Pencil Thin

I placed an order a few weeks ago to purchase free range and organic whole chickens from a local farmer. We went yesterday to pick up the 3 chickens that I had ordered. Thankfully my husband went to the area where the chickens were to pick them up instead of me. Apparently they had just processed the chickens and all of the processing “parts” we sitting out in the open. I grew up on a farm and one of my most vivid memories is from the butchering of animals. I know there are people who handle this well but I am not one of them. In fact I really don’t care for meat all that much and would secretly love it if my family decided they wanted to be vegetarians. Anyhow, today I decided to unwrap and roast one of our birds for dinner. I was a little grossed out to see that the neck was still attached to the chicken. Had my husband been here I would have made him handle the chicken because I just about threw up. As a child I simply made pets out of all of our farm animals and we always ended up eating them for dinner. It was a hard lesson I never got over. Needless to say I turned out a perfectly roasted bird for our dinner tonight but couldn’t eat more than a bite myself. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the lopsided neck that I didn’t muster the courage to cut off. That would have required more handling of the chicken that I could take. I am on the fence about ordering more chickens because I am quite sure they will all come with their necks. At least I know these chickens were not raised in a shoe box sized cage and treated terribly before ending up on our plate. I guess that is something I can look positively upon.

Typically by the time school starts I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. This year I am quite honestly not even thinking about shopping quite yet. I have considered looking into some new C9 led christmas lights to save on our electricity usage but that is about all I have thought about. Our electricity bills are supposed to skyrocket at the beginning of the year and I am more than a bit worried about it. As for Christmas presents I intend to scale back my shopping dramatically because our children are lavished with gifts by other family members. Last year they got so many presents that some haven’t even been played with yet. This is ridiculous in a world such as this and they just don’t need that much. I am going to try to buy a couple of toys and focus on making memories with them more than spoiling them rotten.

We are moving forward with our plans to add chickens to our family. For a few days I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go ahead with the plans because it seemed like we weren’t going to be able to get just a couple of chickens and were going to end up with half a dozen. Now that we have rethought our space and where we might obtain them from we are going to be able to get just 2-3 chickens. Most of our neighbors know about our plans and don’t seem to care. The next thing on our agenda is to build a coop and work on getting a zoning permit for it. It doesn’t seem like it will be a big issue. I am still a bit worried about one particular set of neighbors but as long as we build within the scope of the law it should be just fine.

At the beginning of the summer I felt myself slipping into some bad dietary habits. These habits are bad in the bigger scheme of things but they are bad for. I know that my body doesn’t react well to large amounts of carbohydrates no matter how wholesome the source. I stopped stepping on the scales at the beginning of the summer and am now afraid to step back on them. I am quite sure I have gained weight and am not pleased about it at all. For some reason I am one of those people who is able to loose weight during the winter but not during the summer. I really believe that the summer heat plays a role in this. I simply grab whatever is handiest when it is too hot to cook. This might be a bowl of homemade granola or some freshly baked whole wheat bread. I really need to be eating high protein and low carbohydrate foods. The responsibility for my weight gain is my own fault and I dread finding out what the final tally is going to be. I am hoping to get control of myself and negate most of the gain before fall sets in.

A while back I posted about something that I had been wishing for. I am pleased to report that I no longer have to wish for it because it is becoming a reality! In about two months our family will be joined by 4 little baby chickens! We didn’t believe that the city ordinances would allow us to have them and hadn’t really looked into it. On a whim my husband called the city and found out that they are allowed provided certain criteria are met. We intend to meet these criteria as outlined and be model parents to our new flock. It is exciting to think that we will be having fresh eggs by next summer right from our own backyard! Call me crazy but to me it is one more step in our progress toward being a sustainable family in an increasingly difficult economic environment.

This weekend we had several family members over to celebrate our youngest son’s birthday. This is always a good time for everyone. Several topics of conservation inevitably come up that cause heated debate amongst our various family members. My husband comes from a family that espouses a different political stance from that of my family. I always try to redirect the conversation away from touchy subjects to more neutral ones. For some reason the topic of retirement came up. I indicated that it was a goal of ours to buy a large RV and travel the country when we retire. My in-laws immediately pointed out the cost of an RV and how surely we would need rv financing in order to make such a purchase. I indicated that the idea of either of us retiring was a good 30 years into the future and that we wouldn’t be worrying about making a purchase it right now. For the time being we are completely happy with our small camper and won’t be upgrading anytime soon. It the meantime it does not prevent us from dreaming of the day when we will claim the open road on a daily basis rather that just on the occasional weekend.

