After the recital we rushed to the Homeschool Roundup, where I gave a workshop on Unschooling. A couple of years ago when I was giving a workshop - we were disturbed by a knock on the door. I just ignored it, figuring it was someone coming in late or something. The knocking continued and the room monitor got up and answered it. I tried to ignore it and kept on talking. Then I heard an, "Excuse me..." and I looked toward the door where Joel and Jules were poking their heads through.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Ways to Impress Your Guests
After the recital we rushed to the Homeschool Roundup, where I gave a workshop on Unschooling. A couple of years ago when I was giving a workshop - we were disturbed by a knock on the door. I just ignored it, figuring it was someone coming in late or something. The knocking continued and the room monitor got up and answered it. I tried to ignore it and kept on talking. Then I heard an, "Excuse me..." and I looked toward the door where Joel and Jules were poking their heads through.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Cheep cheep cheep cheep entertainment
"Hello?" I said.
"Mrs. Pavliska?" said a young male voice. Sounded like a camp counselor to me. What could be wrong?
"Yes," I said, with my mind racing.
"This is the post office in The Small Town Next to Your Small Town," the voice said.
So what? What did he want? My mind was a mess.
"Your chicks are here. They'll be at your post office at 8:00."
This was not a prank. We were, indeed, expecting live chicks to come in the mail.
He hung up. Was he like totally laughing his rear off with his buddies at the post office? Why OH WHY, couldn't my post office just have called me at 8:00, when the chicks arrived? Wouldn't that have been better? Wouldn't it have made like a zillion times more sense? I can only imagine that the kid at the post office had a mean streak.
Jasper, of course, heard the phone and was up watching the yoga lady on television. I tried to go back to bed, but then Schnitzel wanted out, then Camille got up.....you get the idea.
At 7:30 I left to go get the chicks. I woke Joel and told him to get their area ready, complete with heat lamp and food, water, etc. Yes, yes, yes, we should have done this sooner. But we are what we are, and what we are is a big old sloppy group of procrastinators.
We heard the chicks peeping as soon as we walked into the post office. There was much fighting in the backseat on the way home between Camille and Jasper, both of whom wanted to hold the box. They could see the fuzzy little critters through the air holes. Very adorable.
When we got home we found Joel still rinsing out waterers and feeders....the chicks sat peeping in their box while we got everything ready. I put a little bit of sugar in their water, mixed grit and feed for the feeder, put the fluff in the splashy pool we were using for a brooder and covered it with paper towels so they wouldn't get spindle-legged (I just read a chicken book)...and got ready to set up their heat lamp. It was broken, of course. I called Jeff who led me on a wild goose chase through the garage looking for one that he "thought we had..." The end result of this was a trip to Tractor Supply to get a heat lamp. Whew! Finally, by 10:00 - all the chicks were settled in.
In the chicken book, there was a section about what to look for in your chicks when they arrive. Something called "pasty butt" was listed. Sounds attractive, right? If a chick were to have pasty butt, you would have to remove it or their little bottoms could become obstructed and they wouldn't be able to poop. Guess what? One of the little stinkers had pasty butt. So I have two sunburned calves and one pasty-butt chick. I had to scrape it off and it was really stuck on. I had to moisten it, first. He still isn't looking as good as the other chicks. I am not the kind of person who does this sort of thing easily.
I am having a hell of a time keeping Camille off of the chicks.
Because I don't have enough to do, I have also been collecting some items for two Darfuri families who have settled in San Antonio. Tomorrow morning at 7:00 I have to take it to a friend who will deliver it...
Well, I have a lot more to say but it is late and I am tired and in two days Jeff comes home and then in one more, Ellie does! There is light at the end of my pasty butt tunnel....
Sardine Mama
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Unconditionally Bad Parenting Day
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Red Alert: Should Your Kids see Batman?
Joel and Ellie weren't allowed to see PG13 movies until they were 12. Jules was allowed to see the last Indiana Jones movie, even though he is only 10. Ellie is still upset about that. But she is working on letting go of grudges so so as not to create imbalance in her karmic footprint :).
