What's That Hanging in the Window?

Our garden is being good to us. Already this week we've eaten greens, tomatoes, carrots and squash pulled right from the ground. Looks like the zucchini will be ready to start eating by the end of the week, and maybe some eggplants the week after.  I can't describe how satisfying it is to eat something that you grew, or to be able to plan your dinners around what's ripening. Our herb garden has also been quite generous. So generous in fact, our cilantro got so big it went to seed and we had to pull it up. We affectionately called it our cilantro tree. Anyway, our parsley seems like it will soon be following suit. After an herb flowers, the leaves can be bitter and woody. I missed my chance with the cilantro but I intend to put up some of the parsley for a rainy day.

And how exactly should I go about doing just that? I've never dried herbs before. I read about oven drying but I don't really want to waste the electricity to dry some parsley. I don't have a dehydrator and again, I don't want to gear up a major appliance for a bit of parsley. So I'm going to do it the old fashioned way, the way Laura Ingalls Wilder described her Ma drying herbs ( I love that series. I've read it multiple times!) I'm going to tie it up with twine and hang it in my window.

Technically, I don't have twine. I have utility cord pilfered from my husband's tool box.  It's yellow and gaudy but it will work. Some websites suggested I tie a paper bag around the herb before hanging it to keep off dust and catch any leaves that may fall prematurely but I don't have any paper bags and neither did Ma Ingalls so I'll take my chances with dust bunnies and the renegade leaves. The process was quite simple really. I cut the herbs, arranged them in small bundles, tied them with cord and hung them from my curtain rod in my kitchen window where they will hang for approximately two weeks, give or take. Hopefully, barring mold or bug related catastrophes, I should have some lovely dried parsley to use at my whim when that parsley bush finally does go to seed. And, depending on how this goes, I'll soon try this method with the other herbs growing in my garden. Except the dill. I don't want my house to smell like a pickle!

Addicted to Oil

Reason # 1,389 I have been trying to wean my family from petroleum based products and use greener more environmentally friendly products: 

OIL SPILLS ARE BAD BAD NEWS!

If you have been living under a rock and have no idea what I'm talking about, let me fill you in. On April 22, an offshore drilling rig operated by British Petroleum or BP exploded and is currently gushing immeasurable amounts of oil into our oceans. Let's set aside the fact the deep ocean drilling is irresponsible and dangerous, but rumor has it, BP suggested that an accident leading to a giant crude oil spill -- and serious damage to beaches, fish and mammals -- was unlikely, or virtually impossible and in declaring such, had absolutely no plan "B" if something were to happen. Well lookey here BP, the impossible has happened. And instead of admitting their mistakes, BP is quick to point the finger at the workers on the rig, contracted by Transocean, claiming they failed to improperly cap the well which of course, Transocean denies.

Does it really matter at this point? There are more than nine million gallons of crude already in the ocean and more is added every day.The Gulf of Mexico is is one of the most significant life-sustaining ecosystems on earth. This disaster threatens to destroy the ecosystem that exists there, as well as all of the human industries that thrive in the region, like fishing and tourism. This is a disaster, and I think it is being greatly downplayed by the media. Pardon my French but this is serious shit. Our planet NEEDS oceans. WE need oceans. Oceans influence the climate by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide and by regulating our oxygen. What's going to happen if our ocean is filled with oil? This is nothing short of a catastrophe.

So let's say they get this under control. Unlikely, but let's pretend.  They cap the well, the oil stops and we get this cleaned up. What will happen next? According to William Dietrich, novelist and Pulitzer prize winning journalist, nothing will change. He thinks that eventually there will be investigations, some kind of Congressional legislative reform, and -- if the spill is costly enough -- an overhaul of BP management. A slap on the hand. Technology will take a stride ahead and things might get a bit safer, for a while.But the threat will remain, vigilance will relax, and risks will run higher as the world gets more desperate for oil and drills in ever more inaccessible places.

We have so many options. All Americans have access to sun and wind. Why haven't we been making more effort to find alternative energy sources? What have we done? Dietrich warns that until we make real strides in weaning from fossil fuels -- which, incidentally, would help save the climate, save the oceans, and get us less entangled in endless wars --we should all be scared for what the future holds. I for one couldn't agree more.

 

Naturopathic Medicine

The human body is an amazing thing. Mine has carried two healthy babies, ran countless miles,  endured yo-yo dieting, overindulgence in alcohol and other self inflicted abuses. I've been depressed, suffered chronic bronchitis and asthma, had cat scans, electrocardiograms and ultrasounds. But luckily, I'm generally a pretty healthy person. Whatever I've done to myself or whatever has been done to me has had no visible lasting effects. I believe the body has an inherent ability to establish, maintain, and restore health. But, as of late, there have been a couple of issues that have interrupted my otherwise healthy life. 

