It's Getting Better All the Time

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

2009-05-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

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.

The holidays

2008-11-22T09:25:00.000-08:00

I guess "The Holidays" are upon us, because I have started hearing things about "are you done with your shopping?" and seeing the decorations.

I know it gives some people great joy and pleasure to engage in all the holiday business, and this isn't really directed at them, this is for the rest of us. To me, when I think about "The Holidays" a few keywords come to mind: obligation, stress, consumption, waste. It isn't about being a freaky hippy, it truly gives me no pleasure to think about getting a gift for everyone in my family.

First of all, I'm terribly un-creative about this sort of thing. Secondly, we never have the money. Even if we only spent $20 per immediate family member, that's like $500. We have a pretty big "immediate" family. Thirdly, it all just makes me feel guilty. I'm sure that is not what this event is supposed to be all about. I hate shopping, and almost never buy anything that isn't food. When I do, its at Goodwill. But if I tell everyone we aren't getting them stuff, or not to get us anything, I don't feel like I'm just being true to myself, I feel like I'm being a jerk. Or a "scrooge" or whatever. Fourthly, all the stuff about consumption, waste, and cheap plastic crap from China.

This year, I do have a little bit more time (and money) than last year, so the idea of making things for people is a bit more realistic. But again, I'm not very creative and the idea of trying to make something for people makes me break out in a cold sweat. The only thing I know how to do is knit, and I've been working on one sweater for 12 years (seriously!) It would probably take me at least 40 hours to make a hat, and so there is no way for me to knit something for everyone.

I'm going to *TRY* as hard as I can to come up with some easy ideas of things to do for other people that are simple and genuine. I will *TRY* to do one of these things for each of the families we should feel obligated to do something for. I'd like this to come from a spirit of really just wanting to do something nice for the people we care about. If it doesn't, if it feels like a huge chore or obligation, I'm not going to do it. I just can't.

Anyway, here are my ideas:
*Bake goods for people
*Make christmas orniments for family
*Take nice pictures of the kids and frame them
*some kind of class or experience
*uh...

See?! I told you I'm not very creative! I'm going to add to this list as I think of things...If you have any great ideas, please let me know!!

oh, and don't forget. Next friday is Buy Nothing Day!!

Least updated blog ever

2008-11-19T14:42:00.001-08:00

I'm just going to ramble here for awhile. I feel like I need to get some thoughts out, in no particular order. And its going to be a pity party, so excuse me for that.

After Jay got his new job in June, it seemed like the logical thing to do would be for me to stay home. I went to a few other job interviews--i think i went to 6 in total, and i was offered like 9 interviews in all. I didn't get any offers. I got told the same thing over and over: that i was an excellent candidate, a great teacher, but there was one other candidate who was a bit more qualified, or who used to work for the district and just came back, or whatever. Its no good being second best when there is only one job.

But I felt fine about it. Fall rolled around and I felt weird, like I have every year since student teaching, when i know everyone is getting back into their classrooms and here i sit...my career doing...something. I wonder if I'll be un-hireable next year because of the amount of time i've spent psuedo-working since getting my teaching license. I think about all the teachers getting their rooms ready, about all the students i had last year and wondering how they are adjusting.

But mostly I felt like substitute teaching was an easy gig. Its very easy, in fact. Its just not very rewarding. But for this year, with Emmett not even being 2 yet, and Elsie's co-op preschool being 3 days a week (and only 3 hours at a time), and all the logistics, me being a sub and mostly staying home with the kids seemed like a good way to go.

But so far, i've not been subbing at all. There is always something, some reason why I cant, or i just don't get calls (I havent been called nearly as much as i was last year from january-june when i subbed), or the kids are sick, or i'm sick, or childcare isn't available, or whatever. So i'm basically a stay at home parent since June, which I hadn't been since summer of '07 when Jay lost his job originally.

And it sucks. I'm hating it. The kids are hard to deal with, and its boring. its frustrating and i can't keep my temper. I feel like a failure as a parent. I'm tired of only meeting people's needs and never doing anything that's intellectually stimulating. I worry and worry that I won't get a job for next year, and that my teaching career will be over before its even begun. I worry that my teaching experience is going to hurt me, rather than help me. It seems like with teaching, its all about being in the right place at the right time, and I never am.

Winter is setting in, and i just feel trapped. Like there is nothing to do and nowhere to go. There is no escape from the constant whining, cleaning, demands and destruction of raising two little kids. I have no time and nothing to myself. I think about getting another job, but doing what? I wish i wasn't in a career where hiring ONLY happens once a year, and where every district wasn't laying people off and making massive cuts across the board. I feel like I need something, anything, besides this and i just cant think of what it could be.

I know i shouldn't feel this way, but I do: that everyone has something going on besides me. People are in school, people's careers are moving forward, people are hanging out with friends or doing projects on their house, people are going on nice vacations, people are having freedom of some kind and not spending every weekend feeling totally frustrated and tired of their kids' BS but not knowing what to do to escape them or get out of the house. I am sure that everyone has their own problems and that their lives aren't really any more exciting or fufilling than mine, but even as I type that, I can't help but feel that...yeah, they really are.

I know this is easier for now. Its simpler. It saves us money. It conserves our resources. It keeps us from being g0-go-go crazy, spending 3 hours a day in your car-type people. Next year, if I am teaching, life will be chaotic, hectic and stressful. We'll be juggling Elsie's kindergarten schedule, her after-school care schedule, my job and possible long commute (that is a sacrifice I may have to make in order to get a job next year), jay's job, and Emmett's daycare. Not to mention the fact that we plan to move this spring, and have no idea where we will live and where Elsie might go to school, in addition to not knowing where I will work. Thinking about all of that makes me feel like I should be greatful for my current schedule. I get to be there for my kids, not just in the evenings and weekends, but all the time. I don't have to worry about dropping off and picking up (except to take elsie to school 3 days a week, but its not conflicting with anything). I don't have to wonder about how much daycare and after school care is eating into my already fairly small paycheck.

I mean, isn't raising your children the most important "job" you can have? i know plenty of moms out there would kill to stay home with their kids but cant afford it or whatever. The grass is always greener. Yes, its simpler and i dont have the guilt of a working mom, but i have the guilt of a mom who is burned out, who yells at her kids too much, who feels bad that she doesn't enjoy being around them most of the time, who feel like she gets treated like a slave. I know i'm not doing "nothing" but i feel directionless, like my life has no meaning. And i have at least another 9 months to go before any kind of major change could theortically happen (and that's IF i get a teaching job next year). Sometimes i feel like "wow, i have so many possibilities of what i could do"...but that is rare. Rather than feeling like anything is possible and everything is wide open, i feel like nothing is going to happen.

I'm a happy recycling nerd

2008-08-07T14:50:00.000-07:00

Because our blue roll carts are here!
http://www.portlandonline.com/osd/index.cfm?c=44752

we get to recycle EVERYTHING together in a giant roll cart. the only thing we cant put in there is glass. We can even recycle margerine/yogurt type tubs in there, which previously we had to take to a special recycling place.

I know there are a few other people in Portland who couldn't wait for their recycling cart, but I seriously LOVE being able to mix paper, plastic, cardboard and everything else together. Its just so nice when a city makes recycling easy and a pleasure to do. Hopefully this will increase our already awesome city recycling rate.

Zero waste community

2008-07-21T15:33:00.001-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7502071.stm

The Mayor of Kamikatsu, a small community in the hills of eastern Japan, has urged politicians around the world to follow his lead and make their towns "Zero Waste".
He told BBC News that all communities could learn from Kamikatsu, where residents have to compost all their food waste and sort other rubbish into 34 different categories.
Residents say the scheme has prompted them to cut down on waste generally and food waste in particular.
If the policy spread, it would reduce the amount of food waste, and so take some of the pressure off high food prices.
Kamikatsu may be a backwater in the wooded hills and rice terraces of south-eastern Japan but it's become a world leader on waste policy.
There are no waste collections from households at all. People have to take full responsibility for everything they throw away.
It's a good idea to send things back to the earth so I support it
Hatsue Katayama
Kitchen waste has to be composted. Non-food waste is processed either in local shops which accept goods for recycling or in Kamikatsu's Zero Waste Centre. There, people have to sort their unwanted items into 34 different boxes for recycling.
Residents have to sort plastic bottles (used for fruit juice, for example) from PET (polyethylene teraphthalate) bottles (used for mineral water) because PET is more valuable when it is separated out.
There are specific boxes for pens, razors and the sort of Styrofoam trays on which meat is often purchased. These have to be washed and dried.
The scheme was adopted when councillors realised it was much cheaper than incineration - even if the incinerator was used to generate power.
Winning idea
Many locals are enthusiastic participants. Take Kikue Nii, who strips labels off bottles then washes and dries them before sending them to recycling.
She takes her other everyday waste to the local shop where she receives a lottery ticket in return for a bag of cans.

The community uses incentives to encourage recylcing
She has won a £5 food voucher four times. It's not a huge amount but it's better than nothing.
She is also a big fan of composting.
"I think I produce less waste because I have to compost it," she says.
"When I can't use the whole vegetable or meat, I try to cook it again with wine and so on. It makes a very good soup. Everyone should have a composter if they can."
Her neighbours Fumikazu Katayama and his wife Hatsue are ardent composters, too.
Hatsue says: "I have to do it every day; it's certainty a bit of work. But it's a good idea to send things back to the earth so I support it. I just do it naturally now; it's part of the routine."
The Katayamas take the rest of their waste to the Zero Waste Centre for sorting - carrying the waste bag between them.
Global question
Questions remain about the scheme. Some of the composters are boosted by electric power, which creates greenhouse gas emissions.
And it's possible that the savings in greenhouse gases from recycling are negated by the need for people to drive to the Zero Waste Centre.

Old curtains or kimonos are expertly converted into bags
Natsuko Matsuoka, one of the originators of the centre, disagrees - she says people generally tie in the journey with a weekly shopping trip.
A poll showed that although the Zero Waste policy has many admirers, 40% of people weren't happy about all aspects of the scheme.
The Mayor Kasamatsu Kasuichi is undeterred: "We should consider what is right and what is wrong, and I believe it is wrong to send a truck to collect the waste and burn it.
"That is bad for the environment. So whether I get support or not, I believe I should persuade people to support my policy."
Now he invites other politicians around the world to follow suit

our garden

2008-07-11T14:30:00.001-07:00

This year we planted a TON of broccoli. We also were more strategic about where things are located. We had a lot of volunteer sunflowers and tomatoes. oh yes, and jay and elsie made a scarecrow out of scrap lumber. Crows must be pretty dumb because they really don't go in the garden anymore. Now we just need a scareslug.

From front to back we have: zuchinni, oregano, cabbage, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, basil, strawberries, turnips, beets, sunflowers, broccoli, lettuce, spinach (gone now), cilantro and more spinach (just planted), lettuce, sweet snap peas, parsley, radishes, more broccoli, kale (2 kinds), collard greens and more broccoli. In the way back is a very young raspberry bush that didn't produce this year. Otherwise its been a very good year so far since we planted in march and had good results from that. We will also plant our winter stuff earlier this year (like in august).

Pets and pesticides

2008-06-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

So as I was looking at my pets recently and thinking about how I need to flea-treat them pretty soon, i started thinking about the products i use to flea treat. we have done a lot of work as a family to eliminate toxins from our lives. we garden organically, we no longer use chemicals in our house, I buy organic, non-toxic sunscreen, and i even make sure the cups we drink out of are safe non-leaching plastic, glass or metal. I've gotten rid of all cookware that contains aluminum or teflon. We don't use commerical shampoos or laundry soap. We wont use deet or chemical bug repellent. Not only do I worry about the effects these kinds of things would have on our family's health, but I worry about the way they are produced, the by-products of their making, and the packaging they use, and the impact all of these things have on the environment.
And yet, i was not hesitant to buy a very potent toxic flea-killer to place directly on my pet's skin. A chemical that is absorbed in their body, and then released through their pores for over a month. What effect does this have on my pets? or my children as they lay on them, or ingest their hairs? How are these chemicals produced? I'm sure the answers to these questions are disturbing.
I found an article that scared the crap out of me:
http://www.apnm.org/publications/resources/fleachemfin.pdf
and made me think that I might not want to use these products any longer. I'm now on the hunt for non-toxic alternatives that actually work.

One small step

2008-06-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

We are now a one car family. the ol' toyota, with only 200 miles to go until 200k miles, is getting donated to charity today. jay is taking the bus to work every day now, which is awesome. his work will buy him a monthly bus pass, which is also awesome. i feel much better about this, and we can really minimize our driving now.

i need to get pictures of our garden on here, complete with crazy scrap-wood scarecrow jay and elsie built. the garden is doing amazing once again this year.

Finally, a blog that lives up to its name

2008-06-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

I feel like nobody actually reads this blog, but what the hell. I'll update it anyway. [If you are actually reading this, would you mind commenting? i'm just curious.]

Jay got offered TWO, yes two jobs within a 24 hour period. We thought the choice would be rather tough, but it was made easier by a large difference in the amount of money (ah, money, the great decider) as both jobs had plusses and minuses.

Nothing is happening on my job front, but I think I've decided that I will work part time next year. Because I now have a choice (which is very nice) I don't see the reason to stress myself out while working full time, when I could spend the last year home with Elsie before she goes to school. Emmett is growing up fast, too. I'd like to be around more for them, so this is what I'll do. If I cant find a part time teaching job, I guess I'll just sub again, although I'd rather not, I guess. Its easy, just not very fufilling.

So Jay starts his new, high paying, high responsiblity job on Monday. He is very excited to get his career back on track after almost 9 months of un- or semi-employment.

so...YAY!

Statistics

2008-06-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

Laura's job interviews offered: 8
Laura's Job Interviews completed to date: 5
Laura's jobs not offered: 4
Jobs Laura was told she was the second choice candidate: 3
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride: yes
Job interviews pending decision as of 6/16: 1
Feeling jerked around: yes

Jay's job interviews: 2
Jay's job interviews pending decision as of 6/16: 2
Looking good so far: yes

Moving from Portland area: no
staying in current house: yes

And yes, i am a bitch...

2008-06-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

I think its funny that gas is almost $4.50 a gallon. Bring it on. I dont care how callous that sounds. Americans need to suck it up and change their lifestyle and stop driving everywhere and this is the only way that is going to happen.

The waiting game...

2008-06-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

There is a lot coming up in the next couple of weeks.

June 16: the date of jay's upcoming job interview

next week: i find out if I get a second interview for a job I'm trying to get (teaching middle school science, Gladstone School District)

June 9: I turn 30 :( I feel so old.

We have figured out how to make it through the summer. Jay has a few jobs lined up doing work for the companies he works for part time (one of which told him they were reluctant to hire him on full time because what if work wasn't steady enough? they want to keep him "on contract" which means they pay him to work, and let him go for weeks with no work and no pay. Whatever. I hope they understand that he is going to have absolutely no qualms about leaving them for a regular job if he gets it). One of those jobs involves going to Idaho for 2 weeks straight, which will really suck, but its good money.
Then I will be teaching more juvenile delinquents at Summer School. Its only three weeks, but again, good money.
So we wont starve or have to move in with our parents this summer. Hopefully we can hold out until I start a "real" job in September.

Oh, and someone got into our car last night. Upon finding nothing worth stealing, they took a cinder block and smashed our windshield. What the hell? thanks a lot, scumbag.

I'm trying not to get bitter about the whole job searching process, jay's and mine. It just feels like a cattle-call so much of the time (especially the stupid 3 hour "group" interview i went to). I know something will come up, but i'm just so tired of everything sucking so bad.

Has it been a year?

2008-05-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

I think its been about a year since I started this blog, which is crazy. Looking back at our goals, we've done ok in some areas, not so good in others. We drive quite a bit, although we do bike more now. We never could buy only in bulk, although we try. So not buying packaged stuff is pretty much impossible for us right now. Also, since food prices have gone up so much, we've had to stop buying as much organic stuff, which is really too bad. But the price difference is sometimes just too much to swallow.

Still, we do only put out a small garbage can once a month, sometimes one and a half per month, we do still compost and recycle everything, still use cloth diapers, etc. And its only may and we are already eating out of our garden, with the expectation that we wont have to buy any produce from the store between june and october, and possibly beyond depending on how much freezing/canning we get done. We have simplified life enough that we have been living on substitute teacher wages and jay's part time work, and have paid off 1/3 of our car's payment in a year. We do ok on water conservation and line drying our clothes when the weather permits. we make our own laundry soap and are using bar soap for shampoo, conditioner, pet wash, hand soap, etc. We have zero chemical cleaners in our house and wash everything with vinegar, baking soda and castille soap. So i feel pretty good. We could do a LOT better if we didn't drive. We have kept our thermostat low all winter, and i think the car is our main carbon output, which i feel bad about. its just SO hard to motivate yourself to ride your bike when its rainy and cold, which is pretty much always is.

I applied for a lot of jobs, and got interviewed at 2, Corvallis and Gresham, and ended up not getting either after getting through 2 rounds and was #2 in both jobs (doesn't really help to come in second when there is only one job) and that was bit disappointing and frustrating. So i'll keep applying. Jay is interviewing for a job in two weeks, but i'm trying not to get my hopes up, because the disappointments in the job-area have been a bit much this past year and I don't want to feel that way again.

The Good Life

2008-05-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

I wrote this post a few weeks ago and didn't post it because I feel like everything I'm saying lately is negative, and i don't want to seem like the most miserable person on earth. I'm not really. I'm trying to get out of a funk...
but I'm going to post it anyway.

I catch myself a lot lately brooding, bitter and snarky. I feel like I've developed quite a sense of self entitlement for some reason. Jay and I both have. I think we both chose careers that aren't big money makers because we like them. That's all well and good (it's what you are 'supposed' to do, after all) and yet, I find myself looking at people who don't struggle with money as much as we do with envy. We chose to have kids at a young age. It has advantages, and drawbacks. The obvious drawbacks are that you have less money when you are young. Don't get me wrong, I can't imagine living my life for anything other than my children, but sometimes I do wonder what our lives would look like right now if we had waited to have kids, if we had chosen careers that paid a bit more...
we'd be where my other friends are, which is owning a house and not having student debt, not having no freetime and a house that, no matter how much we clean, never gets un-messy.

I can't help but feel that the only difference between my life and the Good Life is my attitude. We were both raised as middle-class white kids. I think the expectation is that you will meet or exceed your parent's living standards. I'm very bitter that we have so much student debt (both of our fathers got PhDs for free), can't buy a house (both of our families bought their first home with young children on one income), find work with real job security (both dads had the same job for 30 years, both moms had the same career for 20+ years). I feel like we aren't being given near the opportunities their generation had. And yet, we have so much more than most people in the world, so I have no right to be bitter...

