All Girl Homeschool

2009-07-11T07:27:00.000-07:00

I constantly study what's going on my head & body. I have a very strong family history of mental illness, mainly depression. Every woman on my mom's side of the family as far back as we can recall has dealt with depression, so I've been on guard against it since I was first married (ya know, because marriage and mental illness are so interrelated, lol).

As I continue to watch my reactions to life, it's becoming obvious to me that we don't pay enough attention to emotional stress, specifically the stress that comes from bad news in others' lives.

I'm not one to be overly emotional; I don't usually cry in front of people for example, so it surprised me when a friend had a baby almost two years ago and I was physically charged by it. I wasn't even there, you see, I was busy at home and she was being induced thirty miles away. I wore out the carpet; I couldn't be still with all the nervous energy in me. I was emotionally exhausted by the evening and it took me by surprise.

Other than my sleeping schedule being a little off since staying up too late on the 4th of July, I've had a fine week. I was elated with the doula plans, which also led to a loss of sleep when my brain was too busy to shut down. By midweek, though, I'd discovered a dear was struggling and received a phone call yesterday from my mom that my sister-in-law's cancer has probably returned. I spent some time yesterday with friends but by the end of the day was simply drained. Wondering if I was about to get sick, it had not dawned on me the emotions I'd been dealing with all week.

Yeah, I'm often a little slow...but aren't we all slow to realize what stress we're under, especially when it's not directed right at us? After all, starting a new business that's right in line with my passions is a good thing, yet it's still takes a toll on my emotions.

So, what are we to do?

Recognizing it has to be the first step, but can be the hardest!

I'm not going to add to my stress by filling up the rest of my weekend with busyness. I'm going back to the basics-grocery shopping, straightening the house & getting all of us ready for church tomorrow (when there are 7 of you to get out the door by 9am, you have to start the day before!). Maybe a movie this evening. Exercise would help, if it's not still 110 degrees this evening, maybe I can walk.

So-what says you? Do you have trouble recognizing emotional stress? What do you do about it? How can we see it coming before it strikes?

New Start

2009-07-08T07:49:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of little bits & pieces to share...

Like that Audrey is my favorite child ;) It's okay, the girls are all fine with it-they say she's their favorite, too. She is so easy going! She hardly fusses-only when hungry or tired...okay, and she might have fussed when Jaika tried to ride her like a horsey but maybe not. She lets Jaika drag her out of danger (or danger perceived by Jaika) by her feet without even a grimace. If we could just get her to stop eating off the floor...I've never had a baby sleep through fireworks-y'all-she's awesome!

I could equally share the great things about Shane's new position at the Sheriff's Office. He's so happy, even when it's 105 degrees outside. I'm so glad that he's enjoying his job, it runs over into enjoying us more. He's initiated more board game playing and is such a better mood most of the time.

I'm still sugar free after 6 months. Six more months to go! I do have a few items planned to eat on January 1st-like the locally made fried pies I keep hearing everyone rave about.

Right now though, I have something else occupying my mind-a new career path. I know, I know, I just left a job 11 months ago to stay home. But I've found a job within my passions that will allow me to be at home and stay on top of homeschooling. I'm so excited to start working on my doula certification. I've looked into this before, but the timing has not been right until now. By the time I'm certified (within a year, I hope) Audrey will be fine without me for longer stretches of time. With Shane working days, I can leave in the night if I need to and the girls won't be alone. Ashlyn's old enough to watch her sisters all day, but since both my mom and my mother in law are supportive and said they'd help with the girls as well. I'm working on the required reading right now-so my nose is constantly in a book. I'm learning so much already!

I believe the Lord has worked this all out a long time ago. He's made some connections for me that I don't even know how they started (like the childbirth ed teacher who's said she'd highly recommend me). With my degree in Family Studies, my work as a breastfeeding counselor while in college, then my work with families as a PRC director, I think this is a natural route to take.

So, my blog will take a new turn as well, I'm sure. I think it was therapeutic while Shane worked nights to be able to come here and socialize, get my thoughts out. Now he's more available and I'm not feeling the need to blog as much (I know you've noticed). But as I'm reading my books, I keep thinking, "Oh, I should put this on my blog!" so maybe you'll get to learn as I go along.

I've gone on too long-but I wanted to share. I have some housework to catch up on...I've been in the books too much the last couple of days. I'll keep you updated! And-if you're local and need a professional labor coach soon, look me up-I'll need to do a few as practice before I get certified.

Click Through

2009-06-30T19:59:00.001-07:00

Hey, you feed readin' folks-click on over and check out the updated playlist. I just totally stole some from Vicki's list...and added more. Enjoy!

Being Real

2009-06-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

Shane's cousin and his girlfriend brought their newborn baby over to see us a week or so ago. As we were talking, the girlfriend mentioned as an aside, "Yeah, they all say 'What a perfect family' but I knew that wasn't exactly right." I was a little baffled-not sure who sees us as perfect nor exactly what impression she has of us...

However, we are very real. Today was just one of those days. Nothing is really wrong, but the frustrations of life kinda piled up today. You know, just the junk. And it's hot. One of those digital thermometers in town said it was 109 degrees at 1:30 this afternoon.

So, being on the edge of tears all day, and for no real good reason, this play list was very soothing to my soul. Thanks Vicki :)

2009-06-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

Hi y'all. Have you missed me?

I love this new shift. Shane works Monday 6:30-4:30, then he's gone all day (6:00am-11:30pm) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. These two days he works at the Sheriff's Office, then when his shift is over, he changes clothes and goes to the security guard job, so it's a LONG couple of days for him. However, he then only works from 6:30-4:30 again on Thursday and he's done for the week. Before, Shane had to sleep a bit on Saturday to recover from his Friday night shift, we'd go to church on Sunday and then Monday evening he'd go back to bed to prepare for his 12am shift. Now we have three full days with him-it's so nice. Here's a random summing up of our lives the last few weeks.

