so then i said....

so much has changed in the last couple of weeks. so much hasn't changed in the last couple of weeks.

1. we're paperless - no paper napkins, towels or toilet paper and with the exception of a few jokes and a raised eyebrow from a friend, everything has gone smoothly.

2. things are growing - green bean plants were moved from the backyard to the side yard today as were 3 small tomato plants. they looked a little stressed (translation: damn near dead) immediately after transplant but then who doesn't? an unexpected and welcome rain shower helped to perk them up.

3. tonight we ate our first completely homemade meal - there was pizza with homemade sauce and crust, strawberry limeade and for desert honey vanilla ice cream made in my freecycle obtained ice cream maker. months ago i was terrified it would be restaurants & crappy meals for the rest of our lives.

4. i'm working less - in part by choice and in part by circumstance. working for a staffing agency can be unstable. one minute the hospital is begging you to work 16 hour shifts for 5 straight days, the next thing you know there's no work for 2 weeks 'cos corporate just got the bill for the extra shifts. it can be frightening if i let it. after all, there's no more money but the same stack of bills waiting to be paid. it helps to look at what i get in trade. all of the time off means more time with the kids and in the end... when i'm old and gray that's what's going to matter to me.

i've learned that there's more that i can do than i ever thought i could. that i can, slowly, exchange old habits for new healthier ones.

think... thinking... thought

over the last week or so, i've been reading some really great blogs... most of which left me feeling less informed and less interesting that i probably really am. i know that's not the intention of the bloggers but great googly moogly my world is T-I-N-Y! two of my new favorite bloggers are sara at www.walkslowlylivewildly.com and crunchy over at www.crunchychicken.blogspot.com
sara has inspired me to dread my hair... something i've wanted to do for ages but never had the nerve. i was always too worried about what other people would think. heck, i'm getting too dang old to keep worrying about other people's opinions! i've asked mom to do my hair for me. she agreed, however, i think she thinks i'm nuts. so what's new? crunchy is sooooo dang smart! her challeges are fantastic. because of her, we're moving to a paperless household. the paper towels and napkins have been replaced with cloth and starting tomorrow (for the kids. i started over the weekend) we go toilet paperless. they have a lovely little decorative basket chocked full of handy terry cloth squares. they too think i'm nuts but, quite frankly, i think we're at a point in our collective history that if we don't do something fast it's all gonna blow up in our faces.... although, the voice in the back of my head says we're already headed the way every other ancient society that ever graced the planet. we're too big for our britches and one of these days the planet is just gonna shrug us off. happy thoughts....
in the garden the beans and cukes are coming along nicely. the plants all look healthy and sre growing at a fine clip. the watermelon seems to have slowed down. but then again, they havent been getting as much water as the other plants. a couple of day ago i put in some broccoli, okra, tomato and acorn squash seeds. the okra appears to be racing for the sun on tall hungry stalks. i really hope it'll be a good year for the garden. i'd love to see the kids enjoy food they grew and to have them get excited about being able to do that for themselves.

Sunshine, Fresh air and ... socks

Have i mentioned yet how much i like my clothes line? silly little thing, just some rope from Elder Son's camping equipment strung from a couple of hooks where i murdered countless hanging baskets full off unwitting little plants. i like the fresh smell of the clothes, i like knowing i'm not using the energy it takes to run my dryer, i like that i'm saving a little bit of money on my gas bill and i like that it gets me out of doors and doing something. hanging laundry is work but it's not too much work. it's physical but certainly not stressful. i know that when i take down the clothes they'll be folded immediately and put into a basket. the basket full of folded clothes is walked from room to room and the folded clean clothes are deposited on the bed of the owner. i would wash load after load of clothes, stuffing them into and dragging them out of the dryer over and over again. some would get folded, most wouldnt. some would even get rewashed out of nothing more but sheer laziness. now, with the clothes line i do a load, maybe two a day. they hit the line and are forgotten about until the next afternoon when it's time to start again. i really like my clothes line

