Local, Local, Local

So I just finished reading Eaarth (read it!) and my motivation to eat locally, conserve water, and conserve energy has been given a bit of a kick. (Sidenote: I've been blogging a lot less lately simply because I'm tired with this pregnancy...and my kids have turned a bit psycho on me).

Eaarth focuses primarily on three things: food, water, and energy. Basically, the author explains what we have done to the Earth up to this point and what we must do from now on. In a nutshell, we must start thinking local, local, local. We all knew that, of course, but it never hurts to be reminded.

 Food: I did a little more research on farmers markets in the area. Like I said before, all of the ones in Houston are in the center of Houston (and Houston is a massive sprawling city much larger than LA or New York). HOWEVER, I found one in Tomball. Tomball is a small town outside of Houston and I guess I just never thought to Google "Tomball Farmers Market"...It is less than 10 miles from my house! I will be checking it out this weekend.

So what have we done in our effort to eat local? We went to Gramen Farm to buy goat milk because I am attempting to make cheese. We also bought cow's milk and eggs. However, I have recently acquired a gnat problem and did not want almost cheese hanging from my sink. So, while I was attempting to eradicate the tiny pests (Trying to drown them in vinegar and dish soap did not work. They swarmed the mixture but none committed suicide. I have been spraying them with water and then wiping them up...one by one.) my kids drank all of the goat's milk. The cheese will be made after our next trip to the farm.

However, I did manage to make Sweet and Salty Bacon Cornbread from Good Meat using mostly local ingredients. Local bacon, cornmeal, eggs, butter, and buttermilk. Is there such thing as local salt, sugar (I think most of ours comes from Louisiana), and baking soda (Wyoming)? I don't know....There is certainly plenty of local honey around here so I guess I could substitute that for sugar in a lot of things.

 Energy: The book compares future energy use to CSAs. In other words, we need to start developing local energy (CSEs). Question: How much does it cost to put solar panels on one's house? For now, I am waiting for my current contract to expire with Amigo Energy and then I will switch to Green Mountain. I don't really know what else to do besides conserve...Any ideas?

Water: Let me just say one thing. We must use so much less water than most people simply by being dirty. I wouldn't call it being dirty (please dear God don't let my husband be reading this), just not taking many baths. Another benefit of homeschooling! I've never washed my car before either. We swim in our little plastic pools quite a bit, but then always use that water to water the plants. Still working on a rain barrel...

Right now, I'm also focusing on not using paper towels and on using cloth diapers. I've also thought a lot about y'alls suggestion that I make a pallet compost bin. However, I'm worried about rodents. They are already pretty common here and I don't want to make the situation worse. I know about stuffing the food scraps into the middle and whatnot, but....any other suggestions?

In other sort of related news, I won my first giveaway! And it is the most useful (for me) giveaway ever! I won two books.

This one.

And this one!

I won them from Living Homegrown, a great resource that you should check out if you haven't already. I will definitely be blogging about the books after I receive them. My dad is working on a coop from scraps at "the farm" as I type. Thanks Dad!

This Moment

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. Thanks Soulemama.

Thoughts on Unschooling and Eaarth

This blog has come to consist mostly of a ton of pictures and a few rambling complaints of mine here and there. Today I guess I feel like writing (hopefully someone will read this). After the past two weeks of trying to plan Kindergarten, we are quitting. It's not for us.

I guess it's time for me to admit! ...we are an unschooling family. I've been trying to stay away from labels because I almost always have no clue what they mean. So many people use them in so many different ways. I'm using unschooling to describe us because, FOR ME, it almost means a label for people who have no label. I have tried planning Kindergarten activities, which is all fine and dandy, but executing them is a whole other matter. Kids don't want to do things when we have the time. They want to do whatever they want to do in any given moment. Although they may want to do our activities at some point, it's usually when we do not want to do them. So to hell with the plans (again). Learning, for us, happens best when we just go with the flow. And another thing (not that I was going to teach this). Why do kids learn the Presidents or the capitals of all of the states? Are the schools preparing them for Jeopardy, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? What in the world is the point?

Topic change.

Eaarth is a book that I put on my to read list a while back when I was working as a librarian. I think it was on the Booklist top 10 environmental books of the year or something of that nature. I never picked the book up though until I was reminded of it by Mama Gone Green on her blog. I'm not far into it and already wanting to be a martyr again. You know, the person who makes every perfect "green" decision. Well, I know that's damn near impossible, but I also know that I can try a lot harder (especially in the cloth diaper area). We are already quite green in many areas of our lives. Being poor helps a lot. Also being a homeschooling family, and one that lives very close to my husband's work, helps. The biggest problem I seem to encounter is food. We live in the suburbs, ironically very close to most of the farms that supply the farmers markets in Houston. However, all of the markets are IN Houston! The middle of it. And I don't live particularly close to any of them. So frustrating! There is no way in hell I'm taking all of my kids and driving through traffic (releasing my damn carbon emissions!) to get there. So I do my best with HEB. HEB might be a Texas thing, I'm not sure, but basically it's like a regular grocery store (Kroger, Randalls, etc), and a Whole Foods put together. There is all of the crappy food and all of the organic food. Buying local still becomes a problem. Then there is the dairy farm we go to sometimes for milk and meat (they are always out of eggs), but I can't always afford it. Any suggestions?