You may have picked up on the idea that I am striving towards living a sustainable lifestyle. There are a great many things we have done to change the way we live in order to reach this goal. One thing we haven’t done is get into raising animals for food. To be honest after having grown up on a farm I don’t have the stomach required to slaughter animals. This doesn’t leave much in the realm of raising animals for food aside from milk cows and chickens… A cow is definitely out of the question since we live within city limits. Chickens are something I have been tossing around in my head for a while now. I wasn’t sure as to the legality of the idea but it turns out that they are legal in my city provided certain requirements are met. These rules are pretty easy for us to follow since we only want a couple of chickens. My husband has consented to the plan and we are now in the educational phase of the journey and are trying to learn everything we can to prepare ourselves for caring for a couple of chickens. Hopefully, by next spring we will have a coop and a couple little chickens!

Last night we went out with another homeschooling family to do a bit of blueberry picking. There are many things we have in common with this family and many things that we don’t. It is always interesting to spend time with them because they are very staunch in their belief system. For example they don’t have a television of any sort. I mentioned that my in-laws had HDTV and they weren’t quite sure what that meant. We don’t have satellite or cable but our children are able to watch television shows via the internet.I don’t believe children should sit mindlessly in the front of the television all day but I do believe there are some good programs out there. This family never eats anything from a restaurant. I personally don’t want to eat out frequently but can’t imagine taking a long trip without every eating in a restaurant. I know people who think we live a different lifestyle but I always think we aren’t that unusual whenever I spend time with a family like the one I mentioned above.

This evening the weather is absolutely beautiful. For so long it has been unbearable hot and humid. Finally the temperature is just right! It is not too warm and not too cold. My husband and older son decided to take advantage of the weather and have left to go fishing. I am excited to hear how this trip turns out. For a very long time my older son would not allow anyone fishing with him to use real bait. This is because he didn’t want to hurt the worms or bait. He learned at conservation camp this summer that fishing with real bait yields real fish on your hook. He concluded that fishing with live bait would be acceptable provided he did not have to put the bait on the hook and that the fish were released after they are caught.

Last week I received the technology package supplied to my youngest son by his charter school. This will be his first year attending a cyber charter school and his first year of school in general. I was really amazed that the school would supply a 4 year old with top of the line computer technology. It was all very easy to set up and get hooked into our home network. The only thing I now realize is that we are going to have to design furniture and a workspace that will accommodate our tiny student. The work station and chairs that we have are geared for older students rather than a little person like our son. I went out today and picked up a few school supplies to customize his space but realize that I am going to need more. I don’t think we are going to entirely know what we need until we are in the midst of an actual school day. Given that school starts in 4 weeks I still have some time to ponder what is and isn’t going to work for our family. It will be fun to see how our school day evolves as we expand from one student to two students.

One of our priorities this summer has been to produce our own food as much as possible. Each day of the week I try to put some amount of food away for later use. It doesn’t matter how much it is as long as I am doing something to preserve food for later use. Thus far I have put away everything imaginable from homemade pesto to carrots. It I am not canning or freezing I try to make use of my time by working in the garden. Another great source of produce has been local produce stands and the farmer’s market. I did not realize how much food I have been slowly putting away until today. Our pantry is half full with hundreds of canning jars and one of our freezers is bursting at the seams. If is fun to see how much food we are able to obtain that is healthy and organic for very little money. I love knowing that we will not be filling our bodies with pesticides and chemicals in the coming year.

The temperature finally took a bit of a dip today. It has been so unbelievably hot that I have not been able to face baking. I finally decided that heat or no heat I had to turn on the oven and get to work baking. This morning I cranked out enough baked goods to keep us in goodies for at least a week. Surely, if we eat it all we will also need diet supplements that work but at least our stomachs will be full. This morning I made 5 pounds of cinnamon granola, 2 loaves of cinnamon bread, a pan of brownies, and 2 dozen sandwich rolls. This all took place before 10:00 am! I consider this quite an accomplishment considering that I have been really slacking when it comes to baking for several weeks. My children declared that today was going to be a “tasty” day and I do believe it was.