What a difference a day makes

the beans seem to have the hang of things and went in a very short time from sprouts to bearing their first sets of "real" leaves. the cucumber bed is full of happy, green little sprouts while the watermelon is making a tentative break for the sunshine... goaded along no doubt, by the corn just a fence post away. the lettuces and radishes have taken a beating. it seems their bed is a favorite of the dog and many of the little guys and gals have been trampled. i hear cayanne pepper is a good deterrant for errant pooches. i'll pick some up while we're out the next time. speaking of being out, i finally got my car back from the repair shop to the tune of 2500$. a fair piece of money by any means but when you consider that this is the first time in 8 years i've had serious work done to the car it was well worth it. my car is so shiny and clean, it almost looks new. right now the kids are outside taking the clothes down off the line. one moment they're playing quietly together and the next i hear Middle Son say "let's got take down the clothes." i really am blessed with great kids. this morning Middle Son decided to teach himself algebra. apparently, i'm not moving fast enough for his tastes. he sat down with a highschool level textbook and in a few short minutes had worked his way through the section on angles. the kid is something else.

A busy weekend for all

A quick check of the back beds shows that the lettuces and radishes have already broken the surface while the beans and cucumbers are just starting to make a show of it. Nothing yet from the watermelons. The boys were hard at work this weekend stacking cut branches to dry for later use in the rocket stove Eldest Son will be building as soon as I can lay my hands on a 50 pound bag of cement. Yesterday we hung the clothes line and i dried a few loads of laundry over the line. The sheets came i out (in) smelling fresh and clean without the slightest hint of perfume from the washer. Having only one clothes line for 4 people is limiting and so I would like to put in an umbrella style clothes rack that i can put in the sun. The kids have been working hard this weekend and I'm really proud of them. Girlchild and I planted 4 o'clocks and ornamental gourds along the fence line. The neighbor behind has a lovely, tall fig tree that will eventually begin to hang over the fence further shading a too bright corner of the yard and making it suitable for another small bed. I'm anxious to get my car back. It's been in the shop for more than a week now and while it's shown us that we can get along without transportation at our fingertips, it can be frustrating. I want to buy fruit trees and get them into the ground as soon as I can but without the car... and it just doesn't feel right to mail order them and pay so much in shipping. My list of wants and projects seems to be growing by the day. Now on the list is a solar shower. My grandparents had an outdoor shower and I remember how refreshing it was to be outside in the fresh air with the warm water flowing. There will be time for it all. Nothing has to be finished in a day.

Oh Brave New World

i'm not political. never have been. not that i thought i was anyway. i've never even voted. not once. but when i step back and look at my choices.. homebirth, homeschool, homedeath, home garden... i see that what i've been is very quietly rebelling against the mainstream and the norm. this isnt any different. i see things happening in our world and in our country that have me sitting up and taking notice. i can feel something changing and it's making me uncomfortable. i'm not frightened by it. just the opposite. i'm challenged by it. i see our country taking the same path as the roman empire. we're too big for our britches. telling the rest of the world how to run their lives while at home things are falling apart....literally. the infrastructure is crumbling and we're throwing money at a war we can't possibly win. will my little backyard garden make a difference? certainly not a big one but it will, i hope, change the way my children view the world and their place in it. when i told Middle child when he's outside playing it's perfectly alright to take a leak in the flowerbed he stared at me like i was from the moon. Eldest Son told him quite calmly "Mom's gone hippie, it'll be ok." little do they know, mom hasn't 'gone' anything. mom has been this way as long as she can remember. it's just that mom has (finally) decided to embrace her freedom and herself and stop following the herd.

And we're off...

This morning we planted. I woke up early, around 5:30 to make sure Elder son got up for school. While I was waiting for him to get out of the shower I started to make a wish list for the house and our new direction. I spent a few minutes searching for a local soil farm where i could get a nice healthy mix for the vegetable beds when the thought struck me... what in the world am i doing buying dirt? did wang lung have to buy dirt? heavens no! years ago, when i was young enough to believe i could single handedly save the world with my greenpeace bumpersticker, i had a small compost pile right where i was now planning to put the raised beds. 20 minutes later the beds were filled with fresh, loamy soil that was free and the seeds and sprouted plants were sitting happily... can veggie plants be happy? in their new boxes. Middle son and Girlchild planted cucumber, tomatoe, lettuce, corn, radishes and watermelon. there's one more bed to plant and we intend to fill that one with broccoli, okra and artichokes.