So the reason i'm not feeling like this is The Good/Happy Life is just my attitude. Maybe I should just suck it up, truly be happy for all that I have? Instead of being pissed that I'm approaching 30 and feel like I will never get out from under student debt, buy a house, feel stable, have good health insurance, and so many other things that made the Baby Boomer generation the luckiest generation on earth.

I am interviewing for a number of teaching positions right now. Can I just say that one of the things that makes me feel bitter is how undervalued teachers are. I feel really--pissed--(there is no nice way to put that) that a teacher with a Masters Degree that cost them over $20k to obtain will make somewhere between $35000 to $40000 in their first year. Our family struggles to pay our modest rent and food and student loan bills on less than $45000 a year. I mean, its just children and their future, right? why would we pay teachers a living wage?

Maybe I need to spend less time focusing on the external stuff and be happy for the things that truly matter. It just gets hard sometimes. I feel like I'm one of the last ones of my friends still living like a "kid"--renting, moving every 18 months, trying to get a job, etc. sometimes i really do just want to run away, buy a school bus and live in the woods. I'm tired of the crap which seems to just keep piling up that I can't deal with, things that real grownups have to deal with all the time, but seem to stress me out.

No child left behind

2008-04-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

This is the perfect analogy for No Child Left Behind, which is a ludicrously backward and ineffective (and unfunded) mandate of the Bush admin. PLEASE PLEASE let the next president get rid of it. You will not find one teacher or administrator that thinks it has worked or been a good idea. People who are not educators should not try to reform education. They have no idea what goes on in schools and classrooms every day. In an attempt to "leave no child behind" they have effectively dumbed down our education system so that every child will "pass". What level do you think tests need to be at so EVERY child, including ones with profound mental retardation, can all pass them? Yeah.

No Child Left Behind for Football...

1. All teams must make the state playoffs and all MUST win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If, after two years, they have not won the championship, their footballs and equipment will be taken away UNTIL they do win the championship.

2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time even if they do not have the same conditions or opportunities to practice on their own. NO exceptions will be made for lack of interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, genetic abilities or disabilities of themselves or their parents. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL!

3. Talented players will be asked to workout and improve on their own, without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don't like football.

4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th game.

5. This will will create a New Age of Sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimum goals. If no child gets ahead, then no child gets left behind.

6. If parents do not like this new law, they are encouraged to vote for vouchers and support private schools that can screen out the non-athletes and prevent their children from having to go to school with bad football players.

The Environmental Footprint of Children

2008-04-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

I was reading Mother Jones the other day and they had a stat sheet with all the facts about how much waste goes along with having kids.
It goes something like this:

Americans emit 1,525 tons of CO2 emissions
72% of American adults have children
One American child produces as much CO2 as 106 Haitians
A typical baby uses 3,800 disposable diapers, up to 5000 before they are potty trained
Lower birth rates in China equals fewer CO2
The average american home has gone from 983 sq feet in 1950 to over 2434 sq feet today.
96% of American babies wear disposable diapers, compared with 6% of Chinese and 2% of Indian babies
60% of American children are more afraid of global warming than of car crashes, terrorism or cancer
in 1969 5% of households had 3 or more cars, in 2001 23% did.
US school busses release 3700 TONS of soot and 11 million tons of greenhouse gasses per year
It would take 223 new trees planted to offset the CO2 produced by a child watching 3 hours of TV a day for 18 years
19% of American kids under the age of 1 have a tv in their room (WTH!?!?!)
Disposable diapers constitute 2.1% of all municipal waste
the year 2500: that is the year in which a diaper thrown away today will finally finish biodegrading (although the plastics in it will never biodegrade, only break down into tiny pieces which will get eaten by animals or bugs and create toxic pollutants)
American children, 4% of the total world population, consume 40% of world toy production
The average student throws away 90 lbs of packaged lunch products per year.

A child born in america today will (over his/her lifetime):

produce 3.1 million pounds of CO2
22,828,508 lbs of water waste
16,372 lbs of yard waste
7,249 lbs food waste
eat 1654 chickens, 74 turkeys, 25 pigs, 11 cows, 2 sheep and nearly 19,000 eggs.
Use 1,870 barrels of petroleum

Kind of depressing? The solutions to me, although we need whole-society, legislative, paradigm-shift solutions as well (in other words, it cannot and SHOULD not all be on the individual) are:

Use cloth diapers, dry them outside when you can, wash them in cold water
don't use bleach or other chemicals. It is healthy for your kids to eat dirt and germs. my kids have probably eaten 5 lbs of pet hair since they were born and they are fine!
Compost food waste
leave grass clippings on the lawn (seriously! dont bag them up, just leave them there. it turns out fine, i promise)
eat local organic food, grow your own
buy bulk foods
don't drive a lot
don't buy toys and other crap
don't let your kids watch tv (or keep it super minimal)
live close to work and school to minimze transport issues
don't eat meat (or keep it super minimal)
don't buy over-packaged food, like lunchables and stuff like that
live in a smaller house
don't use electricity, heat, etc when you don't need to (be as efficient as you can)
for toys/clothes: trade, barter, hand-me-down, or buy used
don't fly a lot

Earth Life

2008-04-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

Instead of Earth Day, or the even more PC Earth Week, why don't we just change our habits permanently? Like a dieter who yo-yos back and forth between skinny and fat, hopping on each new fad diet as it comes along, we talk about environmentalism as if one day or week could possibly have an impact. We can't go on a fad diet, we need real change and it needs to become permanent. Biofuels are a fad diet. Hybrid cars are a fad diet. Ethanol is a fad diet. Biodiesel cars are a fad diet. Shopping for 'green' products is a fad diet. We don't need an Earth Day. We need an Earth Life.

Let's face it, we can't 'conserve oil', compost, recycle or 'buy green' our way out of this crisis. The only solution is a massive restructing of our society, which is coming, whether we like it or not. It is coming because the end of cheap energy is here. Shipping our cheap food over massive distances, cheap air travel, cheap commuting in a car, cheap 3000 sq foot house heating bills, all of that is over. $4 a gallon gas is 2 months away according to the latest predictions.
Everything is going to change as oil gets more expensive, which in my mind, is a very Good Thing. People aren't going to change their habits unless they HAVE to. And believe me, we are all about to have to.
There is no substitute for oil that is going to allow us to keep living the way we have been. There just isn't. The only solution is to use less energy because to do otherwise is about to become prohibitively expensive.

I recently read an article somewhere about how companies have convinced us that the way to save the environment is to save our own families by buying certain products, etc. For example, people buy water from a water company because our tap water is 'unsafe'. Or they buy organic food. Or they buy an organic mattress. While there is nothing inherently wrong with these things, in fact I support it, it does smack of saving yourself and saying screw it to everyone else. If water isn't safe to drink, we need to do something about it, not just buy bottled water. Its kind of like the yuppification of environmentalism. Instead of a movement, we just have another offshoot of consumer culture. I really think a lot of people have bought into this idea that you can 'help' the earth by 'going green'. I've said it before and i'll say it again, every time you buy ANYTHING you hurt the planet. Not consuming is the only solution. You don't help the earth when you buy an organic cotton shirt, a Prius, a box of organic crackers, an energy star diswasher, or anything else. You only hurt the earth less than the standard counterpart. Consuming is not the answer. It has never been. Not buying is the only solution...we need to strive for that ideal, as hard as it may be.

I was teaching my juvenile delinquent students at the night school the other night, and I decided since it was Earth Day that I would focus on environmental issues. We were talking about carbon footprint and how to reduce it, and I showed them how to calculate it. It occurred to me then, as it often does, how incredibly horrible our family is doing at the whole car thing. The weather this spring has been terrible and I've been so not wanting to ride my bike or walk anywhere long distance. We are doing great on every other front, with the exception maybe of food packaging, which I still find practically impossible to reduce further, except car driving. And if you want to feel REALLY depressed about our future, try talking to some high school students. So many of these kids, the vast majority, are so self-absorbed, instant-gratification junkies that they don't care at all about their impact on the planet. They are obsessed with material things. I know some of it is just their age, but I can't help but think that a LOT of it is how we are raising our kids: in front of the TV, exposed to commercialism everywhere, 5000 advertisements a year, video games, IPods, cell phones, fast food, instant EVERYTHING. They get what they want when they want it. They never have to delay their immediate desires. It's sad. Even the poorest kids I work with have an IPod and a cell phone and eat junk food at almost every meal.

Our plans for the near future involve moving to a smaller town. I sincerely hope that this reduces our need to drive. Not that portland is so big, or doesn't have great mass transit, but it is just big ENOUGH that riding your bike everywhere is a pretty big challenge. Riding the bus and transferring all over the place with 2 kids is a similarly daunting challenge. I think my "Earth Life" challenge is going to have to include a limit on mileage...we are going to have to set a limit, such as 50 miles per week in a car, and stick to it. So if we want to drive to salem, we pretty much just used up our whole week's rations in one go. If we want to drive around town, we need to keep track of it and stay below it. Our family has done a lot of work, but giving up or reducing our car use has pretty much....well, it's just not happening. Now if gas is $5 a gallon, i'm pretty sure i'll be thinking differently...

Oh, and we bought a new laptop. GOD! i'm such a hypocrit! we are all hypocrits. How do we live in this society and not trash the planet? Sometimes it feels like the most impossible task on earth. I'm sure the parts to make this laptop were mined by 12 year olds in South Africa.

So...how's that for an uplifting Earth Day message? I just can't stand it when people's solution for earth day is to buy an organic cotton earth day t-shirt. Yeah, that's gonna save us all.

Another article about the dangers of plastics

2008-04-20T14:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2007/09/practical-values.html

Pity party

2008-04-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

Ok...so...no, in fact, this house isn't going to work out. It turns out there is a whole bunch of stuff wrong with it and the people buying it wont have the money to fix it up. Apparently it is totally uninsulated and is like 110 degrees in the summer and costs $250 a month to heat in the winter. the people buying it wont have the money for new flooring, fixing, etc, for probably a year. so if we want to live on plywood floors...
she also, it turns out, wants a bunch of money for the place. which was not what we had originally understood.

So can we just take a moment to reflect upon all of the bad, annoying, horrible crap that has happened to our family in the past year?

august 2007: jay gets fired from his job because his boss is a mental case
september 2007: jay and i both find jobs, start working, find daycare
our daycare falls through and there is a scary, desperate, last-minute struggle to find new childcare
october: jay loses his other, new job because his boss is a jerk, which is later confirmed by several other people, but he didn't know it when he took the job. He suffers subsequently from some kind of PTSD where he is convinced that he is actually a bad person and didn't just get unlucky twice.
november: laura suffers a mini mental breakdown from job stress; jay hates being a stay at home parent
december: laura's temporary job ends, we lose our health insurance
january: we get denied life insurance due to a mix-up and are STILL going through the process of trying to get it reinstated
February: our dog leaps over our fence and bites our mailman. Chaos ensues with the post office threatens to sue us, mail delivery is stopped, we have to take our dog to another state, etc.
Jay goes to the emergency room for abdominal freakyness
march: the dog can't be adopted out and has to come back to us to live with us incognito. We have to basically hide him.
We are told that we have a 'free' house waiting for us across the street from my mom. Hallelujah! we are saved!
april: oh, actually, no, we DON'T have the house.
Our computer crashes and we lose all data on our hard drive, including a report for jay's work that is over 15 pages long and all his research for the report. We also lose all of my application materials, resumes, letters of recommendation, etc.
Due to miscommunication, Jay misses his first meeting with his supervisors at his new part-time, contract-based job. Thankfully they were understanding.
Laura and Jay realize that we need at least one of us to to have stable, long-term work that provides benefits and so Laura starts looking for a teaching job full time for next year
For the first time ever, our taxes show we OWE $1000. How is that possible?

Ok, Ok, so on paper, it looks extremely sucky. But there have been good things, too. Right? Ok...

Good stuff....

when jay lost his job, at least i had the education/training that i could get a good paying job and a temporary position was open at my old school.
I've been able to substitute teach every day since that job ended and the pay is pretty good, the work is easy and stress-free and its almost always at my school where i know all the staff and students.
Jay's friends (the ones who cost him his first job due to starting up their new company) gave him a part time job at that new company which has helped him mentally and us financially
we have lots of family and friends who support us.
we were forced to take our dog back, which really is better than never seeing him again
jay has recently been offered and started working for a job that could possibly turn into full time employment. for now, its a good part time job that he can do from home
we got all our stupid life and health insurance business sorted out (we think!)
Thanks to our great president, G.W. Bush, we will get an 'incentive' check which will pay off our tax bill and then some
we will not be moving to a homeless shelter any time soon
I'm sort of excited to start teaching for real next year
We have possibly found good drop-in childcare for when we both need to be working
our kids have never been in daycare or in the care of another person other than short-term since they were born
nobody in our family is sick or dying (with the exception of some very old grandparents)
I didn't get accidentally pregnant during this time (this is sort of a joke. whenever jay is really stressed out, i'm always like, look on the bright side, at least i'm not pregnant!)
we met some amazing people and are in the process of starting something really exciting with them, but this is kind of a secret and i will tell you all about it later.
did i mention nobody in our family has cancer or anything? yeah.
i got to go to ireland and it was awesome
we get to spend some time on the east coast this summer to see friends/family
nobody has wrecked any of our cars.
we didn't have to borrow any money or rack up any credit card debt during this past year. somehow, miraculously, our expenses and intake have evened out somewhat and we STILL have no credit card debt. student debt on the other hand...
our children are smart, fun, cute, healthy, loving, play together now, and are just joyful (usually!)

so yeah, it hasn't been all bad. but it has been incredibly stressful. I try to remember that we have a lot to be thankful for.

Oh, and i LOVE shampoo bar! i will never use shampoo out of a bottle again! and i also love conditioner bar! its the best.

I'm proud to say, we now make our own of the following: laundry soap, dish soap, air freshener, household cleaners, food (our garden is starting to grow again!), bread, kombucha, etc. and i get to mooch homebrew beer off my brother.

on a final note, is it just us, or is food CRAZY expensive lately? i swear we spend more money on food now than we ever have. i sadly just do not have the time to go all the places that i should in order to lower the bill. i need to quit New Seasons and start loving Winco again.

Reunited...and it feels so good...

2008-03-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

The last week was full of more dog-drama, but also some good news.

After working on the yurt situation, my mom and stepdad talked to some friends who they work with about the property across the street from them that they are buying (see pic). These people are 'hazelnut" (to Starbucks types, known as filberts to Oregonians) farmers and employ my sister at their packaging facility. The property across the street which is a 100 acre filbert orchard went up for sale and these people bought it. It just so happens that there are 2 houses on this property. My stepdad brought up with them that we are looking to move and they got really excited...they don't care about making money off these houses, they just want people there that they can trust keeping their eye on the orchard...so possibly we can live there for free or REALLY cheap!! this is the best thing that has happened to us since Jay lost his job. the house is huge, 1700 sq feet, which is kind of crazy (considering the fact that we were contemplating moving into a 500 sq foot yurt) but this situation is just too good for us...we're hoping we can move down there in june. we are excited to get back to rural living. We don't want to jinx it, but i SO hope this works out. We will be living directly across the street from my mom. I can keep subbing. Jay can keep working part time. We get to see our kids. It could just be great for us. We could pay off some debt, maybe even save some money! Crazy idea.

So the animal shelter called and said that they can't put barry up for adoption because he is actually designated as a dangerous dog in our county. Um, yeah? but you already knew that. they are claiming they didn't know that. WTH? that is the WHOLE reason he is in vancouver and not at Oregon humane! whatever. I guess the county animal control called them and told them all of this...this was never hidden from them and should have been fully known. I think the shelter worker who agreed to this is trying to cover herself saying that she didn't know he was actually designated. They said it is a liability. I asked them if it was a liability even if he wasn't designated, if he had just bitten someone, and they said yes! But they DEFINITELY knew he bit the mailman! I'm so confused. Plus, he was looked at TWICE by their behaviorist and deemed completely safe and was really sweet and loving there, even in those stressful conditions.

But we figured, whatever. We are moving to a 100 acre farm out of this county. We are just going to take him back. I went and got him. I feel really bad that he was in dog jail for a month. I guess that's what he gets for biting the mailman. But he is back with us now, and i'm glad. If they want to slap us with fines and stuff, whatever. Go ahead. I'm so done with this issue, I don't even care. I know he's not dangerous. The mailman is totally overreacting to a pair of ripped pants. If i thought that barry was a truly aggressive dog, i would just have him euthanized myself. But he's not. He just hates the mailman.

i'm relieved, honestly. I mean, if he would have found a good home, I guess we would have been Ok with it, but seeing him in the shelter, and then bringing him home...his relief was palpable. Poor sophie was beside herself with joy at seeing him. i can't imagine how sad and confused he must have been during this whole time. So we're all back together again. I can't help but feel it was meant to be this way. We may even have to get sneaky and fake his death or something. But probably not. We'll just have to live with a dog who is basically like a sex offender..."hi, my name is barry and i'm moving in next door. I'm classified as a level 4 dangerous dog. The county requires me to report this..."

We've officially lost it

2008-03-08T15:06:00.000-08:00

We've come to a nexus in our life that requires us to make a decision. Are we going to move onward and upward with getting jobs, buying a house, keep renting, take on full time teaching, leave portland, or what?

The shelter where barry is located was contacted by Multnomah county animal control. They are now claiming they didn't know that he was "officially" designated as a dangerous dog. All that means is that the mailman filed a complaint. They are now saying its a liability...why is it a liability if he is classified this way vs. if it is known that he did bite the mailman?

So we are facing a choice: find him a home out of county somehow? take him back and move? have him euthanized?

This dog does not deserve to die. If he was aggressive, I would be the first to recommend euthanasia. But he's not. He needs a yard with no mailman access. Its not like the guy got mauled. He got a scrape on his hand. USPS and the county are acting like he's a pitbull capable of killing someone...

We've been talking about moving for awhile. I feel like I just finally broke down last night. The idea of killing our friendly dog, the idea of me being incredibly stressed out working full time, me missing my children's babyhood/last year before school because I am too busy working, working and working and working and just barely paying for our rent and utilities and food and student loans...

We are now seriously looking into relocating into a yurt. On my mom's farm.

Before you get all freaked out that we are going to move into a tent, look at the pictures. This is a large structure on a platform that has a kitchen and everything.

This yurt is totally off grid...a composting toilet, solar panels, rain water catchment system, solar shower.... there is no need for any utility bills. It has a woodstove for heat. Its about 600 square feet plus a loft for the sleeping area. The picture at the top is the kitchen. It basically drains the kitchen sink and then shower onto cobbles on the ground. that's about it. as sustainable as is humanly possible without really roughing it.

If we ever get our own land, we can move it. The whole thing. We dont need to work much to pay for it. I can keep subbing and jay can work. We can grow a lot of our own food and have chickens and maybe more.