There are some children at my son’s swimming class that need a good attitude adjustment. For whatever reason they think it is appropriate to smack one another hard with towels and belittle other children in the class. My son voiced his opinion today about their behavior and became the target of their attitudes. It is so hard to teach your child to stand up for what they believe in and yet prepare them for when things turn on them. Our older son struggles to find his place in the world and has a hard time reading the attitudes and behaviors of his peers. He knows that talking badly about people is wrong and when it is talking about the one friend he does have it is all the more wrong. What he wasn’t prepared for is two boys turning on him for saying they were talking badly about his friend and then getting hit with towels for it. I am proud of my boy for taking a stand but sad that he was berated for it….

At least once a week I have someone asking me to look up something for them on the internet. I used to feel that this was a recognition of my internet researching skills but I no longer feel that way. I tend to see it as a type of learned helplessness. If you can answer and read email then you should be able enter something into a search engine and find answers for yourself. I do not have time to look up driving directions, weight loss pill comparisons, and old movies. Between working, raising children, keeping a garden, and just living I have enough to do. What always surprises me is that the people who ask for my help haven’t even attempted to research anything on their own prior to asking me for help. I am more than happy to help someone if they have at least made the attempt to answers on their own. I am personal research assistant just waiting around for something to do.

It is around 90 degrees here today. The humidity is such that you really want to wear as little as possible and still maintain some sense of modesty. My youngest son just doesn’t seem to grasp this. He is in the midst of playing out the role of being “Super Why” from his favorite PBS show. Apparently this character is impervious to the heat because my son refuses to take off the heavy blanket he is wearing. This blanket is not just any old blanket but is his “Super Why” cape and grants him numerous special powers. I love that the child plays so creatively but the sweat rolling off his head should give him a clue that he is just a bit overdressed… He denies being the slightest bit hot but seriously “Super Why” is going to suffer heat stroke here in a minute. I think “Super Why’s” mom going to have mandate that the cape be given a time out.

This weekend we are engaging in one of our favorite family activities which is camping. We try to go out camping at least every other weekend. This summer we have switched things up a bit and are dry camping. This means we have no access to electricity, public restroom facilities, nor running water. We have figured out how to heat our camper using a propane heater and to cook our meals. There really isn’t much you can’t do to make camping comfortable if you plan and research. We even have a shower with hot water. The only thing I don’t like is storing our food in coolers. This generally means that we have to eat a great deal of prepared or processed foods. That also means trouble for my waistline. I always feel like I need fat burners when I come home from camping because we eat so much junk food. I have worked out all the kinks in camping without the comforts of a campground except this one detail. I would love to be able to plan fresh wholesome meals while camping but tend to rely on easy and quick meals out of convenience. Maybe after this trip I will devote some time to solving this aspect of my camping plan.

This week has been a hectic one for my family. It started last weekend when I discovered why stinging nettles are called what they are called. My family was working at our community garden spot and we noticed all these terribly prickly weeds that we hadn’t seen before. About an hour into being there my arms became horribly itching and rash covered. My husband has a similar reaction but not as strongly. We promptly came home and washed everyone up. My children did not react thankfully. I looked up the plant online and found out it was nettles. My body seemed to react more strongly to the nettles and it took quite a while for my rash to go away. The next day I noticed this fairly large bug bite on my older son’s leg. The day after that his leg was very swollen and red. I treated him with antihistamines and cremes and put an outline around the area to watch it to see if it spread. THANKFULLY, by the third day it was becoming smaller. My worry was that it was a tick bite. It turns out that he has an allergy to mosquito bites. This means being super diligent in spraying him for mosquitoes when we go outside which is infinitely better than worrying about Lyme disease.

I finally broke down and bought a new blender. I have lusted after products such as the lovely Vitamix blender for a long time. When push came to shove I couldn’t justify a blender that costs as much as our house payment. I bought a blender at Walmart and hoped for the best. It was pretty inexpensive and I figured I wouldn’t be out to much money if it was a dud. It has thus far exceeded my expectations. My other blender cost about 5 times what the price tag on this blender was and didn’t do nearly as well at blending things. I drink a lot of protein drinks and need a decent blender. My friends all think protein drinks are nasty and I should just take something like apidexin instead. I like my protein drinks and find them a quick and easy meal alternative. This makes me a bit of a blender snob but I can’t help it. I don’t think a blender should need to be thumped up and down in order to crush ice. I also don’t think it should weigh 20 pounds. My new blender was under $20.00 and fits both of my criteria. It probably doesn’t do anywhere near what the Vitamix blender can do but I am happy nonetheless.

