I really want to write about this book (isn’t the cover pretty and Parisian?), but I have not been sure about whether this is the right “space” is for me to do so.  But, I decided to do it anyway because this is my blog and I can.  Also, because I figured that Molly Wizenburg is a local Seattle writer and this space supports and encourages, supporting and encouraging that which is local.

As of right now I am 18 weeks pregnant (about 5 months in non-pregnant terms) and I have for the entirity of that time had a particularly ugly strain of morning sickness.  After a few weeks of acupuncture I have finally arrived at the point where I am regularly able to keep some food down.  I am now also able to read without getting sick.  These two pieces (which many individuals take for granted, my former self included) are essential when wanting to read and enjoy a book about food.  This is exactly what I have been doing.

I wish I could tell you the recipes are good.  But.  I can’t.  However, this is only because I lack experience of eating them and not because my experience tells me that they are not.  While I have arrived at a place where food and having to eat it to survive is no longer the worst part of being alive, the recent improvements have not included the blessing allowing my diet to stray far from tomato sandwiches and apples without consequences.  I am still hopefully waiting for that to be bestowed.

For now, I daydream.

Kendall and I were hooked after reading the introduction.  So much of what we enjoy doing together includes creating meals, sharing food with others, and eating.  Food has always played as big a role in our life-memories as anything else.  This is probably why we loved this book.  This book gets us, and we get it.  It is an autobiography that uses food to help better tell the story.  As a bonus, Molly shares the recipes which will, only naturally, become folded into our story.

I have read the book from start to almost finish (I have only a few pages left) and I have enjoyed it deeply.  In the process, I have learned that I ought not read this book before bed because it ends in me talking Kendall’s ear off about all the foods I miss eating and all the new ones I cannot wait to try.  It especially makes me miss my dad’s stew, the one he serves with mashed potatoes, some good bread, and usually a salad with homemade dressing.  There is also the spaghetti sauce that my mom made when we were growing up and that I continue to make.  This is a pasta that has to be served with spaghetti noodles.  I will eat it no other way.

Soon, me and food will get caught up and it will be glorious.  Until then, I will finish reading Molly’s book and daydream.

Well, today, I am happy that we are being joined by one of my superheroes.  Kathryn has been kind enough to agree to share another one of her gifts.  With her cross country moves (Dallas to Chicago to Houston) Kathryn has gotten unbelievably good at sustainably furnishing empty apartments on a small budget.  She has gathered a few of her tricks and ideas and written them out for us below.  Please give her a warm welcome!  Enjoy.

Oh and I think the key to all of their superpowers may be vision and balls.  I am not sure which one I am missing.

“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors….we borrow it from our children.”
-Native American Proverb

This quote inspired me to share with you some ideas that can not only “cuten” up your home, but make you feel good about doing it!

One of the greatest issues facing our environment is the severe amount of waste that we produce. We can all do our part to reduce the number of disposable items we use, but we can also help by reusing what we already have. Have you ever had a table that just didn’t work with your room anymore? Or a lampshade you suddenly found dull? Before you toss it, here are some ideas to spruce it up and essentially create a new table, without the waste and without the buck.

An easy way to add a little pop to your room is to recover your table with a cute fabric or paper. Start with the top and move to the legs if you are up for a bit of a challenge. Arrange your paper/fabric (you can combine several different styles to create a fun design) onto the top of the table. Make sure the papers/fabrics are cut to fit the exact size. Place your design aside and paint the table with a water-based polycrylic protective finish. Now lay your design back on top of the glue and set it in place. Use the same protective finish to paint a seal on top of the design. Repeat this process on the legs if you desire.

A more complicated, yet rewarding, approach to recovering your table is to mosaic it. You can always find cheap plates at any second hand store. Just break them up and adhere them in a fun pattern with craft glue. Add some grout and you will have a brand new look.  Here are a couple tutorials I found.

If you like painting, you can always paint (using zero-VOC paint) a solid color on the table and then paint a fun design or pattern on the top or sides. I’m a big fan of silhouettes, so I constantly find myself painting something black and then painting a leaf or floral silhouette on top. You will end up creating a completely unique piece that can’t be found at the closest Pier 1.

Even if you don’t have an older piece of your own to play with, Craigslist and garage sales are the perfect places to find a fixer upper. For $5-$10 you can find solid pieces that simply need a makeover. This way you save money buying used, you cut down on the amount of waste the table could potentially cause, and you find yourself with hours of entertainment creating your own masterpiece.

