Here is a Ted Video of Ann Cooper of the Berkeley, CA school system giving a talk about what she’s done and how she has changed the way kids eat school lunches. She teaches cooking classes for kids, shows them where food comes from, and has basically overhauled everything including a pie chart of what should be on a child’s plate for meals, etc. Her talk is very informative and passionate and I loved it. I feel just like she does about this subject and was so happy to see someone here in America making a difference like this and also supporting the local farmers, educating everyone on child health through good nutrition, the dangers of chemicals in our food especially on a child’s body, growing gardens at school, etc. A great video and clearly a great woman.
This is pretty cool. I just saw this video on the Huffington Post and read the article and basically, this democrat, Eric Hirschberg, filmed these life long republicans explaining why they are breaking with their party and voting for Obama. It’s so interesting to hear them explain their points of view. If you go to www.ConservativesForChange.com you can see more videos.
I just returned home from a much needed week long break we took to see my friends and family in NY for a friend’s wedding. It was awesome. There truly is nothing like hanging out with old friends and in NY, I have many that I keep in touch with. As much as I love living in CO, it always makes me so sad to leave everyone at the end of my trip. Each day I woke up and I didn’t care about what was going on in the world and instead I saw many different people and we just laughed so much, ate great ethnic (vegan) food, played with all of the kids (my son just loved that) and just got to hang out and be me. My son got to see and understand more about his mama on this trip now that he’s a bit older and he got to play with so many cousins and friend’s children and spent quality time with my aunt who babysat him while we were at the wedding.
One of my friends who was the maid of honor gave a beautiful toast and at one point said, look around the room, see how many people (the bride) is still close with for more than 25 years. (I have been friends with the bride for 28 years already). She said this is because of the kind of character she has and the quality person that she is. I agree. The old, enduring relationships are with the kind of people that are there for you, know all about you and how you have evolved as a person over time and love you regardless of it all. This is such a rare and beautiful thing because as it is with any relationship, it takes some work and effort to maintain.
Our last day there we drove into NYC and took my son to see the new dinosaur exhibit at the natural history museum, went to Central Park then met my uncle for dinner at a restaurant I’ve been dying to go to – Pure Food and Wine. It is a gourmet raw vegan restaurant and the food was amazing – we all liked it and I have new ideas of things to try to re-create here at home. The highlight of the whole meal had to be the dessert – 3 different raw vegan ice creams. Oh.My.God. They do have a $2,000 ice cream machine in the kitchen which makes it come out like gelato. One was an ice cream cone with chocolate ice cream dipped in a hardened shell of raw chocolate, the other was a pistachio ice cream sandwich dipped in the same raw chocolate shell and the third one we tried was a chai tea ice cream pop covered in the raw chocolate shell. All so good and the ice cream sandwich tasted like marzipan which is one of my favorite desserts so I had to ask what the ingredients were and the waiter told me that it was really the Italian almond flour in the cookie part that gave it that flavor. I am so trying this at home soon! My son, Mr. Picky ate a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dinner. I figured at least it’s all healthy ingredients since he wouldn’t eat anything else on the menu. He loved it and loved the other ice creams for dessert, too. Now I need to get a good ice cream maker since I only have the REI roll it on the floor kind of ice cream maker you use for camping. Not the same.
The other great thing for me about being in NY is that it’s a very liberal state and that makes me feel right at home. CO is a “purple” state so there is more opportunity to encounter others with a much more conservative viewpoint on every single issue out there – even ones like my current congresswoman voted for that hinder support for low income children in my own town which makes me so sad for them and disgusted by her (she’s done many other actions I don’t like, either). Good thing she’s up for re-election and hopefully she won’t be back to do more damage.
On our plane ride home, there was a current issue of Rolling Stone Magazine left behind so I was psyched to read it since I don’t normally read that mag and of course, there is a big political article in it (many, many details) about “The Real John McCain.” I’ve read a lot about both candidates over the past few months and just like I pick my friends, I want to choose my candidate on the content of their character and their integrity. This article goes into detail with facts from his biography, interviews he’s given to the press over the years as well as interviews the journalist did with his fellow POW’s and other military personnel – even info about the Reagan’s viewpoint on his actions which was surprising to me. I highly recommend you check out this article as it’s the best one I’ve read about him, bar none: http://www.rollingstone.com
I really hope we can rebuild our country and focus again on the people of this country and taking care of us all so we can become a strong nation again. We are looking and acting pretty wounded right now out in the world especially because of what’s happened to our economy. We who live here are lucky to live here, it is a great nation and I am fully aware of that from having lived abroad in other countries.
