Simply Living and Simply Loving

So this weekend

2012-02-13T14:34:00.000-06:00

Whitney Houston died. She was only 48. I listened to her music, often, when I was so very young, but not. (I was just starting college.) I'm not going to discuss anything about the circumstances of her death though, and I am wish her family comfort and strength during their time of loss.

However, her death has brought up something that has been something that I've been dealing with for years.

Maybe it is because my first funeral was for a little girl who was 8, just like me at the time. Maybe it is because my dad had a very major heart attack when he was 38 and I was just 11. (He is still alive though. Amazing, really.) Maybe it is because the Boy died when I was 18. Maybe it is because I went to a dear friend's daughter's funeral when I was still in my early 20s. His daughter was just a year old and died of SIDS.

I don't know. But I've been thinking about death, specifically my death, for a long time.

Like in an obsessive sort of way. Like when I get in the car, I wonder if this is going to be the time that I don't come back home. Like when I write things on a piece of paper, I wonder if I should throw it away so that nobody sees it after I'm dead. Or if I should clean my house that morning because if I don't, maybe I'll die and the EMTs and all my friends and relatives would come over and see what a slob I was.

I must say, The Boy did both help and hurt this kind of thinking. I think, honestly, it was mostly the beginning of it. The little 8 year old girl. It was sad, and awful, but she had been sick for awhile with cancer and so there seemed to be a reason. The Boy - it was just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure that there were things that he had regrets about, but he also had to know that he had done much to help so many other people. He had almost an annoying habit of wanting to help everybody. He always wanted to make others feel good about themselves (well, except for the time that he broke up with me. For a year. I guess he got over it then. LOL) He was also so funny. He could make me laugh, even when I didn't want to. And most importantly, he could make me see that there was more to life than the little tiny detail that I was stressing about that really wouldn't matter in the grand scheme of things. He taught me that true friendship was more important than most things. He taught me a lot. And then he died. He was almost 20. Much too young to die.

And so it began, probably, way back then. At first, I was just thinking about death in terms of "I just want to die so I can be with him." or "I better be perfect so that I can be with him." or "I just want to die because I am so tired of being without him." or I just want to die because I'm so tired of hurting."

I didn't die that first year afterwards though. The 2nd year afterwards, I tried. Not in that way, but I lived a pretty self-destructive life that next year. I'm still amazed that I survived.

And then there were "the lost years" as I call them. I am in contact with ONE, yes, ONE person who I knew over the next 5 years. (Well, that doesn't include my family. Who thankfully put up with me.) I was sad and lost and destructive and lonely. For 5 years. I remember thinking back then that I couldn't believe that this is what life was like. It seemed like living like this for another 50 -60 years would be nothing short of torture. But I didn't die then either.

And I then I moved. And I met people. And I did things. And I was happier. But I still thought about Death. More than the usual person, probably. I told a friend around this time "I think I'll probably die before I'm 34." I hoped that I would at least find someone else to love before I died.

And at 28, I did find someone. And we got married. And 4 months into our marriage, I almost died.

Mr. Simple was driving and I was talking to him. There was a stoplight coming up, and it was yellow already, so he slowed down and was coming to a stop and then all of a sudden, I noticed we were spinning. And then there was glass everywhere. And I couldn't really move. We had been hit from behind when we were almost stopped by a semi-truck that was going 65 miles (which was at least 20 miles more than the speed limit) hour. He tried to go around, and ended up smashing into my side of the car and the seats fell back on the crumpled part of the car, and I came down, on my neck on the headrest of the car, which was now bent at a 90 degree angle. They thought I'd broke my neck. But I didn't. I just stretched all the muscles in my upper back and neck area so much that I needed physical therapy for a year. But I didn't die then.

But my thinking got worse for a few years after that. I kept thinking that I would die - falling off the train platform in Chicago, or in a plane crash. Or something way more random like a bucket falling off the window washer's platform from 40 feet up and landing on my head. I know, it is funny. Sort of.

And then I become a mother. And even funny ways of dying don't seem that funny. No mother wants to miss seeing her children's lives. No mother wants to leave her children, especially when they are young. And I've known women, women who got cancer and died. Or women who were in car accidents. And so when I think of dying, it is almost painful now. Now I don't want to die. Ever.

I know, after all these years of thinking that I will die young, then I'll end up dying at 90. And I know, that at 45, I'm not as young as I used to, although still young enough. And maybe, I should spend more time thinking about the good things that I've learned from all those I know (and even don't know) that die young.

1 - Try. You may be able to reach goals that are higher than you can imagine.
2 - Always tell people that you love them.
3 - Forgive.
4 - Laugh often.
5 - Don't take the small things too seriously.
6 - Don't put things off.
7 - Be honest.
8 - Help others.
9 - Smile and say Thank You. Often.
10 - Have Fun, Do Good.

All good things come to an end . . .

2012-02-08T11:21:00.002-06:00

No, I'm not stopping blogging here.

I'm closing Montgomery Academy.

This is a big deal. I started Montgomery Academy way, way back in January of 2003. I started it because I didn't have enough money to send Flower (3 at the time) to preschool and I decided to teach her at home, but I was afraid if it was just here that I wouldn't do it. Or at least not consistently. So I ~~begged~~ asked a couple of my friends to send their 3 year olds over and I would teach them for 2.5 hours on Tuesday and Thursdays. I had decided to use the Montessori Method and from the time I started, I fell in love with the method.

And the first year was great. I figured out so much about how to be a preschool teacher, what seemed to work, what didn't, what I needed to buy, what I didn't, etc. And during that first year, word spread like wildfire.

By the time we opened in the fall of 2003, I had to offer two sessions, a MWF session and a Tues/Thursday session. And so that the kids could get real practice with their practical life skills, I started offering lunch too. I had 11 kids that I was teaching that year, including Flower. We had so much fun that year. We had the "Jelly Bean" schedule that year too where the moms would rotate who got to watch Jelly Bean (she was almost 2 by this point) during preschool time so that I would be able to devote my attention to the preschool kids. And Jelly Bean has always been, uh, a little busy, so it worked out well to have her have her own thing and for me to be able to concentrate on teaching. We had our first set of siblings this year (a pair of sisters that were 18 months apart, but one year apart in school - they were also our next door neighbors, so this was extra fun!) I also started offering Summer "camps" that year where we would spend a week talking about a certain topic.

The third year (fall of 2004) I took off during the fall because Super had just been born. We spent the fall just hanging out with just the 3 of us - Flower was newly 5 (but missed the school deadline), Jelly Bean was almost 3, and Super was of course, newborn. But we started up again in the January of 2005. Jelly Bean was joining us by this time too.

Fall of 2005, Flower was off to Kindergarten at public school, and Jelly Bean was at Montgomery Academy in earnest. That year was a little smaller, and I just offered a MWF class. But it was a fun class, and we had a sibling that year of one of the original group.

Oh, just as an aside, in the history of Montgomery Academy, we have had a very small percentage of boys. I don't know if there were just less boys in my circle of friends and to those that I was referred to, but out of the 50 plus children that I taught over the years, less than 10 were boys. And often times, there would be just one boy a year.

Anyway, we were up to Fall of 2006 by now. Super was a little less busy than Jelly Bean and I was getting better at managing a toddler with preschoolers, so he usually hung out with us too. I was starting to feel like I really knew what I was doing now. We also had another set of (girl!) siblings this year. We were back to a MWF and a Tues/Thurs group.

Fall of 2007, Jelly Bean joined Flower at public school (Flower was now in 2nd grade and Jelly Bean started kindergarten) This was a great year. Most of the kids in this class knew each other from church and other contacts and it was a really close group. And I'm a sucker for preschoolers singing anyway, but oh my goodness, this group was especially cute. And then, this year, I added daycare. At first it was just one 3 year old student. But it was the beginninng of a transition for Montgomery Academy.

In July 2008, I had someone else ask me about daycare - this time for a newborn. And another person ask about their 3 year old. And I said yes. So by Fall of 2008, I had 3 full-time daycare children along with one of the girl siblings (her sister went to Kindergarten) that stayed sometimes in the afternoon too. The newborn usually slept during preschool time and otherwise just hung out with us, so it wasn't as hard. Plus I'd often had a newborn of my own that I was managing while doing Montgomery Academy, so it wasn't that hard. But now I was working really full time. I had 3, sometimes 4 children (in addition to Super) that I was watching in the afternoons, plus preschool only children in the morning, some MWF and some Tues/Thursday. If it sounds confusing, it was! Oh, I also started homeschooling Flower that year!

Then Fall of 2009 brought the most change of all. We started homeschooling - in a serious way. We had Montgomery Academy Elementary - for Flower (who was in 4th grade) and Jelly Bean (in 2nd) as well as my sister's children (in 5th and 3rd). Thankfully, my sister also came over LOL and she would teach the homeschoolers in the morning and entertained the toddlers (the now 1 year old full time daycare child plus she had a one year old herself) while I taught the preschool age kids. Then the toddlers/preschool kids would nap in the afternoon while I taught the homeschoolers in the afternoon. I started watching another sibling! - this time the sibling of the original daycare child and it was another newborn. It was a crazy busy year, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. It was really wonderful to have the opportunity to teach both preschool and elementary and I got to know my sister and her children even better.

Fall of 2010 was another big year of change - but in an opposite direction. Flower went back to public school for 5th grade and Super went to Kindergarten. I also still had the original newborn, but he was now a big 2 year old! I had two 2 year olds start that year too - both full time. I was homeschooling just Jelly Bean that year. And I had the newborn too, although she was now 1. And I had no preschool only children that year. In the spring, I had another set of (girl! 3 and 1 years old) siblings start. I was, after all these years, still using the Montessori method, but we really started using the Waldorf method much more this year too. And after blogging regularly at the Montgomery Academy blog for a couple years, I basically stopped blogging over there. I had our routines and things that we did almost every day/every month and it just wasn't that interesting anymore to blog when so little changed.

And now Fall of 2011. Just a few months ago. All of my children went to public school. It was the first since I'd had children (and stopped working outside the home) that I hadn't had at least one child at home. I started to think about Montgomery Academy. A lot. I had started it, really, to enable me to be with my children. And now, all my children were in public school. I had one preschool only child again,, The girl siblings (now 4 and 2) were full-time, but just on MWF. And the original newborn that was 3, and the second newborn who was 2. But Mr. Simple had lost his job in June. I decided to keep Montgomery Academy going, at least for one more year.

And then Mr. Simple started his own business. And then I started Simply Living In The City. And then my friend asked me to do some freelance training. And then someone else asked me to do some freelance writing. And then I started to plan to do even more with Simply Living In The City. All the while, I was still trying to do Montgomery Academy. Oh yea, and be a mother to my children. And I was failing pretty bad at that one. I was so busy with Montgomery Academy or with my businesses that I couldn't volunteer at their schools, I often couldn't take them to their activities, heck, I often wasn't getting dinner on the table.

It was a mess. So I decided to take a week off at the end of January and do a lot of thinking/meditating/praying, etc. But I already knew the answer. It was time to close Montgomery Academy.

So Friday March 2nd will be my last day as a teacher/daycare provider at Montgomery Academy. It is with a lot of sadness, but quite a bit of excitement as I start on this new path.

Thank you to all those who entrusted your children in my care over the years - either as a teacher or daycare provider or both. I have truly loved the experience and loved being with your children. I wish you and your families nothing but the best in the future.

And who knows, maybe you'll be able to say "You know that famous author/presenter/teacher who does Simply Living In The City? My child went to her house and did preschool!" Just kidding.

Mostly. :)

Simply Living and Simply Talking?

2012-01-20T10:54:00.000-06:00

I was reading this blog lately and I was reading the post about how she doesn't really like to talk that much.

And it made me think about myself.

I've always loved to write. And when I was a kid, I strongly preferred writing to talking. Well, let me clarify that. I didn't mind talking to grown-ups. Or people who were older than I was. But people in my class? No. I didn't love to talk to kids my own age.

Not that I thought that I was better than them. I just couldn't think of anything to say to them. And so often, kids were already talking to each other and I didn't want to have to interrupt, especially if I couldn't think of anything to say in the first place. But I never had the problem with people older than me. I could always think of something to say to them. And they (probably) humored me and talked to me and I loved that. People from my grade school/junior high/high school probably would describe me as nice, but quiet. (Or weird and quiet. I'm not sure.)

College and early adulthood was hard for me. Now, I was around my peers a lot. And I also had the pressure of wanting to meet someone to go out with/to marry/to have babies with, which was more situations where you know, you had to talk to someone. I retreated to my studies or my work and would sometimes go days without having a social conversation.

Things got a little better as I muddled through my mid-twenties. And then, at 28, I met Mr. Simple. And you are thinking "Oh, and he is really gregarious, etc. and brought you out of your shell." Nope. He knows LOTS of people and so he is forever running into people he knows, and so he is a friendly person, but in most ways, he is just like me. He isn't the person who starts a conversation in a group. He doesn't have long phone conversations.

But I liked talking to him :) And we fell in love and got married. But I still wasn't a big talker. Certainly not in groups. Certainly not in front of people I didn't know. Certainly not in groups of people my age.

And then I had kids. And you are thinking "Oh, and that is when things changed."

And you would be right.

Somehow, once I became a mom, I talked to other moms. About all kinds of stuff. Stuff I never imagined that I would talk about with other people. And that was a great first step. I finally was talking to my "peers."

And I'd go places and I felt like I fit in more because I had something in common with most people in the room. I had a child. (But trust me, I'm not one of those people who would talk ONLY about my kid at say, a Christmas business party or whatever.) But something about becoming a mom just made me more comfortable about being around other people.

Also, at the same time I had my first child, I become a computer software trainer. And almost every day for 4 years, I was up in front of people talking. And I was the expert! I was the person that had answers to their questions (well, I didn't always have the answers, but most of the time I did!) After 4.5 years of that, I had lost any hesitation about talking in front of a group.

So now, 12 years after I had my first child?

Well, my kids, for sure, think I'm a talker. In fact, they talk about how embarrassing it is that I carry on a 3-4 minute conversation with the clerk at Target or how I'll sit and chat with someone that I just met at Farmers Market.

And I'd have to say I'm a talker too. I love, of course, talking to people who live a similar lifestyle to mine, but I love talking to people who don't too. I just love to hear how people approach life. How they think. How they get through the day.

Of course, I love to write too. I've written here for a few years. I've written in journals off and on over the years. I've written stories and I've written poems.

But I think at this point, if I had to choose between writing and talking, I'd choose talking.

How I have changed since I started writing on this blog . . .

2012-01-17T15:55:00.000-06:00

I have a friend who was recently celebrating her 43rd birthday (youngster LOL. I'm 45!) and she was complaining about how she had noticed that she needed to use reading glasses sometimes. And we were laughing and saying how she needed a chain so she could wear them around her neck, like my piano teacher always did.

I was thinking that I wasn't 40 when I started this blog, but you know what? I was! I was actually just turned 42! I started this blog way back in August of 2008. Sometimes, that sounds like a lifetime ago, and sometime it sounds like it was just a few months ago.

So how have I changed in the past few years?

- Well, workwise, things have only recently changed, and not completely. Back in 2008, I had recently started having full-time daycare students instead of just teaching preschool out of my home. I'm still doing daycare/preschool now, but I've been doing some freelance training and I'm working to so that Simply Living In The City will be its own business (classes, online store and book!)

- Speaking of Simply Living In The City, I think I knew that I wanted to do something like that way back in 2008, but didn't really understand how to make it a reality. Plus, I was relatively new to the "simple living" scene myself. I was still trying to find my way and discover how to make the simple life work for our family.

- Mr. Simple's work has changed over the years. In 2008, he was in his 8th year of working as a fire inspector/public safety officer for our city's fire department. In 2010, he took another job working as a manager of media relations for a large company (no, not THAT large company in my city), and then he became unemployed in June of 2011. But he has since started his own business, and is doing quite well! In 2008, he was also broadcasting for the local arena football team, and he continues to do that as well as starting as the broadcaster for the basketball team too.

- My kids (sniff!) have grown up a lot since August 2008. Super was 3, almost 4 when I started and Jelly Bean was 6, and Flower was 8, almost 9. Now they are 7, newly 10, and 12! I don't have "little" kids anymore. They are still mostly "simple" kids though. Flower has an iPod Touch (that she bought herself) and we were gifted a Kinect by a generous family member in December, but my kids still LOVE to play outside, still LOVE to read, still LOVE to make gifts and still LOVE to spend hours drawing (especially Jelly Bean.) But lest you think that they are "simply perfect", they also appear to LOVE to annoy each other too. :)

- When I started blogging, I was starting out my first year of homeschooling and it was just Flower. The next year, it was Jelly Bean and Flower. Last school year, it was just Jelly Bean. And this school year? Everyone is in public school. I miss homeschooling. I still, every once in awhile, wonder if we made the right decision.

- I have really made great strides in living a simple life that fits OUR life. Which for us, means thrifting for clothes and housewares. Buying less. And when we do, it is a NEED. And it is something that fits our lifestyle, so it probably means that it is quality. And natural materials. But bought as frugally as possible. Eating whole foods. Using our cars less and walking and biking more. Learning how to make things. Like dairy products. Soap. Dishcloths. Mustard. Tomato sauce :) Learning to make the best use of our space inside and outside of our home. Coming to peace with living in THIS home and in THIS city.

- When I started this blog, we had just started digging out of the financial hole we were in. Being mostly debt-free still seemed impossible. And we only had one car back then (and it was not paid for either.) Now we have two cars (both paid for), and no debt besides our mortgage. We pay cash for everything. We save up if we don't have all the money. Or we decide we don't need it.
- I have had bumps in my relationships in the past few years. But I'm pleased to say that I haven't lost a relationship with anyone. (At least I don't think so!) Some have faded a little, and some I'm still trying to figure things out, some are new, and some are stronger than ever.

- I've had some loss over the years. I lost our son to stillbirth, actually a few months before I started this blog. I'm not as sad as I was in those early days of his loss, but I still think of him every day. And I still wish that he had lived. I lost my grandmother in September 2009.

- I have had some health problems over the years. I had a heart scare in early 2010 and then I lost a bunch of weight in 2010 and 2011. Also in 2010 and early 2011, I was dealing with terrible allergies & sinus infections. And I was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2010 and had it removed in early 2011. And I was diagnosed with Meniere's in Fall of 2010. And 2011 was the year that I got tendinitis. And burned 25% of my body. Here is to hoping to a healthier 2012!

- There have been other changes, in particular one that took place in 2011, but I'm not ready to share about EVERYTHING yet. Baby steps. I didn't used to share anything personal here, and so I've made changes with sharing things more here too, I guess.

But I am happier. Happier than I was in 2008. And we are better off financially than we were in 2008. And we are simpler too. Oh, and older too. But I still don't need reading glasses. :)

MY list of Kitchen Staples

2012-01-12T13:19:00.000-06:00

These are items that I like to have in my kitchen. I don't always have ALL of them. Also, I didn't include staples like fruit, vegetables, meat, etc. I'll put that on another list soon. I'd like to say that I can find them all easily at one store. Not the case in my city. Well, that might not even be true. There is a upscale grocery store that I have been in exactly once. You might be able to find every thing there. But I go to a couple of grocery store, health food store and a couple ethnic stores to get everything that I want.

Oils
- Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Organic Palm Shortening
- Organic Almond Oil
- Organic Flax Seed Oil
- Organic Hemp Seed Oil
- Organic Walnut oil

Vinegars
- Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar
- Organic Red Wine Vinegar
- Organic White Wine Vinegar
- Organic Balsamic Vinegar

Salts/Seasonings
- Unrefined Sea Salt
- Wheat-free Tamari
- Miso
- Shoyu

Condiments (I make most/all of my own)
- Organic Ketchup
- Organic Banana Pepper Mustard
- Organic Barbecue Sauce
- Organic Veggie Relish

Sweeteners
- Agave Nectar
- Blackstrap Molasses
- Honey
- Maple Syrup
- Whole Cane Syrup
- Date Sugar
- Stevia

Basic Herbs
- Parsley
- Sage
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Oregano
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Ginger
- Cayenne Pepper
- Curry
- Turmeric
- Ground Cumin

Nuts/Seeds (I keep these stored in the fridge)
- Cashews
- Almonds
- Walnuts
- Pine Nuts
- Pumpkin Seeds
- Sunflower Seeds

Nut/Seed Butters
- Organic Peanut Butter
- Organic Almond Butter
- Organic Sesame Tahini

Whole Grains (all gluten free/mostly gluten free)
- Short Grain Brown Rice
- Millet
- Quinoa
- Amaranth
- Buckwheat
- Teff
- Rolled Oats

- Popcorn

Flours (I keep these stored in the fridge or freezer)
- Whole Wheat Flour
- Amaranth Flour
- Teff Flour
- Buckwheat Flour
- Tapioca Flour

Dried Beans
- Black Beans
- Chick Peas
- Kidney Beans
- White Beans
- Pinto Beans
- Lentils
- Split Peas

Other
- Organic Vanilla Extract
- Almond Extract
- Lemon Flavoring
- Organic Chocolate Chips
- Organic Cocoa Powder
- Agar Flakes
- Arrowroot Powder
- Tapioca Pearls
- Xantham Gum

MY list of kitchen essentials . . . .