Caution: The following may be TMI  (too much information) for you, but I think it's important to share in order to get the big picture. Don't worry. It's not that bad!

I have suffered chronic Urinary Tract Infections for almost 10 years. Every 3 to 5 months, I'm at the doctor's office peeing in a cup and begging for antibiotics to make it go away. After the first couple of years, I began to ask why was getting the infections in the first place. They told me that some women were just "prone to that sort of thing," told me to drink lots of water, gave me my prescription and sent me on my way.

Flash forward eight years and it's STILL happening. About two months ago I awoke to that horrible pain in my pelvis and the feeling that I was constantly on the verge of wetting myself. I got an appointment, peed in my cup and got the prescription. Since I get them so often, I was up to a seven day course of antibiotics. The day after finishing the course, I got those familiar feelings and was back for another round. Only after 14 DAYS of antibiotics did the infection abate. I wondered, if it take 14 days this time, how many days will it take next time? Am I building an immunity to the drugs?

 Needless to say, I was completely frustrated with the traditional process of diagnosis. NOT ONCE did someone try to figure out why I got infections so often. I would wait upwards of an hour to spend five minutes with a physician's assistant who would write out a prescription, pat my head and shove me out the door.

It was at this point that I started researching Naturopathic Medicine. For those of you who aren't familiar with this type of medicine, naturopathic doctors facilitate and augment the healing process by identifying the root cause of the problem you are experiencing. By not simply treating symptoms, they support your body's natural healing process. They educate you on how to continue making improvements in your diet and lifestyle to maximize your health and cure what ails you. As my doctor explained to me, symptoms are like puzzle pieces. You add them up and figure out what's really wrong. Symptoms aren't the problem; they are an expression of the problem.

Not to sound corny but this was the BEST medical experience of my life. I spent and hour and half with the doctor. Literally in her presence, talking to her. We sat in an office and went over, point by point, all my concerns. She took four pages (front and back) of notes and asked thoughtful, relevant questions. While the UTI's were my main concern, I had some other inconsequential things that had been bothering me for some time.  Headaches, fatigue, increased anxiety, acne, cracking at the corners of my mouth, flaky skin....would you ever guess all these "little things" add up to one big something? Neither did I. But apparently, overgrowth of yeast causes ALL of these things!

I know. You're thinking yeast, like "lady yeast," right? I thought so too. But yeast grows naturally in our gastrointestinal tracts and is usually benign. But years of antibiotic treatment killed off my good bacteria and let the yeast flourish in my system causing an imbalance.

Whoda thunk it? It makes a lot of sense to me.  She suggested I get on a heavy dose of probiotics to repopulate my body with "good" bacteria, a month long course of a pill containing high dose of garlic, cinnamon bark, calcium and magnesium to kill the yeast, and a powder that makes the wall of my bladder "slippery" so that any remaining bacteria will not be able to stick to the walls. Cranberry does the same thing, but this is like a power dose of cranberry. I also got a list of dietary restrictions that she suggested I follow as closely as possible for the next month before we reassess. No cheese (oh no!) no yeast (what about my English muffins?) no sugar (I think I'm going to faint) and no soda (that's it, I'm done!)

I feel so empowered. Instead of being thrown a bottle of pills, I'm trying to naturally fix the imbalance in my body that is causing the symptoms. As I've said before, modern medicines have their place but I think this way of doing things is much simpler and much safer.  I'm so excited. I can't wait to see it start working. Not only was the doctor caring, attentive, genuinely concerned and committed, the solutions she provided were logical, tangible and completely doable. EVERYONE should have access to care like this.  With Dr. Freeze's help, I'm going to be the healthiest I can be. Naturally.

The Purge

Have you ever watched the show Hoarders on A & E? Basically, the people in the show have collected so many things, amassed so much filth that their lives are falling apart. Their relationships with their families are strained.They accumulate mountains of "stuff" that  eventually leave them isolated and almost incapacitated in their own homes. It's disgusting really. After watching just a couple of episodes, I started looking around my own home in a panic, throwing things away and taking multiple trips to Goodwill.

I read an article about hoarding on the internet yesterday morning. Hubby must have been getting those married people vibes because he came home from work and proceeded to rip apart both the master bedroom closet and the guest closet. We need organize, he says. We need to simplify. This translates to "massive chaos and mess." As he made trips back and forth between the two closets like the busy bee he is, I got sucked in as well and started sorting and purging. I got rid of clothes, shoes, books, DVD's, jewelry and other random things that had been making friends with the dust bunnies. We started a pile in a corner of the guest room to house the "unwanteds" and it's growing quickly. I've been snagging things from all over the house to add to the mountain and it's threatening to take over the guest room. The only logical thing to do now is have a garage sale.

