Everyday Life for Four Seasons

These rainy days make me so sleepy! I could curl up anywhere and take a nap. Today we went to our local children's museum to play. Apparently it was a popular destination because the entire world was there!


Sunflower seeds are sprouting, Jeff is making homemade lotion, I had my last Healthy Children, Healthy Planet class tonight, complete with delicious potluck dinner, 'A' drew some lovely pictures for me while I was at class, and 'H' stayed up to catch my goodnight kiss tonight after I got home. I am full of love and wonderful yummy feelings. I love my family.


We got a new book from the library: Sky Tree: Seeing Science Through Art, by Thomas Locker. It's a great book. We read it outside this afternoon, after the rain dried up and it was finally warm. Every page shows the same tree on a hill with a river in the background. Each page talks about a new phase of a season and shows the tree in that phase: with full leaves in summer, orange in autumn, bare and snowy in winter.... it's wonderful, a delight for all ages. Check it out.


Magic. That's what life is.

There are days when I wonder how anyone in the world manages to get anything done. Is it just me? No, it isn't, there are tons and tons of people out there who feel this same way, based on how much people in our culture talk about multitasking and feeling stressed out and all of that. And you know, the things I have to do that keep piling up aren't even that hard. It's not like my life takes place on the super-highway and I have a million things going on. But if I really want to commit to slowing things down and getting in touch with the smaller, sweeter moments in life, then I have to just accept the fact that I'm going to feel overwhelmed by stuff and I'm going to let myself down sometimes.

Thanks for listening to my little whine and pep talk. I have a pile on my desk of *stuff*. I'm learning that my desk piles get me down the worst. If my laundry piles up or my floors need cleaning, it doesn't bother me very much. You should see the inside of my car most days - it looks like a tornado went through. We can sometimes go a week without moving clothes from the laundry basket to the dresser drawer.... But the paper and the little tasks can paralyze me and overwhelm me fast and make me totally crazy. I wonder what that says about me.


Today and these next few days are rainy ones and I am the happiest person in the world because of it. Our rain barrel emptied out last week after I made a new flower bed in the yard and broke up a bunch of perennials to move into it. They were so upset with me for moving them in the heat last week and they required a lot of water as an apology. So there went the 56 gallons in the barrel. These last few days before the rain came, I was saving our gray water and running it out to the new bed every time the bucket got full. It is really amazing to me how much water I waste in the kitchen alone. I put a bowl in the sink to collect the water I use when I wash my hands and that alone was a few gallons a day. Great for me, I wash my hands a lot, but holy cow, that's a lot of water down the drain! I also scooped out the bath water after the girls were done in the tub. We use all natural soap and shampoo so I figured the flowers could handle it - right?


To celebrate the rain, we ran errands this morning. I brought the girls to get their hair cut. It was 'H's first time and she did great! They both did a great job and they even got lollipops as a treat. The only thing that wasn't so great was the finished product. I could have done the same work for free. I think this experience might be enough to reinstate me as our family hair dresser. Jeff took me off of that duty after the last time I butchered 'A's hair but look - it's growing longer now and it just needs to be cut at the bottom.


Then we went to the library. We have a few libraries that are close to us and I use all of them. People who are part of some other school systems get better privileges at some of the other libraries than those of us in the Ballston Spa system, and I know people who won't use the other libraries simply because of that, but I don't care. I'm a book junkie and I need my fix, so I don't care where my fix comes from. I inherited it, my love of paper and ink. My grandfather was a printer and it's in the family genes. Mmmm, I can smell that ink now, and feel that warm stack of paper.

Anyway, I love, love, love the children's room at the Clifton Park library. It's so user-friendly and their selection is amazing. I always walk away with a treasure trove of books for the girls. Lately I've been pushing - and they've been loving - books by Elisa Kleven. For me, children's books have to either have a good story or great illustrations, and ideally, but unfortunately not often enough, they will have both. Elisa Kleven is an unbelievably talented artist and we love her stories about flying paper princesses and party pinatas. She even has a book about an apple doll, complete with real-life instructions on how to make one, and you know I'm going to try it with some Twenty Ounce apples in the fall!


I did plant a bunch of transplants and seeds in the vegetable garden and I'll update you as things start to grow. The people at the farmer's market told me to put those tomatoes in the ground and not wait, so I listened to them. The bean seeds are in (we read Jack and the Beanstalk for the first time tonight to kick off bean season), and so are the sunflower seeds and carrot seeds too. Peppers will wait until it's warm all the time here. You know what they say - Some like it hot! I would lump peppers into that category.