About 10 days ago I called to update our DSL. I was told the upgrade would take place in 24 hours. I received a call from VERIZON indicating my request was complete. This led me to believe that my request was complete and my service was upgraded. I gave everything time and kept doing speed tests – WHICH SHOWED NO DIFFERENCE in speed. Finally, I called Verizon and ended up in a tangled mess of disconnects, transfers, and people who could not grasp the point of my call. Added to this were people who I could not UNDERSTAND! I appreciate people do not all talk the same but I expect to be able to at least understand them when I am speaking with a customer service person. So, all that being said 1.5 hours later, umpteen transfers, and a conference call to boot – I was told my upgrade had not taken place yet and was scheduled for TODAY!!!! WHY DID YOU CALL ME TO TELL ME IT WAS COMPLETE????? I even saved the voice mail and listened to it two more times to be sure what I heard was what I heard. So, all that time has been lost on the phone, rearranging my home network, and messing with configurations to determine why my speed has not increased. I had better see a difference is all I have to say….when it finally happens (if it happens). I am still not convinced that anyone at Verizon had a clue.

For several years we lived in Philadelphia. Prior to that we spent a couple of months living in Cleveland. The remaining part of my life was spent living in the country. When we decided to move to Philadelphia I honestly thought it would be no big deal. We had muddled our way through learning to navigate Cleveland and I simply believed that Philadelphia would be no big deal. My first job in was in the heart of down town Philadelphia. If you have never driven in big city traffic let me warn you not to start with Philadelphia. At first it felt like a maze of tiny little one way street crammed between the tallest steel buildings I had ever seen. There really seemed to be no logic to how the street were arranged at all. As time progressed city life and commuting became second nature. Sitting in traffic was just something you did because you had no choice. Over time I actually learned to love my commute because it gave me time to think and time alone. I spent along time missing my city life when I left it behind about 6 years ago.

I had to laugh last night when I was stuck in traffic because I now live in a very rural town. The town is has no highways nor overpasses. Two lanes take you wherever you need to go as long as you don’t want to go over 35 mph. Some days the driving is even slower because we have a large Amish population. If you have ever been stuck behind a horse and buggy on a narrow and winding country road you likely understand what I mean by slow travel.

My time in “traffic” last night allowed me to realize what I really missed wasn’t my big city job and my commute but my time alone with my own thoughts. Life wherever I live tends to leave little time for my thoughts and dreams because I spend so much time taking care of the world around me. Sitting in the car whether behind a traffic jam on the highway or behind a horse and buggy forces me to slow down and just see the world at a different pace. I realized that I need to give myself that time more often and not just wait for the next time I am stuck in traffic.

I came to the realization yesterday that I am not someone who likes to work out during warm weather. When spring rolls around I have all of these grand plans as to how I am going to work out. Once warm weather hits I have lost my enthusiasm for the process entirely. I loose most of my weight and do most of my exercising in the fall and winter. I like the chill in the air and the look of the world around me. I am envious of those women who don’t mind the heat and just get out there and pound the pavement. I have tried working out in my basement but the humidity just drains me and I find other ways to distract myself from the thought of working out. The upside to my workout routine is that I emerge in springtime fit and healthy for summer. The downside is I have to work all the more hard in the fall to make up for my slacker mentality over the summer.

This week I found myself feeling just a little bit immature. I ran into someone I went to high school with. This was one of those encounters where I sort of vaguely remembered the person’s face but could not place them. After a few days I was able to remember who she was and had to chuckle just a little bit because clearly she had not been blessed by a weight loss wand over the last 20 years. Normally I wouldn’t feel so giddy with joy that someone had gained as much weight as this person had but I couldn’t help myself. This woman was a downright nasty teenager and quite full of herself. I remember a point where she tried to run me off the road because of some jealous fit about this guy I dated for a few days. The guy ended up being a loser in the end and I was thankful to be rid of him. She however went out of her way to make my life difficult for a long time. I hate to say it but sometimes you have to wait 20 years for a wee bit of justice and I would like to think that the extra 60-80 pounds she is carrying are a bit of the justice I deserved as a teenager.