A fun idea I had came about when I was shopping at the Canton Marketplace. I found an old window for $7 in the garage sale section. I also had an Eiffel Tower poster displayed at home in a regular frame and I wasn’t crazy about the look. So, I took the window home, cleaned it up with a rag and then placed the poster behind the window, transforming a regular poster into a really unique addition to the living room. Even better is that it only cost about $15 total for the window and poster.

Just remember….don’t limit yourself and don’t worry about messing up! Almost anything can be sanded down for a clean start. These techniques can be used on picture frames or mirrors as well. Basically treat any item as though it is your canvas for creation! Check back in soon to find a fun and easy way to liven up your lampshade and much more!

Today I am sharing with you a video that has repeatedly challenged and inspired me.

The buzzard has nothing to fault himself with.

Scruples are alien to the black panther.

Piranhas do not doubt the rightness of their actions.

The rattlesnake approves of himself without reservations.

The self-critical jackal does not exist.

The locust, alligator, trichina, horsefly

live as they live and are glad of it.

The killer whale’s heart weighs one hundred kilos

but in other respects it is light.

There is nothing more animal-like

than a clear conscience

on the third planet of the Sun.

- Wislawa Szymborska

The Bees:

Since the cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) is still being debated by bee keepers, researchers, and scientists we unfortunately can do little to help with the solution.  However, we do know when these kind of crises occur, it is always the small scale operations that are hit the hardest.

So, what can you do?  Support small, local bee keepers by purchasing their products.

The Birds:

We do know the causes (and there are quite a few) of the sharp decline of common backyard birds and fortunately we are able to still act to help.  The best overall resource is the National Audubon Society.  They are a terrific organization that has been around in one form or another since the 1800’s.  This is a list of things you can do straight from their site:

Protect Local Habitat
Join local Audubon Chapters and other groups to protect and restore habitats close to home. Audubon’s Important Bird Areas program offers opportunities to save critical bird habitat, from small land parcels to broad landscapes.

Promote Sound Agricultural Policy
This has enormous impact on grassland birds and habitat. Promoting strong conservation provisions in the federal Farm Bill and Conservation Reserve Program can help to protect millions of acres of vital habitat.

Support Sustainable Forests
The Boreal Forest in the Northern U.S. and Canada is essential breeding territory for many species of birds. Federal and state legislations promoting sustainable forest management will help fight habitat loss from inappropriate logging, mining, and drilling.

Protect Wetlands
Support for local, state and federal wetlands conservation programs is essential to protect a wide array of species. Learn more.

Fight Global Warming
Declining birds populations is just one impact of global warming’s mounting threat to people and wildlife around the world. Individual energy conservation along with strong federal, state, and local legislation to cap greenhouse emissions can help to curb its worst consequences. Learn more.

Combat Invasive Species
Invasive non-native species disrupt the delicate ecological balance that sustains birds and other wildlife. Federal, regional, state, and local regulations are needed to combat this growing environmental threat. Learn more. The Audubon At Home program also offers tips for supporting birds with native plants.

The Audubon Society also has a page called Healthy Yard.  It is a great interactive picture that allows you to hover over aspects of it, such as the bird feeder and click through to find out more information, such as:

In the United States, 54 million people FEED BIRDS around their home. Tens of thousands participate in citizen science projects, conducting bird censuses in their own backyards to help ornithologists track population trends.

I found it very accessible and helpful.  It is also a great activity that you can do with your kids and then together you can pick a project to work on.  Encouraging your kids to be informed and be a part of the solution empowers them and teaches them to be actively involved in the world.  If you are looking for more birding activities to do with your children, the Audobon Society has a space on their site dedicated to children’s education.

In addition to/with emphasis on here are my own tips to keeping those crazy birds around:

1. Condensed urban living is the way to go to combat urban sprawl.  The less land we bulldoze, cover with cement, lots of houses, and perfectly manicured lawns the better.
2. SHARE.  Whether you live in a house or an apartment transform your yard or the area surrounding your apartment into a healthy living space for birds and other animals (again I will point you to Audubon’s Healthy Yard).  Remember that much of being a good steward and being a part of a healthy ecosystem means having biological diversity within our shared space.  It is not OK or healthy to move into a habitat once occupied by many species and transforming it into a controlled and sterile environment.  So, make room for the birds and other creatures.  We can have our space and they theirs.
3. Do a little research on what birds are native to your area (look online or check a book out of the library).  They buy or make a bird feeder filled with food for those birds.  It is important that you keep your bird full of clean food.  Birds will come to depend on this food, especially in the winter, so please keep it stocked.  Also, do not feed birds moldy bread or seeds, this will make birds sick when they eat it and try to get or make a squirrel proof feeder.  As a side note, if you do the research of birds in your area with your kids they can begin to look out for those birds.  Encourage them to draw the birds, their feathers, the eggs, what kind of nests they have, and even what they eat.  Some kids may even want to keep a journal recording their bird encounters.