We are seriously considering it. Seriously.

See our new organized space! Lots of pictures!

2008-03-02T14:58:00.000-08:00

I took some pictures for another organizing/decluttering website, so I'll post them here too. we've been working in the garden all weekend. If these giant 10" long worms aren't evidence of amazingly healthy soil, i don't know what is. We got some crops in the ground today. The weather has been amazingly warm and sunny these past couple of weeks.

I wanted to embed this slideshow into my blog, but i'm too stupid to figure it out today and i'm annoyed now, so you'll just have to click this link.
http://www.flickr.com/gp/24328696@N04/fRR293

I really feel like our space is totally organized. We have cleared out so much stuff. It takes a lot less time to clean up now. It's great. Spring has the effect of making me see how depressed i've been all winter. I feel so great right now, like everything is going to work out and be fine.

Jay's homemade laundry soap turned out amazing. we are trying to figure out how many more things we can do ourselves...its almost like a challenge. jay is wanting to buy a table saw because he loves working with wood and he wants to build things like children's furniture out of used scrap wood.

How to make your own laundry soap

2008-03-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

You can easily make your own laundry and/or dishsoap. Here's the recipe. Jay did this today. It ends up costing you 1 cent per load. You make something like 20 gallons per batch. All that's in it is laundry soda (sodium carbonate), borax, and some kind of castille soap. Easy. And fun! And you can add your own essential oil, so it can smell like whatever you want.

http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm

We ordered soaps off that other website. We got shaving soap for jay (old school with the shaving brush style), a shampoo bar and a conditioner bar. Oh, and a bag of remnants for hand-washing soap.

By the way, we went to IKEA last weekend. I know, why? We just kind of wanted to see it. I also wanted to get a hamper for elsie's room. It was such a scary experience. Its like 5000000 square feet of crap made in china with a hip flare. I did buy a kids hamper ($5) and a shoe shelf to organize our closet ($9). bad, bad me. Still, I wonder how many people get out of Ikea having only spent $15? I don't plan to go back. I still feel bad about supporting that kind of thing. We have bought almost nothing new in like a year....blah! Oh well.

plastic-free, chemical-free toiletries

2008-02-26T13:23:00.000-08:00

I found a source for shampoo, conditioner, and shaving soap/cream (and hand soap!) that requre no plastic bottles, and no chemicals or weird ingredients.

http://soap-lady.com/index.html

They are made in Oregon, too, so also local! (for us, anyway). I will report back and let you know how they work.

Now if I could just find laundry and dish soap in this kind of format...I guess I could use Dr. Bronners and get it in bulk. We need to get back to doing that.

Getting rid of stuff is addictive

2008-02-24T12:10:00.000-08:00

This weekend we totally gutted our closet and got rid of 3 giant bags of clothes. I went to a clothing swap with a bunch of lovely ladies and got some great new clothes, too! It was awesome.

Went to goodwill and found some nice sheets for our bed. Nice to not have to buy them new.

Also totally cleaned out bathroom, and organized cleaning supplies and meds, etc. in the hallway closet. Got rid of some linens we don't use. We are now officially a chemical-free household and are cleaning everything with castille soap, baking soda, and vinegar. we gave away some still useable cleaners that are not so eco-friendly. seemed like a better thing to do than just toss them.

we gave away about 100 things this weekend, mostly toys, kids' books, etc. an old laptop, and a few other misc things.

organized the cups cabinet in the kitchen and got rid of some unused cups. we are now a plastic-free drinking container household, only having glasses to drink out of. there are a few BPA-free sippy cups that are plastic (and they are recycleable).

I also organized and swept out the garage and cleaned up the laundry area! woo!

now i just need to organize and declutter the office closet and today we are going to steam clean the carpet w/ vinegar and baking soda.

I also need to organize the other kitchen cupboards, especially where we keep the spices. i'm not entirely sure how to do that one yet.

Plastics...again

2008-02-20T10:57:00.005-08:00

I'm readng this book right now called "The World Without Us" which is this kind of cool thought experiment about what would happen to civilization if humans just disappeared today. What would happen to buildings, roads, farms, power plants, oil refineries, etc.

One chapter was about polymers, what will happen to plastics. Right now...nothing would happen to them. There is no mechanism to break them down. They can get smaller and smaller, but they never go away. As they get smaller, animals eat them at all levels of the food chain. Some particles are so small that krill and plankton eat them. Some companies make facial "srubs" that contain tiny plastic beads...these wash directly into waterways where the smallest members of the food chain eat them.

The worst thing in that chapter was about how much plastic is in the ocean...right now there is a floating "ocean" of plastic debris the size of the African continent in the middle of the pacific ocean. You can see it from space. Isn't that the most sickening thing ever?

Whenever I hold a piece of plastic in my hand...I can't help but think about where it came from and where its going. What did it take to make this, and what will happen to it when i throw it "away". Will it end up in the ocean, where some animal will eat it and die? Or will it just go to a landfill where it will likely remain for the next million years until some bacteria evolves to digest polymers? What toxins were poured into the air and water during its manufacture?

I want to stop consuming plastic, i really do. Is it even possible? What do we buy that comes in plastic, and is there an alternative?

Cleaning products
soap (like castille)
laundry soap
dish soap
shampoo/conditioner
food that comes in plastic containers like bottles of oil, etc.
food in plastic bags such as crackers, etc
bread bags
occasionally shopping bags

i think we can start getting shampoo, conditioner, and laundry soap in bar form. i'm looking into it.

food...we just need to recommit to not buying a bunch of packaged crap. sigh. its hard!

Spring cleanin'

2008-02-18T21:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it's not really spring yet. But it certainly feels that way thanks to 3 days of sunny over-fifty degree weather.

This inspired us to get some stuff done. Well, actually what inspired us was that we were out taking a walk, and our neighbor was putting a Very Nice Futon out on the curb. We were all "ho ho, what's all this then? This is much better than our shitty futon." See, our computer/guest/random piles of crap room has this futon in it that came from my stepmom Marie's friend Diana. I think Diana bought it like 20 years ago or something because it is more comfortable to sleep on the ground than to sleep on this thing. Seriously. After my stepmom got some years of use out of it, it sat in their basement somehow getting more and more "firm" (read: hard as a rock). And also uglier. Its frame was painted black at some point and a very ugly tropical-plant themed futon cover was placed on it.

Well, on this day, our Lucky Day, our neighbor was putting out a nice wooden futon frame with a nice brown neutral-ish colored cover. And it was still soft! So we had to get it in the car to get it home. This caused us to notice that our car is full of massive piles of crap. So jay totally cleaned the car out, vacuumed, it etc.

This caused us to notice that our computer room was totally cluttered. Which caused us to notice a similar thing about the rest of the house. So we spent the next two days putting crap on the curb for people to help themselves to, putting many belongings on the free section of craigslist (including our old futon which was taken in a record 5 minutes), and aquiring an item like this on craigslist for elsie's room to put toys, books, etc. This caused us to notice that the kids have far too many books, several of which we hate and would be glad to never read again, so a lot of those went, too.

All in all, we totally organized our computer room, elsie's room, the toys in the living room, the backyard, the kids books, the bookshelves, the car, and some of our bedroom. And we went on several walks, spent a lot of time outside, did some yardwork, etc. It was a pretty successful weekend.

We are keeping a decluttering tally on the right hand sidebar. So far we've gotten rid of like 250 things. We have given up completely on all items that "may have some future use if a bunch of things change." If we aren't using it now, it goes. If we don't love it, it goes. We've also given up on "maybe we can sell this." No. Things aren't going to get sold. We aren't going to deal with that. We hold on to things because maybe someday we will get it together and have a garage sale. Sooooooooo not going to happen.

So...so far, we have decluttered, organized, and gotten rid of all non-necessary items in:
The kitchen island drawers and cupboards
Elsie's bedroom
Elsie's closet
All books, kids, adults, etc.
The living room toys area
The computer desk/office space
The office bookshelf
The yard (believe me, there was a lot of crap out there, both literally and the non-disgusting kind)
some of the garage
the two hall closets (except the top shelf!)
the entire computer room
The minivan

We have left to declutter/organize/get rid of junk in:
Office room closet
our bedroom closet
top shelf/medical type supplies in hallway closet
bathroom (should be somewhat easy, there isn't too much in there)
kitchen cupboards
rest of the garage
the camry. if it doesn't die first.
oh, and steam clean the carpet

we're getting there...

It feels so good to get rid of stuff. It just feels so liberating. I fought back the urge to go to Ikea this weekend and buy a bunch of organizing stuff. It seems stupid to buy stuff when you are trying to get rid of stuff...but that is the grip our consumer culture has on us, i guess. I think I might get some plastic totes off craigslist or something to store winter clothes during the summer, etc. But I don't need to get it new. The organizer thing I got for elsie's room was $25 on craigslist. A similar thing at target is anywhere from $60 to $90. At Ikea its $60 to $130. Jeez! just for some plastic bins on a shelf. Lame.

Getting out

2008-02-07T19:52:00.000-08:00

As per our simple livin' resolution for this year, we are getting out more. we finally got around to buying a bike trailer ($125 on craigslist) that is a lot nicer than our old one (which was given to some homeless people who asked for it). we've used it for jogging, also, since it has a jogging attachment. there have actually been a couple of days lately that it didn't pour down rain in the evening, and that's when we are going out. it feels good to move the body--i feel like we've been in hibernation mode for months!

this week we had the sad duty of taking our dog Barry to the humane society of sw washington so we could get him out of the county. the oregon humane society pulled a lot of strings for us to get him in there. he couldn't be in multnomah county any longer because the mailman filed a complaint and had him listed as a "Level FOUR dangerous dog"--it required him to be muzzled, never outside, always on leash, a sign up on our property declaring that there was a vicious dog on the property, etc.! it is so crazy. this dog has been in our family for 6 years and has never even come close to biting someone. the mailman gets what basically amounts to a scratch on his hand and suddenly he's public enemy no. 1. There was no way we could rehome him in our county and no way we could keep him. it was a gut-wrenching decision. we are keeping tabs on him at the shelter, and he is doing well and they think he is going to go fast. if you know anyone who might want a GREAT dog (who just happens to hate mailmen) please send them the link to the shelter.

we are in the process of applying for the oregon health plan right now. i know we probably won't get it because your income has to be ridiculously low to qualify, but we really can't afford health insurance right now. its quite the process, but if we got in, it would be so huge for our family. i don't know what we can do otherwise.

The Story of Stuff

2008-01-30T11:32:00.000-08:00

A short video to make you think about stuff. You know, like things.
http://storyofstuff.com/

The nice thing about doing The Compact (see sidebar) as we have been now for about 7 months (I can almost count on one hand the total amount of things we have purchased new this past year) is that your desire to consume just grows less and less. This also goes hand in hand with decluttering. You realize how much time you spend cleaning and otherwise managing the chaos of items in your house--you lose the desire to bring more items into your life.

I really have no desire to shop for anything. I haven't set foot in a mall or big box store for about 2 years. I just don't see the need. There are some items that i've bought new this year, such as underwear and things of that nature, but the level of frivoulous spending for items that aren't absolutely necessary is down to almost nothing. It also helps that we're broke.

Here is a simple-living pledge that I think it would be pretty easy for our family to follow this year, since we already do most of this stuff:

In order to keep our lives simple in 2008 we are going to do the following:
*restrict purchases to needs (exceptions for birthday/anniversary/holiday gifts - everyone needs a toy now and again)
*buy used when possible and practical (exceptions for personal care, undergarments/socks, safety equipment, shoes, and medical needs)
*recognize limits of our day, and do what we can, let the other stuff go, and start new each day
*work on organizing life, home and work so that we can fully enjoy our time, rather than spending it on digging through chaos
*make wise choices about purchasing new goods
*be conscious of the impact we have on the earth and try to minimize our footprint
*spend more time outside
*eat well
*move more
*stop and play with our children every day
*tell each other we love one another every day

karma

2008-01-29T21:30:00.000-08:00

Jay and I have been complaining a lot lately that our karma has failed us. We used to brag that we had great karma. Since he lost his job, then lost his new job, a lot of other little side events have happened to us. We have just had a lot of stress since this summer.

One of those is that last week our dog, Barry, jumped over our fence and bit our mailman. I know, it sounds kind of funny when you first hear it, like what dog wouldn't want to do that? Unfortunately, it's not really all that funny, because many Bad Things are happening now because of it. One of them is that the post office may or may not sue us. We may have to go to court.

Barry has never bit someone and he is not an aggressive dog. He's never gotten over our fence before, either. But for some reason, he really has it in for the mailman. He just goes crazy when that guy comes. Its like that guy really did something to tick him off. Anybody can walk by and barry might bark, but if the mailman walks by its like he's a pitbull on crack. This is all very traumatizing for us because we are renters and we can't change the fact that the property has a 4' chainlink fence. We have looked at all of our options and have decided that re-homing Barry is the best option. We can't keep him inside 100% of the time. We can't change the fence. Training him would be very, very time consuming and we can't guarantee that it would be 100% effective. Ever since the kids were born, the dogs just haven't gotten the attention and exercise they need. Maybe this will give him a chance to have a better life. Maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better, but I really believe that. I just can't see another way to work it. It is going to be sad and traumatic for our family to do this, but if he had the right set-up, the mailman issue wouldn't be an issue. I don't think he deserves to die because he is aggressive only towards the mailman.

So we were looking at our renter's insurance and realized they would cover it if our dog bit someone. It would also cover a lawyer if we got sued. The amazing thing about this was that we were in the process of canceling our renters insurance because we thought we were moving. We thought it expired. Then we realized it covered us through the end of this month. I wanted to make sure they wouldn't make an issue, so i went in and reinstated it and payed it through March. We came very close to having a lapsed policy through all of this.

This past weekend we all had the stomach flu. jay had it the worst and was in HORRIBLE pain and vomiting really horribly for hours. I called the doctor and they said he needed to go in RIGHT away to the ER. So he went. It was so bad they thought it was his pancreas or something. It was just the flu affecting him really badly, but you can't mess around when you have severe abdominal pain for 5 hours. And this is just FOUR DAYS before our health insurance from my temporary teaching job expires!

Here's another thing that happened: i was randomly flipping through the paper and came across a classified ad that said 'need health insurance?' i thought 'yeah.' so i called it (brilliant, huh?). This guy called me back and we set up an appointment. He's an insurance agent. Normally I would just apply for health insurance myself over the internet and wouldn't use an agent, but for some reason i just thought it was all too overwhelming and decided to do it. Well, though this random encounter a number of really, really good things happened. First of all, he told us that we should not report on our application the prescription drugs we take because they would deny us. He basically told us that insurance companies are evil and you can't tell them that you have ever had any kind of problem or they will just deny you. It never would have occurred to me that this was possible. I would have just put it down and then been shocked when we got denied.

But the REALLY fortuitous thing was we were talking about our life insurance application we put in a few months ago and we mentioned that it was taking forever to process. He was like "huh, that's weird" and then we mentioned some of the things we'd put on THAT application. He was like "WHOA! you told them THAT?!?!" needless to say, there are some things you just should not tell a life insurance company. it is a need-to-know basis, and they do not need to know. But we're so naive. man, we are SOOOOOOOOOOoo naive. It turns out that there is this health database and anything you tell them goes on there...for 7 years. You'll never get life or health insurance or anything if you tell them that you've smoked like 1 cigarette in the past year. So anyway, he tells us to call them and withdraw our application before it goes in this database. man! i'm so glad we were able to do that.

So things i'm thankful for (THANK YOU, UNIVERSE!! KARMA, WE WILL PAY YOU BACK!)
1. That i was able to get a reasonable paying job right after jay got fired (i shudder to think what we would have done if i hadn't gotten my teaching degree yet.)
2. that jay and i both worked for a short time enabling us to get some savings to weather this month where we would have had a deficit
3. that the one and ONLY time that anyone in our family has gone to the ER it was while we still had kick-ass public employee health insurance that we have to pay nothing out of pocket for (4 days under the wire...)
4. that we may have just saved ourselves from being branded uninsurable for 7 years and not being able to get health insurance due to a random encounter with a really cool, really nice insurance agent
5. that our renters insurance is still in effect and covers barry biting the mailman (dammit, barry, why?!? why?!!?)
6. that we are all in good health
7. that we have wonderful families who support us and were even willing to let us move in with them, if it came to that.

so even though our family has been through a LOT of, dare i say, shit, in the past 6 months--way more than our fair share in my opinion--there have been a lot of silver linings, too, that have really saved our butts.

2008 goals and resolutions

2008-01-22T14:37:00.000-08:00

Now that i'm substitute teaching full time, we have time to do projects around the house again and actually live mindfully again, instead of stumbling through each day like a sleep-deprived zombie. Our big project at the moment is organizing/decluttering our whole house. It sounds like a chore, but really it's not too bad. One of the side benefits of moving all the time is that you don't get a chance to accumulate too much stuff. We are just going through everything drawer-by-drawer and area-by-area and getting rid of stuff that we don't love/need/use. i'm really thinning out the kids' toys. Our house is so much easier to keep clean when there aren't 100000 little pieces of plastic laying around everywhere. My goal is to have all the counter space free of stuff that isn't used daily, as well as not having a junk drawer in every room. I want to reorganize our garage, too. Its scary in there. Since we will be moving sometime in the next 6 months, I want to only move things that we really need or want. Especially since the place will be smaller. Its nice to go back to basics, in a lot of ways, and be forced to do that by moving into a smaller space. It makes you consider each item and if its really valuable.

I've been reading several blogs about living without plastics. One of them is Living Plastic Free Although I don't think we could live TOTALLY plastic-free, i think we could cut it back by A LOT. Things like a loaf of bread, which now costs $4.39 (!?!) are bagged in TWO layers of plastic. Now that jay has the stay-at-home dad thing down, I am hoping we can get back into making our own bread. Its pretty easy, and its fun to do with kids. I think with just a few changes, we can get back to making less garbage. We've been somewhat reliant on disposable items such as diapers and food from Trader Joe's lately. But we shouldn't be at this point. The amount of garbage we've started to produce is just sad. Considering that we were down to like 1 bag of garbage a month. We make that amount each week now : ( So I would like our second goal of the New Year to be cutting back on all plastic, and especially cutting way back on stuff that can't be recycled.

Last weekend I took our worm bin and pulled some worms out and started a second worm bin. They are a little sluggish--i'm assuming because its cold out--and aren't eating a lot. But if we do move, its likely that we wont be able to have an outdoor compost bin. So i want to have two worm bins to take care of the kitchen scraps at least.

hayyy laaaadies!