I am hoping we all will elect the president that understands that and wants to help rebuild us as strong people first. I want my son to have opportunities for good health care and education that won’t cost us an arm and a leg to provide it for him and better laws to get rid of putting special interest groups first over what is safe for him (and us) to ingest and breathe in. If we had that, we wouldn’t have to go look up in the Skin Deep website about products we use on our bodies to see if the unregulated chemicals in the products we buy are safe for us or not or have a need for the Safe Toys Act or the noxious toxins that are allowed to be put into our air and dumped into our water supply, or injected into our food supply – even through the factory farm animals most people eat everyday, etc. We need an overhaul of so many systems to help us become a strong and healthy nation and the tides are finally turning where enough people are aware of and care about these issues now.
As Suze Orman always says, “People first, then money, then things.” I really hope we get the opportunity to finally put all Americans first instead of continuously catering to the greed of the corporations and the wealthiest 1% of Americans. If we don’t focus on the people, I think we will see lots more devastation and death with increasing global warming catastrophies doing a number on this planet as well as a bankrupt financial system and extreme amounts of homelessness and poverty all over America and the world, too since we’d be in the midst of a global depression. Yeah, happy thoughts, I know. I hope all of my American readers will take all of this into consideration when choosing who to vote for. There really is only one logical choice who will put the people first and if you don’t believe me, be sure to read the above article.
Attachment Parenting is based in the practice of nurturing parenting methods that create strong emotional bonds, also known as secure attachment, between children and their parent(s). This style of parenting encourages responsiveness to children’s emotional needs, enabling children to develop trust that their needs will be met. As a result, this strong attachment helps children develop the capacity for secure, empathic, peaceful, and enduring relationships that follow them into adulthood.
This month of October is “Attachment Parenting Month” over on the Attachment Parenting International website and at events in many different locations. The theme this year is “Giving Our Children Presence.”
From API:
“More than ever, parents are seeking to offer their children every possible advantage, and research confirms the immense emotional, social and cognitive benefits to children from receiving one-on-one, unstructured time with their parents,” said Barbara Nicholson, author and Co-founder of API. “Today’s busy schedules can be quite an obstacle for families seeking quality time, and Attachment Parenting Month, with its theme of “Giving Our Children Presence,” emphasizes the importance of – and ways to achieve – these moments.”
From Dr. William Sears about Attachment Parenting:
“Attachment Parenting is moving above the radar,” said William Sears, MD, noted parenting author, speaker and founder of AskDrSears.com, who wrote his first book about Attachment Parenting in the 1970s. “In nearly 40 years in pediatric practice and parenting our own 8 children Martha and I are seeing the long term benefits of attachment parented kids. They are caring kids who thrive on the quality of empathy. They are able to get behind the eyes of other people and imagine the effects of their behavior on others. They are high touch children in an otherwise high tech world. There’s no doubt our world needs more AP kids.”
API will promote all AP Month events through its Attachment Parenting Month Central web site, apmonth.attachmentparenting.org, where organizations and families can register their AP Month events, donate money or join API, find nearby AP Month activities, and review what the experts have to say about the importance of presence.
You need to watch this short video about a man who could be our next leader and the crazy raging temper he’s got. Do we need someone irrational (again) leading our country? So many of his peers went on record to attest to his rage and irrational behavior and several are on this video. Scary stuff.
This time of year is my busiest. I have more orders to fill for the holiday season for my herbal products that I make & sell, the summer veggie garden must be put to bed and all the veggies and herbs dealt with before the first frost (this week). We are also doing more home improvement projects – installed the last 5 new energy efficient windows our house needed plus we are building a greenhouse with reclaimed materials and have expanded our garden space (greenhouse is incorporated into the new space and acts as part of the fence). We are attempting our first winter garden as well and have to put up the hoops and cover.