~Shane and Ashlyn played a 10 hour game of Horseopoly (off and on through a weekend).
~My internet time used to be after I got up but before Shane got home around 9am each day. Now I get up and feel I need to get busy, work all day around the house, then be with Shane in the evenings. I've not found a new slot in my day for regular blogging time. But I'll get there.
~I took four of the girls and myself to two different dentists in two different towns (different insurance). Then a well baby checkup and we stopped in several times to check in on a good friend giving birth to her first son yesterday. Welcome to the world Judah!
~This running left me so tired I left Shane and some of the girls up and went to bed early.
~Our van has been in the shop twice-once for a cracked flywheel and then for a repair the mechanic accidentally made (broke off something important that left a hole in the radiator, which made the engine overheat). God totally poured out grace on us as we drove the car for several days, even many miles on Sunday without any problem.
~The mechanic was great-it was ready in less time than he estimated and cost less than he originally said. Once we told him about the overheating yesterday morning, it was fixed for free by noon.
~In the meantime, my mom loaned me her nice new Yukon. The girls wanted the mecanic to break something else.
~Shane loves his job. Said it's too good to be true. There's no room to move up, but he's basically his own boss, gets to be outside, travels to all parts of the county he works in, seeing some pretty countyside, and he's losing weight (13lbs in 3 weeks).
~Even though the girls are home just as much as before school was "out" the house is harder to keep up with. Not sure why...maybe it's Jaika's new hobby of dumping out toy boxes in record time, lol.
~Audrey is a whopping 15 lbs at almost 8 months old. She's a total flirt and is racing to be just as big as her sisters. She's crawling, pulling up, and sometimes cruising and even letting go. She even got mad at me yesterday and chewed me out saying, "ga gi ga gi!" with some anger!
~She's still our favorite baby-the girls even say it. She's so easy!
~The big girls just decided they would go to a birthday party after all-one that starts in less than 2 hours. Originally they were tired of going and wanted to just be home. Guess they're re-energized...or they don't want to clean. Regardless I gotta run to get them there-I'll be back here soon!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2009-06-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

I thrive on systems at my house. My kids, on the other hand, don't so my systems often try to crash & burn. Even if I don't have systems, I do have rhythm. Not real rhythm, no, I can't clap in time at church one bit. But I love to make it through the week coasting on the unique cycle of our family.

This week our unique cycle became somewhat normal and I just about fell apart.

Not really, I love the idea of Shane being on day shift and really, really love the idea of four ten hour days with long weekends. But this week has been a challenge since our rhythm is about as "on" as mine is every Sunday about 10:30.

Here's our week in a recap:

The Good:
~Having Shane at most ball games, home for dinner, and next to me in bed at night.
~There was a storm one night this week and I slept peacefully knowing I wasn't the only adult in the house. I left the "monitoring" of the storm up to him and it was soooo nice!
~Unlike when he works in the jail, Shane can use his cell as he's working his new job.
~The new job-Shane is a supervisor to the inmate work crew. He has two inmates he takes all over the county to fill in pot holes. Yesterday took him to a rock crusher plant (for asphalt) and to two towns for road repair, then they cleaned the precinct workshop where he's stationed and cleaned out "his" truck. Much more variety than the gray walls of the jail. Bonus: No drunk guys professing their innocence to deal with.
~Audrey is sitting up, pulling up, and crawling! She's 7 months old today.
~Our 14th wedding anniversary was this week. Celebrating Saturday with a trip to "the city" together.

The Bad:
~The allgirlhomeschool-mobile had to go to the shop for repairs. Yours Truly got to handle all that and it's really not my forte. Still more to deal with as we have to find a different mechanic who deals with transmissions.
~Getting up at 5:40am to make Shane's lunch and get him out the door intact. This one may not last too long!
~I have a guilt complex. If Shane is at work, then I need to work hard with no slacking. Main problem with this is that I keep working once he gets home...and I get up at night with Audrey so I am a little tiny bit tired.
~Pot holes aren't glamorous. We need to work on a new job description, lol.

The Ugly:
~Shane's side job as a security guard for a major gas plant still takes up two evenings a week. We're thankful for the job, but it's hard for the girls to not see him from bedtime Monday night until he gets home on Thursday (they're in bed before he gets home on Tues & Wed nights).
~Finally, a shock from the ball park last night. I sat near a little girl still in her uniform. The team name in bold letters: Ball Busters. Nice.

Small Break

2009-06-01T09:32:00.001-07:00

I had planned a Food Class post for today, but it'll have to be put on hold. Our world is a little backwards from our usual schedule, so as we adjust I'm not sure how my blogging will all fall into place. The Food Class posts take more work than others, so just be patient with me :)

I'll throw out a few prayer requests though:
~Shane as he adjusts to a new position that's totally opposite his regular job (days instead of nights, working outdoors instead of inside...)
~Audrey's having a tough time teething. She's pretty miserable with a nonstop runny nose & fever.
~Hope's having a killer allergy attack, her eyes look terrible!
~We're still petitioning God daily for our land to sell, and for the right house for us to be available when it sells.

Finally, if you have some ideas on lunch box items that don't have to be heated up, I would really love you forever. Shane always takes a lunch, but he usually has access to a microwave but won't now. I can send items in a thermos if needed...save my man from a summer of endless sandwiches! Come on, send me your best lunch box menus!

Our Daily Bread

2009-05-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

Oh, did I say Food Class back on Thursday? Well, ahem...I had some breaking news yesterday at this time. Shane's request to move to the inmate work crew division of the Sheriff's Office was granted. This means for the first time in three years, he'll be on the day shift. As an added bonus, he'll have three day weekends every week (he'll work 4 ten hour days) and holidays off! I'm a little excited. Just a little. Now, let's move on to Food Class.

A few years ago I read an article in a mainstream magazine that said the most nutritious change you can make for your family is to start making your own bread at home. As a wife and mother, I do want the best for my family. As I've learned more about flour, I've finally purchased a grain mill to grind grain at home. It was a purchase I'd contemplated for several years and I'm so glad I took the plunge last month.

There is a great satisfaction from making my family's bread. I don't even do it all the time yet, but when I do present a loaf warm from the oven, it just feels very right. Grinding the grain that made the loaf is even better.

Why would I do this when Wal-Mart sells flour of many sorts for my use?

Read this article to understand why, as well as to learn about enrichment. By the time flour gets to the store shelves, it's at least void of many nutrients if not rancid.

There's a lot of grain out there besides wheat, y'all. Many of you with gluten allergies know this. Right now in my kitchen I have quinoa, barley, spelt, wheat, and a seven grain mix. There are so many more! I've been giving Audrey quinoa as baby cereal and she loves it. I'm about to make a couple of loaves with my seven grain. It's fun to learn about different grains and figure out how to use them in our diet.

I am not a good bread maker, but I play one on TV. My family loves my bread even though I am working on perfecting it (and I have a long way to go!). Don't be afraid, a little butter and honey will cover most of your mistakes. A friend and I ordered the wrong kind of flour for bread making and our bread turned out to be fine bricks. She wisely used hers for bread pudding (while I just dumped more honey on mine until I gave up and tossed it in the trash).