2008-01-21T11:06:00.000-08:00

just a short post to let all the women out there know about the best thing ever. why this is such a big secret, i'm not sure. but if you are interested in reducing/preventing waste AND not having...um...leaking issues during your period, you must go buy a diva cup or moon cup. it took me a while to get used to it, but now that i am, i LOVE it. it's expensive at first, but consider that you can use it for years.
http://www.divacup.com/
or
http://www.mooncup.co.uk/

just get one. i've heard that the mooncup can be more comfortable. i already got the diva though, so i'm committed to making it work. its just one more way to not buy disposable products. and i HATE wearing pads, cloth or disposable, so this is the only non-disposable alternative to that.

merry post-holiday greeting

2008-01-05T12:33:00.001-08:00

happy new year everyone...

This post will serve as the substitute for the more traditional letter-in-a-christmas-card that informs everyone about what they have been doing. we have not gotten our act together to do anything for the holidays in terms of cards, baking, gifts, etc. I had big plans to bake stuff to mail to the far-away relatives, and never did get a chance to. We did give a few books this year, and i bought people some things in ireland (more on that in a moment).

we were really pretty pleased/impressed with how restrained our families were this holiday season. most presents were hand-me-downs or used, which was awesome. there was a minimum of wrapping paper, most of which was recycled, and the stuff for us adults was very small. still, it can be a bit overwhelming to consider that this (photo below) is what counts for trying for a very minimalist christmas. our entire couch was covered in presents for the kids.

we continue to be pretty non-committal about any gift-giving. we just aren't into it, and kind of refuse to feel like we should buy things for people and get all stressed about it. when the kids are older, i suspect that we will make some things, but right now that idea seems kind of ludicrous since we don't even get time to do dishes.

as for how things are going, the kids are doing well. as you can see, emmett is huge and has become an official toddler. he's 13 months old now. he runs around after elsie now and we've seen brief moments (of up to 10 minutes!) of them playing together and entertaining each other, whilst leaving us alone. hopefully it's a taste of things to come in the future. he also loves to eat everything and does a lot of babbling and playing with all sorts of objects. he understands what we say now and can follow simple commands such as 'hand me that ball'. he is much more eager to please, sensitive and compliant than elsie ever was. he will cry if we tell him 'no', whereas elsie never cared if we told her not to do something (and still doesn't!) elsie is growing bigger by the minute, and will be four in 2 months. she has started sounding out words, and can write her name and several other words. she loves to read still, and proudly announces that she now reads "chapter books" which she requests constantly. her vocabulary amazes us on a daily basis, saying things like "i have this memorized" and "is this a sand-hill crane, mama?" (today, she brought me a picture she found of a crane. where she heard about sand hill cranes, i have no idea). we've kept to our TV free lifestyle but do allow her to watch movies which we get from the library or video store. emmett hasn't watched any movies or tv.

elsie loves spending time down at her grandparents' house and we send her down there as often as we can. her behavior has gotten easier recently, and we've noticed that we aren't feeling like ripping our hair out quite as many times per day. the terrible threes are hopefully coming to a close.

my job as a teacher ended just before christmas, which is at once a relief, something sad, and something stressful. i really felt like i came into my own as a teacher toward the end, and i was sad to have to leave the job after hitting my stride. i was really enjoying my students. they were really sweet on my last day, many of them getting me christmas presents, cards, and flowers telling me that they will miss me and that they wanted me to stay. there were a few tears shed and i had a couple of students tell me wonderful things such as i was the best teacher they ever had (sniff). it was sad to realize i wasn't going to see them any more. it feels good to know that i really picked the right career and i learned a lot during these past months. i am excited to get a 'real' teaching job for next year or the year after.

at the same time, the job was taking a lot out of me, and it was very hard to keep up with.
jay has been doing some work here and there for his friend david, who just started a cultural resources company (david was the one who also got fired along with jay and 2 other people from AINW in august). in combination with substitute teaching for me, we are hopeful that we can make it through the next 6 months financially with both of us working very flexibly. it will be kind of nice to switch off working/staying at home on an as-needed basis. we have talked about moving to salem and renting a cheap apartment, while i sub there, but we are going to hold off in the hopes that jay will land a full time job in the next few months and then see if moving is necessary. the idea of moving is almost more than i can deal with. i'm just so sick of moving. but our place is kind of expensive and it would be nice to save some money. however, if jay does end up getting a job, it would be silly to move to salem and then to move back. we have some reason to hope that david will have a full time position for him in the next 6 months. i'm hoping that he can work and i can work part time, as i'd rather not jump into full time teaching next year unless i have to. i'd rather wait until emmett is 3 to tackle that. still, if jay doesn't have a job, we'll have no choice. subbing is OK money, but we might have problems when summer comes if jay doesn't have a job. we are trying not to stress about it too much. sometimes it just feels like we can't take any more changes and adjustments, though. nothing has been stable since August.

In other news, i just got back from an 7 day trip to ireland, which was absolutely amazing. My good friend roy got married to a wonderful irish woman, which was the reason for the trip. it was amazing and crazy to be by myself with no kids for so long, and offered me an unprecedented chance to think and take care of my own needs for a change. the kids and jay weathered it fairly well with lots of support from my family. i decided while over there that our family should not postpone happiness for some time in the future, when things might go a certain way; that we have each other, and in that regard we are very lucky and blessed. we are all working on focusing on the positive for now and realizing that everything is temporary. i felt very grateful and very, very fortunate to get to go on this trip and to be with my friends during this time.

the wedding feast in longford, ireland

roy and i at trinity college, dublin.

at some point i will post pictures of the kids and everything, but right now i don't think i can take any more elsie harassment about 'when will you be done?!?'

just one final thought: during these past few months it has become apparent to me that it is entirely impossible for people who are in a crisis to think about the environment, or anything beyond just their day-to-day survival. a lot of things fell by the wayside as we contemplated more important things, for example: are we were going to have to move in with my parents? how we were going to get health insurance? how we could afford to heat our house? etc. people all over the world, and in america, are in crisis and are just trying to survive. many, many millions of americans are only one paycheck or medical problem away from disaster. how can people think about their choices affecting the earth when they are just surviving? i know we didn't. we went back to whatever was cheapest/easiest, which always means less organics, more trash, less mindful consuming, etc. it's a pity, but its hard to imagine anything changing in a meaningful way while so many people are in poverty. its obvious that global poverty and environmental catastrophe are linked, and our family now understands the reasons for this first-hand.

here are a few pictures to appease the masses. thanks for reading this long ramble.

so...um...

2007-11-10T19:57:00.000-08:00

jay lost his other, newer job...
we're not sure if its because of the kids or what, but it would seem that way. the guy wouldn't give a reason. he just said "its not a good fit." after only 2 months. this would be the day after jay had to leave work early to pick emmett up from daycare because emmett was sick. jay wasn't willing to work unpaid overtime. he wasn't willing to go out of town on a moment's notice. he left work every day after 8 hours to get his kids. he wasn't willing to be a corporate zombie slave.

the sad thing is i think this happens to a lot of people. people get fired because they have small kids, get pregnant, have a sick spouse, etc. and there isn't jack crap you can do about it because you live in a "will-to-work" state. meaning, you can be fired at any time, for any reason (for no reason, actually).

so the tables have turned. he is a stay-at-home dad and i'm making the money. its sure going to suck come january when i'm no longer doing this job, and i just substitute teach, and our family has no benefits. yup. sure will suck.

everything else has been so out the window these past 3 months. its been beyond stressful.

"when you look into an abyss, the
abyss also looks into you."

Quick update and last post for a long while (probably)

2007-09-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to give a quick update about our family and what's going on (in case anyone is still reading this). Below are some pictures of our garden today. we just picked about 10 lbs of tomatoes and are making sauce today. we are also putting in our fall crops today including kale, collards, beets, broccoli, spinach and a few others.

I am started teaching 8th grade science full time last week. i will be teaching through Christmas, then the woman whose maternity leave I'm taking comes back.

Its hard knowing that my kids are in daycare all day, but we found a wonderful person who is watching only 4 children to take care of them, and they are adjusting well to be being gone during the day.

Most of our environmental stuff continues, and has become habit at this point. Other things just kind of fell by the wayside and we've stopped. In general, we continue to reduce our waste and don't use disposable products, although not buying anything with non-recyclable packaging has proved impossible for us for the time being. Driving to work has become a necessity with dropping off and picking up the kids. Making stuff from scratch is pretty much out the window. We are saving water as much as possible and conserving energy by not using the dryer and things like that.

When December rolls around, we will re-evaluate how things are going...if we aren't enjoying this arrangement, i'll stop working at that point or just sub a few days a week possibly. Its nice that i can get my feet wet teaching, but know that its only 3.5 months and then i can stop if i want. Its kind of overwhelming teaching and being mom to 2 young kids, but i have a lot of lessons planned out for me already by the woman whose leave i'm taking, so that is much easier. I have a lot of support at the school also because I student taught there, and I have a lot of mentor teachers to draw from.

I am enjoying my students and looking forward to doing fun stuff with them this year. I do have a lot of mother-guilt about leaving my kids, but in many ways i'm feeling really happy to have my own thing separate from them. Elsie still has her school 2 days a week, so she can see her old friends. Emmett is eating a lot of food, and not relying very heavily on nursing right now (in fact, i struggle to get him to nurse most days because he's so interested in crawling around, exploring and trying to walk) so that takes a lot of pressure off of me. He is a very happy, easy going guy who takes well to people, and doesn't seem at all upset that I leave him during the day. I think it helps that his big sister is there to help with him. They really love each other.

So that's about it. Life is going to be very crazy for the next few months.

freak out

2007-08-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

I think "a big freak out" pretty much characterizes our mood in the past three weeks. Basically, Jay lost his job. Well, Jay got "fired" for very, very unjust and unethical (and probably illegal) reasons. If we were litigious, or even interested in thinking about his boss ever again, we'd probably have grounds for a lawsuit. But, as it is, we're just moving on. I'd type the story, but if I ever have to tell the story again I think I might suffer a boredom-induced aneurysm.

We spent 3 weeks stressing out, nail biting, applying for jobs, wondering, worrying, etc. In the end, Jay got another job that pays slightly less, but is going to be a great new experience where he will learn a lot (and not have a boss who is a huge b*t&h) . Simultaneously, I got a job at a middle school. Its a temporary job teaching 8th grade science, which is going to work out well for me. Its a good first gig teaching because a lot of it is mapped out and I don't have to set up a classroom or anything. But I will have to be the real teacher for these kids from now until Christmas.

We found a great person to take care of our kids at our house while we work. She is going to bring her two kids--age 4 and 18 months--as well.

I wasn't really ready to go back to work, but it seems like this is a situation where we will all pitch in and just do what needs to be done. I'm actually excited to get back into the classroom. I think a lot of me felt like the longer I wasn't working, the scarier and scarier teaching was becoming. This will help me get a job next year. Part of me wanted to use this whole Jay-getting-fired-thing to just say "let's get out of here!", pull up roots, do something crazy like go live in a commune or buy an RV and drive across the country or something. Honestly, what stopped me was that I'm so incredibly sick of moving that I think if I have to move again in the next two years, I will puke. We've moved 7 times since 2000. Yes, that's once a year. We just told our landlord we would be here for two more years (because of the whole rent-raise thing, he agreed to not raise the rent again for two years at least and insulate the attic), and like the next day the specter of moving reared its ugly head. I was offered interviews at far-away districts, but really couldn't stomach it. Maybe next year. We have a whole year now to decide if we want to move. Maybe jay will really like his new job, and it won't even make sense to move.

While all this was going on, garbage increased and I think in the last month and a half I have put the garbage can out twice, but I can't remember. We started eating tons of food from our garden, and haven't bought any produce (save some fruit and avacados) from the store in about two months. We are up to our eyeballs in tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, pole beans, summer squash, herbs, peppers, lettuce, broccoli and chard. I'm still a little stunned at how well the garden has done, despite our ignorance in gardening. The whole thing has made me wonder why in the hell anyone ever uses chemicals? If you just use some compost and water a bit, you get a crop. There are so many spiders and ladybugs and such out there, i haven't seen hardly any problems. Maybe a few veggies here and there get relegated to the slugs or whatever, but hardly any. I guess doing huge monocrops for profit is different from what we're doing, but still.

I have been hearing a lot on NPR lately about people doing more with local food, global warming concerns, concerns about consumption (esp from China) and things, it really seems like people are starting to take a look at their personal choices more.

Another nice thing is that with our new jobs, it is very easy for both Jay and I to take the bus to our respective jobs. Mine is a 4 block walk and a 15 minute ride. Pretty good.

Sorry for the lag in posting. I will do better. While this whole thing was going on, I couldn't think about anything else. I think that is why the earth is screwed while so many people live in desperate poverty. Its hard to think about something nebulous like the future or the earth when you are wondering if you are going to be able to provide for your family.

Why vegan?

2007-07-17T02:16:00.001-07:00

Why did I decide to be vegan in the first place? Why would anybody want to be vegan? I've been thinking about this a lot, because after a one-year period during which I was not vegan at all, I have a new appreciation for the reasons behind being vegan, and why most people aren't.

I have a friend whose boyfriend started this website called "Vegan Represent". His whole philosophy is basically that a vegan who "reprazents" is a happy, healthy, whole, fun, interesting, normal person, and is a good representative for veganism. People would be drawn to this person, and want to ask, through the course of normal human interactions, "why are you vegan anyway?" or, as happened to me recently "what does it mean when you order your burrito vegan?" Then you explain to that person, and quite possibly that causes the person to consider what you have to say. This is in contrast to the often-represented stereotype of a vegan who is in-your-face, angry and sullen--and easy to dismiss. People also think vegan food is boring and gross, which could not be further from the truth. But I'll save that for a later date.

I have to admit that I used to be more akin to the latter rather than the "vegan represent" variety. I have seen a lot of things through the course of educating myself, and then working for Farm Sanctuary, that made me want to yell "HOW CAN YOU NOT BE VEGAN, YOU SELFISH JERK?!" Usually, when you yell something like that at someone, they tend to want to ignore you or make fun of you.

After spending a year eating dairy, eggs and even fish, I grew accustomed to these things. I stopped feeling guilty about it. I started thinking things along these lines: After all, everyone around me eats these things, and they are Good People, so it can't be totally evil. And besides, I'm sick of feeling deprived, left-out, etc. I like eating these things.

After a few months, I just stopped thinking about it. I just ate what I wanted, and what everyone else was eating (except beef, chicken, pork, etc.)

Contrary to what most people think, vegans are actually a very compassionate and forgiving bunch, on the whole. Most of my vegan friends were like "I understand. It's hard." I don't think anybody gave me a hard time. I think if they would have, I would have only become more entrenched in my non-vegandom. A vegan friend (the same one whose boyfriend runs Vegan Represent) finally called me out on it. "So, on your blog it says you are eating half-and-half. What's up with that?" I explained to her my feelings (I like eating these things, etc.) and a conversation ensued over email that I was going to post here, but she wanted to edit. It finally just got edited, but is really long and full of potty language. It's so long that very few people will probably read it, so I won't post it. Suffice to say, it hit very near the mark and snapped me out of it. I had been vegan for nearly 7 years when I stopped, so it wasn't some passing fancy on my part. It was really a part of who I was. Being a non-vegan never did stop feeling strange, like I was impersonating something I wasn't.

Another wise vegan friend of mine, in an earlier conversation, after assuring me that she understood my lapse, told me about her thinking. She said that she can completely understand why people aren't vegan. Its easy, it tastes good, and its not exactly like meat and dairy producers are trying to tell you where the food comes from. You have to seek out information about the problems with it. Most people just don't do that. She said that there are two ways of thinking about something. The first is "should" thinking, the second is "is" thinking. For example, everybody should be vegan. People shouldn't shop at Wal-Mart. VS "people aren't vegan, they do eat lots of animal products." "People DO shop at walmart". The "is" way of thinking recognizes things as the way they are. And it causes the thinker to accept reality: You can only control what YOU do. You cannot control anybody else. This kind of thinking helps with not being angry. Because if you are going around talking about "people should be vegan" all the time, you are bound to notice the reality that people aren't. They "should" but they don't. Can you see how that would make somebody mad all the time? To think that way? It certainly did for me. My motto now is "I can only control my own actions (and through my actions, I might cause others to follow suit.)"

These days, it feels good to go back to being vegan. I have stopped feeling like it is a deprivation because it is a choice. I don't say "I can't eat that." I say "I choose not to eat that." One sounds like i'm being prevented from doing something I want to do. The other sounds like I am making a decision, and have power. I can actually picture where the food came from, and then I don't even want it anymore. For example, my biggest weakness would always be some kind of sweet, like brownies at a party that have eggs in them. I would want them, and would try to justify eating them. Now, I just picture the chickens that had to endure horrible conditions to lay those eggs, and ask myself if I NEED that brownie. Of course the answer is no, I don't need it. And when I think about the animal cruelty involved, I can say that I honestly don't want it anymore, either.

I would like to think that most people just don't have the facts about their food, and if given the information they would choose not to support those practices. It is true that some people don't want to know, and hope that through willful ignorance, they can just keep eating what they like without facing the fact that they are contributing to some pretty horrible suffering in the process. I know that is how it was with my thinking: If I don't think about it, then it doesn't exist.

In the spirit of dispelling some of this ignorance, for those who would choose to know, I am going to include the following information. I know that many people won't read this, or won't click on the links. I can only say that just because you don't look at it, doesn't mean its not happening. If you feel like knowledge might make you "have" to stop drinking milk, for example, and you are afraid of that, maybe you should think about it. If, on the other hand, you educate yourself about where cheese comes from, and you are still ok with eating it, then you are doing better than most people who have no idea why someone would choose to not eat cheese. I say these things truly in the spirit of non-judgment, but with the hope that people can use this information to make informed choices, and make the world a better place.

Eggs: Come from chickens who are de-beaked, force-molted and live in battery cages. "Free range" and "cage free" are terms that have no legal meaning (unlike Organic, which has strict standards that need to be met and certified to be labeled as such), and thus can be applied to eggs that are produced in extremely inhumane conditions.

Dairy: The only way to get a mammal, like a cow or goat, to lactate is to get that animal pregnant. You then have to take the baby away from the mother, (IF YOU ONLY CLICK ONE LINK HERE, MAKE IT THIS ONE) so it doesn't drink that milk. The dairy industry thus has a huge surplus of baby cows that they needed something to do with. That thing became veal. Thus, veal farming, a practice so cruel that most people won't eat it, couldn't exist without dairy. It can logically be argued that you would do more to alleviate animal suffering if you stopped drinking cow dairy than if you stopped eating meat. The same is true for organic dairy.

Meat: This issue is more varied. In some cases, animals like beef cows, have a much better, more normal life, than a battery cage hen or a dairy cow. They are still killed, of course, but generally aren't packed into tiny cages until the final feedlot stage of their life. Pork is another matter. The sows that produce the piglets are living in tiny cages called gestation crates and it is a pathetically miserable existence. Pig factory farms are some of the worst kinds of animal farming. Chickens and turkeys raised for meat are usually housed in huge warehouses. They are "debeaked" and don't have much room to move around. Its a filthy, uncomfortable and sad life.

