Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

First, I want to remind everyone of my 300th Post Giveaway Celebration that's going on right now- don't forget to enter to win your choice of infinity scarf & flower set or flower hair clips! 3 winners! Very few entries, so your chances are good!

As I mentioned before, I have been reading a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. The premise of the book is that the author and her family moved from Arizona to Virginia in a quest to consume only food that is locally grown. If possible, they grow or raise it themselves. If not, they should at least know the name of the person who did, and be able to drive to their farm within 30 minutes.

I always thought I was pretty smart about my food. I try to eat healthy- big on fruits and veggies around here, not too much meat- and I know where my food comes from. Well, I know in the sense that I know that apples don't magically just appear on shelves at the supermarket- they grow on trees (like MINE!). The chicken in my crockpot was once a living, clucking animal, and somewhere a wheat field was mown down to make my crackers. I'm okay with all of that.

What I didn't consider, however, is the point that Barbara Kingsolver is making in her book: lettuce doesn't grow in Virginia in January. Which means if I want to have a salad on New Year's Day (always good to kick off the new year with a healthy start) the lettuce I purchased in the store had to come from someplace where it's springtime- or at least feels like springtime. And last time I checked, that ain't the Midatlantic coast in January.

So yes, it grew on a farm, but what farm? How much gasoline was required to ship that head of lettuce from Springland to my grocery store? Could we maybe make a better choice for our planet by forgoing well-traveled lettuce and stick with more seasonal vegetables? Kingsolver writes, "Transporting a single calorie of a perishable fresh fruit from California to New York takes about 87 calories worth of fuel. That's as efficient as driving from Philadelphia to Annapolis, and back, in order to walk three miles on a treadmill in a Maryland gym."

In her book, Kingsolver recognizes that in order to embrace the "locavore" diet, she and her family would have to be very aware of the seasons and the produce that comes with them. No more peaches in April, no more strawberries in February. But in so doing, she discovered a few things:

1. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. When it's not there, it just makes you even more excited when it's finally time!
2. Real fresh is different from grocery store fresh. Ever eaten a strawberry straight from the plant? You know what I mean!
3. If you can't have what you love, you love what you have. Kingsolver and her family have discovered incredible recipes using only seasonal ingredients that they never would have enjoyed otherwise.

Kingsolver's daughter wrote,

"The first step, shopping, is actually easier. When you peruse the farmers' market for fresh produce, the options are clear. You don't miss what's not there, either, like Skittles placed at a third-grader's eye level at checkout. No wailing kids or annoying tabloids (omg...is Brangelina really over?!). Just wonderful, fresh things to eat.

When I saw giant boxes of strawberries piled on the tailgate of a farmer's truck, I didn't waste ten seconds asking myself the questions I would mull over in a conventional grocery: "Hmm, do I really want berries today? Are these overpriced? Are they going to mold the minute I get them home?" I power-walked past other meandering shoppers and bought a bucket load."

(She had been waiting for those strawberries all winter long!)

Ahh, the joy of the farmer's market. The funny thing is, there are so many people who assume that a farmer's market is pricey, but in truth I've always found farmer's market prices to be quite comparable to that of the grocery stores, if not better. Plus, you know for a fact that you're getting something fresh and, most likely, miles tastier than anything in the supermarket produce department.

On Saturday I stopped by the farmer's market in Ashland, VA to pick up something to take to a family gathering. I found a good sized "passport melon" (cross between a cantaloupe and a honeydew) for $2 and bought a half dozen pears for another $2. The pears were sold to me by a very kind elderly gentleman who insisted that I take a bite of one before I bought any. I had one bite and I was hooked. The sweetness was incredible. Little Boo swiped it from me and by the time I wrestled it out of her little hand all that was left was about a nickel-sized piece of pear flesh with five seeds stuck in it. Not sure where the stem went. Hmm...

My farmers' market shopping experience was lovely. I got to chat with the people who grew the food I was about to eat, and there was even a musician there serenading the shoppers with live music. Little Boo was free to run around in the grass while kind shoppers and vendors laughed at her silly antics. It was a nice day and all in all, I felt happy to be there.

So I've decided to try. I can't go totally locavore like the Kingsolver family, but I can try to choose fruits & veggies that are in season and I can try to be more conscious about exactly where my food is coming from, and attempt to make better choices according to my knowledge.