Anyway, back to Batman. Wow. Tons of special effects, of course. Great acting. Heath Ledger was amazing as The Joker - so sad - he had such talent. And of course, Christian Bale was, as were all of the Batmans (Batmen???) who came before him, totally hot (Michael Keeton was my personal favorite; humor turns me on). BUT. The movie was unbelievably violent. I have to wonder how the industry can justify giving Indiana Jones and Batman the same rating of PG13. Batman should be rated R. No way Jules is going to see it - I'll have to think about Joel - I'm undecided. As for me, I am questioning more and more my own ability to be entertained by violence. I am finding that my tolerance for it is becoming weaker, and I think that is a good thing.
What was upsetting about the violence wasn't so much the weapons and explosions. My boys see that stuff on their video games. It was the intensity of the cruelty and rage. Heath Ledger was truly phenomenal in his role as The Joker, and there is even talk of an Academy Award for him, posthumously. But something in the character of The Joker has changed. I think that we, as a society, have changed. The Joker was so mean, so demented, and so evil. And everything was so personal. The ending was dark and depressing. Human nature was shown at its worst, and love was exploited and turned into a catalyst for hate and suffering. I suggest that impressionable children (and adults) avoid the movie. If you can sit through a scene where a mother has a gun held to her head as she clutches her crying children in her arms while her husband pleads for her life, only to have one of the children yanked from the mother's arms and a gun held to his head, then you have a stronger constitution than I do. All of the explosions and shooting and chasing didn't hold a candle to the quiet violence of that moment. It was truly unbearable for me, and I almost walked out at that point. But of course I didn't. But to think of Jules seeing it...
Anyway, the theater was full of kids of all ages, most of whom were with their parents who were cheering and enjoying the excitement. Children take their cues from their parents. Even if it is about something like violence, from which all children naturally recoil.
Times like this cause me to question human nature. It makes me wonder about my own nature. You know, I was reading a history book to the boys and we were learning about gladiators. Of course, the information was very violent. I was uncomfortable reading it to them. And the author ended the description of the violence by explaining that the Romans were different from "us". They enjoyed watching violence. I was like WHAT???? How are they different from us? Look at what we watch on television! Look at the games our kids play! I truly hate it when people try to pretend we have become so much better, so much more evolved, than our ancestors. Why must the people of the present work so hard to separate themselves from those of the past? How can we hope to avoid the same mistakes? Of course, the boys and I talked about all of this at great length.
Man, I am so heavy tonight. On a lighter note, we are sitting here in bed watching Saturday Night Live. A commercial just came on for Pizza Hut, advertising their new pasta dishes that are "restaurant quality". Am I the only person who thinks it is strange for a restaurant to advertise that it is now serving restaurant-quality food? As in, "hey! this is something new for us! our other food was just crap!" What marketing genius is behind this and what are the odds that he/she is getting paid oodles and oodles more than me to come up with this stuff? That is like saying that hospitals are now going to provide some services that are "hospital quality" as opposed to their other services, which are not. Dumb.
OK. It is late and I am reduced to blogging about Pizza Hut. Oh God. Saturday Night Live is over and Jeff is now enthusiastically turning up the volume for an episode of Star Trek. What did I do to deserve this? And why is Mr. Spock a "Mr." instead of a Lieutenant or something? Why is he called mister? Isn't that weird? Why are their pants so short? And have you ever noticed that the planets they visit are all the size of small towns? The entire planet is always a town. There is like 1 guy in charge, and a few people running around. The women are all scantily clad, of course, with beehive hairdos. And what is up with the mini-skirts and go-go boots worn by the females of the crew? Why does Captain Kirk wear eye liner? Why do they lean into the tilt when the ship experiences turbulence, instead of against it? Why is this show still on and why does my husband watch it every Saturday night?