2012-01-08T22:04:00.000-06:00

You are welcome to disagree, but here is my list of kitchen essentials (cookware, bakeware, appliances, gadgets, etc.) This list includes what you would need to do basic cooking and baking. It does not include specialty items needed for making your own dairy, or preserving your own food, etc.

NOTE: I do not currently own all of these items in my own kitchen. But I'd like to! :)

Next post: Essential Kitchen Staples (flours, sweeteners, oils, etc.)

Cookware
OK, there are 4 pots and pans that I would consider a "must have":

- 8 qt. stainless steel stockpot
- 10 inch stainless steel skillet (or cast iron)
- 3 qt. stainless steel saucepan
- some sort of cast iron dutch oven

You could cook most things if you had those three items. But there are a longer list of what I consider "very nice to have":

- 8 inch stainless steel skillet
- 12 inch stainless steel skillet
- 1.5 qt. stainless steel saucepan
- 2 qt. stainless steel saucepan
- 6 qt. stainless steel stockpot
- 10 or 12 inch cast iron skillet

Bakeware
I'd say minimum is a 9 x 13 baking dish, a cookie sheet, a pie plate, and either a round cake pan or a square baking pan. But here are the "nice to have":

- 10 x 14 inch glass or stone baking dish
- 9 x 13 inch glass or stone baking dish
- 8 inch x 8 inch glass or stone baking dish
- 9 inch glass or stone pie plate
- 10 inch glass or stone pie plate
- Two stone or stainless steel cookie sheets
- stone or stainless steel muffin tin
- stone or stainless jelly roll pan
- stone or stainless steel pizza pan
- 9 inch stainless steel round cake pan

Electric appliances
I guess I'd consider most of these "nice to have" instead of "must have", but pretty high on the "nice to have."

- Immersion blender
- Blender
- Food Processor
- Hand mixer or Stand mixer

Preparation/Gadgets
Hard for me to pick my "must have" on this list. I'd really consider almost all of them a "must have."

- Paring knife
- Serrated knife
- Chef knife
- Kitchen shears
- Meat mallet
- Mandoline
- Grater
- Microplane
- Fine mesh strainer (both small and large)
- Colander
- Can opener
- Cork screw
- Bottle opener
- Garlic press
- Rolling pin
- Meat thermometer
- Candy thermometer
- Oven thermometer
- Freezer thermometer
- Stainless steel long handled spoon
- Stainless steel long handled fork
- Stainless steel slotted spoon
- Stainless steel pancake turner
- Stainless steel spatula
- Stainless steel whisk
- Stainless steel ladle
- Stainless steel tongs
- Stainless steel measuring cups
- Stainless steel measuring spoons
- 4 cup, 2 cup, and 1 cup glass measuring cups
- Silicone spatula
- Wooden spoons
- 1 large wooden cutting board for fruit and vegetable
- 1 large plastic cutting board for meat
- 1 medium plastic cutting board for dairy
- Glass mixing bowl set
- Metal mixing bowl set

Well, a more everyday post to start out 2012

2012-01-01T20:48:00.001-06:00

I feel like I should do a top ten list of things that happened in 2011. Or 2011 photo review. And I'll do that. Just not tonight.

And don't worry, this isn't some "heavy" post either.

Well, I guess it could be, depending on how you look at it. :) I'm thinking about cookware lately. And kitchen utensils. I know, really exciting. But that's the type of stuff that thrills me lately. :)

I have been weeding out my aluminum and Teflon pots and pans this year (I even said good-bye to my aluminum dutch oven this year!) and getting rid of plastic and silicone utensils. I had already eliminated almost all my plastic containers - I use glass jars for almost everything now.

With my cookware, I have had a cast iron 3 qt. dutch oven/10 inch skillet combo for a few years now, but I wanted to add more pots and pans to my kitchen, either with cast iron or stainless steel. So this year, I've added a 14 inch stainless steel skillet, a stainless steel double boiler, a cast iron 12 inch skillet, a 12 inch stainless steel skillet, a 12 qt. stainless steel stockpot, and a1 .7 qt. cast iron/enamel saucepan as well as a stoneware deep dish baker, a large stone round stone, and a cast iron/enamel dutch oven . Almost all were thrifted/garage sale or bought on clearance/sale too. I'd love to pick up a couple more stainless steel saucepans, another smaller stainless steel stockpot, and some stoneware bread pans and, as well as a cast iron griddle/grill. But overall, I'm pretty pleased with what I've acquired so far. I could really use a pot rack now. Especially in my tiny kitchen with its very limited storage space.

With utensils, I've picked up a stainless steel ladle, a stainless steel spoon with long handle, and a stainless steel turner. Oh and stainless steel measuring cups and measuring spoons. I'd love to pick up a stainless steel slotted spoon and stainless steel tongs. [ETA: I bought a stainless steel slotted spoon and tongs today!]

Oh, and I'd LOVE to get a good cutlery set. We have an inexpensive set, and now that I'm cooking and preparing MUCH more food from scratch, I have found that I really could use at least a few good quality knives.

But some days, I just stand in my kitchen and smile. I have managed to pick up lots of good cookware this year. I've managed to eliminate lots of extra packaging. I've moved to almost exclusively glass for storage. I cook from scratch almost always. I even make lots of my own dairy now! We use stoneware for our plates, glass for our drinking glasses, and stainless steel for our utensils. We are almost entirely non-disposable (no paper plates, cups, napkins, etc.) It is a tiny kitchen, but I am making the best of the space, I think.

Next post will be a top ten list, OK? Or 2011 photos in review. Or maybe I'll talk about yarn. 'Cause this is my blog and that's how I roll. :)

This will probably be my last post . . . of 2011

2011-12-30T09:23:00.000-06:00

Knowing me, and my life, I probably won't get back here tomorrow. And I have a moment to post right now, so I thought I would.

2011. It was an interesting year. I lost a lot of weight in 2011, but I'll be honest, I've put a little back on.

Which goes to the second thing of 2011. Instead of illness this year, this was the year of injuries. I was doing fantastic with exercise until May of 2011. Great. I was running and I was doing my Body Combat classes and my Body Pump classes. Loved it. And then I got tendinitis in my foot. And despite trying to cut back and using anti-inflamatories, it still hurt. All the time. So I decided to take a little break from exercise. Just for June. And maybe July. It would have been fine. Except that I burned myself at the end of July. Then I couldn't exercise for another two months. Now, it would be September. And I did go a few times in September. But then, I had outpatient surgery in October. I'd really start again in November. Except then, I got crazy busy. So here it is the end of 2011, and I really haven't regularly since early May. Ugh. But I have a plan. And I will get back to it. I was so consistent in 2010 and half of 2011. I know that I can get back to my exercise plan. And it is so much easier for me to follow a healthy food plan when I'm exercising.

The kids went back to public school this year. That has been different. I don't know if I'll homeschool again. I miss it a lot, but I always said that I wanted to do what is right for my kids. But I'm hoping that it isn't totally the end. I mean, Super is only in first grade, so if it is the right thing for him, maybe we will homeschool at some point. Speaking of the kids, maybe I should update a little about them.

Flower? She is 12. And in 6th grade. And a great kid, really. But I definitely see glimpses of teenager-hood coming through. And she bought herself an iPod Touch this Christmas. And the texting has begun. But she still likes to hang out with her family. And she still loves to read. And she still loves to sing.

Jelly Bean. Hmm. It has been a busy year for her. She is in 4th grade and has homework for the first time in her life. She started competitive swimming in September and she practices 4 times a week. She is moving up to the next level next month and then her practices will move from an hour to two hours. I worry a little about burn out, but she LOVES it and says that swimming is the only thing that makes her happy, so for right now, we are going ahead. She turned 10 this month. I can't believe she is already a whole decade!

Super. Maybe I should rename him Super Wild. No, he isn't that bad. Most of the time anyway. He loves Super Heroes now. A lot. So his blog name is more fitting than it used to be. He is forever jumping off things too. And he loves to create things out of scraps. He calls them "his inventions." He used to make "inventions" by connecting his toys together in various ways. Quite the creative little guy.

I don't have resolutions exactly for 2012. But I do have a checklist/to do list/plans for 2012. Is that the same as resolutions? I don't know. A lot of it has to do with SLITC and turning it into a business. And then most of the rest has to do with incorporating simple living even more into my life. But a big item on my to do list is to learn to enjoy myself more. Relax sometimes. Laugh more. Try not to be so serious all the time. Make more time for friends. Make more friends. And maybe sleep more too. :)

So tired my teeth hurt . . .

2011-12-14T16:35:00.001-06:00

I said that in a Facebook post earlier this week. And I was. And I am. I have busier this December than I would really like to be. BUT there are reasons for the busyness. It IS intentional, which to me, somehow feels better than when I just let my/our schedule get filled with too many lovely, but not necessary, things.

But my December has filled with watching children (this isn't new), taking care of the Simple Family (also not new), trying to live a simple life (also not new) PLUS I am doing some freelance training for 2-3 hours most days (new) AND I'm trying to build a small business (new).

What small business do you ask? Well, most of my readers probably already know about it, but I'll share here now too. I was going to wait until things were a little further along, but I am going to go ahead and share what it is AND what I envision it becoming.

Over the years, I have taught some class in "simple living" through those Women Living Wisely classes. However, my friend Joy and I stopped offering them a couple years ago. I, however, continued to get requests over the years to learn how to do things like preserving food or crocheting or making laundry soap. I wanted to, but never really got around to organizing anything.

Then in August, after yet another person said something to me about it, I decided, I am going to do it. I'm going to start offering classes. And so I started a Facebook page about it (You can like us at http://www.facebook.com/SimplyLivingInTheCity) and titled it Simply Living In The City. I called it that because it sort of went along with my blog here, but it also opened it up for me to talk about learning "simple skills" in any urban setting. It is basically "urban homesteading" - but I am unable/uninterested in having chickens/goats/bees, etc. in my backyard so I don't talk about/teach classes on those topics. And I decided to have a topic of the day, so each day I post something about gardening. Or soapmaking. Or canning. Or sewing. You get the idea. I love hearing how other people are trying to live a Simple Life. Their Way.

I decided to offer my first class on the third Friday of September. I decided to do Preserving Food, since it was that time of year anyway. I posted about the upcoming class on on the Facebook page. And my personal FB page. And a local entrepreneur FB page. And crossed my fingers. And people came.

I made a blog for Simply Living In the City (You can check it out at http://simplylivinginthecity.wordpress.com) for recipes and tutorials and handouts and pictures and videos. I'll be honest and say that I haven't been able to update it as much and as often as I would like, but that will be changing after the new year.) I will blogging most days over there - but don't worry, I'll still post here. I still want to talk about MY family and how we are living the simple life. Or to post 700 pictures of our trip to Disney World. :)

I taught a class in October about Making Your Own Dairy (so, so easy, and so, so fun!) and then November was Beginning Crocheting and Knitting. Yep, I learned how to knit! I've made TWO dishcloths so far. (Hold your applause, please!) And on this Friday, I'll be teaching a class on Making Your Own Soap. They are held every third Friday, and I've got them scheduled through next August.

And after that? I'll be offering the same type of classes, but at the local community college. Right now, I'm offering the classes for free, but next fall, I'll be making money from it. Not a ton, but that isn't REALLY my goal. I'd like to cover my costs, and a little more, but mostly, I just want to help people learn how to do things like garden. Or use a pressure canner. Or make a t-shirt quilt.

And that's not all. (Oh, that not all! LOL) I will be also opening an on-line store! I am hoping to open in February and you can go there to get all sorts of "Simply Living" supplies. Cast iron dutch ovens, water bath canner, gardening netting, organic yarn, yogurt cultures. That sort of thing. Right now, I have to go to several brick and mortar/online stores to get all the "Simply Living" supplies I need, and I'm guessing that plenty of people have to do the same, and so I wanted to create a place where you could find everything (well, most things) in one place. I'll keep you posted on our grand opening, hopefully sometime in February 2012!

AND I'm working on a book. I've been working on it off and on, and now I'm definitely on. I'm writing and looking for a publisher.

So I'm busy. And in case you hadn't noticed, it is also the holiday season. I am trying to find snippets of time to work on gifts, so that fills what very little free time I have left.

But I'm also intentionally slowing down soon. From December 21st until December 27th I'm not working on ANYTHING but gifts and spending time with my family.

But until then, yea, I'm a little tired . . .

Daybook: December 6th

2011-12-09T20:54:00.001-06:00

I tried to publish this post on the 6th, but I was having all kinds of problems. So you get my daybook post from the 6th on the 9th. Better late than never?

*********

I haven't done a daybook in who knows how long, so I thought I'd do one more before the end of 2011.

I am thankful for ... that I've been able to do some freelance training lately. It makes my day very busy since I am still doing preschool/daycare too, but I really, really enjoy doing training again. I didn't realize how much I've missed it until I started doing it again.

From the learning rooms ... Well, I just have the one learning room now since I just have the preschoolers. We decided in the fall to have all three children go to public school. I miss homeschooling, but I still feel like we have made the right decision for our family. Anyway, we are learning about the letter G, the color green, Europe, winter, evergreen trees, and rectangles.

From the kitchen ... I made a semi-homemade apple pie the other day, and we made homemade french vanilla ice cream tonight to go with it. I love making our own ice cream. So, so good and I love knowing what exactly I am eating. Not to mention the fact that I can make any kind of ice cream I want!

I am wearing... white turtleneck, blue t-shirt, and sweats. Wool socks. I am more dedicated to warmth than I am to fashion. :)

I am creating... lots of gifts.

I am going... hmm. I don't go out much lately. I keep really busy around the house between watching the daycare children and the freelance training and creating presents, and oh, lots of stuff. Stuff I still need to talk about here. Anyway, I don't go much of anywhere these days.

I am reading... The Seasons on Henry's Farm. It is about year on a sustainable farm that is close to my house. I'm not very far into it yet, but it is definitely my kind of book.

I am hoping... that there is more peace. In my life, in our family, in the world.

I am hearing... not much. I am writing this post in the evening after everyone has gone to bed.

Around the house... things are quite festive! I decorated early this year. I usually wait until well into December, but this year, Flower talked me into decorating the day after Thanksgiving. We are celebrating Advent this year, but in a very, very simple way this year. We are mostly just enjoying being together this month.

One of my favorite things... Well, not to be too corny or anything, but one of my favorite things lately is just living the Simple Life more. I am creating more and more things by hand, I am more self reliant, I am more frugal. Sometimes living the Simple Life makes me feel poor or resentful. But not lately. Lately, it makes me feel happy. And content.

Homecoming 2011

2011-12-02T23:28:00.001-06:00

We live in Normal, Illinois (yes, I've heard all the jokes. Yes, we allow abnormal people to live here too.) Anyway, Normal is home to Illinois State University. ISU is also the university where I got my bachelor's degree and my masters degree. And the university that I worked at for 5 years. And the place where Mr. Simple got HIS bachelors and masters degree. AND we also had our wedding reception in the student center ballroom.

So yes, we have lots of ties to the university. We used to take the kids to the Homecoming Parade when they were small, but we hadn't been back for a few years until last year, and then I took the kids to the parade, and then I took them on a tour of campus, and then we even went to the Homecoming game! It was really fun.

This year, we didn't have time to attend the Homecoming game, but the kids all wanted to go to the parade again. So here are some pictures of ISU Homecoming 2011!

My little Redbirds! They are spelling ISU!

The ISU Marching Band. They always win lots of national awards.

The Homecoming King and Queen at the top of a fire engine.

Normal, Illinois is also home to Mitsubishi Motors US plant. This is a picture of the Mitsubishi Electric car - called the Mi-EV.

Oh, and a tractor. You can't have a parade in Illinois without having a tractor in it :)

The Prairie Pipes & Drums band. This was SO cool in person.

I have almost my whole life in college towns. I've lived in THIS college town off and on (mostly on) for the past 20 years. I must say, I do prefer living in a college towns too. And it is weekends like this that make it really fun to live in a college town too.

Halloween 2011

2011-12-01T20:31:00.001-06:00

OK, I know that it is December, and I'm posting about Halloween. What can I say? I had a huge backlog of pictures and I wasn't able to blog that much this fall. Anyway, most years, we do a bunch of Halloween activities, and this year was no exception. In fact, this year, we even added one. Often, the kids change costumes for the different activities, but this year, Super was the only one who changed his costume, and he only changed it once.

And in a sign of things to come, SIGH, I didn't manage to get a picture of Flower in her Halloween costume because she didn't come to a couple of the things we did because she was at other activities, or she was off with her friends. I suspect that next year, she doesn't even dress up. She is growing up so fast. Anyway, this year, she was dressed up as a diva. She had a sequined dress and she wore a long blond wig and boots.

Anyway, this year, the kids dressed up for Trunk or Treat, Farmers Market, and on the 30th, we did something new and we did trick or treating at the downtown businesses. On Halloween, I went out trick or treating with Super and Jelly Bean. Mr. Simple handed out candy, and Flower went with 3 of her friends.

Oh and this year, Mr. Simple and I went to a costume party too! It was so fun!

Here are some pictures:

Super at home after Trunk or Treat. A knight with his sword!

Now you can see the knight's face. The sword and helmet were from his dress up bin, and we got the knight outfit from the thrift store for $1.

Super at one of the local business. He decided to wear his helmet down for this shot.

Jelly Bean. She was a skater girl. We bought the wig for $4, but the rest of the things we already had or got at the thrift store.

Jelly Bean and Super in front of the house on Halloween. Super changed his costume for Halloween Night. He is a storm trooper. He got the helmet for his birthday, and the costume was from his dress up bin.

And here I am in my mask. I was a butterfly and I had sparkly butterfly wings too. Mr. Simple was a butterfly catcher. :)

The Walk To Remember - 2011

2011-11-27T21:08:00.001-06:00

Our local hospital runs a Pregnancy and Infant Loss support group, and every year, during October, which is Pregnancy Loss and Infant Remembrance Month, they have a Walk To Remember for the families. It is a one mile walk from the hospital down the Nature Trail to the city's outdoor amphitheater. After we get there, everyone releases balloons.

There were 165 people at the walk this year. It is one walk I wish that there were LESS people :( We have gone to the walk every year since 2008. I blogged about it last year here.

Super walking on the street before we got to the trail. His sign says "I walk in memory of Christopher"

Flower with her balloon

Super with his balloon (the red one, his favorite color) and I'm behind Super and my balloon is the blue one

Letting the balloons go

As the balloons started to float up

Higher and higher

Super and I

We love you Christopher and we will ALWAYS remember you.

It just isn't Fall without THIS festival!

2011-11-21T19:58:00.001-06:00

OK, I had to update to Google Chrome to post now, and I'm SOOO not used to this interface. Anybody else recently update to Google Chrome?

OK, back to "regular" posting. The third weekend of October, we went to our FAVORITE autumn celebration. We have been to this festival every fall since 2008. It is at Sugar Grove Nature Center, which is about 20 minutes from our house.

Flower drinking cold apple cider. It was fairly warm this year at the festival. Some years it is hot, some years it is cold, last year it was wet. I'll take fairly warm.

Super and Jelly Bean decorating our pumpkin.

Our Pumpkin "Nerd" He has a bow tie, braces, and glasses.

My three cuties! I love Fall!

Super on the covered bridge.

Super and Jelly Bean walking over to the Imagination Grove area.

Super climbing up to fort.

Super up at the top of the fort.

Another shot of the three kids. (That sweater that Flower is wearing? Ithas been in numerous fall pictures on either Flower or Jelly Bean for the past 2-3 years. I love clothes like that!)

Jelly Bean starting Flower on the zip line.

That is Super hanging at the end of the zip line and Jelly Bean is watching on the left.

Jelly Bean heading down the zip line.

This is the end of the "festival" pictures. Don't fret - I still have pictures to share here of the Walk To Remember and Halloween from this past October, and then maybe, I'll go back to more writing and less pictures. Or maybe not. It is certainly faster to post pictures than having to think and write about something :) No, I will get back to writing more soon. I miss it. Plus I have some news that I haven't shared over here yet. It is a little exciting too. Keep watching here. Hopefully I'll let you in on my news before the end of December.

Ropp Road Roundup - Part 2!

2011-11-17T20:40:00.011-06:00

On the same day that we went to Ropp Cheese Farm, we went down the road (they are both located on Ropp Road, hence the name of the round-up!) to Radar Family Farms. Like I said in the last post, we had heard that they had changed it since we had last been out, but we didn't really know what to expect. Part of why we hadn't gone back out was that when we last went out in 2008, it was free, but now they charged admission. Well, once we got there, I understood why they charged admission. Since we were last there, they have added a much larger pumpkin patch, and a retail store, and lots of things for the kids to climb on/jump on/slide on, etc.

Here are some of the pictures from the rest of our day:

A quick photo before we went in

Flower doing some practice roping

Here is what she is was trying to rope. Jelly Bean is pointing them out to her.

Jelly Bean was slightly more successful.

Then the two of them tried it together to see if that helped. It didn't, but I had to take a picture of them cooperating. :)

The huge tube slide

My kids were too big for this ride, but I thought it was so cute that I took a picture of it. The corn bins are in the background.

Flower waiting at the top of the tube slide.

The kids spent the longest time in the corn bins. Here is Flower in one.