My fascination with putting food away for later use has been expanded this week. I am learning to look at food in a new light. For a long time I considered only certain portions of a food and not the entire product as being edible. For example, I started out growing turnips for the root portion of the vegetable. I later came to realize that the leafy greens are edible and make a wonderful pesto. I am now growing an addition patch of turnips just for the greens. This lead me to consider the watermelon as a whole. Tomorrow I am going to try making some pickled watermelon rind. I am also hoping make pickles out of things like zucchini and cauliflower. Our freezer should be stocked full of all of the various types of pesto I intend to create!

We try to be good neighbors. Our children have been taught to respect the people around them and not run around like heathens. We take care of our yard and home. We somehow always seem to end up with one weird neighbor no matter where we live. Across the street a middle aged woman moved in about a month ago. A few times a weeks she comes over and tries to ask my husband to do stuff for her, will ask for a ride somewhere, or tries to buy our furniture. We have tried ignoring the doorbell when it rings by closing the shades or hiding in the basement. If we don’t answer the door she walks around the house and tries the other entry points to see if we respond. I have even put up a sign indicating to “click here” to use the doorbell. When we don’t answer any of her knocks or rings she will then stand at the door and shout to inquire if anyone is home. I would think that after a point she would start to pick up on the fact that we just aren’t interested in the type of relationship she seeks from us. I can only hope that day comes soon because I am tired of living like a hermit just to avoid her.

Tomorrow is a day that I have been looking forward to for a while. It probably sounds silly to most of you but our local farmer’s market opens tomorrow! I have been anxiously waiting for this so that I can work on building up my stockpile of locally made and produced goodies. In our climate nothing is really available until this time of the year but I have hope that someone out there will have some delicious treats for us. One thing I am hoping to find is a good deal on honey. We use quite a bit of honey and the stuff in the store is nowhere near as tasty as what comes from local bees. I really like knowing that I am supporting local growers and that my purchases strengthen our local economy. There is always some new or unusual to find at these types of markets which makes it fun. If you have a local market do not just drive by but STOP! There is nothing that compares to food from around the neighborhood.

Today was a big day for our younger son. We completed the process for enrolling him in cyber school. Our older son has been a student at a cyber charter school for a couple of years now. I cannot say enough positive things about our experience with online learning and distance education. There is no comparison between the two types of learning environments. The technology that is not available for online learning is absolutely amazing. I know it won’t be long before our older son is going to be ready to begin sat prep and I know that we will be using an online service for this. Online learning is perfectly suited for his type of learning style. I love the flexibility and adaptability of online learning for meeting the needs of diverse learning styles. It will be interesting to see how my younger son grows as he embarks on his new educational journey. He is absolutely ready and excited to begin school. I think we are both looking forward to this new chapter in his life.

We seem to have luck when it comes to having rental neighbors near us. We also seem to have luck when it comes to having these rental neighbors be a little bit “off”. There is a rental house across the street. It is far enough away that I wouldn’t think of the people living there as neighbors because there is a busy street separating both sides of the street. For some reason the woman that just moved in to this rental thinks that we are a place she can turn to for help. Now I am someone who believes in helping people but I am not a social service provider. My husband is not there to hook up your dryer. We pay for phone service for our home and not for the use of the general public. Our garage is not a garage sale and you shouldn’t be looking in it and asking me to buy stuff. I am not a taxi service for anyone other than my kids. If I don’t answer the door when you ring the bell umpteen times and you know I am home trust me I am ignoring you. Charge your cells, take the bus that is two houses down the street, and get your landlord to take care of your dryer issues.

When I was growing up I was always told that you should graciously accept something that someone tries to give you. As I have grown older I have begun to realize that there are indeed limitations to what I am willing to accept. It makes no sense to me to take things that I will just end up throwing away. Taking something and wasting it is not doing anyone any good. For example I will not take free game meat. We have several friends who hunt and are always offering venison and bear meat. The thought of eating this meat makes me gag. Although putting a plate of it on the table would be one of the best weight loss products you could give me. I have a violent repulsion to game meat. My reason for this stems from a childhood of having to eat game meat simply because we were so poor. I learned to despise every bite I was forced to eat after 18 years of deer, goose, and squirrels. So, I won’t take something free just be gracious when there are other people in the world who could put the gift to better use than I could.