I'm going to roll over and try to sleep through it. Although, strangely enough, I do not remember this episode....it is called "Spectre of the Gun" and looks entirely insane, of course. Now I must admit (quietly) to being a fan of The Next Generation. I have a thing for old bald gentlemen with Shakespearean accents and French names like Jean-Luke. Or, luckily for Jeff, just old bald guys, in general. Oh! The crew has just landed on the planet. I have seen this one. The planet (which is, of course, the size of a small town) is a replica Tombstone, Arizona and they are going to reenact the shootout at the OK Corral. They are going to examine the violence of their heritage. Oh how convenient! What synchronicity! See how it matches the theme of my post? Perfect. Jeff is watching it like he hasn't seen it a million times. He's so cute.
I had a great time at bunco last night. Karen served up a scrumptious meal and ended it with a delicious peach cheesecake. I didn't win anything, though. And on top of that, my publicist smacked me on the forehead at one point. She does that occasionally. She wants me to open up a "real" writer's blog - not just one where I babble about my life and post pics of my kids. Like I have time for stuff like that! When would I have time to post pictures of bullfrogs and cow dogs if I were to waste all of my time writing witty opinions and observations? It is bad enough that she expects me to write a BOOK and get out a weekly column every single week! Every day she's like, "What have you done? Have you written any pages? What are you doing with your time?" And I'm like, "Hey! If I had time to get a real job, don't you think I'd get one?" Gosh. The next thing she's going to do is ask me to actually pay her. Ha! I'm already giving her a cut of everything I've never written....some folks are just greedy, unhappy little people. And she's still mad over a fight we had when we were in the 3rd grade. Note to self: "Get a new publicist with whom I have no rocky history..."
OK - the little Russian guy (Checkhov or something?) just got to make out with a saloon girl. Jeff is grinning. Gotta go throw up now.
Sardine Mama
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Cowboys and Cow Dogs
"Just rig up some shade for them," he said. "And, oh, try to spritz them down with some sunscreen." He looked totally serious when he said this.
"Really?" I asked.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
That's Total Bull...Frog
I swear this thing weighed five pounds. He was waiting in the splashy pool. He couldn't get out. The small pond behind our house has dried up, so the kids walked him all the way to the lower pasture and set him free in that pond. He swam off quite happily. Jeff says he had some good looking legs on him....yuck. I have never eaten a frog leg - but my boys ordered them once in a restaurant in Louisiana and consumed them with gusto, of course. Jeff used to eat them as a kid; probably ate some of this guy's cousins.
Yesterday morning Jules began complaining that his ear hurt. Normally, I wouldn't let this bother me. But ever since the whole brain tumor thing, I tend to not ignore Jules when he complains about stuff. I learned that the hard way. So I wanted to take him to the pedi - but first I had to do something about his hair. Yes, brain tumors are one thing but bad hair is another - so I called Jocelyn and found out she was on vacation. Oh no! His hair was so bad that I couldn't possibly take him to the doctor looking the way he looked. So we went to Fantastic Sam's at the strip mall, where I had to repeatedly tell people that his father had cut his hair on a whim at the beach with some very dull shears of some kind....Anyway, he looks very handsome :).
So then we headed to the pediatrician's office, a full hour and a zillion dollars worth of gas away. And guess what? Nothing wrong with the kid. No ear infection, no fever, no sore throat, nada. I suspect that with all of the salt water he was floundering in all day - he just had some water in his ear. Since he is totally deaf in that ear he might have had some sensations or "sounds" that were unfamiliar to him and it was expressed to me as "pain". Anyway, he is fine now and hasn't complained since. I rarely take the kids to the doctor, with the exception of Jules. Jules often is sick in the winter and fall - ends up with respiratory infections and asthma symptoms. Plus I am just plain paranoid where he is concerned. He was born very tiny and has just always seemed my frail child. (Although he isn't really frail at ALL).
