Monday, February 21, 2011

The Organic Mother

Love this quote:

“Our bodies are tools, not treasures. You should not spend your days trying to preserve your body in its eighteen-year-old form. Let it be used. By the time you die, you want to have a very dinged and dinted body. Motherhood uses your body in the way that God designed it to be used. Those are the right kind of damages…We are not to treat our bodies like museum pieces. They were not given to us to preserve, they were given to us to use. So use it cheerfully, and maintain it cheerfully. You want to fix your body up in order to be able to use it some more. We should not be trying to fix it up to put it back on the shelf out of harm’s way or to try to make ourselves look like nothing every happened. Your body is a tool. Use it.”

-Rachel Jankovic, Loving the Little Years

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Monday, February 14, 2011

Lessons in Composting

by Mandy

I vaguely remember the compost pile in the corner of the backyard of our childhood home. In fact, I didn't even really ever think about it until my husband, Brandon, brought in a bucket to throw in stuff for the compost, and then the image of my mom carrying a plate of leftovers across the backyard fluttered to my memory.

It's been fairly easy so far. Egg shells, banana peels, coffee grinds, and even some paper items have found their way into the bucket.

As did fruit flies.


Unfortunately.

You see, we keep this bucket inside, because it's easier to remember to compost when you have something nearby- say, by the trash can- to toss compostable stuff into. Apparently, we let stuff sit and rot in there for a bit too long. When I nudged the bucket on accident, little fruit flies fluttered out.

Before long, they had trekked throughout the house, even to the kids' bathroom which is the room furthest from the kitchen.

Whoops.

So, maybe we should have a lid for it, or at least dump it out on the compost pile before it attracts bugs.  Thankfully, it's fairly easy to set up a fruit fly trap.

On the bright side, the kids have really enjoyed composting. Keagan, age 3, has stopped draping banana peels all over the house (ick!).  He happily contributes to the compost bucket.  They've enjoyed learning about what can and what cannot be composted.

Best of all, we have significantly cut down the amount of garbage that makes it to the curb on trash day... something I'm actually a little giddy about.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

They've been anticipating this....

The kids have eagerly anticipated this day. We've saved containers to start our seedlings, and today, we were able to begin our little garden.


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Brandon began by explaining how it worked. I'm not sure anyone was listening, since they couldn't wait to poke their sticky little hands into the dirt. 

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Chip looks on as the group talks about seeds.

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Merikalyn refills old water bottles for the project while Alexis, Nolyn, and Keagan check out all the different seeds.

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Alexis uses a measuring cup to distribute the soil.  Later, we head/palm ourselves for using Miracle Gro. We've had the bag for a while and didn't think to purchase something organic. We still have many more seeds, so we'll be picking up a bag of something else.

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Keagan loves getting a chance to dish out the dirt.

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Tara and Nolyn watch on.  Slow going when everyone has to have a turn!

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Evidence Mandy was there (snapping mobile photos, of course).

Feb 13' 2011

The kids have really been enjoying the outdoors.  They're excited about the future, and I'm glad we're taking the steps to get them involved.  I feel so connected to my ancestors when there are seeds in my hands and dirt under my fingernails.

It is my hope, when we finally do step foot on acreage that is our own, our children won't be completely shocked by the culture change. 

Saturday, February 12, 2011

For Your Table: cloth napkins

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The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that if every home in the United States replaced just one 250-count package of paper napkins with recycled napkins, we could save one million trees.

Cloth napkins, or "unpaper napkins" as my friend Maria and I call them, are a staple in our house. We're messy folk.  I wish I could blame it on the kids, but I'm a messy momma myself.  (Just ask my family. They love to spill all my messy little secrets!)

You don't have to spend a bunch to have a nice cloth napkin stash. In fact, most of mine come from fabric scraps! They're simple to make and easy to wash (and much softer on dirty little faces!).

Check out The Organic Family Shop; we'll be posting some to purchase soon!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Documentary: Food Matters


New Solutions to Old Problems- An Interview with the Producers of Food Matters
Sometimes I feel that it would be infinitely easier to pretend that our world’s healthcare problems do not exist. It would be bliss to trust that our food industry operates with the public’s best interests at heart and that the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry are committed to human health. I suspect however that you already realize that this is currently a fairy tale dream. Or perhaps you’re like many others and understandably feel confronted by criticism of these paradigms. Whatever the case may be, James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch have learned the hard way.

Read the rest HERE.