Happy Earth Day

I don't regularly bring this up too often, just try and let others find the truth as it dawns on them, but some days it is just appropriate to get a little eco-crazy. I figure the commemoration of Earth Day is appropriate.

What a sickly materialistic and wasteful society we live in. Yes the USA. There are plenty wonderful things about democracy and free enterprise, but there is also plenty wrong with our society just loosening the belt and letting itself get fat and gross. Fast food kings and queens make their way slovenly across the country convincing us all the convienience is worth the inflated price, disgusting 'nutritional facts', and excit from the traditional family meal. Not to mention all the pre-packed crap that the meals come in before cooking and then after being taken out the window. Who needs 4 straws and 15 napkins anyhoo! Disgusting. Don't eat fast food. You will save lots and lots of money. Don't do disposable eating, or disposable living. Mke wholesome foods. Grow your own, cook food. Talk to family, not a speaker.

Speaking of disposable....what trash this country makes. Really, you don't need TWO trash cans for any household. If you do, you are wasting way too much. Not only are paying more money for the extra can, did you consider the cumilative trash and how much it's disposability costs? I garuntee that trash represents all the crap that you don't really need but you bought anyway because it was more convinient at the time. In my county, the actually offer free compost bins and an extra dollar deduction from your monthly city bill if you downsize your trash can from the 'standard' size. I thought I need the bigger one too. I thought it was standard. Until I started looking at all my trash and wondering why I had so much. Then I stopped making so much more trash and did some research. Now I have a high tech compost (a bit better than just throwing my food stuffs just out on the dirt) and an extra buck each month. It just takes a little thought to reduce your waste, regardless of your family size!!

And finally, just a word on wasting resources. Electricity may seem 'cheap' but it is really not necessary regardless of how 'cheap' you can get it in many situations. I could mention a million ways to reduce your electric bill, therefore being more wise with your resources, but honestly, you can do that yourself. Water is also a precious resource in many places... we just have gotten to used to the city pumping it out our way to think about conserving what God gives us. Remember rain barrells? Ever think of turning off the sprinkler system for a couple of days after a good thunder storm. Oh man, think outside of the norm and things can change.

After looking at several different things in our lives, reading more books and generally just opening up my mind we have made changes in our home that are more about celebrating Earth day than just planting a tree or picking up litter. Let's all celebrate a bit more each day by turning off the electronics, turning down the water heater, spending time in a garden and around the kitchen table together. I garuntee it will be better than the volunteer t-shirt you'll get from the city project and truly make an impact on the people (and planet) that means the most.

sincerely, a psedo hippie, and proud of it.

Sunday, lovely Sunday

Today we skipped choir practice. Why? So Josh could study General Conference talks of course.

Wholesome grains

The last line of "Come, Ye Thankful People" (hymn 94) has always made me giggle. I think my mom had it on a harvest sign that she puts on her front porch and I would chuckle to myself each time I entered by the front door. The line "Lord of harvest, grand that we wholesome grain and pure may be." I just picture myself each time as a kernel of wheat, which I suppose is the poetic purpose of the line that we will be harvested with the wheat at Christ's coming rather than the tares. Nevertheless, being a large piece of corn, wheat rice, or unbleached flour has always struck me as funny.

I couldn't help but sing that line to myself all evening on Thursday. Tooting my own horn here, I made a pretty awesome dinner! From my Bountiful Baskets produce I had recieved 4 artichokes, and there they were in my fridge. I thought, gee, what do you do with those. So I went to my handy Moosewood Cookbook and found the recipie for "Stuffed artichokes with Greek Rice Pilaf." Fancy Shamancy. Surprisingly I had everything for the recipe right on hand, and it would use some of the two bunches of celery that I had recieved as well. So I got on my apron and started feeling pretty home-makey. I was proud of me. Using what I had in the fridge and storage to make a wholesome meal for my family. And yes, the kids ate it. I don't know if they loved it because they were too distracted playing with friends before I left for theatre to give me a good testing, but they were intrigued by the fact that we got to eat leaves for dinner!

As kid I remember eating artichokes once a year when they were in season and boy was it a treat! Of course, dipping them in straight mayonaise might have been the real draw. This week I didn't have mayonnaise to recreate the nostalgic taste (probably better for us anyway) and used light sour cream that I had on hand, another healthy choice. I felt like a little 'wholesome grain' as I cooked on the stove and bustled around the kitchen. Four little eager children watched it all and asked for tastes. My children tried, and liked everything whereas the two kids I was babysitting took some prodding. Who ever had to convince a kid that fresh pineapple was actually really tastey?! Just feeling proud of me right now and thought I would share. You know if I took pictures of it that I must have nearly been busting my buttons.

Yes, I hollowed out an artichoke for the first time in my life and filled it oh so pretty with rice pilaf. The pictures just can't do it justice.
Danny, in dog suit, eating his rice and watching how to dip the leaves in sour cream (quite possibly the best part of the meal to him considering he would eat sour cream out of the carton if I let him, which I sometimes do).

Silly Kiddos

This is Faith and her best friends, Danny and Dusti. The silly little mess makers found the bin that I had put all of Danny's smaller clothes and decided to put them on! Notice Faith's pink dress in the midst of that outfit, no it is not the same day as the pictures in the last post, just a few days after the wash cycle. Dusti has on one of Danny's rompers from when he was about 6 months. And Danny himself couldn't be left out, he got his hair put in a ponytail as the same time as Faith (much to Josh's shagrin he like getting his hair done too although, as I remind Josh, Danny usually removes the hair do before too long and we never leave the house anyway. Danny also wears dressed at home too, no harm done) and found his old binki. Oh these kids make me laugh!