Since the bay window I really wanted for growing herbs and sprouts in our south facing window was like quadruple the price of a standard window and we will eventually move, we went with a standard window but my husband, Michael was able to set it out a bit further and now he is building a new sill that will be larger on the inside so we can grow some plants there. He also did this for the kitchen window so we have 2 spots for more growing. It’s not a bay window but it is an economical, functional and attractive substitution.
Michael had to cut down an Aspen tree in our yard that really was at the wrong elevation for it to thrive (and was blocking our expanded garden) but decided that he would leave about 9feet of the trunk in tact and build a platform/treehouse structure for our son on top of it. He’s got big plans for this structure with a trap door, some kind of peaked roof and maybe a slide (and of course my request – a very kid proof tall railing!) all with reclaimed building materials, many of which he already has. This is also part of the new fence line of the garden and is next to the greenhouse so it really will be interesting looking in that section of our yard when it’s all done. Needless to say, we are a bit frantic running around trying to get everything done (although the treehouse will have to wait) and we leave town next week to go to a wedding of an old friend and spend time with other friends and family, too.
And we also are still doing food preservation. Every year we can, pickle, dry, freeze and root cellar garden veggies. This year we have amped that up all summer and included more items we have harvested from local u-pick farms and farmer’s markets now that my son is older and able to appreciate harvesting his own food more. This is important to do especially with the economy the way it is and you never know what is going to happen in the world and if you are not prepared, well, you know. I just think it’s a good way to live regardless and doing it every year adds a good rhythm to life and is a skill to pass down to future generations.
I still have many posts I want to write about but just don’t have the time at the moment including the part 2 of my detoxing adventure. Amazing, btw the internal changes I feel and I’m not fully done yet. I am hoping to get to that update before I leave on my trip.
I hope you all are keepin’ on and don’t let the worries of the failing economy keep you down. Things in our world are changing for sure but if you are aware and don’t slip into panic and anxiety (which is easy to do when watching the news!), you’ll weather this situation and see that we are all transforming into a new way of living which, in the end, will be great for us all. Last year we decided to stay put and batten down the hatches and ride out this storm of chaos/transformation where we are hence all of the improvements we’re still making on this house to help us function better here.
Since we are in a big time of change, keep thinking about what changes/improvements you can do that’s economical for your life, promotes your health and adds quality and enjoyment. Even small changes can add so much and makes you feel so much better. For example, some of the greatest things ever in making my time in the kitchen better? Drawer organizers and more shelves. When I know where things are and can get it in 2 seconds when I’m in the middle of a recipe, I’m a happy camper. Being organized and clutter-free helps me function better and saves lots of time. There is an old saying, “A change is as good as a rest.” I totally agree.
ING Direct put out a “Declaration Of Financial Independence” and I thought it was so smart that I had to reprint it here for you all to see:
OUR DECLARATION OF FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE
We will spend less than we earn. Saving a little out of every dollar we bring home is the foundation of independence. Without it, we can’t build equity in our home, we can’t invest for the future, and we can’t be ready for challenging times. We promise to pay ourselves first, always.
We will use our home as a savings account. Besides shelter and comfort for our family, the role of a house in our financial life is to build equity. We will have a healthy down payment when we buy. We’ll choose the mortgage that lets us pay down the principal fastest. And then we’ll leave that equity safe where it is instead of spending it on things that don’t last.
We will take care of our money. It’s not enough to have money in a bank. We will put it where it will grow. We’ll keep track of it. And we’ll check every account we have every year to protect ourselves against fraud or escheatment.
We will defend our credit worthiness. Good credit is going to be precious in the years to come. We will pay our bills on time. We’ll borrow only when we need to and in amounts we can comfortably pay back. And then we’ll do just that.
We will ignore unsolicited credit card marketing. We decide when we need a credit card, not some marketer. And mostly, we probably don’t need another one at all. We won’t even open those solicitations. We’ll shred them.
We will know the cost of borrowing. The interest lenders charge us is real money, too. When we buy a mortgage or finance a purchase, we’ll figure out what that interest is really going to cost in dollars, add it to the purchase price, and ask ourselves if it’s still worth it.
We will invest for the long term. Futures are built out of patience and prudence, not luck. We will not put off being a saver because we think there’s a lottery win in our future, in Vegas or on Wall Street.