One project that I have been anxiously looking forward to is the completion of our rain barrels. In the area where we now live our water bills are just about double what they were at our previous house. We are pretty conservative in our water use but we could always do better. One way we are hoping to save water is by using rain barrels. After much searching for the right type of rain barrels we have finally found some that will work. As I type my husband and son are configuring the plumbing for a pair of tandem rain barrels. Our hope is to add at least 2 more in the future and to be able to supplement our washing machine water needs somewhat. I am not quite sure how that will work but I am quite sure that someone out that configured a system to make use of rain water in more than just the garden.

I have a friend that I love talking with because she always has new ideas for things I want to try. There are some things that she suggests that I just don’t agree with but that is the beauty of our friendship. For example she loves coconut oil and insists it is amazing for everything from cooking to being a wrinkle filler. I also love coconut oil but just can’t take the risk of slathering my face in coconut oil and having it break out worse than it already is. She also doesn’t immunize her children. I can’t get behind this because I think there is a place form immunizations. I will however listen to all of her ideas on gardening, canning, and keeping a sustainable home.

I want chickens. Yes, I do realize that this sounds silly considering I live within city limits but it doesn’t stop me from wanting them. I know they can be dirty and stinky if allowed to be. I know that it usually costs more to get them started and house them than it would cost to buy organic eggs from a local source. I know that they only produce for a couple of years and then you need to replace them with new egg laying hens. I know my neighbors might cause a fuss. I also know I love being sustainable and being responsible for my own food. The kids would undoubtedly love them. We aren’t getting them I have come to terms with this idea but … I still want chickens.

This morning I got up bright and early to get my weekly baking done. I was a bit behind on this because I usually do it very early in the week. I am quite sure my family thought we would never get goodies back in the house . As I sit here typing each member of my family is munching on a different treat quite contentedly. If the do not slow down I am sure that one of us is going to have to investigate curvatrim reviews to see if it will help us loose weight. That is the one problem with baking a ton of goodies. Whenever our counters are covered in bread, rolls, English muffins, and cookies we all seem to eat way too much. I love that they are eating health and homemade food but you can have too much of a good thing. I do my best to keep it under control but I do believe my young son is now eating his fourth cookie in 10 minutes. I need to find a way to sneak vegetables into the cookies.

A friend of mine is one of those people who is just a fountain of information about local food sources. Her family buys very little food that does not come from a local producer. I find this amazing as it is one of my goals for our family. Today she called me to let me know that a friend of hers was in from the south with a truckload of peaches. I went to get peaches thinking I would be paying a certain price for a bushel of peaches. I have never bought peaches in bulk and was kind of surprised to find out that a box of peaches was a half a bushel. The price for a half a bushel was $25.00. I have no idea what the going price this season for peaches is going to be but this seemed a bit high. I would have loved to have gotten my peach canning out of the way but I am going to have to wait for a better price. I bought a half a bushel and I hope they are really good. Can anyone tell me what the typical price for peaches in your part of the country is?

There is something about driving that makes me feel free and at peace. I love the feel of being behind the wheel on the open road. I try very hard to remember this feeling when I start questioning the driving tactics of other people on the road. I recognize that young driver’s may not have all of the life experience it takes to slow down and enjoy the ride. I can’t tell you the number of times I have thought to myself that the person behind me on the road should take the time to get a life insurance quote. Tailgating, speeding, cell phones, and texting are all dangerous driving activities and a sure way to cause an accident. Just this weekend we were passed on the right side of the road by a very young driver who clearly had no concern for anyone on the road. Where on earth could you be heading on a Sunday morning that requires you to get there at warp speed?

About a month ago I purchased some praying mantis cocoon’s for our children. For the longest time I thought they would never hatch. We have had them in the past and they always seemed to hatch pretty quickly. I don’t know if it was because we got them earlier in the year that the last time but they didn’t seem to be doing anything. A couple of days ago I looked over at the jar where we kept them and it still seemed like nothing was going on. An hour later the entire jar was filled with baby mantises. What was really neat is that this time the kids got to see the remaining mantises exiting the cocoon. This is not something we have seen previously. What always amazes me is how quickly these little “babies” turn on each other. It wasn’t very long after they hatched that we had to set them loose in order to minimize the carnage as they started eating one another.

