The Zahn Zone

13 February

2012-02-13T07:47:00.001-06:00

From today's department of random:

I had a dream last night that my husband was a bigamist. At first I supported it; it was a favor to a friend. But after the fact, as the implications of it set in, I became distraught and felt suddenly that my life was ruined. I think in this case the subconscious second wife symbolizes the real, nearly full-time second job George currently holds. That job has been a blessing for the past couple of years, but it has run its course and thankfully soon will end. As George and I sat at breakfast this morning, I said to him: "Whatever you do, do not take a second wife. Or any more jobs!" With a very weary "are you kidding me?" look he said I need not worry about that. Thankfully, I'm not quite distraught over that job, not as much as I would be if he had another wife. I just miss him. A lot.

Random kitty pic. She was curious about the meditation candle I lit this morning. Don't be fooled that I do this every day, but today I needed the calm of staring at a candle for a bit. Curiosity did not kill the cat, thankfully.

And here's my living room re-arranged (with random Billy pic). The wing chairs are temporary, I hope, to be replaced by a leather (non pet-hair collecting) love seat or pair of chairs in the near future. We recently received those tables from my mom and dad and I wanted to use them. Can you tell they are from our family room in the 80s? I really like them, and like how they modernize and streamline the space even though they are now nearly "vintage". They are very good quality, as are the wing chairs. You would not believe how much those chairs have been sat upon since the 1980s, and how firm and comfortable they still are. Even the upholstery is *almost* back in style again and it is in surprisingly good condition. I like wing chairs so they'll do for now, but I'd prefer something else for that space.

I know. I have too many odd patterns in my living room right now. Above is a picture of our closet office or "cloffice" I've found they're called. I purchased the pillow at Target in the girls' room section, to "funk-ify" that old chair. I'd like that old chair to be the most traditional thing in our living room, eventually. I do like to mix traditional and modern.

Below is the love seat (with yet another pattern) I tried to move up to the living room as a temporary stand-in for a new love seat. I tried to do this alone. It's light enough and I'm just stubborn enough and...see first paragraph about tired, overworked husband...

But then this happened:

As I was trying unsuccessfully to get it up this staircase:

Oh well, the wing chairs will do for now. And not ONE of those mason jars broke. I just might move them away from the staircase though.

Compassion For Your Body

2012-02-05T11:37:00.003-06:00

In my last post I was talking about compassion in my personal relationships. A subject I'll visit again.

But today I wanted to share a beautiful blog post which to me compels us to have compassion for our bodies.

Love your body. Otherwise titled, Eight Things I Learned From 50 Naked People, by Kate Bartolotta.

My Word for 2012: Compassion

2012-02-03T15:50:00.000-06:00

Do you ever have words that just ring in your mind, coming up over and over again? I've been noticing that I do. Last year a word that filtered through my head consistently was 'integrity'. Already for 2012 I have a new word, however.

It's 'compassion'.

I've been thinking a lot about compassion. Compassion for the poor, the broken, the "other", yes of course. We desperately need more compassion in our world, and I believe we need it in our government too.

But that's not the only 'compassion' I've been thinking about. I've been feeling a great deal of compassion for my husband lately. And my daughter and son, too, truth be told. The kids are teen-agers (or about to be, in Rose's case) and are wading through all that adolescence brings them from heavy school work loads to dealing with mean kids to learning to navigate the world and figure out their place in it.

Compassion for my husband I feel because I love him so, so dearly. And he works so hard. He loves what he does as a music teacher and a music education teacher, and he has this amazing ability to focus on it. Sometimes I've said he's a workaholic, but really for him it's that he's doing what he's passionate about and his focus is admirable and not, generally, unhealthy like an addiction is.

Merriam-Webster defines compassion this way: "sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it".

And the thing is, my husband gets tired working two teaching jobs, and in the end he's doing it all for us. Bringing home the bacon. (Speaking of bacon, I should be figuring out how I'm going to cook the pork chops tonight...) Improving schools by giving kids the gift of music as part of their every day. Teaching future teachers how to do so as well. And still being the most wonderful husband and dad I've ever known.

So here my word of the year turns into a soliloquy of love for my husband...and I have a poem to share. I wrote this in January of 2006, six years ago. There aren't Legos on our floor anymore, but it seems there is always something.

To My Husband.

I look at you across the room,
room filled with kids and clutter
and the chaos of our lives.
In your warm woolen sweater
patterned with snowflakes and geometry,
I want to crawl in,
to you.
Into your arms, next to your heart,
curled up in a little ball.
Love for you wells up behind my
eyes. It pools there
in quiet frustration. Resignation?
Salty,
stinging,
not sweet.
And I don't.
Crawl in, I mean.
The distance is too far,
the chaos too great,
the Legos like concrete barricades,
too high.
Instead I sit longing,
lonely.

(edited to add: Did you see this story today, or hear it on NPR? Amazing love story, that makes me grateful I get to live every day of my life with the love of my life...http://www.npr.org/2012/02/03/146303291/operator-can-you-help-me-call-the-love-of-my-life)

Virginia Is A Lovely Place at Christmas

2012-01-24T14:49:00.000-06:00

George had the luck to grow up in a beautiful place in Virginia. The state of, for all you Minnesotans who continually ask us "town or state?" (We have a town called Virginia in northern Minnesota.) But George grew up in what is formally known as the Commonwealth of Virginia. It's a beautiful place. Here are some pictures from our Christmas at his boyhood home...

The "big boys" flying balsa wood airplanes, overlooking the Ware River.

The kids having a marshmallow shooting war in the yard.

The "front" or river-side of the house with its wraparound porch facing the water.

"Tree Lodge", and the pansies are blooming next to the snowman at Christmas!

George and Eli walking along the shoreline.

Rose sitting on one of the many pier posts that have washed up via hurricanes.

Eli found some treasure along the shore--bamboo poles.

And George found a lot of trash.

Father and son chopping wood for Grandma and Grandpa.

George, his sister and sister-in-law bird watching.

And some of us posing for a goofy self-timer photo.

Our Christmas Trip to Virginia via Amtrak

2012-01-23T17:58:00.012-06:00

We traveled to Virginia for Christmas this year to visit George's family. It was our first Christmastime in Virginia since 2005, and it was time for our kids to remember what Christmas at the Zahns is like again. We took the train from Minnesota to Williamsburg.

Riding Amtrak from Minnesota to Williamsburg, Virginia was a scream--for better and worse. Let's just say, particularly on the Empire Builder going east from Minnesota, be prepared for delays and changes of plans. The famous superliner, Empire Builder, originates in Chicago, heads west to Seattle, and by the time it gets to Minnesota it's on the 6th day of a 6-day trip so things can get a little hairy by day 6.

The "vintage" Amtrak station in St. Cloud, Minnesota

Some passengers have been on the train from Seattle, for 3 days, so you might want to keep your distance because they can be a) a little dirty and b) a little loopy. I only had one woman show me the pictures of her pet squirrel. She fit both categories.

Amtrak trains are comfortable if not super-clean. We viewed a lot of gorgeous scenery across America, as well as plenty of what appeared to be the dumping grounds of a Third World country. We enjoyed walking from car to car, taking in the sites and changing to more upright seats in both the Lounge and Dining Cars. The food in the dining cars was quite good, and we appreciated the elegant touches like white tablecloths and fresh flowers. Comfort and food were a big step up from airline travel.

But it does take time. And our train to Chicago was several hours late, which meant we missed the Capitol Limited to Washington, D.C. We couldn't wait 24 hours for the next Capitol Limited to depart east, so we chose the only.other.alternate.route. And that was, illogically enough, taking the Lakeshore Limited train north to Buffalo, Rochester, Albany and finally, New York City, New York. At first we were furious (hence, the scream for the worse) about this. Taking the sensible route on the Capitol Limited wouldn't have had us in Virginia until 8:30 on Christmas Night, instead of our planned 8:30 Christmas Eve. If we missed Christmas Day, we missed half of George's siblings and all of the kids' cousins as they all had to leave for home or various vacations on December 26.

Fuming, we hopped aboard the Lakeshore Limited at 9 p.m. on December 23. There was no other choice. (Lesson number two--right after plan for delays--they don't run as many trains as they do airplanes in this country. Not even close. Or wait, is that lesson number three? Another we learned on the Empire Builder is never take the Lounge Car attendant for granted when she announces "last call for food". You may have 4 hours left of a train ride and no more opportunity to buy snacks, water or coffee. Get your butt to the lounge car and get what you need!)

Fortunately, we had plenty of down time while heading in the opposite direction of our final destination, on our way to New York. We got over it. And started getting very, very excited about spending a few hours of Christmas Eve in a place we'd never been--Manhattan. We would be there from 6:30 p.m. until the Northeast Regional left for Virginia at 3 in the morning, Christmas Day.

We decided that once we got to Manhattan we would take a taxi. And even if it cost a hundred bucks (what would a tour of Manhattan by taxi cost, anyway?!), we figured that would be one heck of a cheap trip to Manhattan.

Once at Penn Station, we checked our suitcases for a few hours at baggage claim. We found the taxi pick-up area and hopped into a van. Boy, did we get lucky. Our cab driver, Arsen from Armenia, was just awesome. Five years in New York City, and he was the biggest fan of the city. He loved showing us around and brought us by or to all the places we could think of. Times Square, Rockefeller Center (the tree! the lights!), the Late Show with David Letterman marquis, Central Park, Battery Park and Ground Zero, Brooklyn across the bridge and to see the "best view of the city you'll ever find" including the Statue of Liberty. You name it, we probably saw it in two short and exciting hours (which, by the way, cost us $75 in fare and $50 for a generous Christmas tip).

Manhattan is crazy-wonderful and we could really feel that amazing vibe on Christmas Eve, when everyone in the city was happy. We even impressed our 12-year old daughter, and that's not easy these days.

By 10 p.m. we were back at Penn Station, ready for a long wait for the Northeast Regional. Fortunately, in that busiest train station in North America, there were plenty of scary-looking NYPD officers and a separate waiting area for Amtrak customers. We felt safe, and the station was clean. We even managed to buy some good, healthy Greek food at a deli-type place in the station. Falafel wraps and fruit-and-yogurt parfaits were a LOT better than those tempting Manhattan hot dog stands (yes, we ate at one of those too, and the hot dogs were terrible. Cold, dried out buns, etc. Not what I thought it would be.)

By Christmas morning we were on a train full of very cheerful people. Even the staff on the Northeast Regional were fresh and friendly. There was a lot of happy banter and story-telling in the cafe car that morning. "Where you headed for Christmas?" was the question of the morning. Many were excited to be visiting Williamsburg, Virginia at its loveliest season (second only to summer when the gardens are in bloom). Some were going to Virginia Beach to see friends. A mother was taking her kids to visit a sister she rarely sees. It was fun, and we were so happy to be on our last day of three days of travel (that was supposed to be two).

We were "home" at Grandma and Grandpa's by 1 p.m. and the family was waiting for us. Presents were opened, stories were told, country ham was devoured for lunch, and a big Christmas Dinner kept us going until the evening.

We Did It!

2011-10-07T07:43:00.002-05:00

I don't have time to write a real post today, but it's Debt-free Friday over at the Dave Ramsey show and I feel like screaming from the roof tops: WE'RE DEBT-FREE!!!

We really are. As of yesterday, we paid off our last debt of a second mortgage. It's hard for me to even believe, but as of right now we have no debt other than our mortgage. We have money in the bank. We're taking a couple of small vacations, including a visit to family on the east coast, in the next few months to celebrate. We're working hard all this year at extra jobs, to keep saving money for Baby Step 3 of the Dave Ramsey plan: a fully funded, 3-6 month, emergency fund. And we'll be there before long!

I'll also just add, that on the post just below this one, if you highlight it with your cursor it will show up. Wacky Blogger!

Thanks to Dave Ramsey, Financial Peace University and our leader Dean Bertsch, and class at Calvary Community Church, and to all who supported us through this journey. Which ended up to be a lot shorter than we thought! We've changed our family tree, and there's no way we're going back.

Thank you. Amen!

New Numbers, with Much Gratitude :)

2011-07-18T16:21:00.004-05:00

"God tends to pour blessings on people going in a direction He wants them to go. It is as if you are walking or running at a fast pace, and a moving sidewalk suddenly appears below you to carry you faster than your own effort would."

~Dave Ramsey

Check out the sidebar for the new numbers. When the check came in the mail, I right away thought of the Dave Ramsey quote above.

We are ecstatic, and give thanks for a generous gift.

End of Our Credit Card Debt!

2011-06-28T12:45:00.000-05:00

"The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." ~Proverbs 22:7

We just paid off the final credit card debt. About $900 was paid off just yesterday, for a total of over $1000 in the last couple of months. Man, does that feel good. That was almost all money we spent on LAST year's summer vacation! It was a wonderful trip for us, but next vacation we'll pay for only with money we actually have. Promise! Because...

We don't even have credit cards anymore, besides our debit card. That means our never-ending cycle of using the cards, accumulating and carrying a balance, getting disgusted with ourselves and paying off the cards, then ending up using them again, carrying a balance, getting disgusted, paying them down, etc. is finally OVER. We needed, absolutely needed, to break that pattern. Dave Ramsey's advice to just get rid of the cards once and for all is certainly right on and the freedom we feel knowing we will never use credit cards again is a wonderful feeling. The borrower is always, indeed, a slave to the lender and we are no longer slaves!

Our only non-mortgage debt right now is actually our second mortgage. Our balance on that totals about $8589.00. We are going to keep working on getting out of debt and paying that down faster than required, but we're going to first take a little time off baby step 2 "the debt snowball" to accumulate a little more savings. We want a larger emergency fund, not baby step 3's fully funded emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses yet, but at least double what we currently have if not more. All our debt is, at least, mortgage debt so we feel a little more comfortable having that stay as is for now, with our regular monthly payments of course. Eventually we need and want to get rid of those $186/month payments however, so we'll step up the paydown with everything extra we can throw at it.

For now, we also need/want to buy a second car so we'll be saving up for that. So, our current and primary financial goals are: at least $2000 in our emergency fund, and the purchase of another $2000-3000 car. We should be able to accomplish both of those goals, just with the income we know is coming in from jobs, by Thanksgiving of this year. Lord willing, I should add. :)

I know I haven't been posting much. I'm finding it hard to get into a regular blogging routine, and I feel the need to only blog "without obligation", so for those of you who occasionally stop by, I hope you'll still check in once in a while. But who knows when I'll be inspired to write again? We are really enjoying our summer routine of long walks, gardening, working on house projects, and attending summer festivals. I hope your summer is going great, too!

Oh, before I go, here's an Alternet article that gives a little history of debt in America, and some depressing facts about wage stagnation in this country:

How The Hell Do You Get Out Of Debt If You're Not a CEO Raking In Millions? http://www.alternet.org/story/151448/how_the_hell_do_you_get_out_of_debt_if_you%27re_not_a_ceo_raking_in_millions/?page=1

"Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler." ~Proverbs 6:1-5

It's true that it's very, very hard to get out of debt when jobs are scarce and wages and working conditions are getting worse by the day. But I feel that it IS possible to get out of debt and in this current climate, the sooner the better. Gazelle intensity like Dave talks about is needed, as is the willingness to NOT be keeping up with the Joneses. Plan where your money goes, and then make it go there, rather than letting your money walk out the door all over the place.

"You will either learn to manage money, or the lack of it will always manage you." ~Dave Ramsey

The New Numbers, and We Did It!

2011-04-22T19:40:00.011-05:00

We pulled it off...our Honda is sold, via Craigslist, for a good price. We also found a car we could buy with cash, for $2000.

On Tuesday, I put on my dreamy/practical to-do list: find the perfect car. On the vision board I made early this month, pictured below (not my prettiest vision board ever, to be sure, but it's doing the job), I had cut out and pasted a Subaru logo. We used to have a Subaru Forester that was my favorite car ever so I wanted another Subaru.

Over the weekend, we had the offer on the Honda CRV and began test-driving, trying several $2000 cars on Sunday and finding nothing we were quite sure about. Monday night George teaches, so we waited until Tuesday to go out again. I asked the potential Honda buyer if we could wait on accepting her offer until later in the week. She said sure. We knew we needed to find another car before we could sell ours. We went to a few places that afternoon. We found a 1997 Subaru Legacy wagon on Craigslist, in a neighboring town. We found a nearly identical (color and everything) Subaru Legacy, this one a 1996 with 40,000 more miles on it, at a business in town. These were the first Subarus we'd found all month, and the timing was perfect. We made arrangements to have our mechanic look at both on Wednesday. We decided the '97 was a better buy, so we purchased it that night.
And today, we handed off the CRV to a very nice young woman, a teacher and single mom who needed a car with better gas mileage. She will love that car, as we did.

This was by no means an easy thing for us to do. As we were contemplating the sale of our beloved CRV, I spent an evening reading Dave's chapter on selling the car in his Total Money Makeover book. The chapter is called: Two More Hurdles: Ignorance and Keeping Up With the Joneses. I had a really hard time selling our very nice car. I had a lot invested, mentally, in the safety and security, and general niceness, of that car. Going to a car that is as old as our teen-aged son, with 192,000 miles on it and a few dents, felt like taking a few steps backward in our lives.

Here's what Dave has to say on the issue of selling something we hold dear, in order to do better financially:

"Radical change in the quest for approval, which has involved purchasing
stuff with money we don't have, is required for a money breakthrough."

and

"Unless you have had a heart-level Total Money Makeover somewhere, sometime in your life, you are still doing something with money to impress others, and that has to change before you can get on a real plan to fiscal
fitness."

He was talking right to me. "Being real takes tremendous courage", he wrote. And I realized, I needed to sell this car if for no other purpose than to see I could live without this in my life. And because,

in one fell swoop,

we cut our debt load IN HALF!

And now that we're on this side of the deal, that feels great. We're well on our way to another goal on our vision board, being able to say "We're Debt-Free!" We can't wait.

p.s. sometimes I hate Blogger. Please forgive the wacky spaces...can't fix it.

Teaching Our Kids About Money and Our Latest Family Meeting

2011-04-11T08:20:00.004-05:00

We don't hold family meetings regularly or often, but when we want the kids' attention, we call one to order after dinner.

So yesterday, we notified them in advance and called a family meeting. The kids were quite wary beforehand. Turns out, they thought it was all good (except for the announcement of what their summer yard chores would be, ha ha). We told them about our "Mom and Dad Matching Plan": any activity they want to do, they pay half and we pay the other half. So basically, we'll match their money. When I said some people might find us abusive for expecting our kids to cover half their expenses at their age, Rose piped up with, "but mom, no kids I know get a $50 a month allowance!" Woo hoo! We're training them well...

We extended our matching program to their future transportation needs and also said they might want to start saving for a car at some point (Eli has only two years before he can possibly get his driver's license--ack!), because we'll match their money for that too (within reason, of course...Not being as rich as Dave Ramsey, we're going to have to decide what our limit will be.)

This all started because when I was thinking of how to keep Rose busy this summer, and the cost of all the activities she might like to do and how hard it is for us to spend that money especially since we're trying so hard to get out of debt, I realized she's now at an age where instead of costing us so much money, she can start making some money by babysitting and doing other jobs. Having the kids work has the added bonus of keeping them busy at the same time.

Seriously, my Grandpa quit school in 8th grade so he could start earning money for the family. We've only had a few generations of spoiled brats in America, and look what it's done for our country? (I don't say "spoiled brats" easily or lightly, because I truly believe kids to be good, but they're also incredibly smart in general and will get used to what they're given and come to expect it. I think it's time to change our ways with money.) I think my kids feel great about their ability to save and spend wisely. We compliment them on it all the time, and are so proud of them. We're helping them "live like no one else so later they can LIVE like no one else"!

Financial Peace University Giveaway at Simple Mom

2011-04-11T08:01:00.002-05:00

Go here to enter to win one of five lifetime memberships to Financial Peace University. I don't need to enter because we're already lifetime members, meaning we can take the classes anytime, anywhere forever and our $93 is already paid. But if you haven't joined FPU already, go comment at Simple Mom's post to win! Also, if you look at FPU's webpage under Find A Class, you'll see a list of all the classes near you. Often they're offered at churches, but not always and there's usually several going on in any city. Good luck!

Some Links on Family and Money

2011-04-08T08:27:00.006-05:00

Today I want to share some links with you, things I've come across or am reading that are helpful on the subject of families, lifestyle and money.

Here's a good post from a blog I just found, Plain and Joyful Living.

The "M" Word

One of my missions in life, and in this blog, is to show people they can live on less money than they think. That one income for a family, or even no outside income if you choose to have home-based businesses (farming, crafting, etc.), might just be plenty. In this post from Plain and Joyful Living, Tonya gives specifics on her family's income and how their family of 8, soon to be 9, is able to live on it. I appreciate when the taboo topic of numbers is discussed openly, as you could guess from my own blog! If you look around on her blog, it looks like this is a common subject for her, and I love it.

I'm reading the book Better Off: Flipping The Switch on Technology by Eric Brende right now and it has me thinking a lot about lifestyle, technology, and the need to make so much money just to, as he states, make the machines go round. Environmental Blogger Crunchy Chicken is discussing this book for her April book club. Find post one here.

A favorite quote from this book, again on centering one's life around the home instead of the industrial society, from a later chapter entitled "husbandry":

The word house-husband is redundant. Of course! This startling thought came to me as I reached for the hand pump. The "hus-" from "husband" is simply the Old English form of the word "house," while "band" means "bound." The man who stays at home to work is returning to a long-forgotten calling preserved in language like a fossil. There is no linguistic need to add the extra "house."

The book is very well written, by an M.I.T. student who, along with his wife, goes to spend a year living with the Amish as something of a thought- and practice-experiment into how technology betters or worsens our lives. I love that he discovers the distinction between technologies that bring us closer to our community (generally ones that make us work together, an old-fashioned threshing machine being one that comes up in the book) and those that take us further apart (cars for the most part, tvs, computers, etc.) I know all too well how my computer and smart phone become the main focus of my eyes, instead of my kids and husband, and I deeply feel how wrong that is. This book will change the way I live, hopefully, in helping me be more intentional about what technologies I choose to have in my life and those I will leave off or at least put in their proper place. Even before I started reading this book, I took Facebook off my smartphone because I was spending way too much time looking at it instead of my family. It's been great.

And lastly, I want to share this link from Sharon, about her family's foray into foster parenting. I love what she has to say about the industrialization of the family. I appreciate it when people across a wide political spectrum can embrace the family as humanity's major mode of operation. I don't think there's anything more important than family. A quote:

I also find foster parenting fascinating, because foster parenting is the one place where the family has not been industrializable. This is an important point - for the most part, we have industrialized most segments of the family to encourage participation in the formal economy. Kids go to daycare centers and to public schools. Elders go to senior programs, assisted living and nursing homes. Meals get produced in restaurants and cafeterias - we eat a majority of our meals out now. Many of the things that were done by families in the informal economy were industrialized so that the informal economy could be dismantled.

