Stress!

Long time no post, I know, but it has been a week. My sister had a baby on Tuesday of last week, (welcome to the world little tater tot!) then had an abdominal hemorrhage on Thursday. She was in the ICU until this morning, and hopefully will be home soon with her sweet baby. Therefore, not much has been done about anything anywhere. I did make up some pancake mix, and do a bunch of composty stuff, but beyond that I was at the hospital or laughing/crying with hysteria and stress. Bleh! Luckily, she survived, and is getting better.
It snowed this morning. Yes, yes, I know you are jealous. Spring here is such an exciting time, snow and 60 degrees within 24 hours. My starts are going well, those that survived neglect, and hopefully we will be eating spinach within the next few weeks. Fresh spinach, that I planted. I must not be quite back to myself yet.

Oh, the grace of the day~ Little new babies that curl up when sleeping, and make little happy sigh noises when you kiss them. :)

Sunshine makes everything better

I had such a blissful day yesterday. Many of us (5 adults and 4 littles and 4 dogs) took a long stroll to the park in the lovely lovely Springtime warm. Then the kids played, we walked home, and had dinner together in such a mellow, quiet, warm early evening light. THAT! That is exactly it. The answer to all of the isolation issues. How happy. All of the kids were tired and dirty. We all talked about community and how we will start to look for land. I named our goats in advance- Feta, Chevre, and Soap.

Grace~ New baby smell :)

Isolation Continued

Today I will end with a grace so if I am too depressing I will cheer you (myself) up.
So now that we all live sprawled out from our community we feel isolated and alone, so we buy stuff to make us feel better, that we have to work more at jobs we hate to buy more stuff. Does that make sense? No? I have the most amazing friends. Seriously. But the way this society is set up is to attach to things, not people. Such disconnect between work and results, such disconnect between the stuff we have and the people who make that stuff. Soooooo here is what I am going to do- try to as much as the budget allows- buy local, buy handmade- buy non-plastic, non-advertised, non-fleh items. That will mean that I buy less, but more important stuff. I am joining a CSA for the summer season. I am going to make more of an effort to see my friends. And trudge less! I find myself sleepwalking through life alot, not aware of what is going on around me. There is beauty all over the place if I would just look around and see it. I think my lack of motivation is directly tied to my lack of connection to the world around me. (see, Diane, I am working it out...) Maybe if I am more awake, I will care more. Or something.

For today's grace- Mail! I love getting mail. In the mailbox. :)

Isolation

I have to start off here with my grace in small things because otherwise I may not get to it~
sleepywarm hugs that are given when the child is just waking up, hair all tangled with dreams and eyes still closed. *happy sigh* Warning- Ramble ahead...
I have been spending alot of time lately thinking about how isolated I am (we are) as an individual and a country. I am isolated from my work, I don't actually "DO" anything. I sit in front of a computer and talk. I never see any results, I am just a disembodied voice on the phone. I sit in a cube farm and "work" but never move from my chair. How many people find themselves drained and exhausted from this type of living? I feel like I am infected with blight. Deeeeeply discontent. And how anonymously we live! I am lucky to live in a duplex with neighbors I love with all of my heart, but how depressing to not have block parties and chats over fences? How depressing that most people I know do not even know the names of those that share the fenceline? I understand so many people lived out in the middle of nowhere while homesteading with the closest people being miles away, but even then if a barn needed raising or something of that nature people pulled together. Nothing makes sense to me anymore.

Grace in Small Things

So this is where you post something every day for a year. Not realistic for me but from now on every time I post there will be a grace. :)

today's grace~ A doggie who leapt in circles when I came downstairs this morning, so happy to see me...

ok another one~ see photo

Composty goodness

Hoooooray! Yay yay yay hooooooray! 2 days and my compost got HOT! It was around 40 degrees outside, raining, windy, so cold, and inside the compost, 124! Whee! I know sometimes they get hotter, but for a first go round I am thrilled.

