Oh, nothing terribly interesting.  I’ll give you that. Sometimes it can bore one to tears. Sometimes it is interesting.  Today was dull, droney though since the focus area was child’s room.

• It is 8 AM. Launched everyone off to school/work with assorted bags, lunches, etc.
• Caught up church volunteer email
• Flipped jeans to dry
• Bunged my bedroom sheets in to wash
• Made my breaklfast, eating it, took vitamins
• Boxed up (3) 18 gallon totes of crazy toys from DD’s room. Where does this crap COME from?! Take break.
• Boxed another 18 gallon tote of crazy toy crap
• Put away all the remaining toys in their cubbies.
• Folded and put away all her clean clothes
• Collected all the dirties in the hamper by the door now that it’s not holding toys
• Bunged her sheets in the wash, flipped the other load to dry
• Picked up produce share from buying club
• Picked up odds and ends for quick dinner at grocery store
• Break — Made and ate late lunch, drink.
• Got laundry dryer/washer flippage done again. Maybe even twice. I’m losing count.
• Did kid’s dresser top.
• Vac kid’s room.
• Get kid at school.
• Helped child finish her room because I left a small pile on her bed for her to handle. She did it, but I had to periodically check that she wasn’t distracted.
• Made everyone dinner.
• See kid bathes, homeworks, put clothes and bookbag together for tomorrow, etc.
• All day coped with phone calls, emails, made appointments, schedule stuff on family calendar. I’m not only a housekeeper, I’m the fam secretary too.
• Took a post dinner nap because I was exhausted! It is now 7 PM.
• BONUS POST NAP WORK: Going to workout, then dinner dishes, bathe, and then “relax” by planning the next couple of meals.

I took these two boxes to the Alliance today.  Leftover bits from sets of the past that no longer match anything else.

6 mugs, 4 bowls:

1 serving plate, 2 divided plates, 2 bowls:

Jan 19, 2011 (2 things)

I posted this on freecycle today. I think it was a Closetmaid brand shoe cubby thing that we kept Julia’s baby/toddler/preschooler shoes in.  Her feet are getting bigger and this no longer works. There’s no way to put adult shoes in this — the cubbies will only hold children’s shoes in them as pairs.

I feel a little bit sad about this one because it’s the 25 yr old oak nightstand to my kid furniture my own child now uses.  But I already gave the desk away and her room is so small there really is no space for this.  The dresser and headboard are more than enough after you figure in her toy shelves.  But it’s been clonking around the house for 10 years with no real place or use so I posted on freecycle. I hope it goes to a good home.  If I had more time to see if it is worthwhile antique wise, I would try but really I want it gone. Painful as it is.

I don’t feel the need to rush since we celebrate both Winter Solstice and the Advent-Epiphany run.  That covers Dec 1 – Jan 6!

This morning Paul commented on our small effort last night to get into the spirit of things.

P: When did that happen?
C: In between bath and homework last night I let her start small.
P: I didn’t notice.
C: Yup. You didn’t. Make sure to notice later when I fish out the nativity people and let her do that.

A while back I had let Julia choose new decor bits at Target and once she discovered the people, it was easy enough to steer her toward simple trees to go with. I wish I had more time for crafting, but I don’t.  That’s the reality of modern parenting — time is precious.  Hence the enoughness and flexibility.

I don’t think this is the year that we’ll add the Advent wreath to the process.  She’s still young, though I’m not as worried about candle flames like last year.  We may think about making a wooden holder for next year, but if not we have all year to make it.

I told her the Holly King and Oak King story and Julia wanted to know why they have to fight over the sun. I told her it was simply a story to explain how the sun is changing.  I wasn’t ready to get deeper into that line… it was enough to introduce it. Since I’m not introducing anything new for Advent like the advent wreath, we’ll delve deeper into the nativity story and touch bits I didn’t get to last year.

“Layering and lots of hands on” tends to be my approach to her faith development.

We spent some time online looking at them.