Foster care is an odd piece out, because children simply don't do well in industrialized settings without a family. We know that children can only really attach and grow appropriately in families. We know they die at higher rates, we know they suffer trauma, we know they end up having kids who end up back in the system if we try and industrialize their experience. The only way to raise healthy kids is in a family. Foster care is just about the only place in the system where this is explicitly acknowledged - everyone else will tell you that Grandma is much better off in the exclusive company of her peers, that it is just too hard to care for her at home. Everyone will tell you that daycare and homecare are the same, and that Mom should put the baby on formula and go right back to work. There is, however, a fundamental place where that *cannot* work - families are the only way to successfully raise kids, and the foster care system is a deep and implicit acknowledgement of the value and importance of informal economy family work - this is one of the reasons it interests me.
They also treat you like crap as is typical of informal economy work. There's no sense that foster parenting is treated as skilled labor (although it obviously is, at least a lot of the time). But the rehabilitation of the informal economy really needs to include the issue of foster parenting, because in a society that negates any claims that industrial structures aren't just the same as familial ones, foster care stands out as a significant, if limited, acknowledgement that children need families and someone has to do informal economy labor.

In A Fog

2011-04-01T09:47:00.003-05:00

Sorry I haven't been around all week. I'm not ill, but I have been having mild sinus headaches all week and it puts me in a bit of a fog. I used to have terrible sinus trouble but have gotten much better over the last several years. The main thing that has helped with my sinuses has been seeing a chiropractor but I have been unable to see him for a while. I need to make an appointment. Also, giving up orange juice and peanut butter, especially orange juice, has helped a lot. Dairy doesn't bother me like it does some people, but my former, lifelong breakfast of peanut butter toast and orange juice sure does. At first that was painful as I loved that morning glass of o.j., but now it's been so many years I don't miss it at all.

Other reasons I'm in something of a fog have to do with the state of the world. I feel like I've placed a bubble around myself, protecting me from the horrible things going on right now. Japan, for which I can only offer up prayers. Budget cuts around the nation and world, threatening our state parks, public broadcasting, and public workers' salaries are really taking their toll on my psyche. I am brought to my knees, which is not such a bad thing. I find my ever-present help comes from my faith in God. And my friends and family.

Also, it seems, while I don't mind DOING a budget, I don't seem to want to write about it. There are a lot of good resources on the web for zero-based budgeting. The blog, Simple Mom, which is in my sidebar is an excellent one. You could do a search there for "zero-based budgeting". She explains it very well and with graphics.

I will get back to talking about our budget next week. Tonight George and I will talk about April's spending plan, getting his comments and final approval on what I have already written out on paper. Maybe there will be changes with some discussion, but I think I've got it down pretty well.

Have a good weekend.

SAVE don't spend for Baby Step Number One

2011-03-25T08:00:00.003-05:00

Just a quick list of ideas I compiled from the Financial Peace University forum, ways to save up that $1000 emergency fund in a hurry:

1. Cut the cable and get an antenna with an HDTV box (or no tv)
2. Increase insurance deductibles
3. Cancel gym memberships
4. Get rid of the land line phone, or cell phone, keeping only one
5. Get rid of the smartphone and its expensive monthly plan
6. Have a yard sale
7. Sell stuff on Craigslist or eBay.

As Dave says: "Sell so much stuff, the kids think they're next!"

8. Get a part-time job for a few months and put all your income toward the emergency fund
9. Use coupons as much as you can
10. Don't use coupons, buy store brands instead, or buy in bulk at your local food co-op
11. Turn off and unplug electronics not in use; use a power strip to make this easy
12. Hang all clothing to dry; dryers are very expensive to run (50 cents to a dollar a load!)
13. Cook from scratch, make your own mixes, even make cleaning supplies
14. Use the envelope system for any budget areas where you can use cash
15. Pack lunch everyday
16. Cancel any services you can do yourself (cleaning, yard work, etc.)
17. Walk or bike more, drive less
18. Cook for the week on Sundays, bake your bread and snacks, freeze meals
19. Sell everything
20. Adjust tax withholding so you come out even; don't loan the government your money at 0%
21. Use up things you have, such as hobby materials. Knit the yarn, carve the wood, sew the fabric, don't buy more supplies for a while

Some of the things apply to us, few do. We already live very simply, but can always do more as we have to. I thought of number 21 because I'm trying to do that one.

Mostly I think it comes down to, be content with what you have and stop yearning for more--stuff, entertainment, etc.

Relationships and Money

2011-03-23T16:41:00.010-05:00

Before I write more about budgeting, or the Allocated Spending Plan, I feel it's important to write about how money affects marriage and family life, and our marriage in particular.

The other day when I was telling a group of my friends about the class George and I are taking, Financial Peace University, one of the first reactions was this disbelief that we would do this together. Disbelief, or maybe, envy. It would be so nice if my husband and I were on the same page with money, someone said. It would be so nice if we could communicate about money in a healthy way, in other words.

And that is one great thing about Financial Peace University, and probably the biggest reason we finally took the class rather than trying to work the program on our own (or, in our case, on my own since I'm the one who had the strong interest and deals with our finances the most).

I love my husband. Another question that came up with this same group of friends, on the same night, was "Are you in love with your husband or do you love him?" (We talk a lot, and deeply, you might guess.) Right away I knew my answer was--both! I didn't really say that out loud because I almost felt bad that the answer came so easily to me and it didn't for others.

I am in love with George. I admire him. I think he's brilliant and talented and beautiful. When he plays his flute in front of an audience or church congregation, I am sitting there the whole time brimming with as much pride as I would feel if it were one of our kids up there. He's really good at what he does, and he has such passion for it. I'm sure I married him for that reason--his passion--and it's what keeps me in love with him today.
George is so good to me. But, he is a free spirit. His approach to many things in life seems to be to say: "Bills? What are bills?' or "Time? What is time?"

In our marriage, I am the nerd. I want to plan things out (not everything, I hate planning our social life or vacations too far ahead). But for life in general, I want to know what's coming, what needs to be done, and I will have a near heart attack if I'm late whether it's for dinner or paying a bill.

Lucky for us, Dave Ramsey talks about the nerd and the free spirit in the second class of FPU, entitled "Relating With Money". It made us realize, this kind of set-up is extremely common in marriages. Opposites attract, right? This can, obviously, cause a lot of friction and does in so many families. Money is said to be the number one cause of marital arguments, family stress, and even divorce.

But opposites, if they're intentional about it (and when they're still in love and/or love each other), can also be complementary and helpful to each other. Opposites can work together.

For years I have wanted George to be more involved with paying bills and knowing where our money goes. He always felt bad that he wasn't. We tried various things, like splitting up the bills so we would each pay different ones, separate checking accounts, etc. Nothing worked. At all. Even for a month. (Get what I'm saying?) George didn't have debt before our marriage, but he'll admit he was just never good with money or planning or keeping track of stuff.

But he is certainly not the only reason we are in debt and need to get our finances in better shape. It takes two, right?

The nerd can often be the spender. Where George the free spirit hardly thinks about a new pair of shoes or some shirts for work, I the nerd feel I have to have something decent for any occasion. I don't want to stick out in a bad way (or even in good ways, truth be told). If something comes up, I will go get what's needed whether we have the cash or not. I often feel entitled to live a certain lifestyle because of our age, our hard work, and our level of education. That is a stupid thing to admit, isn't it?!

We have taken trips across country that we didn't have the money for, and it's usually me pushing it because we HAVE to visit family. We have bought cars that were more expensive than what we could pay cash for, because I am terribly worried about reliability and safety on the road.

And George has often gone along with it, or been oblivious. Oh, he's stopped many a purchase with his uncanny ability to see things I don't. Like, that a bigger loan just because we can "afford" the payments still means we are in deeper debt. But the truth is, both of us have made mistakes and both of us have needed to work together to do things differently.

I have long been crying out for a program like this, and one that we can work together. Because of our class, we are now sitting down at the end of each month to plan for the next month's income and expenses. Some unexpected expenses will still pop up so we'll need to be flexible, but just having this budget meeting every month is feeling so good. Last month when we planned for March we sat down at a coffee shop and made it a "fun" morning out. This weekend we'll plan for April's spending plan and I'm actually looking forward to it.

As the "nerd", I'll still do the organizing and paperwork because that's my strength and that's okay. But I need George's input and intelligence on these matters, and finally we have a plan and a way to make that happen on a regular basis. Can budget meetings actually be "fun"? We're going to try!

Telling Your Money What To Do

2011-03-21T08:55:00.005-05:00

A friend asked me this weekend: "Isn't budgeting like dieting?"

I thought a minute about that and understood exactly what she meant. When I put myself on a "diet", I think about food constantly. I especially crave what I can't have, and hear those forbidden foods calling my name all day long. Then, I cave and eat more than I might have otherwise.

Budgeting could feel like that for some people. It could feel like limits. You might think "I can't spend any money so my life is miserable." And then hear a new pair of shoes or that flat-screen TV calling your name so you go spend some money and feel ashamed of yourself. You've busted your budget, just like wrecking your diet.

Something I've learned is not to put myself on a diet. But for some reason, budgeting my money doesn't feel at all like dieting to me. I actually feel like I have more money to work with since we've started making a zero-based budget.

Since the beginning of our marriage I've sat down each month and made a list of our monthly expenses. Using just a simple spiral-bound notebook and a fresh page each month, I have listed our expected income for the month and the bills that needed to be paid out of it. This way I was able to keep track of items that are automatically deducted from our checking account, and other items that needed to be paid by check. I also would budget a certain amount "leftover" after paying those bills for gas and groceries. Any little bit else (and it always felt like a "little bit") I would just dub "miscellaneous" and that money would get lost in whatever vortex "misc." goes into out in the universe.

This style of budgeting worked in that it helped make sure our monthly bills were always paid and deducted from the checking account. We have a sky-high credit rating for two reasons--we've used so much credit, and we've always paid our bills on time (with a few stupid exceptions, mostly right after I had babies and was a little preoccupied for a couple of months). On Dave Ramsey's plan we actually hope to get to a ZERO score on our FICO someday, but that's a subject for another day...

What didn't work about my old style of budgeting is that our true needs weren't being covered. Yes, food and fuel was in there but even those sometimes got short shrift if an "unexpected" expense came up. "Unplanned" is a more accurate description for those expenses, however, as generally we knew they were coming (choir tuition for Rose each fall, auto insurance twice a year, etc.), but we hadn't planned and saved up for them so they took away from our usual budget.

We never budgeted for clothing, so every time we get dressed it's almost by accident (we haven't gone naked yet, though). We never budgeted for car repairs, so every time we need a fix the money has to come from something else. We never budgeted for entertainment, vacations or trips to see family, or many other things that come up very regularly for us. We either used some unplanned "windfall" money or we went into debt for those things. Neither of which felt very good. And neither of which were telling our money what to do instead of having money tell us what to do.

Do you know how restricting it feels to be in debt and have a certain percentage of your income going toward paying that off every month? That feels like limits and dieting, much more than making a plan called a budget does.

Now that we're planning for all of our needs, and some of our wants, each month it feels like we have an abundance of money and I don't need to rob Peter to pay Paul anymore. We have enough, we've discovered, when we count every piece of income and use it to plan for every expense. And, we have our $1000 in the bank now to cover any true emergency expenses that come up, if they do. That feels like peace of mind to us.

Here's a link to Dave Ramsey's "Quickie Budget" if you want to take the first step for yourself. Tomorrow I'll talk more about the zero-based budget and making an Allocated Spending Plan for your household, just like any business would have.

This Moment

2011-03-18T08:58:00.003-05:00

My motivation.

Do you see those numbers over to the right looking better today? I just made a big credit card payment. Next month will see the end of credit card debt for us--we can see the light!

Selling The Car

2011-03-17T08:08:00.005-05:00

"If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then someday you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them." ~Zig Ziglar

Today's going to be a quick post because I babysit a little toddler on Thursdays and won't have much time to think big enough thoughts to write...

But yes, we're going to put the Honda CRV up for sale. It's been a painful decision, but when it's in black and white after I wrote it on this blog a couple of days ago, it's just so obvious. We want to be out of debt in a year, and the car is over half of our debt load. No brainer. Dave Ramsey says "SELL THE CAR!", especially if you can't pay it off within 18 months.

Luckily the car is worth more than we owe so we should come out of it with some cash. We've got one dependable car right now but we'll move to two cheap, paid-for-with-cash cars. Yesterday as I was mulling over getting a "junker", I was walking across a busy street and right in the intersection a car died. My stomach flipped a little. Ugh. I really don't want to face undependable cars, but that will just be motivation for us to save our money faster so we can get a dependable car again. And who knows, people tell us cheap cars run great these days. And do you notice there is almost no rust even on old cars anymore? We won't be driving an old rust bucket at least.

Y'all are gonna get sick of "Dave Ramsey says". Even he jokes about it in his videos. I guess the nerds of the marriage, like me, tend to sound like a broken record sometimes. Gee, really?

(And by the way, by selling our car not only do we get rid of $11,000 in debt, we will no longer have a $290 car payment. However, we'll put at least $100-200 in the bank each month in a sinking fund for car repairs and an eventual "better car" purchase. That's the way to do this.)

Why It MattersTo Us

2011-03-16T06:38:00.009-05:00

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." ~Proverbs 22:6-7 (NKJV)

Did you even know those two rather famous Bible verses go together? That "training up a child" involves giving them the knowledge that the borrower is servant to the lender? This is wisdom far more ancient than the current "American Way" of credit, debt and consequently, fear. We don't even have to look very far back to find this wisdom practiced. My grandparents, children of the Great Depression, took this wisdom to heart and as far as I know, never borrowed for anything but instead paid cash or did without. They lived a good life and my grandma, who's still alive at 93, was able to live on savings and a modest pension until age 90 or so when she had to go to a nursing home.

George and I want to practice being more wise.

Yesterday I asked him, "why do you want to have financial peace?" He started talking in his usual kinda flowery way about seeing a light at the end of a tunnel, and some other stuff I pretty much tuned out. (I wanted to hear him give the same "answer" I was thinking of, don't you know.) I asked him to be more specific and concrete, and he said something that made some sense. "I want to save up for things that are going to happen, rather than be paying for things that already happened."

Good point. Dave Ramsey asks: "How many of you have had a vacation follow you home?" In the form of bills. Ah, yep, we raised our hands (figuratively, we were watching him on video in our class). We're still paying off last year's trip to Virginia and Pennsylvania to see family. Oh, it was a great trip and we thoroughly enjoyed it but we've been in debt slavery to our credit card ever since. And this happens every time, in spite of the fact that we know we will visit his family every 1-2 years. We have thought of these trips as necessities as in "we have to go whether we have the money or not" instead of thinking "we have to budget some savings for this trip every month because it's a necessity to visit family".

And wow, if you look at our bills to income ratio, you'll know why we haven't been saving much. The expenses nearly equal the income, and that's one reason we have to get rid of our debts. We'll never get "ahead" as long as there's a car payment.

But here's the crux of it for me, and George is happy to agree: I want to finally practice the wisdom of living below our means. Living below! Have you even heard of it? Back when I was a student, a pastor preached a sermon about living below our means. This just about knocked me over because all I had ever known (leaving my grandparents aside) was living ABOVE our means. Being in debt. Owing payments. I didn't even know it was possible to live.below.your.means.

Here's why living below your means is so great: you get to do whatever you want with the "extra". For me the goal is to GIVE 10% of our income, and to SAVE 10% of our income. That means we have to be able to live on 80% of our income, or less. It means our bills have to be in alignment with that goal. It means getting ourselves out of debt.

There are some other reasons we want to get out of debt. On the negative side are those great motivators--fear and terror about this economy, potential rights being stripped from teachers, and pay cuts or layoffs especially when you're a music teacher. I actually kinda like fear and terror because I find them terribly pushy and good for me at times.

But then there's also the positives: hopes and dreams. I really, really like those two because they also motivate. They give us something to look forward to and work for. We want to take our kids to Europe, and Out West. We want to keep Rose in the private school where she is finally happy. We want to give ourselves good things and things we can feel good about because we planned for them and made them happen.

So that's it. The main reasons why all this matters. Stay tuned for some of the agony tomorrow as I take you along for some of the heart-wrenching questions. How the heck do we accomplish this debt-free-ness, and do we have to sell our wonderful car to do it?!

Let's Talk Numbers

2011-03-14T19:25:00.009-05:00

Something that bugs me is the shame and secrecy that so often our culture feels about financial matters. We don't talk numbers and instead seem to talk about money in code and innuendo. It's almost as bad, if not as bad or worse, as that other "grown-up" topic we speak of in innuendo.

So, I'm gonna talk numbers with you. I've never felt bad about putting the truth out there, and my husband has given me the go-ahead because he thinks it should be done too. George is a teacher, his salary and benefits are a matter of public record so anyone can go find them out. I don't know how, but I suppose it starts with a search into school district information. Anyway, you don't have to do that because I'll tell you straight out.

This is the monthly net income we're living on right now:
$3018--first income from full-time teaching
$1080--second income from teaching two nights a week at a local college (ends in May, restarts in September)
$200--my average "egg money" each month from various jobs, cleaning and babysitting
$175--average mileage check George gets each month from driving between three different schools in the district (he doesn't get paid to commute, just to drive between schools during the school day).

Total monthly income right now: $4,473.00
Monthly income in the summer months: $3,218.00

So, that's what we have to work with. Of course, we have some bills to pay but I'll talk about our monthly cash flow plan, a.k.a. budget and all our regular obligations another day. For today, I need to tell you the amount of our debts, because paying those off and how we do it is going to be our main focus for this year.

Current total debt, smallest to biggest:
Credit card--$1400.00
2nd mortgage--$9090.00
Car loan--$10,955.00
1st mortgage--$113,276.00

Total debt: $134, 721.00
Total debt not including the 1st mortgage: $21,445.00 (this number is key, this is what we are going to bring to $0! We are including the 2nd mortgage as "non-mortgage debt" because it is imperative that we pay it off. It got us a furnace when ours died one cold October day, a new bathroom including plumbing, and some storm windows.)

We are giving ourselves until September of 2012 to pay off all $21,445.00 of that debt. On an annual net income of about $49,000. Our non-mortgage debt is 44% of our annual income right now, so we would have to live on only 56% of what we make to pay it off in one year by using income to do so. We could possibly do that; however, there are some other options we're exploring.
1. Sell everything, including the house.
2. Sell the car, at least, and buy another with cash only.
3. Sell a bunch of stuff we own.
4. Make more money.

Tomorrow I'll discuss why it's so important to us to find financial peace.

Gearing Up

2011-03-14T13:37:00.002-05:00

I'm getting ready to start posting at this blog again TOMORROW! I've added some of my favorite blogs, and some great links, all of which pertain at least somewhat to my topics of homemaking, urban farming, and finding our way to financial (and other) peace in a world gone a bit crazy. I can't wait to see you all here again!

Come On Over To My New Blog

2009-06-05T11:21:00.003-05:00

I'm not posting here, though I still use this blog as a place to check out my blogroll for updates. That's one feature Blogger has that WordPress does not...unfortunately.

However, I'm posting a lot at my new blog, LisaZahnWrites over at WordPress. Come visit and make some comments please! You don't even need a Google account to make comments there, just your name and email address. That'd be one advantage to WordPress over Blogger...

My New Blog

2009-05-12T11:20:00.003-05:00

I have started a new blog over at WordPress, Lisa Zahn Writes. On it, I have linked some of my favorite posts from this blog and my Herbalist Lisa Zahn blog. The plan is that I will be keeping these older blogs, this one more for family updates and my herbalist one for occasional herbal articles, but I will focus my own personal writings over at Lisa Zahn Writes.

I am hoping to use the new blog as a more professional, but hopefully still interesting, place to write and refer others to my writings. I'm launching a career as a freelance writer, while also pondering going back to school for journalism and/or a Master's degree in Education so I can someday use my English degree to a fuller extent, by teaching and writing.

Come visit me over at my WordPress blog!

Back For Now

2009-05-09T12:53:00.003-05:00

I might like to start a new blog with a different name eventually, but since I can't come up with a good one, I'm just back here at The Zahn Zone. You knew I wouldn't stay away for ever, didn't you?

In the meantime, I can't keep you all away from my great blog list. Please, go read Lenore's interview at Free Range Kids right now! The woman is hilarious, and a woman after my own heart...

George Turns the Big 5-0 Today

2009-04-02T08:56:00.010-05:00

You've come a long way, baby!This is George, the year I was born, 1970. He's 11 already! (these are the only old pics I could find...not very good, I know)

George with the dogs, Gloucester, Virginia 1972. Love the shaggy hair and leisure suit!

Some of George's favorite things...

Family.

The Enchanted Highway, North Dakota, 2004.

Music is his number one passion. Especially making music with kids.

Here he is singing and playing with a little Rose.

For at least the past 40 years of his life, it's been all about the music!
And skiing. His skiing time has taken a hit since becoming a family man, but he still fits it in when he can...That's George and Rose skiing up ahead, with Elijah tagging behind, at Spirit Mountain in Duluth. This is the day before he took a big fall while down-hilling, breaking his shoulder.

Camping.Bluegrass Festival campsite, Richmond, Minn., August 2008.

Gardening.

Planting the raspberry canes last year.

And sailing, of course, which has REALLY taken a hit since he moved away from the sea...
George, Elijah and Rose cleaning one of Grandpa's sailboats so they can take it out. Gloucester, Virginia, 2005 (?). Happy Birthday, love!

Earth Hour Tonight

2009-03-28T07:03:00.000-05:00

The Mighty River

2009-03-27T08:24:00.008-05:00

While we're all praying for our neighbors to the north, in Moorhead, Minn. and Fargo, N. Dakota today, I thought I'd share some photos I took yesterday of the Mighty Mississippi right here in St. Cloud. We live just a 1/2 mile from the river, on very high banks so we don't worry about flooding at all, but it's amazing to go down and see the river so swollen and rushing right now. These are taken across the river from St. Cloud State University, and you can see there's a dam here where it's fascinating to watch all that water pouring over. Even many yards away I could feel the cold mist on my face. It's heartening to see all the people working hard in Fargo/Moorhead trying to keep those rivers at bay. Three rivers converge at that spot, and they've got their work cut out for them. As the river crests today at levels never before seen, keep the folks up there in your thoughts and prayers please! (click on the words above for the story)

Eli's 12th Birthday

2009-03-24T09:19:00.005-05:00

Elijah turned 12 yesterday. All my friends are astonished he's twelve already, but you know for me this birthday wasn't as hard to grasp as when he turned, say, two or ten. I'm liking having kids who are 10 and 12. They're fairly responsible, and can be more independent. And, they can babysit themselves now so George and I can go out on dates! Like the art crawl we went on last Friday night, or dance parties like we're going to this Friday night. Ten and twelve-year olds are also really silly, and these two get along with each other much of the time. (Elijah still hates to show his face in pictures, but for his birthday one he knew there would be no cake until the photo was taken!)

Below is a cartoon drawn the other night by our very artistic boy. He's got the best sense of humor of any kid I've ever known...

Free Range Kids vs. Hallucinating Adults

2009-03-18T09:44:00.004-05:00

If you haven't seen the blog Free Range Kids, today's post on a mom letting her son walk 1/3 mile to soccer and having the police pick him up is truly enlightening. As Free Range Kids blogger Lenore Skenazy puts it, it's like we're living in the Salem witch trials in which we hallucinate horrific danger in our towns instead of hallucinating witchcraft like they did back then. And we're all doing it!

Compared to my mom and other moms of my childhood, I'm overprotective. But I can still see the folly of never letting our kids have any freedom to walk around the neighborhood, or go to the library alone, or buy some candy at the corner store. And it has always made me so sad for my kids, and for this entire generation.

When is it going to change? When will we see kids out running around without a parent supervising? When can I feel like my kids can walk the three blocks to the park without an adult harrassing them about being without a parent? (And honestly, I have *nervously* let them walk down to the park to meet other kids, but I worry that I'm gonna be called on it probably more than I worry that they'll get abducted for heaven's sake.)

The only way it's going to change is if parents collectively change it. We all need to start seeing our neighborhoods as safe places again. We need to rebel against the fear-mongering media that touts stranger danger at every opportunity. We need to stop watching CSI episodes that involve danger to children (I know I had to stop years ago!).

Why do kidnappings make news? Because they're so rare! I'm all for the Amber Alert because it has saved children's lives, but the fact is most of those alerts have been for children abducted by family members. In Minnesota, all 21 of the Amber Alerts issued since 2002 have been for family abductions, not one of them for "stranger danger". (Star Tribune, March 11, 2009)

My kids are 10 and 12 now. I'm starting the process of pushing them out of the nest a little further and a little further all the time. Fortunately, we live in a neighborhood where kids are out and visible, and we have friends who also feel as I do that kids need some freedom. All of us moms are a little nervous about it, but we're doing it. The other day Elijah and I were at a friend's house in a more wooded, open neighborhood. We moms sent our boys a couple of blocks away into the woods to a marsh to "track the fox" and find some adventures. They came back muddy and as happy as could be. They're 12 for goodness' sake, let's let them explore!

Spring Break and All I Got Was Three Lousy Pictures...

2009-03-16T12:03:00.006-05:00

Rose had time over break to put on some puppet shows for us.

Last week was spring break for George and Rose (does that make it "spring work" for me?). We had fun. We hardly did any of the spring cleaning that was our goal, but George did get some garden seeds started and I at least began to go through the piles of photos, art supplies, and other junk that has been stashed in the basement for a few years.

We went to Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria, Minnesota for one night. It's just over an hour north of us, and the hotel and waterpark were considerably cheaper there than in the Twin Cities. Above the kids are watching the TV and George is reading the newspaper. We don't go away to get away, we go away to watch cable TV, as you can see! I got in a little Food Network porn (don't ya just love Giada's kitchenware?--porn for women). The kids got to watch some cartoons, and George and Elijah watched "Warriors" on the History Channel.

And oh, the hot tub and water park were fun too. Didn't taken any pictures though.

Didn't take any pictures of the beautiful, sunny day in Minneapolis yesterday either. Just this shot of George, Rose and Elijah sitting in the cramped but historic seats of the Thrust Stage at the Guthrie Theater. They're waiting for the family production of Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona to begin. It was so fun. Director Joe Dowling chose to set the 1594 play in 1955, with 50s music and dancing to boot.

Now the kids have seen The Taming of the Shrew done in Harley biker style and Two Gentlemen of Verona in 1950s Bebop style.

For me it was just a treat to be back in the thrust stage theater, even in a new Guthrie. The other stages, while lovely, are just imposters...

Come Dancing--It's Only Natural

2009-03-07T09:05:00.005-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs2kFrGluKs (Watch the Kinks sing Come Dancing at this link--I can't get the dang video to download here!)

Last night George and I went dancing! It's something I've been wanting to do with him for a long time. I've always loved dancing, of all types--except maybe the current bump and grind crap, I mean REAL dancing. So last night we went and learned the Fox Trot.

As I said, this has been a long time coming. You see, I married this musician. He used to sing Cole Porter songs to me when we were dating. I thought for sure this guy would be able to dance! But I didn't do enough research into that, I guess. (I also have told him I shoulda thought more about the fact that he sings Bass and I really like a good Tenor, but that's another subject...) We have tried many times to dance, but it always ends up in frustration. George never learned to dance! I LOVED ballroom dancing in 9th grade phy. ed., and in college when I took ballroom dancing I got to dance with the best guy in the class because I was the best girl...though that guy was pretty "scuzzy" and why was that so often the case back when we were young? The good dancers were usually the "suav-e" types, which do not appeal to me at all!

Well, I didn't marry that type of guy but surely I can change him into a dancer, right? So last night, inspired by listening to Wynton Marsalis on Minnesota Public Radio's Midmorning show yesterday, we decided to go dancing. That guy is fabulous by the way, not only as a musician but as an intelligent, thoughtful and very spiritual person. Wynton talked about the need for a cultural transformation and said: "We used to be much more of a nation of singing and dancing. I would love to see us return to singing and dancing." He also said, "Get educated. Don't celebrate not knowing. If you wanna change our country, get all of the kids swing dancing. That's number one. That would solve a lot of problems...it would solve a lot of our ritual of courtship problems, it would solve just a basic artistic thing. We don't understand that the arts are symbolic." We need that for all ages, he said. "We consider rituals of courtship, dancing, to be corny. And we consider...cyncism to be hip." I love what he had to say, and I agree completely with those statements. (Listen to the show here--it's fabulous.)

Wynton's timing was perfect as last night our neighbor's band, Cannery Row, was playing a dance downtown at a dance studio. StudioJeff is new to town; I'd never even heard of it until I heard it from the Cannery Row guys. Jeff, himself, is a former Arthur Murray dance instructor who teaches Communication studies at our nearby St. Cloud State University. Every other Friday Jeff hosts a dance party from 7-10 p.m. (next one being March 27, though.) The first hour is a lesson and then there's two hours of dancing. St. Cloud has a very active Ballroom Dance Club and many of the people there last night were either in that or had taken Jeff's community ed. dance classes. George and I were the "greenest" of the bunch, but we didn't mind as it was so fun to watch all the couples do their various Fox Trot and Swing variations. And to hear the fabulous band!

We're hoping to do this again, a lot. We have no excuse now that there's a dance studio just a mile from our home...Next time we'll learn the polka! (Which George says will be good because polkas keep time to the beat, much easier for a musician to get the hang of.)

Rose Back To School

2009-02-27T08:57:00.004-06:00

Some of you were surprised to hear that Rose started school this week. I am too! It was a rather quick decision, once we made it, to have her start in the 4th grade at our neighborhood school.

We had just watched the movie Matilda, starring Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman and based on the book of the same name by Roald Dahl. Matilda is a little girl who is very different from her family. She loves books and they love TV. She loves flowers and they love World Wrestling Federation. She has a hard time growing up in a family where she sticks out like a sore thumb.

I told the kids I kind of felt that way when I was a kid, being the only big reader in my family. They were both surprised that sometimes my parents made me put down my books and do something else! (Which, I have to do sometimes with Elijah too, but in the movie Matilda it looks really awful when the parents do this.)

Well, in talking about how different I felt in my family, I (again) realized how different Rose must feel sometimes around Elijah and me. She’s a doer more than a reader. She’s very, very social and it wouldn’t be too much for her to have a friend over every single day, all day, whereas for me and Elijah if we schedule two “play dates” at our house a week we are exhausted (that, combined with 1-2 homeschool co-ops a week and evening activities, mind you). Rose watches the rest of us read and just wants to explode. She doesn’t want to spend hours a day reading! We are just so boring for her…

So during this post-movie discussion, which came in this extra-boring month of February, I said to Rose, “maybe you should go to school?” To which she said in her very confident way, “yes, mom, I need to”. And she said “I feel like the only way to get a good education is to go to school.” (ha! more on that later) And “Mom, I want to go to the neighborhood school so I can meet more friends in the neighborhood.” (Instead of the school she was at before, where her Dad teaches.) Well, I said, “why don’t you start next week? I’ll call the principal and we’ll get it all set up.” There’s no time like the present, right?

We decided to keep her home on her birthday so we could do the ear piercing and shopping trip we’d planned, but she’d start the next day, Tuesday. The principal was very gracious about it all, and we planned to meet with him and get a school tour Monday morning. Which went well. Her teacher and all the kids in the class were delighted to meet her and welcome her in. From our visit, I could tell she’s in a great classroom where the kids feel free to move around, and they are still excited to learn, raising their hands and jumping around in their seats with an answer.

The first day she was nervous that the work would be hard because she “hadn’t kept up” while home schooling. (To be honest, I was nervous about this too, as any home schooling mom would be.) About everything else, she was confident as could be, though. Rose is generally adored by her teachers and makes friends easily, and in this day and age when kids are moved around a lot, joining school in the middle of the year is no.big.deal at all.

Well, she came home the first day surprised that everything was so easy. She aced the spelling pre-test, she found math to be no problem, and the geography stuff they’re learning is “almost dumb, mom”. Ha! Ha! Haha! I knew it all along, didn’t I? We were doing just fine with home schooling. I would *never* worry about that again. As I’ve said many times, keeping up with the public schools does not involve too much work. So much of their day is spend doing “crowd control” that learning, while it is done and the teachers are great, is given little time.

She is enjoying school, and it does meet some needs for her. She loves being busy, and moving from thing to thing all day--something I have a very hard time providing for her at home as I need a lot of downtime and prefer to learn by reading and other quiet pursuits.

The worst thing so far is that she comes home from school, as in the past, so wired and tense from being "good" all day. She’s like a rocket about to explode, and if we don’t do something to release all that tension she behaves very badly and is very cranky. Last night after a few hours of her being very crabby with us, I finally just held her and said she could kick and scream and hollar all she wants but I was going to hold her tight the whole time. It was exactly like a mom holding a 2-year old during a tantrum, providing a calming presence to help him/her stop tantruming. Well, she did kick and scream and cry to be set free, but I held her all the way till she calmed down. And it worked--the entire rest of the evening she was her old, relaxed self again. And even I felt like I’d had a release of stress!

So what we’ve decided to do to deal with all that stress and tension is to make her get some exercise each afternoon when she gets home, first thing and before I even ask her about homework. She can play with the dog, run around the block, jump on the mini-trampoline, dance to the radio, or whatever. Instead of “threatening” to take her out of school, I will learn to help her deal with her day’s stress in productive ways. This is a good lesson for me, too. We'll keep taking it all one year at a time, and who knows, maybe she'll be back home with us someday?

Now if homework would just get done without any fight…(I hate homework! But, if she’s gonna do school, she’s gonna do the work.)

P.S. I'm back to the blogging, as you can tell. But, I'm trying to blog without obligation and pressure on myself. I may be less regular about it, but I'll still be here.

Rose's 10th Birthday

2009-02-24T09:08:00.005-06:00

Just sneaking in to post a few photos from the weekend and yesterday. Yesterday Rose turned 10! I just ADORE ten-year old girls, I've decided. We are having so much fun right now, and I love that girl so much. Rose had a party at the Park Diner and movie theatre on Saturday with three girlfriends and me.

And then yesterday we went to the mall where she got her ears pierced and spent her birthday money.

This morning, Rose decided to go off to school. We visited Lincoln Elementary, our neighborhood school, yesterday and sat in on her new classroom with Mrs. Nelson and all the kids. I am very sad that she won't be home all day with Eli and me anymore, but her school and teacher and the students are just great. I think it will be fine.

Here is our morning tea party...We had gotten used to doing this every morning and I hate to see it end. Now we'll just have to do it earlier in the morning so Rose can get on the bus at 7:45.

And here's Rose on her "first day of school" this morning...

See You in March

2009-02-10T22:58:00.001-06:00

For the sake of my health, and as a Valentine's gift to myself, I'm taking a "media fast" until March 1. I may or may not miss blogging, but I'll miss all of you! See you in March (maybe).

Coffee Shop At Home

2009-02-09T11:59:00.003-06:00

I love coffee shops, and the tea and treats you can find at them. I love the atmosphere and the relaxation I feel when I'm able to visit one. Of course, we have several in our town including one just down the block. For $1.50 I can have a cup of tea and an hour or two or relaxed reading or visiting with a friend.

George and I used to think little of driving 100 miles to this pretty river town of Taylors Falls, Minnesota, just to go to their coffee shop, Coffee Talk, on a Sunday afternoon. We'd also take the kids and hike a bit around the rocks of Interstate State Park there. It was our idea of a fun day, and like I said we thought little of the gasoline we used up going there.

But that was then. This is now. Now we do "coffee shop" at home.

Four dollar a gallon gas got us rethinking a lot of things last year, as it did for most Americans. That, and concern for the environment, put the kabosh on regular "Sunday drives" and even going to our local coffee shops very often.

I can drink a wonderful cup of Irish Breakfast tea right here at home, organic and fair trade, for less than 25 cents a cup. George can have his "coffee snob" coffee, the kids can have their cocoa, and we can listen to our favorite radio shows, read the paper or magazines or books, and even eat a yummy homemade treat now for way less than what it costs at a coffee shop, with no paper cups wasted.

Of course, we drink tea and coffee and eat at home all the time. So what makes "coffee shop at home" different? Well, it's an attitude. Sometimes I'll actually say, "It's coffee shop at home time. Come sit at the table with me and let's have a treat." No housework can be done at this time, no bills can get paid, no thinking about all that can even be done. We relax around the table, we pile up things to read, and often we have the radio tuned to a favorite program like Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. The feeling really is different, and it gives us the same sense of camaraderie that we felt hanging out at the coffee shops before.

The best thing that $4 gas gave us is learning to love being home. So sometimes we have to play a little "make believe" just like the kids do naturally, but you know for an hour or so on a Sunday afternoon it works great.

Basement Redo--Clothesline and Pantry Shelving

2009-02-08T19:14:00.007-06:00

Here are the long-promised photos of the basement space we've been working on. As you can see the first thing we did was paint the ugly gray walls white. We'd started that process on some of the walls before we moved in 4.5 years ago, but it was never finished.

Before (when a space is ugly, it just collects crap, doesn't it?):During (it took 3 coats of this white, dirt-fighting paint):After (more shelves for pantry space, since my kitchen is small):Before (the shelving unit that was the "pantry", which will now be only for seed starting--you can see the light fixture which we used for seed growing last year): During (construction of the new laundry lines, with thanks for the inspiration to Heather at Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op):After:

George actually hung the two-by-four supports from the floor joists, giving the unit stability. It also meant the line could only be 13 inches wide. That's okay, the room is pretty small anyway.

There are holes drilled into the sidebars, with one piece of 100 foot long laundry line strung throughout all of them. This way if we need to tighten the line, it can be done by loosening only one spot.
It's still just an ugly basement laundry area, but it looks better than it did and it's very functional now. The laundry line has enough space for a full load of laundry, and it's much less awkward than two folding drying racks that had been taking up all the space in this room. Now, I can hang my laundry and still have lots of space to work around.

Before (a mess due to lack of space):

After:Thanks to my husband, George, for helping to design and then building the new laundry line, and for putting up those nice shelves. And to Elijah for drilling the holes! The whole project cost a total of $35. We bought all the shelf brackets new, at about $1.50 each. We also had to buy lumber for the laundry line since we used most of our scrap lumber for the chicken coop and other projects last summer. Tip: lumber is cheap right now, with prices so deflated. If you have any projects in mind, hit the hardware store soon!

This might be a project for the magazines. I can see the headline now: BASEMENT LAUNDRY ROOM REDO FOR UNDER $35! I don't know if it's quite beautiful enough to qualify, but I'm certainly happy with it.

My Favorite Number

2009-02-06T18:45:00.003-06:00

I just thought of something! My favorite number is six. Maybe that's why I've always wanted a family of 6.

I've lately come to accept (hopefully) that the dog and cat are the actual fulfillment of my wish, as they must suffice for the two other babies I wish I'd had but won't. Hmmmm....

Just wanted to jot that down! And no, I'm not drunk this Friday night. But I am sitting at the Corner Bean coffee shop in the neighborhood, and it's full of people listening to some college guy singing in a funky voice about, you know, the usual. Unrequited love.

It must be putting me in a strange mood.

A mood that loves my new blog look! Is anyone besides Crunchy having a hard time reading it? Because if you are, I'll change it I promise...

A New Look

2009-02-05T07:40:00.001-06:00

Thanks, Mon, for the link to Cutest Blog on the Block, which has a lot of great free blog backgrounds. I'm going with a "vintage" look for now, and it will probably change. I have to be ever mindful of my color blind husband and mother-in-law, neither of whom can distinguish red from green. I'll see what George thinks later today!

I Know I Use The Word "Just" Too Much--a la "Wordle"

2009-02-04T18:48:00.003-06:00

(click to make it bigger, and to go to the Wordle site.)

I'm Kind Of Tired Of My Blog

2009-02-04T18:20:00.003-06:00

I've changed my blog look, but it's still boring. Any suggestions? How do you create your own template? Or how can I use some of the cool ones I've seen, like Holistic Mama's background? Maybe it's just the February blahs, but I'm ready for change! I suppose I could Google the question, heaven knows Blogger is not going to tell me easily...

I also mentioned recently that I hate my blog title. The Zahn Zone. I thought it was clever way back when I thought having a blog would be just a little computer journal I'd do. But then I started getting readers, and quite a few. (Which is a lot of pressure, btw!) And I realized my blog name is just kinda dumb.

Speaking of February blahs, the kids and I went to the mall today. We've gone for two Wednesday afternoons now, as one way to get out of the house and get some exercise. I make the kids do two laps around the mall with me, and we get a treat either at Pretzelmaker or the Target cafe. I like walking in the climate-controlled mall, but I'm already bored with taking the kids there. I mean, how often can they look in a store? Yes, we noticed shop windows had changed quite a bit in just one week, which gave me a chance to explain marketing to them. But really, we don't have money to buy stuff and I wouldn't want them/myself to buy more even if we could. Gosh, I just hope temps get warmer around here and soon! So we can walk in the woods more often, or just walk to the library every day. We are doing those things, but it's hard to do it more than once or twice a week because it's downright painful.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be around 30 degrees here. We had a taste of warmth like that last weekend, but every other dang day it's been below zero here in Minnesota this winter. I mean, come on! Below zero!!! And many mornings we wake up and it's not just 2 below but more like 12 below or 17 below. Ridiculous!

The chickens are surviving the cold just fine, actually. When it's been 25 or 30 below we leave them in their coop, put their food and water in there and everything. But when it's less than 10 below, they're out in their run at least to eat and stretch out a bit. A couple of them have a bit of a white frostbitten spot or two on the tips of their combs, but other than that they're fine. (I know we could put Vaseline on their combs to protect them from this, but so far we haven't done that...)

To remind me that spring will come, I did receive my seed order from Fedco this week. I was afraid it might never come! The company sent a letter with the seeds. Their sales are up 42.5% this year already, and that's on top of last year's 20% jump in sales. I find this amazing, and it gives me hope for America. We can grow our own food! We can feed ourselves! Go, gardeners, go!

Candlemas/Imbolc/St. Brigid's Day

2009-02-03T12:33:00.003-06:00

Called Groundhog's Day in America, February 2 is the half-way point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. The Celtic holiday is Imbolc and the Celtic-Catholic holiday is St. Brigid's Day. It is also Candlemas, and we celebrated the day by making candles with our homeschool co-op.With our group of friends, we rolled beeswax sheets around a wick to make candles. We cut tiny shapes out of colored beeswax to decorate plain white pillars. And a few kids even dipped wicks into melted beeswax to make tapers.

Another good thing to do on Candlemas is take all your old, burned down candle stubs, melt them and then make new candles either in small milk carton bottoms or in the snow (I've never tried the snow option, but it's supposed to be really neat). You can also make firestarters by pouring melted wax over pinecones with a little dryer lint stuffed into the spaces, or just in egg cups filled with dryer lint. We've been saving candle stubs and dryer lint for just this thing, and eventually we'll get to it.

Yesterday's candlemaking was at our friends' home. It is fun to have a special, seasonal day to make something.

7 Things Meme

2009-02-01T10:30:00.002-06:00

I got a meme from Judy over at My Freezer is Full (what a great blog title, Judy! I hate my blog title...)

Here are the rules:
Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.
Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog
Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I drink English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast (or, in a pinch, Lipton) black tea with a little sugar, 2 large mugs a day.

2. My husband is my best friend and I love watching him play his Irish whistles on stage.

3. My favorite summer ever was in 1994. I lived with my dear, funny Grandma and spent a lot of time with a college roommate who lived nearby, and made a bunch of other great friends that year. I had just broken up a long-term relationship and felt so free! For the first time in, like, forever. I was also doing my student chaplaincy (C.P.E.) unit at the nearby State Hospital that summer, which was interesting to say the least. The next summer, 1995, I married my husband whom I didn't even know until Sept. of 1994.

4. Even though it's a lot of work, I like having a "menagerie" of creatures around the house, husband, kids, puppy, cat, chickens. For a while we had two finches named Eddie and Franklin too, but that was too much poop to deal with.

5. I want to go to England and Ireland really, really badly, but I don't want to see other tourists there at all.

6. I want to buy myself a doll from Bamboletta so bad! (Now I'm just listing wants, eh?)

7. I'm running so late for church but I'm still doing this meme! (Procrastinator)

Here are 7 people I want to tag for this! I'll email you soon...

Denise at Mom in Madison
Mon at Holistic Mama
Kristine at Anthromama (to get you back for the Facebook one!)
Jess at RosieQ Family Blog (cuz I like seeing you blog more!)
Jen at Bellies, Beer and Baking Oh My!
The Brewer's Wife
Gracie at Urban/Prairie Living

So go for it, ladies!

Creative Goings On, and Hosting PLU Choir Girls

2009-01-30T10:05:00.007-06:00

Just yesterday afternoon I handed Rose two cardboard boxes after hauling our food home from Buying Club and said, "Do you want this?" She said sure, and right away got to work.

Since then, she's made them into this:

She started digging through the "big blue box", where we keep all kinds of odds and ends and bits and pieces for her to do creative crafting. And this girl can craft! And create! It's a doll house, and there's even a rooftop playground with a second story swing hanging from it (the dolls just fly up into the swing, or climb down the yarn rope to get to it.) And for my creative endeavor yesterday, I finished knitting my first mitten! After getting some help on the thumb from this mittens tutorial and this page on knitty.com, I was able to finish this up and it looks great! They're made with a nice washable wool from Brown Sheep Co., which I've had in my stash for years. Now, to just get the other one knitted up...It was a great day for Rose, not just because she was crafting and creating all afternoon, but also because we were privileged to attend a musical event in the evening. The Pacific Lutheran University "Choir of the West" was at our church for the final concert of their Midwest tour (Minnesota in January, lucky them!). The concert was just fabulous and the range of pieces they sang was amazing. It got late for the kids, but Rose in particular really enjoyed the singing and watching the college students do their thing.

We brought two of them home for the night, Emily and Jordan above, and it was such a wonderful experience. We had very little time to visit as they had to be back at church early this morning, but it was pleasant nonetheless. I was so happy for Rose to meet some college girls from a wonderful Lutheran school who are such positive role models. We're so glad for the experience!

The Many Benefits of Blogging

2009-01-28T16:03:00.003-06:00

I often think of blogs as being a modern day version of the "swap shops" that my Grandma used to listen to on the local radio station every morning when I was a kid in the 70s. Do you remember swap shop radio shows?

Why were they called "swap shops", I wondered? Upon googling just now, I have learned that they really were about "swapping", or in other words, calling in to buy or sell personal items. So maybe I have the term confused. But what I remember was ladies calling in to the "expert" lady on the radio, exchanging homemaking tips and recipes. Kind of like what women's magazines have always done, but with a two-way conversation that all kinds of people could listen in on over the airwaves.

Blogs are really a two-way conversation, with lots of people "eavesdropping" just like on those old radio shows. Not only can you read my blog, but you can make comments on my posts, and I can read your blog and comment on it. And lots more of you can just read and "lurk" as it's called. We all share tips and hints and recipes and advice for things across a wide range like childrearing, laundry soaps, how to save money and use less energy, etc. Some of the best tips I have gotten lately have been these:

Just today, I found a blog called A Year of Crockpotting. Not only does this blog have tons of great recipes for the crock-pot, she also has a FAQ section and other information. In reading some comments about crock-pots, one person reminded readers to check recall lists for crock-pots because many have been recalled in the last 10 years. So I went and googled "Hamilton Beach slow cooker recall" and lo and behold, my 5-7 year old cooker has been recalled due to the handles having a tendency to fall off. So now, thanks to a blog tip, I've found out that I can get a brand new slow cooker for free! (And, whaddya know, one of the handles on mine did fall off years ago and it has always been a real safety hazard and pain.) By the way, I found that blog through this one on my blog list, Women Not Dabbling In Normal. Thanks, guys!

Another REALLY great tip I've found through blogs was this one on Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op. This post on an indoor clothes drying line has inspired George and me to build a similar one in our basement. We're still working on the actual clothesline, but we've got the materials for it and we've got the basement painted and ready to install when George has free time this weekend. (So not only did that one post inspire us to build that clothesline, it also got me painting the basement which is QUITE an improvement already! It also got us putting up new "pantry" shelves in there since the only shelf I had down there for pantry storage was in the space which best fits the clothesline.) As I keep promising, I'll post photos when it's all done.

Your blogs are, indeed, inspiring to me folks! And I hope sometimes I have useful information for others. I know a lot of people have baked bread using my whole wheat bread recipe because I've seen other bloggers commenting on it. And from my feedjit widget, I know lots of people are finding my salmon patty recipe through Google. It's so cool to know these things!

Have you ever thought this way about blogging? What are some favorite things you've gotten through blogs or blogging?

On Family Meetings and Chores

2009-01-25T07:36:00.004-06:00

ON FAMILY MEETINGS:
On Friday night we held our first-ever Zahn Family Meeting. I've always felt that families who hold family meetings are so, well, organized and democratic and all that and we've just never gotten around to them (which speaks to my lack of organization, and probably democratic-ness, too).

But on Thursday, after "crabbin' out" at the kids for not helping around the house enough, I decided to call a Family Meeting for the following night. I made the announcement to all, including dear husband, that the meeting would take place at exactly 6:30 p.m. after our Previously Scheduled Family Dinner at exactly 6:00 p.m. Just trying to be organized here...

I asked the family members to come up with agenda items. Mine, of course, would be the subject of chores. I also said I would give a Treasurer's Report (a.k.a. "why we haven't paid your allowance since Christmas").

So the appointed hour came and the Meeting commenced. I asked for agenda items. Dad added "Family Fitness" to the list of New Business. Rose wanted to talk about "Food Changes" (after Mom's pronouncement that there would be no.more.picky.eaters around here!). And Elijah's agenda item was "Family Vacations" because he wants to take a trip to China to study Kung Fu and the Martial Arts there (whoa boy!).

First I gave the treasurer's report, explaining that this was an unusual time of year for bills because so many are coming due at once, like the auto insurance, Rose's choir tuition, license tabs for the Honda, the puppy had to be neutered, etc. I explained to the kids that their ($50/month) allowance was the easiest thing NOT to pay right now when money is tight because they couldn't cut off the electricity on us, or lower our credit rating. Bum deal for the kids, I know. But I said we were keeping track of what we owed, that the kids had stated after Christmas they wanted to save their money for some big purchases anyway, and that by mid-February we'd be able to pay them. They seemed okay with it.

So we moved on. We discussed Family Fitness, as dad suggested. He wants us all to be sure we're getting some exercise every day, even in this cold weather. We said we'd been bowling, shooting archery, walking to the library and walking the dog this week. He said fine. I said I'd try to do even more with the kids...we'll see!

After that it was my agenda item, Chores. We made a new plan where everyone has certain jobs they do every day (make bed, clean room, get dressed, make own breakfast by 10 a.m., etc.) and that other jobs will be rotated and shared (feeding the pets and chickens, for one). We've also instituted a "family cleaning hour" on Saturday mornings. For that we divide up the jobs and all spend about an hour cleaning, from 10-11 a.m. because we wouldn't want to start too early, ya know!

For the Food Changes discussion, Rose really wanted to know what would be required since I wasn't allowing picky eaters anymore. Ha ha, this is mainly about her and she knows it! What we ended up doing was asking the kids to make a list of five or more foods they'd be willing to eat for lunch each week and five or more snack foods that work for them. I said that if I approved of those foods, I would be willing to always make sure they're in the pantry or fridge and would work at serving them foods they like IF they will stop complaining and eat what I've made. They're still working on their lists, but I know they're all foods we already eat and where I've got to change is to always make sure we've got turkey meat for Eli and ham for Rose, and homemade pizza crusts or pitas in the freezer for mini-pizzas, or tortillas to go with the refried beans, etc. Sometimes it's the grocery shopping that's not up to par, and it's not the kids fault. Aren't we blessed with all our food choices in this country?

And then it was on to Family Vacations, in which we all listed where we'd like to go and, as a great stalling measure, I gave the kids the task of researching their chosen destinations and how much it would cost to get there. I think it will be a great project for them both. Elijah, as I said, wants to go to China and Rose wants to go to India to see palaces and pretty dresses. I hope to get them started on travel planning soon.

ON CHORES:
We put the new Saturday cleaning hour to work yesterday morning. Elijah chose vacuuming the upstairs, so I encouraged him to "battle the dust bunnies with your giant sucking sword" and he was off.

Rose asked what was easiest and I, honestly, told her the bathroom. Smallest room, least amount of time (and it is easiest to me, and I would've chosen it had she not). She got started in there, trying to quell the ick factor. She said a few times, "mom, this isn't that easy" and "mom, this is taking more than 15 minutes" to which I said, well it's your first time cleaning in there and it will get quicker in the future. She proclaimed when it was over that the bathtub is really much ickier to clean than the toilet, much to her surprise. I said yeah, you're right about that (which is probably why I clean the tub less than the toilet, just pulling the shower curtain closed all the time). Rose was done in 40 minutes, still quicker than the rest of us so then she had to put a few things away.

George got what to me is the hardest job, sweeping and mopping the downstairs floors. He did fine with it except he kept getting distracted. I'd have to say once in a while, "George, what are you doing in the basement? That's not on your job description!" To which he'd answer he's cleaning the toilet or scooping the cat litter. And I'd say, "you're not supposed to be doing that right now. You can't be part of this if you're not going to stick to your job and complete it!" Sheesh, talk about ADHD. He's harder to train than the kids, no doubt, but I'm constantly working on it... (Edited to add: I don't mean to be hard on my husband. Truthfully, I didn't want him to do more cleaning than he had to, to participate in the family time. With his limited time at home, there's other things I'd rather see him doing, like baking and working on projects I can't/won't do. For example, we're still working on the basement and when it's done, I'll post photos! It's looking good.)

Besides, cleaning the basement was a job I'd planned to do. It's my laundry area, after all. My chosen job for yesterday was dusting, relatively easy, but then I did all the "other" jobs too like washing the sheets and putting them back on the beds, picking up things that were out of place, etc., in order to make the other jobs possible. There's always so much "behind the scenes" for Mom to do.

All in all, the Saturday cleaning worked great. I kept thanking the kids and saying no wonder I was tired since it looked like they were working so hard and usually I'm doing it all by myself! It was so nice to spend a Saturday in a clean house.

Another List--Current Library Books

2009-01-24T17:51:00.003-06:00

Since I did a list yesterday, I thought I'd do another one today. I'm more into my books than my blog right now so time is limited. Here's what I have checked out right now from our fabulous St. Cloud library:

Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest by Wayne Muller
jamie at home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life by Jamie Oliver
Home Education: Training and educating children under nine by Charlotte M. Mason
Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola
Real Food for Dogs by Arden Moore
The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome by Tony Attwood
D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire
Knitting for Peace by Betty Christiansen
The Slow Cooker Ready and Waiting Cookbook by Rich Rodgers
Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two by Beth Hensperger
The Celtic Way of Seeing: Meditations on the Irish Spirit Wheel by Frank MacEowen
Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects by Salley Mavor
Goddess Afoot!: Practicing Magic with Celtic & Norse Goddesses by Michelle Skye
Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful Christmas by Bill McKibben
Kids' Embroidery: Projects for Kids of All Ages by Kristin Nicholas

and finally, reward for the longest title goes to:

Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, and their diverse tribe of countercultural conservatives plan to save America (or at least the Republican Party) by Rod Dreher

I really like the last book, just finished it. Not that I've gone Republican, but I'm certainly pretty conservative in a lot of ways. And I'm definitely crunchy! I like what Dreher has to say, a lot.

I've read most of those books, or at least looked through them, and I can say I'd recommend them all. Sorry I'm not going to give links, that takes too much time. But do look up the ones that appeal to you!

2009 Seed Order

2009-01-23T14:34:00.003-06:00

Since I've seen a lot of other blogs posting their seed orders, I thought I'd post mine real quick (partly cuz I wanna update my blog but don't have much time...).

We've ordered from Fedco this year, but will also buy some from local seed and nursery stores I'm sure. I went with Fedco for a few reasons. One, they test all their seed to make sure it's free of genetically modified organisms. Two, they are a Maine company and I thought ordering from a northern location would be good. And three, I really like their catalog, and they offer a lot of organic seeds.

Here's the list for 2009 (these seeds join a lot of seeds from 2007/2008 that we'll still plant):

Provider Bush Green Bean OG
Sugarsnap Snap Pea OG
Red Ace Beet OG
Chioggia Beet OG
Detroit Dark Red Short Top Beet
Prisma Shallots
Copra Onion
Clear Dawn Onion OG
Watercress
Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage
Danish Ballhead Cabbage
Cosmonaut Volkov Tomato OG
Heinz 2653 Paste Tomato OG
Jewel Mix Nasturtium OG

We really focused on short season, cold weather hardy plants. Last year our tomato plants (grown from organic seed bought locally) were all close to 90 day plants, which meant it took them far too long to ripen in our cool and short season.

New to us this year will be growing onions from seed. We never get good onions from sets, and I read in several places that starting onion seeds indoors can work better. We'll see.

We've also ordered the following potatoes from Fedco's Moose Tuber line:

Red Gold organic
All Blue organic
Kennebec organic
German Butterball naturally grown

We should have a nice variety. Anyone wanna come help plant?

This spring, I'm also helping to organize a brand new community garden at our church, Bethlehem Lutheran. I'm excited about this opportunity. St. Cloud has a growing network of community gardens now, which is being organized into one "community" by a professor at our nearby St. Cloud State University. It will be a lot of work to get the garden started and growing, but I think there will be a lot of interest due to the economy and people wanting to eat healthy, locally grown food these days.

What are you planting this year?

Homeschooling/Unschooling Almost A Year Now

2009-01-18T17:14:00.004-06:00

The kids took their annual, required standardized achievement test yesterday. This is the law in Minnesota, homeschoolers have to take the test and keep it in the files at home but we don't have to turn it in to the district or anything, unless there's a problem. It seems reasonable to me.

Yesterday's test went well. A friend of mine, a former teacher, does the testing as a business, so the kids are really comfortable with her. She sets up her "office" at the library and devotes about an hour to each kid, using the Peabody Individual Achievement Test.

The categories in the Peabody test are General Information (science, social studies, art, etc.); Reading Recognition; Reading Comprehension; Mathematics; Spelling. There are 100 questions per category, though they don't start each child at number 1 but somewhere before/below where they should be at and work up from there.

One of my kids , age 9, tests just at or above her grade level. This is great. A confirmation that even though we've had a very relaxed first year of homeschooling, she is keeping up and doing just fine.

The other kid, 11 years old and technically a 6th grader, tested at this grade level yesterday: 12.9! That's as high as the test goes. He could go to college next year, based on these test results. He answered almost every question, in every category, correctly. The first thing the tester said in giving me his results was, "I'm SO glad you brought him home. The schools can do nothing for him." My first question was, "What DO you do with a kid like him?!"

But when I thought more about my question, I realized that I'm doing just the right thing for now. I'm following my intuition, and I know what's best for both my kids right now. What's best for my kids may not be what's best for anyone else's kid. What's best for my kids now may not be what's best next year, but right now things are going great.

And what's best right now is unschooling my son, and unschooling/homeschooling (giving a little more guidance because she's asking for it) my daughter.

Elijah is so, so happy being home. He basically begged us, day after day and in so many different ways, to pull him out of school. This kid is a voracious reader, he uses all the resources he can find to learn about whatever's of interest to him, and he thinks and thinks and thinks. What his dad and I do is provide him (and his sister) the resources--books, library trips, SCA group outings and other field trips, conversations, the internet, writing and drawing materials, DVDs, whatever you can think of--and he goes with it. That's basically what UNSCHOOLING is.

One thing I incredulously asked my friend the test-giver was "how can he know the math for a 12th grader when he hasn't learned it yet?" But I can answer my own question, really. He has been doing math all along, both at school in the past and as an unschooler at home. He has books (that we gave him) that are literature-based books, not math workbooks, that are all about math concepts. His brain can read about a concept and then figure out a problem in his head. This is how he learns. I, as his mother, can use my powers of observation to know that about him.

This is the kid who last year when he was in school, we would sit with for up to three hours a night trying to keep him at the table and writing out the maybe 18 problems he had to do for "advanced" math class. Because he took so long, you might think he was just dumb. But no, he already knew the concepts, he didn't need to do all the problems, and it was just sheer torture for all of us. He was bored to tears working on what to him was easy stuff, and he is just stubborn enough that he just didn't want to do it day after day after day. You see, "advanced" math in our schools is just MORE math, meaning more workbook pages, not higher concepts at all. Needless to say, this was the straw that broke the camel's back and led us to taking him out of school.

What led us to taking our daughter out of school was the fact that she HATED READING, and that hatred was/is in direct correlation to how much she was forced to sit still and read as an 8 year old in 3rd grade. And that was, for TWO HOURS each school day. Now, if that isn't inappropriate for a child's natural development I don't know what is. After an entire year of being out of school now, she is finally, just finally and little by little, starting to pick up books or magazines on her own and read them. I say as little as possible when I notice her doing this. I want her to LOVE reading, and that means I know to give her no pressure, no timetables, no nothing but subtle, background encouragement right now.

How do I give this subtle, background encouragement? By having books around that I know she'll like (these mostly have to do with fairies and favorite girl rock stars right now). By making sure she has some subscriptions to magazines (American Girl, Ranger Rick, Kids Discover) that I know will interest her each month when they arrive. And by modeling reading myself, something she's always seen me to do a lot of!

We have "one of each" parent in our house--a mom who's always been a huge reader and a dad who, frankly, hasn't. George enjoys reading now, but he would rather play his flute, go skiing, work around the house, make dinner, etc. Homeschool dad and author David Albert would call me a noun and George a verb. And we have one "noun" and one "verb" in each kid, too. Reading is so highly pushed in our culture, but it isn't the only worthwhile pursuit, and I know that. We make sure Rose knows that, too, and encourage her to read some for both pleasure and information, but we also encourage her many other talents. Singing, athletics, having fun with friends, crafting and making art, etc.

Basically, what I'm trying to say in this long and winding post is that, my kids are doing great and we're doing the best we can to help them be the best they can be! I would encourage all parents to follow their intuition, do what works for both you and your kids, and don't worry about the rest. We have a lot of choices these days and sometimes that makes life very confusing. But you know what, I wouldn't trade having options for anything.

EDITED TO ADD: We got our literature-based math books at the FUN Books online store. Here's their math page...Look for Murderous Maths, More Murderous Maths and that whole series, Algebra Unplugged, The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat and Fractals, Googols and Other Mathematical Tales. Fun stuff! Next I want to get Math and Music (Rose and George would love it) and Calculus for Cats.

Holy Crap It's 33 Below!

2009-01-16T08:17:00.002-06:00

We hit a new record low last night, -33F. It's STILL -33 a 8:15 a.m., according to both Minnesota Public Radio and my Yahoo page. This is getting ridiculous; even the puppy refused to walk this morning!

It'll be another day stuck inside, but today we're going to do some painting and reorganizing in the basement. Photos later!

They're still saying we're going to get above zero today...we'll see.

Stuck Inside

2009-01-15T12:54:00.004-06:00

We woke up this morning and it was 25 below zero (F.). Fortunately, the superintendents used their senses and cancelled school for the -45 windchill, so George is home with us today. We're all staying inside as much as possible. Only George has been out to feed and water the chickens, and walk the dog 1/2 a block. Even the dog comes in shivering!This is a good day to finally show you the bathroom tile project-completed!And to let you see a little of what we've been doing homeschooling/life learning-wise:Some collage art with Rose.

Rootbeer making with Elijah.

Knitting hats for babies and playing games with our homeschool co-op friends. And refereeing the still-ongoing old cat and new puppy battles. (We've discovered, as if we didn't know it, that our cat is quite the b*tch!)

Ooh, and George and I just joined on facebook.com, so now we're reconnecting with lots of *old* friends. Are you on facebook? It's yet another online addiction...

Happy Birthday to My Mom!

2009-01-12T09:26:00.005-06:00

I'm a terrible daughter. I always forget to send the card on time. I never forget the date, or the person, but getting a card in the mail ahead of time...ack! Never do it. (For that matter, in this regard I'm a terrible sister, granddaughter, niece, daughter-in-law, etc. Card sending escapes me in general, and I was raised better than that, yes.)So, this morning I can use my blog to send out the message, which won't be arriving on time in the mail today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

I love you! Thanks for being my mom!

Love, Lisa

I hope you're enjoying the heat in Arizona while we're sitting inside watching the snow and cold blow in...

I Mentioned My Banjo

2009-01-10T15:29:00.008-06:00

Well, a few months ago. And um, I've practiced exactly once since then. But it was a good practice! My shoulder gets sore, however. I guess if I practiced more often I might get over that.

Why, oh why, I keep asking myself did I choose, like, the hardest bluegrass instrument there is? The instrument in which the player plays four times as many notes as anyone else. (Did you know that? Yes, the reason the banjo sounds so cool is because banjo players are playing "roles" of four notes for every one melody note, instead of strumming single notes like most everyone else!)

I love my banjo. I really, really do. It's even American-made. A Deering Goodtime Banjo, the very best inexpensive banjo on the market. I love it with a passion. I even want someone to take my photograph with it. Just like the cool girls in this photo... But that feels too fake since I can hardly play a single tune on it. (The book in my photo at top is also the BEST beginner banjo book ever--take it from an expert like me, okay? It's Jack Hatfield's Bluegrass Banjo Methods for Beginners, Book One. I'm learning to play a mean, albeit slow, version of Good Night Ladies from it. Yes, that's the first song in the book, and I'm really not there yet.)

I also love that red suede strap I got for my banjo. The one that's supposed to help make my left shoulder not so sore. And I love that table runner my Grandma made, the one under the banjo and stuff.

With all that love, I really should start playing the thing more, eh?

By next summer, in time for the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Festival, I'm setting a goal to have played through at least my entire beginner banjo book. Okay? Will someone hold me accountable? (And no, dear husband, you don't count. Your musical ability just gets annoying in this case. I don't want to hear anything from you!)

I'm really looking forward to being able to play one of my favorite old-timey songs ever, Will The Circle Be Unbroken. It's in my book.

The Salmon Patty Recipe

2009-01-07T20:20:00.003-06:00

Because of a request (thanks!), I'll give you this recipe real quick before I call it a night. Walking the new puppy on icy streets and sidewalks has given me an aching back, so it's time to go lay down, but here it is first:

Salmon Patties
from the Gloucester Virginia Celebrates 350 Years cookbook
1 (15-16 oz.) can salmon
1 egg
1/3 cup minced onion (we leave this out due to DS11 not liking it)
1/2 cup flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
oil for frying

Drain salmon, setting aside 2 Tablespoons of the juice. In a medium bowl, mix salmon, egg and onion until sticky. Stir in flour. Add baking powder to salmon juice; stir into salmon mixture. Form into small patties and fry until golden brown, about 5 minutes on each side.

These are yummy with homemade tartar sauce (mayonnaise with pickle relish) or ketchup or whatever you like. And they're so simple to make even I can do it! When I have to ;-)...

Meal Planning

2009-01-06T15:37:00.005-06:00

Dinnertime at our house sometimes gets a little crazy. Doesn't everybody's? George does most of the cooking in our house, which he's *mostly* fine with. I don't love to cook, but I don't hate it, and I was starting to feel guilty that he's doing too much of it so a couple of weeks ago we sat down to remedy that so I could take my turn cooking more often.

Now, what I do hate about cooking the evening meal is coming up with what to eat and having to think too much at the end of the day. Therefore, we decided to go back to something we've tried, with some success, in the past--a pre-planned, weekly rotating menu.

For each night of the week, we set out general guidelines for what we're going to eat that night. We also divided up the cooking so that I cook three times a week and George cooks four. Both of these things take a lot of pressure off us, and I'm actually enjoying coming up with things to cook on my nights.

You'll see in our plan below that I get Tuesday crock-pot night, Wednesday hot dog night (something easy to cook because George is out of the house teaching private music lessons that night), and Sunday grilled cheese and soup night. My nights are quite easy, yes, and I like that. I prefer to cook with recipes and, when I know in advance that it's my night to cook, I can have fun finding good ones to try. And, because I'm using the crock-pot or making soup, I can cook my meals earlier in the day when I feel more alive.

Here's our latest weekly plan:

Mondays--George cooks--salmon patties or hamburgers; potatoes and a green vegetable

Tuesdays--Lisa cooks--crock pot meal and whole grain rolls or bread

Wednesdays--Lisa cooks--hot dogs with buns; cooked carrots or corn

Thursdays--George cooks--beans and rice or tortillas; squash

Fridays--grocery store deli or George's homemade--PIZZA NIGHT!

Saturdays--George cooks--crock pot meal with meat; make bread or rolls!

Sundays--Lisa cooks--grilled cheese sandwiches and homemade tomato or vegetable soup

For most of our planned meals, we always have the ingredients on hand. For example, we always have canned salmon in the pantry for salmon patty night, and sometimes we have ground beef from a local farm in the freezer for when we want to mix it up and eat something different. (BTW, both of those foods are Rose's least favorite, so we have to be prepared for some Monday night battle--why not make it Monday night? Actually, I often do let her eat an egg instead of a salmon patty because our eggs also provide the needed omega-3 fatty acids that salmon does, and I really want her to get that in her diet.)

There is quite a bit of room for variety in the plan, too, as you'll see we have generic "crock pot night" or "soup night" or "beans and rice" night. On beans night, for instance, we can have Indian lentils and rice with spicy onions (yum!), or we can have black beans and tortillas, or whatever. That's George's night, so he can feel free to improvise (within the limits of what the rest of us will eat, of course!).

Tonight I'm making "Reyna's Crock-Pot Enchilada Casserole" from the great cookbook, Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely of http://www.flylady.net/ and http://www.savingdinner.com/ fame. We haven't tried this one before, but we've never had a bad meal from this cookbook. It's a simple recipe and at least the spoonful I just tasted is tasty! Here it is:

1-14.5 oz. can whole tomatoes
1 onion, cut into fourths
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-6 oz. can tomato paste
12 corn tortillas
1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
3 cups cheddar cheese, grated

In a blender or food processor, blend tomatoes and their liquid with onion and garlic. Add ground red pepper, salt and tomato paste and blend some more.

Place 4 tortillas in bottom of crock-pot. Add one-third of the ground beef, one-third of the tomato sauce, and one-third of the cheese. Repeat each layer two more times.

Cover crock-pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.*

*depending on your crock-pot. Mine seems to run hot and foods don't take nearly as long to cook as recipes say. This meal has been in the crock-pot on low for 3 hours now and looks and smells quite done, so I turned it to "warm" until we eat at 6 p.m.

Heading Into 2009

2008-12-30T15:33:00.003-06:00

I really prefer to be a positive thinker. In fact, I do believe that our thoughts can create our reality. That if we look at the sunny side of things, we will be and feel happier. I've experienced that many times in my life.

However, I don't think we can ignore the all too present reality of economic collapse that America, and much of the world, is facing right now. Our lives are going to change, in some ways for the better but in many ways it is going to be very hard--it already is happening for those who've lost their jobs recently. Now, my positive take on this is that through hard times we can gain a better perspective on what's truly important, we can gain community as folks pull together to help each other out, and in this day and age we can envision a future economic reality where perhaps we are not as hard on the very planet we inhabit.

But all the positives aside, we have a lot of work to do to survive the hard times. Maybe it won't hit you. But maybe it will. I think we are going to be surprised by what happens in 2009, probably not for the better. I think we all need to prepare as if the worst could happen.

To that end, I'd like to refer you to Rhonda Jean's post over at her down to earth blog. I don't know Rhonda Jean, in fact she lives in Australia, but she seems like the sweetest person. She does a good job of keeping positive while giving ideas to, as she calls it in this post, prepare for the coming year.

Her list of basics:
stop spending on non-essentials
track your money
start saving an emergency fund
increase payments on your mortgage and credit card debts
start a grocery stock pile

She also gives you links to past posts on how to go about doing these things. She's got a very helpful, nice blog. Check it out. And if you can't check it out, at least keep the above five points in mind to be working on. We here at the Zahn Urban Homestead been working on them in the last year, and regardless of the world situation we are in better financial shape than we've ever been in, and we have a nice amount of food and some food independence that is priceless.

Happy Solstice

2008-12-21T13:05:00.004-06:00

Today we celebrate the return of the sun. The days which are now so dark begin again to get longer and brighter. A little bit each day.

I would like to have a fire in the backyard to celebrate the warmth and light of the sun, but with the bitter cold and wind it's nearly impossible. So tonight, as we did last year, we'll light a bunch of candles, drink wine, eat sausage and white bean soup (for no particular reason, just sounds good), and read Christmas stories.

The dog is settling in to the house nicely. He's just a dear old baby already!

The kitty is getting used to having him around and still gets snuggle time too.The kids are excited for Christmas, getting and giving their presents.We all wish you a Merry Christmas!

Oh Crap! He Just Appointed Vilsack

2008-12-17T08:42:00.003-06:00

President-elect Obama just appointed former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack to be the Secretary of Agriculture. Besides Vilsack's obvious support of ethanol, which I believe to be yet another huge, unsustainable boondoggle, Vilsack is "in bed" with giant agribusiness and I'm extremely disappointed in this choice.

Here are Six Reasons Why Obama Appointing Monsanto's Buddy, Former Iowa Governor Vilsack, for USDA Head Would be a Terrible Idea, from the Organic Consumers Association. And people wonder why I can't be a staunch Democrat anymore! Their ideals are just not completely in line with mine, even if they are the "better of two evils". Ack!

Garden/Farm Freedom In Jeopardy

2008-12-17T07:27:00.004-06:00

I don't want to write too much about this because it is not my area of expertise, but for a few years I've been hearing about the horrible practices of the giant U.S. seed/pesticide company Monsanto and I want to make others--who may not have heard--aware.

Here is one article about Monsanto's raid on small farmers and now, seed cleaners--who make it possible to save and plant seeds that are not from Monsanto: Raid on Seeds (life itself) ... by Monsanto. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Agriculture recently raided a small Mennonite Farm, and in Ohio the Ag. Dept. raided an organic farm with a SWAT team. Departments of Agriculture in every state are held captive by huge AgriCorporations like Monsanto because of, of course, huge campaign donations. Read the article for more.

You can also keep tabs on Monsanto at the website Millions Against Monsanto. If you have time, watch the video at the top of the page. I watched it and it's frightening. It's about Monsanto's Genetically Engineered seeds and the extremely sketchy science behind GE seeds/foods, and their lack of concern for the eaters of the world--that means you and me and all of us, of course! That site has actions you can take.

Other ways you can fight back are to support local farmers in your area--farmers you can actually talk to and buy directly from like at your farmer's market. And you can grow your own garden, using seeds that are heirloom and non-hybrid since you can then save the seeds yourself and you will be beholden to no single company for your food security. Some great places to buy heirloom seeds are Fedco, Baker Creek Heirloom Seed, High Mowing Seeds, Seed Savers (based in Iowa near where we used to live), and Seeds of Change (owned by a large corporation, but a "corporate good guy" in as far as I can tell--often their seeds are available in stores so you can pick some up more easily). If you click on any of the links, you can order online or request a catalog. And do order early this year, as many seed companies experienced high demand/low supply last year and expect this year to be even crazier.

Rhonda Jean over at Down To Earth blog has written this great post on seed-saving so you can learn to save your own from next summer's garden veggies. It was her post and this post by Anais at Path to Freedom that inspired me to write this. There are also many good books out there on this--both at the library and to purchase. I'd recommend the Storey Publishing book called Seed Sowing and Saving.

Seriously folks, this is a huge issue. How do you feel about the idea of one huge corporation, or even a few corporations, owning all the world's food supply? Because that's what they're trying to do. Food, like health care in America, has become profit-driven. And it's not the small farmers who are making the profits. It's a very sick system, and it's time to make a change. I wish Michael Moore would do a movie on it to bring about people's awareness. Barring that, Michael Pollan has certainly been writing a lot of books and newspaper essays and appearing on TV talking about this issue. At the top of my blog there are links to some of his work, particularly his Letter to President Obama. Also, read In Defense of Food and An Omnivore's Dilemma.

And here's another good page about Michael Pollan's work, where you can also watch a video of Bill Moyers interviewing him: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11282008/profile.html. There is a drive to get President Obama to name Michael Pollan as Ag. Secretary, but Pollan says he doesn't want the job and it's highly unlikely even Mr. Obama can circumvent the usual powers that be on this. But we do know Mr. Obama has read the letter and works of Pollan, and there is a lot of hope that things may start to change.

You, the citizens of the world, will have to start making the changes in your own homes and lives first. This is truly a grassroots effort. As the saying goes: Start Now. Be the Change.

Bitter Cold At The Urban Homestead

2008-12-16T07:41:00.004-06:00

Just heard on the radio that we set a record cold last night, -24F. Yes, that's 24 below zero! Currently it's about 15 below zero, but with not much wind so it doesn't feel too bad. George got the new puppy out for his walk and then, with this new routine to fit in, he missed the bus to work. So I had to get out of my warm bed and drive him to school. I didn't mind, as we get to visit with each other for a few minutes that way.

How is life on the urban homestead in this cold?

Well, we adopted our new puppy the day before a blizzard which brought in this bitter cold from the north and west. It's probably not the ideal time to get a puppy and have to stand outside with him for potty breaks and take him for a couple of walks each day. But we really don't mind and are feeling well cheered because Billy (should we call him Blizzard?) is doing so well at it all. We get him out to his "potty spot" about every two hours during the day and if he needs to go before we get to it, he lets us know. The only accidents he's had were in his crate the first day he was here, which is certainly understandable. He is a very smart, obedient dog. We have to keep a close watch on him yet because he likes to chew on the furniture a bit, but other than that we are very impressed with him.

The cat isn't too upset about this new puppy addition. Of course, puppy is mostly confined to the kitchen yet and kitty has the run of the rest of the house, so I think she knows she's still queen. Whenever the two have met, the dog barks and wants to play but the cat hisses and lashes out at him and then Billy leaps back in fear but comes back for more. I think it's going just fine. They'll get used to each other.

Elijah has mentioned a few times already that cats are so much easier to take care of, and he's right but a dog is so worth it. I think Eli will continue to be an avowed "cat person", but at least he will not forever be afraid of dogs, we think, now that we have a nice one. Rose is happy to have as many animals as possible, and the dog provides her a needed playmate during the quiet times at home. They are both helping, but she in particular doesn't balk at all at taking the dog out to potty or any of it.

The chickens seem to be faring just fine in this bitter cold, as well. On Sunday, the day it was snowing, George finally got a little shelf put up in their coop, and he screwed a food tray to it so that we can feed them in the coop and not just in the run. We've been keeping the light on in the coop 24 hours and keeping the chickens inside it. They have survived the worst of the cold now, and today it should warm up a bit (maybe to zero degrees!) so it appears all is fine. We've been using just a one quart water bottle waterer for them instead of the big galvanized metal one. We have two of the little ones and change them out every few hours when they're frozen. I'm too cheap to buy the $38 water warmer, so this is what we decided to do instead. We are still getting 2-4 and usually four eggs a day and we only had one day when we were gone for hours and the eggs froze outside. Have I mentioned that the eggs are delicious! Far better even than buying from a local farmer, because they're so so fresh.

As for the humans, George had to teach at school (yes, we still hold school in this cold) and the kids and I mainly hibernated at our house and a friend's home yesterday. I did have to go out for groceries and dog food, and at one point getting out of the car I found myself thinking "it could be worse". Whenever I say that, I have to chuckle though because Garrison Keillor uses that line so often on his public radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, as something that Minnesotans say so often. And it's true, about almost everything including this terrible cold. It's a DRY cold, as we say, and therefore just freezes your nose and fingers and toes off but doesn't get to your bones like a damp cold does.

See My "Welcome World Readers" Map

2008-12-15T09:33:00.002-06:00

I moved the widget up so you could all see it more obviously. I'm simply amazed at all the places around the world from which I've received visitors to this blog. Amazed! It's so cool, and I'm so glad you all stop by.

I can click on it and get a larger world map. Perhaps you can too?

Our New Puppy

2008-12-14T10:38:00.004-06:00

His name is Billy. He's from the shelter. In a moment of insanity George, Elijah and I decided to drop by the Humane Society yesterday. We have been talking about getting a dog for a while and recently George "relented" and so agreed to go in.

We're never sure when we go to the shelter that the "right" dog will be there. But there he was, begging to go home with us.

Rose is so excited! Billy will never be lonely, I can tell you that. He got his name at the shelter. We thought of changing it, but Eli likes it, and since Elijah's a little afraid of dogs--due to past experience with a 95 pound yellow lab we had a few years ago but had to give up after a year--we're letting Elijah make as many of the decisions as possible. It turns out both Elijah and Billy are a little shy yet, but I think it's going to work out just fine.

Billy's smart and calm, and he even tired out after just a 1/2 hour walk at 6 a.m. this morning. We're shocked. He's nothing like that Lab we had. We're hoping for a much better experience this time. Billy is, get this, part Beagle, part Boston Terrier, and part Alaskan Malamute! He's 25 pounds now at 5 months of age, so he will likely not get bigger than medium-sized, which we need because he has to fit in the Honda Civic with us. We think he's just a beautiful mutt, with a loving personality.

As Rose pointed out just a few minutes ago, we now have a family of ten. Ten! That's ten mouths to feed between the four humans, the four chickens, the dog and the cat. I hadn't thought of it that way. But, the more the merrier in my eyes. Welcome to the Zahn Family Farm.

(We're having a bit of a blizzard today.)

Santa Lucia Day

2008-12-13T08:24:00.005-06:00

These are some funky pictures. I like to play with the light and my camera, which doesn't always turn out quite right especially if the people are moving. But, I think these are kinda cool anyway.The star boys and the tomtar (plural for tomten),

part of the Lucia tradition in Sweden.

For the Santa Lucia Festival this morning, George, Rose and I woke before dawn to go to Salem Lutheran Church here in St. Cloud for the 6:30 a.m. service. Those Swedes have crazy traditions, eh?

Karla is this year's Santa Lucia and since she's one of George's private instrumental students, we had to go see her all dressed up!

But this tradition wouldn't look right during the daylight. The candles on the wreath on St. Lucia's head shine brighter in the dark. It's a tradition in Sweden that the oldest daughter wakes the family on December 13, Santa Lucia Day, wearing a wreath of candles on her head and a white dress with red sash. She brings Christmas buns and coffee.

The legend of Santa Lucia originated in Syracuse on the island of Sicily. Instead of marrying her pagan fiance, Lucia is said to have given her entire dowry to the poor and admitted being a Christian. Her outraged fiance accused her of witchcraft (same old story!) and had her burned at the stake on this day in the year 304 A.D.

Lucia was named a saint by the early church. Her connection to Sweden comes later in the story, when after her death she is said to have been seen in the bow of a ship laden with food coming to the starving people of Varmland, Sweden sometime in the Middle Ages. Here she gained her traditional garb of white and red with the wreath on her head.

Lucia is a symbol of light in our dark world, bringing hope to humanity. She comes on one of the darkest days of the year, in the dark before dawn. Some Swedish Lutheran churches here in the USA celebrate Santa Lucia as we did today (though we go to the Norwegian Lutheran church in town, I'm Swedish too so we can take part...ha ha). We hear the story, we feel inspired to give to the poor as Santa Lucia did, and--most impressively for Rose this morning--we eat cookies for breakfast!

There are so many traditions this time of year, that help us get through the dark time. I prefer to delve into those traditions rather than do all the shopping which Christmas seems to be about these days if you pay attention to the media. Last Friday we went to Velkommen Jul, a Norwegian Christmas celebration, at my alma mater in Minneapolis, Augsburg College. We light the Advent Candles each Sunday. I, at least, spend more time in quiet contemplation, rest and work--which isn't always fun, but it's natural at this time of year to "go inside" of ourselves and, even, be down if need be. Spring will come again, and I will enjoy the warmth and outdoor work, but for now I can enjoy the peace and rest which comes in winter.

Mon at Holistic Mama wrote a wonderful post about the Winter Solstice and I'd encourage you all to go read it here. I would say I'm much more balanced in my life, happier perhaps, since I started paying more attention to the seasons and nature.

I work and play outdoors like crazy in spring and summer, in the garden and making herbal concoctions and just hanging out with friends; I can hardly bring myself to go inside in those months. But in turn this makes me actually look forward to the cold and the dark of winter which brings quieter pursuits like knitting and reading, hibernation, and more sleep. I rarely knit in summer, but of course I don't garden in winter either. We hardly watch a movie all summer long, but in winter we might have three or four a week to settle in with. I wake up naturally after only 6-7 hours of sleep a night in summer, but 10 or 12 hours sleep in winter is not unheard of for me. Some people may think this crazy, but if I listen to my body and to the seasons, this is quite normal

Just as the trees and plants "die back" in the winter, so too must we to some degree. It's time to work on our roots.

A Few Good Movies

2008-12-08T10:55:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I took a day of rest, literally not going out of the house (even for church) and sitting on my butt all day. I watched a few movies, which made me cranky with that "brain dead" feeling I get from watching hours of TV. But anyway, I had some good movies from both Netflix and the library so I thought I'd tell you about them.

First, Elijah and I watched Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash. Now, maybe that's the real reason I was cranky--starting with this day brightener! But nah, I've been reading about peak oil for about 18 months now, lived with the rest of you through the peak in oil prices this past summer and the subsequent economic crash and current major deflation in prices, and none of the movie was really news to me. Still, I'm glad Elijah and I could watch it together. Yeah, he's only 11 going on 12 but he's been overhearing me talk about this so much and he is a bright enough mind that I think him knowing the facts will get him thinking about ways he can make a difference. We talk about it as if he and much of his generation will discover new things, new/perhaps old ways of doing things again, etc.

Despite Lesley Stahl and the Saudis fawning all over each other last night on 60 Minutes, worldwide oil production has likely peaked (as it did in the USA in the 70s), what's left is more and more expensive to process and at the current prices it will be hard for anyone to justify new exploration and/or using the latest expensive extraction technologies. We need to face we're in a perfect storm regarding oil, housing, debt and general economics in this country. The sooner we do, the better we can prepare and respond.

Okay, on to the next one. We watched Luther: One Man's Faith in God Launched the Greatest Revolution Of All. The movie was entertaining, and it made Luther look like one radical dude! Which, of course, he was. As was Jesus. It made me proud to be a Lutheran, though Luther himself didn't think there should be Lutherans--just a reform of the one catholic church. I got Elijah to watch much of it with me by telling him it takes place in the Medieval age, which it does, and which is Eli's current obsession. I hope it has inspired him as it did me.

Luther and Crude Awakening go well together because both are about times of radical societal change. And hey, Luther lived pre-oil and things didn't look so bad so it gives me hope. No, I don't think we'll be going back to THOSE days, but you know even before our current petroleum driven society there were smart thinkers, amazing art and clothing, and beautiful places.

I guess that's all we got to yesterday, seemed like plenty. Earlier this week I'd watched Cold Comfort Farm, a very odd movie I'd picked up at the library. If you like the English countryside and can put up with extremely strange characters (think Beverly Hillbillies meets the Addams Family meets the Munsters meets Jane Eyre meets...), this is, shall I say, an interesting enough movie to watch. All turns out happy and well in the end, at least.

A couple more recent movies that I'd recommend are Penelope and Nanny McPhee, both a bit odd as well. It's funny that we watched them both in one week earlier this month. They fit together like Luther and Crude Awakening do, having similar themes. Both focus on appearances (big noses!) and how we view others and ourselves. And that when we view someone with truly loving eyes, even extreme facial traits or other deformities can be overlooked. And of course it goes deeper than that, but on the whole that's what I took from the movies. Both of those movies are entertaining with a good message.

Well, that's it for movie reviews.

Bottom Drops Out Of Recycling Market

2008-12-07T20:13:00.003-06:00

This is bad news: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081207/ap_on_bi_ge/recycling_bust

The price for recycled materials has just plummeted, making the business of recycling very difficult to maintain. It's time for us to focus more on the REDUCE AND REUSE parts of the mantra than on the RECYCLE part. More trash in the landfills or shipping barges is going to be very ugly...

And The Table Groaned

2008-12-07T19:22:00.003-06:00

Now I know what the saying means--the table groaned under the weight of the holiday feast. Fortunately, our table is quite sturdy. George made it himself, the legs out of thick slabs of pine and the top of the fir beams of a torn-down old Lutheran church in Wisconsin. He made it over a long weekend in a class at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota.

Here are a couple of photos of the desserts and drinks on the table last night. Along with George's grandmother's handmade tablecloth and my Advent wreath (with three blue candles, one red and another in the center white for Christmas Eve--the proper Lutheran colors), they made a table pretty enough for a picture.

The party was great. We were about 20-plus neighbors in all, going to five houses for our annual (10th for the neighborhood and we've been here for five of them now) Progressive Dinner Christmas Party. I didn't cough too much. Didn't drink or eat too much either, which is a feat--especially the eating part--in itself, but since we were the last house I wanted to be awake for the whole night.

George did all the baking and I did all the cleaning and arranging. We served persimmon pudding with hard sauce, a recipe from my father-in-law from whom we got the persimmons in October when we visited. Let me know if you'd like the recipe. It's amazing and I've missed it since we don't often visit Virginia at Christmas anymore.

We also had russian tea cakes, coconut/white chocolate thingies from the Dec. 2008 Martha Stewart Living magazine, gingerbread cookies and, at the last minute, George made a chocolate Bundt cake when we realized we had nothing chocolate. Oh, and we had vanilla ice cream with the Rumtopf I made (and wrote about in this blog post) last July when I was given a case of cherries at work at the co-op. It was all delicious, if I do say so myself.

And oh, so rich. We are so blessed.

The Tree

2008-12-06T05:40:00.004-06:00

We're just about ready for the neighbors tonight. The house is all put back together, the living room has been looking lovely in its blueness all week, the Christmas tree is up and decorated (finally! according to the kids), the Advent Wreath and the Nativity and George's Santa collection are out, and I've done my best to edit edit edit the decor down to the minimum while still maintaining that Christmas spirit. ("Remember, Rose, less is more" I'm always saying.)The booze has been purchased, many cookies have been baked, and get this, even my own bedroom has been cleaned! Fabric and sewing items are stowed in the cabinets, there's *only* one laundry basket full of projects to complete, and I'm feeling less overwhelmed by it all.
I do have a bit of a cough that's been hanging around, but if I don't talk *too much* tonight I should be fine. That, and lots of brandy may have to be imbibed "for medicinal purposes". Hah! If I even liked brandy...I'm looking forward to the party, to seeing all the neighbors whom we see so much less once the cold weather hits (we all hibernate in Minnesota, I'm telling you).And now that the decorating is done, the kids will have to find something else to bug us about. As we pulled out of the local nursery's parking lot after buying the tree, George said "I don't think I've ever bought a tree by December 2", and I know he hasn't. His family didn't put up the tree until Christmas Eve. In my family, and for most Minnesotans, anytime after Thanksgiving is fair game. So most years George and I compromise and put up the tree in mid-December, always listening to much pleading from the kids before we get to that point. "When are we going to put up the tree?" "Everyone else already has theirs up!"

So now, this year I can relax for the rest of the month. Yay!

Going Crazy

2008-11-29T19:38:00.004-06:00

I have felt all out of sorts today because George has taken over the living room to get it painted before we host the neighborhood Christmas party one week from tonight. The furniture is in the dining room, and the entire house is in chaos because of this. There is nowhere to sit and relax! Except the bedroom, which is also a mess of fabric and other stuff in preparation for Christmas gifts, which is making me bah humbug about Christmas already. I am not naturally disposed to crafting, why do I always have such big plans to sew, knit, etc.?!?!!!! We always have these amazing orbs in our house photos, no matter the room or time of day.

Some say they're angels or spirits showing up in the digital shots. What do you think?

I do not feel at ease EVER when my house is a mess. Now, I know others don't feel this way. My husband and children, to name a few. I never mind being at someone else's house if it's messy; this is just my own thing in my own home. Sometimes I feel like the rest of my family is against me and always creating work for me. How can they live in such a pig sty?! I often wonder, knowing I can't live well in a mess.

The messy dining room, full of living room furniture...

Lately my daughter, nearing age ten, is going through dramatic emotions similar to the ones I'm feeling today. "Everyone is against me!" "I'm a nobody around here!" We've been hearing all sorts of things like that from her. And of course I know those things are not true for her, so I guess I need to shape up and realize everyone is not against me, either. This is just life. My husband is doing a good thing, smoothing the old plaster walls and painting them a nice gray blue called "River Rock". He is not doing it to bug me, but to please me. Still, when we're "in process", I am a wreck. I would rather things just stay the same.

Time to get over it. The room will be lovely when it's done. I will survive. And maybe instead of feeling sorry for myself, I can start with some cleaning. The kids' rooms are clean. Now it's time to take care of my own.

Before the Christmas party next Saturday.

A Green Meme, #2

2008-11-24T13:37:00.005-06:00

I finally had to look up the word "meme" today since Mon at Global Homestead tagged me with this one. What does it mean?

A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. (defn. from answers.com)

Interesting. I didn't know. Here's the latest, the so-called Green Meme #2...

Guidelines:
1) Link to Green Meme Bloggers. (use image if you like)
2) Link back to whoever tagged you. (no need to wait to be tagged!)
3) Include meme number
4) Include these guidelines in your post
5) Tag 3 other green bloggers.

1. Do you use baking soda toothpaste or baking soda shampoo? If not, would you consider it?
I've used both. Didn't last on the baking soda shampoo because my hair is already so dry, so instead I just shampoo once or twice a week, scalp only with a tiny bit of "green" shampoo. I'm still using stuff I got free when I worked as the body care buyer at the co-op.

I love baking soda toothpaste, 3 parts soda to 1 part sea salt, with a little glycerine and peroxide and peppermint essential oil to make it pasty.

2. Do you make any home cleaning products?
I use baking soda and vinegar and borax when I clean most things. I still have a bottle of lavender Mrs. Meyer's all-purpose cleaner that mixes with water so it lasts forever and ever. I love that in a spray bottle for the kitchen and bathroom surfaces. When I run out, I'll probably mix up my own with some lavender essential oil (my house smells like lavender a lot), water, and Dr. Bronner's castille soap or something. I do use a little bleach in the toilet when it gets rusty from our hard water. Bad, I know.

3. What is your top green issue at the moment?
Oh, probably that bleach in the toilet. I like the thing to be white most of the time! And our water turns it orange-ish. I haven't found anything better, and I do keep bleach around for washing towels and rags in the summer so they don't stink. What to do instead? Borax works pretty well in the toilet, but not so much in the laundry in summer. I'll try switching to Borax again, which is at least a bit more green than bleach.

4. Given unlimited cash, what is on your green wishlist?
Oh man, first of all organic cotton and wool beds and bedding for the kids and us. We splurged when Elijah was a toddler on a futon made of organic cotton and wool. That thing is so warm and comfy because of the wool batting inside it, and I feel so good about having him sleep on it. Rose got no such thing, but a few years old hand-me-down mattress set which I felt was better than brand new because it had already off-gassed some. George and I bought a nice mattress set but I'd rather have organic and metal-free bedding. The wool is the best thing, due to its natural flame-retardent qualities and its warmth-giving.

5. Have you implemented any new green act/behaviour/product this month?
Um, let's see. I'm treating more clients with herbal medicines which is very green. Natural plant medicines with very little environmental impact that hopefully will influence new people to think of nature even more. Also, in my practice we use tiny doses of the herbal tinctures, 1-3 drops, which makes a little bit of plant material go a very long way.

I'm tagging Jess at The RosieQ Family Blog, Tara at Natural, Happy and Free! , and Devin at The Quince Urban Homestead. Go for it, guys!

Housework

2008-11-23T16:07:00.005-06:00

Nicole over at Deliberate Life made a great comment the other day in her post called Little Ways To Deliberately Slow Down, about meandering around in the morning doing the housework. I felt that phrase "meandering around" really fits what I do each day. I don't consider much of the housework much of a chore, as I rather like to go from room to room tidying up a bit each day. Making the beds, opening the shades, straightening the stuff, sweeping the floors, wiping the counters.

However, sometimes the "damage" my kids can do to a place really gets me down. Cleaning their spaces can be a monumental task. Yes, I know I should have them more regularly clean their rooms. And we're trying, really we are, to have them tidy up each night before bed. But I'll admit I'm the most guilty of being too exhausted to even look at the messes each night, much less remind them to clean it up. So at times it gets left, and it builds up. And builds up. Two weeks ago I worked on Eli's room. That usually just takes an afternoon, once I really dig in. His main issue is books piling up on every surface, and dust bunnies all around and between the books. Here I've got all of the books from around the room piled just on top of his bookshelf. Yes, he needs a larger bookshelf! Much larger.

Now here is his room all neat and clean, with all 152 dust bunnies eradicated:I just love that boy's room. The kids each picked their paint color, but I combined his turquoise walls with all the blues in the bedding, curtains, etc. He is a kid who likes and needs blues. He's a phlegmatic and somewhat melancholic child, if you're familiar with the four temperaments (we learned through Waldorf education and anthroposophy and just dabble in caring about it). See the kitty picture on the wall, and the "stuffies" on the bed? Hee hee! And shhh, don't tell him I showed you. He is eleven after all.

Okay, and warning: below is Rose's room. Can you tell she's the polar opposite of her brother in oh, so many ways? Sanguine and choleric. She chose bright, bright yellow for her walls. And this is what her room has been looking like for the last month or so:

Aaaccckkk! There are things on the dresser, things on the floor (poor upside down dolly), things hanging on the walls and from the walls and probably things crawling around in there too. It makes me want to scream, and I don't know how she lives like this but she actually seems to prefer it. I had a lot of stuff as a kid, too, but I generally kept it in "neat" piles, at least by her age. I don't like a lot of stuff around now, but apparently she does.

Elijah's room is restful to me, and his bed so warm and cozy. Rose's room, on the other hand, even without all the stuff in there it makes me nervous. The bright, bright yellow. The pink flowers on the wallpaper border. It's so her. She makes me jumpy too. But boy, do I love that girl. I love both of them so much. And I really don't mind helping them clean up their spaces once in a while.

We're slowly working on Rose's room. It already looks better than this, but is still in progress. I'll post the "after" shots when we get to the final stage. This one takes a while, because I have to take a lot of breaks, sometimes for a week or so...

To be continued.

Read "Ramping Up" Today

2008-11-22T10:19:00.003-06:00

Matriarchy (her blog name) put up an excellent post on her blog, Ramping Up The Garden, yesterday regarding the schools in her area of Reading, Pennsylvania. Her place sounds a lot like ours here in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Both are small-ish, diverse cities. What she has to say could be eye-opening to a lot of people!

Here's the link to that post: http://rampingup.blogspot.com/2008/11/rant-key-communicator.html

Shhh, don't tell anyone!

2008-11-22T09:42:00.003-06:00

I dried every load of laundry in the dryer this past week. Every one!

My excuse? It was a busy, stressful week and just throwing those clothes in the dryer and letting the machine do the work felt like such a relief. Like a rebellious act, for someone who's been very conscientious about this for the last year or so. And the rebellious part is the thing, because honestly it takes maybe five minutes more to hang my laundry on the clothes racks next to the washer than it does to throw it in the dryer. And the laundry on the racks is already sort of "pre-sorted" so hanging it shortens the folding time, so in a way the time amount is kind of a wash (pun intended).

But once in a while, even the best of us gotta rebel, eh?

The reason I was so busy and stressed last week was because I've been doing herbal consults. I saw a total of 6 clients last week, and hey that's six more than usual. Because only one or two came each day, the house had to be in a constant state of cleanliness and the kids had to be in a near-constant state of contentedness and quiet. And that was not easy to achieve.

As I posted in this post on my herbal medicine blog, I have a young woman who's a student at our (very) nearby University who has become my herbalist intern. She has been such a blessing. Because of her, I needed to find some clients fast so I sent out an email offering ten free herbal consults. And then did six of them this past week. And we have two more scheduled for next week, a short week because of Thanksgiving. Plus on Monday night, Ashley (my intern) and I will be attending a class on "Pain From An Herbalist's Perspective", at my teacher Lise Wolff's house. So next week will be busy too, not sure what I'll do with the laundry though!

I am really enjoying stepping up my practice, and actually having people come to me for herbal remedies. I think the clients are enjoying it, too, and I'm so thankful they're helping support my business. Their support is not monetary at this point, but it's giving me practice and Ashley the opportunity to observe and learn. That's very important stuff, more important to me than making money is right now.

Oatmeal-Molasses Cookies

2008-11-19T07:13:00.005-06:00

When she was around two years old, Rose had an elevated level of lead in her blood. This was due, most likely, to our former home which we renovated and which had some lead paint around the windows. Luckily, she did not have much lead and we were able to manage it (and home renovations were finished). The doctor prescribed iron supplementation as the way to chelate the blood and remove the lead.One way we got iron into her, since it's such a difficult mineral to absorb with a supplement alone, was with blackstrap molasses. She was happy to eat these cookies which have quite a bit of molasses in them and taste great!

Oatmeal Molasses Cookies

1-1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
6 Tablespoons molasses
1 whole egg and 1 egg white (I used two small eggs whole and the cookies were just a little runnier)
1-3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (I think I did 375 deg. instead)
Cream sugar and oil.
Beat in egg and molasses.
Sift and/or mix flour, cinnamon, soda, salt; then stir into sugar mixture.
Mix in remaining ingredients.
Drop by spoonfuls onto oiled cookie sheet (or use parchment paper as I did).
Bake 8-10 minutes or until done.

Makes 3-4 dozen cookies.

I just made these last week and brought them along to various homeschool activities. One boy, who does a lot of baking himself, said they were the best chocolate chip cookies he's ever tasted! And I must say, that just made my day. Especially since he said it in front of my always-skeptical children.

You do need to like molasses to like these cookies, but somehow the combination of nuts (I used the odd choice of cashews chopped fine because they were what I had and they were perfect), raisins and chocolate chips with the cinnamon and molasses is yummy.

I'm Really Not A Doomer; About Faith and Reaching Out

2008-11-17T08:23:00.004-06:00

Since my last post (before the brief egg one) was a bit gloomy, I thought it would be best to point out I really don't have that gloomy an outlook on the future. I mean, I think things are changing but I don't know that the library is going to close due to lack of everything, or that the schools will close and George will lose his job, or that we'll be lucky to have a pencil to write with in the future. Those are, obviously, thoughts I was entertaining in the middle of one restless night, but I tend to have a much more positive view of the future.

It is true, however, that our generation has a huge and serious dilemma to face. Well, besides Peak Oil and the possible restructuring or loss of everything that has to due with oil. We also face the dilemma that our lifestyle here in America is completely unsustainable. Even the so-called "green" products, if they are based on shipping and constant economic growth (read: purchasing), are not sustainable. Many, many of us want to change this model. We know we need to change this model. And we know that for most individuals and even societies, change doesn't come until we've hit a bottom point, "rock bottom" we call it. For alcoholics, for dieters, for all kinds of folks with bad habits, there's often no foreseeable way up until we can't go down any further.

So if at times it seems like some of us welcome an economic depression, that's why. No, I don't welcome any of the pain it will bring to any of us. But I do welcome the change, the innovation that can come out of it. That said, there is and will be much work to be done to alleviate suffering and reduce the burden on people whose lives are changing drastically.

For all of us that can, we must do. I have started attending church again, back to the Lutheran Church that is my heritage. And it feels like I have gone home. I have needed it during these uncertain times, and I think I will find my place there again and continue to be a part of it. My husband recently told me he admires my sense of "rootedness" and that is what I was looking for when I started back to church. At one time, this place was extremely important to me. It was a huge part of my identity, and a big part of my ancestry.

It's a place of hope, for me. And at the particular church we go to, I've been noticing that there is constant talk about serving. Serving others, serving the community, serving where there are needs. And that's exactly what I want to be about right now! As long as I have more than another, I can give. My time, my money, my faith. I have always believed that is our calling as human beings, even during times I was not attending church because of some argument in my mind.

And the really cool thing that I've noticed is, when I give I get back so much more.

Lucy Laid An Egg

2008-11-16T18:15:00.004-06:00

We got our first egg today! George saw Lucy sitting in the egg box earlier this afternoon. He came in all excited and told me about it. I went to the grocery store anyway.

Well when I got back, an egg in a little pot greeted me at the kitchen table. It is like your child taking its first steps.

Now, to divide that egg by four people...

Reminiscing With My Children 20, 30 Years From Now

2008-11-15T07:21:00.014-06:00

Okay, this is kind of depressing but it all works out fine in the end. This just would not leave my mind for half of last night. I don't claim to be a prophet on the future, and we can hope we never look back and call these days "Hard Times", except for so many they already are that it seems safe to say it. Maybe I should've kept this to myself, but I wanted to share...

Kids, do you remember what we used to call the “good old days”, before the Hard Times came?

Remember how we had those grocery stores, where you’d walk in and there was aisle after aisle of food? Most of it in cans and boxes, but also fruits and vegetables from all over the world. And meat, meat of all types from thousands of farms across the world.

Why, there was even an entire aisle just of breakfast cereals. A hundred different types of cold, crunchy cereals that were pre-baked so we just added milk to them. They came in o-shapes and banana shapes and even leprechaun shapes! With little tiny things called marshmallows to make them sweet. And some were chocolate. People actually ate chocolate for breakfast back then, can you believe it? Now it’s so expensive and rare; we never did grow our own chocolate in America so it‘s always been imported. My, how I miss chocolate.

And coffee. There used to be all these different types of coffee also imported from overseas. We used to go pay $4 for a cup of coffee sometimes. And some people did it everyday! All the while owing thousands of dollars in debt on those credit cards we used to have, we’d go “treat” ourselves to deal with the stress of that. Boy, weren’t those the days.

And remember the others stores we called Target and Wal-Mart? It was so hard for you two, standing in the toy aisles they had there, to be aware that all those shiny colorful plastic toys were actually made by child slaves in other countries. You loved to play with those things, didn’t you? And they had whole collections of things for sale like Littlest Pet Shops and Beanie Babies. Daughter, I remember you just couldn’t resist another plastic animal set every other week when you got your allowance.

And son, you sure loved those video games we had back then. You could spend hours just sitting there poking a little plastic stick at a screen, trying to beat the game. What was that little stick called? It even had a name. Oh yes, a stylus. Now we’re so blessed to have a pencil to write with.

It's so funny to think of now, but we used to drive our cars to all those places. We’d drive even just the four blocks to the library sometimes. If it was cold or dark out, or often even on sunny and perfectly beautiful days we’d drive those four blocks. I don’t know if we were lazy, or if we did it just because we could. I know I was sure out of shape back then! Too much sitting at the computer, or riding in a car. The computer, that’s a whole ’nother thing I’ve got back here in my memory. One time I wrote a whole book on that old computer I had. Just deleted into space, though, didn’t want anyone to read it as I recall.

The library we drove to, now that was brand new when you were both about ten years old, and right in our neighborhood so we felt so lucky. I believe they opened it right before the Hard Times came. It was so beautiful, filled with books and computers and even those things we used to have, DVDs, that we could play on the TV screen at home. They had a fancy architect design that library, and it was all glass windows and light. Do you even remember they actually had a moving belt to put your book returns on, and a computer voice to tell you how to do it. Too funny! They kept that library open as long as they could, but pretty soon there was no one left who would work there for free, and all the electric gizmos started to fail, and anyway it was so hot in there in summer and no windows would open, and too cold to even keep the place open in winter once the natural gas started to go. No money to heat and cool the place even if we had still had access to the power. What a shame, what a shame.

But you know, it hasn’t been all bad has it, since then? I was often afraid you two would go off to college and leave home for good as so many in my generation did. I dreaded the thought of not seeing my grandchildren often, of not being part of your lives. Now you’re both so close to home and we have such a good life helping each other out.

That global climate change we all feared so much really slowed down when none of us could afford to drive our cars anymore. Florida never did end up completely under water, and neither did your grandparents’ place in the Tidewater area of Virginia. I had been worried about that some, as I recall. The terrible storms, flooding and hurricanes and fires, happened so much less after the Hard Times started. And boy all that pollution and the brown clouds over the cities here in America and in China and other places just disappeared when we stopped making plastic toys and stuff. The birds started coming back, too, and other animals that we thought were extinct for good. What a blessing that was.

And oh yes, I remember kids had been getting so sick back then, with things we called autism and A.D.D. and deadly food allergies and other strange diseases we hadn’t figured out yet. Well, so many of those things went away once most people got outdoors more and were growing much of their own food. I think they said it was the Vitamin D levels that went back up after that. If I remember right, I had something called “fibromyalgia” back then and that got so much better too when I started living a more physical life.

Of course, we were lucky. Your dad has always been handy, and he could work at so many things once the schools closed and he lost his teaching job. And we both knew how to bake bread and cook from scratch and do basic sewing. Can you believe now that many, many people had no experience with those things?! And me, I could knit and make the herbal medicines to help folks once the clinics were no longer around.

I remember it wasn’t the easiest thing for you two to change your lives, but since everyone around us was either doing that or starving, you soon saw it was important. You were at the perfect ages to start pitching in, and I’m really not sorry that your lives of “leisure” were cut short. I think we all feel better these days, don’t we? And our music, the music your dad taught us to make, that really got us through the harder moments and lifted our spirits.

We have great neighbors and friends that helped each other out in those hard times, and I was actually glad when your uncles and Papa and Grandma came to live near us. It was nice to be close to family again, and to help each other out. And luckily after just a couple difficult years we could go visit daddy’s family on the train again and wasn’t that fun?

We all survived, and we all did fine, and it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to happen.

In Addition

2008-11-11T08:06:00.003-06:00

I will add to yesterday's post with the long James Kunstler remarks, that a third reason for the government to help the auto industry is to "bail out" the employees and retirees. I don't think anyone is going to make as much money as we have been in this country, especially those working in a failing industry that failed to innovate, failed to see past the dollar signs and is based on the use of a finite resource that is declining and getting more expensive already. However, the many employees in this country who are losing jobs and retirees losing benefits and pensions are going to need help.

Obama is getting and will continue to get much criticism for being beholden to the unions, and he is certainly beholden to them. Many say unions have overstepped reality and that salaries and pensions have been overly luxurious, and I would tend to agree. However, it's hard to get far with that argument when the CEOs have been taking EXTREMELY luxurious salaries, bonuses and benefits. In fact, this CNN Money article states that in 2001 the ratio of CEO pay to the average worker's pay was 525 to 1! In 2004 it was down slightly to 431 to 1. In 1982, that ratio was 42 to 1 and in 1990 107 to 1. It seems we've all been feeding at the luxury trough in the last 20 years, most especially the CEOs and bankers and Wall Street execs.

So why should the government bail out those earning over 400 times what their average worker earned? I don't think it should! But I do know we're going to need lots of help for those folks whose lifestyles are going to have to change drastically in the near future. And help for those who were already on the edge financially and now have nothing. I have hope that Obama won't forget those people, who could be me but for the grace of God.

In this "new economy waiting to be born" of which Kunstler writes, perhaps our jobs will be very different, perhaps we won't have the material goods we've grown accustomed to, but perhaps we'll all rest easier at night with a lot more satisfaction in what we're accomplishing because it will more directly impact our lives. Whether it be growing our own food or establishing a local business that directly benefits our neighbors, the economy is likely to get closer to home for a long time.

2008-11-10T19:14:00.002-06:00

From James Howard Kunstler's post today. It's a good one. I don't know why I feel the need to let you all know this stuff, but I just think we all should be aware and start moving in a better, more sustainable direction. Emphases are mine.

As the election campaign ground on like a 3000-mile race between a greyhound and an armadillo, the media kept harping on Barack Obama's vague promises of "change." We now know what the main promise was: regime change, right here in the USA, not in some place where the natives wear strange headgear. Mr. Obama's victory was a moment of epochal exhilaration, not least because he appears to be a decent and intelligent person self-made from a humble background -- someone who has personally bought tube socks in the K-mart, worried about money, and made many trips in a subway car.

The current occupant of the White House, however, has sedulously prepared for his successor the biggest shit sandwich the world has ever seen, and there is naturally some concern that Mr. Obama might choke on it. The dilemma is essentially this: the consumer economy we all knew and loved has died. There will be pressure from nearly every quarter to keep it hooked up to the costly life support machines even though it is dead. A different economy is waiting to be born, but it is nothing like the one that has died. The economy-to-come is one of rigor and austerity. It is not the kind of thing that a nation of overfed clowns is used to. Do we even have a prayer of getting to it, or are we going to squander our dwindling resources on life support for something that is already dead?

A case in point: the car industry. The Big Three, all functionally bankrupt, are now lined up for bail-outs from the treasury's bottomless checking account. Personally, I believe the age of Happy Motoring is over. Many Americans have already bought their last car -- they just don't [know] it yet. The current low-ish price of oil is a total fake-out, having to do much more with asset-dumping in the paper markets than the true resource supply-demand equation. Most of the world (the media for sure) has ignored preliminary leaks from the International Energy Agency's (IEA) forthcoming report which forecasts global oil depletion to be 9.1 percent in 2009. This is a staggering figure, very likely to offset whatever slack we see in global demand from the worldwide economic crisis. In fact, the global oil markets are poised for the most severe dislocations ever seen, meaning it's a toss-up what happens first in the USA: a major leg back up in oil prices, or shortages, hoarding, and rationing.

For my money (literally) there are only two main reasons that any portion of the car industry should be rescued at the present time: one, because we need somebody to manufacture engines for military vehicles, and two, because we need somebody to manufacture rolling stock for the revival in passenger railroad service that will have to be a centerpiece of the future economy if we want to remain a civilized nation.

Even the progressive factions of the public may be in for much more "change" than they bargained for. The global economy as we knew it is finished (despite British PM Gordon Brown's fatuous suggestion that we are ready to formalize it). The world is about to lose its "flatness" (sorry Tom Friedman) and get much rounder. For one thing, the racket of American "consumers" gobbling up the output of Asian factories in exchange for paper promises is over. For the moment, the Chinese are struggling with epic factory closures with the sudden prospect of a restive lumpenproletariet. The situation there is bound to get worse. Before long, these broke-and-hungry masses may actually challenge the present government. In the meantime, there's no telling what the (unelected) Chinese government might do either to keep itself in power, or genuinely defend its country's perceived economic interests. One thing is self-evident: we are not returning to the old racket of toys-for-treasury-bills. One thing China might do in economic self-defense is shed whatever US dollar-denominated paper is moldering in their vaults before it becomes valueless altogether.

And more:

As global trade relations wither, and they will, the US will be thrust back on its own devices, at the same time that oil resources grow punishingly scarce. Mr. Obama will have to contend with the necessary radical reform of all the activities necessary for daily life here. Near the top of the list -- invisible to most of the public so far -- will be the question of how we produce the food we need. Industrial farming is done, just as suburbia is toast. Mr. Obama will have to apply plenty of ass-time to the first stages of negotiating this bottleneck. I don't even know what he can do policy-wise, though he can certainly make it plain to the public that we have to grow more of our food close to home and do it with fewer engines and fewer oil-based soil supplements. It is a problem of such surpassing difficulty that it was not even close to being in the election arena. The transition will probably occur by means of "emergence." Self-evident necessity will prompt different behavior and different ways of doing things. Sooner or later, the new arrangements will self-organize -- if we don't squander resources defending an unsustainable status quo. One thing we can certainly predict is that growing our food will require more human labor and attention -- meaning there will be plenty of work for people currently losing their jobs at The Footlocker and Arby's, but it's far from certain whether they will be happy in their new vocations.

Still more:

We're going to have to resume making things in the USA again, too, probably at a more modest scale, and probably fewer things than we are used to. We have no idea yet how this is going to happen. Like agriculture, manufacturing culture may have to return, if at all, emergently, as individuals and communities see opportunity in advantages like proximity to water-power and water transport. My guess is that corporate enterprise as we have known it -- at the continental and global scale -- is done for. I would not bet on any of the Fortune 500 carrying on the manufacturing work of the future using the plants-and-equipment that are familiar to them. The manufacturing of the future may be more like cottage industry than Proctor and Gamble. Yet, obviously, there will be tremendous efforts to prop up failing corporate enterprise and prevent natural bankruptcies from occurring.

Similarly, the retail part of the economy. Many observers think that Wal-Mart and its clones are immune to the larger forces swirling around us. Just because many cash-strapped people are hunting for bargains at Wal-Mart these days does not insure the survival of the Big Box model very far into the future. In fact, in every trend we can see -- from the oil markets to events in China to the impoverishment of the US working class to the coming crisis in truck transport -- you can easily discern fatal weaknesses in this model. Local retail (and its support structures) is coming back. We just don't know how, yet, and we don't know how much capital and effort will be squandered trying to rescue Wal-Mart, when the time comes. But the imperative re-scaling of commerce in America also represents huge opportunities for young people to get into their own businesses.

Mr. Obama will preside over the potential restructuring of all our systems, some of them in ways he and his supporters have not imagined. We haven't begun to see where fate will take higher education, but my guess is that it will no longer be a "consumer" activity, and that the hypertrophied land-grant diploma mills will have to to shrink or die as state financial support withers away, and all sorts of unnecessary professions from "public relations" to "marketing" cease to require certified graduates. The luxurious central high schools, utterly addicted to their yellow school bus fleets, will be left as a problem for the states and municipalities. I don't believe they can be rescued, and they are already failing in many other ways, not least, educating and properly socializing young humans.

In the months just ahead, Mr. Obama will certainly be swamped with straight-ahead cash problems in every area of American life, from the foundering pension funds to the bankrupt state treasuries to the beggaring corporations to the starkly dispossessed and hungry masses of the jobless and re-poed. I wasn't kidding when I came up with the label, "the long emergency," to describe the storm that we are heading into, along with Mr. Obama. Of course, the current president -- and Mr. Obama has been shrewd to point out there is only one president in office at a time --has more than two months to wreak additional havoc in the financial system. Right now, he's asking Mr. O, "...do you want fries with that sandwich I made for you?"

Okay, so that's the whole dang thing! It's just all too good. I hope it's okay I copied it all from his website. I did give him credit (no plagiarizing) and I gave you the link (here it is again; click here) so do at least stop by his website so he gets the "hit".

And I'll give you his most recent books too: World Made By Hand and The Long Emergency. Purchase them at this site. Or find them at the library, like George and I did. WMBH is basically a fictionalized account of his nonfiction book, The Long Emergency, which describes with prescience and gives a history behind what we are going through now, economically and physically in regards to oil. Both are excellent reads!

The Work

2008-11-10T06:45:00.006-06:00

I know I haven't blogged about food much lately. But yes indeed we've been harvesting from the garden and putting things up for the winter. Yesterday I madeand froze just a couple of quarts of applesauce from the apples that were starting to go bad in their storage boxes. We had found a bushel of Haralsons at the Farmer's Market for just $20, and I had bought a 1/2 bushel of Honeycrisps for $23 at a local orchard. With about 20 pounds of them I made and canned two double-batches of apple butter which turned out yummy! I found the best way to cook down apple butter is in a roaster or dutch oven in the oven at 325 deg. overnight. That worked better than the batch I put in the crock pot overnight, where it burned just a bit. The rest of the apples I stored. We got apple boxes from the Co-op (any grocery would do) that have pads with little apple-shaped dents in them to put between your layers of apples so they don't touch each other. We had been storing them in the garage which was cold enough but soon getting too cold probably. So I decided to fill the refrigerator bin to the top with all the best apples and make applesauce with the rest. Some were going quite bad already so it is good to check on your storage regularly! Below is Rose helping with the apple butter, same process as applesauce, pushing the cooked apple quarters through a food mill. Not the most fun...I also made sauerkraut just before we left for vacation, October 15. Then this weekend I took it out of the crock and put it into quart jars which I have in the fridge. Cold storage would work, but we don't have anywhere in the house below 50 degrees, except for the porches which may be too cold already as the temps are in the teens and twenties lately.Above I am shredding the cabbage in my wonderful mandoline. Below I am packing it into the Harsch crock, getting the juices flowing by punching it down with a meat hammer and my hands. I love my Harsch crock! It did the job so well and looks so cool. The Healthy Traders website is the cheapest place I've found to order one from, but I bought mine at my co-op with my employee discount when I worked there. For the kraut, I used the slow kraut recipe in Jessica Prentice's Full Moon Feast cookbook. I added the caraway seeds and we like the flavor.Our garden didn't produce loads of food this year, so we stocked up at the Farmer's Market, mainly from one particular farmer who uses no chemicals and who had some great buys at the end of the season. We bought a bag of six large butternut squashes for $20 (edit: no, not $20, $10) and a bunch more of various squashes like acorn and delicata for around $2 each. We bought a large heavy bag of keeping onions for just $25. We had all that in the garage, but now that it's colder our closets--all walk-ins and all on outside walls and unheated--are the perfect temp (50 deg. or so) for storing the squashes and onions. This year George and Elijah made room in their shared closet. Last year we had them in Rose's larger closet, but this year it's such a disaster of toys and stuff that we didn't even bother. Besides, with all she crams into her closet, a squash or two got lost and wasn't found until this summer, moldy and dried out!We got a decent amount of potatoes from our lasagna bed-style garden (pictured above, just starting out last spring), maybe 15 pounds of russets. The stacked tire potato method was disappointing, however. I've only dug out one of the two stacks of four tires, but that one stack yielded exacly 16 yukon gold potatoes! They're lovely, but they were only on the bottom layer and the top three layers had nothing. We're thinking the soil was too heavy for the rootlets to grow. The greens coming out the top of the tires were fabulously large, but no potatoes until the very bottom of the pile. Oh well. We'll probably try the wire cage method next year, with a circle of garden fencing and using a mix of compost and straw for building up instead of the too-heavy soil/peat/manure mix we tried this year. Don't the potato tops look healthy? A disappointment, however.

And here's a photo of the Hearthstone woodstove we found on Craig's List for $100 (!). We are so gratful to our neighbors Greg, John, Chuck and Kevin for helping us move this 500 pound beast, and to Chuck for the truck and trailer to haul it. It's sitting in the garage. It needs a little patching in the interior, and I have the name of a guy who can do that but he's an hour away so we'll see what we can work out. I'm hoping he'll make a house call, but doubtful that he can. Gotta call him up! If nothing else, maybe he knows someone more local that can help us. That will hopefully not cost much, but since a new one of these is $3000 we're willing to spend a little money. We'll then make a hearth pad for the living room corner and buy the chimney parts and install it. Not sure when we'll do that, maybe not this year but for sure by next.

George did clean out the chicken coop last night and put a deep layer of fresh straw down. He's put an electric light in there for warmth and to mimic daylight so hopefully they'll start laying eggs soon. None so far! But they came of age at just the time the light started decreasing, which affects their laying. We'll see if the light helps. I think that first egg will feel just like your child's first steps! We're trying to figure out a way to put a food dish and water in the little tiny coop because they're spending most of the time inside now that it's so cold. Any ideas?

Winter is here in Minnesota. It's cold, there's a little snow on the collards and broccoli still out in the garden, and we've moved most tasks indoors. I'm knitting a lot, just finished a hat and scarf for myself and am sneaking in knitting some Christmas gifts for the kids whenever I can. I like the darkness and more relaxed pace at this time of year, but I do need to try and get out for a walk every day to stave off the winter blues that affect so many of us in northern climates. I better get going on that...

Proud Day

2008-11-05T16:31:00.003-06:00

I loved this poster so much, had to post it. Found it on Poppy & Mei Days' blog (love her blog from Australia). It seems folks all over the world are happy and proud of us today. We elected the right one!

I especially love the banjo. Ask me about my banjo playing sometime! Where is that thing...?

The poster is by Casey Brooks and features Anna Bean, Karen Maine, Dana Gluck, and Lindsay Withers.

I Voted!

2008-11-04T11:34:00.005-06:00

And I want to share this, from my neighbor Ruth's blog, The Brewer's Wife (it's getting spread around, Ruth--I just saw it on another blog I read!). It was written by a friend of a friend of hers, I believe:

"I've been meaning to ask, just haven't gotten around to it, plus I'm worried that the question is premature. But you know, I think I'm finally at the point where I believe it will happen. Now there's less than a month to go. Now it's just a matter of days. Days until America does something which, I'll be honest, I would have bet America would never do. At least not any time soon. Just days until in one swift moment, the entire world will do a double-take. Days until Americans of all stripes will come together to reaffirm America'spromise to its own people. Days until MLK's dream, and the dreams of all people who love this country's founding PRINCIPLES more than life itself, finally come true. I want to know: Where's the party? On the evening of November 4th, when this moment is finally announced, where do I go to celebrate? Where can I be to experience this historical moment with my brothers and sisters in humanity, with those who truly understand what it may mean for us all? I'm not going to be at some Democratic party balloon fest. I am not going to be at a bar. I am not going to be in a gym. I am going to be at home, watching the TV with the volume turned down so I don't wake my kids. And when the time comes, when the moment is announced, I will walk out my front door into the street, and I will look up at the sky and shed tears of joy. That'll be my victory party. To look up at the stars and hope that this means a better future for my little ones. If I'm lucky, some of you reading this will come outside right then too, and maybe we can smile at each other in silence. Either way, when you finally hear it announced, on the evening of November 4th, that Americans came together and took their country back, and you're sitting at home celebrating the moment quietly alone or as a family, spare a second would you and join me out in the street, and look up at the sky and feel the smiles, hopes and joy of millions of people like you and me reflecting down from the stars."

We'll be attending an "end of an error" election party with some friends tonight. And maybe we should all go outside tonight and thank the lucky stars!

No, I don't think Barack Obama is going to save us because I think we as a people need to do that ourselves. But I do think he is the one who can inspire and lead us to take the necessary steps. For sure today, when I cast my vote for the first black man in America who has ever been even close to being our President, I did a silent cheer for the positive direction that possibility has already brought to our country. It's time to MOVE FORWARD, AMERICA. In more ways than one.

Lest We Get Complacent

2008-11-01T17:01:00.003-05:00

Now I know I said I didn't want this blog to be all gloom and doom, and I'm making sure my own life isn't all gloom and doom too, but I had to point this one out. Sharon has an excellent post today about the latest numbers from the International Energy Agency, the people who make it their business to keep track of energy business.

The numbers are bad. The Financial Times article, based on leaked information from the IEA, states that without some miracle new source of oil, or major investment in drilling current known sources, they expect oil production to decline at the rate of 9.1% annually from here on out. Here's the quote (and it's all I can get out of the link because I don't subscribe to FT):

World will struggle to meet oil demand
By Carola Hoyos and Javier Blas in London
Published: October 28 2008 23:32 Last updated: October 28 2008 23:32

Output from the world’s oilfields is declining faster than previously thought, the first authoritative public study of the biggest fields shows.

Without extra investment to raise production, the natural annual rate of output decline is 9.1 per cent, the International Energy Agency says in its annual report, the World Energy Outlook, a draft of which has been obtained by the Financial Times.

9.1% annually is far worse than anyone expected. Even the gloomiest, doomiest peak oil geeks. And I'm certainly no expert, but I think we should all be aware of this underlying problem we're facing. We're all happy that gas is cheap right now--heck, it really helped us on our road trip to Virginia--but I don't think we can get complacent about it. I don't know why oil is cheap right now, probably some mix of speculation, decreased demand and presidential politics (read: corruption). Can you imagine where our economy would be right now if gas was still $4 a gallon?!

Is peak oil now history? (Meaning, we're past the peak at the top of the bell curve and we're going downhill as we speak?) Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, declares it to be so in this essay.

And here's a May 2008 National Geographic article I read while on vacation, Tapped Out. It gives credence to the Peak Oil Theory, and has an optimistic side to it too. I'm not sure how realistic hope is at this point, especially since all our money just went to bail out Wall Street bankers who are still not exactly giving out credit to jumpstart any new investments in anything, including oil exploration. And my long-term hope is that we learn (and probably learn fast) how to live without oil and its polluting ways.

And I think we can do that. But first we're going to need to be aware of what's going on. All the links are worth a look. Don't take it from me--they're the experts.

Just A Few More, Of The Beach

2008-10-30T10:39:00.006-05:00

Indulge me a bit while I post the photos from our day last week at Virginia Beach. This was the kids' first visit to the ocean, because since Grandma and Grandpa have a little beach on their property, in all our visits to Virginia we just have never taken the time to drive the hour south to The Beach. I think they both said "wow" at the exact same time at their first sight of the massive expanse of water and sky and waves lapping at the sand. I could feel the awe as they approached the ocean. What a delight for a parent to introduce their children to something so amazing!Elijah really wanted to get into that water, and it was just warm enough for the kids to put their swimsuits on and get wet. Grandpa thought we were crazy to pack the swimsuits along, but I just knew it might work out. Above you see Elijah trying to "karate block" the incoming waves. He felt powerful! (We had to keep asking him to come back out of the waves a bit.)
Rose did little dances at the water's edge all afternoon...And they built sandcastles...With Daddy's being the fanciest, of course.Grandpa and Grandma and I mainly sat and took it all in.

Gloucester, Virginia

2008-10-29T08:58:00.009-05:00

Grandma's hibiscus still blooming in Virginia

Gloucester is in southeast Virginia, just off the coast and near Colonial Williamsburg and Yorktown. My in-laws live there on the Ware River, an estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. They've lived on ten acres of low land next to the water there since George was 10 or 11 years old (a long time! 1969). It's really nice to visit them, despite the distance, and every time we go I find myself amazed by what a different world they live in. Sure, it's the same country but the geography, the accent, the customs, the way the roads and houses are situated, the flora and fauna, it's all so different. Persimmons growing on the tree at Tree Lodge, the home of my mother and father-in-law. We brought six home, to ripen a bit more in the fridge, then make my FIL George's fabulous Persimmon Pudding (a Christmas treat we've been missing because we can rarely visit at Christmas anymore). My George will try to replicate it--we'll see, eh?

In Virginia everything is overgrown. 25-year old poplar and cedar trees are incredibly tall, and massive wisteria vines hang from them. Poison Ivy even gets thick vining trunks and climbs the trees, unlike here in Minnesota where it is usually just small little weeds.

The edge of the "fairy wood", as I call it, at Uncle Paul's place, Folly Farm. Uncle Paul lives in a very old home on a small clearing surrounded by deep dark woods. It is low and damp and I just know fairies and gnomes live there, just as you'd expect!

In my in-laws' part of Virginia you can be driving on a strip of road that looks like everywhere else in America, McDonalds and Starbucks and all that ugly crap, but then you turn off that road and you are in the country. Winding narrow lanes, deep dark forests, occasional farm fields and great big manor houses next to tiny little homes all mingled together with seemingly no planning or pattern. It boggles my mind and I still, after 13 years going there, don't feel comfortable driving around by myself. When I have, I've missed turns and gotten lost and found myself driving down lane after lane into woods and more woods.

Tree Lodge, or Grandma and Grandpa's house, to the kids, seen from the water side which they call the "front" of the house but it's not the side you drive up to!

The "front" porch, sadly vacant at this time of year. In summer everyone LIVES on this huge wraparound porch; all three meals of the day are taken here, and much chatting, napping and reading is done from these chairs and hammocks while looking out at the river and trying to stay cool.

The main reason for the crazy quilt style of roads is that this area is full of rivers and streams. You go down one road and you come to water, you go down another and there's a marina full of boats. Some people live on islands and many on marshy land that butts up to yet another river or part of the river you were near before. Another reason for the seeming lack of planning is that many properties were platted 300 years or more ago. There are former plantations still intact and some divided up. It appears that people just bought a piece of land wherever they could afford it, if it was for sale, and built their large or small home on it. It's so different from Minnesota where the towns are all based on squares, where we have ring roads around each town, and where even the country lanes are often at 90 degree angles to one another.

On our first full day in Gloucester, we attended a Revolutionary War battle reenactment at Warner Hall (above), a property near George and Betty's place. It was the Battle of the Hook, and it was a fun and interesting day. We learned a lot about re-enactors and the extent to which they are into their hobby! I think the day and the battle made an impression on the kids. The British surrendered at Gloucester, after losing the battle there and the battle at Yorktown. It was the end of the war.

These blue crabs made an impression on us, too. The kids and I had our first lesson in what do you call it, crab picking? I know this isn't the first time we've been there when crab has been served, but for some reason I think the kids and I have missed out on it. There are usually so many people at George and Betty's when we're there in the summer (the Zahn B&B it's called!) that I guess it's easy to miss things.

After being what-steamed?-out on the grill burner with some Old Bay seasoning and beer, they were brought into the kitchen still looking at us! Grandpa, Grandma and Dad gave lessons in crab anatomy and what to eat and not to eat.

Daddy was having a hard time doing any teaching, however, as he was so busy eating and licking his fingers!

Finally Grandpa and Grandma had to do the instructing...

The kids were uncertain about the whole thing, but at least they tried. Even Rose who is growing into a less picky eater these days! I thought the crab was delicious, but a lot of work kind of like artichokes (another of my husband's favorites). I guess I prefer Betty's crab cakes which we had a couple night's later--yummy taste, less work. I know! I know! So shoot me!

We had to drive a long way for it, but that blue crab was truly local food--caught right off Grandpa's pier.

The Drive South

2008-10-28T08:00:00.009-05:00

Okay, so I'm making it public that we will NEVER drive from Minnesota to Virginia again, got it? The last time I said that was about five years ago. I'm glad we made it that long, but hey, I'm now five years older and wiser and in a lot.more.pain from the long drive we just completed in our little Honda Civic. I still don't feel normal, but I did get a decent night's sleep last night and that's going to help.One of several cool bridges in Columbus, Indiana

Still, parts of the drive were lovely. We started off great at 5:25 a.m. on October 16, going south on I-94 and 90 through Wisconsin, around Chicago in the early afternoon, then further south to Indianapolis. We were excited, feeling good and making good time. We stayed at a (cheap) hotel just south of Indianapolis that night and in the morning drove just a little further to Columbus, Indiana. We had read in our AAA guide that Columbus was a town of 39k people that in the 1950s had decided they were going to have world-renowned architects design their buildings. A foundation was formed and now if you like modern architecture, Columbus is a place to see.

The library was designed by I.M. Pei (of the Louvre's triangle fame)We ended up pulling into the Columbus Visitor's Center just as the daily tour bus was pulling out. We made a rash decision to take it so they got us on the bus and we spent an hour seeing some of the highlights of the town. Like the church above and below, First Christian Church, designed by Eliel Saarinen. Eliel's son Eero, of that chair fame, designed another church in town. It was interesting to find this "gem" in the middle of Indiana.After Indiana we entered Kentucky, through Louisville and Lexington where we stopped very briefly at the Kentucky Horse Park just for Rose... But we had to keep moving on to our destination for the night, this great little college town just south of Lexington, Berea. I read about Berea in Midwest Living magazine a month ago so we decided that would be where we'd stop. It's considered the "Folk Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky". It's also home to this wonderful, wonderful little Berea College. No student pays tuition at Berea College; everyone there is on a 4-year full scholarship out of financial need. Here's what their website says about it: It is our mission to provide educational opportunity to students of great academic promise who have limited financial resources. In short, we think students are worth more than the tuition they can afford. Isn't that cool? They were also one of the first racially integrated schools, even before the Civil War (and if you're in Virginia, you better call that the "War of Northern Aggression--ain't no war civil".)

We did a little shopping in town, and stopped at the shop of Woodworker Warren May, who at this time has made over 15,000 mountain dulcimers and is the last of his kind. It was all George and I could do not to put one on the credit card!!! Especially after Mr. May sat down with George and taught him to play, unasked. We forbid ourselves to go back in the next day. Someday we'll mail order one, though, when we have the cash (really not much, only about $400). That night, Friday, we attended a Family Concert with David Holt and The Lightening Bolts, part of the Berea College Appalachian Center's annual Traditional Music Festival. The band was awesome but there were so many kids dancing and hollering you could hardly hear them. It was fun! David Holt is an amazing musician and storyteller, so we bought a couple CDs which we love. We also bought the band's banjo and guitar player, Laura Boosinger's, CD for kids "Sing It Yourself!" It is really enjoyable and I'd recommend it for anyone.To top all that off, Berea College has an Ecovillage which we walked through. It's like a townhouse development but with a few "extras" like solar panels, permaculture gardens, its own sewage treatment building, a community kitchen and a play area for the kids. We would've liked to have talked to some of the residents about what they're doing, but as it was Friday night they were all away from their homes it appeared. On Saturday we had a long day's drive to get to our final stop, George's parent's home in Gloucester, Virginia. We decided to resist attending the Traditional Music Festival's morning workshops. (Ooh, that was hard. I really wanted to learn Appalachian flat-foot clogging right there in the Appalachians! And Elijah and George really wanted to learn to play the washboard, bones and other mountain-style rhythm instruments with David Holt.) There was miles and miles to go, and first a stop in Salyersville, Kentucky to investigate just a bit the place where my great-great-Grandmother Drusilla Foster and her family had come from just after the Civil War. They are our only relatives that didn't come straight off the boat to Minnesota, and I've had a huge curiosity about this woman and her family. We spent a lot of time looking for gravestones in the many roadside cemeteries, and finally found the right one on the way out of town...

When I think of Kentucky, I'll always think of black barns, black fences, black hawks circling overhead, and chestnut brown horses in the pastures enclosed by those fences. Many barns had tobacco hanging to dry...And the mountains were blazing orange and red and yellow in contrast. I'm glad we made this drive, probably the last we'll do like it. I'm particularly happy to have had a taste of Kentucky and its people. America is a beautiful place!

More on Virginia tomorrow...(whether you care or not, it's good practice for me to get the trip logged out.)

A Few Photos

2008-10-27T09:52:00.005-05:00

I decided to start by picking my ten favorite photos from our trip (out of 160!). Here they are:

On the drive south, we happened upon Columbus, Indiana. A small town with amazing art and architecture. I loved this sculpture in the median of a road.Finding(!) the graves of my ancestors in Salyersville, Kentucky. Our first day in Gloucester, Virginia--the destination. The Battle of the Hook.An old sign found lying on the grass out by the barn. "Tree Lodge"--Gram and Grandpa's house.The kids greet the ocean for the first time, Virginia Beach. I could just feel the awe coming off them.And this one of Elijah, just because it's so cool.Uncle Paul's house in Matthews, Virginia--"Folly Farm". People in Virginia tend to name their "estates". Uncle Paul bought Folly Farm a few years back and is working to restore the old house. You just don't get that Colonial feel here in Minnesota.The kids eye their first blue crab, caught off Grandpa's pier. Probably the last batch of the season. They and I enjoyed our first lesson in crab anatomy and eating from Daddy, Grandpa and Grandma. Yummy!The blacksmith at the Jamestown Settlement.Rose with her cousin Caroline, along with Grandma and Grandpa in the dining room.

We had a great trip!

We're in Virginia--Home Soon

2008-10-24T12:07:00.003-05:00

Thanks for checking up on me, commenters! Just wanted to let you know I really AM on vacation. We're visiting my husband's family in Gloucester, Virginia. We've been having a great time but we'll be heading home (in our little Honda Civic) beginning tomorrow. I accidently-on-purposely forgot the laptop at home so have been unable to share photos, trip details, etc. But I hope to do some of that when we get home, after Sunday.

It's been a very nice break.

Taking A Break

2008-10-07T20:48:00.002-05:00

You've probably noticed less posts lately. I'm taking a break. Still reading other blogs, still doing a little bit on my herb blog, but for this "regular, daily stuff" blog I'm in need of some time off.

I don't want to do the negative, the political, the links to videos, etc. anymore. That's not what I want this blog to be. I've quit forwarding that stuff on email too. It's all so overwhelming. This coming election is likely the most important in our lives. I just hope and pray there IS a real election. One month from today, we shall see. And breathe a long sigh of collective relief, hopefully.

The kids and I are very busy with homeschooling and pursuing our interests. We're doing fine.

See ya!

I'm Published! at Hen and Harvest.com

2008-10-05T19:10:00.002-05:00

This is a duplicate posting. I also posted this on my herbalistlisazahn blog. I'm just so excited I can't help but post this twice...;-)

I'm really thrilled to say I'm a published writer now! I mean, this is really exciting because I was asked to write for something that isn't my own blog--a blog being really just a personal soapbox, right?

The editors at the online magazine, Hen and Harvest, graciously asked me to write an article on herbal medicine. I chose to write an article called Immune Health and the Low Energy Lifestyle and they accepted it. You can read it now at www.henandharvest.com. It's even the "Lead Article"! And if that doesn't stoke my ego, what else would?

By the way, Hen and Harvest is a lovely online magazine written mostly by some of my favorite bloggers/writers on the web with the subtitle of "Sustainability. Good cheer. Better Food." Do check it out for all their great articles.

The Other Naomi

2008-10-04T13:12:00.002-05:00

Check out this video: http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=186550

(I don't know why I can't figure out how to put the actual clip on my blog.)

This is Naomi Klein on The Colbert Report talking about The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Stephen Colbert can only try to make it funny. It's not, but at least we can try to laugh.

The Debate

2008-09-27T11:35:00.003-05:00

Anyone else breathe a sigh of relief that both our main candidates for President can at least SPEAK? It made me realize that three of the past four elections have involved a Bush. OMG can we just be done with them already!

We listened to the debate on NPR since we no longer have cable TV (thankfully we cancelled it last month--and ah, the peace and quiet in our home again!). It was interesting to just hear it and not see any of their mannerisms. I thought they both sounded good, but I was sad to hear Obama on the defensive more often. McCain is the pit bull, though, and we sure don't need any more of that and his warmongering.

I'm still watching carefully to see what happens with the economic bailout. But at this point since I have to choose between the two, I'd definitely rather have Obama leading us through the coming hard times. And yes, I'm not willing to vote third-party at this point and take any chance the Republicans will get in. Sarah Palin being reason number one! Of about 144 million reasons....(just pulled that number out of the air, doesn't mean anything significant)

Thieves All of Them

2008-09-25T14:40:00.004-05:00

I deleted my Obama widget today. He's for the bailout. I'm not. This is the biggest deal in our history. They are robbing us and our children blind! I don't know who I'm voting for anymore. I'm totally, completely disgusted.

Write in Ron Paul? Dennis Kucinich? I'm going to see which of our Congress people are voting for the bailout, that's for sure. And then we'll throw them all out!

Some are saying this "Paulson (Bush) plan" has been in the works for months. They were just waiting for the right moment to pounce. Some links:

http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson09202008.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/welcome-to-the-final-stag_b_127990.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=125x197846
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/

It seems we're in for the New World Order that our first President Bush spoke of. Did we know he meant something like this? Hell no! I bet now he did, and I'm NO conspiracy theorist.

At least, thank God, Americans have been inundating their congresspeople with calls and emails. Have you done so yet? Here's a link to find them: http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html

Using the Solar Cooker and Rice Pudding Recipe

2008-09-24T09:21:00.004-05:00

On Sunday we used the solar cooker for the first time. It arrived on our doorstep a couple of weeks ago after months of being on back order. Yes, demand is that high, and the company (Solar Oven Society based in Minneapolis) is having a hard time getting the recycled plastic materials they use to make their SOS Solar Sport ovens. I like that these ovens are made in Minnesota and were designed with the help of our very own 3M engineers. I decided to buy one rather than make my own because they're so lightweight (less than 10 lbs.) and more dependable than a homemade version--though I know a lot of people are building their own with great success. See my sidebar under "Interesting and Inspiring" for a page of ideas. I also like that for every Solar Sport I buy, some of my money goes to providing Solar Sport Ovens to homemakers in Africa and other needy countries so that the women don't have to ruin their health cooking over an open fire in their tent or hut.
Here's our Solar Sport oven in the backyard. We start it in the front, east-facing yard, then by afternoon we move it to the back, west-facing yard. The oven does need a sunny day but can be used even on cold days. The solar heating is not affected by outdoor temps., I guess.

We had great results, although the rice was a bit crunchy. We will remedy that next time by adding more water. We made jasmine white rice (which the oven manual says is a little trickier to cook than ordinary white rice), using 1 and 3/4 cups water to 1 cup rice. Next time we'll try 2 c. water to 1 c. dry rice. We also cooked a Delicata squash in the second pot. I just cut the squash in half, scooped out the seeds, put it in the black granite-ware pot that came with the cooker and put a tablespoon or so of butter, some salt and pepper and a bit of brown sugar in each of the scooped out halves. We started everything at about 11 a.m. and ate at about 5 p.m. The squash was cooked perfectly. Both the rice and squash were probably done in just a couple of hours, but since the manual says it's impossible to overcook food in the solar oven we let it stay in there till supper time.

With the leftover crunchy rice (and there was a lot), I decided to make rice pudding this morning. Actually, it's called "Swedish Rice Custard" in my cookbook. It is amazingly good! And a good use of leftovers in these times of high food costs, bad economy. I know we don't like to waste food at all these days.

Here's the recipe for Swedish Rice Custard from my Gloucester Virginia Celebrates 350 Years cookbook (my husband's home town):

2 c. cooked rice (I doubled the recipe today so there's more in the photo than this makes)
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 t. salt
1 T. butter (I only used this to butter the baking dish--can't tell if it should be in the recipe or not too)
2 c. milk
2 eggs, beaten slightly
1 t. vanilla

Combine ingredients in a buttered baking dish or custard cups. Bake at 325 deg. F. for 45 minutes or until custard is set (it's been taking more like 1 and 1/2 hours for me). Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired. Serves 6.

The End of America?

2008-09-22T16:19:00.004-05:00

Older folks have been telling me for years that our country is in jeopardy. By "years" I mean since 9/11/2001, since the Patriot Act and Guantanomo Bay and the Bush/Cheney power grab which continues big-time today (with the Paulson power grab of all U.S. finances--whatever your thoughts on the bank bailout necessary or not, as a freedom-loving American you surely can't support how much "sweeping new powers" the Executive branch of the govt. now wants--click on The Automatic Earth for one source of info. on this). I have to admit it's taken me years to get it, and to really know enough to care.

It's been dawning on me lately that the reason the Federal Government's so-called "No Child Left Behind" education act focuses so strongly on reading and math to the detriment of all other subjects is that the government does not want our children to be learning about History, specifically American History, or Civics, or anything that might make them THINK. Or to realize that the current America is not the America of the Constitution or the laws and rights which our founding fathers brought about.

My husband, a teacher in the public schools, calls NCLB "planned failure" and says that among teachers this is common knowledge. Just today, in fact, he said that he was talking to a 6th grade teacher at his school and she told him that there is no, I repeat NO, science or social studies being taught to the 6th graders this year because they have to spend all their time on reading and math and preparing for the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests coming up in the spring.

Did you get that? To an entire 6th grade class of about 120 kids in one school in our district there will be no, yes NO, science or social studies taught this year. Oh, the teachers may sneak some in but according to the Principal of the school it can not be a focus. They also can no longer visit the local Veteran's Administration Hospital this year, as the 6th graders at the school have done for years on a regular basis. These decisions were absolutely made from the "top down", with no teacher input, because the school is in its fourth consecutive year of not making the grade on the tests.

And you wonder why I'm homeschooling my kids? Some people criticize homeschoolers for "ruining the schools" by not supporting them. I'm sorry, I think the Federal Govt. is doing a mighty fine job of ruining the schools all by themselves.

We homeschool because we believe in FREEDOM, and real learning, and because both of our kids are extremely good at reading and math already, thank you very much! We want our kids to learn to think critically, to question authority, and to have the facts as well as know about all the different ways facts can be presented and mis-presented. We feel our kids can handle that, which is why a big part of our homeschooling is just plain engaging our kids in conversations about the world around us.

Now, there are some things to protect our kids from. They'll learn all too well and all too soon about harsh reality. While we talk to them about what's going on with the stock markets, the laws, etc. when they ask, we don't offer too much information on our BIG FEARS (though of course even there they sense our feelings quite well).

Something I won't, at this stage, be having my kids watch is this video on Youtube: Naomi Wolf on The End of America. She outlines 10 things that fascist governments always do. They're going to sound awfully familiar to all of you! Verde linked this video on her blog, Justice Desserts, along with the video I linked the other day of the police in riot gear arresting 284 people just sitting in a park watching a concert in St. Paul on Labor Day. The two videos go very well together, unfortunately. Thanks, Verde, for finally getting me to watch Naomi Wolf. I know her book and the video have been around a while, but again I'm slow to get to it. I'd encourage you all to get to it, sooner than later.

Now, the consolation I have today comes from a few things. One, today we have the World Wide Web. And even though "they're" watching us, I'm sure, so many of us are still posting the truth. The dissent. It's still on here. And that gives me hope. Hope that enough of us will see this stuff. Hope that enough of us will be the Resistance. And I have the knowledge that fascist governments, while terrible when they're around, never stick around for long. They come and go and Revolutions happen to dismantle them--another thing we can learn from our history books. There is HOPE!

Have you been asking yourself this question lately: am I part of the problem, or the solution? Am I part of the status quo, or the Resistance? What do you want to be.

I can say, I would like to be the Resistance but how does that look today? I have yet to figure that one out.

There were so many to admire in Nazi Germany and all over Europe who harbored Jews and others in danger and were part of the Resistance. There were so many in slave-holding America who where part of the Underground Railroad. So many who demanded the Berlin Wall be torn down. So many who marched for Women's Rights and Civil Rights. Some of them lost their lives. Some were tortured and maybe would've preferred to die. Many put up with great hardships and in the end their cause won out.

That all sounds very dramatic, I know. And I'm really not much for drama. But we're living in dramatic times. It calls for a lot of soul-searching. Who will you be? Who are you now?

Rose's Cat Photos

2008-09-21T17:39:00.006-05:00

Rose took 107 photos of our cat on her little Polaroid pixie digital camera yesterday. Many of them turned out really cool. Here's a few:

Cat surveys her territory

Cat talks to the oak tree fairy (see it?)

And last, cat on the run!

We love our cat yes, but we thought you might like these for the photographic interest. Think Rose's got talent?

And Another Thing...

2008-09-20T08:23:00.001-05:00

I wanted to do another post today because I don't like my last post's title showing up on other people's blog feeds. I'm not much of a swear-er, you see.

For more, read the two posts below, also made today...

:-) Lisa

Forget the F$&!@#$%^&*&-ing Living Room

2008-09-20T07:40:00.002-05:00

I just saw this video. You have GOT to watch this. This is my state. This is our country. I am crying.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/99433/incredible_documentary_footage_of_mass_arrest_in_st._paul/

Everyone with a blog out there, post this link. Everyone email it to your contacts. This is bogus. 284 people doing nothing, NOTHING, but sitting on a lawn and attending a concert. Cops in ugly.black.riot gear. It is all too clear in this video.

Rearranging the Living Room

2008-09-20T06:32:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I was awake at 4 a.m. Today it's 5 a.m. I think my subconscious is waking me so dang early these days because it's the only bit of quiet alone time that I get. And I really like quiet alone time!

It's also a good time to finally clean and re-arrange the living room. Here's a picture.

Just don't look into the dining room next door. I didn't take a picture of that.

How are you feeling about the latest financial news? And the government's latest "big plan" to take over all that lovely debt? Well, if you want a different perspective from the rosy-ish one the mainstream media presents, check out Friday's post at The Automatic Earth.

I don't know who's right. Maybe somewhere in between the positive and the negative we'll find the truth. All I know for sure is I've been reading The Automatic Earth for a year or so now, and they've turned out to be right over and over and over again. Bummer.

Homeschooling, Bread, Independence and Ike

2008-09-18T09:53:00.005-05:00

How's that for some random topics thrown together? It's all about what we're up to and what I'm thinking about. Things have seemed overwhelming around here lately, but I'm starting to get into the fall groove and find those little pockets of rest that keep me going. Actually, our life is pretty tame compared to others but I think my busy-ness tolerance level is fairly lightweight. I don't like to do much running around. We keep our kids limited to one activity a season or year. I try to limit my driving around in general. Still, we've ended up in two homeschooling co-ops this year, Elijah started karate, and Rose is in a very nice girls choir called Choristers that is sponsored by St. Cloud State University just blocks from our house.

One of our homeschooling co-ops is more focused on fun and field trips. That group of families meets on Monday afternoons. This week we met at our new library (got to take a photo and post it--it's gorgeous, though I don't understand why a "green" building doesn't have a single window that opens--what if there's no fossil fuel energy at all someday?). Our next meeting will be a field trip to a local apple orchard. I'm making the plans for our five or six families to have a really nice tour of the orchard, the apple cooler, etc. We moms are all taking a month and doing the field trip planning for that month so it doesn't end up on one or two people. The kids all voted on what field trips they want to do. In October we are going to see the play Peter Pan at our local community theatre.

Our Wednesday co-op is mainly focused on art and science. We meet at the Greek Orthodox Church just blocks from our house (I really do try to stick to activities we can walk or bike to, same goes for the doctor, dentist, and as many things as I can--it helps that we live in the center of our small city). Yesterday both kids participated in art class. Rose is with the littler kids and they did "cave art" drawing and painting on paper bags using traditional cave art symbols. Elijah is with the bigger kids doing a really nice drawing class taught by a local artist. They meet for an hour and a half and the kids were so into it you could've heard a pin drop in the room. She's using a curriculum that teaches techniques to use the right side of the brain.
It reminds me of the drawing class I took at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. when I was there for a semester studying through the Washington Theological Consortium. We used the text Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I found out I could draw in that class, though to this day I don't do it much because it really taxes my brain to go all right-brained and all (even though I'm left handed). I highly recommend that book and method, by the way. I know Eli will learn a lot in this class, to supplement his real talent for drawing. Hopefully I can share with you some of his work, though I'll have to sneak it in. My kids are so tired of me taking pictures for the blog!

Oh, and in the afternoons at this co-op the kids divide up by age group to do science classes. The real funny thing here is that I'm teaching science to four 6th grade boys, including my son. I think it's a joke that I, English and Theology major, ended up teaching science! However, my herbalist training is helping me quite a lot. For the first twelve weeks we're doing Intro. to Biology and since it's a beautiful time to be outdoors we're really focusing on the naturalist thing and taking lots of walks during our two-hour class. I've got one kid, Jonah, who is so into the trees and plants that I said I'd love to take him on as an apprentice herbalist in a few years. Apprenticing is big in homeschool circles so I'll have to make the same offer to his mother and see what she thinks.

Rose is doing science with the other fourth graders and they are learning about electricity and magnetism and how things work, and later they'll do astronomy. They have a full year ahead. As does my 6th grade class, with the second twelve weeks focused on chemistry and during the third section of our year we'll do physics. We'll have a lot of experiments and fun things to try, and hopefully I won't get freaked out too much trying to understand this stuff myself. Help!

Today is bread baking day, part of my quest for independence and clean food free of chemicals. Even the local grocery's bakery buns and bread are loaded with hydrogenated soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, and other crap. I used to think bakery food was fresh, made from scratch and free of preservatives and junk, but that ended when George spent a few years baking at a local bakery and taking a break from teaching (1998-2001). They used mixes for the cakes, cookies, even some breads. It was gross. Now I read labels religiously and rarely find "clean" food even at bakeries.

Today is the first time I've made buns, so we can have barbecued chicken sandwiches tonight without using bakery buns. They look like they turned out great! We'll find out at dinner time. Due to my Thursday bread-baking routine, I've decided that on Wednesday nights we'll always have potatoes for dinner. That way I can use the potato water to mix up my bread sponge (my bread recipe post here) on Wednesday evening, let it sit all night to mix up in the morning, and we get all the added nutrition of that water into the bread. I remember reading a Depression-era cookbook where they said to always save your potato water and use it in bread or soups because it is so nutritious. Plus, I think the starch feeds the yeast nicely for a better rise.

Lastly, on Ike. Have you seen much media coverage? There are rumors that there are possibly 20,000 people dead on Galveston Island since like 60% of the people didn't evacuate and now the island is in ruins. Where are those people now? Will we ever find out? It seems that there's kind of a media blackout of this due to conditions being dangerous. I believe conditions are dangerous (why in he** do we build biolabs containing dangerous viruses on barrier islands??!!!), but why aren't we finding much out here? I think it has to do with it being an election year, but boy I hope I'm wrong and that things aren't as bad as I fear.

On a positive note, my cousin and his wife and daughter who live between Galveston and Houston are back in their home. With power, without much damage except to their fence, and with lots of neighbors and friends to feed and house for now. Jessica's blog is here if you want to see some photos...

Fresh Air for the Hens

2008-09-17T07:58:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I was sitting out on the patio reading and enjoying the glorious weather. I was also feeling bad for the hens, stuck in their run. I have been imagining lately that they're not so happy all cooped up as they always are (pun intended).

So I decided to give them their first taste of freedom. It was like watching your toddler walk for the first time. I sat back, gave them some room, and in no time out they came.

They didn't get much further than the compost pile, right outside their coop, and every time I came near they ran back inside. But hey, for an hour or two they got to stretch their legs and eat some bugs! As a side note, I have been reading "The Martha Years" books, a fictional series about Laura Ingalls Wilder's great-grandmother Martha, daughter of a Laird in Scotland. They are written by Melissa Wiley and are a delight to read. More to feed my "Little House" obsession! Also, in tracing my family tree on Ancestry.com I am related to Laura Ingalls via her mother's Scottish/English side and I believe this Martha's family is the ancestry we have in common. I have to check on that for sure, but either way I am just really enjoying reading about Scottish traditions and life in the 1700s, and this sweet little girl Melissa Wiley has created.