Dinner tonight was sauteed mushrooms and swiss chard (with garlic, of course!) over thin spaghetti with turnip green salad. It was super-yummy and Jeff and I kept going back for more. The girls have opposite taste buds - 'H' loves the mushrooms, 'A' can't stand them. I can't keep up.

Tomorrow I have some baby turnips to use up and some bok choy.

I love our backyard. Honestly, it's the whole reason we bought our home. The girls love it too!


I woke up earlier than usual this morning and spent some time getting the garden beds ready for planting. I'm filling them with a soil & compost mix that we have had "steeping" in the woods for three years. It's good soil, full of earthworms, and with a pH of 6.8. I think that's on the high side for vegetables but overall I am hoping it will work well for us this year. I augmented with just a little manure.


I think our planting plan is just about ready. I've spent time on this. There are a lot of things I'm not good at, but research is not one of them. So, after much reading, and speaking with experts, and a class at the local cooperative extension office, I've come up with a plan that includes tomatoes (from transplants, and I'm looking for different varieties of heirlooms); zucchini and two different types of yellow summer squash; peppers (at least two varieties); carrots (actually, 'A' is growing those); beans; basil, thyme, sage, cilantro, rosemary and if I can find a transplant, some cumin; and for fun, a sunflower. The bed gets 10 hours of sun a day now.

I grouped them in the beds according to the companion planting guides and I've been checking the soil and air temperatures to see when I can put each plant or seed in the ground. It looks like we'll start the carrots this weekend, the tomatoes and peppers in a week or two, the zucchini in a while, when the soil warms to at least 65 degrees (it's 60 now), and the beans in a while, when the soil is a few degrees above 60. How long does it take for the soil to warm up? Can you say "short growing season?"


Everything outside is coming to life.

Well, hello there!

We had a butterfly friend join us at lunchtime today. If you look closely, you can see it fluttering around the parsley. I love having them come to visit us. You know that all is right when butterflies are around. No genetically modified corn here to kill off the larvae.


The coolest thing happened during lunch today. We sat outside and enjoyed a variety of things (brown rice, soynut butter on homemade pita bread, pears and strawberries) and then 'H' asked for some lettuce. That's not the cool part - she loves the Newman's Asian dressing I use and she wanted some bok choy with it. I got her a bowl, she polished it off, and then she asked for some more. I walked over to the lettuce plants and picked a few leaves for her. The next thing I knew, 'A' was picking lettuce leaves and adding them to her soynut butter sandwich. Now that's cool! She has never said "yes" to leafy greens, but now that they're growing in her yard, she's willing to give them a try. I get a BIG smile on my face when I think about it!


Below is Grace's snake toy that she found in the back yard today. Well, it's not actually a toy, but she used it as one.


Our plant-based diet is (surprisingly) incredibly easy to live with. I eat fruit for breakfast - lately it's this smoothie: banana, rice milk, OJ, ice and another fruit, like pineapple. Sometimes I throw in dandelion greens or spinach for fun. Lunch is a salad - sometimes I use my sister's fabulous salad recipe: greens, avocado, almonds, and an orange with orange-ginger dressing. Dinner consists of a variety of things. Tonight we had a wild rice, lentil and black eyed pea pilaf with broiled asparagus and zucchini, and black bean hummus with pita chips. Tomorrow I think we're having something with broccoli rabe - maybe pizza with the rabe and tomato sauce (no cheese) or a simple pasta dish with garlic and rabe.

It's easy to do this in part because I feel physically good (when you cut out dairy, the pounds melt away without help). I also feel like I'm taking one of the most important steps I've ever taken on my journey to bring health to our planet. Food choices matter so much. It's not just a matter of where the food is grown, or whether pesticides are used. Simply put, a diet that includes meat and dairy is not sustainable for the planet. More and more corn is grown to feed more and more cows, and those fields of corn are taking nutrients from the soil but they don't put it back in. The corn crops can't continue forever in poor soil. And the cows who eat the corn? They're some of the earth's biggest polluters of all. It's their gas, no joke.

By removing the cow from our diet, we've taken a huge step in the right direction. I never ate beef anyway, but I did love dairy, and I've found it very easy to give it up.

Cheers to a happy planet!