A few resources:

Books

Feeding Our Feathered Friends by Dean T. Spaulding

The Backyard Bird Feeder’s Bible by Sally Roth

Make Your Own Bird Houses and Feeders by Robyn Haus

Sites

Important Bird Areas Program

Audubon At Home

The Crafty Crow: Feed the Birds and Wild Bird Treats

Mongabay

Birds in Backyards

Mary’s View

Make and Craft have a lot of tutorials on making your own bird feeder

Build A Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder for Under $10

It was the content of his words that caught my attention?

What in fact caught my attention was that his voice which carried farther than one might hope was talking not about his rabbit, but about bees.  The sentence that almost-stopped-me-in-my-tracks-but-not-quite was, “In the past two years I have lost $91,000 worth of bees.”

What is causing the disappearance of bees?  Have you heard this question being asked?  Sitting here at 1am, the question has the feel of a Steven King movie.  Unfortunately though, it is true.  The bees are disappearing and so are backyard birds though not necessarily for the same reasons.

The bees first:

The disappearance of bees is officially called colony collapse disorder (CCD).  The peculiarity behind this phenomenon is that bee researchers don’t know what has happened to the bees, although there has been speculation that it is the result of pathogens.  However, the only known is that colonies are abandoning their hives and disappearing, leaving no trace of dead bees anywhere.  In this process the adults are leaving the hives, while the queen bee and a few younger bees in the pupa stage are left behind.  To add another puzzling clue to the mystery is the fact that no pests or other bees are invading the hives affected by CCD.  Bee losses are between 30-60% on the West Coast, while on the East Coast and in Texas there are losses of up to 70%.

The loss of honey bees does not only present problems for our honey supply.  Honey bees are a vital part of our ecosystem, particularly as pollinators.  Without bees to pollinate fruit crops we can have no fruit.  According to the USDA about 1 out of every 3 bites we consume is dependent upon honey bees for pollination.  In addition to the foundational loss of honey and food that we rely on, the structure within which those products are traded will also be negatively impacted.  Unfortunately, the decline of honey bees will cause the global economy to suffer.  While honey bees are not completely gone, the $14 billion worth of seeds and crops pollinated by honey bees annually in the United States alone will certainly be affected.

Some possible causes of the disappearance of honey bees are: pesticides, stress put on the bees by a shorter off-season, stress of having their colonies transported across the country, mites, insecticides, or a yet unidentified pathogens.

The Birds:

Audubon’s unprecedented analysis of forty years of citizen-science bird population data from our own Christmas Bird Count plus the Breeding Bird Survey reveals the alarming decline of many of our most common and beloved birds.

Since 1967 the average population of the common birds in steepest decline has fallen by 68 percent; some individual species nose-dived as much as 80 percent. All 20 birds on the national Common Birds in Decline list lost at least half their populations in just four decades.  National Audubon Society

Some of the reasons that are thought to be causing the decline in a wide range of common backyard birds are:

• urban sprawl: the habitats of these birds (grasslands, forests, and wetlands) are being destroyed as an increasing amount of vegetation is destroyed and replaced with homes, non-indigenous landscaping, strip malls, parking lots, highways, and energy development.  The ecosystem that these birds once thrived in has been transformed, in no time at all, into an inhospitable environment.
• Climate Change: climate change is changing the seasonal calendar.  The internal clocks of the birds have not been notified of this shift.  Thus, if Winter lasts a couple weeks or a month longer than they biologically anticipated then the birds and their chicks are unable to sustain themselves without the nourishment provided by Spring.  Additionally, in some northern climates:

Greater Scaup and other tundra-breeding birds are succumbing to dramatic changes to their breeding habitat as the permafrost melts earlier and more temperate predators move north in a likely response to global warming. Boreal forest birds like the Boreal Chickadee face deforestation from increased insect outbreaks and fire, as well as excessive logging, drilling, and mining.