Some Stuff

How fabulous is composting class? SO fabulous. I love learning about nitrogen and carbon, little mesophillic bacteria, so cute and tiny eating up garbage. Not really cute, but I have a cartoon image of them in my head that sort of cracks me up. Nom nom nom nom nom... I have changed the settings here so you can post anonymously should the urge so strike. Not a dang thing in mind to green my life this week. Everything I can think of to do seems overwhelming. Maybe I can convince my family to use our power strips to shut down our appliances totally when they are not in use. Maybe. I however, will be going to work on greening Mr. Husband's work by sending buckets with him next week to collect such things as coffee grounds and veg scraps. I am hoping to have compost to give away shortly. Ramblin on, ramblin on, not making sense, I'm ramblin ooooonnnnn...

Hi Dadoo!

Love you. Bunches!

Motivate Me...

I have many many things that would be helpful and beneficial if I would just get off my watoosie and do them. I have very little motivation a good portion of the time. Why am I so dang self defeating? Seriously, I haven't a clue about how to deal with this issue. I cooooould wash dishes/ go for a walk/turn the compost/bake bread/make cheese/dance with abandon but I don't. I sit. It seems like alot of the time I forget I am alive. Is anyone else frustrated by this? Does anyone else DO this? Or not do, as the case may be...

Compost!

I started the compost program last night! It is put on by the Spokane Waste Management outreach. I am so excited, I learned so much the first night! There is 15 of us in the class and the teachers are all very experienced gardeners/composters. Something I have never thought about is the lessening of the carbon footprint when you compost. There is less transportation, less greenhouse created. I was only thinking of the garden benefit, but there is so much more. Hooray! There is a bad smell in my laundry room, I am a little afraid. That is the big push now, we have room for a worm bin now and so the rest of it needs to be cleaned and organized. Isn't it funny how organizing can make a much larger mess than you had at first? My sister's baby shower is this weekend, yaaay!

This week's goals

I got an indoor laundry line! I am hoping my baby steps aren't pathetic. But I got an indoor laundry line! It is retractable and will be living over our tub. I even have clothespins. Tonight my laundry goes on the line, not the dryer. My composting class starts next week, I am very very excited. I get to learn all sorts of things, and when I am done, I will be a master composter!!! I will learn all about all sorts of composting and worm bin building. Part of the deal with getting this training is that I have to teach what I learn. I am excited and nervous about that as well. Poor family will get to listen to me more than once I am sure. :) I am going to order the last of my gardening stuff today, potato and strawberry starts. Then I get to "chit" my potato seeds! That cracks me up. Or I should say it cracks my chit up. HAHA. I am going to get a little wood together, this weekend I shall make potato condos to grow them vertically. I am growing fingerlings. Yum yum. I made more laundry soap on Sunday and changed up the recipe. Let's see if Mr. Husband notices.

The view from my kitchen window

This picture was taken in the fall, before the snow...

I have decided to let go. There is snow on the ground, the wind is freeeeezing, and it is not going to rise above the freezing mark for some days. When Spring comes, Spring comes. My spinach will have to wait. On Sunday I made butter out of cream, and then made bread out of the buttermilk. This is going to become a habit, I believe, as there is no comparison to the taste of fresh butter. 2 ingredients, cream and salt. Yum! Today there are pears and wine in the crockpot that will be the pear butter of delight by 8pm. Comice pears, sooooo good.

My hooray of the week- I have signed up for the master composter's class! I get to learn how to do all sorts of composty things, and then teach these things to other people! Hooray! <- See, there is the hooray. :) I love my lunch. I know that is random, as most things are with me, but I really love it when I have homemade bread and jam.

ACK!

Do you see the white stuff that is falling rather sideways??? This was taken a few moments ago looking out the window at my work. Uhhh, it is March, we should be done with this by now. Grrr.

In other, happy news, today is my short day here, and it is also friendship bread baking day. Tomorrow will be very lovely bread to bring to work and for Miss Sunshine to eat after school. I am going to start a batch of the 5 minute bread tonight as well. I am having lunch with a good friend and then we are going to look for grow lights and other sundry non-snow related things. I must try to remember that we have lovely hot sunny summers.

Recently I have noticed that I am avoiding some things I should deal with. I hate it when I realize I am being dumb. *sigh* Better to figure it out now though, before it is too late.

Hooray recycle!