There really isn't any way to eat an animal product without giving money to somebody to do something (that I hope) most people couldn't do themselves because it would be too sad and awful. If you rescue a chicken and that chicken lays eggs and you eat them, that's pretty much the only humane animal product. Otherwise, where animal's bodies are used to make a profit, those animals get turned into things. We all know that animals feel pain. So when they get treated like a thing, rather than a being that can experience suffering (sometimes intense, incomprehensibly awful suffering), it is incredibly tragic. People, like vegans, who have found out about this, are understandably angry and sad about it because they feel alone and mad that nobody but them cares about the pain these animals endure.

I hope you can take the time to examine your habits, and ask yourself if you need cheese, eggs or meat. Or if you are making an informed choice about it. I'd be interested in your comments on what i've posted here, if you'd like to add them.

Cracked out

2007-07-17T02:10:00.000-07:00

I made a huge mistake tonight. Namely, I ate a bar of chocolate (Green and Black brand) that was "coffee" flavored. I don't know about you, but usually when I eat something coffee-flavored, I don't really get a caffeine jolt from it. But this stuff, I guess, is basically chock-full of actual espresso beans. I ate almost the whole bar at like 8:30 pm. By like 10pm, I felt completely amped and jittery and crazy. I drink coffee every day, so it takes a LOT to make me feel like this. Granted, I ate nearly the whole bar, but, man! I laid in bed tossing and turning for about 2 hours. I finally just got up. 2 am! Damn! This really stinks because I am going to be tired and miserable tomorrow morning when the kids wake me at 7am. I still feel crazy and cracked out almost 6 hours after eating that thing. This is nuts. As I was laying in bed, tossing and turning, I realized that i never did write that "vegan manifesto" post, so I decided to do it now. Hence, my next post.

Breaking news! Fast food = really cheap, gross crap!

2007-07-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

This may not be a surprise to some of you, but it was to me. Today I committed a simple-living sin and decided to eat fast-food. From the drive-through. Bless me father, for I have sinned. Its been my entire life since I last confessed. I partook of the environment-killing fast food industry. My penance is to eat nothing but organic brown rice and broccoli for 3 days, after which time I must sacrifice a small plastic item made in China.
Ok, so it was Burgerville. For those of you outside the pacific NW, its a smallish fast-food chain that prides itself on being of a higher quality than the Mcdonald's and burger kings out there. It uses local ingredients, wherever possible, which is pretty commendable. For example, they use only Oregon and Washington animal products, and local in-season fruits and veggies. Their food comes packaged in all-recyclable, unbleached looking stuff. I'm not saying they are part of the solution, by any stretch, but they are way better than Mcdonald's.
Anyway, I have eaten there before, and i SWEAR it wasn't that bad. Today it was so nasty, I was kind of amazed. How do they stay in business? I got the gardenburger black bean burger because its vegan, as opposed to the regular gardenburger. I got the local, walla-walla (Washington) onion rings. And a raspberry lemonaid (with actual local whole raspberries right in there). sounds pretty decent, eh? the burger bun looked like somebody sat on it prior to microwaving it or however they made it limp and yet also somewhat crunchy. the lettuce was basically cooked right onto the patty. the tomato looked very, very sad indeed. Although the onion rings and lemonaid were pretty good, I was forced to ask myself how on earth this sad-little microwaved-tasting thing cost $10 and change? Do people know that fast food is very expensive? Because I kind of thought that the whole point was that it was cheap? Maybe i'm missing something?
I'm sure you are all (yes, all 3 of you) wondering why I would assume a vegan burger from Burgerville would taste good. I guess I have high expectations. Actually, no, i just had AN expectation, and it was terribly misguided. How sad for me and my limp, limp, elephant-trodden burger. Its a frugal/simple living mistake I won't be repeating.

Eco 'air conditioning'

2007-07-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

I fully admit that this might be common knowledge, but I swear from people's reactions to the cool temperature of our house growing up that not everyone does this. Everyone used to come into our house in the summer and ask "do you have air conditioning?" We didn't. We just did this (below) and it kept our house pretty cool.

At night open all your windows. Set up at least one fan (preferably in your bedroom) as an "exhaust fan" blowing out the window, rather than blowing air in from the outside. In the morning when you get up (assuming you get up before 10 am) your house is the coolest its going to be. Shut all the windows, Close all blinds and curtains (especially on east and south facing windows) and leave them that way all day. Our house can be up to 20 degrees cooler inside than outside. Around noon, turn on any indoor fans or ceiling fans to help circulate air. You will probably feel the need to re-open all the windows back up around 5 or 6 pm, at which point your house will be very stuffy and only about 5 or 10 degrees cooler than the outside. Even if you have real a/c this "technique" can make it so you don't have to turn it on until later in the day.

Many cities are facing severe energy problems from air conditioners. I realize that some people live in places where it is 120 degrees, and you kind of have to have a/c. in places like Oregon, it would be nice to have it about 20 days a year, but you can definitely live without it (it did suck yesterday when it was 101 in Portland, but that is rare...) Our neighbor turns on her a/c when the temp gets above about 70. it drives me nuts. your body's internal thermastat can readjust to different temperatures, so if you don't have a/c, in the summer 85 starts to feel not-very-hot. Just try to minimize your a/c use, and keep your thermastat kind of high (like 80 or more). A/C units are really hard on the energy grid (and the environment).

Backup

2007-07-06T19:53:00.001-07:00

I found a few news articles backing up what I said about the fourth "celebrations"

From The Oregonian

About drunken idiots on the fourth

About how police and fire fighters are so freaking busy trying to stop idiots from killing themselves on the fourth

So I don't think its liberal claptrap or draconian to suggest that fireworks be banned. People are too stupid and need to be protected from themselves.

Oh, and my neighbors are out doing them right now. Happy 6th of July.

Party pooper

2007-07-05T19:28:00.001-07:00

Ok, I'm going to be negative about one of our country's favorite past-times, and I really don't care if I sound like I'm bitter and jaded (which I am, but that's beside the point).

I HATE THE EFFING FOURTH OF JULY. Blowing things up is for morons.

In addition to the outrageous noise level (which pisses me off to no end) that starts about a week before and goes about a week after the actual holiday, it is horrible for the environment.

To quote (and slightly amend) another blog I saw: The smoke made by fireworks is densely sulphurous, highly acidic and contains a lot of greenhouse gases. Fireworks dump toxic metals like lead, arsenic and mercury into the atmosphere. Besides frightening animals, fireworks poison the environment in a way that is insidious and totally unnecessary. They generate tons of waste. Please limit the number you buy and use to a carefully selected few. Try using lasers, fountains, balloons and musical instruments to celebrate your country rather than turning it into a toxic waste dump.

Our neighborhood last night sounded like a war zone. It was insane. I didn't get to sleep until 3am and that really, really ticked me off. I ended up exchanging heated words with our neighbors. Some people are so inconsiderate. You live in a city. There are very old and very young people here and lots of pets, none of whom appreciate the insane racket you are making. If it was truly just one night, that would be one thing, but it goes on and on and on... and people doing it after midnight are just jerks. That is all there is to it.

I'm so sick of the American "self-entitlement" attitude (as exhibited by my jerk neighbors). You do not have a right to do fireworks. We have access to so many forms of entertainment in this country, but when it is suggested that we stop one (for very good reasons) such as fireworks, the circus, dog racing, etc. people flip out. We are entitled to do whatever we want! We are the greatest nation on earth! Blowing stuff up and generating tons of waste and being obnoxious and loud...it is the most American holiday out there.

The amount of fires set yesterday in Oregon is astounding. New York state banned all fireworks and it was AWESOME. It was so quiet on the 4th, you couldn't hear anything, except maybe a few sparklers. I wish Oregon would follow suit.

Ok, rant done.

On being "successful"

2007-07-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

Looking at those week-old pictures of the garden, it's hard to believe how much it has grown in just a week. It is even huger, bushier and more fruitful now than in those pictures. In fact, I do believe in about one week's time we should be eating some zucchini and tomatoes.

I have been doing really well at not driving lately. I've been walking distances up to about a mile and a half, and really enjoying it. I have been walking Elsie to swim lessons, walking to parks (even further away ones), and walking to the store. I've been taking the bus more, too. I don't think we drove all weekend, actually. We spent a lot of time at home getting work done, true, but we have really minimized our in-town driving. I think the last time I drove was sometime last week.

At Elsie's swimming lessons, I was chatting with another mom who had kids in class there. Through our various conversations, it became obvious that she was from...how shall I put this? Another socio-economic bracket (as they like to say at the Ed department at PSU. I guess it sounds a lot better than saying poor kids?) than we are. For example, her daughter goes to the private French-immersion preschool/K-8 school. Just out of curiosity, I looked up their tuition online and its a whopping $10,000 per year. So that means that they will spend $100,000 on their daughter's education before she even gets to high school! They have two kids, so do the math. You are looking at upwards of $400,000 before their kids are even in college.

Why do people spend so much money to get their child into a "better" private school? (I will discuss later about whether or not private schools really provide a better education than our public ones. Actually, we can discuss it now. No, they don't). I think people are compelled to spend huge amounts of money on their children because they really believe they are giving them a "leg up" in order to make them successful. I see people all over town wanting the "best" for their children, be this the latest gadget, or the expensive toddler music class (we got this music class for a Christmas present, and I was shocked to find that Elsie and one other boy were the only preschoolers in in the class. All the other kids were like 13 months old--babies! Why do parents think they need an expensive class for a baby to get a head start on music appreciation? bah!), the best private school, starting preschool at an early age, getting into a charter or magnet school, etc. But what is successful? For our children, or in life--how are we defining success?

Is it when our child gets into Harvard? Is the star athlete? The valedictorian? Wins the band competition? Gets a prestigious job? Makes a lot of money? Do we get to bask in their reflected glory?

I think these are the things a parent wants for a child usually without really asking why. For some reason talking to this mom last week, I had to stop and ask myself why. Why do they have a nanny, even when they are home? Why do they send their children to this extremely expensive private school where they learn an elite (but not very useful in America) language? Why do they live in the best neighborhood? Are their children on the fast-track to Princeton, whereas mine will have to "settle" for U of O (I mean, come on! At least go to OSU!) ? What do we really want for our children? What do I want for MY children?

When I stopped to consider this question, I reflexively answered "to be happy, of course!" As I'm sure pretty much any parent would. But I felt the need to go deeper. What if my child were happy never going to college, but working as a diesel mechanic? Would I consider my child a success at that point? I had to really stop and think, and I decided that yes, I would be happy about that. That I really don't care what my children choose to do, as long as they are truly happy. I mean, the real kind of happiness that so many Americans chase, but never seem to obtain.

And why do so many Americans continue to chase the elusive dream of happiness? I mean, its right there in our constitution. We are guaranteed the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness--not happiness itself. I really believe that the reason that so many Americans are miserable is that we have all--ALL--bought into the idea that material goods will make us happy. Even if we don't want to admit it. Deep down, it's there. We were raised with it. We were nursed at the teat of marketing and consumption. Nowhere does anyone say "Just be happy with what you have and who you are. Do it NOW. Just stop what you are doing and choose happiness in this moment." Just--stop. Stop trying to better everything. Stop trying to look a certain way, own a certain thing, get something done. Just be satisfied. Be completely satisfied with your life in this moment. It goes deeper than just defining success through material goods (and that includes money). The American definition of success and happiness rides entirely on things that are outside of yourself. Entirely on things in the external, physical realm (the good job, the nice house, the loving wife, the sweet car, the obedient children). Never on the simple act of just being. Just being who you are.

I am not a master of this mode of thinking, but I am trying. If my children can live that way, then I will KNOW that they have achieved true success, regardless of what circumstances their lives may take. When we stop the cycle of mindless consumerism, stop defining success and happiness as some kind of external thing that can be obtained (but hasn't been obtained yet!) we are setting our children up for true success, in a way that no $10,000 per year private school ever could.

Successful children

2007-07-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

Garden update

2007-06-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

Our garden is doing awesome. We ate the first salad from our garden last night and it was so good. In the picture on the left you can see from front to back: spinach, swiss chard, lettuce, herbs (dill, parsley, cilantro), sweet basil, peppers, jalepeno peppers, peas. In the picture on the right from back to front: tomatoes and sunflowers on the right hand side, then broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts (if you think you hate them, you have never had them fresh--they are so good!), peas, carrots, strawberries (we got to eat 3 before the crows got to them), more tomatoes (romas, slicing, cherry), butternut squash, pumpkins, yellow summer squash, cantalope and the giant monstrosity there would be zukes. Oh, and a very sad, very tiny little eggplant next to the squashes. I've been told eggplant isn't very easy to grow around here, so I wasn't surprised when it didn't grow too well. Not bad for people who have no idea what they are doing, right? The only thing we don't have, but probably need to get in there right away is cukes. Elsie loves to help weed and plant. And a big secret is that kids love to eat veggies they helped grow.

Chemical cleaners

2007-06-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

I emailed OXO because that is who made my travel coffee mug. I wanted to know what kind of plastic it was, and they emailed me back and said this:

Laura,

There is no PVC in any of our food prep products. The interior of the
mug is made from Polypropylene.


Thank you,

OXO Consumer Care Center

So that would be #5. I'm glad to know it. I think its important that we let companies know that we are concerned about the way products are made.

I've been having a little slippage on the packaging front. I have found myself buying things that come in less-than-optimal packaging, such as those that cannot be reused or recycled. Our garbage amount hasn't increased a lot, but I still need to remind myself constantly about what I do and don't need to buy, and what alternatives there are. In the store yesterday, I almost bought two boxes of cereal because they were on sale, but then I changed my mind and bought the big bag of cereal that doesn't have a box instead. The bag still can't be recycled, but its better than twice the packaging.

So I have rid our house at this point of all "harsh", unnatural cleaning products. I really believe that anything can be cleaned with dilute vinegar. Anything that can't be cleaned with vinegar can be cleaned with baking soda. If that doesn't do it, vinegar AND baking soda will, or try using some Doctor Bronners soaps. They are REAL soap, not petroleum by-products. All the ingredients are now organic and fair trade. They have 18 or more uses when diluted including hand soap, dish soap, laundry soap, toothpaste, shampoo, carpet cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, etc. Its like the only cleaner you need. I personally wouldn't use it for toothpaste, though. It tastes gross. Baking soda works great for that. Here is a website with a list of recipes for safe, environmentally friendly cleaners for every use. Try the recipes out! Its cheaper than buying commercially-made products, too.

I got really freaked out by something I read about carpet cleaner. The last chemical cleaner I had was soap for our carpet shampooer (god, i wish our landlord would rip out that nasty carpet and put in some kind of hard flooring!!!!!!) and i cleaned our carpet with it, then read this thing about how carpet shampoo is horribly toxic to young children. Better for Emmett to eat dirt and dog hair off our carpet than eat that shampoo! Its horrible to think about. So i will now just put Dr Bronners in our carpet shampooer when we steam the carpet.

This website is really awesome--its where I found out about that carpet shampoo thing. Its called Children's Health Environmental Coalition (CHEC)
They talk about mitigating environmental risks for children in your house and outside of it. I could spend a long time looking at that website, as well as their parent website http://healthychild.org/ Even if you don't have kids, it has a lot of information about how to green up your house and lifestyle so you don't give yourself cancer when you are cleaning or eating.

Line-dry

2007-06-13T11:18:00.001-07:00

Sometimes we dry our clothes on a rack like this. We also strung a rope between our fences in the back to line-dry that way.

Why I love to line-dry my clothes:
1. It saves energy
2. It saves money
3. It sanitizes and bleaches. It even bleaches out old stains. It works amazingly well.
4. The clothes smell "mountain fresh" without using a nasty detergent labeled "mountain fresh".
5. It is exercise, and satisfying manual labor (why do we let machines do our work, then pay for a gym membership to go burn energy on a machine?)
6. Elsie likes to help out.
7. It makes things last longer--it reduces wear and tear.

Garbage update

2007-06-13T10:56:00.001-07:00

Today we are setting out our 32 gal garbage can for the first time since May 10. I'm not totally sure that we even set it out on May 10, but since we have definitely gone over a month at this point, we have easily reached our goal of only setting it out once per month.

The three recycle bins we have are for paper, plastic/aluminum/tin, and a separate one for glass. Almost all of our waste has gone into these bins (we have been setting them out weekly still).

So what is in that garbage can? What is not?

What is NOT in our garbage can: any recyclable container (plastic, even those that aren't curbside-able, we take to New Seasons to recycle--things like soy yogurt tubs, tofu tubs, etc.), glass, any paper product, any disposable item (save for the last of elsie's disposable pull-ups, we use hankies instead of kleenex, no paper towels, napkins, plates, no pads/tampons, etc), any food waste, any pet poo or cat litter (those get buried), any reusable item (such as margarine tubs that can be used as tupperware, plastic bags that can get re-filled at the bulk bin), any plastic bags (any we don't re-use have been recycled).

What IS in there, then? Plastic bags that are not reusable, such as those in boxes of cereal. I have really minimized my consumption of these things. However, we shop at a food liquidator because it is very, very cheap, and most of those products are packaged. So that is where those things came from. Pet food bags are in there--they aren't recyclable and there is no alternative. Bulk dog food doesn't work (we'd need to buy the whole bin). I guess we could make our own dog food but...yeah. I'm not quite there yet. Some disposable items that i can't find an alternative to such as Q-tips (any ideas?) , Lids to containers that are recyclable (you can't recycle glass jar lids, plastic tub lids, etc.) There is probably some other stuff in there that I am forgetting.

I want to try to go a month and a half before we set it out again...

Fake Plastic Trees

2007-06-12T20:48:00.001-07:00

So I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago, who was telling me about plastic products and how some of them are being shown to contain Very Scary Chemicals. I had heard about this in regards to baby bottles, but didn't pay much attention since my kids never really had bottles. Well, I have since also gone to the pediatrician (anyone who is counting out there, Emmett is still like 93rd percentile for weight, weighing in at 20 lbs 11 oz at 6 months) and she was mentioning the plastics thing again. I have been confused, but now I know the deal, and so I am going to share it with you.

I heard a story on NPR the other day about plastic water bottles. A shocking and sad statistic is that only 23% of these individual-portion water bottles get recycled. And these bottles, recycled, are just as valuable as the first-run versions! Everyone wants these recycled bottles. It is sad when there is such a demand for a post-consumer recycled product, but nobody is recycling it. Well, people shouldn't buy their water in freaking little bottles, either. I mean, really! You can bring a bottle with you and re-fill it, or if you don't like tap water, fill it at home. Bottled water is the biggest rip-off ever. Brands like Aquafina and Dolsane (or whatever they are called--the coke and pepsi bottled waters) aren't even "spring" water. They are just purified tap water. If you really can't do tap, then buy it in huge, re-fillable 10 gallon jugs. You can even get it delivered! I, myself, like tap water.