Super being buried in the corn.

The girls together again in the corn bin.

Super jumping on the hay bales.

Flower at the top of the hay castle.

I love this picture. Flower mid-jump on the jumping pillow.

And Super mid-jump.

We had a good day at both Ropp Farm and Radar Farm. We are looking forward to next year's Ropp Road Round-up. Maybe we will even try the corn maze next year!

The Ropp Road Roundup - Part 1

2011-11-16T22:12:00.001-06:00

We live very close to two local farms - The Ropp Jersey Cheese Farm produces fine quality cheese. When you visit the farm, you can see (and pet!) the our pure bred prize winning Jersey calves. You can see the cheese slicing room with viewing windows, and also purchase all kinds of cheese products at the store. We have visited the Ropp farm before, a few times actually over the years, and I blogged here back in 2008 when we visited for the first time.

The other farm is Radar Family Farms. Radar Family Farms is also a working farm and they concentrate on sweet corn and pumpkins. However, they have also started in the past few years adding other attractions, in part to expose more children to agriculture. We went out to Radar Farms a few years ago (and again, I blogged about it here), but we were unprepared for how MUCH it had changed in just 3 years. In some ways, it was great, and the kids really had a fabulous time. But on the way home, the kids and I talked about how we missed the more simple Radar Farms too.

Anyway, the first weekend in October, Ropp Farm and Radar Family Farm have extra special activities, and this year, we decided to go. We had a GREAT time.

We went to Ropp Farm first. (The next blog post will be about our visit to Radar, so stay tuned!)

When we first got out of the car, the kids took a quick jog through the straw maze.

Then Flower posed with Mr. Scarecrow

Then Jelly Bean posed with Mr. Scarecrow. (And yes, that is Flower down in the bottom corner of the picture.)

She was getting ready for this shot.

All three posing with Mr. Scarecrow.

Some sisterly love

The White Oak Wind Farm is just across the street from Ropp Farm, and we took a hayrack ride out to tour the wind turbines.

From right below one of the wind turbines.

After the tour of the wind farm, we went back to the farm. It was also back to the straw maze, but this time, they weren't just walking THROUGH it. Super jumped up on top . . .

And then it was Super and Jelly Bean.

And then it was Flower, Jelly Bean, and Super!

After that, the kids went into the barn to feed the cows. Here is Flower feeding a cow.

A shot of both girls feeding cows.

There was a sleepy cat in the barn too.

In the next barn, we saw a turkey.

And a VERY pregnant goat. (She was due that day!)

There was a llama in that barn too. Here is Jelly Bean feeding the llama.

Then we went outside to feed the calves by bottle.

We had so much fun! Thank you to everyone at Ropp Farm!!!

Next up, Radar Family Farms!

OK, back to Festivals! The Pumpkin Festival!

2011-11-11T13:46:00.006-06:00

This year, we went to The Pumpkin Festival. It takes place in Morton, IL, which is about 30 minutes from where we live. I'd heard of The Pumpkin Festival a few years ago, but we had never made it over there for the festival. And for me, I'd actually never even been to Morton, IL. Morton is, among other things, the home of Libby's Pumpkin (ever heard of them? LOL) and so each September, in celebration of the pumpkin canning season, Morton hosts the Morton Pumpkin Festival. (The Morton Pumpkin Festival is 45 years old, just like me, but since my birthday is at the end of August, technically, I am a few days older. I wonder why, in the mid 60s, all these fall festivals sprung up? Anyway . . . )

Being well-versed in festivals, we thought that we knew what to expect: food, people selling craft things in booths, balloon makers, maybe some kid crafts, pony rides - that sort of stuff. There was food, and there were some craft booths, but most of what they had at the Pumpkin fest was a HUGE amount of carnival games and rides. The kids were thrilled, me, well, not as much. I mean, I enjoy rides as much as the next person. Well, not the spinning ones since my Meniere's diagnosis. But I digress. Anyway, when I think of "festival", I don't think of being able to go and ride a Tilt-A-Whirl, you know what I mean?

So we went and look at the craft booths, and then we ate (oh my goodness, I had the best pork sandwich EVER. If any of the locals go to this festival, go to the food place that is sort of behind where the big slides are at. So, so good.) And had some really yummy Apple slushies. But the rest of the food area was very crowded and had long lines, and I was happy with the food that we got, so we didn't get any pumpkin ice cream or anything. Then everybody got to pick one ride. Flower, the non-brave one, opted to go on the big slides and wanted me to go with her.

Jelly Bean and Super? They ended up on this:

Yep, that's The Zipper. Pre-Meniere's, I loved this ride too, but I knew it would give me dreadful vertigo, so I decided that the slides, although boring, would cause less problems overall.

So, if you enjoy carnival rides, and you don't mind really long lines to get pumpkin-related food, I'd say go to the Morton Pumpkin Festival. I haven't decided yet if it is going to stay on the permanent Festival list. Check back with me next fall!

OK, this wasn't a festival, but it was cool!

2011-11-07T21:52:00.006-06:00

During August, during one of our weekends at Bass Lake, we decided to venture to someplace that we had never been before. We pulled out a couple "Things To Do Around Here" kind of magazines and decided to go to Amish Acres.

We got there, and oh. my. I had a wonderful day. We did learn quite a bit about the history of the Amish, and ate some tasty snacks, but the best part for me was the tour of the Amish house.
Let's just say, I was ready to either move in there, or transport the house to our town, or figure out a way to re-create it here. I'm going to try to do the last one. At least as much as I can.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the day. Oh, and I didn't take any pictures inside the actual house! It was very neat too, but the lighting wasn't great in there, and I was taking all of these pictures from my phone, so most of these pictures are taken just outside of the house.

The mound is the top of the root cellar, and there are animals behind the fence, and the barn (not pictured here) is next to the fenced area. There are free range chickens too, you know, free ranging :)

There were a series of small outside buildings. This is the smokehouse.

This is the outdoor oven. They make bread and cookies outhere, as well as heat up the ingredients for the homemade soap, as well as using the ash in the soap.

The drying house. This is WAY cooler than my dehydrator.

The door into the root cellar. I would love, love, love to have a root cellar like this. You can see part of the house on the left side of the photo.

We went out to the barn and the kids played on the rope swing out there for at least a half an hour. Here is Super swinging.

And Flower. I really should put the video up that I have of Flower swinging. There is much squealing involved. She is the uh, not brave one of the family.

All three kids in the barn. Jelly Bean had injured herself the day before, and she wasn't feeling up to much on this day.

In front of some rustic farm equipment that was in the side yard.

We really had a good time! We hope to go back again sometime next summer, and hopefully take in a play too at the Round Barn Theatre! If you are ever in the area, you should check it out!

Apples Anyone?

2011-11-05T20:59:00.001-05:00

We have gone to the Apple N' Pork Festival the past couple of years. There are tons and tons of craft and sales booths, and then music, and of course, food! It is held on the last weekend of September.

When we attended this festival for the first time last year, Jelly Bean noticed this banner and said "Look Mommy, you are older than the Apple N' Pork Festival!" (I had just turned 44.) So this year, I said it myself "Yes, I am STILL older than the Apple N' Pork Festival!"

There are lots and lots of food booths, but this is generally where we eat. You can get the yummiest loaded baked potatoes around!

Jelly Bean

Super. Sigh. He is getting just too big.

Grandma S was visiting that weekend and she came with us to the festival. Flower and Grandma S are looking at earrings.

Flower trying on a headband and glasses

The rest of family waiting in line for funnel cakes. I am not a fan but the rest of them are!

It was cloudy that day, but never rained, thankfully. In this shot, you can see a bunch of the booths. We never hit them all. We look at a couple rows and call it good.

Next Up - The Celt Fest!

2011-11-04T21:51:00.000-05:00

No, we aren't Irish or Scottish. (My family is Scandanavian - Dad's side is Danish, Mom's side is Swedish; Mr. Simple's dad is Italian, and his mom is Danish.)

But we were at Bass Lake over Labor Day Weekend, and heard about the festival from one of Mr. Simple's friends that lives near Bass Lake. So we went in to South Bend, IN for the Celt Fest and we had a GREAT time. Here are some pictures from our day:

The kids decorated some shields. Jelly Bean represented her Italian heritage on hers.

While Flower went with the theme of the day. Super. I'm not sure what his shield represents. Something with swords, fire, and Darth Vadar, I think. He also has a balloon sword and belt. And check out that dapper head gear he's got too!

It is a dark photo, but this was a shot of the caber toss. The kids thought this was AWESOME.

Bagpipes. In the right setting, I just love them. And this is the right setting.

The kids went on horse rides. All but Super had done some riding before, but they still really enjoyed it. Here is Jelly Bean on her ride.

Super brushing a pony. He was so entralled by the pony. Super is excited for his ride to start.

See? Flower smiled like this the whole time. Mr. Simple doing the hatchet throw. He came VERY close to hitting the target. Jelly Bean. She was fairly close too. Super. We were just glad that he got it in the direction of the target and not the crowd. :)

If there is a FEST, then we are there!

2011-11-03T13:02:00.007-05:00

We attend a BUNCH of festivals, most of which are either in our city or are very close by. Two of the festivals that we almost always go to are Sugar Creek Festival (held in early July) and CornFest (held in late August). Well, the official name of the CornFest is the Sweet Corn Blues Festival, but most people just call it CornFest. Both of these are held in the downtown area of our city.

A picture of the some people walking towards some of the booths at Sugar Creek Arts Festival.

Super, Flower, and Jelly Bean cooling off in the "water feature" in the middle of downtown Normal.

Flower eating some sweet corn at CornFest.

Mr. Simple eating some BBQ Pork while the rest of us were eating ice cream inside. It was blazing hot that day. (In August? Nahhh. LOL)

Super got his hair sprayed in his favorite football team's colors. (No, not University of Illinois! The Chicago Bears!)

Square Foot Gardening - I love it!

2011-11-02T13:06:00.016-05:00

I decided this year to NOT garden in my usual spot. For the past few years, I had had a 15' x 20' pot behind the church. There was many good things about it, and I learned lots of things about gardening while I gardened there.

BUT

It was really inconvenient. I had to drive 10 minutes to get to it, and it was in a direction that I don't normally go on a regular basis. That, and I was never organized enough to get some sort of mulch down, and so I would ALWAYS end up with tons and tons of weeds.

So this year, initially, I decided not to garden at all. And then after just a tiny amount of begging, Mr. Simple agreed to make me a raised bed. Which, after the first one went together so easily, he then quickly agreed to make me 3 more!

I followed the directions for the soil mixture in the Square Foot Gardening book as well as the spacing.

He did the beds in early/mid-April, and so I got a spring planting in. It was AWESOME! I can't tell you how much I enjoyed being able to just walk out the back door and grab a little lettuce for lunch or dinner. Or some broccoli and peas.

Here you can see box 1 early on, plus the other 3. Box 4 was actually moved inside the backyard and currently has strawberries planted in it.

Another shot of box 1 early on.
Box 1 a couple weeks later. There are some broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, onions, beets, and peas.

Box 2 with just the soil.

Box 2 early on. There is lettuce, spinach, and cabbage.

Another shot of box 2.

This is the flower bed. I pulled all the daffodil bulbs out because they weren't growing well anymore. Flower picked annuals to put in here, although we planned on putting in bulbs back in this fall.

This is the area that was cleared for bed 4 - the strawberry patch.

----------------------------

Then summer came and I planted tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, and lots and lots of green beans. And cucumbers and summer squash. And for the most part (besides the cucumbers and squash), everything did well. Watering was easy. Weeding was practically non-existent.

----------------------------

This is bed 3 in mid May. The peppers are in.

The other side of bed 3. The basil is in.

Here is the flower bed planted.

Another shot of the flower bed after we planted in early June.
In addition to the tomatoes that I planted in box 3, I also put a few in planters on the side with lattice on the fence for support. These tomatoes did NOT grow well. I will not be planting tomatoes in this way again.

Along the north side of the house, I made a small raised bed on both ends of the house. I planted a zucchini squash in this bed and a crookneck squash in the other bed.

Here is the zucchini after a week or so. The zucchini grew well for awhile, and started producing fruit. And then the squash bugs came and killed the plant and I only ended up with two small zucchinis.

This is bed #2 in June. I put up a frame with netting on the south end and planted cucumbers. They looked good when I planted them. But they never grew very tall. Again, I think I got two small cucumbers.
Here are the tomatoes and peppers in June.
Here is all of bed 3 in June. The board is so that I can rest a foot or two inside the box without pressing the soil down too much. Bed 3 is 3 x 8 and a little bit more difficult to maneuver around in.

Here is bed 2 in June. You can see the cabbages and swiss chard, and the first round of green beans.

This is box 1 in June. You can see the broccoli, beets, onions and peas.

Another shot of box 2 in June sometime.
The crookneck was really growing well, but it never produced any fruit before it also succumbed to squash bugs.

----------------------------

In September, I planted a few things - some mustard greens, and some chard. I wanted to do some transplants - broccoli especially, but my favorite nursery sold out early on most fall transplants, and their broccoli transplants died, and it was too late to plant seeds, so I didn't get in as much as I had planned.

----------------------------

And here is box 1 in late September. It had successive plantings of green beans. You can also see the bean tee pee in the background. It was planted in the corner, just inside the fence.

Box 2 in late September. This box had had green beans in it, but all had been harvested from this box by this time, and the bean plants were pulled and composted.

Box 3 in late September. I harvested a lot of tomatoes from this box in July/August, but it really slowed down by late September. I pulled the last of the tomatoes (they were mostly green) in mid/late October.

The other side of box 3

Box 4 or what we refer to as the strawberry patch in late September.

The flowerbed in late September.

Another shot of the flower garden.

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Then a couple nights ago, I planted flower bulbs in the flower bed, and garlic in one of the SFG boxes.

I really, really enjoyed gardening this way, and I already have my garden planned out for next year, including at least 3 more boxes! It really is amazing how much I am able to grow in such a small area. I am using parts of my yard that were basically unused before anyway, and now we have harvested/preserved/eaten so much food from the garden this year!

Pictures of the Ever Changing Room

2011-11-01T14:07:00.006-05:00

NE corner of the room. Bed and part of the sewing table. My mom and I made the t-shirt quilt and I crocheted the afghan. The canvas bag under the sewing table holds
current sewing/mending projects.

East side of the room. The sewing table and the work desk. I got the big bulletin board at a thrift store for $2.50. It will mostly serve as my inspiration board. The magnetic strips above the work desks are from IKEA, but I picked them up at a garage sale for $1. The sewing machine is a Kenmore that my parents gave me when I got my masters' degree in 2006.

The south side of the room. The cubes and drawers/tubs are from Target. They used to hold the current years' homeschooling books and materials. Now they hold material, patterns, yarn, and other craft supplies. The right crate on top hold my binders and materials related to Simple Living, etc. The left crate on top holds my training-related files and materials.
(The door leads to the hallway.)

Part of the west side of the room. The short bookcase has my Simply Living books, magazines, papers, etc. and my in-box on top. (Did you notice it is empty right now? :) ) The tall bookcase has homeschooling and preschool books and materials.

The west wall, plus the NW corner. You see the bookcases again, plus the ironing board, the closet door, and the canning shelf that is holding most of the thing things that I have canned this year. There are another couple dozen jars in boxes by the foot of the bed. There is also a pot of rosemary by the foot of the bed that I recently brought in for the winter.

----------------------------------------

Everything in the room I already had in the house and so I didn't purchase anything for this version of the room. And even though this is a small room, it actually feels pretty roomy! And If it had a bathroom and a fridge and microwave, I'd never have to leave! LOL But I think that my family might miss me eventually. At least around mealtimes!

The Ever Changing Room . . .

2011-10-13T08:32:00.004-05:00

We have a 4 bedroom house. When we moved in, we had 2 very small children (2.5 and 6 months old), so we were only using two out of the 4 bedrooms for actual "bedrooms." Which worked out, especially since our home has a main level with 2 bedrooms and then a fully furnished/8 foot ceiling lower level with 2 bedrooms. So it wasn't like I was going to have the children downstairs at that age.

The one bigger room downstairs was a playroom, then the preschool room, but for the past few years, it has been the girls room (who are now 12 and almost 10. I know! Can you believe it?)

The other smaller room has changed yearly, it seems. At first, it was an office. Then it was a guest room. Then it was mine and Super's room when he was a baby. Then it was an office. Then it was a guest room. And then it was the homeschool room. And then it was my room. And now, it is still my room, but it is also becoming my "Simply Living" room.

When it was just "my" room, it had a bookcase and a dresser and a nightstand and a twin bed. It is a small room (9' x 10'), I thought that there might be room to make it "more." I'm in the process, but I'll try and take pictures this weekend, when I hope to have it done.

But here is a text preview anyway of what will be in the room: A twin bed, a bookcase with homeschooling/preschooling books, a smaller bookcase with "Simple Living" books, a former media shelf unit for my canning, a small desk with my sewing machine, and a bigger desk for my (hopefully soon to be purchased) laptop and other materials, and a shelving system for fabric, yarn, etc. (I moved the dresser to the closet.) I would love it if I could get new furniture, etc., but for right now, I'm just repurposing furniture and furnishings that we currently have and that aren't be used in another room of the house. I may only put one of the desks in there. You'll have to see what I decided when I unveil the room.

So it is becoming the best of both worlds room for me. So I can work in my "studio", but then I only have to walk 10 steps or less to go to bed!

Homemaking: How much do you do?

2011-10-11T12:00:00.001-05:00

I used to make fun of the idea of "homemaking" when I was younger. And I certainly never imagined that it would be something that I would actually WANT to do.

But now, not only do I enjoy it, but I think it is important for me to do for my family.

When I think about homemaking, I try and think about what things that I can do at home so that I spend less money and so that I don't have to go out and buy it.

So for ME, here is what my homemaking goals are:

1. Make most of my own cleaning supplies from vinegar, borax, washing soda, castille soap, salt, etc.

2. Make my own crocheted dishcloths and scrubbers. Sew my own dishtowels.

3. Sew my own tablecloths, placemats, etc.

4. Crochet or knit mittens and hats for my family. Next year, I may add sweater to the list, but I want to have realistic goals.

5. Preserve as much food as I can, especially from my own gardens.

6. Closely related to #5, grow as much food as I can in my own gardens.

7. Conserve water.

8. Use a clothesline instead of the dryer when possible.

9. Use the car less.

10. Compost.

11. Make my own dairy products - butter, cheese, ice cream and yogurt.

12. Make quilts for every member of the family.

13. Make my own soap.

14. Make my own candles.

15. Make my own lotions.

16. Buy and live locally.

17. Buy and live seasonally.

18. Buy used whenever possible.

19. Conserve energy.

20. Bake bread.

Preserving The Harvest: What I've done so far this year

2011-10-10T13:35:00.004-05:00

I had very lofty goals for 2011 and I haven't fulfilled those goals, but I have preserved a fair amount. Here is what I have done so far:

Canned
12 pints of tomato sauce
35 pints of corn
21 quarts of peaches
12 pints of strawberry jam
12 half pints of peach jam
7 pints of veggie relish
7 pints of banana pepper mustard
12 pints of salsa
60 pints of applesauce
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Still planned for canning:
7 pints of ketchup

Freezing
2 gallons of green bags
1 gallon of basil leaves
1 quart bags of dried:
-rosemary
-basil
-lavender
-chives
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Still planned for freezing:
6 quarts of apple pie filling

Drying
- apple slices
- apple leather
- basil
- oregano
- parsley
- lemon balm
- spearmint
- peppermint
- lemon verbena
- lavender
- sage
- tarragon

I haven't done any pickling yet, and I may or may not get to it. I also recently got a Food Saver, but haven't used it either. My canners and my dehydrator, however, have seen LOTS of action this year.

I grew all the herbs, onions (for the relish), the peppers (for the relish), the tomatoes (for the sauce and the relish), and the green beans. I bought the strawberries, the peaches, the apples, and peaches. I had to buy most of the zucchinis for the relish because my squash got squash bugs BAD this year. I also grew peas, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, swiss chard, broccoli earlier in the season, but we ate all of that fresh.

I also taught a class about Preserving The Harvest. I'll put more info over here very soon, but I have finally got Simply Living In The City off the ground! I'm kind of proud of myself! It was a really fun class and I enjoyed teaching people about it and talking with people that are interested in preserving and just talking to other people who enjoy a similar "simple" way of life.

A Book A Day Keeps The Doctor Away?

2011-10-06T14:07:00.005-05:00

Well, I haven't been reading a book a day. Well, some days I have. It was DEFINITELY a summer of reading. I could read at the pool during swim team practice, and I could read while I was laid up with my burns. I could read while the kids played. And I could read at night.

And courtesy of my Nook that I got for my birthday, I can bring lots of "books" on our weekend trips without having to load up a bag. I also love my Nook for when I'm waiting. At the dr. office. At school. At the pool. I still get most of my books at the thrift store and I still doing a lot of borrowing from the library.

Some of the fiction I read was: The Jane Austen Book Club, The Prodigal Summer, The House of Sand and Fog, Plain Truth, Transgression, The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing, and While I Was Gone.

On my Nook, so far, I've read: The Help, The Happiness Project, Half Broke Horses, and The Glass Castle.