There are many things that I think that I am pretty good at. I can bake like there is no tomorrow. When it comes to saving money I will work every penny for all it is worth. There are things that I am just not good at as well. For example, I am not a good liar. I hate making excuses and being put on the spot. I know people who can come up with plausible excuses to get them out of just about any situation. This is not a skill that I have ever possessed. Trust me when I say that I don’t think lying is a good thing but there are times when you just have no option. I would love to be able to excuses like needing migraine treatments or having come down with a cold and have it seem acceptable. Whenever I tell a lie I feel as though the person I am talking to can see right through me. I usually end up accepting a great deal of invitations and responsibility that I don’t want simply because I can’t say come up with a good excuse.

The weirdest thing happened this weekend. My husband has been mowing the neighbor’s yard for about two years. It is something he has been doing since we moved in and no one has ever said a word. When he mows our yard he in turn mows well into the yard next door. This time however the neighbor lady to a notion to scream at him for it. She informed him that he was indeed mowing on her property and that he need to know where his property lines were. I don’t know what her problem was but I guess she had some reason. I am thinking she must have decided that he believed that what he was mowing was somehow part of our property or something. Maybe she just wants her elderly husband to spend more time in the heat pushing a lawn mower?

We live in a pretty residential area. Our next door neighbors are an elderly couple and their middle aged son. For some reason they don’t seem to realize that we can hear everything that they discuss outside simply because we live so close. Our back porch is screen in and enclosed on the side facing them. It is enclosed in such a way that they can see us but it is by no means sound proof. Last night, while reading on the back porch, I was privy to a conversation about constipation and the various ways that it might be relieved. All I can say is that I am thankful it was not a conversation about extenze or anything along those lines. We all get constipated and I can block the conversation from my mind as a result. I don’t know I would be able to do the same had I overheard a more sensitive topic. Having a conversation over the fence would be much more difficult if I had to block that type of conversation out of my mind.

Today is the first day in the last week that I have not worked outside. For the life of me I cannot figure why I feel so gross. It isn’t that I feel sick but I just feel sticky and grubby. I would swear I had spent the day in the garden but I haven’t. Do you ever have days where you just feel like a good shower is in order even though you are completely clean? My speculation is that is has something to do with the humidity. It has been unseasonably hot here for this early in the year. I would swear I was back in the south again instead of the north. If I weren’t trying to conserve water I would take another shower just to get rid of this gritty and grubby feeling.

For the last couple of weeks my legs have been absolutely killing me. I don’t normally have a problem with my legs. I am wondering if it has something to do with the heat? I can’t really tell if I am bloated or if possibly the few pounds I have gained are taking their toll. I really need to get myself in gear and get my diet on track. I just need to find some motivation or a new tool in my diet arsenal. It might be time for a visit to allireviews.com or something similar. I just loose the drive to stay on track when my body doesn’t feel the way it should. I really haven’t gained a ton of weight but I find that even a few pounds can make me feel out of sorts. Right now I am trying to eat all the protein I can because that usually kick starts my metabolism.

In my house it is always a struggle to get our children to eat vegetables. I have friends with children who willingly scarf down vegetables of all types. That is not my experience in rearing either of my children. This makes dinner and meals difficult. As much as I want them to try new foods I will not let it become a battle. I offer new foods but do not force them to eat massive amounts. Green beans are a staple in our house that everyone enjoys. I am trying to plan how many pints of beans I should can this year and the amount is staggering. If you consider that we eat them 3-4 times a week over the course of the year it adds up pretty quickly. With any luck our garden will produce a bounty of beans and I won’t have to buy them in bulk at the farmer’s market.

There should be no shortage of entertainment for our children this summer! Our older son is signed up for so many camps I programs that I have almost lost count. One program that I am very excited about is a local swimming program. The cost for the program was amazingly low which is wonderful! For a grand total of $26.00 he will be able to take a swim lesson each day of the week for the entire summer. My only hope is that he actually pays attention to the instructor. We have had him take swimming lessons in the past and he didn’t learn anything. He was more interested in how the pool filters, pump, and other devices worked. He is one of those children who need to understand how everything works. This is a good thing most of the time but not when it gets in the way of focusing on the task at hand.

