Buttah

May 26th, 2010 — 9:30am

On Monday it finally occurred to me that we have a local dairy right here in GJ. I called them up and asked about how the cows were treated and fed. While they’re not certified organic – it can be expensive for a small business – their milk is organic. I was thrilled – organic and local! So the whole fam when out and picked out some milk and cream and while we were there, had a little tasty ice cream treat too.

I bought the heavy cream to mix with milk to make half and half but thought that I’d also try to make butter. Turns out making butter is easy. It only took me about ten minutes. It would have turned out well but I think my vintage kitchen aid leaked oil into the mixing bowl and the butter came out a little grey. Eww. I threw it away of course, but as soon as I figure out whats wrong with my mixer, I’ll be back in butter-making business.

Next I’m going to make a batch of kefir.

3 comments » | crafting

Menu – week of May 24, 2010

May 24th, 2010 — 12:42pm

Monday: grilled organic chicken w lemon and quinoa
Tuesday: organic burgers w/ ww buns
Wednesday: grilled tuna w/ stir fried veggies
Thursday: buffalo chicken wraps (organic chicken, ww tortillas)
Friday: jim has a show in carbondale so something like squash or sweet potatoes or lentils
Saturday: something taco-ish
Subday: ww pasta salad w tuna

Lunches: burritos, organic chicken & apricot salad sandwiches, annies mac and cheese for the kids and maybe some healthyish ramen if I can find it at vitamin cottage.

1 comment » | Menu

Random Monday

May 24th, 2010 — 11:04am

* After four years of my last design I decided it was time for a face lift. So I spent the weekend redesigning my blog! And I’m proud to say that managed to do it all by myself with only one text message to Jim saying “please call, i broke my website.” I’m still working on redoing all the HTML pages to match the new blog, but will hopefully get it all finished soon.

* After today, we only have two days of school left. It’s been such a cool spring for GJ that it really doesn’t feel like school should be out. I’ve been trying to come up with some ideas of things to do with the kids to keep them occupied. Last summer was pretty epic with all the fun things we did, hopefully this summer can be the same.

* I’m thinking these reusable snack bags would be perfect to make out of our laminated cotton. I hate how many ziplocs we go through. Maybe this would be a good project to do with Eden. She has been showing a lot of interest in sewing.

* I’m working today on finishing the second quilt for my sisters twins. They are coming to visit next week and I’d like to have it finished to send home with her. I can’t wait to see the twins, they are getting so cute!

the twinzies

1 comment » | random monday

Amy

May 21st, 2010 — 7:32pm

If I write a book someday i want each chapter to be the name of one of my friends. I want to tell the story of how each of them has made my life and how each of them has saved me in different ways.

Almost all of them are creative in one way or another. I think that is probably what has drawn me to them. I thrive on creativity – from full out art projects to domestic arts to everything in-between. Amy has definitely become my number one partner in the domestic arts. She is a interior designer by trade and is my go-to girl whenever I have an idea for my house. I love her joy for everything domestic and her excitement over things that some would find dull like canning and old jelly jars and paint colors and dishes. Amy is the one who got me hooked on Fiestaware.

One of the things that Amy and i have been doing lately is yard sale-ing. We have a standing date evey Friday morning to head out early in search if treasures. Today we found an especially amazing deal – four discontinued Fiestaware place settings with a serving bowl for $10. When we got back in the car after paying for our treasure, we both were a little bit adrenaline-shaky from the excitement of our find.

I love that.

I love that God knows exactly what we need and fills those needs through different people in ways we wouldn’t expect. I love that the burden doesn’t have to fall on one person to fill every single need (sad to say I once thought it did) but that our needs can be met fully and with great joy by a wonderful handful of people. I love the gift God has given me in my different friends. Having them makes me know that he loves me.

1 comment » | daily

Jesus and Tomatoes

May 20th, 2010 — 2:36pm

Jesus and Tomatoes

One of the ladies who helps out at Tangle, BJ, took this picture when she was in Mississippi visiting her mom. Only in the south would something like this hang out in a store window. I fell in love with the photo and asked her permission to get a print made of it. I decided to order something pretty large that I can get framed for my house. Not quite sure where it will go yet, maybe in the dining room.

4 comments » | cool things

Pillowcases

May 19th, 2010 — 7:02pm

Pillowcases

Saturday I tested out the pillowcase pattern we wrote up for our beginning sewing class. Sharon, who is heading up our sewing classes, is something of a genius and taught me all kinds of smart things for these babies, like french seams. I had been making my pillowcases with raw seams because I didn’t care that much if the raw edges showed on the inside. But the French seams are so easy that even I, miss lazy sewer, is willing to do them. The pattern will be up as a free download on Tangle’s site soon.

(ps, Honor is sitting next to me doing his homework as I write this and he just asked me how to spell ‘christmas miracle’.)