I am also going to try to think of my garden as more of an important food source for our family and not just a nice hobby. I am one of those people who hear about others harvesting their pole beans and I think, Pole beans? When did you plant those? Am I supposed to be planting something now? I recently did some research so that I can stay more on top of this stuff, and I went to the Virginia Cooperative Extension website and discovered this fabulous Vegetable Planting Guide. It gives you nice little formula to figure out when to plant what- you just fill it in on the handy dandy chart!

I am also very fortunate to have a brother who was smart enough to marry a wonderful woman who is a walking green thumb. She blessed me with this bounty from their garden, her kitchen, and their chickens.

That's a dozen free-range organic chicken eggs, 3 zucchini muffins (okay, there were more, but we had them for breakfast!), yellow squash, zucchini, and some kind of strange long purple beans that she says are really tasty. That's a whole meal right there!

After I had gathered the eggs my 7-year-old son looked at a chicken, then at the basket of eggs. He pointed at the chicken, then to the eggs and asked in a worried whisper, "Mom, does he KNOW?"

I laughed. Yes, Monkey, she knows. And so do I. :-)

Help!!

First, don't forget to enter my 300th Post Celebration Giveaway!

And now, remember that Wedding Letters contest I entered last month? Well, I'm a finalist! Hurrah! The finalists are posted on Jason F. Wright's facebook page (he's the author of The Christmas Jar and several other fabulous novels) and the letter with the most "likes" wins an iPad2.

So come help a sista out and vote for me! Then tell your friends to vote too!! THANKS!

Belated 300th Post Celebration Giveaway!!

This was my little project this morning. Weird, knit wrap shirt thing turned into a cute vest and flower clip! Woohoo!

It has been a reeeaaally long time since I've done a giveaway on here, and so I decided that a giveaway would be the perfect way to celebrate my 300th post! (it was last week...I kinda missed it, but oh well.) Here are the details!

- There will be 3 winners- 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place

- Contest closes at midnight on Thursday. If you comment after that, it won't count!

- Winners will be announced on Friday morning, the 12th

- You have 3- count 'em THREE!- ways to enter:

1. Leave me a comment. Say hey, what's up, whatever. Just give me some love.
2. FOLLOW me! I love me some new followers. If you follow me, mention it in your comment (follow me everything is alright, I'll be the one to tuck you in at night and if you wanna leave I can guarantee you won't find nobody else like me....come on, you know you were singing it in your head too!)
3. Twitter/Facebook/Blog me- just post about my giveaway on one of your favorite places to pontificate and then let me know in that great comment you're going to leave me.

So, for example, if someone posts and says, "Hey, what's up? I am your newest follower and I posted your contest on facebook!" Then they get 3 whole entries! If they say, "Hey, I just posted you on Twitter!" Then they get 2. You get the idea. I would recommend, for your friends' sake, that you not post about it EVERYWHERE, because as much as I would love the publicity, it might annoy people. I don't need human billboards. Just sayin'.

- In your comment, PLEASE leave me your e-mail address so that I can get in touch with you. name(at)whatever(dot)com. No e-mail address = no prize = sad you. :-(

- If you forget to mention something in your comment (like that you blogged about me or started following or whatever) please go back and delete your first comment. I am easily confused.

- Winners will be chosen at random for all 3 spots- first name I pick will be first, second will be second, and so on. Last one's a rotten egg! (just kidding)

- PRIZES! I have gathered a selection of goodies that are going to be listed in my etsy shop (that's right, you'll get a sneak preview!) and the three winners will get to choose their prize from among them. First place winner will get first choice, then to second place, and then to third.

Prizes are as follows:

1. Your selection of Infinity Scarf & Flower set. This baby is so versatile, it's crazy. A big shout out to my bloggy friend Alyssa of Live. Love. Craft. for her fabulous Mum Clip Tutorial that inspired me to do these matching flowers! She is having her own giveaway this week (in which I'm one of the sponsors- so you can win more goodies from me!!) so head over there and give her some love!!

Here I am rockin' the Misty Mint:

You can go long...

You can wrap it up...

Or go relaxed and dress up the hair!

Infinity Scarf & Flower sets are available in the following colors (only have 1 of each right now!): Lemon Butter, Misty Mint (pictured above), Fair Skies, and Berry Blossom (the one on the far right below- no matter how hard I tried, I could not get it to appear the same color that it is in real life- it's purple. Really, honest-to-goodness PURPLE!).