When he was five years old he would occasionally say he couldn't hear out of his ear. I took him to the doctor a few times and he always had fluid behind his ear drum - it would be treated and he wouldn't say anything more about his ear for several more months....it was kind of a cycle. When he was seven he began complaining more often about his hearing. He finally had a hearing test and that was when we discovered he has a brain tumor and is completely deaf in his right ear. It is benign and hasn't grown in the three years we've been monitoring it. It is operable but as long as it isn't growing, it is going to be left alone. We take him to Los Angeles to a doctor who specializes in this type of tumor. You can look back to the beginning of the blog to see pics of him with his doctor at the House Clinic...getting the thumbs up sign for another year! Anyway, so this explains my hair trigger reaction of taking Jules to the doctor for any little complaint. Joel, on the other hand, has only seen our pediatrician ONE TIME. And it was for a tetanus shot :). He never ever ever gets sick. And when he does get sick, he tends to do it very quietly so as not to disturb anyone. My kind of kid.
Last night we had a wonderful dinner here at home with my dad and our friend, Miss Joyce, who was in from Louisiana. Joyce used to live in New Orleans. Her home was one of the ones close to the break in the levy. She lost everything. Absolutely everything. She now has a home in Franklinton. We were talking last night about how important it is not to let your identity get attached to things you own, or things you do. The catalyst for this conversation was Ellie's piano playing, which led to talking about the Olympic athletes....we were discussing how so much work goes into one shot at a performance or competition or contest...and how often athletes or musicians or competitors fall flat on their faces and miss their one bit shot, but that some recover and go on and others don't seem to. The same holds true for those who lose everything in disasters. Some recover and others seem to never truly regain a sense of self. It all goes back to whether or not you identify "self" with "things" or "accomplishments".
Here is the recipe for the Cashew Alfredo sauce I made last night. Delicious! And you will not believe that there is no cream in this stuff! Not even any milk!
3/4 cup cashews
1 3/4 cup water
3 cloves of garlic
3/4 cup of grated Parmesan
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
whole wheat penne
Place the cashews in a blender and blend on high for about 2 minutes. The cashews will be a fine powder. Add water and blend for another two minutes. Meanwhile, saute the garlic in a little olive oil. Then add the blended cashews/water and stir over medium high heat. This will thicken beautifully and look like a lovely cream sauce. Add salt and pepper. Drain pasta, mix with Parmesan, and add to the cream sauce. Stir in some sun dried tomatoes (you can reconstitute them first in some warm water for about 1/2 hour) and garnish with fresh basil leaves. I served with a fresh green salad and steamed carrots.
Well, I need to knock out a couple of columns. I also need to prepare for the workshop I'm giving at the upcoming HERO Roundup. I'll be talking about unschooling. Lots to do....
Sardine Mama
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Living Long and Prospering at the Beach
Even Ellie had a nice, relaxing day. She read and walked dogs, mostly.
We hardly ever stay at this place over the weekend, we always prefer to come during the middle of the week to avoid crowds. But due to our Big Bend trip in January and our California sojourn, we are running low on paid vacation days so here we are on a weekend. The beach was PACKED. But this is the first year I have felt that everyone understood that cars can flatten you. Last year, I would have been a nervous wreck chasing Jasper and trying to keep him out of the cruising beach traffic. I just love it when they get old enough and you can say to them, "See that car? It can kill you. Stay out of the road," and have them go, "Yikes! No problem, Mom." Of course I still had to keep a close watch on everyone in the water. The little ones don't scare me as much as the big boys. They will swim out as far as they can and it makes me crazy. Jules, as usual, spent the entire day in the water.
This was the first time that Camille did the same. She hardly ever came in. I would have to go and drag her out to apply more sunscreen. Here she is after getting wiped out by a wave...
While she was trying to do a nice little pose like this:
So last night we came back to the RV park and Jeff and I took the little ones to the pool. They have a really nice pool, here. The 3 bigger kids chose to eat dinner at the trailer, instead. Ellie and Joel were nursing some mild sunburns. When we returned from the pool there was somewhat of a block party going on. Most of the people here keep their RVs here all summer and they come out on weekends. So they all know each other. Like i said, we never come on the weekends so we were unaware of all of this partying. While we were eating dinner after swimming, I was like, "Where is Camille?" and Jeff says, "I think she's at the party." Sure enough, I go outside and there she is, engrossed in a game of Duck Duck Goose with about 20 or so other kids - game being supervised by a daddy. She had walked out, said, "My name is Camille. I want to play." We literally dragged her in at 10:00 - interrupting a game of Freeze Tag. She was devastated. "No, no! Let me stay out here with all of my friends!!" Who says homeschooled kids have no social skills?