The girls and I went on a field trip to a local dairy farm today. I knew almost immediately that it was a mistake to go. It made me really sad to be there. Then we saw the babies. They were lined up in pens. This one was pointed out to us because it was just born this morning. 'A' looked at me and asked, "Where is the mommy? Where are all the mommies?" Good question. We asked. Apparently the little calves are safer in the pens, being bottle fed, than they are with their own nursing mothers.

Now, for the afternoon, I get to answer the same questions over and over: "Why did that woman say that dairy is good for us? It's not good for me. Why do all of those people think it's good for them?" I don't know what kind of answer to give.

I've finally found a phrase to describe our diet - "Plant based." It's more accurate than vegan, because we're not strict vegans (we eat honey, we wear wool and silk and we have leather seats in our cars, as well as leather shoes). We have a plant based diet.


I've learned a lot in the past few weeks about what a plant based diet means, and the more I learn, the happier I am with it. It's not just about our health, or the health of our planet.

We've finally got our protein intake down to a healthy level. Our sugar intake is lower than ever. I won't go into all of the reasons why I like this better than eating meat and dairy, but I'll leave you with this thought about the topic: the greenhouse gases from the meat and dairy industry are far greater than the greenhouse gases that come from all of the cars in the world.


Jeff's parents came to visit these past few days. They left today. They were "stopping by" on their way from Florida to Vienna. They're taking a trip up the Danube River with friends. Nice.

T H E Y hatched! Baby House Finches are our newest addition! Happy baby wishes all around. May the wonder of fertility and new life never leave you.

Today when I dropped 'A' off at preschool, the teacher showed us the new chicks that hatched. The eggs have been in the incubator for a few weeks and it's very exciting to see the little babies here safe and sound. I'm told that one year all of the chicks died shortly after hatching and I can imagine how traumatic that might have been for the children.

Anyway, these chicks are alive and well. I was reminded today of my childhood visits to see my grandparents in the spring. My grandfather always kept chickens - a number of chickens, and not just any chickens for any old reason, either. Grandpa Fred was a world-renowned poultry geneticist and if you walked through the pens in his backyard, you could see some of his work in progress. He would spend hours in the backyard just sitting and observing bird behavior. He raised Bantams, which produced little off-white eggs. It's incredible that those big birds can come out of a tiny little egg.


At preschool today, there was one box set up with a heat lamp for the chicks that were fluffy and walking around, and the others who were newly hatched and still wet were still in the incubator. I went over to the incubator to take a peek and found there were four eggs that hadn't hatched yet - well, almost four - one was starting to hatch at that very moment! Even after all of my years visiting Grandpa Fred, and seeing the incubators, and holding the new babies, I had never watched one hatch. I went immediately to tell Miss Katy, who said it could take a long time or a little amount of time for the bird to come out... you never know. So I went back and watched and waited, and sure enough, a few minutes later, a new baby chick pushed out of the shell. It was so exciting! There is nothing as magical as watching new life come into the world.


After all of the chicken excitement died down, it was time to take a class trip to the fire station. You might think that this would be a fun and exciting trip for children, and it probably is, as long as those children aren't mine. 'H' was freaked out and needed to be held the whole time, and 'A' did fine until the firemen started to lift the kids into the ladder truck so they could take a look around, and then she freaked out. She wanted to go, but wanted me to lift her in and go in with her. Oh, the crying, the tears! Needless to say, she missed her chance to see the inside of the truck. The tears drained us all.


It's so hard to know how to parent sometimes. At their ages - 2 and 4 years old - I am finding that patience and understanding are the two most important things I rely on now. Both 'A' and 'H' are on their own journeys and they each want me right by their side. Jeff and I talk a lot about specific situations: how did my reaction go over? Is there anything I would do differently in the future? What do these girls each need?

We both recently read a book called "Unconditional Parenting" by Alfie Kohn. It gave us a lot to think about. In fact, when I'm in the middle of a fire station meltdown, I do take a moment to think, "What would Alfie tell me to do?" The point of the book is to explore ways to raise our children so that they are comfortable with themselves and comfortable making responsible decisions, and not use punishment or rewards to teach them how to do it. It's about learning to love our children, and let them know we love them, unconditionally. He says that emotional and mental punishments like time-outs are just as bad as physical punishments, and that rewards like sticker charts and special TV time or presents are just as bad, if not worse than punishment. Punishment is punishment, and reward is reward, and as parents we use both to get our children to do something we want them to do. If they do it, they know we are pleased, and if they don't, they know we aren't, and either result is conveying the message that our relationship with them is conditional and based on good behavior in order to gain our approval.