If an infinity scarf isn't your thing, you could choose from these lovely bloomin' hair clips- pick any 2! I have plenty of fabric left over from the scarves above as well, and I could make you one of those flower clips (without the scarf) if you'd like one of those to be one of your two that you choose.

And heck, since I'm feeling generous, take a look in my shop. If you win and you see something there that you'd rather have for a prize, let me know and I'll bet you we can work something out! ;-)

Whew! This contest stuff is COMPLICATED! I am looking forward to hearing from everybody and giving away some FAB prizes!!!

Linking up to...

Moneysaving Mom

Frugal Freebies

Freshly Baked Pita Bread- and my 300th Post! (How did that happen?)

Hey, guess what...this is my 300th post! And for lack of a better topic, I'm going to show you PITA BREAD MAKING! :-)

(actually, if I'd had my act together I would have had some fun giveaways for you, but alas, I did not. But they're coming soon, I promise!)

So, my husband recently underwent some pay changes at work which have significantly impacted his paycheck- in a negative way. So I have decided to start working my thrifty muscles and try to stretch our dollars once more.

Luckily, for me that means trying my hand at making things that I would normally buy. Chicken salad was on the menu for this week, and we love to eat it in pitas, so I thought hey- why not see if I can make pitas?

I used this recipe for pita bread, and at the end I used the damp towel method for softening the bread. All in all, it was a very simple process- ingredients go into the bread machine set on the dough cycle (takes 90 min) then dough gets turned out, divided into 8 pieces and rolled into circles. They relax on the counter for 30 minutes, then get put into the oven.

Our family has a new pastime. It's called pita races- each child bets on a pita to be the first to poof up and they see which one poofs first. Lots of fun for a 5-year-old and 7-year-old! (okay, I admit it. I was pulling for the one on the left.)

They only take about 4-5 minutes in a 500-degree oven and then they look like this: bread UFOs.

Here's the one we broke open to sample. Mmmm, fluffy pita-y goodness. You can't tell in this photo, but the pockets inside turned out perfectly.

And there are our pitas, all soft and lovely, awaiting the yummy chicken salad that is to be their filling. Today's Thrifty Adventure = SUCCESS! My husband has actually asked if we can just skip buying sandwich bread altogether and just have me make these. Umm, okay!

Have you had any great thrifty successes lately? Leave a comment and share!

Linking to:

Saturday Steal

You might think that after my recent posts about paring down that I would cut down on the bargain hunting. And I have. But the fact of the matter is, my kids still need clothes! Especially with the fall months approaching. So today I decided to get a jump start and we headed to the Goodwill outlet and I found some good deals on some great name brand clothes!

Here's what I snagged:

- For Starlet: 1 pair Childrens Place jeans, 1 pair Mossimo jean capris, 1 flowery skirt, 1 long-sleeve printed hoodie tee, 1 Forever Orchid short sleeve tee, 1 jacket

- For Little Boo: 1 Circo dress, 1 pair of Childrens Place footie pajamas

- For Monkey: 1 long sleeve pirate tee, 1 short sleeve baseball tee

Total Spent: $6 for 10 items of clothing.

Sweet!

I also bought some books. More books than I need. But I found a hardback copy of The Host, which I've been wanting for awhile (it even has the dust jacket still!) and I found several great chapter books to read with the kids.

For me, clothes and books are the two things that I will allow myself to collect. I love to wear clothes because for me it's a form of self expression, and I love to read books and I want to instill that love in my kids. I will often read a book that I've purchased for $.25 or $.50 and then pass it on to a friend for them to enjoy, so they don't all end up piling up around me. The ones that I really loved, however, I keep.

Done any good bargain hunting lately? Leave a comment and share!

Happy Saturday, everyone! :-)

A Wedding Letter

As you all may know by now, I love to write. I am always on the lookout for reasons to write (much as I am always on the lookout for reasons to craft) and so when this contest opportunity came along, I decided it would be a fun little project.

The challenge was to write a wedding letter for a fictional couple (Noah and Rachel) about to tie the knot. The letter was to be handwritten and sent via snail mail. I composed a letter on my computer, editing it until I was satisfied, and then, because in a contest like this I think presentation is everything, I decided to get crafty.

I distressed a sheet of linen-finish card stock with some brown ink and a few flourish-y stamps, then I hand wrote my letter on it. I then created the fancy sleeve for the letter, and sealed the paper with a wax seal before sliding it in.