We will take care of the things we have. We work hard for our money, and it’s disrespectful to waste it – or the planet – by treating our possessions as disposable.
We will remember what matters. We are not the things we own. If we have to spend and spend on bigger, more impressive things to keep up with our friends, then they are not our friends at all.
We will be heard. Our representatives in government and the corporations we deal with need to know that we are paying attention. If we’re silent, we’re accepting the status quo, and the business practices that got our country into this situation will continue. We are not going to accept that.
Well this is yet another bit of highly disappointing information I learned today. The Path To Freedom Blog posted today that Monsanto owns about 40% of all the fruit and veggie seeds sold in the U.S. and they are growing. It’s not bad enough that they’ve taken over grain production and made it into frankenfood and are destroying many family farms in the process but now they are invading the fruit and veggie seed market, too.
Here is what the PTF folks have to say about this:
We aren’t talking genetically modified seeds here were are talking about who is supplying the seeds. Even if you purchase non gmo seeds from a seed company who touts a ‘Safe Seed Pledge’ that variety may still be OWNED by Monsanto. Sorry to break the bad news to you, but that’s the facts folks. We, yes even PTF, is supporting the big M by purchasing seeds from our favorite seed companies and you probably are too.
Out of the 2,500 varieties that Monsanto has acquired from the Seminis takeover, here are a few of the published veg varieties that we know that Monsanto owns:
Beans: EZ Gold, Eureka, Goldrush, Kentucky King, Lynx, Bush Blue Lake 94
So what to do? Start saving fazing out listed Monsanto owned varieties, reach where your seeds come from and or save your own.
Taking Back Our Food Supply
Before agriculture became an industry, every gardener, farmer was responsible for the availability of seed for next years crop. With this recent merger and marketing tactics that has allow a certain “M”-onopoly to take over over the majority of the seed population. Seed-saving is one among many tactics of reclaiming our power (and freedom) to grow our own food, and an indispensable step towards fully sustainable and secure future.
I kept having insights and dreams about saving seeds before this growing season started. I was shown a local seed bank happening in my area and really, I’m not that skilled at seed saving and all it entails even though we have owned the book, “Seed To Seed” for many years just for this reason that one day we would have to rely on ourselves for ensuring our food production. Needless to say, we’ve slacked in that department over the past few years what with moving to the ‘burbs, major home renovations and having a kid and all. I’ve even discussed this a few times this past spring with different people in my area (including my friend Julie, a master gardener) to find out if there was a seed bank already happening where I live – there isn’t. Clearly why I’ve been shown this over and over again before we started growing anything this season was for a reason and we have been diligently saving heirloom organic seeds this summer the way my husband learned from his homesteading mom and step-dad.
This is bad news, people. Being more self-sufficient even with your own garden is becoming increasingly more important everyday. I recommend that you read up a bit on this topic if you don’t already know about what’s going on. It’s a big deal and I’m not kidding. Those who control the seeds of life control everything and they definitely do not have our best interests at heart.
Btw, which political party do you think they are affilitated with? Just saying.
Well this really will show you the level of racism and discrimination still alive and well in the USA. When you see it written out like this, it really makes you wonder why anyone would back a not too bright and low integrity person to be elected as the next leader of the free world. I want an Ivy league intelligent person (and being the editor of the Harvard law review doesn’t hurt, either) to be my next president not someone who graduated at the bottom of his class, thanks. (And just to clarify – I mean ivy league intelligent as in really earned it, took out student loans to pay for it not get in on daddy’s connections and money and still be dumb like Bush did).
From Letters to the Editors @ Fort Worth Star-Telegram 9.17.08
What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said ‘I do’ to? What
if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer
measured up to his standards?
What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain
killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard? What if Obama were a member of
the ‘Keating 5′? What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election
numbers would be as close as they are?
This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive
qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when
there is a color difference.
I’ve been thinking of writing about this for a long time. I don’t talk much about preparedness on this blog but it is something I am very well informed on and we have been prepared for anything since the late 90’s. I’ve been reading many different preparedness blogs for the past year and I always get a sense of urgency when I read those posts and that urgency for me is based from fear. I won’t live my life in fear mode but I do live by the old saying of “tie the camels” which means to be prepared for anything but live your life normally.