OK - speaking of homeschooled kids and social skills, that reminds me of another Ellie story. I had dropped her off at the birthday pool party of a friend who attends school. He was the only kid she knew at the party. When I came back to get her she got in the car and said she'd had an ok time. She said the other kids weren't intentionally rude, they just didn't know how to include her in on their conversations. She said, "They were just lacking in social skills." I found that funny because Ellie was clueless that that is what people say about homeschooled kids - not the other way around. But often, we find that it is the other way around.
So last night Jules begins talking about how his bangs are bothering him. I have mentioned that it is suspected that he has Asperger's. So we were thinking, "He's either gonna say it a couple of times or he is going to get fixated on it and not be able to stop..." It was the latter. After an hour of him saying his bangs were bothering him Jeff says, "I'll cut them."
"No way," I said. "Don't you touch that child's hair."
Too late. Jules was on the bandwagon. "Oh yes! Please! Cut them! I can't take it any longer. Really. They're too long." Apparently, the bangs had crossed some invisible barrier between bearable and unbearable, instantaneously.
The other kids, who were quite tired of hearing about the bothersome bangs, chimed in, "Let him cut them!"
"You don't even have scissors," I said.
"Yeah, I have some here in my tool kit," Jeff said as he dug out a pair of dull, industrial-looking scissors.
The surgery began. There was much talk about being still. "Be still. Why can't you be still? Dude, be still. I'm not kidding, be still."
Jeff didn't actually say, "oops". It was more implied. There was a brief moment of silence and expectation on Jules' part and then Jeff said, "Oh my God!" followed by, "It's not that bad," followed by, "Really."
Then the siblings got involved and there was hysterical laughter. Jeff started laughing, too. We are talking deep, permanent, psychological scarring. Jules worked his way through the crowd towards me and when he emerged he was.......Mr. Spock. That's all I can say. The kid is Spock. He will be getting a buzz cut tomorrow. I would post a pic but he would never recover from it.
Every year in the past, Joel has been the social butterfly here. We were never here long before he had a couple of boys hanging around on skateboards, or gathered around him on the beach. I knew he was changing quite a bit but this trip really showed it. He had no interest in socializing - just wanted to hang out and read a book. He will be 14 in September. While he is still quite the clown, he is also becoming more quiet and I can just tell there is a whole lot of "stuff" going on in that head of his. It takes a lot of quiet energy for a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly - and I think that is kind of what he's doing. Obviously, though, he is still quite goofy. But I FINALLY took a photo of him where he wasn't self-consciously turning his face into a clown face...
But then THIS happened...as you can see, he receives much encouragement....
Well, gotta pack up this can. But first, here are the most interesting google searches that landed people on this blog overnight:
1. Can I feed sardines to my dog?
2. Can I feed sardines to my baby?
3. Recipes with canned sardines
4. Potassium level in sardines
Answers: yes, wouldn't, why?, don't know
Fondly,
Sardine Mama
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Salty Dogs and Saragosa
Friday, July 11, 2008
Back in the Can
Speaking of my sister, yesterday morning Jeff took her and a friend and a ton of luggage to the airport at 5:00 am. They were off to Alaska! Today they are doing a little sightseeing in Seattle and tomorrow they board their cruise ship. I feel badly for whoever sat next to her on the plane. Hopefully he or she didn't cross the line. We have already heard once from my sister's house sitter (yes, Hannah, feed the fish even though she forget to tell you to) and our house sitter. When I grow up I want to be a house sitter. Truly, aren't there people who totally do that for a living? Travel around sitting in people's homes while they're on vacation? Not too shabby.