Non-fiction, of course, was "Simple" reading: Gardening, Root Cellaring, Knitting, Edible Gardens, that sort of stuff. It is funny, I used to have to really dig for these type of books, and they were usually books that were published in the 1970s. This year, there are tons of books in the "New" section. Makes me wish I would have taken the time to get my book written a couple years ago when there was less competition. Oh well. Life happens, right?

And this year, I am even going to do Book Club with my friend Mary! Yes, Mary from my Another Ode to Mary Mary Commentary! The same friend that we talked about books at at Women Living Wisely about how I wanted to start reading more. The friend who said that she would be my "book friend!"

I'm so glad I finally started taking time to "read" again. I missed it!

It is Autumn!!

2011-10-04T20:06:00.003-05:00

When I was a kid, I only liked one season. Summer. The rest of the year, I just sort of suffered through, and since I was a kid, time went by SOOOOOOO SLOWWWWW.

It was around the time I turned 30, that I decided that I needed to start giving the other seasons a fair shot. But it really wasn't until I had kids that I really started to appreciate them. Now at 45, I'd have to say that Autumn is probably my favorite season. Spring and Summer are probably in a tie for second and Winter. Ugh. Winter will always be in last :) I try to like it, I try to appreciate the differences and the things that only Winter has, but I. HATE. BEING.COLD. And I've only spent one year of my whole life in a place that didn't have cold winters. I've spent 26 years of my life in Illinois, and I would say that Illinois has one of the worst winters ever too. It starts in November and isn't over until April, I swear.

But anyway, back to Autumn. I love so much about it. I love the changing leaves. I love the crisp breezes. I love how it can be cool in the morning and warm in the afternoon. I love having homemade soup. I love eating squash. I love harvest time. (My allergies, however, do NOT love harvest time.) I love decorating with scarecrows and corn and haybales. I love going to festivals every weekend.

And this year, I'm loving Rosh HaShanah. And no, I'm not Jewish. But I'm trying to learn more about different beliefs this year. I had heard of Rosh HaShanah, and had heard it was like the Jewish New Year, but that was about all I'd heard.

Rosh HaShanah is the Jewish New Year, and it comes in the fall, when the leaves are turning and when the harvest is beginning. There are 10 days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur and are known as the Days of Awe. One of the themes of the Days of Awe is the concept that God has "books" that he writes our names in, writing down who will live and who will die, who will have a good life and who will have a bad life, for the next year. These books are written in on Rosh Hashanah, but our actions during the Days of Awe can alter God's decree. These "books" are sealed on Yom Kippur.

During the Days of Awe, it is a time to evaluate oneself - to find where you have sinned, not only against God, but against others. So I've been spending the past few days reflecting on the past year. I've been looking at how I've fallen short to my family, friends, and my neighbors/community/world. I have been pondering on who I need to ask for forgiveness, and who I need to forgive. And looking forward to the start of new ""L'Shanah Tovah" (Good Year)!

I didn't think that it would be this long . . .

2011-09-21T21:46:00.003-05:00

that Mr. Simple was unemployed. On the other hand, Mr. Simple has been quite busy most weeks. He had a friend ask him to do a bunch of painting at his house in late June and from word of mouth, he has had a painting job most weeks since then.

I have done some changes with daycare/preschool around here too. I now have two children that are full time - one little boy is 3 and has been here since he was 6 weeks, and the other is a little girl who is almost 2 and has also been here since she was 6 weeks. Then I have a set of sisters who come on MWF. The older sister is almost 4 and the younger sister is 2. On MWF, I also have a 3 year old who comes just in the mornings. On MWF, we do preschool activities in the mornings as well as go outside for at least a half hour, unless there is thunder and lightning. The schedule is working well for everyone, I think and now the amount of money that I make is consistent from week and that really helps with our budgeting.

Speaking of budgeting, since we no longer have credit card and car debt, we have much less in expenses. The mortgage and utilties is about it. Well, and swimming lessons for Super and swim team for Jelly Bean. Oh, and of course food, but we are trying to be frugal as possible with that and the garden certainly has helped with those expenses. The one expense that has been the most challenging is fuel for the cars. It, of course, doesn't help that gas prices are well above 3 dollars these days, but the fact that we regularly need to use both cars and the girls are both involved in things like drama club and girl scouts as well as the swimming stuff, well, I do quite a bit of running around. I know, I should probably cut down on their activities to save gas, and to save money. But they are things that the kids have done for awhile, and we are trying to keep some things consistent while we have had to say "No" or "Not now" on other things.

So all in all, this period of unemployment has been less stressful than I thought it might be. And I really think that all of this learning to be frugal and trying to be more self-reliant has helped too. Of course, that isn't to say that I wouldn't be thrilled if Mr. Simple got a great job that he loved and paid really well. :)

Dug Out

2011-09-17T23:13:00.005-05:00

No, I'm not talking about snow. Or baseball. I'm talking about debt.

I know. Most people don't like to talk about money. Me either. But I'm going to go ahead and confess here that we used to have a lot of debt. (Notice that Used To. I'll get to that a bit later.)

Anyway, Mr. Simple and I got married in 1995. Our joint tax return for 1995 listed $12,000 in gross income. That puts a whole new meaning to living on love, doesn't it? But yea, we were not making much money. Shortly after that, we both got jobs in Chicago. Full time jobs. And we had no kids. And no mortgage. And just one car. So in theory, we should have been fine, right?

Of course, that wasn't what happened. We had full time jobs, but we weren't making that much money. And I was working in downtown Chicago and eating out for lunch at least 3 times a week. Not big lunches, but even 6 dollars a day, 3 days a week, adds up to quite a bit a month. And there was train fare. And work clothes. Same for Mr. Simple, minus the train fare. And rent was expensive, well, much more expensive than we were used to anyway.

So after 2.5 years of living in Chicago, we had already managed to start some credit card debt. But we paid the minimum every month. Sometimes more. It would be fine, right?

Then we moved to Decatur. Mr. Simple was working in radio. Do you know what the pay is like in radio? Well, let's just say, not high paying. I wasn't making much more. And I had to travel 45 minutes to work for much of that time, and of course, more lunches out. And another car. And we were trying to get pregnant, and we had discovered that there were some problems. So lots of dr. visits. But we were still young. There was time. One of these days, we would both get high paying jobs and it would be fine, right?

We moved to Normal. Mr. Simple was still working in radio. I was pregnant by now with Flower, but working full time at the university. We sometimes had trouble making the minimum payments and by now, the overall credit card amount was getting really high. We had a mortgage now. But it would be o.k., right?

Mr. Simple lost his job. But quickly got another job. I had Flower and we had to pay for daycare. The amount got larger.

Then I got pregnant with Jelly Bean. She was in daycare too. The amount got larger.

Then I went to part time at the university.

And then, in 2003, I was laid off.

We tried different things over the years. Paying a bunch from our tax return. Using the money that we got in a refi on our house. Using some of student loan money towards the debt when I was going to school. Because the interest rate on student loans was less than credit cards. It seemed to make sense at the time.

But we also had to do things like get appliances over the years and those went on the card. Sometimes, we had no money and we did cash advances. We never seemed to make any progress.

I had Super in 2004. By 2007, things were at the breaking point. I started doing full time daycare for a couple children to bring in more money, but we were still just barely getting by, and only making the minimum on credit card payments.

And so Mr. Simple made a call one day in June 2007. To a Credit Counseling Agency in town. They said that they could help us. They would manage our debt by negotiating lower interest rates, and by having us pay a set amount to them and they would distribute it to the credit card companies. (It wasn't exactly a smallish amount of money each month either. Like "more than a typical monthly car payment" amount.) But if we paid it every month for 48 months, we would have it paid off. Oh, and we had to cancel all of our credit cards too. Which sounds like a biggish deal, except it really wasn't. We had maxed all of them out and we hadn't used them in at least a year by that point anyway in an effort to try and gain some level of control over our credit card spending.

48 months. 4 years. It seemed like short time in some ways and it gave us a date when we would be DONE with it. For so long, it had seemed like we would be paying on credit card debt until we died.

On the other hand, 4 years. And 4 years of not using credit, but having to come up with that amount Every. Single. Month. That not exactly smallish amount. Every. Single. Month.

And I have increased my daycare over the past four years, worked some additional part time job over the years, but have never had a full time job during the last 4 years. Mr. Simple, over the past four years, increased his salary, then got a new job where he had an even higher salary, and then lost his job.

And we had things happen in the last four years. Floods. Appliances break. Needing New Appliances. Needing a different car. Christmas. Birthdays. Teeth breaking. Needing to fly to funerals.

And since 2007, I've tried to save money wherever I could. I try to be self reliant. We had one car for most of that time AND we managed to pay it off during that time. We make gifts when we can.

And then, it was June 2011. It had been 48 months. And our balance was $0.

$0. We have no credit card debt. We have no car payments on either of our cars. And during this time, we also managed to pay off dental debt of $15,000 (I had to have 7 crowns/root canals on most of my top front teeth. I seriously have the worst teeth EVER.) We do have a mortgage payment. We have some student loan debt.

But I don't have 29% interest on a Christmas present that I bought in 1997 hanging over my head anymore.

Will I get another credit card someday? Maybe. Not now. I don't know that even after all this time of NOT using one, that I trust myself. And I've learned to live without one. We pay save and pay cash if we need something. (What a concept, huh?)

All I know is that seeing the daylight after being buried for so long, well, it is AMAZING.

Gardening: Late Summer Update

2011-09-11T16:07:00.003-05:00

I'm sorry. I really meant to be more on top of giving you gardening updates. It would be easier to give you updates because my garden was at the house this year instead of half way across town, but yet, I didn't.

BUT

the square foot gardening has been a smashing success. SOOOOO glad I did it. Especially given that our summer was crazy busy and then I was laid up with burns. If I had had to go across town to harvest or weed or whatever, it just never would have happened. Speaking of weeds, I had to pull almost no weeds this year. A huge, huge, huge improvement over last year. When it seemed like that was all I did, or at least all I should be doing and didn't and by that time, the garden would be overrun with weeds.

So I ended up planting 4 boxes. Three boxes are 4 x 4 and one box is 8 x 3. Oh, and then I planted herbs in the beds in the front of the house. I plan on putting in one more 4 x 4 box soon, and maybe another couple next year.

I did a spring planting of spinach, lettuce, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, swiss chard, beets and radishes. Oh and a strawberry patch in one whole box. The cauliflower didn't grow and I discovered that I still don't like radishes, but everything else grew fabulously. I loved, loved, loved being able to go out and pick stuff for a salad every night for about a month for dinner.

Then I planted beans (and beans and beans, I've done successive planting, so we have rarely been without beans since late June), tomatoes, peppers (2 green, 1 sweet banana and 1 cayenne) eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini, and crookneck squash.

The beans we have either eaten fresh or I have put in the freezer. I don't have a ton in the freezer. Even though I planted quite a few, I think I'll devote even more garden space to beans so that I can put more beans in the freezer/pressure can, etc. Maybe even do some pickled green beans!

My roma tomatoes grew well, but the other tomato plants didn't. I got very few tomatoes on the 5 non-roma plants. But I planted 10 roma tomato plants and they have grown like gangbusters. We are still semi-drowning in tomatoes, with no real end in sight. I've been making tomato sauce out of the tomatoes. I don't have a lot of sauce so far (10 pints?) but I'm hoping by the end of the season to have 20 pints or so.

The peppers have done o.k. I just haven't had that many green peppers or banana peppers. The cayenne peppers have grown really well though. I tried those in the dehydrator and then put it in the food grinder and made my own red pepper flakes. The eggplant hasn't been a big hit, and the cucumbers and summer squash got squash bugs and died.

So this weekend, I'm planting some spinach for my fall garden and hoping to put in some more spinach, lettuce, chard, broccoli, and maybe peas in the next week or so.

This post is already long enough, but the next post (hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday) will be a picture of the garden areas and the crops growing in them, etc.

It could have been much worse.

2011-09-02T13:23:00.004-05:00

There is another reason why I didn't post much during August besides the fact that we were having a crazy busy summer.

I burned myself.

Not just a little one on my finger, or the side of my hand, from touching the oven rack when I was taking out a pizza or something.

This was second degree burns. On 25% of my body.

It was the night before the Swim Team Awards Banquet. It was our first evening in two months that we hadn't had either evening swim practice or a swim meet. We were going to have dinner, at home, with everybody.

So I decided to cook up some of the green beans that I had picked from the garden, just that day. I put a quart or so of water in my dutch oven, and let the water boil, and then I threw the green beans in for a couple minutes. My kitchen is TINY. (Have I ever mentioned that? LOL) And there really isn't even a full step between the stove and the sink. So I took the handle of the pot and was just going to drain the water off the beans into the sink. This is where everything went wrong.

As I turned to the sink, I splashed some of the boiling water on my right hand. In reaction to that, I dropped the pot. On the top of my right foot. The water then splashed up on my right shin and then the pot tipped over on the linoleum floor. Now I was standing in boiling hot water. I went to move out of the water, and I slipped. And fell into the water. On my right hip.

It was SO hot. I got up immediately and stood up out of the water. I think I started screaming next. By that time, Mr. Simple had heard the pot drop and came to investigate and saw me. He took me and put me in the bathtub in cool water.

It would feel better for a second when the skin was in the water, but if I lifted my foot or leg out of the water, it would feel like it was burning all over again. And it would start to blister. I knew my hip hurt, but I thought it was just bruised from the fall. I asked Mr. Simple to look at it and it was then that he decided that we needed to go to the hospital. (If you ever get burned on your hip, and are wondering what to wear to the hospital, I'm telling you, the best thing is a swim suit cover up. I was able to be modest, and yet, I could hold the material away from my hip.)

The trip to the hospital was not one that I would like to relive ever again. Especially because I couldn't even sit, and I was in SOOO much pain. But we live very close to the hospital thankfully, and so the ride was short at least.

We got there and if you ever want to get quick service at the hospital, say that you have been burned. Wow. They got me back to a room and gave me a shot of pain meds right away. Then a dr. came in and accessed the situation, and then after the pain meds had kicked in, they put the burn medication cream (Silvadene) on everything. And then gave me more pain meds. After 3 hours, they sent me home with more pain meds and instructions on how to change the dressings.

The next few days were a blur. I slept a lot. But then by Friday, Mr. Simple had to go out of town and I had to watch the kids on my own AND change my dressing on my own. As it turned out, I had to have a good friend (very good! She had to look at my burn and my half naked body! ACK!) change my dressing on Friday and then on Saturday, I ended up back at PromptCare because my hip area was starting to get infected and so I had to go there and have them look at it and change the dressing. Plus, they gave me a heavy duty anti-inflammatory, which actually helped more with the pain that the opiate medication I had been taking.

I had a burn check with my regular dr. a week out and two weeks out. After a week, my foot was doing very well. By two weeks, both my shin and foot were almost completely healed. My hip area, on the other hand, was deeper and a much larger burned area, and so even after two weeks, was not that healed. But he said that he thought that it would be by a month out, and sure enough, at the one month mark, I was dressing and pain free everywhere, including my hip.

I will always have scarring on my hip, and probably a little scarring on my shin. (I joked to my dr. that my swimsuit model career is over now! LOL) I have to keep all the burned areas out of the sun until next June.

But it could have been worse. It could have been SO much worse.

I have the best family and friends. That is CERTAIN. I had so much help during this time. I could not have done it without them. And I have a whole new respect for cooking and have and will be more careful. I have a very tiny glimpse of what it would be like to have a major burn and for those people, I am so sorry and you are AWESOME because there is just so much to have to deal with when it comes to burns.

Please be careful. Be extra careful. I have been cooking for years and even done canning and yet I burned myself with just a small amount of boiling water. If I had ever imagined how I would burn myself, I never envisioned that it would be because I was cooking some green beans.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming . . .

2011-08-26T13:36:00.007-05:00

And that is what we did most of this summer. For the 3rd year in a row at least one of the kids were on our local Parks and Rec team. In fact, this year, all three joined the team. I was a little worried that Super (age 6) wasn't ready, but I shouldn't have. He did great! They all had a great summer. It kept us busy, that is certain, but it is great exercise and fun and lets them set goals and all of that too!

Here are some pictures from the 2011 Sharks season:

Excited to be starting! The kids had been asking all winter and spring "When does Swim Team Start?"

Super earned the nickname "Lightning." Why? Because he has SPEED of course!

Jelly Bean with her coach

I have some videos of the actual swimming, but I don't want to bog things down too much here, especially since I would have to post a video of each of them. But trust me, they can actually swim, ok? :)

Super with his coach/head coach AND the championship trophy! Yep, the Sharks won conference for the second year in a row!

And here is Super! I was worried he wasn't ready for swim team? Well, there he is wearing all of his conference medals AND he won MVP for the 6 and under boys! Go Super!!!!

All three of our swimmers with their medals, certificates, and trophies along with the championship trophy.

The season was exhausting, but the kids already miss it! Well, only 9 more months until it starts again!! Will they three-peat? You will just have to stay tuned!

Our Family Has Talent!

2011-08-16T21:55:00.005-05:00

I have so much to blog about, but before school starts again on Thursday (this summer went WAY too fast this year!) I figured that I'd at least post the videos from the Talent Show at our local elementary school. Yes, it was in May. As in 3 months ago. I'm telling you, this summer just whizzed by. (Neither video is very long. Super's is under a minute, and Flower's is under 2 minutes.)

We have a little family tradition that each of our kids performs "God Bless America" in the Talent Show when they are in Kindergarten. I wasn't sure if Super would go for it, but he did! And he did a great job! It is hard to see him in the video, but you can hear him.

And Flower, well, she was in a TON of stuff for the talent show. She sang a Taylor Swift song with 3 of her friends, and did 3 dance numbers with the entire 5th grade, and sang with the Chorus. But the video that I put up her is of her singing Miley Cyrus' song "The Climb." Now, I know I am her mom, and I know I am biased, but I thought she did a GREAT job. And I love the crowd interaction. And sorry, you can't see her very well either, but you can hear her.

Jelly Bean was homeschooled, so she wasn't in the Talent Show, but she had an AWESOME year. Really, really great. She loves Math and Art, and had a great time going to Gym N' Swim at the YMCA this year. I'll post some of her pictures soon. She was very into painting this year.

WARNING: This is not my usual kind of post (m)

2011-08-08T21:01:00.004-05:00

Well, I don't always have a "usual" kind of post. But I do "usually" post about canning or gardening or thrifting or being frugal. Or if not about that, it is about the kids and what we have been doing lately. This is NOT going to be any of those kind of posts.

This post is going to be about Me. I guess it sort of relates to my oldest daughter - who is going into middle school. Between that and a good friend posting lately about memories of the past from the city we both grew up in, I've been thinking about this a lot in the past month or so.

I will also warn you that, while this post isn't graphic or descriptive, it is of a very sensitive nature, and if you don't want to read any more, I won't be offended. At all.
==========

I was born in 1966, and was a child of the 70s. But I didn't really notice it was the 70s. We were just kids doing things that kids have been doing forever. We just happened to be wearing a lot of plaid while we were doing it.

I was born in Michigan, and then spent a few years in Illinois, but moved to a large-ish city in Nebraska when I was young. When I was 11, everything started to change.

First, when I was 11 and when my dad was just 38, he had a major heart attack. By all accounts, he shouldn't have survived. Then, my parents decided to move across town. They wanted to have a bigger house with a bigger yard, and they wanted to have us go to junior high and high school at the "new" school (which is funny, since that school is now almost 50 years. I'm SO old.)

So in November of my sixth grade year, while my dad was still recovering from his heart attack, we moved across town. I had one friend from church that was at the new elementary school and so it just sort of naturally happened that I started to be friends with those kids too.

And then it started. It was just such a little thing at first. There were six of us girls and 3 boys in this "group." We had most of our classes together and we always spent all of recess together. We would hang out at each others houses. Just stuff that all 6th grade friends do. And then the boys started chasing us in the halls and trying to kick us in the shins. I told my mom about it and she smiled and said "Sometimes boys do silly things because they like you but they don't know how to actually say it."

[I, in NO way, blame either of my parents for anything that happened during my teenage years. One thing I've learned as a parent is that you do the best you can with the information that you have. And I have great parents who would have done anything to help me. If I have ever said anything about what happened after this.]

OK, so I had bruised shins. No big deal, really. And then the boys started taking one of the girls and kind of throwing/pushing her into the boys bathroom. Again, not that big of deal. Kids just being kids sort of thing.

And then we went to Jr. High.

And we picked up another couple guys to the group. And things calmed down for awhile. I mean, it wouldn't be "cool" for a 7th grader to be kicking a girl in the shins to show her that you liked her.

And then, in 8th grade, things started up again. Except it wasn't kicking. And it wasn't just shoving a girl into the boys bathroom. It involved one, two, three of the guys grabbing one of the girls and getting her into the bathroom. At first it was kind of a game. But then after a little while, it wasn't enough to just grab a girl and drag her into the bathroom and scare her a little. One of the boys would try and kiss you. And then it got to the point that they would turn off the lights and see if they could try and do a little more than kiss.

And so, at this point, I am sure you are thinking "So why didn't you/somebody tell SOMEONE? A teacher. A parent. Somebody."