I found a project that really interests me.
http://www.preserveproducts.com/recycling/
Excitingly, you can send them plastics that are not accepted locally. I am going to put myself in charge of sending in boxes of the plastic and the filters. Yay! Several of my friends have said they will save yogurt containers ect. and get them to me. I am very glad to be doing this as something concrete, something real, to make a difference. Yay! They also have some pretty keen products made out of recycled plastic that they collect.
I am happy to report the soap that I was worried about mellowed quite a bit overnight. No rebatching for me, thank all that is good and holy, I have no time right now. I am searching for used lights for my starts. AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I am pretty sure I am going back on weight watchers. *sigh*

Soap again, and Spring?

Hooray, snow is really on the way out! I am very happy to report with warming temperatures there is more mud than snow on the ground! I was sadly unable to get any planting done as I cannot locate glass I can afford for cold frames. Yet. I will continue to look and to tell everyone I know that I am looking on the off chance someone has some laying around.
Yesterday my friends and I made a HUGE batch of soap. It smells different than the smaller batches I have made but I have read up on rebatching if it doesn't work out.
Mr. Husband and I had a quick chat about some of the changes we are making and how empowered we feel. I know it sounds cheesy, but to take control of our lives was just something that we didn't know we could do. It also appeals to the rebel in both of us to shake our fist at "the man". He was actually interested in the seeds that I purchased and that made a happy for me to be sure.
Today it is raining raining raining in soft cold drops. SO much better than snow. Not to say it couldn't decide to dump on us tomorrow, but for now the mud is nice.
Happy for the weekend~ while going grocery shopping I remembered my reusable bags! And used them!
Second happy for the weekend~ I took out my pressure canner instruction book and looked at it! So this year, I will be pressure canning. I think. eek.

M!

Hi Margaret!

A swap, a spinach, and a sweet

My big goal for the week is to get spinach started in a bin with a cold frame on top. There is still snow and ice here, and still below freezing at night, the truth is I just can't wait any more. In a sunny spot, with a window on top to warm everything up, I hope to have fresh greens shortly. Yipee! I would also like to get a salad bin going, but we will see.
As for the swap, it is through my favorite blog in all of the land, http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/. I am inspired by her gentle view on life and the home. I am not sure if I could ever reach her level of calm, even if I was able to stay home and not work outside the home, but I like to think I would come close after a while. I am making tea towels and potholders. Hopefully my swap partner is forgiving of my inability to sew directly straight seams.
The sweet is a friendship bread starter that I got last week and baked up on Sunday. My friend came over and we did up our bread at the same time. Very much friendship bread! I added a tablespoon or so extra cinnamon and some chocolate chips. Lovely! And now I have starter to share.
As far as life in general goes, I think I have the health things pegged down so I should be able to get stuff done finally. I am getting to know the bus drivers on the routes I take now, and one of them noticed I was gone last week. That was nice. Going to work this morning, not so nice. It was hard to get rolling at 5:30. Harder to get Miss Sunshine rolling at that time. It would be nice if at some point one of us could stay home. Not likely though at this point or any time in the foreseeable future. Luckily by simplifying we may, someday, reach that goal.

Long weekend, not enough done

Happy Tuesday. I have quite the cold. Flehhhhhh. Therefore, not much got done this weekend. We finally did get the freezer in, and my friend and I did up burritos which you can see ->. We both filled our crockpots with chicken, she had her rice cooker going, and I made up 4 pounds of refried beans. Some cheese, some salsa, and easy food for busy days. I had an extra little, but it was no extra work as all of them played together quite nicely. As I was sick, there was no soap made, but we will probably do it week after next. By then my first batch will be ready to use! Hooray! I am ordering some seeds this week, that is very exciting. Ohhhh, and my laundry soap that I made from borax, washing soda and pure soap works like a charm!! Mr. Husband said that all of this self-sufficiency is... sexy! Can you believe it? With my grumpy self, stuffy head, hair a mess, dogs woofing, children playing, and me trying to get one more casserole in the freezer and he said that! And that is why I love him, he surprises me. One of the whys at least. This week I really don't have any goals besides getting well and getting used to the new medications. Hopefully I am more myself in a few days.

Friday, hooray!