Well, being back in the can is making me miss our gigantic California trek. People constantly ask me if it was stressful and maybe the pain of it is fading, as it does for childbirth, but when I remember it (all the way back to April) I have nothing but sweet memories. I truly think it will go down in history as the best vacation ever. And the odds of us ever doing a trek like that again are slim - it was obviously quite expensive. When we started loading up the trailer for this little weekend getaway the kids were like, "Oh! Here is my toy horse! Here are my shoes! Here is all of my underwear!" Yes, folks, we hadn't quite unpacked completely. I never quite complete anything...it is part of my personality. A therapist would tie it into a general fear of success at ...you know...ANYTHING. So our Disney schedule is sitting here on the table, our Yosemite map is on the counter, pine cones, rocks, and other sundry items are tucked away here and there in drawers and cubbies...
What I loved about that trip, in addition to my having way fewer chores and responsibilities, was exactly what most people think would have driven me nuts (myself included). I liked the closeness. I know, that is weird, right? Especially for me! But it was truly an intimate and close time. I was so aware, the entire trip, that it was not going to ever happen again. Ellie would never be 15 again, Joel would never be 13 again, etc etc etc...do you know what I mean? We are on the threshold of our little family taking on a new form as I face the fact that in 3 years Ellie will not be with us so much....so here we were, all together in this little camper with really nothing to do but drive, hike, and be together without the distraction of video games, phones, friends, chores....At night when we fell asleep it reminded me of when we first moved back to the farm, before we added on to the house. It was very small and we just had the 3 kids, plus Jeff's dad. At night Jeff and I would be in bed with Jules cuddled between us and Ellie and Joel literally just a few feet away - and I remember when we were in the process of adding on I worried that we would be too spread out. And sometimes, it does indeed feel as if they are so far away from me - literally and (as far as the teens are concerned) sometimes figuratively. Anyway, so in our little can we are like like Laura Ingalls' family - Ma and Pa and all the kids sleeping in basically one room. The only thing missing is my dad! He usually travels with us to the coast but he is having fun entertaining a dear friend this week.
Once again, we are the largest family in the smallest trailer. The rig next to us is really huge. They have one very tiny and very quiet child. He just stares at my kids. I think they are scaring him. In addition to their very small child, they have a ridiculously small dog. He would fit in your hand. Schnitzel looked at me like, "What the heck is THAT?" At first she left it alone because she thought maybe it was a hairy guinea pig and she is used to bunking with the boys' piggies. But then it made a pathetic little bark and she looked at it like, "Oh for crying out loud," and fussed at him something awful. So now both the little itty bitty kid and the little itty bitty dog are afraid of us. That's fine. When staying in close quarters, like RV parks, with a bunch of strangers, it is important to establish a pecking order. Camille and Jasper were up before 7:00 establishing their dominance by being the first ones up and screaming. Very slowly, other kids began screaming all over the park. It was like being the first monkeys up in a rain forest - they had to get all the other monkeys moving and grooving, and they did. OK - so Ellie just said, "What if there is somebody sitting in their gigantic RV reading your blog while their little kid and their little dog are sitting outside staring at the scary family next door and slowly realizing you're talking about them?"
Hmmmm.....
I will post some beach pics tonight or tomorrow! Jeff just plugged in some White Stripes to get everyone moving - gotta get lunch packed up and hit the surf. Oh, and if you missed travelling to California with us - go back to earlier posts in the blog. It is all there!
Sardine Mama
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Challenges of Feeding a Family in our New Reality
1. Sardine recipes. Believe it or not - there are too many to list! And I just thought people ate sardines on crackers while camping....anyway - there is also a sardine diet! Go to http://www.sardinediet.com/.
2. Do Sardines have hair? With the exception of Jeff, all the sardines in this can have hair.
3. How long do sardines in a can keep? Well, we stayed in a tiny can for 3 weeks on the way to California. I'm not sure what you mean by "keep". Ellie didn't seem to keep as well as the rest of us.