OK, first of all, I was embarrassed. Second of all, I was afraid if I told somebody, that things would get worse. But the truth, the awful truth, was that I didn't say anything because I was afraid if I did, I wouldn't have any friends. And in 8th grade, I couldn't fathom that thought.

And then, suddenly, it stopped. And everybody started pairing off. And my friend from church, who hadn't been involved with the group for most of that year anyway, really truly left the group. I wasn't really interested in any of the guys in the group and so I started liking a couple boys from church. Things were almost "normal" again.

And then it was 9th grade. One of the boys in the group self-appointed himself as the "leader" of the group. He would decide what we could/couldn't do, who we could/couldn't talk to, what we could/couldn't wear. We, obviously, became very isolated from everyone else in our school. I had a boyfriend who went to a different school and he knew nothing of what most of my life was like. But he was the one who helped me get through the year and gave me a place to feel "normal." And then over the summer, he broke up with me.

10th grade started, and I had been "selected" to be the "leader's" girlfriend. I didn't really think he was cute or anything and I really didn't want to go out with him. I also knew that he would rather be going out with one of the other girls in the group. But I had NO self esteem either and he knew that my boyfriend had just broke up with me and that I would probably say Yes. And I did.

It was great. Really. For about a week. He told me how pretty I was. He told me that he loved me. He told me that he trusted me like no one before. And then he started hitting me. And calling me names. And telling me how he wished that he had picked someone else to go out with, but she was going out with one of the other guys. He would tell me that I was such a little girl because I only wanted to kiss him.

And why didn't I tell someone?? Same reasons as before, except now, I was even deeper in feeling so isolated and I couldn't see my way out. And I was even more embarrassed. And I felt like if I told my parents, or somebody from church, they would think that I was some awful person. And that he was physically abusing me never even came to my mind. That was stuff that happened to like, adult women. I was just a 15 year old girl.

And then one night, I had my friend - the one the leader wanted to go out with - over to my house. And then, he showed up, and her boyfriend from the group, showed up. We snuck out of the house and met them in my backyard. My very large, very dark backyard. They called to us from a far corner of the backyard, and things went very, very wrong.

He broke up with me shortly thereafter. And I started my eating disorder shortly thereafter. A month later, the leader and two other boys left the group. The rest of us limped along as friends the next year and a half but we weren't nearly as close. I got back together with my boyfriend. And I graduated from high school. And moved far away to go to college.

That boyfriend, by the way, is The Boy. And if you've read my blog for awhile, or know me, you also know that two weeks into my freshman year, he died.
==============

So as my oldest child starts junior high next week, I have to do my best to not project all my fear onto her. I have tried my best to teach her to be her own person and not follow her friends if it seems wrong. I've tried my best to let her know that she can tell me anything and I will help her. I've tried to teach her that sometimes hormones and immaturity make you confused and that you may find yourself in situations that you don't know what to do, but that there are people that she can go to to help her. I've tried to help her learn to have bunches of different kinds of friends. I've also tried to teach her that it is o.k. to be alone sometimes too. I've also taught her that it is NEVER o.k. for someone make you feel bad for not doing things physically that you don't want to do. And it is NEVER o.k. for someone to hurt you in any of the ways that I and my friends were.

But still, as I sit here, 33 years after I moved across town, 33 years after I started sixth grade, 33 years later, still, I so wish that I could change, something, anything, so that all that bad stuff never would have happened. And I sit here, really, really, wishing that someone could promise me that nothing will ever happen like that to any of my children.

So do you miss me posting yet?

2011-07-14T13:36:00.003-05:00

Summer's are crazy for us around here. The kids are in Swim Team - this year all the kids, even Super, are on the team, and it seems like we are always at practice or at a meet. Practices are M-F from 7:00 to 8:30 am and 5:00 to 6:30 pm. And meets on most Tuesdays and Thursdays evenings. So that's where I've been quite a bit of the time.

Then, I no longer teach preschool really. It has morphed into daycare. During the school year, for the 2-5 year olds, I do do preschool activities from 9 am to 11 am, but during the summer, we do mostly free play. And I have a school age child that is here full-time for the summer. So when I'm not at swimming practice/meets, I am watching my own 3 kids plus 3-5 other children from ages 7 to 1.

Then I haven't had much to blog about in terms of holidays. We did go to Bass Lake for both Memorial Day and 4th of July, but I didn't take any pictures. And then, to completely add to my lameness, I didn't even watch the fireworks this year. I wasn't feeling well, so I just stayed back and went to bed early. I know. COMPLETELY lame. Can you even imagine what a fuddy duddy I'll be by the time I get into my 60s? Or even my 50s? Sheesh.

I have been doing lots of gardening, and I SHOULD post some pictures of that. Let's just say that the Square Foot Gardening has been a 90% smashing success! And I love that the garden is just steps away from my back door. And the weeding has been almost non-existent! Mostly just green beans are being harvested in my garden right now, but it is nice to be able to just go out every night and pick a cup of green beans for dinner! I planted green beans successively, so I'll be harvesting green beans for the next 8 weeks or so. And I'll be starting to preserve them soon. I'm hoping that between my garden and picking some up at farmer's market that I'll be able to can about 36 pints and freeze about 10 quart bags. Speaking of preserving, I made pickled beets this year! And they are good!

Sometimes, I really can't believe how different I live than just a few years ago. I always wanted to do less formal activities and do more with gardening and preserving and all of that, but just didn't. And now, 2-3 years later, it is just a part of regular routine. And for Super, who is 6, it is just mostly what he knows. He doesn't remember when I didn't make our own pickles and spaghetti sauce. When I didn't shop at farmer's market most Saturdays. When most of our food doesn't come out of a box. When we didn't spend most of our time together doing "whatever."

All right, next time I get here (which probably won't be until August. Just being honest.), I'll try and post pictures. Pictures of swim team. Pictures of the garden. Pictures of canning and dehydrating and freezing.

Oh, and did I tell you I picked up a great Summer Recipe book at the thrift store.

You know, there really are many things that I enjoy about my life. :)

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow . . .

2011-06-30T10:48:00.000-05:00

No, Mr. Simple hasn't got a job yet, and no, I am not just trying to cheer myself up. Flower was in a production of Annie Jr. at our local elementary school in early May, and I kept meaning to blog about it, and just kept forgetting.

She tried out in January, and got selected as one of orphans - Tessie. There were LOTS of practices. Like at least twice a week for two months and then more leading up to the performance. But I must say, the practice was worth it. It was an AWESOME performance, and I'm not just saying that because Flower was in it. Hats off to all the kids, parent/teacher volunteers, and the music teacher! We couldn't take pictures of the actual performance due to copyright issues, but here are a couple pictures after the show:

Flower with "Annie" played fabulously by one of my friend's daughter

Grandma S, Flower and Aunt N

Great Job Flower! I'm sure it is just the first of MANY performances we will be at! Flower has definitely been bit by the acting bug!

OK, here are some things I've learned since we started using our food storage

2011-06-18T22:35:00.003-05:00

1. My kids prefer white bread from the store over homemade wheat bread. However, they will eat homemade bread.

2. I should have had more cold cereal in food storage. I would really prefer that my kids NOT eat cold cereal, but the truth of the matter is that at least one of the children strongly prefers it, and on some mornings, I just don't have time to cook eggs or oatmeal.

3. I should have had more canned chicken. I do have some whole chickens in the freezer, and that IS more economical than doing canned chicken, but again, sometimes I don't have time to cook a chicken, even if it is in the slow cooker all day when I am doing other things.

4. Related to #3, my food storage is somewhat lacking in the meat department. We do have plenty of beans and peanut butter for protein, but I only had a week or two worth of hamburger, chicken and fish in the freezer when this happened. And meat is still currently the biggest expense for me when we do go to the store. I have already altered our menu planning, and we may have to do even further cutting.

5. Also related to #3, when we get back on our feet, I am going to make sure and donate canned chicken to food pantries. Green beans and soup are great, but sometimes, it makes it hard to feel like a dinner without meat.

6. Having a garden has been VERY helpful. I should have planted a little differently, and I will change things next year. I will have a whole 4x4 bed just for lettuce, spinach, kale and chard, and I will plant a square of each for 4 weeks so it is more successive. I will also plant more peas. I will plant more cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower too, but I will tuck them in my front and side beds instead of using up so much room in my 4x4 vegetable beds. I will plant potatoes.

7. It has been good that we were used to not having much variety in our fresh produce. We have had plenty of broccoli, lettuce, spinach, and chard to eat out of the garden, so I haven't had to buy any of that at the store. I only had to buy one kind of fresh fruit a week, and then fill in with the strawberries that we have growing in the strawberry patch.

8. I really try and restrict our purchases to NEEDS - so that, for us, is eggs, milk, butter, cheese, cereal, one kind of fruit, and a couple pounds of ground meat, and a whole chicken. Oh, and garbage bags. And toilet paper. :) Speaking of garbage bags and toilet paper - I should have had more of those kind of things in my food storage too. Another thing I will make sure and donate to food pantries too when we get back on our feet.

9. I only go shopping at farmers market once a week and the grocery store once a week and I don't go to any other stores. Otherwise, I'll suddenly remember things that I "need" or I'll be tempted to buy stuff or I'll go and just depress myself. So I just try and stay out, for the most part.

10. I've learned that I have friends that will help me out :) I've had people donate food to me. I had a friend who let me use her wheat grinder to grind wheat. And I've had lots of friends who have lent a sympathetic ear, which is VERY helpful right now.

I am a bad mom . . .

2011-06-18T20:55:00.004-05:00

Well, not in a "you better call the department of child services" sort of bad. But here are a few examples:

1. I rarely let my kids go play outside in our yard with anything involving water - the pool, the sprinkler, the slip n slide, the hose, etc. I hate, hate, hate with a passion water play. It isn't the water that bugs me so much. It is the mud that ends up all over my house, and the GRASS that is in every room between the backyard and their rooms. It is the water that gets on the hardwood and the carpet from the backyard to the bathroom as they come in 17 times. Each. In 15 minutes. I'm not super crazy about all the screaming that seems to be involved in water play either.

2. I only let my kids have popsicles at the table. Otherwise, there are sticks and papers in the yard. Because somehow, it is just TOO far to go in and throw them away. (But of course, not too far to troop in and go to the bathroom when they are wet, see #1.) My kids have never had Freezer Pops at my house because I hate having to cut them and then find all the ends and get them into the trash, and then part of the Freezer Pop always lands on the table, or the floor, or whatever. Same thing with Snow Cones. I think my kids have had one once. And it was a free one at a Library thing.

3. I told my girls that they were going to have rats living in their room if they didn't do a better job of cleaning their room. Yea, I told them that there would be RATS.

4. I must have been touched out at some point when I had a newly 5 year old, a 3 year old, and a baby because now when they all want to lean on me or hold my hand or they all want to sit on my lap or something, all I can think is "How long is long enough before I can gently move them off me?" I love them, but I don't want them all laying on me!

5. Jelly Bean, my 9 year old, lost a tooth recently. Then she told me "I have a bump by my tooth." I assumed it was the tooth that she just lost, and I said "That happens sometimes when you lose a tooth and the new one is coming in." We went to the dentist this week, and she has an gum infection! On a totally different area than the lost tooth. That I would have realized if I had actually looked.

6. I think the school called me at least 10 times during the last month of school to tell me that I had a negative food account balance. To be fair, most of this was NOT exactly my fault. I would give the money to Flower (age 11) and tell her to turn it in at the office. Then she would forget, but still get lunch, and so then we would owe even more. Sometimes, this would go on for two or three days. Finally, I just started paying on-line, which I should have done instead of giving to Flower, but I generally had cash on hand, and it was "easier" than paying with my debit card.

7. I have recently started using my girls as my "errand" girls. I give them money and the cell phone, and have them go to the library to return/pick up books. Or to the grocery store to get a few things. Or to the convenience store to get me a soda. :)

8. Super (age 6) seems to be unable to control himself from starting conversations with complete strangers. Most of them start with "Did you know that I am the best swimmer in 6 and under?" I am sure that they didn't know, but I am pretty sure they don't really care. Most of them are still nice about it, but he comes off as if he is totally bragging (which is basically is.) I have talked to him about it and told him that it isn't really appropriate to do, etc. But yet he still does it. Along with talking about his body parts/body functions in inappropriate ways to complete strangers. Or anybody else for that matter.

9. I have forgotten at least 3 birthday parties that my kids were invited to this year. Two of which I RSVP'ed for. And yes, I have an iPhone. That has a calendar/alarm function.

10. My 11 year old recently caught me rolling my eyes when she said that she couldn't find something she was looking for. (She is NOTORIOUS for saying that she looked for something, and then you go down to her room, and it is sitting right in front of the door, or something equally obvious.) She said "I saw you rolling your eyes Mommy! That isn't very nice!" Oops!

I should have known better . . . .

2011-06-04T18:20:00.002-05:00

I last blogged a couple weeks ago about how I had a plan.

And then life happened.

If life was fair, then I would be able to have some semblance of control. However, life is NOT fair, and as it sometimes seems to be the case, my life seems to be fairly often, NOT fair, and so fairly often, things are outside of my control.

My big plan was to go back to school in Fall 2012 and get my masters degree in English. I'd stop doing daycare then, and I'd get an assistantship, and I'd take classes, and learn things, and in the end, I'd graduate with a degree that is actually useful, especially in the city that I live in.

And then after I got my degree, I'd teach English 101, etc. at the local community college. I'd talked with the director of the Writer Program over at the community college (she is a friend from way back in the day) and she said that they have openings all the time for adjunct English instructors. I could teach two or three sections, I'd have summers off if I wanted, I'd make about the same money that I'm making now but working a lot less hours, and I'd be using my skills. It would be great.

Yep.

Except that it probably isn't going to happen. Well, it still might, but I've got a much more pressing problem right now.

Mr. Simple lost his job last week.

UGH.

So now, everything is on hold. Even the gardening. I mean, I have 4 raised beds and I've planted things, and I'm even harvesting things already, but I wanted to build at least one more 4 x 4 bed, two 2 x 4 bed now, and another 4 x 4 bed in the fall. For now, I'll just need to be grateful for the beds that I got in, and use the food from the garden wisely and be grateful for the produce.

Speaking of thankful, I am thankful for lots of things right now. I'm glad that I do have food storage. I'm grateful that we are very frugal already. I'm glad that we are pretty minimalist already. I'm glad that we are fairly self-reliant. I'm glad that there was a free clothing exchange today and I was able to get Super a bunch of clothes for the summer and fall that he needed.

But mostly, I'm glad that Mr. Simple and I have wonderful friends and family. It is comforting to know that we have love and support during times of crisis.

Mr. Simple is applying for jobs and we are hopeful that he will find something soon. I will also be looking and applying for jobs soon. We are hopeful that one or both of us can find something relatively quickly.

And back to that dream . . .

It was just a dream, you know. I HAVE done things with my life. And if nothing else, I always muddle through. Maybe not always happily. But I don't give up. We WILL get through this.

And maybe I will get back to school, maybe even by Fall 2012. Or maybe I won't. My life hasn't gone according to MY plan yet. :)

So I had a dream a few weeks ago . . .

2011-05-18T00:37:00.004-05:00

and you know it had to be memorable if I still remember it now. But anyway.

Oh, but before I go on, I MUST share that my 11 year old is trying to set a new world record in forgetfulness. Was I seriously that forgetful at 11? I mean, it is out of control. ANYWAY, back to the dream.

In my dream. I was having an interview with my old boss. The only boss that I've had twice - I was looking for a summer internship as a techical writer and Tim interviewed me and hired me as an intern for the summer of 1993. Then he asked me to stay on as on contract until August 1994. And then he hired me back in 1996 and I worked there until December 1997.

So back to my dream. I was having an interview with Tim. He was working someplace new. I was looking for a job and saw a position that looked like I would be qualified for, and I went to the interview and I was surprised to see him there. He told me about what he had been doing for the past 10+ years since I'd seen him and then he asked about me. I told him that I'd worked as a technical writer for another company for a year, and then as a trainer for 4 years, but I'd been teaching preschool/doing daycare/getting a masters degree/being a mom for most of that time.

And then he said it. "You know, I thought you would have done more with your life."

In my dream, I was crushed.

And then I woke up.

And I've been thinking about the dream. A lot.

I do think that what I've done since I last saw my old boss has been important. Especially the mom part.

And it has certainly helped me figure out that "just" having a career is not enough for me. Or is the most important thing to me.

My family is certainly "DOING MORE" in my eyes.

My family certainly is the most important thing to me.

And figuring out how to get through the past few years - emotionally, physically, mentally. That was "doing more" too.

BUT

(you knew there was a but)

it really has made me think more about my "career" too. It has made me think about why I went back to school to get a masters degree, and why it was important for me to finish. It has made me think about the skills that I have that don't involve talking to people that are under 5 feet and under 12 years years old.

And it has made me really think about finding a way to come as close as I can to having it all - a way to still spend time with my children, time forgardening/preserving/sewing/cooking, etc. AND time to do something with training/writing/teaching.

I'm pretty sure I have a plan too. I feel good about it - because now I am getting to be more purposeful with my life. Before, I worked because that is just what you did after you went to college. And then I worked at home because that is what you do when you get laid off and you have a two/three kids at home. I enjoyed it, but I didn't choose my path.

Now, I'm choosing. And I feel happy about the path that I'm choosing.

So thanks Tim. Even if you didn't really say it. And even though it was a mean thing to say. And even if it wasn't even true.

In honor of Mother's Day - my story of motherhood

2011-05-07T08:34:00.006-05:00

It was September 22nd, 1999 (almost 12 years ago. I know. I. CAN'T. BELIEVE. IT.) It was pregnant with my first baby (after my first miscarriage in February 1998.) I had spent much of her pregnancy being worried, but so far, everything had been fine. I was due on September 20th, and I was miserable. I went in for my last dr. appointment and the dr. agreed to induce me on the 22nd.

So in anticipation of the big event, Mr. Simple and I, my parents, and my sister, her husband, and their 5 month old baby went out for dinner the night before. I actually started going into labor that night, but by the time I left for the hospital at 7 am, the contractions were still far apart. I labored on my own until 9 AM and then they started Pitocin. Immediately, the contractions became VERY close together. They would last at least a minute long and I'd only have a 30 second break. I sat and rocked in the rocking chair for hours. It was the only thing that felt good to me. At 2 pm., the dr. broke my water and I got an epidural and by 3 pm, I was complete and ready to push. Everybody said that things were going so fast for a first baby. Everybody said that it would be soon. So I started pushing. And I pushed. And pushed. And pushed. They kept saying "It will be the next one!" Except it wasn't. Finally, 3 hours and 45 minutes later, the dr. came in and did a forceps delivery. (Well, technically, it wasn't a forceps delivery. He put the forceps in place and made enough room for the baby to come out.) Flower was born on September 22nd, 1999 at 6:45 pm. She was 7 lbs. 12 oz. and had the roundest head - which seemed funny after all the pushing that I did.

She was a terrible nurser (This lasted for the longest 6 weeks of my life too. She finally figured it out thankfully.) I sent her to the nursery that night to try and get some sleep, and they would bring her back every hour saying that I needed to nurse her. She wouldn't latch and would just sit and scream for 20 minutes. This went on all night. I kept her with me during the day, but of course, she mostly slept during the day. The second night was more screaming.

I was convinced that I shouldn't be allowed to take Flower home from the hospital. But they sent her home with us anyway. And she (and we) survived.

------------

It was December 17th, 2001. It was the end of Jelly Bean's pregnancy. Jelly Bean's pregnancy had been difficult. I was on bedrest from week 10 to week 20 with cramping and contractions. At 29 weeks, I went to the hospital with pre-term labor. I was already dilated to 5 centimeters when I got there, and everyone was sure that I would deliver then. Thankfully, I didn't. I was on hospital and home bedrest from 29 weeks until 37 weeks. Everybody said that I'd probably deliver the next day. I didn't. In fact, I had hardly any contractions for the next 3 weeks.

I went to my last dr. appointment and the dr. said that he wanted to see me deliver. I said that I didn't want pitocin. I didn't want an epidural. He said that he was sure it wouldn't be necessary. He would just break my water and I would probably deliver the baby shortly after that. So we showed up at the hospital at 9 am on December 18, 2001. The dr. broke my water.

And. Nothing. Happened. I had hardly any contractions. He came in and talked to me at 12:45 and said that I could continue like this for a few more hours, but now that my water was broken, I did need to deliver, and so if something didn't happen after 8 more hours, I'd have to do pitocin. Or I could just start pitocin now. I didn't want it, but at this point, I was just tired. I was tired of being pregnant. I just wanted to deliver.

At 1 pm, the nurse started the pitocin. The contractions started right away. I still wanted to not have an epidural. But as the contractions kept coming one after the other, I asked for an epidural. The nurse said that I couldn't have one until I was in True Labor. WHAT??? The nurse came in and figured out that the monitors weren't recording the contractions. She also checked me and said that I was at 6 centimeters. So she said that she would call him, but he wasn't at the hospital and it would take about 10 minutes before he got there. It was about 1:45 at this point. As soon as the nurse left the room, I noticed that I was pushing. I mean, I wasn't trying to, but I was pushing. I told Mr. Simple, and he said something about only being at 6 centimeters, but then when he saw that the baby was coming, he ran out in the hallway and said that I was having the baby. Mr. Simple and a nurse trainee came back in the room. The nurse trainee told me not to push because my dr. wasn't there yet. He would be there in 5 minutes or so. She told me to practice my breathing. I tried, sort of, once, but with that one breath, out came Jelly Bean. She was born at 1:53 pm. She weighed 6 pounds.