Does making your own bread sound like a huge time investment? To minimize this, I use a recipe that makes 5-6 loaves at once. I have tried to do my baking on Sunday afternoons, then throw some of it in the freezer for later in the week. I've also considered delegating this task to an older child (it's not that hard, and I'd be on hand to help). Once you taste the bread, you'll know it is worth it to make the time for it.

You can find small quantities of grain at health food stores. Large quantities can be bought by a distributor from this company. Health food coops in your area may also be able to help you reduce shipping by ordering together. We have a distributor about an hour and a half away, so those of us who grind our grain put an order together and one of us goes after it.

You might need to research the most cost effective way for you to grind it. I've read that you can do it in a blender or food processor, but I've never tried. If you have a KitchenAid stand mixer, KitchenAid sells a grain mill attachment for about $100-$120 (but they aren't being produced again until Fall). I have a Champion Juicer so I bought a grain mill attachment for it at only $60. If you want to buy an actual mill and not an attachment, go for a Bosch. It's an excellent product (but it's not cheap). Look around, if you keep your eyes open you can find something that will fit your budget. A Google search for grain mills will turn up a lot of options.

In the mean time, if you're local to me, I'll be glad to grind for you. Someone did it for me for a while before I was able to buy my mill (thanks again Jennifer!).

Speaking of bread, I'm going to put Missy Audrey in the Ergo and go try my hand at a new batch! Come on over for a slice-but hurry before it's gone!

Awww, a Blog Award

2009-05-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

My friend Raoulysgirl gave me an award for being a passionate blogger. Y'all think I'm passionate? Say it aint so...

In order to accept the award I must agree to do the following...
Put the logo in my blog.
Write 5 things I am passionate about besides my blog.
Tag 5 people on my list and let them know that I tagged them.

~Five passions:

1. Truth

2. The unborn

3. Freedom and those who paid for it for us

4. Memorable childhoods

5. Living in the abudant life God promised us

~Tagging:

1. Summer, who isn't so vocal, but lives a life of conviction

2. Jennifer, who shares a lot of my passions

3. Ashlyn, who is the apple that's not fallen far from the Momma Tree

4. Amber at Babywearing Buzz, because anyone who can blog mostly on this passion is a friend of mine for life!

5. Vicki, because she's got a great thing going on her blog. Real life, lovin' Jesus, lovin' her family kinda girl.

Getting back to Food Class Thursday!

Substitution Solutions

2009-05-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hope your Memorial Day was wonderful! Let's get back to our topic at hand:

There are two ways to solve the problem of chemically laden bad food: Whole foods or adapted foods. Although whole foods eating is the healthiest, sometimes you just want some good old mac & cheese, so you turn to adapted foods. Depending on your resources, you can really go either way--or both.

Health food stores have many of our old favorites done in a more nutritious way. For instance, Annie's is a popular brand that's made it's way into even our little Wal-Mart. You can buy all sorts of products under Annie's label-even macaroni & cheese. It's whole grain and organic and free of the big bad 3 (MSG, hydrogenated oil & processed sugars). It's processed food still, so it needs to hold only a limited spot in a whole foods diet.

While transitioning into a whole foods diet, altered foods may be the way to go (totally my description by the way, if you walk into Whole Foods asking for altered foods, they're going to look back at you like you have two heads).

Here are some substitutions I use-we'll start with the list of things to rid your house of and go from there:

Margarine-butter, preferably organic.

Most processed lunch meats-look for nitrite/nitrate free varieties. Our WalMart carries one brand (down from two they used to carry). I think Super Target carries some in their deli.

Hot dogs-well, this is a hard one. Again, you don't want nitrites/nitrates (they're cancerous) but really you know what hot dogs are made of, right? I've compromised and bought Oscar Meyer I think, it says no artificial bla bla bla and something indicating it's not lips & tips. If you have access to a larger selection, you could probably find kosher, nitrite/nitrate free varieties.

Colas-sorry, we drink water or unsweetened tea (well, I only drink it, no one else will touch unsweet tea. Alternatively, you could sweeten you tea with honey or experiment with other healthy sweeteners which I'll talk about later.

Processed Cheese Products (not cheese, just the fake kind, especially Velveeta)-okay, I still make "rotel" once a year or so, but in casseroles calling for Velveeta, I've been replacing it with real cheddar cheese and it's tasted great.

Sugar laden breakfast cereals-due to high milk consumption and the price of cereal for a family our size, I've heavily reduced our cereal intake. I make oatmeal with a variety of toppings including homemade whipped cream (just whip cream, add maple syrup and viola!), strawberries, blueberries when affordable, maple syrup-the real stuff, and nuts. Also, breakfast burritos, eggs, homemade biscuits, homemade muffins, homemade pancakes. The last three can be made ahead for busy mornings.

Mac & cheese (boxed, not home made) There's always Annie's, also my mom's made her own mac & cheese for years...but I do think she uses Velveeta. I recall seeing some homemade recipes on allrecipes.com, so you could probably make your own.

Frozen dinners (prepared foods, not frozen fruits & veggies). We don't really buy these because they taste good do we? No-because they usually don't! We buy them so we don't have to cook. Instead, cook ahead and freeze the meal, double a recipe for dinner then freeze half for next week, use your crock pot instead, or have a list of super simple meals for busy evenings.

Chips Steer clear of most flavored chips, that's where the MSG comes in. Stay basic-there are some corn and tortilla chips that are good, also try the natural Cheetos and other varieties you can probably find in your store. Sunchips are also MSG & hydrogenated oil free. Remember, these are still processed foods, so they shouldn't be a staple, just a treat.

Candy There are "healthy" chocolate coated candies like M&Ms in health food stores, but you could also transition into healthier sweets like fruit. Once your taste buds are not used to super sweet sodas & candy, nothing will taste better than the natural sweetness of a ripe peach or piece of watermelon. I'll include recipes for desserts later, so don't despair!

Most canned soups learn to make your own (I don't make cream of ________ yet, but my basic cookbooks have recipes for them), shop from the health food store or buy Healthy Request from Campbells, which I've found to be MSG free.

Canned meals like Spaghetti-Os Well, there's probably not a good sub, just freeze your own portion sized leftovers. Once you eat whole foods, this stuff starts to taste like the crap it is (sorry, that's the only word that fits).