Ok, so back to the thing about how plastics are scary. Here is the deal: many plastics contain a chemical called Bisphenol-A or BPA. This chemical is an endocrine-disrupting hormone that probably causes cancer, early puberty, developmental delays in children, etc. There is evidence that this chemical leeches into foods we eat or liquids we drink from the plastics that contain it. But there is good news! Not all plastics contain it. Sadly, almost all baby bottles and sippy cups do. So the most vulnerable among us are the ones getting it. What is wrong with people? Why are we putting Scary Cancer-Causing chemicals in baby bottles?

So here is the break-down. Look at the bottom of your plastic cup, tupperware container, or sports bottle. If it is a #7, it probably contains BPA and you should get rid of it. THIS INCLUDES NALGENES. I know, i know. Its sad and horrible. We all thought lexan was the greatest thing ever. Plus, all those healthy people carry their Nalgenes with them wherever they go. But they are not safe. Especially not for hot liquids. I cringe when I recall that i have put coffee in mine on more than one occasion. #7 plastics are ok if they are labeled "bio-based" plastic.

There are several other kinds of plastics we should not use. We should not buy them because they should not be made. We do not want these Scary Chemicals in our environment, in our children's bodies. It is unacceptable to use these chemicals, and the makers need to know that.

#3 plastics: Bad. contains DEHA (di(2-ethylhexyl)adipate) which is known to cause liver cancer. With a name like that, you know you shouldn't be using it! Also found in cling-wrap. Don't use cling wrap. Especially don't microwave it! This chemical is now found in our air, food, water and bodies. Not ok. #3 is also PVC or polyvinylchloride. This is a bad, bad thing. We do not want PVC in our lives. If your children's toys contain PVC, please do them a favor and get rid of them.

#6 plastics: Bad. Contain styrene which is toxic to the brain and nervous system.

Again #7 plastics, Bad. So many studies show this. Get rid of it. Don't buy it.

Go look at your child's sippy cup. If it says #3, 6, or 7, get rid of it and replace with:

Plastics #1, #2, #4 and #5 are all OK. No known endocrine-disrupters. No cancer. They are still plastics, but they are less evil than the other ones.

If you need alternative sippy-cup sources, please check out this great blog article on the subject. There is also a company called "Born Free" that is making BPA-free bottles and sippy cups. I'm too lazy to google it. You do it! If you aren't sure because it isn't labeled, this quick test will let you know whether your stuff contains BPA--is it hard and clear? Or is it squishy or soft-ish and cloudy? If it is hard and clear (think colored Nalgene) it contains BPA.

Here is a full article about which plastics are ok and which aren't and more info on why they aren't ok.

While you are at it, get rid of your teflon pots and pans. Teflon is also a Scary Cancer-Causer.

We are slowly replacing everything teflon with stuff that is stainless steel. We are getting rid of all plastic things and using glass, stainless steel or the safer plastics.

DIY (Do it yourself)

2007-06-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia defines DIY as "a term used by various communities that focus on people creating things for themselves without the aid of paid professionals. Many DIY subcultures explicitly critique consumer culture, which emphasizes that the solution to our needs is to purchase things, and instead encourage people to take technologies into their own hands.

The actual activity of DIY goes back through the ages--since the beginning of time, people have used their own abilities and available tools and technologies to take care of their own needs, make their own clothing, and so on."

Doing things yourself often saves time, resources and money. Well, sometimes it doesn't save time, but it cuts down on waste and definitely is cheaper! My top eight list of things to DIY:

1. Buy grains and beans in bulk. Soak beans in water before cooking. Beans bought this way are SO cheap. Way cheaper than beans in a can. Buy all foods possible in their raw form. You have a lot more packaging and expense when you buy a box of rice-a-roni vs. just buying a big bag of rice.

2. Make your own cleaners. I'm going to post a list of recipes sometime soon. Basically, you can make a cleaner for anything out of vinegar and baking soda. You can make your own bathroom cleaner, laundry soap, shampoo, toothpaste, dish soap, etc. Its incredibly cheap and so much better for the environment than those horrible chemical cleaners. Bleach is the worst. Please, please do not use bleach. It is an endocrine-disrupting dioxin that has a very long half-life. It is horrible for human health and the environment. There are many alternatives to chlorine bleach.

3. Cutting your family's hair. With a little practice, you get pretty good. Jay has had to wear a baseball hat for a few days, but that is rare. Especially for little kids, a homemade hair cut is the best!

4. Grow your own food. Even if you don't have space, you can rent a community garden plot in most cities, or you can container garden with tomatoes, peppers, herbs, etc.

5. Make as much of your own food from scratch as possible. Making your own bread is so rewarding and fun. It only takes about 10 minutes of your actual time, the yeast do the rest. Cook from scratch as much as you can. For example, we make our own seitan (wheat meat), salad dressings, etc. Many things can be made in advance, then frozen or dried for later use.

6. Handcrafts. The best gifts are home-made and will be cherished for a long time. Things like sewing, quilting, knitting, clay/ceramics, crochet, woodwork, etc.

7. Car repairs. Some car repairs are pretty simple and you save yourself hundreds of dollars. Get a manual for your car off e-bay. You can at least change your own oil.

8. Home repairs/home improvement. I'll admit, I'm not the most knowledgeable about this topic, never having owned a home. But i've been told that with some good books and perhaps a class or two, it is very do-able.

Eating out...

2007-06-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

In response to my brother Jason's question re: eating out and waste:
I think eating out produces a lot of waste, but that totally depends on where you are eating. Remember in "Supersize Me" when he showed how much garbage is made from a fast food meal? fast food and other highly packaged stuff is obviously very wasteful. There are ways to minimize your waste. for example, if you go to a burrito place, just have it wrapped in tin foil (which can be recycled). forgo the paper napkins, paper bag, plastic cutlery, plastic tub of salsa, etc.

The worst kind of eating-out containers are those big plastic boxes that can't be recycled. Ask for an "asian" style take out box. you can recycle the paper, just not the metal handle. As for eating-in a restaurant, it depends on the restaurant. Many restaurants are pretty efficient: they buy 50 lb bags of rice, 5 gallon jars of tomatoes, etc. They aren't (usually) opening like 50 16 oz cans a night. If you are eating off of normal plates, forks, knives, etc. Then you are probably not generating too much waste. The food, however, is probably (definitely, unless they specifically say it is) not organic, not local. Its mass-produced food from giants like ADM, etc.

Some places, like Burgerville, really try to get local ingredients. This doesn't necessarily translate into sustainable (ie, "local" beef, is still a huge waste of resources). You can always ask where the food comes from. You know, vote with your dollars.

How the man likes to keep us down

2007-06-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

Maybe this blog should be called "it's getting more difficult all the time" because sometimes that is what it seems like.

We just found out a few days ago that our health insurance premium is increasing $30 every month. I just love it when my insurance company sends me a letter: "just to let you know..." There's nothing you can do about it. Except go without health insurance. The kids and I don't get coverage through Jay's work, so we have to buy it privately. Nice, huh? I am not the only person that thinks that our health care system (or lack thereof) is going to destroy the middle class. A survey of people who filed bankruptcy in 2001 and again in 2005 showed that a full half filed because of a serious medical problem. Of those that filed because of health problems, 75% had health insurance. That is how sucky our health insurance problems are. Even if you are covered, if you get really sick, you are SOL. If you don't have a job that pays for insurance, you are screwed as well. Or maybe your boss just doesn't think they should have to shell out for your wife and kids. I'm personally really looking forward to Michael Moore's new movie about our pathetic health care system.

Then, today, we found out that our landlord is increasing our rent $100. That would be a 12% increase. Way more than inflation. And its not like this represents some increase in costs for them. They just want to make more money. Meanwhile, people like us struggle.

Oh, and PGE has announced that electricity rates are going up.

These aren't like luxury items. One kind of needs a roof over one's head. Portland used to be a very affordable city, but I guess that is about to change. Lord knows the houses to buy are way too expensive for the average first-time home buyers now. Basic items like food, shelter and health insurance are becoming expensive at a rate much faster than pay can keep up. Its just another way that people get stuck on the debt treadmill. What was congress' response to this problem? Make it harder, impossible really, for people to use their last resort: bankruptcy. People who have to do this are treated like deadbeats, but really, half of them just got sick.

Its just all so annoying. Sometimes I swear, I wish I didn't have to live in this society. If anyone out there says "love it or leave it!" I will say: ok, leave it. I'm sick of america and its stupid problems that nobody will do anything about. blah! can you tell that i am in a bad mood about all of this? Maybe I should go bomb somebody to make myself feel better. I hear Iran might make a good target.

Top 10 lists

2007-06-03T21:22:00.000-07:00

Top 10 best things we have done to simplify and reduce our impact so far...(if you want more info on how to do these things, go back and read the earlier posts in May)

1. Drastically reduced our waste.
we have yet to put the garbage out to the curb. in fact, we had one 13 gallon kitchen garbage can unfilled for over 2 weeks. much of this garbage was stuff from before we started all this. there were a few things that went in there that could have been minimized: two food take-out containers, some wrappers, etc. But I have made a very conscious effort not to buy anything that comes in packaging that can't be reused or recycled. I have only used bulk bin plastic bags (over and over), glass jars, tin cans, plastic bottles and tubs that are recyclable. We have to take our #2 and #5 plastic tubs (like margarine tubs) to the store, because they can't be recycled at the curb. I haven't bought anything like crackers or cereal that come in a bag in a box. It hasn't been as hard as I thought. sometimes, it just comes down to "i am not going to buy this" because of its packaging. I have never done that before, so it is something I have to think about consciously.

2. Re-going vegan. The lower you eat on the food chain, the less you pollute, the less carbon you emit, the less waste you produce.

3. Not buying anything new. We haven't (other than those cloth diaper covers for elsie and the computer router that jay got). The amount of stuff we consume is destroying the earth. Plus, i've gotten some killer deals at garage sales lately!

4. Drastically reducing our energy consumption with a few very simple changes: line-drying laundry, washing laundry in cold water, using compact fluorescent bulbs for all lights, leaving things off when not in use (even if you just are out of the room for a short time). these things really make a difference.

5. Not buying anything disposable. No more paper towels, paper plates, napkins, tampons/pads (check out the Diva cup, Moon Cup or Keeper for more info. there are also lots of cloth/reusable pads out there), very little T.P thanks to "family cloth", no juice boxes, no individually-wrapped granola bars. Nothing that you just use once and then throw out.

6. Switching our household energy to green power.

7. Reducing our use of the car. We are working on selling the old car. We are using the bus and walking a lot more. We are grouping our trips together, and meal-planning so we only have to food shop once a week.

8. Stopping the junk mail.

9. Composting all food waste.

10. Localizing our food. I have made a big effort to not buy any produce from further away than Washington, California, and in a few instances, Mexico. Almost everything has been organic. We are also getting really excited about our garden, which is already growing so fast. In just a few weeks we will be eating our own zucchini, lettuce and tomatoes. I can't wait! Some things are just insane: don't buy apples from new zealand. Don't buy pine nuts from china (i think they ALL come from china). Don't buy turkish apricots--they really are from Turkey! We have enough food choices without shipping food across the globe.

Top Six Things That Have Been the Hardest...
1. Reducing use of the car. Sometimes, I want to take the bus, but its such an effort I just can't do it. Getting two kids and our stuff on the bus, especially if we need to transfer, walk a long distance, etc. Is just too much for me. Just a trip across town, a 45 minute bus ride, is scary to contemplate with two kids in tow. We are looking for a bike trailer, but I'm not really comfortable with Emmett riding in it for long distances. Our entire country has been set up with one thing in mind: the car. It is hard to imagine living without one. But we have reduced our use and become more efficient with it.

2. Not buying food from far away. Sometimes, you just don't know where food comes from. Maybe it was "made" in california or something, but where are the ingredients from? Unless you write to the company, you can't know. They probably don't even know, because it probably changes. It makes it pretty hard to buy some things local, like crackers, pasta or things like that.

3. Not making waste. Not making any waste would mean never, ever buying some things again. Maybe some day I can give up things like crackers (or maybe I could make my own?), certain kinds of cereal, etc. I have stopped shopping at Trader Joe's. They only have a few things that meet my criteria now. Almost everything there is completely over-packaged. It just makes my skin crawl to buy bell peppers in a non-recyclable plastic container with a styrofoam tray under it. What I need to do is write to companies and ask them to reduce their packaging. Why does cereal have to come in a bag in a box? It's so unnecessary.

4. Not buying "stuff". Although we haven't been shopping at the mall or anything, we have picked things up at garage sales and goodwill. I still feel the desire to consume stuff. To "solve" a problem with buying. I think I am done for a long while, but it seems like sometimes I just feel the need to buy something. I think we are conditioned to do this.

5. The difficulty with vegan vs. our goals/the environment. Sometimes, to be vegan, you need a certain product that you can't get just anywhere. What if that product is overpackaged (a LOT of vegan things have really awful packaging that is unnecessary or not recyclable, etc.) Some days I feel really restricted. I try to remind myself that I have so many choices and so much privilege that we think we are entitled to things, when really we are just used to them. So i can do without.

6. Taking short showers. Ok, so I love to take long showers. But I'm working on it, really! I justify it because now that I have two kids I only get to shower like twice a month. Ok, not really, that's an exaggeration. Four times a month, at least.

I'm also a bread-machine

2007-06-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

So I made bread on Friday. I've always thought that bread must be pretty hard to make. But I'm a novice and I did it, and it turned out pretty well. It doesn't take very much time. It needs time to rise, but the mixing and stuff is pretty easy. I got the recipe from an old hippie 70's vegetarian cookbook called Laurel's Kitchen. Its actually a great cookbook, back from the days when there were no fake meat products and vegetarians ate foods in combination (to form complete proteins such as corn and beans, rice and beans, etc. as per Diet for A Small Planet) a practice that has been proven to be unnecessary. But it still has great recipes. The introduction to the cookbook, which I had never read until now, talks about all of the things this blog is about. It talks about the need to reduce consumption, and to live more simple, fulfilling lives. It talks about the life of a "housewife" and how it could be interesting and creative (ie, making your own bread, knitting, etc) or dull drudgery such as using a bunch of machines. I just thought it was interesting.

I tried to find a similar recipe to what I used online, but couldn't find anything. Basically, all you need is a tbsp of brown sugar in a bowl of 2.5 cups (i think...i need to double check the amount) 100 degree water. then add a tbsp of active yeast. Then when it fizzes, add 3 cups whole wheat flour (stoneground is healthiest) and mix. add a tbsp of salt. then add 3 more cups of the flour, one cup at a time. when it gets doughy, take it out and put it on a floured surface and knead it. then put it in the bowl to rise. cover it and let it sit for a few hours until it doubles in size. take it out, put it in two oiled bread pans (divide it in half) and really push it down into those pans so there isn't any air trapped. then let it rise once more. preheat oven to 375. when its all the way risen and the oven is warmed fully, bake it for 40 minutes. it should have a hollow sound when you tap it after taking it out. that's about it.

I'm a soy-milk makin' machine

2007-05-29T15:47:00.000-07:00

After our soymilk maker met an early demise (a very early demise) I stopped making it. I guess I figured you can't make soymilk without a machine. Much in the same way I figured out how to cook rice on the stove after our rice cooker broke. Oh, and it turns out you can also make bread without a bread machine. Isn't that crazy? And they all turn out great. A saucepan can't break, but rice-cookers and appliances of their ilk are so cheaply made, they break all the time. What a waste.

Anyway, today I made some and it turned out great. Here is how you do it:

Soak 1 cup dried soybeans in 3 cups water overnight in a large bowl.

put 1/3 of them (after soaking) in a blender with 3 cups BOILING hot water. Don't let it sit, take it right from the whistling kettle or rolling boil in a pan and dump it in the blender.

Blend 1-2 minutes.

strain out (you need a fine-mesh strain or muslin bag) into a small sauce pan.
Repeat this process 3 times until all of the soybeans are used. You can strain-as-you-go with the stuff from the blender. Put this saucepan inside another larger saucepan with water in it and boil it (so you don't burn the milk). Cook like this for about 30 minutes unlidded. stir occasionally.

Add malted barley or brown rice syrup. Add a pinch of salt. You can fortify with calcium carbonate or B12 if desired. Put in fridge. Makes about 10 cups soymilk.

Yummy! And cheap as heck. One cup dried soybeans costs like 30 cents or something.

Also, you can take the strained-out soybean chunks and make a thing called okara. It has a million uses. For example, mixing it with nutritional yeast and spices you can form it into patties and fry it and it makes a really yummy burger. You can also use it to fortify breads, soups, etc.

Running the numbers

2007-05-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

A disturbing look at waste and resource consumption....

To be, or not to be...vegan

2007-05-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

This post is being currently edited by my friend "C" who is a big lameo and professes not to care what other people think, but actually does (ha ha, its ok, you know i love you anyway). i guess she doesn't want people to know that she says the "f-word" in real life. even though we all know she likes to rip the arms off of minotaurs and beat them to death with their own severed appendages.

i will re-publish this conversation about veganism after she's done censoring it in a manner akin to Stalin.

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.

2007-05-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

Our goals after a week or so...what's working? what isn't? what's hard? what's easy?

Reduce waste: we have made very, very little waste since we started this. About 1/2, or not even half, a 13 gallon can. Most of our trash has come from packaging from things we bought before we started this. And disposable diapers. But I have already purchased 2 cloth pull-ups for elsie to wear at night, so there won't be any more of that. Easy to do: buy in bulk, only buying recyclable or reusable packaging, using cloth bags to shop, composting, not buying single-serving items (well, we did buy some ice cream bars last night. i realized after the fact about the packaging. some habits die hard!), stopping junk mail, using cloth toilet paper. no, really! its ok! i swear, its not gross. it has reduced our TP consumption a lot. We only went though one small roll last week. It has made me more aware of our TP consumption overall.

Using less electricity: this is pretty easy, too. turning stuff off when not in use, unplugging stuff when not in use, switching to wind or other renewable power, line drying clothes (6 months of this saves 700 lbs of carbon from going into the air!), compact flourescent bulbs. we haven't tried the no-fridge thing (since its summer now).

Driving car less. Yes, but its hard. I shopped one day. Another day we planned to bus to meet friends at a city garden. Well, a wheel fell off our stroller (so we have to fix it! can't buy another one.) then we missed the bus. And i didn't know how to do it with a stroller with 3 wheels. So we drove. Other than that, we have been walking. Jay has been driving to work this week because of working long hours, but that wont be the case next week. It is hard not to drive. I need to work on the bus habit. I enjoy walking (especially when the weather is nice). When you aren't in the habit, the bus is daunting.

