So...like what's new? (for the past 6 months)

Well let's see, not much. I just gave birth to twins (for another family) and we bought a house and moved, and the economy tanked, and...well, i guess that's about it. I can't believe i haven't written anything here in 6 months!

I have been thinking recently about how lax i've gotten on so many of the original goals i had when starting this blog. For example, since buying this house i've gone on a massive consumption spree, buying more new stuff than i have purchased in years. And it just seems like our family is not on top of our waste production at all. Moving was stressful (while 8 mo pregnant with twins no less) and we are just finally getting settled into the new house. In the meantime, we weren't composting, we were throwing away tons of trash, we were eating out a ton, we were buying lots of over-packaged food items, we were using more disposable diapers, etc. Oh, and did I mention we haven't been vegan? For so long now, i don't know if our kids can handle the transition back... they may be psuedo-vegans (or straight-up carnivores) for the rest of their lives now because of my lapse :( We weren't eating meat (oh, except fish) but lots of eggs and lots of dairy.

Now that the state budget crisis has made it painfully clear that I WON'T be getting a job in the fall, and neither will any other new-ish teacher, I am trying to think about how I want our lives to be structured. We live in outer SE portland now, and Jay takes the bus to work every day. His company actually buys them all an annual pass now, which is amazing. In the past two years, we've averaged 7000 miles a year on the car, which is better than most Americans, but still so far above where i'd like to be. Since, at best, I'll be subbing again next year, what DO I want to focus my energy on? Elsie will be going to a kindergarten that's about 2.5 miles from our house. In contradiction to everything I've ever said, I simply could not send her to our neighborhood school. They are a "failing" school, which means a huge percent of their kids don't meet benchmarks by grades 5 and 8. I just don't think she will be well-served by the school. Plus, i've substituted there and its totally the kind of public school that people are talking about when they decide to homeschool, with more of a focus on lines and making the students be quiet than unleashing their potential.

So i'm working on a full-fledged re-emergence into our original goals which not working full time next year will certainly make easier. We live 1/2 a mile from our community farmer's market and i plan to get the majority of our produce there. I also am planning on doing some serious bike riding/bussing/eliminating the car as much as possible for now. The new green line Max is going in just 10 blocks from our house, and also has a stop at elsie's new school, so that will help with that. We have just re-pledged ourselves to veganism and there are only a few items left in our fridge that aren't vegan. And I have made a much better effort to only buy used items again (curse you, Ikea!!) and plan to stick to that. We got rid of SO much stuff when we moved, i feel like the items we own are totally used and needed and functional. Our space is really liveable now and is really uncluttered. We are also getting off all the disposable convenience items that we've used these past months, mostly diapers.

One big project for this summer is an energy audit of our house. We need to fully insulate the attic and build a wall to the unfinished part of the basement (currently you have to pay to heat even the gross crawlspace) and put in some new windows this summer. Hopefully that will help us keep the heat costs down when winter rolls back around (trying not to even think about that right now on this beautiful day in may).

I'll be posting more often to hold myself accountable and to keep track of progress. One measurable thing is how often we are putting our trash out. right now our 15 gal can is going out completely full every week, and i hope to get that down to twice a month, and eventually once a month.