Fake juices like Sunny Delight, Hawaiian Punch, Gatorade (think colored sugary chemicals). Just don't. If you must do juice (again, it's a heck of a lot of sugar--way more than you'd get actually eating the fruit whole), dilute it, or only drink in a small amount. For some fun, add lemon or lime slices to a pitcher of water (be careful not to squeeze too much juice in though, it'll taste bitter).

Here are more that didn't make the list in the earlier post:

Coffee-I still drink coffee, I just sweeten it with maple syrup and add some milk instead of cream, unless I have raw milk, then I use cream off the top (yum!).

Chocolate Chips-for a small fortune, you can get a bag of grain sweetened chocolate chips or carob (a root that tastes similar to chocolate) chips from the health food store. They cost about double what a bag of Toll House chips cost.

Jelly-Smuckers Spreadable Fruit comes in several flavors and I can't tell the difference between this kind and the regular jellies.

White Sugar-It's not a perfect substitute, but there is a minimally processed sugar cane product called Rapadura from the Rapunzel company. It seems very similar to me to Sucanut. It's not as refined as white sugar, so it retains some of it's nutrients. I'll talk about white sugar later, but this is what I use in recipes like pizza crust and corn bread when they call for white sugar.

Eggs-it's best if you can find local free range eggs, in rural areas anyway, there are often many women selling them. I have a friend who sells them for about $2 a dozen, which is a steal compared to Wal-Marts free range organic eggs. Recently my mom started getting them from a family friend who simply gives them away. Nourishing Traditions states that free range eggs have much more omega 3s and 6s than regular eggs.

Girl Pride

2009-05-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

We have a huge moment to announce today. Are you sitting down? Okay, here it is:

Bethany went to the concession stand alone and bought her own food. She has really started coming out of her shell. She participates now in Sunday School (and in more than just a whisper!), she is excited about Children's Church instead of begging to stay in the service, and she wanted to join karate. Today she asked if she could go to the concession stand, like it was no big deal. She wanted a new snowcone sold prepackaged in a paper wrapper. We didn't know the name of it, so I asked her how she'd order it. She said, "I'll figure it out." And she did. She didn't figure out the the change from my $5 bill was mine and not hers, but that's okay!

I'm also proud of Hope-her team won by 15 points and Hope really hustled as hind catcher. Ashlyn's team didn't win, but Ashlyn got three girls out as third baseman. Her team is dealing with some coaching confusion (different styles between rotating assistant coaches).

So, I'm left with a great 3rd baseman, a superb hind catcher, and one good, confident shopper! Whoo hoo!

Whole Foods Recipes

2009-05-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, here are some meal ideas to get you started. Many of these were given to me by a friend nearly ten years ago and I've gone back to them many times while learning to eat whole foods.

Salads
Using a mixture of deep green lettuces/greens is a great base. Be creative and add chopped cabbage, grated carrots, bell peppers, onions and so on. I also like to have spinach salads with fruit such as oranges and/or strawberries. Newman's Own makes good, healthy dressings. Read labels and avoid MSG, high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. Add an avocado and/or nuts for some protein.

Avocado Sandwich
Avocado, spicy brown mustard, tomato, and a whole grain bread is delish!

Nut Butter Sandwich
Almond or cashew butters are great (but expensive). As an economical compromise, we buy Smuckers Natural or Organic Peanut Butter (Peanuts grow a mold we probably shouldn't eat, but budget restraints mandate we go with PB for now, but if I could afford it, we wouldn't eat it). Avoid the regular brands, they often have hydrogenated oils. You have to get used to the natural kinds, since the oils don't mix in the same, but it's worth it.

Hummus Sandwich
You may have heard of hummus, it's ground garbanzo beans, aka chickpeas. I don't like garbanzo beans at all, but I like hummus. You can get it in decent sized health food stores, I just bought some at Central Market. It's mixed with some seasonings and sold in the bulk bins and probably packaged as well. I've bought it already mixed and didn't like it as well as my home mixed kind. If you buy it dry, mix it with olive oil, water, and some lime juice per the package instructions. Use the mixture as a replacement for lunch meat, and pile on the good stuff like sprouts, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, whatever else you like.

Ezekiel bread
You can buy this bread at the health food store, usually in the frozen food section. It's very heavy, nutritionally dense bread. My family loves it, but I've not bought it in a while since it's about $5 a loaf. I've found a recipe online and may try it soon. It's worth trying if you find some near you.

Baked Potatoes
White or sweet, add cheese and butter for protein (well, cheese isn't so yummy on sweet potatoes, but butter and salt will do fine-one of Ashlyn's favorite meals).

Pasta Salad
Whole grain pastas (my family doesn't care for whole wheat, but there are other varieties to be discovered in your health food store) with veggies and Newman's Own dressing.

Spaghetti
Saute onions & garlic, add a good meat (like free range beef-I don't think I have the wording down, but beef raised on a pasture, not a feed lot), then add canned diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Throw in some oregano, basil, etc. Serve with a whole grain pasta.

Beans & Rice
Use whole grain brown rice (no white, no instant). It takes longer, but it nutritionally worth it. I make red beans by boiling water, pouring over my rinsed & sorted beans (pick out the dirt and messed up beans). I cook this in my crock pot all day, adding salt in midway and letting Shane spice them since I never get the spices right. I don't really like beans, but have learned to love them with sour cream, cheese and rotel tomatoes mixed in. Cilantro put in at the end is great, too.

Taco Salad
Make a basic green salad and add chili flavored beans (read labels to avoid the no-no's), corn, avocado, black olives, tomatoes and cheese. Of course, you could add good beef too. Serve on top of corn chips. You can find corn chips with just corn and salt, no hydrogenated oils, if you read labels. I buy them at Wal-Mart.

Stir Fry
Use your favorite veggies, add any spices you like and serve on brown rice. You can buy something called Braggs Liquid Aminos at your health food store. It's like soy sauce in taste but doesn't have MSG. You can use it in this dish for the Chinese food flavor, put it on salad & baked potatoes.

Oven Fried Potatoes
Use red potatoes (washed well if not organic, since potatoes are bad about soaking in pesticides), with skin on and spices such as oregano, lemon pepper, garlic and so on. Mix all of it well in a bowl or big zip lock bag, spread on a cookie sheet and bake on 400 degrees for about 3o minutes.
Spreadable Butter
Butter is hard to spread out of the fridge, so if you want to make a spread, mix equal parts of oil (olive oil is what I use) with butter in a food processor. It spreads easily even when cold and is much better for you than margarine.

Veggie Stew
2 large cans tomato sauce

2 large cans diced tomatoes

1 large chopped onion

garlic

whole corn (fresh or frozen)

diced potatoes

chopped carrots

frozen green beans

Your favorite spices such as oregano, basil, rosemary, cumin, garlic pepper.