I didn't want to hold her at first. I felt bad about it, later, and even at the time, but my body was in shock that I'd just had a baby. It had been SO fast. And everything had seemed so out of control. But after 10 minutes, I held her. She was so small and red.

She nursed like a champ from the beginning. Yet, she was my tiniest baby at birth, and for a long time afterward. Like until she was 2 years old.

--------------------

It was September 25th (which isn't his actual birthday, wait, I'll get to it.) I had been at my one of my friend's son's baptism that day. A bunch of my other friends were there. Everyone was asking when I was going to have the baby.

Super's pregnancy had been a HUGE surprise. I'd had lots of trouble getting pregnant with the girls and so we figured that we were just going to be blessed with the two girls. Then when Jelly Bean was two, I started feeling sick. But it was winter. I always feel sick in the winter. And it wasn't really bad. Being pregnant didn't really cross my mind. Finally, I decided to go to the dr. and lo and behold, I was already almost 3 months along.

I also had pre-term labor with him, and it was even earlier, at 26 weeks, but they were able to manage it better this time, and I spent less time on hospital bedrest than I did with Jelly Bean. And when anyone asked, I told them that I did NOT want to be induced, and I did NOT want an epidural.

So anyway, his due date was September 20th (the same due date as Flower!). It came and went. And the next day and the next. By the 25th, I was getting pretty impatient, but I really didn't want to be induce. But the dr. said that he would only let me go until the September 27th. By the night of the baptism, I had resigned myself to the fact that I'd be going to the hospital on the 27th to be induced.

We get home and have dinner. I don't feel that well, and I hardly eat anything. I go lay down and sleep for a bit. When I wake up an hour or so later, I was having contractions. I went to take a bath because I knew that if I took a bath and the contractions stopped, they weren't "real" contractions. They didn't stop. I got out of the tub and started timing them. It was about 9 pm at this point. Mr. Simple kept checking on me every half hour or so, and I kept saying that it wasn't time yet. I didn't want to go and have to sit at the hospital or have things stall or something. Mr. Simple came up at midnight. He took one look at me and said "We are going."

We got to the hospital and we had to go in through the ER entrance because it was after 8 pm and the main doors are not open. We go in there, and the tech calls someone from Labor and Delivery to come bring us up. A nurse comes down and wants to have me ride in a wheelchair but I say that I want to walk. So we walked. It took almost an hour to get to L & D because I was having contractions every minute or so.

I got to L & D and was examined and I was at an 7. My water had already broke at home. Everything was going fine. I just walked around the room some more, sat on the birth ball, and talked to Mr. Simple. This was easy! I could do this every day!

Then about 2:45 am, everything changed. In retrospect, it was transition, but I didn't know it at the time. All of a sudden, I had the worst contraction EVER and it wasn't ending. And then when it did, another one started. I was so scared and it hurt A LOT. I told Mr. Simple I wanted an epidural. He tried to convince me that I didn't, but I wasn't not going to be convinced. So the nurse called for an epidural and she said that it would be about 10 minutes. (Haven't I heard this before?)

He got there at a little after 3 am, and it took about 5 minutes to get everything done. When he finished, I asked how long it would take before it took effect and he said usually about 10 minutes. I told him that I was feeling a lot of pressure, and he quickly went and got the nurse. The nurse came in, checked me, and then went to get the dr. And she told me not to push. (Haven't I heard this before?)

The dr. came in about 2 minutes later and two pushes later, and before the epidural kicked in, Super was born. He was born at 3:16 am on September 26, 2004. He weighed 6 pounds 14 oz.

We hadn't found out if he was a boy or a girl before he was born. I just assumed it would be another girl. So when he came out, Mr. Simple walked over to the bassinet and then back to me, and whispered in my ear "It is a boy."

He was such a calm baby. I enjoyed his babyhood so much more than with the girls. I was much more relaxed as a mom too. None of the kids were in school yet, and so we would just hang out around the house all day for the first 6 months or so. It was great.

===================

Happy Mother's Day (a few days late!) I feel so blessed that I am a mom. I'm not always the best mother, and I don't always have the best behaved children, but we have each other. And for that, I'm grateful.

Enough Already!!

2011-04-26T02:31:00.003-05:00

I wrote in this post about how my health has gone down hill in the last year or so. In case you don't want to click on the link, here is a brief recap:

* After a year of almost non-stop sinus infections and respiratory problems, which came after a few years of off-on respiratory problems, I went to the allergist and was diagnosed with allergies to pollen, birch trees, coconut (already knew about this odd one), and wasps. It took a few months of tweaking meds, but I've been doing fairly well since then.

*Last summer, I experienced some dizziness and then a middle ear infection, and then "fullness" in my ear, loss of hearing and LOTS more dizziness. I was diagnosed with Meniere's disease last fall.

* I had a bump on my forehead that didn't look right. I also had redness on my cheeks that would get worse in the cold or the heat and after exercising. I went to a dermatologist and was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma on my forehead. I had Moh's surgery to remove it in January. I was also diagnosed with rosacea and now I use a facial gel and take a low dose antibiotic.

* In early January 2010, I was admitted to the hospital after experiencing heart attack-like symptoms. I was cleared and released, but I was put on a cholesterol lowering drug (and it was recommended that I exercise and lose weight - I exercise most days and I've lost 80 pounds so far. Go me!)

* I've had problems with my teeth for years now. In 2010, I had two root canals and two crowns put in and a couple of fillings. There went over $2000 out of my pocket. Ouch.

---------------

More recently:

* On March 19th, I was eating something (soft) and one of my crowns fell off. No big deal, right? They'll just glue it back on the tooth. Except that THE TOOTH broke off in the crown. This was now a VERY BIG VERY EXPENSIVE deal. And of course, it didn't happen on a back tooth or something. On one of my top FRONT teeth. A bit hard to overlook the big gaping hole in my mouth. After weighing my two (expensive) options, I ended up going with a dental implant followed in a few months by a crown. Total cost: $3000, out of pocket. Oh, did I mention we are still making payments on the $2000 dental bill from last year too? And did I also mention that the dental surgeon AND our new dentist (we changed dental insurance) require all the money up front before providing services??? Thankfully, I have parents who love me and will help a daughter in need.

* I was diagnosed with tendinitis in my right foot. In the grand scheme of things, this has been the most minor, but it has hindered my gym attendance as of late, and is sort of annoying in general. It hurts a little bit all the time, and a bit more when I exercise. I also have some left knee pain. Similar to the the foot pain - a little bit all the time and more when I exercise.

* And then THIS Saturday, my lower back started itching. Then my neck. Then my head. I tried to ignore it. Sunday, we went out of town. I had broken out in a red rash by this time. It was all over most of my torso. I could no longer ignore it. I took Benedryl, which did nothing, well, except help me sleep. I went to the Dr. today and he said that it is probably an allergic reaction to something (really???) and that 90% of the time, you can't figure out the cause and most of the time, it goes away and doesn't reoccur. So he put me on Zyrtec for 12 days along with Prednisone. I've taken 3 doses so far. NO CHANGE. I'm still itching and I still have the rash.

--------------

So, I'd just like to put in a request for a moratorium for medical and dental issues. For at least 6 months. A year would be fantastic, but I don't want to be completely unrealistic.

OK, I've found a pretty good happy medium

2011-04-25T11:35:00.003-05:00

at least on the "clothing" front.

When I decided to go to a more simple, natural type of living back in 2007, when I thought about the cost of going with all wool, all organic cotton, etc., it just seemed so overwhelming. I knew we couldn't afford to do it. So I didn't. But I felt guilty about it.

As the years went on, I would just sort of justify NOT doing it because we couldn't afford it. I'd be annoyed that it cost so much to go natural, but that was about as far as I'd go with it. I hate to shop too - either on-line or in stores - so it wasn't like I was going to spend the times searching for deals, even if it was looking for my natural products.

And then a few months ago, I started looking a little closer at our shopping habits. I buy almost all of our clothes at thrift stores. It is very, very rare that I purchase something at a store. So while we aren't usually wearing natural fibers, I AM reusing/recycling.

We will continue to do most of our shopping at thrift stores, and then when someone does need something that we can't get at a thrift store, THEN I will make it out of wool/organic cotton, etc. Not perfect, but it makes the most sense for us right now.

Oh, and a little post-script to this post from over a year ago. I climbed back on the wagon, not too long after this. And like with clothing, we've found the way that works for us. Maybe not in the 100% way that I'd like, but I'd say we are about 85% of the way there in the ways that I like to live with Simple Living. We walk when we can, I have a garden and grow what I can, I buy organic of the foods that are important to us, we don't shop retail hardly at all, we compost. I rarely coupon anymore. I buy hardly anything that has a coupon. To save money, I just buy less and of less variety. I use vinegar and baking soda for most of my cleaning. I use Soap Nuts for my laundry. The only cleaner I buy is for the dishwasher. I just can't find a DIY dishwasher cleaner that will work, but I do use this, so I do the best I can.

That is my mantra with Simple Living lately (and Life In General) - Just Do The Best You Can.

Laundry: Simple Style

2011-04-15T12:48:00.006-05:00

OK, now I will admit that if I didn't have to do laundry or dishes ever again, I'd probably be o.k. with that.

That being said, I've tried to find things that make those daily jobs (yes, for this family of 5 with an in-home daycare and kids that swim on a almost daily basis, laundry is daily. And of course, dishes are daily. Sometimes dishes are twice a day. But I digress . . . ) slightly less dreary. Oh, and as natural as possible too. Well, within reason. I am not quite to the point that I'm going to be washing my clothes in the bathtub. Or even in washer like this. Although, honestly, I think it is pretty cool actually.

But here are a couple of things that I do with laundry: There are 6 laundry hampers - one for Super, one for me, one for Mr. Simple, one for the girls, one for towels, and one for whites. I separate the whites from everyone's dirty clothes so that there is a full load of whites. That way, the colored clothes are already sorted per person and so when the clothes have been washed and dried, they can just go into that person's clean clothes basket. Also, each person is responsible for bringing their dirty clothes hamper and clean clothes basket to the laundry area and for taking it back to their area and putting their clothes away.

I generally use the dryer, but I do dry outside in the summer, when I can. Technically, it is against our home owners association here, but since it is now "cooler" to be doing green things, the association is overlooking clotheslines as long as they aren't permanently mounted in the ground.

In the past, I had used handmade laundry soap, but since we got a new front loading washing machine, I was concerned about using it, and so instead I used about a tablespoon of Seventh Generation (or something similar) liquid laundry soap. When I have a stain, I wet the area and rub a Fels Naptha laundry bar over it.

BUT

I have recently discovered my new SUPER favorite laundry thing. It is called SoapNuts.

I love, love love, them. It gets the laundry so clean and it is completely natural AND I can use it in my front loader. It also makes it so you don't need to use anything to get rid of static cling in the dryer.

I also love them because they are non-allergenic, antimicrobial, and harvested in a sustainable way. You usually can't say all those things about laundry soap.

(Opinions all my own. I was not compensated by anybody for this post LOL)

I'm going to stop gardening

2011-04-12T19:35:00.007-05:00

O.K., not really. But I've decided to stop gardening at the "big" plot. For the past few years, I've had a plot behind our church. It was 15 feet wide by 20 feet long. It was great to be able to have that much space. It gave me plenty of room to grow stuff like cucumbers or corn or other plants that are space hogs. But I decided not to - at least this year. For all of the advantages, there were disadvantages.

The first being that it isn't THAT close to my house. It is about 10 minutes by car to get there - which isn't far - but when I'm trying to do weeding in the morning before the daycare kids arrive, it makes it is 10 minutes there, and 10 minutes back, and only leaves me about 20 minutes to weed.

And speaking of daycare kids, it just wasn't working in my daily schedule to have a garden over there and have to watch small children. If I needed to go over to there to plant or weed or harvest with the daycare kids (and my own children), it was difficult to try and do that and watch children.

I also had to drive. There was no storage space for my tools and supplies, so I'd have to drive just to transport my supplies. I'm talented on a bike, but not talented enough to carry a hoe AND ride a bike. And so it costs me gas every day that I went over there. And that seemed like not quite the point of gardening.

But of course, I'm not ACTUALLY stopping gardening. I enjoy gardening. And eating fresh food. And preserving food. So what am I doing?

Square foot gardening and raised beds.

Those of you who have been to my house may wonder where I am going to put the beds. Especially since I have a large wooden playset in my backyard. Well, I have 5 feet of yard that is outside the perimeter of the backyard fence that is still part of our yard. So that is where the majority of the beds will go. I'll have two beds in the actual backyard and then 4 beds on the perimeter. I'll also be adding a couple of small dwarf fruit trees. I

n addition to changes in the backyard, I am pulling some things out of the front beds and adding medicinal herbs. I've already got a raised bed of cooking herbs in the back. Next year, I'll be adding some native plants in the front yard and another tree.

Now, if I want to get up in the morning and water or weed, it will take me about 30 seconds to get there. I can weed or plant or harvest in the afternoon when the daycare kids are napping. I can store my tools in my own garage.

It isn't perfect, of course, either. When I had the plot, I didn't have to buy the dirt. LOL I didn't have to make the beds. So there will be some work that I didn't have to do before. And more money. I'll let you know at the end of season what I thought. And if I'll be headed back to "plot gardening" sticking with "square foot gardening."

A Tale of Turmeric

2011-04-06T09:29:00.004-05:00

The last time I was at the health food store, I decided to get some fresh turmeric. I've never been one who has used turmeric much (if at all) before, but I had recently purchased a couple of cookbooks and one of them had turmeric in several recipes. There was also a recipe posted at the health food store for turmeric and ginger tea. So anyway, I decided to get some. I scooped out several scoopful into a plastic bag and took it home.

So later that week, I decide that I should probably transfer the turmeric from the plastic bag into a glass spice jar. So I got out the bag and the jar. I looked at it for a minute and thought about getting out a small funnel, but I decided that I could just angle the plastic bag into the jar and then I wouldn't have to get out anything else, etc.

Bad idea.

So, of course, the turmeric spilled. On the counter. On the linoleum floor. I tried brushing it off the counter into the bottle and ended up getting it on my hands, and spilling more of it on the floor. I also spilled a little on my left foot, but I was wearing clogs at the time, so at least it wasn't all over my feet, right? I finally managed to get most of the turmeric in the bottle and I went to go wash my hands.

OK, I know i had heard that turmeric could be used for dying purposes, but you'll be glad to know that I know this for a fact now.

The turmeric came off my hands - slightly. There was still a definite yellow tint. I tried to wipe up the floor and the counter. Same yellow tint left behind. And same with my foot. Well, I figured I'd try again later with a little bit more soap, but I was running late for my meditation class, so I just hopped in the car and headed over there.

I got a quick glance at my face when I got out of the car and I had yellow on the left side of my face. Great. Thankfully, I had baby wipes in the car (yes, my "baby" is 6, but you never know when you might have turmeric on your face and need to wipe it off.) and I was able to get most of it off. I slipped my shoes off for meditation and noticed that not only was the top of my left foot a little yellow, but in between my toes was yellow too. Great. And my fingernails were yellow too. Great.

So after meditating (and trying not to think about how much of my body and kitchen was dyed yellow during meditation) I came home and tried to deal with the kitchen. I don't usually use Magic Eraser, but every once in awhile, it is just the only thing that will work to get a stain out. So I used one on the counter and got most of it off. There is only a slight tinge if you are looking at it in just the right way.

Then I started working on the floor. And after repeated scrubbings, and trying a few other things, I gave up. It is permanently stained. At least it is just linoleum. And at least it is just in a small area. And at least my kitchen is closed off from the rest of the house so hardly anybody besides me will ever see it.

And 3 days later, my fingernails and between my toes are still yellow, but everything else is pretty much gone. I haven't decided if I'm going to actually use the turmeric now or just toss it. You know, before I end up dying myself all yellow. Just call me Big Bird. Well, since I'm only 5'3", I guess that would be Little Bird, right??

Happy Birthday Christopher!

2011-03-28T13:13:00.008-05:00

Three years. It was three years ago that Christopher was born. It was three years ago that he died. I can hardly believe that it has been three years.

I personally don't believe that Christopher died so that I could learn some lesson. That said, I think have learned some things from his death.

----------------------------

I've learned that even though I hurt so deeply, and when I thought that there was no way that I could ever get through a day without breaking into gigantic sobs, that I could go on.

I've learned that there are others, many others, who have gone through this type of pregnancy loss. People that I never would have guessed came to me to share their story of pain and sorrow and showed me it was possible to find a "new" normal. A normal, where I would always remember him, but a normal where I could still work and play and still enjoy the good times of life.

I learned that people love me and my family. I have never felt such love and support as I did in the days and months after Christopher died. Often it was just a note or a hug letting me know that they cared. Often people said things like "I wish I knew what to say." And of course, there were no words, really. But their actions spoke so much more than words ever could.

I learned that everybody has bad things happen in their life. Maybe not the same bad things that have happened in my life, but few people get through life unscathed. And so when someone is doing something that I find aggravating, I try to remember that I don't know what has happened to them in their life. It helped me be more empathetic.

And I learned that life is about experience. And if people show me love and I show people love, just because, well, it makes getting through life just a tiny bit easier.

---------------------------

Happy Birthday Christopher! I will always remember you. I'll always wish that it could have been different and that you could have been here with us. We love you.

Why does this always happen to me??

2011-03-21T19:19:00.002-05:00

I had such great plans to be consistent with my Lent posts this year. And then life happened - all the kids got sick, had to take one to the ER, I got sick, and then I had a dental emergency on Saturday, and it isn't even resolved yet!

So what do you think? Should I start the Lent posts back up tomorrow or should I just figure that I'm not meant to do these kinds of posts???

Lent Day 3

2011-03-11T13:22:00.002-06:00

Oh, my heart hurts for the people in Japan.

Pray: Praying for comfort, strength, healing, and hope for the people in Japan.

Fast: I'm fasting two meals today and adding to the totals from my two meals to the Give jar.

Give: I will be giving $40 to help the efforts in Japan.

Lent Day 2

2011-03-10T14:05:00.002-06:00

Pray: Pray for a spiritual experience during this week. And the strength to recognize it and use it in your life.

Fast: Give up TV for at least today. Consider giving it up for the next 39 days.

Give: Find a container for putting loose change in. Place at least one dollar a day for the next 39 days for giving to a charity of your choice.

Lent Day 1

2011-03-09T14:04:00.001-06:00

Pray: Pray for strength to get through just TODAY.

Fast: Today, fast from food as much as you are able. I'm shooting for two meals.

Give: Give your thanks to someone who doesn't usually get a Thank you.

Tomorrow Begins Lent . . .

2011-03-08T13:23:00.003-06:00

A couple years ago, I was going to do a series of posts during Lent that focuses on the main activities of Lent - prayer, fasting and giving. ( I was inspired by Elizabeth's , author of Real Learning book, blog. She did this back in 2009 too.) But after a few days of posts, I got very sick, and then we got a terrible computer virus, and it just didn't work out.

So I'm going to try it again.

Anyway, so every day, I'll discuss what I'm going to do in terms of prayer/mediation/etc., fasting/sacrificing and giving for that day.

I'm also going to use this Lenten period as a time to focus on the 7 Areas of Wellness (Remember this post?) For the next 40 days, this is what I'm going to do in each of the Seven Areas of Wellness:

1. Emotional - Write in my journal every day.
2. Environmental - Walk or bike whenever possible for the next 40 days. Including grocery shopping.
3. Intellectual - Read a book each week for the next 6 weeks.
4. Physical - Jog six days a week and eat only whole foods.
5. Social - Sign up for a class through Parks and Rec or the community college of something non-academic that interests me.
6. Spiritual - Learn more about meditation.
7. Vocational - Send a resume, job application or network five days a week for the next 6 weeks to try and find another source of income.

How do I hate money? Oh, let me count the ways . . .

2011-03-01T09:47:00.003-06:00

Ugh. I've been struggling to have "enough" money for years. Some years were downright painful - 2004 was one and 2008, well, as I've said before, EVERYTHING was awful about 2008. Including our lack of money.

Things have been better in the last year. I've got a new daycare child and Mr. Simple got a different job. But yet, despite the extra money, we still aren't exactly rolling in it. I'm still frugal because I want to be AND because we have to be.

And despite wanting to be simple and despite trying to eat healthy, I'm just getting worn out from feeling like we can never go out to eat. Or go to a movie. Or get something that I want/need, something that is even less than $50, just on a whim.

We just got our tax return. Great, right? Ugh. I swear, it just makes me more depressed sometimes because it looks great sitting in the account, but then when I sit down and write all the checks for all of the medical and dental bills (and we even had health and dental insurance for the whole family last year!) that we owe, the return gets A LOT smaller. Then, we desperately need to finish the carpet job that we started last year. And I did get the kids a small thing that they wanted, and I got myself some workout clothes. And poof! It is gone.