• Intensification of Agriculture: farming in general has a negative impact on animals, including birds, as land is stripped in order to grow crops and again, as tractors sweep through to harvest.  As the demand for food rises with the growing population more land is needed to grow food.  Although all farming has its animal casualties, industrialized farming is especially harmful.  The single production of crops has a negative impact on the ecosystem as it limits biodiversity.  Additionally, the enormous quantities of pesticides and herbicides that are used in this form of farming are devasting to the life surrounding the farm.  Birds (and other animals) will invariably ingest these toxins which are incredibly harmful to their health and life.

Co-op America also has a great article on sweat shop free clothing.

Here is a list of some basic tips:

1. Buy local.  Not only does this support your local economy, but you get to know the person creating the product and you can ask them as many questions as you like about their practices.  This goes for anything from food to clothing.  The clothing will more than likely be more expensive because it is handmade, but it guarantees that the product that wasn’t made in a sweatshop.  Etsy is a fun site to check out for handmade goods.
2. Buy used products.  Go to a thrift store or local consignment shop and look around.  You will find some great deals.
3. Research the companies you are buying from.
4. Look for a UNITE label.

It is important to note that none of these can guarantee that the entire product was made in a fair trade facility.  Most products are assembled from pieces made all over the world and a Made in America label could mean that only the finishing touches were put on in America (like buttons).  However, following these guidelines is still important.  It is just not a perfect solution to the social justice issues of labor practices.

Here are a few more helpful resources in your search for responsible shopping:

No Sweat Apparel

Co-op America’s National Green Pages

Green Home’s Products Page

Fair Green Trade

The Green Earth Directory

Finally, I would like to leave you with an interesting article on Portland, OR, a city that is attempting to go sweatshop free.

Image courtesy of cgfan’s photostream

This is a somewhat philosophical post that I have been wanting to write for awhile. We have moral obligations to not take advantage of injustice when at all possible. I began thinking about this in detail when I first started being aware of fair trade coffee and the rights of workers.

Coffee gave me something that was really easy for me to get my head around because there is no situation in which this would ever fall under the category of a need. Never, in any sort of seriousness, could I say that I needed coffee. It is a luxurious want. Because I view it as such, there would never be any circumstance in which I could justify supporting any company treating their workers badly and paying them an unlivable wage.

This is where people begin to object to this argument. Two common objections are:

1. I am not supporting anyone. I am just buying coffee.
2. It is better that “they” have this job that pays “them” very little than no job at all.

To the first objection I say this, we do not live in a world where we are just individual islands that have no positive or negative effect on each other. We are individuals who are connected–we affect and are affected by each other. We live, operate, and spend money in a market economy.  If there is a demand for a good (coffee) by the consumer (us) then the seller will continue to sell the good that is being demanded so long as it is profitable.

The second objection presents a false dilemma.  The options available to us are not support slave labor OR abandon those who are slaves to their current situation.  Those are two options, but in addition to these there is at least one more: help change the harmful structures to which people are bound.

Cooking at home seems to be a dying art. Even ‘foodies’ often have a schedule that is too busy for a meal cooked at home. Parents are leaning more on pre-made, processed food instead of cooking for their families. When I was growing up, we ate together. Even with a single parent, and 3 kids in high school we ate together most nights. I think that had a big impact on my relationship with my family. It was in those times that we talked about life (and laughed until our stomachs hurt). My two sisters and I learned how to sit at a table and have conversations about our lives. We were taught (much to our shegrin at the time) that mealtime is not to be interrupted by the telephone, television or any other activity. It was an activity in and of itself.

Even in my own life, that is not the case anymore. Too often, I grab a meal and eat it on the run. Or Mollie and I will have dinner while watching a movie. It so easily can turn into a regular occurence. Mollie and I do deliberately eat most meals together and I really enjoy that. We have implemented some of the things that Barbara Kingsolver writes about (page 128) in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Her list (with my comments) is below.