Saute onion & garlic in olive oil, then dump it all in a crock pot for the day. Can add good meat if you desire. If you don't, be sure to add some protein from cheese, sour cream, and/or beans.

Taco Soup
Saute one small chopped onion & 4 oz can chopped green chilies (optional on the chilies)

taco seasoning (I buy the McCormick that says "less sodium" since it is MSG free, but I want to make my own soon)

1 cup corn

3 cup stewed tomatoes

1 can kidney beans

1 can pinto beans

1 1/2 cup water

You can loosely follow this recipe, adding in whatever beans you have on hand. Throw it all together, heat thoroughly and serve with corn chips, cheese, & sour cream.

Bow Tie Pasta
Whole grain bow ties, cooked, drained, and rinsed in cool water. Toss with grape tomatoes, black olive slices, chopped green onion, feta cheese and Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette. My kids' favorite meal-no kidding.

Easy Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Whole grain pasta noodles

MSG free broth (I usually buy the big Swansen can and add equal parts water)

Chopped carrots

Natural chicken (okay, I buy the canned natural stuff...not economical but easy & cheap in the short-run)

Salt, pepper & oregano to taste.

Boil water & broth, add pasta, chicken, carrots and cook until carrots are tender.

There are many more I'd like to share with you, maybe I'll add more as we go along. I also have desserts, so stay tuned!

Math Books and Vitamins

2009-05-21T05:59:00.000-07:00

A friend who confessed to only skimming through all this nutrition talk encouraged me to take a break or two for those of y'all not so keen on greens. We'll get back to healthy eating shortly.

The other day the UPS man delivered a couple of boxes. The kids, as always, got excited. I tried to calm them down; I didn't want their hopes up. The boxes were just vitamins and new math books.

This is the season of math books and vitamins, laundry, baseball games and sleepovers. This is not the season in our family's life for something new and exciting. No new faces will join our crew; this is it-the seven of us. From here on out, it's not growing the family, it's helping each child grow.

This was a bittersweet realization for me. Sure, it's nice to start giving away mounds of baby clothes that won't be worn again by anyone in my home. I can hardly wait to be rid of the bulky baby items we won't ever need again. Diaper bags, I won't miss you!

But there is an element of surprise that will always be missing from our home now. We are absolutely sure (without some serious heaven-sent intervention) our family will not get any bigger. There is no tiny thought of Audrey as a big sister. She won't be one. There's no wonder when I fold up too-small baby clothes...will someone new come along? No, there is no new one coming. This is it. This is us. Who our family is.

Now it's just maintaining, growing up the ones we got. Yep, a little sad, but a bit freeing too. I have to focus on that freedom. You see, I think I'm a builder not a maintainer. I can start a pregnancy center, revamp another one and so on, but I'm not the one to stick around for 20 years making it run in the day to day. Of course, I don't get to switch families and start all over--and I don't want to, not today anyway, so it's a changing of seasons for me.

I was wrong when I said we won't add anyone else to our family. In about ten years (or the blink of an eye, really) we'll start adding sons-in-laws. I've been praying for them for years, I am excited to see who God will bring for my girls and I have much work to do to get my girls ready for a life of service to their Lord, husbands and children.

Food Class: Raw Milk

2009-05-20T06:57:00.000-07:00

I hadn't really thought I'd start out talking about raw milk...it's pretty "out there" but since Alison brought it up, I'll jump right in with it. I guess if you hang in there through this, you'll survive the rest!

Okay, to be honest, my friends had to talk up raw milk for some time before I paid attention. I don't know what finally made me switch over but I do know what held me back: the gross factor. Picking up milk in the jug from the store makes it easy to forget this milk comes from an actual animal's teats. Yuck. Meeting the very cow I'm drinking from (her name is Prissy if I remember correctly) makes it a bit different. I had to just push that out of my mind and drink it anyway. And I'm glad I did.

When I started buying raw milk, the "milk lady" gave me a book to read and although I didn't actually finish it, the chapters I did read changed my thoughts about milk forever. Basically, in our country, milk comes from "freak of nature" cows with messed up pituitary glands that over produce milk, are full of hormones, antibiotics, and are fed inferior foods. Sally Fallon in her book Nourishing Traditions, explains that the forced over production of milk causes "slime and pus" to be in the milk. It has to be cleaned with a centrifuge action (I had mistakenly said it was homogenization that cleaned it) that dissolves the pus into the milk so you don't know it's there.

There are so many other compelling reasons to pass on store bought milk. You really need to dig in and research it for yourself (there's no reason for me to retype it all here). Much of the research points to the high nutritional value of raw milk compared to it's super market counter part. All the processes to prepare the milk for our consumption actually strip it of it's God-given vitamins. It's interesting to note that once our milk was no longer raw, many diseases came to be common.

Oh, what about food borne illnesses from "dirty" raw milk? Well, many if not all the salmonella cases reported from milk were from "clean" store bought milk. Also, raw milk has infection fighting properties (just like we've been told human breastmilk has) that can actually ward off bacteria that might come into contact with the milk. Unfortunately, regular milk does not contain these properties (they're killed in the processes of making it to the grocery store).

Here are some websites to get you started:

What is real milk? This has a lot of great stuff on it, from a reputable group. Don't miss the many articles available on this site.

Raw Milk Truth Hey, this one even tells you how to get started with your own cow!

Want it in blog form? Check out this comprehensive series from a raw milk convert.

So, where do you find this magical milk? The Raw Milk Truth has a tab on the sidebar addressing this, but I'll tell you how we did it (actually it came to us, but how you would do it if you lived here...):

If you dropped into my very rural town and didn't know anyone, you could start asking at the local health food store. If that didn't get you anywhere, you could try the local chiropractor (I know this would land you a phone number to at least one dairy woman (there are three local women who have one or two cows each, which they milk with stainless steel equipment), since our very wise chiropractor feeds raw milk to her family, I mean, animals (in Texas you can legally buy it for your animals...). Still a dead end? Try asking local dairies if you can buy their milk (but it may or may not be raw for you-find out. A lot of cyber friends and one in real life has bought from a local dairy, I just don't know how it all works). Finally, if you're bold, put an ad in your local paper. If you keep your eyes open for health conscious people, (not the ones buying Slim-fast, the other ones) you'll eventually track down someone who milks a cow.

Costs: locally about $7 a gallon. We supply the glass jars for fill up.