Food: Ok, so the 1000 mile limit isn't all that realistic. We can get some staples like olive oil and rice from California, I think. We were at the co-op and there were these bulk organic cracker things. They were made in PA. What to do? I bought them. I bought apples instead of mangos (dried) though. So we will try to buy local, whenever possible. And organic. Mostly everything we ate this week was organic.

Not buying stuff, especially not new stuff. Ok, so I bought those cloth diapers, but of course if I didn't buy those, i would have been buying more disposable ones to use and throw away, and these wont get thrown away. So, yeah. Also, Jay bought a router for our cable internet. We talked about it, and he had been planning on buying this for a long time, so our laptop (that a friend just long-term loaned us) can be on the internet at our house. That's it. I bought a pair of shoes and a shirt at a garage sale (total: $3.50). Our cousin bought Elsie a train table at a school fundraiser garage sale because it was $40. We need to get rid of stuff to make room for it.
Here is an article about "the compact": the pact to not buy anything new for a year

Water: yes we have been taking short showers. We dont shower every day (no, we aren't stink hippies). The yellow leave it mellow is working out ok. It starts getting stinky at some point and gets flushed. One thing I am going to start trying is reclaiming greywater. Taking old bathwater, water after washing dishes, and water after washing laundry, and using this to water flowers and in the garden. Someone gave me this idea, and i thought it was great. why not use the kid's bathwater to quench the irises?

That's about it. Thinking about choices more. Thinking about habits, trying to do things more consciously. Asking "do i need that?" and usually answering "no".

Time is money

2007-05-26T13:28:00.001-07:00

This will be my last rant-n-rave for awhile here. So many ads and things claim their product is "eco-friendly". I was at home depot a few weeks back (I know! we aren't going there again. we needed sand for a sandbox) and a sign there said "Improve your home. And the environment." Ok, look. You can't IMPROVE the environment by buying anything. Ever. All you can do is make things less bad for the environment. No car is environmentally friendly. Some are just less horrible than others. I think we like to think our hybrid vehicles are "good" for the planet. But we need to remember that they aren't. They are bad. Just not as bad as a Hummer.

My next idea I've been thinking about lately is this: to live, one needs to work. I don't mean like drive to an office and do a job. I mean "work" as in, make food, clean clothes, repair dwelling, get water. That kind of thing. Many of us go to a job, and then buy convenience items because we "don't have time" to do things the "hard way". For example, people who have young children and work use disposable diapers. They don't have time to wash cloth diapers, dry them, fold them, etc. (it takes like no time, but that's not the point). They don't have time to cook from scratch, so they buy a $3.49 loaf of organic bread. They don't have time to take the bus, so they own a car and spend money on it to drive to work. When you don't have a job, you can save a lot more money (and you know, a penny saved is a penny earned). Of course you need some money. I'm just looking at the facts that our generation works more hours than any other generation in history. Almost all families have two income-earners. We also have more "convenience"-items than any other generation. And we have less free-time. Our kids are more scheduled.

So...less time, more stuff, more disposable stuff, more stuff with planned-obsolescence so we have to buy it again and again, more work, less family time, more time in a car, more stress, more choices that are bad for the environment...

I wonder if more frugal, simple-living could eliminate the need for a second income (unless you make like six-figures or something, in which case you probably aren't too interested in simple-living). Like, I was thinking about working 2 or 3 days a week substitute teaching starting next fall. Its like $150 a day! That would come in real handy! But wait, if I am working, then I need to pay somebody to watch my kids. So that's like $60 or $80 a day right there that i don't earn. Then I need to keep owning my car. That's $400+ a month that i could save if we get rid of it. Then I am not meal-planning and cooking from scratch and we are spending more on food, so that's money not saved. Then I'm too tired to hang up my laundry, so I use a lot of energy and money drying my clothes in the dryer. Then I buy a lot of over-packaged convenience foods from Trader Joe's that cost a lot so I don't have to cook. And on and on. So, like, am I actually going to come out ahead if i work part time? It doesn't really seem like it. If I am baking my own bread right now, cloth diapering, not buying new stuff, working on going without the car, etc.

What if we did even MORE of our own work? Who has time to, for instance, make your own clothes? Do their own repairs? Make their own soap? Who has time to not have plumbing, but draw their own water and live off the grid? Who has time to take the bus, walk, or ride a bike everywhere? Who has time to grow their own food? Make pasta from scratch? Eat dried, bulk beans instead of buying them canned? Who has time to even hand-wash their clothes in a basin? Who has the time to not own appliances of "convenience" such as a microwave, salad tosser, washing machine, dryer, or vacuum, etc.? A person who doesn't have a "real" job has the time to do these things. And doing these things would probably save you $20,000 a year or more. Enough to be, well, a full-time job! This is the kind of work people used to do to live. The kind of work you need to do to maintain a life...before there was such thing as a "job" or "office" to go to...

I'm just thinking out loud. I'm not saying we should do these things. It just strikes me how we buy things to make our life more "convenient." But if we didn't work so much, we wouldn't need to try to "save time", so we wouldn't need to buy things, so we wouldn't have to work to buy them...
How many hours do you need to work to buy a dryer? Or for the electricity to run it? How many hours of work do you need to do to buy a big TV? Or a microwave? Or a fancy laptop? Or a Blackberry(TM)? Or a car, and the gas and maintenance it needs to run? Or somebody to fix your roof? Or a new hot-water heater? Or new clothes for your job? New shoes? A new lawnmower?

I don't know...it just seems like less work and more free-time and less stuff is all intertwined.

New American Dream

2007-05-22T22:02:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to post this website that a friend sent me that really sums up a lot of these ideas.
Its www.newdream.org I have spent a lot of time looking around it, there is so much on there! The only thing I thought was kind of lame was the junk-mail reducing thing. They want you to pay $41 to do it. I paid $2 to remove both jay and i from the DMA (direct marketing ass'n) and i called a 1800 number (for info on that, see the entry "simple ways"). That's it. That is supposed to stop like 80% or more of your junk mail. So don't pay $41. Pay $2 and do it yourself. Otherwise, the website is awesome.

10 things to never buy again

2007-05-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

I think part of the difficulty I face with my goals is a total 180-degree shift in thinking required when it comes to convenience. It has never before in the history of man been easy or convenient to transport oneself 10 miles. Until the early 1900's, the only way to get there was by foot, by horse, or by boat. Only in the last 70 years or so could anyone even dream that going 60 miles is a short trip that is no big deal. Heck, some people do it every day for their commute.

My point is this: When we examine the things we aren't willing to give up or change its often because we feel a sense of entitlement. Like, well, I have to have my (insert thing of convenience here). Thinking about the course of history, has anyone at any time in any location ever had the kinds of choices and privileges that we have? Of course not. I think that we will be forced to give up many of these things as we see cheap oil become a thing of the distant past. So, if we will be forced to give up our convenience items (an easy drive to wherever, a piece of fruit in the middle of winter from a far away country, a coffee from Starbucks each day, a cheap flight somewhere) why not try to give them up now, and find another more sustainable alternative? Humans have the nasty habit of waiting until AFTER they have smashed into a brick wall to make some tough decisions. It is a lot less painful to change course before the smash happens.

So when I think "but I won't be able to easily get over to my friend's house if I don't drive"--well, maybe I shouldn't be able to get there so easily. Maybe I have only been reliant on a false easyness-- one that has been subsidized by the environment of future generations.
Maybe I should have to curtail my activities, or at least take longer to get there. Maybe we shouldn't be living 40 miles from our jobs. Or eating mangos. I should be forced to pay more money for shade-grown, fair-traded, organic coffee. And I should do it now (and I do, ok?!!?)

We need to look at the things we need and the things we "need" and ask ourselves: can I do without? Am I willing to pay a very large sum of money for this if I'm not? Because that is the real cost of it. If you aren't willing to pay $10 for a piece of beef, then you shouldn't eat it. Because that is the piece of beef with the environmental damage, greenhouse gas emissions, loss of antibiotics for actual diseases, illnesses with e. coli treated, and so forth, built into it. Am I willing to pay $10 a gallon for gas to drive over to my friend's house? (Depends on which friend, right? )

Some habits are hard to change. Some are easy. Such as: Never buying anything listed on the list below ever again. Do you have a "right" to use paper towels? Of course not. 150 years ago no such thing could have even been dreamed of. So let's all do a 180 and ask ourselves if we can give up some conveniences. We aren't entitled to them, we're just used to them.

1. Styrofoam cups
Styrofoam is forever. It's not biodegradable.
Alternative: Buy recyclable and compostable paper cups.
Best option: Invest in some reusable mugs that you can take with you.

2. Paper towels
Paper towels waste forest resources, landfill space, and your money.
Alternative: When you do buy paper towels, look for recycled, non-bleached products. Search the National Green Pages™ for recycled paper products.
Best option: Buy dishtowels or rags to wash and reuse.

3. Bleached coffee filters
Dioxins, chemicals formed during the chlorine bleaching process, contaminate groundwater and air and are linked to cancer in humans and animals.
Alternative: Look for unbleached paper filters.
Best Option: Use reusable filters such as washable cloth filters.

4. Overpackaged foods and other products
Excess packaging wastes resources and costs you much more. Around thirty three percent of trash in the average American household comes from packaging.
Alternative: Buy products with minimal or reusable packaging.
Best Option: Buy in bulk and use your own containers when shopping.

5. Teak and mahogany
Every year, 27 million acres of tropical rainforest (an area the size of Ohio) are destroyed. Rainforests cover 6% of Earth’s surface and are home to over half of the world’s wild plant, animal, and insect species. The Amazon rainforest produces 40 percent of the world’s oxygen.
Alternative: Look for Forest Stewardship Council certified wood.
Best Option: Reuse wood, and buy furniture and other products made from used or salvaged wood.

6.Chemical pesticides and herbicides
American households use 80 million pounds of pesticides each year. The EPA found at least one pesticide in almost every water and fish sample from streams and in more than one-half of shallow wells sampled in agricultural and urban areas. These chemicals pose threats to animals and people, especially children.
Alternatives: Buy organic pest controllers such as diatomaceous earth.
Best Option: Plant native plants and practice integrated pest management. Plant flowers and herbs that act as natural pesticides.

7. Conventional household cleaners
Household products can contain hazardous ingredients such as organic solvents and petroleum-based chemicals that can release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into your indoor environment, positing a particular danger for children. The average American household has three to ten of hazardous matter in the home. Don't use bleach in your home.
Alternative: Look for nontoxic, vegetable-based, biodegradeable cleaners.
Best Option: Try making your own green cleaner using vinegar, water, and castile soap.

8. Higher octane gas than you need
Only one car in ten manufactured since 1982 requires high-octane gasoline. High-octane gas releases more hazardous pollutants into the air, and may be bad for your car.
Alternative: Buy the lowest-octane gas your car requires as listed in your owner's manual
Best option: Make your next car purchase a hybrid. Or ditch the car and take public transportation, ride a bike, or walk.

9. Toys made with PVC plastic
70% of PVC is used in construction, but it is also found in everyday plastics, including some children’s toys. Vinyl chloride, the chemical used to make PVC, is a known human carcinogen. Also, additives, such as lead and cadmium, are sometimes added to PVC to keep it from breaking down; these additives can be particularly dangerous in children’s toys. PVC is also the least recycled plastic.
Alternative: Avoid plastics that are labeled as “PVC” or “#3.” Look for #1 and #2 plastics, which are easier to recycle and don’t produce as many toxins. Use sustainable construction materials.
Best option: Take action to tell manufacturers to stop using PVC plastics, especially in children’s toys.

10. Plastic forks and spoons
Disposable plastic utensils are not biodegradeable and not recyclable in most areas.
Alternative: Use compostable food service items. Companies such as Biocorp make cutlery from plant materials such as corn starch and cellulose.
Best option: Carry your own utensils and food containers.

11. Farm raised salmon. Several studies, including one performed by researchers at Indiana University, have found that PCB's and other environmental toxins are present at higher levels in farm raised salmon than wild salmon.

Pregnant women, women of child-bearing ages, and children should be very careful when choosing fish due to high levels of environmental toxins including mercury found in many fish. Check out our Safe Seafood Tip Sheet to see what the environmental and health risks posed by different fish.

12. Rayon. Developed and manufactured by DuPont as the world's first synthetic fiber, it is made by from liquefied wood pulp. Unfortunately, turning wood into rayon is wasteful and dirty, because lots of water and chemicals are needed to extract usable fibers from trees. Only about a third of the pulp obtained from a tree will end up in finished rayon thread. The resulting fabrics usually require dry cleaning, which is an environmental concern as well as an added expense and inconvenience.

Much of the our rayon sold comes from developing countries, such as Indonesia, where environmental and labor laws are weak and poorly enforced. There is mounting evidence that rayon clothing manufacturing contributes to significant forest destruction and pollution in other countries.

13. Beauty/Body Care with Phthalates and Parabens. Phthalates are a group of industrial chemicals linked to birth defects that are used in many cosmetic products, from nail polish to deodorant. Parabens are preservatives used in many cosmetics that have been linked to breast cancer though more research is needed. Phthalates are not listed on product labels and can only be detected in laboratory tests. To be safe, choose products from companies that have signed on to the Compact for Safe Cosmetics.

14. Cling Wrap. Many people don't realize that cling wrap may be made with PVC. #3 PVC (polyvinyl chloride) leaches toxins when heated or microwaved and it is an environmental problem throughout its lifecycle.

15. High VOC Paints and Finishes. Volatile organic compounds or VOCs can cause health problems from dizziness to lung and kidney damage and are infamous for polluting both indoor and outdoor air. VOCs are found in products including paints as well as finishes used for wood, such a stains or varnishes. There are now a wide array of low or no-VOC paints on the market. Look for paints certified by Green Seal (http://www.greenseal.org/).

838 Ways to Amuse a Child

2007-05-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

My dad found this book called 838 Ways to Amuse a Child at a used bookstore and got it for me awhile back. A few months ago I checked it out and found it pretty amusing. It was published in like 1960, so its really different from modern books about children's activities. For example, it gives ideas like if you want to hike with your child, write a letter to the National Hiking and Camping Association and ask for information. Its all about "correspondence", how to entertain your "convalescent child" while they are "convalescing" and things like that. You know what I mean...these were the days that hobbies listed include "indian lore" and "animal tracking" and things like that. It includes craft ideas on how to make a variety of ugly things, like paper mache fruit that you glue into a wooden bowl to hang on your wall. You know, how to macrame. It also has ideas like how to make a "hobo stove" for camping (take a large, restaurant-sized, tin can, soak corrugated cardboard in paraffin wax, light wax on fire and cook your beans-n-weenies or whatever).

The book got me thinking though, about a simpler time for children. I know, I know, there never was any "good ol' days" and its not like the post-war 50's were all sunshine for people. I'm not saying we should go back to pioneer days when you could expect half your children to die of cholera and a bacterial infection was fatal. But there was a time when childhood obesity was not a problem. I mean like, how on earth can a child get obese? They have insane amounts of energy and love to burn it. But its now an "epidemic" in our country, along with childhood diabetes, ADHD, etc. 838 Ways talks about games to play in the car, games to play at the hotel with your kids while traveling, craft ideas for a kid stuck in bed sick (or convalescing as she loves to say). What do kids in cars do now? They watch the car's DVD player of course. What do they do at home when sick? Watch TV. What do they do in a hotel room? Watch TV. A friend recently related to me a scene she saw at a local restaurant. A child, no older than 3, watching a hand-held DVD player at the restaurant, totally zombified. Our kids are so plugged-in, its scary.

I suggest that plenty of free-play outdoors would eliminate the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Children revel in simple pleasures and are experts at the art of noticing the small--living in the moment. A child, left to her own devices, will watch an ant-hole for an hour. Even if there was never a time when life was easy and simple, the happy Cleaver family with 2.5 kids, there was a time when children didn't watch TV. Children's programming, including 24 hour "preschool TV" like Sprout is a new phenomenon, only around since I was a kid and Sesame Street came out.

A recent study said that forty percent of infants by THREE MONTHS are "regularly" watching TV or videos. How in the HELL does a 3 month old watch TV? Its sickening. Never mind that the American Academy of Pediatrics says that watching any TV before the age of 2 YEARS is damaging to a child's brain development. Other studies point out alarming facts such as 66% of kids age 8 or older have a TV in their room. More than 80% of American kids watch MORE than 2 hours per day.

If you have kids, try to simplify their lives, too. Less exposure to commercials means they won't develop the desire to mindlessly consume. My mother's friend told me that her friend's children who are TV-free asked for matching umbrellas and rain boots for christmas, instead of the latest toy fad. They simply weren't aware of the latest toy fads. I think that is so precious. Kids need to experience nature. They need to experience the world. Limit their TV time by A LOT. Or just get rid of it. You'd be surprised at the ways they come up with to entertain themselves.

"Local" is the new organic

2007-05-21T13:58:00.001-07:00

I think it's awesome that so many people are taking a look here and getting ideas. It really helps keep me focused, and it re-inspires me when it inspires others to take action.

I have talked to several people about this, and I agree that it can't all be on the individual. Of course our society needs to make big changes. There needs to be new laws, regulations, systems in place. It is incredibly difficult to succeed without an infrastructure to support you. For example, if we want to go to Salem, how are we supposed to do that without driving? You pretty much have to drive. Yes, you can carpool, go less often, buy an efficient car or borrow a flexcar. But taking the train or bus is totally impractical. My brother rode his bike a few weeks ago, but I would probably pass out and die if I tried that. Wouldn't a real commuter train that connected all the cities in the Willamette valley be great? Of course it would. But just because society doesn't support environmentally conscious choices, that doesn't absolve us of personal responsibility. We still need to do what we can. We can't control what other people do, or what our legislators do. All we can control is what WE choose to do. Hopefully it sets an example for others. Making a mindful choice to recognize that we can only control our own actions frees us from comparing ourselves to others, guilt and saying "well, no one else does it, so i guess i won't either."

It is frustrating that our choices are so counter-intuitive. For example, it is cheaper to drive than to take Tri-met most of the time. Its cheaper to buy factory-farmed eggs than local, sustainable ones. Even though factory farming is hideously unsustainable, it is subsidized by the government, by cheap fuel, by the environmental damages that future generations will have to deal with. Still, we have to suck it up and support more expensive sustainable choices. Only by doing so will things eventually reflect their true costs.

If you don't have a CSA in your area, look for farmer's markets. If you don't have a co-op in your area, consider starting a bulk buying club with friends. Buy things in large quantities and then divy it up amongst yourselves. There have been a lot of things lately about local eating. Local is the new organic.
It is almost more important to eat locally and in-season than to eat organic. What good is organic if its shipped 3000 miles? The amount of carbon and pollution from that shipment overshadows the good of it being organic. More and more people are looking for local options.