I was early to the bus stop this morning. The lovely part of that was getting to watch the clouds move along in the slowly lightening sky. The not so lovely part was waiting in below freezing temperatures with a bit of a breeze going. Luckily, the bus was right on time and it was very warm. On the way into work I saw a herd of deer browsing on the (?) plant of some sort and it was very peaceful. Now I am at work and the peaceful part is done.
This weekend I am having friends over to make soap. That means no regular craft day, we will all be doing soap.
I have not done such a good job this last week at getting any of my goals accomplished. Not totally true, I have all of the stuff for a round of burritos, I was well within my food budget, I wrote up a chore list, I dealt with the whole medical thing. I do have the laundry soap ready to roll as soon as I have a moment to do laundry. Luckily a 3 day weekend means I will hopefully get caught up. Since our puppy ate many of our canvas bags I am going to be looking for more this weekend if I get a chance to go to a thrift store. And my kitchenaid mixer should be fixed this weekend, yaaaaaaaaay! I am going to overwork it I am sure.
Goals for this weekend- get more canvas bags, move them into the car, catch up with other goals. Look for free/cheap bricks. Do up bread for freezing.
Gosh this post is boring.

What DO I want???

Good Morning~ the snow is so lovely drifting down in big fat flakes. I got to stand out in it for the bus and really it wasn't too cold, thank goodness no wind. Lately I have been really looking at my motivation. Why do I do what I do? Why do I want what I want? How much of what I want is externally driven? Who decides? Something I have noticed is that the longer we have no TV, the less stuff Miss Sunshine asks for. Coincidence? I think not. :P
So I have been as analytical as possible and not so happy with what I am finding. Honest truth? I want a latte so I feel financially secure, i.e. if I can get a coffee we have money. (ha!) Honest truth? I want junk food to feed my child (forgive me, but this is true) so I can get stuff done and she will be quiet. There, I said it, I hope I am not alone, but DANG I am lazy. There are more examples but those are good examples. So, knowing is half the battle? I feel like a bad parent, a bad person, but maybe being aware that this is happening will make change possible. I do not want to rob my child of the sense of accomplishment truly hard work brings, but I have not done a good job of giving her that gift so far, and at this point, it will be an unwelcome gift I am sure. I don't know how to be motivated, I don't know how to motivate. I have to learn though, so I don't let Miss Sunshine down. Hopefully my rambling here will help me muddle my way through.
In other news, I am trying to find a bunch of gardeners to order seeds with, I am really really needing to watch my pennies and don't think I could use a whole seed packet. Organic happy heirloom seeds are spendy. Any takers?

Tuesday in the snow

My goodness, I am tired of the cold. I am so excited to garden I find myself being very grumpy at winter. Making more soap this weekend... yay! I did a good job last night of getting started on my stockpile. A new grocery store opened and I took advantage of the loss leaders, I will probably go back and get more veggies to pickle. I did pick up a bunch of other things on the cheap, woo hoo!
I am waiting for news from my doctor, and I doubt it will be good. I should be back to myself by Thursday, after we talk.

Thursday

I poked my soap last night, it is hardening! That is a happy for me. Tonight I am going to make laundry soap. I got the bucket yesterday from Mr. Husband who brought it home from work. I am also going to go through Miss Sunshine's clothing to see what I can cobble together to make some of her shirts last longer. She is very long in the torso so her belly button will be showing long before the shirt is too small everywhere else. My plan is to combine a few shirts into one to give her a layered look that covers her belly. Wish me luck on that. :) Last night I was grumping at myself that it has taken me this long to get a clue about the world around me, but today I am focusing on what George Eliot said...
"It is never to late to be what you might have been".

One car

Recently we have gone from 2 cars to 1. At first the change was not at all my choice, my car broke, no money to fix it, and so it was parked and there it sits. Now that we have been a one car family for a few weeks, I am beginning to wonder if we shouldn't just leave that car parked, or sell it, or fix it and sell our other car, as we are doing (mostly, with some adjustments) fine with just one. The best thing is that without a car to pop off to the store or out and about I don't spend as much money. Less on gas, less on insurance, less consumption in general. Hooray for that! Another good thing that has been happening recently is that my neighbor and I have been carpooling for errands. We go to the store together and such. Not only is it far more fun (and takes alot longer) I feel good about that teeny step toward lessening my footprint. The other thing I have found is taking the bus is kind of relaxing. The bus I take out to my work is almost empty and I can just... sit. Lovely.
Miss Sunshine is sick (again? still?) and that is really going to be a challenge in the next few days.
This week's goals~ make laundry soap and compost compost compost!