Gulp-yes $7 a gallon is a lot, especially for a large family. First, you have to remember that store bought organic milk is about $3-$4 a half gallon, so this is a very fair price. To trim our costs further, I've stopped buying so much cereal (which tends to be eaten not only as breakfast, but as an after-karate snack). We can get by with about 2 to 2 1/2 gallons of milk a week for a family of 7 (though one isn't drinking any cow's milk yet).

I'll leave you with my number one reason for not buying store bought milk (if I can help it and I'm not being lazy--truth be told I've been lazy for months but am awaiting the arrival of a new calf so we can get back into this milk thing) is this: the "mainstream" cows are injected with growth hormones, which end up in the milk. This could be why children's bodies are maturing at a faster pace than before. I don't want these hormones in my daughter's bodies. As an added bonus of today's lesson-the toxins (like hormones) are stored in fat (in us and in cows) so eating butter and other food derived from milk fat exposes us to more of the hormones. We currently don't have organic butter available in our town (WalMart had it but stopped selling it here) so we're back to regular butter but I don't like it...

Contrary to popular belief, we may not even need to drink milk (there are no other animals who drink a different specie's milk, especially into adulthood). The calcium in regular cows milk (not sure about raw milk) isn't even digestible to humans. Yet, if the Lord promised a land of "milk and honey" then milk is permissible if not good for us. Notice, the Lord did not hype up the land deal by promising processed milk and honey!

So, there you have it, the scoop on raw milk. What do you think? Jennifer F, please add to or correct my info.

Food Class Session 2

2009-05-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

After a really nice weekend that included a trip to Scarborough Fair where I ate a Scottish Egg (hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage and deep fried!), let's get back to our discussion on healthy eating.

We'll start today with the list of "health" foods that aren't healthy, with only a brief explanation as to why they are actually bad for you. I'll explain those reasons more fully in later posts. Also today-foods to avoid like the plague. Here we go!

Commercial, sweetened yogurt-too much white sugar, actually feeds yeast & often has artificial colors.
Store bought wheat bread-processing sucks out the nutrients, sometimes it's not wheat at all, just Carmel coloring (but it's still a bit better than bleached white bread).
Ice burg lettuce-not very nutritious and I've read that little microscopic bugs like to live in ice burg lettuce leaves, bugs that attack your stomach. Some people can't digest it well, maybe this is why? Also, once you leave it behind, your taste buds will thank you! Other lettuces & greens are so much more flavorful.
Graham crackers-hydrogenated oils. Think future heart attack as the oils coat your arteries.
Canned chicken noodle soup (most canned soups, really)-loaded with MSG (mono sodium glutamate) which is a neurotoxin.
Milk-there are so many nasty things about store bought milk, so I'll just leave you with one for today-as a result of the processes that make the cow a freak of nature who has many more times the milk than God intended, there's almost always pus in the milk. Homogenization hides the pus; distributes it throughout the milk instead of little particles accumulating in the bottom of your glass. Mmmm, tasty!
Juice-too much sugar at once (even though it's natural sugar, it still brings havoc to the pancreas), much of the nutrients are gone and there's no fiber like you'd get from the whole fruit.
Pasta-made from nutrient stripped white flour.
Canned veggies-I've read that canned green beans are so nutritionally void, they actually go backwards on the nutrients scale to a negative food (just to make a point, not really). If you're opening up that can out of duty to serve some vegetables, don't.
Kool-Aid (not that people think it's healthy, just a staple of childhood). There's nothing to Kool-Aid except artificial colors, flavors & sugar. Besides, it stains their mouths & the carpet!

Okay, so now that you're motivated to give your family better nutrition, let's talk about what needs to go first: Fake food. These are foods that are very hard to find a source for (other than a factory maybe), they offer little or no nutritional value and may actually include additives that are harmful (like cancer causing agents). Here's a list to start from:

Margarine
Most processed lunch meats
Hot dogs
Colas
Processed Cheese Products (not cheese, just the fake kind, especially Velveeta)
Sugar laden breakfast cereals
Mac & cheese (boxed, not home made)
Frozen dinners (prepared foods, not frozen fruits & veggies)
Chips
Candy
Most canned soups
Canned meals like Spaghetti-Os
Fake juices like Sunny Delight, Hawaiian Punch, Gatorade (think colored sugary chemicals).

I know I'll think of more, but this is a good start. Probably made most of you just click the web page shut. Don't despair, there are plenty of good things you can eat! You just need to adjust your style to accommodate them into your kitchen. Start slowly, eliminating only a few things--or even just one thing--at a time.

The major things to avoid: MSG, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup. Read labels!

Okay, next time I'll focus on one topic like MSG, milk, or hydrogenated oils. If you all want to hear about one in particular first, let me know in the comments.

Happy Eating!

Food Class

2009-05-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

Good title suggestion Vicki!

Two more caveats before we get started: Go slow. I have a friend who uses Klean Kanteen sippy cups (a couple are on my list!), makes her own yogurt, kefir, sprouts seeds and so on. Someone commented on her lifestyle and she wisely pointed out that it's taken her many years to get there. She started with tiny changes and built on them. We've done the same thing, and we've backtracked several times, especially during times of transition like adding a new baby or moving.

Also, remember the best practice is to keep it local. If you have a choice between buying organic carrots from your Super WalMart or Farmer Joe down the road, pick Farmer Joe. It's better for your local economy and Farmer Joe's family.

This thought sums up my whole foods eating law: Identify the source of your food (remember, there are no marshmallow bushes) and love one another (meaning don't offend & buy local).

Okay, as a teaser, I'm going to list some "healthy foods" that aren't so healthy. I'll come back and address why in the next post.

Commercial, sweetened yogurt
Store bought wheat bread
Ice burg lettuce
Graham crackers
Canned chicken noodle soup (most canned soups, really)
Milk
Juice
Pasta
Canned veggies
Kool-Aid (not that people think it's healthy, just a staple of childhood).

Okay, think on those things and I'll be back soon to tell you why it's all not-so-good for you. Coming soon-what to throw out of your house right now!

2009-05-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

Eating healthy in America is a strange thing. There is so much marketing that we often are down right deceived into thinking something is healthy when it indeed is not. Even our health care system promotes junk food as health food, for instance when a doctor suggests eating yogurt to keep yeast at bay. Commercial yogurt is full of sugar-which yeast feeds on--so it actually can make the problem worse.

So what are we to do?

I'd like to start talking more about healthy lifestyle choices here, but first we have to go over some fundamentals.