Here is where I’m at with all of this: yes, we all need to have some preparedness skills in our tool box of life skills and supplies at our homes in case there are going to be food shortages or if there’s even a chance you or your spouse will be laid off from your job while prices are rising and winter will be here soon.
There are many blogs and websites to read up on all the details of what to store and how much, etc so I’m not going to go into all of that here. One thing I will touch on that those sites do not is to add sprouting seeds to your food storage because many sprouts are so easy to do in just a couple of days and only require a glass jar with mesh screen lid or even cheesecloth with a rubberband and water and only cost you pennies. The vitamins, enzymes and just life force energy you will get from sprouts is very important in my opinion. You could live on sprouts if you had to.
What I wanted to really talk about is actual skills. What can you do? What do you want to learn about but rely on others to do for you instead? This comes up for me a lot because my husband is one of those renaissance men that really can do anything – he’s got mad skills both the blue collar and white collar type. I, on the other hand, have learned many things from him over the years in terms of developing my own sustainability life skills and being pretty much a city girl, this was big for me. I always have a little fear of what if he’s not around and I have to take care of everything myself for me and my son in bad times? This drives me to keep learning even the stuff I don’t really like but it’s all good because it makes me more confident and feel self-reliant and like I can survive anything but in a good way!
So, can you work with power tools or even manual hand tools? Can you make a fire in a fire pit or a wood stove or even a fireplace? Can you cook basic foods like grains and beans correctly and store them properly? Can you sew? Do you have camping skills/basic wilderness skills? Can you fix a flat tire on a car or a bike? Can you grow food? Do you know CPR and basic first aid? I can go on and on but you get the idea. I still have more to learn in different areas but I try to watch and observe as much as I can and try to practice some things or just file it away in case I need to use it by myself or get someone to help me if for some reason he’s not around. That is a gloomy thought, I know but anything could happen and we all need to be responsible for ourselves.
When I first moved to Colorado to transform my life and become an Herbalist 14 years ago, I became obsessed with permaculture and self-sustainability and medicine making, too. I did not know my husband then but I read and learned and surrounded myself with others on this same path and learned more from them. For my graduating final project (almost like a mini-thesis, we worked on it for a long time) I did an entire very detailed permaculture design for a piece of land my friends and I wanted to buy in the mountains of CO. Once I graduated, I went right into getting a permaculture certification and worked for a year with a landscape designer that also did xeriscape and permaculture designs in her work so I got hands-on training, too which taught me even more.
At the time, many people I knew thought this was fringe and unnecessary – everything in our country was going so well, life was easy, etc. I felt differently, kept having visions of a different way of life and also felt that it was the most natural way for a human to live in harmony with all of nature. I still feel this way and thankfully, so does my husband. I kept expanding my skills and knowledge and still to this day I keep pushing myself to learn more and more – even if I don’t really like what I’m learning! I feel that bartering for goods and services is going to become something big in the not too distant future and people with needed skills will be in high demand.
The first book that I bought for myself when I went to herbalist school to start learning the “old ways” of self sufficiency was Reader’s Digests’ “Back To Basics” book. I highly recommend this book as a good place to start to learn if you are just getting started and you can usually find a copy in a used bookstore – that’s where I got mine. My husband got to grow up with a mother that basically embodies this book – she is a real homesteader and this is where he’s learned the majority of his life skills. Not a bad way to raise your children and something we are trying to slowly teach to our son in our daily life. I was raised the exact opposite way and really felt like a fish out of water a lot of times. So much about our consumeristic society always bothered me and feels shallow and pointless, really.
So, if you are starting to feel worried about the economy or natural catastrophies possibly happening in your area, let that fear drive you to prepare with the basics in taking care of yourself and your family better. If nothing happens then great, you can still use all of your stored vegan foods which are healthier for you anyway, having extra warm clothes, blankets, flashlights, solar-rechargeable batteries, water, firewood, etc is all going to be used and you have saved money in the long run, too. The life skills you aquire will always be put to good use, too and makes you feel better about yourself. If nothing else, it will give you more to talk about at a party!
Live your life with joy and consciousness in harmony with nature but always remember to tie the camels, just in case.