Ug. Garage sale. I've only had one, before we moved to Arizona from Virginia. Though I enjoyed getting rid of all that stuff and making around $400, I absolutely DO NOT want to price, display and sell the things that used to be mine. I'd almost rather donate them (which I will if they don't sell.) No matter how worthless the item, I get ticked off each time someone tries to haggle me down to a dime. Yes, this is the ugliest purse of all time. No I don't like it. But it was MINE and you'll pay what I ask!! Now gimme my 50 cents!

Why are we so reluctant to get rid of things that we no longer use? They are just things. They are not substitutes for people or relationships. Clutter tends to complicate....I want things to be simple. It's normal to be attached to things we inherited from our parents or grandparents, or to be attached to photographs or special items that we've bought. But the rest of it can go. I will say I'm better at purging than others. Other than being annoyed by hagglers, I generally have no problem ridding myself of the things I don't need. If I'm not using it, it's taking up my time, my space and my life. Get it gone. It's freeing. 

But, there are things that are hard for me to part with. My daughter's baby clothes for example. I'm not having any more children. I picked my favorite and  most sentimental outfits and had them made into a quilt for her. But I still have two HUGE bins of her clothes taking up space in my garage. I certainly don't need them. But for some reason, I really, really want them. I'm planning to sort and sell what I can, but I'm waiting until the last possible minute to part with them.

Take a deep breath Stephanie...they are just things.

Jam and Chest Compressions

Mom is in town and after hitting an AWESOME sale at the farmer's market I had lots of blackberries just waiting to be made into jam. And who better to show me how to make jam than the jam queen herself? It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it might be but it takes quite a bit of time, and lots of organization. And stirring. Lots and lots of stirring. Mom was really patient and we ended up with more than year's supply of blackberry jam, coming in at about $1 a jar. A pretty good deal considering Smucker's Blackberry Jam rings up at around $4 a jar. And don't even get me started on the ingredient list. Here are the ingredients for their blackberry jam from the Smucker's website:

WATER**, BLACKBERRIES+, POLYDEXTROSE**, MALTODEXTRIN**, FRUIT PECTIN, LOCUST BEAN GUM**, CITRIC ACID, NATURAL FLAVOR**, ASPARTAME**++, POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE), CALCIUM CHLORIDE**, RED 40**, BLUE 1**. 

Here are the ingredients for the jam I made with my mom:

BLACKBERRIES,SUGAR,FRUIT PECTIN.

Why does jam need calcium chloride and food dyes? I think the color of smooshed blackberries is nice without any help from science. Anyway, here's a few things I learned about making jam:

1. You need to work out. Seriously. I've never stirred something so much in my life.

2. Consider protective eye wear and a sweatband. Boiling hot jam can rocket out of your bubbling pot at any time and WILL burn your eye. The sweat from standing over the boiling pot will then run into your injured eye and make things worse.

3. You'll want to invest in a long handled wooden spoon. Once you dump the sugar into your fruit, it foams up and you'll want to be as FAR away from the bubbles as possible to avoid being scalded with wicked hot jam.

4. After filling your jars, wiping your rims and screwing on the lids, don't touch the jars because they will burn your fingers. You just filled them with scorching hot fruit, remember?

 

Smooshing the Berries

 

Stirring, Stirring, Stirring

On a a completely unrelated subject, I attended a CPR training class today, compliments of my hubby's employer. CPR is a useful skill to have, especially when your son eats as many rocks as he does cookies. The class was informative (albeit loooooong) but I really learned a lot. Doing compressions is much more physically taxing than I ever imagined. I also learned how to use an AED (automated external defibrillator) and how to do the Heimlich maneuver on adults and children. Also, new CPR standards do not require any mouth to mouth breaths! It's called hands only CPR. Good news when your victim's mouth is covered with blood or snot or some other nasty bodily fluid. Those little plastic mouth protectors only protect you so much. And hey, less plastic medical wastes cluttering things up, right? Greener CPR! Imagine that...

 

Happy Earth Day!!

Happy Earth Day everyone! According to the great and mighty Wikipedia, Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord (what were his parents thinking?) Nelson as an environmental teach-in held on April 22, 1970.  Since then, Earth Day has become a global celebration of awareness.  I think it's wonderful to dedicate one day of the year to the planet we call home. But personally, I think every day should be Earth Day!