Our Sleeping Beauty

Faith has transitioned to a no nap schedule now, well, mostly. Since I babysit other kids most days, all day, she is just having too much fun playing to slow down. Yet, on the days that the kids leave before dinner and I have a bit of down time before setting the table, she usually gets herself to sleep somewhere. She is absolutely beautiful when she sleeps, and posed so well! She is wearing her favorite play dress in these pictures. She dresses herself each morning now and I can almost know which outfit she will come out with based on what is clean. If I get to pick her clothes I can convince her to wear something outside of the favorite 4 outfit regime. Even as the temperature picks up, she won't give up the day for her long sleeved pink fairy shirt and her sparkly pants. What a wonderful girl.

Garage Sales and Antique stores

Josh and I go garage sale shopping almost every weekend. We mostly wait for the big neighborhood garage sales and then go in and conquer. We have got a pretty great system for bargaining, finding, and knowing when to stop. Of course, you see a lot of funny things that people are getting rid of which makes you think "Where was that in your home?" This weekend topped them all. We scored a lot of wonderful things for our home, but this tops it all:


Sadly I did not actually have our camera with us to get the real picture of the buffalo head sitting on a chair at the head of their driveway, but it looked just like this with a sign around its neck "For Sale" Had to make it clear it wasn't just the attention getter. Had it not been $800 (which is a really stellar price for a large head like that) we would have gotten it and put it right over our bed, or maybe the toliet, or....where does one put something like that in an average size home?

Later that day Josh and I were on a date and browsing through an antique store in old down town together. I had a stark realization - of all the furniture stores that Josh and I have been visiting over the past 6 months, all the online shopping and comparing, I had not found one location that had basically every piece of furniture I had envisioned for my house, until now. An antique store. I had an idea that I like old things, stuff with more character and history. I like the idea of re-using items and giving them the long life they deserve. I just hadn't put two and two together. Despite knowing in my heart that I would have loved to be a pioneer, I hadn't admitted that I actually was trying to be a pioneer by stealing all their handiwork! Oh well. At least now I have a definition for my preffered taste in style, decorative or otherwise, 'vintage.'

Easter Bunny, he did comey

We had a very lovely Easter this year. After having missed St. Patrick's day I was determined not to skip over this holiday, particularly for the teaching significance of the observation of the last week of Jesus Christs' life, atonement, death, and ressurection. We got a good start on the week with Palm Sunday singing songs and identifying palms (plus of being Arizona). Tuesday we made unleavened bread - wheat thin crackers and cut them in Easter shapes. We learned about the last Supper and what Jesus taught his disciples. We had pictures of Jesus on the cross and went to the Easter Pagent at the Mesa Temple on Good Friday. What an amazing pagent! I was so glad we took the kids and made a special new tradition of it. Saturday we listened to the living prophets speak of Jesus and got to have an egg hunt with the Pace family. Sunday morning the easter bunny had made it to our new home with goodies and then we colored eggs with our neighbors to hide in the backyard. Our cousins arrived at the perfect time to hide the eggs for the little hunters and we did two hunts in the backyard. We have the pictures of the Ressurected Lord around the house now and have been strengthened with a testimony that He LIVES!

You are what you eat

To quote a friend "If I was what I ate I would be a large stick of butter with legs." Well, at least there are two of you.
Notice the awesome polyester stripped shirt with ribbing on the arm and neck - exactly like something both Josh and I wore as kids.

This is Our Home

Here's the virtual tour of our newly purchased home. Although we have been living in our home for 3 months, had the offer on it for 6 months, we finally sealed the deal on March 27th! Brown exterior. End of the quiet street. Lots of rock, but no cactus ;)

Master Bathroom. Magnificient tub, shower, dual sinks. I am going to slap a coat of yellow paint in here and viola, it will be perfect.
Master Bedroom. Just off the bathroom. Really really large. Door to the backyard patio, nice big windows. Plenty of ceiling room for kids to jump on the bed (although Josh has been banned from jumping on the bed every since he broke our last box spring doing just that)
Living room area. The wall is pretty much how I want it, minus the piano that is supposed to go where the couch is and then the couches will move and we will get end tables.....as it is, I like it. This is on the west end of the great room that makes up the living room, dining room, and kitchen, all open.
View of the living room through the arch and the front entry way. Looks like a long walk, but really it is only a few steps. Nice tile and, yes, I did paint the entryway from it's brown arch to lovely yellow and white!
View of kitchen dining room from living room. The kitchen is on the est end and had the sink view into the backyard. We already painted it the lovely terra cotta color (not pink, it is orange) and put the knobs on the cupboards. It is lovely. So many cupboards I have some bare, plenty or counter space for cooking up all kinds of a storm.

My organization wall- always a work in progress.
Pantry, lovely pantry, best part of the kitchen.
Guest bedroom (larger than it may appear in the picture).
Bathroom. Long and slender. Serves its purpose though.
Laundry room with freezer. Gotta take down those cupboards for more upward room.
Kids' room. Lots of room. Lots of beds. Lot of closet.
Wahoo- there is the virtual tour. I purposefully left out the backyard, those will come later with the before and after pictures. Without the after pictures it just looks like a redneck paradise.
We feel super blessed to be in our home and are ready to share it with whomever may come.