the first time ever together, they would have only lasted 45 minutes…luckily it was close to bedtime so the hubby had some when he got home!

P.S.  My kitchen was a complete disaster after this day of baking lemony goodness!  I only cleaned this part of the stove top to take the picture, the rest of the counters, oven, sink, were covered in flour and dirty dishes which remained until the next morning.   This information is just to remind you that there is no such thing as perfection!  I certainly do not want to add to mother anxiety of not getting enough done in a day! I don’t get it done either!

Spill it: Send your lemon links!  Anyone have any lemon recipes they LOVE?

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Lemonicious!

That is how our house smelled yesterday!  We had a lemon party and none of us were sad over the results!  I will post one of the recipes next week, but today it is Lemon White Chocolate Chip Muffins!

By popular demand, here it is, my recipe for a totally delectable treat!  I got the main recipe from Linda, a woman I used to work with many years ago, but I ramped it up with the white chocolate chips.  I love mixing fruit flavors with coinciding chocolate.  Yum. The thing tastes a bit more like a cupcake, but it is technically a muffin, so could be eaten for breakfast…without too much guilt!

Lemon White Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 C. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1tsp. baking soda

1/4 C. sugar

2 T. honey

2 eggs

1 1/4 C. plain yogurt

1/2 stick melted and cooled unsalted butter

1 T. lemon zest

3/4 bag of Sunspire white chocolate chips

Lemon Syrup

1/3 C. lemon juice

1/3 C. sugar

3 T. water

~Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients together, add I the chocolate chips after mixing the rest first. Bake for 20 minutes.

~ Bring the lemon juice, sugar, and water to a boil for 1 minute. (I use real lemons, sometimes the lemon concentrate doesn’t add enough flavor, and you need one to zest anyway)

~ When you remove the muffins, pierce the top of the muffin and pour some syrup over each one with a spoon.

Can you say, “Hello heaven!”

Spill it: What are your favorite flavors to mix?

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It’s a miracle!  Truly, truly a miracle.

My husband made dinner.

From scratch.

By himself.

He said he was starting to get so inspired by all the simplicity in our house and making food by scratch and fresh from our garden!  So he went to work one evening making Chicken Caesar Salad with romaine from our raised beds out back, and homemade Cheese Bread Bows.

It was delicious.  And even more so since I got the night off from cooking!

So in celebration, today I share my Mom’s recipe for Caesar Salad dressing.  It is so friggin’ good.  My disclaimer?  I have no idea where she got this recipe, if it came from a friend or a book, or a magazine.  I got it in the from of an email.  I do not claim she invented it, someone did…somewhere…I know not who…

Caesar Salad

Croutons

2 Garlic Cloves crushed

1 TB. Olive Oil

1/4 C. Mayonnaise

1/4 C. freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

3 TB.  fresh lemon juice

2 TB. Water

1 head of romaine lettuce

In large bowl whisk all the ingredients, except the lettuce and croutons.  Add them to the bowl.

Whalah!  Yummy Caesar Salad that even my kids eat!  We have eaten it in the vegetarian version and the added All-Natural Chicken version.  It is honestly the best Caesar dressing I have had!

Spill it: What was the last dinner that your significant other made for you completely on their own?

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