I liked this one:

She liked that one:

Eventually we came to an agreement on what felt colors were needed to make our own Holly King and Oak King to lurk in our forest. The twins would both have brown bodies but the Holly King would get a red cloak and the Oak King would get a green one.

We’ll be adapting and using this pattern to make them but a lot of the others look fun too.  We made the flower ones for Thanksgiving/ Autumn.

So Wednesday after groceries, I threw the chicken into the crock pot with 6 cups water to make stock.  I put it in the fridge to chill. Thursday I defatted it, put the stock back in the crock pot  and added the veggies for Panamanian Sancocho.

I also shredded the chicken to add back in later during the last hour of simmering.  Here’s one bowl of the finished dish with snipped cilantro on top.  It made 16 cups. I can see where soups and stews are going to have to become major players in this experiment.

Thursday I sent Julia to camp with green onion pancakes and strawberries.  No pix. Turns out she had a filed trip and ate there, so she had the lunchbox today instead for brunch. She also ate apple, watermelon, rice cakes, rice milk, blueberry tea.

Today I ate sancocho, cheerios with milk.  Then we went out again. Julia had a veggie sub that she really wanted, and I made a 3 egg, cheese, and ham omelet.  I didn’t flip it well though… it kind of fell apart.

I had some nuts earlier. I’m just having a “Purple Rain” smoothie now — blueberry, banana, yogurt, apple juice. Pretty, but starts going grey fast and the pectin makes it clumpy if it sits.  So best drunk then and there.

This is what $66 of not really needed groceries looks like. It isn’t like we don’t still have lots left from Wednesday trip!

• Natural Tostito Chips (For Paul)
• Veggie Booty (For kid)
• True North Pecan Almond Clusters (all mine!)
• Maple ham
• Whole Wheat Flat Bread
• Whole Wheat load bread
• 6″ Veggie sub for kid’s dinner from the deli
• 6 organic eggs
• 2 Stonyfield FF vanilla yogurts (me)
• 6 pack Stonyfield soy yogurts (kid)
• grapefruit
• green pepper
• 2 organic apples
• organic bananas
• American Cheese
• Annie’s Raspberry dressing
• Breyers Vanilla ice cream
• Sunscreen

So that puts us at $108.  (It’s $109 for thrifty so I’m going to try not to go again til next wednesday.)

After coming across the 10 day pledge, I decided I’m going to shoot for that first, and then worry about swapping items out for locally sourced purchases.  According to the “thrifty” plan of the most recent USDA food costs sheet, a family our size gets $109 a week.

So after the dentist, Julia and I popped into Freshfield Farms on the way home.  Here’s what $42 looks like and what it all is spread on the counter:

• 1 bunch of cilantro
• 1 bunch broccoli
• 1 bag organic romaine hearts
• 1 package zucchini
• 1 package red potatoes
• 1 package green onions
• 3 lb bag organic red onions
• 2 pints blueberries
• 1 yucca
• 2 lb strawberries
• 1 lb grapes
• 2 lb apples
• 0.5 lb vidalia onion
• 0.5 lbs tomato
• 2 organic plums
• 2 organic apricot
• 2.6 lb Name root
• 3 natural, hormone free chicken leg quarters
• natural, hormone free pork sirloin cutlet

So I can spent another $67 before next Wedneday if I need to.  Of course, I have stuff already bought at the house, and I’m not throwing it out just because of the experiment.  I plan to eat our way through it and then replace accordingly and more closely to the whole food rules and see where that gets us.

This will be interesting!

CRAZY BUSY

Just got done putting on a little Earth Flag parade for stewardship campaign at church with the help of friends and I’ve been organizing my spring classes.

“Menu for the Future” spring series cranks up again on Friday at Florida School of Holistic Living.  I like teaching that one — I waive my teaching fee to donate to the Homegrown Food Coop.  Tuition from the students is earmarked to go there too.

Then there’s my Earth Cinema class on 3rd Saturdays down at church.  Which carries on as the “Green Movie Night” now that Earth Cinema went under because of the economy.  But never fear! I’ve switched the film club over to Ironweed! It is still free, it is still potluck fun at 6 PM, then movie time at 7 PM with a little discussion post movie. IN fact, we’re on this Sat, Feb 20th and again Mar 20th!