If you have the opportunity to participate in a community garden I would highly recommend that you do so. This is our first year being a part of this type of gardening experience. We basically rent a plot amongst the other plots at the garden. Thus far we have met a bunch of really diverse yet very friendly people. It is neat to see how differently people approach gardening in the same place. Some people are very specific and detailed in their plans and others are more laid back. Our basic plan is to grow green beans in bulk. We realize that our ability to attend to the garden will be much less than some people and chose our crop based on this. With young children it is hard to commit to a high needs crop that is several miles away. I would love to plan everything out and putter around but that isn’t in the plan for this year.

A few months ago it occurred to me that I had no idea what my real hair color was. I had been coloring my hair for so long that I could only guess at what my hair color might be when left natural. It has been about 6 months since I colored my hair and I now believe that I am indeed a brunette. The disturbing thing is that it turns out that I have also managed to grow a few gray hairs. Thankfully I am not yet in need of information about wrinkle cream reviews. Somehow I have managed to evade getting any significant wrinkles. This is a good thing because I am not really thrilled with the number of gray hairs on my head at this point in time. Having wrinkles would be a bit more than my fragile self-esteem could handle. Having found out that I have not really been a blond for the last 20 years I can handle. Gray hair is not something I am ready to accept and wrinkles would just be over the top.

It has been a week since we had our satellite television programming shut off. This was an intentional decision that was not based on finances. We simply realized that our children were mindlessly staring at the television rather than using their brains. My older son did not have television for the first 5 years of his life and it did not harm him in any way. My younger son has never not had television. He has been exposed to cartoons that his older brother watched and I can clearly see a difference in his attitude as a result. He had begun imitating aggressive cartoon behavior and language. We now realize that he just can’t handle the same type of programming as his older brother. After one week of no television I am already seeing a slight improvement in his behavior. I am hoping that his memory of television cartoons fades and his preference for programs develops differently now that the negative programs are no longer available.

Last week a new friend and her children came over for a visit. This is a family we haven’t known for very long. Not long into their visit I was struck by how this woman and her daughter interacted with one another. Her daughter is the same age as my ten year old son but you would never know it. The child already has the look at attitude of an eighteen year old. It would not have surprised me one bit to have heard the child start talking about club flyers and the last party she went to. I very quickly determined that my naive son was not ready the types of things this girl was likely to want to talk about or be interested in. As much as I want him to make friends it is important that they we at least somewhat where he is in terms of maturity. I am not trying to determine the best way to opt out of future invitations to get together. The entire experience left me very glad that I am raising a boy and not dealing with a daughter at this point in life.

I love coconut oil but don’t use it very often. Most of the sources I have found for coconut oil have been outrageously expensive. There is a limit to how much money I will spend on certain things. Given that the coconut oil I had been using was running around $20 a quart using it extensively could be quite costly. A friend of mine found out that the Amish bulk food store in our town could order many things for us at really incredible prices. We were able to get a 5 gallon bucket of coconut oil for $50.00. After splitting the oil between 3 people it averaged out to about $18 for 6 quarts. You can be sure I am going to be ordering another bucket really soon because coconut oil is amazing for your health!

It is always interesting to listen to the people in my life describe me. It has been about a year since we started making changes in our lives that were geared towards being more self-reliant and sustainable. As part of this we are also trying to live in a way that is more environmentally friendly. To listen to people talk you would think that we have gone off the deep end or something. One person in my family has decided that we are now “bohemian” and another person called us “Amish”. A good friend of mine thinks we are hippies. I just laugh and ignore them. I will admit that I am considering changing my way of my dress just to mess with people. What do you think of the idea of pairing a caftan with riding breeches and hiking boots? My theory is that if people are already talking about you that this is a prime opportunity to mess with them. My mother loves telling the people at work about my latest projects. I believe it would be awesome if I stopped by her work wearing some unusual outfit and really give them something to talk about.

This year we decided that having a garden was something that would be a good family activity. We built a few raised garden beds in our back yard and also started some plants in containers. In addition to the back yard garden we have also rented a spot at our local community garden. It is so much fun to see the kids get excited about planting seeds and looking for the little sprouts that result. Our backyard garden is flourishing and producing well. Thus far we have a ton of lettuce that is ready for eating. Our small strawberry patch has produce about a quart of strawberries with more on the way. We have several pea pods that will be prime for picking soon. The garden is quite a bit of work to keep up with but so far it is entirely worth it. I am hoping that our summer does not stay this hot for the duration or else we are going to need more rain barrels to keep up with everything.