Okay, got that. But what about the firestation? If I were there alone with the girls, of course I would have hopped in the truck with 'A' and all would have been right with the world. But she was in line with the other kids - 14 total - and in that situation, the truck wasn't for parents or grown ups, it was only for the kids. She is going to eventually learn that sometimes you have to go with the flow if you want to be a part of the action.

Jeff came home last night after almost a week away for work. It's really nice to have him home again! This weekend I wore myself out with yard work, and it was the best Mother's Day present ever. Yesterday at the farmer's market I bought a few six-packs of lettuce plants and made some nice containers for the deck.


'A' took this one of me.


At our UU church service today we were reminded that the original Mother's Day was an idea conceived by Julia Ward Howe in 1870. Julia Ward Howe not only wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic, co-authored an abolishionist newspaper with her husband, and fought for peace and women's rights, she also proposed that mothers take a day of leave from their children and the home to come together and talk about how to stop making war and spread peace.

You can read more about her declaration here: http://www.chiff.com/a/mothers-day-origins.htm


One of the ideas that keeps popping up again and again, with which I wholeheartedly agree, is that the change that [I think] needs to be made in the world - forging peace, protecting the environment, raising free-thinking children - must come from women, specifically mothers. I'm not taking men out of the equation, or saying that women are the "kindler, gentler sex," but I do believe that mothers have more of a stake in the future of our children and our planet.


When I was a Women's Studies student in college in the early 90's, I probably would have been laughed out of the classroom if I ever said something like that. Things were different then. The women of my mother's generation worked hard to fight for their right to be treated as equals of men. They protected those goals, those ideals, with vigor. My professors were largely from that generation, and the few who were younger and dared to think outside of that box still had a lot to protect - they worked hard for their degrees in a largely male field and they were proud that they had secured the teaching jobs they did. The theme was more about equality then, and the message of empowerment was just beginning to emerge.


I do believe that women are the answer. As a mother, I make the bulk of decisions that impact my household and my family. The food that I put on the table every day, the activities I choose for my children, our weekend family activities, the consumer goods that we use at home, the charitable contributions we make... most are decided by me. Jeff does make some of the decisions and he certainly weighs in on most of them, but for the most part, it's my call. I have a tremendous amount of influence over both my family's current habits and my children's future ones. And for that reason, I believe that change can only truly begin with mothers.


We did a lot of outdoor clean-up and we got the deck ready for summer living today. I'm so excited to expand our living space outdoors for the next few months!


Enjoy your night. I'll leave you with this bread recipe, which we are now addicted to. It makes a bulgur oatmeal loaf. Delicious. You won't regret making it.


~ Oatmeal-Bulgur Bread ~
Recipe taken from "The Bread Bible" by Beth Hensperger.

Ingredients for the "Sponge":
1 Tbs (or 1 package/7g) Active dry yeast
2 Tbs Light brown sugar
2/3 Cup Bulgur, fine or medium grind
2 1/4 Cups Tepid water (105-115°F)
2 Cups Unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour

Ingredients for the "Dough":
1 1/4 Cups Regular rolled oats
1/4 Cup Wheat bran
1/4 Cup Light brown sugar
3 Tbsp oil
1 Tbs salt
3 to 3 1/2 Cups Unbleached all-purpose flour or bread flour

Method for the "Sponge":
1. In a large bowl pour in the water.
2. Sprinkle the yeast, 2 Tbs of brown sugar, and bulgur wheat over the surface and let stand for 5 minutes.
3. Add 2 cups of flour and beat hard until well moistened and creamy, about 2 minutes.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until foamy, about 1 hour.

Method for the "Dough" and the "Baking":
5. To the bowl with the sponge, add the oats, bran, brown sugar, oil and salt.
6. Beat hard for about 1 minute.
7. Add flour 1/2 a cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and switch to a wooden spoon when needed.
8. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes, dusting with flour as needed to prevent sticking.
9. Place the dough in a greased deep container or large bowl and turn once to coat, then cover with plastic wrap.
10. Let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
11. Gently deflate the dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. Grease or parchment-line a baking sheet or grease three 8x4-inch loaf pans.
12. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions or into 20-24 little portions and shape into loaves or rolls.
13. Cover loosely with a towel and let rise until doubled, about 45 min.
14. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 375° F, then, with the help of a serrated knife, slash the 3 big loaves no more than 1/4 inch deep.
15. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes.