Simply Dawson

Bag Bender

2010-12-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered the Green Bag Lady through another blog. I entered one of her give-aways, and won a handmade shopping bag for Christmas. I used it at the grocery store today, but didn't take a picture.
I happened upon her site when she was blogging about making bags and getting rid of wrapping paper. Unfortunately the thought never entered my mind and I have already wrapped half of my presents, but the other half.......hmmmm...... I could whip something up. So I measured out the size of a DVD, a hardback book, and then made a larger size for clothing, and whipped out a couple bags. I simply put the right sides together, and sewed the three sides together. Then flip the top over a little bit and top stitched around to make it looke hemmed. I cut a 24 inch piece of ribbon, and sewed the middle to a side seam about 4 inches down, and viola...... wrapping bags. I've now made oodles of them.

I also took some muslin I had on hand, attached a thin ribbon to it, sewed it to the back side of a scrap piece of fabric and wrote on it. This is my reuseable tag (you can see the backside of it in the top picture). It slips through the ribbon tie on the bag, and I can reuse those next year too (because I'll be giving gifts to a lot of the same people, right?). Both the bag and tag take a small amount of time to make, and I plan on making a bunch today to use. If you get one for Christmas, and can't imagine using it, just hand it back to me and I'll give it to you again next year.

flag banner

2010-11-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

I've been seeing these things around the internet and finally got around to making one. Apparently my craving for sewing is back. I chose a bunch of fall fabrics, cut a front and back together using the diagonals on my ruler and cutting mat, sewed the sides, bound them into bias tape, and hung them up. Looks nice, we'll have to see if I do it for Christmas too.

Jumpstarting creativity

2010-10-17T05:46:00.000-07:00

Apparently finishing the denim "quilt" got me sewing again. With four kids I don't really have a lot of extra time, but I'm finding certain pockets of time on the weekends for myself.....unfortunately the state of my house reflects this time. I am trying to handmake some things for Christmas this year, as I did last year. The hardest thing I'm discovering is that we have so much STUFF that I don't need anything, but still I feel the urge to create. Thankfully I discovered whipup.net today so I'm sure I"ll find TONS of things over there.

I loosely used this tutorial to make fruit and veggie bags, about 6, for my shopping. I also made a set for a morale pal exchange at work. She likes being a little more eco-friendly too, and although my secret identity may now be compromised, I don't think she reads my blogs. The only issue I had as a "mostly quilter sewer" is that the netting I used slid everywhich way. Yes I could have pinned it, but I just decided to keep moving.

I think I got a little better at managing the four layers (I doubled the thickness for strength for my large family purchases), but I also think I eventually quit worrying about how straight everything was. I am a math teacher and LOVE straight lines, but I had to let it go for this..... its just for veggies right?

I've also been working on more felt food for the little girls Christmas this year. They also have a bunch of American Girl stuff on their list, so I made some cinnamon rolls for their dolls as well. I followed a tutorial for the muffins here , but just looked at pictures for the cinnamon rolls. I made teeny tiny ones for their doll tea parties too, but Brian didn't take pics of those. The grocery bags I made for them was just 2 rectangles of felt with a 3rd one cut for the same length as the sides of the bag, but a determined width (I think 3 or 4 inches) by me. I'm planning on making some "price tags" because I've noticed they aren't just playing with these in their kitchen, but setting up "stores" in different parts of the house. I keep waiting for them to outgrow this, but it hasn't happened yet... thankfully there are other little folks in my family so I can continue to make these.

Next up for the little girls is at least one knitted doll sweater each, but I"ll try for a couple of them. I do have other things to make that I can't post yet so they'll have to wait until after Christmas.

UFO

2010-09-19T05:52:00.000-07:00

I posted this on my family blog too, but it fits here too for upcycling. I haven't thought I've been doing anything new, just trying to maintain what I've already taken on.... and trying to get hubby to use our bags instead of the plastic store bags.

Last January I committed to attacking my UFO stash of quilt tops as my husband was out of work by saying publicly over at kleio's belly that I would work on them. Nothing like using what you already have, and not buying new things. I started to finish a knitting project, but eventually got bored, and distracted, so I stuck all of my project stuff away. A few weeks ago I bought some mesh because I want to make my own veggie bags for the grocery store and farmer's market instead of the plastic ones, but I couldn't because I had this pile of jeans on top of my sewing machine (a UFO in the middle of my work space). The intention was to take these jeans from various family members and cut them into squares, back them with flannel, and then when we travel buy patches as souvenirs instead of all the kids buying junk. We've been buying the patches, and they were on my sewing table too.

A couple weekends ago I really wanted to make these bags, but I had to keep moving the jeans.... could have thrown them on the bed, but I remembered how excited I was to attack things I had already started. So out came the rotary cutter, a few good movies, and I cut all the jeans up into 6 inch squares, and saved the back pockets off of the jeans. For the 6 inch squares only the kids pockets fit, but I'll save the others (plus a few squares) for another quilt like this --- of course that sounds like another UFO. I backed each square of denim with flannel, and sewed it to the next one, seams out so it will fray. I used every last inch of flannel and bound it with the flannel too. I still have a couple patches to sew on, but I'll be finished by lunch with those.

Now the kids all want to know who "gets it" so I told them I will deal with the jeans they outgrow or run into the ground, as they come in, and I have a bag of a few leftover squares to store in my art closet instead of a ton of jeans lying on top of my sewing machine. Eventually I may end up with one for each of them to add too, but right now this is the family travel quilt. An easy way to upcycle as long as I stay focused.

Rhonda asked...

2010-05-23T17:15:00.000-07:00

Rhonda is a lady living in Austrailia who has a blog I read at http://www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ I started reading her blog about two years ago, and found she had some inspiring ideas - her garden is to DIE for! On her blog she asked what led us to attempt the simpler life......well..... not sure mine is so simpler, but I'm trying a few things to create less waste, and bring my family back to certain values.

1.) The garden. We started this several years ag0. The first year I did it because my Dad had been diagnosed with cancer - already stage 4, and one of the contributing factors may have been his diet. My focus at that point was to get off as much processed food as possible. I read Animal,Vegetable, Miracle, and a few others, and was pretty motivated. Last year I also bought a lot of veggies at the farmer's market and learned to can/freeze as much as possible while the prices were so low. I'll definitely be doing this again. I'm still hooked on Cokes, but we tend to make more food from "real f ood" and have a lot less processed foods.

2.) Plastic - I'm still working on this, but I've gotten rid of a lot of containers that are plastic, but still have a few. Most of what I have left is for school lunches, but that is one of my priorities this summer. We also don't use products with aluminum in them.

3.) Recycling - easy, they pick up, and I've found a place nearby for the things not picked up by the bin.

4.) Knitting/Quilting, etc I have started knitting and quilting again. I need to make more time for this.

5.) Buying less- um definitely. Brian was out of work for 8 months, so we are definitely on board with that. We're going to the library, found a lot of free places to hike or put in the canoe. Found out about free sundays at the art museum, etc.

6.) Laundry- I'm still using the washing machine, but not the drier. Hanging clothes to dry either inside, or out on the porch has not been a big deal except I do have to iron more.

My goals - learn to make pasta, three season garden, continue teaching my girls/students about gardening, cut down on trips/gas, more canning/freezing than last year. Someday I need to replace my windows, and add gutters to my house for rain barrels. I'm slowly purging things we don't need, and as we renovate we are going as eco-friendly as possible. Any other ideas would be graciously accepted.

I love science day.

2010-05-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

I live in a very suburban town, with easy access to our smallish capital city. As a teacher, I want to always engage my students in meaningful learning and maybe give them some new ideas. Friday was I Love Science Day at my school, and students rotated between 4 of the fifth grade classrooms to do a variety of "cool" science activities. Mine was making lemonade.... yes, you heard me correctly - we made lemonade.

I brought in my lemon tree that is potted and on my deck - it was a gift last mother's day. I explained how it bloomed, and turned into lemons (answered questions about why they were green not yellow), and then showed them the pictures over at http://urbanhomestead.org/journal and discussed how people were really focusing on ea

ting healthier, and eating whole foods, etc. I then put them into groups and gave them a few lemons to juice, we pooled our juice together, added water and sugar (discussed if this was a mixture or solution), and then drank it. Some of them didn't like pulp, and remember from our chemistry unit this year that you could filtrate mixtures/solutions to remove larger pieces, so we pulled out coffee filters and the tri-pod funnel for them to try out. We discussed the taste differences between their idea of lemondade (crystals in a plastic container) and the one we made.

They then harvested the seeds from the lemons, and planted them, or some of the bean, or corn seeds I also had. All were interested in the idea of how we define food now, and I feel like maybe eventually I can show students, by example, how to make better choices. I wish I could show the student faces, but I just don't feel that is ethical, but I will tell you they were full of smiles.

For Mother's Day today, I received a gorgeous little orange tree, and I'm looking forward to showing that to my students too. My family definitely knows how to make me happy!

Unemployment lessons

2010-05-03T16:05:00.001-07:00

Last August, the government closed the bank/mortgage company my husband worked for. There was no notice, no severence package, they simply sent out an email announcing doors were closing at noon. That really sent us into a tailspin. We had some savings, a family of 6, and my teaching job. Now, let's be honest.... I make a decent living, but not enough to maintain our lifestyle. So, the cuts started that day.

Activities - The first thing to go were the kids activities. I allowed them (the older three) to stay in scouts because I run the troops, and the girls raise their own money through the endless cookie sales to participate in activities. Big Al played travel soccer, and her club gave her a scholarship - she was thankful. She also played school soccer which was free. T-Rex gave up archery (tough for her to do), but got to keep chorus (free). Blondie and Cheesie gave up Tennis.

Clothing - We bought no new clothes for the fall - this was really tough because T-Rex was growing, so I would buy her something new periodically, but the rest of the girls used the hand-me-downs we make use of anyway.

Obvious - We cut the obvious gym membership, etc. We never got as far as cutting the TV and internet, but I really thought the TV would just be great to get rid of anyway ( I think we would go through news withdrawl though, and if I had to choose between TV and internet, the TV would be out the door).

Electric-I started hanging my clothes to dry, and we layered through the winter. Bed linens were also layered, and no heat was used at night (in the south we get down to maybe 40 fahrenheit so it wasn't bad).

Shopping - I hate Walmart, but Brian bought groceries there as needed, but supplemented with produce from elsewhere. Christmas was on a serious shoestring, and we used a little savings for it, but it was on a much smaller scale than other years. I tried to do the coupon thing, but wasn't fanatic about it (and found that the bogo price at one supermarket was exactly the same as Walmart everyday - darn it-- I really hate that store). Last summer I had canned, and frozen a lot of fresh veggies, and stocked up on bogo meat sales, so that helped out for a long time.

Entertainment - Art museum is free on Sundays, state parks at $2.00 a car, while some hiking trails are free. We played board games, puzzles, went back to the library instead of buying books or movies, rediscovered our video games (which you can also get from the library).

So now, Brian has been back at work for about 6 weeks, and we are holding onto a lot of the changes. Ceiling fans are on instead of AC (although we are going to need to turn that on soon!), I still hang my clothes (why not? It was easy). I am about to have the long distance cut off (maybe even the whole landline). We still head for the library instead of buying books, I did join Netflix because we spend a bunch on the latest kid movies, and then end up keeping them "just-in-case" but I like the streaming movies, and it works off the Wii. I will be buying/ growing fresh fruit and veggies to can and freeze again, and will again stock up on meat for the longterm. If it had gone on much longer we may have had issues, but just as Brian's first round of Unemployment (a whopping 325 per week) ran out, he got his job. It did come with a noticable pay cut, so we aren't changing much of our habits.

We are still focused on paying off everything as fast as possible so we aren't in debt again. If we hadn't had two car payments, and a few other bills we would have been fine indefinitely. We were fans of Dave Ramsey before, but really are working toward the financial independence now. We continue to live as we did when he was out of work, and according to this article on the "new" frugality, we aren't alone. I think this was a good way for me to begin simplifying. When you have less money, you shop a lot less, and really we haven't missed much. We'll keep this up for awhile, and see how it goes.

Earth Day,and Wednesday

2010-05-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

One of my colleagues had the idea to have our students give a gift of trees back to the school for their promotion gift. She thought fruit trees might be nice, and BOY did I jump on it. So the kids could bring in two dollars - one dollar to wear a hat on earth day when we planted the trees, and then second went for a homework pass. I bought the trees (four peach trees) and one of our students has a dad who is a horticulturalist and he donated 3 blueberry bushes.

The Dad came and spoke to all of the kids about his job. He sells plants/trees/bushes wholesale to other nurseries. He explained that if he wanted to sell 10,000 trees then he needed to have seedlings numbering around 14,000. The kids could NOT understand how he did it. He kept explaining, and they kept wanting to know if he got his seeds from Walmart or the local nursery. I would show pictures of the students planting all of them, but I just didn't think it ethical to post other people's children on the blog without permission, so you'll have to do with seeing the horticulturalist, and my daughter standing next to one of the peach trees. The interesting thing is that since then, the students all argue at lunch to see who gets to water the trees.

Now I have been trying to get grants to start a vegetable garden at school without luck, so I took the 4 trees and 3 bushes as the first of a lot of steps I/we would need to take to bring this to life at our school. My principal came to me and said Verizon wanted to make a donation to the school and send a group of volunteers to help us do "something green" and since she knew I was VERY interested in the garden idea she gave me $300.00 to start one. The local Home Depot gave us a generous discount, and I bought 3 raised garden beds, and all the soil/compost we needed, for under $300 and brought it back to school. This past Wednesday my morning math/science 5th graders built the beds with the volunteers, and the afternoon group mixed the bags of soil, conditioner, and compost. Both groups have already started bean and cucumber plants in school, but now they are thinking they want to take t hem home instead of putting them in the garden. Our summer kids (some are in a "daycare camp" at school while their parents work) will continue the garden, and harvest the peaches, whatever blueberries we can save from birds, and the garden veggies to donate them to our local foodbank. They will then start seeds for the fall veggies. All of this is planted right along the preschool/kindergarten fence, so as the little kids come out to play in their special playground they can watch the plants grow right there.

We are all very excited to watch this project unfold, and I'm hoping I can turn more kids on to gardening this way, and reinforce that plants make their own seeds, and you don't have to go to a store to get them.

Volunteer tomatoes

2010-04-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

We put up the netting around the 3 veggie beds last weekend, but I've been bad about blogging on this site. It isn't because I've been outside working....no, no.... it's because I'm a teacher, and I'm SWAMPED at the moment.

I still need to plant the beans in with the corn, and get the rest of the peppers and cucumbers in the ground - maybe tomorrow.

I have very happy lettuce (and basil for that matter). The corn seems to have taken a growing break this week....

The tomatoes though, are my focus this weekend. I planted these great little plants that I started from seeds, and they don't seem to be doing too well.... BUT if you look closely at the picture below you'll see all of the HAPPY little tomato seeds from last year coming up in the bed where I planted them last year. I had to explain to Cheesie, and the girl next door, that when we didn't pick the yucky fruit last year, or the tomatoes that the birds ate, left seeds behind, and they have been waiting for a year to grow -and they are.... like weeds.... I'll let them go a bit longer and then transplant them, or thin them out. The girls had to think about that a bit because they got stuck on the idea that people had to plant the seeds - I didn't overwhelm them with a seed dispersion theory because they were running across the different backyards today, but I will be talking to Cheesie about it again - kids should understand this stuff. It is hard to see in this picture, but the soil on the bottom side of the picture is covered in tiny tomato plants.

Forever ago

2010-04-03T04:48:00.000-07:00

I know it has been ages since I posted on this blog, but I was feeling like my efforts weren't really blog worthy, and then I wrestled with the possibility of just putting all of this on my family blog, but it didn't seem to fit. Thankfully Brian began work in March after 8 months of unemployment. We are lucky that we get to stay here, and don't have to try to sell the house in this economy, but he was looking EVERYWHERE. I will share a post on how we managed a few things at a later date, but right now our goal is to continue living as we have been, and use Brian's paycheck to pay down a few more bills in case this happens again.

Spring is in SC, and now is the time to work on the yard. One of our goals is to expand the garden. Last weekend Brian had finished cleaning up a lot of the general yard debris, and moved the buttefly garden over to another part of the yard. Then we went out and bought some temporary fencing for the garden to try to keep the rabbits and possible deer from eating more of our garden than we do (like last year). My uncle loaned us a tiller, and Brian got busy on the former butterfly garden. We may expand it even more.

We have planted our seeds, and my little lemon tree has bloomed and is trying to now produce lemons (see the tiny little green things developing --- my future lemons). Our peach tree has new growth on it, and one little bloom. We plan on growing, lettuce, beans (bush and pole), tomatoes, peppers, okra, corn, basil and oregano at the moment, we'll have to see how this progresses.Hopefully we can keep the animals from eating before we harvest things, and enjoy more of our garden this year.

Groceries

2009-10-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

An old friend of mine IM'd me to see how the job search was going for Brian. That led to a discussion of the things we had cut back on. We talked about the gym, goals of not buying anything new, etc. I mentioned to her that I had managed to feed my family of 6 this week on a budget of less than 125.00. She asked how, and I told her I used to browse my circulars for their adds, but now I use http://www.southernsavers.com/ . It works for me, I live in the south. I plan my menu (NEVER did that before) and have easily cut 300.00 a week for groceries down to 125 or less, AND managed to make the girls stop and think about snacks before they just randomly eat out of boredom. I wasn't convinced that printing coupons was worth the time, until I saved 84.00 one week on groceries. I'm not a woman carrying a binder in the grocery store yet, but give me time, I may join those ranks yet. This week's budget went toward dinner items, school lunch stuff, and fruits and veggies.

One thing I've noticed about this whole coupon thing though is how much I DON'T buy anymore. I'm really trying to stick to the idea of cooking from scratch as much as possible, and considering packaging when I buy so many of the coupons are not what I am buying, but I managed to find a few things every week, and then max out on printing them.

One thing I wished my grocery stores here did that I used to use in Washington were the dry bins. I used to shop at Poulsbo Market, in Poulsbo Washington. I LOVED that store. I could bring in my own bag, and get as much dry good as I needed. It might be pasta, or flour, or beans, or whatever. It made sense to do it that way, and with my determination to cut down on packaging, I'm bummed that none of the stores around here do that . I've also cut back on plastic containers in the pantry - I use mostly glass, and try to get everything out of cardboard as fast as possible (we get moths otherwise).

Just so you don't think I'm skimping on meals, here is what we are having this week:
Sunday: beef veggie soup (my lunch for the rest of the week - some veggies from the farmer's market), and homemade bread
Monday: big salad night, deviled eggs
Tuesday: roasted chicken, rice, and broccoli (again, stocked up with b1g1 deals from the past)
Wednesday: spaghetti (easy, stock up on pasta, and sauce attempted from this summer)
Thursday: pork chops, mashed potatoes (both b1g1 free deals) and corn from my summer stash
Friday: leftovers

These are practical tips as well, if you're interested: http://www.owlhaven.net/2009/10/03/living-where-grocery-costs-are-high/

Owlhaven also just published a new book called family feasts on 75.00 a week, and if she can do that with 10 kids, I can get my bill down with 4. Pop over there and check her out. www.owlhaven.net

Christmas thoughts

2009-10-10T14:48:00.000-07:00

YES! Christmas. I have always loved the big Christmas' we have had in the past. My favorite Christmas EVER was at my grandmother's house (I was 17) and my great grandmother, mom, sisters, brother, cousins, aunts and uncles and I even think Brian as my boyfriend was there too (although he may not have been there Christmas day). My grandmother had a formal living room with a grand piano in the corner, and very high ceilings, and we had a pretty tall tree that year. I remember staying up and putting together my sister's wooden dollhouse that year (we worked every night after she went to bed for weeks). Mostly I remember the fires in the fireplaces, and the people walking around talking, and activity in every room of the house.

I've always worked throughout the year to buy things for the girls, and save as much as I could because we aren't incredibly extravagant during the year, but we tend to have one BIG Christmas. After the kids open their gifts we gather at someone's house for brunch, and family gifts, and then we head either home, or to another house gathering for dinner.

This year, with Brian out of work, I've been thinking about the skills I have. Turns out I know how to do a LOT of things. I can knit (blankets, sweaters, scarves - want to learn socks) sew (felt food, tote bags, quilts, ornaments), I can crosstitch (ornaments), and I've been kicking around some ides for altered art presents. I can also make earrings and bracelets, hairbows, etc. Doesn't that sound like a big part of Christmas? Last year Big Al made playdoh for the little girls, T-Rex made jewelry, etc. Brian and my mom also took gorgeous portraits of the girls today, and I'm thinking some people may find those, or incorporate his art and my sewing together, under their tree too. Obviously I can't post my absolute ideas here because someone may stumble upon it, but those are my thoughts at the moment.

Are you making anything wonderful this year? Leave a comment, and help inspire me - we only have 11 weeks left.

I'm still here

2009-10-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

At some point last year I decided to split my blog into 3 different blogs. Now I'm not so sure that was a good idea, because instead of simplifying I have created more work - which I really don't need. I like the idea of keeping all of my entries about changing how we live, so maybe it will benefit someone else.

If you look at my main blog dawsondiaries.blogspot.com you will see that I am a typical suburban American mom with 4 kids. I think though I am starting to live my "inner tree hugger" life, and little by little introduce my kids to it. This past August my husband's mortgage company closed, and now we are supporting a family of 6 on a teacher's income. It has definitely been challenging, but now when I make changes people think I'm doing it because of financial reasons and not the simplifying/greener living reasons.

Planting: I am planting my new fall garden with broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuce again. It has to be on the deck though because I can't fence in my garden plot. It must be fenced because the deer LOVED by spring/summer garden, and we got very little of it. Fencing would be the financial choice, growing my food is my simple choice. I want healthier food, so that is how I'm choosing to spend my money.

New Skills: Brian has actually become quite skilled at making homemade bread - although the kids aren't using it to take to school yet. School lunches are going to be my next crusade. We are still slowly making in roads into eating healthier "whole" foods. I did can the pears from my grandparents trees at the lake house.

Purchased: I purchased a drying rack for clothes. Our financial choice because of job loss is to only do one load of laundry a day. My simpler choice is to hang all of our clothes now. I have always hung my own up to dry because I don't like to have things shrink in the dryer, but now I'm thinking that to cut out the dryer entirely may not be too difficult and so far it doesn't seem to create a time drain. I toss all of the clothes from the wash into a basket, and I hang them up in about 10 minutes. Big Al looked at me today and said, "This whole drying rack thing seems to be working pretty well, who knew it wasn't a big deal to hang clothes up to dry." I worked very hard not to roll my eyes at the obvious, but maybe it is something she will carry with her. Unfortunately we can't put up clotheslines in our neighborhood, so I just keep my clothes on the deck or the screened porch. I can always move it to my bathroom in the winter time too. Yes, you need extra fabric softener in your wash so your towels aren't stiff.

Planning: Handmade Christmas presents - wish I could post my ideas here, but you'll have to wait until the day after Christmas to see them, I'm also going to make some little fabric/vinyl wraps for lunch boxes to cover sandwiches - not because I'm worried about the price of ziploc bags, but because of the trash and the war on plastic I'm quietly waging. I found a pattern at one of the blogs I read about sustainability, so I think I'll give it a go.

If you can pop over to Towards Sustainability and read her post about her efforts seeming so small compared to events where she still sees so much waste out there. I'm also concerned about our political environment, and joined http://www.asamom.org/ which is fairly conservative, but there are so many things to take a stand on right now that I think everyone needs to examine their beliefs and stand up.

Assessing my efforts

2009-06-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

I didn't intend this to be my food blog, more of an opportunity for me to openly explore living a different lifestyle. If you read my family blog you know that my dad died of stomach cancer a year and a half ago. Watching him go through his illness really impacted me because it was my wake up call. I'm overweight myself, but more importantly we're raising four young women. Over the last two years I am working hard to slowly phase out as much processed food as I can. I actually think I'm at the point of having to go hard core because we're really only down to a few things..... now I say that, but reality is that my husband came home with frozen pizza and corndogs for dinner tonight because I had one of our daughters at her OT session. Since dinner was his to do tonight he took a shortcut. He knows my desires to eat whole foods, or at least use original ingrediants. So, I guess as a family we're still working on this. Since I'm a teacher and home in the summer this is always a good time to tweak our habits.

So here's an assessment of my new habits:

1.) I am actually taking the shopping bags with me, not leaving them on the hook by the door, or in the car.

2.) I have consistantly bought fruits and veggies from the local farmer's market. I am learning to blanche and freeze veggies, and have quite the stock of corn and beans. Now, why do I think this is important? It goes way beyond eating locally for me, although that is important too. A conversation I had with a dear friend scared the crud out of me.... he works at a plant that irradiates food. Apparently most every food is zapped at some point in the process to kill bacteria/germs. I thought I wasn't really touched by it (except my meat that I don't have a local source for) because I buy organic, but he said that gets zapped too. I wonder how much radiation we can handle before we become affected.

3.) I am growing a small garden of veggies this summer, and enjoying my daily tomatoes at the moment, but losing the battle to rabbits when it comes to my pepper plants. Our pear trees will have a lot to offer in late August, but our peach tree was stripped by the deer because it is so small. Next year I will have to put a fence around it, and probably the lemon tree as well. I have an apple tree out front, but I don't know what kind it is, or how to use the fruit - it seems to be VERY sour to me, so I'm clueless on that front.

4.) I'm actually already making some presents for gift giving times this year, and I'm knitting and sewing - nothing major, just stuff for the girls.

5.) I'm paying double (okay, more) on car bills to get them paid off almost 2 years early, and then will start in on the credit card - also the orthodontist will be paid off early too. If one of us end up losing a job we have a lot of things we can cut out, but we aren't in that position at the moment, so I'm trying to cut as many extra monthly bills as possible.

6.) I'm about to get rid of all plastic in my kitchen. I've been buying glass bowls, and stoneware baking sheets. I don't know that whatever clay my stoneware is made from is any better, but I'm NOT using aluminum for anything anymore, and hope to end my dependence on plastic. The down side is that these things are very heavy for our daughter with only one "normal" arm to lift, but we'll figure something out.

7.) The kids are doing well with less TV. The rule is that they can't watch until after 6:30. I do find them watching it in the morning if they get up before me, but they'll easily turn it off and find something else to do. This one will definitely continue into the school year.

Overall not bad.... I'll post soon on my new goals to meet, and a "to do" list.

Tuesdays and Thursdays

2009-06-23T16:19:00.000-07:00

That's me in the capris on the right.

On Tuesdays the local farmer's market is less than a mile from my house. I went there today and was surprised at how large it is getting. It is still hit or miss as to whether people actually grow their own veggies, or bring them from the grocery store (last time I looked Chiquita bananas weren't grown in SC, and definitely don't come off a plant with a sticker on it). After tending my own garden for over a year now I tend to know what's in season, so I can weed out the fake vendors pretty quick.

On Thursdays it is in the neighborhood where our daughter (blog name Blondie) gets her OT and PT. So while she exercises I shop. Last Thursday my mom was with me because I wasn't able to drive due to the medication I was taking, so she captured these pictures of my bean man. I love him.... no doubt about it. I met him a couple weeks ago when he had a little folding table. He pulled out pictures of his large garden, and told me how he kept a shotgun on his back porch 'cause his brother-in-law, the preacher, keeps helping himself to his garden. "Ya never can tell with preachers, don't ya know." I really threw him for a loop when I bought all of his beans. His question to me was, "Well, now what am I gonna sell...." On this day I walked up and he started giving me good natured grief about buying all of his beans the previous week so he had stocked up for me..... that was fine.... I bought those too - I left some for the couple in line after me, but only enough for their dinner. They asked what I was going to do with all 12 pounds and I explained how I'm freezing them for fall and winter when I can't get local produce. They didn't realize people still did that.

Today I went out to the one by my house, and bought from my cucumber guy (mine will be ready in a week, so I won't have to buy his anymore - he's in the picture above) who had a pick-up truck and a trailer full of corn (so my cucumber guy has now turned into my corn guy). I also blanche and freeze corn too, so I"m going to have to make sure anything unneccessary is out of my extra freezer (or maybe buy yet another one). So tonight I'll blanche and freeze corn, and on Thursday when Blondie has therapy again, I'll stock up on corn some more. My bean guy won't be there because his "granddaughter was coming to carry him down to Disneyworld this week." Hope he's back next week my supply might be dwindling at that point.

Starting to harvest more....

2009-06-11T16:45:00.001-07:00

Onions are a new one for me to grow this year, although I didn't start them from seed. From what I read I am supposed to pick them when the tops have flopped over and are brown. So I've started picking the ones that are ready, although small they are tasty.

The grape tomatoes are going crazy right now, and I can count on new ones for dinner each night. The larger tomatoes are still very green, but getting bigger every day. I do have a handful of beans most nights too, but I'm buying larger amounts from the farmer's market of both beans and corn to blanche for later in the year.

I was also thoroughly inspired by http://beautythatmoves.typepad.com/ when she takes pictures of her absolutely spotless corners. Alas, I cannot keep my house spotless, although one day I'm sure it will happen. For now I"m content with a clean linen closet and folded towels. Not a big cleaning, but I did find 5 sets of queen sized sheets and 0 queen sized beds in the house. So they are going to my brother, and whatever is left over goes to the family lake house. I'll probably purge bathroom cupboards next, but I won't post pictures of that either. I'll just keep scooting over to beauty that moves for my peace....

On the positive front... the kids are doing fine without tv, and we're finding that after the 6:30 p.m. time they may watch a movie, but chances are they are still running around hanging out together (or finding turtles to harass). My goal this summer is to also get them picking up after themselves (HA), and doing some review work with each of them to keep them ready for school. It's only been a week though, so I have a ways to go to get our new habits in place.

Updating

2009-05-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

Harvesting - the beginnings of beans, and grape tomatoes. The larger tomatoes are still very green. I keep trying to grab a strawberry, but the birds beat me to it.

Saying goodbye - to the lettuce - I'm trying to figure out this seed thing, and think they are beginning to show the pods, but have to read tonight about when to pick them (part of my seed to seed growing challenge). Also had to say goodbye to the broccoli that grew enough for a tiny piece to dip, and then bloomed. I've ripped them out, and the cauliflower too, I'll have to figure out the soil thing this fall and try again. Also, every single peach off of the tiny peach tree was eaten by something (probably deer) so I need to fence that in next year. Something also ate one of pepper plants, I don't think the geese would do that, so it might be a rabbit or deer.

I don't own these geese, they just flew in years ago and never left - and then have really cute babies, until they grow up and come in my yard.

Sowing - more bean seeds. They'll grow all summer, and we eat a lot. I'm also transplanting some more tomatoes into deck pots because we eat a lot of those too. I also purchased more basil to dry and eat (although I'm really enjoying it fresh right now), and more pepper plants because I found out I can freeze them VERY easily.

Blanched - ears of corn from the market. Locally grown and 12 ears for 3 dollars. I'm going to do this again too. I'm going to buy a bunch of beans from the market too, and set those aside, my garden will never produce enough unless I tear up the rest of my yard, and I"m only willing to move the butterfly garden at the moment.

Farmer's Market- thank goodness its every Tuesday by our house, and every Thursday by Blondie's physical therapy. This week I bought potatoes, beans, cantaloupe (1.50), watermelon (2 DOLLARS) and of course strawberries. I'm thinking that I want to go to one of those u-pick places for strawberries, but it's really starting to get hot AND I'm really not a fan of frozen strawberries (or jelly for that matter).

ADORING - a dear friend of mine who admits that she too reads Hobby Farm and Hobby Home, and spent hours on the computer looking for the perfect stainless steel water bottles for her children. Not all my friends "get it" but I appreciate being able to talk to those that do - even if I'm just starting with baby steps.

I still have not made anything because I'm wrapping up the school year, but I will get on it after I get rid of a lot of crap (I mean simplify) certain spaces around my house.

GUILTY NO MORE

2009-05-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

Recycling is nothing new to my family - we lived in Seattle for 10 years - the Meca of environmentalism. BUT, when we moved to SC we found our curbside recycling seriously lacking. It only took 1 and 2 plastics, NO bottles, No waxy cardboard (food boxes), etc. In my effort to reduce and recycle things I've felt a lot of guilt about the amount of trash going into my container when it COULD be recycled if someone simply offered it. Well I am guilty no more. About a quarter of a mile from my house I found these lovely blue containers that will accept all of my less than desirable packaging. I am so excited. Next thing to do is set up a recycling box for these things and show my kids where they go. We were down to one large trash container a week (great for a family of 6), but now we can lower that even more.

Beans are ready

2009-05-17T15:27:00.000-07:00

WOOHOO - I have bean ready to pick. I also have ONE grape tomato that is ready, I'm not making fun of that little tomato, because as soon as the rain stops I'm eating it. It is absolutely pouring down today, so I'm going to have to wait. Cheesie and I were trying to find a time when the rain slacked enough to go, but alas it is not meant to be at the moment. So my little beans, and my one tomato will have to be eaten tomorrow.

Lemons and Basil

2009-05-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the serious lack of blogging, all 3 of my blogs have suffered this month. As a teacher, the last month of school brings a million extra things to do, and add into that all of the children's end of year activity parties, etc, and I am NOT living simply, I'm simply surviving.

Yesterday for Mother's Day, my husband and children gave me a lovely little lemon tree and a large potted coneflower. I haven't learned a lot about either one, but a month ago I was admiring the lemon tree because of the fruit on it, so I am looking forward to next year. The dilemma becomes.... where to plant it. I have an expensive goal of removing all of the tall pine trees in my yard (about 12 of them) and I know what that is going to cost.... so the lemon tree may have to enjoy it's pot for a little while longer.

The basil is growing nicely, and had quite a few large leaves (unfortunately I didn't photograph the plant until I picked off about 8 of the large ones). The tasted AMAZING however, when I made mozzarella caprese for dinner tonight. Brian and I enjoy it as an appetizer at restaurants, so I bought some "real" mozzarella and used my basil. Maybe by the middle of summer I will have figured out how to make my own (I hear it isn't too hard), and then use my own, basil, cheese, and tomatoes ......mmmmmmm..... So if you look carefully at our plate (the first one was polished off quickly) and ignore the sloppy tomato juice everywhere, you can see the green peaking through.... I grew that.... and then we ate it.