My week filled up fast so I didn't get to attend the celebration in downtown Phoenix like I'd hoped. But that's okay. I celebrated in my own way. I told my daughter about what Earth Day is, what it means, and let her make a watering can out of a recycled milk jug to help her grasp the concept of what recycling actually is. She is well trained as to which trash items go into the recycling bin, but I don't think she really understands what happens when things get recycled.  


As for me, I celebrated by placing a HUGE order with the good people at Seventh Generation and cleaning my house with green products I made myself. That's right. Not one store bought, chemical laden spray or scrub. Cleaning products were one of the first places I started making changes. Why buy organic produce if I'm just going to plop it down on a counter cleaned with chemicals?

Not to write off all store bought stuff. There are several reputable companies who make green cleaning products that work very well. I love Seventh Generation's Disinfecting Bathroom Cleaner in Thyme and Lemongrass scent, and I use their Emerald Cyprus and Fir toilet bowl cleaner. Method also makes a great tub scrub aptly named Le Scrub. It uses finely milled marble to scrub the nasties away and it smells divine. That said, anything labeled "green" or "environmentally friendly" usually has an inflated price tag to go along with it. The two aforementioned companies are quite affordable compared to most but for many of my cleaning needs, I just make my own. Some things to have on hand for making your own cleaning products:

• vinegar-cleans, disinfects....it's wonderful!
• baking soda-good for making scrubs
• hydrogen peroxide
• rubbing alcohol
• borax
• liquid castile soap
• essential oils-makes things smell yummy and adds antiseptic properties to your concoctions.
• spray bottles-recycled or dollar store buys  

Did you write it all down? Good. So now that your pantry is full of stuff, what do you do with it? Here are my FAVORITE recipes that I use in my home, and now, you can too! 
 
Lavender Disinfecting Spirits Spray (adapted from Renee Loux)

1/4 cup vodka ( Put the Grey Goose away. Use the cheap stuff!) 
1/2 cup 3% hydrogen peroxide
1 cup water
15 drops lavender oil (or whatever you fancy) 

In a spray bottle, combine all the ingredients and swirl to mix. Don't shake or the active oxygen in the peroxide will go flat and lose it's action. Spray the surface and wipe with a clean cloth or towel. I spray EVERYTHING with this. Keeps indefinitely! 

Super Duper Window and Glass Cleaner
  
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
3 1/2 cups water

Mix all the ingredients in a spray bottle. Shake well before using. Spray on dirty windows, glass stovetops, ect...dry with a crumpled newspaper. 


Mopping Solution

1/3 cup white vinegar
2 gallons hot water
15 to 20 drops essential oils

Mix ingredients in a bucket and mop till your heart's content! 

Soft Scrub

1/4 cup borax
1/2 teaspoon liquid castile soap
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

In a small bowl, combine borax and liquid soap to make a smooth paste. Stir in the lemon juice and mix well. Put a small amount of paste on a clean, damp sponge, apply to sinks, countertops, tubs, ect..then rinse off and dry surface with a clean rag.


If you'll look to your right (------------> that way) you'll notice I've provided links to help you find the things you need to make your own products, as well as links to the products I've tried and like. 

Happy Cleaning!!

Making Time

---The bad news is, time flies. The good news is, you're the pilot. 

Michael Altshuler

I'm proud to announce that people are actually reading my blog. Even better, they are leaving comments! Yeah! I love all feedback, positive or not so keep it coming! I have, however, noticed a trend amongst my followers. It seems that what I am doing is inspiring to most but none of them seem to have the time to make a change.  I've gotten a lot of "Wow! I wish I had time to garden." or "I wish I had enough time to can veggies and hang clothes out on the line." Well my friends, I'll tell you this...you do.  You do have time. I'm not sure what people think I do all day but I'm pretty busy. The difference is, these changes I'm making are things I want to do. If you want to garden or sew or can, you have the time. The question is, do you want to have the time?

Would it be quicker to throw the clothes in the dryer? Sure. Can't I just buy canned veggies at the store? Of course. If that's how you want to live, that's your decision.  If you want to spend your time working to pay those electric bills for your dryer, or take the time to go to the gas station, fill up the Hummer and go hunting and gathering for consumer goods, you go right on ahead. I may be exaggerating a bit but it's a bit frustrating that some of my readers think this poor bored housewife must be trying to entertain herself by taking the time to things the old fashioned way, the "simple" way. Simple doesn't mean easy. It's actually quite a lot of hard work and is infinitely rewarding. 


If you want to go green and get simple, then stop making excuses. Turn off the TV, stay away from the mall, and get it done. I'm not perfect and you're not either but don't assume I'm just filling my time. I'm trying to make this a lifestyle. I'm making time. What's really important to you? If you sit down and figure it out, you may see that there is indeed time to hang your panties out to dry.