• Cooking can be fun - Especially if you make it fun. Cooking can be a chore, but it doesn’t have to be.
• Rely on variations of simple recipes - There are tons of variations of a cooked protein with vegetables. Get a cook book and explore. Mollie and I make our weekly menu on Sunday for the upcoming week. We both grab a cookbook and have to choose something new. It helps keep us out of ruts.
• Save labor intensive (lots of prep) recipes for the weekend - My sister and her husband often use their weekends to prepare lunch foods for the week. They cook up a bunch of roasted veggies, or a soup that they can then use the rest of the week.
• Start a routine - We have a history of making homemade pizza on Fridays. It takes Friday off the dinner menu each week.
• Invite others to join in - For help and also to learn from them - The times that I have learned about cooking is when I have cooked with other people who know a lot more about cooking than I do. Either I was invited to cook with them, or I asked them to cook with me. Either way I always have an open ear to learn some new technique or recipe.
• Cooking at home will be more healthy - You have control over every ingredient that you put in your meal. You also are in control of portion size.
• Significantly cheaper - Once you are set up with basic ingredients in your pantry, home cooking is definitely a money saver. You can have a great (and healthy) meal that feeds a family of four for under $20 (probably under $10). You can’t get that at a restaurant (fast ‘food’ definitely doesn’t count).
• Buy whole foods (produce, meat) - Instead of buying boneless/skinless chicken breasts, buy a whole chicken. With a sharp knife you can turn that whole chicken into 2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 legs, 2 wings, and a carcass that makes a mean chicken stock. To add to the cheaper point, organic free range boneless skinless chicken breast runs about $4.99/lb (at Trader Joes) and a organic free range whole fryer costs about $1.99/lb. So for the price you pay for 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (usually $6-$8) you can get at least one whole chicken. That whole chicken yields at least one (probably two) more meals.
• It builds family relationships - Like I mentioned earlier, families are built around the kitchen table.
• Teaches children manners and life skills - Because of family meals, I learned how to set the table, how to wash dishes, how to cook, how to shop for groceries, how to have a conversation and most of all to be involved with other people around me.

As you know, I went back to school last year to finish up my undergraduate degree. This has been a 6-7 year on again/off again process.  Although this does not hold true for most of my college career, I am pleased to be able to report that this season of my education has been a very positive experience and that, in less than two weeks I will be a college graduate!

In the summer of 2007 Kendall and I took a camping trip to Shi Shi beach just a couple of months before the start of classes. It was then that we talked about how we would integrate school into our lives.  As a married couple we had gone through me being a student before and had quickly come to learn that I did not do a good job setting boundaries.   We wanted it to look different this time. So, in the peace and calm of that camping trip we talked.

That conversation ended up setting the tone for the year. It was not all smooth sailing, but we had set our course and with gentle reminders, the support of loved ones, and the grace of God we were able to, for the most part, stay the course.

At the beginning of this endeavor I feared that, although I desperately wanted and needed these boundaries, freeing myself from my self-imposed pressures would lead to me becoming an average, un-driven human being. What would become of me if I no longer expected perfection? A sloth? A loser? An idiot with a degree?

I am happy to say that none of the above happened. What did happen is that I had the opportunity to put into practice the very things that I been working on internally for years. The result is that the setting of those boundaries and the subsequent work I did to implement and re-implement them, led to me having my most successful experience thus far.

I am having a hard time figuring out how to write what I want to say next without it coming out sounding like college entrance essay.  But this summer, oh this summer.  It was great.  It makes me want to break out into song everytime I think about it: Summer lovin’ had me a bla-ast, summer lovin’ happen so faaast.  Kendall and I spent my last summer quarter of school studying abraod in Prague.  Thanks in large part to the support and campaigning done on our behalf by Kari Tupper, Kendall and I were able to do it together (despite his being a long-time college graduate that would not officially be part of the program). It was an unusual situation and one that had never been braved before, but it was important to us that we have this experience together or not at all.  This was part of the verbal manifesto we created on Shi Shi, that although we were at different points in our lives we wanted to create shared experiences that strengthed our friendship and marriage.  We wanted to be part of each others individual worlds and we wanted to do this in person, not over e-mail, IM, or phone.  The result of the commitment we made to each other was that we got to experience together what has become the highlight of my formal education.

What stands out to me in all of this is the immeasurable value of the times Kendall and I have taken the opportunity to step out of the chaos.  When without distraction we inevitably end up having conversations in which we evaluate our own lives, as well as, our life together.  As a result we end up reorienting our lives according to what we value and arrive at conclusions that bring us immense freedom from the previously unexamined expectations of life.

There was so much that I learned during this trip that I look forward to sharing with you all here.  In addition, I have had the benefit of taking a few environmental science courses and hope to share with you some of the knowledge I gained through that participation.