(I purchased this long ago in Colonial Williamsburg, where I used to work)

I then placed the entire thing in a handmade envelope made from the cardboard of a shirt box (because it was too big to fit in a normal envelope and I wanted something sturdy to protect it).

If I end up being a finalist, I will let you know. They will post finalists by August 1st (yay, not too long to wait!) and then the winner will be announced by September 1st. If I am not a finalist, I will be sure to post my letter on here so y'all can read it. :-)

Spiritual Sundays: Beyond Decluttering: Living More Simply

This is a topic that has been on my mind quite a bit lately. As I'm sure you probably gathered from the post about my dream home, I am a minimalist wannabe. Meaning, my dream is to live in a space that is cleared of clutter, and has only my most special, most beautiful, and most useful objects in it. Because if you actually stop to think about it, how much of your day is consumed by your stuff? It may not seem that way, but I spend so much time getting after the kids to pick up their toys, doing the dishes, rebooting and folding the laundry, general cleaning and picking up of stuff- granted, much of that is a necessity of day-to-day living, but what if we just had less?

I always get a little bit like this in the summer because while we're on vacation for a week we get to experience life with less. Having a family of 5, I only bring clothes for about 4 days, and we just wash while we're vacationing. I do a small load every couple of days and that's about it. We bring the essentials, plus a small box of toys for the kids, and we make do with the sparse pots and pans that furnish our condo. When I tell the kids to pick up their toys, it takes less than a minute. When I "straighten up" it takes a minute or two. When I open the cupboard under the kitchen sink I see trash bags, dishwashing soap, cleaning spray, and paper towels.

Honestly, how much more than that do I really need?

Of course, in a rented condo you don't have to wash your own sheets (that would take a little additional laundry time) or worry about home maintenance or entertaining or holidays, but even all that would require maybe one additional closet's worth of stuff. It was just nice to be able to have free time- really free time- that I could just be, and know that I could read a book, play with the kids, or do whatever I wanted. That is the blessing of living more simply.

Another aspect of this dream of mine is to get back to being human. In the scriptures we are taught that "the natural man is an enemy to God", but I think that we have gotten so far away from the "natural man" what with technology and supermarkets and the internet- we're more in the phase of the "unnatural man" at this point (he's an enemy to God too, by the way).

This was another train of thought that got fueled while on vacation when I took a class called, "Healing Plants and Wildflowers." I was truly astonished at the incredible healing properties of the stuff that usually gets taken out by a weed whacker by the side of the road! Apparently the abundant dandelion crop in my backyard could really do me a lot of good. Our teacher quoted someone who said, "Healing herbs help the body to remember what it was like to be well." I LOVED that! As she was telling us about the various abilities of the different plants, I was just struck by how much God loves us, that He gave us these incredibly efficient and wonderful gifts, just sprouting up out of the ground all over the place. But we're so busy watching tv ads for the next great medicine that can heal us that we don't bother to learn about the ones God put right in our backyards.

This back-to-nature kick of mine got even more reinforced with the apple fest that's been going on around our house. I couldn't believe that for almost 10 years I've had that tree in the backyard and this is the first time I've bothered to do anything with it. And the sheer pleasure from the foods I was able to make with those apples was so satisfying, especially knowing that they came from a tree in my backyard. They weren't marketed to me, weren't packaged- they grew as a result of the hand of God, they were joyfully picked by the sweet little helping hands of my children and purposefully (if not joyfully) prepared into delicious foods by my own two hands. That's about as pure and simple as it gets.

I apologize if this post is kind of rambling; I just hope that you kind of get the general idea of my mindset lately. Less people junk. More God beauty and simplicity. More time spent in worthwhile pursuits. More joy in the gifts of the Lord- the bounty of nature, quiet meditation, my wonderful family. More education about being a real human- learning to live off the land and rely on only God and myself, not Wal-mart. It's all a process, but I'm hoping to get there, a little bit at a time.

If you'd like to get into this mindset with me, be sure to check out The Small Notebook, a blog by a true minimalist who shares her beautiful thoughts on living simply, especially this post on organizing (ha!) and this post on paring down. I am also currently reading a very thought-provoking book called, Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping and am about to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.). All in all, I'm thinking more about what I allow into my home and what I truly value. I am also trying to be more conscious and more grateful for what my Heavenly Father has given me (you know, the stuff with no price tag). :-)