Speaking of movies, there’s Renewal on Sundays (Mar 14 & 21) , a monthly “water” theme small discussion group cranking up in time for Water Day in March…

Oh, wait, Mar 7 there’s the Coalition of Immokalee Workers Share the Plate and farmworker sermon to write.  And the kid’s coloring contest…. and the freedom march… and the grocery bag project… and I have to go to Julia’s school to attend kindergarten art class.

She and I asked her teacher who asked the art teacher who then decided to get all the grades involved in the Coalition of Immokalee Worker’s Kid’s Art Contest.  It was amazing! So I best show up to support my kid and her friends in their justice work even if it means getting all gluey and glittery.

Yeah. No wonder I don’t write often.

RADIO GAGA

But I’m heading out to my first radio appearance on 91.5 tomorrow. I had to prep for that too, but that one took a different approach.  Sure, I got my notes together.  But I also got my hands dirty.

I took off to help my friend Di put in her lettuce in a new raised bed.  I’m going to call her a “kick-butt crone” because I know she’d enjoy that!  I usually enjoy talking to my elder women friends — their perspective on life and a lot of other things is so neat.  Di and I started talking about my daughter and her grandson and the need for kids to know where their food comes from.  We were both sitting on the ground with metal teaspoons scooping out lettuce seedlings and putting them down.  We also talked about how for both of us, cooking and gardening is part of our spiritual practice.  You feel totally broken when you can’t get your hands in the dirt… like some component is just missing.

Back home, I spend part of the time fetching supplies, straightening bits, and setting up the “not EarthBoxes” to take a mess of strawberries. I have to get ready for Strawberry War III — will Julia eat more or the harvested berries or me?

My friend Deidra got me rescued herbs, arugula and chard that were going to be trashed.

I put them in the “plant hospital” and they’re bouncing back well. They started like this:

Now check it… Go Arugula!

Go swiss chard!

I am way later than I wanted to be starting seeds. Normally I want to be doing this around Yule or Christmas.  But we have a long growing season here in Florida.  I’d been without a garden since June and totally missed the fall “warm 1″ season.  I’m going to be ok for cool 1 and warm 2.

GROUNDING

The best part is that the kitchen garden is back in business.

Oh, the compost bins still have to be built, there’s some missing beds. Need to paint the benches. Some of the beds installed need a bit of straightening and reanchoring. I seem to be missing some pots and one whole bag of corn gluten for the lawn went AWOL during the remodel. I have to get the posts and trellis net out again. What happened to the clamps?

But I’ve gone from 130 sq ft withdrawal, to 200 sq ft installed, with another 100 sq ft on the way.  It feels downright luxurious! And now that I’m back into putter mode, I feel so much more grounded.

Sermons, classes, radio interviews, family… come whatever may. I’m ready.

This came from a low-gi cookbook by Helen Foster. I adjusted it to serve 2 and use up the whole can of beans.  If you like hummus and tomato sandwiches on pita, this has a similar flavor minus the bread. (Could add 6 oz grilled chicken leftovers if you wanted.)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup (200 grams) grape tomato, halved
• 1 can garbanzo beans (rinsed, drained)
• 1/2 (100 grams) chopped red onion
• 2 tbs minced parsley
• 2 tbs lemon juice
• dash paprika
• dash cumin
• salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Dump everything in a bowl and mix it up.

I’m enjoying the book, but I still wish it named quantities in measures I know. What’s a “handful?” Can we get “cups” or “ounces” please?

The way I made it, I didn’t have any black currants.  So I went for

• 1 box of blackberries (about 6 oz)
• 1/2 bag of frozen blueberries (about 4 oz)
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup apple juice

Awesome purple color.  Sweet fruity flavor. I could easily hide some greens in there — romaine or spinach — and get Julia to drink it.

I’ll have to work on the measures to get it to a defined 1 glass quantity though.  If we aren’t sharing, that would be good info to know.