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Random monday

May 17th, 2010 — 10:01pm

* I started working with a trainer last week. It’s high time I get myself in really good shape. I’m feeling really hopeful and excited to be working with her. It’s so nice to have the accountability that I haven’t been able to give myself. Aaand I think I’m gonna be real sore for the next three months at least.

* I also decided with my renewed need to eat good food and my work on getting into better shape that I’d start food journaling to keep myself accountable. To spare you all the constant updates, i decided to use my wordpress blog that i set up years ago. If you want to see what I’m up to here’s the link. http://pretendingsanity.wordpress.com/ I’d love it if anyone wanted to join me in food journaling.

* After the art and jazz festival, where we rolled out our knitted graffiti, we decided to leave one piece up permanently and see what happened. It lasted about 4 days before it was vandalized. I’m a little heart broken over the whole thing. (pictures still coming of all the pieces, i just need to get my computer to cooperate with me so i can edit them.)

* anyone out there use a yogurt maker? I’m looking at brands and would love a recommendation.

1 comment » | daily

Food

May 16th, 2010 — 8:40pm

Last night we watched Food Inc. I knew as soon as we started to watch it that I would need to make some changes. I think that so much of it resonated with me because it was pointing a direction I was already headed. Also, I just feel that the way we live our lives isn’t the way we’re supposed to live. Things should be simpler but also a little harder. Were such a fast food culture that we take easy in favor of good for us. Maybe taking a step back to the days of preserving and gardening and buying our meat from the local butcher who bought the meat from the local farmer is better. Sometimes, usually, things that are better cost more and take more time.

So here’s what I’m thinking about:
first only buy grass fed beef that hasn’t been given any steroids or antibiotics. The easiest way I can see to do this is to buy a half or quarter of a cow from a local farmer and get it processed and store it in the freezer. Or Jim could go elk hunting which would mean he would have to be lucky enough to draw a tag and lucky enough to actually get an elk. We need to look into it but i foresee hunting to be more risky and expensive than just buying a cow.

Second, find farm raised chicken and eggs. We’re talking real farms where chickens are treated like chickens. There are a few local meat companies where I can check this out. My aunt has been giving me eggs from her chickens. I’m sure I could find more local eggs too.

Third, eat less meat. Jim isn’t going to like this. Eat more fish too. Fish that isn’t dyed pink.

Fourth, preserve as much local food as i can. This means freezing green beans, corn, broccoli (if I can find it) and peas. Canning tomatoes, salsa, spaghetti sauce, peaches, pears, pickles, jam and apple sauce. Some of this will come from our garden, some from local farmers.

Fifth, what I can’t find local, find organic. I always buy organic apples, lettuce, carrots, and bananas anyway. Bell peppers are hard to find organic in the winter especially.

Sixth, look into a small green house for growing organic lettuce and tomatoes, maybe peppers. It grosses me out that tomatoes in the store are picked green and then ripened with gas. No wonder they are tasteless.

Seventh, find local milk. Make my own yogurt. Did you know that commercial yogurt is cultured in the cup? This means that it sits in a plastic cup for at least 5 hours at over 100 degrees. Yuck. Maybe make my own butter if it’s not too hard/time consuming.

Eighth, eat more whole foods. This will be hardest for Jim. We already eat ww bread, but he wont like ww pasta and tortillas. He doesn’t like most beans and grains. All of which I love. This is going to be inconvenient, I know it.

Ninth, this is the part that will be a lot harder for me. Prepare healthy lunches for everyone. When I’m not home, Jim usually runs to the store and grabs a frozen something for lunch. Or he will take the kids to fast food. I have a hard time with ideas for lunches. They need to basically be ready to just heat up. This will be hardest for me because it will require a lot of organization and forethought. All year the kids have had school lunch. They aren’t very healthy at all. Watching the food revolution has increased my guilt about this. Need to not be lazy when it comes to packing lunches.

Tenth, remember that as hard as we will try, it’s ok if someone feeds my kids a happy meal or if we screw up or break down and get taco bell for dinner. It’s not about making a religion out of eating well but about doing the best we can.

I want acknowledge that we’re lucky that I only work part time. None of this would be possible if I worked full time. Also I realize that this is a tall list to complete. I don’t expect to get it all down right away. I expect that somethings will have to be tweaked as we start working on them. But I feel excited about taking charge of what we’re eating. I feel excited about voting with our dollars and saying that we’re not ok with the way things are and that we expect change.

2 comments » | green

say “thank you”

May 13th, 2010 — 8:45am

(Disclaimer: I have always been very hesitant to write about religion on my blog because I fear I will be lumped into a group that I don’t identify with. A group that thinks it knows what’s best for the world and makes it’s life’s mission to let the whole world know how terribly wrong they are. A group that acts nothing like the Christ they claim to follow. A group that I would actually be mortified to be associated with. It’s my hope that I can covey my thoughts in a way that will assure you, my reader, that I am nothing like them.)