And the REALLY depressing thing? Even after writing a bunch of checks for medical and dental bills, we STILL won't be able to pay it all off. Hopefully we will finish paying them all off completely in the next six months, but UGH.

I know I'm not alone in all of this. And as I was talking to my mom the other day, I know that in some ways, we are doing really well. We aren't upside-down in our house or anything. If we sold it right now, we would make a profit. We pay cash for everything. We are basically out of debt except for the mortgage. We have a place to live, we have transportation, we have clothes, we have food.

But sometimes, it would be nice to go out and buy something. And not have to worry about it.

OK, so a bit ironic after my last post, but

2011-02-25T14:02:00.004-06:00

I'm having a bit of a bad day today. I even cried today, and anybody who knows me, knows that I don't cry very often.

But anyway, I'm having a bad day today and disappointed and feeling a bit stuck and all, but then I read and watched THIS:

I'm still going to have a bit of a pity party today, but you know what, tomorrow's another day too and tomorrow I'll go out and have HOPE that something great is coming soon. And I'll find it either because of help from my friends and family or it will be something that I can share with them. (Well, unless it is that 180 million powerball lottery thing. Then it is all MINE. Just kidding!!)

Don't Worry. Be Happy.

2011-02-21T14:34:00.003-06:00

I haven't been what I would call "happy" for a long time until fairly recently. I do remember being happy for most of elementary school . I didn't have a ton of friends, but I was well-liked, if that makes sense. Then I went to junior high and high school. I was NOT happy for most of that time. Part of me not being happy was just teenage drama, some of it was more teenage girl liking teenage boy drama, but most of it was because I was in a group of other kids and we just hung out with each other and there was just all kinds of odd drama that happened with our group over the years.

And then I went to college in 1984, and The Boy died three weeks into my freshman year and I was terribly sad for two years after that, and mostly sad for at least another 3 or 4 years past that.

And then I got to a place where I wasn't happy, but I wasn't sad. And I stayed like that for awhile. Then I had my first miscarriage in early 1998 and I was terribly sad for a year. And then back to the not happy/not sad on and off for a few years, and then 2006 was a bad year, and then 2008, well, that year was just truly AWFUL. If there was any reason to be sad about anything, it was probably happening to me that year. I was still pretty sad during 2009, but something started happening to me during 2009. There was a little sparkle, somewhere, starting to glow inside of me. It had been so long since I'd been happy, I didn't even recognize it at first.

And then when I realized that I was starting to feel some happiness, at first it seemed odd. I wasn't sure what to do.

And then, it was so gradual at first, but I slowly figured out that there were a few reasons that I was feeling happy. In some areas of my life, I finally stopped thinking about myself so much (the poor me side and everything always happens bad to me side) and started thinking more about others. And doing more. And in other areas, I finally started thinking about myself more (the fat, out of shape, out of fashion side) and started doing more to make myself healthier.

And then I discovered other things that are helping me be happy: Trying to show love to others every day. Smiling more. Trying to live a good life. Sleeping more than 5 hours a night. Reconnecting with people. Sharing. Writing. Finding balance. Being Authentic. Listening to myself and following through. Following the rhythm of the seasons.

And although I still feel a twinge of sadness that I have been sad for so much of my life, I am also realizing that it was just part of the journey to get me Here. And I'm also not naive enough to think that I won't ever be sad again. But I also don't think that I'll spend 20-30 years with mostly NOT happy either. And that makes me happy. :)

Sometimes, I'm Not Just Simple. I'm Just Simply Lazy.

2011-02-17T12:33:00.003-06:00

For example, with food. I'm NOT really a fan of food shopping. Well, I don't mind it at farmer's market, but unfortunately for me in a medium-sized city in the middle of Illinois, we only have farmers market available from mid May to end of October. And I can't get everything I need there anyway. And it doesn't help that I'm not really a "shopping" person anyway. I don't love to go and look at stuff. When I shop, I'm usually more the "woman with a mission" and shopping is done as quickly as possible.

So, if I could, I'd love to be able to just shop at one place and get all the food that I want. Of course, if I didn't care about money or if I didn't care about local or seasonal or organic, I COULD just shop at one store. But since I do care about that stuff, it makes grocery shopping a little more complicated.

OK, so I'm not really lazy. I actually do care, and I do end up food shopping at least two hours on the weekends. I just wish I didn't have to go food shopping, or at least, I wish I could find a way to get what I wanted/needed with it taking a lot less time.

Here's how my current grocery shopping goes. And remember, I don't like shopping, so I try and drag it out as little as possible, so I do all my grocery shopping on Saturdays, if at all possible.

1 - Naturally Yours. I buy local, seasonal food here as well as any bulk food items. I try to not buy anything packaged here or even things that are on my "must buy organic list" because it is almost always more expensive here. Examples of food that I buy here - local milk, local eggs, local cheese, local yogurt, local sour cream, etc. Right now, I buy root vegetables and greens here too. I also buy grains and baking supplies in bulk here with the exception of wheat. I have other long-term wheat stored in #10 cans in the downstairs food closet. Very occasionally, I will buy local meat here, but it is very expensive. My goal is to get pork and beef in large amounts directly from local ranchers and freeze it. My goal is to be able to place an order in the fall. My smaller goal is to buy one meal's worth of fresh, local meat from farmers markets per week this summer.

2. Meijer. We also have two Wal-Marts in town, but I do not shop at Wal-Mart. I buy almost all of my produce at Meijer. I find that it is the freshest produce and has the widest selection of organic produce. I only buy organic for things that are on the Dirty Dozen list. Otherwise, I buy regular. I also only buy the produce that my family will eat and food that is on the food menu for the week. I generally do not have a very wide selection of produce, especially since I do like to buy as much seasonal food as possible. But we eat things like apples and spinach year round and I will sometimes prepare a recipe that calls for a vegetable or fruit that is not currently in season. So for example last week at Meijer, I bought organic apples, organic potatoes, organic spinach, fennel, carrots, cabbage and sweet potatoes.

3. Shnucks. Schnucks is a local chain of grocery stores and there is a Schnucks pretty close to my house, however, I don't buy a whole lot at Schnucks and I don't always go to Schnucks every week. Schnucks products are generally more expensive. However, Schnucks carries an organic line called "Full Circle." I want to buy canned organic produce and condiments and I want as natural as possible dishwasher, laundry, and paper products, so I buy the Full Circle brand of those products at Schnucks. Full Circle is cheaper than other organic canned produce/condiments or natural cleaning supplies. For example, last week I bought at Schnucks of the Full Circle brand, 4 cans of corn, 4 cans of green beans, 1 can of peas, ketchup, laundry detergent, and dishwasher soap. I also shop occasionally at Schnucks because they have an card that allows you to donate 1% of your purchase towards something (in our case, towards the closest elementary school.)

4. Kroger. I do the bulk of my shopping at Kroger. I have a Kroger card and I find that often the things that I am buying are on sale with the grocery card. You can also load digital coupons onto the card so that you don't have to clip the coupons. Kroger also tracks my purchases and sends me coupons for the items that I buy most regularly (even coupons for meat, and you rarely see coupons for meat in the newspaper, etc.) I look at the sale paper and try and stock up on items we used when they are on sale. I buy the food that I need for preschool/daycare too because it is the cheapest grocery store for those items. I sometimes buy our health and beauty items at Kroger too, but only after I have checked . . . .

5. Walgreens and CVS. Both Walgreens and CVS have reward programs that give you "money" to spend on your next trip if you buy a particular item. Walgreens calls their program "Register Rewards" and CVS calls their reward program "ECB" (Extra Care Bucks). So I check the Walgreens and CVS ads and if their are any health and beauty products that we regularly use that are getting rewards that week, I will buy it that week. It is key, however, to only use buy the items that YOU REGULARLY USE. I also check for "regular" coupons for the reward items. Then the next week, I will use the reward money to buy other health and beauty things that we need. I try and stock up when the items are on sale and when I'm using reward "money." There are weeks when I don't shop at either store in a week and there are times when I will shop at one and not the other. I have both a Walgreens and a CVS that are very close to my house.

Making lists and food menus is also VERY IMPORTANT to make sure that I stay on budget and so that all of the food gets used, etc. And it also makes sure that I get the shopping done as quickly as I can.

I still wish that I could find everything in one place and all of the items were reasonably priced. I'd also like it if I didn't have to actual do the shopping. Have I mentioned that I don't like shopping????

Sometime soon: Part 2: How I am Simply Lazy About Laundry or at least How I would Like to Be Lazy About Laundry.

No Impact?

2011-02-11T14:03:00.003-06:00

No, this isn't about my impact on my family or on the kids at Montgomery Academy or the other people I come in contact with - I hope I have at least some positive impact on those people.

I watched THIS movie the other night. I'd heard about this a little a few years ago. Just vague references. And while I've been researching my book, I've read a couple books about people who were working to lesson their impact on the earth and to build more sustainable communities. I find it interesting, but they weren't what I was really focusing about when I was working on research, so I didn't do a LOT of reading about it. I know I didn't read this guy's book anyway and until a couple days ago, I hadn't ever visited his blog.

Anyway, the movie is a documentary of a man and his family who try to have as little impact on the earth for a year. They do it in stages, so it isn't like they went without power the first day. But they tried to create as little trash as possible. They only used reusable containers for EVERYTHING. They became locavores by only eating from the farmers' market and the bulk bins at the store so that all of their food was from less than 250 miles away. They washed their clothes in the tub and only used cleaning supplies that they made from vinegar, baking powder and borax. They only used bikes, scooters or public transportation. They used a cooler instead of a fridge. And they didn't use anything disposable, include toilet paper.

Now, first off, if I ever did this (and I'm not saying that I'm going to), I would definitely have to draw the line at toilet paper. LOL

But the movie was interesting on more than just the "less impact on the earth" way. It was interesting to see how others saw the family - were they doing this just to cash in on the minimalist/simple living craze? And I loved watching how the wife struggled and rationalized things during the years and got mad at her husband for being annoyed with her for not being able to do it as well as he did. And I loved how once they got rid of the TV, they played more games with their friends and read more to their daughter. By candlelight. And I also liked how the man said that if there is only ONE thing that you could do, he would recommend volunteering at a local environmental group.

Sometimes, I feel so overwhelmed. With the things that I want to and all of the things that stand in the way of me doing that. Mostly with things that I'm trying to do with my version of Simple Living, but of course, I found myself thinking "Wow. Maybe I'll try and live like that for a few months. Oh, no. I can't because of the kids. And the daycare kids. And how would I get to dr. appointments, especially if I had to take any of the daycare children with me too? Get on the bus 2 hours before the appointment and then walk the 5 blocks from the stop? In the winter too?" and suddenly I was all discouraged again. I can't do it.

But you know what? I can at least volunteer once a month at the Ecology Center. And I can turn the lights off during the day. I can buy less things with packaging. I can eat even more locally. I can have LESS impact than I'm having now and that is a start.

I'm not giving up toilet paper though.

Am I A Feminist? Hmmm . . . .

2011-02-09T12:31:00.005-06:00

Well, while I'm older than most of my friends, I was born in the mid 60s, so I don't remember much about the the wave of feminism that ran through the 60s and 70s. I was too busy wearing my stylish plaid ensembles and playing cars with my brother. (I never liked dolls, but my younger sister liked Barbies and dolls so we did have plenty of all types of toys around the house.)

I do know that when I started playing softball, the first year I played, I could only play on the "Ponytail League", but the second year, I could pick whether I wanted to play Ponytail League or Little League baseball. I stunk, so I just opted to drop out altogether :)

In the 80s when I was in junior high and high school, I took Clothing 1 and 2 and Foods 1 and 2and we had a couple Home Economics teachers at our school. However, there weren't just girls in my Home Ec classes, in fact, there were just as many boys as girls in my foods classes. Some sort of "life skills" classes were required for graduation at my school, but you could take Technology Education classes and/or the Life, Career and Money class to complete the requirement instead.

Mostly back then, honestly, I never gave feminism much thought. I'd heard of it a little, but it seemed so harsh and negative and just something for people older than me.

I went to college for a few years and then I worked as a police dispatcher for a few years. It was a mostly male environment at the police station, although there were 3 other female dispatchers, and one female police officer. The only way that I ever felt that my gender was an issue was when I would sometimes be talking to the public at the front desk, and they would ask to speak to a MALE police officer instead. Who would ALWAYS tell them exactly what I just said.

Then it was back to school, and then working again, and then marriage and working, a baby and working, and finally, more kids and working at home. Since about 2007, I've been using my homemaking/life skills much more than I had in the past.

So back to Feminism. When I hear the word "Feminist," it makes me think of an angry, single woman who is fighting for equality in everything - equal pay, equal duties, equal in legal issues, etc. I imagine someone who feels that women are oppressed and need to be liberated from all the inequity that has been placed upon them. (Now, I didn't say that it was an accurate or fair representation of a feminist. I'm just saying what it makes ME envision.)

I've never felt that I was really oppressed. I guess I could have been. It doesn't feel like oppression, but I'm sure part of it is my ignorance. I don't know if I've had equal pay with my male counterparts when I was employed. I don't know if my legal rights have ever been compromised (I've never been arrested or anything, but I own a home. I pay taxes.)

I guess there was probably one time in my life that I was treated unfairly because I was a woman (well, a mother at least.) I was in a job interview. The interview was going VERY well. The woman began talking about her family and then asked if I had children. I indicated that I did have children. She asked their ages (at the time, the children were 7, 5, and 2.) When she heard that, she said "Well, this job probably isn't a good fit. There will be quite a bit of traveling in this job and for a mother of young children, well, it probably would be a problem." I was pretty desperate for a job at the time, and was willing to make hard sacrifices and tried to assure the woman that I was aware of the traveling and that I had support in place and that I could still do the job. I never heard from the company again. Now, in retrospect, she could have been right. It may have been very difficult for me to do traveling when the kids were so small. But I still felt like she didn't agree and so didn't even consider me for the position, even though I was otherwise qualified for the position.

So anyway, for a long time, I didn't consider myself a Feminist. And then I started thinking about it more. Couldn't a Feminist be someone who celebrated the differences between men and women? Couldn't a Feminist be someone who thought that one of the coolest things in the world is the ability that a woman has to give birth to a child??? And the ability to feed that baby with her own body? I'm not saying that every woman has to do those things to be a Feminist or a "good" woman, but I am just in awe that women CAN do those things. And couldn't a Feminist be someone who provided well for her family with gardening and cooking and sewing and other homemaking skills?

Because if a Feminist is like that, then sign me up.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow . . .

2011-02-04T13:20:00.008-06:00

We decorate the windows in our dining room all the time, especially for holidays, but for January, they were all decked out with all kinds of winter decorations.

The girls made these snowmen years ago

out of colored paper stuck between two

sheets of contact paper.

All the snowflakes were cut by Jelly Bean

My mom sent me these cute shirts for Christmas
a couple years ago. There are three and they are
hanging from a piece of red yarn that is attached
to the curtain rod.

This picture isn't actually up in the windows.
Jelly Bean drew it for part of the wall
decorations for the preschool area. She
does one every season. This one is Winter!

So we had all of these winter decorations
up in January, but there was hardly any snow
on the ground.

And then, just as February began,

The Blizzard came!

Our little pinecone tree is "flocked"
with real snow.

Our front yard. There
are front steps there somewhere!

Our street looks like it is plowed, but it
really isn't. A pickup truck with a plow on
front came by and made a first pass, but you
still couldn't actually get out onto the main road.

We have alleys on the side and back of our

house and that is the only way to get your
vehicles out onto the road. Our alleys were
completely covered with about 3 feet of snow.

A view of the alley behind our house. The
driveway was shoveled, but the snow was too thick
for too long to be able to shovel or snowblow out
the snow. We were snowed in!

A view of our tree out front.

The kids made the best of it and

made snow tunnels out of drifts.

And here they are sitting on the retaining wall.
The stones are under there somewhere!

==============

All in all, we were snowed in for about 48 hours. The alleys are considered the lowest priority for the snow plows. The snow started for us Tuesday afternoon, and we were out by Thursday afternoon. But we had games and movies and food and heat and power so it was all good! Although I am glad to know that if I WANT to get out today, I can!

A Gift To Be Simple

2011-01-31T06:46:00.004-06:00

Here is an old Shaker song that talks about being Simple.

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Two additional, later non-Shaker verses exist for the song, as follows:

'Tis the gift to be loved and that love to return,
'Tis the gift to be taught and a richer gift to learn,
And when we expect of others what we try to live each day,
Then we'll all live together and we'll all learn to say,
(refrain)
'Tis the gift to have friends and a true friend to be,
'Tis the gift to think of others not to only think of "me",
And when we hear what others really think and really feel,
Then we'll all live together with a love that is real.

To solve all of our problems, it really is just as simple as Love One Another.

Seven

2011-01-25T12:31:00.004-06:00

No, this isn't Super's age. Or the number of bones I've broken. Or the number of trips I had to go out to the car to unload the groceries. (As an aside, unloading the groceries from the car is one of my least favorite jobs. EVER.)

My alma mater is this university, and I still live in the same city that the university is located. So today I was driving past one of the intersections by campus and noticed a big banner that said "Seven" and then led you to the university's Wellness home page.

Now, I've mentioned how I've been pretty UNwell this past year, at least physically. I'm really hoping that 2011 is a more healthy year.

But I also hope that I'm more healthy overall and so I decided to check out the Wellness page.

They list seven areas of Wellness and their definition of each area:

Intellectual - Intellectual well-being involves lifelong learning through your formal education and informal life experiences. Well-being in this area increases your openness to new ideas and to maintain a sense of humor, creativity and curiosity.

Emotional - Emotional wellness is a journey toward increased awareness, expression and acceptance of a wide range of thoughts and feelings in yourself and others. Optimal emotional wellness helps you achieve positive self-esteem, satisfying relationships and resilience to meet life's challenges.

Physical - Physical wellness involves respecting your body's own uniqueness and diversity, and engaging in practices that move you towards a higher level of health. Optimal physical well-being includes connecting with your physical self and avoiding harmful habits, while remaining focused on the balance of body-mind-spirit.

Social - Social health means being aware of, participating in, and feeling connected to your community. Social well-being is enhanced by establishing supportive social networks through meaningful relationships with family, friends, colleagues and other significant individuals.

Vocational - Vocational wellness can be nurtured by matching your core values with interests, hobbies, employment and volunteer work. As you uncover your talents and passion, you express yourself to the world.

Environmental - Environmental well-being includes trying to live in harmony with the earth by understanding the impact of your interaction with nature and your personal environment, and taking action to protect the world around you.

Spiritual - Spiritual wellness involves developing an inner connection and harmony between yourself and the wonder, majesty and mystery of the universe.

On the Wellness page, they also encourage people to complete activities in each of the areas for prizes.

Now, I'm all for prizes and all, but a) I'm pretty sure they don't allow alumni to enroll in the program and b) I want to have more control over what prize I'm going to get. I'm all about chocolate for prizes :)

So I'm mulling these areas around in my mind today and trying to decide what my goals are going to be with overall wellness. I may try and complete a goal in each area each month. But that might be too much to take on. I may try and complete a goal in ONE area each month. That would be more doable, but will I lose momentum and motivation that way? And will I feel that I'm not concentrating enough on overall health? Or I may just write all these down in my journal and try and just encourage these ideas in my overall goals and things I do during the year.

I'll let you know what I decide.

Tu B'Shevat - The New Year of Trees

2011-01-24T08:35:00.008-06:00

In homeschooling this year, Jelly Bean and I are studying the holidays from around the world. I really enjoyed learning about the Jewish holiday Tu B'Shevat (celebrated on January 20th this year) and have been thinking about it for the past few days.

In celebrating the New Year of Trees, one can think about how a person was like a tree in the last year:

* Did I shelter those that live in my shade? Did I give others a good, safe, warm home?

* Did I strive to grow? Did I reach upwards instead of staying in the same place?

* Did I keep my roots firmly planted? Did I make firm resolves? Did I show by my example how to stay planted to the young trees beside me?

* Did I create sweet fruit? Or did I keep my branches bare? Did I share those fruits with others?

And speaking of fruit, some Jewish people partake in a Tu B'Shevat seder. During the seder, the first fruit that is eaten is one that has an inedible shell, like a walnut. The next fruit is one that has an inedible pit, like a peach. The next fruit is one that you eat the entire thing, like a grape. The next fruit is not one that is actually eaten but just inhaled, like almond extract or herbs, etc.

One can think of how this applies to ourselves - Do I live with a hard shell around me? Or do I appear to be open, but really, there is a hard pit inside, and so I won't let anyone in too deeply? Or I am trying to learn more about how to be a good person while still on Earth? Or am I striving to look towards things beyond?

I also love what Emerson said in Nature about the woods/trees:

"In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes. . . . I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature."

First Daybook of 2011: January 17, 2011

2011-01-17T13:40:00.004-06:00

I am thankful for... the clothes I found in my closet this week. I had lost a bunch of weight back in 2006, and bought three skirts. I haven't been able to fit into them since uh, 2006, and I was growing weary of the one dress and one skirt that I had been wearing to church. Now I've suddenly almost tripled my Sunday wardrobe and I didn't have to spend a dime!