Soap!

See how I am, I forgot to post about my soap! My lovely happy oatmeal soap!
Beautiful soup, so rich and cream, waiting to harden in a soap tureen! Who for such dainties would not cope? I have to wait 6 weeks for my soap!!!!
Ok, sorry, my apologies to Lewis Carroll and whomever might read this, I am just very excited. Who knew doing for one's self would be so empowering??? It is unfortunate that my camera is not working any more, or I would take pictures. A little oil, a little lye, a little oatmeal, and some time. Honestly I wonder how I let the marketing machine convince me that I was incapable and needed to buy buy buy to be a decent person. So hooray for the internet, hooray for bloggers who are teaching me so very much, and hooray for moving more toward a real life.
Furthermore, I am working on planning my garden. As much of the ground I am going to be working with is totally unprepared, I will be doing my romas and my cukes in upside down planters. That way I won't overwhelm myself (hopefully) and will grow my own pickles!!! Luckily I have been composting and the one (maybe a second a bit later in the season) raised beds I will have will give me some veggies to be proud of. I do know gardening is a learning curve, and I am prepared for a harvest of 3 beans, 1 pea and a sad cuke, but hopefully will do better than that. :)

Sick

Sick child, sick me. Flehhhhh...

Why I love my life

I have the best friends. My friends are smart, funny, expressive, supportive, and great. Nothing is better than knowing there are people who have your back.
In other news, the beans are in the crock pot, and I am going to try homemade tortillas tonight. I am working on the garden plan for this spring. I am going to limit myself to 2 raised beds because if I overdo it I will give up midway.
As far as changes I have made last weekend/this week, I moved the thermostat down another degree overnight, so we are at 67/68 when we are home and awake, and 60 when we are in bed or gone. I think we are going to keep it there for a while, that is about as cold as I can take it at the moment. It is supposed to snow today and warm up a bit, to a balmy 26 degrees today (-3 C) with a high of 37 (3 C) on Friday. It was about ten degrees colder a few days ago. This week the goal is to get the freezer set up and have a menu plan for the following week.

Plans and Accomplishments

Tonight I will be making soap so wish me luck! I got the recipe that I am using from http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ the blog that has really inspired me to get moving. Good news, last night I was able to clean off some pizza pans that were really nasty with... baking soda!!!! Not one fishy was harmed in the cleaning of my dishes. :) We have been using Seventh Generation (and will continue to do so until my soap cures) but the pans just were not coming clean. Yay for not resorting to chemicals. Other joys for the last few days~ I have made my own fabric softener with vinegar and orange oil for the lovely fragrance~ I finished the booties that I have been working on for my niece (see photo), and have decided how and where to do my first garden grid as soon as the ground thaws a bit (April-ish). The best though, I was really hungry and was out and about and instead of fast food, I went home!! I also found an instructable on a doggie veranda with herbs that grow on the roof. I am going to try to get that done sooner rather than later as it will be harder to do when there is more to do. Did that make any sense??? This weekend my goal is to get 4 aprons done. Wish me luck and see you Monday!

Hooray!

I have decided this year to give only gifts that are handmade. I want all of my gifts to have some happy in them. To that end, I am working on a pair of booties for my niece who is due in late April. I have discovered it is difficult (for me) to freehand embroider matching flowers. Or anything. Oh well, hand made is heart made, right? I am planning on making soap this weekend, and I will let you know how it goes. Pictures by Sunday. :)

Here I go!

Thanks for stopping by! This blog will hopefully help me in my journey from dual-income-family-stressed out-convenience food eating- wasteful living-heavily in debt person to becoming a living with nature/happy/greener person with no debts except the mortgage (and hopefully taking my family with me). I have a child, a husband, two dogs, and a 113 year old duplex that we are trying to fix up. We are lucky to have such a large lot in the city, we have just under a quarter acre. A great deal of it is rock, but there are two large terraced areas that I am hoping to turn into gardens (pictures soon). I am getting ready to start an Etsy store of handmade items to supplement our income as well. More soon!