I was raised with a very specific version of Christianity that basically taught that everything in life should be good and that if it wasn’t it was because you weren’t having enough faith. That God wanted you to be rich and that his desire was for everything in your life to be easy.

It didn’t take very long for life to teach me that this isn’t true. I realized that knowing God couldn’t be boiled down into a formula because we each are so different that we relate to him in different ways. Faith isn’t a series of words we say to convince ourselves something is true (that’s delusion) but simply believing what God tells us. I came to see that this specific version of religion put a lot of responsibility on the user – it’s our fault if something goes bad. But didn’t take into account the fact that life isn’t easy and that sometimes things happen to us that we have no control over.

I realized that life was going to be hard. I don’t necessarily think God wants life to be hard. But I think in his wisdom that is far superior to mine, he knows what we need to go through to wake us up and what will get us to the point that he can get a hold of our hearts. Conflict is what makes a good story and conflict in our lives is what makes us better people. For some reason, it seems like pain is the only way we learn real lessons. Pain is the only thing that really saves us.

What do I mean by this? I think something about the way the human psyche is wired makes us not need change unless change is forced upon us. How many truly content people look at their lives and think about how to improve it? It’s when life explodes that we realize change needs to happen. It’s when things hurt that we open up our eyes and see what we are actually living in. It’s when things hurt that we realize we need to change – we realize we need a little saving.

I think we all have points, or multiple points, in our lives that things blow up. When this happens we are faced with the choice to either let it ruin us or let it improve us. Sometimes that’s a hard choice to make when the pain is so real. And I think the key is to not fight the pain, but realize that it is going to make us into better people – to embrace it. My friend sent me this quote the other day and I keep thinking about it. It sums up what I’ve been trying to say much better than I can:

“The idea of bittersweet is changing the way I live, unraveling and re-weaving the way I understand life.

Bittersweet is the idea that in all things there is both something broken and something beautiful, that there is a moment of lightness on even the darkest of nights, a shadow of hope in every heartbreak, and that rejoicing is no less rich even when it contains a splinter of sadness. It’s the practice of believing that we really do need both the bitter and the sweet, and that a life of nothing but sweetness rots both your teeth and your soul. Bitter is what makes us strong, what forces us to push through, what helps us earn the lines on our faces and the calluses on our hands.

Sweet is nice enough, but bittersweet is beautiful, nuanced, full of depth and complexity.

Bittersweet is courageous, gutsy, audacious, earthy. This is what I’ve come to believe about change:

It’s good, in the way that childbirth is good, and heartbreak is good, and failure is good.

By that I mean that it’s incredibly painful, exponentially more so if you fight it, and also that it has the potential to open you up, to open life up, to deliver you right into the palm of God’s hand, which is where you wanted to be all long, except that you were too busy pushing and pulling your life into exactly what you thought it should be. I’ve learned the hard way that change is one of God’s greatest gifts, and most useful tools.

Change can push us, pull us, rebuke and remake us.

It can show us who we’ve become, in the worst ways, and also in the best ways.

I’ve learned that it’s not something to run away from, as though we could, and that in many cases, change is a function of God’s graciousness, not life’s cruelty.

This is the work I’m doing now, and the work I invite you into: when life is sweet, say thank you, and celebrate.

And when life is bitter, say thank you, and grow.”

-Shauna Niequist from her upcoming book, Bittersweet

In the end, I realize that I see life so much differently than I did 10 years ago. I realize that it’s a journey that won’t always be sweet, but that it is one that can always be rich… if I let it. When things hurt, I realize that it’s ok – that good will come out of pain and that it’s not my fault. For the first time in my life I feel safe… secure. I believe that God knows what he is doing with me – and it’s good and not bad and that there is always hope.

3 comments » | church/spiritual beliefs

Some recipes for later

May 11th, 2010 — 5:38pm

I’m allergic to cheese so I can’t ever just buy a bag of ravioli and whip it up for dinner. So I’ve been thinking of making my own. I figured while I was at it I should make a batch of potstickers because I’ve been pretty obsessed with them lately. I think the kind frozen at the store are only moderately good.

Anyone want to join me in a day ‘o tasty deliciousness?

I think for both of these recipes I would make the dough rather than use egg roll or potstickers wrappers.
* http://www.raviolirecipe.net/Ravioli/SpinachRavioli.htm
* http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/spinach-and-mushroom-ravioli-recipe2/index.html

Potstickers:
The problem with most dumplings are that they are made with pork. I like this recipe cause it’s veggie. Or I might just use my egg roll filling.

* http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/veggie-potstickers-recipe/index.html

1 comment » | daily

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