While we think our main goal is to get our bodies in great shape by eating well, that's not really the main priority. No, our first objective is to not offend. I've been the obnoxious dieter telling everyone in sight how fattening their food choice is. Not pretty. I don't want someone to be afraid of what to serve me when I dine at their home. To do this, we must balance our eating goals with love to our neighbors. So, rule #1, don't be offensive with what you learn! Don't freak out if your in laws give your kids red koolaid when you're trying to cut it out of your kids' diets.

Next, you need to develop a strong distrust in all you currently know about food. We've been marketed to our entire lives. Don't be naive-our country's food sources are heavily influenced by big business, politics, and the glorious dollar. The Food Guide Pyramid was changed several times--not because expert nutritionists tweaked it. No, no, no-after big (agri-)business lobbied! So, forget all you know and don't assume anything is healthy. Especially if it's in a package or a commercial told you so.

Stop thinking organic food is for yuppies. If this is true, then the inverse is also true: herbicides and pesticides are for the rest of us. No thanks, I'm not buying into that.

Look at your food closely. Can you identify where it came from? There are no marshmallow trees in nature, no hot dog plants, and no soda streams. If you can't identify it's source, then it's probably not healthy. Along similar lines, the more ingredients on the packaging, or if there are several you can't pronounce, skip it. This goes for all those fun items in the health food store, too. Just because it's in that store does not mean it's not 100% junk. Who cares if it's organic junk, it's still junk.

Okay, for some of you that was overwhelming so we'll stop here for the day, class. Next time we'll talk about what specific items to avoid and what better alternatives are out there.

Critical Health Notice

2009-05-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd let you all know I have the Swan Flu. Bethany (our five year old) diagnosed me this afternoon after I slept all day. Here's a list of the symptoms:

Slight headache

Incredible stomach cramps

Slight fever

Aversion to food

Yep, if you have these symptoms, it's sure to be the Swan Flu, which is so much prettier than the Swine Flu, wouldn't you agree?

Nontraditional Mother's Day Tradition

2009-05-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

My mom and Bethany

My brother Scott and Hope

We accidentally started what we hope will be a tradition for Mother's Day. There are no corsages included, but technically we did eat out.

Ashlyn was in need of some batting practice, so we decided to make a trip to our not-so-local batting cages 45 miles away. The only day that would work to go was Sunday...but that was Mother's Day...would my mom understand if we ditched the family for the afternoon and practiced batting instead? Also on site are bumper boats, go carts, mini-golf and laser tag, so I decided to just invite the family.

Well, no one had ever thought of doing that before. My family has never played mini-golf before, not even when I was a kid. We got one of my brothers in on it (the other had to work), made plans to pack some BBQ for lunch and we were on our way!

What a blast we had! It was overcast and threatening rain, so we had the park mostly to ourselves. Ashlyn & Hope used the batting cages for a while, then a few of us adults stopped yelling advice and stepped in the cage ourselves! I hadn't hit a ball in a few years, it was fun-although I don't know how they do it with those cumbersome helmets on! Meanwhile, my parents and brother took the girls in the bumper boats & go carts-even Jaika got in on it. She's ruthless with the boat's water gun-she even squirted the attendant!

We wrapped up our play with a family round of mini-golf. My sister in law has some mini-golfing skills! She let my dad take over her club when she got tired (she's still recovering from colon cancer), which leveled the playing field a bit. In the end, Shane was the champion, and I came in second. He gets bragging rights until next year when we will do it all over again.

Yep, that's right, we all had such a good time, we're planning it again for next year. Next year, we'll remember to bring napkins, since after eating BBQ sandwiches, we looked liked we'd been face painting. Also, we'll scout out a park near by instead of having a tailgate party in the parking lot-or we'll remember our lawn chairs. Soon we'll have this thing down to an art, all the while enjoying each other's company while ducking from Jaika's water gun stream!

2009-05-01T05:42:00.000-07:00

I'm heading out to do some thrift store shopping today but wanted to leave you with the address to check in on Grant, our little friend with leukemia. Please keep him in your prayers!

Have a blessed weekend~this may very well be my last sane weekend for some time as baseball games start next week and instead of dropping kids off and running home, I'll actually be at the field many nights a week watching games, attempting to keep Jaika from diving off the bleachers head first and keeping Audrey happy in the heat (ugh and the stickiness right now-it's so humid here my hair is curling like Shirley Temple's and you could wring out my carpet).

Grant

2009-04-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

I promised in an email that I sent out to my prayer warrior friends that I'd post Grant updates here. I'm not really in the know, but what I do know is that he was officially diagnosed with ALL Leukemia. Today starts his treatment with a port, which has a high success rate with few complications. Please pray for his mom & dad (Amy...and I don't know his dad's name, we've never met). Also, his grandma is Susan. Amy & Susan both work for the PRC.

The PRC is also under more attack, as we've heard just a bit ago that two men with close relatives who work for the PRC have lost their jobs.

The last few days have been full of bad news: a church split with much pain, adultery, marital strife, the tragic death of a local special needs child, a drunk driver hit a friend's mother, children of our good friends were just given a scary diagnosis, toxic work environments with no escape in sight, Grant's diagnosis...

I really wanted to share something wise about how to handle life when it gets this hard. None of these things are happening to our family, just all around us...yet I've been tense in my shoulders and head since Monday. All I know is that we need to keep our lives simple so we can stop our own agendas and help where we're needed, don't just offer to help but jump in, and have some pain reliever on hand!

New 'do

2009-04-29T10:12:00.001-07:00

Hope & Jaika Before

Both Jaika & Hope got some drastic haircuts yesterday. Jaika has so much hair, it almost looks like a thick wig. She's only two but she had-until yesterday-hair down to her shoulder blades. She's a bit of a messy eater, so food is often on her cheeks, then hair is stuck to her cheeks...then her hair is matted and sticky. I decided it's too much trouble to keep it clean, so we cut it off yesterday. I think it's adorable! Hope got in on the action and cut a lot of length off her hair as well. Bethy chose to have a few inches drop to the floor, Ashlyn got a trim and I got a new cut as well, but I'm just not as cute as a toddler so we'll leave off the pics.

I love the freedom in our home to do what we want with our hair. After all, it's just hair. It'll grow back. I've seen little girls and women with long, thick hair--but full of split ends. The hair is often praised (especially by daddies). Long hair in and of itself is not valuable and sometimes not practical. It gets to over 100 degrees here, often for many days in a row. How fair is it for Dad (in a short hair cut) to make his daughter keep her thick hair long? (I'm not talking about families who have religious beliefs about long hair...that's different.)