Also, getting ready to be eaten in a few weeks are all of the tiny grape tomatoes suddenly making their appearance. I haven't grown these before, but we eat so many of them I figured I would give it a shot.

I really enjoyed watching the girls last year discover that food from our garden tasted better than the food from the grocery store. They loved the taste of our cucumbers and peppers, and were very surprised at the actual taste of tomatoes. I've given Brian the ultimatum - this fall he MUST move the butterfly garden so we can expand. I CAN'T WAIT. Hopefully another update tomorrow - I'm starting to get control over the madness that is my schedule (4 more weeks until summer vacation.... and I can do ANYTHING for 4 weeks).

I am NOT a broccoli farmer

2009-04-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

Update for the Growing Challenge - The beans I've started from seed are doing well and are about to be transplanted.... unfortunately they are probably going to have to take the place of the broccoli I planted. I was very excited about a week ago when these tiny little broccoli bunches showed up on a couple of plants.... SADLY they bloomed, and I went to look up what had gone wrong. According to my veggie book, these "bunches" were called buttons, and the book says to rip them out - probably not enough nitrate in my soil. Now, while I love gardening, and only know a small amount of information I know absolutely ZERO about the soil. I'm trying to be enthusiastic about learning, but I still find myself just planting things to try them out. On the other hand, my lettuce is doing very well, and we're going to eat some of it tonight. The tomato plants are going very well, and I'm going to transplant some more peppers into the garden too.

2009-04-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

I totally stole this way of listing our simple living activities from Towards Sustainability - I am totally unoriginal - except for the first one.

Teaching the Next Generation - I finally have my students' "garden" up and running. I have 4 window boxes under grow lights where we're growing "already started" lettuce, onions, green beans and tomatoes. Then each child has two pots from seed of lettuce and green beans. THEY ARE LOVING IT. Today they were commenting on how the bean plant looked like it was unfolding in their peat cups. They find it absolutely cool that they are going to get to eat these - in previous years a seed was put in a cup, and then the cup came home and sat on a windowsill until it dried up from lack of tending. This year we are going to try to eat a salad before they leave for summer. - several have had their parents buy seed for them. One girl ran out and bought seeds, but doesn't have pots or soil. She is watching her yard to see where it is sunniest - I think I'll run by the garden shop to their recycle pots box and grab some big ones for her to use.... I'll try to post pictures of this soon.

Doing - Hanging on for the end of school, and trying to wrap up all of the suburban mom activities that make life anything but simple.

Making - I have a lot of projects to finish.... I need to pick one..... I also still need to make my little girls some more felt food. Maybe I'll do that tonight... hmmmm.... I've posted it, so I better get on it.

In the Garden - lettuce is getting larger and really starting to call to me to snip them. I have Romaine, and Red Leaf lettuce. The Romaine looks almost ready - I think - any suggestions? AND LOOK - I have 4 whole strawberries... better get those before the kids eat them.

Reading - The Omnivore's Dilemma - am I the last one to read this? I've just started, so no opinions yet.

New Growth

2009-04-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

Growing: The azaleas are dropping their blooms, and the veggies are growing just fine. Tonight I was able to catch the beginnings of the possible peaches, and the first little broccoli sprouts. If all of these fuzzy things develop right, then we're going to have to prop up the peach tree - It's only about 3 feet tall this year, but looks to have over 20 peaches on it - last year there were only 6.

The broccoli is also shooting up. I haven't grown this before, so I'm sort of just feeling my way around this.... and trying to keep Blondie and Cheesie from picking it for their Ranch Dip. They aren't quite convinced that the broccoli gets larger.

Sewing - I'm secretly working on some more "play" food for Blondie and Cheesie - okay, it's only been cut out. They have been asking for a couple of the patterns I have, so I hope to get those done this weekend while waiting for soccer games to get started. I may have to postpone it though so I can catch up on school stuff.

Cooking - Nothing significant, but I'm very much working on this whole Menu idea. It does seem to help us eat healthier, and cuts way down on grocery runs. I'm looking forward to later this spring when I can eat some of these delicious veggies.

Planting the garden

2009-04-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

So, I've finally started putting the purchased plants into the ground. We had a freeze last night, and it was hard to wait, but I'm crossing my fingers we'll be okay. So today I planted about 60 sweet onions, 8 broccoli, 8 cauliflower, 12 tomatoes (various varieties), 8 bush bean plants, 2 peppers, and 4 cucumbers. I also planted 9 heads of lettuce in window boxes since the deer/rabbits got to them last year. I'm hoping they will stay safer on the deck. I begin an herb garden with oregano and basil, and still see part of my bay leaf tree growing. I still have more to plant, and think Brian is going to have to build some more boxes for me. I'm going to join the Growing Challenge over at one green generation, although the idea of trying to save seeds is very intimidating. To that end, we have beans growing from seed to add to the garden once cool weather plants start to wither a bit.