Ok, back to our goals. Today was my first shopping trip since we have set our goals. For dinners this week I decided on: Spinach pesto from scratch (the sauce, not the pasta), greek bean/rice burritos (with spinach and kalamata olives), ethiopian food (i finally found teff to make the bread! its mostly split peas, lentils, greens and stuff to go on the bread), and nachos.

I went to the co-op. Elsie goes to school Monday AMs and i was torn about driving. Its about a mile and a half. Since Jay is working longer (10 hour) days this week, he is driving. Its sad that a 15 minute car ride takes an hour on the bus. It makes it so hard if he works late because it would mean he gets home at 8:00 instead of 7:00. Ok, so he was already driving. As I said before, I can't put Emmett in a bike trailer yet, so its either walk or drive (or bus). It takes me about 40 minutes to walk that, about 4 to drive. I reconciled this by grouping it with a shopping trip to the co-op (as i said, i'm not ready to bus to the grocery store with kids or kid in tow). I brought my cloth shopping bags, my own tupperware, my own used plastic bags (bread bags, already used produce/bulk bags, etc.). I got everything in bulk, even tofu. The thing i love about the co-op is you can buy half and half or milk in glass and then bring the glass back and they re-use it. I think its the only place in town that does that.

I struggled with the local option. That is going to be the hardest, and probably going to require me to revise the goal of "nothing more than 1000 miles away". first of all, because you just don't know where some stuff comes from. The product might be made in california, or even oregon, but where was the flour or sesame seeds its made of grown? There is really no way to know that. The biggest thing that i changed my mind about was dried mangos, because they were from mexico. So i bought dried apples from washington state instead. The yogurt and half and half were local. The co-op lets you borrow or leave plastic containers for re-use, too. They even have bulk corn chips. The main dilemma was about tortillas. One was made in New York, but had more reusable packaging. The other was made in Eugene, OR. SO i went with the local. You can reuse that packaging, its just not the zip-lock kind of resealable tortilla package (know what i mean?).

The other choices I made today were taking my own coffee cup (we were out this morning, so i got some at the co-op.), also the temperature has dropped today and it was in the 50s last night so when i got up the house was 61 degrees. I was tempted to turn on the heat, which has been off for 3 weeks, but then i just put on a bunch of clothes. Its hard for me because i hate being cold. but 61 isn't TOO cold to just put on 3 layers. RIght now, while i'm changing habits, i have to think about almost every single choice i make. Should i buy this? is it sustainable? do i need the heat on? what impact does action X have? i think the longer we get into sustainable habits, it starts to require less thought and diligence.

Last thought of the day: have you noticed that things that are good for the environment, are also good for community? For example, you interact with your neighbors when you are out line-drying your clothes or gardening. You talk to people on the bus. You share supplies to help decrease waste with others at the co-op. You don't talk to people when you drive or sit in your house and watch TV.

Simple ways to make a difference

2007-05-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

So last week was bike to work week. Maybe you missed it. That's ok, because you can still bike to work any day. I'm pleased to say that yesterday I biked over to a friend's house and then to the bar, whereas the week before I had driven. It didn't occur to me to bike, even though it was only like 3 miles the whole night . It just goes to show that we have to consciously make an effort to change these habits.

You can calculate your carbon impact here. The difference between driving 5000 miles per year and 8000 miles per year is a LOT. Our family apparently has a "much smaller impact" than the average. We still have an impact, of course. And find out about simple ways to save carbon emissions here, like unplugging devices when not in use. They use energy, even when they aren't on. Did you know that? I am going to turn my computer off at the power strip when not in use, unplug the coffee pot, microwave, and other things that I can unplug without moving a large piece of furniture. You can go one step further and become carbon neutral by offsetting your use.

One thing that is really awesome is CSAs: Community Supported Agriculture. This means you "subscribe" to a farm by giving your money directly to a local farmer, usually an organic, sustainable farm. Then you share in the risks, and the bumper crops, of that farm. It's a very awesome thing. We have done it for about 5 years. We aren't doing it this year because we are trying to grow most of our own produce. And I want to be able to choose our food at the farmer's market, instead of having to take what the farm is growing. But here is a list of Portland-area CSAs. We have personally done the 47th ave Farm and Pumpkin Ridge Gardens, and they are both great. If you don't live in Oregon, you can probably find a CSA near you.

Our first moral dilemma in terms of our goals comes this week because we have pledged to not buy anything new. Well, we have also pledged to make a very, very small amount of garbage. We currently use a disposable pull-up on Elsie at night because she wets a lot when she sleeps (even though she has been potty trained for a long time). I know that sounds weird, that a family with these goals would use a disposable diaper, but we have been through a lot with her (leaking cloth diapers, really smelly, morning battles over taking it off and washing the bum, etc) it was just getting to be too much. After 3 years of cloth diapering, we figured one disposable a day wasn't a big deal. Well, it still makes a pretty large amount of waste. Plus, we are obviously buying the pull-ups "new". Then they get thrown away. I have looked for a pull-up cloth nighttime diaper used, but they aren't as readily available as regular diapers. So i think we will have to buy them new. They are called Happy Heiny's (yes, all cloth diapers have stupid names having to do with butt). They are made by work-at-home-moms. I'm hoping we can just get by with two (wash them each morning, so its ready to go the next day).

Oh, and Elsie has decided after seeing them on two of her friends, that she wants flip-flops. Uhhh...i wonder if they have any at Goodwill right now? She wears size 8 or 9, if anybody out there has some laying around :)

Ideas on living simple

2007-05-19T12:10:00.001-07:00

Just one more idea for today (I will not be posting as much once I get all my initial ideas down!) and that is on living simple.

I was talking to a mom yesterday with a 2 year old and a 4 month old. She was telling me that they couldn't afford for her to not work full-time (She is a teacher and her husband also works full-time) and she went back to work when the baby was only 6 weeks old.

I'm not judging this person's situation, since obviously I don't know her personal finances, but I think we all have an idea of the amount of money we "need" to have to live. For example, Jay makes a pretty modest income and we have a LOT of student debt. But I don't need to work. Why? We own older, crappy cars (ok, ok, one of them is pretty nice. but its old enough that its very cheap by newer car standards). We don't own a house (yes, yes, a house is a great "investment" but it is also STUFF. A very big STUFF that takes a lot of money to upkeep. Also our rent is about $825 a month, and if we bought this house or a comparable one it would be a $1600 or more per month mortgage). We don't buy things (when we do they are almost always used). Our kids' stuff is almost 100% hand-me-downs (thanks to our friends and especially Jay's sister!). We eat really simple, cheap meals mostly (beans and rice kinds of things...at some point, i will post frugal meal ideas here). We don't eat out much.

So I guess what I'm saying is...do people really *need* to work, or do we just work to maintain a certain level of spending? How can moms that I know make more than twice what we do (with mom and dad both working) *need* to work, while I don't need to? Maybe its that we choose to work. My goal for the next 10 years is for Jay and I to both work part-time (I'm not working out of the home right now. Oh, yes, believe me I AM working!) And why not? If we don't buy a house, and especially if we get rid of our cars at some point, we don't need to double what jay is making right now by having me work full-time.

I would pay so much money to not have Emmett in daycare. And i guess I do. But money is just money. Stuff is just stuff. My baby is only going to be a baby once. If I owned a house, I would sell it to stay home with them if that is what it took. If I had a car payment, I would go car-free if that is what it took. I would eat beans and rice for EVERY meal, if that is what it took.

Its all a matter of what you are willing to "sacrifice". I guess I'm more willing to be poor than to have someone else raise my kids. I'm not trying to sound judgmental if you chose some other path, or if you really DID have to work when your kids were little. Its just something that I think about a lot.

It is kind of what I am talking about with the treadmill idea. We work to own a house. We work to pay for our kids' daycare. We have to keep working to upkeep the house. To pay for our 401K. To be able to go on a cruise vacation. Of course you may be more financially "secure" if you are on this treadmill. We aren't paying down our debts a lot. We aren't saving for retirement (that whole issue is so crazy anyway. There was a Frontline about it awhile back, and it just made me feel like its so impossible to do that now anyway).

Enough about that. Have I mentioned that I love living without a TV? I love, love, love it. I don't miss the thing at all. TV is stupid. And evil.

Change in mindset

2007-05-19T10:40:00.001-07:00

I think for us, the biggest challenge is going to be the car thing. Its so easy to be reliant on the convenience of a car. I am always secretly hoping that gas will go up and up and up--over $5 a gallon, because it will force myself and others to change this habit. I think the way I am going to have to tackle this is to pretend, in most cases, that we don't have a car. Sadly we have two, although one of them may die at any moment and won't get replaced.

If I can get myself to pretend that we don't have a car, maybe I can get so used to not having one that when we do make the switch, it won't be a big deal.

I've noticed that flexcar now has a car on 52nd and division, which is a short bus ride from our house. We'd have to take our carseats on the bus, which would be a hideous hassle, but if we are only doing this once or twice a month, it wouldn't be that bad.

Sadly, it costs an insane amount of money to take a greyhound or train to salem, which is another time we drive (to visit family). So its not really feasible.

I just wanted to post these great links about ideas to reduce waste. We are planning on visiting the Wednesday farmer's market at People's Food Co-Op They also have square dancing on Wednesday evenings, so we can check that out as well. Elsie's music teacher's band Government-Issue Orchestra plays there sometimes.

Anyway, the reduce waste thing

Also, the how to stop junk mail thing. As you can see, they make it hard for you. But I got FIVE, yes count them FIVE credit card offers in one day last week. This has got to stop. So I think I will order little pre-paid postcards from the post office and send them to these addresses. Hopefully I can curtail most, if not all, the junk mail we get.
I did this for myself and Jay. I get the credit card offers, he gets the student loan consolidation offers. Often times we get about 10 of these a week. Its stupid. I also called this 1-888-5OptOut to stop pre-screened credit and insurance offers.

Here is a very cool list of where to buy recycled items and recycled gift ideas

Metro may have its problems, but you have to admit it's pretty cool.

Getting away from the Joneses

2007-05-18T13:00:00.001-07:00

Ok, so when i do something I like to go all-out. I feel really excited and optimistic about our new pursuit.

Today, I decided that I didn't need to wash stuff in hot/warm water, so i just washed in cold. They got just as clean (go figure) so I am going to mostly wash in cold now.

Last week I was hanging up laundry (have I mentioned I love to do this? it makes me feel all pioneering or something, especially when wearing emmett on my back while doing it, which is always) and our next-door neighbor offered me a really nice clothes-drying rack. Its much nicer than the ones you can see in stores now. Its all wood. Anyway, I had never even spoken to this woman because i had heard she was kind of grouchy. Well, long story short: if I had never been hanging up my laundry, she never would have offered me this thing that i've wanted, and i wouldn't have found out she is actually nice! how horrible, since we have shared a fence for 8 months!

This post has some pictures of our garden, as promised. It was just planted last weekend. I can't wait to watch it grow. That is our Earth Machine composter in the back. You can get them for $35 from metro (that's $50 cheaper than retail). they are cool.

Did i mention that we also have a worm bin in our garage? We started it last summer. They only eat about 1/4 the kitchen scraps we make, but they are doing ok. Elsie likes watching it. I think their poop (or "castings" as they like to call it) are almost ready for harvest.

Ok, here is the part where i get a little weird. last year i had talked to jay about using cloth "wipes" for ourselves instead of toilet paper. He was not into it--that's an understatement. Yesterday someone posted a blog comment about "family paper". i had no idea what this meant, until i realized its this idea about cloth toilet paper, basically.

So i decided that even if jay doesn't want to, at least elsie and i can and we can reduce our TP useage. so i cut up a t-shirt that was so old i couldn't even give it to goodwill and i made some. at least for pee, why not? i can throw them in with the cloth diapers when i wash them. everyone says they are softer and make you feel cleaner...

Today i also decided to go ahead and organize my scary recipe drawer. I pulled out an old shoebox i have been saving for something and i'm in the process of sorting them out. it is such a disaster in there.

on the downsizing side, i sorted out a big bag of stuffed animals (someone said these breed in the night, i think its true!) to get rid of. i also put boxes out for someone to take on the craigslist free ads. i think you can actually move around in our garage now, which is really nice.

The crowd pleasers

2007-05-17T21:54:00.001-07:00

This is also our family blog, I guess, so here are some recent pictures of the kids...

Our goals

2007-05-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

These are the goals we have set for ourselves as a family. We are going to try them for one month, and then revisit them. I'll post on the progress of these goals, and the challenges we face in trying to meet them.

Ways we negatively impact the environment:
Make garbage that goes in a landfill
Use electricity
Drive cars
Buy food that is grown in an unsustainable manner or from far away
Consume goods that deplete resources, are made far away, end up in a landfill, etc.
Use water

Our goals to minimize this impact
1. Only put our trash on the curb one time per month. We have a normal-sized garbage can (35 gal).
This goal still bothers me, because any amount of waste is going in a landfill, and that is pretty horrible when you really think about it. Is it possible to not produce any waste? It would probably be very, very hard. We'll start with this one!
a. Only buy food that comes in packaging that can be reused or recycled. No plastic packaging that can't be reused or recycled.
b. Buy everything possible in bulk, reusable containers
c. Use only cloth bags for shopping
d. Bury organic waste (cat litter, dog waste, non-compostable food)
e. Compost paper waste (dryer lint, kleenex, coffee filters, etc.)
f. Compost ALL food waste
g. No disposable towels, paper towels, napkins, plates, or anything else where possible.
We already cloth diaper anyway! :)
h. No single-serving packages (juice boxes, string cheese, granola bars, etc.)
i. Stop all junk mail.
j. Switch ALL bills to e-bills. pay all bills online.
k. Recycle everything. If it can't be recycled, don't buy it.
l. Buy goods that are recycled (like 100% post-consumer recycled toilet paper)

2. Consume less electricity
a. Elect to use wind-generated power
We did this, and we do pay more, but its worth it. Plus, you get a yard sign! You can also opt for a fixed rate. Find out more here http://www.greenmountain.com/services/OR/index.jsp They serve Florida, New York, New Jersey, Texas and Oregon. PGE customers can sign up very easily.
b. Line-dry clothes
I love line-drying my clothes anyway.
c. Switch all bulbs to compact fluorescent when they burn out.
These need to be specially recycled when they burn out (in like 4 years) because they contain mercury.
d. Not use a fridge in the winter (?)
Has anyone tried this? If so, i'd love to hear about it. Why keep your fridge at 40 when its 40 outside here most of the time? What's to stop us from keeping stuff in the garage in the winter?
e. Keep thermostat very low in winter (we don't have a/c)
We keep ours at 66 daytime, 59 night.

3. Drive car less
What I would really love to do is not own a car. We just bought a used minivan. Maybe if we get into the bus/bike thing we could sell it. I looked into flexcar, but the nearest flexcar is really far away from our house, so it would take forever to get to it.
a. Jay only carpool, take bus or ride bike.
There are some times when he has to be at work really early or work really late, in which case he will probably have to drive. Its pretty rare, though.
b. Laura to bus distances over 1 mile. Walk distances less than 1 mile.
We can't bike because Emmett is too small for the bike trailer. When he gets bigger, though, we will do a lot of that.
c. Meal plan and only grocery shop once per week.
I will have to drive to the store. I can't imagine getting groceries and 2 kids on the bus. Yikes. But we can walk to one local store, so we will do that more.

4. Vast majority of food (80%) local and/or organic. Nothing from more than 1000 miles away (I realize we may not know where ingredients for some products like crackers or something come from, but at least the producer of the product would be local)
a. Have a garden--freeze what we don't eat fresh.
We do--yay! And its huge and awesome. I will post pictures soon.
B. Don't eat out of season. This means no bell peppers or tomatoes in the middle of winter.
C. Buy food at farmer's market, or from local farmers at New Season's/Co-op, etc.
D. Eat very little animal products
E. Minimal restaurant-eating, less than once per month.

5. Don't buy anything new, except items that need to be new for health or safety.
I realize this is going to be hard. We are going to try it though!
a. borrow, trade or buy used items
b. even then, consume mindfully
c. Consider packaging of all products when buying
d. Buy nothing new that is made in a sweatshop or foreign country
f. Tell others not to buy us new gifts.

6. Reduce water use
a. Time showers--5 minutes or less
b. If its yellow, leave it mellow. If its brown, flush it down...
c. Laundry extra large loads only
d. Fill sink when doing dishes (rather than running water).

Consumer

2007-05-17T20:35:00.001-07:00

I hate the term "consumer" when it comes to describing people. They don't mean it to be a negative thing when they talk about it on the radio, but it is. As in: "we need to protect consumers"; "Consumer confidence is down," etc. But if you take it out and look at it--that is what we are. We aren't part of a cycle, or contributing anything back, we're just CONSUMING. It is a very ugly thing when you look at it closely. We're consuming insane amounts of resources. We all know it's not sustainable. And we don't mean "not sustainable" like in the obscure, long, long time from now--like 1000 years from now. We are talking 100 years. 50 years. We can't keep consuming at this rate, or our children are going to pay the price in their own lifetimes. Yet we kind of choose to ignore this and go about our daily lives.

What we forget is that simple living--choosing to live a very simple life--is actually more fulfilling, more rewarding, and happier, than a life filled with the trappings of technology, commuting, lots of bills, credit, stress, etc. We are drawn into that lifestyle against our better judgement. We make money to spend on stuff. The accumulation of stuff doesn't make us happy. Instead, we find ourselves buying more just to replenish the momentary happiness that consuming brings us. We forget this when we hop on the treadmill of modern life and continue to make money to buy stuff.

What if we get off the treadmill, or never get on it? What happens?

That is what our family intends to find out. What if we made an environmental pact? What if we decided to minimize our impact way beyond what we have done in the past? What if we pushed ourselves to see HOW minimally we could consume? What if we found out that we enjoyed it, and did more and more?

That is what this blog is about. Our journey into simplicity for the sake of our earth. It scares me to think about the earth my own children will inherit. With their births, it has become all too real to us what environmental tragedy might mean for future generations. At the same time, we found ourselves falling into the trappings of "convenience" because....well, we have kids. I mean, we have kids, so we need to do X (drive more, use this product, buy this thing, etc). Shouldn't it be the other way around? Because we have kids, we should strive NOT to consume. To go out of our way to simplify our lives, minimize our impact. To show them that having stuff is not the end-all-be-all, but is rather usually the root of much suffering.

We often think we can just recycle things, but what we forget is that its: Reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order. First we need to consume less. Then we need to reuse or repair things. THEN recycle. Recycling should be our last goal.

What are we capable of? We will find out.