4. What are the mating/spawning habits of sardines? Excuse me? None of your business.
Now that that is taken care of I can really blog. We are still enjoying a deliciously laid back summer. I am only filling up my tank every two weeks as opposed to every 5 or 6 days during the "school year". I am really considering simplifying my life to the point where I can keep this slower pace for good. We are also looking into buying a diesel vehicle and altering it to take vegetable oil. Would have sounded nuts to me several months ago, but not anymore. We currently drive a big old 12 passenger van. What a waste! Half of the time I am driving it around with only 2 kids in it anyway. However, here is the catch on buying a smaller vehicle. A smaller vehicle won't tow our travel trailer. And while I believe travel trailers to be part of a now distant past of cheap fuel - I am not quite ready to give ours up, yet. But doesn't it sound ridiculously selfish? We have to drive our gigantic gas guzzling van so that it can pull our gigantic travel trailer (reducing our gas mileage while in tow) to far away places where we can drive around and waste more gas. Anyone want to comment on veggie oil vehicles? I do not think it is a feasible alternative for everybody - but it can be an immediate solution for us, as an individual family, to reduce our carbon footprint while waiting for something else to turn up.
The other thing I am dealing with right now is rising food costs. Has anyone else noticed the rising food costs? Unbelievable! And it seems that the healthier you eat, the more expensive the food is. People living in our country at or below the poverty line (and even many who are above it) are really feeling the pinch in a very serious way. If you want to compare the cost of a turkey/Swiss cheese sandwich loaded with veggies (avocados, sprouts, etc - just the way I like it) on wheat bread, with a bologna/ processed cheese sandwich on white bread (with a coupon for free soda thrown in with the white bread) - it is no wonder why the disadvantaged are fighting off obesity and Type II diabetes.
I used to be able to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and dairy and my bill would be very low. The expense of the grocery bill seemed to be tied directly to how much convenience and processed foods I bought. Now I am not seeing that so much. The fruits and vegetables are very expensive. If you want to buy organic, forget it! For a family our size, it isn't feasible.
And while I'm talking food - they say that much of what is driving food costs up is, of course, the cost of gas to transport it. Then why, might I ask, are we buying New Zealand apples when we grow apples right here in Texas? Why are we exporting apples and importing apples at the same time? My dad just bought shrimp today from Taiwan. Why? We are 2 hours from the Gulf of Mexico. He said it was all they had at our local HEB grocery store.
So people say we need to start buying locally. Where I live, that isn't so easy. I can go to a farmer's market and get tomatoes and cucumbers - often that is all there is. I am so spoiled by my year-around food availability - I have forgotten how to eat seasonally (if I ever knew in the first place). So I am really in the process of re-evaluating food right now. We had a garden and it produced a ton of tomatoes and corn, but that was pretty much it. And with the exception of the tomatoes I dried, they are pretty much gone. The corn was eaten the day it was harvested :). Our tomatoes are dormant and will hopefully produce again when the temps go down a bit. We just planted more corn. But truly, how much food would you have to grow to sustain yourself? How did people used to accomplish this? And how, in South Texas where it reaches 100 degrees, am I supposed to afford to water all of this? Just thinking out loud, here. These are the sorts of things I have been contemplating. And I still want a milk cow!
We do have 24 chickens on the way so we will be having natural fresh eggs again soon - yay! We are also going to order some for eating. But again, I've been thinking about that. I am so used to eating chicken breasts and nothing else - is that realistic when you butcher your own? Of course not. And how will all of these changes I'm contemplating fit into my crazy/active life? I want to slow down but my kids don't.
I want to hear from you vegetable growers out there! And any of you who are making big changes or little changes in your lives as we adapt to this new world of ours. I am interested in food co-ops, etc. I checked into http://www.greenling.com/ but we're talking about $1.79 for ONE APPLE. Joel eats about 5 apples a day. No way!
Here is a list of the food items you should buy organic, if at all possible.
1. Peaches!! We just bought a bag today - no organic peaches available at my grocery store (local HEB). I would have to drive over 35 miles to get to Whole Foods where organic peaches would probably be available. Peaches are one of THE WORST foods for pesticides.