From the learning rooms... The preschoolers are working on Antarctica, snow related activities, the letter O, the number 5 and the color grey. Jelly Bean is working on Charlemagne in history, verbs in Language, New Mexico in Geography, 4 time tables and gallons/quarts in Math, ink in Art, and primates in Science. She also started going to Gym N' Swim at the YMCA last week (through our homeschool group - 45 minutes of swimming and 45 minutes of traditional PE activities.)

From the kitchen... Chicken Noodle Soup. I really love winter foods - soups, root vegetables - especially roasted. YUMMY! Oh, and Hot Chocolate. Have I ever mentioned that I love Hot Chocolate??? :)

I am wearing... blue yoga pants, an adult sized Swim Team t-shirt, and my grey wool socks. Hey, I had an allergist appointment this morning. I wanted to be warm and comfortable.

I am creating... organization to my closet. :)

I am going... to doctors this week. I'm hoping that soon I will be able to go a few months between all these appointments. Today, it was the allergist, tomorrow, the ENT, and Wednesday, I have to travel down to Springfield for a small medical procedure.

I am reading... The Seventeen Traditions and Rocket Boys. The author of Rocket Boys is coming to the local community college for a Q & A in March and so I thought I try and read it before his visit.

I am hoping... that my family knows how much I love them. I attended a funeral this weekend of a wonderful woman. I am sure that her family knew how much she loved them, and vice versa.

I am hearing... Thankfully, not much. The toddlers are sleeping and Jelly Bean (and Super and Flower who are home from school the today and tomorrow) are playing a board game together.

Around the house... Trying to embrace the grey and cold of January by decorating with snowflakes and pictures of the children's snowmen.

One of my favorite things... Watching movies with my kids on the weekends. We all get our blankets and snuggle on the couch together. Makes me smile just thinking about it.

Solstice Party 2010

2011-01-10T13:26:00.003-06:00

Phew! After this post, I think I'm all caught up with December activities. It was a busy month!

Anyway, I originally had the Solstice party scheduled for a few days before Solstice, but two of the invitees were ill that day, so I rescheduled for a couple days after Solstice.

I also meant to take lots of cool, artsy pictures, but I was having so much fun hanging out, talking, and eating that I forgot. My one attempt at a picture during the event didn't turn out, so you'll just have to imagine it. I even forgot to take pictures of the food!!

Anyway, I was in charge of the food, and then some groovy people brought all of the other stuff. There was a beautiful centerpiece with evergreen boughs and red glass berry branches, some nice music, tasty beverages, and even a great presentation about Solstice. (We all laughed during the poem - but we were supposed to, right????) And then we went downstairs and talked about kids and home ownership and life. It was a lovely evening.

All the food came from the book Recipes from the Root Cellar. I mentioned that I wanted it, so I decided to buy it for myself as an early Christmas present. Love presents like that :) We had Couscous Sasad with Kale and Feta, Creamy Potato-Leek Soup, Maple Glazed Baked Winter Vegetables (I used beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips and butternut squash) with Chicken, and Applesauce Cake for dessert. I must admit that most of it was delicious, although somehow, I managed to screw up the Applesauce Cake a bit. The cake itself was overdone a little, and then I didn't do the crumb topping quite right, although all the guests graciously ate it without complaining.

It was so nice to share a meal and lovely conversation with friends as we welcomed in the new season. It was so much fun, I'll probably be hosting one every season! I'll try and take pictures next time too!

Music Concerts 2010

2011-01-09T08:50:00.004-06:00

During the same week that we were doing other Christmas things, we also had music concerts for Flower and Super.

Super is in Kindergarten this year, and the school holds a K-2 Music concert during December where they sing all kinds of holiday songs. Super really enjoys singing. And his cute Music teacher :) Sorry about the video quality on this one. He is the one with blondish brown hair, wearing a grey suit, 2nd row up from the bottom, sort of in the middle.

Flower is in 5th grade this year, and was part of the elementary school choir. They sang a few "regular" songs and a few holiday songs. She LOVES singing. She plans on trying out for the school musical and is hoping to get a part. Flower is on the bottom row, 2nd person in on the right.

First Snow of late 2010

2011-01-04T11:00:00.000-06:00

After the courthouse, we came back home. The kids were SO excited to go out and play in the snow. They acted like they had never seen snow before! They were so excited that they didn't even complain when I asked them to shovel the walks before they built a snowman! They bundled up and then they went outside - and they were outside for at least two hours! And nobody came in during that time! My children are finally growing up, I think! I went out a couple times to check on the progress of the shoveling and of the snowman making, but most of the time, I sat inside the warm house and read. Oh, and drank hot chocolate. A good day was had by all!

The snowman

Jelly Bean

Flower

And Super - right after he
got hit with a snowball!

Christmas At The Courthouse

2011-01-03T16:00:00.002-06:00

The next morning, we were back downtown. It had snowed quite a bit the night before, and it continued to snow while we were in the museum.

Outside of the County Museum.
(The County Museum is in the
Old Courthouse.)

A picture with St. Nicholas and his wife

The tree

Music and refreshments in a courtroom

A view out the windows in the courtroom

Some of the architecture in the courthouse

A view up to the inside of the dome.

We had a great day at the courthouse - we did crafts, explored some of the museum rooms, listened to some beautiful music, and ate some yummy snacks.

Live Window Vignettes

2011-01-02T18:00:00.004-06:00

I have a bunch of catch up posts from December to do. We do many things every year - Live Vignettes in Downtown, Christmas At the Courthouse, Holiday Music Concerts, play in the First Snow. This year, I also hosted a Winter Solstice Party. I'm going to be spending the next few days posting some of the things that we did in December.

We've gone to the Live Window Vignettes in Downtown for a few years now. The first year, there were lots of live models in the windows in several of the downtown shops. This year, there were less than 10 windows that actually had people in the windows. It was a little disappointing. We still managed to have fun, but I hope that next year that there is more emphasis on the LIVE part.

Middle getting her cast signed by Mrs. Claus

Picture with Mrs. and Santa Claus

Face Painting - Santa Cat, Rudolph,
and Snow Princess

It had been unseasonably warm for weeks now, but it started snowing on this night. And it snowed and snowed and snowed. In the morning, we would be heading back downtown for Christmas At The Courthouse.

2010 in Pictures

2011-01-01T17:41:00.005-06:00

Just a picture from each month - some of my favorites from 2010.

January 2010

February 2010

March 2010 - At St. Louis Zoo

April 2010 - When our window
wells broke and mud poured
in the basement

May 2010 - At the Mother/Daughter
Girl Scout campout

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010 - At the Corn Festival

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

Our Florida Vacation - Part 4 (The Last One)

2010-12-30T19:00:00.000-06:00

We slept in until 8 and got to Epcot by 10. It was looking cloudy and rain was predicted, but we hoped that it wouldn’t actually rain. Or that it would be a quick rainstorm. We also tried to figure out what we were going to do at Epcot. Some of us wanted to focus on rides, and some wanted to concentrate on going to the different country pavilions and do shopping, etc. I thought that maybe we could do some of both and everybody would be happy. This was not exactly what happened.

The kids at the front of Epcot

We went on Spaceship Earth and then we went to the Character Spot. This character greeting was also very organized and I appreciated that you could see 5 characters in one spot. After we met Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy, we went shopping and had some pastries in the United Kingdom.

The kids and Mickey

The kids and Pluto

The kids and Minnie

The kids and Donald

The kids being goofy by Goofy

Some cute holiday topiaries

We had a visitor with us at lunch

Super visiting the phonebooth in
the United Kingdom

Flower with Paddington Bear.
When she was a baby, her nursery
was decorated with Paddington Bear things.

By this time, it was our FastPass Time for TestTrack. This was the one ride we got a FastPass for at Epcot, but if I was to do it again, I would have waited in line for this ride (wait times were usually about 30-45 minutes) and got a FastPass for Soarin. Anyway, on Test Track, most of the ride is inside where you “test” certain things in your “car” and then you go outside on a track as your “car” races at 60 mph. The car is open on top. So we are doing all the tests inside and our car turns and races outside – where we are all hit with raindrops! While we were inside waiting to get on, the rain had started.

We were going to go to some of the Pavilions, so we headed over to Mexico, but it was raining pretty hard, so we stopped and got some nachos. When it slowed down some, we started walking again. We decided to see if the rain was shortening the wait time at Soarin, so we walked across the park, only to discover that Soarin was an indoor ride, and the waiting was all done inside, so the rain was actually increasing the time, so we headed back to Norway, and waited in line for the Maelstrom water ride, but after waiting in line for 10 minutes, they shut down the ride (we seemed to have a knack this trip!). But since we weren’t actually on the ride, we didn’t get a FastPass or anything. By this time, two or so hours later, it had stopped raining. We went to China, Germany, and then were actually part of the street show in Italy. It was getting dark by now, so we walked quickly through Morocco, France, United States, and Canada, but we stopped to check out more of the shops in United Kingdom. Then we went to Mouse Gear, one of the biggest Disney stores at Walt Disney World, and bought some souvenirs.

Trying on a sombrero in Mexico

Pretending to be scared of a
dragon in China

Checking out one of their
Viking"relatives" - Their maternal
grandpa is Danish

On the steps in Italy

Doing a jig in the United Kingdom

Jelly Bean trying on knight gear
in the United Kingdom

Everybody was tired and cranky. We had gotten wet in the rain. Nobody really got what they wanted from that day either because we didn’t get to go on that many rides OR see that many of the country pavilions.

And our flight was at 7 AM the next morning. This meant getting up at 3:30 and being at the airport by 5 AM.

We got home and had dinner and spent one last night in the pool before packing to go home.

We got on the plane the next morning and were in Chicago by 10:30 am. We stopped to get some lunch, and then home. I got in bed around 2 pm and I didn’t wake up until the next morning.

-------------------------------------

All in all, it was a GREAT trip. We had a very, very good time. There were a few things that I would have changed about the things we did at the park, and I would have loved to have had a down day in the middle to just hang out in the pool. I also was kind of “rided” out by the 5th day. It would have been nice to go to Sea World or Cape Canaveral or to the beaches or something completely different on one day.

But it was WONDERFUL to be on vacation for a whole week, and it was so nice to be someplace warm in late November!

Our Florida Vacation - Part 3

2010-12-30T18:18:00.011-06:00

It was Thanksgiving and I was up at 6:30, but not to put the turkey in. We were going to be having Thanksgiving Dinner at The Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom, but that wasn’t going to be until 4:30 pm. I got up and got ready and then helped prepare lunches (PBJ sandwiches and chips) to take to the park. We were at the park by 9 am and we knew that we had lots of hours to do things, but Magic Kingdom has lots and lots of things to do, and we hadn’t done hardly any of the Disney “classics” rides last time we were at Magic Kingdom.

A view of Cinderella's Castle as
we walked in

Jelly Bean and Super by the Castle

Jelly Bean after she was
sprinkled with pixie dust at
Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutique

We did The Speedway, Stitch’s Great Escape, and Space Mountain. Flower and Jelly Bean did the Teacups and we all went on It’s A Small World. We watched the PhilHarMagic show (loved this!) and went to The Haunted Mansion. We watched a short parade. We went to go get Fast Passes for Splash Mountain (more about this later!) for after dinner and by this time, it was 4:30 and time for dinner.

At the beginning of It's A Small World

Some of the dolls

At the end of It's A Small World

The Princess float during the short parade

The girls in mid-spin on the Teacup ride.
(I did NOT ride this ride LOL)

The girls by The Castle

The dinner was buffet style and it had all the Thanksgiving fixings – turkey, dressing, vegetables, and pumpkin pie as well as tons of other choices. Another benefit to eating at the Crystal Palace is that you get to have some Disney Characters come right to your table. We got to meet and take pictures with Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore.

A view of The Castle from The Crystal Palace.

Don't the clouds look like they were painted
in or something? It looked so magical, I had to
take a picture.

The kids and Piglet

Tigger playing with Flower's cap

The kids and Pooh

The kids and Eeyore

Brain Freeze!

After dinner, it was time for Splash Mountain. Flower wasn’t sure she wanted to do this ride – she had seen the big drop from the outside – but we talked her into it. We got on the ride and we were just floating along and we were almost to the drop off point. There were 3 logs in front of us. The first log stopped and then the next log bumped into them, and then we bumped into them, and so on and so on. Someone came over the intercom and said that there was a little problem, but the ride would start again in just a moment. 15 minutes later, the lights went up, and then some Disney Cast Members came and helped us off the ride. Flower said “Well, I was wishing that I hadn’t gone on this ride. I guess I wished so hard it came true!” We all laughed. Everybody that had been stuck on the ride got a “universal” Fast Pass that you could use on any ride in that park at any time between when we got off Splash Mountain and when the park closed that day. We decided to just go to the ride right next to Splash Mountain, which was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (ok, but not that exciting in terms of a ride). From there, we went to Pirates of the Caribbean and the Jungle Cruise (I thought both of these were pretty lame.)

We went to find a spot to watch the Electric Lights Parade. The parade was o.k., but not great. The night ended with the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular – an awesome firework show with the castle in the background.

Oh, after we rode Splash Mountain, I noticed that Super seemed really warm. We walked over to First Aid and they were able to give us some Motrin. We went next door to the Child Care Center and watched a Disney cartoon for a half hour and he seemed to feel quite a bit better. After dinner, the fever started creeping back, so we went to the First Aid Station again and they gave him some Tylenol. We also rented a stroller so that he didn’t have to walk. He napped for a little while in the stroller before the evening parade started.

Cinderella's coach in the
Electric Lights Parade

Jelly Bean fell asleep while we were waiting
for the parade to start.

By this time, it was 11 pm and everybody was exhausted. However, it still took awhile for us to get home to bed. There was some miscommunication, and four of us ended up having a bit of delay getting on the monorail back to the parking lot, and so it was over an hour before we left Magic Kingdom, and almost 2 hours before everyone was in bed that night. We decided to sleep in a little bit before we went to the last park, Epcot.

Next in Part 4: Epcot and the end of Vacation :(

Our Florida Vacation - Part 2

2010-12-30T13:25:00.000-06:00

It was our third day and we decided to go to Animal Kingdom. We did Walt Disney World in 2004 (also courtesy of FIL/Grandpa S – Thank you so much!) Flower was 5, Jelly Bean was almost 3, and Super was 7 weeks old. So there was much of the experience that they didn’t remember (especially Super LOL) and I was busy much of the trip with feeding him, and changing him, etc., but we did remember that we had a great time at Animal Kingdom. We also remembered that it had rained last time we were there and we didn’t get to do everything that we had wanted to do at that park.

The Tree of Life, as we entered Animal Kingdom

We started the day off with the Kilimanjaro Safari, and then we went on Everest. Well, most of us. Flower wasn’t feeling up to it, and so Grandpa and I stayed with her. From there, we went to Dinoland and some of us did Primeval Whirl (not me) and some of us did TriceraTop Spin (basically, the Dumbo ride with dinosaurs). After that, we went over to Dinosaur! Then we did the Festival of the Lion King show, watched the Parade, and It’s Tough to be a Bug show, We got drenched on the Kali River Rapids, and finished off the day at Finding Nemo: The Musical show (loved this!)

You can see Everest off in the distance.

The next few pictures are from the safari.
This is an Upside Down Tree.

Water buffalo

A rhinoceros

Me, Flower and Super on TriceraTop Spin

A dinosaur skeleton outside
of DINOSAUR

One of the "drivers" from the parade
at Animal Kingdom. We really
enjoyed the parade.

Being silly while we waited for
It's Tough To Be A Bug! show to begin.

The next day, we went to Hollywood Studios. Last time, Hollywood Studios had been our least favorite – and that assessment was probably true this time too. We had looked at Hollywood Studios official website before we left for Florida, and it mentioned that there was a Jedi Training show, and that children were randomly picked from the crowd to learn how to use a light saber and “fight” Darth Vader. We told Super that we would go to the show, but he might not get picked. He said o.k. So Mr. Simple and I went with him to the show while the others went to go on Tower of Terror. We got there just as they were starting one show and we watched it, and then figured that we would wait for the next show to see if he would get picked for that one. We overheard someone else talking to a Cast Member (a DW employee) and they said that they don’t pick from the crowd anymore. She said that you had to come early and get signed up – and the signup was over and all the children had been picked for all the shows that day. Super overheard it and started bawling. We went over to Guest Services and told them that what was on the website, and asked which procedure was the one that they followed. They apologized at Guest Services and said that they had changed to the “sign up method” but had neglected to change it on the website. They gave us 7 VIP seat passes to the Indiana Jones show. By the way, the website still shows the “old” way of doing Jedi Training. In general, it is probably best to check out sites like allears.net or disboards.com to find out the latest about specific rides at Disney. These sites also have some great general tips.

The Indiana Jones Stunt Show

We went to the Indiana Jones show (it was pretty entertaining) and then we went to go get some character signings. We got Mickey and The Incredibles at one area. This character area was organized and the lines were not overly long. Then we went to a different part of the park to get Buzz and Woody signatures – and that was pretty dreadful. It wasn’t organized, the line was long, and it was crowded and hot. To top it off, our picture turned out blurry. Ugh.

The kids and Mickey

The kids and The Incredibles

The kids and Buzz and Woody

Oh, speaking of pictures, it was at the Buzz and Woody photo op that we were first offered a Disney PhotoPass card. We declined it, but I wish, in retrospect, that we had known about it and pre-ordered it. You can pre-order a PhotoPass CD for $99.95 and then you will receive the photos from your trip taken by professional photographers at key places at the park. They also add borders and character signatures to photos. It would have been nice to know that we had professionals taking the photo op pictures as well as being able to get shots of the whole group in places like in front of Cinderella’s castle and the Christmas Tree, etc and not have to worry if the pictures were going to turn out and so we didn’t have to lug around our digital camera.

We had tried to get a FASTPASS first thing that morning for the “can’t miss” ride for Hollywood Studios – Toy Story Mania. FASTPASS is a ticket that basically “saves” you a spot in line at a certain time so that you can do other things in the park until the time listed on the FASTPASS. But they had given out all the Fast Passes already and the wait time had been 2 hours all day. We went over to ride the Rock N Roller coaster and then we were going to leave. Grandpa S was going to stay back, and while we were riding, he somehow managed to get Fast Passes for Toy Story Mania. It was a very fun ride, but honestly, if I’d waited 2 hours to get on it, I probably would have been disappointed.

Fantasmic was cancelled for that night, so we didn’t get to see that, although during Thanksgiving/Christmas Time, they do the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights on the Streets of America. It is a massive seasonal display featuring millions of holiday lights perfectly synchronized to music. We went over and watched these, and it was pretty neat, but we were all just too tired to really appreciate it.

The Osborne Family Spectacle
of Dancing Lights

We went home and tried to get to bed early. Tomorrow was Thanksgiving and we were going to be at Magic Kingdom from 9 AM until 11 PM.

Next post: Thanksgiving at Disney!

Simply Living and Simply Loving

So this weekend

All good things come to an end . . .

Simply Living and Simply Talking?

How I have changed since I started writing on this blog . . .

MY list of Kitchen Staples

MY list of kitchen essentials . . . .

Well, a more everyday post to start out 2012

This will probably be my last post . . . of 2011

So tired my teeth hurt . . .

Daybook: December 6th

Homecoming 2011

Halloween 2011

The Walk To Remember - 2011

It just isn't Fall without THIS festival!

Ropp Road Roundup - Part 2!

The Ropp Road Roundup - Part 1

OK, back to Festivals! The Pumpkin Festival!

OK, this wasn't a festival, but it was cool!

Apples Anyone?

Next Up - The Celt Fest!

If there is a FEST, then we are there!

Square Foot Gardening - I love it!

Pictures of the Ever Changing Room

The Ever Changing Room . . .

Homemaking: How much do you do?

Preserving The Harvest: What I've done so far this year

A Book A Day Keeps The Doctor Away?

It is Autumn!!

I didn't think that it would be this long . . .

Dug Out

Gardening: Late Summer Update

It could have been much worse.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming . . .

Our Family Has Talent!

WARNING: This is not my usual kind of post (m)

So do you miss me posting yet?

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow . . .

OK, here are some things I've learned since we started using our food storage

I am a bad mom . . .

I should have known better . . . .

So I had a dream a few weeks ago . . .

In honor of Mother's Day - my story of motherhood

Enough Already!!

OK, I've found a pretty good happy medium

Laundry: Simple Style

I'm going to stop gardening

A Tale of Turmeric

Happy Birthday Christopher!

Why does this always happen to me??

Lent Day 3

Lent Day 2

Lent Day 1

Tomorrow Begins Lent . . .

How do I hate money? Oh, let me count the ways . . .

OK, so a bit ironic after my last post, but

Don't Worry. Be Happy.

Sometimes, I'm Not Just Simple. I'm Just Simply Lazy.

No Impact?

Am I A Feminist? Hmmm . . . .

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow . . .

A Gift To Be Simple

Seven

Tu B'Shevat - The New Year of Trees

First Daybook of 2011: January 17, 2011

Solstice Party 2010

Music Concerts 2010

Top Posts of 2010

First Snow of late 2010

Christmas At The Courthouse

Live Window Vignettes

2010 in Pictures

Our Florida Vacation - Part 4 (The Last One)

Our Florida Vacation - Part 3

Our Florida Vacation - Part 2