So, the moral of this story-chill out and have fun with hair. If you want it long, keep the split ends away and it'll look great!

Hope & Jaika After

Prayer Requests

2009-04-27T17:31:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update, then a very serious prayer request.

We have found a house that might be a great fit for us. We need to have some things checked out before we go further (like the a/c, the well, and the roof) but we'd appreciate your prayer for all of this to fall together right. We need our land to sell and for wisdom regarding this house and if it is indeed for us.

We took the girls to see the King Tut exhibit in Dallas today. We're studying this time period in school, so it was perfect! I'd like to go back to the museum with just Shane and also as a family to enjoy it more.

My Grandma turned 90 on Saturday and we had a little party. My aunt made an incredible scrapbook with contributions from all the family members. She also bound a very thick book of all our contributed memories-even memories from the 5 year old great-grandchildren. My Grandma was overwhelmed! It was very funny to hear someone wish her "many more" and she replied, "Well, maybe, but maybe not, you know."

Okay, on to the most imporant part-we have a little friend who turns 3 tomorrow, his name is Grant. His mom Amy and grandmother Susan work at our Pregnancy Center. Grant's been sick for several days and was taken today to Cooks Children's Hospital where they are almost sure he has leukemia. He's so very lethargic...so very ill. He may start treatment as early as tomorrow. Amy and her husband have a baby as well. Please get on your knees for them. I'll be posting updates here as I get them.

SAHM Ministries

2009-04-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

Let's explore the topic of ministry as a stay at home mamma. I know that our family is our primary ministry and if we're staying home minding a gaggle of children, we're busy, busy, busy. But that doesn't excuse us from ministry; from the "go ye therefore..." mandate.

So how do you put the go in that command?

I know a great mom who is very mindful of raising good kids and still finds herself carving out some time each week for her local Pregnancy Resource Center. Last week, her ministry there led to a baby being saved from death.

Another big family I know is taking the kids and serving in a pantry for the local victims of the mass fires we had recently. Very cool.

But what about those of us who really aren't in a season where we can get out of the house to minister? I've thought about a few things and would love to hear what's working in your life.

Here's mine:
*Being available to help new homeschool moms. I have two right now who've been calling or coming by for advice and encouragement. One even sat in on school last week, which was really fun!

*Being a Facebook friend. No, I mean it-who on your list of friends needs some encouragement or prayer? This is perfect for busy moms since you can access it 24/7.

*Prayer warrior-I don't get large pieces of time to hide away and pray, but I can sure pray with my girls before school and I pray while doing dishes, driving, rocking the baby, and when I wake to nurse in the night.

*Jot a note. We all love to get real mail. You'll make someone's day if you send them a handwritten note telling them you're thinking of them.

*Online connections-a strange thing has happened since joining Freecycle. In case you don't know how it works, you join an email list for your local area, then you can post/read about items no longer needed or ones people are needing. If you can meet the need, you respond to that person. Several times people have needed items the pregnancy centers offer and I've been able to spread the word about that ministry. Today I offered a cradle to a woman who later told me she & her husband were both laid off last month. I was able to offer some encouragement and prayer (even if she didn't know I prayed). I'm in contact with a mom of three who needs a breastpump ASAP. It's not a huge deal, but aren't the blessings of life usually the little things?

*Find a cashier to bless. My goodness, cashiers have rough jobs! I watched a few weeks ago as one kept her calm while dealing with a rude customer who ultimately purposefully spilled his coke on her conveyer belt. If you can find "your" cashier, get to know her a little and ask how she's doing with her garden or her granddaughter or whatever she's shared with you, you'll be able to bless her.

*How about your husband's co-workers? Can you send a crock pot of roast to work with your man? A cake or homemade cookies?

I know there's more-some I don't do, like helping out neighbors (we don't even know our neighbors...but we should), offering to babysit, calling the elderly in your church, taking your pastor's family a home cooked meal...tell me more!

Happy Earth Day to You

2009-04-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

Or, Happy Birthday to me...whichever you prefer to sing...I'm going for the second one today!

However, Earth Day gives me the best excuse to blog about the changes we've made, which happen to be green.

I used to hate Earth Day and resent that it was on my birthday. However, as I've come to realize being a good steward is not the same as being a liberal (oh boy is that a loaded statement!). Actually, being a good steward benefits me, too-as you'll see, most of my green habits are all about me.

In the last year I've started realizing how very thrifty being greener can be. Well, you can make it expensive of course, but being simple--which is my ultimate goal--is both green & thrifty. I think the key to staying sane is to just be simple.

Okay, so on with it-what do we do that's simple (and green, and thrifty?)

*Use cloth diapers-even though they may use more water than disposables, I feel better using them because they are not filled with chemicals that find their way into my child's skin. And, it's one more thing I don't have to keep putting on my shopping list.

*I use few paper plates-but I'm married to the king of all things disposable, so it does happen.

*I use my (very cool, thanks to my friends) reusable shopping bags. Mostly to remove myself from the cheap, consumerism feeling I get when I see a dozen flimsy Wal-Mart sacks in my kitchen after a grocery run. Yeah, I know, mostly a selfish reason, but who cares?

*Minimal car use...for us anyway. I save errands for one or two trips a week mainly because it's a lot of work to get my crew out the door. Because Shane works nights and has a big part of our marriage, we have been able to get by with only one car, kinda (it's complicated, but that's the gist of it).

*We use Charlie's Soap-a chemical free detergent (and we use the household cleaner, too). It's great for diapers and for the environment-although, again I started using it for selfish reasons.

*We use glass mason jars to drink from and to store leftovers in (sometimes). I am trying to use less plastic, and especially less disposable Tupperware like containers.

*Earnestly attempting to reuse items before I toss them in the trash. Including leftover food-okay, I mean not reusing it exactly, that sounds like it's been used once already! I mean I am storing more leftovers, even if it's just a little, for lunches or to throw into a new meal.

*We shop at thrift stores, give to thrift stores and use Freecyle often. We also try to shop local when we can-like for beef, honey, health food items etc. We're limited in our budget & our choices, but we try.

*We use online bill paying for all our bills, paperless statements and email alerts. Of course its selfish-I can't stand all that paper in my mail box and on my desk! It also happens to be cheaper and greener!

And, what negates all of this (totally selfish) effort? We shop at the biggest peddler of made in China junk in the nation. The one that tries to put all their employees on part time to minimize benefits, maximize profits. With poor produce and poorly made products...

Oh well, at least it's my birthday and that makes me feel better!