2. Strawberries! Another favorite and also not available organic where I live.
3. Raspberries
4. Grapes (don't kids love grapes???)
5. Apples. Also one of the worst! Again, organic isn't available where I live.
6. nectarines
7. apricots
8. pears
9. cherries - honestly, who can afford cherries priced such as they are in S. Texas?
NONE of the above are available organic here. Today in my store, only bananas were offered up as organic, and they have recently been removed from the danger list.
10. tomatoes (we've all had our scare of tomatoes recently, no?)
11. corn - much of our corn is genetically modified - did you know that?
12. potatoes - so this goes for fries and all other potato products
13. celery - is available in my store as an organic product
14. cucumbers
15. spinach (another recent scare) organic salad greens and spinach are available in my store.
16. Green and red bell peppers
17. Green beans - we're talking acephate, benomyl, chlorathalanil, methamidophos,
18. Carrots - a new addition to the list!
19. rice
20. oats
21. milk (organic here is over $5 a gallon - but thanks to little old me - they do carry it!)
So this is basically, you know, everything we eat! OK - let me hear from everybody. I really want to know how you are handling feeding your families. I would suggest the sardine diet, but apparently we're not supposed to eat anything that is currently coming out of our oceans, either! A little mercury with that tuna, anyone?
Sorry so serious today!
Sardine Mama
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The Morning After
Here is the Boot Brigade. Jasper is still managing to get into his pink boots.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Snakes, Grapes, and Purple Phones
1. Squished grapes all over my floor. And yes, I know the floor is the exact same one that is in the astronaut's kitchen in the movie Apollo 13. It has been here awhile:). Actually, while we were looking at new floors, we discovered this SAME ONE (also in avocado) at Lowe's. It is "retro". I have been complaining about this floor for forever. Now I am thinking it might be funny to replace it with a newer version of itself. Not funny enough, though.
2. My new purple phone! This is a very cute phone. I was previously the owner of a larger, older, clunkier and far-less-attractive phone, known as the Fred Flintstone phone. This one is now programmed with various Chili Pepper ringtones, depending upon who is calling. I feel more popular, already.
3. Schnitzel's Surgery. She had a cyst removed from her ankle and her teeth were also cleaned. She seems to be very uncomfortable. She slept with me last night and moaned and whined throughout the night. It is almost time for her to take another pain pill. See her bandage? Poor baby.
Anyway, so this was all you were going to get; grape, phone, dog boo-boo - when suddenly THIS happened...Camille came running in the house screaming her head off....followed by this!
Yay! The blog is saved by a snake. Leave it to Joel to provide entertainment/horror. Ellie was working outside in the front beds, getting ready to spread some mulch. She often will remove her iPod - walk into the living room and announce she needs to be with nature and live like Thoreau....then she will piddle about for a few minutes outside before coming back in to replace the buds in her ears. So she was happily communing with nature when the snake startled her. She was accused of screaming to which she replied, "He jumped at me! What was I supposed to do?" Snakes are known for their impressive skills at jumping. Ellie even took a turn holding the snake and just as she said, "Ohhh....I like this snake! We are friends!" he moved or something and she tossed him up in the air and he landed on his back with a small thud on the table. So much for friendship. Ellie is currently back outside digging in the dirt (more gingerly).
Speaking of Ellie and Thoreau, and noticing Martin Luther King on Joel's T-shirt, I must add a Gandhi story here. Can you see the thread? My mind works in mysterious ways....Thoreau influenced Gandhi, Gandhi influenced MLK, Ellie is just plain easily influenced.....so here is the story:
We were driving in the car and Ellie was saying how she wants to live simply and become even more of a minimalist than she already is (and she is a big minimalist compared to most kids her age). Anyway, so we're driving and she says in all earnestness, "Mom, I want to be like Gandhi. Oh look! A Starbucks! Stop and get me a latte." That just cracked me up. Gandhi holding a $5 cup of latte.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Great Escape....
Amber and her "water baby" visit with a midwife.
I'm going to go work on my tan - and it needs a lot of work, believe me :)