The holidays

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!!

See our new organized space! Lots of pictures!

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

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.

Spring cleanin'

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.

The Story of Stuff

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

2008 goals and resolutions

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.

Eco 'air conditioning'

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).

On being "successful"

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

Chemical cleaners

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

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.

DIY (Do it yourself)

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.

Time is money

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.

838 Ways to Amuse a Child

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.

Ideas on living simple

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.

Getting away from the Joneses

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.