Another thing I want to say. I understand the need to support handmade and whatnot, but in the end, if you can't get it locally, your decision to have it shipped across the country (or even the world) is probably not the best. Yes we should support handmade because this is the way people are escaping the corporate world (or modern job world), but we still have to make responsible decisions. If you live in oil country and not in the Pacific Northwest, Maine, Vermont, etc., go to the thrift store and find something!

The other two things that I've been wanting to do FOREVER is get a rain barrel and compost bin. I just need to talk my husband into giving me the money.... As far as our electricity use it is fairly low, but we have to use a/c quite a lot here. Our provider use to be Green Mountain Energy but when we had to cut back all of our bills to the bare minimum I switched to the cheaper Amigo. Maybe we can switch back now.

I have not made it to the part of the book (Eaarth) where the author turns more positive and tells us what we can do, but I'm wondering if it will involve the government. I tend to like to ignore the government. By speaking to them, lobbying them, participating in their elections, I feel as if I am giving them power. Making them feel all important. And they are IDIOTS and I HATE doing that. So what do we do? Change our lives, make our best decisions? I'm not sure. Maybe I will have another post on this topic when I finish the book...

I do know that this book makes one think about life in general, what it should and should not be. For me, it's about spending time with the ones you love, laughing, telling stories, jokes. Not sending them to school, not forcing them to memorize dates of wars, and battles, presidents, or capitals. It's become more about me learning useful skills (gardening, cooking, sewing, preserving,...) so that I can teach those skills to my children (who will likely need them more than ever on our new Eaarth). I'm not a doomsday prepper, but I am a thinking person. And I think we better prepare our children in a way that makes sense. Unschooling makes the most sense to me right now. Live our lives consciously and learn from our experiences. If you made it this far, thanks!

An Egg-Dyeing Spring Garden Party and Naturally Fun Parties for Kids Book Review

So, as most of you know, I have a problem with lying. I can't do it. The truth just seems to come pouring out of my mouth. So when I offered to review Anni Daulter's new book, Naturally Fun Parties for Kids, I thought, OH CRAP! I hope it is good. I don't want to have to write a bad review. Thank goodness, it is great! However, our Easter Egg-Dyeing Party may not have turned out exactly as Anni would have hoped.

In my head I was going to try all of the natural dyes and some of the most delicious looking recipes. In reality, I'm a little broke and only had paprika and coffee in my pantry. So I decided to make those two dyes and I bought the ingredients for the Garden Cooler Lemon-Mint Ice Pops (they were awesome!). As Daulter recommends, I found glass vases at the thrift store (as well as baskets) and I used fabric scraps to decorate and make the lovely fabric banner hanging from the table (it is now hanging above our fireplace).

We started off with the natural dyes..., watching the eggs..., waiting for them to soak.

 Checking on them over and over.

Now, here comes the part Anni probably did not have in mind. (God forgive me), I broke out the Paas.

My girls loved dyeing the eggs, but my son had other plans.

The good thing about naturally dyed eggs is you can eat them after. I didn't exactly want my kids eating the Paas infused eggs, so we made the most of them by having an egg hunt.

 We then, (God forgive me again),  tried juggling them,

 dissecting them,

 and chunking them as far as we could.

I really feel bad about this, but the kids had the best time (please allow me this little justification for my deplorable decision making skills). 

After egg dyeing, more fun was to be had!

And the kids, after waiting oh so patiently for them to freeze, finally got to eat their ice pops!

 Even this scary looking child got some.

Thanks to Anni and her new book, we had an amazing day! Although we didn't follow her ideas exactly, we took what we could and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. What I love best about the book is all of the decorating ideas and recipes. It's practically a cookbook! We will certainly be trying out the artichoke spread and mac and cheese in the very near future (and I'm looking to buy her Organic Family Cookbook now). Although the book is meant for party planning, the ideas can be picked over and used for just about anything. With Anni's help, I'm decorating my house and planning dinner for next week! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

Click here to check it out!

This Moment

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. Thanks Soulemama.

Simple Easter/Spring Gift

Eaden had her first sewing lesson this past week. I read about making cloth napkins on Rhythm of the Home a while back and thought it would be a great first project for the kids. It was!

 We gave some away as Easter/Spring gifts.

 And we had plenty left over for the kitchen table.